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Understanding the factors affecting internal combustion engine performance is crucial for improving emissions and fuel efficiency in real traffic. This paper investigates the influence of date-specific factors, such as working days and holidays on fuel consumption and emissions of a representative internal combustion engine in the context of Shiraz city. The data was collected by measuring the speed of vehicle on a specific route during peak traffic times on both working days and holidays. The determined route was calculated by a qualitative and quantitative method. K-means clustering and principal component analysis are employed to design representative driving cycles, then combining micro-trips and smoothing them to develop driving cycles. Characteristics of both driving cycles, emissions such as HC, NOx, CO, and fuel consumption were specified under a simulated vehicle model of Peugeot 206 and placed through both real driving cycles by using advanced vehicle simulation software. It has been observed that variations in fuel consumption and emissions between holidays and working days can be attributed to distinct driving patterns and characteristic parameters, such as acceleration, speed, and driving time. Contrary to common assumptions, the study found that fuel consumption was approximately 8 % higher on holidays compared to working days, primarily due to increased driving time and higher average speeds. Moreover, higher acceleration and speed on holidays led to a significant increase in CO emissions (about 36 %) and NOx emissions (about 4 %) compared to working days. However, HC emissions was found to be 27.03 % higher on working days according to lower speed. This study helps in reducing fuel consumption and emissions by uncovering internal combustion engine factors, optimizing driving patterns, and promoting sustainable transport on working days and holidays.

Key Clinical Message Vincristine therapy can be effective in refractory Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) following COVID‐19 vaccination. Our case report highlights the need for further research to establish standard management guidelines for COVID‐19‐vaccine‐associated ITP. Abstract Adult immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) can occur as a rare complication following several viral infections or a rare adverse event or complication of vaccination. In this paper, we report a case of a 39‐year‐old male patient with severe refractory ITP that began 4‐weeks after receiving his third (booster) dose of the COVID‐19 vaccine (BNT162b2, Pfizer‐BioNTech). He was given oral dexamethasone 40 mg daily for 4 days followed by prednisone at 1 mg/kg (85 mg daily) for 10 days. In the following weeks, we attempted several other lines of therapy to treat his ITP, including anti‐RhD immunoglobulin, which, unfortunately, caused moderate hemolysis requiring packed red blood cell transfusion, intravenous immunoglobulin (given at a subtherapeutic dose of 0.4 g/kg for only 1 day since it was not available), rituximab, and eltrombopag. The patient, unfortunately, showed no response to any of these treatments. This was an indicator to initiate salvage therapy with vincristine 2 mg weekly for 3 weeks. The patient's platelet count started to increase remarkably during the third week of vincristine and normalized after 4 weeks. We review the findings, clinical characteristics, and management approaches that were reported in the literature regarding COVID‐19‐vaccine‐induced ITP. More in‐depth research is needed to delineate standard guidelines for the management of such cases. This report underscores the importance of resorting to vincristine and eltrombopag as great options for severe and refractory ITP related to the COVID‐19 vaccine.

Late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has become the paradigm of a non-mendelian complex neurodegenerative disease, for which a major genetic determinant is known, the APOE locus. A rare APOE variant named Christchurch (APOEch) yielding a missense mutation from Arginine to Serine at amino acid 136, has been suggested to exert a protective effect in an individual carrying the most penetrant form of Familial AD (Paisa mutation in PSEN1 gene, E280A). We describe here a new set of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines, where the Christchurch mutation (Ch) has been introduced by gene editing into the APOE locus of three isogenic iPSC lines carrying the more common APOE variants (APOE 2/2, APOE 3/3, and an APOE 4/4) in homozygosity. Brain cells derived from these iPSC lines will enable a better understanding of APOE biology in general and facilitate the study of how the Christchurch variant affects the function of each APOE genotype. This set of iPSC lines are globally available via the European Bank of iPSCs, EBiSC.org.

Abstract The diagnosis of faults in grid-connected photovoltaic (GCPV) systems is a challenging task due to their complex nature and the high similarity between faults. To address this issue, we propose a wrapper approach called the salp swarm algorithm (SSA) for feature selection. The main objective of SSA is to extract only the most important features from the raw data and eliminate unnecessary ones to improve the classification accuracy of supervised machine learning (SML) classifiers. Subsequently, the selected features are used to train supervised machine learning (SML) techniques in distinguishing between various operating modes. To evaluate the efficiency of the technique, we used healthy and faulty data from GCPV systems that have been injected with frequent faults, 20 different types of faults were introduced, including line-to-line, line-to-ground, connectivity faults, and those affecting the operation of bay-pass diodes. These faults present diverse conditions, such as simple and multiple faults in the PV arrays and mixed faults in both arrays. The performances of the developed SSA-SML are compared with those using principal component analysis (PCA) and kernel PCA (KPCA) based SML techniques through different criteria (i.e., accuracy, recall, precision, F1 score, and computation time). The experimental findings demonstrated that the proposed diagnosis paradigm outperformed the other techniques and achieved a high diagnostic accuracy (an average accuracy greater than 99%) while significantly reducing computation time.

Energy generated from renewable sources is exposed to extremely dynamic variations in climatic conditions as well as uncertainties (current/voltage variability, noise, measurement errors.). These conditions are relevant issues to be considered when monitoring renewable energy conversion (REC) systems. In fact, these uncertain systems are subjected to many failures leading to performance degradation and long downtime maintenance periods. Therefore, fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) are essential to ensure its high dependability. This paper proposes an FDD under climatic conditions variability of uncertain REC systems using deep recurrent neural networks (DRNNs) techniques. Firstly, a novel modeling strategy for REC systems is built. Secondly, different DRNN-based interval-valued data methods are intended to differentiate between the various REC systems operating states. Finally, the hyperparameters of the proposed techniques are tuned using the Bayesian optimization algorithm. The efficiency and robustness of the novel strategy are demonstrated through REC application, using grid-connected photovoltaic (GCPV) systems. The obtained results show the efficiency of the developed strategy by reaching an accuracy rate of 92.40%.

This paper proposes effective Random Forest (RF)-based fault detection and diagnosis for wind energy conversion (WEC) systems. The proposed technique involved two major steps: feature selection and fault classification. Feature selection pre-processing is an important step to increase the accuracy of the classification algorithm and decrease the dimensionality of a dataset. Therefore, a hybrid feature selection based diagnosis technique, that can preserve the advantages of wrapper and filter algorithms as well as RF model, is proposed. In the first phase, the neighborhood component analysis (NCA) filter algorithm is used to reduce and select only the pertinent features from the original raw data. This phase helps in improving data by removing redundant and unimportant features. In the second step, we applied a wrapper technique called equilibrium optimizer to get optimized features and better classification accuracy. The main idea behind using a hybrid feature selection step is to select a small subset from original data that can achieve maximum classification accuracy and reduce the computational complexity of the RF technique. Then, the sensitive and significant characteristics are transmitted to the RF model for classification purposes. The presented results prove that the proposed methods offer enhanced diagnosis accuracy when applied to WEC systems.

