Transcranial ultrasound modeling using the spectral-element method.

This work explores techniques for accurately modeling the propagation of ultrasound waves in lossy fluid-solid media, such as within transcranial ultrasound, using the spectral-element method. The objectives of this work are twofold, namely, (1) to present a formulation of the coupled viscoacoustic-viscoelastic wave equation for the spectral-element method in order to incorporate attenuation in both fluid and solid regions and (2) to provide an end-to-end workflow for performing spectral-element simulations in transcranial ultrasound. The matrix-free implementation of this high-order finite-element method is very well-suited for performing waveform-based ultrasound simulations for both transcranial imaging and focused ultrasound treatment thanks to its excellent accuracy, flexibility for dealing with complex geometries, and computational efficiency.

Health Economic Evaluation of Antimicrobial Stewardship, Procalcitonin Testing, and Rapid Blood Culture Identification in Sepsis Care: A 90-Day Model-Based, Cost-Utility Analysis.

Objective: We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of a bundled intervention including an antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP), procalcitonin (PCT) testing, and rapid blood culture identification (BCID), compared with pre-implementation standard care in critically ill adult patients with sepsis.

Methods: We conducted a decision tree model-based cost-effectiveness analysis alongside a previously published pre- and post-implementation quality improvement study. We adopted a public Canadian healthcare payer's perspective.

Deep learning based decoding of single local field potential events.

How is information processed in the cerebral cortex? In most cases, recorded brain activity is averaged over many (stimulus) repetitions, which erases the fine-structure of the neural signal. However, the brain is obviously a single-trial processor. Thus, we here demonstrate that an unsupervised machine learning approach can be used to extract meaningful information from electro-physiological recordings on a single-trial basis.

Removal of the large inverted repeat from the plastid genome reveals gene dosage effects and leads to increased genome copy number.

The chloroplast genomes of most plants and algae contain a large inverted repeat (IR) region that separates two single-copy regions and harbours the ribosomal RNA operon. We have addressed the functional importance of the IR region by removing an entire copy of the 25.3-kb IR from the tobacco plastid genome.

Anxiety and dysautonomia symptoms in patients with a Na1.7 mutation and the potential benefits of low-dose short-acting guanfacine.

Purpose: Guanfacine is an α-adrenergic receptor agonist, FDA-approved to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and high blood pressure, typically as an extended-release formulation up to 7 mg/day. In our dysautonomia clinic, we observed that off-label use of short-acting guanfacine at 1 mg/day facilitated symptom relief in two families with multiple members presenting with severe generalized anxiety. We also noted anecdotal improvements in associated dysautonomia symptoms such as hyperhidrosis, cognitive impairment, and palpitations.

Estimating Young's moduli based on ultrasound and full-waveform inversion.

Ultrasound is commonly utilized to determine the dynamic Young's moduli for estimating material deterioration or quantifying material parameters. This is either done with a resonance frequency analysis or ultrasound for rock or concrete specimens in geophysics or civil engineering. For ultrasound, these are typically cylindrical specimens measured in a through-transmission arrangement.

Bio-Inspired Fiber Reinforcement for Aortic Valves: Scaffold Production Process and Characterization.

The application of tissue-engineered heart valves in the high-pressure circulatory system is still challenging. One possible solution is the development of biohybrid scaffolds with textile reinforcement to achieve improved mechanical properties. In this article, we present a manufacturing process of bio-inspired fiber reinforcement for an aortic valve scaffold.

Public trust in the Government to control the spread of COVID-19 in England after the first wave-a longitudinal analysis.

Background: To control the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), governments are increasingly relying on the public to voluntarily manage risk. Effectiveness is likely to rely in part on how much the public trusts the Government's response. We examined the English public's trust in the Conservative Government to control the spread of COVID-19 after the initial 'crisis' period.

Antimicrobial stewardship, procalcitonin testing, and rapid blood-culture identification to optimize sepsis care in critically ill adult patients: A quality improvement initiative.

We examined the effect of an antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP), procalcitonin testing and rapid blood-culture identification on hospital mortality in a prospective quality improvement project in critically ill septic adults. Secondarily, we have reported antimicrobial guideline concordance, acceptance of ASP interventions, and antimicrobial and health-resource utilization.

A mixed-methods study exploring women's perceptions and recommendations for a pregnancy app with monitoring tools.

