Tag: pubmed

Med Biol Eng Comput. 2022 Aug 13. doi: 10.1007/s11517-022-02631-y. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

High-quality computed tomography (CT) images are key to clinical diagnosis. However, the current quality of an image is limited by reconstruction algorithms and other factors and still needs to be improved. When using CT, a large quantity of imaging data, including intermediate data and final images, that can reflect important physical processes in a statistical sense are accumulated. However, traditional imaging techniques cannot make full use of them. Recently, deep learning, in which the large quantity of imaging data can be utilized and patterns can be learned by a hierarchical structure, has provided new ideas for CT image quality improvement. Many researchers have proposed a large number of deep learning algorithms to improve CT image quality, especially in the field of image postprocessing. This survey reviews these algorithms and identifies future directions.

PMID:35962932 | DOI:10.1007/s11517-022-02631-y

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Aug 13. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-22524-9. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Herein, an iron-doped ZIF-8-loaded multi-walled carbon nanotube (FZM) was synthesized and its adsorption performance on tetracycline (TC) was investigated. The experimental conditions (solution pH, temperature, adsorbent dose) were optimized by Box-Behnken design (BBD) in response surface methodology (RSM). The results show that the adsorption effect of TC by FZM is optimal under the conditions of temperature = 298 K, pH = 6, and contact time = 360 min. The adsorption processes of TC by FZM follow the pseudo-second-order (PSO) kinetic and Freundlich isotherm models, indicating that chemisorption is the dominant factor and the adsorption reaction is multi-layer, with a theoretical maximum saturation capacity of 1111.11 mg/g at 298 K. The adsorption thermodynamic results indicate that the adsorption of TC by FZM is a spontaneous and endothermic process. The mechanism of TC adsorption by FZM possibly occurs through hydrogen bonding, surface complexation, π-π interaction, and electrostatic interaction. From the statistical results, the optimal adsorption capacity of TC by FZM is 599.78 mg/g at a pH of 7.1, a temperature of 312.5 K, and an adsorbent dose of 64.43 mg/L, with a deviation of 1.73% from the actual value. Furthermore, regeneration experiments demonstrate that FZM has excellent reusability with a 15% loss of adsorption capacity after four cycles. This study provides some insights to study the adsorption behavior of TC by MOFs and the optimization of the adsorption experimental conditions, and also shows the potential of FZM for TC removal.

PMID:35962890 | DOI:10.1007/s11356-022-22524-9

Lifetime Data Anal. 2022 Aug 13. doi: 10.1007/s10985-022-09571-7. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Dynamic (or varying) covariate effects often manifest meaningful physiological mechanisms underlying chronic diseases. However, a static view of covariate effects is typically adopted by standard approaches to evaluating disease prognostic factors, which can result in depreciation of some important disease markers. To address this issue, in this work, we take the perspective of globally concerned quantile regression, and propose a flexible testing framework suited to assess either constant or dynamic covariate effects. We study the powerful Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) and Cramér-Von Mises (C-V) type test statistics and develop a simple resampling procedure to tackle their complicated limit distributions. We provide rigorous theoretical results, including the limit null distributions and consistency under a general class of alternative hypotheses of the proposed tests, as well as the justifications for the presented resampling procedure. Extensive simulation studies and a real data example demonstrate the utility of the new testing procedures and their advantages over existing approaches in assessing dynamic covariate effects.

PMID:35962886 | DOI:10.1007/s10985-022-09571-7

Matern Child Health J. 2022 Aug 13. doi: 10.1007/s10995-022-03486-3. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Worry and loneliness looms large in American schools, especially in the social years of early adolescence where friendships are in flux and children strive to fit in and do well academically. We examine a nationally-representative sample of American 5th graders to document the extent of academic worry and loneliness, its costs for academic performance, and how social class can disrupt or exacerbate its associations.

METHODS: Based on a nationally representative longitudinal survey (ECLS-K 2010-2011) of childhood (N = 5750), we examine if a child’s self-reported worry and loneliness are associated with standardized math and reading scores using OLS regression. We explore whether these associations vary by socioeconomic status.