Nowadays, photovoltaic (PV) energy is considered as one of the most encouraging renewable energy sources. Nevertheless, the power delivered by a PV field is strongly attached to irradiance which undergoes rapid variations depending on the climatic conditions. Accordingly, it becomes extremely difficult to distinguish if it refers to faulty status in the system or healthy status under the irradiance variation (IV). Therefore, PV monitoring considering IV condition is fundamental in ensuring high reliability as well as improving power production of PV systems.In fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) field, researchers have considered the variation of irradiance (especially under low irradiance level) as faulty operating mode while others have considered it as fixed parameter during detecting faults.In this paper, therefore, firstly, the IV is introduced in the dynamic model of the grid connected PV (GCPV) system in different operating conditions. Then, an efficient and robust FDD approach based on machine learning and deep learning techniques is proposed in order to identify the healthy and faulty operating conditions.The obtained results through simulated data of a 12 kW PV module are extremely encouraging with a high accuracy under different studied cases.

This paper introduces a pioneering fault diagnosis technique termed Interval Ensemble Learning based on Sine Cosine Optimization Algorithm (IEL- SCOA), tailored to tackle uncertainties prevalent in wind energy conversion (WEC) systems. The approach unfolds in three integral phases. Firstly, the establishment of interval centers and ranges, employing upper and lower bounds, effectively manages the inherent uncertainties arising from noise and measurement errors intrinsic to the wind system. Subsequently, the dataset undergoes processing via the Sine-Cosine Optimization Algorithm (SCOA), enabling the extraction of the most pertinent attributes. The culmination of predictive precision and classification performance is achieved through the integration of the refined dataset into an ensemble learning paradigm, harmonizing bagging, boosting techniques, and an artificial neural network classifier. The principal aim of the IEL-SCOA approach is to discern the spectrum of operational conditions within WEC systems, encompassing a healthy mode alongside six distinct faulty modes. These anomalies, encompassing short circuits, open circuits, and wear-out incidents, are deliberately induced at diverse locations and facets of the system, notably the generator and grid sides. Empirical results underscore the robustness and efficiency of the proposed methodology, showcasing an exceptional accuracy rate of 99.76 %. These outcomes definitively establish the IEL-SCOA approach as a potent and efficacious tool for precise fault diagnosis in uncertain WEC systems.

Manual harvesting of sugarcane requires skilled labourers, as improper harvesting leads to a significant loss of yield. Therefore, it is necessary to move towards designing a system capable of harvesting sugarcane on smallholdings, with high harvesting efficiency. This study aims to determine some physico-mechanical properties of sugarcane stalks related to harvester by making a comprehensive analysis of the compressing, bending, and shearing properties of sugarcane stalks. These properties were measured at three moisture content levels at three positions (base, middle, and top) of the stalk with three sugarcane varieties (G.T.54-9, IK 76-66, and HAO3-55-24). The different moisture contents were fresh stalk, after 7 days, and after 15 days. The values of different content with different varieties were (70.3, 42.1, and 23.2%), (68.7, 61.3, and 42.7%) and (66.4, 48.6, and 30.5%), respectively. The physico-mechanical properties of stalks were measured in terms of diameter, length, fresh mass, moisture content, sugarcane stalk bulk density, compression stress, shear stress and bending stress at three different positions (top, middle, and base).The most important results showed that the decreasing stalk moisture content of three sugarcane varieties led to an increase in compression, shear, and bending stresses.

In today's world, the amazing and unimaginable growth of the media has made them a powerful tool that not only fulfills the informational task inherent in their nature; Rather, they have gone further and entered and influenced all aspects of human life. The diversity of the social roles of women and men reflects the fact that the concepts of femininity and masculinity (gender) are strongly influenced by social factors. Men and women are each reflected in the media. The image of women in mass media has an ideological aspect for the continuation of patriarchal relations. Against the subjectivity of women in patriarchal discourse; The strategy of struggle to deconstruct and break stereotypes has flowed in late modernity. The aim of the current research is to analyze the discourse of Iranian women's subjectivity in the Instagram social network. The research method in this study is qualitative content analysis. The technique used is critical discourse analysis and specifically Fairclough's discourse analysis approach. The community studied in this research is the pages related to the theoretical class of discourses of subjectivity in the Instagram social network of Iranian users, which were selected with theoretical considerations and qualitative content analysis. The final categories obtained in the research include the objectification of women, glorification of narcissism, gender class system, de-importance of role, naturalization of superior status, deprivation of rights, double otherization, which is consistent with the discourse of women's subjectivity.

Abstract This paper investigates the problem of incipient fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) in wind energy conversion systems (WECS) using an innovative and effective approach called the ensemble learning-sine cosine optimization algorithm (EL-SCOA). The evolved strategy involves two primary steps: first, a sine-cosine algorithm is used to extract and optimize features in order to only select the most descriptive ones. Second, to further improve the capability, thereby providing the highest accuracy performance, the newly gathered dataset is introduced as input to an ensemble learning paradigm, which merges the benefits of boosting and bagging techniques with an artificial neural network classifier. The essential goal of the developed proposal is to discriminate between the diverse operating conditions (one healthy and six faulty conditions). Three potential and frequent types of faults that can affect the system behaviors including short-circuit, open-circuit, and wear-out are considered and thereby injected at diverse locations and sides (grid and generator sides) in order to evaluate the availability and performance of the proposed technique when compared to the conventional FDD methods. The diagnosis performance is analyzed in terms of accuracy, recall, precision, and computation time. The acquired outcomes demonstrate the efficiency of the suggested diagnostic paradigm compared to conventional FDD techniques (accuracy rate has been successfully achieved 98.35%).

Abstract Macrophages play major roles in the pathophysiology of various neurological disorders, being involved in seemingly opposing processes such as lesion progression and resolution. Yet, the molecular mechanisms that drive their harmful and benign effector functions remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that extracellular vesicles (EVs) secreted by repair‐associated macrophages (RAMs) enhance remyelination ex vivo and in vivo by promoting the differentiation of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs). Guided by lipidomic analysis and applying cholesterol depletion and enrichment strategies, we find that EVs released by RAMs show markedly elevated cholesterol levels and that cholesterol abundance controls their reparative impact on OPC maturation and remyelination. Mechanistically, EV‐associated cholesterol was found to promote OPC differentiation predominantly through direct membrane fusion. Collectively, our findings highlight that EVs are essential for cholesterol trafficking in the brain and that changes in cholesterol abundance support the reparative impact of EVs released by macrophages in the brain, potentially having broad implications for therapeutic strategies aimed at promoting repair in neurodegenerative disorders.

