High Access Research Articles

Effectiveness and User Experience of a Smoking Cessation Chatbot: Mixed Methods Study Comparing Motivational Interviewing and Confrontational Counseling.

Cigarette smoking poses a major public health risk. Chatbots may serve as an accessible and useful tool to promote cessation due to their high accessibility and potential in facilitating long-term personalized interactions. To increase effectiveness and acceptability, there remains a need to identify and evaluate counseling strategies for these chatbots, an aspect that has not been comprehensively addressed in previous research. This study aims to identify effective counseling strategies for such chatbots to support smoking cessation. In addition, we sought to gain insights into smokers' expectations of and experiences with the chatbot. This mixed methods study incorporated a web-based experiment and semistructured interviews. Smokers (N=229) interacted with either a motivational interviewing (MI)-style (n=112, 48.9%) or a confrontational counseling-style (n=117, 51.1%) chatbot. Both cessation-related (ie, intention to quit and self-efficacy) and user experience-related outcomes (ie, engagement, therapeutic alliance, perceived empathy, and interaction satisfaction) were assessed. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 16 participants, 8 (50%) from each condition, and data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results from a multivariate ANOVA showed that participants had a significantly higher overall rating for the MI (vs confrontational counseling) chatbot. Follow-up discriminant analysis revealed that the better perception of the MI chatbot was mostly explained by the user experience-related outcomes, with cessation-related outcomes playing a lesser role. Exploratory analyses indicated that smokers in both conditions reported increased intention to quit and self-efficacy after the chatbot interaction. Interview findings illustrated several constructs (eg, affective attitude and engagement) explaining people's previous expectations and timely and retrospective experience with the chatbot. The results confirmed that chatbots are a promising tool in motivating smoking cessation and the use of MI can improve user experience. We did not find extra support for MI to motivate cessation and have discussed possible reasons. Smokers expressed both relational and instrumental needs in the quitting process. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

NeuroTAP: Thermal and Memory Access Pattern-aware Data Mapping on 3D DRAM for Maximizing DNN Performance

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have been widely adopted, owing to break-through performance and high accuracy. DNNs exhibit varying memory behavior involving specific and recognizable memory access patterns and access intensity, depending on the selected data reuse in different layers. Such applications have high memory bandwidth demands due to aggressive computations, performing several billion-floating-point-operations-per-second (BFLOPs). 3D DRAMs, providing very high memory access bandwidth, are extensively employed to break the memory wall , bridging the gap between compute and memory while running DNNs. However, the vertical integration in 3D DRAM introduces serious thermal issues, resulting from high power density and close proximity of memory cells, and requires dynamic thermal management (DTM). To unleash the true potential of 3D DRAM and exploit the enormous bandwidth under thermal constraints, there is a need to intelligently map the DNN application’s data across memory channels, pseudo-channels, and banks, minimizing the effective memory latency and reducing the thermal-induced application slowdown. The specific memory access patterns exhibited by a DNN layer execution are crucial to determine a favourable data mapping method for 3D DRAM dies that potentially causes minimal thermal impact, and also maximize DRAM bandwidth utilization. In this work, we propose an application-aware and thermal-sensitive data mapping that intelligently assigns portions of the 3D DRAM to DNN layers, leveraging the knowledge about layer’s memory access patterns and minimizing DTM-induced performance overheads. Additionally, we also deploy a DRAM low-power states based DTM mechanism to keep the 3D DRAM within safe thermal limits. Using our proposal, we observe a performance improvement of 1% to 61%, and memory energy savings of 1% to 55% for popular deep neural networks over state-of-the-art DTM strategies while running DNN inference.

Sequences within and upstream of the mouse Ets1 gene drive high level expression in B cells, but are not sufficient for consistent expression in T cells.

