Stability Analysis for the Phytoplankton-Zooplankton Model with Depletion of Dissolved Oxygen and Strong Allee Effects

Availability of data and materials: Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no data-sets were generated or analyzed during this study.MSC 2020: 34D05, 34D20, 34D23, 34D45, 92D40, 92D25.The photosynthetic activity of phytoplankton in the seas is responsible for an estimated 50-80% of the world's oxygen generation. Both phytoplankton and zooplankton require some of this synthesized oxygen for cellular respiration. This study aims to better understand how the oxygen-phytoplankton dynamics are altered due to the Allee effect in phytoplankton development, particularly when considering the time-dependent oxygen generation rate. The dynamic analysis of the model is dedicated to finding the possible equilibrium points. The analysis reveals that three equilibrium points can be obtained. The stability study demonstrates that one of the equilibrium points is always stable. The remaining equilibrium points are stable under specific conditions. We also identify bifurcations originating from these equilibrium points, including transcritical, pitchfork, and Hopf bifurcation. We derive conditions for stable limit cycles (supercritical Hopf bifurcation) and, in some cases, establish the non-existence of solutions. Numerical simulations are performed to validate our theoretical findings. Furthermore, it is noted that the Allee threshold for the phytoplankton population ( significantly influences the overall dynamics of the system. When , the population of plankton is at risk of extinction. On the other hand, when , the population of zooplankton is at risk of extinction. When , the solution reaches a stable condition of coexistence. Conversely, when , the solution exhibits periodic attractor behavior...

AdaDiffGrad: An Adaptive Batch Size Implementation Technique for DiffGrad Optimization Method.

Stochastic Gradient Descent is a major contributor to the success of the deep neural networks. The gradient provides basic knowledge about the function direction and its rate of change. However, SGD changes the step size equally for all parameters irrespective of their gradient behavior. Recently, several efforts have been made to improve the SGD method, such as AdaGrad, RMSprop, Adam, and diffGrad. The diffGrad is an appropriate and enhanced technique that uses fraction constant based on previous gradient information for gradient calculation. This fraction constant decreases the momentum resulting in slow convergence towards an optimal solution. This paper addresses the slow convergence problem of the diffGrad algorithm and proposed a new adaDiffGrad algorithm. In adaDiffGrad an adoptive batch size is implemented for the diffGrad to overcome the problem of slow convergence. The proposed model is experimented for image categorization and classification over CIFAR10, CIFAR100, and FakeImage dataset. The results are compared with the state of art models, such as Adam, AdaGrad, DiffGrad, RMSprop, and, SGD. The results show that adaDiffGrad outperforms other optimizers and improves the accuracy of the diffGrad

Results of treatment of 20 Iraqi Patients with Newly Diagnosed High and Intermediate grade Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma with VACOP-B

Background: CHOP regimen was the standard treatment for patients with diffuse large and mixed cells Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) even in comparison with second and third generation regimen. Recently Rituximab –CHOP is considered the standard treatment for aggressive B-cell NHL while CHOP (alone) is so for aggressive T-cell NHL, yet more than one study investigates another regimen which is VACOP-B and some showed its superiority over CHOP. Prior to the introduction of Rituximab, we used VACOP-B in the treatment of high &intermediate grade NHL in adult Iraqi patients as an alternative to CHOP. Patients and Methods:We performed a prospective analysis of 20 adult patients who, between April 2000 and October2005, received VACOP-B chemotherapy for high and intermediate grade NHL. The weekly regimen consisted of: doxorubicin50 mg/m2 i.v. weeks 1,3,5,7,9,11; cyclophosphamide350 mg/m2 i.v. weeks 1, 5, 9; etoposide 100mg/m2iv, weeks 3,7,11; vincristine1.4 mg/m2 i.v. (2 mg max.) weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, 10;bleomycin 10 mg/m2 i.v.(max. 15 mg) weeks 2,4, 6,8, 10; methotrexate12.5 mg intratheical was given in selected patients.; prednisolone 60mg p.o.daily for 2 weeks, reduced to 60 mg every other day for 10weeks.The patients treated were aged 25-50 years, 8(40%) had high grade (Working Formulation )NHL; 12 (60%) had intermediate grade NHL;seventeen patients(85%) had Stage III/IV disease; and 3 (15%) had stage II,bone marrow involvement seen in 3(15%)patients .patients distribution regarding age adjusted international prognostic index(aaIPI)was 8(40%)with aaIPI 0,1and 12(60%)with 2,3. Follow-up time from completion of VACOP-B chemotherapy ranged from 6 months to 40 months (median 22). Results: VACOP-B induced a complete response (CR) and partial response (PR) in 70% and 15% respectively, whilst one patient had no response to treatment and died due to progression of the disease, 2 patients died due to treatment related toxicity. The three year disease free survival (DFS) was 78%, where 4 patients relapsed, one of them in the central nervous system. This study showed 3-year overall survival (OS) 100% for those with a IPI 0-1and 48% for those with aa IPI 2-3. Tolerance to treatment was measured by WHO toxicity scores. The hemoglobin (Hb) toxicity median score for all patients was grade 1 (Hb 9.5-10.9 g/dl), and the white cell count (WCC), toxicity score was grade 2(WCC 2.0-2.9 x 109/1). No platelet toxicity was observed. Ten per cent of patients suffered grade 3 severity infections requiring antibiotics and there was two treatment related death. Conclusions: VACOP-B chemotherapy is an effective regimen for high and intermediate grade NHL, with an encouraging result in patients with aaIPI 0, 1. although chemotherapy was given weekly, the tolerance to treatment was acceptable. Studies comparing VACOP-B vs. CHOP chemotherapy to decide the exact role of the first in treating high grade &intermediate grade NHL, in the absence of Rituximab, are still needed

