Nevin Manimala

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Feb 23;776:146019. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146019. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The inadequate management of soils and the absence of conservation practices favor the degradation of pastures and can trigger adverse environmental alterations and damage under the terms of Brazilian Federal Law no. 6.938/1981. Based on this premise, this study aimed to estimate soil losses caused by water erosion in pasture areas using the brightness index (BI) from the annual series of Landsat 8 images in different geological formations. A specifically prepared Google Earth Engine (GEE) script automatically extracted the BI from the images. The study occurred in the Environmental Protection Area (EPA) of Uberaba River basin (Minas Gerais, Brazil). To accomplish the goal, 180 digital 500-wide random buffers were selected from 3 geologic types (60 points per type), and then analyzed for zonal statistics of USLE (Universal Soil Loss Equation) soil loss and BI in a Geographic Information System. The regression models BI versus USLE soil loss allowed estimating BI soil losses over the pastures of EPA. The model fittings were remarkable. The validation of soil loss maps in the EPA occurred in pasture phytophysiognomies through the probing of penetration resistance in 37 randomly selected locations. The results were satisfactory, mostly those based on the BI. The BI losses increased for greater resistances. Amplified losses also occurred in regions exposed to environmental land use conflicts (actual uses that deviate from land capability or natural use). Overall, the BI approach proved efficient to accurately track soil losses and pasture degradation over large areas, with the advantage of standing on a single parameter easily accessed through remote sensed data. From an environmental standpoint, this is an important result, because the accurate diagnosis and prognosis of degraded pastures is paramount to implement mitigation measures following the “polluter pays principle”, even more in Brazil where the areas occupied by degraded pastures are enormous.

PMID:33652307 | DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146019

Arch Oral Biol. 2021 Feb 23;125:105091. doi: 10.1016/j.archoralbio.2021.105091. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate in vitro the effects of adrenaline and noradrenaline on the biofilm formation on orthodontic brackets, acid production and expression of virulence genes of Streptococcus mutans UA159 (S. mutans).

DESIGN: S. mutans UA159 biofilm was formed on orthodontic brackets under exposure to adrenaline (100 μM), noradrenaline (50 μM) or PBS solution (control group) in triptone-yeast extract with 1 % sucrose. After 24 h, biofilm formation was quantified through Colony Forming Units / mL (CFU/mL) and RNA was extracted to perform gene expression analysis through real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-qPCR). Evaluation of acid production was carried out on planktonic cultures for 6 h. One-way ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test was carried to determine statistical difference. The level of significance was set at 5 %.

RESULTS: Catecholamines stimulated biofilm formation of S. mutans in orthodontic brackets (p < 0,05) but did not interfere with acid production (pH reduction) or the expression of the tested genes related to biofilm formation (gtfB, gtfC, gbpA, gbpB, gbpC, gbpD and brpA), aciduric (relA) and acidogenic properties (ldh).

CONCLUSIONS: The present study was the first to demonstrate that catecholamines can stimulate S. mutans UA159 biofilm formation. These findings can contribute to clarify the role of stress on bacterial metabolism and contribute to the understanding of a possible role on caries development, mainly in orthodontic patients.

PMID:33652302 | DOI:10.1016/j.archoralbio.2021.105091

Clin Imaging. 2021 Feb 24;77:86-91. doi: 10.1016/j.clinimag.2021.02.031. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether textural analysis (TA) of MRI heterogeneity may play a role in the clinical assessment and classification of breast tumors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: For this retrospective study, patients with breast masses ≥1 cm on contrast-enhanced MRI were obtained in 69 women (mean age: 51 years; range 21-78 years) with 77 masses (38 benign, 39 malignant) from 2006 to 2018. The selected single slice sagittal peak post-contrast T1-weighted image was analyzed with commercially available TA software [TexRAD Ltd., UK]. Eight histogram TA parameters were evaluated at various spatial scaling factors (SSF) including mean pixel intensity, standard deviation of the pixel histogram (SD), entropy, mean of the positive pixels (MPP), skewness, kurtosis, sigma, and Tx_sigma. Additional statistical tests were used to determine their predictiveness.