The levels of transcription factor Ets1 are high in resting B and T cells, but are downregulated by signaling through antigen receptors and Toll-like receptors (TLRs). Loss of Ets1 in mice leads to excessive immune cell activation and development of an autoimmune syndrome and reduced Ets1 expression has been observed in human PBMCs in the context of autoimmune diseases. In B cells, Ets1 serves to prevent premature activation and differentiation to antibody-secreting cells. Given these important roles for Ets1 in the immune response, stringent control of Ets1 gene expression levels is required for homeostasis. However, the genetic regulatory elements that control expression of the Ets1 gene remain relatively unknown. Here we identify a topologically-associating domain (TAD) in the chromatin of B cells that includes the mouse Ets1 gene locus and describe an interaction hub that extends over 100 kb upstream and into the gene body. Additionally, we compile epigenetic datasets to find several putative regulatory elements within the interaction hub by identifying regions of high DNA accessibility and enrichment of active enhancer histone marks. Using reporter constructs, we determine that DNA sequences within this interaction hub are sufficient to direct reporter gene expression in lymphoid tissues of transgenic mice. Further analysis indicates that the reporter construct drives faithful expression of the reporter gene in mouse B cells, but variegated expression in T cells, suggesting the existence of T cell regulatory elements outside this region. To investigate how the downregulation of Ets1 transcription is associated with alterations in the epigenetic landscape of stimulated B cells, we performed ATAC-seq in resting and BCR-stimulated primary B cells and identified four regions within and upstream of the Ets1 locus that undergo changes in chromatin accessibility that correlate to Ets1 gene expression. Interestingly, functional analysis of several putative Ets1 regulatory elements using luciferase constructs suggested a high level of functional redundancy. Taken together our studies reveal a complex network of regulatory elements and transcription factors that coordinate the B cell-specific expression of Ets1.

Who Plays and Who Doesn't? An Intersectional Examination of Disparities in Adolescent Sport and Physical Activity Lesson Participation

PurposeFew reports include more than 1–2 social identities when examining organized sport and physical activity (PA) participation among adolescents. We used a quantitative intersectional approach to examine disparities in adolescent sport and PA lesson participation. MethodsNinth and 11th grade 2022 Minnesota Student Survey participants (N = 62,940) self-reported social identities and team sport and PA lessons. Social identities included sex assigned at birth, gender modality, sexual identity, racial and ethnic identity, access to resources (i.e., economic status), weight status, and mental health/behavioral/emotional problems. We used Exhaustive Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detection to identify prevalence of participation among adolescents with different intersecting social identities. ResultsHalf of the sample played sports and one-quarter participated in PA lessons. Participation varied substantially at the intersections of social identities. Whereas participants in the highest prevalence sports participation groups were predominantly White, heterosexual, and had high resource access, participants in the lowest prevalence groups held multiple marginalized social identities: only 12.8% of adolescents with least access to resources who were questioning their gender identity and sexual identity, or who reported a sexual identity not listed, participated in sports. Regarding PA lessons, youth in the highest prevalence groups were predominantly heterosexual, had highest access to resources, and were youth of color; by comparison, most of the lowest prevalence groups comprised youth who had medium/low resource access and/or high body mass index, and often a diverse sexual, gender, or racial/ethnic identity. DiscussionMultiply marginalized adolescents are under-represented in sports and PA lessons. Organizations should address interlocking barriers to participation.

Economic and legal mechanisms of material and technical support of health care institutions

