Neurophysiological gradient in the Parkinsonian subthalamic nucleus as a marker for motor symptoms and apathy.

Sensing-based deep brain stimulation should optimally consider both the motor and neuropsychiatric domain to maximize quality of life of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Here we characterize the neurophysiological properties of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in 69 PD patients using a newly established neurophysiological gradient metric and contextualize it with motor symptoms and apathy. We could evidence a STN power gradient that holds most of the spectral information between 5 and 30 Hz spanning along the dorsal-ventral axis.

Management of a severe skeletal Class II hyperdivergent patient with asymmetric missing teeth with lingual appliances and mandibular osteotomy: A case report.

Rationale: Orthognathic surgery cases are inherently challenging to treat with lingual appliances due to the complexities of orthodontic management and difficulties in achieving intermaxillary fixation during surgery. This challenge is further amplified in cases involving asymmetric space closure, such as those with a missing molar on one side and a premolar on the other, a scenario not yet documented in the literature. This case report presents the orthodontic-orthognathic management of an adult patient requiring space closure of asymmetric missing lower teeth.

Spectral Topography of the Subthalamic Nucleus to Inform Next-Generation Deep Brain Stimulation.

Background: The landscape of neurophysiological symptoms and behavioral biomarkers in basal ganglia signals for movement disorders is expanding. The clinical translation of sensing-based deep brain stimulation (DBS) also requires a thorough understanding of the anatomical organization of spectral biomarkers within the subthalamic nucleus (STN).

Objectives: The aims were to systematically investigate the spectral topography, including a wide range of sub-bands in STN local field potentials (LFP) of Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, and to evaluate its predictive performance for clinical response to DBS.

Deep Brain Stimulation: When to Test Directional?

Background: Directional deep brain stimulation (DBS) allows for steering of the stimulation field, but extensive and time-consuming testing of all segmented contacts is necessary to identify the possible benefit of steering. It is therefore important to determine under which circumstances directional current steering is advantageous.

Methods: Fifty two Parkinson's disease patients implanted in the STN with a directional DBS system underwent a standardized monopolar programming session 5 to 9 months after implantation.

XBP1 Activation Reduces Severity of Polycystic Kidney Disease due to a Nontruncating Polycystin-1 Mutation in Mice.

Background: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is caused by mutations in Pkd1 and Pkd2. They encode the polytopic integral membrane proteins polycystin-1 (PC1) and polycystin-2 (PC2), respectively, which are expressed on primary cilia. Formation of kidney cysts in ADPKD starts when a somatic second hit mechanism inactivates the wild-type Pkd allele.

Combining Multimodal Biomarkers to Guide Deep Brain Stimulation Programming in Parkinson Disease.

Background: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) programming of multicontact DBS leads relies on a very time-consuming manual screening procedure, and strategies to speed up this process are needed. Beta activity in subthalamic nucleus (STN) local field potentials (LFP) has been suggested as a promising marker to index optimal stimulation contacts in patients with Parkinson disease.

Objective: In this study, we investigate the advantage of algorithmic selection and combination of multiple resting and movement state features from STN LFPs and imaging markers to predict three relevant clinical DBS parameters (clinical efficacy, therapeutic window, side-effect threshold).

Probabilistic Subthalamic Nucleus Stimulation Sweet Spot Integration Into a Commercial Deep Brain Stimulation Programming Software Can Predict Effective Stimulation Parameters.

Objectives: Subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) programming in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) may be challenging, especially when using segmented leads. In this study, we integrated a previously validated probabilistic STN sweet spot into a commercially available software to evaluate its predictive value for clinically effective DBS programming.

Materials And Methods: A total of 14 patients with PD undergoing bilateral STN DBS with segmented leads were included.

Investigation on factors affecting early strength of high-performance concrete by Gaussian Process Regression.

This study aims to investigate the influence of all the mixture components of high-performance concrete (HPC) on its early compressive strength, ranging from 1 to 14 days. To this purpose, a Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) algorithm was first constructed using a database gathered from the available literature. The database included the contents of cement, blast furnace slag (BFS), fly ash (FA), water, superplasticizer, coarse, fine aggregates, and testing age as input variables to predict the output of the problem, which was the early compressive strength.

Investigation of ANN architecture for predicting the compressive strength of concrete containing GGBFS.

An extensive simulation program is used in this study to discover the best ANN model for predicting the compressive strength of concrete containing Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS). To accomplish this purpose, an experimental database of 595 samples is compiled from the literature and utilized to find the best ANN architecture. The cement content, water content, coarse aggregate content, fine aggregate content, GGBFS content, carboxylic type hyper plasticizing content, superplasticizer content, and testing age are the eight inputs in this database.

Investigation of ANN architecture for predicting shear strength of fiber reinforcement bars concrete beams.

In this paper, an extensive simulation program is conducted to find out the optimal ANN model to predict the shear strength of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) concrete beams containing both flexural and shear reinforcements. For acquiring this purpose, an experimental database containing 125 samples is collected from the literature and used to find the best architecture of ANN. In this database, the input variables consist of 9 inputs, such as the ratio of the beam width, the effective depth, the shear span to the effective depth, the compressive strength of concrete, the longitudinal FRP reinforcement ratio, the modulus of elasticity of longitudinal FRP reinforcement, the FRP shear reinforcement ratio, the tensile strength of FRP shear reinforcement, the modulus of elasticity of FRP shear reinforcement.

