Wide Age Range Research Articles

Myeloproliferative neoplasm harboring both monosomy 7 and an ALK/ROS1 fusion gene: Proposal for a new disease entity

AbstractIntroductionWe present a case of a 9‐year‐old girl diagnosed with a myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) harboring both monosomy 7 and an ALK/ROS1 fusion gene.Case presentationThe neoplasm was resistant to conventional AML chemotherapy and required hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) to achieve remission.DiscussionMPNs with monosomy 7 and ALK/ROS1 fusions occur in a wide age range of children and adults, and require HCT for long‐term remission. Furthermore, these cases can be responsive to ALK inhibitors.ConclusionThis report underscores the potential need to reclassify such MPNs as a distinct entity, which has unique therapeutic implications.

Meniscus Tears: Risk Factors, Physical Examination, and Preventive Approaches

Abstract. Meniscus injuries are among the most frequent knee issues, affecting individuals across a wide age range and often resulting from acute trauma or age-related degeneration. The meniscus, essential for knee stability, shock absorption, and joint lubrication, is particularly vulnerable to injury in sports involving twisting and pivoting motions. This review discusses the anatomy of the meniscus, various types of tearssuch as radial, horizontal, complex, and bucket-handle tearsand the primary risk factors, including sports activities and occupational stress. Diagnostic tools like the McMurray and Apley compression tests, along with MRI, are crucial in assessing the severity of the injury. Effective prevention strategies include strengthening exercises for the quadriceps and hamstrings, flexibility routines, proper movement techniques, and the use of protective gear like knee braces. Early detection and consistent preventive measures are critical in preserving knee function, minimizing the risk of re-injury, and preventing long-term complications such as osteoarthritis.

A foundation model for enhancing magnetic resonance images and downstream segmentation, registration and diagnostic tasks.

In structural magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, motion artefacts, low resolution, imaging noise and variability in acquisition protocols frequently degrade image quality and confound downstream analyses. Here we report a foundation model for the motion correction, resolution enhancement, denoising and harmonization of MR images. Specifically, we trained a tissue-classification neural network to predict tissue labels, which are then leveraged by a 'tissue-aware' enhancement network to generate high-quality MR images. We validated the model's effectiveness on a large and diverse dataset comprising 2,448 deliberately corrupted images and 10,963 images spanning a wide age range (from foetuses to elderly individuals) acquired using a variety of clinical scanners across 19 public datasets. The model consistently outperformed state-of-the-art algorithms in improving the quality of MR images, handling pathological brains with multiple sclerosis or gliomas, generating 7-T-like images from 3 T scans and harmonizing images acquired from different scanners. The high-quality, high-resolution and harmonized images generated by the model can be used to enhance the performance of models for tissue segmentation, registration, diagnosis and other downstream tasks.

Quality of Life of Hospitalized Patients with Hematological Diseases

Hematological diseases have a wide age range of disease onset, repeated hospitalizations, long periods of treatments and hospitalization, special hospitalization conditions, isolation that lead to restrictions to their social life and impaired quality of life. The hospital is the place where patients, families, nurses and doctors come together for a common purpose, the restoration of the patient’s health. Ensuring a quality of life in the hospital environment requires the participation of all the healthcare team and building a “healing environment”. Nursing priorities for improving the quality of life in the hospital include ensuring comfort, psychosocial support, providing palliative and patient centered care and patient centered environment. A patient centered environment responds holistically to the needs of its users, including accessibility, safety, privacy and dignity, comfort and wellbeing, personal choice and control. The inclusion of arts, music, exercise and festivities improve quality of life during hospitalization. Family members also are welcomed to stay and care for the patients during long periods of hospitalization. Patients hospitalized for hematological diseases are a unique population with complex needs. So, research, innovation, and initiatives are needed to incorporate new methods to improve their quality of life during hospitalization.

