Prediction of tumor regression grade in far-advanced gastric cancer after preoperative immuno-chemotherapy using dual-energy CT-derived extracellular volume fraction.

OBJECTIVES: This study examines the effectiveness of dual-energy CT (DECT) delayed-phase extracellular volume (ECV) fraction in predicting tumor regression grade (TRG) in far-advanced gastric cancer (FAGC) patients receiving preoperative immuno-chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on far-advanced gastric adenocarcinoma patients treated with preoperative immuno-chemotherapy at our institution from August 2019 to March 2023. Patients were categorized based on their TRG into pathological complete response (pCR) and non-pCR groups. ECV was determined using the delayed-phase iodine maps. In addition, tumor iodine densities and standardized iodine ratios were meticulously analyzed using the triple-phase enhanced iodine maps. Univariate analysis with five-fold cross-validation and Spearman correlation determined DECT parameters and clinical indicators association with pCR. The predictive accuracy of these parameters for pCR was evaluated using a weighted logistic regression model with five-fold cross-validation. RESULTS: Of the 88 patients enrolled (mean age 60.8 ± 11.1 years, 63 males), 21 (23.9%) achieved pCR. Univariate analysis indicated ECV's significant role in differentiating between pCR and non-pCR groups (average p value = 0.021). In the logistic regression model, ECV independently predicted pCR with an average odds ratio of 0.911 (95% confidence interval, 0.798-0.994). The model, incorporating ECV, tumor area, and IDAV (the relative change rate of iodine density from venous phase to arterial phase), showed an average area under curves (AUCs) of 0.780 (0.770-0.791) and 0.766 (0.731-0.800) for the training and validation sets, respectively, in predicting pCR. CONCLUSION: DECT-derived ECV fraction is a valuable predictor of TRG in FAGC patients undergoing preoperative immuno-chemotherapy. CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT: This study demonstrates that DECT-derived extracellular volume fraction is a reliable predictor for pathological complete response in far-advanced gastric cancer patients receiving preoperative immuno-chemotherapy, offering a noninvasive tool for identifying potential treatment beneficiaries.

Physiological and clinical effects of trunk inclination adjustment in patients with respiratory failure: a scoping review and narrative synthesis.

BACKGROUND: Adjusting trunk inclination from a semi-recumbent position to a supine-flat position or vice versa in patients with respiratory failure significantly affects numerous aspects of respiratory physiology including respiratory mechanics, oxygenation, end-expiratory lung volume, and ventilatory efficiency. Despite these observed effects, the current clinical evidence regarding this positioning manoeuvre is limited. This study undertakes a scoping review of patients with respiratory failure undergoing mechanical ventilation to assess the effect of trunk inclination on physiological lung parameters. METHODS: The PubMed, Cochrane, and Scopus databases were systematically searched from 2003 to 2023. INTERVENTIONS: Changes in trunk inclination. MEASUREMENTS: Four domains were evaluated in this study: 1) respiratory mechanics, 2) ventilation distribution, 3) oxygenation, and 4) ventilatory efficiency. RESULTS: After searching the three databases and removing duplicates, 220 studies were screened. Of these, 37 were assessed in detail, and 13 were included in the final analysis, comprising 274 patients. All selected studies were experimental, and assessed respiratory mechanics, ventilation distribution, oxygenation, and ventilatory efficiency, primarily within 60 min post postural change. CONCLUSION: In patients with acute respiratory failure, transitioning from a supine to a semi-recumbent position leads to decreased respiratory system compliance and increased airway driving pressure. Additionally, C-ARDS patients experienced an improvement in ventilatory efficiency, which resulted in lower PaCO2 levels. Improvements in oxygenation were observed in a few patients and only in those who exhibited an increase in EELV upon moving to a semi-recumbent position. Therefore, the trunk inclination angle must be accurately reported in patients with respiratory failure under mechanical ventilation.

High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry for Human Exposomics: Expanding Chemical Space Coverage.

In the modern "omics" era, measurement of the human exposome is a critical missing link between genetic drivers and disease outcomes. High-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), routinely used in proteomics and metabolomics, has emerged as a leading technology to broadly profile chemical exposure agents and related biomolecules for accurate mass measurement, high sensitivity, rapid data acquisition, and increased resolution of chemical space. Non-targeted approaches are increasingly accessible, supporting a shift from conventional hypothesis-driven, quantitation-centric targeted analyses toward data-driven, hypothesis-generating chemical exposome-wide profiling. However, HRMS-based exposomics encounters unique challenges. New analytical and computational infrastructures are needed to expand the analysis coverage through streamlined, scalable, and harmonized workflows and data pipelines that permit longitudinal chemical exposome tracking, retrospective validation, and multi-omics integration for meaningful health-oriented inferences. In this article, we survey the literature on state-of-the-art HRMS-based technologies, review current analytical workflows and informatic pipelines, and provide an up-to-date reference on exposomic approaches for chemists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, care providers, and stakeholders in health sciences and medicine. We propose efforts to benchmark fit-for-purpose platforms for expanding coverage of chemical space, including gas/liquid chromatography-HRMS (GC-HRMS and LC-HRMS), and discuss opportunities, challenges, and strategies to advance the burgeoning field of the exposome.

