Tag: pubmed

Phys Biol. 2022 Jan 18. doi: 10.1088/1478-3975/ac4c9b. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Bacterial growth in microfluidic droplets is relevant in biotechnology, in microbial ecology, and in understanding stochastic population dynamics in small populations. However, it has proved challenging to automate measurement of absolute bacterial numbers within droplets, forcing the use of proxy measures for population size. Here we present a microfluidic device and imaging protocol that allows high-resolution imaging of thousands of droplets, such that individual bacteria stay in the focal plane and can be counted automatically. Using this approach, we track the stochastic growth of hundreds of replicate Escherichia coli populations within droplets. {We find that, for early times, the statistics of the growth trajectories obey the predictions of the Bellman-Harris model, in which there is no inheritance of division time. Our approach should allow further testing of models for stochastic growth dynamics, as well as contributing to broader applications of droplet-based bacterial culture.

PMID:35042205 | DOI:10.1088/1478-3975/ac4c9b

Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2022 Jan 6;270:105-110. doi: 10.1016/j.ejogrb.2022.01.001. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: First trimester miscarriage is a multifactorial event. Various angiogenic factors have been proposed as possible early markers of non-viable pregnancies. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the systemic nitric oxide (NO) production in healthy early pregnancy and its possible role in first trimester miscarriage.

STUDY DESIGN: We prospectively enrolled women referred to our Unit for elective termination of pregnancy, threatened abortion or missed abortion. Blood samples were taken for testing circulating NO plasma levels. Subsequently, all patients underwent 2-D ultrasonographic analysis and Color Doppler imaging to assess the pulsatility index of the uterine arteries. 3-D ultrasonographic and power Doppler analysis allowed a volumetric and vascular reconstruction of the placenta. During dilatation and vacuum aspiration, amniotic fluid was collected.

RESULTS: Seventy-two patients were enrolled: 25 with elective termination of pregnancy (Group I); 17 with threatened abortion (Group II); 30 with missed abortion (Group III). Group II showed greater placental volume and lower uterine arteries PI than others. The plasma NO concentration resulted statistically higher in women with threatened abortion, while amniotic fluid NO concentration were higher in the viable pregnancies (Group I) than in the aborted fetuses (Group III). Plasma NO was inversely correlated with both mean arterial pressure and uterine artery PI and was positively correlated with amniotic fluid NO and CRL; amniotic fluid NO was positively correlated with placental Vascularization Index and Vascularization-Flow Index.

CONCLUSION: Amniotic NO concentration was higher in viable pregnancies and positively related to Doppler 3D indices of vascularization and blood flow within the placenta. Further studies are needed to elucidate its role in first trimester miscarriage.

PMID:35042176 | DOI:10.1016/j.ejogrb.2022.01.001

J Sport Rehabil. 2022 Jan 18:1-6. doi: 10.1123/jsr.2021-0208. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

CONTEXT: Postsurgical and acute orthopedic patients are frequently treated with consecutive systematic cryotherapy despite the void of data to support treatment safety or effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to examine the occurrence of frostbite and measure skin temperatures during the systematic application of 2 cryocompression protocols.

DESIGN: A repeated-measures design guided this study.

METHODS: Nine healthy, college-aged participants (4 men and 5 women; age = 20.7 [1.2] y; height = 174 [11.01] cm; mass = 74 [14] kg) received both cryocompression protocols separated by ≥ 1 week. The static cryocompression protocol consisted of seven 40-minute “on” cycles of cryotherapy (4.4°C) with 45 mm Hg of compression, each followed by a 30-minute “off” cycle (no cryotherapy, compression set at 5 mm Hg). The intermittent cryocompression protocol consisted of seven 40-minute “on” cycles of cryotherapy (4.4°C) with compression alternating between 5 and 45 mm Hg, each followed by a 30-minute “off” cycle (no cryotherapy, compression set at 5 mmHg). At the end of each “on” and “off” cycle, we used a checklist to assess for frostbite, a PT-6 thermocouple to measure skin temperature (in degrees Celsius), and a 10-cm Likert scale to assess comfort.

