Initial Target Research Articles

Institutional experience report on the target contouring workflow in the radiotherapy department for stereotactic arrhythmia radioablation delivered on conventional linear accelerators.

In stereotactic arrhythmia radioablation (STAR), the target is defined using multiple imaging studies and amultidisciplinary team consisting of electrophysiologist, cardiologist, cardiac radiologist, and radiation oncologist collaborate to identify the target and delineate it on the imaging studies of interest. This report describes the workflow employed in our radiotherapy department to transfer the target identified based on electrophysiology and cardiology imaging to the treatment planning image set. The radiotherapy team was presented with an initial target in cardiac axes orientation, contoured on awideband late gadolinium-enhanced (WB-LGE) cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) study, which was subsequently transferred to the computed tomography (CT) scan used for treatment planning-i.e., the average intensity projection (AIP) image set derived from a4DCT-via an axial CMR image set, using rigid image registration focused on the target area. The cardiac and the respiratory motion of the target were resolved using ciné-CMR and 4D CT imaging studies, respectively. The workflow was carried out for 6patients and resulted in an internal target defined in standard anatomical orientation that encompassed the cardiac and the respiratory motion of the initial target. An image registration-based workflow was implemented to render the STAR target on the planning image set in aconsistent manner, using commercial software traditionally available for radiation therapy.

DOES FARMERS' EDUCATION AFFECT THE PROFITABILITY OF SHRIMP FARMING? EVIDENCE FROM THE COASTAL REGION OF BANGLADESH

This study explores the impact of farmers' level of education on the profitability of shrimp farming. The authors have collected data from a sample of 200 shrimp farmers in three districts in the southwest region of Bangladesh, namely Khulna, Bagerhat, and Satkhira, using a proportionate random sampling technique. The shrimp farmers' education and productivity status are investigated through descriptive statistics. The authors estimated a Cobb-Douglas Production Function (CDPF) to examine the effect of farmers' level of education on the profitability of shrimp farming. Using a Tobit regression model, this study tried to investigate the association between the educational attainment of farmers and their degree of knowledge in farm management. The study finds that the average level of shrimp production in southwestern Bangladesh is 425 kg per hectare, resulting from the absence of modern farming methods and a deficiency in adequate farming knowledge. The activity budget equation illustrates that farmers with higher education levels exhibit greater profitability compared to their less educated counterparts. The analysis of efficiency factors of production (EFP) indicates that farmers with higher education levels exhibit greater efficiency than their counterparts with lower education levels. The break-even point (BEP) analysis reveals that the average production volume, price, and the gher size in the study area outstrip the BEP threshold, suggesting that shrimp farming in this region is economically feasible. The analysis of field-level data reveals a strong association between farmers' level of education and their profitability, suggesting that higher levels of education among farmers have a substantial positive impact on their financial gains. It is evident from the study findings that knowledge of farm management plays a significant role in shrimp productivity. Therefore, the degree of farm management knowledge is affected by the education of the farmers. Consequently, this research suggests augmenting the accessibility of contemporary technology-driven farming methods and effectively utilizing information via a training initiative targeting shrimp farmers. Additionally, this study recommends offering incentives or credit opportunities to newly participating educated farmers.

Clinical impact of non-lying time on hospital-associated functional decline in older patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation

The purposes of the present study were: (1) to investigate the relationship between hospital-associated functional decline (HAFD) and non-lying time and (2) to clarify the optimal cut-off value for non-lying time associated with HAFD in older patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). From January 2021 to December 2022, patients admitted to a university hospital who underwent trans-femoral TAVI were consecutively recruited. We measured short physical performance battery (SPPB) pre and post-TAVI, and non-lying time from post-operative days 3–5. HAFD was defined as at least 1 point decrease in SPPB during pre and post-TAVI. Among 75 patients (47 female, mean age of 84.5 years) enrolled, 14 patients were classified as having HAFD. Non-lying time was significantly shorter in the HAFD group than in the non-HAFD group (371 min vs. 539 min, P < 0.001). Receiver-operating characteristic analysis determined an optimal cut-off value of 477 min for differentiating the patients more likely to experience HAFD (sensitivity, 75%; specificity, 92%; area under the curve, 0.798). The non-lying time could be one of the associated factors of HAFD in older patients with TAVI. Non-lying time of about 480 min (8 h) during hospitalization may be an initial target for preventing HAFD.