Effect of continuous esketamine infusion on brain white matter microstructure in patients with major depression: A diffusion tensor imaging study

IntroductionEsketamine has demonstrated acute antidepressant effects in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). This study investigated whether these effects associate with reversible white matter fiber integrity recovery using diffusion imaging. MethodTwenty patients with MDD and 20 healthy controls received 2-week esketamine treatment. Patients received 0.25 mg/kg intravenous esketamine. Emotional and cognitive recovery were assessed. Diffusion tensor imaging and tract-based spatial statistics evaluated white matter fiber integrity pre/post-treatment. Correlation analyses examined associations between white matter changes and clinical scales. ResultsCompared to controls, patients with MDD exhibited decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) values of cerebral white matter fibers involving the association fibers, the commissural fibers and projection fibers. Esketamine effectively reduced depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation scores while improving cognitive function. However, no reversible recovery of compromised white matter integrity was observed after 2 weeks of esketamine treatment. FA reductions in projection fibers correlated with anxiety and suicidal ideation severity. LimitationsConcurrent sertraline use and lack of placebo control limited our ability to isolate esketamine's effects. The wide age range may have introduced response variability. We used minimal effective dosages based on previous research. The small sample size limited statistical power. Larger, more controlled studies are needed to validate these preliminary findings. DiscussionThis study enhances MDD neuropathological understanding, with widespread white matter impairment and associations between projection fibers and symptom severity. While producing significant antidepressant effects, short-term esketamine did not recover compromised white matter microstructure.

A Pilot Study of a Simulation-Based Mastery Learning Procedural Curriculum for Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellows.

Pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) fellows are expected to perform high-risk procedures across a wide range of patient age, size, and physiology including procedures that are no longer required during pediatric residency training. Examples include central venous catheter (CVC) placement, endotracheal intubation of children and adolescents, and tube thoracostomy placement. Simulation-based mastery learning has demonstrated decreased patient morbidity. In this study, we describe implementation of a simulation-based mastery learning (SBML) procedural curriculum for PEM fellows. Our PEM fellows underwent an SBML procedural curriculum for lumbar puncture (LP), CVC placement, endotracheal intubation, and tube thoracostomy placement. These procedures are mandatory for fellows to learn, have known association with potential iatrogenic injury, and are widely available commercial task trainers. Fellows underwent baseline assessments, group demonstration, deliberate practice, and then postassessments. For both pre- and postassessments, we used internally developed checklists with minimum passing scores (MPSs) calculated by the Mastery-Angoff technique. Nineteen pediatrics residency-trained PEM fellows underwent this curriculum over a 2-year period. Six fellows (31.58%) achieved the MPS on all four procedures during their first posttest attempt. All fellows achieved the MPS on all four procedures by the second posttest attempt. Most fellows (17/19 or 89.47%) did not achieve the MPS on baseline LP assessments, despite inclusion of this procedure as an Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requirement during their pediatric residency training. All participating PEM fellows demonstrated competency after training on four procedures associated with iatrogenic injuries. Using an SBML framework is a feasible method to teach procedural skills to PEM fellows, allowing them to demonstrate objective measures of competency in the simulation laboratory.

Detection of HHV-5 HHV-6a HHV-6b and HHV-7 in the urine: potential use as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for immune profiling

Decline in immune function with age has been studied extensively, but approaches to immune restoration have been hampered by the lack of simple methods of identifying individuals whose immune system is in decline. Our approach has been to identify individuals whose immune decline has led to a loss of control of common latent viral infections and their consequent reactivation. Viruses excreted in urine were detected and quantified and we believe this approach could provide a 'surrogate marker' for identifying immune compromised individuals. Here we report the detection of human herpes virus (HHV) 5, 6a, 6b and 7 in the urine of healthy individuals over a wide age range and their correlation with T cell receptor excision circle (TREC) data. The results did not show a clear correlation between TREC values and the detection of individual specific viruses or viral load values when measured singly. However, a correlation was found between low TREC values and the detection of several different human herpes viruses in the urine in males. We present evidence suggesting that for males, the detection of three or more different human herpes viruses in the urine could identify individuals with declining immune function as evidenced by their significantly lower TREC levels.