RESULTS: None of the participants experienced any signs or symptoms of frostbite. There were no differences in skin temperature between the compression conditions over time (F14,112 = 1.43; P = .149) nor were there any differences between the 2 compression conditions (F1,8 = 3.75; P = .087; 1-β = 0.40). The skin temperatures were statistically different over the course of all 7 “on” and “off” cycles (F14,112 = 95.12; P < .001). There was no difference between the skin temperatures produced at the end of each “on” cycle.

CONCLUSIONS: The application of 7 consecutive cryotherapy treatments with compression did not result in any signs or symptoms of frostbite and produced similar skin temperatures with each “on” cycle.

PMID:35042184 | DOI:10.1123/jsr.2021-0208

Int Immunopharmacol. 2022 Jan 15;104:108488. doi: 10.1016/j.intimp.2021.108488. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Depression is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s (AD) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Therefore, depression treatment restricts its deteriorating effects on mood, memory and CV system. Fluoxetine is the most widely used antidepressant drug, it has neuroprotective effect through its antioxidant/anti-inflammatory properties. The current study investigated for the first-time the cross link between depression, AD and CVD besides, role of fluoxetine in mitigating such disorders. Depression was induced in rats by social isolation (SI) for 12 weeks, AlCL3 (70 mg/kg/day, i.p.) was used to induce AD which was administered either in SI or normal control (NC) grouped rats starting at 8th week till the end of the experiment, fluoxetine (10 mg/kg/day, p.o) treatment also was started at 8th week. SI and AD showed a statistically significant deteriorated effect on behavioral, neurochemical and histopathological analysis which was exaggerated when two disorder combined than each alone. Fluoxetine treatment showed protective effect against SI, AD and prevents exacerbation of CVD. Fluoxetine improved animals’ behavior, increased brain monoamines, BDNF besides increased antioxidant defense mechanism of SOD, TAC contents and increased protein expression of Nrf2/HO-1 with significant decrease of AChE activity, β-amyloid, Tau protein, MDA, TNF-α, IL1β contents as well as decreased protein expression of NF-kB, TLR4, NLRP3 and caspase1. It also showed cardioprotective effects as it improved lipid profile with pronounced decrease of cardiac enzymes of CK-MB, troponin and MEF2. In conclusion, fluoxetine represents as a promising drug against central and peripheral disorders through its anti-inflammatory/antioxidant effects via targeting antioxidant Nrf2/HO-1 and hindering TLR4/NLRP3 inflammasome signaling pathways.

PMID:35042170 | DOI:10.1016/j.intimp.2021.108488

Epilepsy Behav. 2022 Jan 15;127:108454. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2021.108454. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Driving is a critical topic to counsel among patients with epileptic seizures (ES) and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES), with significant legal and public health implications. This prospective cohort study examined the frequency of ES and PNES in a single institution’s Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) and assessed driving-related issues between each group.

METHODS: Adult patients from the Mayo Clinic Arizona Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) were given comprehensive surveys addressing driving history. Descriptive analysis and statistics were used to summarize differences between patients with ES and PNES. Differences between patients with epilepsy and PNES were determined by Pearson chi-square.

RESULTS: Nearly half (n = 75/163) of all patients admitted to the EMU were diagnosed with PNES. Although the PNES group had a statistically significant higher frequency of events (p = 0.01), 87.7% of these patients reported compliance with the driving law recommendations, suggesting a trend that patients who have been counseled regarding fitness-to-drive are likely to follow the recommendation. One-third of patients with PNES reported an event while operating a motor vehicle and 8% (n = 2/25) resulted in a motor vehicle collision severe enough to require hospitalization. In contrast to those with ES, 25% of patients reported a typical event while driving and 25% (n = 2/8) of those resulted in a collision requiring hospitalization. The incidence of habitual events while driving is higher in the population with PNES (n = 25) when compared to those with ES (n = 8); however, it appears that patients with PNES were less likely to become involved in an accident resulting in seriously bodily injury than in ES.

