Edition Of Manual Research Articles

Improving Cerebrovascular Imaging with Deep Learning: Semantic Segmentation for Time-of-Flight Magnetic Resonance Angiography Maximum Intensity Projection Image Enhancement

Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) is widely used for cerebrovascular assessment, with Time-of-Flight (TOF) MRA being a common non-contrast imaging technique. However, maximum intensity projection (MIP) images generated from TOF-MRA often include non-essential vascular structures such as external carotid branches, requiring manual editing for accurate visualization of intracranial arteries. This study proposes a deep learning-based semantic segmentation approach to automate the removal of these structures, enhancing MIP image clarity while reducing manual workload. Using DeepLab v3+, a convolutional neural network model optimized for segmentation accuracy, the method achieved an average Dice Similarity Coefficient (DSC) of 0.9615 and an Intersection over Union (IoU) of 0.9261 across five-fold cross-validation. The developed system processed MRA datasets at an average speed of 16.61 frames per second, demonstrating real-time feasibility. A dedicated software tool was implemented to apply the segmentation model directly to DICOM images, enabling fully automated MIP image generation. While the model effectively removed most external carotid structures, further refinement is needed to improve venous structure suppression. These results indicate that deep learning can provide an efficient and reliable approach for automated cerebrovascular image processing, with potential applications in clinical workflows and neurovascular disease diagnosis.

Quality assessment of fish vaccine data in the Norwegian Veterinary Prescription Register (VetReg)

BackgroundVaccination of farmed salmonids has been an integral part of preventing infectious diseases in Norway’s aquaculture industry. In Norway, vaccine usage is regulated by the government. There is a need to monitor vaccine usage for both regulatory and research purposes, at local and national scales. The Norwegian Veterinary Prescription Register (VetReg) is a national database that includes all prescriptions of medicines to animals dispensed by pharmacies and all medicines used for food producing animals by veterinarians. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of fish vaccination data reported to VetReg in 2016–2022. We considered the following attributes: completeness, validity, and timeliness. For external validation, we compared the data in VetReg to wholesaler statistics.ResultsPharmacies reported fish vaccines to VetReg in a variety of quantity units, including doses and volumes, which required us to harmonize the data to a single unit. It was not possible to harmonize the quantity units for nine percent of the records, which were mainly bath vaccines reported in doses. We identified specific issues that required manual editing of the units of 1 percent of the records. We validated individual variables such as product codes and location identifiers using external registers. The ‘number of animals’ variable was inconsistent for 31 percent of the records. The coverage of vaccine data in VetReg ranged from 81 to 113 percent for the ten most sold vaccines in 2020–2022, as compared to wholesales statistics. For the timeliness, we found that 75 percent of the records were submitted within 25 days for all years.ConclusionsOverall, we found that the fish vaccination data in VetReg was of sufficient quality to monitor injectable vaccine usage at hatcheries after 2020. We identified issues at the product level, with bath vaccines, and with single variables (number of animals, weight, and species). We recommend that quality can be improved by reporting all vaccines in volume rather than doses, reporting a single vaccine prescription per report, and including a deadline for pharmacies to report in the legislation.

Observational drift: a methodological research proposal for community prospecting in socio-educational services

PurposeThis article aims to describe the process of application of the technique of Observational Drift for prospection in three territories of Catalonia and to present recommendations for its application in research and socio-educational action with young people.Design/methodology/approachObservational Drift is a qualitative research technique that has proven effective as a practice for community prospection. The process of design and application in the pilot implementation of this technique is presented together with a reflection on the outcome.FindingsThe pilot implementation of the technique has made it possible, within the framework of the research project, to identify methodological recommendations such as the edition of an observation manual; the training of the research team; the identification of supporting computer applications and registration questionnaires. Records of youth dynamics have been obtained in the 3 communities studied: the town of Celrà, the western district of the city of Girona and the “Ciutat Vella” district of Barcelona, 3 environments of different sizes located in Catalonia, Spain.Practical implicationsObservational drift is a qualitative technique that shows, with methodological rigour, the observation of relational dynamics together with the relevant facilities and places, presenting a situational reality. The information obtained must be contrasted with other qualitative methodologies to be transferable. It is a methodological technique that requires a large team and a significant amount of work.Social implicationsThis technique provides the opportunity to carry out prospections, and introduce researchers and professionals to specific realities with a critical perspective. We recommend its use in qualitative research and socio-educational care to improve the design of socio-educational youth care programs and policies.Originality/valueThe use of this technique (Observational Drift) has been provided initial qualitative data to understand youth dynamics in three communities in Catalonia, Spain. This is interesting because helping research to improve community services addressing youth.

