Reconstructing and analyzing the invariances of low-dose CT image denoising networks.

Background: Deep learning-based methods led to significant advancements in many areas of medical imaging, most of which are concerned with the reduction of artifacts caused by motion, scatter, or noise. However, with most neural networks being black boxes, they remain notoriously difficult to interpret, hindering their clinical implementation. In particular, it has been shown that networks exhibit invariances w.

Peak amplitude of the normalized power spectrum of the electromyogram of the uterus in the low frequency band is an effective predictor of premature birth.

The current trends in the development of methods for non-invasive prediction of premature birth based on the electromyogram of the uterus, i.e., electrohysterogram (EHG), suggest an ever-increasing use of large number of features, complex models, and deep learning approaches.

Professional Values and Mental Health Tribunals: How Healthcare Professionals' and Lawyers' Views Are Shaped by Values, and How This Might Impede Reform.

Most countries that provide for compulsory treatment for mental illness have a system by which this treatment is subject to independent legal oversight. Many countries use a special type of legal body for this purpose, called a mental health tribunal. Mental health tribunals have been subject to criticism from the points of view of both legal professionals and mental healthcare practitioners.

Combining Critical Ethnography and Critical Discourse Analysis in Mental Health Nursing Research.

Background: It is uncommon to combine critical ethnography with critical discourse analysis (CDA) in health research, yet this combination has promise for managing challenges inherent in critical mental health nursing research.

Objectives: This article describes a methodologically innovative way to address issues that arise in the context of critical mental health nursing research.

Methods: This article draws on two studies that each employed a combination of critical ethnography and CDA in the context of mental health nursing research, discussing the challenges and implications of this approach.

Next-generation sequencing and comprehensive data reassessment in 263 adult patients with neuromuscular disorders: insights into the gray zone of molecular diagnoses.

Background: Neuromuscular disorders (NMDs) are heterogeneous conditions with a considerable fraction attributed to monogenic defects. Despite the advancements in genomic medicine, many patients remain without a diagnosis. Here, we investigate whether a comprehensive reassessment strategy improves the diagnostic outcomes.

An open dataset with electrohysterogram records of pregnancies ending in induced and cesarean section delivery.

The existing non-invasive automated preterm birth prediction methods rely on the use of uterine electrohysterogram (EHG) records coming from spontaneous preterm and term deliveries, and are indifferent to term induced and cesarean section deliveries. In order to enhance current publicly available pool of term EHG records, we developed a new EHG dataset, Induced Cesarean EHG DataSet (ICEHG DS), containing 126 30-minute EHG records, recorded early (23rd week), and/or later (31st week) during pregnancy, of those pregnancies that were expected to end in spontaneous term delivery, but ended in induced or cesarean section delivery. The records were collected at the University Medical Center Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Monte Carlo simulation for proton dosimetry in magnetic fields: Fano test and magnetic field correction factorsfor Farmer-type ionization chambers.

. In this contribution we present a special Fano test for charged particles in presence of magnetic fields in the MC code TOol for PArticle Simulation (TOPAS), as well as the determination of magnetic field correction factorsfor Farmer-type ionization chambers using proton beams..

"The Person Gets Lost in the Whole Process": Access to Physical Healthcare for Patients Hospitalized in a Psychiatric Hospital.

Persons living with mental illnesses have unmet physical healthcare needs, leading to premature death. When they attempt to access physical health services, they are faced with numerous barriers that lead to delays in care. Although mental health nurses are identified as being essential actors in helping persons with mental illnesses navigate the complexities of the healthcare system, they also engage in conduct that further stigmatizes them.

How identity is produced and experienced in the context of mandated community-based mental health care: An application of the theories of Grosz and Foucault.

Despite changes to research and practice, that, to some degree, acknowledge that people are shaped by their contexts, the treatment of mental illness remains largely focused on interventions that take place at the level of the individual. Conceptualizing mental illness as something that resides in individuals can lead to reliance on neurobiological and psychotherapeutic solutions, and away from conversations about not only contextual causes of mental distress, but also sociopolitical solutions to mental distress. Further, it can lead to the use of mental health interventions that focus on the biology of an individual without a consideration for how those interventions themselves may have psychological, social, or political consequences that act to shape an individual's identity, agency, and relationship to their community.

