Fractional Fourier Transform-Based Signal Separation for Ultrasonic Guided Wave Inspection of Plates.

Detecting defects in plates is crucial across various industries due to safety risks. While ultrasonic bulk waves offer point-by-point inspections, they are time-consuming and limited in coverage. In contrast, guided waves enable the rapid inspection of larger areas.

Exploring the cognitive effects of hearing loss in adult rats: Implications for visuospatial attention, social behavior, and prefrontal neural activity.

Age-related hearing loss in humans has been associated with cognitive decline, though the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We investigated the long-term effects of hearing loss on attention, impulse control, social interaction, and neural activity within medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) subregions. Hearing loss was induced in adult rats via intracochlear neomycin injection (n = 13), with non-operated rats as controls (n = 10).

Impact of gated FDG PET/CT on the staging of patients with suspected or proven newly diagnosed advanced epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, and primary peritoneal cancer: results from a non-randomized, phase II clinical trial.

Objective: Imaging for staging ovarian cancer is important to determine the extent of disease. The primary objective of this study was to compare gated 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography coupled with computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) and standard CT scan with intravenous contrast to diagnose thoracic involvement in patients with advanced ovarian cancer prior to treatment. The secondary objective was to estimate changes in the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage and clinical management resulting from gated PET/CT.

Dissociated Representation of Binaural Cues in Single-Sided Deafness: Implications for Cochlear Implantation.

Congenital single-sided deafness (SSD) leads to an aural preference syndrome that is characterized by overrepresentation of the hearing ear in the auditory system. Cochlear implantation (CI) of the deaf ear is an effective treatment for SSD. However, the newly introduced auditory input in congenital SSD often does not reach expectations in late-implanted CI recipients with respect to binaural hearing and speech perception.

Congenital deafness reduces alpha-gamma cross-frequency coupling in the auditory cortex.

Neurons within a neuronal network can be grouped by bottom-up and top-down influences using synchrony in neuronal oscillations. This creates the representation of perceptual objects from sensory features. Oscillatory activity can be differentiated into stimulus-phase-locked (evoked) and non-phase-locked (induced).

Dysfunction of specific auditory fibers impacts cortical oscillations, driving an autism phenotype despite near-normal hearing.

Autism spectrum disorder is discussed in the context of altered neural oscillations and imbalanced cortical excitation-inhibition of cortical origin. We studied here whether developmental changes in peripheral auditory processing, while preserving basic hearing function, lead to altered cortical oscillations. Local field potentials (LFPs) were recorded from auditory, visual, and prefrontal cortices and the hippocampus of Bdnf KO mice.

The relation between implicit statistical learning and proactivity as revealed by EEG.

Environmental events often occur on a probabilistic basis but can sometimes be predicted based on specific cues and thus approached proactively. Incidental statistical learning enables the acquisition of knowledge about probabilistic cue-target contingencies. However, the neural mechanisms of statistical learning about contingencies (SL), the required conditions for successful learning, and the role of implicit processes in the resultant proactive behavior are still debated.

Sensor-Location-Specific Joint Acquisition of Peripheral Artery Bioimpedance and Photoplethysmogram for Wearable Applications.

Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), being the culprit for one-third of deaths globally, constitute a challenge for biomedical instrumentation development, especially for early disease detection. Pulsating arterial blood flow, providing access to cardiac-related parameters, involves the whole body. Unobtrusive and continuous acquisition of electrical bioimpedance (EBI) and photoplethysmography (PPG) constitute important techniques for monitoring the peripheral arteries, requiring novel approaches and clever means.

Stability of complex sound representations in the auditory midbrain across the lifespan despite age-related brainstem delays.

The extent to which aging of the central auditory pathway impairs auditory perception in the elderly independent of peripheral cochlear decline is debated. To cause auditory deficits in normal hearing elderly, central aging needs to degrade neural sound representations at some point along the auditory pathway. However, inaccessible to psychophysical methods, the level of the auditory pathway at which aging starts to effectively degrade neural sound representations remains poorly differentiated.

Topographical EEG Recordings of Visual Evoked Potentials in Mice using Multichannel Thin-film Electrodes.

Visual evoked potentials (VEP) allow the characterization of visual function in preclinical mouse models. Various methods exist to measure VEPs in mice, from non-invasive EEG, subcutaneous single-electrodes, and ECoG to fully invasive intracortical multichannel visual cortex recordings. It can be useful to acquire a global, topographical EEG-level characterization of visual responses previous to local intracortical microelectrode measurements in acute experimental settings.

Increasing early exposure to mother's own milk in premature newborns.

Objective: Increase the proportion of ≤33 weeks newborns exposed to mother's own milk (MOM) oral care by 12 h of age by 20% over 2 years to support a healthier microbiome.

Study Design: We implemented interventions to support early expression of colostrum and reliable delivery of resultant MOM to premature newborns. Statistical process control charts were used to track progress and provide feedback to staff.

Vaginal vault smear cytology in detection of recurrence after hysterectomy for early cervical cancer.

Objective: To determine the role of vaginal vault cytology as a surveillance tool for the detection of recurrence in patients with early stage cervical cancer treated with hysterectomy without adjuvant therapy.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted of all women with cervical cancer treated with a hysterectomy from January 2000 to July 2016 at the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital, Australia. Women included were diagnosed with the equivalent of International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) 2018 stage 1A1 to 1B3 squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, or adenosquamous carcinoma, received either simple or radical hysterectomy with or without pelvic lymph node dissection, and did not receive adjuvant therapy.