Predicting emergent animal biodiversity patterns across multiple scales.

Restoring biodiversity-based resilience and ecosystem multi-functionality needs to be informed by more accurate predictions of animal biodiversity responses to environmental change. Ecological models make a substantial contribution to this understanding, especially when they encode the biological mechanisms and processes that give rise to emergent patterns (population, community, ecosystem properties and dynamics). Here, a distinction between 'mechanistic' and 'process-based' ecological models is established to review existing approaches. Mechanistic and process-based ecological models have made key advances to understanding the structure, function and dynamics of animal biodiversity, but are typically designed to account for specific levels of biological organisation and spatiotemporal scales. Cross-scale ecological models, which predict emergent co-occurring biodiversity patterns at interacting scales of space, time and biological organisation, is a critical next step in predictive ecology. A way forward is to first capitalise on existing models to systematically evaluate the ability of scale-explicit mechanisms and processes to predict emergent patterns at alternative scales. Such model intercomparisons will reveal mechanism to process transitions across fine to broad scales, overcome approach-specific barriers to model realism or tractability and identify gaps which necessitate the development of new fundamental principles. Key challenges surrounding model complexity and uncertainty would need to be addressed, and while opportunities from big data can streamline the integration of multiple scale-explicit biodiversity patterns, ambitious cross-scale field studies are also needed. Crucially, overcoming cross-scale ecological modelling challenges would unite disparate fields of ecology with the common goal of improving the evidence-base to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystems under novel environmental change.

Multiparametric mri-based radiomics nomogram for predicting lymph-vascular space invasion in cervical cancer.

PURPOSE: To develop and validate a multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI)-based radiomics model for predicting lymph-vascular space invasion (LVSI) of cervical cancer (CC). METHODS: The data of 177 CC patients were retrospectively collected and randomly divided into the training cohort (n=123) and testing cohort (n = 54). All patients received preoperative MRI. Feature selection and radiomics model construction were performed using max-relevance and min-redundancy (mRMR) and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) on the training cohort. The models were established based on the extracted features. The optimal model was selected and combined with clinical independent risk factors to establish the radiomics fusion model and the nomogram. The diagnostic performance of the model was assessed by the area under the curve. RESULTS: Feature selection extracted the thirteen most important features for model construction. These radiomics features and one clinical characteristic were selected showed favorable discrimination between LVSI and non-LVSI groups. The AUCs of the radiomics nomogram and the mpMRI radiomics model were 0.838 and 0.835 in the training cohort, and 0.837 and 0.817 in the testing cohort. CONCLUSION: The nomogram model based on mpMRI radiomics has high diagnostic performance for preoperative prediction of LVSI in patients with CC.

Perfusion deficits may underlie lung and kidney injury in severe COVID-19 disease: insights from a multicenter international cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Lung perfusion defects, mainly due to endothelial and coagulation activation, are a key contributor to COVID-19 respiratory failure. COVID-19 patients may also develop acute kidney injury (AKI) because of renal perfusion deficit. We aimed to explore AKI-associated factors and the independent prediction of standardized minute ventilation (MV)-a proxy of alveolar dead space-on AKI onset and persistence in COVID-19 mechanically ventilated patients. METHODS: This is a multicenter observational cohort study. We enrolled 157 COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilation and intensive care unit (ICU) admission. We collected clinical information, ventilation, and laboratory data. AKI was defined by the 2012 KDIGO guidelines and classified as transient or persistent according to serum creatinine criteria persistence within 48 h. Ordered univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed to identify variables associated with AKI onset and persistence. RESULTS: Among 157 COVID-19 patients on mechanical ventilation, 47% developed AKI: 10% had transient AKI, and 37% had persistent AKI. The degree of hypoxia was not associated with differences in AKI severity. Across increasing severity of AKI groups, despite similar levels of paCO2, we observed an increased MV and standardized MV, a robust proxy of alveolar dead space. After adjusting for other clinical and laboratory covariates, standardized MV remained an independent predictor of AKI development and persistence. D-dimer levels were higher in patients with persistent AKI. CONCLUSIONS: In critically ill COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure, increased wasted ventilation is independently associated with a greater risk of persistent AKI. These hypothesis-generating findings may suggest that perfusion derangements may link the pathophysiology of both wasted ventilation and acute kidney injury in our population.

