Acute intra ocular inflammation following intravitreal injections of faricimab: A multicentric case series.

Purpose: To report 8 cases of acute intra ocular inflammation (IOI) following intravitreal injections (IVI) of faricimab in patients with age related macular degeneration (AMD), retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and macular neovascularization associated with chronic central serous retinopathy (CSR).

Methods: This is a multicentric retrospective observational case-series. Cases of acute IOI that occurred in 5 different institutions in France and Italy between November 2023 and June 2024 were reported.

Immunogenicity and real-world effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in Lebanon: Insights from primary and booster schemes, variants, infections, and hospitalization.

In this study, we conducted a case-control investigation to assess the immunogenicity and effectiveness of primary and first booster homologous and heterologous COVID-19 vaccination regimens against infection and hospitalization, targeting variants circulating in Lebanon during 2021-2022. The study population comprised active Lebanese military personnel between February 2021 and September 2022. Vaccine effectiveness (VE) against laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and associated hospitalization was retrospectively determined during different variant-predominant periods using a case-control study design.

Life Cycle Assessment of an Avocado: Grown in South Africa-Enjoyed in Europe.

Food production is known to have significant environmental impacts, with the main contributors residing in the farming and transportation life cycle phases. Of the various food products transported around the world, avocados have increasingly gained attention as a high-commodity superfood. Avocados require specific climatic and agricultural conditions for farming, with the most fertile land and conditions located outside Europe.

Addition of sodium malonate alters the morphology and increases the critical flux during tangential flow filtration of precipitated immunoglobulins.

Recent studies have demonstrated that one can control the packing density, and in turn the filterability, of protein precipitates by changing the pH and buffer composition of the precipitating solution to increase the structure/order within the precipitate. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of sodium malonate, which is known to enhance protein crystallizability, on the morphology of immunoglobulin precipitates formed using a combination of ZnCl and polyethylene glycol. The addition of sodium malonate significantly stabilized the precipitate particles as shown by an increase in melting temperature, as determined by differential scanning calorimetry, and an increase in the enthalpy of interaction, as determined by isothermal titration calorimetry.

Stochastic thermodynamics: dissipativity, accumulativity, energy storage and entropy production.

In this paper, we develop an energy-based dynamical system model driven by a Markov input process to present a unified framework for stochastic thermodynamics predicated on a stochastic dynamical systems formalism. Specifically, using a stochastic dissipativity, losslessness and accumulativity theory, we develop a nonlinear stochastic port-Hamiltonian system model characterized by energy conservation and entropy non-conservation laws that are consistent with statistical thermodynamic principles. In particular, we show that the difference between the average stored system energy and the average supplied system energy for our stochastic thermodynamic model is a martingale with respect to the system filtration, whereas the difference between average system entropy production and the average system entropy consumption is a submartingale with respect to the system filtration.

Histogram analysis in the differentiation between adrenal adenomas and pheochromocytomas: the value of a single measurement.

Objective: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of histogram analysis on unenhanced computed tomography (CT) for differentiating between adrenal adenomas and pheochromocytomas (PCCs).

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively identified patients with proven PCCs who had undergone CT examinations between January 2009 and July 2019 at one of two institutions. For each PCC, we selected one or two adenomas diagnosed within two weeks of the date of diagnosis of the PCC.

Neonatal Iatrogenic Calcinosis Cutis and Heterotopic Calcification Causing Peripheral Brachial Palsy: Case Report and Review of Literature.

Case: Iatrogenic heterotopic calcification and calcinosis cutis secondary to extravasations of intravenous calcium is very rare. We report a case of a neonate treated with intravenous calcium resulting in extravasations causing heterotrophic calcification and calcinosis cutis with subcutaneous mass causing perinatal peripheral brachial palsy.

Conclusion: We highlight these rare potential complications of calcium extravasations and recommend conservative treatment and the avoidance of the temptation of surgical excision of any bony lumps as they resolve spontaneously in time.

Zwitterionic Polysulfobetaine Coating and Antiplatelet Liposomes Reduce Fouling in Artificial Lung Circuits.

The artificial lung has provided life-saving support for pulmonary disease patients and recently afforded patients with severe cases of COVID-19 better prognostic outcomes. While it addresses a critical medical need, reducing the risk of clotting inside the device remains challenging. Herein, a two-step surface coating process of the lung circuit using Zwitterionic polysulfobetaine methacrylate is evaluated for its nonspecific protein antifouling activity.

Knowledge, attitude, practice and perceived barriers towards smoking cessation services among community pharmacists.

Introduction: With more than one billion current smokers, 80% of them living in low and middle-income countries, tobacco smoking is considered a global public health problem. Jordan has one of the highest estimate rates of tobacco use in the region and world. Still, tobacco use interventions, that could significantly reduce the number of smoking-related diseases and reduce health care costs, are scarce.

Sporadic and rapidly progressive arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy in a 12-year-old boy who was diagnosed with epilepsy.

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is one of the leading causes of sudden cardiac death amongst young people and athletes. In this genetic disease, arrhythmia and fibro-fatty changes in the right ventricular myocardium are the main characteristics of the disease. Here, we report a case of ARVC in a 12-year-old boy who was previously diagnosed with epilepsy, the patient's condition manifested sporadically and was complicated by rapid progression, and unfortunate fatal deterioration after admission into the pediatric emergency room due to fatigue, dizziness and palpitation.

Closed-Loop Control for Fluid Resuscitation: Recent Advances and Future Challenges.

Fluid therapy is extensively used to treat traumatized patients as well as patients during surgery. The fluid therapy process is complex due to interpatient variability in response to therapy as well as other complicating factors such as comorbidities and general anesthesia. These complexities can result in under- or over-resuscitation.