Short cephalomedullary nail toggle: a closer examination

Objectives: In patients with wide femoral canals, an undersized short nail may not provide adequate stability, leading to toggling of the nail around the distal interlocking screw and subsequent loss of reduction. The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors associated with nail toggle and to examine whether increased nail toggle is associated with increased varus collapse. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Level 1 and level 3 trauma center. Patients/Participants: Seventy-one patients with intertrochanteric femur fractures treated with short cephalomedullary nails (CMN) from October 2013 to December 2017. Intervention: Short CMN. Main Outcome Measurements: Nail toggle and varus collapse were measured on intraoperative and final follow-up radiographs. Risk factors for nail toggle including demographics, fracture classification, quality of reduction, Dorr type, nail/canal diameter ratio, lag screw engaging the lateral cortex, and tip-apex distance (TAD) were recorded. Results: On multivariate regression analysis, shorter TAD (P = .005) and smaller nail/canal ratio (P \u3c .001) were associated with increased nail toggle. Seven patients (10%) sustained nail toggle \u3e4 degrees. They had a smaller nail/canal ratio (0.54 vs 0.74, P \u3c .001), more commonly Dorr C (57% vs 14%, P = .025), lower incidence of lag screw engaging the lateral cortex (29% vs 73%, P = .026), shorter TAD (13.4 mm vs 18.5 mm, P = .042), and greater varus collapse (6.2 degrees vs 1.3 degrees, P \u3c .001) compared to patients with nail toggle \u3c 4 degrees. Conclusions: Lower percentage nail fill of the canal and shorter TAD are risk factors for increased nail toggle in short CMNs. Increased nail toggle is associated with increased varus collapse

Waterpipe tobacco use in the United Kingdom: A cross-sectional study among university students and stop smoking practitioners

© 2016 Jawad 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. Introduction: Despite cigarette-like adverse health outcomes associated with waterpipe tobacco smoking and increase in its use among youth, it is a much underexplored research area. We aimed to measure the prevalence and patterns of waterpipe tobacco use and evaluate tobacco control policy with respect to waterpipe tobacco, in several universities across the UK. We also aimed to measure stop smoking practitioners' encounter of waterpipe tobacco smoking. Methods: We distributed an online survey to six UK universities, asking detailed questions on waterpipe tobacco. Multivariable logistic regression models, adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, graduate status, university and socioeconomic status (SES) assessed associations between waterpipe tobacco smoking (single use and dual use with cigarettes) and sociodemographic variables. SES was ascertained by average weekly self-spend on non-essentials. We also descriptively analysed data from a 2012 survey of stop smoking practitioners to assess the proportion of clients that used waterpipe regularly. Results: f 2217 student responses, 66.0%(95% CI 63.9-68.0%) had tried waterpipe tobacco smoking; 14.3%(95% CI 12.8-15.8%) reported past-30 day use, and 8.7% (95% CI 7.6-9.9%) reported at least monthly users. Past-30 day waterpipe-only use was associated with being younger (AOR 0.95, 95% CI 0.91-0.99), male (AOR 1.44, 95% CI 1.08-1.94), higher SES (AOR 1.16, 95% CI 1.06-1.28) and belonging to non-white ethnicities (vs. white, AOR 2.24, 95% CI 1.66-3.04). Compared to less than monthly users, monthly users were significantly more likely to have urges to smoke waterpipe (28.1% vs. 3.1%,

