Rationale And Objective: A single-shot T2-weighted deep-learning-based image reconstruction (DL-HASTE) has been recently developed allowing for shorter acquisition time than conventional half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo-spin echo (HASTE). The purpose of this study was to compare image quality of conventional 6 mm HASTE with DL-HASTE at 4 mm and 6 mm slice thickness.
Materials And Methods: 91 patients (51 female; mean±SD age: 44±10years) who underwent 3T MR enterography from 5/15/2023-7/15/2023 including pelvic conventional HASTE and DL-HASTE were included.
Low and middle-income countries continue to use Verbal autopsies (VAs) as a World Health Organisation-recommended method to ascertain causes of death in settings where coverage of vital registration systems is not yet comprehensive. Whilst the adoption of VA has resulted in major improvements in estimating cause-specific mortality in many settings, well documented limitations have been identified relating to the standardisation of the processes involved. The WHO has invested significant resources into addressing concerns in some of these areas; there however remains enduring challenges particularly in operationalising VA surveys for deaths amongst women and children, challenges which have measurable impacts on the quality of data collected and on the accuracy of determining the final cause of death.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe inventory and variability of oceanic dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) is driven by the interplay of physical, chemical, and biological processes. Quantifying the spatiotemporal variability of these drivers is crucial for a mechanistic understanding of the ocean carbon sink and its future trajectory. Here, we use the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean-Darwin ocean biogeochemistry state estimate to generate a global-ocean, data-constrained DIC budget and investigate how spatial and seasonal-to-interannual variability in three-dimensional circulation, air-sea CO flux, and biological processes have modulated the ocean sink for 1995-2018.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe relative contributions of local and remote wind stress and air-sea buoyancy forcing to sea-level variations along the East Coast of the United States are not well quantified, hindering the understanding of sea-level predictability there. Here, we use an adjoint sensitivity analysis together with an Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) ocean state estimate to establish the causality of interannual variations in Nantucket dynamic sea level. Wind forcing explains 67% of the Nantucket interannual sea-level variance, while wind and buoyancy forcing together explain 97% of the variance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This study aimed to explore the association of A>C as 3'UTR variants with blood pressure, HbA1c profile, and lipid profiles as cardiometabolic parameters among patients with T2DM receiving metformin.
Patients And Methods: This cross-sectional analytic research was conducted with 114 consecutively selected patients with T2DM. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism was conducted to determine .
Task sharing is a strategy with potential to increase access to effective modern contraceptive methods. This study examines whether community health extension workers (CHEWs) can insert contraceptive implants to the same safety and quality standards as nurse/midwives. We analyze data from 7,691 clients of CHEWs and nurse/midwives who participated in a noninferiority study conducted in Kaduna and Ondo States, Nigeria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA is increasingly being incorporated into public health efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to obtain the maximum benefit from these efforts, approaches to wastewater monitoring need to be rapid, sensitive, and relatable to relevant epidemiological parameters. In this study, we present an ultracentrifugation-based method for the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater RNA and use crAssphage, a bacteriophage specific to the human gut, to help account for RNA loss during transit in the wastewater system and sample processing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe retreat and acceleration of Greenland glaciers since the mid-1990s have been attributed to the enhanced intrusion of warm Atlantic Waters (AW) into fjords, but this assertion has not been quantitatively tested on a Greenland-wide basis or included in models. Here, we investigate how AW influenced retreat at 226 marine-terminating glaciers using ocean modeling, remote sensing, and in situ observations. We identify 74 glaciers in deep fjords with AW controlling 49% of the mass loss that retreated when warming increased undercutting by 48%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Young men are less likely than young women to engage with HIV prevention and care, and their HIV-related mortality is higher. We describe HIV incidence and uptake of HIV services in men 20-29 years(y) in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, before the roll-out of DREAMS.
Methods: We used data from a population-based demographic and HIV surveillance cohort.
Background: Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) bear the brunt of the HIV epidemic in South Africa. 'DREAMS' aims to reduce HIV incidence through multi-level combination prevention. We describe HIV incidence and uptake of HIV and sexual reproductive health (SRH) by AGYW in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), prior to DREAMS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Integration of HIV/AIDS with reproductive health (RH) services can increase the uptake and efficiency of services, but gaps in knowledge remain about the practice of integration, particularly how provision can be expanded and performance enhanced. We assessed the extent and nature of service integration in public sector facilities in four districts in Kenya.
Methods: Between 2009 and 2012, client flow assessments were conducted at six time points in 24 government facilities, purposively selected as intervention or comparison sites.
