Local Forest Structure and Host Specificity Influence Liana Community Composition in a Moist Central African Forest.

Lianas are important components of tropical forest diversity and dynamics, yet little is known about the drivers of their community structure and composition. Combining extensive field and LiDAR data, we investigated the influence of local topography, forest structure, and tree composition on liana community structure, and their floristic and functional composition, in a moist forest in northern Republic of Congo. We inventoried all lianas ≥ 1 cm in diameter in 144 20 × 20-m quadrats located in four 9-ha permanent plots, where trees and giant herbs were inventoried.

Fusion Outcomes of GLP-1 Agonist Therapy in Multilevel Cervical Spinal Fusion: A Propensity-Matched Analysis.

Study Design: Retrospective analysis.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of GLP-1 agonist therapy upon the incidence of pseudarthrosis in patients undergoing multilevel cervical spinal fusion.

Summary Of Background Data: The rising prevalence of obesity and diabetes mellitus has rendered the usage of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1) agonists increasingly commonplace since their introduction in 2005.

Inverting the lady's slipper orchid: development and active-passive mechanisms in a 'living machine'.

This article comments on: Flowers meet Newton: testing the role of gravitational pull in resupination of orchid flowers. Journal of Experimental Botany , 433–444. https://doi.

Preventing Spinal-induced Hypotension During Elective Cesarean Sections.

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to implement an evidence-based intraoperative protocol to reduce the incidence of spinal-induced hypotension during elective cesarean sections.

Design: A quality improvement project.

Methods: After receiving education, anesthesia providers implemented the intraoperative protocol for 6 weeks on elective cesarean sections.

A Reinforcement Learning approach to study climbing plant behaviour.

A plant's structure is the result of constant adaptation and evolution to the surrounding environment. From this perspective, our goal is to investigate the mass and radius distribution of a particular plant organ, namely the searcher shoot, by providing a Reinforcement Learning (RL) environment, that we call Searcher-Shoot, which considers the mechanics due to the mass of the shoot and leaves. We uphold the hypothesis that plants maximize their length, avoiding a maximal stress threshold.

The Application of Radiofrequency Ablation in Acute and Chronic Pain Management.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA), also known as rhizotomy, is one of the frequently used modalities in interventional pain management. This nonsurgical procedure delivers radiofrequency waves to the targeted nerves to interrupt transmission of nociceptive signals from the peripheral tissues to the central nervous system, thereby reducing pain perception. Recent studies have demonstrated the efficacy of RFA treatment as an effective interventional pain management technique to treat a variety of acute and chronic pain conditions including facial pain, headaches, postmastectomy, musculoskeletal, and major joint pain (knee, hip, shoulder, sacroiliac), and cancer pain.

Characteristics Associated with Relationship-Centred and Task-Focused Mealtime Practices in Older Adult Care Settings.

To assess care home and staff characteristics associated with task-focused (TF) and relationship-centred care (RCC) mealtime practices prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff working in Canadian and American care homes were invited to complete a 23-item online survey assessing their perceptions of mealtime care, with one item assessing 26 potential care practices from the Mealtime Relational Care Checklist (relationship-centred = 15; task-focused = 11) reported to occur in the home prior to the pandemic. Multivariate linear regression evaluated staff and care home characteristics associated with mealtime practices.

Exploring a targeted approach for public health capacity restrictions during COVID-19 using a new computational model.

This work introduces the Queen's University Agent-Based Outbreak Outcome Model (QUABOOM). This tool is an agent-based Monte Carlo simulation for modelling epidemics and informing public health policy. We illustrate the use of the model by examining capacity restrictions during a lockdown.

A growing soft robot with climbing plant-inspired adaptive behaviors for navigation in unstructured environments.

Self-growing robots are an emerging solution in soft robotics for navigating, exploring, and colonizing unstructured environments. However, their ability to grow and move in heterogeneous three-dimensional (3D) spaces, comparable with real-world conditions, is still developing. We present an autonomous growing robot that draws inspiration from the behavioral adaptive strategies of climbing plants to navigate unstructured environments.

A 2D model to study how secondary growth affects the self-supporting behaviour of climbing plants.

Climbing plants exhibit specialized shoots, called "searchers", to cross spaces and alternate between spatially discontinuous supports in their natural habitats. To achieve this task, searcher shoots combine both primary and secondary growth processes of their stems in order to support, orientate and explore their extensional growth into the environment. Currently, there is an increasing interest in developing models to describe plant growth and posture.

Diagnosis, Management, and Follow-Up of the Incidentally Discovered Adrenal Mass: CUA Guideline Endorsed by the AUA.

Purpose: Incidental adrenal masses are common and require a multidisciplinary approach to evaluation and management that includes family physicians, urologists, endocrinologists, and radiologists. The purpose of this guideline is to provide an updated approach to the diagnosis, management, and follow-up of adrenal incidentalomas, with a special focus on the areas of discrepancy/controversy existing among the published guidelines from other associations.

