K-Edge Imaging Using a Clinical Dual-Source Photon-Counting CT System.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility and performance of K-edge imaging of iodine (I) and gadolinium (Gd) on a clinically available photon-counting computed tomography (PCCT) system.

Methods: A dual-source clinical PCCT scanner with four energy thresholds (20, 55, 72, 90 keV) was used to scan phantoms containing pure and mixed solutions of I and Gd across multiple concentrations (1-10 mg/mL) and radiation doses (1-8 mGy). Multi-material decomposition was performed using a calibration-based, image-domain algorithm to generate material-specific maps.

The Association of Adverse and Benevolent Childhood Experiences with Grit Among Gen Z: The Mediating Role of Emotional Regulation.

Grit is important to experiencing success and is shaped through several childhood experiences. However, the association of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) to grit is underexplored, especially through emotional regulation. Hence, this study examined the association between ACEs, BCEs, emotional regulation, and grit.

Impact of Vessel Size, Dose Levels, and Body Habitus on Iodine Quantification in Cardiovascular Photon-Counting Computed Tomography.

Objectives: This study evaluates the performance of a clinical dual-source photon-counting computed tomography (PCCT) system in quantifying iodine within calcified vessels, using 3D-printed phantoms with vascular-like structures lined with calcium.

Methods: Parameters assessed include lumen diameters (4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 mm), phantom sizes (S: 20 × 20 cm, M: 25 × 25 cm, L: 30 × 40 cm), and iodine concentrations (2, 5, and 10 mg/mL). Scans were performed with a cardiac high-pitch acquisition protocol at radiation dose levels of 5 and 10 mGy to systematically evaluate iodine quantification accuracy and spectral imaging performance.

The Well-Being of Slum Dwellers Are Associated With WaSH-Related Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study From India.

Background And Aims: The adverse health outcomes due to unsafe Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WaSH) are a public health concern in low-and middle-income countries. However, evidence on how WaSH is associated with psychological outcomes is minimal. Insights on this association would help address the well-being of the slum population.

Comparison of TAVR with SAVR on clinical outcomes in patients with aortic stenosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: The advances and studies carried out in the area have shown that patients with aortic stenosis (AS) undergoing surgical valve replacement (SAVR) did not have encouraging outcomes. This study aims to compare the different risk factors in patients with AS undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) vs. SAVR, respectively, to offer options and more favorable results based on the results obtained in patients with these conditions.

Retraction: Advancing Perioperative Neurocognitive Health: A Critical Review of Predictive Tools, Diagnostic Methods, and Interventional Strategies.

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.7759/cureus.59436.

Evaluation of Photon-Counting CT for Spectral Imaging in Cardiovascular Applications: Impact of Lumen Size, Dose, and Patient Habitus.

Objectives: This study evaluates the performance of a clinical dual-source photon-counting computed tomography (PCCT) system in quantifying iodine within calcified vessels, using 3D- printed phantoms with vascular-like structures lined with calcium.

Methods: Parameters assessed include lumen diameters (4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 mm), phantom sizes (S: 20×20 cm, M: 25×25 cm, L: 30×40 cm, XL: 40×50 cm, representing the 99th percentile of US patient sizes), and iodine concentrations (2, 5, and 10 mg/mL). Scans were performed at radiation dose levels of 5, 10, 15, and 20 mGy to systematically evaluate iodine quantification accuracy and spectral imaging performance.

Utilizing Modified Coopland's Scoring System to Identify and Predict the Outcome of High-Risk Pregnancies in Resource-Limited Settings: A Retrospective Review.

Introduction A high-risk pregnancy is associated with adverse maternal and foetal outcomes. Women with high-risk pregnancies are at a greater risk of developing antepartum haemorrhage, miscarriages, and the need for surgical interventions. Neonatal complications include preterm births, low birth weight (LBW), intra-uterine deaths and an increased need for NICU admission.

Single-center outcomes of artificial intelligence in management of pulmonary embolism and pulmonary embolism response team activation.

Multidisciplinary pulmonary embolism response teams (PERTs) have shown that timely triage expedites treatment. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) may help improve pulmonary embolism (PE) management with early CT pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) screening and accelerate PERT coordination. This study aimed to test the clinical validity of an FDA-approved PE AI algorithm.

Advancing Perioperative Neurocognitive Health: A Critical Review of Predictive Tools, Diagnostic Methods, and Interventional Strategies.

Perioperative neurocognitive disorders (PNDs) affect a large percentage of people who undergo surgeries that need general anesthesia. There is an increased risk of death and a major disruption to postoperative self-care as a result of this. This study compiles all the relevant materials that the authors have found to investigate postnatal depression and its causes, as well as the methods used to determine the probability and severity of PNDs and how to reduce their risk before surgery.

Knowledge, attitude, and practice of breast self-examination is associated with general self-care and cultural factors: a study from Tamil Nadu, India.

Aim: Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer among women. One form of care related to early detection of breast cancer is breast self-examination (BSE). However, evidence on knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of BSE and its determining factors are minuscule in an Indian context.

Real-Time Ultrasound-Computed Tomography Fusion with Volume Navigation to Assess Pancreatic Cystic Lesions.

Transabdominal ultrasound is a promising imaging modality for pancreatic cystic lesions. This study aims to determine if transabdominal ultrasonography with CT fusion (TAUS-f) using volume navigation can be used to measure pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs) compared to CT alone. We evaluated 33 patients prospectively with known PCLs.

