In quasiirresolute characterization involving topological coils
Brazil is seeing rapid population ageing, which is leading to new demands on primary health care services. There is a need to develop and assess the effectiveness of new interventions to build the capacity of staff, including community health workers, to meet the needs of groups such as care-dependent older people and their care-givers. This study examines the feasibility of a small training intervention piloted in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza.
The study evaluated participants' own assessments of key knowledge and skills related to the needs of care-dependent older people, both before and after the training intervention. It also assessed their capacity to implement a simple screening tool of geriatric risk factors.
The participant self-assessments indicate significant improvements in their perceived knowledge and capacity in responding to the health needs of care-dependent older people. Additionally, participants were able to successfully conduct the home visits and screening for risk factors.
The study demonstrates the feasibility of developing interventions to enhance the capacity of community health workers to meet the needs of dependent older people in countries like Brazil. The evidence of effectiveness, though limited and subjective, provides justification for a larger, formally evaluated intervention. The experience of Fortaleza provides valuable lessons for other cities and countries in the region which are facing similar challenges.
The study demonstrates the feasibility of developing interventions to enhance the capacity of community health workers to meet the needs of dependent older people in countries like Brazil. The evidence of effectiveness, though limited and subjective, provides justification for a larger, formally evaluated intervention. The experience of Fortaleza provides valuable lessons for other cities and countries in the region which are facing similar challenges.
HSCR, a colonic neurocristopathy affecting 1/5000 births, is suggested to associate with cardiac septal defects and conotruncal malformations. However, we question subtle cardiac changes maybe more commonly present due to multi-regulations by HSCR candidate genes, in this instance, ET
. To investigate, we compared the cardiac morphology and quantitative measurements of sl/sl rat to those of the control group.
Eleven neonatal rats were generated from heterozygote (ET
) crossbreeding. Age and bodyweight were recorded at time of sacrifice. Diffusion-staining protocols with 1.5% iodine solution was completed prior to micro-CT scanning. All rats were scanned using an in vivo micro-CT scanner, Caliper Quantum FX, followed by two quality-control scans using a custom-built ex vivo micro-CT system. All scans were reviewed for gross cardiac dysmorphology. Micro-CT data were segmented semi-automatically post-NLM filtering for whole-heart, LV, RV, LA, RA, and aortic arch. Measurements were taken with Drishti. Folinical study is warranted, HSCR patients may likely require cardiac assessment in view of potential congenital cardiac defects.
The Sequence Alignment/Map Format Specification (SAM) is one of the most widely adopted file formats in bioinformatics and many researchers use it daily. Several tools, including most high-throughput sequencing read aligners, use it as their primary output and many more tools have been developed to process it. However, despite its flexibility, SAM encoded files can often be difficult to query and understand even for experienced bioinformaticians. As genomic data are rapidly growing, structured, and efficient queries on data that are encoded in SAM/BAM files are becoming increasingly important. Existing tools are very limited in their query capabilities or are not efficient. Critically, new tools that address these shortcomings, should not be able to support existing large datasets but should also do so without requiring massive data transformations and file infrastructure reorganizations.
Here we introduce SamQL, an SQL-like query language for the SAM format with intuitive syntax that supports complex and efficient queries on top of SAM/BAM files and that can replace commonly used Bash one-liners employed by many bioinformaticians. SamQL has high expressive power with no upper limit on query size and when parallelized, outperforms other substantially less expressive software.
SamQL is a complete query language that we envision as a step to a structured database engine for genomics. SamQL is written in Go, and is freely available as standalone program and as an open-source library under an MIT license, https//github.com/maragkakislab/samql/ .
SamQL is a complete query language that we envision as a step to a structured database engine for genomics. SamQL is written in Go, and is freely available as standalone program and as an open-source library under an MIT license, https//github.com/maragkakislab/samql/ .
Quantification of tumor heterogeneity is essential to better understand cancer progression and to adapt therapeutic treatments to patient specificities. Bioinformatic tools to assess the different cell populations from single-omic datasets as bulk transcriptome or methylome samples have been recently developed, including reference-based and reference-free methods. Improved methods using multi-omic datasets are yet to be developed in the future and the community would need systematic tools to perform a comparative evaluation of these algorithms on controlled data.
