Research Group Research Articles

Rhinoplasty Sutures and Skin Closure Preferences-An Evidence-Based Rhinoplasty Research Group Survey.

Rhinoplasty Sutures and Skin Closure Preferences-An Evidence-Based Rhinoplasty Research Group Survey.

Antarctica's hidden mycoviral treasures in fungi isolated from mosses: A first genomic approach.

This study investigates the presence of mycoviruses in Antarctic fungi and elucidates their evolutionary relationships. To achieve this, we aligned mycoviral gene sequences with genomes of previously sequenced Antarctic endophytic fungi, made available by our research group and accessible via Joint Genome Institute. Our findings reveal that the most prevalent genetic regions in all endophytic fungi are homologous to Partitiviruses, Baculoviridae, and Phycodnaviridae. These regions display evidence of positive selection pressure, suggesting genetic diversity and the accumulation of nonsynonymous mutations. This phenomenon implies a crucial role for these regions in the adaptation and survival of these fungi in the challenging Antarctic ecosystems. The presence of mycoviruses in Antarctic endophytic fungi may indicate shared survival strategies between the virus and its host, shedding light on their evolutionary dynamics. This study underscores the significance of exploring mycoviruses within endophytic fungi and their contributions to genetic diversity. Future research avenues could delve into the functional implications of these conserved mycoviral genetic regions in Antarctic endophytic fungi, providing a comprehensive understanding of this intriguing association and genomic retention of viral region in fungi.

Intake Biomarkers for Nutrition and Health: Review and Discussion of Methodology Issues

Metabolomics profiles from blood, urine, or other body fluids have the potential to assess intakes of foods and nutrients objectively, thereby strengthening nutritional epidemiology research. Metabolomics platforms may include targeted components that estimate the relative concentrations for individual metabolites in a predetermined set, or global components, typically involving mass spectrometry, that estimate relative concentrations more broadly. While a specific metabolite concentration usually correlates with the intake of a single food or food group, multiple metabolites may be correlated with the intake of certain foods or with specific nutrient intakes, each of which may be expressed in absolute terms or relative to total energy intake. Here, I briefly review the progress over the past 20 years on the development and application intake biomarkers for foods/food groups, nutrients, and dietary patterns, primarily by drawing from several recent reviews. In doing so, I emphasize the criteria and study designs for candidate biomarker identification, biomarker validation, and intake biomarker application. The use of intake biomarkers for diet and chronic disease association studies is still infrequent in nutritional epidemiology research. My comments here will derive primarily from our research group’s recent contributions to the Women’s Health Initiative cohorts. I will complete the contribution by describing some opportunities to build on the collective 20 years of effort, including opportunities related to the metabolomics profiling of blood and urine specimens from human feeding studies that approximate habitual diets.

Chromatin Condensation Delays Senescence in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells by Safeguarding Nuclear Damages during In Vitro Expansion

Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) are multipotent cells that differentiate into adipocytes, chondrocytes, and osteoblasts. Owing to their differentiation potential, hMSCs are among the cells most frequently used for therapeutic applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, the number of cells obtained through isolation alone is insufficient for hMSC-based therapies and basic research, which necessitates in vitro expansion. Conventionally, this is often performed on rigid surfaces such as tissue culture plates (TCPs). However, during in vitro expansion, hMSCs lose their proliferative ability and multilineage differentiation potential, rendering them unsuitable for clinical use. Although multiple approaches have been attempted to maintain hMSC stemness during prolonged expansion, finding a suitable culture system remains an unmet need. Recently, a few research groups have shown that hMSCs maintain their stemness over long passages when cultured on soft substrates. In addition, it has been shown that hMSCs cultured on soft substrates have more condensed chromatin and lower levels of histone acetylation compared to those cultured on stiff substrates. Furthermore, it has also been shown that condensing/decondensing chromatin by deacetylation/acetylation can delay replicative senescence in hMSCs during long-term expansion on TCPs. However, the mechanism by which chromatin condensation/decondensation influences nuclear morphology and DNA damage, which are strongly related to the onset of senescence, remains unknown. To answer this question, we cultured hMSCs for long duration in the presence of epigenetic modifiers, histone acetyltransferase inhibitor (HATi), which promotes chromatin condensation by preventing histone acetylation, and histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi), which promotes chromatin decondensation, and investigated their effects on various nuclear markers related to senescence. We found that consistent acetylation causes severe nuclear abnormalities, whereas chromatin condensation by deacetylation helps to safeguard the nucleus from damage caused by in vitro expansion.

