Minimum dietary diversity behaviour among children aged 6 to 24 months and their determinants: insights from 31 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries.

Background: Feeding practices during infancy have a significant impact on a child's cognitive development and long-term health outcomes. Dietary diversity guidelines from the WHO and UNICEF recommend a diverse range of foods for children aged below 24 months for their optimal growth and development. However, in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), little is known about the extent to which dietary diversity behaviour in children aged 6 to 24 months aligns with the recommendations and the factors associated with the differentials in dietary behaviour.

Enhancing dysarthric speech recognition through SepFormer and hierarchical attention network models with multistage transfer learning.

Dysarthria, a motor speech disorder that impacts articulation and speech clarity, presents significant challenges for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems. This study proposes a groundbreaking approach to enhance the accuracy of Dysarthric Speech Recognition (DSR). A primary innovation lies in the integration of the SepFormer-Speech Enhancement Generative Adversarial Network (S-SEGAN), an advanced generative adversarial network tailored for Dysarthric Speech Enhancement (DSE), as a front-end processing stage for DSR systems.

Tunable synthesis of magnetoelectric CoFeO-BaTiO core-shell nanowires.

A template-assisted synthesis approach was employed to tune the structure and properties of CoFeO-BaTiO core-shell magnetoelectric nanowires. By adjusting the composition of the nanowires, we achieved control over the magnetic anisotropy in the CoFeO core phase. This work highlights the potential for enhanced magnetic anisotropy to improve magnetoelectric performance.

A blended framework for audio spoof detection with sequential models and bags of auditory bites.

An automated speaker verification system uses the process of speech recognition to verify the identity of a user and block illicit access. Logical access attacks are efforts to obtain access to a system by tampering with its algorithms or data, or by circumventing security mechanisms. DeepFake attacks are a form of logical access threats that employs artificial intelligence to produce highly realistic audio clips of human voice, that may be used to circumvent vocal authentication systems.

Detection and Segmentation of Glioma Tumors Utilizing a UNet Convolutional Neural Network Approach with Non-Subsampled Shearlet Transform.

The prompt and precise identification and delineation of tumor regions within glioma brain images are critical for mitigating the risks associated with this life-threatening ailment. In this study, we employ the UNet convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture for glioma tumor detection. Our proposed methodology comprises a transformation module, a feature extraction module, and a tumor segmentation module.

Malaria in under-five children: prevalence and multi-factor analysis of high-risk African countries.

Background: Malaria remains a significant public health challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly affecting under-five (UN5) children. Despite global efforts to control the disease, its prevalence in high-risk African countries continues to be alarming, with records of substantial morbidity and mortality rates. Understanding the association of multiple childhood, maternal, and household factors with malaria prevalence, especially among vulnerable young populations, is crucial for effective intervention strategies.

The immune cell transcriptome is modulated by vitamin D supplementation in people with a first demyelinating event participating in a randomized placebo-controlled trial.

Vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for developing multiple sclerosis. The PrevANZ trial was conducted to determine if vitamin D supplementation can prevent recurrent disease activity in people with a first demyelinating event. As a sub-study of this trial, we investigated the effect of supplementation on peripheral immune cell gene expression.

An automated cervical cancer diagnosis using genetic algorithm and CANFIS approaches.

Background: Cervical malignancy is considered among the most perilous cancers affecting women in numerous East African and South Asian nations, both in terms of its prevalence and fatality rates.

Objective: This research aims to propose an efficient automated system for the segmentation of cancerous regions in cervical images.

Methods: The proposed techniques encompass preprocessing, feature extraction with an optimized feature set, classification, and segmentation.

Vitamin D did not reduce multiple sclerosis disease activity after a clinically isolated syndrome.

Low serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and low sunlight exposure are known risk factors for the development of multiple sclerosis. Add-on vitamin D supplementation trials in established multiple sclerosis have been inconclusive. The effects of vitamin D supplementation to prevent multiple sclerosis is unknown.

Yourtime: The development and pilot of a perinatal mental wellbeing digital tool using a co-design approach.

Introduction: Maternal anxiety and depression are major public health issues with prevalence as high as one in five women. There is a need to focus on preventative strategies to enable women to self-monitor their mental health status during pregnancy and postnatally.

Aim: To co-design and test a perinatal mental health digital tool to enable women to self-monitor their mental wellbeing during pregnancy and early parenting and promote positive self-care strategies.

Preparation of cellulose nanocrystal (CNCs) reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) bionanocomposites filaments using biobased additives for 3D printing applications.

