Journal of Geophysical Research最新文献

Image-guided liver biopsies can improve their success rate when combined with the optical detection of Indocyanine Green (ICG) fluorescence accumulated in tumors. Previous works used a camera coupled to a thin borescope to capture and quantify images from fluorescence emission during procedures; however, light-scattering prevented the formation of sharp images, and the time response for weakly fluorescent tumors was very low. Instead, replacing the camera with a photodiode detector shows an improved temporal resolution in a more compact and lighter device. This work presents the new design in a comparative study between both detection technologies, including an assessment of the temporal response and sensitivity to the presence of background fluorescence.

Combat missions in the Middle East have resulted in approximately 52,000 U.S. veterans who have been wounded in action, with 10% of whom suffered burn injuries. More than 90% of the wounded survived, but many were unable to return to military service. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that impacted reintegration of veterans with combat burn injuries. Using a mixed-methods approach and analysis, we asked veterans with combat burns "What was your experience reintegrating into the civilian community?" Additionally, we administered the Community Reintegration of Injured Service Members (CRIS) tool to measure the current level of reintegration. Six veterans with combat burn injury identified two major themes: supportive communities and future-oriented thinking. Supportive communities are defined as communities that are veteran-specific, provide long-term burn/injury care, are financially beneficial, and support hobbies, education, and work opportunities. Future-oriented thinking is defined as thinking in which a veteran experiences a turning point in recovery, has a desire to serve others, develops new meaning in life, and experiences posttraumatic growth. In both themes, peer support was a key component. Community reintegration was enhanced by future-oriented thinking and a supportive community, both of which can be buoyed by peer support. These findings are similar to other studies noting the importance of peer support for veterans. Studies of civilians burn survivors describe similar reintegration issues. These two factors may also be applicable to those survivors. Further qualitative inquiry into peer support in the burn community at large may reveal more actionable evidence which could enable burn survivors to meet the long-term goal of community reintegration.

Background: Emerging artificial intelligence (AI) applications have the potential to improve health, but they may also perpetuate or exacerbate inequities.

Objective: This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the health equity issues related to the use of AI applications and identify strategies proposed to address them.

Methods: We searched PubMed, Web of Science, the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Xplore Digital Library, ProQuest U.S. Newsstream, Academic Search Complete, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website, and ClinicalTrials.gov to identify academic and gray literature related to AI and health equity that were published between 2014 and 2021 and additional literature related to AI and health equity during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 and 2021. Literature was eligible for inclusion in our review if it identified at least one equity issue and a corresponding strategy to address it. To organize and synthesize equity issues, we adopted a 4-step AI application framework: Background Context, Data Characteristics, Model Design, and Deployment. We then created a many-to-many mapping of the links between issues and strategies.

Results: In 660 documents, we identified 18 equity issues and 15 strategies to address them. Equity issues related to Data Characteristics and Model Design were the most common. The most common strategies recommended to improve equity were improving the quantity and quality of data, evaluating the disparities introduced by an application, increasing model reporting and transparency, involving the broader community in AI application development, and improving governance.

Conclusions: Stakeholders should review our many-to-many mapping of equity issues and strategies when planning, developing, and implementing AI applications in health care so that they can make appropriate plans to ensure equity for populations affected by their products. AI application developers should consider adopting equity-focused checklists, and regulators such as the FDA should consider requiring them. Given that our review was limited to documents published online, developers may have unpublished knowledge of additional issues and strategies that we were unable to identify.

