Recovery Point Research Articles

Community member perspectives on adapting the cascade of care for opioid use disorder for a tribal nation in the United States.

The Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) Cascade of Care is a public health model that has been used to measure population-level OUD risk, treatment engagement, retention, service and outcome indicators. However, no studies have examined its relevance for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. Thus, we aimed to understand (1) the utility of existing stages and (2) the relative 'fit' of the OUD Cascade of Care from a tribal perspective. Qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with 20 individuals who were knowledgeable regarding the treatment of OUD in an Anishinaabe tribal setting in Minnesota, USA. Community member roles included clinicians, peer support specialists and cultural practitioners, among others. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Participants identified the key transition points of prevention, assessment, inpatient/outpatient pathways and recovery as relevant to their community. They re-imagined an Aanji'bide (Changing our Paths) model of opioid recovery and change that was non-linear; included developmental stage and individual pathways; and demonstrated resilience through connection to culture/spirituality, community and others. Community members living/working in a rural tribal nation in Minnesota, USA identified non-linearity and cultural connection as key elements to include in an Anishinaabe-centered model of opioid recovery and change.

Hermes: Hemera Returning Messenger

A common issue for long-duration balloon flights in the polar area is high bit rate data transferring. Just a few hours after launch balloons are nor reachable with direct radio link, and often satellite links are not fast enough to allow the necessary transfer rate or, simply, too expensive. For this reason, stratospheric balloon borne experiments carry out on-board data recording. Data recorded need to be recovered after termination, which is, sometimes, a slow, difficult and expensive task. Not always it is easy or possible to reach the landing site, especially during the polar winter. The aim of the project is to provide an autonomous glider capable of physically carrying the data from the stratospheric platform to a recovery point on the ground. This can also transport physical objects (like air samples) collected at float or along the flight. We estimate that an electrical motorglider released in the stratosphere can fly for several hundreds of kilometers. The glider is installed on the balloon payload through a remotely controlled release system, and connected with the main computer to receive data and the geographic coordinates of the recovery point. The glider trajectory can be monitored with Iridium SBD (Short Burst Data), and simple commands can be issued as well as using Iridium.

Phenotyping drought tolerance and yield performance of barley using a combination of imaging methods

Drought resistance represents a complex of traits that are differently employed depending on drought type, severity and timing. Hence, a relatively comprehensive assessment of morphological and physiological phenotypic response to drought is required. We evaluated the dynamic responses of six barley genotypes, representing a wide range of drought tolerance, to continuous drying and re-watering using non-invasively measured parameters based on red-green-blue (RGB), thermal infrared and chlorophyll fluorescence imaging within an automated phenotyping platform. We identified three critical points in drought progress: i) 50% level of available soil water, ii) wilting point, iii) full plant recovery after re-watering. However, the individual monitored parameters showed the potential to evaluate drought sensitivity at different points since the onset of drying. The correlation with relative yield response gradually increased for the side projected leaf area (SPA) and reached the maximum at the point of full recovery. The actual quantum yield of photosystem II (ΦPSII) showed the highest correlation with a relative grain yield around wilting point. In contrast, the relative leaf temperature difference demonstrated a high correlation with yield response earlier, at 50% of available water. The highest correlations with the relative yield response were obtained for the colour RGB analysis at the wilting point and after recovery, particularly for khaki, beige, dark-green and olive-green colours. Multiple regression with parameters providing Pearson’s correlation coefficient R > 0.5 slightly improved the estimation of relative yield response to drought but ensured significant improvement of absolute grain yield estimation under drought stress. This study shows that combining the phenotyping methods representing different morphological and physiological traits allows not only the assessment of drought tolerance (based on relative yield response to drought) which is crucial for selecting the genetic resources for the subsequent breeding process but also allows to test the yield performance of new genotypes under drought stress.

