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Study on an interpretable prediction model for pile bearing capacity based on SHAP and BP neural networks
Prevalence and factors associated with probable anxiety disorders among elderly persons living with HIV at Mulago ISS clinic: A cross-sectional study
Introduction Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a major public health concern globally. Due to advancements in Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) therapy, more people with HIV are living longer with about 1.4 million infected people in Uganda. Anxiety disorders are often unrecognized and undetected in older persons living with HIV (PLWH) yet they impair an elderly person’s physical health and decrease the ability to perform daily activities. Objective To determine the prevalence and factors associated with probable anxiety disorders among elderly PLWH at Mulago Immune Suppression Syndrome (ISS) clinic. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted at Mulago ISS clinic among 273 systematically selected participants living with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy for at least 6 months between April and May 2024. Interviews were conducted using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7) screening tool to help identify individuals who may be at risk for anxiety disorders and structured questionnaires for socio-demographics, and psychological factors. Drug and clinical factors data were extracted from records, entered into Epidata, and later to STATA version 17 for analysis. Prevalence was reported as a percentage and modified Poisson regression analysis was used to determine the factors associated with anxiety disorders. Results We enrolled 273 participants with a median age (Interquartile range) was 56 (52, 61.5) years. 54.9% were females, 56.8% didn’t have a partner and 53.8% were employed. The prevalence of probable anxiety disorders was 16.8% (95% CI 12.5–21.6). Employment status (aPR- 2.113, 95% CI 1.252–3.567), family history of mental health disorder (aPR-2.041, 95% CI 1.228–3.394), stigma (aPR-2.564, 95% CI 1.544–4.257) and family support (aPR-2.169, 95% CI 1.272–3.699) were significantly associated with having probable anxiety disorders. Conclusion One in every six elderly persons living with HIV may have a probable anxiety disorder. Being unemployed, having a family history of mental health disorders, having stigma and having inadequate family support were significantly associated with having a probable anxiety disorder. Healthcare workers should provide comprehensive anxiety screening and patient-centered care for elderly persons with HIV. At the same time, the government develops financial empowerment strategies and supports mental health through family groups, and public campaigns to reduce HIV stigma and educate families on effective support.
Chemotherapy‐induced taste changes affect nutrition, quality of life
Biomarker-guided decision making in clinical drug development for neurodegenerative disorders
Trait resilience protects against social anxiety in college students through emotion regulation and coping strategies
Research on high-quality development path of strategic emerging enterprises enabled by innovation
Promoting the high-quality development of strategic emerging enterprises is an inevitable approach to building a strong nation, and innovation serves as the critical engine providing core momentum for such development. From the perspective of complex causal effect analysis, this article selects 176 A-share listed companies in strategic emerging industries from 2012 to 2023 as samples and employs a combination of methods including NCA, multi-period fsQCA, and empirical regression analysis to distill practical pathways for innovation-driven high-quality development in these enterprises. The research findings are summarized as follows: (1) There is no single necessary condition for achieving high-quality development in strategic emerging enterprises; rather, it is the result of the synergistic interaction among technological innovation, talent innovation, and policy innovation. (2) Technological innovation has consistently played a pivotal role across all periods, with R&D investment identified as a key factor driving high-quality development. Other contributing factors also exhibit heterogeneous effects within the configurations of each period. (3) Four distinct configuration paths for high-quality development emerge across the three periods: the technology-dominant type, the “technology and talent” dual-driven type, the “technology and policy” dual-driven type, and the comprehensive innovation type. This study leverages complex causal effect analysis to offer scientific insights to relevant policymakers and enterprise managers, thereby facilitating the high-quality development of strategic emerging enterprises.
Is active surveillance an alternative to surgery for some patients with esophageal cancer?
Short-term plasticity influences episodic memory recall: an interplay of synaptic traces in a spiking neural network model
Abstract We investigated the interaction of episodic memory processes with the short-term dynamics of recency effects. This work takes inspiration from a seminal experimental work involving an odor-in-context association task conducted on rats. In the experimental task, rats were presented with odor pairs in two arenas serving as old or new contexts for specific odor items. Rats were rewarded for selecting the odor that was new to the current context. These new-in-context odor items were deliberately presented with higher recency relative to old-in-context items, so that episodic memory was put in conflict with a short-term recency effect. To study our hypothesis about the major role of synaptic interplay of plasticity phenomena on different time-scales in explaining rats’ performance in such episodic memory tasks, we built a computational spiking neural network model consisting of two reciprocally connected networks that stored contextual and odor information as stable distributed memory patterns. We simulated the experimental task resulting in a dynamic context-item coupling between the two networks by means of Bayesian–Hebbian plasticity with eligibility traces to account for reward-based learning. We first reproduced quantitatively and explained mechanistically the findings of the experimental study, and then to further differentiate the impact of short-term plasticity we simulated an alternative task with old-in-context items presented with higher recency, thus synergistically confounding episodic memory with effects of recency. Our model predicted that higher recency of old-in-context items enhances episodic memory by boosting the activations of old-in-context items. We argue that the model offers a computational framework for studying behavioral implications of the synaptic underpinning of different memory effects in experimental episodic memory paradigms.
