Regional research

Monitoring the diversity and distribution of species in an ecosystem is essential to assess the success of restoration strategies. Implementing biomonitoring methods, which provide a comprehensive assessment of species diversity and mitigate biases in data collection, holds significant importance in biodiversity research. Additionally, ensuring that these methods are cost-efficient and require minimal effort is crucial for effective environmental monitoring. In this study we compare the efficiency of species detection, the cost and the effort of two non-destructive sampling techniques: Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV) and environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding to survey marine vertebrate species...

BACKGROUND: Wolffian tumors in females are rare gynecological neoplasms, with fewer than 100 cases reported. Existing literature primarily focuses on the pathology, and reports involving imaging are limited. OBJECTIVE: This study presents a case of Wolffian tumor, emphasizing its magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics to enhance preoperative diagnostic accuracy. CASE REPORT: A 56-year-old woman presented with a year-long history of irregular vaginal bleeding...

This scoping review aims (1) to map the literature dealing with neurophysiological and biomechanical aspects of back problems in athletes in order to identify valid risk-factors for their prevention, plus (2) to identify gaps in the existing research and propose suggestions for future studies. A literature search conducted with Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE and Cochrane Library was completed by Elsevier, SpringerLink and Google Scholar. The main neurophysiological risk factors identified leading to back problems in athletes are neuromuscular imbalance, increased muscle fatigability, muscle dysfunction and impaired motor control, whilst biomechanical risk factors include maladaptive spinal, spinopelvic and lower limb kinematics, side-to-side imbalances in axial strength and hip rotation range of motion, spinal overloading and deficits in movement pattern...

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive and innovative 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) dataset tailored to understand the unique needs of professional football players. Other ECG datasets are available but collected from common people, normally with diseases confirmed, while it is well known that ECG characteristics change in athletes and elite players as a result of their intense long-term physical training. This initiative is part of a broader research project employing machine learning (ML) to analyse ECG data in this athlete population and explore them according to the International criteria for ECG interpretation in athletes...

In recent years, both in the world of research and consulting, the concept of innovation in the business model has been gaining a lot of interest. As a result, an incipient number of scientific and popular publications are being generated, which try to delimit and explain this term, as well as work methodologies for its application in the business world. The family business field can benefit from the application of this approach. But, at the same time, it can also serve as an object of study since its special idiosyncrasy will allow to deepen the analysis of successful business models...

This paper presents a dataset and approaches to named entity recognition (NLP) in Uzbek language, in a resource-constrained language environment. Despite the increase in NLP applications, the Uzbek language is still underrepresented, which underscores the importance of our work. Our dataset includes 1,160 sentences with nearly 19,000 word forms annotated for parts of speech and named entities, making it a valuable resource for linguistic research and machine learning applications in Uzbek. In addition, for practical application and experiments, the authors have developed two algorithms that, using this dictionary, identifies named entities in Uzbek language texts...

The majority of uranium mill tailing impoundments in the southern part of China are located in humid subtropical regions where persistent rainfall and rapid evaporation of water after rain often occur. Under the prolonged influence of alternating wet and dry conditions, the covering soil layer of uranium mill tailing impoundments develops cracks, leading to the issue of degradation or even failure of the radon retardation effect. A beach surface of uranium mill tailing impoundments in the southern part of China is selected as the research object...

The combustion of conventional methane-hydrogen mixtures is associated with challenges such as combustion instability and excessive pollutant emissions. This study explores the advantages of porous media, which include a wide operating range, enhanced combustion stability, high combustion efficiency, and reduced pollutant emissions. We conducted numerical transient simulations to investigate methane-hydrogen combustion within a porous media, focusing on a cylindrical double-layer porous burner geometry. The research analyzes the temperature, combustion rate, and diffusion characteristics of the methane-hydrogen-precipitated gas flame within the porous media...

Human toxocariasis (HT) is a widespread zoonotic infection globally, notably prevalent in tropical areas. Enhancing our understanding of toxocariasis can lead to increased attention towards the socioeconomic impact and control of this neglected zoonosis. We conducted a comprehensive review of all available articles and official documents on toxocariasis in Iran to identify research gaps and critical needs for its control. This review highlights that despite numerous studies exploring various aspects of toxocariasis in definitive and paratenic hosts, as well as humans and environmental contamination, significant data deficiencies and gaps persist across different regions in the country...