Digital health tools such as apps are being increasingly used by women to access pregnancy-related information. Conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study investigated: (i) pregnant women's current usage of digital health tools to self-monitor and (ii) their interest in theoretical pregnancy app features (a direct patient-to-healthcare-professional communication tool and a body measurement tool). Using a mixed methods approach, 108 pregnant women were surveyed and 15 currently or recently pregnant women were interviewed online.

Use of routine health information systems to monitor disruptions of coverage of maternal, newborn, and child health services during COVID-19: A scoping review.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique global health challenge which disrupted essential health services (EHS). Most early data related to EHS during the COVID-19 pandemic came from country and regional "pulse" surveys conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEEF), which relied on respondent perceptions and not necessarily routine health information system (RHIS) data. By conducting a scoping review, we aimed to describe the use of RHIS data for monitoring changes in EHS coverage for maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pregnancy Apps for Self-Monitoring: Scoping Review of the Most Popular Global Apps Available in Australia.

Digital health tools, such as apps, have the potential to promote healthy behaviours, especially self-monitoring, which can facilitate pregnancy management and reduce the risk of associated pregnancy health conditions. While pregnancy apps are popular amongst pregnant women, there is limited information about the overall quality of their content or self-monitoring tools and the number of behaviour change techniques (BCTs) that they include. The aim of this study was thus to assess the quality of pregnancy apps for self-monitoring, and their usage of BCTs.

Neural correlates of linguistic collocations during continuous speech perception.

Language is fundamentally predictable, both on a higher schematic level as well as low-level lexical items. Regarding predictability on a lexical level, collocations are frequent co-occurrences of words that are often characterized by high strength of association. So far, psycho- and neurolinguistic studies have mostly employed highly artificial experimental paradigms in the investigation of collocations by focusing on the processing of single words or isolated sentences.

Information and Agreement in the Reputation Game Simulation.

Modern communication habits are largely shaped by the extensive use of social media and other online communication platforms. The enormous amount of available data and speed with which new information arises, however, often suffices to cause misunderstandings, false conclusions, or otherwise disturbed opinion formation processes. To investigate some of these effects we use an agent-based model on gossip and reputation dynamics with 50 agents, including Bayesian knowledge updates under bounded rationality and up to the second-order theory of mind effects.

Assessing breast density using the chemical-shift encoding-based proton density fat fraction in 3-T MRI.

Objectives: There is a clinical need for a non-ionizing, quantitative assessment of breast density, as one of the strongest independent risk factors for breast cancer. This study aims to establish proton density fat fraction (PDFF) as a quantitative biomarker for fat tissue concentration in breast MRI and correlate mean breast PDFF to mammography.

Methods: In this retrospective study, 193 women were routinely subjected to 3-T MRI using a six-echo chemical shift encoding-based water-fat sequence.

On the water-fat in-phase assumption for quantitative susceptibility mapping.

Purpose: To (a) define multi-peak fat model-based effective in-phase echo times for quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) in water-fat regions, (b) analyze the relationship between fat fraction, field map quantification bias and susceptibility bias, and (c) evaluate the susceptibility mapping performance of the proposed effective in-phase echoes in comparison to single-peak in-phase echoes and water-fat separation for regions where both water and fat are present.

Methods: Effective multipeak in-phase echo times for a bone marrow and a liver fat spectral model were derived from a single voxel simulation. A Monte Carlo simulation was performed to assess the field map estimation error as a function of fat fraction for the different in-phase echoes.

Associations between Bone Mineral Density and Longitudinal Changes of Vertebral Bone Marrow and Paraspinal Muscle Composition Assessed Using MR-Based Proton Density Fat Fraction and T2* Maps in Patients with and without Osteoporosis.

Background: Proton-density fat fraction (PDFF) and T2* of the vertebrae, as well as the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the paraspinal musculature (PSM), have been suggested as biomarkers for bone fragility. The aim of this study was to longitudinally assess changes in PDFF, T2* and CSA of the PSM over 6 months in patients with and without osteoporosis. Methods: Opportunistic bone mineral density (BMD) measurements (BMD < 120 mg/cm3) were obtained from a CT acquired during the clinical routine work up in osteoporotic/osteopenic patients (n = 29, mean age 72.