Unsung climate guardians: The overlooked role of remnant and spontaneous trees in carbon stocks and gains from tree growth in West African cocoa fields
Cocoa cultivation in West Africa has been a major driver of deforestation, leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions and threatening cocoa yields. Agroforestry, which integrates trees from various origins—remnant, spontaneous, and planted—presents a sustainable solution to enhance carbon sequestration and improve farm resilience. However, the specific contributions of these tree origins and the socio-environmental factors shaping their effectiveness remain poorly understood. This study examines carbon dynamics across 150 cocoa fields in Côte d’Ivoire, analyzing a total of 11,568 trees across 15 sites. Using Bayesian modeling, we assess carbon stocks and gains from tree growth to explore how socio-environmental factors influence carbon balance in cocoa fields. Carbon stocks varied widely with remnant having the highest median carbon stocks (6.33 Mg/ha), followed by spontaneous (2.06 Mg/ha) and planted trees (1.53 Mg/ha). Carbon gains are similar for planted and spontaneous trees up to 7 years, but afterward, spontaneous trees grow faster (11.20 ± 0.87 kg/year) than planted ones (3.96 ± 0.5 kg/year). Carbon stocks rose with informed farmers and former forest use, but declined with higher cocoa density. Carbon gains at the tree level is primarily influenced by ownership and previous forest land use with positive effects, while cocoa density and annual temperature have negative effects. To maximize carbon sequestration and ensure the sustainable management of agroforestry systems, interventions should prioritize securing land tenure, enhancing farmer training in tree botany, and promoting the conservation of remnant and spontaneous trees.
Next generation antimicrobial peptide disinfectant targeting biocide and vancomycin resistant staphylococcus aureus through integrated in Silico and in vitro validation
Evaluation of large language models as a diagnostic tool for medical learners and clinicians using advanced prompting techniques
Background Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated capabilities in natural language processing and critical reasoning. Studies investigating their potential use as healthcare diagnostic tools have largely relied on proprietary models like ChatGPT and have not explored the application of advanced prompt engineering techniques. This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of three open-source LLMs and the role of prompt engineering using clinical scenarios. Methods We analyzed the performance of three open-source LLMs—llama-3.1-70b-versatile, llama-3.1-8b-instant, and mixtral-8x7b-32768—using advanced prompt engineering when answering Medscape Clinical Challenge questions. Responses were recorded and evaluated for correctness, accuracy, precision, specificity, and sensitivity. A sensitivity analysis was conducted presenting the three LLMs with basic prompting challenge questions and excluding cases with visual assets. Results were compared with previously published performance data on GPT-3.5. Results Llama-3.1-70b-versatile, llama-3.1-8b-instant, and mixtral-8x7b-32768 achieved correct responses in 79%, 65%, and 62% of cases, respectively, outperforming GPT-3.5 (74%). Diagnostic accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and specificity responses all outperformed those previously reported for GPT-3.5. Results generated using advanced prompting strategies were superior to those based on basic prompting. Sensitivity analysis revealed similar trends when cases with visual assets were excluded. Discussion Using advanced prompting techniques, LLMs can generate clinically accurate responses. The study highlights the limitations of proprietary models like ChatGPT, particularly in terms of accessibility and reproducibility due to version deprecation. Future research should employ prompt engineering techniques and prioritize the use of open-source models to ensure research replicability.
Prognostic value of myocardial bridging versus non-obstructive CAD: a long-term follow-up study
Increased expression of chaperone proteins in response to DENV 2 infection of Huh-7 liver cells
The mosquito transmitted dengue virus (DENV; family Flaviviridae, genus Orthoflavivirus, species Orthoflavivirus denguei) is a significant public health problem in many tropical and subtropical countries around the world. Human infection by DENV is predominantly asymptomatic in 80% of cases, but the remaining 20% of infections can result in symptoms ranging from a mild undifferentiated fever to life threatening dengue hemorrhagic and dengue shock syndrome. During infection DENV induces changes in the host cell, including changing protein expression, altering the cellular lipids and inducing changes in membrane architecture. A number of cell types have been shown to be permissive for DENV replication, including hepatocytes. This study sought to investigate the protein expression changes induced by DENV infection of a liver cell line, Huh-7, using 2-dimensional (2D) electrophoresis. At 48 hours post infection 14 protein spots were found to have altered expression as compared to mock infected cells at the same time point. In particular four of the proteins showing alterations of expression were chaperone proteins (Stress-70 protein, Endoplasmic reticulum chaperone BiP (GRP78), Heat shock 70 kDa protein 4 and Heat shock protein HSP 90-beta), of which three were upregulated (Stress-70 protein, Endoplasmic reticulum chaperone BiP (GRP78), Heat shock 70 kDa protein 4) and one was downregulated (Heat shock protein HSP 90-beta). GRP78 showed the largest change in expression amongst these four proteins, and so its expression was confirmed by western blot analysis. GRP78 has been shown by many studies to be critically involved in the replication of orthoflaviviruses, and this study further underlines the importance of this protein.
