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Impact of self-perceived discomfort in critically ill patients on the occurrence of psychiatric symptoms in post-intensive care syndrome (PICS): A prospective observational study
Background Mental health impairments after intensive care unit (ICU) discharge include anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], forming part of the post-intensive care syndrome (PICS). We assessed the effects of discomfort on the occurrence of psychiatric symptoms as a part of PICS. Methods This prospective observational study conducted from September 2022 to June 2023 included all patients aged ≥ 18 years who survived an ICU stay of ≥3 days. To assess patient discomfort during the ICU stay, we used the Inconforts des Patients de REAnimation (IPREA) questionnaire. The primary outcome was the occurrence of anxiety, depression, or PTSD after ICU discharge. Secondary outcomes were the quality of life in ICU survivors and the clinical impression of physicians and psychologists to predict post-ICU psychiatric symptoms. Results Of the 173 patients included initially, 109 were finally analysed. An IPREA score ≥ 13 was strongly associated with an increased risk of post-ICU psychiatric symptoms (odds ratio: 3.8, 95% confidence interval: 1.4–10.3, p = 0.008). The patients with post-ICU psychiatric symptoms had a reduced quality of life. The clinical impression of physicians and psychologists at ICU discharge for the risk of psychiatric symptoms 3 months after the ICU stay was not selective. Conclusions Self-perceived discomfort in ICU survivors was the most predictive factor of the development of post-ICU psychiatric symptoms.
Predicting emergency department visits for non-traumatic dental-related conditions among Medicaid beneficiaries
MTSA-SC: A multi-task learning approach for individual trip destination prediction with multi-trajectory subsequence alignment and space-aware loss functions
Individual Trip Destination Prediction aims to accurately forecast an individual’s future travel destinations by analyzing their historical trajectory data, holding significant application value in intelligent navigation, personalized recommendations, and urban traffic management. However, challenges such as data sparsity, low quality, and complex spatiotemporal volatility pose substantial difficulties for prediction tasks. Existing studies exhibit notable limitations in insufficient integration of sparsity handling and prediction tasks, constrained modeling capability for local volatility, and inadequate exploration of fine-grained spatial dependencies, struggling to balance global patterns and local features in trajectory data. To address these issues, this paper proposes an individual trip destination prediction method that integrates multi-task learning, a multi-trajectory subsequence alignment attention mechanism, and a spatially consistent constrained cross-entropy loss function. Leveraging a multi-task learning framework(MTSA-SC), our approach collaboratively addresses trajectory recovery and prediction tasks, enhancing prediction accuracy while improving robustness to missing data. The multi-trajectory subsequence alignment attention mechanism incorporates sliding windows and convolutional operations to dynamically capture local volatility and diverse patterns in trajectories. The spatially consistent constrained loss function strengthens spatial feature learning through differential error penalty adjustments. Experimental results on public datasets from Shenzhen and Xiamen demonstrate recall rates of 0.722 and 0.6 under complete and sparse trajectory scenarios, respectively, outperforming state-of-the-art baselines by an average of 15.64%. This research provides robust technical support for intelligent travel recommendations and traffic management.