Feasibility and time gain of implementing artificial intelligence-based delineation tools in daily magnetic resonance image-guided adaptive prostate cancer radiotherapy.

Feasibility and time gain of implementing artificial intelligence-based delineation tools in daily magnetic resonance image-guided adaptive prostate cancer radiotherapy.

Screening for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Mozambique: Validation of the Primary Care Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Screen for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual fifth edition (PC-PTSD-5).

The confluence of conflict-, climate-, and public health-related emergencies in Mozambique increases the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Few brief screening tools for PTSD have been validated in low- and middle-income countries. We aimed to validate the five-item Primary Care PTSD Screen for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5), the PC-PTSD-5 in Mozambique. This study recruited 957 participants who completed the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview-Plus (MINI-Plus) and PC-PTSD-5, a convenience sample from primary and tertiary care settings in Maputo, Mozambique. Participants were administered a diagnostic interview for psychiatric disorders and the PC-PTSD-5 screening tool. We evaluated the criterion validity of the PC-PTSD-5 concerning the MINI-Plus diagnosis of PTSD, the internal construct validity and reliability using confirmatory factor analysis and Kuder-Richardson 20 (KR-20), discriminant validity of the PC-PTSD-5 in comparison to other common mental disorder and suicide risk screening tools, and measurement invariance of selected cutoffs by age, sex, and comorbidity. Internal consistency of the PC-PTSD-5 was high (KR-20 = 0.837), and confirmatory factor analysis suggested that a single PTSD factor fits the data well. PC-PTSD-5 items were moderately correlated with other psychiatric symptoms. Criterion validity analyses revealed that a cutoff score of 3 provided high specificity (0.833) and moderate sensitivity (0.673). This cutoff score performed optimally across age and gender; however, a cutoff score of 2 was preferred if the participant had no psychiatric comorbidities. Screening with the PC-PTSD-5 may facilitate case detection and linkages to appropriate treatment for individuals affected by potentially traumatic events in Mozambique. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

S-NeRF++: Autonomous Driving Simulation via Neural Reconstruction and Generation.

Autonomous driving simulation system plays a crucial role in enhancing self-driving data and simulating complex and rare traffic scenarios, ensuring navigation safety. However, traditional simulation systems, which often heavily rely on manual modeling and 2D image editing, struggled with scaling to extensive scenes and generating realistic simulation data. In this study, we present S-NeRF++, an innovative autonomous driving simulation system based on neural reconstruction. Trained on widely-used self-driving datasets, such as nuScenes and Waymo, S-NeRF++ can generate a large number of realistic street scenes and foreground objects with high rendering quality as well as offering considerable flexibility in manipulation and simulation. Specifically, S-NeRF++ is an enhanced neural radiance field for synthesizing large-scale scenes and moving vehicles, with improved scene parameterization and camera pose learning. The system effectively utilizes noisy and sparse LiDAR data to refine training and address depth outliers, ensuring high-quality reconstruction and novel-view rendering. It also provides a diverse foreground asset bank by reconstructing and generating different foreground vehicles to support comprehensive scenario creation. Moreover, we have developed an advanced foreground-background fusion pipeline that skillfully integrates illumination and shadow effects, further enhancing the realism of our simulations. With the high-quality simulated data provided by our S-NeRF++, we found the perception methods enjoy performance boosts on several autonomous driving downstream tasks, further demonstrating our proposed simulator's effectiveness.

Self-assessed improved sun protection after diagnosis of melanoma is associated with improved survival.