The paper shows that the formation of a network of state and communal health care institutions is a multifactorial process aimed at ensuring high quality, accessibility and efficiency of medical care for all citizens. It is shown that the state plays a key role in the organization of material and technical support of the health care system in order to guarantee the population an appropriate level of medical and rehabilitation assistance. It ensures the availability of the necessary resources to provide the population with a guaranteed level of medical and rehabilitation assistance to individuals and medical institutions, including in the form of equipment, tools, medicines and other necessary materials. The role and imperative of compliance with standards of medical care, clinical protocols, rehabilitation care protocols, as well as material and technical equipment reports in all health care institutions have been defined. It is shown that the record of material and technical equipment plays a key role in ensuring a high level of medical services, optimizing resources and increasing the efficiency of health care institutions and private medical practices. It has been proven that under the conditions of martial law, the role of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in the logistical support of health care facilities increases, as it ensures constant monitoring of the effectiveness of approved standards and lists, as well as their regular updating in accordance with new technologies and changes in combat tactics and medical science Medical products and aids must be suitable for use in combat environments, including extreme conditions, mobility and speed of care. The functions of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine are an important component of ensuring the appropriate level of medical care for servicemen in combat conditions, which contributes to increasing their safety and effectiveness on the battlefield. A comprehensive approach to the logistical support of health care is proposed, which allows to ensure a high level of medical care, support innovations in the medical field, and promote the development of the national medical industry.

Tunable Viscoelasticity of Alginate Hydrogels via Serial Autoclaving.

Alginate hydrogels are widely used as biomaterials for cell culture and tissue engineering due to their biocompatibility and tunable mechanical properties. Reducing alginate molecular weight is an effective strategy for modulating hydrogel viscoelasticity and stress relaxation behavior, which can significantly impact cell spreading and fate. However, current methods like gamma irradiation to produce low molecular weight alginates suffer from high cost and limited accessibility. Here, a facile and cost-effective approach to reduce alginate molecular weight in a highly controlled manner using serial autoclaving is presented. Increasing the number of autoclave cycles results in proportional reductions in intrinsic viscosity, hydrodynamic radius, and molecular weight of the polymer while maintaining its chemical composition. Hydrogels fabricated from mixtures of the autoclaved alginates exhibit tunable mechanical properties, with inclusion of lower molecular weight alginate leading to softer gels with faster stress relaxation behaviors. The method is demonstrated by establishing how viscoelastic relaxation affects the spreading of encapsulated fibroblasts and glioblastoma cells. Results establish repetitive autoclaving as an easily accessible technique to generate alginates with a range of molecular weights and to control the viscoelastic properties of alginate hydrogels, and demonstrate utility across applications in mechanobiology, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine.

Farmers’ motivational factors for medicinal plant production in the southwestern region of Bangladesh

Medicinal plants (MPs) generate cash income and save millions of people in Bangladesh. The aim of this study is to identify farmers’ motivational factors to cultivate MPs. This study is based on primary data collected from 196 sample households from two MP-growing districts of Bangladesh. Three MPs, namely, Aloe vera, Bombax ceiba, and Withania somnifera, were considered for this study. Principal component analysis (PCA), the z test, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and factor analysis (FA) were used in this study. The results showed that household size and male-headed household status are driving socioeconomic factors. Ownership of water pumps, number of rooms in the house, access to contract marketing, and off-farm income are significant economic factors encouraging households to cultivate MPs. Farming experience, scientific knowledge, access to high land and access to loamy land are significant biophysical factors motivating farmers to cultivate MPs. More technical support and institutionalized contract marketing systems should be continued and established for the sustainability of MP cultivation.

Refining the 15-minute community living circle: An innovative evaluation method for medical facility allocation in Chengdu

The equitable distribution of public medical facilities is a cornerstone of urban planning, shaping the essence of urban livability. The globally embraced "15-Minute Community Living Circle" has offered a guiding light, but its traditional emphasis on walking often oversimplifies the complex modal choices urban residents make, especially when health emergencies necessitate rapid access. Our study revitalizes this paradigm by infusing it with a multi-modal perspective, spotlighting Chengdu—a city emblematic of the urban metamorphosis typical in burgeoning metropolises. Leveraging real-time isochrone data, our study enhances the 15-Minute Community Living Circle concept by incorporating multiple transportation modes, aligning it more closely with the realities of urban mobility. Analyzing data from 85 comprehensive hospitals and 76 streets in Chengdu, we provide a detailed assessment of spatial accessibility and efficiency. This nuanced examination reveals a distinct disparity: the city center emerges as a hub of high accessibility, contrasting starkly with the more limited access characterizing its outskirts. As urbanization accelerates and populations converge towards city centers in developing nations, these findings are both a diagnosis and a call to action. Our methodology, synergizing the multi-modal essence with the 15-minute community philosophy, offers not just an in-depth appraisal of Chengdu's medical infrastructure but pioneers a versatile blueprint for urban centers globally, reshaping how we envision equitable healthcare access in urban landscapes.