In this work, an effective Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) strategy designed to increase the performance and accuracy of fault diagnosis in grid-connected photovoltaic (GCPV) systems is developed. The evolved approach is threefold: first, a pre-processing of the training dataset is applied using a multiscale scheme that decomposes the data at multiple scales using high-pass/low-pass filters to separate the noise from the informative attributes and prevent the stochastic samples. Second, a principal component analysis (PCA) technique is applied to the newly obtained data to select, extract, and preserve only the more relevant, informative, and uncorrelated attributes; and finally, to distinguish between the diverse conditions, the extracted attributes are utilized to train the NNs classifiers. In this study, an effort is made to take into consideration all potential and frequent faults that might occur in PV systems. Thus, twenty-one faulty scenarios (line-to-line, line-to-ground, connectivity faults, and faults that can affect the normal operation of the bay-pass diodes) have been introduced and treated at different levels and locations; each scenario comprises various and diverse conditions, including the occurrence of simple faults in the PV1 array, simple faults in the PV2 array, multiple faults in PV1, multiple faults in PV2, and mixed faults in both PV arrays, in order to ensure a complete and global analysis, thereby reducing the loss of generated energy and maintaining the reliability and efficiency of such systems. The obtained outcomes demonstrate that the proposed approach not only achieves good accuracies but also reduces runtimes during the diagnosis process by avoiding noisy and stochastic data, thereby removing irrelevant and correlated samples from the original dataset.

Background: Smoking is a major cause globally of morbidity and mortality hence life years lost, this issue manifested in 399 Million Jordanian dinars (JD)($562.3 million USD) lost yearly due to productivity lost as a consequence of smoking in Jordan1. It is no surprise that quitting smoking will reduce the loss in life years and hence productivity. In this study, using cohort simulation, we want to quantify the gains in productivity from smoking cessation aids usage for one course of smoking cessation aid varenicline or nicotine replacement therapy in comparison to physician counseling only without pharmacological therapy, in the population that intends to quit at a point of time, through campaigns nationwide, among the working-age population followed up until retirement. Methodology: We present a transparent, generic model based on accepted analytic methods that allow users to assess the present value of lifetime earnings gained (PVLE) in smokers who intend to quit. It is shown in previous studies that smoking cessation aids are cost-effective in Jordan (Madae’en et al. 2020), yet the benefit of using smoking cessation aids goes further to reduce productivity loss by reducing life years lost. Our model incorporates life-years gained from the Markov Model in Madae’en et al. (2020), simulation of Jordanian male smokers’ cohort in three scenarios of either using varenicline or nicotine replacement therapy or only physician consultation, to estimate life-years gained and hence reduction in lost productivity costs. Results: We found productivity loss was reduced in males who attempted to quit in their productive years. Using Varenicline, the researchers calculated the expected future payments (wages) count for years gained due to varenicline use for a wage average of 507 JDs ($714.5 USD) per month discounted by 8% for the rest of their productive life. As well as for the other two scenarios, the gained productivity from one course of varenicline to the male adults over 30 who intend to quit will reduce loss by more than 72 billion JDs ($101.42 billion USD) among the working-age population followed up until retirement. Conclusion: policy change must be approached to reimbursement of smoking cessation aid in the Jordanian formulary.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of monetary policy through the channel of bank facilities on macro variables in Iran's economy. In order to analyze the results, dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) was used in terms of the structure of the banking system in the period of 1370-1399 based on the frequency of seasonal data. In the statistical analysis section, the impact of monetary policy on banking and macroeconomic variables was compared and evaluated. Based on the obtained results, it can be stated that most of the macroeconomic variables have shown the most positive reaction to the shock caused by the banking facilities as a channel for influencing the monetary policy. Based on this, the independence of the Central Bank and not imposing the results of the government's budget policies on the monetary policies of the Central Bank is a solution to make the monetary policies efficient in the medium and long term.

This research aims to construct a three-dimensional numerical model for modeling friction stir extrusion using the completely Lagrangian method, smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). For extrusion simulations, the Finite Element Method (FEM) is extensively utilized; however, it has limitations due to excessive element deformation. Because the particle-based method eliminates the usage of volumetric elements, SPH can be a viable alternative. The performance of the SPH model was evaluated using different particle sizes. The results showed that the smaller particle size improves the temperature results as well as the shape of the wire produced. Then the mechanical and microstructural properties of the produced wires were investigated. The results show that the grain size in the center of the wire is larger than its perimeter due to the lower strain rate in this area. Increased strain reduces grain size in the produced microstructure by increasing nucleation sites during recrystallization, as is well known. The wire microhardness in the centre is 121 HV, whereas it is 129 HV in the periphery. Grain size is the main reason of increased hardness near the sample's periphery.

Over the past decade, there have been significant developments in treatment for ovarian cancer, yet the lack of targeted therapy with few side effects still represents a major issue. The cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzyme family plays a vital role in the tumorigenesis process and metabolism of drugs and has a negative impact on therapy outcomes. Gaining more insight into CYP expression is crucial to understanding the pathophysiology of ovarian cancer since many isoforms are essential to the metabolism of xenobiotics and steroid hormones, which drive the disease’s development. To the best of our knowledge, no review articles have documented the intratumoral expression of CYPs and their implications in ovarian cancer. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to provide a clear understanding of differential CYP expression in ovarian cancer and its implications for the prognosis of ovarian cancer patients, together with the effects of CYP polymorphisms on chemotherapy metabolism. Finally, we discuss opportunities to exploit metabolic CYP expression for the development of novel therapeutic methods to treat ovarian cancer.

This paper designs two DC-DC converter configurations integrated with solar PV renewable energy resource. Its focuses on comparing two converter topologies: the conventional boost converter and the switched capacitor boost converter. The Perturb and Observe (P&O), Incremental Conductance (INC), Genetic Algorithm (GA), and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms are employed to dynamically enhance the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) performance for both converters. The simulation results demonstrate that both converter topologies, when integrated with appropriate MPPT algorithms, can effectively harvest maximum power from the solar PV. However, the switched capacitor topology converter exhibits advantages in terms of current capabilities and voltage performance. In addition, combing the switched capacitor boost converter with the GA-MPPT algorithm improved the output voltage profile. The switched capacitor topology demonstrates distinct advantages by exhibiting enhanced current control, enabling improved handling of dynamic load changes and varying irradiance conditions. It shows voltage regulation, resulting in reduced output voltage fluctuations and enhanced stability, thereby optimizing energy extraction. The GA-MPPT simulation demonstrates a substantial increase in maximized output current for the switched capacitor boost configuration (70 A) when compared to the conventional type (10 A). The validation and implementation of the system models are carried out using MATLAB/Simulink.

Pain represents an international burden and a major socio-economic public health problem. New findings, detailed in this review, suggest that adenosine plays a significant role in neuropathic and inflammatory pain, by acting on its metabotropic adenosine receptors (A1AR, A2AAR, A2BAR, A3AR). Adenosine receptor ligands have a practical translational potential based on the favorable efficacy and safety profiles that emerged from clinical research on various agonists and antagonists for different pathologies. The present review collects the latest studies on selected adenosine receptor ligands in different pain models. Here, we also covered the many hypothesized pathways and the role of newly synthesized allosteric adenosine receptor modulators. This review aims to present a summary of recent research on adenosine receptors as prospective therapeutic targets for a range of pain-related disorders.

