Automated Segmentation of Trunk Musculature with a Deep CNN Trained from Sparse Annotations in Radiation Therapy Patients with Metastatic Spine Disease.

Purpose: Given the high prevalence of vertebral fractures post-radiotherapy in patients with metastatic spine disease, accurate and rapid muscle segmentation could support efforts to quantify muscular changes due to disease or treatment and enable biomechanical modeling for assessments of vertebral loading to improve personalized evaluation of vertebral fracture risk. This study presents a deep-learning approach for segmenting the complete volume of the trunk muscles from clinical CT images trained using sparsely annotated data.

Materials And Methods: we extracted 2,009 axial CT images at the midpoint of each vertebral level (T4 to L4) from clinical CT of 148 cancer patients.

An Assessment of Young Adults' Awareness and Knowledge Related to the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), Oropharyngeal Cancer, and the HPV Vaccine.

Background/objectives: The human papillomavirus (HPV) is a prevalent sexually transmitted infection that is a known cause of morbidities such as genital warts and cancers of the cervix, anus, and oropharynx. Non-cervical HPV-related cancers have been a developing problem in North America, increasing in incidence by up to 225% in some instances over a span of two decades.

Methods: This study investigated levels of and of HPV, oropharyngeal cancer (OPC), and the HPV vaccine using a self-administered web-based survey designed specifically for this research.

The use of large language models to enhance cancer clinical trial educational materials.

Background: Adequate patient awareness and understanding of cancer clinical trials is essential for trial recruitment, informed decision-making, and protocol adherence. While Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown promise for patient education, their role in enhancing patient awareness of clinical trials remains unexplored. This study explored the performance and risks of LLMs in generating trial-specific educational content for potential participants.

Metastatic spine disease alters spinal load-to-strength ratios in patients compared to healthy individuals.

Pathologic vertebral fractures (PVF) are common and serious complications in patients with metastatic lesions affecting the spine. Accurate assessment of cancer patients' PVF risk is an unmet clinical need. Load-to-strength ratios (LSRs) evaluated in vivo by estimating vertebral loading from biomechanical modeling and strength from computed tomography imaging (CT) have been associated with osteoporotic vertebral fractures in older adults.

Thermogelation of nanoemulsions stabilized by a commercial pea protein isolate: high-pressure homogenization defines gel strength.

The impact of animal-based food production on climate change drives the development of plant-based alternatives. We demonstrate the use of colloidal thermogelation on a real nanoemulsion system to create structured gels that could be of interest for thermo-mechanical processing of next-generation plant-based food applications. We use a commercial pea protein isolate (PPI) without further purification to stabilize a 20 vol% peanut oil-in-water nanoemulsion at pH = 7 by high-pressure homogenization (HPH) and demonstrate the temperature induced gelation behavior of the nanoemulsion as a function of the HPH processing parameters.

Bacterial clustering amplifies the reshaping of eutrophic plumes around marine particles: A hybrid data-driven model.

Multifaceted interactions between marine bacteria and particulate matter exert a major control over the biogeochemical cycles in the oceans. At the microbial scale, free-living bacteria benefit from encountering and harnessing the plumes around nutrient-releasing particles, like phyto-plankton and organic aggregates. However, our understanding of the bacterial potential to reshape these eutrophic microhabitats remains poor, in part because of the traditional focus on fast-moving particles that generate ephemeral plumes with lifetime shorter than the uptake timescale.

The Comprehensive Resilience-building psychosocial Intervention (CREST) for people with dementia in the community: a feasibility and acceptability study.

Background: A dementia diagnosis can lead to a decline in cognitive, social, and physical health, but people with dementia can live meaningful lives and participate actively in society with psychosocial support. This single-arm, non-randomised feasibility study explored the feasibility and acceptability of a Comprehensive REsilience-building psychoSocial intervenTion (CREST) for people with dementia, their caregivers, General Practitioners (GPs), and the public.

Methods: Nine people with dementia and their primary caregivers living in the community (n = 9 dyads) completed the CREST intervention which had three components (cognitive stimulation therapy [CST], physical exercise, and dementia education).

Impact of Transoral Robotic Surgery Versus Radiation on Swallowing Function in Oropharyngeal Cancer Patients: A Sub-Study From a Randomized Trial.

Background: This ORATOR sub-study evaluated swallowing physiology in patients treated with transoral robotic surgery (TORS) versus radiotherapy (RT) for early-stage oropharynx cancer.

Methods: Swallowing physiology was evaluated using videofluoroscopy and outcomes were compared across treatment arms and correlated with MDADI scores.

Results: Of the 68 patients in the ORATOR trial, 21 participated in this sub-study (30.

An open annotated dataset and baseline machine learning model for segmentation of vertebrae with metastatic bone lesions from CT.

Automatic analysis of pathologic vertebrae from computed tomography (CT) scans could significantly improve the diagnostic management of patients with metastatic spine disease. We provide the first publicly available annotated imaging dataset of cancerous CT spines to help develop artificial intelligence frameworks for automatic vertebrae segmentation and classification. This collection contains a dataset of 55 CT scans collected on patients with various types of primary cancers at two different institutions.

The Benefits of Silicone Laryngectomy Tubes at the Time of Laryngectomy-A Case Series Spanning 17 Years.

Objectives: Although total laryngectomy (TL) is a well-established surgical procedure with clear functional or oncologic indications, the peri- and postoperative care for those undergoing TL is variable, particularly regarding postlaryngectomy tracheostoma management. This study examined TL outcomes from a single institution with the immediate perioperative use of soft silicone laryngectomy tubes. More specifically, we explored potential complications associated with immediate perioperative use of a flexible laryngectomy tube (LaryTube and StomaSoft) and the use of heat and moisture exchange (HME) devices in association with peri- and postoperative care.