Atypical Presentation of Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension: A Case Series and Literature Review.

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is a condition in which intracranial pressure (ICP) increases without an apparent cause. Typically, patients present with headaches, dizziness, pulsatile tinnitus, visual disturbances, blurred vision, diplopia, photophobia, visual field defects, and papilledema on fundoscopy. The association between IIH, spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) rhinorrhea, and arachnoid cysts has been discussed in the literature; however, there is no clear explanation for this association. We aimed to present a series of four patients with a confirmed diagnosis of IIH with atypical presentations, discuss the management of each case, and provide an explanation for this association to alert clinicians to the atypical presentation of IIH and facilitate early diagnosis and proper treatment of this condition by CSF diversion. This was a retrospective case series of all patients who were diagnosed with IIH and showed improvement after ventriculoperitoneal shunt insertion after failure of at least one operative intervention resulting from primary radiological and clinical findings in 2001 to 2022. Data on demographics, clinical presentation, radiological findings, surgical management, and diagnostic criteria for IIH were recorded. We identified four patients with a confirmed diagnosis of IIH who presented with atypical presentations as follows: intracranial arachnoid cyst, cervical spine arachnoid cyst, giant Virchow perivascular space, and spontaneous CSF (CSF) rhinorrhea. All patients responded to CSF diversion after failure of surgical treatment targeting the primary pathology. IIH should be suspected after the failure of primary surgical treatment in cases of spontaneous CSF rhinorrhea, spinal and cranial arachnoid cysts, and symptomatic ventriculoperitoneal shunt. Treatment in such situations should be directed toward IIH with CSF diversion.

Computational modeling of heart failure in microgravity transitions.

The space tourism industry is growing due to advances in rocket technology. Privatised space travel exposes non-professional astronauts with health profiles comprising underlying conditions to microgravity. Prior research has typically focused on the effects of microgravity on human physiology in healthy astronauts, and little is known how the effects of microgravity may play out in the pathophysiology of underlying medical conditions, such as heart failure. This study used an established, controlled lumped mathematical model of the cardiopulmonary system to simulate the effects of entry into microgravity in the setting of heart failure with both, reduced and preserved ejection fraction. We find that exposure to microgravity eventuates an increased cardiac output, and in patients with heart failure there is an unwanted increase in left atrial pressure, indicating an elevated risk for development of pulmonary oedema. This model gives insight into the risks of space flight for people with heart failure, and the impact this may have on mission success in space tourism.

Morphometric analysis of cervical disc space height and interpedicular distance using computed tomography.

Background: This study utilized computed tomography (CT) to establish normative radiographic morphometric measurements of cervical disc space height (DSH) and interpedicular distance (IPD) and document the influence of patient sex, race, ethnicity, and anthropometric characteristics. Methods: Cervical CTs of 1000 patients between 18 and 35 years of age without known spinal pathology were reviewed. Statistical analyses included the assessment of associations between patient height, weight, sex, race, and ethnicity regarding DSH and IPD. Results: Irrespective of disc level, average DSH measurements were as follows: anterior height of 2.6 ± 1.0 mm, middle height of 4.1 ± 1.2 mm, and posterior height of 1.8 ± 1.0 mm. IPD was only measured between C3 and C7 vertebrae, and irrespective of disc level, the mean IPD measurement was 21.1 ± 1.5 mm. Significant differences for anterior, middle, posterior DSH, and IPD were observed in all disc levels. Significant differences in DSH and IPD were observed for all anthropometric factors of sex, race, and ethnicity relative to vertebral level. Males had significantly larger DSH and IPD measurements across all vertebral levels compared to females. Caucasians had larger DSH and IPD at select vertebral levels compared to African Americans and Hispanics. Conclusion: This study describes measurements of DSH and IPD between C2 and T1 levels in 1000 healthy 18-35-year-old subjects without known pathology. DSH and IPD measurements varied based on patient sex, race, ethnicity, and disc level.

The limit of human intelligence.