The diagnostic and prognostic utility of repetitive nerve stimulation in patients with myasthenia gravis.

Repetitive nerve stimulation (RNS) is a standard test for the diagnosis of myasthenia gravis (MG), where decrement of compound muscle action potentials (CMAP) corresponds to clinical muscle fatigability. Our aim was to ascertain the diagnostic and prognostic utility of RNS in MG patients. This study included MG patients treated between 01/2000 and 12/2016, with an observational period of at least one year and a minimum of two neurological examinations.

"You're Just a Mental Health Nurse": Nurses' Experiences of Associative Stigma When Accessing Physical Health Care for Their Patients.

In this article, we present the results of an interpretive phenomenology looking at mental health nurses' experiences of associative stigma when accessing physical health care for their patients. Our results illustrate the multifaceted dynamics of stigma in the context of mental health nursing and the direct impacts stigmatizing behaviors have on mental health nurses and patients alike, including an impeded access to health care services, loss of social status and personhood, and the internalization of stigma. They also highlight how nurses resist to stigma and how they help their patients cope with stigmatization.

Characterization and separation of preterm and term spontaneous, induced, and cesarean EHG records.

To improve the understanding of the underlying physiological processes that lead to preterm birth, and different term delivery modes, we quantitatively characterized and assessed the separability of the sets of early (23rd week) and later (31st week) recorded, preterm and term spontaneous, induced, cesarean, and induced-cesarean electrohysterogram (EHG) records using several of the most widely used non-linear features extracted from the EHG signals. Linearly modeled temporal trends of the means of the median frequencies (MFs), and of the means of the peak amplitudes (PAs) of the normalized power spectra of the EHG signals, along pregnancy (from early to later recorded records), derived from a variety of frequency bands, revealed that for the preterm group of records, in comparison to all other term delivery groups, the frequency spectrum of the frequency band B0L (0.08-0.

Immunohistochemical detection of urea transporter-A in the tear-producing part of the lacrimal system.

Objective: Urea constitutes a physiological and presumably well-regulated constituent of tear fluid. Its lacrimal concentration is significantly decreased in dry eye disease. Urea homeostasis within the tear fluid may also depend on the expression of urea transporters.

Urea transporter-B expression on the ocular surface and in the lacrimal glands.

Objective: Urea is a component of tear fluid showing a significantly decreased concentration in dry eye disease. The urea content of tear fluid may depend on urea transporters. The purpose of this study was to examine the expression of urea transporter B (UT-B) at the ocular surface and in the lacrimal glands.

Lichen cell factories: methods for the isolation of photobiont and mycobiont partners for defined pure and co-cultivation.

Background: Due to their huge biodiversity and the capability to produce a wide range of secondary metabolites, lichens have a great potential in biotechnological applications. They have, however, hardly been used as cell factories to date, as it is considered to be difficult and laborious to cultivate lichen partners in pure or co-culture in the laboratory. The various methods used to isolate lichen fungi, based on either the ascospores, the conidia, or the thallus, have so far not been compared or critically examined.

Structure of the enterococcal T4SS protein PrgL reveals unique dimerization interface in the VirB8 protein family.

Multidrug-resistant bacteria pose serious problems in hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). Most antibiotic resistance genes are acquired via conjugative gene transfer, mediated by type 4 secretion systems (T4SS). Although most multidrug-resistant bacteria responsible for HAIs are of Gram-positive origin, with enterococci being major contributors, mostly Gram-negative T4SSs have been characterized.

An Integrative Review of Mental Health Nurses' and Other Professionals' Experience of Associative Stigma.