Multiscale topological analysis of kinetoplast DNA high-resolution AFM.

Kinetoplast DNA is a complex nanoscale network, naturally assembled from thousands of interconnected DNA circles within the mitochondrion of certain parasites. Despite the relevance of this molecule to parasitology and the recent discovery of tuneable mechanics, its topology remains highly contested. Here we present a multiscale analysis into the structure of kDNA using a combination of high-resolution atomic force microscopy and custom-designed image analysis protocols.

An embedded qualitative study of the experiences of people with dementia, their caregivers and volunteer older adults who participated in the CREST resilience-building psychosocial intervention.

Background: A novel Complex REsilience-building psychoSocial intervenTion (CREST) targeted at people with dementia, their informal carers, general practitioners and the wider community with the aim of increasing resilience and strengthening the personal attributes or external assets of people with dementia living at home, in the community, was developed. It included three components: cognitive stimulation therapy (CST), physical exercise and dementia education. A non-randomised feasibility study was conducted of the CREST intervention, the aim of which was to inform the design of a future randomised controlled trial.

Registration of Longitudinal Spine CTs for Monitoring Lesion Growth.

Accurate and reliable registration of longitudinal spine images is essential for assessment of disease progression and surgical outcome. Implementing a fully automatic and robust registration is crucial for clinical use, however, it is challenging due to substantial change in shape and appearance due to lesions. In this paper we present a novel method to automatically align longitudinal spine CTs and accurately assess lesion progression.

Shear annealing of a self-interacting sheet.

2D materials such as graphene, graphene oxide, transition metal dichalcogenides, and 2D polymers have unique properties which allow them to be used in many applications from electronics to energy to biotechnology. Producing and applying these materials often involves solution processing. Previous computational studies have observed 2D sheets in shear and extensional flows, but have focused on steady flows, even though the dynamics of these materials might exhibit hysteresis.

Sensitive Multiplexed MicroRNA Spatial Profiling and Data Classification Framework Applied to Murine Breast Tumors.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small RNAs that are often dysregulated in many diseases, including cancers. They are highly tissue-specific and stable, thus, making them particularly useful as biomarkers. As the spatial transcriptomics field advances, protocols that enable highly sensitive and spatially resolved detection become necessary to maximize the information gained from samples.

Co-designing a recruitment strategy for lung cancer screening in high-risk individuals: protocol for a mixed-methods study.

Background: Lung cancer is a significant cause of cancer-related mortality globally, with early detection through screening critical to improving patient outcomes. However, recruiting high-risk individuals, particularly in deprived populations, for screening remains a considerable challenge. This study aims to co-design a targeted recruitment strategy for lung cancer screening, tailored to the specific needs and experiences of high-risk individuals, in collaboration with a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) panel and expert stakeholders in Ireland.

Surfactant-Polymer Complexation and Competition on Drug Nanocrystal Surfaces Control Crystallinity.

Nanosizing drug crystals has emerged as a successful approach to enabling oral bioavailability, as increasing drug crystal surface area improves dissolution kinetics and effective solubility. Recently, bottom-up methods have been developed to directly assemble nanosized crystals by leveraging polymer and surfactant excipients during crystallization to control crystal size, morphology, and structure. However, while significant research has investigated how polymers and other single additives inhibit or promote crystallization in pharmaceutical systems, there is little work studying the mechanistic interactions of multiple excipients on drug crystal structure and the extent of crystallinity, which can influence formulation performance.

A Zwitterionic Hydrogel-Based Heterogeneous Fenton Catalyst for Water Treatment.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including xenoestrogens and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), demand urgent global intervention. Fenton oxidation, catalyzed by iron ions, offers a cost-effective means to degrade POPs. However, numerous challenges like acid dependency, catalyst loss, and toxic waste generation hinder practical application.

Mapping medically relevant RNA isoform diversity in the aged human frontal cortex with deep long-read RNA-seq.

Determining whether the RNA isoforms from medically relevant genes have distinct functions could facilitate direct targeting of RNA isoforms for disease treatment. Here, as a step toward this goal for neurological diseases, we sequenced 12 postmortem, aged human frontal cortices (6 Alzheimer disease cases and 6 controls; 50% female) using one Oxford Nanopore PromethION flow cell per sample. We identified 1,917 medically relevant genes expressing multiple isoforms in the frontal cortex where 1,018 had multiple isoforms with different protein-coding sequences.

A Scoping Review of Artificial Intelligence Detection of Voice Pathology: Challenges and Opportunities.

Objective: Survey the current literature on artificial intelligence (AI) applications for detecting and classifying vocal pathology using voice recordings, and identify challenges and opportunities for advancing the field forward.

Data Sources: PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Scopus databases.

Review Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines.

Temporal and Spectral Models as Correlates to Auditory-Perceptual Judgments of Overall Severity and Listener Comfort in Tracheoesophageal Voice.

Introduction: This study pursued two objectives: (1) to determine the potential association between listener ( = 51) judgments of 20 male tracheoesophageal speaker samples for two auditory-perceptual dimensions of voice, overall severity (OS) and listener comfort (LC); and (2) to assess the temporal and spectral acoustic correlates for these auditory-perceptual dimensions.

Methodology: Three separate correlation analyses were performed to evaluate the association between OS and LC. First, scores of OS and LC from all listeners were pooled together, and then the correlation between OS and LC was computed.