Characterization of the mechanical properties of high-moisture meat analogues using low-intensity ultrasound: Linking mechanical properties to textural and nutritional quality attributes.

Plant-based meat analogues offer possible alternatives to meat consumption. However, many challenges remain to produce a palatable meat analogue as well as to understand the roles of different processing steps and ingredients on both the texture and nutritional properties of the final product. The goal of this paper is to help with addressing these challenges by using a low-intensity ultrasonic transmission technique, both online and 24 h after production, to investigate high-moisture meat analogues made from a blend of soy and wheat proteins.

Opportunistic CT Screening-Machine Learning Algorithm Identifies Majority of Vertebral Compression Fractures: A Cohort Study.

Vertebral compression fractures (VCF) are common in patients older than 50 years but are often undiagnosed. Zebra Medical Imaging developed a VCF detection algorithm, with machine learning, to detect VCFs from CT images of the chest and/or abdomen/pelvis. In this study, we evaluated the diagnostic performance of the algorithm in identifying VCF.

Development and Validation of Algorithms to Identify COVID-19 Patients Using a US Electronic Health Records Database: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Introduction: In order to identify and evaluate candidate algorithms to detect COVID-19 cases in an electronic health record (EHR) database, this study examined and compared the utilization of acute respiratory disease codes from February to August 2020 versus the corresponding time period in the 3 years preceding.

Methods: De-identified EHR data were used to identify codes of interest for candidate algorithms to identify COVID-19 patients. The number and proportion of patients who received a SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) within ±10 days of the occurrence of the diagnosis code and patients who tested positive among those with a test result were calculated, resulting in 11 candidate algorithms.

Trends in characteristics and outcomes among US adults hospitalised with COVID-19 throughout 2020: an observational cohort study.

Objectives: To examine the temporal patterns of patient characteristics, treatments used and outcomes associated with COVID-19 in patients who were hospitalised for the disease between January and 15 November 2020.

Design: Observational cohort study.

Setting: COVID-19 subset of the Optum deidentified electronic health records, including more than 1.

Coronary artery calcium scores indicating secondary prevention level risk: Findings from the CAC consortium and FOURIER trial.

Background And Aims: Coronary artery calcium (CAC) burden displays a stepwise association with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk. Among primary prevention patients, we sought to determine the CAC scores equivalent to ASCVD mortality rates observed in the FOURIER trial, a modern secondary prevention cohort.

Methods And Results: For the main analysis, we included participants from the CAC Consortium ≥50 years old with a 10-year ASCVD risk ≥7.

The Development and Validation of Simplified Machine Learning Algorithms to Predict Prognosis of Hospitalized Patients With COVID-19: Multicenter, Retrospective Study.

Background: The current COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented; under resource-constrained settings, predictive algorithms can help to stratify disease severity, alerting physicians of high-risk patients; however, there are only few risk scores derived from a substantially large electronic health record (EHR) data set, using simplified predictors as input.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to develop and validate simplified machine learning algorithms that predict COVID-19 adverse outcomes; to evaluate the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and calibration of the algorithms; and to derive clinically meaningful thresholds.

Methods: We performed machine learning model development and validation via a cohort study using multicenter, patient-level, longitudinal EHRs from the Optum COVID-19 database that provides anonymized, longitudinal EHR from across the United States.

Ultra slow acoustic energy transport in dense fish aggregates.

A dramatic slowing down of acoustic wave transport in dense fish shoals is observed in open-sea fish cages. By employing a multi-beam ultrasonic antenna, we observe the coherent backscattering phenomenon. We extract key parameters of wave transport such as the transport mean free path and the energy transport velocity of diffusive waves from diffusion theory fits to the experimental data.

Derivation of a Coronary Age Calculator Using Traditional Risk Factors and Coronary Artery Calcium: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.

Background The optimal method for communicating coronary heart disease (CHD) risk to individual patients is not yet clear. Recent research supports the concept of "coronary age" for more effective risk communication. We defined an individual's coronary age as the age at which an average healthy individual would have an equivalent estimated CHD risk as that calculated for the index individual, building on our previously validated MESA (Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis) 10-year CHD Risk Score equations with and without coronary artery calcium (CAC).

A Study of Novel Febrile Neutropenia Risk Factors Related to Bone Marrow or Immune Suppression, Barrier Function, and Bacterial Flora.