Appropriateness of proton pump inhibitor therapy in an ambulatory geriatrics clinic: A retrospective cross-sectional analysis.

Proton pump inhibitors are considered potentially inappropriate medications in the geriatric population. The use of proton pump inhibitors by older adults has increased over the past several decades; however, existing literature suggests that only one-third of patients prescribed these medications have a valid indication for use. The aim of this study was to assess the appropriateness of proton pump inhibitor therapy in a population of ambulatory geriatric patients and to determine the impact of an interdisciplinary clinic on their use. This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study of patients referred to an ambulatory geriatrics clinic between October 2017 and March 2021. Participants were eligible for inclusion if they were taking a proton pump inhibitor at the time of clinic admission. Appropriateness of proton pump inhibitor therapy was assessed based on indication and dosing regimen. In total, 280 participants were included. The mean age was 79.6 years (SD 7.7) and 60% were female. Overall, 94 of 280 (33.6%) participants had a documented valid indication for their proton pump inhibitor. The clinic team intervened to reduce the dose or discontinue 76 of 186 (40.8%) inappropriate proton pump inhibitors. Only one-third of proton pump inhibitors used by ambulatory geriatric patients have a documented appropriate indication for use. Given the medical complexity of this population and their vulnerability to adverse effects, the ambulatory geriatric population should be a priority target for proton pump inhibitor deprescribing initiatives.

Experienced Meditators Show Multifaceted Attention-Related Differences in Neural Activity

ObjectivesMindfulness meditation (MM) is suggested to improve attention. Research has explored this using the “attentional-blink” (AB) task, where stimuli are rapidly presented, and a second target stimulus (T2) is often missed if presented ~300 ms after an initial target stimulus (T1). Previous research has shown improved task accuracy during the AB task and altered neural activity following an intensive 3-month MM retreat. We tested whether these results replicated in a community sample of typical meditators.MethodThirty-one mindfulness meditators and 30 non-meditators completed an AB task while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded. Between-group comparisons were made for task accuracy, event-related potential activity (posterior-N2 and P3b), theta and alpha oscillatory phase synchronisation to stimuli presentation, and alpha-power. The primary aim was to examine effects within the time windows reported in previous research. Additional exploratory aims assessed effects across broader time windows.ResultsNo differences were detected in task accuracy or neural activity within our primary hypotheses. However, exploratory analyses showed posterior-N2 and theta phase synchronisation (where the phase of theta oscillations were synchronised to stimuli onset) effects indicating meditators showed a priority towards attending to T2 stimuli (p < 0.01). Meditators also showed more alpha-phase synchronisation, and lower alpha-power (with smaller amplitudes of activity in the alpha frequency) when processing T2 stimuli (p < 0.025).ConclusionsOur results showed multiple differences in neural activity that suggested enhanced attention in meditators. The neural activity patterns in meditators aligned with theoretical perspectives on activity associated with enhanced cognitive performance. These include enhanced alpha “gating” mechanisms (where alpha activity acts as a filter between sensory and higher order neural processes), increased oscillatory synchronisation to stimuli, and more equal allocation of neural activity across stimuli. However, meditators did not show higher task accuracy, nor were the effects consistent with our primary hypotheses or previous research.PreregistrationThis study was not preregistered.

Factors Associated with Favorable Outcomes in Cardiac Arrest and Target Temperature Management.

Current guidelines strongly recommend providing targeted temperature management (TTM) after cardiac arrest, but hypothalamic dysregulation may confound TTM's impact on a patient's ultimate outcome. Although time to reach target temperature has largely been viewed as a process measure for TTM protocols, the difference between initial presenting temperature and target temperature (Δ-temperature) may be a potential surrogate marker of hypothalamic dysregulation. We performed a retrospective observational study to explore whether Δ-temperature was associated with neurologic outcomes and mortality. We included 86 patients (53 with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest [OHCA] and 33 with in-hospital cardiac arrest [IHCA]) in our analysis; more than half of the patients were cooled to 33°C (56.9% in OHCA and 57.6% in IHCA). In univariate logistic regression analysis, Δ-temperature alone did not appear to be statistically associated with mortality or neurologic outcomes regardless of target temperature. In exploratory analysis, longer time from TTM initiation-to-target was associated with worse neurological outcomes in the 33°C target (odds ratio = 0.996, 95% confidence interval = 0.992-1.000). Further research investigating the impact of hypothalamic dysregulation and Δ-temperature as well as the rate of cooling may be warranted to elucidate additional factors contributing to outcomes after cardiac arrest. In addition, our study population was noted to have a higher proportion of Asians and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, with a potential disparity in outcomes. Future studies may be warranted to ensure generalizability of TTM protocols and findings across populations.

Growth of Er3+‐doped LiNbO3 thin‐film on LiTaO3 by e‐beam evaporation

AbstractGrowth of Er3+‐doped 100‐nm thick LiNbO3(LN) films on Z‐cut LiTaO3(LT) single‐crystal by e‐beam evaporation and in‐situ anneal at 600–800°C was studied. Crystalline phase, crystallographic orientation, Er3+ spectroscopic properties, constituent element valence states, defects, Er3+ concentration and stoichiometry of the films were characterized. The results show that the films are in LN single‐crystal state and orient along with c crystallographic axis. Constituent elements Li, O and Er are present in their respective single valence states Li+, O2−, Er3+, while the Nb is in two valence states Nb5+ and Nb4+. The films have Li2O‐contents around congruent point. Antisite(NbLi4+) is the major defect. Its concentration decreases, while Li2O‐content, crystallinity degree, and fluorescence intensity increase with increased growth temperature. The presence of Er3+ in the grown films is in the form of LN crystalline phase. Its concentration is considerably lower than that in initial target material because of lower e‐beam evaporation efficiency of heavy Er3+.

Comparison of Vancomycin Trough-Based and 24-Hour Area Under the Curve Over Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (AUC/MIC)-Based Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in Pediatric Patients.

Vancomycin 24-hour area under the curve over minimum inhibitory concentration (AUC/MIC) monitoring has been recommended over trough-based monitoring in pediatric patients. This study compared the proportion of target attainment between vancomycin AUC/MIC and trough-based methods, and identified risk factors for subtherapeutic initial extrapolated targets. This was a retrospective, observational study conducted at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), Singapore. Patients aged 1 month to 18 years with stable renal function who received intravenous vancomycin between January 2014 and October 2017, with at least 2 vancomycin serum concentrations obtained after the first dose of vancomycin, were included. Using a pharmacokinetic software, namely Adult and Pediatric Kinetics (APK), initial extrapolated steady-state troughs and 24-hour AUC were determined by using a one-compartmental model. Statistical tests included Wilcoxon rank sum test, McNemar test, logistic regression, and classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. Of the 82 pediatric patients included, a significantly larger proportion of patients achieved therapeutic targets when the AUC/MIC-based method (24, 29.3%) was used than with the trough-based method (9, 11.0%; p < 0.01). Patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m2 or with age <13 years had an increased risk of obtaining subtherapeutic targets. However, empiric vancomycin doses of 60 mg/kg/day would be sufficient to achieve serum therapeutic targets, using the AUC/MIC-based method. The AUC/MIC-based vancomycin monitoring may be preferred because a larger proportion of patients could achieve initial therapeutic targets. Future prospective studies with larger sample size will be required to determine the optimal vancomycin strategy for pediatric patients.

A multi–channel study of the 20Ne + 130Te system within the NUMEN project

The NUMEN project aims to measure specific reaction cross sections to provide experimentally driven information about nuclear matrix elements of interest in the context of neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ). In particular, it was proposed to use heavy – ion induced double charge exchange reactions as tools towards the determination of information on the nuclear matrix elements of 0νββ, strongly motivated by a number of similarities between the two processes. To this extent, the 20Ne + 130Te system was experimentally investigated in a multi-channel approach by measuring the complete net of reactions channels, namely double charge exchange, single charge exchange, elastic and inelastic scattering, one – and two – nucleon transfer reactions, characterized by the same initial projectile and target nuclei. The goal of the study is to fully characterize the properties of the nuclear wavefunctions entering in the 0νββ decay nuclear matrix elements. The experimental setup, the data reduction and some of the obtained results for the 20Ne + 130Te system will be presented and discussed.

A novel approach to the assessment of higher-order rule learning in male mice.

Historically, the development of valid and reliable methods for assessing higher-order cognitive abilities (e.g., rule learning and transfer) has been difficult in rodent models. To date, limited evidence supports the existence of higher cognitive abilities such as rule generation and complex decision-making in mice, rats, and rabbits. To this end, we sought to develop a task that would require mice to learn and transfer a rule. We trained mice to visually discriminate a series of images (image set, six total) of increasing complexity following three stages: (1) learn a visual target, (2) learn a rule (ignore any new images around the target), and finally (3) apply this rule in abstract form to a comparable but new image set. To evaluate learning for each stage, we measured (1) days (and performance by day) to discriminate the original target at criterion, (2) days (and performance by day) to get back to criterion when images in the set were altered by the introduction of distractors (rule learning), and (3) overall days (and performance by day) to criterion when experienced versus naïve cohorts of mice were tested on the same image set (rule transfer). Twenty-seven wild-type male C57 mice were tested using Bussey-Saksida touchscreen operant conditioning boxes (Lafayette Instruments). Two comparable black-white image sets were delivered sequentially (counterbalanced for order) to two identical cohorts of mice. Results showed that all mice were able to effectively learn their initial target image and could recall it >80 d later. We also found that mice were able to quickly learn and apply a "rule" : Ignore new distractors and continue to identify their visual target embedded in more complex images. The presence of rule learning was supported because performance criterion thresholds were regained much faster than initial learning when distractors were introduced. On the other hand, mice appeared unable to transfer this rule to a new set of stimuli. This is supported because visual discrimination curves for a new image set were no better than an initial (naïve) learning by a matched cohort of mice. Overall results have important implications for phenotyping research and particularly for the modeling of complex disorders in mice.

Methodological and Reporting Quality of Non-Inferiority or Equivalence Designs: A Systematic Review of Trial Characteristics, Design Consideration and Interpretation in Breast Cancer Radiotherapy Trials

To investigate the methodological and reporting quality of non-inferiority (NI)/equivalence trials of breast cancer radiotherapy and to provide suggestions for future NI/equivalence trials. Prospective phase III randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing different radiation modalities in patients with breast cancer and designed or interpreted as NI/equivalence were identified in PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane library. Two reviewers independently extracted data on trial characteristics, statistical design assumptions and analysis considerations, primary end point results and conclusions. The relationship between the number of published trials and the year of publication was assessed by simple linear regression. Trials with pre-specified NI margins as absolute risk differences were reevaluated using margins as relative risk differences. A total of 1490 records were screened and 41 articles published between January 1, 2001 and May 9, 2022 were selected for full text review. A total of 21 trials were included (18 designed as NI and 3 as equivalence). Publication of these trials increased over time (p = 0.023). Trial interventions included dose fractionation (n = 10), partial/whole breast irradiation (n = 8) and tumor bed boost (n = 3). Eleven (52.4%) trials clearly described the non-efficacy benefits. The primary endpoints included 5-year local recurrence (LR) (n = 11), 5-year locoregional recurrence (n = 3), acute/late toxicities (n = 5), 2-year LR and cosmetic outcome (n = 1), and 10-year LR (n = 1). Only seven (33.3%) trials provided justification of the margins. The absolute and relative risk margins were both mentioned in nine (42.9%) trials' methods and reported in six (28.6%) trials' results. The analyzed populations were intention-to-treat (ITT) in 10, both ITT and per-protocol in 9 trials. Seventeen (81%) trials reported confidence interval (CI), with twelve reporting CI that agreed with the type I error used in sample size calculation, but only eight (38.1%) reported p value for NI/equivalence test. Fifteen (71.4%) trials concluded NI/equivalence. Five (23.8%) trials had misleading conclusions (four for not mentioning small sample size insufficient to confirm NI/equivalence and one for inconsistent with the published results). Thirteen (61.9%) trials reported that the protocol's initial accrual target was not met, with ten (47.6%) owing to overestimation of event rates. For trials that met NI only based on absolute margin, three of eight (37.5%) trials were classified as inconclusive with the assumed relative margins. The use of NI/equivalence trials of breast cancer radiotherapy has dramatically increased recently, but there is substantial room for improvement in the methodological and reporting quality of NI/equivalence trials.

Lithiophilic Sn layer via pre-electroplating to realize the uniform stripping/plating for dendrite free Li metal anodes

Lithium (Li) metal is expected to become the next generation anodes materials, owning to the irreplaceable advantages (high the theoretical specific capacity, high energy density, and low electrochemical potential). However, the huge volume exchange and dendritic Li growth hinder its development. In this paper, a recyclable method was put forward to relief the above issues for achieving stable Li metal anodes, where the uniform Sn layer was built on the surface of copper foam (SCF) by pre-electroplating. The porous structure of copper foam (CF) can accommodate deposited Li to relax the huge volume change. The Sn layer of SCF improves the lithiophilicity of structure, preventing the inhomogeneous deposition by the “tip effect”. In view of the synergies of porous structure and lithiophilic Sn layer, the SCF shows good compatibility with Li metal anodes. During the preparation process of SCF, the electroplating solution is recyclable and the cost of energy is low, which prevents environmental pollution and resembles the initial target of secondary energy storage. Meanwhile, the symmetrical cells of SCF show longer life than CF and copper foil. After 550 cycles, the coulomb efficiency of SCF can be stable more than 98 % at 1 mA cm−2 with 1 mAh cm−2. The full cells of LFP||Li@SCF deliver satisfactory capacity (117.1 mAh/g) at 1C after 130 cycles. With further research, the pre-electroplating has the potential to be another way for the building of framework structure in the field of Li metal anodes.

SiamCA: Siamese visual tracking with customized anchor and target-aware interaction

Generating high-quality candidates is very crucial for discriminative target tracking. Siamese network based trackers rely on some fixed anchors to fit the shape of a target. However, in practical tracking, these fixed anchors are insufficient to cover all possible aspect ratios of the target caused by various motions and deformations. In this paper, we propose customized anchor that can fit the current state of the target using only one bounding box at each coordinate point. The customized anchor is generated under the guidance of historical prediction result and initial target state, and is further refined by embedding its shape feature into the regression map. To provide more discriminative feature for generating customized anchor, we design a target-aware based feature correlation module to capture local spatial context and global interaction of target, by which the target feature is more salient while background interference is effectively suppressed. In addition, we propose a dynamic template update method and a simple yet effective lost-target re-search strategy to find the lost-target again. Experiments on benchmarks including OTB100, VOT2019, LaSOT, UAV123, and VOT2018 demonstrate that our tracker achieves promising performance with a real-time speed. Our code and pre-trained models are available at https://github.com/PPs199/SiamCA.git.

