Fighting Noise with Noise: A Stochastic Projective Quantum Eigensolver.

In the current noisy intermediate scale quantum era of quantum computation, available hardware is severely limited by both qubit count and noise levels, precluding the application of many current hybrid quantum-classical algorithms to nontrivial quantum chemistry problems. In this paper we propose applying some of the fundamental ideas of conventional Quantum Monte Carlo algorithms─stochastic sampling of both the wave function and the Hamiltonian─to quantum algorithms in order to significantly decrease quantum resource costs. In the context of an imaginary-time propagation based projective quantum eigensolver, we present a novel approach to estimating physical observables which can lead to an order of magnitude reduction in the required sampling of the quantum state to converge the ground state energy of a system relative to current state-of-the-art eigensolvers. The method can be equally applied to excited-state calculations and, combined with stochastic approximations of the system Hamiltonian, provides a promising near-term approach to Hamiltonian simulation for general chemistry on quantum devices.

A hybrid stochastic configuration interaction-coupled cluster approach for multireference systems.

The development of multireference coupled cluster (MRCC) techniques has remained an open area of study in electronic structure theory for decades due to the inherent complexity of expressing a multiconfigurational wavefunction in the fundamentally single-reference coupled cluster framework. The recently developed multireference-coupled cluster Monte Carlo (mrCCMC) technique uses the formal simplicity of the Monte Carlo approach to Hilbert space quantum chemistry to avoid some of the complexities of conventional MRCC, but there is room for improvement in terms of accuracy and, particularly, computational cost. In this paper, we explore the potential of incorporating ideas from conventional MRCC-namely, the treatment of the strongly correlated space in a configuration interaction formalism-to the mrCCMC framework, leading to a series of methods with increasing relaxation of the reference space in the presence of external amplitudes. These techniques offer new balances of stability and cost against accuracy, as well as a means to better explore and better understand the structure of solutions to the mrCCMC equations.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms in C-reactive protein (CRP) predict response to adjunctive celecoxib treatment of resistant bipolar depression.

Background: Affective illness has been associated with a proinflammatory state, and it is generally accepted that the immune system plays a key role in the pathophysiology of mood disorders. Since inflammatory biomarkers are elevated in bipolar disorder, anti-inflammatory combination therapies may enhance response and reverse treatment resistance. Purpose: In the present study we investigated the possible impact of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the CRP gene on CRP blood levels, treatment response and level-of-stress perception in our cohort of treatment-resistant bipolar-depressed patients receiving escitalopram and celecoxib, or escitalopram and placebo, as previously reported (Halaris et al., 2020). Methods: Study design, clinical findings, and CRP blood levels have been reported previously (Halaris et al., 2020; Edberg et al., 2018). In this follow-up study we extracted DNA from blood cells collected at baseline. Genome-wide genotyping was performed for all subjects using the Infinium Multi-Ethnic Global-8 v1.0 Kit. Based on reports in the literature indicating possible associations with psychiatric conditions, ten previously reported CRP gene polymorphisms were evaluated in a preliminary analysis. We focused on rs3093059 and rs3093077 were in complete LD. Carriers were defined as those possessing at least one C allele for rs3093059, or at least one G allele for rs3093077. Additionally, we determined blood levels of the medications administered. Results: Non-carriers of rs3093059 and rs3093077 had significantly lower baseline CRP blood levels than carriers (p = 0.03). Increased rates of HAM-D17 response (p = 0.21) and remission (p = 0.13) and lower PSS-14 scores (p = 0.13) were observed in non-carriers among subjects receiving celecoxib but they did not reach statistical significance. When examining all subjects, nominally significant associations between carrier-status and remission (p = 0.04) and PSS-14 scores (p = 0.04) were observed after correcting for treatment arm. Non-carriers receiving celecoxib had the highest rates of response and remission, and the lowest stress scores. Conclusions: Carriers of the CRP SNPs may have higher baseline CRP levels, although non-carriers appear to benefit more from celecoxib co-therapy. Determination of the carrier status in conjunction with pretreatment blood CRP level measurement may contribute to personalized psychiatric practice, but replication of the present findings is needed.