Assessing Oral Intake Outcomes in Head and Neck Cancer Patients Treated with Definitive Radiation with or Without Chemotherapy

Background: Head and neck cancer treatment modalities can significantly impact functional outcomes of patients, especially oral intake (Brizel, et al N Engl J Med 1998; Kamal, et al Support Care Cancer 2019). Radiation therapy in particular has been associated with posttreatment xerostomia and dysphagia (Adelstein, et al J Clin Oncol 2003; Hutcheson, et al Cancer 2013) which can affect quality of life and impair weight gain, contributing to worse long-term outcomes (Payakachat, et al Head Neck, 2013). Early speech-language pathology intervention has shown to be effective in improving these functional outcomes in this population (Greco, et al Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2018). Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate oral intake outcomes of patients undergoing definitive radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Methods: A cohort of patients with stage III or IV squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx, larynx, and hypopharynx treated with definitive radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy were extracted from system database. Patients with evidence of distant metastases were excluded. Swallow function was assessed both pre- and post-treatment (within four months of treatment initiation or conclusion) with the Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS) (Crary et al, Arch Phys Med Rehabil, 2005) as measured by a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) involved in the patient\u27s care. Body mass index (BMI) was evaluated within four months of treatment initiation and one year after treatment completion. The use of enteral feeding at one-year post-treatment was also assessed. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistical methods, Wilcoxon sign rank tests, and [chi]2d tests. Results: The sample included 152 patients. Table 1 highlights patient baseline characteristics, tumor location, and treatment. FOIS scores decreased from pre-treatment to post-treatment, with 75% of patients having a FOIS of 7 at pre-treatment compared with only 13.8% at the post-treatment time point (Table 1). Median BMI also decreased from pre-treatment to one-year post-treatment (Table 2). At one-year post-treatment, 23.7% patients (n=33) required enteral feeding. Conclusions: Definitive radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy in the treatment of head and neck cancer is associated with impaired oral intake. Treatment is also associated with decreases in BMI and longer use of enteral feeding, which may reflect sequelae of impaired oral intake. These factors have a negative impact on quality of life and can lead to long-term morbidity. Integrative treatment plans would therefore benefit from speech-language pathology interventions throughout the treatment process

Assessing Oral Intake Outcomes in Head and Neck Cancer Patients Treated with Definitive Radiation with or Without Chemotherapy

Background: Head and neck cancer treatment modalities can significantly impact functional outcomes of patients, especially oral intake (Brizel, et al N Engl J Med 1998; Kamal, et al Support Care Cancer 2019). Radiation therapy in particular has been associated with posttreatment xerostomia and dysphagia (Adelstein, et al J Clin Oncol 2003; Hutcheson, et al Cancer 2013) which can affect quality of life and impair weight gain, contributing to worse long-term outcomes (Payakachat, et al Head Neck, 2013). Early speech-language pathology intervention has shown to be effective in improving these functional outcomes in this population (Greco, et al Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2018). Objectives: The purpose of this study is to evaluate oral intake outcomes of patients undergoing definitive radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Methods: A cohort of patients with stage III or IV squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx, larynx, and hypopharynx treated with definitive radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy were extracted from system database. Patients with evidence of distant metastases were excluded. Swallow function was assessed both pre- and post-treatment (within four months of treatment initiation or conclusion) with the Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS) (Crary et al, Arch Phys Med Rehabil, 2005) as measured by a Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP) involved in the patient\u27s care. Body mass index (BMI) was evaluated within four months of treatment initiation and one year after treatment completion. The use of enteral feeding at one-year post-treatment was also assessed. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistical methods, Wilcoxon sign rank tests, and [chi]2d tests. Results: The sample included 152 patients. Table 1 highlights patient baseline characteristics, tumor location, and treatment. FOIS scores decreased from pre-treatment to post-treatment, with 75% of patients having a FOIS of 7 at pre-treatment compared with only 13.8% at the post-treatment time point (Table 1). Median BMI also decreased from pre-treatment to one-year post-treatment (Table 2). At one-year post-treatment, 23.7% patients (n=33) required enteral feeding. Conclusions: Definitive radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy in the treatment of head and neck cancer is associated with impaired oral intake. Treatment is also associated with decreases in BMI and longer use of enteral feeding, which may reflect sequelae of impaired oral intake. These factors have a negative impact on quality of life and can lead to long-term morbidity. Integrative treatment plans would therefore benefit from speech-language pathology interventions throughout the treatment process

