Enhancing Crop Yield Prediction Utilizing Machine Learning on Satellite-Based Vegetation Health Indices.

Accurate crop yield forecasting is essential in the food industry's decision-making process, where vegetation condition index (VCI) and thermal condition index (TCI) coupled with machine learning (ML) algorithms play crucial roles. The drawback, however, is that a one-fits-all prediction model is often employed over an entire region without considering subregional VCI and TCI's spatial variability resulting from environmental and climatic factors. Furthermore, when using nonlinear ML, redundant VCI/TCI data present additional challenges that adversely affect the models' output. This study proposes a framework that (i) employs higher-order spatial independent component analysis (sICA), and (ii), exploits a combination of the principal component analysis (PCA) and ML (i.e., PCA-ML combination) to deal with the two challenges in order to enhance crop yield prediction accuracy. The proposed framework consolidates common VCI/TCI spatial variability into their respective subregions, using Vietnam as an example. Compared to the one-fits-all approach, subregional rice yield forecasting models over Vietnam improved by an average level of 20% up to 60%. PCA-ML combination outperformed ML-only by an average of 18.5% up to 45%. The framework generates rice yield predictions 1 to 2 months ahead of the harvest with an average of 5% error, displaying its reliability.

Removal of total nitrogen from wastewater by a combination of Chlorella sp. and audible sound.

In developing countries, nitrogen in the traditional market wastewater is a critical environmental problem. In this study, the microalga Chlorella sp., which was isolated from wastewater, was used to remove the total nitrogen (TN) from conventional market wastewater in combination with audible sound (Vietnamese classical music). In addition, effects of sound exposure on removal efficiency at different initial cell densities were analyzed. Results revealed that music sound control demonstrates potential to improve the removal efficiency. TN removal efficiencies of 96%, 69.5%, and 4.3% were observed for treatments with Chlorella sp./audible sound, Chlorella sp., and without Chlorella sp., respectively. The significance of probability value (p-value) (<0.05) on the paired sample t-test confirmed the critical role of audible sound and Chlorella sp. density on the TN removal in screening experiments. The predicted optimal conditions for TN removal were as follows: a Chlorella sp. density of 4%, an audible sound of 52.5 dB, and a cultivation time of 4.6 days. Results based on statistical analysis revealed that the quadratic models for TN removal are significant at a low p-value (<0.05) and a high predicted coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.9452) value. The obtained statistical results also indicated that most of the variables are significant for the abatement of TN from market wastewater using Chlorella sp.

Corrigendum: Effectiveness of perindopril/amlodipine fixed-dose combination in the treatment of hypertension: a systematic review.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2023.1156655.].

A Large Esophageal Leiomyoma: Thoraco-Laparoscopic Enucleation or Esophagectomy and Reconstruction?

BACKGROUND Esophageal leiomyoma is a rare condition, with an estimated incidence rate of 0.4% of all esophageal neoplasms. These tumors are typically small, rarely more than 5 cm. The treatment depends on symptoms and the size and location of the tumor, with enucleation as the standard treatment of esophageal leiomyomas. Esophagectomy is performed only in very few cases, such as when the tumor is too large, there are multiple leiomyomas, there is a horseshoe shape or circumference, or the tumor is inextricably adhering to the esophageal mucosa. In such complex cases, it is often difficult to perform enucleation. However, with the risks of esophagectomy and intra-thoracic anastomosis, namely reflux, stenosis, leakage, abscess, and infection, attempting to perform enucleation for these cases should still be considered. CASE REPORT We reported a case of a large, multi-lobed, circumferential esophageal thoracoabdominal leiomyoma with successfully performed enucleation and esophageal preservation. A Dor fundoplication and Witzel jejunostomy tube were also performed. Follow-up 3 months postoperatively showed no appearance of reflux or dysphagia. The postoperative esophagogram visualized no obstruction or leakage. Histopathological results gave us concrete evidence of a leiomyoma: elongated cells with eosinophilic cytoplasm and rhomboid nuclei with uniform size. CONCLUSIONS The thoraco-laparoscopic enucleation approach is the method that should be considered first in the treatment of large, multi-lobed, circumferential esophageal leiomyomas, before contemplating esophagectomy and reconstruction.

