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Delirium in Older Adults: What a Surgeon Needs to Know
Full text linkDelirium remains a challenging clinical problem in hospitalized older adults, especially for postoperative patients. This complication, with a high risk of postoperative mortality and an increased length of stay, frequently occurs in older adult patients. This brief narrative paper aims to review the recent literature regarding delirium and its most recent update. We also offer physicians a brief and essential clinical practice guide to managing this acute and common disease
Vaccination Is Reasonably Effective in Limiting the Spread of COVID-19 Infections, Hospitalizations and Deaths with COVID-19
Full text linkThis paper uses large cross-country data for 110 countries to examine the effectiveness of COVID vaccination coverage during the delta variant outbreak. Our results confirm that vaccines are reasonably effective in both limiting the spread of infections and containing more severe disease progression in symptomatic patients. First, the results show that full vaccination rate is consistently negatively correlated with the number of new COVID cases, whereby a 10 percent increase in vaccination rate is associated with a 1.3 to 1.7 percent decrease in new COVID cases. Second, the magnitude of vaccination is shown to contribute significantly to moderating severe disease progression. On average, a 10 percent increase in the rate of vaccination leads to a reduction of about 5 percent in the number of new hospitalizations, 12 percent decrease in the number of new intensive care patients and 2 percent reduction in the number of new deaths. Finally, by comparing the data for the same period between 2020 and 2021, we also check how well vaccination performs as a substitute for lockdowns or other stringent government protection measures. Results suggest that vaccination appears to be an effective substitute for more stringent government safety measures to contain the spread of COVID infections only at a sufficiently high vaccination coverage threshold (more than 70 percent). On the other hand, vaccination is shown to be quite effective in limiting the more severe course of the disease in symptomatic patients already at moderate vaccination coverage (between 40 and 70 percent). This suggests that vaccination can also help to reduce pressure on the health system and thus benefit the overall public health of society. On the other hand, the efficient rollout of vaccines could explain the favourable economic performance in the second half of 2021 despite the severe outbreak of the delt
Global hydro-climatological indicators and changes in the global hydrological cycle and rainfall patterns
Full text linkThere are few commonly used indicators that describe the state of Earth’s global hydrological cycle and here we propose three indicators to capture how an increased greenhouse effect influences the global hydrological cycle and the associated rainfall patterns. They are: i) the 24-hr global total rainfall, ii) the global surface area with daily precipitation, and iii) the global mean precipitation intensity. With a recent progress in both global satellite observations and reanalyses, we can now estimate the global rainfall surface area to provide new insights into how rainfall intensity changes over time. Based on the ERA5 reanalysis, we find that the global area of daily precipitation decreased from 43 to 41% of the global area between 1950 and 2020, whereas the total daily global rainfall increased from 1440 Gt to 1510 Gt per day. However, the estimated 24-hr global precipitation surface area varies when estimated from different reanalyses and the estimates are still uncertain. To further investigate historical variations in the precipitation surface area, we carried out a wavelet analysis of 24-hr precipitation from the ERA5 reanalysis that indicated how the rainfall patterns have changed over time. Our results suggest that individual precipitation systems over the globe have shrunk in terms of their spatial extent while becoming more intense throughout the period 1950–2020. Hence, the wavelet results are in line with an acceleration of the rate of the global hydrological cycle, combined with a diminishing global area of rainfall
How can carbon labels and climate-friendly default options on restaurant menus contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions associated with dining?