Can sulphur improve the nutrient uptake, partitioning, and seed yield of sesame?

Sulphur (S) is considered to improve the nutrient uptake of plants due to its synergistic relationship with other nutrients. This could ultimately enhance the seed yield of oilseed crops. However, there is limited quantitative information on nutrient uptake, distribution, and its associated impacts on seed yield of sesame under the S application. Thus, a two-year field study (2018 and 2019) was conducted to assess the impacts of different S treatments (S-0 = Control, S-20 = 20, S-40 = 40, and S-60 = 60 kg ha(-1)) on total dry matter production, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, S uptake and distribution at the mid-bloom stage and physiological maturity. Furthermore, treatment impacts were studied on the number of capsules per plant, number of seeds per capsule, thousand seed weight, and seed yield at physiological maturity in sesame. Compared to S-0, over the years, treatment S-40 significantly increased the total uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and S (by 13, 22, 11% and 16%, respectively) at physiological maturity, while their distribution by 13, 36, 14, and 24% (in leaves), 12, 15, 11, and 15% (in stems), 15, 42, 18, and 10% (in capsules), and 14, 22, 9, and 15% (in seeds), respectively. Enhanced nutrient uptake and distribution in treatment S-40 improved the total biomass accumulation (by 28%) and distribution in leaves (by 34%), stems (by 27%), capsules (by 26%), and seeds (by 28%), at physiological maturity, as compared to S-0. Treatment S-40 increased the number of capsules per plant (by 13%), number of seeds per capsule (by 11%), and thousand seed weight (by 6%), compared to S-0. Furthermore, over the years, relative to control, sesame under S-40 had a higher seed yield by 28% and enhanced the net economic returns by 44%. Thus, our results suggest that optimum S level at the time of sowing improves the nutrient uptake and distribution during the plant lifecycle, which ultimately enhances total dry matter accumulation, seed yield, and net productivity of sesame

Treatment of Forty Adult Patients with Hodgkin Disease; Baghdad Teaching Hospital Experience

Background: Hodgkin disease was the first cancer in which the curative potential of combination chemotherapy was demonstrated. The affected patients are often young and there is a great potential for adding years of productive life by giving curative therapy even when the disease is advanced. Objective: to describe the experience of the hematology unit,Baghdad Teaching Hospital, in the management of 40 adult patients with Hodgkin disease. Patients and Methods: a retrospective cohort study of forty adult Iraqi patients with Hodgkin disease between 2005 and 2013 in the hematology unit. Patients were treated initially with 6-8 cycles of ABVD chemotherapy protocol (doxorubicine+ bleomycin+ vinblastin+ dacarbazine) , nine patients received additional involved field radiotherapy for residual masses or bulky disease. Overall survival and progression free survivals were estimated using Kaplan Meier survival plot. Results: The mean age was 28.6±12.88 years with females forming 61.5% of patients, mean duration of follow up was 27.9± 20.6 months. Staging showed that 55% and 27.5% had stage II and III respectively. B symptoms were found in 72.5% patients , bulky disease in 42.5% patients. Complete Response+ Complete Response undetermined was seen in 85% of cases. First Relapse occurred in 14%, and death in 7.5% of the patients. The 8 year overall survival and progression free survival were 82% and 50% respectively while the mean overall survival and progression free survival times were 84.7 and 59.9 months respectively. Conclusion: The results of the treatment of adult patients with Hodgkin disease in our unit is rather comparable to the results from other studies

Heterogeneous yet stable V delta 2((+)) T-cell profiles define distinct cytotoxic effector potentials in healthy human individuals

The Wellcome Trust [096954/Z/11/Z]; and Bloodwise; grant award 14026 (formally Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research)