CONCLUSIONS: Compared to patients with PNES, patients with ES have less frequent events but more severe collisions. This study reinforces the need for diligent driving counseling to help prevent driving-related injuries in patients with PNES and ES.

PMID:35042159 | DOI:10.1016/j.yebeh.2021.108454

Appl Radiat Isot. 2021 Dec 29;181:110053. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2021.110053. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

The study presented in this paper aims to explain the influence of scintillation detector size on spectrometric parameters. For this purpose, a setup composed of 1.5″×1.5″, 2″×2″ and 3″×3″ NaI(Tl) detectors from the same manufacturer was performed. Furthermore, the linearity of detector response to gamma-ray energy was examined for all detectors. Our results show that the energy resolution presents a remarkable dependency to detector size, governed by a second order polynomial function. Thus, the energy resolution shows a significant decrease for almost all energies. As expected, full-energy peak efficiency and Peak-to-Total coefficients have a notable correlation with NaI(Tl) crystal size. In order to study a larger range of crystal sizes, we have developed a Monte Carlo (MC) simulation model using Geant4 (V 10.05). The obtained results were presented using ROOT (V 6.14/08) data analysis framework. The statistical uncertainties were below 4% for all obtained spectra. The comparison of simulated and measured results shows an excellent agreement. The accuracy of our model and the real detector responses has been quantified by applying statistical tests. In this context, a negligible deviation within 4.1% and 3.96% was found, for the obtained response functions and efficiency curves, respectively. An important improvement of intrinsic efficiency and photoelectric effect probability was observed for larger crystals. However, our study shows that CPU-time increases with increasing the active volume of the detector.

PMID:35042157 | DOI:10.1016/j.apradiso.2021.110053

Neural Netw. 2021 Dec 30;147:186-197. doi: 10.1016/j.neunet.2021.12.017. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes an Information Bottleneck theory based filter pruning method that uses a statistical measure called Mutual Information (MI). The MI between filters and class labels, also called Relevance, is computed using the filter’s activation maps and the annotations. The filters having High Relevance (HRel) are considered to be more important. Consequently, the least important filters, which have lower Mutual Information with the class labels, are pruned. Unlike the existing MI based pruning methods, the proposed method determines the significance of the filters purely based on their corresponding activation map’s relationship with the class labels. Architectures such as LeNet-5, VGG-16, ResNet-56, ResNet-110 and ResNet-50 are utilized to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed pruning method over MNIST, CIFAR-10 and ImageNet datasets. The proposed method shows the state-of-the-art pruning results for LeNet-5, VGG-16, ResNet-56, ResNet-110 and ResNet-50 architectures. In the experiments, we prune 97.98%, 84.85%, 76.89%, 76.95%, and 63.99% of Floating Point Operation (FLOP)s from LeNet-5, VGG-16, ResNet-56, ResNet-110, and ResNet-50 respectively. The proposed HRel pruning method outperforms recent state-of-the-art filter pruning methods. Even after pruning the filters from convolutional layers of LeNet-5 drastically (i.e., from 20, 50 to 2, 3, respectively), only a small accuracy drop of 0.52% is observed. Notably, for VGG-16, 94.98% parameters are reduced, only with a drop of 0.36% in top-1 accuracy. ResNet-50 has shown a 1.17% drop in the top-5 accuracy after pruning 66.42% of the FLOPs. In addition to pruning, the Information Plane dynamics of Information Bottleneck theory is analyzed for various Convolutional Neural Network architectures with the effect of pruning. The code is available at https://github.com/sarvanichinthapalli/HRel.

PMID:35042156 | DOI:10.1016/j.neunet.2021.12.017

Semin Arthritis Rheum. 2021 Dec 31;52:151937. doi: 10.1016/j.semarthrit.2021.11.008. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between timing of respiratory tract diseases and risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODS: This case-control study using the Mass General Brigham Biobank matched incident RA cases, confirmed by ACR/EULAR criteria, with at least seven years preceding electronic health record (EHR) data to three controls on age, sex, and EHR history from RA diagnosis (index date). We ascertained timing (>0-5 years/>5-10 years/>10 years) of the first documented respiratory tract disease prior to index date using diagnosis codes. We estimated odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for RA for each respiratory exposure using logistic regression models, adjusting for potential confounders. We also conducted a stratified analysis by serostatus and smoking.