The health impact of long COVID: a cross-sectional examination of health-related quality of life, disability, and health status among individuals with self-reported post-acute sequelae of SARS CoV-2 infection at various points of recovery

ObjectiveThe novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has continued to present a significant burden to global public health efforts. The purpose of this study was to estimate the health-related quality of life, disability, and health status of individuals with self-reported long COVID at various lengths of recovery.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional online survey of individuals with self-reported long COVID. Participants were asked to complete the five-item EuroQOL EQ-5D-5L and EQ visual analog scale, the 12-item World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS) 2.0 and the 10-item Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Global Health v1.2 short form. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to characterize the responses and differences across groups.ResultsEighty-two participants from 13 countries completed the EQ-5D-5L, 73 completed the WHODAS 2.0 and 80 participants completed the PROMIS. The mean EQ-5D-5L utility score was 0.51. The mean WHODAS score was 49.0. In the previous 30 days, participants reported their symptoms affected them for a mean of 24 days, they were totally unable to carry out usual activities for 15 days, and they cut back or reduced activities for 26 days. The mean PROMIS physical health and mental health scores were 10.7 and 8.6, respectively, corresponding to below-average health. No significant differences were detected across time or according to severity of acute infection.ConclusionsLong COVID presents a significant chronic health burden to adults in the US and abroad. This health burden may persist for many months post-acute infection.

Competitive strategies and financial relations in the meat manufacturing firms: Evidence from Greece

There are many different companies in the Greek meat industry, and most of them are small businesses. They can be divided into three main categories and all of them are referred to as meat manufacturing firms. The study of their main financial indexes is profitability, market share, and capital intensity. Capital intensity does not show stability in the turnover of these firms during the last years, while recovery points are seen after the covid 19 pandemic period increasing their competitiveness level. On the other hand, the competitiveness of these companies constitutes a crucial matter for all the firms as it is a guide for the selection of their proper strategy. As a result, the competitiveness estimation of these firms as a basic factor for the choice of the proper strategy acquires great importance and constitutes the aim of the present paper. Following the financial indexes methodology, the competitiveness estimation takes place with two equations using profitability and market share as dependent variables. The primary findings demonstrate how profitability, market share, and capital intensity affect the competitiveness of meat production enterprises, supporting the several strategies that these firms may choose to employ.

Resilience characterized and quantified from physical activity data: A tutorial in R

Rationale
 Consistent physical activity (PA) is key for health and well-being; however, various events (e.g., pandemic outbreaks, acute diseases) can act as stressors for PA, and thus may be followed by a decrease in PA levels. The process of recovering from such stressors and bouncing back to the previous state of PA can be referred to as resilience. Quantifying resilience is fundamental to assess the impact of stressors on daily PA and to identify factors and strategies to foster adaptive capacities. However, PA time series are typically characterized by evident daily fluctuations that mask the underlying trajectory and, therefore, prevent from detecting the point in time when the system consistently recovers from the stressor. Objective: In this paper, we present a methodological approach to identify the recovery point and ultimately quantify the resilience process from PA data using the area under the curve (AUC). Methods: As use case to illustrate the methodology, we quantified resilience in step count for eight participants following the stressor represented by the start of the first COVID-19 lockdown (March 15, 2020). Step count time series were collected in Barcelona, as part of the COVICAT study, in the period between October 1, 2019 and September 30, 2020. Steps were collected daily using wrist-worn devices. The methodology is implemented in R and a tutorial is available on Open Science Framework. Results: We applied the following analytical steps to each participant’s time series. 1) We calculated the pre-stressor baseline level for step count as the median step count before the first COVID-19 lockdown. 2) We fitted multiple growth models (i.e., linear, quadratic, generalized additive) to each participant’s post stressor time series and identified the best model using the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE). 3) We used the fitted values from the selected model to identify the point in time when the participants recovered from the stressor (bouncing back to the baseline level). 4) We quantified the AUC and, ultimately, resilience as the cumulative difference between baseline level and each fitted value before the recovery point. Further resilience features were extracted to capture the different aspects of the process and will be presented. Conclusions: Our contribution offers a methodological guide to quantify resilience from PA data and proposes a ready-to-go toolbox that can be easily applied by interested researchers and foster further scientific investigation in different ways. For instance, it allows to i) explore the determinants of the resilience process for PA, ii) identify intervention strategies that improve individuals’ adaptive capacities and promote faster resilience, and iii) use the provided indicators of resilience as outcomes to test the effectiveness of interventions aiming at reducing the impact of stressors on PA.