Spiking neural networks for nonlinear regression of complex transient signals on sustainable neuromorphic processors

In recent years, spiking neural networks were introduced in science as the third generation of artificial neural networks leading to a tremendous energy saving on neuromorphic processors. This sustainable effect is due to the sparse nature of signal processing in-between spiking neurons leading to much less scalar multiplications as in second-generation networks. The spiking neuron’s efficiency is even more pronounced by their inherently recurrent nature being useful for recursive function approximations. We believe that there is a need for a general regression framework for SNNs to explore the high potential of neuromorphic computations. However, besides many classification studies with SNNs in the literature, nonlinear neuromorphic regression analysis represents a gap in research. Hence, we propose a general SNN approach for function approximation applicable for complex transient signal processing taking surrogate gradients due to the discontinuous spike representation into account. However, to pay attention to the need for high memory access during deep SNN network communications, additional spiking Legrendre Memory Units are introduced in the neuromorphic architecture. Path-dependencies and evolutions of signals can be tackled in this way. Furthermore, interfaces between real physical and binary spiking values are necessary. Following this intention, a hybrid approach is introduced, exhibiting an autoencoding strategy between dense and spiking layers. However, to verify the presented framework of nonlinear regression for a wide spectrum of scientific purposes, we see the need for obtaining realistic complex transient short-time signals by an extensive experimental set-up. Hence, a measurement technique for benchmark experiments is proposed with high-frequency oscillations measured by capacitive and piezoelectric sensors resulting in wave propagations and inelastic solid deformations to be predicted by the developed SNN regression analysis. Hence, the proposed nonlinear regression framework can be deployed to a wide range of scientific and technical applications.

PIM GPT a hybrid process in memory accelerator for autoregressive transformers

Decoder-only Transformer models such as Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT) have demonstrated exceptional performance in text generation by autoregressively predicting the next token. However, the efficiency of running GPT on current hardware systems is bounded by low compute-to-memory-ratio and high memory access. In this work, we propose a Process-in-memory (PIM) GPT accelerator, PIM-GPT, which achieves end-to-end acceleration of GPT inference with high performance and high energy efficiency. PIM-GPT leverages DRAM-based PIM designs for executing multiply-accumulate (MAC) operations directly in the DRAM chips, eliminating the need to move matrix data off-chip. Non-linear functions and data communication are supported by an application specific integrated chip (ASIC). At the software level, mapping schemes are designed to maximize data locality and computation parallelism. Overall, PIM-GPT achieves 41 − 137 × , 631 − 1074 × speedup and 123 − 383 × , 320 − 602 × energy efficiency over GPU and CPU baseline on 8 GPT models with up to 1.4 billion parameters.

Mapping the Impact of Subsidies in Global Cotton Trade: A Review

In the complex journey from seed to shop floor, cotton goes through several stages. More than 70 countries produce and export cotton, while many developed and developing countries depend on imports of cotton lint for their spinning and textile industries. Global cotton consumption has regularly increased alongside cotton production and global population and is now estimated at 26 million tons. Cotton trade and production are highly distorted by policy support extended to cotton producers which has been greatest in the US, followed by China and the EU. It should be noted that while the cotton industry in all cotton producing countries benefit from indirect support provided to the agricultural sector, in general, between half and three quarters of the world cotton production receive direct support during most seasons. Support to the sector in India is expected to result in continuous growth in cotton mill use. The industry, however, faces several challenges, including technological obsolescence, high input costsand poor access to credit. To address these issues, the government has implemented several subsidy schemes and is currently developing a new textile policy for the overall development of the sector.