A Feasibility Study on Deep Learning Reconstruction to Improve Image Quality With PROPELLER Acquisition in the Setting of T2-Weighted Gynecologic Pelvic Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Objectives: Evaluate deep learning (DL) to improve the image quality of the PROPELLER (Periodically Rotated Overlapping Parallel Lines with Enhanced Reconstruction technique) for 3 T magnetic resonance imaging of the female pelvis.

Methods: Three radiologists prospectively and independently compared non-DL and DL PROPELLER sequences from 20 patients with a history of gynecologic malignancy. Sequences with different noise reduction factors (DL 25%, DL 50%, and DL 75%) were blindly reviewed and scored based on artifacts, noise, relative sharpness, and overall image quality.

Pressure injury incidence and impact on patients treated with prone positioning for COVID-19 ARDS.

Objective: To determine the incidence of pressure injuries (PIs) and their impact on clinical outcomes in patients treated with prone positioning for COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Method: All patients with COVID-19 ARDS who were treated with prone positioning were categorised as cases and those who were not treated with prone positioning were categorised as controls. Demographics, clinical data and confounding variables affecting outcomes were recorded.

Rates of Intervention and Cancer Detection on Initial versus Subsequent Whole-body MRI Screening in Li-Fraumeni Syndrome.

Unlabelled: Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS) is a hereditary cancer predisposition syndrome with up to 90% lifetime cancer risk. Cancer screening, including annual whole-body MRI (WB-MRI), is recommended due to known survival advantage, with cancer detection rate of 7% on initial screening. Intervention and cancer detection rates on subsequent screenings are unknown.

"Life after him was just hell": Young rural women's lived experiences of widowhood in Rajasthan, India.

This phenomenological study was conducted in rural Rajasthan, India, to explore young widows' lived experiences. On receipt of written informed consent, we interviewed 14 young widows. The data were analyzed in an idiographic style using the interpretive phenomenological approach.

Prevalence of Hearing Impairment in Neonates of Mothers with Diabetes Mellitus: A Cross Sectional Study.

This study aims to find out the prevalence of hearing impairment in neonates of mothers with diabetes mellitus. The objective is to assess any correlation between the glycemic control and the development of neonatal hearing impairment. A total of 120 neonates of diabetic mothers were included in the study.

Rapid fat-water separated T mapping using a single-shot radial inversion-recovery spoiled gradient recalled pulse sequence.

T mapping is increasingly used in clinical practice and research studies. With limited scan time, existing techniques often have limited spatial resolution, contrast resolution and slice coverage. High fat concentrations yield complex errors in Look-Locker T methods.

An integrated CRITIC-TOPSIS- and Entropy-TOPSIS-based informative weighting and ranking approach for evaluating green energy sources and its experimental analysis on pyrolysis.

Selection of the most suitable biomass material for bio-fuel generation is a complex and multi-criteria decision problem as it engages many conflicting criteria which have to be assessed simultaneously. In the past, researchers have used subjective weighing techniques, which question the reliability of the approach. In this study, two objective weighing methods such as Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) and Entropy are used to calculate the weights of evaluating criteria and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is applied to select the suitable biomass material.

Environmental technology and wastewater treatment: Strategies to achieve environmental sustainability.

Water is the vital liquid for human subsistence and is used as a resource in various production processes. However, the degradation of the environment is being reflected in the water resources of the planet. One of the leading causes of water pollution is ineffective wastewater treatment, which results in greywater being returned to the environment without having gone through a decontamination process.

Author Correction: The emergence of Miocene reefs in South China Sea and its resilient adaptability under varying eustatic, climatic and oceanographic conditions.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

The emergence of Miocene reefs in South China Sea and its resilient adaptability under varying eustatic, climatic and oceanographic conditions.

During the Miocene, extensive carbonate deposition thrived over wide latitudinal ranges in Southeast Asia despite perturbations of the global climate and thermohaline circulation that affected the Asian continent. Nevertheless, the mechanisms of its emergence, adaptability in siliciclastic-dominated margins and demise, especially in southern South China Sea (SCS), are largely speculative and remains enigmatic along with a scarcity of constraints on paleoclimatic and palaeoceanographic conditions. Here we show, through newly acquired high-resolution geophysical data and accurate stratigraphic records based on strontium isotopic dating, the evolution of these platforms from ~15.

Total vulnerability of the littoral zone to climate change-driven natural hazards in north Brittany, France.

Current worldwide projections of sea-level rise show a staggering increase in water level of up to 2 m by 2100 owing to global warming exacerbated by anthropogenically induced climate change. While amplified rates of sea-level rise is an immense hazard to coastal communities, storm surges are expected to increase in intensity and frequency making it an equally significant threat to coastal populations. In France, these hazards are not uncommon with records of extreme tempests every thousand years in the Holocene.

A retrospective observational study of EEG findings and antiepileptic drug use among children referred for EEG to Zambia's University Teaching Hospital.

Objective: Despite the heavy burden of epilepsy in Sub-Saharan Africa, there remains a relative paucity of neurophysiology services and limited published data on electroencephalography (EEG) features among African children. The aim of this study was to describe clinical characteristics, EEG findings, and antiepileptic drug (AED) use among children referred for EEG to the University Teaching Hospital in Zambia.

Methods: EEG referrals and reports from 2013-2015 were reviewed.

Multiresolution-based weighted regularization for denoised image interpolation from scattered samples with application to confocal microscopy.

The problem of reconstructing an image from nonuniformly spaced, spatial point measurements is frequently encountered in bioimaging and other scientific disciplines. The most successful class of methods in handling this problem uses the regularization approach involving the minimization of a derivative-based roughness functional. It has been well demonstrated, in the presence of noise, that nonquadratic roughness functionals such as ℓ measure yield better performance compared to the quadratic ones in inverse problems in general and in deconvolution in particular.