The Effect of Educational Units According to the Cognitive Training Strategy on Cognitive Flexibility and Learning the Skill of Scoring in Football

The first chapter contained the introduction and importance of the research, as the importance of using the cognitive training strategy according to cognitive flexibility was addressed for learning football for first-stage students. The research aims to address whether educational units developed by the researchers positively influence learning outcomes in football scoring. The objectives of the research were to prepare educational units using a cognitive training strategy according to cognitive flexibility in learning the skill of scoring in football. Where the research areas were: The human field: first-year students in the College of Basic Education, Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences / Al- Mustansiriya University, the time field: for the period from 10/12/2022 until 2/ 10/2023. As for the research community, it was represented by the students of the first stage in the College of Basic Education/Al- Mustansiriya University (70) students. The sample consisted of two equal groups (10), experimental and control. The Vina system was used using a three-dimensional test to determine cognitive flexibility. The researcher conducted pre-tests for the research sample, then the main experiment was applied for a period of 10 weeks, one educational unit per week, after which the researcher conducted the post-tests and the pre-tests with the same procedures, which indicated that there were significant differences between the two research groups and in favor of the experimental group. The conclusions were that there was a positive impact of the educational units used in the research to learn skills, as the researcher recommended using a cognitive training strategy according to cognitive flexibility in learning other skills.

Repeat it without me: Crowdsourcing the T1 mapping common ground via the ISMRM reproducibility challenge.

T1 mapping is a widely used quantitative MRI technique, but its tissue-specific values remain inconsistent across protocols, sites, and vendors. The ISMRM Reproducible Research and Quantitative MR study groups jointly launched a challenge to assess the reproducibility of a well-established inversion-recovery T1 mapping technique, using acquisition details from a seminal T1 mapping paper on a standardized phantom and in human brains. The challenge used the acquisition protocol from Barral et al. (2010). Researchers collected T1 mapping data on the ISMRM/NIST phantom and/or in human brains. Data submission, pipeline development, and analysis were conducted using open-source platforms. Intersubmission and intrasubmission comparisons were performed. Eighteen submissions (39 phantom and 56 human datasets) on scanners by three MRI vendors were collected at 3 T (except one, at 0.35 T). The mean coefficient of variation was 6.1% for intersubmission phantom measurements, and 2.9% for intrasubmission measurements. For humans, the intersubmission/intrasubmission coefficient of variation was 5.9/3.2% in the genu and 16/6.9% in the cortex. An interactive dashboard for data visualization was also developed: https://rrsg2020.dashboards.neurolibre.org. The T1 intersubmission variability was twice as high as the intrasubmission variability in both phantoms and human brains, indicating that the acquisition details in the original paper were insufficient to reproduce a quantitative MRI protocol. This study reports the inherent uncertainty in T1 measures across independent research groups, bringing us one step closer to a practical clinical baseline of T1 variations in vivo.

