Connellwilkinson2240

Herein, a facile dispersive micro-solid phase extraction (d-µSPE) procedure using carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified with silver nanoparticles (Ag/MWCNTs-COOH) was successfully developed for the adsorption and subsequent determination of low levels of two well-known contaminants, namely bisphenol A and S (BPA and BPS) in water and soft drink samples. The detection and measurement of the above-mentioned compounds were performed by HPLC-UV instrument. The applied d-µSPE procedure has several advantages such as rapidity, high degree of sensitivity, precision and efficiency. A combination of polar/non-polar interactions seems to play a key role in the adsorption process. Under the optimized conditions, the calibration curves were linear over the concentration range of 1-500 µg/L for the both targets. The practical limit of quantifications (LOQ) for the both analytes were determined to be 1.0 µg/L. The average relative recoveries obtained from the fortified samples varied between 92 and 110% with the relative standard deviations (RSD%) of 2.9-9.5%.Tannin structure and composition are variable during grape maturation, and crucially determine perceived astringency, body structure and aging capacity of red wines. This study investigated the evolution of condensed tannins (CTs) in grape skins as maturation progressed and the feasibility of using a rapid mechanical puncture approach for assessing the CTs profile. The results showed that the mean degree of polymerization (mDP), molecular mass (MM), and proportions of (-)-epigallocatechin in extension subunits (EGC_ext) and (-)-epicatechin-3-O-gallate in terminal subunits (ECG_term) of skins increased during grape maturation, while CTs content and the proportion of (-)-epicatechin-3-O-gallate in extension subunits decreased. The predictive models built by random forest for CTs content based on skin weight, mDP, MM_subunit, EGC_ext, and ECG_term obtained good results with high squared correlation coefficients of prediction and calibration (R2_P > 0.85 and R2_C ≈ 0.95). In addition, the classifications of CTs characteristics obtained from ripe and unripe samples were observed in different principal component spaces. This study indicated that the mechanical properties were useful for predicting skin CTs profile, estimating tannin maturity stages, and providing information for optimal harvesting and winemaking protocols.

The study proposes the use of three-dimensional CdZnTe Compton camera (3D-CZT CC) for radiopharmaceutical imaging and investigates the influence factors using a 3D-printed mouse phantom.

The event selection method and image reconstruction algorithm are optimized by Monte Carlo simulations and mouse phantom experiments.

Simulation results show that the intrinsic energy resolution and spatial resolution of 3D-CZT cause a certain deviation in the calculated Compton scattering angle and Compton axis. Such deviation causes the imaging quality to deteriorate. By selecting events whose distance between Compton and photoelectronic interactions are larger than 10mm, the mean deviation of the Compton axis could be reduced to less than 10%. Using the ordered origin ensemble algorithm with resolution recovery, the artifacts around organs where the radiopharmaceutical was placed are reduced, and the quality of the reconstruction results are improved compared to the results with simple back projection and origin ensembles algorithms. The phantom study shows that the 3D-CZT CC imaging device could visualize the radiopharmaceuticals distribution by 15min detection.

Through the analysis of this study, the feasibility of 3D-CZT CC for in-vivo distribution measurement of radiopharmaceuticals is demonstrated, and the quality of reconstruction result has been improved.

Through the analysis of this study, the feasibility of 3D-CZT CC for in-vivo distribution measurement of radiopharmaceuticals is demonstrated, and the quality of reconstruction result has been improved.

Quantitative radiomics features extracted from medical images have been shown to provide value in predicting clinical outcomes. The study for robustness and reproducibility of radiomics features obtained with magnetic resonance image guided linear accelerator (MR-Linac) is insufficient. The objective of this work was to investigate the stability of radiomics features extracted from T2-weighted images of MR-Linac for five common effect factors.

In this work, ten jellies, five fruits/vegetables, and a dynamic phantom were used to evaluate the impact of test-retest, intraobserver, varied thicknesses, radiation, and motion. These phantoms were scanned on a 1.5T MRI system of MR-Linac. For test-retest data, the phantoms were scanned twice with repositioning within 15min. To assess for intraobserver comparison, the segmentation of MR images was repeated by one observer in a double-blind manner. Three slice thicknesses (1.2mm, 2.4mm, and 4.8mm) were used to select robust features that were insensitive to differetype of the wavelet. The number of stable features extracted from when the beam was on was less than that extracted when the beam was off. Shape features were the most robust of all of the features in all of the groups, excluding the motion group.

Compared with other factors fewer features remained robust to the effect of motion. This result emphasizes the need to consider the effect of respiration motion. The study for T2-weighted images from MR-Linac under different conditions will help us to build a robust predictive model applicable for radiotherapy.