Deep Brain Stimulation for Chronic Cluster Headache: Meta-Analysis of Individual Patient Data.

Objective: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a treatment option for refractory chronic cluster headache (CCH). Despite several recent prospective case series reporting a good outcome, the effectiveness and the optimal stimulation target of DBS for CCH remain unclear. We aimed to obtain precise estimates and predictors of long-term pain relief in an individual patient data meta-analysis.

A Novel Hybrid Model Based on a Feedforward Neural Network and One Step Secant Algorithm for Prediction of Load-Bearing Capacity of Rectangular Concrete-Filled Steel Tube Columns.

In this study, a novel hybrid surrogate machine learning model based on a feedforward neural network (FNN) and one step secant algorithm (OSS) was developed to predict the load-bearing capacity of concrete-filled steel tube columns (CFST), whereas the OSS was used to optimize the weights and bias of the FNN for developing a hybrid model (FNN-OSS). For achieving this goal, an experimental database containing 422 instances was firstly gathered from the literature and used to develop the FNN-OSS algorithm. The input variables in the database contained the geometrical characteristics of CFST columns, and the mechanical properties of two CFST constituent materials, i.

Parametric Investigation of Particle Swarm Optimization to Improve the Performance of the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System in Determining the Buckling Capacity of Circular Opening Steel Beams.

In this paper, the main objectives are to investigate and select the most suitable parameters used in particle swarm optimization (PSO), namely the number of rules (n), population size (n), initial weight (w), personal learning coefficient (c), global learning coefficient (c), and velocity limits (f), in order to improve the performance of the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system in determining the buckling capacity of circular opening steel beams. This is an important mechanical property in terms of the safety of structures under subjected loads. An available database of 3645 data samples was used for generation of training (70%) and testing (30%) datasets.

Optimization of Artificial Intelligence System by Evolutionary Algorithm for Prediction of Axial Capacity of Rectangular Concrete Filled Steel Tubes under Compression.

Concrete filled steel tubes (CFSTs) show advantageous applications in the field of construction, especially for a high axial load capacity. The challenge in using such structure lies in the selection of many parameters constituting CFST, which necessitates defining complex relationships between the components and the corresponding properties. The axial capacity (P) of CFST is among the most important mechanical properties.

Topological states and phase transitions in Sb2Te3-GeTe multilayers.

Topological insulators (TIs) are bulk insulators with exotic 'topologically protected' surface conducting modes. It has recently been pointed out that when stacked together, interactions between surface modes can induce diverse phases including the TI, Dirac semimetal, and Weyl semimetal. However, currently a full experimental understanding of the conditions under which topological modes interact is lacking.

Week-long high-maintenance dose clopidogrel regimen achieves better platelet aggregation inhibition than a standard loading dose before percutaneous coronary intervention: results of a double-blind, randomized clinical trial.

Background: Adequate platelet inhibition before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) reduces periprocedural and long-term ischemic complications. Reduced response to clopidogrel has been associated with subsequent major adverse cardiovascular events. Strategies to optimize platelet inhibition pre-PCI are under investigation.

Comparison of four tests to assess inhibition of platelet function by clopidogrel in stable coronary artery disease patients.

Aims: We investigated the comparability of platelet function tests in quantifying platelet inhibition achieved by clopidogrel.

Methods And Results: This pre-specified substudy of a randomized, double-blind trial included 116 patients with stable coronary artery disease requiring diagnostic angiography. Patients received clopidogrel for 1 (300 or 600 mg) or 7 days (300 + 75 or 150 mg daily) before the procedure.

Assessment of VerifyNow P2Y12 assay accuracy in evaluating clopidogrel-induced platelet inhibition.

The emergence of point-of-care assays enabling bedside testing such as the VerifyNow P2Y12 system might prove useful in clinical settings. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of the VerifyNow P2Y12 assay to estimate the inhibition of platelet aggregation provided by clopidogrel in the absence of baseline off-drug aggregation data. Sixty-eight patients with coronary artery disease scheduled to initiate clopidogrel therapy underwent platelet aggregation testing by VerifyNow P2Y12 at baseline and after clopidogrel administration.

Initial surgical treatment for chronic frontal sinusitis: a pilot study.

Objectives: The initial surgical treatment for chronic frontal sinusitis is not well defined. Our objective was to determine the effectiveness of anterior ethmoidectomy for chronic frontal sinusitis.

Methods: Patients with chronic frontal sinusitis who underwent anterior ethmoidectomy as initial surgical treatment were reviewed.

Assaying all of the nitrogen oxides in breath modifies the interpretation of exhaled nitric oxide.

Exhaled nitric oxide (NO) assays measure the quantity of NO that emanates from the airway, not the amount of NO that is formed. Consumptive processes-including oxidation reactions-decrease the amount of gas phase NO available for exhalation. Higher oxides of nitrogen (HiNO(x)) are resulting reaction products, and are easily measured in exhaled breath condensate (EBC).

Resistance to clopidogrel: a review of the evidence.

Current available data show that about 4% to 30% of patients treated with conventional doses of clopidogrel do not display adequate antiplatelet response. Clopidogrel resistance is a widely used term that remains to be clearly defined. So far, it has been used to reflect failure of clopidogrel to achieve its antiaggregatory effect.