The Beauty of Musculoskeletal Ultrasound: Spot Diagnoses.

INTRODUCTION: Ultrasound is a powerful technique in musculoskeletal (MSK) imaging, and it can replace MR imaging in many specific clinical scenarios. This article will feature some common and less common spot diagnoses in musculoskeletal ultrasound. SPOT DIAGNOSIS: Cases were collected by members of the Educational Committee of the ESSR ( European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology) with expertise in musculoskeletal ultrasound. Sixteen clinical entities are discussed based on the features that allow US spot diagnosis. CONCLUSION: Clinical history, location, and ultrasound appearance are the keys to spot diagnoses when performing musculoskeletal ultrasound. KEY POINTS: · Musculoskeletal ultrasound can be the primary and only modality in common spot diagnoses in specific clinical settings.. · Clinical history, location, and ultrasound appearance are keys to spot diagnoses.. · Knowledge of spot diagnoses in musculoskeletal ultrasound facilitates daily clinical practice.. CITATION FORMAT: · Drakonaki EE, Martinoli C, Vanhoenacker FM et al. The Beauty of Musculoskeletal Ultrasound: Spot Diagnoses. Fortschr Röntgenstr 2023; 195: 385 - 392.

A Study of Biomarkers Associated with Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Fatty Liver Disease in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes.

Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a new term that no longer excludes patients that consume alcohol or present other liver diseases, unlike nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of different biomarkers as predictors of MAFLD in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In this regard, a cross-sectional, non-interventional study was conducted over a period of 8 months in patients with T2DM. Liver steatosis displayed by abdominal ultrasound certified the MAFLD diagnosis. A percentage of 49.5% of the studied patients presented MAFLD. Through logistic regression adjusted for gender, age, T2DM duration, lipid-lowering therapy, smoking status, nutritional status, we demonstrated that elevated triglycerides (TG) levels, high non-high-density-lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol-to-HDL-cholesterol (non-HDL/HDL) ratio, high atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), and increased Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) had predictive value for MAFLD in patients with T2DM. Furthermore, we calculated the optimal cut-off values for these biomarkers (184 mg/dL for TG, 0.615 for AIP, 3.9 for the non-HDL/HDL ratio, and 2.01 for HOMA-IR) which can predict the presence of MAFLD in patients with T2DM. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the predictive value of the non-HDL/HDL ratio for MAFLD in patients with T2DM.

Profile of Patients with Cardiovascular Diseases during the Pandemic in a Cardiology Clinic of a COVID-19 Support Hospital.

BACKGROUND: During the pandemic, our hospital became a COVID support hospital and consequently the cardiology clinic had restricted activity; thus, it received only suspect and/or patients confirmed positive with the various COVID-19 strains that were associated with a chronic/flaring cardiovascular pathology. METHODS: Two batches of patients admitted during a one-year period were compared in the cardiology clinic over two different periods of time: BATCH I (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020), in a non-COVID context (BATCH I N-COV) and BATCH II (1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021) comprising patients that presented with respiratory infection of SARS-CoV-2 (BATCH II COV-2), associated with chronic and/or acute cardiovascular condition. To determine the profile of the patients admitted in our clinic, we observed the following parameters: age, type of cardiac condition, and admission mode (for the N-COV group). RESULTS: The data obtained as absolute numbers and as percentages in relation to the total number of admissions were presented in separate tables and graphs for both of the studied groups. CONCLUSIONS: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, in its almost two years of evolution, has divided the medical world in two main categories: COVID and non-COVID. Admission of the patients with chronic, but non-COVID cardiac conditions, in our case, dropped to almost one-quarter when we compared the two absolute admission numbers: 1382 in the year prior to pandemic compared with only 356 in the pandemic year. We believe that the number of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 infection was infinitely higher than the reported ones and uncountable, in as much as COVID-19 did not kill only the infected patients, but it has also yielded a very large number of collateral victims among chronic patients who had no contact with the disease, but were unable to be admitted and treated for chronic heart disease.