Full text linkIn this study, we aimed to understand how restaurants can contribute to climate change mitigation via menu design. We investigated two types of interventions: changing the configuration of menu entries with variable side dishes so that the most climate-friendly option is set as the default and indicating the greenhouse gas emission of each dish via carbon labels. In an online simulation experiment, 265 participants were shown the menus of nine different restaurants and had to choose exactly one dish per menu. In six menus, the main dishes were presented with different default options: the side dish was associated either with the highest or with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions. The other three menus consisted of unitary dishes for which the default rules did not apply. All menus were presented either with or without carbon labels for each dish option. The results indicated that more climate-friendly dish choices resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions were made with the low-emission than the high-emission default condition, and when carbon labels were present rather than absent. The effects of both interventions interacted, which indicates that the interventions partly overlap with regard to cognitive predecessors of choice behavior, such as attentional focus and social norms. The results suggest that the design of restaurant menus has a considerable effect on the carbon footprint of dining
Blind demixing methods for recovering dense neuronal morphology from barcode imaging data
Full text linkCellular barcoding methods offer the exciting possibility of ‘infinite-pseudocolor’ anatomical reconstruction—i.e., assigning each neuron its own random unique barcoded ‘pseudocolor,’ and then using these pseudocolors to trace the microanatomy of each neuron. Here we use simulations, based on densely-reconstructed electron microscopy microanatomy, with signal structure matched to real barcoding data, to quantify the feasibility of this procedure. We develop a new blind demixing approach to recover the barcodes that label each neuron, and validate this method on real data with known barcodes. We also develop a neural network which uses the recovered barcodes to reconstruct the neuronal morphology from the observed fluorescence imaging data, ‘connecting the dots’ between discontiguous barcode amplicon signals. We find that accurate recovery should be feasible, provided that the barcode signal density is sufficiently high. This study suggests the possibility of mapping the morphology and projection pattern of many individual neurons simultaneously, at high resolution and at large scale, via conventional light microscopy
Treatment of Cancer Gene Changes in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia by Big Data Analysis Platform-Based Dasatinib
Full text linkBased on data mining, an innovative big data analysis platform was utilized to discuss the treatment of cancer in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) by dasatinib, aiming to offer help to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. An integrated gene expression analysis system (IEAS) was firstly constructed to automatically classify data in the online human Mendelian genetic database using clustering algorithms. At the same time, the gene expression profile was analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) in the analysis system. In addition, the efficacy of dasatinib in the treatment of patients with advanced CML was then retrospectively analyzed. The results showed that the IEAS system could incorporate the gene expression analysis vectors it contained by JAVA-related technologies, and the generated clustering genes showed similar functions. The clustering algorithm could homogenize data and generate visual clustering heat maps. The analysis results of major elements were diverse under different experimental conditions. The characteristic value of the first major element was the largest. Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) datasets of CML patients were selected from cancer genomic map, including 120 samples and 20,614 mRNA in total. In micro-RNA (miRNA) datasets, there were 202 samples including 1,406 miRNAs. Data were screened by miRNA–mRNA regulation template, and 20 differentially expressed mRNAs were obtained. In conclusion, the proposed IEAS system could mine and analyze the gene expression data. Dasatinib showed good efficacy in the treatment of patients with advanced CML. Besides, it could improve visual queries, and data mining had a broad application prospect in clinical application. Dasatinib was considered to be a good option for patients with advanced CML
Tooth Wear and Tribological Investigations in Dentistry
Full text linkDental or tooth wear is a physiological process in the life cycle of teeth. Loss of the occlusal surface may cause excessive tooth wear. Several factors may contribute to tooth wear with different intensities and duration in the oral cavity. The oral cavity is generally compared to a tribological system to determine the various types of wear between teeth and restorative materials and assess the amount of dental wear. However, it is challenging to investigate in vitro and in vivo wear owing to the complexity of tooth wear; thus, a clear correlation between in vitro and in vivo data could not be established. This review is aimed at providing an insight into the etiology of tooth wear and tribological investigations in dentistry
A spatially aware likelihood test to detect sweeps from haplotype distributions
Full text linkThe inference of positive selection in genomes is a problem of great interest in evolutionary genomics. By identifying putative regions of the genome that contain adaptive mutations, we are able to learn about the biology of organisms and their evolutionary history. Here we introduce a composite likelihood method that identifies recently completed or ongoing positive selection by searching for extreme distortions in the spatial distribution of the haplotype frequency spectrum along the genome relative to the genome-wide expectation taken as neutrality. Furthermore, the method simultaneously infers two parameters of the sweep: the number of sweeping haplotypes and the “width” of the sweep, which is related to the strength and timing of selection. We demonstrate that this method outperforms the leading haplotype-based selection statistics, though strong signals in low-recombination regions merit extra scrutiny. As a positive control, we apply it to two well-studied human populations from the 1000 Genomes Project and examine haplotype frequency spectrum patterns at the LCT and MHC loci. We also apply it to a data set of brown rats sampled in NYC and identify genes related to olfactory perception. To facilitate use of this method, we have implemented it in user-friendly open source software.