Achieving Reliability in Cloud Computing by a Novel Hybrid Approach.

Cloud computing (CC) benefits and opportunities are among the fastest growing technologies in the computer industry. Cloud computing's challenges include resource allocation, security, quality of service, availability, privacy, data management, performance compatibility, and fault tolerance. Fault tolerance (FT) refers to a system's ability to continue performing its intended task in the presence of defects. Fault-tolerance challenges include heterogeneity and a lack of standards, the need for automation, cloud downtime reliability, consideration for recovery point objects, recovery time objects, and cloud workload. The proposed research includes machine learning (ML) algorithms such as naïve Bayes (NB), library support vector machine (LibSVM), multinomial logistic regression (MLR), sequential minimal optimization (SMO), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), and random forest (RF) as well as a fault-tolerance method known as delta-checkpointing to achieve higher accuracy, lesser fault prediction error, and reliability. Furthermore, the secondary data were collected from the homonymous, experimental high-performance computing (HPC) system at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, and the primary data were generated using virtual machines (VMs) to select the best machine learning classifier. In this article, the secondary and primary data were divided into two split ratios of 80/20 and 70/30, respectively, and cross-validation (5-fold) was used to identify more accuracy and less prediction of faults in terms of true, false, repair, and failure of virtual machines. Secondary data results show that naïve Bayes performed exceptionally well on CPU-Mem mono and multi blocks, and sequential minimal optimization performed very well on HDD mono and multi blocks in terms of accuracy and fault prediction. In the case of greater accuracy and less fault prediction, primary data results revealed that random forest performed very well in terms of accuracy and fault prediction but not with good time complexity. Sequential minimal optimization has good time complexity with minor differences in random forest accuracy and fault prediction. We decided to modify sequential minimal optimization. Finally, the modified sequential minimal optimization (MSMO) algorithm with the fault-tolerance delta-checkpointing (D-CP) method is proposed to improve accuracy, fault prediction error, and reliability in cloud computing.

Routine binocular examination of young Taiwanese adults as a predictor of visual behavior performance

BackgroundMorgan and Scheiman’s Optometric Extension Program (OEP) expected binocular vision findings have longstanding use in optometry. With technological advances, the demands and standards of binocular function have changed. This study aimed to investigate which binocular visual functions can effectively predict visual behavior performance.MethodsParticipants aged 15–24 years were recruited from two colleges and two universities. After completing the CSMU-Visual Behavioral Performance questionnaire (CSMU-VBP, with four components: near work, visual perception, visual comfort, and whole-body balance), participants were divided into symptomatic and asymptomatic groups based on questionnaire findings (cutoff: < 12 vs. ≥ 12 symptoms). Then a 24-step binocular visual examination was undertaken. Data were analyzed with one-sample, Student’s, and paired t-tests. Additionally, receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to determine the predictors of binocular visual function required for near work, visual perception, visual comfort, and body balance dimensions.ResultsAmong 308 participants, 43 (14%) and 265 (86%) were symptomatic and asymptomatic, respectively. Among the 46 participants with abnormal binocular vision, 36 (78%) reported that they had no obvious symptoms. The commonest dysfunctions were accommodative excess and convergence excess. Most of the binocular visual findings significantly diverged from traditional normal values: amplitude of accommodation, as well as base-in prism to break and recovery points at distance were higher than traditional normal values, whereas others were lower than traditional normal values. Total CSMU-VBP scores indicated that the asymptomatic and symptomatic groups had significant differences in DBO recovery (t = 2.334, p = 0.020) and BAF (t = 1.984, p = 0.048). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis yielded the following binocular visual functional cutoff points: near work (DBO blur < 7, DBO recovery < 5.5), visual perception (MAF < 10.5, BAF < 10.25), visual comfort (DLP < − 2.25, DBI break > 11.5, NBI blur > 15, NBI break > 17.5, NBI recovery > 13, NPC < 5.75), and body balance (NFD_H > − 0.5, gradient AC/A [minus] > 2.25, NPC < 4.75).ConclusionsThe mean values of binocular visual function among young Taiwanese adults were statistically different from traditional normative values. Further research is required to confirm whether these findings reflect impaired binocular vision or stringent criteria. Assessments of binocular visual function, especially binocular accommodation sensitivity, are crucial in routine optometric examination.

The effects of torsion on horizontal motor fusion and stereopsis

To investigate the effects of ocular torsion on horizontal motor fusion and stereopsis in normal adults and to probe the effects of torsion on peripheral fusion, macular fusion and foveal fusion. Twenty-five normal adults aged 30–38 were enrolled in this study. During the synoptophore assessment, the break points (BP) and recovery points (RP) of convergent fusion (CF) and divergent fusion (DF) and random-dots stereopsis were measured and analyzed at intorsion and extorsion of 3°, 5°, 7°, and 9°. According to the different sizes of the retinal areas stimulated by the synoptophore slides, fusion was classified into three categories: peripheral fusion (p-F), macular fusion (m-F) and foveal fusion (f-F). The p-F, m-F and f-F were analyzed and compared at the same torsional angle. There were significant differences in BPCF, RPCF, BPDF and RPDF among different torsion angles (ANOVA, P < 0.05). The Tukey's multiple comparison test showed that BPCF and RPCF of p-F, m-F and f-F decreased significantly at extorsion and intorsion ≥ 5°, compared with baseline (0° torsion) (P < 0.05). Compared with the baseline, BP of DF decreased significantly at torsion angles ≥ 3°, ≥ 5° and ≥ 7° for p-F, m-F, and f-F, respectively (P < 0.05), and RP of DF decreased significantly at torsion angles ≥ 5°, ≥ 9° and ≥ 7° for p-F, m-F, and f-F, respectively (P < 0.05). Comparison among p-F, m-F and f-F revealed significant differences only in BPCF at an intorsion of 3°, extorsion of 3° and the baseline (ANOVA, P < 0.05). There was a significant difference in the proportion of subjects with different sizes of RDS at different torsional angles (Fisher's exact test, P = 0.000). Fine stereopsis was damaged with increasing torsion. Torsion within the normal range of cyclofusion affects the horizontal motor fusion of convergent and divergent fusion and stereopsis. Torsion ≥ 5° should be considered during strabismus surgery for regaining fine binocular vision.

Physics guided data-driven model to estimate minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) for hydrocarbon gases

Local or regional availability of hydrocarbon gases, and being associated with the native fluids makes them a reliable candidate for gas injection processes. As the achievement of miscibility leads to higher recoveries (see the comprehensive review on miscibility by Dindoruk et al., 2021), miscible hydrocarbon injection will be preferred where it is feasible. Using hydrocarbon gases for miscible injection has additional benefits 1) High outlet pressures from the separators (using gas compressors) (Griffith et al., 1970) leading to lesser gas volume to transport, 2) Reduction of flaring: in many places where there is no or not enough infrastructure capacity to transport these gases, such gases are simply flared (Worldbank, 2022; USCUSA, 2022), 3) Being associated with the in-situ fluids, less likely to have issues such as corrosion, or other potential problems. Methane (dominant component in hydrocarbon gas streams) and other live HC blends is classified greenhouse gases (GHG) which are harmful to the environment and such actions do not comply with the tighter carbon/emission reduction policies that are being implemented, especially considering the fact that resulting in the emission of methane, which has 28 to 36 times the global warming potential (GWP) compared to CO2 (EPA2, 2022; Turner et al., 2016; Turner et al., 2019). From the recovery point of view and as well as tuning the equation of state (EOS) for gas injection processes, minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) is a pivotal parameter estimating the recovery factor during gas injection processes. In this study we developed a methodology using Light Gradient Boost (Light GBM) (Ke et al., 2017) based model to estimate: 1) Minimum Miscibility Pressure (MMP) for the injected stream of hydrocarbon (HC) gas, and 2) minimum heavy HC gas (C2H6, C3H8 or their equivalence like CO2 and H2S) that is required to be added for a target MMP into the light HC gas stream. This is also known as minimum miscible enrichment, MME to achieve a prescribed MMP if the pressure requirements for a given lean gas are too high to implement in the field, usually due to compression cost and/or reservoir/well integrity reasons. We validate our MMP model using Leave-One-Out-Cross-Validation (LOOCV) (Shao, 1993) method which is the least unbiased cross -validation method and therefore proves the robustness of the proposed model. We compared the accuracy of the proposed model (AARE = 3.83%) with the leading correlations in the industry, and the proposed model significantly outperforms all the relevant models in the literature as shown in this study (Maklavani et al., 2010; Eakin and Mitch, 1988; Glaso, 1985; Kuo, 1985). The proposed model fully considers the underlying physics of miscibility and takes into consideration all the key and easy to obtain input parameters that influence the miscibility pressure of the injected gas.

A secured database monitoring method to improve databackup and recovery operations in cloud computing

In general, the company sometimes uses unregistered functions in database, which significantly improvesperformance, but does not leave the possibility of recovery except for backup. That is, actions must be performedimmediately after passing the session. A queue problem is likely to cause data loss and downtime of about aweek. In modern conditions, this can lead to the bankruptcy of the company. It can be seen that backup systemshave been installed and configured, but despite this, they have not succeeded in restoring within the time framespecified in the SLA. In this study, a secured database monitoring method was proposed to improve data backupand recovery operations in cloud computing. In this proposed method, the backup speed is directly proportionalto the amount of data, while having at least 30% annual data growth. In 3–4 years, the data at least doubled, butfor some companies, this number is even higher, while the backup speed does not change. Those terms and thoseSLAs that were relevant 3–4 years ago now need to be at least doubled. At the same time, business requirementsfor data recovery (recovery point objective/recovery time objective) continue to grow.

A secured database monitoring method to improve databackup and recovery operations in cloud computing

In general, the company sometimes uses unregistered functions in database, which significantly improvesperformance, but does not leave the possibility of recovery except for backup. That is, actions must be performedimmediately after passing the session. A queue problem is likely to cause data loss and downtime of about aweek. In modern conditions, this can lead to the bankruptcy of the company. It can be seen that backup systemshave been installed and configured, but despite this, they have not succeeded in restoring within the time framespecified in the SLA. In this study, a secured database monitoring method was proposed to improve data backupand recovery operations in cloud computing. In this proposed method, the backup speed is directly proportionalto the amount of data, while having at least 30% annual data growth. In 3–4 years, the data at least doubled, butfor some companies, this number is even higher, while the backup speed does not change. Those terms and thoseSLAs that were relevant 3–4 years ago now need to be at least doubled. At the same time, business requirementsfor data recovery (recovery point objective/recovery time objective) continue to grow.

A Secured Database Monitoring Method to Improve Data Backup and Recovery Operations in Cloud Computing

In general, the company sometimes uses unregistered functions in database, which significantly improves performance, but does not leave the possibility of recovery except for backup. That is, actions must be performed immediately after passing the session. A queue problem is likely to cause data loss and downtime of about a week. In modern conditions, this can lead to the bankruptcy of the company. It can be seen that backup systems have been installed and configured, but despite this, they have not succeeded in restoring within the time frame specified in the SLA. In this study, a secured database monitoring method was proposed to improve data backup and recovery operations in cloud computing. In this proposed method, the backup speed is directly proportional to the amount of data, while having at least 30% annual data growth. In 3–4 years, the data at least doubled, but for some companies, this number is even higher, while the backup speed does not change. Those terms and those SLAs that were relevant 3–4 years ago now need to be at least doubled. At the same time, business requirements for data recovery (recovery point objective/recovery time objective) continue to grow

Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note Benjamin Schaefer At the height of the COVID shutdown in the United States, I was asked to speak at an informal recovery meeting by a friend I had met ten years earlier in a twelve-step fellowship in Boston, Massachusetts. I got sober relatively young, at the age of twenty-four, and have remained sober and active in twelve-step recovery since October 26, 2008. Sobriety has been the singular blessing of my life, and in my time in recovery I’ve witnessed miraculous things occur in my life and the lives of other recovering people. And yet, to this day, one of the most impressive remains watching how quickly and efficiently the recovery community moved online in the early days of the shutdown. Within a week I could go to meetings all over the country, all over the world, with other people who were making it their business to stay sober a day at a time amidst the most cataclysmic event of our lifetimes. Never before had recovery felt so democratic. But when my friend asked me to speak, I was reluctant. I was just then coming off a period of intensely painful emotional and spiritual growth—what we might call in recovery a spiritual awakening, but which had felt at the time more like a crisis of confidence. In the slow and quiet days of that summer’s isolation, I had realized that at some point in my early sobriety I had developed certain ways of operating in the world to keep myself safe—particularly in my intimate relationships with men—but which had ultimately left me unseen. And I had wanted so badly to be seen. At twelve years sober, this was a difficult truth to reckon with, and in the aftermath of its revelation, I felt like cellophane: thin and transparent. But I agreed to speak at the meeting, because he was my friend and he had asked. Logging onto the meeting, I was nervous. By that point in my recovery, I had shared at more meetings than I could possibly count, but I was still adjusting to sharing online where I couldn’t gauge the feel of a room in quite the same way I could in person. I watched, slightly horrified, as more and more people signed into the meeting—people from Madison, Wisconsin, [End Page 15] and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Southern California and New York City. Soon the number of participants reached more than eighty. The meeting began and my friend introduced me. I read from a piece of recovery literature and then spoke for fifteen or twenty minutes about my experience in sobriety, after which the meeting opened for other people to share. It wasn’t long before I realized that a large contingent of the meeting was made up of gay men. This was something of a revelation. Though there is a robust recovery community in my hometown, with more than three hundred meetings each week, only two are designated as queer meetings, and I had largely avoided those meetings throughout my sobriety for reasons that weren’t entirely clear to me at the time, but which undoubtedly had to do with my own history of sexual trauma and my general distrust of men. But listening to those men share at that online meeting, I felt a familiar mixture of discomfort and curiosity. It was the peculiar emotional cocktail I’ve come to recognize as an invitation for further spiritual growth. The Universe was trying to tell me I had something more to learn. And so I began attending that meeting, which met every night during the pandemic, regularly. It was at that meeting that I met a gay actor who was weathering the shutdown in Stamford, Connecticut, and who had been sober for almost three years. We embarked on a deep and abiding friendship. Every night after the meeting, we’d talk on the phone, sometimes for hours. During one of these phone calls, this man told me he had once heard someone describe recovery as a journey towards becoming whole, but that something about that framing didn’t feel right to him. It was a...

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ УПРАВЛІННЯ РИЗИКАМИ ПОСТАЧАЛЬНИЦЬКОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ ЗА УМОВ ВІЙНИ ТА У ПОСТ-ВОЄННИЙ ПЕРІОД

The article highlights the main features of supply chain risk management in wartime and post-war periods. The relevance of the study is due to the following issues. The full-scale treacherous invasion of Russian troops in 2022 was a serious test for domestic business. Enterprises faced significant difficulties in cargo transportation, which prompted them to optimize business processes. Given the significant achievements in this area, the problems of forming a risk management system in postconstruction activities in the context of war remain insufficiently studied. The research methods used were analysis and sieve, classification method. The key challenge faced by Ukrainian enterprises was the need to reformat their supply chain activities. The key problems of the supply activities of domestic enterprises in wartime are systematized and characterized. The classification of risks in supply activities is developed. The article analyzes the dynamics of transportation volumes by various modes of transport in Ukraine during 2016–2021. For effective management in wartime, it is necessary to systematize and classify risks in supply chain activities. The risks of supply activities have identified ways to optimize supply chains, taking into account the conditions of prevention, overcoming risks in the implementation of supply operations. For effective management in wartime, it is necessary to systematize and classify risks in supply activities. The risk management system for supply activities should be based on a functional approach, taking into account and fulfilling the general management functions. A scheme of supply chain risk management based on a functional approach in wartime and post-war conditions is proposed. It is the risks of supply activities that have determined the ways to optimize supply chains, taking into account the conditions of prevention, overcoming risks in the implementation of supply operations. The practical application is that the reorganization of storage systems, anticipation of risks, development of new routes, diversification of transportation modes, etc. will be the starting points for the post-war recovery of domestic logistics.