The dynamic and complex interactions between the urban freight-transportation system and population, economy, traffic flow, fuel consumption, and environmental pollution, make policymaking in this system one of the fundamental challenges of urban management. In this regard, a systemic approach in urban freight-transportation system modelling should be considered to solve the problems of the system. One of the main problems of this system is the mismatch between the freight-transportation capacity and the total freight-transportation demand. Considering the lack of sufficient studies in the field of macro and quantitative modeling of this system, the main goal of this article is to model the urban freight-transportation system in order to identify the factors affecting the urban freight-transportation demand and capacity. The main focus of the research is to develop quantitative scenarios which balance the freight-transportation capacity and freight-transportation demand. The urban freight-transportation system is modelled by the System Dynamics (SD) approach and their basic behaviors; as well as this the results of some policy-making scenarios are simulated. The model is validated by the real data of Shiraz. Five quantitative scenarios are designed with two approaches of managing the freight-transportation demand and freight-transportation-capacity sectors. The scenarios are based on four control variables, including the distribution coefficient, trip numbers, vehicle capacity, and vehicle numbers. The simulation results show that the total gap between freight-transportation capacity and freight-transportation demand will decrease by optimizing each of the control variables. However, the combined scenario is the most applicable policy in order to maintain the balance between freight-transportation capacity and demand. Generally, the proposed model can be used to design different quantitative scenarios in order to optimize the freight-transportation system’s performance. This study can also help policymakers to manage the urban freight-transportation system more efficiently.

This research paper presents a comprehensive study on the optimal planning and design of hybrid renewable energy systems for microgrid (MG) applications at Oakland University. The HOMER Pro platform analyzes the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of integrating renewable energy technologies. The research also focuses on the importance of addressing unmet load in the MG system design to ensure the university’s electricity demand is always met. By optimizing the integration of various renewable energy technologies, such as solar photovoltaic (PV), energy storage system (ESS), combined heat and power (CHP), and wind turbine energy (WT), the study aims to fulfill the energy requirements while reducing reliance on traditional grid sources and achieving significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The proposed MG configurations are designed to be scalable and flexible, accommodating future expansions, load demands changes, and technological advancements without costly modifications or disruptions. By conducting a comprehensive analysis of technical, economic, and environmental factors and addressing unmet load, this research contributes to advancing renewable energy integration within MG systems. It offers a complete guide for Oakland University and other institutions to effectively plan, design, and implement hybrid renewable energy solutions, fostering a greener and more resilient campus environment. The findings demonstrate the potential for cost-effective and sustainable energy solutions, providing valuable guidance for Oakland University’s search for energy resilience and environmental surveillance, which has a total peak load of 9.958 MW. The HOMER simulation results indicate that utilizing all renewable resources, the estimated net present cost (NPC) is a minimum of USD 30 M, with a levelized energy cost (LCOE) of 0.00274 USD/kWh. In addition, the minimum desired load will be unmetered on some days in September.

The majority of energy sources being used today are traditional types. These sources are limited in nature and quantity. Additionally, they are continuously diminishing as global energy consumption increases as a result of population growth and industrial expansion. Their compensation is made from clean energy and renewable energy. Renewable energy is strongly dependent on climatic conditions; therefore, an aspect of energy management is needed, which is essential in distribution systems, because it enables us to calculate the precise energy used by the load as well as by its many components. It also helps us understand how much energy is required and its origin. The energy management aspect contains two main phases: forecasting and optimization. In this study, we are focused on the forecasting level using intelligent machine learning (ML) techniques. To ensure better energy management, it is very important to predict the production of renewable energy over a wide time period. In our work, several cases are proposed in order to predict the temperature, the irradiance, and the power produced by a PV system. The proposed approach is validated by an experimental procedure and a real database for a PV system. The big data from the sensors are noisy, which pose a major problem for forecasting. To reduce the impact of noise, we applied the multiscale strategy. To evaluate this strategy, we used different performance criteria, such as mean error (ME), mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), nRMSE and the coefficient of determination (R2). The obtained experimental results show good performance with lower error. Indeed, they achieved an error for nRMSE criteria between 0.01 and 0.37.

We consider the t-extension of the p-Fibonacci Pascal matrix. First, we study the k-th power of the t-extension of the p-Fibonacci lower and upper triangular Pascal matrix. Then, we obtain a new code which is named the t-extension of the p-Fibonacci Pascal matrix coding/decoding by using them.

Compton cameras use a pair of detectors to record the energy deposited during Compton scattering and photoabsorption of gamma ray photons. By inverting the forward model for these detection events, the 3D radioactive source distribution can be recovered computationally. However, existing methods of describing the forward model ignore the ambiguity in the Compton cone axis introduced by the detector pixel size. In this paper, we introduce approximations to the axis ambiguity that make the description of the source ambiguity computationally tractable and improve the accuracy of the detection forward model. Specifically, we model the pixel active areas as discs, so the intersection between all possible Compton cone axes and a plane parallel to the detectors is also a disc. Because of ambiguity in the Compton cone axis, the gamma source position is constrained to lie within a more complicated volume that we approximately bound by ellipses or hyperbolas at discrete depth slices. We perform simulations of single point gamma sources using the Geant4 software. Our forward model leads to improved source distribution recovery using both backprojection and iterative reconstruction methods, demonstrating that accurate localization can be performed from a smaller number of detected photons.

Background and Objectives: breast cancer remains the most common health burden affecting females worldwide. Despite developments in breast cancer diagnostic approaches and treatment strategies, the clinical management of metastatic breast cancer remains challenging. Thus, there is a need to identify new biomarkers and novel drug targets for breast cancer diagnosis and therapy. Recently, aberrant glypican-3 (GPC3) expression in cancers has gained considerable interest in cancer research. The studies, however, have yielded contradictory results about GPC3 expression in breast cancer. Therefore, the current study aims to analyse GPC3 expression across a large panel of different breast cancer subtypes. Materials and Methods: GPC3 expression was immunohistochemically evaluated in 230 breast cancer patients along with eight normal tissues and its associations to clinical and demographic characteristics, as well as immunohistochemical biomarkers for breast cancer. Moreover, a public database consisting of breast cancer patients’ survival data and GPC3 gene expression information was used to assess the prognostic value of GPC3 in the survival of breast cancer patients. Results: GPC3 expression was only characterised in 7.5% of different histological breast cancer subtypes. None of the normal breast tissues displayed GPC3 expression. Interestingly, all cases of Paget’s disease, as well as 42.9% of intraductal and 16.7% of mucinous carcinomas were found to have GPC3 expression, where it was able to significantly discriminate Paget’s disease and intraductal carcinoma from other breast cancer subtypes. Importantly, GPC3 expression was found more often in tumours that tested positive for the expression of hormone receptors and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), indicating more favourable histological subtypes of breast cancer. Consequently, longer relapse-free survival (RFS) was significantly correlated with higher GPC3 mRNA expression. Conclusions: Our study proposes that GPC3 is a promising breast cancer subtype-specific biomarker. Moreover, GPC3 may have the potential to be a molecular target for the development of new therapeutics for specific subtypes of breast cancer.