Although ultraviolet radiation is the most important risk factor for skin cancer in general, its role in disease control after the diagnosis of melanoma remains to be elucidated. To analyse the association between survival and self-assessed sun protection behaviour after a melanoma diagnosis. This was a questionnaire-based pilot study. We used patient data from the Molecular Markers of Melanoma Study programme to select patients with a histologically verified, invasive cutaneous melanoma, diagnosed at stage I or II according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer's AJCC Cancer Staging Manual 8th edition, between 1981 and 2014. In total, 843 patients with melanoma were asked whether their diagnosis had influenced their sun protection behaviour and, if 'Yes', they were asked to describe, in their own words, how the diagnosis affected their behaviour. We excluded 33 patients who were unable to answer and included 810 patient responses for analysis. Reports on sun protection behaviour before and after melanoma diagnosis were recorded. We found a significant association of increased melanoma-specific survival (P = 0.001) with improved self-assessed sun protection behaviour. After adjusting for age, sex, AJCC stage, localization of the primary tumour and prior ultraviolet light exposure (outdoor occupation, solarium use and sun cream use), improved sun protecting behaviour after melanoma diagnosis resulted in a decreased hazard ratio (HR) for melanoma-specific survival (adjusted HR 0.491, 95% confidence interval 0.270-0.896; P = 0.020). Stratification showed that those who benefited from improved sun protection were, in particular, male patients, patients diagnosed with melanoma after 50 years of age, patients with stage II melanomas and those carrying an MC1R gene variant. Self-assessed improved sun protection after diagnosis was significantly associated with reduced mortality due to melanoma. These results highlight the importance of improved sun awareness for patients after melanoma diagnosis, not only for preventing further melanomas but also reducing mortality risk.

Orthopoxvirus Genome Sequencing, Assembly, and Analysis.

Poxviruses have exceptionally large genomes compared to most other viruses, which represent unique challenges to sequencing and assembly due to complex features such as repeat elements and low complexity sequences. The 2022 global mpox outbreak led to an unprecedented level of poxvirus sequencing as public health and research institutions faced with large sample numbers and demand for fast turnaround, merged NGS protocols designed for small RNA viruses with poxvirus expertise. Traditional manual assembly, checking, and editing of genomes was not feasible. Here, we present a protocol for metagenomic sequencing and orthopoxvirus genome assembly directly from DNA extracted from a patient lesion swab with no viral enrichment or host depletion. This sequencing approach is cost effective when using high throughput sequencing instruments and allows for detection of genomic insertions, deletions, and large rearrangement with confidence. We describe usage of two publicly available bioinformatic pipelines for genome assembly, quality control, annotation, and submission to sequence repositories.

Medial temporal lobe subregional atrophy patterns in presymptomatic and symptomatic genetic frontotemporal lobar degeneration

AbstractBackgroundMedial temporal lobe (MTL) atrophy is an early feature of multiple neurodegenerative diseases. In genetic frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD, i.e. individuals carrying GRN, MAPT, or C9orf72 mutations), MTL atrophy can occur 10‐15 years before symptom onset. We aimed to better characterize MTL atrophy patterns in presymptomatic and symptomatic genetic FTLD using a multi‐atlas segmentation pipeline that allows precise measurement of MTL subregions.MethodParticipants included a diagnostically mixed sample of familial FTLD mutation carriers (MAPT: N=87; C9orf72: N=117; GRN: N=65) and 142 non‐carrier family member controls from the ALLFTD study cohort (Table 1). T1‐weighted MRIs were preprocessed using a multi‐atlas automated pipeline (Automatic Segmentation of Hippocampal Subfields [ASHS]) to segment the amygdala, anterior and posterior hippocampus, and MTL cortices: entorhinal cortex (ERC), perirhinal cortex or Brodmann areas (BA) 35 and 36, and parahippocampal cortex (PHC). Following rigorous quality control and manual correction (Figure 1), we assessed bilateral volume differences in mutation carriers compared to controls, adjusted for age, sex, and total intracranial volume. Analyses were conducted separately for symptomatic (FTLD‐Clinical Dementia Rating Global Score≥0.5) and presymptomatic (Global Score=0) mutation carriers.ResultOut of 413 scans, 317 (76.8%) segmentations passed quality control while 94 (22.8%) needed some manual edits—this was more common in symptomatic than presymptomatic carriers (32% versus 15%, p=0.001). Three scans were excluded (<1%; 2 complete scans, 1 for selected subregions) due to insufficient landmark visibility in symptomatic GRN and MAPT carriers. In symptomatic carriers, all MTL subregions demonstrated reduced volume compared to controls, although MAPT carriers exhibited particularly marked atrophy, especially in anterior MTL subregions (Table 2; amygdala, ERC, BA35, hippocampus). Presymptomatic MAPT and C9orf72 carriers also exhibited significant atrophy of primarily anterior MTL cortices, while presymptomatic GRN carriers only exhibited significantly smaller ERC volume compared to controls.ConclusionMTL atrophy is present in genetic FTLD across mutation carriers, even at the presymptomatic stage. Anterior MTL subregions, which are also susceptible to neuropathologic accumulation in early Alzheimer’s disease and Limbic‐predominant age‐related TDP‐43 encephalopathy neuropathologic change (LATE‐NC), tend to be more vulnerable than posterior subregions. Unsurprisingly, MAPT carriers show the greatest MTL atrophy compared to controls across groups.

