Impact of nebulization versus metered-dose inhaler utilization on viral particle dispersion in patients with COVID-19.

Background: Conflicting guidance exists regarding the characterization of nebulization as an aerosol-generating procedure and subsequent risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to healthcare workers.

Aim/objective: This study sought to address whether SARS-CoV-2 viral load distribution was impacted by bronchodilator delivery via nebulizer versus metered-dose inhaler (MDI).

Methods: Adults infected with COVID-19 were enrolled and received a single dose of albuterol sulfate nebulized solution (2.

'An eye for an eye' therapeutic strategy for cavernous sinus dural arteriovenous fistula: a single-center experience.

Background: In cavernous sinus dural arteriovenous fistulas (CS-DAVF), ophthalmological symptoms are usually the main clinical presentation, caused by abnormal drainage of the superior ophthalmic vein (SOV). Early opacification of the SOV during cerebral angiography inevitably signifies the fistula's shunt point at the confluence of the SOV and CS. We aimed to leverage this anatomical feature to achieve precise embolization, thereby enhancing the embolization success rate and preventing CS-related symptoms and complications resulting from overpacking.

Post Hoc Analysis of Lung Function Improvement and Patient-Reported Outcomes With Revefenacin in Adults With Moderate-to-Very Severe COPD and Comorbid Anxiety or Depression.

Background: Revefenacin, a once-daily, nebulized, long-acting muscarinic antagonist approved in the United States for the maintenance of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), significantly improves lung function and quality of life versus placebo in patients with moderate-to-very severe COPD. Comorbid anxiety and/or depression may alter patients' symptom perception and response to bronchodilators. The impact of revefenacin in patients with COPD with comorbid anxiety and/or depression has not been previously investigated.

Optimized SAR imaging algorithm with SSL constraints for the Azimuth direction.

In order to address the low azimuth imaging problem of traditional Range Doppler (RD) algorithm, a high-resolution imaging algorithm with optimal azimuth sampling sequence length (SSL) constraints is hereby proposed. According to this algorithm, efforts are made to design a formula for the calculation of the initial azimuth SSL on the basis of SAR azimuth imaging parameters. Having obtained the initial SSL and the criteria for the evaluation of SAR imaging performance, we continue to figure out the extreme values of the curve within a reasonable range of variation.

Prevalence of osteoporosis in patients awaiting unicompartmental knee arthroplasty: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: Osteoporosis may contribute to failure of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA), yet the prevalence of osteoporosis in the population awaiting UKA has not been adequately studied. The objectives of this study were to report the prevalence of osteoporosis in people awaiting UKA and the rate of anti-osteoporosis treatment, and to explore factors associated with osteoporosis prevalence in people awaiting UKA.

Methods: Participants awaiting UKA from January 2019 to May 2023 were consecutively enrolled.

Containing GGDEF-Domain Regulates Life Activities of MS82.

Cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP) is synthesized by diguanylate cyclase (DGC) with the GGDEF domain. As a ubiquitous bacterial second messenger, it regulates diverse life-activity phenotypes in some bacteria. Although 38 genes encoding GGDEF-domain-containing proteins have been identified in the genome of the strain MS82, whether c-di-GMP functions as a facilitator or repressor of life-activity phenotypes is poorly understood.

Superpixel Segmentation Based on Grid Point Density Peak Clustering.

Superpixel segmentation is one of the key image preprocessing steps in object recognition and detection methods. However, the over-segmentation in the smoothly connected homogenous region in an image is the key problem. That would produce redundant complex jagged textures.

Single-Institute Experience of Bypass Surgery for Complex Anterior Cerebral Artery Aneurysms: Paying Special Attention to the Spatial and Diameter Relationship Between the Efferent Arteries.

Objective: To present a retrospective review of a single-institute experience with bypass surgery of complex anterior cerebral artery aneurysm.

Methods: Eight patients (5 females and 3 males; mean age, 34.2 years) with complex anterior cerebral artery aneurysms were treated with bypass.

[Evaluation on monitoring effect of the electronic vaccine vial monitor label].

The cold chain safety of vaccines is a global issue. The electronic vaccine vial monitor (eVVM) label can monitor the temperature of vaccines in real time and provide "early warning" prompts. In order to comprehensively evaluate the monitoring efficiency of eVVM, this study selected 75 eVVM labels and distributed them with a total of 600 vaccine vial monitor (VVM) labels of four different types in different experimental environment (2-8℃, -20℃ and 40℃), and used a temperature recorder as "gold standard".

A visually secure image encryption method based on integer wavelet transform and rhombus prediction.

Traditional image encryption technology usually encrypts a normal image into a noise matrix, which can protect the image in a certain extent, but noise appearance is easy to arouse the suspicion of attackers. To avoid this problem, a method of encrypting image into carrier image with visual meaning is proposed. Inspired by the existing visually secure encryption technique, we proposed an improved method based on the integer wavelet transform (IWT) and prediction scheme.

Multi-Scale Context-Guided Deep Network for Automated Lesion Segmentation With Endoscopy Images of Gastrointestinal Tract.

Accurate lesion segmentation based on endoscopy images is a fundamental task for the automated diagnosis of gastrointestinal tract (GI Tract) diseases. Previous studies usually use hand-crafted features for representing endoscopy images, while feature definition and lesion segmentation are treated as two standalone tasks. Due to the possible heterogeneity between features and segmentation models, these methods often result in sub-optimal performance.

Spontaneous thrombosis in main draining veins of unruptured cerebral arteriovenous malformations: A case report.

