An adaptive protocol to assess physiological responses as a function of task demand in speech-in-noise testing.

Background: Acoustic challenges impose demands on cognitive resources, known as listening effort (LE), which can substantially influence speech perception and communication. Standardized assessment protocols for monitoring LE are lacking, hindering the development of adaptive hearing assistive technology.

New Method: We employed an adaptive protocol, including a speech-in-noise test and personalized definition of task demand, to assess LE and its physiological correlates.

Altered parasympathetic outflow and central sensitization response to continuous pain in cyclic vomiting syndrome: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) is a disorder of brain-gut interaction characterized by recurrent episodes of nausea and vomiting interspersed with asymptomatic periods and associated with autonomic nervous system dysfunction. We examined the dysautonomic response to noxious stimuli seen in CVS patients using our previously validated approach to integrate peripheral autonomic outflow metrics, temporal summation of pain, and brain fMRI. BOLD fMRI and ECG were acquired from CVS patients and healthy adults during a rest condition and a sustained cuff pressure pain stimulus at the leg.

Influence of Aerobic Exercise on Functional Capacity and Maximal Oxygen Uptake in Patients With Parkinson Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Objective: To determine the effects of aerobic training in randomized controlled clinical trials on functional capacity, motor symptoms, and oxygen consumption in individuals with Parkinson disease (PD) through a systematic literature review and meta-analysis.

Data Sources: PUBMED, Web of Science, CINAHL, SciELO, and Medline databases were searched to identify published studies until September 2023.

Study Selection: Randomized controlled clinical trials that evaluated the long-term effect of aerobic exercise in individuals with PD were included.

A reference framework for standardization and harmonization of CT radiomics features on cadaveric sample.

Radiomics features (RFs) serve as quantitative metrics to characterize shape, density/intensity, and texture patterns in radiological images. Despite their promise, RFs exhibit reproducibility challenges across acquisition settings, thus limiting implementation into clinical practice. In this investigation, we evaluate the effects of different CT scanners and CT acquisition protocols (KV, mA, field-of-view, and reconstruction kernel settings) on RFs extracted from lumbar vertebrae of a cadaveric trunk.

Parkinson's Critical Heart Rate Test: Applying the Critical Power Model for People with Parkinson's Disease.

Aerobic exercise with the correct intensity can attenuate motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) and improve the quality of life. However, a specific, validated, non-invasive, and outside the laboratory protocol that assesses physiological variables to prescribe optimal aerobic exercise intensity for people with PD is nonexistent. Therefore, this study aimed to propose a protocol, the Parkinson's critical heart rate test (Parkinson-CHR test), to determine the critical heart rate (CHR) in individuals with PD and verify its validity, reliability, and sensitivity.

Machine learning algorithm functional on environmental sustainability assessment in turbomachinery sector: Application on centrifugal compressors.

The current government directives have focused industries' attention on environmental sustainability issues in products and processes. There is indeed a growing demand from customers to conduct environmental impact assessments of the products they purchase. This work presents the implementation of a predictive model developed in an industrial context to evaluate the environmental sustainability of a centrifugal compressor rotor assembly.

Using training impulse and monotony methods to monitor aerobic training load in rats.

This study is the first to apply training impulse (TRIMP) and Training Monotony (TM) methodologies, within the realm of sport science, in animal model studies. Rats were divided into Sedentary (SED, n=10) and Training (TR, n=13). TR performed a four-week moderate-intensity interval training with load progression.

What's in drugs freely used by Brazilian truck drivers - "Rebites"? Determination of target and nontarget compounds by high-resolution mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance.

Highways, the lifeline of the Brazilian economy, transport approximately 75% of the country's economic activity, highlighting its importance. However, professional drivers, accustomed to long daily journeys, make use of tablets widely available in Gas Station, which are known as "Rebites," which could contain a mixture of legal and illegal compounds. Thus, this study aims at the chemical characterization of these through different analytical methods.

CT Cadaveric dataset for Radiomics features stability assessment in lumbar vertebrae.

Radiomics features (RFs) studies have showed limitations in the reproducibility of RFs in different acquisition settings. To date, reproducibility studies using CT images mainly rely on phantoms, due to the harness of patient exposure to X-rays. The provided CadAIver dataset has the aims of evaluating how CT scanner parameters effect radiomics features on cadaveric donor.

Bickerstaff encephalitis in childhood: a review of 74 cases in the literature from 1951 to today.

Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis (BBE) is a rare autoimmune disease characterized by the subacute onset of bilateral external ophthalmoplegia, ataxia, and decreased level of consciousness. BBE is part of a group of rare autoimmune diseases in children that can affect the nervous system at any level. The onset of neurological deficits is often sudden and nonspecific.

Identifying prognostic factors for survival in intensive care unit patients with SIRS or sepsis by machine learning analysis on electronic health records.

Background: Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and sepsis are the most common causes of in-hospital death. However, the characteristics associated with the improvement in the patient conditions during the ICU stay were not fully elucidated for each population as well as the possible differences between the two.