We studied the antimicrobial effect of gold quantum dots (AuQDs), femtosecond laser irradiation, and the combined effect of laser irradiation and AuQD treatment against common infectious eye pathogens. The INSPIRE HF100 laser system (Spectra Physics) provided a femtosecond laser, which was pumped by a mode-locked femtosecond Ti: sapphire laser MAI TAI HP (Spectra Physics), while a Quanta-Ray nanosecond Nd: YAG laser (Spectra-Physics) was used to precisely synthesize 7.8, 8.7, and 11.6 nm spherical AuQDs. Then, the in vitro growth kinetics and growth rate analysis of E. coli, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Listeria monocytogenes, and Candida albicans (treated with the AuQDs, femtosecond laser irradiation, or combined laser and AuQDs treatment) was measured. The biocompatibility of the AuQDs with the retinal epithelial cell lines (ARPE-19) and their toxicity to the cells was assayed. The results showed that (1) in vitro irradiation using a 159 J/cm2 energy density obtained from the 400 nm femtosecond laser suppressed the growth of each of the five pathogens. (2) Similarly, treatment with the AuQDs was antimicrobial against the four bacteria. The AuQDs with an average size of 7.8 nm were more highly antimicrobial and biocompatible and were less cytotoxic than the larger AuQD sizes. (3) The combined femtosecond laser irradiation and AuQD treatment was more highly antimicrobial than each treatment alone. (4) The AuQD treatment did not impair the rate of wound closure in vitro. These findings suggest that combined femtosecond laser irradiation and AuQD treatment is significantly antimicrobial against Candida albicans, Gram-positive L. monocytogenes, S. aureus, and E. faecalis, as well as Gram-negative E. coli. The nontoxicity and biocompatibility of the AuQD particles tested suggest that this form of treatment may be clinically viable.

The current work presents an effective fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) technique in wind energy converter (WEC) systems. The proposed FDD framework merges the benefits of kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) model and the bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) classifier. In the developed FDD approach, the KPCA model is applied to extract and select the most effective features, while the BiLSTM is utilized for classification purposes. The developed KPCA-based BiLSTM approach involves two main steps: feature extraction and selection, and fault classification. The KPCA model is developed in order to select and extract the most efficient features and the final features are fed to the BiLSTM to distinguish between different working modes. Different simulation scenarios are considered in this study in order to show the robustness and performance of the developed technique when compared to the conventional FDD methods. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed KPCA-based BiLSTM approach, we utilize data obtained from a healthy WTC, which are then injected with several fault scenarios: simple fault generator-side, simple fault grid-side, multiple fault generator-side, multiple fault grid-side, and mixed fault on both sides. The diagnosis performance is analyzed in terms of accuracy, recall, precision, and computation time. Furthermore, the efficiency of fault diagnosis is shown by the classification accuracy parameter. The experimental results show the efficiency of the developed KPCA-based BiLSTM technique compared to the classical FDD techniques (an accuracy of 97.30%).

Purpose: Clinical trial cohorts frequently differ demographically from the overall population receiving treatment for the condition under study. Our study describes the racial, ethnic, and gender composition of the cohorts of retinal vein occlusion (RVO) macular edema (ME) clinical trials and compares this to the racial, ethnic, and gender composition of patients undergoing treatment for ME secondary to RVO from the (Intelligent Research in Sight) IRIS Registry., Design: Retrospective observational case series Subjects: Participants in RVO-ME clinical trials that met the following inclusion criteria: conducted in the United States of America, Phase III completed, data reported between January 1, 2000, and January 1, 2020, and demographic information reported with results., Methods: This study identified clinical trials by searching PubMed with the following search terms; "retinal vein occlusion" and "clinical trial" and by searching ClinicalTrials.gov with the search term "retinal vein occlusion.", Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome was the enrollment fraction defined as the number of trial enrollees divided by the reference sample size of RVO patients undergoing treatment for ME from published IRIS Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight) data. Enrollment fraction was compared between different races, ethnicities, and genders., Results: Eight clinical trials met our inclusion criteria. Compared to the enrollment fraction of 7.69% among Whites, lower enrollment fractions were found in Black patients (4.32%, odds ratio [OR] 0.541, confidence interval [CI] 0.468-0.626, P < .001) and Hispanic patients (3.38%, OR 0.420, CI 0.351-0.503, P < .001), and higher enrollment fraction in Asian patients (10.68%, OR 1.436, CI 1.207-1.708, P < .001). Men were more likely to enroll in the clinical trials compared to women (enrollment fraction, 7.69% vs 5.77%, respectively, OR 1.364, CI 1.273-1.462, P < .001)., Conclusions: RVO-ME clinical trials have a higher relative proportion of Asian, White and male subjects when compared to the population undergoing treatment for ME secondary to RVO. Further efforts should encourage clinical trial recruitment that is reflective of the RVO population undergoing treatment for ME to ensure generalizability of clinical trial results., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Ingestion of prominent levels of histamine (HIS) leads to dangerous effects on biological systems. The most frequent and active catechin in green tea is epigallocatechin gallate which has strong antioxidant properties. Our research intended to investigate the possible neuroprotective effect of epigallocatechin gallate-rich fraction (EGCGR) against HIS-inducing neurotoxicity. Six groups of male rats (n = 5) were used as follows: (1) Distilled water, (2&3) EGCGR (100-200 mg/kg BWT/day, respectively), (4) HIS (1750 mg/kg BWT/week, (5&6) HIS + EGCGR. Administration of HIS for 14 days induced severe neurobehavioral changes including depression, incoordination, and loss of spatial memory. Extensive neuronal degeneration with diffuse gliosis was the prominent histopathological lesion observed and confirmed by strong immunostaining of casp-3, Cox-2, and GFAP. Additionally, the HIS group showed a significantly higher MDA level with lower CAT and GSH activity than the control group. Moreover, HIS promoted apoptosis, which is indicated by increasing JNK, and Bax and decreasing Bcl-2 gene expressions. Otherwise, the oral intake of EGCGR with HIS improved all neurotoxicological parameters induced by HIS. We concluded that HIS could cause neurotoxicity via an upset of the equilibrium between oxidants and antioxidants which trigger apoptosis through modulation of JNK signaling pathway. Furthermore, EGCGR has either direct or indirect antihistaminic effects., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Stem cell-based therapies have made significant advancements in tissue regeneration and medical engineering. However, there are limitations to cell transplantation therapy, such as immune rejection and limited cell viability. These limitations greatly impede the translation of stem cell-based tissue regeneration into clinical practice. In recent years, exosomes, which are packaged vesicles released from cells, have shown promising progress. Specifically, exosomes derived from stem cells have demonstrated remarkable therapeutic benefits. Exosomes are nanoscale extracellular vesicles that act as paracrine mediators. They transfer functional cargos, such as miRNA and mRNA molecules, peptides, proteins, cytokines, and lipids, from MSCs to recipient cells. By participating in intercellular communication events, exosomes contribute to the healing of injured or diseased tissues and organs. Studies have shown that the therapeutic effects of MSCs in various experimental paradigms can be solely attributed to their exosomes. Consequently, MSC-derived exosomes can be modified and utilized to develop a unique cell-free therapeutic approach for treating multiple diseases, including neurological, immunological, heart, and other diseases. This review is divided into several categories, including the current understanding of exosome biogenesis, isolation techniques, and their application as therapeutic tools., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest There are no financial conflicts of interest, (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Objective: To assess global trends in interest surrounding the newly Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment for geographic atrophy, (GA), Syfovre (pegcetacoplan), and related searches., Methods: We utilized Google Trends, in order to gauge the public interest in Syfovre from October 16, 2022, to October 8, 2023., Results: Notable spikes in relative search volumes (RSV)s for "Syfovre" were observed in mid-to-late February 2023, and in March and April 2023, coinciding with the drug's FDA approval and introduction to the market. Of the various side effects, retinal vasculitis garnered the most significant attention, with a sharp rise in RSV in mid-July 2023. Geographic variation was evident, with the highest RSVs for "Syfovre" originating from users on the East Coast., Conclusion: Google Trends proves to be a useful tool for gaining insight into public interest in pegcetacoplan as a treatment for GA. [ Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina 2024;55:452-460.] .