Accuracy of Endoscopic Ultrasonography for Gastric Cancer Staging.

Gastric cancer remains a health problem, with treatment indications varying with the TNM stage. We aimed in this study to highlight the role of EUS in GC patients and also to calculate the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of EUS for T and N staging in our group of patients with this disease. In this study, we included 41 GC patients, and individual values for every T stage accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, correct staging, understaging, and overstaging were calculated. EUS overall accuracy for T staging was 58.53%, with the highest sensitivity reached for the T4 stage, 95.83%. For N+vs. N-staging, EUS accuracy was 68.29%, with a sensitivity of 75% and a specificity of 44.44%. The positive and negative predicted values for the presence or absence of nodal disease were 82.75%, respectively 33.33%. In conclusion, this study confirmed the importance of EUS for the assessment of GC T and N stage and highlighted the role of this tool in the detection of liver micrometastasis unrevealed by other imaging techniques like abdominal ultrasound or MSCT.

EndoCuff-Assisted Colonoscopy Versus Standard Colonoscopy in Colonic Polyp Detection-Experience from a Single Tertiary Centre.

BACKGROUND: Standard colonoscopy fails to visualize the entire colon mucosa and consequently a significant amount of polyps are still being missed. New device, such as EndoCuff, have been developed to improve mucosal visualisation, hence the quality in colonoscopy. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic yield of EndoCuff-assisted colonoscopy in comparison with standard colonoscopy by taking into consideration several quality indicators. METHODS: In this study, 965 adults ≥ 18 years referred for colonoscopy were randomly divided into two groups. The main statistical investigation compared the difference between EndoCuff-assisted colonoscopy (EC) vs. standard colonoscopy (SC) in the detection of colonic polyps and adenoma detection rate (ADR). The second inquiry sought to compare experienced vs. recently trained and female vs. male operators. RESULTS: The ADR was higher for EC than for SC (37.50% vs. 26.64%). Regarding the mean number of detected polyps per procedure (MPP), the result was statistically significant when generally comparing the EC vs. SC (p=0.0009). There were no differences in MPP between EC and SC for recently trained endoscopists (p=0.7446), while a significant difference for experienced doctors (p=0,0020) was noted. A significant difference was observed between female doctors and male doctors only when using SC. EC was more helpful for female doctors when assessing MPP (p=0.0118). No serious adverse events related to EndoCuff-assisted colonoscopy was noted. CONCLUSIONS: EndoCuff-assisted colonoscopy seems to be safe and may bring benefits for improving the polyp/adenoma detection rates in regard to missed lesions, usually located in blind areas.

A stochastic approach to unitary coupled cluster.

Unitary coupled cluster (UCC), originally developed as a variational alternative to the popular traditional coupled cluster method, has seen a resurgence as a functional form for use on quantum computers. However, the number of excitors present in the Ansatz often presents a barrier to implementation on quantum computers. Given the natural sparsity of wavefunctions obtained from quantum Monte Carlo methods, we consider here a stochastic solution to the UCC problem. Using the coupled cluster Monte Carlo framework, we develop cluster selection schemes that capture the structure of the UCC wavefunction, as well as its Trotterized approximation, and use these to solve the corresponding projected equations. Due to the fast convergence of the equations with order in the cluster expansion, this approach scales polynomially with the size of the system. Unlike traditional UCC implementations, our approach naturally produces a non-variational estimator for the energy in the form of the projected energy. For unitary coupled cluster singles and doubles (UCCSD) in small systems, we find that this agrees well with the expectation value of the energy and, in the case of two electrons, with full configuration interaction results. For the larger N2 system, the two estimators diverge, with the projected energy approaching the coupled cluster result, while the expectation value is close to results from traditional UCCSD.