Conjugated linoleic acid metabolite impact in colorectal cancer: a potential microbiome-based precision nutrition approach.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most deadly and the third most diagnosed cancer in both sexes worldwide. CRC pathogenesis is associated with risk factors such as genetics, alcohol, smoking, sedentariness, obesity, unbalanced diets, and gut microbiota dysbiosis. The gut microbiota is the microbial community living in symbiosis in the intestine, in a dynamic balance vital for health. Increasing evidence underscores the influence of specific gut microbiota bacterial species on CRC incidence and pathogenesis. In this regard, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) metabolites produced by certain gut microbiota have demonstrated an anticarcinogenic effect in CRC, influencing pathways for inflammation, proliferation, and apoptosis. CLA production occurs naturally in the rumen, and human bioavailability is through the consumption of food derived from ruminants. In recent years, biotechnological attempts to increase CLA bioavailability in humans have been unfruitful. Therefore, the conversion of essential dietary linoleic acid to CLA metabolite by specific intestinal bacteria has become a promising process. This article reviews the evidence regarding CLA and CLA-producing bacteria as therapeutic agents against CRC and investigates the best strategy for increasing the yield and bioavailability of CLA. Given the potential and limitations of the present strategies, a new microbiome-based precision nutrition approach based on endogenous CLA production by human gut bacteria is proposed. A literature search in the PubMed and PubMed Central databases identified 794 papers on human gut bacteria associated with CLA production. Of these, 51 studies exploring association consistency were selected. After excluding 19 papers, due to health concerns or discrepancies between studies, 32 papers were selected for analysis, encompassing data for 38 CLA-producing bacteria, such as Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus species. The information was analyzed by a bioinformatics food recommendation system patented by our research group, Phymofood (EP22382095). This paper presents a new microbiome-based precision nutrition approach targeting CLA-producing gut bacterial species to maximize the anticarcinogenic effect of CLA in CRC.

TDP-43 Is Associated with Subiculum and Cornu Ammonis 1 Hippocampal Subfield Atrophy in Primary Age-Related Tauopathy.

TAR DNA binding protein 43 (TDP-43) has been shown to be associated with whole hippocampal atrophy in primary age-related tauopathy (PART). It is currently unknown which subregions of the hippocampus are contributing to TDP-43 associated whole hippocampal atrophy in PART. To identify which specific hippocampal subfield regions are contributing to TDP-43-associated whole hippocampal atrophy in PART. A total of 115 autopsied cases from the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer Disease Research Center, Neurodegenerative Research Group, and the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging were analyzed. All cases underwent antemortem brain volumetric MRI, neuropathological assessment of the distribution of Aβ (Thal phase), and neurofibrillary tangle (Braak stage) to diagnose PART, as well as assessment of TDP-43 presence/absence in the amygdala, hippocampus and beyond. Hippocampal subfield segmentation was performed using FreeSurfer version 7.4.1. Statistical analyses using logistic regression were performed to assess for associations between TDP-43 and hippocampal subfield volumes, accounting for potential confounders. TDP-43 positive patients (n = 37, 32%), of which 15/15 were type-α, had significantly smaller whole hippocampal volumes, and smaller volumes of the body and tail of the hippocampus compared to TDP-43 negative patients. Subfield analyses revealed an association between TDP-43 and the molecular layer of hippocampal body and the body of cornu ammonis 1 (CA1), subiculum, and presubiculum regions. There was no association between TDP-43 stage and subfield volumes. Whole hippocampal volume loss linked to TDP-43 in PART is mainly due to volume loss occurring in the molecular layer, CA1, subiculum and presubiculum of the hippocampal body.

Giving a Voice to Patients With Smell Disorders Associated With COVID-19: Cross-Sectional Longitudinal Analysis Using Natural Language Processing of Self-Reports.