Quantifying Overdiagnosis for Multicancer Detection Tests: A Novel Method.

Multicancer detection (MCD) tests use blood specimens to detect preclinical cancers. A major concern is overdiagnosis, the detection of preclinical cancer on screening that would not have developed into symptomatic cancer in the absence of screening. Because overdiagnosis can lead to unnecessary and harmful treatments, its quantification is important. A key metric is the screen overdiagnosis fraction (SOF), the probability of overdiagnosis at screen detection. Estimating SOF is notoriously difficult because overdiagnosis is not observed. This estimation is more challenging with MCD tests because short-term results are needed as the technology is rapidly changing. To estimate average SOF for a program of yearly MCD tests, I introduce a novel method that requires at least two yearly MCD tests given to persons having a wide range of ages and applies only to cancers for which there is no conventional screening. The method assumes an exponential distribution for the sojourn time in an operational screen-detectable preclinical cancer (OPC) state, defined as once screen-detectable (positive screen and work-up), always screen-detectable. Because this assumption appears in only one term in the SOF formula, the results are robust to violations of the assumption. An SOF plot graphs average SOF versus mean sojourn time. With lung cancer screening data and synthetic data, SOF plots distinguished small from moderate levels of SOF. With its unique set of assumptions, the SOF plot would complement other modeling approaches for estimating SOF once sufficient short-term observational data on MCD tests become available.

Success of Bone Ossification After Posterior Vault Distraction Osteogenesis in Patients With Craniosynostosis

Background: Posterior vault distraction osteogenesis (PVDO) is an effective treatment for multisuture and syndromic craniosynostosis. It remains unclear how well the calvarium ossifies after PVDO, especially in older patients when they have plateaued in their cranial growth phase. The purpose of this study is to report outcomes associated with PVDO across a wide range of ages at our institution. Methods: Operative details, distraction parameters, complications, and details of cranioplasty, if applicable, were obtained for all patients who underwent PVDO between March 2016 and July 2022. The surface areas of distraction sites and residual cranial defects were measured from computed tomography scans after a consolidation phase, and the percentages of the distraction regions with ossification were subsequently calculated. Results: Fifteen patients underwent PVDO at a mean age of 5.1 years (0.5–18.7 y). The mean percentage of ossification among all patients was 80.4% (59.1%–95.3%). The degree of ossification was not significantly associated with age at the time of surgery at the univariate level (Pearson-r=−0.15, P=0.573). Three patients (20.0%) required titanium mesh cranioplasty for definitive reconstruction, which was significantly more likely in patients who were >4 years old at the time of PVDO (P=0.04). Conclusions: Complete ossification of the distracted area of the cranium is unlikely after PVDO. Ossification appears less robust with increasing age, although not statistically significant in our study population, likely due to the limited sample size. Future studies should assess the role of age, latency period, and distraction rate in minimizing residual defects.

New stellar age estimates using SPInS based on Gaia DR3 photometry and LAMOST DR8 abundances

Reliable stellar age estimates are fundamental for testing several problems in modern astrophysics, in particular since they set the timescales of Galactic dynamical and chemical evolution. In this study, we determine ages using only photometry and parallaxes, in combination with interstellar extinction maps, and spectroscopic metallicities and alpha abundances from the latest data release (DR8) of the LAMOST survey. In contrast with previous age estimates, we do not use spectroscopic effective temperatures or surface gravities, and thus we rely on the excellent precision and accuracy of the Gaia photometry. We use a new version of the publicly available SPInS code with improved features, including the on-the-fly computation of the autocorrelation time and the automatic convergence evaluation. We determine reliable age estimates for 35,096 and 243,768 sub-giant and main-sequence turn-off stars in the LAMOST DR8 low- and medium-resolution surveys with typical uncertainties smaller than 10<!PCT!>. In addition, we successfully test our method on more than 4,000 stars of 14 well-studied open and globular star clusters covering a wide range of ages, confirming the reliability of our age and uncertainty estimates.