In 1998, Fields medallist Stephen Smale [Smale (1998) [1]] proposed his famous eighteen problems to the mathematicians of this century. The statement of his eighteenth problem is simple but very important. The statement of his problem is, "What are the limits of intelligence, both artificial and human?". To answer the limit of human intelligence, in this paper, we introduce cognitive-consequence space and cognitive-consequence topology, and mainly prove that deductive and non-deductive parts of a human mind will never be empty. It proves a human being will continue to think and solve problems using both deductive and non-deductive inferences as long as they are alive. Hence, we conclude that human intelligence is limitless. We also introduce cognitive closure, cognitive similarity distance, cognitive limit point, cognitive-continuous function, consequence ideal, consequence filter, Gödel's incompleteness black hole, and study related properties. We also provide suitable justifications to show that cognitive consequence topological space is not similar to that of any existing topological space because it connects cognitive space and consequence operator in one frame to find the limit of human intelligence. Moreover, we also provide justifications to state that artificial intelligence has limitations. Thus, we conclude that human intelligence will always remain superior to artificial intelligence.

Time budgets differ in horses during continuous and space-restricted rotational grazing.

Horses can become obese and develop related health issues such as laminitis from excessive grazing on high-quality pasture grass; limiting pasture intake can allow weight loss to occur. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of space-restricted rotational grazing on body weight (BW) and time budgets in horses. Eight mature geldings and mares with maintenance-only requirements were randomly assigned to either a space-restricted rotational grazing group (SRG; BW 512 ± 6 kg; n = 4) or a continuous grazing group (CG; BW 517 ± 49 kg; n = 4) for 42 d SRG horses grazed an area with dimensions to provide 80-90 % of mean digestible energy requirement for the 4 horses over a 7-d grazing period; whereas, the CG horses continuously grazed similar non-toxic endophyte-infected tall fescue pasture providing greater than maintenance requirements for the 42 d Horses in the SRG group were moved to a new area every 7 d for 6 weeks. On d 7 at 1600 h of each week, horses were brought inside, and feed was withheld overnight. At 0700 h the next day, BWs were recorded prior to turnout. Observers recorded behaviors simultaneously on SRG and CG horses every six minutes throughout the day three days per week according to an ethogram. This included 30 s scans of all horses. Proportion of grazing and standing had an inverse relationship. Proportion of grazing was affected by the treatment by time interaction, which grazing was displayed more in SRG than CG during weeks 2 and 3, and then reversed weeks 4, 5 and 6.

Parents' Knowledge and Awareness About the Importance of Primary Teeth and Space Maintainers in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Primary teeth are important for eating, speaking, and esthetics, as well as for guiding the eruption and maintaining the space for the permanent teeth. The best space maintainers (SM) for permanent dentition are the natural primary teeth. The aim of this study was to assess parents' knowledge and awareness of the importance of primary teeth and SM in Saudi Arabia. METHOD: This cross-sectional study invited parents who were living in Saudi Arabia via different social media platforms to complete a validated questionnaire. The data collected included demographic characteristics, questions about parents' knowledge of their children's oral hygiene, and the importance of primary teeth, as well as questions about knowledge of SM. RESULTS: A total of 392 participants completed the questionnaire. Dental problems and pain were the most common reasons for visiting the pediatric dentist (n=260; 66.3%). With respect to the age at which the first primary tooth erupted, more than half of the parents (n=270; 68.9%) knew the correct age. Only 43.3% (n=168) of the parents had received any information about SM and only 39.5% (n=155) of them knew their purpose. CONCLUSION: Most parents agree that treating primary teeth is important for their children's oral health and development. However, most are unaware of an SM's purpose. We recommend that dentists discuss SM's importance with parents actively after extracting their child's teeth. This will help increase parents' awareness and understanding of SM and encourage them to be more informed about this dental treatment option.

Assessment of Dentists' Knowledge of Space Maintainer Indications After Primary First Molar Extraction: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background Space maintainer appliances can potentially reduce the need for extensive orthodontic treatment in the future for children. However, they can also lead to various complications, such as an increased risk of dental caries and gingival diseases. It is crucial for dentists to carefully evaluate a decision each child's specific situation before deciding whether to apply a space maintainer or not. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge of dentists at Damascus University, both at undergraduate and specialist levels, regarding when space maintainers should be recommended. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 158 dentists (151 at the undergraduate level and seven at the specialist level). The questionnaire included 13 questions, covering demographic information and self-assessment, and 10 scenarios that are commonly encountered in clinical practice. Results The response rate was 50%. A majority of the participants (85, 53.8%) demonstrated inadequate knowledge. No significant correlations were found between knowledge level and gender (P = 0.853), practice experience (P = 0.171), or self-assessment (P = 0.383). Conclusions Most dentists exhibited a lack of knowledge about space maintainers, with no correlation identified between knowledge level, gender, practice experience, and self-assessment. It is recommended that educational curricula be updated to ensure that clinicians have a better understanding of when to use space maintainers in children.