Rationale: Spontaneous obliteration of unruptured arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) is rare. It occurs in <1.5% of cerebral AVMs and only 7 cases have been reported so far.

Endovascular management of ruptured distal posterior inferior cerebellar artery aneurysms: A retrospective cohort study.

Distal posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) aneurysm is a kind of rare intracranial aneurysm with controversial evidence in managements. The main purposes of this research are to study the safety and effectiveness of parent artery occlusion (PAO) compared with selective aneurysm coiling (SAC) as well as figure out factors that affect the outcomes.All characteristics of patients that diagnosed with ruptured distal PICA aneurysm and treated with endovascular management in our hospital from July 2009 to February 2016 were retrospectively collected.

An experimental study of cathodic protection for chloride contaminated reinforced concrete.

Cathodic protection (CP) is being increasingly used on reinforced concrete structures to protect steel reinforcing bars from corrosion in aggressive conditions. Due to the complexity of environmental conditions, the design specifications in national and international standards are still open to discussion to achieve both sufficient and efficient protection for reinforced concrete structures in engineering practices. This paper reports an experimental research to investigate the influence of chloride content on concrete resistivity, rebar corrosion rate and the performance of CP operation using different current densities.

[Hypoglossal canal dural arteriovenous fistulas treated with transvenous embolization:report of two cases and literature review].

Two cases of hypoglossal canal dural arteriovenous fistulas (HCDAVF) were reported. The clinical manifestation, radiological features, treatment and prognosis were reviewed. Both cases presented chemosis and pulsatile tinnitus.

Management of Spontaneous Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Patients with Negative Initial Digital Subtraction Angiogram Findings: Conservative or Aggressive?

The ideal management of SAH patients with negative initial DSA findings remains unresolved. (i) To present risk factors, clinical courses, and outcomes in different types of SAH patients with negative DSA findings; (ii) to explore the differences of basal vein between aSAH patients and NASAH patients; and (iii) to evaluate the value of repeated DSA for these patients. All SAH patients with negative initial DSA findings between 2013 and 2015 in our hospital were enrolled and were further categorized as perimesencephalic SAH (PMN-SAH) or nonperimesencephalic SAH (nPMN-SAH).

Mapping clinical journeys of Asian patients presenting to the Emergency Department with syncope: Strict adoption of international guidelines does not reduce hospitalisations.

Background: Limited data exists about management of syncope in Asia. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines have defined the high-risk syncope patient. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of managing syncope in an Asian healthcare system and whether strict adherence of international guidelines would reduce hospitalizations.

[A3-A3 side-to-side anastomosis combined with endovascular intervention in recurrent complex anterior artery aneurysm: a case report and literature review].

A 28-year-old female patient was admitted to the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, with sudden headache and vomiting for 1 day. CT scan conducted at emergency revealed subarachnoid hemorrhage, whereas digital subtraction angiography demonstrated a wide-neck aneurysm located at A1 segment of the left anterior cerebral artery. The aneurysm was totally coiled using stent assistance, which, however, was recanalized at 3 month follow-up.

Fetal-type posterior cerebral artery: the pitfall of parent artery occlusion for ruptured P₂ segment and distal aneurysms.

Object: P2 segment and distal aneurysms are rare lesions of the cerebrovascular system. The efficacy and safety of endovascular occlusion for these types of aneurysms remain controversial. The aim of this study was to reveal risk factors for endovascular parent artery occlusion of ruptured P2 segment and distal aneurysms.

The feasibility and efficacy of endovascular treatment for very small or tiny ruptured paraclinoid aneurysms.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of endovascular treatment (EVT) for ruptured very small (≤5 mm) or tiny (≤3 mm) paraclinoid aneurysms of the internal carotid artery (ICA).

Methods: From November 2009 to April 2012, 32 ruptured paraclinoid aneurysms (very small, 23; tiny, 9) in 31 patients received EVT. Angiographic follow-up determined occlusion rates which were classified as total/near-total (95-100 %), subtotal (80-95 %), and partial (<80 %) occlusions.

[Early management of intracranial ruptured vertebral dissecting aneurysms].

Objective: To evaluate the early management of intracranial ruptured vertebral dissecting aneurysms.

Methods: Twenty-two patients with ruptured vertebral dissecting aneurysms were managed by various treatment modalities according to their conditions. One aneurysm was treated by proximal vertebral artery coiling, 15 aneurysms by aneurysm and parent artery coiling, and 5 aneurysms by stent-assisted coiling (4 of 5 by stent-within-a-stent technique), one by single double-stent.

[National surveillance of schistosomiasis in China from 2000 to 2004].

Objective: To specify the trends of endemic situation among twenty one national surveillance sites for schistosomiasis from 2000 to 2004.

Methods: According to the national surveillance protocol, longitudinal surveillance on endemic situation of schistosomiasis was carried out at twenty-one sites since 2000.

Results: The infection rate of Schistosoma japonicum declined in six of the twenty-one surveillance sites.

Synthesis and aqueous solution properties of polyelectrolyte-grafted silica particles prepared by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization.

A range of polyelectrolyte-grafted silica particles have been prepared by grafting suitable initiators onto near-monodisperse, 304-nm-diameter silica particles using siloxane chemistry, followed by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of four ionic vinyl monomers, namely sodium 4-styrenesulfonate (SStNa), sodium 4-vinylbenzoate (NaVBA), 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DAM), and 2-(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DEA) in protic media. The resulting polyelectrolyte-grafted silica particles were characterized using dynamic light scattering (DLS), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), helium pycnometry, and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transfer spectroscopy (DRIFTS). The TGA results indicated that the polyelectrolyte contents of the silica particles could be varied from 0.