Smell disorders are commonly reported with COVID-19 infection. The smell-related issues associated with COVID-19 may be prolonged, even after the respiratory symptoms are resolved. These smell dysfunctions can range from anosmia (complete loss of smell) or hyposmia (reduced sense of smell) to parosmia (smells perceived differently) or phantosmia (smells perceived without an odor source being present). Similar to the difficulty that people experience when talking about their smell experiences, patients find it difficult to express or label the symptoms they experience, thereby complicating diagnosis. The complexity of these symptoms can be an additional burden for patients and health care providers and thus needs further investigation. This study aims to explore the smell disorder concerns of patients and to provide an overview for each specific smell disorder by using the longitudinal survey conducted in 2020 by the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research, an international research group that has been created ad hoc for studying chemosensory dysfunctions. We aimed to extend the existing knowledge on smell disorders related to COVID-19 by analyzing a large data set of self-reported descriptive comments by using methods from natural language processing. We included self-reported data on the description of changes in smell provided by 1560 participants at 2 timepoints (second survey completed between 23 and 291 days). Text data from participants who still had smell disorders at the second timepoint (long-haulers) were compared with the text data of those who did not (non-long-haulers). Specifically, 3 aims were pursued in this study. The first aim was to classify smell disorders based on the participants' self-reports. The second aim was to classify the sentiment of each self-report by using a machine learning approach, and the third aim was to find particular food and nonfood keywords that were more salient among long-haulers than those among non-long-haulers. We found that parosmia (odds ratio [OR] 1.78, 95% CI 1.35-2.37; P<.001) as well as hyposmia (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.34-2.26; P<.001) were more frequently reported in long-haulers than in non-long-haulers. Furthermore, a significant relationship was found between long-hauler status and sentiment of self-report (P<.001). Finally, we found specific keywords that were more typical for long-haulers than those for non-long-haulers, for example, fire, gas, wine, and vinegar. Our work shows consistent findings with those of previous studies, which indicate that self-reports, which can easily be extracted online, may offer valuable information to health care and understanding of smell disorders. At the same time, our study on self-reports provides new insights for future studies investigating smell disorders.

Multimedia Data Mining and Processing for News Source Attribution

The desire for unbiased journalism that effectively counters disinformation is widely recognised. News consumers are not only interested in news, but they also want unbiased journalism that cuts through disinformation, and they want it from trusted news sources. Consequently, media researchers need to explore ways to facilitate news-source identification, irrespective of the platform used. However, the availability of multimedia data sources has seen a remarkable surge in recent years, encompassing demographic data, social media data, geodata, and pervasive digital trace data. Multimedia data mining is a procedure of discovering stimulating trends via media data using video, text, and audio that are not generally available by simple enquiries and related outputs. Researchers face the challenge of integrating these diverse sources to enhance news source attribution in multimedia data including platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. The paper presents a review of multimedia data approaches and their application to news source attribution research. Also, the examination of the benefits and limitations of these techniques and discussion on future directions were mentioned. Consideration was on machine learning and statistical approaches to multimedia data, which include deep learning, and probabilistic modelling. Similarly, a discussion on the importance of data privacy and ethics in news source attribution research was stated. The contribution of this study is highly relevant for news media research groups striving to improve their capability to attribute sources in multimedia data, thereby combatting disinformation and amplifying trusted media brands. Keywords: Data mining, Multimedia, Data process, News source attribution, Unbiased journalism

Item Analysis of Sociocultural Influences in Verbal Ability Testing Using the Woodcock-Johnson II COG

The article presents the results of a study that examines the impact of sociocultural environment on the development of verbal skills in Romani children aged 7–11 years, with a particular emphasis on children from socially excluded localities. The results are based on a verbal test derived from the Woodcock-Johnson Cognitive Ability Test (WJ IV COG), which was processed using item analysis according to the Rasch model. The main results are based on analysing the differential function of individual items within the verbal tests within the research group (N = 399) compared to the normative sample of the Czech population (N = 936). A secondary goal is to compare Romani children originating from socially excluded areas (N = 204) with those from non-excluded areas (N = 195). Regarding item comparisons between the majority and sample groups, they reveal significant disparities in 14 items (70%) of the Synonyms subtest and 9 items (45%) of the Antonyms subtest. The results highlight the crucial role of a more limited vocabulary, particularly in formal linguistic expressions by Romani children. The presented words representing differently functioning items can also serve as a basis for linguistic analysis and can be applied in assessing educational needs. When comparing the group of children based on their residence in a socially excluded locality, significant differences in the DIF were identified for one item from the Synonyms subtest and three items from the Antonyms subtest.

