Unified machine learning tasks and datasets for enhancing renewable energy

Multi-tasking machine learning (ML) models exhibit prediction abilities in domains with little to no training data available (few-shot and zero-shot learning). Over-parameterized ML models are further capable of zero-loss training and near-optimal generalization performance. An open research question is, how these novel paradigms contribute to solving tasks related to enhancing the renewable energy transition and mitigating climate change. A collection of unified ML tasks and datasets from this domain can largely facilitate the development and empirical testing of such models, but is currently missing. Here, we introduce the ETT-17 (Energy Transition Tasks-17), a collection of 17 datasets from six different application domains related to enhancing renewable energy, including out-of-distribution validation and testing data. We unify all tasks and datasets, such that they can be solved using a single multi-tasking ML model. We further analyse the dimensions of each dataset; investigate what they require for designing over-parameterized models; introduce a set of dataset scores that describe important properties of each task and dataset; and provide performance benchmarks

Practical compassions: repertoires of practice and compassion talk in acute mental healthcare

This article reports an exploratory study of the concept of compassion in the work of 20 mental health practitioners in a UK Midlands facility. Using notions of practice derived from phenomenology and Bourdieusian sociology and notions of emotional labour we identify two contrasting interpretive repertoires in discussions of compassion. The first, the practical compassion repertoire, evokes the practical, physical and bodily aspects of compassion. It involves organising being with patients, playing games, anticipating disruption and taking them outside for cigarettes. Practitioners described being aware that these practical, bodily activities could lead to patients ‘opening up’, disclosing their interior concerns and enabling practical, compassionate mental health work to take place. In contrast, the second, organisational repertoire, concerns organisational constraints on compassionate practice. The shortage of staff, the record-keeping and internal processes of quality control were seen as time-greedy and apt to detract from contact with patients. The findings are discussed in relation to Bourdieu and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenological accounts of practice and habit and set in context in the growing interest in placing compassion centrally in healthcare. We also explore how the exercise of compassion in the way our participants describe it can afford the more effective exercise of medical power

AVANÇOS DA OSSEODENSIFICAÇÃO NA IMPLANTODONTIA: BENEFÍCIOS CLÍNICOS, EFICÁCIA NA OSSEOINTEGRAÇÃO E PERSPECTIVAS FUTURAS.

The present study aims to critically review the advances in osseodensification in implant dentistry, analyzing its clinical benefits, effectiveness in osseointegration and exploring its future perspectives in clinical practice. An extensive literature review was carried out to identify relevant studies regarding the proposal of the present study. Electronic databases, such as PubMed, Scielo and Google Scholar, were consulted to obtain published articles. Articles were selected that directly address the topics of osseodensification, clinical benefits, osseointegration of implants and future perspectives in implant dentistry. Osseodensification demonstrates significant benefits in clinical practice, including greater primary stability of implants, reduced healing time and improved bone quality around implants. Studies show that the simultaneous compaction of cortical and trabecular bone promotes a favorable biological response, facilitating the formation and maintenance of osseointegration. Furthermore, osseodensification opens up new possibilities in immediate implant loading and guided bone regeneration, expanding the spectrum of clinical indications in contemporary implant dentistry. Advances in osseodensification represent a milestone in implant dentistry, offering professionals an effective technique to optimize clinical results and promote better predictability of dental implant treatments. The study reinforces the importance of osseodensification as a valuable tool in the therapeutic arsenal, highlighting the need for more research to consolidate its role in future clinical practices.O presente estudo possui como objetivo revisar criticamente os avanços da osseodensificação na implantodontia, analisando seus benefícios clínicos, eficácia na osseointegração e explorando suas perspectivas futuras na prática clínica. Realizou-se uma extensa revisão da literatura para identificar estudos relevantes acerca da proposta do presente estudo. Bases de dados eletrônicas, como PubMed, Scielo e Google Acadêmico, foram consultadas para obter artigos publicados. Foram selecionados artigos que abordam diretamente os temas de osseodensificação, benefícios clínicos, osseointegração de implantes e perspectivas futuras na implantodontia. A osseodensificação demonstra benefícios significativos na prática clínica, incluindo uma maior estabilidade primária dos implantes, redução do tempo de cicatrização e melhora na qualidade óssea ao redor dos implantes. Estudos evidenciam que a compactação simultânea do osso cortical e trabecular promove uma resposta biológica favorável, facilitando a formação e manutenção da osseointegração. Além disso, a osseodensificação abre novas possibilidades na carga imediata de implantes e na regeneração óssea guiada, ampliando o espectro de indicações clínicas na implantodontia contemporânea. Os avanços da osseodensificação representam um marco na implantodontia, oferecendo aos profissionais uma técnica eficaz para otimizar os resultados clínicos e promover uma melhor previsibilidade dos tratamentos com implantes dentários. O estudo reforça a importância da osseodensificação como uma ferramenta valiosa no arsenal terapêutico, destacando a necessidade de mais pesquisas para consolidar seu papel nas práticas clínicas futuras