Effectiveness of perindopril/amlodipine fixed-dose combination in the treatment of hypertension: a systematic review.

Background: Uncontrolled blood pressure is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Fixed-dose combination (FDC) therapy offers a promising approach to addressing this challenge by providing a convenient single-tablet solution that enhances the effectiveness of blood pressure control. In our systematic review, we assess the effectiveness of perindopril/amlodipine FDC in managing blood pressure. Methods: We conducted a comprehensive search across four primary electronic databases, namely, PubMed, Virtual Health Library (VHL), Global Health Library (GHL), and Google Scholar, as of 8 February 2022. Additionally, we performed a manual search to find relevant articles. The quality of the selected articles was evaluated using the Study Quality Assessment Tools (SQAT) checklist from the National Institute of Health and the ROB2 tool from Cochrane. Results: Our systematic review included 17 eligible articles. The findings show that the use of perindopril/amlodipine FDC significantly lowers blood pressure and enhances the quality of blood pressure control. Compared to the comparison group, the perindopril/amlodipine combination tablet resulted in a higher rate of blood pressure response and normalization. Importantly, perindopril/amlodipine FDC contributes to improved patient adherence with minimal side effects. However, studies conducted to date have not provided assessments of the cost-effectiveness of perindopril/amlodipine FDC. Conclusion: In summary, our analysis confirms the effectiveness of perindopril/amlodipine FDC in lowering blood pressure, with combination therapy outperforming monotherapy and placebo. Although mild adverse reactions were observed in a small subset of participants, cost-effectiveness assessments for this treatment remain lacking in the literature.

Malignant Melanoma of Anorectum: Two Case Reports.

Malignant melanoma of the anorectum is a rare disorder. Patients often present with local symptoms similar to benign diseases. The prognosis is very poor, and almost all patients die because of metastases. We report 2 female patients with unremarkable histories. Both of them received previous operations before visiting our center after they were diagnosed with anorectal malignant melanoma. One case underwent abdominoperineal resection and postoperative chemotherapy. The other had been treated with ultralow anterior resection followed by immunotherapy.

Growth and health of juvenile barramundi (Lates calcarifer) challenged with DO hypoxia after feeding various inclusions of germinated, fermented and untreated peanut meals.

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) is mainly grown for oil extraction and the remaining oil-free seed referred as peanut meal (PM) leaves with high protein content which can be a possible substitute for fishmeal in aqua-diets. This study evaluates the suitability of three types of processed peanut seeds, namely untreated PM (UPM), fermented PM (FPM), and germinated PM (GPM) from peanut seeds to replace fishmeal in barramundi (Lates calcarifer) diets cultured under a commercial production environment. Nine formulated diets having 3 inclusion levels from the 3 different peanuts (15%, 30% and 60% fishmeal replacement) were evaluated against a control without PM. The performance of various types and levels of PMs was assessed by examining the growth, gut and liver condition and survival of fish after eight weeks of feeding the test diets. The immunological responses of juvenile barramundi were assessed by exposing the fish to the hypoxic conditions for 4 hours. The results showed that fermentation and germination significantly (P<0.05) reduced the tannins and alkaloid contents in the PMs. The fish fed 15% GPM diet grew faster and had higher survival than fish fed control diet, while fish fed diet including 60% GPM showed a significant reduction in growth and survival, and an increase in food conversion rate (FCR). FPM and UPM at any inclusion levels did not alter the growth, survival and FCR. Histology analysis revealed that fish fed 60% GPM and UPM showed higher amount of lipid droplets in liver, myodigeneration in fish muscle and a decrease number of acidic mucins in distal gut compare to all other test diets. Stress caused by reduced dissolved oxygen did not change the sodium, potassium, chlorides and alanine aminotransferase concentrations of plasma of fish fed any diet. However, the stress did increase plasma cortisol significantly (P<0.05) in fish fed 60% GPM, 30% and 60% UPM diets. These results suggest that the PMs can partly replace the fishmeal in juvenile barramundi diet and the processing further improves the PMs quality by reducing its antinutritional factors which in turn can increase either its inclusion level in the barramundi diets or improved growth and health status of the species.