RESULTS: Entropy showed a significant difference between benign and malignant tumors at all textural scales (p < 0.0001) and kurtosis was significant at SSF = 0-5 (p = 0.0026-0.0241). The single best predictor was entropy at SSF = 4 with AUC = 0.80, giving a sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 53%. An AUC of 0.91 was found using a model combining entropy with sigma, which yielded better performance with a sensitivity of 92% and specificity of 79%.

CONCLUSION: TA of breast masses has the potential to assist radiologists in categorizing tumors as benign or malignant on MRI. Measurements of entropy, kurtosis, and entropy combined with sigma may provide the best predictability.

PMID:33652269 | DOI:10.1016/j.clinimag.2021.02.031

Cancer Treat Rev. 2021 Feb 16;94:102167. doi: 10.1016/j.ctrv.2021.102167. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The Fragility Indexquantifies the reliability of positive trials by estimating the number of events, which would change statistically significant results to non-significant results.

METHODS: We identified randomized trials supporting drug approvals by the US FDA between 2009 and 2019 in lung, breast, prostate, and colon cancers and in melanoma. We reconstructed survival tablesand calculated the number of events, which would result in a non-significant result for the primary endpoint. The FI was then compared to the number of patients in each trial who withdrew consent or were lost to follow-up. Regression analyses were used to explore associations between RCT characteristics and FI and trials in which FI was lower or equal to number of participants who withdrew consent or were lost to follow-up.

RESULTS: Among 81 RCTs, the median FI was 28. The median number of patients who withdrew consent or were lost to follow up was 27. FI was equal or lower than the number of patients who withdrew consent or were lost to follow-up in 47 trials (58%). There was a modest increase in FI over time (p = 0.02). Trials with overall survival as the primary endpoint (p = 0.006) and those in the palliative setting (p < 0.001) had lower FI. There was no association with trial sample size or duration of follow-up.

FINDINGS: Statistical significance of RCTs in common solid tumours can be reversed often with a small number of additional events. Post-approval RCTs or real-world data analyses should be performed to ensure results of registration trials are robust.

PMID:33652263 | DOI:10.1016/j.ctrv.2021.102167

Environ Int. 2021 Feb 27;151:106455. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2021.106455. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Given the role of exposures related to residence in the development of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has not been well explored, present study aims to investigate the magnitude and pattern of associations for NPC with lifelong residential exposures.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We carried out a multi-center, population-based case-control study with 2533 incident NPC cases and 2597 randomly selected population controls in southern China between 2010 and 2014. We performed multivariate logistic regression to estimate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the risk of NPC associated with residential exposures.

RESULTS: Compared with those living in a building over lifetime, risk of NPC was higher for individuals living in a cottage (OR: 1.56; 95% CI: 1.34-1.81) or in a boat (3.87; 2.07-7.21). NPC risk was also increased in individuals using wood (1.34; 1.03-1.75), coal (1.70; 1.17-2.47), or kerosene (3.58; 1.75-7.36) vs. using gas/electricity as cooking fuel; using well water (1.57; 1.34-1.83), river water (1.80; 1.47-2.21), or spring/pond/stream water (2.03; 1.70-2.41) vs. tap water for source of drinking water; living in houses with smaller-sized vs. larger windows in the bedroom (3.08; 2.46-3.86), hall (1.89; 1.55-2.31) or kitchen (1.67; 1.34-2.08); and increasing exposure to cooking smoke [(1.53; 1.20-1.94) for high exposure)] or burned incense [(1.59; 1.31-1.95) for daily use)]. Weighted Cox regression analysis corroborated these results.

CONCLUSION: Poorer residential conditions and household air pollution are associated with an increased risk of NPC. Large-scale studies in other populations or longitudinal studies are warranted to further corroborate these findings.

