Younger Adults Are More Likely to Increase Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Decrease Sugar Intake with the Application of Dietary Monitoring.

Establishing healthy eating habits is considered to be a sustainable strategy for health maintenance, and mobile applications (apps) are expected to be highly effective among the young-aged population for healthy eating promotion. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a dietary monitoring app on younger adults' nutrition knowledge and their dietary habits. A controlled-experimental study was performed with one experimental group having a three-hour nutrition seminar and 12 weeks of dietary monitoring with the app, and one control group receiving a three-hour nutrition seminar.

Decoding and perturbing decision states in real time.

In dynamic environments, subjects often integrate multiple samples of a signal and combine them to reach a categorical judgment. The process of deliberation can be described by a time-varying decision variable (DV), decoded from neural population activity, that predicts a subject's upcoming decision. Within single trials, however, there are large moment-to-moment fluctuations in the DV, the behavioural significance of which is unclear.

Prevalence study of epilepsy in Malaysia.

Introduction: The lifetime prevalence of epilepsy varies greatly from 1.5-14.0 per 1000 persons among the Asian countries.

Anticancer activity of Momordica cochinchinensis (red gac) aril and the impact of varietal diversity.

Background: Momordica cochinchinensis (Cucurbitaceae) is a nutritionally and medicinally important fruit restricted to South East Asia with diverse morphological and genetic variations but there is limited information on its medicinal potential.

Methods: M. cochinchinensis aril from 44 different samples in Australia, Thailand and Vietnam were extracted using different solvents and tested for its anticancer potential.

Buccal Hydromorphone Syrup for Managing Dyspnea in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Context: Dyspnea is a highly distressing symptom that characterizes idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a common idiopathic interstitial lung disease (ILD) with a high symptom burden, poor quality of life, and early mortality. Though opioids are mentioned in guidelines for dyspnea management, guidance on how and when to initiate opioids is lacking. Different pharmacologic strategies are needed to address different types of dyspnea (baseline, incident, and crisis).

Oral dysbiosis induced by is strain-dependent in mice.

strain W83, one of the most widely investigated, is considered virulent in the context of periodontitis. The recently isolated TDC60 has been reported to be highly pathogenic, although it has not yet been investigated in a mouse periodontitis model by oral gavage. Our aim was to compare the virulence of both strains by evaluating their impact on alveolar bone loss and the composition of oral microbiota.

Leveraging genome-scale metabolic models for human health applications.

Genome-scale metabolic modeling is a scalable and extensible computational method for analyzing and predicting biological function. With the ongoing improvements in computational methods and experimental capabilities, genome-scale metabolic models (GEMs) are demonstrating utility in addressing human health applications. The initial areas of highest impact are likely to be health applications where disease states involve metabolic changes.

Predicting Drug Response and Synergy Using a Deep Learning Model of Human Cancer Cells.

Most drugs entering clinical trials fail, often related to an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms governing drug response. Machine learning techniques hold immense promise for better drug response predictions, but most have not reached clinical practice due to their lack of interpretability and their focus on monotherapies. We address these challenges by developing DrugCell, an interpretable deep learning model of human cancer cells trained on the responses of 1,235 tumor cell lines to 684 drugs.

Whole blood immunophenotyping uncovers immature neutrophil-to-VD2 T-cell ratio as an early marker for severe COVID-19.

SARS-CoV-2 is the novel coronavirus responsible for the current COVID-19 pandemic. Severe complications are observed only in a small proportion of infected patients but the cellular mechanisms underlying this progression are still unknown. Comprehensive flow cytometry of whole blood samples from 54 COVID-19 patients reveals a dramatic increase in the number of immature neutrophils.

Impact of aerosol box on intubation during COVID-19: a simulation study of normal and difficult airways.

Purpose: Patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) are at risk of requiring mechanical ventilation, and concerns of protecting healthcare workers during aerosol-generating medical procedures has led to the design of the aerosol box.

Methods: We conducted a randomized crossover mannequin-based simulation study to compare airway management with and without the aerosol box. Thirty-five anesthesiology participants and three critical care participants with more than 50 intubations with videolaryngoscopes were recruited.

Introduction to the D-SPECT for Technologists: Workflow Using a Dedicated Digital Cardiac Camera.

The D-SPECT is a dedicated cardiac camera that incorporates a solid-state semiconductor detector. This camera differs greatly from conventional SPECT/CT systems, resulting in significant differences in patient imaging. This continuing education article focuses on the specifications of both SPECT/CT and D-SPECT systems, radiopharmaceutical dosing requirements, imaging workflows, and some disadvantages of using each camera system.

Fever Patterns, Cytokine Profiles, and Outcomes in COVID-19.

Background: Prolonged fever is associated with adverse outcomes in dengue viral infection. Similar fever patterns are observed in COVID-19 with unclear significance.