The purpose of this study was to examine how demographics, etiology, and clinical examination findings are related to visual outcomes in subjects with open globe injury (OGI) across a large and generalizable sample. A retrospective cohort analysis was performed using data collected from the electronic medical records of four tertiary university centers for subjects with OGI presenting from 2018 to 2021. Demographic information, injury mechanisms, clinical exam findings, visual acuity (VA) at presentation and most recent follow-up were recorded. In subjects with bilateral OGIs, only right eyes were included. A modified ocular trauma score (OTS) using presenting VA, the presence of perforating injury, OGI, and afferent pupillary defect was calculated. The risk of subjects' demographic characteristics, ocular trauma etiology, clinical findings and modified OTS on the presence of monocular blindness at follow-up were assessed using univariable and multivariable regression models. 1426 eyes were identified. The mean age was 48.3 years (SD: ± 22.4 years) and the majority of subjects were men (N = 1069, 75.0%). Univariable analysis demonstrated that subjects of Black race were 66% (OR: 1.66 [1.25-2.20]; P < 0.001) more likely to have monocular blindness relative to White race at follow-up. OTS Class 1 was the strongest predictor of blindness (OR: 38.35 [21.33-68.93]; P < 0.001). Based on multivariable analysis, lower OTS category (OTS Class 1 OR: 23.88 [16.44-45.85]; P < 0.001) moderately predicted visual outcomes (R 2  = 0.275, P < 0.001). OGI has many risks of poor visual outcome across patient groups that vary by demographic category, mechanism of injury, and clinical presentation. Our findings validate that a modified OTS remains a strong predictor of visual prognosis following OGI in a large and generalizable sample., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Purpose: To investigate best corrected visual acuity (BCVA), subretinal fluid (SRF) absorption time or ellipsoid zone (EZ) restoration time and various variables in patients with persistent SRF after successful primary repair of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD)., Methods: This retrospective multicenter study allowed independent analysis of the healing pattern by two observers based on composite of serial cross-sectional macular optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans. Univariate and multivariate analyses were implemented., Results: One hundred and three cases had persistent SRF after pars plana vitrectomy, scleral buckling, or pneumatic retinopexy. By univariate analysis, SRF resolution time correlated positively with the number of retinal breaks ( p  < 0.001) and with increased myopia ( p  = 0.011). Using multivariate analysis, final BCVA (log MAR) correlated positively with age, duration of RRD, initial BCVA (OR = 3.28; [95%CI = 1.44-7.47]; p  = 0.015), and SRF resolution time (OR = 0.46 [95%CI 0.21-1.05]; p  = 0.049). EZ restoration time was longer with increasing number of retinal tears (OR = 0.67; [95%CI 0.29-1.52]; p  = 0.030), worse final BCVA, and presence of macula-off RRD (OR = 0.26; [95%CI 0.08-0.88]; p  = 0.056). SRF resolution time correlated marginally with prone position., Conclusions: Residual posterior SRF is more common in eyes with multiple breaks or in myopic eyes. Final BCVA is better in younger subjects and in eyes with shorter duration of RRD. Persistent SRF is a self-limited disorder with a mean resolution of 11.2 months with good visual prognosis improving from a mean baseline logMAR of 1.08 to 0.25 at one year., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