Cerebral Blood Flow in Midlife Obesity: Associations with Visceral and Subcutaneous Abdominal Adipose Tissue

AbstractBackgroundObesity and higher adiposity in midlife are recognized as contributors to Alzheimer disease (AD). Neurodegeneration in AD is at least partly mediated by vascular compromise and brain hypoperfusion. In this study, we aimed to investigate the associations between BMI and abdominal visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue (VAT, SAT) and brain cerebral blood flow (CBF) in cognitively normal midlife individuals.MethodA total of 66 middle‐aged cognitively normal adults (age: 49.86±5.99 years, females: 66.7%, obesity (BMI of 30 kg/m2 or higher): 51.5 %, BMI: 31.72±6.96 kg/m2) underwent abdominal and brain MRI. Using an in‐house Matlab program, abdominal VAT and SAT were automatically segmented followed by manual editing. A 3D Pseudo‐Continuous Arterial Spin Labeling (pCASL) sequence, with a single post‐labeling delay of 2.025 s, was used for assessing CBF. SPM12 was used to generate ASL absolute CBF (aCBF) maps with a single compartment model, co‐registered to the gray matter segmentations, and normalized to MNI space, followed by spatial smoothing. Using AAL3 atlas and Matlab, region of interest masks were created for amygdala, hippocampus, posterior cingulate, precuneus, parahippocampal, medial orbitofrontal, and middle temporal cortices and applied to absolute CBF (aCBF) maps. The aCBF differences between the obese vs. non‐obese, high‐VAT vs. low‐VAT, and high‐SAT vs. low‐SAT was assessed, with age and sex as covariates. Also, BMI, VAT, and SAT as separate predictor variables, with age and sex as covariates, were used for voxel‐wise analysis.ResultThere was a lower whole‐brain aCBF in the high‐VAT (p=0.004) group and obese (p=0.005) individuals, more prominently in the left middle temporal lobe (p=0.002). No significant difference was observed in global and regional aCBF in the high‐SAT vs. low‐SAT groups. Voxel‐wise analyses showed significantly lower aCBF in association with BMI in temporal, occipital, and frontal lobe clusters after false discovery rate correction.ConclusionObesity and increased visceral abdominal fat are associated with a lower cerebral blood flow, with a more prominent decrease in the middle temporal cortex, as an AD‐signature area, in cognitively normal midlife individuals. These findings highlight the role of obesity, especially visceral obesity, in brain hypoperfusion and potentially Alzheimer disease risk, as early as midlife.

Pattern Guided UV Recovery for Realistic Video Garment Texturing.

The fast growth of E-Commerce creates a global market worth USD 821 billion for online fashion shopping. What unique about fashion presentation is that, the same design can usually be offered with different cloths textures. However, only real video capturing or manual per-frame editing can be used for virtual showcase on the same design with different textures, both of which are heavily labor intensive. In this paper, we present a pattern-based approach for UV and shading recovery from a captured real video so that the garment's texture can be replaced automatically. The core of our approach is a per-pixel UV regression module via blended-weight multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) driven by the detected discrete correspondences from the cloth pattern. We propose a novel loss on the Jacobian of the UV mapping to create pleasant seams around the folding areas and the boundary of occluded regions while avoiding UV distortion. We also adopts the temporal constraint to ensure consistency and accuracy in UV prediction across adjacent frames. We show that our approach is robust to a variety type of clothes, in the wild illuminations and with challenging motions. We show plausible texture replacement results in our experiment, in which the folding and overlapping of the garment can be greatly preserved. We also show clear qualitative and quantitative improvement compared to the baselines as well. With the one-click setup, we look forward to our approach contributing to the growth of fashion E-commerce.

