Aging Deteriorates Blood Brain Barrier Function and Polarizes Adaptive T Cell Expansion Contributing to Neurocognitive Damage in Experimental Cirrhosis.

Cirrhosis incidence is significantly increased with age and frequently complicated with neurocognitive dysfunction. We have evaluated the contribution of aging to neuroinflammation in the liver-brain axis in advanced chronic liver disease. Young (6-week-old) and old (9-month-old) mice were included in a 12-week protocol of CCl-induced cirrhosis.

Biobjective gradient descent for feature selection on high dimension, low sample size data.

Even though deep learning shows impressive results in several applications, its use on problems with High Dimensions and Low Sample Size, such as diagnosing rare diseases, leads to overfitting. One solution often proposed is feature selection. In deep learning, along with feature selection, network sparsification is also used to improve the results when dealing with high dimensions low sample size data.

MoS phononic crystals for advanced thermal management.

Effective thermal management of electronic devices encounters substantial challenges owing to the notable power densities involved. Here, we propose layered MoS phononic crystals (PnCs) that can effectively reduce thermal conductivity (κ) with relatively small disruption of electrical conductivity (σ), offering a potential thermal management solution for nanoelectronics. These layered PnCs exhibit remarkable efficiency in reducing κ, surpassing that of Si and SiC PnCs with similar periodicity by ~100-fold.

Metabolomic data presents challenges for epidemiological meta-analysis: a case study of childhood body mass index from the ECHO consortium.

Introduction: Meta-analyses across diverse independent studies provide improved confidence in results. However, within the context of metabolomic epidemiology, meta-analysis investigations are complicated by differences in study design, data acquisition, and other factors that may impact reproducibility.

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify maternal blood metabolites during pregnancy (> 24 gestational weeks) related to offspring body mass index (BMI) at age two years through a meta-analysis framework.

Phytotoxicity of Extracts of and on Tomato Seedling Physiology.

Phytotoxicity caused by secondary metabolites of botanical extracts is a drawback in agriculture. The objective of this study was to evaluate the phytotoxic effects of methanolic extracts of and on the germination and physiological variables of tomato seedlings. The results indicated that high doses of both extracts ( and ) inhibited tomato seed germination, while their mixture ( + ) promoted germination by 100%.

Diagnostic Significance of Cytokeratin 20 and p53 as Adjunct Immunocytological Markers in Urine Cytology to Detect Urothelial Carcinomas: A Systematic Review Study.

The progression and recurrence of urothelial carcinoma (UC) are correlated with carcinoma and urothelial dysplasia. It is frequently challenging to distinguish dysplasia and carcinoma from reactive atypia only based on histological characteristics. In daily practices, 2 of the adjunct immunohistochemistry markers (cytokeratin 20 (CK20) and p53) are used in addition to the histology to diagnose carcinoma .

C-RCPred: a multi-objective algorithm for interactive secondary structure prediction of RNA complexes integrating user knowledge and SHAPE data.

RNAs can interact with other molecules in their environment, such as ions, proteins or other RNAs, to form complexes with important biological roles. The prediction of the structure of these complexes is therefore an important issue and a difficult task. We are interested in RNA complexes composed of several (more than two) interacting RNAs.

The Accuracy and Reliability of Sleep Staging and Sleep Biomarkers in Patients with Isolated Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder.

Purpose: This study aimed to establish the diagnostic accuracy of a previously validated sleep staging system in patients with probable isolated REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD), and to compare physicians' diagnoses of iRBD based on REM sleep without atonia (RSWA) to non-REM hypertonia (NRH), a sleep measure independently associated with Parkinsonian spectrum disorders.

Patients And Methods: Twenty-six patients with a history of dream enactment behavior underwent a diagnostic PSG with simultaneous Sleep Profiler (SP) acquisition at two sites. PSG and SP records were sleep staged, and two sleep neurologists independently diagnosed iRBD based on the presence or absence of polysomnographic identified RSWA.

Video-Assisted Thoracoscopy For Penetrating Cardiac Box Injury in Stable Patients.

Introduction: In high-volume trauma centers, especially in developing countries, penetrating cardiac box injuries are frequent. Although many aspects of penetrating chest injuries have been well established, video-assisted thoracoscopy is still finding its place in cardiac box trauma and algorithmic approaches are still lacking. The purpose of this manuscript is to provide a streamlined recommendation for penetrating cardiac box injury in stable patients.

