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INTRODUCTION: Thyroid-releasing hormones are pivotal in regulating cardiovascular (CVS) function and maintaining its hemodynamics and homeostasis. Even a minor alteration in thyroid function has an enormous implication on CVS morbidity and mortality. Moreover, hypothyroidism was found to be a potential menace for coronary artery disease (CAD). The objective of this study was to determine the role of thyroid-releasing hormones in patients suffering from acute coronary syndrome (ACS)...

AUDIENCE AND TYPE OF CURRICULUM: Audience and type of curriculum: This hybrid, asynchronous curriculum is designed for prehospital clinician colleagues, including but not limited to emergency medical technicians (EMT), advanced EMTs (AEMT), EMT-paramedics (EMT-P), critical care EMT-Ps (CCEMTP), critical care transport nurses (CCTN), and certified flight registered nurses (CFRN) to learn and practice ultrasound fundamentals in the setting of a standardized extended focused assessment with sonography in trauma (E-FAST) exam...

BACKGROUND: Despite efforts to view electronic health records (EHR) data through an equity lens, crucial contextual information regarding patients' social environments remains limited. Integrating EHR data and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology can give deeper insights into the relationships between patients' social environments, health outcomes, and geographic factors. This study aims to identify regions with the fastest and slowest access to outpatient physical therapy services using bivariate choropleth maps to provide contextual insights that may contribute to health disparity in access...

The production of ceramics from uranium coordination compounds can be achieved through thermal processing if an excess amount of the desired atoms (i.e., C or N), or reactive gaseous products (e.g., methane or nitrogen oxide) is made available to the reactive uranium metal core via decomposition/fragmentation of the surrounding ligand groups. Here, computational thermodynamic approaches were utilized to identify the temperatures necessary to produce uranium metal from some starting compounds─UI4 (TMEDA)2 , UCl4 (TMEDA)2 , UCl3 (pyridine) x , and UI3 (pyridine)4 ...

Point-of-care ultrasound (PoCUS) has become an indispensable standard in emergency medicine. Emergency medicine ultrasound (EMUS) is the application of bedside PoCUS by the attending emergency physician to assist in the diagnosis and management of many time-sensitive health emergencies. In many ways, using PoCUS is not only the mere application of technology, but also a fusion of already existing examiner skills and technology in the context of a patient encounter. EMUS practice can be defined using distinct anatomy-based applications...

The black-foot abalone (pāua), Haliotis iris, is a unique and valuable species to New Zealand with cultural importance for Māori. Abalone are marine gastropods that can display a high level of phenotypic variation, including slow-growing or 'stunted' variants. This investigation focused on identifying factors that are associated with growth performance, with particular interest in the slow-growing variants. Tissue alterations in H. iris were examined using histopathological techniques, in relation to growth performance, contrasting populations classified by commercial harvesters as 'stunted' (i...

BACKGROUND: Ultrasonic for detecting and evaluating pleural effusion is an essential part of the Extended Focused Assessment with Sonography in Trauma (E-FAST) in emergencies. Our study aimed to develop an Artificial Intelligence (AI) diagnostic model that automatically identifies and segments pleural effusion areas on ultrasonography. METHODS: An Attention U-net and a U-net model were used to detect and segment pleural effusion on ultrasound images of 848 subjects through fully supervised learning...

INTRODUCTION: Approximately 130 000 infants acquire HIV annually despite global maternal antiretroviral therapy scale-up. We evaluated the potential clinical impact and cost-effectiveness of offering long-acting, anti-HIV broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) prophylaxis to infants in three distinct settings. METHODS: We simulated infants in Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa, and Zimbabwe using the Cost-Effectiveness of Preventing AIDS Complications-Pediatric (CEPAC-P) model...

Point-of-care ultrasound is now widely used in adult and pediatric emergency departments as part of the rapid evaluation and treatment of patients in urgent care settings. It has been shown to be a powerful tool to aid in decision making in both trauma and acute medical situations. We describe a case of a 3-year-old boy who presented with abdominal pain and fever after a minor abdominal trauma, highlighting the use of point-of-care ultrasound to arrive at the diagnosis of a ruptured echinococcal cyst.

Objective: To investigate the diagnostic value of a single hydrogen-methane breath test (SHMBT) for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). Method: The current investigation was a cross-sectional study. Questionnaires and SHMBTs were administered to 162 patients with gastrointestinal symptoms (case group) and 69 healthy volunteers (control group). Differences in SHMBT results between the two groups were assessed,and cut-off values of CH4 (methane) and H2 (hydrogen) were analyzed via receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves...

Emergency Resuscitative Thoracotomy (ERT) is a lifesaving procedure in selected patients. Outcome mostly in blunt trauma is believed to be poor. The primary aim of this study was to determine the predictors of postoperative mortality following ERT. We retrospectively reviewed 34 patients ≥ 18 years who underwent ERT at San Camillo-Forlanini Hospital (Rome, Italy) between January 2009 and December 2022 with traumatic arrest for blunt or penetrating injuries. Of 34 ERT, 28 (82.4%) were for blunt trauma and 6 (17...