Present Status of Musculoskeletal Radiology in Europe: International Survey by the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology.

No official data exist on the status of musculoskeletal (MSK) radiology in Europe. The Committee for National Societies conducted an international survey to understand the status of training, subspecialization, and local practice among the European Society of Musculoskeletal Radiology (ESSR) partner societies. This article reports the results of that survey. An online questionnaire was distributed to all 26 European national associations that act as official partner societies of the ESSR. The 24 questions were subdivided into six sections: society structure, relationship with the national radiological society, subspecialization, present radiology practice, MSK interventional procedures, and MSK ultrasound. The findings of our study show a lack of standardized training and/or accreditation methods in the field of MSK radiology at a national level. The European diploma in musculoskeletal radiology is directed to partly overcome this problem; however, this certification is still underrecognized. Using certification methods, a more homogeneous European landscape could be created in the future with a view to subspecialist training. MSK ultrasound and MSK interventional procedures should be performed by a health professional with a solid knowledge of the relevant imaging modalities and sufficient training in MSK radiology. Recognition of MSK radiology as an official subspecialty would make the field more attractive for younger colleagues as well as attracting the brightest and best, an important key to further development of both clinical and academic radiology. KEY POINTS: · Standardized training and/or accreditation methods in the field of MSK radiology is lacking at a national level.. · With certification methods, such as the European diploma in musculoskeletal radiology, a more homogeneous European landscape could be created in the future with a view to subspecialist training.. · Recognition of MSK radiology as an official subspecialty would make the field more attractive for younger colleagues as well as attracting the brightest and best, an important key to further development of both clinical and academic radiology..

Does education level protect us from rapid ageing? Sirtuin expression versus age and level of education.

PURPOSE: SIR proteins (silent information regulators, sirtuins, SIRT1 - SIRT7, SIR1 - SIR7) belong to NAD+-dependent deacetylases, enzymes taking part in a catalytic reaction of deacetylation, i.e. splitting the rest of acetic acid from protein substrates. Sirtuins play an important role in many cellular processes and are, therefore, involved in the ageing process and in the regulation of cell life. The aim of this paper is to verify the statistical hypothesis assuming the correlation between the age and level of education of examined persons and the expression of selected sirtuins (SIR1 - SIR7, SIRT1 - SIRT7) at the mRNA level in the Polish population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 197 people, aged M = 38.27 (SD = 13.19), in whom expression at the level of mRNA for SIR1 - SIR7 was determined, took part in the study (99 healthy people with a negative history of mental and somatic diseases and 98 people with diagnosed recurrent depressive disorders). RESULTS: A significant correlation was found in the case of age of the examined individuals and the expression of SIR1 - SIR7 at the mRNA level (p < 0.001). Differences in the expression of SIR1 - SIR7 were also found in relation to the level of education (number of years of education) of the examined population (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: 1. The higher the number of years of education, the higher the level of SIR1 and SIR6 expression, and the lower the level of SIR2, SIR3, SIR4, SIR5 and SIR7 expression. 2. With age, the level of SIR1 and SIR6 expression decreases and the expression of SIR2, SIR3, SIR4, SIR5 and SIR7 increases.

Multireference Stochastic Coupled Cluster.

We describe a modification of the stochastic coupled cluster algorithm that allows the use of multiple reference determinants. By considering the secondary references as excitations of the primary reference and using them to change the acceptance criteria for selection and spawning, we obtain a simple form of stochastic multireference coupled cluster which preserves the appealing aspects of the single-reference approach. The method is able to successfully describe strongly correlated molecular systems using few references and low cluster truncation levels, showing promise as a tool to tackle strong correlation in more general systems. Moreover, it allows simple and comprehensive control of the included references and excitors thereof, and this flexibility can be taken advantage of to gain insight into some of the inner workings of established electronic structure methods.

