Browse Articles

Differential treatment response to virtual reality in high-impact chronic pain: secondary analysis of a randomized trial

Simulation and experimental research on drilling and rock breaking mechanisms of anchor drill rigs with analysis of drilling feedback signals

Impact of single dose of pegfilgrastim on peripheral blood stem cell harvest in patients with multiple myeloma or malignant lymphoma

Abstract This phase 2 study evaluated the impact of pegfilgrastim, a single-dose, long-acting granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, on the steady-state mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells into peripheral blood in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) or malignant lymphoma (ML). Efficacy and safety, along with CD34-positive cell mobilization outcomes were assessed in patients with MM, who were randomly assigned to pegfilgrastim (n = 30) or daily filgrastim (n = 31), and ML (pegfilgrastim only, n = 13) cohorts. In the MM cohort, CD34-positive cell counts ≥ 2 × 106/kg were achieved in 100% of patients in the pegfilgrastim group and 96.7% in the filgrastim group (difference: 3.3%; 80% confidence interval: −0.9–7.5%), demonstrating the non-inferiority of pegfilgrastim to filgrastim. All patients in the ML cohort achieved ≥ 2 × 106/kg CD34-positive cell counts. The plerixafor administration rates in the MM cohort were 50.0% and 63.3% in the pegfilgrastim and filgrastim groups, respectively, and 91.7% in the ML cohort. There were no major differences in safety measures between the two groups. Although the sample size was small, particularly in the ML cohort, a single dose of pegfilgrastim demonstrated comparable efficacy and safety to daily doses of filgrastim, indicating its potential for clinical use while reducing patient burden. Trial Registration: jRCT2011210029, NCT05007652.

Nikki A. Thiele

Alvespimycin is identified as a novel therapeutic agent for diabetic kidney disease by chemical screening targeting extracellular vesicles

Research on blasting technology for thick and hard roof fracturing in isolated island coal mine working face

Abstract In order to study the prevention and control technology for hard roof type coal burst in the isolated working face of the Chenjiashan coal mine, the 418 isolated working face was selected as the engineering case study. Based on the different impact danger zones and mining areas, a roof breaking blasting pressure relief technical scheme was proposed. The anti-impact effect was verified through hole peeping and infrared radiation data. The research shows: (1) According to the geological conditions of the 418 working face of the Chenjiashan coal mine, the working face is divided into weak impact hazard areas and moderate impact hazard areas. Targeted roof blasting schemes were proposed for the initial square area of the working face, moderate danger area, weak danger area, initial mining and initial caving area, and the strike area of the working face. (2) On-site borehole data show that after blasting, a large number of fractures and delaminations were formed in the roof, and some fractures further developed into delaminations, with local areas showing crushed zones. This proves the formation of a “buffer zone” in the roof and floor, achieving pre-cracking of the thick and hard roof, full development of fractures, significant reduction in stress concentration, and the roof blasting can achieve good pressure relief effect. (3) The temperature monitoring near the blasting point and the infrared radiation temperature shows that within an hour after the implementation of the roof blasting, the coal mass at the breaking position experienced a process of heating up and then cooling down, with the temperature at the monitoring point rising by 0.5–0.7 °C. After the implementation of the roof blasting, the key layer above the working face was destroyed, and the stress was released and transmitted to the corresponding area of the coal mass, the stress of the coal increased, and the infrared radiation temperature increased, proving that the blasting pressure relief achieved the expected effect.

Transformer-based language-independent gender recognition in noisy audio environments

Peer-driven task scheduling and resource allocation for enhanced performance in industrial IoT systems

Identification of prognostic and therapeutic biomarkers associated with macrophage and lipid metabolism in pancreatic cancer

Anticollision communication ontology technique implementation with MANET networking

Evidence of reduced birthweight in Ukraine following the Russian invasion

Abstract The impact of armed conflict on birth weight has been shown in various studies, but the effects of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have been overlooked until now. This study investigates the influence of war on birth-weight using data and follow-up of pregnancies among women having prenatal screening. Maternal factors, outcomes, and birth weights were analyzed for 706 screened women who delivered between 2020 and 2023, excluding cases of spontaneous abortion, termination, and multiple pregnancies. Of these, 330 deliveries occurred before the invasion and 376 afterward. The only statistically significant maternal factors were parity − 22% nulliparous before and 48% after invasion (P < 0.0001) and maternal weight − 60 versus 62 kg. (P < 0.05). Birth-weight was significantly reduced: median 3500 g before and 3350 g after (P < 0.0001); proportions < 2500 g, 1.2% and 2.4%, respectively (P = 0.24). The ratio of birth-weight to infant length was also significant (P < 0.0001). Analysis of variance showed birth-weight significances remained after allowing for parity and gender. These findings highlight a significant decline in birth weight associated with armed conflict, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions to support maternal and neonatal health during periods of war.