Mental health nurses report experiencing stigmatization both from within and outside the profession, and associative stigma provides one way to explore that experience. To better understand the current state of the literature on mental health care professionals' experiences of associative stigma, and particularly on nurses' experience of this phenomenon, an integrative review of the literature on the subject was conducted. The results detail factors associated with associative stigma, the effects of associative stigma on nurses and caregivers of persons with mental illnesses, and the quantification of associative stigma.

Using Bayesian Belief Networks to Investigate Farmer Behavior and Policy Interventions for Improved Nitrogen Management.

Increasing farmers' adoption of sustainable nitrogen management practices is crucial for improving water quality. Yet, research to date provides ambiguous results about the most important farmer-level drivers of adoption, leaving high levels of uncertainty as to how to design policy interventions that are effective in motivating adoption. Among others, farmers' engagement in outreach or educational events is considered a promising leverage point for policy measures.

Clinico-genetic spectrum of limb-girdle muscular weakness in Austria: A multicentre cohort study.

Background And Purpose: Hereditary myopathies with limb-girdle muscular weakness (LGW) are a genetically heterogeneous group of disorders, in which molecular diagnosis remains challenging. Our aim was to present a detailed clinical and genetic characterization of a large cohort of patients with LGW.

Methods: This nationwide cohort study included patients with LGW suspected to be associated with hereditary myopathies.

Incidence and clinical spectrum of rhabdomyolysis in general neurology: a retrospective cohort study.

The objective of this retrospective cohort study was to evaluate demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with rhabdomyolysis as defined by a serum creatine kinase (sCK) activity > 950 U/L. A total of 248 patients were recruited from the Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, between 01/2000 and 12/2017, with a median sCK activity of 2,160 U/l (IQR 1,342-4,786). Seizures (31.

Evaluation of various low-dose cone-beam computed tomography protocols in the diagnosis of specific condylar defects.

Introduction: This study aimed to determine the identifiability and measurement accuracy of defined bony defects of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) in cone-beam computed tomographies, depending on different milliampere-second (mAs)-reduced protocols.

Methods: Defined artificial defects were prepared on 30 condyles from 15 intact pig heads, with a maximum of surrounding soft tissue preserved. Three-dimensional imaging was performed using ProMax 3D Mid (Planmeca, Helsinki, Finland).

Assessing Velocity and Directionality of Uterine Electrical Activity for Preterm Birth Prediction Using EHG Surface Records.

The aim of the present study was to assess the capability of conduction velocity amplitudes and directions of propagation of electrohysterogram (EHG) waves to better distinguish between preterm and term EHG surface records. Using short-time cross-correlation between pairs of bipolar EHG signals (upper and lower, left and right), the conduction velocities and their directions were estimated using preterm and term EHG records of the publicly available Term-Preterm EHG DataSet with Tocogram (TPEHGT DS) and for different frequency bands below and above 1.0 Hz, where contractions and the influence of the maternal heart rate on the uterus, respectively, are expected.

Polymerization and shrinkage stress formation of experimental resin composites doped with nano- vs. micron-sized bioactive glasses.

This study investigated the effect of adding bioactive glass 45S5 (BG) of different particle sizes to dental composite on resin polymerization and shrinkage stress formation. Commercial flowable composite was mixed with either 15 wt% BG fillers (nanometric, micrometric, or hybrid BG) or inert barium glass. Real-time linear polymerization shrinkage and shrinkage stress were recorded, and the degree of conversion was measured using FTIR spectroscopy.

[Results of the Dry Eye Research Grant Award 2016].

The Sicca-Förderpreis (Dry Eye Award) supports the development of scientific research on the pathogenesis, diagnostics, and treatment of dry eye and ocular surface diseases. It is awarded after a limited call for proposals in German-speaking countries, written application and selection of the award winner after evaluation by a jury of ophthalmologists working in basic and clinical science. In this article examples of the results of funded projects of the Sicca-Förderpreis 2016 are cursorily described, which were presented at the Ophthalmological Academy of Germany 2019 (Augenärztliche Akademie Deutschland 2019) and therefore provide an insight into current scientific developments.