Expression of SIR1-SIR7 genes in the course of recurrent depressive disorders.

BACKGROUND: The role of sirtuins as a pathogenetic element of some mental disorders is becoming increasingly more common. They participate in many cellular processes, such as ageing, transcription, apoptosis, inflammatory processes, post-translational modification of proteins, gene transcription silencing, activation of DNA repair mechanisms, and regulation of many metabolic processes. The aim of this paper is to verify the statistical hypothesis assuming the difference in expression at the level of mRNA in genes for sirtuins 1-7 between patients with recurrent depressive disorders (rDD) and patients from the control group, and the hypothesis assuming the relation between the expression at the level of mRNA for these genes and clinical variables in the course of recurrent depressive disorders. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 198 individuals took part in the study (rDD gropup, N=99; control group, N=99). RESULTS: SIR-1 and SIR-6 expression at the mRNA level was significantly higher among the people with rDD as compared to the subjects from the control group. A reversed relationship was observed for SIR-2, SIR-3, SIR-4 and SIR-5. Statistically significant correlations were observed only in the case of SIR-1 and the number of depression episodes (negative relationship), as well as SIR-5 and the severity of depression measured by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (positive relationship). CONCLUSIONS: Expression at the mRNA level for selected sirtuins is a factor that significantly differentiates people with depressive episodes from healthy ones. SIR-1 and SIR-6 expression at the mRNA level was significantly higher among the people with depression as compared to the subjects from the control group. A reversed relationship (also statistically significant) was observed for SIR-2, SIR-3, SIR-4 and SIR-5.

The HANDE-QMC Project: Open-Source Stochastic Quantum Chemistry from the Ground State Up.

Building on the success of Quantum Monte Carlo techniques such as diffusion Monte Carlo, alternative stochastic approaches to solve electronic structure problems have emerged over the past decade. The full configuration interaction quantum Monte Carlo (FCIQMC) method allows one to systematically approach the exact solution of such problems, for cases where very high accuracy is desired. The introduction of FCIQMC has subsequently led to the development of coupled cluster Monte Carlo (CCMC) and density matrix quantum Monte Carlo (DMQMC), allowing stochastic sampling of the coupled cluster wave function and the exact thermal density matrix, respectively. In this Article, we describe the HANDE-QMC code, an open-source implementation of FCIQMC, CCMC and DMQMC, including initiator and semistochastic adaptations. We describe our code and demonstrate its use on three example systems; a molecule (nitric oxide), a model solid (the uniform electron gas), and a real solid (diamond). An illustrative tutorial is also included.

[The importance of the kynurenine pathway in depressive disorders]. / Znaczenie szlaku kynureninowego w zaburzeniach depresyjnych.

Depressive disorders are the most frequently diagnosed mental disorder. It is assumed that the etiology of depression is multifactorial and the individual theories complement each other. Referring to the neurochemical hypothesis of the underlying depressive disorder, the relationship between lowering levels of serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine and a change in mood is suggested. Particular attention has been given to serotonin, called the happiness hormone, which is synthesized from the exogenous amino acid tryptophan. The main methods of antidepressant treatment, in particular the use of serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), take into account the concept of monoamine deficiency in patients with depression. However, an insufficient response in some patients to antidepressants (the existence of a refractory depression), indicates the importance of looking for other possible causes for the development of this disease and thus alternative treatment methods. It is indicated that in patients with depression there are disorders of tryptophan metabolism, ie the redirection of tryptophan from the serotonin synthesis pathway to the kynurenine pathway, which is the source of neuroactive compounds in the central nervous system, so-called. kynurenin m.in. kynurenic acid, 3-hydroxycinurenine, quinoline acid. It has been proved that certain metabolites of this cycle of transformations have neuroprotective and other neurotoxic properties. For this reason, it seems reasonable to summarize the research published so far on this subject.