Study on the characteristics of glass fiber‐reinforced polymers from recycled wind turbine blades as reinforcement in particleboard

AbstractGlass fiber‐reinforced polymer (GFRP), extensively employed in diverse industries, generates considerable waste, especially from decommissioned wind turbine blades. Our research group has developed a new method of mechanical recovery for GFRP from wind turbine blades. In this study, waste GFRP was processed into a mixed particle size of 0.9–6 mm using a crusher and a screening machine, and then added as reinforcement materials to particleboards. The effects of different levels of four factors (GFRP addition, hot pressing temperature, hot pressing time, and binder dosage) on the properties of GFRP particleboards were evaluated by orthogonal experiments. The study results showed that the particleboards with 30 wt% GFRP improved modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE), and internal bonding strength (IB) by 74.94%, 42.28%, and 92.05%, respectively, compared to pure poplar particleboards. Moreover, GFRP particleboards demonstrated better water resistance and dimensional stability than commercial particleboards and excelled in thermal stability. Recycling GFRP waste from decommissioned wind turbine blades and incorporating it into particleboard production can reduce environmental pollution, increase the resource recovery utilization rate, and contribute to sustainable manufacturing practices.Highlights Low‐cost and efficient methods of recycling wind turbine blades were proposed. Recycled GFRP from wind turbine blades can be used as reinforcement for particleboard. The prepared particleboards have excellent physical and mechanical properties and are thermally stable. Determination of the optimal glass fiber‐reinforced polymer addition level in particleboard at 30 wt%.

Identifying Substructures That Facilitate Compounds to Penetrate the Blood-Brain Barrier via Passive Transport Using Machine Learning Explainer Models.

The local interpretable model-agnostic explanation (LIME) method was used to interpret two machine learning models of compounds penetrating the blood-brain barrier. The classification models, Random Forest, ExtraTrees, and Deep Residual Network, were trained and validated using the blood-brain barrier penetration dataset, which shows the penetrability of compounds in the blood-brain barrier. LIME was able to create explanations for such penetrability, highlighting the most important substructures of molecules that affect drug penetration in the barrier. The simple and intuitive outputs prove the applicability of this explainable model to interpreting the permeability of compounds across the blood-brain barrier in terms of molecular features. LIME explanations were filtered with a weight equal to or greater than 0.1 to obtain only the most relevant explanations. The results showed several structures that are important for blood-brain barrier penetration. In general, it was found that some compounds with nitrogenous substructures are more likely to permeate the blood-brain barrier. The application of these structural explanations may help the pharmaceutical industry and potential drug synthesis research groups to synthesize active molecules more rationally.

Taking on a new meaning of physics mathematization for teaching in teacher education processes

This is a documented reflection that seeks to characterize an alternative conception of the ‘mathematization of physics for teaching’. The reflection was made on the academic production of the research group ‘Teaching and learning of physics’. This group has posed a sequence of research questions has been raised to find out how physics teachers understand the relationship between physics and mathematics in the physics teaching process. In 2003 they studied the idea of ‘mathematical beauty’ in the early days of quantum mechanics, suggesting that there would be a difference between the way scientists assume the physical/mathematical relationship and the way physics is taught. In 2010, they wondered if there would be research in this field that would allow transformations in teaching focused on equations as the set of mathematical–physical relationships, finding that there are at least three trends. In 2019, they verified that despite the research in the literature, many students continue with the same reductionist idea about this relationship. In 2020, they made a proposal, showing a possibility of educating the teacher’s thinking for new understandings in this regard. The main conclusion is that it is possible to develop mathematization processes in the classroom from three specific phases that educate scientific thinking. The first phase tries to make the student aware of the existence of phenomenology and describe it. The second phase educates the study of nature in a systematic way, building the meaning of the organization of a physical system. The third phase promotes explanation and argument so that students achieve an explanatory model. These phases are configured as a criterion to guide the sequence of activities in a class, a set of classes or a complete course and have been worked on and tested in ‘physics didactics’ courses in a physics teacher training course.