Methods: We conducted a hospital-based case-control study of patients admitted for COVID-19 with prolonged fever (fever >7 days) and saddleback fever (recurrence of fever, lasting <24 hours, after defervescence beyond day 7 of illness).

General Mental Health State Indicators in Argentinean Women During Quarantine of up to 80-Day Duration for COVID-19 Pandemic.

Argentinean quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most long-lasting worldwide. We focused on the first 80-days of this quarantine on Argentinean women. Our aims were to analyze differences in general mental health state (MHS) indicators, by the (1) sites of residence with different prevalence of COVID-19 cases, and (2) quarantine duration; (3) to assess multiple relationships between each general MHS indicator and potentially affecting factors.

White learning methodology: A case study of cancer-related disease factors analysis in real-time PACS environment.

Background And Objective: Bayesian network is a probabilistic model of which the prediction accuracy may not be one of the highest in the machine learning family. Deep learning (DL) on the other hand possess of higher predictive power than many other models. How reliable the result is, how it is deduced, how interpretable the prediction by DL mean to users, remain obscure.

Systematic analysis of disease-specific immunological signatures in patients with febrile illness from Saudi Arabia.

Objectives: Little is known about the prevalence of febrile illness in the Arabian region as clinical, laboratory and immunological profiling remains largely uncharacterised.

Methods: A total of 2018 febrile patients from Jazan, Saudi Arabia, were recruited between 2014 and 2017. Patients were screened for dengue and chikungunya virus, , , , group A streptococcus and .

A systematic review of the methodology of sonographic assessment of upper limb activities-associated carpal tunnel syndrome.

Background: Various upper limb activities were speculated to be associated with the development of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Nonetheless, there are currently no standardization on the uses of parameters in CTS assessments, nor are there any conclusive findings regarding the usefulness of various sonographic measurements in studies of different upper limb activities. In this review, we intend to evaluate the methodology of assessing CTS induced by upper limb activities with ultrasonographic technique and provide corresponding suggestions.

Viral Dynamics and Immune Correlates of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Severity.

Background: Key knowledge gaps remain in the understanding of viral dynamics and immune response of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

Methods: We evaluated these characteristics and established their association with clinical severity in a prospective observational cohort study of 100 patients with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (mean age, 46 years; 56% male; 38% with comorbidities). Respiratory samples (n = 74) were collected for viral culture, serum samples for measurement of IgM/IgG levels (n = 30), and plasma samples for levels of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines (n = 81).

Social Group Optimization-Assisted Kapur's Entropy and Morphological Segmentation for Automated Detection of COVID-19 Infection from Computed Tomography Images.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has been declared a global pandemic. Due to its infection rate and severity, it has emerged as one of the major global threats of the current generation. To support the current combat against the disease, this research aims to propose a machine learning-based pipeline to detect COVID-19 infection using lung computed tomography scan images (CTI).

Consensus statements on the clinical uses of pregabalin for Hong Kong.

To facilitate the understanding of pregabalin and optimize its clinical usage in Hong Kong, an expert panel (11 psychiatrists, one family physician and one anesthesiologist) experienced in treating anxiety and somatic symptoms was invited to establish a set of consensus statements based on several discussion areas. A non-systematic literature search for relevant articles was conducted. The panelists addressed the discussion areas by sharing their clinical experience and available literature in a couple of meetings.

Effects of a major deletion in the SARS-CoV-2 genome on the severity of infection and the inflammatory response: an observational cohort study.

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants with a 382-nucleotide deletion (∆382) in the open reading frame 8 (ORF8) region of the genome have been detected in Singapore and other countries. We investigated the effect of this deletion on the clinical features of infection.

Methods: We retrospectively identified patients who had been screened for the ∆382 variant and recruited to the PROTECT study-a prospective observational cohort study conducted at seven public hospitals in Singapore.

Using Physical Food Transformation to Enhance the Sensory Approval of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders for Consuming Fruits and Vegetables.

Children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) commonly exhibit aberrant tactile, taste, and smell sensitivity to foods. Food transformation that alters the appearance, texture, and temperature of foods is promising for solving this sensitivity problem. This study evaluated the effect of physical transformation of fruits and vegetables (FV) to snacks to enhance ASD children's sensory approval for eating them.

Induction of ER Stress by an AAV5 BDD FVIII Construct Is Dependent on the Strength of the Hepatic-Specific Promoter.

Adeno-associated virus 5 (AAV5)-human factor VIII-SQ (hFVIII-SQ; valoctocogene roxaparvovec) is an AAV-mediated product under evaluation for treatment of severe hemophilia A, which contains a B-domain-deleted hFVIII (hFVIII-SQ) transgene and a hybrid liver-specific promotor (HLP). To increase FVIII-SQ expression and reduce the vector dose required, a stronger promoter may be considered. However, because FVIII-SQ is a protein known to be difficult to fold and secrete, this could potentially induce endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress.