High symptom burden in patients undergoing gastrectomy for cancer.

Background: There is little data describing symptom burden before or after gastrectomy for patients with cancer. We aimed to examine the perioperative patterns of symptom severity in patients undergoing gastrectomy.

Methods: In this single-institution prospective cohort study, patients scheduled to undergo gastrectomy for cancer completed serial symptom measurement questionnaires preoperatively, at postoperative day (POD) 1-3, and POD 4-7.

A high-resolution daily global dataset of statistically downscaled CMIP6 models for climate impact analyses.

A large number of historical simulations and future climate projections are available from Global Climate Models, but these are typically of coarse resolution, which limits their effectiveness for assessing local scale changes in climate and attendant impacts. Here, we use a novel statistical downscaling model capable of replicating extreme events, the Bias Correction Constructed Analogues with Quantile mapping reordering (BCCAQ), to downscale daily precipitation, air-temperature, maximum and minimum temperature, wind speed, air pressure, and relative humidity from 18 GCMs from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). BCCAQ is calibrated using high-resolution reference datasets and showed a good performance in removing bias from GCMs and reproducing extreme events.

Antibiotic perceptions, adherence, and disposal practices among parents of pediatric patients.

Antibiotics are frequently prescribed for children in the outpatient setting. Although sometimes necessary, antibiotic use is associated with important downstream effects including the development of antimicrobial resistance among human and environmental microorganisms. Current outpatient stewardship efforts focus on guiding appropriate antibiotic prescribing practices among providers, but little is known about parents' understanding of antibiotics and appropriate disposal of leftover antibiotics.

An On-Device Learning System for Estimating Liquid Consumption from Consumer-Grade Water Bottles and Its Evaluation.

A lightweight on-device liquid consumption estimation system involving an energy-aware machine learning algorithm is developed in this work. This system consists of two separate on-device neural network models that carry out liquid consumption estimation with the result of two tasks: the detection of sip from gestures with which the bottle is handled by its user and the detection of first sips after a bottle refill. This predictive volume estimation framework incorporates a self-correction mechanism that can minimize the error after each bottle fill-up cycle, which makes the system robust to errors from the sip classification module.

The Impact of the 13-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine on Otitis Media-Related Antibiotic Use Among Young Children in Tennessee, USA.

Otitis media (OM) is a leading cause of pediatric antibiotic use. Introduction of the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) led to reductions in OM among US children, though its impact on OM-related antibiotic use remains unclear. Among 499 683 Tennessee children <2 years of age, the OM-related antibiotic fill rate was stable after PCV13 introduction.

Retinal Detachment and Temporal Artery Dissection: An Elusive Case of Giant Cell Arteritis.

Giant cell arteritis (GCA), also known as temporal arteritis, is the most common systemic inflammatory vasculitis occurring in the elderly. Patients usually present with vision loss, headache, jaw claudication, diplopia, myalgia and constitutional symptoms. The most common ocular manifestations are anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION), choroidal ischemia and central retinal artery occlusion.

Variation in antibiotic use among neonatal intensive care units in the United States.

Antibiotics are widely used in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of antibiotic use across US NICUs to evaluate overall, broad-spectrum, and combination antibiotic use. Patterns of antibiotic use varied by medical versus surgical service line, hospital, and geographic location.

GazeBase, a large-scale, multi-stimulus, longitudinal eye movement dataset.

This manuscript presents GazeBase, a large-scale longitudinal dataset containing 12,334 monocular eye-movement recordings captured from 322 college-aged participants. Participants completed a battery of seven tasks in two contiguous sessions during each round of recording, including a - (1) fixation task, (2) horizontal saccade task, (3) random oblique saccade task, (4) reading task, (5/6) free viewing of cinematic video task, and (7) gaze-driven gaming task. Nine rounds of recording were conducted over a 37 month period, with participants in each subsequent round recruited exclusively from prior rounds.

Rurality of Residence and Inappropriate Antibiotic Use for Acute Respiratory Infections Among Young Tennessee Children.

Background: Antibiotic use is common for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) in children, but much of this use is inappropriate. Few studies have examined whether rurality of residence is associated with inappropriate antibiotic use. We examined whether rates of ARI-related inappropriate antibiotic use among children vary by rurality of residence.

Parenteral Antibiotic Use Among Ambulatory Children in United States Children's Hospital Emergency Departments.

Background: Despite increasing recognition of the importance of optimal antibiotic selection and expansion of antimicrobial stewardship activities to ambulatory settings, few studies have examined the frequency of parenteral antibiotic use among ambulatory children. We assessed the prevalence and patterns of parenteral antibiotic administration among ambulatory children in pediatric emergency departments (EDs).

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional assessment of parenteral antibiotic use among ambulatory children aged 0-18 years in 49 US children's hospital EDs in 2018.

Considerable variability in antibiotic use among US children's hospitals in 2017-2018.

Objective: To characterize the prevalence of and seasonal and regional variation in inpatient antibiotic use among hospitalized US children in 2017-2018.

Design: We conducted a cross-sectional examination of hospitalized children. The assessments were conducted on a single day in spring (May 3, 2017), summer (August 2, 2017), fall (October 25, 2017), and winter (January 31, 2018).