Persistent Poverty Initiative Targets Disparities in Cancer Care

Persistent Poverty Initiative Targets Disparities in Cancer Care

Results of VOICE: a global survey of disease-specific knowledge and perspectives of real-world patients with CLL

AbstractThe Virtual Opinions poll Independent Centered on CLL patients’ Experience (VOICE) evaluated patients’ knowledge about chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), their perspectives on diagnosis and treatment, and their unmet needs. Clinicians and patient advocacy group representatives developed and distributed the survey from March through December 2022 in 12 countries, and 377 patients with ≥1 line of previous CLL treatment responded from Europe, Latin America, the United States, Australia, Egypt, and Turkey. A majority of them (90%; 336/374) relied on their physicians for information regarding CLL and treatment. If at high risk, respondents prefer oral medications to intravenous (78%; 232/296), fixed duration treatment over treatment until progression (69%; 185/270), outpatient over inpatient treatments (91%; 257/283). Over three-fourths of respondents (78%; 286/368) wanted to be involved in treatment decisions, but a minority actually participated (44%; 138/313). COVID-19 vaccinations were widely available (97%; 273/281), but one-fifth (19%; 63/331) were unaware that CLL increases vulnerability to infections. Most patients’ physicians explained their treatment options (84%; 297/355), and 90% (271/301) understood their treatment. Notably, >10% would continue treatment normally if they experienced cardiac problems or arrhythmias, whereas 23% would consider stopping treatment if they developed skin cancer. Treatment–associated side effects affected 27% to 43% of patients. These results in a global patient population highlight gaps in patients’ knowledge of risk groups, their susceptibility to infections including COVID, and the side effects of common treatments. Such knowledge can guide the appropriate targeting of patient education initiatives by clinicians, advocates, and policymakers.

Too big to succeed? Institutional inertia in low-carbon district heating experiment

The energy transitions are in an acceleration phase, where less carbon intensive technologies emerge, but their applicability is uncertain creating a need for real-life experimentation. Cities have become a focal context, where novel constellations of technologies and practices are introduced to reconfigure patterns of production and consumption. One area of urban energy governance gaining increasing attention especially in a Northern context is the low carbon transition in district heating systems that provide the majority of heating in the residential sector and has been primarily built around combustion technologies relying on fossil energy reserves. This article analyses a bidirectional low heat experiment in district heat in Finland by examining what are the dimensions of institutional inertia and how it impacts the reconfiguration of an urban energy system. Institutional inertia emerges from the technical innovation itself, land-use planning practices, the absence of formal regulations and via organisational inertia in the implementation of the experiment. We find that visions about the innovation can become constraints of the experiment, which limit learning and reshaping of innovation, thus preventing radical transformation of the district heating system and watering down the initial target of the experiment. We contribute to the conceptualisation of institutional inertia within the energy transition.

Recurrence of a large intracranial fusiform aneurysm treated with overlapping Pipeline embolization devices: illustrative case.

Flow diversion, specifically with the Pipeline embolization device (PED), represents a paradigm shift in the treatment of intracranial aneurysms. Several studies have demonstrated its efficacy and at times superiority to conventional treatment modalities for aneurysms with a fusiform morphology, giant size, or wide neck. However, there may be a nonsignificant risk of recurrence after flow diversion of these historically difficult-to-treat aneurysms, relative to aneurysms with a more favorable morphology and size (i.e., saccular, narrow necked). To date, only three papers in the literature have demonstrated the recurrence of a completely occluded aneurysm on follow-up. The authors describe a patient with a giant middle cerebral artery fusiform aneurysm treated with multiple telescoping PEDs. On the 3-month follow-up angiogram, there was complete occlusion of the aneurysm. The patient was lost to follow-up and presented 4 years later with a recurrence of the aneurysm between PED segments, requiring retreatment. The patient represented 3 years posttreatment with the need for repeat treatment of the fusiform aneurysm due to separation of the existing PEDs along with stent reconstruction. At the 20-month follow-up after the third treatment, the initial aneurysm target was found to be occluded. This case illustrates the need for long-term follow-up, specifically for patients with giant wide-necked or fusiform aneurysms treated with overlapping PEDs.