Isolation and characterization of human cKIT positive amniotic fluid stem cells obtained from pregnancies with spina bifida
The tumor suppressor FAT1 controls YAP/TAZ protein degradation and tumor cell proliferation through E3 ligase MIB2
FAT1 is a tumor suppressor gene encoding the protocadherin FAT1, which has been found to be mutated in different types of human cancers with the highest frequency in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, through which mechanisms mutations of FAT1 lead to tumor progression is incompletely understood. Here, we report that loss of FAT1 in various tumor cells, including HNSCC cells, resulted in increased protein levels of the transcriptional regulators YAP and TAZ. This was sufficient to lead to increased expression of YAP/TAZ target genes and to increased tumor cell proliferation. We found that elevated YAP/TAZ activity after loss of FAT1 was due to decreased YAP/TAZ protein degradation, which could be rescued by expression of the intracellular part of FAT1. When analyzing the interactome of the cytoplasmic part of FAT1 in tumor cells, we identified the E3 ubiquitin ligase Mind Bomb-2 (MIB2) as an interaction partner. Suppression of MIB2 expression in various tumor cells led to same effects as loss of FAT1 expression, including a decrease in YAP and TAZ ubiquitination, and degradation as well as an increase in YAP/TAZ protein levels and expression of YAP/TAZ target genes. Similarly, Hela cells or HNSCCs with suppressed MIB2 expression resembled FAT1 defective tumor cells showing faster proliferation in vitro as well as increased tumor growth in vivo compared to control cells. Our study identifies a mechanism by which YAP/TAZ levels are kept low through FAT1/MIB2-mediated protein degradation and shows that tumor progression resulting from mutation of tumor suppressor FAT1 involves loss of MIB2-dependent degradation of YAP and TAZ.
Mediational effect analysis of childhood emotional abuse on prodromal psychotic symptoms in self-taught examination students
Active disturbance rejection control based on soft computing techniques for electric power steering to improve system performance
Electric Power Steering (EPS) systems enhance driving comfort and safety. However, their performance often degrades under varying operating conditions due to external disturbances and modeling uncertainties. Traditional control methods, which typically rely on fixed parameters or neglect disturbance dynamics, struggle to maintain robustness and adaptability across diverse scenarios. This article presents an improved control strategy integrating Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) with advanced soft computing techniques to address these challenges. The proposed method introduces two key innovations: optimizing the tracking differentiator’s speed factor using a genetic algorithm and dynamically tuning state feedback control parameters through a fuzzy inference system. This hybrid approach enhances the disturbance rejection capability of ADRC and significantly improves system adaptability and tracking accuracy. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed controller, demonstrating low tracking errors (1.875% at low speed and 1.373% at high speed) and disturbance estimation accuracy exceeding 90%. Compared to conventional controllers, the proposed method exhibits superior robustness, reduced steady-state error, and improved performance across a wide range of operating conditions. These results confirm the potential of integrating ADRC with intelligent optimization techniques for advanced control in automotive mechatronic systems.
Short-wall roadway backfill method for sustainable mining
Urbanization, socioeconomic status, and exposure to PM2.5, associated with township-based cerebrovascular disease (CBD) mortality
Background/Objective Previous research has shown an association between socioeconomic status (SES) and mortality, particularly in chronic diseases. However, limited studies simultaneously examined the relationship between urbanization, SES, exposure to PM2.5, and cerebrovascular disease (CBD) mortality at a township level from 2011 to 2020 in Taiwan. Methods Township-level SES data (percentages of low-income and education with college and above) and seven levels of urbanization from 2011 to 2020 were obtained from data sources in Taiwan’s central government. Age-standardized CBD mortality rates in 358 townships were calculated using the Geographic Information System (GIS) provided by the Research Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences (RCHSS) at Academia Sinica. Exposure to PM2.5 concentration was estimated using a combination of land-use regression and Ordinary Kriging to enhance the robustness of PM2.5 concentration estimates at the township level. Panel regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the association between urbanization, SES, exposure to PM2.5, and township-based CBD mortality rates. Results There are significant differences in SES variables and exposure to PM2.5 among townships with seven levels of urbanization (P < 0.001). Even after controlling for other covariates (SES and PM2.5 concentration) through multivariate analysis, the associations between CBD mortality rates and urbanization areas persisted. SEM analysis revealed a negative correlation between age-standardized CBD mortality rate and education levels (β = −0.22), but a positive correlation with the proportion of low-income individuals (β = 0.41). There was no significant association between exposure to PM2.5 and CBD mortality. The panel regression analysis revealed that socioeconomic variables had different effects on CBD mortality rates across the three models (pooled ordinary least squares, fixed-effects, and random-effects) in both urban and rural areas. Notably, the level of urbanization was observed to modify the relationship between socioeconomic variables and CBD mortality rates. Conclusion Our findings suggest that township-based CBD mortality is significantly associated with SES variables and levels of urbanization, despite a reduction in CBD mortality from 2011 to 2020. Therefore, targeted intervention programs should be implemented to reduce CBD mortality in different levels of urbanization, particularly in remote townships. It is necessary to assess the disparities in socioeconomic status to achieve a fair allocation of resources at the township level.