This study aimed at investigating the effect of hydrolyzed soya lecithin; also called lysolecithin or lysophosphatidylcholine, on growth performance, caecal microbiota and fat depots in pre-breeding primiparous rabbits does. For this, 60 V-Line primiparous rabbits does (5-6 months) were used in a 30-day experiment. Does were allotted into three iso-nitrogenous iso-caloric dietary treatments (n = 20/group) as follows: (1) CON received 0% soya lecithin, (2) LECL group was fed a basal diet supplemented with 0.5% soya lecithin and (3) LECH group was fed a basal diet supplemented with 1% soya lecithin. Growth performance indices were measured, caecum samples were collected for measurement of specific bacteria via qPCR, and several fat depots including periovarian fat were sampled for adipocyte morphometry and fatty acid profiling. Statistical analysis was performed using GLM procedures of SAS v9.4. Soya lecithin increased feed intake (p < 0.05). The abundance of caecal Bifidobacteria species, Ruminococcus species and phylum Butryvibrio-specific genes increased (p < 0.05) in rabbits receiving soya lecithin in their diet, soya lecithin increased the level of polyunsaturated fatty acids in subcutaneous and perirenal fat (p < 0.05) and increased the level of monounsaturated fatty acids in periovarian fat (p < 0.05); additionally, the adipocyte area increased in periovarian and perirenal fat (p < 0.05). In conclusion, soya lecithin at a dose of 0.5% increased feed intake and energy storage in adipocytes and improved the fatty acid profile of periovarian fat., (© 2023 Wiley‐VCH GmbH. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Purpose of Review: This review seeks to provide a summary of the most recent research findings regarding the utilization of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot, in the field of ophthalmology in addition to exploring the limitations and ethical considerations associated with its application., Recent Findings: ChatGPT has gained widespread recognition and demonstrated potential in enhancing patient and physician education, boosting research productivity, and streamlining administrative tasks. In various studies examining its utility in ophthalmology, ChatGPT has exhibited fair to good accuracy, with its most recent iteration showcasing superior performance in providing ophthalmic recommendations across various ophthalmic disorders such as corneal diseases, orbital disorders, vitreoretinal diseases, uveitis, neuro-ophthalmology, and glaucoma. This proves beneficial for patients in accessing information and aids physicians in triaging as well as formulating differential diagnoses. Despite such benefits, ChatGPT has limitations that require acknowledgment including the potential risk of offering inaccurate or harmful information, dependence on outdated data, the necessity for a high level of education for data comprehension, and concerns regarding patient privacy and ethical considerations within the research domain., Summary: ChatGPT is a promising new tool that could contribute to ophthalmic healthcare education and research, potentially reducing work burdens. However, its current limitations necessitate a complementary role with human expert oversight., (Copyright © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To assess the anatomic and functional outcomes in eyes with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) previously treated with anti-VEGF therapy in response to intravitreal faricimab., Design: Retrospective, interventional, consecutive case series., Subjects: Patients with previously treated nAMD who received ≥ 4 consecutive injections of faricimab were included. The study period was from March through November 2022., Methods: Clinical and imaging data were extracted from the electronic medical record. Central foveal thickness (CFT), maximum fibrovascular pigment epithelial detachment (fvPED) height, and Snellen visual acuity (VA) were obtained. Generalized estimating equations were used to analyze the change in CFT, maximum fvPED height, and logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution VA., Main Outcome Measures: Change in CFT, maximum fvPED height, and Snellen VA before faricimab and after ≥ 4 faricimab intravitreal injections., Results: During the study period, 218 eyes of 191 patients met inclusion criteria. Mean age was 79.9 (range, 70.6-89.2) years. The mean number of intravitreal anti-VEGF injections received before faricimab was 34.2 (range, 6.4-62). The following results were found after ≥ 4 faricimab injections. Mean logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution VA before switching to faricimab was 0.58 (Snellen VA ∼20/76; range, 20/22-20/264) and was 0.55 (Snellen VA ∼20/71; range, 20/21-20/235; P = 0.20) after switching. Mean maximum fvPED height was 195.0 (range, 50.2-339.8) μm before switching to faricimab and improved to 165.0 (range, 33.6-296.4; P < 0.001) μm after switching. Mean CFT was 354.8 (range, 184.7-524.9) μm before switching to faricimab and improved to 306.6 (range, 144.4-468.8; P < 0.001) after switching. The proportion of eyes with intraretinal fluid was 36.7% (80/218 eyes) before switching, and decreased to 24.8% (54/218 eyes, P < 0.001) after switching. The proportion of eyes with subretinal fluid was 53.2% (116/218 eyes) before switching and decreased to 26.6% (58/218 eyes, P < 0.001) after switching., Conclusions: Intravitreal faricimab may improve anatomic outcomes in patients with previously treated nAMD, while maintaining VA in the short-term., Financial Disclosure(s): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article., (Copyright © 2023 American Academy of Ophthalmology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Histamine (HIS) is an important chemical mediator that causes vasodilation and contributes to anaphylactic reactions. Recently, HIS is an understudied neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, and its potential role in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration is a critical area of research. So, the study's goal is to investigate the consequences of repeated oral intake of HIS on the rat's brain and explore the mechanistic way of its neurotoxicity. Thirty male rats were divided into three groups (n = 10). The following treatments were administered orally to all rats every day for 14 days. Group (1) was given distilled water, whereas groups (2 & 3) were given HIS at dosage levels 250 and 500 mg/kg body weight (BWT), respectively. Brain tissue samples were collected at 7- and 14-days from the beginning of the experiment. Our results revealed that continuous oral administration of HIS at both doses for 14 days significantly reduced the BWT and induced severe neurobehavioral changes, including depression, dullness, lethargy, tremors, abnormal walking, and loss of spatial learning and memory in rats. In all HIS receiving groups, HPLC data showed a considerable raise in the HIS contents of the brain. Additionally, the daily consumption of HIS causes oxidative stress that is dose- and time-dependent which is characterized by elevation of malondialdehyde levels along with reduction of catalase activity and reduced glutathione levels. The neuropathological lesions were commonly observed in the cerebrum, striatum, and cerebellum and confirmed by the immunohistochemistry staining that demonstrating moderate to strong caspase-3 and inducible nitric oxide synthase expressions in all HIS receiving groups, mainly those receiving 500 mg/kg HIS. NF-κB, TNF-α, and IL-1β gene levels were also upregulated at 7- and 14-days in all HIS groups, particularly in those getting 500 mg/kg. We concluded that ROS-induced apoptosis and inflammation was the essential mechanism involved in HIS-mediated neurobehavioral toxicity and histopathology., (© 2024 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Purpose: To investigate the use of intraocular fibrin glue to lower the risk of vitreous hemorrhage (VH) after pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) in eyes with diabetic VH or traction retinal detachment., Methods: A matched, case-control, single-surgeon, pilot study of patients undergoing PPV for diabetic VH or traction retinal detachment with versus without fibrin glue was performed., Results: Thirty-nine patients (13 glue and 26 control patients) were included. In the glue group, mean (SD) logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution visual acuity (Snellen) significantly improved from 1.53 (0.6) (20/678) to 0.99 (0.9) (20/195) at postoperative month 6 ( P = 0.03). In the control group, mean logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution visual acuity also improved from 1.45 (0.8) (20/564) to 1.17 (0.9) (20/296) at postoperative Month 6 ( P = 0.3). Persistent post-PPV VH was similar between the 2 groups (15.4% in both groups, P > 0.99). However, early recurrent VH (<3 months post-PPV) was seen in 34.6% in the control group and none in the glue group ( P = 0.02). No intraocular inflammatory events were seen in the glue group., Conclusion: Intraocular fibrin glue may be a safe adjuvant in diabetic vitrectomy and may reduce the rate of early recurrent postoperative VH.