RESULTS: We find that academic worry is a strong predictor of math and reading skill. The association is amplified for disadvantaged students. Patterns hold when accounting for a host of other factors and are replicated in the ECLS-K 1998-1999. Loneliness and its association with math and reading performance was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: As academic worry is negatively associated with standardized math and reading skills, practitioners can be especially attuned to how these patterns are amplified for children in low socioeconomic households. Utilizing a nationally representative survey of early adolescence, we show that worry (and less so loneliness) is associated with math and reading skills and that these associations are moderated by socioeconomic status-disadvantaged students have a higher negative association with math and reading performance when they worry about their academic performance compared to advantaged students.

PMID:35962876 | DOI:10.1007/s10995-022-03486-3

Acta Biotheor. 2022 Aug 13;70(4):22. doi: 10.1007/s10441-022-09446-2.

ABSTRACT

Causal pluralism can be defended not only in respect to causal concepts and methodological guidelines, but also at the finer-grained level of causal inference from a particular source of evidence for causation. An argument for this last variety of pluralism is made based on an analysis of causal inference from randomized experiments (RCTs). Here, the causal interpretation of a statistically significant association can be established via multiple paths of reasoning, each relying on different assumptions and providing distinct elements of information in favour of a causal interpretation.

PMID:35962877 | DOI:10.1007/s10441-022-09446-2

J Nephrol. 2022 Aug 13. doi: 10.1007/s40620-022-01389-8. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Indications for kidney biopsy in adult IgA vasculitis (IgAV) remain debated and there are very few studies on this subject. The aim of this study was to establish a correlation between renal histological and clinical-laboratory data.

METHODS: A retrospective multicenter study was conducted using three databases from French hospitals, gathered between 1977 and 2020. The study included 294 adult patients with IgAV who had undergone kidney biopsy assessed according to the prognostic “Pillebout classification”. Different statistical models were used to test the correlations between histological and clinical-laboratory data: Cochran Armitage, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis and logistic regression.

RESULTS: The patients were primarily men (64%), with a mean age of 52 years. The main organs and tissues involved were: dermatological 100%, digestive 48% and rheumatological 61%. All had features of kidney involvement. The median serum creatinine was 96 µmol/L serum albumin 35 g/L, and C-reactive protein 28 mg/L. Of the patients, 86% (n = 254) had hematuria and median proteinuria was 1.8 g/day. The only statistically significant correlation between the pathological stages and the clinical-laboratory data was the presence of hematuria (p = 0.03, 66% class I to 92% class IV). In multivariate analysis, only albuminemia was associated with extracapillary proliferation (p = 0.02; OR 0.94) and only age was associated with stages 3-4 (p = 0.03; OR 1.02).

CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that there is no strict baseline correlation between renal pathology and clinical-laboratory data. Given the current knowledge, it seems relevant to recommend a kidney biopsy in the presence of significant and persistent proteinuria or unexplained kidney function decline.

PMID:35962864 | DOI:10.1007/s40620-022-01389-8

Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2022 Aug 13. doi: 10.1002/erv.2944. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This systematic review aimed to highlight the usefulness of the clinical examination of the oral cavity for the diagnostic suspicion of anorexia (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN), being of main interest to the paediatric dentist and paediatrician due to the early onset of symptoms in Eating Disorders (EDs).

METHOD: A systematic search, applying PICO question, was carried out in biomedical and other electronic databases from 2005 to 2020. Both case reports and case series of patients under 65 years of age with AN and BN were included. Data were extracted and statistically analysed.

RESULTS: A sample of 111 studies was obtained (n = 192; 92.78% female). The most prevalent diagnosis was restrictive type AN (n = 110; 57.29%). Only 16 (8.33%) patients had been clinically examined at the oral cavity, indicating the presence or absence of oral manifestations (OM) and showing dental erosion (n = 10) as the most frequent.

CONCLUSION: There is a lack of information about the oral examination of anorexic and bulimic patients. Dental erosion and other oral manifestations can help us to make an early ED diagnosis. Clinical observation and basic erosive wear examination (BEWE) Index are necessary steps to detect and record any anomaly in oral cavity during the evaluation of these patients.

PMID:35962774 | DOI:10.1002/erv.2944

Liver Int. 2022 Aug 13. doi: 10.1111/liv.15396. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: To report 5-year outcomes of the CERTITUDE study.

METHODS: An observational study in patients with liver transplantation (LTx) that compared long-term impact of immunosuppression (with/without a calcineurin inhibitor) on renal function, cancers, major cardiovascular events (MACE), and other safety parameters. All patients completing the 6-month SIMCER study were recruited and analyzed according to treatment received at randomization and actual treatment received during follow-up.