Mapping Anatomical Boundaries from Histology to Antemortem MRI to Inform Automatic Segmentation of Medial Temporal Lobe Subregions

AbstractBackgroundThe medial temporal lobe (MTL) is the epicenter of both primary and concomitant molecular pathologies in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The intricate anatomy of the MTL has been the subject of extensive study over the past two centuries. However, current PET and MRI AD biomarkers use often crude parcellations of the MTL that have not been sufficiently validated vis‐à‐vis anatomical ground truth. Here we use a unique dataset of finely annotated serial histology, ex vivo MRI and antemortem 3T in vivo MRI of the MTL from 17 brain donors to train and evaluate an automatic MTL subregion segmentation algorithm. To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive attempt to infuse MRI biomarkers with cytoarchitectural reference annotations.MethodA team of neuroanatomists annotated the boundaries of 27 MTL subregions on over 2000 serial Nissl histological sections from 17 brain donors. These boundaries were mapped to 9.4T ex vivo MRI (proton density, 0.2x0.2x0.2mm3) and, subsequently, to 3T in vivo MRI (T2‐weighted, ∼0.4x0.4x2.6mm3) using deformable registration, with extensive manual editing after each registration step to correct for registration errors and ensure 3D continuity and smoothness (Figure 1). Deep learning method nnU‐Net was trained on the resulting in vivo MRI annotations to automatically segment a set of major subregions (formed by merging smaller subregions). Surface‐based registration between an MTL template and the output of nnU‐Net was used to parcellate major subregions into 27 smaller subregions. Segmentation accuracy was assessed by five‐fold cross‐validation.ResultFigure 2 compares nnU‐Net and surface‐based automatic segmentations with corresponding cytoarchitectural reference segmentations. Table 1 reports segmentation accuracy for major subregions in terms of Dice coefficient. While accuracy is not as high as in some previous MTL subregion segmentation approaches, this is not surprising because the anatomical variability of cytoarchitecture‐based ground truth annotations in our approach is likely much higher than in prior approaches where ground truth was generated by applying heuristic/geometric rules.ConclusionIt is feasible to leverage cytoarchitecturally defined anatomical boundaries for automatic in vivo MRI segmentation. However, high variability in the location of cytoarchitectural borders poses clear limitations on MTL segmentation accuracy.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection versus conventional in vitro fertilization in infertile couples with normal total sperm count and motility: does sperm morphology matter?

