Comparison of Hounsfield Unit variability between two same model photon counting CT detector systems. A phantom study applied to lung CT.

Accurate quantification of lung density, in Hounsfield Units (HU), is of high importance to monitor progression of diseases such as emphysema using chest CT imaging. Reproducibility of HU quantification on independent photon counting detector CT (PCD-CT) systems with a focus on lung imaging have not yet been evaluated. We thus aimed to evaluate HU reproducibility on 2 independent PCD-CT systems using a repeatable phantom setup with identical acquisition and image reconstruction settings.

Clinical Validation of a Deep Learning Algorithm for Automated Coronary Artery Disease Detection and Classification Using a Heterogeneous Multivendor Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography Data Set.

Purpose: We sought to clinically validate a fully automated deep learning (DL) algorithm for coronary artery disease (CAD) detection and classification in a heterogeneous multivendor cardiac computed tomography angiography data set.

Materials And Methods: In this single-centre retrospective study, we included patients who underwent cardiac computed tomography angiography scans between 2010 and 2020 with scanners from 4 vendors (Siemens Healthineers, Philips, General Electrics, and Canon). Coronary Artery Disease-Reporting and Data System (CAD-RADS) classification was performed by a DL algorithm and by an expert reader (reader 1, R1), the gold standard.

Assessment of Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing (TRPS) Technology for Particle Size Distribution in Vaccine Formulations - A Comparative Study with Dynamic Light Scattering.

Purpose: A comparative assessment was performed to evaluate the potential of particle sizing by an ensemble based conventional dynamic light scattering (DLS) technique and an emerging technology based on tunable resistive pulse sensing (TRPS) using particle by particle approach by evaluating three different types of vaccine formulations representing three case studies and showing the limitation of each technique, instrument variability, sensitivity, and the resolution in mixed population.

Methods: Three types of in-house vaccine formulations- a protein antigen, an outer membrane vesicle and viral particles were simultaneously evaluated by TRPS based Exoid and two DLS instruments-Zetatrac and Zetasizer for particle size distribution, aggregates, and resolution of polydisperse species.

Results: The data from first case study show the risk of possible size overestimation and size averaging in polydisperse samples in DLS measurements which can be addressed by the TRPS analysis.

Application of PAT Probes in Aluminum Phosphate Adjuvant Manufacturing.

Purpose: This study is focused on monitoring process parameters and quality attributes of aluminum phosphate (AlPO) using multiple in-line probes incorporated into an industrial-scale adjuvant suspension manufacturing unit.

Methods: The manufacturing of aluminum adjuvant suspension was monitored at manufacturing scale using conductivity, turbidity, infrared, and particle sizing and count probes to follow the continuous evolution of particle formation and size distribution, and the reaction kinetics during the synthesis of AlPO.

Results: The data showed that AlPO forms large particles at the early stages of mixing, followed by a decrease in size and then stabilization towards the later stages of mixing and pH adjustment.

Dynamics of childhood obesity in Hong Kong throughout the COVID-19 pandemic before and after the school closures: a 3-year longitudinal study.

Objective: This study is to evaluate if there is any difference in the balance between incidence of and remission from overweight/obesity in Hong Kong school-age children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic over three years.

Methods: This is a retrospective longitudinal study that involved children aged 6-16 years from a database of the School Physical Fitness Award Scheme.

Results: 2765 students were longitudinally followed up for two years.

Hypertonic glucose pleurodesis for preterm neonates with chylothorax.

Chylothorax is a known complication of postcardiac surgery and the most common cause of pleural effusion in neonates. Conservative management is usually adopted, including Nil-per-Oral (NPO), treatment of underlying etiology of infection, and use of octreotide. Chylothorax resistant to medical therapy and drainage is often treated by chemical pleurodesis.

Multi Resolution Analysis (MRA) for Approximate Self-Attention.

Transformers have emerged as a preferred model for many tasks in natural langugage processing and vision. Recent efforts on training and deploying Transformers more efficiently have identified many strategies to approximate the self-attention matrix, a key module in a Transformer architecture. Effective ideas include various prespecified sparsity patterns, low-rank basis expansions and combinations thereof.