This work presents the experimental steps taken towards the preparation of 3D printable bionanocomposites using polylactic acid (PLA) biopolymer containing 0.1, 0.5 and 1 wt% CNCs.

GIT-Net: An Ensemble Deep Learning-Based GI Tract Classification of Endoscopic Images.

This paper presents an ensemble of pre-trained models for the accurate classification of endoscopic images associated with Gastrointestinal (GI) diseases and illnesses. In this paper, we propose a weighted average ensemble model called GIT-NET to classify GI-tract diseases. We evaluated the model on a KVASIR v2 dataset with eight classes.

Rectovaginal fistula surgery with horizontal mattress and running suture after unsuccessful first repair: a report of two cases.

Unlabelled: Rectovaginal fistula (RVF) repair after failed primary repair is uncommon. Patients with RVF experience physiological and sexual dysfunction with a significantly high risk of intravaginal infection and sepsis. There are many surgical procedures available for RVF repair.

Dual imaging agent for magnetic particle imaging and computed tomography.

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a novel biomedical imaging modality that allows non-invasive, tomographic, and quantitative tracking of the distribution of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle (SPION) tracers. While MPI possesses high sensitivity, detecting nanograms of iron, it does not provide anatomical information. Computed tomography (CT) is a widely used biomedical imaging modality that yields anatomical information at high resolution.

Combination of Cattell-Braasch and Kocher maneuver in laparotomy for diverticular resection in the third part of the duodenum: a case report.

Unlabelled: A duodenal diverticulum is an outpouching of all or partial layers of the duodenal wall. Duodenal diverticulum complications such as bleeding, diverticulitis, pancreatitis, choledochal occlusion, and perforation can develop. Localization of the diverticulum in the third part of the duodenum is rare.

An anonymization-based privacy-preserving data collection protocol for digital health data.

Digital health data collection is vital for healthcare and medical research. But it contains sensitive information about patients, which makes it challenging. To collect health data without privacy breaches, it must be secured between the data owner and the collector.

Sign2Pose: A Pose-Based Approach for Gloss Prediction Using a Transformer Model.

Word-level sign language recognition (WSLR) is the backbone for continuous sign language recognition (CSLR) that infers glosses from sign videos. Finding the relevant gloss from the sign sequence and detecting explicit boundaries of the glosses from sign videos is a persistent challenge. In this paper, we propose a systematic approach for gloss prediction in WLSR using the Sign2Pose Gloss prediction transformer model.

Leveraging Vision Attention Transformers for Detection of Artificially Synthesized Dermoscopic Lesion Deepfakes Using Derm-CGAN.

Synthesized multimedia is an open concern that has received much too little attention in the scientific community. In recent years, generative models have been utilized in maneuvering deepfakes in medical imaging modalities. We investigate the synthesized generation and detection of dermoscopic skin lesion images by leveraging the conceptual aspects of Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks and state-of-the-art Vision Transformers (ViT).

Hypoalbuminemia and colorectal cancer patients: Any correlation?: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: In malnourished patients with colorectal cancer, hypoalbuminemia is common and was proposed to determine the postoperative outcome of colorectal surgery. Mounting articles published but have not been evaluated. We aim to assess the predictive value of preoperative hypoalbuminemia in patients undergoing colorectal surgery.

Out-of-Hospital Pediatric Video Laryngoscopy With an Adult Device: A Case Series Presented With a Contemporary Group Intubated With Direct Laryngoscopy.

Objectives: After introducing an adult video laryngoscope (VL) in our physician-paramedic prehospital and retrieval medical service, our quality assurance process identified this blade being used during pediatric intubations. We present a case series of pediatric intubations using this oversized adult VL alongside a contemporaneous group of direct laryngoscopy (DL) intubations.

Methods: We performed a retrospective review of intubated patients 15 years or younger in our electronic quality assurance registry from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2020.

Surgical operations at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1846 and 1847: Early impact of the discovery of anaesthesia.

The introduction of anaesthesia on 16 October 1846 brought about tremendous changes in the discipline of surgery. We sought to determine whether the concept of painless surgery was accepted by practitioners and patients, and whether this led to an increase in frequency and variety of surgical operations performed. To study these changes, we analysed surgical records from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (MGH) in the months surrounding the discovery of ether anaesthesia.

Effectiveness and predictors of conversion in mini-laparotomy cholecystectomy in developing country: a cohort retrospective study.

Background: Mini laparotomy cholecystectomy (MLC) is an alternative surgical procedure in conditions where laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is not feasible. MLC is a simpler and easier technique compared to LC. MLC involves smaller skin incision, low morbidity rate, and early return to oral diet.