Disturbed Balance of Inhibitory Signaling Links Hearing Loss and Cognition.

Neuronal hyperexcitability in the central auditory pathway linked to reduced inhibitory activity is associated with numerous forms of hearing loss, including noise damage, age-dependent hearing loss, and deafness, as well as tinnitus or auditory processing deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In most cases, the reduced central inhibitory activity and the accompanying hyperexcitability are interpreted as an active compensatory response to the absence of synaptic activity, linked to increased central neural gain control (increased output activity relative to reduced input). We here suggest that hyperexcitability also could be related to an immaturity or impairment of tonic inhibitory strength that typically develops in an activity-dependent process in the ascending auditory pathway with auditory experience.

Acoustic Forward Model for Guided Wave Propagation and Scattering in a Pipe Bend.

The sections of pipe bends are hot spots for wall thinning due to accelerated corrosion by fluid flow. Conventionally, the thickness of a bend wall is evaluated by local point-by-point ultrasonic measurement, which is slow and costly. Guided wave tomography is an attractive method that enables the monitoring of a whole bend area by processing the waves excited and received by transducer arrays.

Study of Electrode Locations for Joint Acquisition of Impedance- and Electro-cardiography Signals.

ICG (impedance cardiography) and ECG (electrocardiography) provide important indications about functioning of the heart and of overall cardiovascular system. Measuring ICG along with ECG using wearable devices will improve the quality of health monitoring, as ICG points to important hemodynamic parameters (such as time intervals, stroke volume, cardiac output, and their variability). In this work, various electrode locations (12 different setups) have been tested for possible joint ECG & ICG data acquisition (using the same electrodes) and signal quality has been evaluated for every setup.

Temporal acuity is preserved in the auditory midbrain of aged mice.

Impaired temporal resolution of the central auditory system has long been suggested to contribute to speech understanding deficits in the elderly. However, it has been difficult to differentiate between direct age-related central deficits and indirect effects of confounding peripheral age-related hearing loss on temporal resolution. To differentiate this, we measured temporal acuity in the inferior colliculus (IC) of aged CBA/J and C57BL/6 mice, as a model of aging with and without concomitant hearing loss.

Complete pathological response following levonorgestrel intrauterine device in clinically stage 1 endometrial adenocarcinoma: Results of a randomized clinical trial.

Purpose: Intrauterine levonorgestrel (LNG-IUD) is used to treat patients with endometrial adenocarcinoma (EAC) and endometrial hyperplasia with atypia (EHA) but limited evidence is available on its effectiveness. The study determined the extent to which LNG-IUD with or without metformin (M) or weight loss (WL) achieves a pathological complete response (pCR) in patients with EAC or EHA.

Patients And Methods: This phase II randomized controlled clinical trial enrolled patients with histologically confirmed, clinically stage 1 FIGO grade 1 EAC or EHA; a body mass index > 30 kg/m2; a depth of myometrial invasion of less than 50% on MRI; a serum CA125 ≤ 30 U/mL.

Development of a surgical competency assessment tool for sentinel lymph node dissection by minimally invasive surgery for endometrial cancer.

Introduction: Sentinel lymph node dissection is widely used in the staging of endometrial cancer. Variation in surgical techniques potentially impacts diagnostic accuracy and oncologic outcomes, and poses barriers to the comparison of outcomes across institutions or clinical trial sites. Standardization of surgical technique and surgical quality assessment tools are critical to the conduct of clinical trials.

Survival outcomes after delayed cytoreduction surgery following neoadjuvant chemotherapy in advanced epithelial ovarian cancer.

Objective: Interval cytoreduction following neoadjuvant chemotherapy is a well-recognized treatment alternative to primary debulking surgery in the treatment of advanced epithelial ovarian cancer where patient and/or disease factors prevent complete macroscopic disease resection to be achieved. More recently, the strain of the global COVID-19 pandemic on hospital resources has forced many units to alter the timing of interval surgery and extend the number of neoadjuvant chemotherapy cycles. In order to support this paradigm shift and provide more accurate counseling during these unprecedented times, we investigated the survival outcomes in advanced epithelial ovarian cancer patients with the intent of maximal cytoreduction following neoadjuvant chemotherapy with respect to timing of surgery and degree of cytoreduction.

Quality of life in patients with cervical cancer after open versus minimally invasive radical hysterectomy (LACC): a secondary outcome of a multicentre, randomised, open-label, phase 3, non-inferiority trial.

Background: In the phase 3 LACC trial and a subsequent population-level review, minimally invasive radical hysterectomy was shown to be associated with worse disease-free survival and higher recurrence rates than was open radical hysterectomy in patients with early stage cervical cancer. Here, we report the results of a secondary endpoint, quality of life, of the LACC trial.

Methods: The LACC trial was a randomised, open-label, phase 3, non-inferiority trial done in 33 centres worldwide.

Methods for Detection of Bioimpedance Variations in Resource Constrained Environments.

Changes in a certain parameter are often a few magnitudes smaller than the base value of the parameter, specifying significant requirements for the dynamic range and noise levels of the measurement system. In case of electrical bioimpedance acquisition, the variations can be 1000 times smaller than the entire measured value. Synchronous or lock-in measurement of these variations is discussed in the current paper, and novel measurement solutions are presented.