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Key Clinical Message: In contrast to intestinal balantidiasis, which is widespread throughout the world, urinary balantidiasis is uncommon. It often affects people with underlying diseases, and acute infections may be fatal. Even though urine is not typical for this parasite, specific morphologic characteristics can aid in accurate diagnosis. Balantidium coli is a ciliated protozoan which can infect intestinal system. Urinary balantidiasis is an extremely rare infection that may cause serious issues in patients with underlying diseases. Herein, we present a case of urinary balantidiasis in a patient with bladder cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite complex fluctuations, missing data, and maintenance costs of detectors, traffic volume forecasting at intersections is still a challenge. Moreover, most existing forecasting methods consider an isolated intersection instead of multiple adjacent ones. By accurately forecasting the volume of short‐term traffic, a low‐cost method can be provided to solve the problems of congestion, delay, and breakdown of detectors in the road transport system. This paper outlines a novel hybrid method based on deep learning to estimate short‐term traffic volume at three adjacent intersections. The gated recurrent unit (GRU) and long short‐term memory (LSTM) bilayer network with wavelet transform (WL) noise reduction algorithm (WL+GRU‐LSTM) are used to analyze raw traffic volume data. The WL+GRU‐LSTM is constructed by comparing different machine learning and deep learning methods. A comparative study was used to choose the model's network structure, training technique, and optimizer type. To prove the model's accuracy and resilience, it was compared with the leading short‐term traffic forecasting approaches. Experimental results confirm that the WL+GRU‐LSTM model can forecast complex traffic volume fluctuations in different approaches of intersections with an accuracy of over 94%. It also shows better results compared to current methods. The proposed model could replace intermediate loop detectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To evaluate the midterm longitudinal changes in chorioretinal structures in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods. Thirty-four eyes of 17 COVID-19 patients were enrolled. The patients underwent retinal and choroidal imaging upon the recovery (baseline) after 1 and 3 months. Retinal measurements in fovea, parafovea, and perifovea were recorded. To calculate choroidal vascularity index (CVI), luminal and total choroidal areas were measured using Sonada's method. Choroidal thickness was measured at the subfovea 500 microns temporal and nasal to the fovea. Results. Mean CVI was 0.64 ± 0.04 at baseline that significantly increased to 0.67 ± 0.05 (P = 0.012) after 1 month and again significantly decreased to 0.63 ± 0.05 after 3 months (P < 0.001). While the stromal component showed a significant decrease between the baseline and first-month values (1.16 ± 0.29 to 1.01 ± 0.27, P = 0.03), the luminal area mostly changed between months 1 and 3 (2.03 ± 0.28 to 1.91 ± 0.23, P = 0.045). The average of subfoveal choroidal thickness and retinal thickness remained unchanged. Conclusion. CVI is increased in patients with COVID-19 1 month after recovery from COVID-19 and returns to baseline values after 3 months. Regarding the reversible nature of changes, there might be a prominent role in inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Peripheral blood smear examination is an invaluable laboratory test, which provides the complete hematologic and/or nonhematologic picture of a case. In addition to verifying the results of automated cell counters, it has the potential to identify some pathologic and morphologic changes that remain hidden using the cell counters alone. Case Presentation. A 40-year-old man with a three-year history of alcohol intake and marijuana abuse presented with severe lower extremities of the bone and abdominal pain. Physical examination showed high blood pressure, high pulse rate, and abdominal tenderness. He underwent extensive laboratory and imaging tests, and cholecystectomy and bone marrow studies were associated with no definite diagnosis. Right after all these invasive, expensive, and time-consuming investigations during a month, finding coarse basophilic stippling in the red blood cells in the peripheral blood smear by an expert led to the final diagnosis. Elevated blood lead level and the presence of ring sideroblasts in the bone marrow study confirmed the diagnosis of lead poisoning, and the patient responded well to chelator therapy in a short period. Conclusion. This case clearly showed the value of peripheral blood smear review and its impact on patient care. In order not to lose the cases, laboratories are recommended to design their own policy for peripheral blood smear review. The peripheral blood smear is the fastest, simplest, and most available screening test, which can prevent many misdiagnoses and malpractices. It provides rich morphological information, among which basophilic stippling is highly suggestive of lead poisoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and significance of cranial nerve (CN) imaging abnormalities in patients with hereditary neuropathy and discuss clinical implications. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from patients at four tertiary academic medical centers with hereditary neuropathy diagnoses who had undergone gadolinium‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain or skull base between 2004 and 2018. MRI scans, as well as computed tomography imaging when available, were reviewed and bivariable analysis was performed to identify predictors of CN abnormalities on imaging. Results: Among 39 patients meeting study criteria, 11 had clinical CN deficits (28%) and 8 had CN abnormalities on imaging (21%). Of the patients with CN abnormalities on imaging, half had CN deficits (4/8) and only a quarter had imaging abnormalities of the CNs with the deficits (2/8). Imaging abnormalities were found in varied CNs, including CNs III, V, VII, and the VII/VIII complex in the internal auditory canal. MRI obtained for the purpose of evaluating CN deficits had a statistically significant increased likelihood of containing CN imaging abnormalities. However, CN deficits themselves were not predictive of imaging abnormalities. Conclusion: Thickening and enhancement of CNs on MRI may be found in approximately 1/5 of patients with hereditary neuropathies and are inconsistently associated with clinical deficits. These imaging findings should not be mistaken for neoplastic and infectious processes as they may be manifestations of the patients' underlying genetic neuropathy. Level of Evidence: 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed in situ catalytic upgrading of heavy oil to achieve an environmentally sustainable method for heavy oil recovery requires the placement of nanodispersed catalyst particles deep into the formation where it can accelerate the high-temperature upgrading reactions. In continuation of the previous work [Zamani et al., Energy Fuels 24, 4980-4988 (2010)], this paper presents results of several new experiments carried out to examine the effects of other parameters, including the connate brine salinity, absolute permeability, sand-bed temperature and particle concentration on the propagation of nanoparticles in porous media. The results show that lower permeability, increased operating temperature and higher particle concentration did not significantly affect the propagation of nanodispersed catalyst suspension through the sand-bed. Virtually the same filtration behaviour, displaying a rapid increase of effluent concentration at 1 pore volume injected to a steady concentration close to the inlet concentration was seen in all experiments. A classical phenomenological approach was used to model the macroscopic propagation behaviour of suspended particles in the porous medium. The model was successful in history matching the effluent composition profile observed in the experiments and the deposition profile obtained from post-test analysis of the sand-bed. © 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]