Violent, dynamic failures of rockmasses in underground mines pose significant hazards to workers and operations. Over the past several decades, hardrock mines have widely adopted seismic monitoring to help address such risks. However, coal mines, particularly those employing the longwall mining method, have struggled to implement similar monitoring strategies. This is because typical longwall mines are much larger and mine more rapidly than hardrock mines. Moreover, regulations place significant restrictions on the subsurface use of electronics in coal mines due to potentially explosive atmospheres. We present a new monitoring concept that uses distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) to turn an entire longwall face into a seismoacoustic array. After exploring the acoustic response of our sensors in the laboratory, we deployed the array at an active underground longwall mine for several days. We examine 33 events recorded by both the in-mine DAS array and a surface seismic network. We observed that the array records both seismic vibrations traveling through rock and mining equipment as well as sound waves propagating in the workings. We show that waveform moveouts are clearly visible, and that the standard deviation of the audio recordings is a straightforward yet promising metric that could help quantify burst damage. Although improvements are needed before mines can routinely use this monitoring strategy, DAS-based seismoacoustic arrays may assist in understanding coal-burst mechanisms and managing associated risks in underground longwall mines as well as enable better understanding of damage associated with dynamic failures in other underground environments.

Objective: Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography (PTC) is an invasive procedure used in patients with obstructive jaundice in the progress of some malignancies, and its most common complication is infection. We aimed to evaluate the patients who underwent PTC regarding their cultures, prophylaxis, and antibiotics used for treatment.

Materials and methods: In this cross-sectional study, patients who underwent PTC and were followed up in a medical oncology outpatient clinic between 2010-2017 were evaluated retrospectively. Patients' data were obtained from the hospital record system (FONET), epicrisis forms, and patient progress files.

Results: A total of 93 patients were included in the study. Prophylaxis was given in 50% of the cases. Complications developed in 68% of the cases after the intervention, and the infectious disease clinic consulted all. Blood cultures were obtained from 89% of the febrile patients; however, bile cultures were obtained only from 29%. The rate of resistant Gram-negative enteric bacteria in growing microorganisms was 52% (n=13). It was determined that 65% of the initiated empirical treatments were appropriate for the growth of microorganisms.

Conclusion: The growth rate was significantly higher in blood cultures than in bile cultures. The lower growth rate in bile culture was attributed to the low number of bile cultures. There was no significant difference regarding the growth rate and drug resistance of the microorganisms. Therefore, we think giving antibiotics as treatment rather than prophylaxis is more appropriate. Taking cultures will ensure that patients receive appropriate antibiotic therapy for the causative agent.

Background: Guilt and shame regulate basic human processes such as social cognition and relations. Both emotions are also involved in the aetiology and maintenance of trauma-related mental disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, a concise scale that adequately captures these constructs is currently lacking, impeding research efforts to understand them more thoroughly.Objective: To this end, we developed the eight-item Guilt and Shame Questionnaire (GSQ-8) in English, German, and Dutch.Method: We examined the reliability and validity of the GSQ-8 in a clinical sample of adults seeking treatment for childhood-trauma-related posttraumatic stress disorder (n = 209), a sample of adults who had suffered at least one traumatic life event reporting different levels of PTSD symptoms (n = 556), and a non-clinical sample of adults (n = 156).Results: Theory-driven confirmatory factor analyses confirmed two correlated latent factors guilt and shame with four items for each factor. Across all samples, two-factor models yielded better model fit than one-factor solutions. Measurement invariance across the three samples, gender, and Dutch and German language was mostly established. Guilt and shame composite scores were associated with PTSD symptoms, depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, mental health-related quality of life, and self-blame, thus supporting scale validity. Importantly, both subscales predicted PTSD symptoms, depression, life satisfaction, and mental health-related quality of life over and above cognitions of self-blame.Conclusions: The GSQ-8 is a parsimonious, reliable, and valid tool to assess guilt and shame in clinical, sub-clinical, and non-clinical populations, allowing applications across a broad range of research questions.