Time to achieve optimal glycemic control and its determinants among diabetes mellitus patients receiving treatment: a retrospective study
Abstract Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a major public health problem responsible for morbidity and mortality. Maintaining blood sugar control helps patients achieve optimal glycemic levels. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the factors affecting the time to achieve optimal glycemic control among DM patients at Assosa General Hospital (AGH), Western Ethiopia. A retrospective study design was conducted from 427 randomly selected DM patients in the outpatient department (OPD) clinic at AGH under the follow-up period from September 2022 to September 2024. The median survival time, Kaplan-Meier survival estimate, and Log-Rank test were used to describe the data and compare the survival time between groups. The study used Cox PH model to analyze the time to achieve optimal glycemic control of DM patients, where hazard ratio, p-value, and 95% CI for hazard ratio were used for testing significance. Schoenfeld and Cox-Snell residuals were used to check the model assumptions. The median time to optimal glycemic control for DM patients was 12 months. At the end of the follow-up, 74.2% of the patients had developed an event and the rest 25.8% were censored. The significant predictors of time to optimal glycemic control include: older age (AHR = 0.871(95% CI 0.809, 0.937)), females (AHR = 1.295 (95% CI 1.024, 1.639)), having FHDM (AHR = 1.681(95% CI 1.313, 2.153)), rural residence(AHR = 0.463(95% CI 0.354, 0.607)), presence of comorbidity (AHR = 0.508(95% CI 0.302, 0.854)), DM related complications (AHR = 0.419(95% CI 0.326, 0.539)), high BLBGL AHR = 0.997(95% CI 0.995, 0.998)). This study found the factors that prolonged or shortened the time to reach optimal glycaemic control for T2DM patients. The study revealed that older age, male patients, patients having other related comorbidities and patients with no FHDM, patients having DM-related complications as poor prognostic factors of T2DM disease and also prolonged recovery time. Therefore, attention should be given to these patients to obtain good glycaemic levels and the patient being healthy.
Simple, rapid, and efficient purification of M13 phages: The Faj-elek method
M13 bacteriophages (phages) are used as very important tools in molecular biology, biotechnology and, nanotechnology. Many methods have been developed so far for the purification of these phages. However, it is important that phages retain their infecting properties, especially in biotechnological applications such as phage display technology. The most widely used is the PEG precipitation method, but it has some limitations such as impurities and reduced infectivity. To overcome them, we developed a new method for purification of M13 bacteriophages using syringe filters made of cellulose acetate membranes with a pore diameter of 0.22 µm. Phages were aggregated so that they could remain on the filters and for this purpose, the pH of the phage cultures was reduced to 3. The phage cultures were filtered and then the phages were recovered in tris-buffered saline (TBS) buffer (pH 10.5) by reversing the filter. The recovery rate was 250% higher than the standard PEG method. This new Faj-elek method offers an alternative to existing methods, allowing cheaper, easier and faster purification of M13 phages using syringe filters available in every research laboratory.