Compared with other factors fewer features remained robust to the effect of motion. This result emphasizes the need to consider the effect of respiration motion. The study for T2-weighted images from MR-Linac under different conditions will help us to build a robust predictive model applicable for radiotherapy.

There is increasing interest in suicide surveillance solutions to identify non-fatal suicidal and self-harming behaviours in the Australian community not currently captured through national administrative datasets.

The aim of the present study was to develop machine learning models to classify self-harm related behaviours using unstructured clinical note text from New South Wales (NSW) Ambulance data and compare their performance via traditional methods.

Primary data were derived from NSW Ambulance electronic medical records (eMRs) for potential self-harm related NSW Ambulance attendances for the period 2013-2019. Data included paramedic clinical notes detailing the nature of the attendance, clinical outcome, and narrative information. We assessed sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, F-score, and the Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC) for four algorithms (Support Vector Machine, random forest, decision tree, and logistic regression).

The performance of thurs and provide more timely approximations to be used for self-harm surveillance.Various environmental exposures have been associated with psychosis spectrum disorder. However, the role of gender in this association has received little attention. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review to evaluate gender-related differences and identified 47 research articles investigating the associations of psychosis with childhood adversity, substance use, urbanicity, migration, season of birth, and obstetric complication in the PubMed database. The findings suggest that childhood abuse may be more strongly associated with a risk to develop psychosis and an earlier age at onset of illness in women than in men. Furthermore, childhood adversity has been associated with the severity of different symptom dimensions in men and women. find more Growing up in an urban environment and immigration are more strongly associated with psychosis risk in men than in women. Despite a higher prevalence of substance abuse comorbidity in men diagnosed with psychotic disorders, it appears that the association between substance use and psychosis risk may be stronger in women. These findings should be evaluated with caution considering several methodological limitations, limited number of studies, and lack of consistency across results. Overall, although further investigation is needed, our review shows that gender-related differences in the associations of environmental exposures with psychosis expression may exist.

This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the body of evidence investigating the post-operative use of non-opioid analgesic drugs and techniques in endocrine neck surgeries. Adequate pain control is crucial for successful recovery after thyroid and parathyroid surgery. Effective postoperative pain control can shorten hospital stay, improve postoperative outcomes, decrease morbidity and improve the overall patient experience. Traditionally, opioids have been the mainstay of postoperative analgesia after thyroid and parathyroid surgeries. However, the use of opioids has been linked to an increased incidence of postoperative complications.

A comprehensive systematic literature review via Medline, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Central Register for Controlled Trials from inception until December 26th, 2020 was conducted, followed by meta-analysis. Abstract and full-text screening, data extraction and quality assessment were independently conducted by 2 investigators. Odds ratios (OR), mean differences (MD) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using RevMan 5.3.

Sixty-five randomized control trials were identified from 486 unique publications. Pooled MD and 95% confidence interval for pain scores were higher for the control group at 24h postoperatively both at rest (-0.65 [-0.92, -0.37]) and with swallowing (-0.77 [-1.37, -0.16]). These differences were statistically significant. The pooled MD and confidence interval for postoperative analgesic requirements was lower in the intervention group (-1.38 [-1.86, -0.90]). The incidence of PONV had a pooled OR of 0.67 [0.48, 0.94].

Non-opioid analgesia was superior to the control group for pain control in patients undergoing thyroid and parathyroid operations with no significant difference in complications.

Non-opioid analgesia was superior to the control group for pain control in patients undergoing thyroid and parathyroid operations with no significant difference in complications.

Para-aortic lymph node (PALN) metastases in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) correlates with poor prognosis. The role of PALN in invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (inv-IPMN) has not been well explored. The present study investigated the rate of metastatic PALN, lymph node ratio (LNR) and the overall nodal (N) status as prognostic factors in PDAC and inv-IPMN.

This consecutive single-center series included patients with PDAC or inv-IPMN in the pancreatic head who underwent pancreatoduodenectomy or total pancreatectomy, including PALN resection between 2009 and 2018. Median overall survival (mOS) and impact of clinicopathological factors, including PALN status on survival, were evaluated.

403 patients were included, 314 had PDAC and 89 inv-IPMN. PALN were metastatic in 16% of PDAC and 17% of inv-IPMN. N0 status was present in 6% of the patients with PDAC and 16% of inv-IPMN patients (p=0.007). LNR >15% was more common in PDAC (52%) than in inv-IPMN (34%) (p=0.004). mOS was 12.7 months in the presence of PALN metastases and 22.