Analisis Perencanaan Pembangunan Jaringan Fiber Optik pada Pemerintahan Kota Palembang

To communicate and share data, the Palembang city government's regional apparatus work unit (SKPD) office requires an immediate internet connection. The SKPD office is still using various internet service providers (ISPs) at this time, so any network issues won't be fixed immediately by the previous ISP. To resolve this issue, a separate network infrastructure centered in the Palembang mayor's office is required. The Palembang city government will be able to control the network because the SKPD offices will be able to communicate with one another and share data as a result of this.. The organization foundation that will be utilized is fiber optics, since fiber optics have a high web access speed, and have a steady sign so information move will be quicker, more successful and furthermore productive. This study employs the NDLC method, which is a method for building a computer network

“It frees your body from that pain thought”: A mixed-methods exploration of patterns, contexts, and experiences of cannabis use for pain in rural communities

U.S. adults increasingly report using cannabis to manage chronic pain and rural areas have inadequate comprehensive pain management. Using mixed methods, we aimed to understand how and why some rural adults use cannabis for pain, including within the context of co-use with opioids. Participants (N = 14, Oklahoma) were rural-dwelling adults who used tobacco and ≥1 other substance, including cannabis and opioids, ≥3 days per week. Participants completed 14 days of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) regarding substance use and subsequent in-depth interviews discussing maps of their substance use reports. Half (7/14) described cannabis use for chronic pain, and most of these (85%) reported use on ≥75% of EMA days. The most frequently reported cannabis use motive was therapeutic/medicinal (90% of use reports). Most reports were of combusted cannabis (88% of use reports) at home (99% of use reports). Same-day use of cannabis and opioids was relatively common (45% of daily surveys), but seemingly not within close temporal proximity. Interview narratives characterized cannabis as modifying pain-adjacent factors (eg, thoughts), not eliminating pain itself. They recounted using a repertoire of substances to manage different pain dimensions (eg, intensity, quality) and balance perceived trade-offs of different substances. Participants described high medical cannabis access, low pain specialist access, and most physicians as unwilling to discuss cannabis for pain. The findings suggest that rural-dwelling patients could benefit from increased access to comprehensive pain management, having cannabis addressed within pain management provider discussions, and that risks and benefits of cannabis use for pain must be better established. PerspectiveThis study used a geographically explicit EMA mixed method to gather rich, intensive pilot data on cannabis use and co-use for chronic pain in rural Oklahoma. It provides unique insights to inform future research on cannabis use among a vulnerable and understudied subgroup of adults with pain—rural residents.

Two-stage re-parameterization and sample disentanglement network for surveillance vehicle detection

Abstract Detecting vehicles from a surveillance viewpoint is essential, as it has wide applications in community security and traffic control. However, existing methods completely overlook the high memory access costs (MAC) and low degree of parallelism inherent in multi-branch topologies, resulting in significant latency during inference. Additionally, existing methods share the same positive/negative sample set between the classification and localization branches, leading to sample misalignment, and rely solely on intersection-over-union (IoU) for sample assignment, thereby causing a decrease in detection performance. To tackle these issues, this paper introduces a two-stage re-parameterization and sample disentanglement network (TRSD-Net). It is based on two-stage depthwise to pointwise re-parameterization (RepTDP) and task-aligned sample disentanglement (TSD). RepTDP employs structural re-parameterization to decouple the multi-branch topology during training and the plain architecture during inference, thus achieving low latency. By employing different sample assignment strategies, TSD can adaptively select the most suitable positive/negative sample sets for classification and localization tasks, thereby enhancing detection performance. Additionally, TSD considers three important factors influencing sample assignment. TRSD-Net is evaluated on both the UA-DETRAC and COCO datasets. On the UA-DETRAC dataset, compared to state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods, TRSD-Net improves the detection accuracy from 58.8% to 59.7%. Additionally, it reduces the parameter count by 87%, the computational complexity by 85%, and the latency by 39%, while increasing the detection speed by 65%. Similar performance improvement trends are observed on the COCO dataset.