Lithium-ion point-of-care ultrasound battery joint state of charge estimation

With recent advances in ultrasound technology, including accessibility and portability, point-of-care ultrasound systems (POCUS) are becoming ubiquitous in urban and rural health services. The efficient use of POCUS battery power is necessary due to the limited access to electricity in rural locations. Accurate estimation of the state-of-charge (SOC) of the onboard lithium-ion battery is crucial in ensuring the safe, efficient, and reliable operation of the battery management system (BMS). This research suggests a novel approach for striking a reasonable balance between the POCUS battery management systems computation time and SOC estimate accuracy. Given that the lithium-ion battery is a non-linear and time-varying system, it is modelled by a second-order RC equivalent circuit model (2-RC ECM). Real-time parametric identification is carried out using the method of recursive least squares with respect to an adaptive forgetting factor (AFFRLS). The joint SOC evaluation technique, ordering the results of real-time identification and the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) recommended for estimating battery SOC at temperatures between 0 and 45 °C. Simulations were carried out using experimental data from the DST (Dynamic Stress Test), incremental current and, the Federal Urban Driving Program (FUDS) of the CALCE research group to evaluate the proposed approach. Based on the monitoring of dynamic changes in model parameters and the computational complexity of existing algorithms, the results reveal that the joint AFFRLS-EKF estimation proposed for the SOC strategy achieves good accuracy, high adaptability and rapid convergence of SOC estimation.

Effects of cognitive training and behavior modification on aggressive behavior and sleep quality in schizophrenia

BackgroundSchizophrenia (SCZ) is linked to a heightened risk of impulsive aggression and disturbances in sleep patterns. Cognitive and social cognitive impairments have been connected to aggression, with social cognitive deficits appearing to play a more immediate role. In this investigation, we conducted a retrospective analysis of the impact of cognitive training and sleep interventions on aggressive behavior and the quality of sleep among individuals with SCZ who were hospitalized.MethodsThis study divided 80 hospitalized patients into two groups according to medical advice, namely the normal group and the study group. The control group received routine drug treatment and education; The research group implemented cognitive training and sleep intervention based on the normal group. Collect basic clinical data, aggressive behavior indicators, and sleep quality indicators.ResultsThere is no difference in the basic information statistics between the two groups. Both groups can reduce aggressive behavior and improve sleep quality. In the study group, there was a notable decrease in aggressive behavior compared to the control group. Furthermore, the sleep quality in the study group exhibited significant improvement when compared to the control group.ConclusionCognitive training and sleep intervention have been proven to be effective nonpharmacological treatments, effectively reducing aggressive behavior and improving sleep quality.

Chemiresistive Materials for Alcohol Vapor Sensing at Room Temperature

The development of efficient sensors able to detect alcoholic compounds has great relevance in many fields including medicine, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, safety, and security. In addition, the measurements of alcohols in air are significant for environmental protection because volatile alcohols can have harmful effects on human health not only through ingestion, but also through inhalation or skin absorption. The analysis of alcohols in breath is a further expanding area, being employed for disease diagnoses. The analyses performed by using chromatography, mass-spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, or Raman spectroscopy often require complex sampling and procedures. As a consequence, many research groups have focused their efforts on the development of efficient portable sensors to replace conventional methods and bulky equipment. The ability to operate at room temperature is a key factor in designing portable light devices suitable for in situ real-time monitoring. In the present review, we provide a survey of the recent literature on the most efficient chemiresistive materials for alcohol sensing at room temperature. Remarkable gas-sensing performances have mainly been obtained by using metal oxides semiconductors (MOSs), metal organic frameworks (MOFs), 2D materials, and polymers. Among 2D materials, we mainly consider graphene-based materials, graphitic carbon nitride, transition metal chalcogenides, and MXenes. We discuss scientific advances and innovations published in the span of the last five years, focusing on sensing mechanisms.