Goal: The aim of this study is to highlight the differences between the prognostic clinical features for the survival of patients diagnosed with SIRS and those of patients diagnosed with sepsis by using a multi-variable predictive modeling approach with a reduced set of easily available measurements collected at the admission to the intensive care unit (ICU).

Comparative Assessment of Physiological Responses to Emotional Elicitation by Auditory and Visual Stimuli.

The study of emotions through the analysis of the induced physiological responses gained increasing interest in the past decades. Emotion-related studies usually employ films or video clips, but these stimuli do not give the possibility to properly separate and assess the emotional content provided by sight or hearing in terms of physiological responses. In this study we have devised an experimental protocol to elicit emotions by using, separately and jointly, pictures and sounds from the widely used International Affective Pictures System and International Affective Digital Sounds databases.

Statistical shape modeling-based algorithm for replacing missing beats in blood pressure signals.

In clinical environments, such as the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), continuous and uninterrupted monitoring of vital signs is critical for the early detection of patient deterioration and prompt intervention. Since data collected in these settings are often corrupted by noise, artifacts, or recording gaps, it is important to estimate missing data for a more accurate signal assessment.In this study, we propose an automatic algorithm for reconstructing of arterial blood pressure signal waveforms.

The impact of healthy pregnancy on features of heart rate variability and pulse wave morphology derived from wrist-worn photoplethysmography.

Due to the association between dysfunctional maternal autonomic regulation and pregnancy complications, tracking non-invasive features of autonomic regulation derived from wrist-worn photoplethysmography (PPG) measurements may allow for the early detection of deteriorations in maternal health. However, even though a plethora of these features-specifically, features describing heart rate variability (HRV) and the morphology of the PPG waveform (morphological features)-exist in the literature, it is unclear which of these may be valuable for tracking maternal health. As an initial step towards clarity, we compute comprehensive sets of HRV and morphological features from nighttime PPG measurements.

Diversity of vegetable landraces in the Pampa biome of Brazil and Uruguay: utilization and conservation strategies.

The historical meeting between originally American people, European colonizers, and slaved peoples from Africa in the biome Pampa in South Brazil and Uruguay involved a cultural syncretism and a great genetic diversity of landraces of cultivated species. Genetic richness evolved by selection and cultural processes in response to different environments, cultural backgrounds, and needs. This review summarized the knowledge on vegetable and maize landraces in South Brazilian and Uruguayan Pampa biome, to design a strategy towards the rediscovery, conservation, and sustainable use.

Encoding of continuous perceptual choices in human early visual cortex.

Introduction: Research on the neural mechanisms of perceptual decision-making has typically focused on simple categorical choices, say between two alternative motion directions. Studies on such discrete alternatives have often suggested that choices are encoded either in a motor-based or in an abstract, categorical format in regions beyond sensory cortex.

Methods: In this study, we used motion stimuli that could vary anywhere between 0° and 360° to assess how the brain encodes choices for features that span the full sensory continuum.

IK Channel-Independent Effects of Clotrimazole and Senicapoc on Cancer Cells Viability and Migration.

Many studies highlighted the importance of the IK channel for the proliferation and the migration of different types of cancer cells, showing how IK blockers could slow down cancer growth. Based on these data, we wanted to characterize the effects of IK blockers on melanoma metastatic cells and to understand if such effects were exclusively IK-dependent. For this purpose, we employed two different blockers, namely clotrimazole and senicapoc, and two cell lines: metastatic melanoma WM266-4 and pancreatic cancer Panc-1, which is reported to have little or no IK expression.

Reliability of Anaerobic Contributions during a Single Exhaustive Knee-extensor Exercise.

The total anaerobic contribution (AC) is a valid and reliable methodology. However, the active muscle mass plays an important role in the AC determination, which might influence its reliability. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effects of two exhaustive intensities on the reliability of the AC during a one-legged knee extension (1L-KE) exercise.

3-min All-out Test to Evaluate Aerobic and Anaerobic Indexes in Court Team Sports.

This study aimed to test the reproducibility of the 3-min all-out effort applied using shuttle running and compare its values to aerobic parameters. On the first day, 14 futsal players underwent an exhaustive test to determine the maximal incremental speed (MIS) and anaerobic threshold (AnT). On the second day, the participants performed the 3-min all-out effort (n=14), which was repeated after 48 h (third day) to test its reproducibility (n=11).

A Screening Platform for Hearing Loss and Cognitive Decline: WHISPER (Widespread Hearing Impairment Screening and PrEvention of Risk).

The WHISPER (Widespread Hearing Impairment Screening and PrEvention of Risk) platform was recently developed for screening for hearing loss (HL) and cognitive decline in adults. It includes a battery of tests (a risk factors (RF) questionnaire, a language-independent speech-in-noise test, and cognitive tests) and provides a pass/fail outcome based on the analysis of several features. Earlier studies demonstrated high accuracy of the speech-in-noise test for predicting HL in 350 participants.