Peptide and Peptidomimetic Inhibitors Targeting the Interaction of Collapsin Response Mediator Protein 2 with the N-Type Calcium Channel for Pain Relief.

Ion channels serve pleiotropic functions. Often found in complexes, their activities and functions are sculpted by auxiliary proteins. We discovered that collapsin response mediator protein 2 (CRMP2) is a binding partner and regulator of the N-type voltage-gated calcium channel (CaV2.2), a genetically validated contributor to chronic pain. Herein, we trace the discovery of a new peptidomimetic modulator of this interaction, starting from the identification and development of CBD3, a CRMP2-derived CaV binding domain peptide. CBD3 uncouples CRMP2-CaV2.2 binding to decrease CaV2.2 surface localization and calcium currents. These changes occur at presynaptic sites of nociceptive neurons and indeed, CBD3 ameliorates chronic pain in preclinical models. In pursuit of a CBD3 peptidomimetic, we exploited a unique approach to identify a dipeptide with low conformational flexibility and high solvent accessibility that anchors binding to CaV2.2. From a pharmacophore screen, we obtained CBD3063, a small-molecule that recapitulated CBD3's activity, reversing nociceptive behaviors in rodents of both sexes without sensory, affective, or cognitive effects. By disrupting the CRMP2-CaV2.2 interaction, CBD3063 exerts these effects indirectly through modulating CaV2.2 trafficking, supporting CRMP2 as an auxiliary subunit of CaV2.2. The parent peptide CBD3 was also found by us and others to have neuroprotective properties at postsynaptic sites, through N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor and plasmalemmal Na+/Ca2+ exchanger 3, potentially acting as an auxiliary subunit for these pathways as well. Our new compound is poised to address several open questions regarding CRMP2's role in regulating the CaV2.2 pathways to treat pain with the potential added benefit of neuroprotection.

Genome-wide analysis of histone modifications can contribute to the identification of candidate cis-regulatory regions in the threespine stickleback fish

BackgroundCis-regulatory mutations often underlie phenotypic evolution. However, because identifying the locations of promoters and enhancers in non-coding regions is challenging, we have fewer examples of identified causative cis-regulatory mutations that underlie naturally occurring phenotypic variations than of causative amino acid-altering mutations. Because cis-regulatory elements have epigenetic marks of specific histone modifications, we can detect cis-regulatory elements by mapping and analyzing them. Here, we investigated histone modifications and chromatin accessibility with cleavage under targets and tagmentation (CUT&Tag) and assay for transposase-accessible chromatin-sequencing (ATAC-seq).ResultsUsing the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) as a model, we confirmed that the genes for which nearby regions showed active marks, such as H3K4me1, H3K4me3, and high chromatin accessibility, were highly expressed. In contrast, the expression levels of genes for which nearby regions showed repressive marks, such as H3K27me3, were reduced, suggesting that our chromatin analysis protocols overall worked well. Genomic regions with peaks of histone modifications showed higher nucleotide diversity within and between populations. By comparing gene expression in the gills of the marine and stream ecotypes, we identified several insertions and deletions (indels) with transposable element fragments in the candidate cis-regulatory regions.ConclusionsThus, mapping and analyzing histone modifications can help identify cis-regulatory elements and accelerate the identification of causative mutations in the non-coding regions underlying naturally occurring phenotypic variations.