RESULTS: Of the 143 enrolled patients, 119 completed the 5-year follow-up (everolimus [EVR], n=55; tacrolimus [TAC], n=64). The mean absolute change in estimated glomerular filtration rate was not statistically different between both groups (TAC, -15.53 mL/min/1.73 m² and EVR, -14.56 mL/min/1.73 m² ). In the treatment subgroups based on actual treatment received, renal function was preserved better in the EVR subgroup compared with other subgroups (P=0.051). Treated biopsy-proven acute rejection was higher in the EVR group (15.4% vs 6.4%); however, the majority of events were mild in severity. MACE occurred in 9.2% vs 14.1% of patients in the EVR and TAC groups, respectively (P=0.370). De novo cancer was reported in 14 and 5 patients in EVR and TAC groups, respectively. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence was observed in TAC group alone (n=4). Adverse events and treatment discontinuation due to adverse event were higher in the EVR group.

CONCLUSIONS: The CERTITUDE study demonstrated that EVR- and TAC-based regimens have a comparable efficacy, safety, and tolerability up to 5 years post-LTx.

PMID:35962772 | DOI:10.1111/liv.15396

Acad Emerg Med. 2022 Aug 13. doi: 10.1111/acem.14581. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Adjunct therapy with anticholinergic agents has been proposed to reduce the incidence of extrapyramidal side effects such as akathisia following treatment with neuroleptics or metoclopramide. This systematic review assessed the effectiveness of anticholinergic agents to prevent neuroleptic or metoclopramide-induced akathisia in people presenting to the ED with benign headache.

METHODS: Eight electronic databases and grey literature were searched to identify randomized controlled trials involving adult patients presenting to the ED with primary headache treated with neuroleptic or metoclopramide. Study selection, data extraction and quality assessment were completed by two independent reviewers. Individual or pooled meta-analysis of dichotomous outcomes were calculated as relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using a random effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I² statistic.

RESULTS: A total of 1032 studies were screened, of which two studies were included in the review. Both studies provided patients with diphenhydramine following treatment with neuroleptics or metoclopramide. Treatment with diphenhydramine did not reduce the incidence of akathisia compared to treatment with placebo (RR = 0.83; 95% CI: 0.43, 1.61, I² =0%). The impact of diphenhydramine on pain relief, need for rescue medications, and relief of other extrapyramidal side effects were reported in one of the two studies, with no significant differences noted in any outcomes compared to patients treated with placebo.

CONCLUSION: This review found insufficient evidence to recommend the use of diphenhydramine as an adjunct therapy to prevent akathisia in ED patients treated with neuroleptics or metoclopramide for primary headache. This finding relies on the results of two small RCTs with incomplete outcome reporting. Additional high-quality studies are needed to better understand the clinical efficacy of agents with anticholinergic properties in the ED management of patients with primary headaches.

PMID:35962748 | DOI:10.1111/acem.14581

Wiad Lek. 2022;75(6):1781-1788. doi: 10.36740/WLek202207131.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The aim: To analyze the peculiarities of media reform in the system of promoting a healthy lifestyle of Ukraine, to disclose the foreign experience of denationalization of print media.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: The theoretical and methodological basis and materials of the research consist of the scientific works of leading scientists on the issues of promoting a healthy lifestyle of Ukrainian print media and the possibilities of promotingthis process in social media in accordance with international practice, information from open registers, and interviews with editorial staff.

CONCLUSION: Conclusions: Having investigated the process of reforming the media, which is designed to promote a healthy lifestyle, we can draw the following conclusions that a significant part of modern Ukrainian media in one way or another reveals the problems of forming the basic principles of a healthy lifestyle for children and youth. The print media not only ensure freedom of speech, the development of democracy, the formation of perfect information society, but also contribute to the promotion of a healthy lifestyle, the ideology of changing the attitude of the individual and society to personal health. According to the results of the survey, 85 % of the media of the Ternopil region were successfully reformed. Taking into account the statistics, we note that the district editions of the Ternopil region, which expressed a desire to reform, were ready to go through all the procedures provided by the legislation of Ukraine.

PMID:35962698 | DOI:10.36740/WLek202207131