Previously identified patient-level risk factors for chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia (FN) indicate several potential underlying pathogenic mechanisms, including bone marrow suppression, impaired neutrophil function, or disturbances of barrier function. This study evaluated whether additional clinical characteristics related to these pathogenic mechanisms were risk factors for FN. The study population included patients diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma or breast, lung, colorectal, ovarian, or gastric cancer between 2000 and 2009 at Kaiser Permanente Southern California and treated with myelosuppressive chemotherapy.

A PDMS-based broadband acoustic impedance matched material for underwater applications.

Having a material that is matched in acoustic impedance with the surrounding medium is a considerable asset for many underwater acoustic applications. In this work, impedance matching is achieved by dispersing small, deeply subwavelength sized particles in a soft matrix, and the appropriate concentration is determined with the help of Coherent Potential Approximation and Waterman & Truell models. We show experimentally the validity of the models using mixtures of Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and TiO particles.

Value of incorporating newly identified risk factors into risk prediction for chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia.

Several comorbidities have recently been shown to affect risk of chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia (FN). Here, we evaluated the added predictive value of these comorbidities beyond established FN risk factors. A retrospective cohort study was conducted among adult patients diagnosed with cancer and treated with chemotherapy at Kaiser Permanente Southern California between 2000 and 2009.

Bubbles in noodle dough: Characterization by X-ray microtomography.

Bubbles, found in a huge variety of food products, are known to afford desirable quality attributes, especially those related to texture, mouthfeel and taste. However, the presence of bubbles and their effects on wheat flour noodles is an aspect that has been, until now, largely overlooked, despite the positive and negative connotations of bubbly inclusions on Asian noodle quality. X-rays from a synchrotron source (Biomedical Imaging and Therapy facility at the Canadian Light Source) were used to rapidly and non-destructively acquire tomographic images of noodle dough.

Impact of Strong Scattering Resonances on Ballistic and Diffusive Wave Transport.

The strong impact of scattering resonances on all the key transport parameters of classical waves in disordered media is demonstrated through ultrasonic experiments on monodisperse emulsions. Through accurate measurements of both ballistic and diffusive transport over a wide range of frequencies, we show that the group velocity is large near sharp resonances, whereas the energy velocity (as well as the diffusion coefficient) is significantly slowed down by resonant scattering delay. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment is found, elucidating the effects of resonant scattering on wave transport in both acoustics and optics.

Risk of Febrile Neutropenia Associated With Select Myelosuppressive Chemotherapy Regimens in a Large Community-Based Oncology Practice.

NCCN has classified commonly used chemotherapy regimens into high (>20%), intermediate (10%-20%), or low (<10%) febrile neutropenia (FN) risk categories based primarily on clinical trial evidence. Many chemotherapy regimens, however, remain unclassified by NCCN or lack FN incidence data in real-world clinical practice. We evaluated incidence proportions of FN and grade 4 and 3/4 neutropenia during the first chemotherapy course among patients from Kaiser Permanente Southern California who received selected chemotherapy regimens without well-established FN risk.

Ultrasound as a tool to study bubbles in dough and dough mechanical properties: A review.

Investigation of dough mechanical properties using low-intensity ultrasound is now reasonably well established. In this review, an introduction to the fundamentals of ultrasound propagation in non-scattering and in scattering media is followed by several examples of how low-intensity ultrasound is used as a research tool for exploring the bubble size distribution in breadmaking dough and evaluating dough's mechanical properties. Utilization of ultrasonic techniques for quantitative assessments of bubbly dough structure and characterization of dough mechanical properties as affected by dough formulation are pointed out.

Dynamic sound scattering: Field fluctuation spectroscopy with singly scattered ultrasound in the near and far fields.

Dynamic sound scattering (DSS) is a powerful acoustic technique for investigating the motion of particles or other inclusions inside an evolving medium. In DSS, this dynamic information is obtained by measuring the field autocorrelation function of the temporal fluctuations of singly scattered acoustic waves. The technique was initially introduced 15 years ago, but its technical aspects were not adequately discussed then.

Relation between ultrasonic properties, rheology and baking quality for bread doughs of widely differing formulation.

Background: The objective was to evaluate whether an ultrasonic reflectance technique has predictive capacity for breadmaking performance of doughs made under a wide range of formulation conditions. Two flours of contrasting dough strength augmented with different levels of ingredients (inulin, oil, emulsifier or salt) were used to produce different bread doughs with a wide range of properties. Breadmaking performance was evaluated by conventional large-strain rheological tests on the dough and by assessment of loaf quality.