En Az İki Yıllık İyileşme Dönemi Ardından Allojenik Kök Hücre Nakli Hastalarında Kısa-Form 36 Kullanılarak Sağlıkla İlgili Yaşam Kalitesinin Değerlendirilmesi: Bir Kesitsel Gözlem Çalışması

Objective: The use of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) is increasing and patients are facing physical and mental problems during and after this process. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the quality of life (QoL) of the patients after at least two or more years from allo-SCT. Material and Methods: 51 transplant patients (TxPs) and 54 healthy controls included in the study. Participants were asked to fill Short Form-36 survey which evaluates QoL in eight main domains. Comparison between TxPs and healthy controls, correlation analyses between remission duration and well being, ROC analysis to find a cut-off value for returning to healthy days were performed. Results: TxPs reported worse QoL than healthy controls. In terms of sex only mental health domain was significantly different where female pariticipants showed better results (p=0.01). Acute or chronic graft versus host disease were not found to have an effect on QoL (p>0.05). Relapsed disease formation had a reducing effect in QoL. Transplant related complications, cytomegalovirus reactivation, conditioning regimen type did not show statistically significant effect on QoL. As the results of the ROC analyses, post-transplant 46th month is found to be a turning point for recovery to healthy status with 68.6% sensitivity and 62.5% spesificity when patients start to realize they regain their health. Conclusion: Allo-SCT has negative effects on patients' physical and social life. In this study it was found that patients start to report similar results to healthy controls in health change approximately after two years from transplantation and the negative effects of transplant were almost completely ceased by 3.5 years.

Validation of Two Theoretically Derived Equations for Predicting pH in CO2 Biomethanisation

CO2 biomethanisation is a rapidly emerging technology which can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the more sustainable use of organic feedstocks. The major technical limitation for in situ systems is that the reaction causes CO2 depletion which drives up pH, potentially leading to instability and even digestion failure. The study aimed to test fundamentally derived predictive equations as tools to manage H2 addition to anaerobic digesters. The methodology used data from the literature and from experimental digesters operated with excess H2 to a point of failure and subsequent recovery. Two equations were tested: the first relating pH to CO2 partial pressure (pCO2), and the second extending this to include the influence of volatile fatty acids and ammonia. The first equation gave good agreement for data from studies covering a wide range of operating conditions and digester types. Where agreement was not good, this could usually be explained, and in some cases improved, using the second equation, which also showed excellent predictive performance in the experimental study. The results validated the derived equations and identified typical coefficient values for some organic feedstocks. Both equations could provide a basis for process control of CO2 biomethanisation using routine monitoring of pH or pCO2 with additional analysis for volatile fatty acids and total ammonia nitrogen when required.

Changes in Desulfovibrio desulfuricans sub sp EPS components and adsorption performance under exogenous sulfur induction and its mediation role in the biosynthesis of ZnS QDs

Sulfate Reducing Bacteria(SRB) can remove heavy metal ions by producing metal sulfide precipitation, which has aroused the research interest of scholars recently. For SRB, exogenous sulfur is one of the most important nutrients, however, there are few reports about the impact of exogenous sulfur on SRB, especially its EPS. Here, we investigated the inducible effect of sulfur sources (Na2SO4, Na2SO3, and Na2S2O3·H2O) on EPS production from SRB for the first time. The results found that exogenous sulfur can significantly increase the production of EPS, especially protein. The increased functional groups(C–O/C–N, CN) in the protein are favorable to adsorption of more heavy metals. Moreover, S2– was added to the system after adsorption of Zn(II) for the biosynthesis of ZnS QDs from the resource recovery point. The experiments and tests showed the yield of cubic β-ZnS QDs correlated with the amount and adsorption performance of EPS. The PL spectrum of EPS present red-shifted and enhanced antibacterial properties due to the adhesion of EPS to ZnS QDs, the basic amino acid His in EPS played an important role in the adsorption of Zn(Ⅱ) and the nucleation of ZnS QDs. This research brings new horizons for using EPS to treatment heavy metal wastewater and resource recycling.