Multimodal surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 at a university enables development of a robust outbreak response framework.

Background: Universities are vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks, making them ideal environments to study transmission dynamics and evaluate mitigation and surveillance measures. Here, we analyze multimodal COVID-19-associated data collected during the 2020-2021 academic year at Colorado Mesa University and introduce a SARS-CoV-2 surveillance and response framework.

Methods: We analyzed epidemiological and sociobehavioral data (demographics, contact tracing, and WiFi-based co-location data) alongside pathogen surveillance data (wastewater and diagnostic testing, and viral genomic sequencing of wastewater and clinical specimens) to characterize outbreak dynamics and inform policy.

Benchmark problems for transcranial ultrasound simulation: Intercomparison of compressional wave models.

Computational models of acoustic wave propagation are frequently used in transcranial ultrasound therapy, for example, to calculate the intracranial pressure field or to calculate phase delays to correct for skull distortions. To allow intercomparison between the different modeling tools and techniques used by the community, an international working group was convened to formulate a set of numerical benchmarks. Here, these benchmarks are presented, along with intercomparison results.

Efficacy of two topical combinations containing emodepside plus praziquantel, and emodepside plus praziquantel plus tigolaner, for the treatment of troglostrongylosis in experimentally infected cats.

Feline troglostrongylosis caused by is increasingly reported in European countries. Although the disease can be severe and potentially life-threatening, especially in kittens and young cats, effective treatment options are still limited. Two administrations of emodepside 2 weeks apart have shown promising results for the treatment of infection in single cases and in a field trial.

Diagnostic value of water-fat-separated images and CT-like susceptibility-weighted images extracted from a single ultrashort echo time sequence for the evaluation of vertebral fractures and degenerative changes of the spine.

Objectives: To evaluate the performance of single-echo Dixon water-fat imaging and computed tomography (CT)-like imaging based on a single ultrashort echo time (sUTE) MR sequence for imaging of vertebral fractures as well as degenerative bone changes of the spine in comparison to conventional CT and MR sequences.

Methods: Thirty patients with suspected acute vertebral fractures were examined using a 3-T MRI, including an sUTE sequence as well as short-tau inversion recovery (STIR) and T1-weighted sequences. During postprocessing, water-fat separation was performed by solving the smoothness-constrained inverse water-fat problem based on a single-complex UTE image.

Finite Element Analysis of Osteoporotic and Osteoblastic Vertebrae and Its Association With the Proton Density Fat Fraction From Chemical Shift Encoding-Based Water-Fat MRI - A Preliminary Study.

Purpose: Osteoporosis is prevalent and entails alterations of vertebral bone and marrow. Yet, the spine is also a common site of metastatic spread. Parameters that can be non-invasively measured and could capture these alterations are the volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD), proton density fat fraction (PDFF) as an estimate of relative fat content, and failure displacement and load from finite element analysis (FEA) for assessment of bone strength.

Diffuse ultrasound computed tomography.

An alternative approach to acquire transmission travel time data is proposed, exploiting the geometry of devices commonly used in ultrasound computed tomography for medical imaging or non-destructive testing with ultrasonic waves. The intent is to (i) shorten acquisition time for devices with a large number of emitters, (ii) to eliminate the calibration step, and (iii) to suppress instrument noise. Inspired by seismic ambient field interferometry, the method rests on the active excitation of diffuse ultrasonic wavefields and the extraction of deterministic travel time information by inter-station correlation.

Hierarchical Multi-Resolution Graph-Cuts for Water-Fat-Silicone Separation in Breast MRI.

Water-fat separation is a non-linear non-convex parameter estimation problem in magnetic resonance imaging typically solved using spatial constraints. However, there is still limited knowledge on how to separate in vivo three chemical species in the presence of magnetic field inhomogeneities. The proposed method uses multiple graph-cuts in a hierarchical multi-resolution framework to perform robust chemical species separation in the breast for subjects with and without silicone implants.

Simplified Cas13-based assays for the fast identification of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.

The widespread transmission and evolution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) call for rapid nucleic acid diagnostics that are easy to use outside of centralized clinical laboratories. Here we report the development and performance benchmarking of Cas13-based nucleic acid assays leveraging lyophilised reagents and fast sample inactivation at ambient temperature. The assays, which we named SHINEv.