The combination of the 18F-FDG PET and susceptibility-weighted imaging for diagnosis of cerebral glucose metabolism and iron deposition in Parkinson’s disease
Cocaine self-administration attenuates brain glucose metabolism and functional connectivity in rats
Background Cocaine abuse and Cocaine Use Disorder (CUD) is an increasingly urgent public health issue leading to major health risks often resulting in a decreased lifespan and quality of life. Previous human research has described brain function of cocaine addicts however the amount of cocaine use, duration of use, and exclusion of using other drugs (i.e., nicotine and alcohol) have all been difficult to control. One unanswered question is related to how does cocaine affect both brain glucose metabolism and functional connectivity?. Methods The present study examined using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and the glucose analog [18F]-Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG), brain glucose metabolism (BGluM) and functional connectivity in male rats (N = 6) that self-administered cocaine compared to baseline control scans in the same animals prior to cocaine exposure. Results Our Results showed that Cocaine Self-Administration (CSA) caused significant BGluM decreases in several brain regions including posterior thalamic nuclei, Claustrum (Cl); Solitary nucleus, Presubiculum (PrS); Caudate Putamen (CPu); Anterior hypothalamic area (AHA); Ventral pallidum (VP); and amygdala. Activation (increased BGluM) was observed in the primary somatosensory cortex. These regions are associated with memory, spatial navigation, visual processing and saliency along with other somatosensory and motor functions, as well as regulatory autonomic function (cardiovascular) and hormonal response. Conclusion This brain functional connectivity mapping illustrated a brain circuit composed of brain regions that are either a part of or connect with the mesolimbic reward pathway that is mediated by dopamine. When this circuit is dysregulated, it is believed to be associated with substance use disorders and reward dysregulation which have recently been described as attributes of preaddiction.
White matter properties in fronto-parietal tracts predict maladaptive functional activation and deficient response inhibition in ADHD
Abstract Response inhibition is a key characteristic of adaptive human behaviour. However, in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) it is often impaired. Previous neuroimaging investigations implicate a myriad of brain networks in response inhibition, making it more difficult to understand and overcome response inhibition difficulties. Recently, it has been suggested that a specific fronto-parietal functional circuitry between the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), dictates the recruitment of the IPS during response inhibition in ADHD. To ascertain the critical role of the IFG-IPS functional circuit and its relevance to response inhibition in ADHD, it is crucial to understand the underlying structural architecture of this circuit so that the functional relevance could be interpreted correctly. Here we investigated the white matter pathways connecting the IFG and IPS using seed-based probabilistic tractography on diffusion data in 33 ADHD and 19 neurotypicals, assessing their impact on both IPS recruitment during response inhibition and on response inhibition performance in a Go/No-go task. Our results showed that individual differences in the structural properties of the IPS-IFG circuit, including tract volume and diffusivity, were linked to IPS activation and even predicted response inhibition performance outside the scanner. These findings highlight the structural-functional coupling within the IFG-IPS circuit in response inhibition in ADHD and suggest a structural basis for maladaptive functional top-down control in deficient inhibition in ADHD.
The effect of follicular and ampullary fluid extracellular vesicles on bovine oocyte competence and in vitro fertilization rates
Follicular fluid from preovulatory follicles as well as ampullary fluid from slaughtered cows at the early metestrus were collected for isolation of EVs. Excellent and good quality bovine oocytes were selected and distributed into four groups: control group which did not receive EVs, the FFEV group which were exposed to 40 μg/ml of follicular fluid EVs for the first 18 hours of the culture, the FFAFEV group which received 40 μg/ml of follicular fluid EVs for the first 18 hours of the culture, followed by 3.4 μg/ml of ampullary fluid EVs for the remaining 4.5 hours, and the AFEV group which were exposed to 3.4 μg/ml of ampullary fluid EVs for the final 4.5 hours of the culture. After a total incubation period of 22.5 hours, the COCs were evaluated for nuclear maturation, expression of some relevant genes, and Raman spectra from different areas of the representative matured oocytes (Experiment 1). In addition, fertilization rate of the oocytes was assessed after addition of EVs to the maturation medium (Experiment 2). The maturation and fertilization rates, as well as the expression of TNFAIP6, HAS2, and GDF9 genes, were significantly higher in the EVs treatment groups compared to the control group (p ≤ 0.05). Furthermore, the Raman microspectroscopy revealed a higher number of mitochondria (1602 cm-1), increased levels of unsaturated lipids (1655 cm-1) and a favorable phenylalanine to carbohydrate ratio (1002/1037, serving as a marker for oocyte quality, in the FFAFEV group compared to the control group. Additionally, there was a lower concentration of saturated lipids (2883 cm-1) in the FFAFEV group than in the control group. In conclusion, our findings showed that supplementation of the oocyte maturation media with follicular and ampullary fluid EVs positively influenced oocyte quality and enhanced in vitro maturation, fertilization rates, and the relevant gene expression.