Analysis of the Adsorbed Vaccine Formulations Using Water Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance-Comparison with Optical Analytics.

Purpose: To evaluate wNMR, an emerging noninvasive analytical technology, for characterizing aluminum-adjuvanted vaccine formulations.

Methods: wNMR stands for water proton nuclear magnetic resonance. In this work, wNMR and optical techniques (laser diffraction and laser scattering) were used to characterize vaccine formulations containing different antigen loads adsorbed onto AlPO adjuvant microparticles, including the fully dispersed state and the sedimentation process.

Spiritual and cultural influences on end-of-life care and decision-making in NICU.

Understanding and respecting the spiritual beliefs, ethnic roots, cultural norms and customs of individual families is essential for neonatologists to provide clinically appropriate and humane end-of-life care. This review describes the religious/philosophical principles, cultural-related practices/rituals, and traditions in end-of-life care in major spiritual groups of today's multi-cultural, multi-faith societies. The spiritual groups include Christians, Muslims, Jewish Judaism believers and Asian religious/philosophy followers such as Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Confucianism devotees and ancestral worshippers.

Comparison of the mucosal and systemic antibody responses in Covid-19 recovered patients with one dose of mRNA vaccine and unexposed subjects with three doses of mRNA vaccines.

Background: Immunity acquired from natural SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccine wanes overtime. This longitudinal prospective study compared the effect of a booster vaccine (BNT162b2) in inducing the mucosal (nasal) and serological antibody between Covid-19 recovered patients and healthy unexposed subjects with two dose of mRNA vaccine (vaccine-only group).

Method: Eleven recovered patients and eleven gender-and-age matched unexposed subjects who had mRNA vaccines were recruited.

Neonatal outcome of infants with umbilical cord arterial pH less than 7.

Introduction: Umbilical arterial pH of less than 7 is often used as the threshold below which the risks of neonatal death and adverse long-term neurological outcomes are considered to be higher. Yet within the group with pH <7, the risks have not been further stratified. Here, we aimed to investigate the predictors of adverse long-term outcomes of this group of infants.

Neonatal mortality in singleton pregnancies: a 20-year retrospective study from a tertiary perinatal unit in Hong Kong.

Introduction: The global neonatal death (NND) rate has been declining in recent decades, but there are no comprehensive data concerning the characteristics of NNDs in Hong Kong. This study investigated the trends and aetiologies of NNDs among singleton pregnancies in Hong Kong.

Methods: This study included all cases of NND from singleton pregnancies in a tertiary hospital in Hong Kong between 2000 and 2019.

Age- and Sex-Specific Physical Fitness Reference and Association with Body Mass Index in Hong Kong Chinese Schoolchildren.

There is lacking a population-based study on the fitness level of Hong Kong schoolchildren, and it seems that increasing childhood obesity prevalence has shifted the classification of healthy fitness, with 'underfit' as normal. This cross-sectional territory study aimed to develop an age- and sex-specific physical fitness reference using a representative sample of children aged 6-17 and to determine the associations with body mass index in schoolchildren. The study analyzed Hong Kong School Physical Fitness Award Scheme data covering grade 1 to grade 12 students' physical fitness and anthropometric measurements from 2017 to 2018.

Gestational age-specific neonatal mortality in Hong Kong: a population-based retrospective study.

Background: The neonatal period is the most vulnerable period during childhood, with the risk of death being the highest even in developed countries/regions. Hong Kong's neonatal mortality (1‰) is among the world's lowest and has remained similar for 15 years. This study aimed to explore neonatal deaths in Hong Kong in detail and determine whether neonatal mortality is reducible at such a low level.

The view of Hong Kong parents on secondary use of dried blood spots in newborn screening program.

Background: Residual dried blood spots (rDBS) from newborn screening programmes represent a valuable resource for medical research, from basic sciences, through clinical to public health. In Hong Kong, there is no legislation for biobanking. Parents' view on the retention and use of residual newborn blood samples could be cultural-specific and is important to consider for biobanking of rDBS.