Study on the spatial relationship between road network and the diversity of urban public facilities: the case of the central area of Changsha City

In the context of contemporary urbanization, the significance of diversifying urban public facilities has attracted significant attention. This study examines the relationship between road network and the diversity of urban public facilities in Changsha City. These factors are measured through the Shannon-Weiner Index and Space Syntax method. To provide greater specificity, the study employs Random Forest and Geographically Weighted Regression models to analyze the relationship between road networks and the diversity of urban public facilities. The results identify a nonlinear relationship between these variables. In addition, high accessibility exhibits a stronger association with diversity than accessibility alone, and this correlation is reflected in varying degrees of inconsistency across different study areas. Finally, the cartographic depiction of diversity clusters is overlaid on the road network, demonstrating a significant relationship between the configuration of the road network and diversity patterns. In conclusion, this research emphasizes the robust correlation between the roadway network and the diversity of urban public facilities. It prompts local governments to focus beyond mere equality, with a greater commitment to enhancing the quality of life for residents through diversity.

China’s New Housing Security Model: Evaluation of the Job–Housing Balance in Affordable Rental Housing, Shanghai

The Chinese government’s recent low-income housing scheme aims to tackle housing challenges faced by the urban floating population. A notable shift in this initiative is the focus on the job–housing balance. This study proposes that the spatial interaction between land designated for affordable rental housing and land for commercial facilities serves as a fundamental metric for evaluating this equilibrium, providing insights into the effectiveness of China’s nascent affordable housing efforts. Drawing on post-2021 data, when China’s revamped affordable housing policy took effect, our research examines the spatial distribution of affordable rental housing and commercial service land in Shanghai. By employing coupled coordination models and local entropy metrics, we delve into the supply equilibrium and pragmatic interrelation of these land types. Our findings reveal localized clustering in the spatial arrangement of rental and commercial land within Shanghai. Zones in the urban core exhibit a supply balance, while the peripheries display diminishing accessibility between these land types. Core urban areas have a lower supply balance but higher accessibility, whereas urban fringes face both low supply balance and low accessibility. These study outcomes have significant implications for strategic planning and the construction of affordable rental housing.

Cutaneous ultrasound in the diagnosis and assessment of inflammatory activity in tinea capitis

AbstractIntroductionAlthough the diagnosis of tinea capitis is mainly microbiological, the risk of evolution towards cicatricial alopecia in the most severe cases requires empirical treatment based on physical examination and complementary examinations.MethodsTwo patients were evaluated by physical examination, cutaneous ultrasound and microbiological examination.ResultsUltrasound showed follicular widening and increased vascularization in Doppler mode. In one of them, the finding of severe inflammatory activity led to the indication of oral corticotherapy.DiscussionCutaneous ultrasound could play a role not only in supporting the clinical diagnosis but that it may even guide the indication of treatment in the presence of severe inflammation that sometimes may not manifest itself clinically.ConclusionCutaneous ultrasound may constitute an additional test of considerable usefulness in the diagnosis and evaluation of inflammatory activity in cases such as the ones presented, fast, non‐invasive and of high accessibility.

The spatial planning of housing and urban green space: A combined stated choice experiment and land-use modeling approach

Urban green space (UGS) is receiving increasing attention as a means to make cities better adapted to climate change and to create high-quality living environments for citizens. The spatial planning of UGS generally asks a trade-off between optimizing land-use and accessibility characteristics which may differ between housing types. In this paper, we use a stated choice experiment to estimate residential location preferences related to neighborhood land-use, UGS and accessibility characteristics in the framework of a land-use model. A national sample of 394 Dutch homeowners participated in the experiments and mixed logit models were estimated by housing type distinguishing detached, row houses and apartments. The estimation results show that trade-offs made between a green neighborhood and accessibility to urban amenities tend to differ between the housing types. The estimates are used as parameters in a housing land-use allocation model. An application of the model to a residential area development problem shows that creating green buffers along road infrastructure is the most beneficial way of allocating UGS considering the housing value for residents. The application further shows that apartments benefit more strongly from UGS in the neighborhood than from high accessibility of urban amenities compared to detached and row houses. Finally, we find that the optimal spatial allocation of UGS depends on whether maximizing housing market-value or residents’ utility is the prime objective.