Quantum-enhanced hybrid feature engineering in thoracic CT image analysis for state-of-the-art nodule classification: an advanced lung cancer assessment

The intricate nature of lung cancer treatment poses considerable challenges upon diagnosis. Early detection plays a pivotal role in mitigating its escalating global mortality rates. Consequently, there are pressing demands for robust and dependable early detection and diagnostic systems. However, the technological limitations and complexity of the disease make it challenging to implement an efficient lung cancer screening system. AI-based CT image analysis techniques are showing significant contributions to the development of computer-assisted detection (CAD) systems for lung cancer screening. Various existing research groups are working on implementing CT image analysis systems for assessing and classifying lung cancer. However, the complexity of different structures inside the CT image is high and comprehension of significant information inherited by them is more complex even after applying advanced feature extraction and feature selection techniques. Traditional and classical feature selection techniques may struggle to capture complex interdependencies between features. They may get stuck in local optima and sometimes require additional exploration strategies. Traditional techniques may also struggle with combinatorial optimization problems when applied to a prominent feature space. This paper proposed a methodology to overcome the existing challenges by applying feature extraction using Vision Transformer (FexViT) and Feature selection using the Quantum Computing based Quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QC-FSelQUBO) technique. This algorithm shows better performance when compared with other existing techniques. The proposed methodology showed better performance as compared to other existing techniques when evaluated by applying necessary output measures, such as accuracy, Area under roc (receiver operating characteristics) curve, precision, sensitivity, and specificity, obtained as 94.28%, 99.10%, 96.17%, 90.16% and 97.46%. The further advancement of CAD systems is essential to meet the demand for more reliable detection and diagnosis of cancer, which can be addressed by leading the proposed quantum computation and growing AI-based technology ahead.

Physics Ph.D. student perspectives on the importance and difficulty of finding a research group

Physics Ph.D. student perspectives on the importance and difficulty of finding a research group

Clinical analysis of colistin sulfate in the treatment of pneumonia caused by carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacteria

BACKGROUND Multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria, exacerbated by excessive use of antimicrobials and immunosuppressants, are a major health threat. AIM To study the clinical efficacy and safety of colistin sulfate in the treatment of carbapenem-resistant Gram-negative bacilli-induced pneumonia, and to provide theoretical reference for clinical diagnosis and treatment. METHODS This retrospective analysis involved 54 patients with Gram-negative bacilli pneumonia admitted to intensive care unit of The General Hospital of the Northern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army of China from August 2020 to June 2022. After bacteriological culture, the patients' airway secretions were collected to confirm the presence of Gram-negative bacilli. The patients were divided into the experimental and control groups according to the medication used. The research group consisted of 28 patients who received polymyxin sulfate combined with other drugs through intravenous, nebulization, or intravenous combined with nebulization, with a daily dosage of 1.5–3.0 million units. The control group consisted of 26 patients who received standard dosages of other antibiotics (including sulbactam sodium for injection, cefoperazone sodium sulbactam for injection, tigecycline, meropenem, or vaborbactam). RESULTS Of the 28 patients included in the research group, 26 patients showed improvement, treatment was ineffective for two patients, and one patient died, with the treatment efficacy rate of 92.82%. Of the 26 patients in the control group, 18 patients improved, treatment was ineffective for eight patients, and two patients died, with the treatment efficacy rate of 54.9%; significant difference was observed between the two groups (P &lt; 0.05). The levels of white blood cell (WBC), procalcitonin (PCT), and C-reactive protein (CRP) in both groups were significantly lower after treatment than before treatment (P &lt; 0.05), and the levels of WBC, PCT, and CRP in the research group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P &lt; 0.05). Compared with before treatment, there were no significant changes in aspartate aminotransferase, creatinine, and glomerular filtration rate in both groups, while total bilirubin and alanine aminotransferase decreased after treatment (P &lt; 0.05) with no difference between the groups. In patients with good clinical outcomes, the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score was low when treated with inhaled polymyxin sulfate, and specific antibiotic treatment did not improve the outcome. Sepsis and septic shock as well as a low SOFA score were independent factors associated with good clinical outcomes. CONCLUSION Polymyxin sulfate has a significant effect on the treatment of patients with multiple drug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli pneumonia and other infections in the lungs and is safe and reliable. Moreover, the administration route of low-dose intravenous injection combined with nebulization shows better therapeutic effects and lower adverse reactions, providing new ideas for clinical administration.