PMID:33652252 | DOI:10.1016/j.envint.2021.106455

Poult Sci. 2021 Jan 23;100(4):101012. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2021.01.034. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The objective of present study was to estimate the efficiency of lysine utilization by meat quail of 21 to 35 d of age. A total of 500 meat quails were distributed in a completely randomized design in a 2 × 5 factorial arrangement, with 2 sexes (male and female) and 5 digestible lysine levels (0.714, 0.816, 0.918, 1.020, and 1.122%) and 5 replications of 10 birds each. The variables studied were feather-free body weight (FFBW), feed intake (FI), lysine intake (LysI), feather-free body protein deposition (FFBPD), feather-free body lysine deposition (FFBLysD), feather-free body fat deposition (FFBFatD), feather weight (FW), feather protein deposition, feather lysine deposition, and feather fat deposition. The FFBW, FFBPD, FFBLysD, and FFBFatD were regressed as a function of LysI for each sex to estimate the efficiency of lysine utilization in the feather-free body (ELysFFB), and the individual equations were compared. In addition, a multiple regression without intercept was also used to estimate the ELysFFB and in feathers (ELysF) individually. To compare the ELysFFB obtained by the different methods, the t-statistic was used. There was no effect on sex × lysine level interactions for any variable. The females showed higher FFBW (5.07%) and FFBFatD (26.23%) than males. All variables increased with the level of dietary lysine, with the exception of FI, FW, and the deposition of nutrients within them. The ELysFFB values obtained by simple linear regression and multiple linear regression were 48.0 and 44.6%, respectively. As there was no difference in the efficiencies estimated by the different methodologies, the best estimate of ELysFFB was 46.3%, that is, the average. The best estimate of ELysF was 18.1%, obtained by multiple linear regression.

PMID:33652243 | DOI:10.1016/j.psj.2021.01.034

J Biomech. 2021 Feb 17;119:110329. doi: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2021.110329. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Time continuous analyses, such as statistical parametric mapping (SPM), have been increasingly used in biomechanics research to determine differences between populations, interventions and methodologies. Currently, it is not known how sensitive time-continuous analyses are to timing variability that occur in gait data. We evaluated this sensitivity by examining the frequency of significant SPM outcomes between two walking speeds when lower limb kinematics and kinetics were segmented and aligned based on 40 repeatable gait events. These events, defined in the supplementary material, include a commonly used event like foot contact and other events that have been previously demonstrated to be repeatable. Repeatable gait events were determined from joint and segment kinematics, joint kinetics as well as ground reaction forces. We examined the frequency of statistical outcomes for a single subject with different numbers of strides analyzed and for a cohort of 10 subjects. Our findings demonstrate that gait interventions, such as changes in walking speed, can induce temporal shifts that affect time-continuous outcomes for both cohort- and subject-level analyses. As both timing and magnitude are important in gait data, researchers are encouraged to perform additional analyses to understand how both of these variables affect time-continuous analysis outcomes. Finally, we demonstrate that multiple SPM tests can be performed to determine if statistical outcomes are due to temporal shifting or differences in magnitude. It is important to understand how both timing and magnitude of biomechanical data influences time continuous analyses as these analyses inform injury prevention, device development and basic understanding of biomechanics.

PMID:33652238 | DOI:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2021.110329

Food Chem. 2021 Feb 20;352:129312. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.129312. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

High-value acacia honey is often adulterated with inexpensive high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), due to their similar color and sugar composition. α‑Dicarbonyl compounds formed by Maillard reaction or caramelization during heat treatment or storage, differ between HFCS and honey due to differences in starting materials and processing methods. In this study, we compared α-dicarbonyl compounds in acacia honey and HFCS by Ion Mobility-Mass Spectrometry and multivariate statistical analysis. Through α-dicarbonyl compound derivatization with o-phenylenediamine, we screened a marker with 189.1023 m/z and 139.3 Ų Collision Cross-Section that can distinguish HFCS from acacia honey. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectra identified this marker compound as 3,4-dideoxypentosulose. We then used chromatography-coupled tandem mass spectrometry to quantitate 3,4-dideoxypentosulose in market samples of honey and HFCS and found that 3,4-dideoxypentosulose was negligible (<0.098 mg/kg) in honey, but prevalent in HFCS (≧1.174 mg/kg), indicating 3,4-dideoxypentosulose can serve as an alternative indicator of HFCS adulteration of acacia honey.

PMID:33652193 | DOI:10.1016/j.foodchem.2021.129312

Am J Obstet Gynecol MFM. 2021 Feb 27:100341. doi: 10.1016/j.ajogmf.2021.100341. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Insufficient and imprecise information during pregnancy can lead to an overestimation of maternal and fetal risk associated to various exposures during gestation.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess if expert obstetric counseling in cases of maternal infections at risk of vertical transmission could impact maternal perception of risk and the tendency to terminate pregnancy.