Relationship between severity and duration of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia and risk of infection among patients with nonmyeloid malignancies.

Purpose: Chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN) may increase infection risk for cancer patients; however, there is limited understanding on the quantitative relationships between severity and duration of CIN and infection risk.

Methods: This study combined individual data from adult cancer patients receiving no granulocyte colony-stimulating factor during the first chemotherapy cycle in six trials. We used area over the curve (AOC) of absolute neutrophil count (ANC) time-response curve (below different thresholds) to measure the combined effect of severity and duration of CIN.

Anderson Mobility Gap Probed by Dynamic Coherent Backscattering.

We use dynamic coherent backscattering to study one of the Anderson mobility gaps in the vibrational spectrum of strongly disordered three-dimensional mesoglasses. Comparison of experimental results with the self-consistent theory of localization allows us to estimate the localization (correlation) length as a function of frequency in a wide spectral range covering bands of diffuse transport and a mobility gap delimited by two mobility edges. The results are corroborated by transmission measurements on one of our samples.

Incidence of anemia in patients diagnosed with solid tumors receiving chemotherapy, 2010-2013.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate and characterize the risk of anemia during the course of chemotherapy among patients with five common types of solid tumors.

Patients And Methods: Patients diagnosed with incident cancers of breast, lung, colon/rectum, stomach, and ovary who received chemotherapy were identified from Kaiser Permanente Southern California Health Plan (2010-2012). All clinical data were collected from the health plan's electronic medical records.

The effect of chemotherapy-induced anemia on dose reduction and dose delay.

Purpose: To evaluate moderate (grade 2, hemoglobin <10 g/dl) and severe (grade 3+, hemoglobin <8 g/dl) anemia as potential risk factors for DDR in the first line course of chemotherapy. While chemotherapy-induced neutropenia has been shown to be associated with dose delay/reduction (DDR) in several studies, the effect of anemia is less well studied.

Methods: We identified 3955 Kaiser Permanente patients diagnosed with incident non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (n = 574), breast (n = 2043), lung (n = 463), gastric (n = 113), ovarian (n = 204), or colorectal cancers (n = 558) between 2010 and 2012.

Trajectory of absolute neutrophil counts in patients treated with pegfilgrastim on the day of chemotherapy versus the day after chemotherapy.

Purpose: Risk of infection increases with severity and duration of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia (CIN). Pegfilgrastim is approved for use on the day after chemotherapy to reduce incidence of infection, as manifested by febrile neutropenia (FN), in patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy. In this study, we compared severity and duration of absolute neutrophil count (ANC) suppression in patients who received pegfilgrastim on the same day as chemotherapy versus the next day.

Trends in anemia treatment among patients with five non-myeloid malignancies treated with chemotherapy in a large integrated health care delivery system in California, 2000-2013.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine treatment patterns for chemotherapy-induced anemia (CIA) between calendar periods when the changes in the US prescribing information, for erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) took place.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with breast, lung, colorectal, ovarian, or gastric cancer (2000-2012) who developed grade 2+ CIA (hemoglobin (Hb) <10 g/dl) were identified from Kaiser Permanente Southern California Health Plan. We estimated the proportions of CIA episodes with ESA use, red blood cell (RBC) transfusion, or prescription nutritional supplements in three calendar periods: January 1, 2000-December 31, 2006 (P1), January 1, 2007-March 24, 2010 (P2), and March 25, 2010-June 30, 2013 (P3).

Validation of Claims Algorithms for Progression to Metastatic Cancer in Patients with Breast, Non-small Cell Lung, and Colorectal Cancer.

Background: Validated algorithms for identifying progression to metastatic cancer could permit the use of administrative claims databases for research in this area.

Objective: To identify simple algorithms that could accurately detect cancer progression to metastatic breast, non-small cell lung, and colorectal cancer (CRC) using medical and pharmacy claims data.

Methods: Adults with stage I-III breast, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), or CRC in the Geisinger Health System from 2004 to 2011 were selected.

Risk factors for bone pain among patients with cancer receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy and pegfilgrastim.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate risk factors for bone pain in patients receiving myelosuppressive chemotherapy and pegfilgrastim.

Methods: Individual patient data from 22 pegfilgrastim clinical trials were analyzed. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to evaluate risk factors associated with grade ≥2 bone pain and any grade bone pain in the first chemotherapy cycle and across cycles 1-6.