Effects of tranexamic acid on death, disability, vascular occlusive events and other morbidities in patients with acute traumatic brain injury (CRASH-3): a randomised, placebo-controlled trial

Background Tranexamic acid reduces surgical bleeding and decreases mortality in patients with traumatic extracranial bleeding. Intracranial bleeding is common after traumatic brain injury (TBI) and can cause brain herniation and death. We aimed to assess the effects of tranexamic acid in patients with TBI. Methods This randomised, placebo-controlled trial was done in 175 hospitals in 29 countries. Adults with TBI who were within 3 h of injury, had a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 12 or lower or any intracranial bleeding on CT scan, and no major extracranial bleeding were eligible. The time window for eligibility was originally 8 h but in 2016 the protocol was changed to limit recruitment to patients within 3 h of injury. This change was made blind to the trial data, in response to external evidence suggesting that delayed treatment is unlikely to be effective. We randomly assigned (1:1) patients to receive tranexamic acid (loading dose 1 g over 10 min then infusion of 1 g over 8 h) or matching placebo. Patients were assigned by selecting a numbered treatment pack from a box containing eight packs that were identical apart from the pack number. Patients, caregivers, and those assessing outcomes were masked to allocation. The primary outcome was head injury-related death in hospital within 28 days of injury in patients treated within 3 h of injury. We prespecified a sensitivity analysis that excluded patients with a GCS score of 3 and those with bilateral unreactive pupils at baseline. All analyses were done by intention to treat. This trial was registered with ISRCTN (ISRCTN15088122), ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01402882), EudraCT (2011-003669-14), and the Pan African Clinical Trial Registry (PACTR20121000441277). Results Between July 20, 2012, and Jan 31, 2019, we randomly allocated 12 737 patients with TBI to receive tranexamic acid (6406 [50·3%] or placebo [6331 [49·7%], of whom 9202 (72·2%) patients were treated within 3 h of injury. Among patients treated within 3 h of injury, the risk of head injury-related death was 18·5% in the tranexamic acid group versus 19·8% in the placebo group (855 vs 892 events; risk ratio [RR] 0·94 [95% CI 0·86-1·02]). In the prespecified sensitivity analysis that excluded patients with a GCS score of 3 or bilateral unreactive pupils at baseline, the risk of head injury-related death was 12·5% in the tranexamic acid group versus 14·0% in the placebo group (485 vs 525 events; RR 0·89 [95% CI 0·80-1·00]). The risk of head injury-related death reduced with tranexamic acid in patients with mild-to-moderate head injury (RR 0·78 [95% CI 0·64-0·95]) but not in patients with severe head injury (0·99 [95% CI 0·91-1·07]; p value for heterogeneity 0·030). Early treatment was more effective than was later treatment in patients with mild and moderate head injury (p=0·005) but time to treatment had no obvious effect in patients with severe head injury (p=0·73). The risk of vascular occlusive events was similar in the tranexamic acid and placebo groups (RR 0·98 (0·74-1·28). The risk of seizures was also similar between groups (1·09 [95% CI 0·90-1·33]). Interpretation Our results show that tranexamic acid is safe in patients with TBI and that treatment within 3 h of injury reduces head injury-related death. Patients should be treated as soon as possible after injury. Funding National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment, JP Moulton Charitable Trust, Department of Health and Social Care, Department for International Development, Global Challenges Research Fund, Medical Research Council, and Wellcome Trust (Joint Global Health Trials scheme)