Optimal positioning of biomarkers according to ulcerative colitis activity
Expressing intrinsically-disordered tardigrade proteins has positive effects on acute but not chronic stress tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
The production of high value and commodity chemicals, biopharmaceuticals and biofuels using Saccharomyces cerevisiae is hindered by various stress factors that affect yield and efficiency. Tardigrades, known for their remarkable stress tolerance, express unique proteins responsible for their resilience. This study evaluates the impact of expressing the tardigrade proteins CAHS3, MAHS, and RvLEAM on stress tolerance in S. cerevisiae. Our results show that high yields of these proteins do not impede yeast growth, except for CAHS3, which reduces proliferation. Expression of MAHS enhances acute heat tolerance, while MAHS and RvLEAM confer increased tolerance to acute hyperosmotic stress. Both CAHS3 and RvLEAM improve desiccation survival. However, these proteins do not provide benefits under chronic stress conditions such as prolonged exposure to high temperature, hyperosmotic stress, or solvents. These findings highlight the potential utility of tardigrade proteins for transient stress protection in industrial bioprocesses and suggest future engineering approaches for improved stress tolerance in yeast.
Research and simulation analysis of Jack based dental treatment chair human–machine system
Survival time and prognostic factors in dogs clinically diagnosed with haemangiosarcoma in UK first opinion practice
Visceral haemangiosarcoma is considered clinically aggressive in dogs, with perceived poor prognosis often leading to euthanasia at presentation. This study aimed to determine survival times and prognostic factors in dogs with haemangiosarcoma under first-opinion care. Dogs clinically diagnosed with haemangiosarcoma in first-opinion practice in 2019 were identified in VetCompass electronic health records and examined to capture variables potentially associated with survival. Median survival time (MST) from diagnosis was calculated for the whole population, those histopathologically confirmed and based on primary tumour location. Binary logistic regression was used to explore differences between dogs that died on the day of diagnosis and those that survived ≥1 day. Cox proportional hazards modelling explored factors associated with time to death in dogs surviving ≥1 day. Across all cases (n = 788), overall MST was 9.0 days (95%CI:5.0–15.0, range: 0–1789) and proportional 1-year survival was 12.0% (95%CI:9.7–15.0%). Dogs with splenic (MST = 4.0 days, 95%CI 0.0–9.0) and cutaneous haemangiosarcoma (MST = 119.0 days,95%CI:85.0–248.0) had MST greater than 0 days. Of dogs with a histopathological diagnosis of haemangiosarcoma, overall MST was longer at 105 days (95% CI 84–133 days) and additionally, location-specific MST were longer. For both clinically diagnosed cases and histopathologically confirmed cases, increasing tumour size was associated with increased hazard of death while cutaneous location and surgery were associated with reduced hazard of death. A very short survival time was identified for haemangiosarcoma under first-opinion care. Although survival time was longest for cutaneous cases, the actualised prognosis was poor overall for haemangiosarcoma. However, a common prevailing view of extremely poor prognosis for haemangiosarcoma could be promoting frequent euthanasia at presentation and therefore leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy and low survival times. Further exploration of the potential effect of perceived prognosis is warranted. This study provides valuable information for contextualised care and dialogues with clients in first-opinion practice.