Clinical Validation of a Custom Wearable Patch for Accurate and Comfortable Vital Sign Monitoring in Pediatric Patients

Background/Purpose: Measuring vital signs in pediatric patients requires special consideration and adaptation due to varying anatomy and wide age range. In addition, children's anxiety, uncooperativeness, and high activity levels further complicate measurements, necessitating devices and algorithms designed to minimize the inaccuracies and discomfort. In this work, the performance of a custom wearable patch mounted on the mid-sternum was validated in uncontrolled settings on a cohort including 84 pediatric patients. Methods: Three-minute-long electrocardiogram (ECG), seismocardiogram (SCG) and photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals were acquired using the custom patch. First, pre-processing and signal smoothing algorithms were employed to suppress the out-of-band and motion noise. Two different tasks were then studied: (i) Heart rate (HR) and respiration rate were derived from the ECG, PPG and SCG signals individually. During HR derivation from the SCG, a novel Teager-energy-based HR estimation algorithm was proposed. (ii) Clinical relevance of the SCG signals was shown through mapping the SCG characteristics to body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure values. Results: While the best HR estimation was achieved through the PPG-infrared signal with an absolute error of 2.22.1 bpm, the best respiration estimation was achieved with PPG-Red signal with an error of 2.62.2 breaths/min. On the other hand, regression models resulted in a minimum of 85% confidence interval, revealing that the SCG characteristics indeed have salient correlation with the BMI and blood pressure values. Conclusion: Overall, such a system can potentially be leveraged in clinical practices to achieve more comfortable and accurate measurements.

A simple phylogenetic approach to analyze hypermutated HIV proviruses reveals insights into their dynamics and persistence during antiretroviral therapy

Abstract Hypermutated proviruses, which arise in a single HIV replication cycle when host antiviral APOBEC3 proteins introduce extensive G-to-A mutations throughout the viral genome, persist in all people living with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). But, hypermutated sequences are routinely excluded from phylogenetic trees because their extensive mutations complicate phylogenetic inference, and as a result we know relatively little about their within-host evolutionary origins and dynamics. Using >1400 longitudinal single-genome-amplified HIV env-gp120 sequences isolated from six women over a median 18 years of follow-up − including plasma HIV RNA sequences collected over a median 9 years between seroconversion and ART initiation, and >500 proviruses isolated over a median 9 years on ART − we evaluated three approaches for masking hypermutation in nucleotide alignments. Our goals were to 1) reconstruct phylogenies that can be used for molecular dating and 2) phylogenetically infer the integration dates of hypermutated proviruses persisting during ART. Two of the approaches (stripping all positions containing putative APOBEC3 mutations from the alignment, or replacing individual putative APOBEC3 mutations in hypermutated sequences with the ambiguous base R) consistently normalized tree topologies, eliminated erroneous clustering of hypermutated proviruses, and brought env-intact and hypermutated proviruses into comparable ranges with respect to multiple tree-based metrics. Importantly, these corrected trees produced integration date estimates for env-intact proviruses that were highly concordant with those from benchmark trees that excluded hypermutated sequences, supporting the use of these corrected trees for molecular dating. Subsequent molecular dating of hypermutated proviruses revealed that these sequences spanned a wide age range, with the oldest ones dating to shortly after infection. This indicates that hypermutated proviruses, like other provirus types, begin to be seeded into the proviral pool immediately following infection, and can persist for decades. In two of the six participants, hypermutated proviruses differed from env-intact ones in terms of their age distributions, suggesting that different provirus types decay at heterogeneous rates in some hosts. These simple approaches to reconstruct hypermutated provirus’ evolutionary histories reveal insights into their in vivo origins and longevity, towards a more comprehensive understanding of HIV persistence during ART.