Among couples with infertility and normal total sperm count and motility, can sperm morphology be used as a biomarker to identify couples who benefit more from ICSI over conventional IVF (c-IVF) on fertility outcomes? Based on this secondary analysis of a large randomized clinical trial (RCT), sperm morphology has limited value as a biomarker to identify couples who benefit more from ICSI over c-IVF on live birth, ongoing pregnancy, clinical pregnancy or total fertilization failure. Our recent RCT showed that ICSI did not result in higher live birth rates in couples with normal total sperm count and motility. It is unclear whether sperm morphology can be used as a biomarker to identify couples who benefit more from ICSI over c-IVF in this population. This was a secondary analysis of an open-label, multi-centre, RCT comparing ICSI versus c-IVF in 1064 couples with infertility and normal total sperm count and motility. In this secondary study, we evaluated the effectiveness of ICSI over c-IVF in relation to sperm morphology. Couples were eligible if they had ≤2 previous IVF/ICSI attempts, and the male partner had normal total sperm count and motility according to the fifth edition of the WHO laboratory manual for the examination and processing of human semen. Sperm morphology was measured from samples obtained during the first consultation and data for sperm morphology were available in partners of all participants in this trial. The outcomes of interest were live birth, ongoing pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, and total fertilization failure. We first conducted a logistic regression analysis with an interaction term (sperm morphology as a continuous variable by treatment (ICSI versus c-IVF)) on the four outcomes. We also used restricted cubic spline analysis to evaluate non-linear interaction and plotted the treatment effects of ICSI over c-IVF at different sperm morphology levels and the predicted probability of these outcomes in both ICSI and c-IVF groups. The median proportion of sperm with normal morphology in both groups was 3% (Interquartile range 1-6%). Live birth rates were (184/532) 34.6% for ICSI versus (166/532) 31.2% for c-IVF. No significant interaction was found between sperm morphology and treatment effect of ICSI versus c-IVF on the rates of live birth, ongoing pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, and total fertilization failure (P = 0.181, 0.153, 0.168, and 0.788 respectively). In the analyses using restricted cubic splines, no evidence of interaction between sperm morphology and the treatment effect was found. Interaction figures showed that the treatment effect of ICSI over c-IVF at different sperm morphology levels was fluctuating around no effect line, and the predicted outcomes for the two groups were mostly overlapping at different sperm morphology levels. This secondary analysis may be underpowered to detect a difference in treatment effects at different sperm morphology levels due to relatively small number of events at some sperm morphology levels. Moreover, sperm morphology assessment was performed during the first consultation, rather than on the day of randomization. In couples with infertility and normal total sperm count and motility, sperm morphology has a limited role as a biomarker to identify couples who benefit more from ICSI over c-IVF on fertility outcomes. This study was funded by My Duc Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. RW was supported by an NHMRC EL Investigator Grant (GNT2009767). LNV has received speaker and conference fees from Merck, grant, speaker, conference fees from Merck Sharpe and Dohme, and speaker, conference, and scientific board fees from Ferring. TMH has received speaker fees from Merck, Merck Sharp Dohme, and Ferring. BWM reports consultancy, travel support and research funding from Merck and consultancy for Organon and Norgine. BWM holds stock from ObsEva. NCT03428919.

Impact of ultra-high-resolution on cardiac CT assessment of coronary artery stenoses, plaque burden/composition, and pericoronary adipose tissue attenuation

Abstract Background Conventional coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) overestimates stenoses within stents and calcified arteries due to "blooming" artifacts. Ultra-high-resolution coronary CT (UHR-CT) may overcome this limitation because of higher spatial resolution. Purpose To investigate differences in coronary arterial lumen volume, stenosis severity, and plaque composition, between CCTA and UHRCT in patients with stents and/or high coronary calcium scores. Methods As part of a prospective pilot study, 14 patients referred for invasive coronary angiography for evaluation of obstructive CAD underwent UHRCT (Canon Precision, 160 x 0.25mm slices) prior to catheterization. Images of identical cardiac phases were reconstructed in two badges for comparison: 1) Ultra-high resolution using a 1,024 x 1,024 matrix, 0.25 mm, and 2) conventional resolution with a 524 x 524 matrix, 0.5 mm. All images were reconstructed using iterative reconstruction algorithm (AIDR 3D) and a sharp kernel (FC05). For the left main and three coronary arteries, an automated contour analysis using a dedicated software (QAngioCT RE 3.2, Medis, Netherlands) was performed to compare conventional CCTA vs. UHR-CT resolution images across common vascular and plaque metrics, including lumen and vessel volume, plaque burden/volume, plaque composition based upon predefined fixed intensity cut-off values of CT attenuation, minimal and maximal plaque thickness, pericoronary adipose tissue attenuation (PCAT), minimal lumen area and diameter, and diameter stenosis. All lumen and vessel contours were generated by the software, without manual editing. The segment model proposed by the SCCT was used as reference and the lesions classified as greater than 25% stenosis by visual assessment were recorded. The quality of the images was subjectively assessed using a 5-point Likert scale. Vessel segments with scores 1 (severe artifacts) and 2 (pronounced artifacts) were not included in the analysis. Results The mean patient age was 68.5 years (±6.8), 2 were female (14.3%), 6 patients had stents (11 stented segments) and the mean Agatston score was 947.6 (±449) among the 8 non-stented patients. A total of 56 vessels, 133 segments, and 57 lesions were analyzed. Eight segments (6%) were excluded from the analysis due to poor quality. Results on a per segment and per lesion basis were summarized in the table. The mean PCAT value was significantly lower for the UHRCT images compared to NR reconstruction in both segment (p<0.001) and lesion based (p=0.002) analyses. Plaque differentiation varied by UHRCT resulted in a lower fibrous plaque volumes but higher necrotic (low attenuation) plaque volumes. Conclusions Ultra-high-resolution CT image analysis results in significantly different coronary artery plaque volume and PCAT assessment vs. conventional resolution CCTA. These findings have implications for evaluating high-risk plaque features and perivascular inflammation in patients.Table 1

Mitigating Interobserver Variability in Radiomics with ComBat: A Feasibility Study.