Using sensor-fusion and machine-learning algorithms to assess acute pain in non-verbal infants: a study protocol.

Introduction: Objective pain assessment in non-verbal populations is clinically challenging due to their inability to express their pain via self-report. Repetitive exposures to acute or prolonged pain lead to clinical instability, with long-term behavioural and cognitive sequelae in newborn infants. Strong analgesics are also associated with medical complications, potential neurotoxicity and altered brain development.

Epigastric pain associated with herpes esophagitis: case report.

Background: Herpes esophagitis is uncommon disease caused by Herpes simplex virus (HSV). While the disease most often occurs in immunocompromised patients, including post-chemotherapy, immunosuppression with organ transplants, and in AIDS, Herpes esophagitis can also occur in immunocompetent individuals.

Case Presentation: We report a case of herpes esophagitis in a 72 year- old woman who was presumed to be immunocompromised following prolonged radiotherapy and chemotherapy for lymphoma.

Prevalence of Vas Deferens Calcifications on Abdominal CT Examinations and Association With Systemic Conditions.

The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence of vas deferens (VD) calcifications on abdominal CT examinations and the associations between VD calcifications and several systemic conditions. The CT examinations of male patients from January 2010 to December 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. After exclusions, the records of 1915 consecutively identified patients were analyzed.

A Secure Control Learning Framework for Cyber-Physical Systems Under Sensor and Actuator Attacks.

In this article, we develop a learning-based secure control framework for cyber-physical systems in the presence of sensor and actuator attacks. Specifically, we use a bank of observer-based estimators to detect the attacks while introducing a threat-detection level function. Under nominal conditions, the system operates with a nominal-feedback controller with the developed attack monitoring process checking the reliance of the measurements.

Costs and outcomes of phacoemulsification for cataracts performed by residents.

Purpose: To describe costs and outcomes of phacoemulsification for cataracts performed by ophthalmology residents.

Methods: We obtained medical records from patients operated on in 2011 by third year residents (R3) using phacoemulsification (n=576). Our expenses estimation included professionals' and hospital costs (fees, materials, medications, and equipment).

Validation of an automated system for detecting ineffective triggering asynchronies during mechanical ventilation: a retrospective study.

We compare the sensitivity and specificity of clinician visual waveform analysis against an automated system's waveform analysis in detecting ineffective triggering in mechanically ventilated intensive care unit patients when compared against a reference label set based upon analysis of respiratory muscle activity. Electrical activity of the diaphragm or esophageal/transdiaphragmatic pressure waveforms were available to a single clinician for the generation of a reference label set indicating the ground truth, that is, presence or absence of ineffective triggering, on a breath-by-breath basis. Pressure and flow versus time tracings were made available to (i) a group of three clinicians; and (ii) the automated Syncron-E™ system capable of detecting patient-ventilator asynchrony in real-time, in order to obtain breath-by-breath labels indicating the presence or absence of ineffective triggering.

A Fast Parameter Identification Framework for Personalized Pharmacokinetics.

This paper introduces a novel framework for fast parameter identification of personalized pharmacokinetic problems. Given one sample observation of a new subject, the framework predicts the parameters of the subject based on prior knowledge from a pharmacokinetic database. The feasibility of this framework was demonstrated by developing a new algorithm based on the Cluster Newton method, namely the constrained Cluster Newton method, where the initial points of the parameters are constrained by the database.

Optimal adaptive control of drug dosing using integral reinforcement learning.

In this paper, a reinforcement learning (RL)-based optimal adaptive control approach is proposed for the continuous infusion of a sedative drug to maintain a required level of sedation. To illustrate the proposed method, we use the common anesthetic drug propofol used in intensive care units (ICUs). The proposed online integral reinforcement learning (IRL) algorithm is designed to provide optimal drug dosing for a given performance measure that iteratively updates the control solution with respect to the pharmacology of the patient while guaranteeing convergence to the optimal solution.

A pilot study evaluating adaptive closed-loop fluid resuscitation during states of absolute and relative hypovolemia in dogs.

Objective: To evaluate and determine the performance of a partially automated as well as a fully automated closed-loop fluid resuscitation system during states of absolute and relative hypovolemia.

Design: Prospective experimental trial.

Setting: Research laboratory.

Replicating human expertise of mechanical ventilation waveform analysis in detecting patient-ventilator cycling asynchrony using machine learning.

Background: - Acute respiratory failure is one of the most common problems encountered in intensive care units (ICU) and mechanical ventilation is the mainstay of supportive therapy for such patients. A mismatch between ventilator delivery and patient demand is referred to as patient-ventilator asynchrony (PVA). An important hurdle in addressing PVA is the lack of a reliable framework for continuously and automatically monitoring the patient and detecting various types of PVA.

A Predominant Variable-Number Tandem-Repeat Cluster of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolates among Asylum Seekers in the Netherlands and Denmark, Deciphered by Whole-Genome Sequencing.

In many countries, isolates are routinely subjected to variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) typing to investigate transmission. Unexpectedly, cross-border clusters were identified among African refugees in the Netherlands and Denmark, although transmission in those countries was unlikely. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was applied to analyze transmission in depth and to assess the precision of VNTR typing.

Reinforcement learning-based control of drug dosing for cancer chemotherapy treatment.

The increasing threat of cancer to human life and the improvement in survival rate of this disease due to effective treatment has promoted research in various related fields. This research has shaped clinical trials and emphasized the necessity to properly schedule cancer chemotherapy to ensure effective and safe treatment. Most of the control methodologies proposed for cancer chemotherapy scheduling treatment are model-based.