DMTs and Covid-19 severity in MS: a pooled analysis from Italy and France

We evaluated the effect of DMTs on Covid-19 severity in patients with MS, with a pooled-analysis of two large cohorts from Italy and France. The association of baseline characteristics and DMTs with Covid-19 severity was assessed by multivariate ordinal-logistic models and pooled by a fixed-effect meta-analysis. 1066 patients with MS from Italy and 721 from France were included. In the multivariate model, anti-CD20 therapies were significantly associated (OR = 2.05, 95%CI = 1.39–3.02, p < 0.001) with Covid-19 severity, whereas interferon indicated a decreased risk (OR = 0.42, 95%CI = 0.18–0.99, p = 0.047). This pooled-analysis confirms an increased risk of severe Covid-19 in patients on anti-CD20 therapies and supports the protective role of interferon

MDSplus quality improvement project

MDSplus is a data acquisition and analysis system used worldwide predominantly in the fusion research community. Development began 29 years ago on the OpenVMS operating system. Since that time there have been many new features added and the code has been ported to many different operating systems. There have been contributions to the MDSplus development from the fusion community in the way of feature suggestions, feature implementations, documentation and porting to different operating systems. The bulk of the development and support of MDSplus, however, has been provided by a relatively small core developer group of three or four members. Given the size of the development team and the large number of users much more effort was focused on providing new features for the community than on keeping the underlying code and documentation up to date with the evolving software development standards. To ensure that MDSplus will continue to provide the needs of the community in the future, the MDSplus development team along with other members of the MDSplus user community has commenced on a major quality improvement project. The planned improvements include changes to software build scripts to better use GNU Autoconf and Automake tools, refactoring many of the source code modules using new language features available in modern compilers, using GNU MinGW-w64 to create MS Windows distributions, migrating to a more modern source code management system, improvement of source documentation as well as improvements to the www.mdsplus.org web site documentation and layout, and the addition of more comprehensive test suites to apply to MDSplus code builds prior to releasing installation kits to the community. This work should lead to a much more robust product and establish a framework to maintain stability as more enhancements and features are added. This paper will describe these efforts that are either in progress or planned for the near future

Individual genomic DNA isolation of Entomogenous nematodes: the Deladenus study case </p><p> Isolamento de DNA genômico de indivíduo de nematoide parasita de insetos: estudo de caso de Deladenus

Populational studies involve single individual DNA extraction in order to grant further genotyping data. In the case of some parasitic nematodes, the reduced dimensions and high individual number per infestation makes individual genotyping a difficult task. Aiming the development of a protocol we performed adjustments in available methods in order to acquire the best gain in purity and concentration of genomic DNA. Single specimens were digested in Worm Lysis Buffer and submitted to PCR amplification as a concept test. It was possible to obtain good amount and concentration of DNA from individuals. Quality was sufficient to grant subsequent ITS1 sequencing. Estudos populacionais envolvem a extração de DNA de um único indivíduo para permitir a genotipagem. No caso de alguns nematoides parasíticos, suas dimensões reduzidas e o grande número de indivíduos por infestação tornam a genotipagem difícil. Com o objetivo de desenvolver um protocolo, foram feitos ajustes em métodos já disponíveis, visando melhor ganho em pureza e concentração de DNA genômico. Espécimes foram digeridos em tampão de digestão de verme e submetidos à amplificação por PCR, como prova de conceito. Foi possível a obtenção de boa quantidade e concentração de DNA de indivíduos. A qualidade foi suficiente para garantir o sequenciamento da região ITS1

The Impact of Time to Initiate Therapeutic Hypothermia on Short-Term Neurological Outcomes in Neonates with Hypoxic–Ischemic Encephalopathy

Background: Therapeutic hypothermia is the standard treatment for neonates with hypoxic–ischemic encephalopathy. Preclinical evidence indicates that the time to initiate therapeutic hypothermia correlates with its therapeutic success. This study aims to explore whether there is a correlation between the early initiation of therapeutic hypothermia and improved short-term neurological outcomes in cooled asphyxiated newborns. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted, involving 68 neonates from two different neonatal intensive care units. The impact of time to initiate treatment, time to reach the target temperature, and time between initiation and target temperature was correlated with short-term outcomes on MRI. Results: We did not find a significant difference between outcomes regarding the time to start treatment and the time to achieve the target temperature. Interestingly, neonates with a poor outcome were treated on average earlier than neonates with a favorable outcome but required more time to reach the target temperature. Additionally, the study results did not support the hypothesis that a shorter time to initiate treatment would lead to shorter times to achieve the target temperature. Conclusion: Based on our findings, it is recommended to prioritize a thorough evaluation of neonatal encephalopathy before initiating therapeutic hypothermia. Early initiation of treatment should be balanced with the time required for precise assessment to ensure better outcomes