Materials And Methods: This guideline was developed by the Canadian Urological Association (CUA) through a working group comprised of urologists, endocrinologists, and radiologists and subsequently endorsed by the American Urological Association (AUA).

Prevalence of Glaucoma Following Paediatric Cataract Surgery in an Australian Tertiary Referral Centre.

Purpose: Secondary glaucoma following childhood cataract surgery remains the most common complication in the paediatric population. This study aimed to determine the incidence, time to progression and risk factors associated with the development of secondary glaucoma following childhood cataract surgery in a paediatric population. Outcome measures were the detection of secondary glaucoma, postoperative time frame to development of glaucoma and risk factors in its development.

Let's make size not matter: tumor control and toxicity outcomes of hypofractionated Gamma Knife radiosurgery for large brain metastases.

Purpose: Management of patients with large brain metastases poses a clinical challenge, with poor local control and high risk of adverse radiation events when treated with single-fraction stereotactic radiosurgery (SF-SRS). Hypofractionated SRS (HF-SRS) may be considered, but clinical data remains limited, particularly with Gamma Knife (GK) radiosurgery. We report our experience with GK to deliver mask-based HF-SRS to brain metastases greater than 10 cc in volume and present our control and toxicity outcomes.

Failure without Tears: Two-Step Attachment in a Climbing Cactus.

Climbing plants can be extremely adaptable to diverse habitats and capable of colonising perturbed, unstructured, and even moving environments. The timing of the attachment process, whether instantaneous (e.g.

Early recognition of CLN3 disease facilitated by visual electrophysiology and multimodal imaging.

Background: Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis is a group of neurodegenerative disorders with varying visual dysfunction. CLN3 is a subtype which commonly presents with visual decline. Visual symptomatology can be indistinct making early diagnosis difficult.

Trellis-forming stems of a tropical liana (Apocynaceae): A plant-made safety net constructed by simple "start-stop" development.

Tropical vines and lianas have evolved mechanisms to avoid mechanical damage during their climbing life histories. We explore the mechanical properties and stem development of a tropical climber that develops trellises in tropical rain forest canopies. We measured the young stems of (Apocynaceae) that construct complex trellises self-supporting shoots, attached stems, and unattached pendulous stems.

Performance of a convolutional autoencoder designed to remove electronic noise from p-type point contact germanium detector signals.

We present a convolutional autoencoder to denoise pulses from a p-type point contact high-purity germanium detector similar to those used in several rare event searches. While we focus on training procedures that rely on detailed detector physics simulations, we also present implementations requiring only noisy detector pulses to train the model. We validate our autoencoder on both simulated data and calibration data from an Am source, the latter of which is used to show that the denoised pulses are statistically compatible with data pulses.

Implementation, results and face validity of the Consultation and Relational Empathy measure in a Canadian department of surgery.

Background: The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure, a validated questionnaire designed to assess patients' perceptions of their physician's communication skills and empathy, has been used to assess empathy in medical specialties but has seldom been applied to surgery. We assessed empathy and communication skills among a group of surgeons within a single academic institution.

Methods: All surgeons within our department of surgery were invited to participate.

The comparative ethics of artificial-intelligence methods for military applications.

Concerns about the ethics of the use of artificial intelligence by militaries have insufficiently addressed the differences between the methods (algorithms) that such software provides. These methods are discussed and key differences are identified that affect their ethical military use, most notably for lethal autonomous systems. Possible mitigations of ethical problems are discussed such as sharing decision-making with humans, better testing of the software, providing explanations of what is being done, looking for biases, and putting explicit ethics into the software.

Microspines in tropical climbing plants: a small-scale fix for life in an obstacle course.

Many climbing plants have microspines on their stems, which facilitate attachment and prevent slipping and falling from host plant supports. Extending via growth through complex environments and anchoring stems to substrates with minimal contact forces are key benefits for climbing plants. Microspines are also highly desirable features for new technologies and applications in soft robotics.

Effective Interventions for Improving Functional Movement Screen Scores Among "High-Risk" Athletes: A Systematic Review.

Background: The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) is a tool designed to screen a series of movements that aids in the identification of compensatory fundamental movement patterns, functional limitations, and asymmetrical movement patterns. A previous systematic review and meta-analysis has shown that athletes with an FMS score <13-14 are considered "high-risk" and are more likely to be injured. There are discrepancies regarding the efficacy of physical intervention programs in improving FMS scores.

A high-fidelity, virtual-reality, transurethral resection of bladder tumor simulator: Validation as a tool for training.

Introduction: Simulation-based training is used to help trainees learn surgical procedures in a safe environment. The objective of our study was to test the face, content, and construct validity of the transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) module built on the Simbionix TURP Mentor simulator.

Methods: Participants performed five standardized cases on the simulator.