We present DECONbench, a standardized unbiased benchmarking resource, applied to the evaluation of computational methods quantifying cell-type heterogeneity in cancer. DECONbench includes gold standard simulated benchmark datasets, consisting of transcriptome and methylome profiles mimicking pancreatic adenocarcinoma molecular heterogeneity, and a set of baseline deconvolution methods (reference-free algorithms inferring cell-type proportions). Ded to serve as a reference platform for the benchmarking of deconvolution methods in the evaluation of cancer heterogeneity. We believe it will contribute to leverage the benchmarking practices in the biomedical and life science communities. DECONbench is hosted on the open source Codalab competition platform. It is freely available at https//competitions.codalab.org/competitions/27453 .
The determination of the right x-ray angiography viewing angle is an important issue during the treatment of thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR). An inaccurate projection angle (manually determined today by the physicians according to their personal experience) may affect the placement of the stent and cause vascular occlusion or endoleak.
Based on the acquisition of a computed tomography angiography (CTA) image before TEVAR, an adaptive optimization algorithm is proposed to determine the optimal viewing angle of the angiogram automatically. This optimal view aims at avoiding any overlapping between the left common carotid arteryand the left subclavian artery. Moreover, the proposed optimal procedure exploits the patient-specific morphology to adaptively reduce the potential foreshortening effect.
Experimental results conducted on thirty-five patients demonstrate that the optimal angiographic viewing angle based on the proposed method has no significant difference when compared with the expert practice (p = 0.0678).
We propose a method that utilizes the CTA image acquired before TEVAR to automatically calculate the optimal C-arm angle. This method has the potential to assist surgeons during their interventional procedure by providing a shorter procedure time, less radiation exposure, and less contrast injection.
We propose a method that utilizes the CTA image acquired before TEVAR to automatically calculate the optimal C-arm angle. This method has the potential to assist surgeons during their interventional procedure by providing a shorter procedure time, less radiation exposure, and less contrast injection.
Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV) remains one of the world's significant public health challenges. Viral suppression is the key indicator for treatment success in People living with HIV (PLHIV). We determined the level of viral suppression, and its associated factors among PLHIV attending Federal Medical Centre Katsina (FMC Katsina), Nigeria.
This retrospective descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 913 HIV positive adults enrolled in care between January 2009 and December 2019. learn more Information on socio-demographics, clinical, immunological, Viral load (VL), and other relevant parameters were extracted from the patients' care records. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients that achieved viral suppression. We also analyzed variables that were associated with VL suppression.
Of 913, records of 831 (91.0%) registered patients were analyzed. During the period, 751 (90.4%) achieved viral suppression, 427 (51.4%) had CD4 counts ≥ 500 and 477 (57.4%) were on HAART for ≥ 5years. Majority,nd first line HAART regimen.This meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of garlic extract on total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c), and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-c), among the patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Literature searches were conducted in EMBASE, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library until Sep18th , 2020. Inter-study heterogeneity was examined using Cochrane's Q and I2 tests. The random-effect models were utilized to pool the weighted mean differences (WMDs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Six articles were enrolled in the current meta-analysis. Garlic consumption significantly reduced TC levels (WMD -16.32 mg/dL; 95% CI -31.22, -1.43; P = 0.032). We found no significant effects on TG (WMD -10.93 mg/dL; 95% CI -26.19, 4.32; P = 0.160), HDL-c (WMD 4.55 mg/dL; 95% CI -1.13, 10.23; P = 0.116) and LDL-c concentrations (WMD -3.65 mg/dL; 95% CI -13.21, 5.92; P = 0.455). Significant heterogeneity was observed for HDL-c (I2 =76.8%). However, the findings of sensitivity analysis revealed that upon exclusion of the potential heterogeneity source, the pooled WMD on HDL-c levels were stable. Garlic supplementation may result in a decrease in TC, but did not affect on TG, HDL-c and LDL-c levels among CAD patients.As a two-dimensional (2D) layered semiconductor, lead iodide (PbI2) has been widely used in optoelectronics owing to its unique crystal structure and distinctive optical and electrical properties. A comprehensive understanding of its optical performance is essential for further application and progress. Here, we synthesized regularly shaped PbI2 platelets using the chemical vapor deposition method. Raman scattering spectroscopy of PbI2 platelets was predominantly enhanced when the laser radiated at the edge according to Raman mapping spectroscopy. Combining the outcome of polarized Raman scattering spectroscopy and finite-difference time-domain simulation analysis, the Raman enhancement was proven to be the consequence of the enhancement effects inherent to the high-refractive-index contrast waveguide, which is naturally formed in well-defined PbI2 platelets. Because of the enlarged excited area determined by the increased propagation length of the laser in the PbI2 platelet formed waveguide, the total Raman enhancements are acquired rather than a localized point enhancement.