Background: Over recent years the pharmacy profession in Indonesia has adopted a stance of pharmaceutical care to expand their scope of practice. Asthma management presents a key opportunity for pharmacists to test expanded roles in health service provision. There is however no exploratory work on the willingness, experience or future practice needs of Indonesian pharmacists in the realm of specialised asthma service provision.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGreenland's bed topography is a primary control on ice flow, grounding line migration, calving dynamics, and subglacial drainage. Moreover, fjord bathymetry regulates the penetration of warm Atlantic water (AW) that rapidly melts and undercuts Greenland's marine-terminating glaciers. Here we present a new compilation of Greenland bed topography that assimilates seafloor bathymetry and ice thickness data through a mass conservation approach.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe lack of human resources is a key challenge in scaling up of HIV services in Africa's health care system. Integrating HIV services could potentially increase their effectiveness and optimize the use of limited resources and clinical staff time. We examined the impact of integration of provider initiated HIV counselling and testing (PITC) and family planning (FP counselling and FP provision) services on duration of consultation to assess the impact of PITC and FP integration on staff workload.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSetting: Zambian and South African TB and HIV Reduction (ZAMSTAR) cluster-randomised trial (CRT) communities, 2006-2009.
Objectives: To develop TB stigma items, and evaluate changes in them in response to a household intervention aimed at reducing TB transmission and prevalence but not tailored to reduce stigma.
Design: TB stigma was measured at baseline and 18 months later among 1826 recently diagnosed TB patients and 1235 adult members of their households across 24 communities; 12 of 24 communities were randomised to receive the household intervention.
Background: Introduction of infant oral rotavirus vaccination in the UK in July 2013 has resulted in decreased hospitalisations and Emergency Department (ED) visits for acute gastroenteritis (AGE), for both adults and children. We investigated reductions in AGE incidence seen in primary care in the two years after vaccine introduction, and estimated the healthcare costs averted across healthcare settings in the first year of the vaccination programme.
Methods: We used primary care data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink and age-stratified time-series analyses to derive adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRR) for AGE in the first two years of the post-vaccination era (July 2013-April 2015) compared to the pre-vaccination era (July 2008-June 2013).
After 8 years of decay of its ice shelf, Zachariæ Isstrøm, a major glacier of northeast Greenland that holds a 0.5-meter sea-level rise equivalent, entered a phase of accelerated retreat in fall 2012. The acceleration rate of its ice velocity tripled, melting of its residual ice shelf and thinning of its grounded portion doubled, and calving is now occurring at its grounding line.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFViscosupplementation may affect cartilage. Changes in T1rho magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) relaxation times correlate with proteoglycan changes in cartilage. The authors hypothesized that T1rho MRI will show an improvement in proteoglycan content at 6 weeks and 3 months after viscosupplementation and that this improvement will correlate with functional outcome scores.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Maternal and child health (MCH) care may provide an entry point for HIV services in high HIV-prevalence settings. Our objective was to assess integration of HIV with MCH services in public sector facilities in Swaziland.
Design: In 2009, 2010 and 2012, client flow assessments (CFAs) were conducted over 5 days in the MCH units of eight government facilities, purposively selected as intervention or comparison sites.
T-1-rho (T1ρ) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and disc height ratio (DHR) are potential biomarkers of degenerative disk disease (DDD) related to biochemical composition and morphology of the intervertebral disk (IVD), respectively. To objectively detect DDD at an early stage, the hypothesis was tested that the average T1ρ relaxation time of the nucleus pulposus (NP) correlates with the disk height of degenerate IVDs, measured by MRI. Studies were performed on a 3-T Siemens Tim Trio clinical MRI scanner (Siemens Healthcare, Malvern, Pennsylvania, United States) on patients being treated for low back pain whose disks were categorized into (1) painful and (2) nonpainful subgroups based on provocative diskography and (3) age-matched healthy controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnalysis of ICESat-1 data (2003-2008) shows significant surface lowering of Totten Glacier, the glacier discharging the largest volume of ice in East Antarctica, and less change on nearby Moscow University Glacier. After accounting for firn compaction anomalies, the thinning appears to coincide with fast-flowing ice indicating a dynamical origin. Here, to elucidate these observations, we apply high-resolution ice-ocean modelling.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Vet Emerg Crit Care (San Antonio)
August 2014
Objective: To describe a case of immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (IMT) after massive Africanized bee envenomation in a dog.
Case Summary: While boarding at a kennel, a dog was stung by approximately 300 Africanized bees. During initial veterinary examination, the dog was deemed to be in shock, characterized by collapse, with hypotension, bradycardia, and hypoglycemia.
Background: Southern Africa has had an unprecedented increase in the burden of tuberculosis, driven by the HIV epidemic. The Zambia, South Africa Tuberculosis and AIDS Reduction (ZAMSTAR) trial examined two public health interventions that aimed to reduce the burden of tuberculosis by facilitating either rapid sputum diagnosis or integrating tuberculosis and HIV services within the community.
Methods: ZAMSTAR was a community-randomised trial done in Zambia and the Western Cape province of South Africa.