A possible link between chemotherapy and cognitive impairment has been identified. In the literature, this condition is usually called chemobrain and can mostly affect some memory domain but can lead also to other cognitive impairments. Olfaction, which is known to be linked with cognitive domain and the nociception system, can also be affected by chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to investigate the main cognitive and olfactory abilities and the functional and nutritional state of a cohort of chemotherapy and immunotherapy onco-geriatric patients and control geriatrics subjects. Cognitive, olfactory, geriatric and nutritional assessments were performed through the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Sniffin' Sticks Screening 12, G8 test and a questionnaire on the adherence of the Mediterranean diet, respectively. Our findings show a gender effect on the MMSE. Overall results indicate more pronounced impairments both at the cognitive and frailty level regardless of the type of therapy. On the other hand, the Sniffin' Sticks performances highlight a significant decrease in olfactory perception ability of subjects following immunotherapy. Significant correlations between olfactory performance and MMSE and G8 scores were also found, as well as between MMSE and G8 measures.

Background: A breast cancer diagnosis with all that it entails is a highly stressful moment for women. Chemotherapy is one of the main treatments for this type of cancer, and it also brings several side effects and physical changes that often lead to emotional distress and adjustment difficulties. This study aims to analyse the quality of life and psychosocial variables in women with breast cancer submitted to different chemotherapy procedures.

Participants and procedure: We used a convenience sample of 50 women with breast cancer submitted to adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Women were interviewed after obtaining their informed consent. The instruments used were: a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being-12-Item, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, and Brief Resilient Coping Scale.

Results: Participants demonstrated reasonable levels of all dimensions analysed, except for resilient coping, which was relatively low. Neither treatment significantly improves quality of life or any other psychosocial variable more than the other. Most of the variables were correlated, especially quality of life.

Conclusions: The results show that the choice of treatment according to the most favourable objective criteria (e.g., stage, patients' characteristics) and multidisciplinary work with the integration of a psychologist are vital to achieve good outcomes and the best possible quality of life. Interesting insights were obtained, such as the need for health literacy to make informed decisions and the variation of needs during the cancer course. Future research could use a longitudinal approach and a more representative sample.

For nations already facing pollution issues, fossil fuel energy consumption is deteriorating living standards. Though prevailing infrastructure makes fossil fuel energy use feasible for production, it still pollutes our environment. This study in the domain of environment and development assesses the impact of fossil fuel energy consumption on the infant mortality rate in 15 Asian economies during 1996 and 2019. The living standards are assessed using infant mortality rate, while non-linear fossil fuel energy consumption is used with gross capital formation, employment, and preprimary education as independent variables. The feasible generalized least square method evaluates the effects. The study concludes that fossil fuel energy consumption follows a U-shaped relationship explaining infant mortality. The results point out that over-consumption of fossil fuel energy is deteriorating the living standards considering low air quality levels in Asian economies.

Background: The ability of probiotic strains to provide health benefits to the host partially hinges on the survival of gastrointestinal passage and temporary colonization of the digestive tract. This study aims to investigate the colonization profile of individual probiotic strains comprising the commercial product VSL#3^® and determine their impact on the host intestinal microbiota. Methods: Using a cefoperazone-treated mouse model of antibiotic treatment, we investigated the impact of oral gavage with ~10⁸ CFU commercial VSL#3^® product on the intestinal microbiota using 16S-based amplicon sequencing over 7 days. Results: Results showed that probiotic strains in the formulation were detected in treated murine fecal samples, with early colonization by Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum subsp. plantarum, and late colonization by Lacticaseibacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei, Bifidobacterium breve and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis. Overall, VSL#3^® consumption is associated with increased alpha diversity in the cecal microbial community, which is important in the context of antibiotic consumption. Probiotic supplementation resulted in an expansion of Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria, especially Bifidobacteriaceae and Lachnospiraceae, which are associated with Clostridioides difficile resistance in the murine gut. Conclusion: This study illustrates the need for determining the ability of probiotics to colonize the host and impact the gut microbiota, and suggests that multiple doses may be warranted for extended transient colonization. In addition, follow-up studies should determine whether VSL#3^® can provide resistance against C. difficile colonization and disease in a mouse model.