A Rare Colonic Metastasis Case from Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellularcarcinoma (HCC) metastasis include intrahepatic and extrahepatic metastasis. Similar to intrahepatic metastasis, extrahepatic metastases are not unusual in cases with HCC. However, colonic metastasis is infrequent. CASE REPORT: We describe a clinical case, he was diagnosed with HCC a year ago, treated with TACE (transarterialchemoembolisation), re-examined with abdominal pain and defecation disorder. The tests such as CT scan, colorectal endoscopy, fine needle aspiration (FNA) revealed secondary metastatic lesion of HCC in sigmoid colon. This is the first gastrointestinal (GI) tract metastatic we have encountered. CONCLUSION: HCC metastases of the colon are rare, especially cases of hematogenous spread. The prognosis of these patients is often very critical. Indications for surgical removal of the lesion may be used if the general situation of patient is acceptable.

Deep Feature Learning for Sudden Cardiac Arrest Detection in Automated External Defibrillators.

Ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia (VF/VT), known as shockable (SH) rhythms, are the mainly cause of sudden cardiac arrests (SCA), which is cured efficiently by the automated external defibrillator (AED). The performance of the shock advice algorithm (SAA) applied in the AED has been improved by using machine learning technique and variously conventional features, recently. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm with relatively high performance for the SCA detection on electrocardiogram (ECG) signal. The algorithm consists of a convolutional neural network as a feature extractor (CNNE) and a Boosting (BS) classifier. A grid search with nested 5-folds cross validation (CV) is used to select the CNNE trained with preprocessed ECG, SH, and NSH signals using the modified variational mode decomposition technique. The deep feature vector learned by this CNNE is extracted at the first fully connected layer and then fed into BS classifier to validate its performance using 5-folds CV procedure. The secondary learning of the BS classifier and the use of three input channels for the CNNE improve certainly the detection performance of the proposed SAA with the validated accuracy of 99.26%, sensitivity of 97.07%, and specificity of 99.44%.

On the performance analysis of a DCSK system under the pulse jamming environment.

This paper considers the DCSK system under jamming environment. We consider both fast and slow switching pulse jamming (PJ). We derive approximations of the system bit error rates (BERs) in analytic expressions containing only well-known special functions, from which we show that for both jamming cases increasing the spreading factor can enhance the BER. In addition, we reveal that under the fast switching PJ, the BER does not depend on the jamming duty cycle ρ when ρ ≤ 0.5, however when ρ > 0.5, increasing its value degrades the BER. Moreover, we find out that under the slow switching PJ, increasing ρ may either enhance or degrade the BER.

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray studies of TON_1713 from Thermococcus onnurineus NA1, a putative member of the haloacid dehalogenase superfamily.

The haloacid dehalogenase (HAD) protein superfamily is one of the largest enzyme families and shows hydrolytic activity towards diverse substrates. Structural analyses of enzymes belonging to the HAD family are required to elucidate the molecular basis underlying their broad substrate specificity and reaction mechanism. For this purpose, TON_1713, a hypothetical protein from Thermococcus onnurineus that is a member of the HAD superfamily, was expressed in Escherichia coli, purified and crystallized at 295 K using 1.6 M magnesium sulfate as a precipitant. X-ray diffraction data were collected to 1.8 A resolution using a synchrotron-radiation source. The crystals belong to the triclinic space group P1, with unit-cell parameters a = 52.5, b = 65.8, c = 203.4 A, alpha = 71.1, beta = 79.9, gamma = 74.3 degrees.

Male sexuality in Vietnam: the case of male-to-male sex.

BACKGROUND: To implement effective behaviour change interventions for men who have sex with men, qualitative information was collected about the contexts and meanings of sex and relationships between men in Ho Chi Minh City. METHODS: Individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with 74 men aged 18 years or older who had had sex with another man in the previous 12 months. RESULTS: Findings reveal that sex between men exists and is associated with two common descriptors in Vietnam: bong lo for those who are feminised in public and bong kin for those who are not, and are often married. In sexual relationships, for both groups of men, there is a trade off between sexual pleasure and risk. Condoms may not be used, particularly when having sex with a partner who was considered to be good looking or perceived as 'clean'. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights the need for HIV prevention programs which address issues of sexual meaning in male-to-male sexual relationships.