Phantom and clinical evaluation of the effect of a new Bayesian penalized likelihood reconstruction algorithm (HYPER Iterative) on 68Ga-DOTA-NOC PET/CT image quality

BackgroundBayesian penalized likelihood (BPL) algorithm is an effective way to suppress noise in the process of positron emission tomography (PET) image reconstruction by incorporating a smooth penalty. The strength of the smooth penalty is controlled by the penalization factor. The aim was to investigate the impact of different penalization factors and acquisition times in a new BPL algorithm, HYPER Iterative, on the quality of 68Ga-DOTA-NOC PET/CT images. A phantom and 25 patients with neuroendocrine neoplasms who underwent 68Ga-DOTA-NOC PET/CT were included. The PET data were acquired in a list-mode with a digital PET/CT scanner and reconstructed by ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) and the HYPER Iterative algorithm with seven penalization factors between 0.03 and 0.5 for acquisitions of 2 and 3 min per bed position (m/b), both including time-of-flight and point of spread function recovery. The contrast recovery (CR), background variability (BV) and radioactivity concentration ratio (RCR) of the phantom; The SUVmean and coefficient of variation (CV) of the liver; and the SUVmax of the lesions were measured. Image quality was rated by two radiologists using a five-point Likert scale.ResultsThe CR, BV, and RCR decreased with increasing penalization factors for four “hot” spheres, and the HYPER Iterative 2 m/b groups with penalization factors of 0.07 to 0.2 had equivalent CR and superior BV performance compared to the OSEM 3 m/b group. The liver SUVmean values were approximately equal in all reconstruction groups (range 5.95–5.97), and the liver CVs of the HYPER Iterative 2 m/b and 3 m/b groups with the penalization factors of 0.1 to 0.2 were equivalent to those of the OSEM 3 m/b group (p = 0.113–0.711 and p = 0.079–0.287, respectively), while the lesion SUVmax significantly increased by 19–22% and 25%, respectively (all p < 0.001). The highest qualitative score was attained at a penalization factor of 0.2 for the HYPER Iterative 2 m/b group (3.20 ± 0.52) and 3 m/b group (3.70 ± 0.36); those scores were comparable to or greater than that of the OSEM 3 m/b group (3.09 ± 0.36, p = 0.388 and p < 0.001, respectively).ConclusionsThe HYPER Iterative algorithm with a penalization factor of 0.2 resulted in higher lesion contrast and lower image noise than OSEM for 68Ga-DOTA-NOC PET/CT, allowing the same image quality to be achieved with less injected radioactivity and a shorter acquisition time.

Penglipuran Village Festival IX 2022: A Cultural Festival at The Cleanest Village in The World

The Vice Regent of Bangli, I Wayan Diar, officially closed The Penglipuran Village Festival IX 2022 on Wednesday evening, 14 December 2022. The closing ceremony of the six days festival was centered at the Penglipuran Village Hall, Bangli. The head of the Bangli Sub-District, the Bangli Regency Tourism and Culture Officer, the Bangli Regency Education and Youth Agency officer, the competition winners, and the local community attended the event. The Penglipuran Village Festival IX 2022 was an event in Penglipuran Tourism Village, Kubu Subdistrict, Bangli Regency. It was a village festival encompassing various activities and competitions, such as cultural parades, exhibitions, Balinese dance competitions, performing arts, talk shows, Megibung, yoga, and other mass activities. Penglipuran residents strongly hold their ancestor’s values to preserve their customs and philosophy of living. For instance, the folk conserves the old bamboo forest north of their village, maintaining the traditional architecture. Penglipuran Village has become one of Indonesia's pioneers of successful tourism villages, even internationally recognized by various tourism organizations. In early 2016, Penglipuran Village in Bali, Giethoorn Villages in the Netherlands, and Mawlynnong Village in India have named the cleanest villages in the world. The successful Penglipuran Village Festival IX was expected to be a trajectory point for tourism recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic. Especially as an epicenter for tourism promotion in Bali and Bangli particularly. With the theme of Resurrecting the spirit of environmental conservation, the organizer looked forward to raising the morale of ecological preservation.