STUDY DESIGN: This is a monocentric prospective observational study of 185 consecutive pregnant women with confirmed diagnosis of infectious diseases at risk of vertical transmission during the first or second trimester of pregnancy. Patients were divided into two different groups, according to the type infectious disease: infections at high risk of fetal damages and infections at low risk. Every woman included in the study underwent medical counselling with a physician with experience of vertically transmitted infections. Moreover, each woman involved in the study was offered a detailed second trimester ultrasound scan. Maternal concern for their pregnancy and the disposition to interrupt the pregnancy were investigated by two questionnaires submitted to patients before and after medical expert counseling; a third questionnaire was completed only by those women who decided to undergo second trimester ultrasound scan at our Hospital.

RESULTS: Of the 185 consecutive patients meeting the inclusion criteria, 171 (92.4%) filled out the VAS for concern about the baby’s health both before and after medical consultation. Following medical consultation, there was a significant decrease in mean VAS for concern; from 67.1±26.0 to 41.3±28.8 (change score -25.8; 95% CI -29.9, -21.7). Higher baseline levels of concern had more room for reduction, and infections at high fetal risk of damage were associated with lower decrease in concern. However, risk perception decreased in both low-risk and high-risk pregnancies. Eighty-two patients (53.2%) underwent ultrasonography and filled out the VAS following examination. Mean score after examination was 28.3±24.4 and significantly lower than mean score registered after consultation (change score -16.6; 95% CI -22.9, -10.3). A total of 162 (87.6%) women declared their tendency to interrupt pregnancy both before and after the consultation. There was a significant decrease in mean tendency from 42.1±32.6 to 22.7±27.1 (change score -19.4; 95% CI -23.6, -15.2). Regression analysis revealed that both low- and high-risk patients significantly reduced their tendency. Seventy-three (45.1%) patients underwent ultrasonography and filled out the VAS following examination. Mean score after examination was 9.9±20.6 and significantly lower than mean score registered after consultation (change score -13.4; 95% CI -19.1, -7.7).

CONCLUSION: Our results confirm the importance of a comprehensive and sufficient expert medical counselling that, on one hand, can reduce maternal risk perception, improving quality of life for mothers, and on the other hand, can lead to feasible results, reducing a woman’s disposition to termination of pregnancy.

PMID:33652157 | DOI:10.1016/j.ajogmf.2021.100341

Orthop Traumatol Surg Res. 2021 Feb 27:102876. doi: 10.1016/j.otsr.2021.102876. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Femoral neck fractures constitute a major public health challenge. The risk of death after surgery depends chiefly on the patient’s general health and comorbidities. No studies assessing place of residence are available. The objectives of this study were to determine whether mortality differed according to the patient’s previous place of residence and to the place of discharge, and to describe the complications occurring after femoral neck fracture surgery.

HYPOTHESIS: After femoral neck fracture surgery, the place of discharge is associated with the risk of death, and the complication rate is high.

METHODS: This single-centre retrospective study included 1241 adults who sustained a true femoral neck fracture between 2006 and 2016 and were followed-up for at least 3 years. The following data were collected: age at the time of the fracture, sex, hospital stay length, place of residence before and after the fracture, characteristics of the fracture, type of treatment, time from the fracture to surgery, and whether anticoagulant therapy was given. We then recorded data on mortality and complications.

RESULTS: The 3-year mortality rate was 36.0±1.4% (95%CI, 33.3-38.7). Place of residence before the fracture was strongly associated with mortality: the risk of death was higher in patients who lived in care homes (hazard ratio [HR], 2.18) or were hospitalised (HR, 1.78) and lower in patients who lived at home (HR, 0.46). The risk of death was also higher in patients discharged to care homes (HR, 1.82) or to hospitals (HR, 1.90) and lower in patients discharged home (HR, 0.30). All these differences were statistically significant (P<0.0001).

CONCLUSION: Place of residence and likely place of discharge should be evaluated as soon as the patient is admitted to the emergency department, in order to provide the best information possible to the patient and family and to establish the most appropriate treatment strategy. Patient self-sufficiency is a major parameter that should be preserved to the extent possible.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: IV.

PMID:33652150 | DOI:10.1016/j.otsr.2021.102876