Herein, we demonstrate the preparation and application of NiCo2 O4 decorated over a g-C3 N4 -based novel nanocomposite (NiCo2 O4 @g-C3 N4 ). The prepared material was well characterized through several physicochemical techniques, including FT-IR, XRD, SEM, and TEM. The electrochemical characterizations via electrochemical impedance spectroscopy show the low electron transfer resistance of NiCo2 O4 @g-C3 N4 owing to the successful incorporation of NiCo2 O4 nanoparticles on the sheets of g-C3 N4 . NiCo2 O4 @g-C3 N4 nanocomposite was employed in the fabrication of a screen-printed carbon electrode-based innovative electrochemical sensing platform and the adsorptive removal of a food dye, i...

OBJECTIVES: For several years, patients with single ventricle hearts have been palliated according to the Fontan principle. One well known long-term consequence in these patients is the Fontan-associated liver disease and fibrosis, which occurs due to the chronically increased Central Venous Pressure (CVP) after Fontan palliation. It carries an increased risk of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma over time. Liver elastography (LE) is a non-invasive, safe, and feasible ultrasound method to determine liver stiffness and the stage of liver fibrosis...

Landauer's principle makes a strong connection between information theory and thermodynamics by stating that erasing a one-bit memory at temperature [Formula: see text] requires an average energy larger than [Formula: see text], with [Formula: see text] Boltzmann's constant. This tiny limit has been saturated in model experiments using quasistatic processes. For faster operations, an overhead proportional to the processing speed and to the memory damping appears. In this article, we show that underdamped systems are a winning strategy to reduce this extra energetic cost...

Three pilot studies were performed to investigate the undoing-hypothesis (i.e., fast psychophysiological recovery due to positive emotions after stressor) in an athletic sample - after 1) a psychosocial stressor (study 1, N = 19), 2) a physiological stressor (study 2, N = 14), and 3) a simulated competition (study 3, N = 13). Therefore, the effect of positive emotion interventions on cardiovascular (heart rate, blood pressure, heart rate variability) and psychological (perceived positive and negative emotions, arousal, valence) recovery was tested in comparison to neutral interventions...

The main cause of death in traumas is hypovolemic shock. Physical examination is limited to detect hemopericardium, hemoperitoneum, and hemopneumothorax. Computed tomography (CT) is the gold standard for traumatic injury evaluation. However, CT is not always available, is more expensive, and there are transportation issues, especially in hemodynamically unstable patients. In this scenario, a rapid, reproducible, portable, and noninvasive method such as ultrasound emerged, directed for detecting hemopericardium, hemoperitoneum, and hemopneumothorax, in a "point of care" modality, known as the focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST) protocol...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the effects of orlistat use on metabolic control and weight loss in diabetic and nondiabetic patients. METHODS: A total of 119 patients with body mass index≥40 kg/m2 and receiving orlistat therapy, who applied to the Endocrinology polyclinic between January 2016 and October 2019, were included. The patients' weight changes and biochemical values (i.e., fasting glucose, HbA1c, ALT, creatinine, and lipid parameters) were evaluated at the drug beginning and the last polyclinic control...

Recent development of terahertz systems has created the need for new elements operating in this frequency band, i.e. , fast tunable devices such as varactors. Here, we present the process flow and characterization of a novel electronic variable capacitor device that is made with the use of 2D metamaterials such as graphene (GR) or hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). Comb-like structures are etched into a silicon/silicon nitride substrate and a metal electrode is deposited at the bottom. Next, a PMMA/GR/h-BN layer is placed on top of the sample...

The current trend in food consumption is toward convenience, i.e., fast food. The present work aims to study the potential of incorporating freeze-dried cooked chickpeas into a complex and traditional dish in Spanish gastronomy, such as Cocido , which has this legume as the main ingredient. Cocido is a two-course meal: a thin-noodle soup and a mix of chickpeas, several vegetables, and meat portions. The textural properties, sensory qualities, and rehydration kinetics of chickpeas of three Spanish varieties were investigated to select the most suitable cooking conditions to obtain freeze-dried chickpeas of easy rehydration whilst maintaining an adequate sensory quality for the preparation of the traditional dish...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) often causes seizures associated with a neuroinflammatory response and neurodegeneration. TBI responses may be influenced by differences between individuals at a genetic level, yet this concept remains understudied. Here, we asked whether inherent differences in one's vulnerability to acquired epilepsy would determine acute physiological and neuroinflammatory responses acutely after experimental TBI, by comparing selectively-bred 'seizure-prone' (FAST) rats versus 'seizure-resistant' (SLOW) rats, as well as control parental strains (Long Evans and Wistar rats)...