RESULTS: We identified 625 incident RA cases (median 56 years, 75% female, 57% seropositive) and 1,875 controls. Acute sinusitis was associated with RA only in the >5 to 10 years before RA (OR 3.90, 95% CI:1.90,8.01). In contrast, pneumonia was associated with RA only in the >0 to 5 years before RA (OR 1.73, 95% CI:1.00,3.00), and chronic respiratory tract diseases only >10 years before RA (OR 1.43, 95% CI:1.00,2.05). All respiratory tract diseases tended to show a stronger association with seronegative RA than seropositive RA, although the interaction was statistically significant only for chronic sinusitis (p=0.04). Respiratory diseases showed a nonsignificantly stronger association among smokers than nonsmokers.

CONCLUSION: Sinusitis and other respiratory diseases are associated with increased risk of RA, especially 5 years before RA onset. RA may begin many years before clinical onset.

PMID:35042150 | DOI:10.1016/j.semarthrit.2021.11.008

J Pharm Biomed Anal. 2022 Jan 6;210:114585. doi: 10.1016/j.jpba.2022.114585. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

Thermal analysis, Fourier Transform IR, the isotropic chemical shift of ¹H NMR in different solvents, their temperature dependence and spin-lattice relaxation time constant (T₁), solution 1D and 2D NMR, and solid-state ¹³C and ³¹P NMR (magic angle spinning NMR) were employed to obtain full information and elucidate the structures of primaquine diphosphate (PQD) samples used for quality controlling malaria medicines. Additionally, a simple, rapid, specific, and reliable quantitative method (qNMR) was developed to determine the PQD level in the raw material of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The method was developed using ethylene carbonate (EC) as the internal standard and dimethylsulfoxide-d₆ (DMSO-d₆) as the NMR solvent. For the API qNMR, ¹H NMR signals at 3.82 and 1.22 ppm were used. The qNMR methodology, through the linearity, range, LOD and LOQ, stability, precision, robustness, and accuracy, was validated within the requirements of guidelines. The accuracy of the qNMR was evaluated by comparing it to a pharmacopeial HPLC technique and there were no statistical differences (p > 0.05). The proposed qNMR method authentically supports and endorses the current pharmacopoeial methods used for determining the PQD content.

PMID:35042143 | DOI:10.1016/j.jpba.2022.114585

Cancer Epidemiol. 2022 Jan 15;77:102089. doi: 10.1016/j.canep.2021.102089. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: We studied 5-year relative survival (RS) for 14 leading cancer sites in the population-based cancer registry (PBCR) of Golestan province in the northeastern part of Iran.

METHODOLOGY: We followed patients diagnosed in 2007-2012 through data linkage with different databases, including the national causes of death registry and vital statistics office. We also followed the remaining patients through active contact. We used relative survival (RS) analysis to estimate 5-year age-standardized net survival for each cancer site. Multiple Imputation (MI) method was performed to obtain vital status for loss to follow-up (LTFU) cases.

RESULTS: We followed 6910 cancer patients from Golestan PBCR. However, 2162 patients were loss to follow-up. We found a higher RS in women (29.5%, 95% CI, 27.5, 31.7) than men (21.0%, 95% CI, 19.5, 22.5). The highest RS was observed for breast cancer in women (RS=49.8%, 95% CI, 42.2, 56.9) and colon cancer in men (RS=37.9%, 95% CI, 31.2, 44.6). Pancreatic cancer had the lowest RS both in men (RS= 8.7%, 95% CI, 4.1, 13.5) and women (RS= 7.9%, 95% CI, 5.0, 10.8) CONCLUSION: Although the 5-year cancer survival rates were relatively low in the Golestan province, there were distinct variations by cancer site. Further studies are required to evaluate the survival trends in Golestan province over time and compare them with the rates in the neighboring provinces and other countries in the region.

PMID:35042146 | DOI:10.1016/j.canep.2021.102089