Purpose: To determine the outcomes of intentionally suspending anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections in eyes with advanced neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD)., Design: Retrospective cohort study., Methods: The study sample comprised 93 patients with nAMD and best available Snellen visual acuity (VA) ≤20/400 in which anti-VEGF treatment was suspended by the treating physician. VA and optical coherence tomography (OCT) characteristics were evaluated to determine visual and anatomical outcomes up to 24 months after treatment suspension., Results: A total of 93 eyes from 93 patients who had received a mean of 16 anti-VEGF injections over a mean of 962 (SD 562) days were included. Comparing the treatment suspension visit to 24 months later, no significant change in mean central foveal thickness (163 [SD 118, range 19-704] μm vs 164 [SD 217, range 19-1468], P = .97), greatest lesion diameter (2547 [SD 1294, range 134-5707] μm vs 2442 [SD 1158, range 421-5305] μm, P = .43), greatest lesion thickness (194 [SD 136, range 0-618] μm vs 205 [SD 131, range 0-573] μm, P = .40), or VA (1.87 [SD 0.37], 20/1482, vs 1.94 [SD 0.28], 20/1741, P = .16) was found. In total, 7 eyes (7.5%) restarted treatment following a mean of 977 (SD 450) days after treatment suspension., Conclusions: Suspension of anti-VEGF injections in eyes with advanced nAMD and VA ≤20/400 may be reasonable in cases where the treating physician deems additional treatment is unlikely to provide benefit. Although the visual and anatomical findings remained stable after treatment suspension in most, a small number restarted anti-VEGF therapy, suggesting that eyes should still be monitored for disease progression., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To assess public awareness, interest, and concerns regarding Vuity (1.25% pilocarpine hydrochloride ophthalmic solution), an eye drop for the treatment of presbyopia, based on Google Trends., Methods: We used Google Trends that provides a relative search volume for queried terms, to evaluate searches for Vuity from June 30, 2021, to June 30, 2022, in the United States. The data for this study were downloaded on June 30, 2022. Main outcome measures were changes in relative search volumes for the terms "Vuity," "Eye drops for reading," "Eye drops for near vision," "Presbyopia," "Pilocarpine," and related popular search terms, such as "Vuity side effects," and "Vuity retinal detachment"., Results: Since the approval of Vuity on October 29, 2021, notable increases in the relative search volumes occurred for Vuity in October 2021, December 2021, and from March to April 2022, which coincided with its approval, availability, and subsequent direct-to-consumer advertising based on positive results of clinical trials. The direct-to-consumer advertising had the greatest impact on the search volume for Vuity. Specific interests included Vuity cost, where to buy it, and its side effects. Retinal detachment was the most highly searched Vuity side effect. Geographic variation was evident, with the relative search volumes highest for "Vuity" in Wyoming, followed by North Dakota., Conclusion: Google Trends is a useful tool for monitoring increases in public interest in Vuity for presbyopia. Public concerns regarding side effects warrant further real-world investigations of the causal relationship between Vuity and retinal detachment., Competing Interests: I have read the journal’s policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: AEK: Consultant/Speaker: Alimera Sciences, Allergan, Bausch + Lomb, Eyepoint Pharmaceuticals, Optos, Novartis, Genentech/Roche, Recens Medical, Spark Therapeutics; Grant funding: Adverum, Annexon, Alcon Laboratories, Genentech/Roche. YY: Consultant/Advisory Board: Alcon, Bausch Health, Regeneron, Tarsus, Versant Health. JS: Consultant for Alcon, Apellis, DORC, Genentech/Roche, Regeneron, MNC: Consultant/Advisory Board: Allergan, Keeler, Apellis, Alimera Sciences, DX: Consultant for Gyroscope Therapeutics, Apellis, Bausch & Lomb. The competing interests do not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials., (Copyright: © 2023 Wakabayashi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Acute diverticulitis is inflammation of a colon diverticulum; it represents a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The alteration of gut microbiota contributes to the promotion of inflammation and the development of acute diverticulitis disease. Probiotics can modify the gut microbiota, so they are considered a promising option for managing diverticulitis disease. This study aimed to investigate the potential protective effect of probiotics, alone or in combination with amoxicillin, on the experimentally induced model of acute diverticulitis disease. Forty-two rats were divided into seven groups as follows: control group: received water and food only; DSS group: received 3% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) daily for 7 days; LPS group: injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) enema at the dose of (4 mg/kg); probiotics group: treated with probiotics (Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium lactis) each of which (4 × 10 8  CFU suspended in 2 ml distilled water) orally for 7 days; DSS/LPS group: received DSS and LPS; DSS/LPS treated with probiotics group; DSS/LPS treated with probiotics and amoxicillin group. The results revealed that both treatments (probiotics and probiotics-amoxicillin) attenuated DSS/LPS-induced diverticulitis, by restoring the colonic antioxidant status, ameliorating inflammation (significantly reduced TNF-α, interleukins, interferon-γ, myeloperoxidase activity, and C-reactive protein), decreasing apoptosis (through downregulating caspase-3), and reduction of the colon aerobic bacterial count. These probiotic strains were effective in preventing the development of the experimentally induced acute diverticulitis through the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects and have affected gut microbiota, so they can be considered a potential option in treating acute diverticulitis disease., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Objective: To evaluate the appropriateness and readability of the medical knowledge provided by ChatGPT-4, an artificial intelligence-powered conversational search engine, regarding common vitreoretinal surgeries for retinal detachments (RDs), macular holes (MHs), and epiretinal membranes (ERMs)., Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study., Subjects: This study did not involve any human participants., Methods: We created lists of common questions about the definition, prevalence, visual impact, diagnostic methods, surgical and nonsurgical treatment options, postoperative information, surgery-related complications, and visual prognosis of RD, MH, and ERM, and asked each question 3 times on the online ChatGPT-4 platform. The data for this cross-sectional study were recorded on April 25, 2023. Two independent retina specialists graded the appropriateness of the responses. Readability was assessed using Readable, an online readability tool., Main Outcome Measures: The "appropriateness" and "readability" of the answers generated by ChatGPT-4 bot., Results: Responses were consistently appropriate in 84.6% (33/39), 92% (23/25), and 91.7% (22/24) of the questions related to RD, MH, and ERM, respectively. Answers were inappropriate at least once in 5.1% (2/39), 8% (2/25), and 8.3% (2/24) of the respective questions. The average Flesch Kincaid Grade Level and Flesch Reading Ease Score were 14.1 ± 2.6 and 32.3 ± 10.8 for RD, 14 ± 1.3 and 34.4 ± 7.7 for MH, and 14.8 ± 1.3 and 28.1 ± 7.5 for ERM. These scores indicate that the answers are difficult or very difficult to read for the average lay person and college graduation would be required to understand the material., Conclusions: Most of the answers provided by ChatGPT-4 were consistently appropriate. However, ChatGPT and other natural language models in their current form are not a source of factual information. Improving the credibility and readability of responses, especially in specialized fields, such as medicine, is a critical focus of research. Patients, physicians, and laypersons should be advised of the limitations of these tools for eye- and health-related counseling., Financial Disclosure(s): Proprietary or commercial disclosure may be found in the Footnotes and Disclosures at the end of this article., (Copyright © 2023 American Academy of Ophthalmology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To describe the characteristics and veterinary management of animal casualties after an ammonium nitrate explosion in the Port of Beirut., Methods: Retrospective evaluation of medical records from multiple veterinary organizations., Results: Veterinary care was administered to 298 cats and 103 dogs, with 101 animals (25%) undergoing surgical procedures under general anesthesia. Glass injuries prevailed, with suturing performed in 98 animals (24.4%). Surgery was used to treat 31 animals (7.7%) with extremity fractures and 52 animals with tendon injuries (13.3%). Bodily burns were encountered in 19 animals (4.7%). Six animals (1.5%) lost their hearing entirely, while another 6 (1.5%) lost an eye., Conclusion: The joint coordinated work of veterinary groups and nongovernmental animal organizations reduced the number of injured animal fatalities. Of animals documented as having undergone treatment, 355 (88.5%) survived their initial injury assessment, and 46 (11.5%) died., (© Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society 2023.)