Session interest model for CTR prediction based on feature co-action network

Medical image segmentation by combining feature enhancement Swin Transformer and UperNet

Mindfulness training decreases the habituation response to persistent food stimulation

Abstract Modern societies and their obesogenic environments expose individuals to persistent food stimulation. This frequent exposure can cause sensory systems to habituate or desensitize to food-related sensory stimulation. This can, in turn, lead to the reduction of pleasure associated with eating, which can elicit overeating behavior to attain the desired pleasurable effect. However, frequently engaging in overeating behavior can lead to excessive weight gain, which is associated with the development of metabolic and cardiovascular disease. Mindfulness training could serve as a tool to reduce the habituation response elicited by frequent food exposure while promoting mindful eating, emotion regulation, and reducing overeating behavior. To investigate this, the present study was registered as a clinical trial on the ISRCTN registry: trial ID ISRCTN12901054. In the study, meditation-naïve individuals with a tendency to stress-eat (N = 56) participated in either a 31-day, web-based, food-related mindfulness training or health training condition. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and behavioral data were acquired before and after the intervention. During the fMRI sessions, hungry and stressed participants were exposed to visual and olfactory high-calorie food stimuli. The results indicate that hunger and stress ratings increased in both groups during the fMRI sessions but that mindfulness training, in comparison to health training, may significantly reduce the habituation response to food stimuli. Our results demonstrate that the habituation response could be implicated through the increase of neural activity in brain regions involved in visual and olfactory processing as well as emotion regulation. This study, therefore, demonstrates that mindfulness training could improve the ability to attend to food stimuli, which may enhance the pleasurable experience of eating, thereby diminishing an individual’s tendency to engage in overeating behavior.

In-situ XAFS measurements of amorphous Li3PO4-doped V2O5 cathode for all-solid-state thin-film Li-ion batteries

Exploring the nexus of industrial production and energy consumption on CO2 emissions in Bangladesh through ARDL bounds testing insights

No sex difference in the association of pre-stroke physical activity with functional independence after ischemic stroke

Author Correction: Mechanism of skull base osteoradionecrosis explored through laboratory assessment with propensity score-matched analysis

High precision experimentally validated adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system controller for DC motor drive system

The reliability of medical illness reporting in a randomized clinical trial

Background/Objective Reported medical disorders from population surveys, medical records, and clinical trials, may not be accurate and methods are needed to improve confirmation. We report the accuracy of reported prevalence of medical disorders in a clinical trial and comparison with potential verification methods. Methods We report the prevalence of 11 medical disorders, utilizing prospectively collected data from 729 participants in an eight-country multicenter clinical treatment trial on non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION). We chose disorders where the medical history was potentially verifiable. We determined the prevalence using four methods: Method (M)1: Participant and medical health record reporting; M2: Physical examination, clinical tests; M3: Medication indications; M4: Combining M2 and M3. We estimated concordance between M1 and the other methods using Cohen’s kappa (K) statistic. Results Prevalence of the medical disorders based on M1 were lower than for either M2 or M3, depending on the disorder, and consistentlly lower for M4. For M1 and M4, moderate concordance (K ≥ 0.50) was observed only for psychiatric disorders (K = 0.52) and prior NAION (K=0.67). The prevalence and concordance for M1 and M4 for anemia, hypertension, diabetes and psychiatric disease were the only disorders that differed between females and males. For all methods, the prevalence varied widely across countries. Concordance for M1 and M4 varied and moderate concordance occurred for psychiatric disorders and prior NAION. Conclusion Even with prospective, rigorously collected data, medical histories do not reliably identify all medical disorders. Adding the results of physical examination, laboratory tests, and medications increases the accuracy of reporting. This strategy could be adapted for clinical trials and electronic medical record disease-prevalence data mining.