Patient-specific 3D-printed coronary models based on coronary computed tomography angiography volumes to investigate flow conditions in coronary artery disease.

Background: 3D printed patient-specific coronary models have the ability to enable repeatable benchtop experiments under controlled blood flow conditions. This approach can be applied to CT-derived patient geometries to emulate coronary flow and related parameters such as Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR).

Methods: This study uses 3D printing to compare such benchtop FFR results with a non-invasive CT-FFR research software algorithm and catheter based invasive FFR (I-FFR) measurements.

RNANet: an automatically built dual-source dataset integrating homologous sequences and RNA structures.

Motivation: Applied research in machine learning progresses faster when a clean dataset is available and ready to use. Several datasets have been proposed and released over the years for specific tasks such as image classification, speech-recognition and more recently for protein structure prediction. However, for the fundamental problem of RNA structure prediction, information is spread between several databases depending on the level we are interested in: sequence, secondary structure, 3D structure or interactions with other macromolecules.

Reference dataset for benchmarking fetal doses derived from Monte Carlo simulations of CT exams.

Purpose: Task Group Report 195 of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine contains reference datasets for the direct comparison of results among different Monte Carlo (MC) simulation tools for various aspects of imaging research that employs ionizing radiation. While useful for comparing and validating MC codes, that effort did not provide the information needed to compare absolute dose estimates from CT exams. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to extend those efforts by providing a reference dataset for benchmarking fetal dose derived from MC simulations of clinical CT exams.

Phonon Bridge Effect in Superlattices of Thermoelectric TiNiSn/HfNiSn With Controlled Interface Intermixing.

The implementation of thermal barriers in thermoelectric materials improves their power conversion rates effectively. For this purpose, material boundaries are utilized and manipulated to affect phonon transmissivity. Specifically, interface intermixing and topography represents a useful but complex parameter for thermal transport modification.

Initial evaluation of a convolutional neural network used for noninvasive assessment of coronary artery disease severity from coronary computed tomography angiography data.

Purpose: Coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA) has one of the highest diagnostic sensitivities for detection of the significance of coronary artery disease (CAD); however, sensitivity is moderate and may result in increased catheterization rates. We performed an efficacy study to determine whether a trained machine learning algorithm that uses coronary CTA data may improve CAD diagnosis accuracy.

Methods: Sixty-four-patient image datasets based on coronary CTA were retrospectively collected to generate eight views considering 45° increments around the coronary artery centerline.

Image Quality and Lesion Detection on Deep Learning Reconstruction and Iterative Reconstruction of Submillisievert Chest and Abdominal CT.

The objective of this study was to compare image quality and clinically significant lesion detection on deep learning reconstruction (DLR) and iterative reconstruction (IR) images of submillisievert chest and abdominopelvic CT. Our prospective multiinstitutional study included 59 adult patients (33 women, 26 men; mean age ± SD, 65 ± 12 years old; mean body mass index [weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters] = 27 ± 5) who underwent routine chest ( = 22; 16 women, six men) and abdominopelvic ( = 37; 17 women, 20 men) CT on a 640-MDCT scanner (Aquilion ONE, Canon Medical Systems). All patients gave written informed consent for the acquisition of low-dose (LD) CT (LDCT) after a clinically indicated standard-dose (SD) CT (SDCT).

BiORSEO: a bi-objective method to predict RNA secondary structures with pseudoknots using RNA 3D modules.

Motivation: RNA loops have been modelled and clustered from solved 3D structures into ordered collections of recurrent non-canonical interactions called 'RNA modules', available in databases. This work explores what information from such modules can be used to improve secondary structure prediction. We propose a bi-objective method for predicting RNA secondary structures by minimizing both an energy-based and a knowledge-based potential.

Inter- and Intraoperator Variability in Measurement of On-Site CT-derived Fractional Flow Reserve Based on Structural and Fluid Analysis: A Comprehensive Analysis.