This study investigates Intraobserver Features Variability (IFV) in radiomics studies and assesses the effectiveness of the ComBat harmonization method in mitigating these effects. Methods: This study utilizes data from the NSCLC-Radiomics-Interobserver1 dataset, comprising CT scans of 22 Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) patients, with multiple Gross Tumor Volume (GTV) delineations performed by five radiation oncologists. Segmentation was completed manually ("vis") or by autosegmentation with manual editing ("auto"). A total of 1229 radiomic features were extracted from each GTV, segmentation method, and oncologist. Features extracted included first order, shape, GLCM, GLRLM, GLSZM, and GLDM from original, wavelet-filtered, and LoG-filtered images. Results: Before implementing ComBat harmonization, 83% of features exhibited p-values below 0.05 in the "vis" approach; this percentage decreased to 34% post-harmonization. Similarly, for the "auto" approach, 75% of features demonstrated statistical significance prior to ComBat, but this figure declined to 33% after its application. Among a subset of three expert radiation oncologists, percentages changed from 77% to 25% for "vis" contouring and from 64% to 23% for "auto" contouring. This study demonstrates that ComBat harmonization could effectively reduce IFV, enhancing the feasibility of multicenter radiomics studies. It also highlights the significant impact of physician experience on radiomics analysis outcomes.

Multimodal Signal Retiming Projects: A Survey-Based Exploration of Traffic Signal Professionals’ Practices and Challenges

In the realm of traffic signal operations, the Signal Timing Manual second edition (STM2) serves as a foundational guide for professionals engaged in multimodal signal retiming projects. However, it is acknowledged that the STM2 has its limitations, and real-world conditions often necessitate adaptations in the established procedures. Considering this context, this research endeavors to bridge this gap by conducting a comprehensive survey aimed at traffic signal professionals. This study presents the findings of a comprehensive survey conducted among traffic signal professionals to explore the methodologies, challenges, and practices involved in multimodal signal retiming projects. The survey aimed to obtain detailed insights into the current state of signal retiming, the types of data and tools utilized, and the adaptations necessary to address the complexities of multimodal urban transportation networks. The survey highlights and summarizes responses from 36 professionals across North America, providing insight into both the common strategies and unique challenges faced by those responsible for optimizing signal timings in diverse and dynamic urban environments. The survey results reveal a reliance on diverse tools and data types for signal optimization, highlighting the complexities of accommodating different transportation needs. The findings underscore the importance of tailored approaches and advanced technologies in enhancing signal retiming processes. The insights gained from this study will inform future strategies and enhance the effectiveness of signal retiming procedures in urban areas, thereby contributing to improved traffic management and multimodal transportation efficiency.

Impact of Manual Contour Editing on Plan Quality for Online Adaptive Radiation Therapy for Head and Neck Cancer

Impact of Manual Contour Editing on Plan Quality for Online Adaptive Radiation Therapy for Head and Neck Cancer