Author summary
Identifying regions of the genome that contain adaptive variation is of fundamental interest in evolutionary biology, providing insight into an organism’s history and biology. When positive selection is recent or ongoing, we expect to find genomic patterns such as high frequency haplotypes and low genetic diversity in the vicinity of the adaptive locus. Here we develop a statistic to identify these regions based on distortions of the haplotype frequency spectrum from a background distribution. We evaluate the performance of this statistic under numerous realistic settings of interest to empiricists and demonstrate its superior performance relative to other haplotype-based selection statistics. We also apply this statistic to real population-genetic data. As a positive control, we explore two well-studied loci, LCT and MHC, in a European and an African human population that show strong evidence for selection. We also apply this statistic to the genomes of an urban brown rat population, where we uncover evidence for adaptation in olfactory perception genes. We release user-friendly software implementing this statistic
Revision Surgery Using Retrograde Nail versus Replating in Nonunion Distal Femur Fracture Treated with Plate
Full text linkArticular distal femur fractures represent 4% to 6% of femur fractures. Locking compression plates (LCPs) are the main treatment option. Nevertheless, a reoperation rate of 12.9% has been reported; nonunion is reported at 4.8%, delayed union at 1.6%, and malunion at 0.6%. Treatment of nonunions can be challenging as no unanimous consensus regarding the best surgical technique has been reached. The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare two types of revision surgery as treatment of LCP-treated articular distal femoral fracture nonunion: retrograde nail or replating. A retrospective cohort study of patients admitted from January 2015 to February 2017 for nonunion of AO/OTA 33C2 fractures previously treated with a lateral LCP was conducted. Patients were treated either with intramedullary nailing (Group A) or with replating (Group B). One independent observer performed clinically and radiographically followed up at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24, and 36 months after surgery. The nonunion scoring system (NUSS) was used. Nine patients were included in our study. The mean follow-up was 2 years. Five patients were treated with intramedullary nailing and four with replating. The NUSS score was 24.2 ± 6.8 in the nailing group and 37.3 ± 3 in the replating group (). In the nailing group, radiographic consolidation was obtained in all cases. In the replating group, nonunion was found in 3 patients and failure of osteosynthesis in one patient. Therefore, four patients (Group B) underwent implant removal and retrograde femoral nailing, obtaining radiological healing. The union time was 7.6 months in the nailing group. Retrograde intramedullary nailing can be used as an effective treatment of aseptic AO-33C distal femoral nonunion following primary locking plating
Rice for Food Security: Revisiting Its Production, Diversity, Rice Milling Process and Nutrient Content
Full text linkice is food consumed regularly and is vital for the food security of over half the world’s population. Rice production on a global scale is predicted to rise by 58 to 567 million tonnes (Mt) by 2030. Rice contains a significant number of calories and a wide variety of essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional values. Its nutrients are superior to those found in maize, wheat, and potatoes. It is also recognised as a great source of vitamin E and B5 as well as carbohydrates, thiamine, calcium, folate, and iron. Phytic acid and phenols are among the phenolic compounds found in rice, alongside sterols, flavonoids, terpenoids, anthocyanins, tocopherols, tocotrienols, and oryzanol. These compounds have been positively linked to antioxidant properties and have been shown to help prevent cardiovascular disease and diabetes. This review examines recent global rice production, selected varieties, consumption, ending stocks, and the composition of rice grains and their nutritional values. This review also includes a new method of paddy storage, drying, and grading of rice. Finally, the environmental impacts concerning rice cultivation are discussed, along with the obstacles that must be overcome and the current policy directions of rice-producing countries. Vie