A Container-Attachable Inertial Sensor for Real-Time Hydration Tracking.

Various sensors have been proposed to address the negative health ramifications of inadequate fluid consumption. Amongst these solutions, motion-based sensors estimate fluid intake using the characteristics of drinking kinematics. This sensing approach is complicated due to the mutual influence of both the drink volume and the current fill level on the resulting motion pattern, along with differences in biomechanics across individuals.

Combining Slow Flow Techniques With Adaptive Demodulation for Improved Perfusion Ultrasound Imaging Without Contrast.

Noncontrast perfusion ultrasound imaging remains challenging due to spectral broadening of the tissue clutter signal caused by patient and sonographer hand motion. To address this problem, we previously introduced an adaptive demodulation scheme to suppress the bandwidth of tissue prior to high-pass filtering. Our initial implementation used single plane wave power Doppler imaging and a conventional tissue filter.

The effect of early coasting on blastocyst development and outcome following blastocyst transfer in IVF/ICSI programme.

Objective: Coasting is a well-known strategy to decrease severity of Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS). The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of Coasting on blastocyst development and subsequent clinical outcome following exclusive blastocyst transfer.

Methods: We conducted an observational cohort study of patients having blastocyst transfer following IVF/ICSI treatment.

Office activity classification using first-reflection ultrasonic echolocation.

Excessive sedentary time poses considerable health risks for individuals predominately engaged in desk-bound work. To empower interventions aimed at addressing this problem, reliable technologies for continuous activity monitoring within an office environment are required. As an alternative to existing solutions, we propose the Echolocation-based Activity Detector, a contactless sensor array of four first-reflection ultrasonic distance sensors.

Home-based upper extremity rehabilitation support using a contactless ultrasonic sensor.

Home-based rehabilitation protocols have been shown to improve outcomes amongst individuals with limited upper-extremity (UE) functionality. While approaches employing both video conferencing technologies and gaming platforms have been successfully demonstrated for such applications, concerns regarding patient privacy and technological complexity may limit further adoption. As an alternative solution for assessing adherence to prescribed UE rehabilitation protocols, the Echolocation Activity Detector, a linear array of first-reflection ultrasonic distance sensors, is proposed herein.

Mild Cognitive Impairment and Changes in Everyday Function Over Time: The Importance of Evaluating Both Speed and Accuracy.

Objectives: Research estimates that a significant percentage of individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) experience functional difficulties. In addition to reduced accuracy on measures of everyday function, cross-sectional research has demonstrated that speed of performing instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) is slowed in individuals with MCI. The present study investigated whether baseline and longitudinal changes in speed and accuracy of IADL performance differed between persons with MCI and cognitively normal peers.

A wearable system for asymmetric contactless human sensing.

A wearable sensor capable of detecting the presence of humans within a front-facing 90-degree sector of varying radius is demonstrated herein. The system offers extensive applicability across a variety of scenarios where detecting the parameters of human interaction, including separation distance and duration, is of value. Sensing is accomplished using an ultrasonic distance and passive infrared sensor.

Contactless on-bed activity sensing using first-reflection echolocation.

A novel system capable of detecting on-bed activity during sleep using first-reflection ultrasonic echolocation is described herein. As is employed in many existing solutions, such activity detection may be utilized in the assessment of sleep quality. Compared to current approaches using either wearable devices or sensors collocated on the surface of the bed, the proposed architecture greatly enhances convenience for the end-user by providing minimal disruptions to his or her standard sleep routine.

Cohort study of perinatal outcomes of children born following surgical sperm recovery.

There is a relative paucity of data on perinatal outcomes following Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection using surgically retrieved sperm. In this retrospective cohort study, data were collected on couples who conceived following Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection using surgically retrieved sperm from 1996 to 2014. Outcome measures included live birth, miscarriage, congenital abnormality, birthweight, gestation at delivery, stillbirth and neonatal death.

Difficulty, effort and cardiovascular response to a working memory challenge: Older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment.

We presented cognitively healthy older adults and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) three versions of a modified Sternberg memory task designed to range in difficulty from low to high. Among cognitively healthy older adults, blood pressure responses assessed during the work periods rose with difficulty. By contrast, among MCI patients, blood pressure responses assessed during the work periods were low irrespective of difficulty.

Lower hippocampal volume predicts decrements in lane control among drivers with amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

Objectives: There are few methods to discern driving risks in patients with early dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We aimed to determine whether structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the hippocampus-a biomarker of probable Alzheimer pathology and a measure of disease severity in those affected--is linked to objective ratings of on-road driving performance in older adults with and without amnestic MCI.

Methods: In all, 49 consensus-diagnosed participants from an Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (15 diagnosed with amnestic MCI and 34 demographically similar controls) underwent structural MRI and on-road driving assessments.

MRI volume of the medial frontal cortex predicts financial capacity in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease.

Persons with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) have significant deficits in financial abilities. This study examined the relationship between brain structure volumes, cognition, and financial capacity in patients with mild AD. Sixteen mild AD patients and 16 older adult comparisons completed the Financial Capacity Instrument (FCI), a psychometric measure of financial abilities, and also underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to obtain volumes of the bilateral hippocampi, angular gyri, precunei, and medial and dorsolateral frontal cortices.