Effective thermal conductivity model of particle-filled composite materials with distributed inner heat sources
Research on the speed fluctuation control of diesel engine under load changes via an improved sparrow algorithm
Given the nonlinear and time-varying characteristics of diesel engine speed control, a conventional proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is inadequate for addressing the lag or overshoot in the system response, and it struggles to adapt to complex dynamic changes under load. This study proposes a fuzzy proportional integral derivative (FPID) control,which is based on an improved sparrow search algorithm(ISSA) with the aim of enhancing the system’s adaptability. By refining the algorithm to augment its parameter control capabilities and employing test functions for experimental comparisons, the improved algorithm exhibited accelerated convergence and increased accuracy. The improved sparrow search algorithm is applied to two controllers for experimental comparison, and the results indicate that, in contrast to the traditional PID control algorithm, the FPID control algorithm reduces the adjustment time by 1.4 s and decreases the overshoot by 6.8% when the speed is adjusted to 2000 revolutions per minute (RPM). The duration for speed fluctuation stabilization under load changes of 8 and 10 is decreased by 18% and 30%, respectively, and the fluctuation deviation of the speed is reduced by 7% and 12%, respectively. Consequently, the implementation of FPID parameters tuned by the improved sparrow algorithm provides robust support for the stable operation of a diesel engine during speed fluctuations.
Cancer treatment and survivorship statistics, 2025
Abstract The number of people living with a history of cancer in the United States continues to rise because of the growth and aging of the population as well as improved survival through advances in early detection and treatment. To assist the public health community serve the needs of these survivors, the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute collaborate triennially to estimate cancer prevalence in the United States using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cancer registries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, and the United States Census Bureau. In addition, cancer treatment patterns are presented from the National Cancer Database along with a brief overview of treatment‐related side effects. As of January 1, 2025, about 18.6 million people were living in the United States with a history of cancer, and this number is projected to exceed 22 million by 2035. The three most prevalent cancers are prostate (3,552,460), melanoma of the skin (816,580), and colorectum (729,550) among males and breast (4,305,570), uterine corpus (945,540), and thyroid (859,890) among females. About one half (51%) of survivors were diagnosed within the past 10 years, and nearly four fifths (79%) were aged 60 years and older. Racial differences in treatment in 2021 were common across disease stage; for example, Black people with stage I‐II lung cancer were less likely to undergo surgery than their White counterparts (47% vs. 52%). Larger disparities exist for rectal cancer, for which 39% of Black people with stage I disease undergo proctectomy or proctocolectomy compared to 64% of their White counterparts. Targeted, multi‐level efforts to expand access to high‐quality care and survivorship resources are vital to reducing disparities and advancing support for all survivors of cancer.
Modelling the melting of „shaft sludge” from shaft furnace dust removal in a short rotary kiln
Exploring the perceptions of living donation among potential Moroccan donors in the Netherlands
Introduction The Moroccan-Dutch population is underrepresented in Dutch donor pools, threatening access to matched blood products and transplants. This study explored Moroccan-Dutch individuals willingness to donate blood, stem cell, and live organ donation, and preferred information dissemination methods. Methods A qualitative and exploratory ethnographic study was employed using a survey followed by a focus group to examine willingness and information needs regarding living donation (blood, stem cells, kidney, liver) among Moroccan-Dutch individuals aged 18–55. Survey results were thematically analysed to inform an interview guide for in-depth focus group. Eight participants (four male, four female) were purposefully invited. The session was recorded, transcribed, and analysed thematically. Results Surveys from 119 persons and one focus group were analysed. Ten themes emerged across tissue types: 1) awareness of need; 2) information and knowledge; 3) donation process; 4) cues to action; 5) attitude; 6) religious legitimacy; 7) health challenges; 8) fear; 9) social cohesion and solidarity; 10) relationship with recipient. Participants were willing to donate blood, but needed reminders to prompt registration. Hesitation around stem cell donation stemmed from unfamiliarity and Islamic uncertainty. For living organ donation, emotional ties to recipients influenced willingness. Most participants were unaware of ethnic matching needs and shortages, and preferred campaigns highlighting these aspects. A multi-component communication strategy was preferred, combining medical, technical, religious, and emotional information, including patient stories, to address gaps and insecurities. Conclusion Participants were unfamiliar with stem cell donation, living organ donation, and ethnic matching. They were willing to donate tissue if aware of the shortage, the need for ethnic matching, and religious legitimacy They sought medical-technical information from donor organisations but preferred religious legitimacy communicated by an Islamic scholar. Participants stressed the need for a tailored campaign addressing barriers, ethnic matching, and reliance on the same community for successful living donation.