One-Step Cartilage Repair of Full-Thickness Knee Chondral Lesions Using a Hyaluronic Acid–Based Scaffold Embedded With Bone Marrow Aspirate Concentrate: Long-term Outcomes After Mean Follow-up Duration of 14 Years

Background: One-step cell-based techniques of cartilage repair that lead to restoration of durable chondral tissue and long-term maintenance of joint function are cost-effective and ideal for routine use. Purposes: To examine the long-term clinical outcomes, after a mean follow-up duration of 14 years, of cartilage repair in the knee using a hyaluronic acid–based scaffold in association with bone marrow aspirate concentrate (HA-BMAC) and to evaluate the effect of age, lesion characteristics, and associated treatments on the outcome of this cartilage repair method. Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: Patients were followed prospectively for a mean duration of 14.0 years after undergoing treatment of knee full-thickness articular cartilage injury using HA-BMAC. Clinical evaluation consisted of the patient-reported scoring tools of the visual analog scale and the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, which were completed preoperatively and at the time of final follow-up. Results: A total of 26 patients with a mean age of 48.3 years (17 male, 9 female) and median chondral lesion size of 6.6 cm2 (range, 1-27 cm2) were followed prospectively. There were 3 treatment failures, and 1 patient who underwent medial compartment unicompartmental arthroplasty 12 years after HA-BMAC treatment of patellar chondral injury. Of the 22 remaining patients, after a mean final follow-up duration of 14.0 years (range, 12-16 years), the median visual analog scale score of 0.6 was significantly decreased from the preoperative median score of 5.0 (P < .001). The median Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score Pain (92), Symptoms (86), Activities of Daily Living (96), Sports (85), and Quality of Life (88) subscale values were all increased compared with the preoperative scores (P≤ .001). There was no correlation of clinical outcome score and body mass index. Conclusion: One-step cartilage repair of full-thickness chondral defects in the knee using an HA-BMAC led to successful long-term clinical outcomes and maintenance of joint junction after a mean follow-up duration of 14 years. Long-term clinical success in active, nonobese patients has been uniformly demonstrated across a wide range of patient ages and lesion types, including cases of multicompartment involvement, treatment of associated conditions, and large or bipolar chondral lesions.

Yoga as an Adjunct Treatment to Manage Pain, Anxiety, Depression, and Stress During Hospital Stays: A Systematic Review.

People frequently report pain, anxiety, depression, and stress during hospital stays. Yoga has been shown to decrease these experiences in various settings. However, it is unclear whether yoga can be implemented during a hospital stay and has positive effects on pain and psychological well-being. The present systematic review aimed to examine the feasibility and impact of yoga interventions on pain, anxiety, depression, and stress when performed by patients during a hospital stay. Using PRISMA guidelines, three databases, and a registry, we conducted a search between August 2021 and December 2022. Both randomized and nonrandomized studies were included. Two authors independently assessed articles and risk of bias. Thirteen studies were included in this review, comprising individuals with a wide age range and various conditions. Three randomized controlled trials, one nonrandomized comparative trial, and nine noncomparative trials were included. Of the five studies reporting on pain (primary outcome), four found a statistically significant reduction. Of the eight studies reporting on anxiety, six found a statistically significant decrease and two reported a nonsignificant decrease in anxiety level. All four studies investigating depression reported a statistically significant decrease. All three studies reporting on stress found a decrease in stress, although only one at a statistically significant level. Five studies reported on the feasibility of performing yoga in a hospital setting, without any negative effects or increase in symptoms. Limited studies have integrated yoga during a hospital stay to address pain and psychological symptoms. Nevertheless, the current evidence suggests that yoga interventions during hospitalization are feasible, and yoga has promising benefits with potential clinically significant reduction in symptoms. Results should be viewed with caution given the lack of randomized trials, low methodological quality, and small sample sizes in the included studies. Further studies are needed to build on this evidence.