Purpose: To measure the inter- and intraobserver variability among operators of varying expertise in conducting CT-derived fractional flow reserve (CT FFR) measurements on-site by using structural and fluid analysis and to evaluate differences in reproducibility between two different training methods for end users.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective analysis of the prospectively enrolled cohort included 22 symptomatic patients who underwent both 320-detector row coronary CT angiography and catheter-derived fractional flow reserve (FFR) within 90 days. Thirteen operators of varying expertise were assigned to one of two training arms: arm 1, on-site training by a specialist in CT FFR technology; arm 2, self-training through use of written materials.

Can fully iterative reconstruction technique enable routine abdominal CT at less than 1 mSv?

Objective: We assessed the effect of the forward projected model-based reconstruction technique (FIRST) on lesion detection of routine abdomen CT at <1 mSv.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-seven adult patients gave written informed consent for acquisition of low-dose CT (LDCT) immediately after their clinically-indicated, standard of care dose (SDCT), routine abdomen CT on a 640-slice MDCT (Aquillion One, Canon Medical System). The LDCT series were reconstructed with FIRST (at STD (Standard) and STR (Strong) levels), and SDCT series with filtered back projection (FBP).

RCPred: RNA complex prediction as a constrained maximum weight clique problem.

Background: RNAs can interact and form complexes, which have various biological roles. The secondary structure prediction of those complexes is a first step towards the identification of their 3D structure. We propose an original approach that takes advantage of the high number of RNA secondary structure and RNA-RNA interaction prediction tools.

Estimating fetal dose from tube current-modulated (TCM) and fixed tube current (FTC) abdominal/pelvis CT examinations.

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to estimate scanner-independent CTDI -to-fetal-dose coefficients for tube current-modulated (TCM) and fixed tube current (FTC) computed tomography (CT) examinations of pregnant patients of various gestational ages undergoing abdominal/pelvic CT examinations.

Methods: For 24 pregnant patients of gestational age from <5 to 36 weeks who underwent clinically indicated CT examinations, voxelized models of maternal and fetal (or embryo) anatomy were created from abdominal/pelvic image data. Absolute fetal dose (D ) was estimated using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of helical scans covering the abdomen and pelvis for TCM and FTC scans.

Initial evaluation of three-dimensionally printed patient-specific coronary phantoms for CT-FFR software validation.

We developed three-dimensionally (3D) printed patient-specific coronary phantoms that are capable of sustaining physiological flow and pressure conditions. We assessed the accuracy of these phantoms from coronary CT acquisition, benchtop experimentation, and CT-FFR software. Five patients with coronary artery disease underwent 320-detector row coronary CT angiography (CCTA) (Aquilion ONE, Canon Medical Systems) and a catheter lab procedure to measure fractional flow reserve (FFR).

3D Printed Cardiovascular Patient Specific Phantoms Used for Clinical Validation of a CT-derived FFR Diagnostic Software.

Purpose: 3D printed patient specific vascular models provide the ability to perform precise and repeatable benchtop experiments with simulated physiological blood flow conditions. This approach can be applied to CT-derived patient geometries to determine coronary flow related parameters such as Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR). To demonstrate the utility of this approach we compared bench-top results with non-invasive CT-derived FFR software based on a computational fluid dynamics algorithm and catheter based FFR measurements.

Bi-objective integer programming for RNA secondary structure prediction with pseudoknots.

Background: RNA structure prediction is an important field in bioinformatics, and numerous methods and tools have been proposed. Pseudoknots are specific motifs of RNA secondary structures that are difficult to predict. Almost all existing methods are based on a single model and return one solution, often missing the real structure.

Design Optimization for Accurate Flow Simulations in 3D Printed Vascular Phantoms Derived from Computed Tomography Angiography.

3D printing has been used to create complex arterial phantoms to advance device testing and physiological condition evaluation. Stereolithographic (STL) files of patient-specific cardiovascular anatomy are acquired to build cardiac vasculature through advanced mesh-manipulation techniques. Management of distal branches in the arterial tree is important to make such phantoms practicable.

Initial Simulated FFR Investigation Using Flow Measurements in Patient-specific 3D Printed Coronary Phantoms.

Purpose: Accurate patient-specific phantoms for device testing or endovascular treatment planning can be 3D printed. We expand the applicability of this approach for cardiovascular disease, in particular, for CT-geometry derived benchtop measurements of Fractional Flow Reserve, the reference standard for determination of significant individual coronary artery atherosclerotic lesions.

Materials And Methods: Coronary CT Angiography (CTA) images during a single heartbeat were acquired with a 320×0.