Deep learning-based 3D multigrid topology optimization of manufacturable designs

Structural topology optimization is a compute-intensive process due to several iterations of simulations required to evaluate the performance of the component during optimization. Deep learning (DL) based approaches can address this challenge, but these methods were demonstrated mainly using 2D shapes and, at best, in low-resolution 3D geometries (typically 323). Further, due to non-manufacturable geometric features, the predicted optimal geometries from DL may not be manufacturable, even using additive manufacturing. In this paper, we develop a DL framework using a multigrid convolutional neural network (CNN) to generate high-resolution topology-optimized 3D geometries with additional checks on the manufacturability of the predicted shapes. Our framework predicts the final optimal topology using the initial strain energy (objective function of structural topology optimization) and target volume fraction (material fraction to be preserved after optimization) as input. We train the network using a multigrid approach, which enables topology optimization at 1283 resolution, which was previously computationally challenging. We first train the multigrid CNN at a lower resolution and then transfer the learned network to continue training at higher resolutions. We use a distributed deep learning framework on a GPU supercomputing cluster to further speed up the training time. Distributed DL significantly speeds up the training time by more than 4× while achieving similar model performance. Finally, we check the optimal geometries for manufacturability using fused deposition modeling (FDM)-specific manufacturability constraints. The large training dataset (>60,000 high-resolution topology optimization examples) will be released with the paper to enable further research on this topic.

Лингвопрагматические аспекты перевода стилистических доминант Кейт ДиКамилло с английского языка на русский

The aim of the study is to identify the main dominants in the individual style of the modern American children’s writer Kate DiCamillo. Kate DiCamillo’s works, despite the fact that their initial target readership is represented by children of primary and secondary school age, are characterised by a deep semantic, aesthetic, didactic and pragmatic load, symbolism, stylistic charge, which is particularly difficult to translate and adapt. In this regard, the paper pays special attention to interpreting the essence of the pragmatic meaning of the features peculiar to the writer’s style, as well as the literary techniques used by her in the process of carrying out a comparative analysis of excerpts from the original works and their translations. The researcher assessed the adequacy of the translator’s application of pragmatically determined translation tactics to preserve the stylistic dominants of the author. The scientific novelty of the paper lies in the fact that it presents a comprehensive translation and linguopragmatic analysis of the key stylistic means used by Kate DiCamillo, which lays the theoretical foundations for the pragmasemantic description of the individual style of the writer of children’s fiction. As a result of the comparative analysis, it was found that Kate DiCamillo’s dominant stylistic techniques are metaphor, comparison, epithet, using which the author conveys the pragmaticon of her linguistic individuality, communicates certain motivational and pragmatic attitudes, influencing the child reader. Cultural filtering, explication and information modification were identified as the key translation strategies.

Making waves: Establishing a modeling framework to evaluate novel targets for wastewater-based surveillance

Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) monitoring of pathogens circulating within a community provides an improved understanding of the occurrence and spread of infectious diseases. However, the potential suitability of WBS for novel disease targets is unclear, including many emerging and neglected diseases. The current ad hoc approach of conducting wastewater detection experiments on novel disease targets to determine their suitability for WBS monitoring is resource intensive and may stall investment in this promising technology. In addition, detections, or non-detections, without the context of disease prevalence and shedding by infected individuals are difficult to interpret upon initial WBS target development. In this paper, we present a WBS feasibility analysis framework to identify which diseases are theoretically appropriate for WBS applications and to improve the initial interpretation of target detections. We then discuss five primary factors that influence the probability of detection in WBS monitoring – genome shedding rate, infection rate, per capita wastewater usage, process limit of detection (PLOD), and the number of PCR replicates. Clarifying the relationships between these factors and the likelihood of detection enhances quantitative insights into applying WBS, guiding researchers and stakeholders into mitigating inherent uncertainties of wastewater monitoring and subsequent improvements in WBS outcomes, thereby supporting future investment and expansion of WBS research, especially in novel disease targets.