Вікові особливості олімпійських чемпіонів в спортивній боротьбі

Purpose: determine the age characteristics of Olympic champions in three styles of sports wrestling (Greco-Roman, freestyle and women's). Material and methods. The age of Olympic champions from 1896 to 2024 in three styles of sports wrestling: Greco-Roman (29 Olympiads), freestyle (27 Olympiads) and women's (6 Olympiads) was studied. A total of 455 athletes were analyzed: Greco-Roman (n=214), freestyle (n=211) and women's (n=30). The raw data of the wrestlers' performances is taken from the UWW website. The research used the following methods: analysis of scientific and methodological information and Internet sources; analysis of competitive activity protocols; methods of mathematical statistics. Results: the analysis of the age characteristics of Olympic champions during the research period showed that in Greco-Roman wrestling, the average age of athletes varies from 24,1 years to 32,8 years; in freestyle wrestling - from 23,0 years to 29,6 years; in women's wrestling - from 20,3 years to 27,5 years. The youngest champion in Greco-Roman wrestling was 18 years and 8 months, and the oldest was 41 years and 11 months. The youngest freestyle champion was 19 years and 8 months, and the oldest was 40 years and 4 months. In women's wrestling, the youngest and oldest champion was the same wrestler who took part in four Olympics and won four gold medals. She was 18 years and 2 months old at the first Olympics, and 32 years old at the fourth. The most decorated wrestler is Cuban heavyweight Mijain Lopez, who participated in six Olympic Games and won five gold medals. Seven stages of the evolutionary development of wrestling were identified. The youngest average age is observed among athletes at the first stage both in Greco-Roman wrestling (25,39 years) and in freestyle wrestling (23,92 years). The greatest average age of the athletes was at the second stage in the Greco-Roman style (29,36 years) and freestyle (27,52 years) wrestlers. Women's wrestling has been included in the program of the Olympic Games since 2004, so it is only in the last two stages. The average age of the wrinkles does not have a significant difference at these stages. It should be noted that at the last stage, Greco-Roman wrestlers have an average age of almost four years more than representatives of freestyle and women's wrestling. Conclusions. The conducted research made it possible to determine the age characteristics of Olympic champions in three styles of sports wrestling. The results of the study showed that the athletes competed in a wide age range (18-42 years), the average age was 27,82±9,77 years. The majority of athletes were between 22 and 32 years old, which accounted for 80 % of the total number. It was established that in Greco-Roman wrestling, the average age of athletes of all Olympiads is significantly higher (p&lt;0,05) than in freestyle and women's wrestling. It was found that women were younger than men. There was also a weight category effect, with lighter wrestlers being younger than heavier wrestlers.

Comparative Effect of Curcuma longa and Piper nigrum Extract and their Mixture on some Haematological Indices of Indomethacin-Induced Gastric Ulceration in Albino Rats

Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) which includes gastric and duodenal ulcer is one of the unresolved medical problems facing numerous patients in a wide range of age of both sexes worldwide. Many medicinal plants are known to exhibit antiulcer activity and some have been confirmed scientifically to possess gastro protective and antiulcer property and also found to be useful in its treatment. Among these medicinal plants turmeric (Curcuma longa) and black pepper (Piper nigrum) have been reported to possess gastroprotective potentials. However, the effect of the combination of turmeric and black pepper on the haematological indices of ulcerated rats hasn’t been considered. As a result, this study was designed to evaluate the effect of aqueous extract of Curcuma longa and Piper nigrum on some haematological parameters of indomethacin-induced gastric ulceration in albino rats. Total of sixty (60) albino rats was used for this study. After acclimatization for 14 days, the animals were randomly allocated into six groups (n=10).Group A (normal control): rats was fed on pellet and allowed free access to water, rats in Group B (Ulcerated control) were given only indomethacin at a dose of 50mg/Kg body weight. Animals in group C (Standard control) was given indomethacin after pre-treatment with omperazole (20mg/kg) body weight. Group D,E, and F comprised ulcerated rats pre-treated with turmeric (200mg/kg body weight), black pepper (100mg/kg body weight), turmeric and black pepper (200mg/Kg + 100mg/kg respectively) body weight. Treatments with the reference drug and extracts lasted for 21 days prior to ulcer induction on the twenty-third day.4 h post ulcer induction, the animals were humanely sacrificed under chloroform anaesthesia and blood samples were collected for further haematological studies. The result obtained from this study showed that there were no significant (p &gt; 0.05) differences in PCV, HbC, TWBC, NEUT, MON, EOS, BAS, RBC and PLT levels across all groups, with LYM being significantly (p &lt; 0.05) different in group E compared with Group F. The study found that Curcuma longa and Piper nigrum extracts, either alone or in combination, do not significantly alter haematological indices in albino rats with gastric ulcers caused by indomethacin, suggesting they may be beneficial without negative systemic impact. However, lymphocyte levels significantly decreased in the group treated with a mixture of Curcuma longa and Piper nigrum, suggesting a potential mild immunomodulatory effect. Keywords: Haematological Indices, Indomethacin, Ulcer, Curcuma longa and Piper nigrum

Comparative Effect of Curcuma longa and Piper nigrum Extract and their Mixture on some Gastric Secretory Parameters of Indomethacin-induced Gastric Ulceration in Albino Rats

Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) which includes gastric and duodenal ulcer is one of the unresolved medical problems facing numerous patients in a wide range of age of both sexes worldwide. Many medicinal plants are known to exhibit antiulcer activity and some have been confirmed scientifically to possess gastro protective and antiulcer property and also found to be useful in its treatment. Among these medicinal plants turmeric (Curcuma longa) and black pepper (Piper nigrum) have been reported to possess gastroprotective potentials. However, the effect of the combination of turmeric and black pepper on some gastric secretory parameters of ulcerated rats hasn’t been considered. As a result, this study was designed to evaluate the effect of ethanol extract of Curcuma longa and Piper nigrum on some gastric secretory parameters of indomethacin induced gastric ulceration in albino rats. Total of sixty (60) albino rats was used for this study. After acclimatization for 14 days, the animals were randomly allocated into six groups (n=10).Group A (normal control): rats was fed on pellet and allowed free access to water, rats in Group B (Ulcerated control) were given only indomethacin at a dose of 50mg/Kg body weight. Animals in group C (Standard control) was given indomethacin after pre treatment with esomperazole (20mg/kg) body weight. Group D, E, and F comprised ulcerated rats pre treated with turmeric (200mg/kg body weight), black pepper (100mg/kg body weight), turmeric and black pepper (200mg/Kg + 100mg/kg respectively) body weight. Treatments with the reference drug and extracts lasted for 21 days prior to ulcer induction on the twenty-third day.4 h post ulcer induction, the animals were humanely sacrificed under chloroform anaesthesia and gastric content drained into a centrifuge tube for further studies on some gastric secretory parameters. The study showed that TA levels were significantly (p &lt; 0.05) higher in group B compared to the control group and all other groups. Conversely, TA levels were significantly (p &lt; 0.05) lower in groups C, D, E, and F compared to the control, with group F showing the lowest levels among these, particularly lower than groups C and E. GpH levels were significantly (p &lt; 0.05) lower in group B when compared to groups C, D, E, and F. However, GpH levels were significantly (p &lt; 0.05) higher in groups D and E compared to the control, with group E having higher GpH levels than group C. Additionally, pepsin levels were significantly (p &lt; 0.05) elevated in group B relative to the control and other groups. Pepsin levels were also significantly (p &lt; 0.05) higher in groups C, D, E, and F compared to the control, with group C having lower levels than groups D and E. It can therefore concluded based on the findings of this study that the combination of turmeric and black pepper extract had more gastroprotective effect than the individual extracts alone suggestive of the synergistic effect of these plants in the management of peptic ulcer disease. Keywords: Curcuma longa, Piper nigrum, Indomethacin and Gastric Ulceration