Managing and editing UML documents: structure, integration, automation

Unified Modeling Language (UML) plays an important role in the modern software development process by offering standardized methods for visual modeling, analysis, and design of complex systems. This paper discusses the main aspects of storing, editing, and integrating UML documents with integrated development environments (IDEs). The main focus is on comparing the two main formats for storing UML models – XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). XMI, being an official standard developed by Object Management Group, provides a high degree of detail and compatibility with various UML tools, making it preferable for large and complex projects that require support for the full UML specification. At the same time, JSON is simple and flexible, which makes it suitable for projects where speed of development and ease of integration are important, although it is inferior to XMI in describing complex aspects of UML models. The paper analyzes in detail the methods of editing UML documents, including manual editing and automated approaches, using APIs and scripts. Manual editing is useful when you need to make small changes to the structure of a UML document, but it can be time-consuming and error-prone when working with large projects. Automation, on the other hand, provides effective tools for mass editing and generating UML elements, which significantly speeds up development and minimizes the likelihood of errors, especially since modern tools such as StarUML offer the necessary tools for programmatically modifying UML documents by integrating them into development processes. Combining of UML documents with integrated development environments also plays a key role in increasing development efficiency, as this allows automating code generation based on UML models, maintaining synchronization between code and diagrams, and facilitating visualization and documentation of architectural solutions. Despite the significant advantages, there are challenges associated with limited support for all UML features and potential conflicts between models and code. This only emphasizes the need for further research in this area. Prospects for further research include the development of new methods and tools for working with UML documents, improving their integration with development environments, and using artificial intelligence to automate the analysis and design of UML models. Attention should also be paid to the using of UML with continuous integration processes, which can significantly increase the flexibility and adaptability of software development. Thus, the study of the structure of storing, editing, and integrating UML documents is an important area for optimizing the design and development of modern software systems.

Implications of the shift to DSM-5 for alcohol use disorder prevalence estimates in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is a commonly used source for estimating trends in alcohol use disorders (AUD) in the United States. From 2015 to 2019 the annual prevalence of people diagnosed with either Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 4th edition (DSM-IV) alcohol abuse or dependence ranged from 5.3 to 5.9%. More recent estimates, using the DSM 5th edition (DSM-5) AUD diagnostic formulation, have been higher, with AUD base rates ranging from 10.1 to 10.7% from 2020 to 2022. This study aimed to compare the past 12-month base rates of AUD in the United States general population when using the DSM-5 versus DSM-IV AUD (i.e. abuse or dependence) and assess the AUD severity of individuals captured with each diagnostic formulation using DSM-5 AUD symptom counts. We examined descriptive trends in the rate of past-year NSDUH AUD diagnoses from 2015 to 2022. We contrasted them with trends in drinking behavior: the percentage of individuals who had ever reported drinking and the number of drinking days and binge drinking days for those who drink. We also analyzed the concordance between DSM-IV and DSM-5 AUD diagnoses in the 2020 NSDUH, which concurrently assessed AUD with both diagnostic formulations. The transition to DSM-5 AUD formulation coincided with a drastic increase in AUD prevalence rates that occurred without increases in drinking behavior. In 2020 NSDUH data, the estimated past-year DSM-5 AUD prevalence rate was 10.1% compared with a 5.4% rate of past-year DSM-IV abuse or dependence. The DSM-5 AUD formulation captured more mild-severity individuals than the DSM-IV formulation. Higher recent base rates of alcohol use disorders (AUD) in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health are likely, at least partially, explained by measurement changes in AUD; specifically, the shift from DSM-IV abuse or dependence to DSM-5 AUD. The DSM-5 formulation appears substantially more inclusive than the DSM-IV formulation, leading to a larger number of mild severity individuals being captured.

Major depressive disorder: point prevalence, suicidal ideation, and risk factors among Sudanese children and adolescents during Sudan army conflict: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundTiredness, poor concentration, disturbed sleep and poor appetite can all be caused by depression, which is a common mental disorder and a leading cause of disability worldwide. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of major depressive disorder, suicidal ideation, and risk factors in Sudanese children and adolescents during the Sudanese army conflict.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional community-based study was carried out among Sudanese children between 11 and 17 years old who living in Sudan at the start of the conflict by using a self-administered questionnaire under the guidance of parents, if necessary. The questionnaire was adapted from the Patients Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) checklist for the assessment of major depression disorder symptoms according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Edition 5th Edition (DSM-5). The questionnaire was translated into Arabic by two expert translators, and its validity and reliability were confirmed. Data analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 25 software, and descriptive analysis and any appropriate statistical tests were performed.ResultsAmong the 963 participants, the mean age was 15.18 ± 2.1 years, 65.5% were female, and 67.7% had major depressive disorder. There was a significant relationship between MDD score, age, sex, current residency status, and traumatic event exposure, with P values less than 0.001 for all variables.ConclusionMajor depressive disorder was highly prevalent among Sudanese children and adolescents included in the present study. Additionally, suicidal ideation, which requires immediate intervention, was reported to be very high. The findings will help the government to provide proper mental health interventions for affected people.