Despite improvements in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), survival and neurologic recovery after cardiac arrest remain poor due to ischemia and subsequent reperfusion injury. As the likelihood of survival and favorable neurologic outcome decreases with increasing severity of ischemia during CPR, developing methods to measure the magnitude of ischemia during resuscitation is critical for improving overall outcomes. Cerebral oximetry, which measures regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2 ) by near-infrared spectroscopy, has emerged as a potentially beneficial marker of cerebral ischemia during CPR...

The African Journal of Emergency Medicine, in partnership with several other regional emergency medicine journals, publishes abstracts from each respective journal. Abstracts are not necessarily linked to open access papers however, all abstracts are accessible without subscription.

BACKGROUND: Stigma exacerbates power imbalances and societal disparities, significantly impacting diverse identities and health conditions, particularly for low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Though crucial for dismantling harmful stereotypes, and enhancing healthcare utilisation, existing research on anti-stigma interventions is limited with its condition-focused approach. We aimed to thoroughly evaluate peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed literature for a comprehensive review of anti-stigma interventions for diverse identities and all health conditions in LMICs...

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia (SCZ) patients exhibit 30% higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) compared to the general population with its suboptimal management contributing to increased mortality. Large-scale studies providing real-world evidence of the underlying causes remain limited. METHODS: To address this gap, we used real-world health data from the Estonian Biobank, spanning a median follow-up of ten years, to investigate the impact of genetic predisposition and antipsychotic treatment on the development of MetS in SCZ patients...

BACKGROUND: Thoracic rotation mobility is crucial for athletes in rotational sports such as baseball, golf, and swimming to maintain the proper biomechanics associated with the sport. Accurate differentiation between normal mobility and active and passive physiological deficits in the thoracic region is critical for identifying the need for intervention to the thorax. PURPOSE: To establish the reliability and discriminant validity of visual estimation of thorax rotation range of motion across clinicians of differing experience levels in determining normal mobility and active or passive physiological deficits when utilizing the quadruped lumbar-locked position...

The fascial system (FS) represents a sophisticated and intricate network within the human body, comprising both superficial and deep fascial layers. Disruptions or dysfunctions within this system have been implicated in a variety of musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders and pain syndromes. Specifically, fascial tightness has been associated with diminished range of motion and localized pain. Glucopuncture, a novel therapeutic approach, involves the administration of 5% dextrose injections directly into the fascial layers, such as the superficial fascia, to address these issues...

BACKGROUND/AIM: Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common malignant soft tissue tumor in children. Adult primary RMS of gynecological origin is a rare condition and uterine RMS is an aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis. The genetic variants associated with uterine RMS in adults have yet to be fully elucidated, and there is no established therapeutic strategy for rare tumors. CASE REPORT: A 69-year-old Japanese woman was referred to our hospital with abdominal bloating...

Functional connectivity resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging has been proposed to predict antipsychotic treatment response in schizophrenia. However, only a few prospective studies have examined baseline resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data in drug-naïve first-episode schizophrenia patients with regard to subsequent treatment response. Data-driven approaches to conceptualize and measure functional connectivity patterns vary broadly, and model-free, voxel-wise, whole-brain analysis techniques are scarce...

OBJECTIVES: To summarize development processes and research hotspots of infrared imaging technology research on acupuncture and to provide new insights for researchers in future studies. METHODS: Publications regarding infrared imaging technology in acupuncture from 2008 to 2023 were downloaded from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC). VOSviewer 1.6.19, CiteSpace 6.2.R4, Scimago Graphica, and Microsoft Excel software were used for bibliometric analyses. The main analyses include collaboration analyses between countries, institutions, authors, and journals, as well as analyses on keywords and references...

BACKGROUND: Improving equitable access to healthcare requires innovative interventions and strengthening a service innovation operational model to achieve transformative change and bring sustainability to public health interventions. The current study aims to identify the components of the Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) operational model as an innovative intervention to provide equitable and inclusive access to healthcare. METHODS: The study used qualitative research to identify the components of the operational model of MMUs for primary healthcare in future...

Eukaryotic proteins often feature long stretches of amino acids that lack a well-defined three-dimensional structure and are referred to as intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) or regions (IDRs). Although these proteins challenge conventional structure-function paradigms, they play vital roles in cellular processes. Recent progress in experimental techniques, such as NMR spectroscopy, single molecule FRET, high speed AFM and SAXS, have provided valuable insights into the biophysical basis of IDP function...