Predicting Behavioral Intentions of Hair Salon Visitors Using a Goal-Directed Behavior Model

This study investigated the effects of subjective norms, negative expectation emotions, positive expectation emotions, attitudes, perceived behavior, aspiration, and behavioral intentions for beauty salon visitors. To this end, a total of 322 questionnaires were distributed to beauty salon customers in Seoul. Using SPSS22.0, the collected data are analyzed by frequency analysis, reliability analysis, regression analysis, and mediated regression analysis, and the results are, first, the higher the positive prediction emotion, the higher the aspiration. Second, it was found that the attitude of beauty salon visitors affects behavioral intentions. Third, the higher the aspiration, the higher the behavioral intention. In summary, the behavioral factors of visiting beauty salons are not related to aspiration and behavioral intention. It is expected to increase the visit rate. It is expected that there will be more reliable follow-up studies through the subdivision of various variables with a wide range of age and region.

Noninvasive Tools to Predict Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Infants with Congenital Heart Diseases: A Narrative Review.

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is the most frightening gastrointestinal emergency in newborns. Despite being primarily a disease of premature infants, neonates with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at increased risk of development. Acute and chronic hemodynamic changes in this population may lead to mesenteric circulatory insufficiency. In this narrative review, we describe monitoring tools, alone or in multimodal use, that may help in the early recognition of patients with CHD at major risk of NEC development. We focused on vital parameters, echocardiography, Doppler flowmetry, abdominal near-infrared spectroscopy (aNIRS), and abdominal ultrasound (aUS). The number of studies on this topic is small and includes a wide range of patients' ages and types of CHD. Peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) and certain echocardiographic indices (antegrade and retrograde velocity time integral, cardiac output, etc.) do not seem to differentiate infants with further onset of NEC from those not developing it. Hypotensive events, persistent diastolic flow reversal in the descending aorta, and low mesenteric oxygen saturation (rsSO2) measured by aNIRS appear to occur more frequently in infants who later develop NEC. aUS may be helpful in the diagnosis of cardiac NEC, potentially showing air contrast tracked to the right atrium in the presence of pneumatosis. This narrative review describes the current knowledge on bedside tools for the early prediction of cardiac NEC. Future research needs to further explore the use of easy-to-learn, reproducible instruments to assist patient status and monitor patient trends.

FONDUE: Robust resolution-invariant denoising of MR Images using Nested UNets

Abstract Recent human magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies continually push the boundaries of spatial resolution as a means to enhance levels of neuroanatomical detail and increase the accuracy and sensitivity of derived brain morphometry measures. However, acquisitions required to achieve these resolutions have a higher noise floor, potentially impacting segmentation and morphometric analysis results. This study proposes a novel, fast, robust, and resolution-invariant deep learning method to denoise structural human brain MRIs. We explore denoising of T1-weighted (T1w) brain images from varying field strengths (1.5T to 7T), voxel sizes (1.2mm to 250µm), scanner vendors (Siemens, GE, and Phillips), and diseased and healthy participants from a wide age range (young adults to aging individuals). Our proposed Fast-Optimized Network for Denoising through residual Unified Ensembles (FONDUE) method demonstrated stable denoising capabilities across multiple resolutions with performance on par or superior to the state-of-the-art methods while being several orders of magnitude faster at low relative cost when using a dedicated Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). FONDUE achieved the best performance on at least one of the four denoising-performance metrics on all the test datasets used, showing its generalization capabilities and stability. Due to its high-quality performance, robustness, fast execution times, and relatively low-GPU memory requirements, as well as its open-source public availability, FONDUE can be widely used for structural MRI denoising, especially in large-cohort studies. We have made the FONDUE repository and all training and evaluation scripts as well as the trained weights available at https://github.com/waadgo/FONDUE.