Confinement-Induced Biocatalytic Activity Enhancement of Light- and Thermoresponsive Polymer@Enzyme@MOF Composites.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are favorable hosting materials for fixing enzymes to construct enzyme@MOF composites and to expand the applications of biocatalysts. However, the rigid structure of MOFs without tunable hollow voids and a confinement effect often limits their catalytic activities. Taking advantage of the smart soft polymers to overcome the limitation, herein, a protection protocol to encapsulate the enzyme in zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) was developed using a glutathione-sensitive liposome (L) as a soft template. Glucose oxidase (GOx) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) were first anchored on a light- and thermoresponsive porous poly(styrene-maleic anhydride-N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate-spiropyran) membrane (PSMDSP) to produce PSMDSP@GOx-HRP, which could provide a confinement effect by switching the UV irradiation or varying the temperature. Afterward, embedding PSMDSP@GOx-HRP in L and encapsulating PSMDSP@GOx-HRP@L into hollow ZIF-8 (HZIF-8) to form PSMDSP@GOx-HRP@HZIF-8 composites were performed, which proceeded during the crystallization of the framework following the removal of L by adding glutathione. Impressively, the biocatalytic activity of the composites was 4.45-fold higher than that of the free enzyme under UV irradiation at 47 °C, which could benefit from the confinement effect of PSMDSP and the conformational freedom of the enzyme in HZIF-8. The proposed composites contributed to the protection of the enzyme against harsh conditions and exhibited superior stability. Furthermore, a colorimetric assay based on the composites for the detection of serum glucose was established with a linearity range of 0.05-5.0 mM, and the calculated LOD value was 0.001 mM in a cascade reaction system. This work provides a universal design idea and a versatile technique to immobilize enzymes on soft polymer membranes that can be encapsulated in porous rigid MOF-hosts. It also holds potential for the development of smart polymer@enzyme@HMOFs biocatalysts with a tunable confinement effect and high catalytic performance.

Fire protection priorities in the oak forests of Iran with an emphasis on vertebrate habitat preservation.

This study examines the impact of fire incidents on wildlife and habitats in the western oak forests of Iran (Zagros region). These forests are globally recognized for their exceptional biodiversity but are frequently threatened by wildfires. To achieve this, the study uses the space-time scan statistics permutation (STSSP) model to identify areas with a higher frequency of fires. The study also analyzes the effects of fires on the Zagros forests from 2000 to 2021 using remote-sensing MODIS data. Also, to understand the elements at risk of fire, burned areas were assessed based on the richness of vertebrate species, determined by the distribution of 88 vertebrate species. The results show that the annual fire rate in the Zagros forests is 76.2 (fire occurrences per year), calculated using the Poisson distribution. Findings show the highest fire rates are found in the northwest and a part of the south of the Zagros. The northwest of the Zagros also has the largest number of single fires and clusters, indicating a wide spatial distribution of fire in these regions. On the other side, it was unexpectedly found that these regions have the richest number of species and higher habitat value. The results demonstrate a significant correlation between the value of the habitat and the extent of burned areas (p < 0.05). The study also reveals that the greatest impact of fires is on small vertebrates. The overlap of frequent fire spots with the richest regions of Zagros oak forests in terms of vertebrate diversity emphasizes the need for strategic forest risk reduction planning, especially in these priority zones.

DrugMetric: quantitative drug-likeness scoring based on chemical space distance.

The process of drug discovery is widely known to be lengthy and resource-intensive. Artificial Intelligence approaches bring hope for accelerating the identification of molecules with the necessary properties for drug development. Drug-likeness assessment is crucial for the virtual screening of candidate drugs. However, traditional methods like Quantitative Estimation of Drug-likeness (QED) struggle to distinguish between drug and non-drug molecules accurately. Additionally, some deep learning-based binary classification models heavily rely on selecting training negative sets. To address these challenges, we introduce a novel unsupervised learning framework called DrugMetric, an innovative framework for quantitatively assessing drug-likeness based on the chemical space distance. DrugMetric blends the powerful learning ability of variational autoencoders with the discriminative ability of the Gaussian Mixture Model. This synergy enables DrugMetric to identify significant differences in drug-likeness across different datasets effectively. Moreover, DrugMetric incorporates principles of ensemble learning to enhance its predictive capabilities. Upon testing over a variety of tasks and datasets, DrugMetric consistently showcases superior scoring and classification performance. It excels in quantifying drug-likeness and accurately distinguishing candidate drugs from non-drugs, surpassing traditional methods including QED. This work highlights DrugMetric as a practical tool for drug-likeness scoring, facilitating the acceleration of virtual drug screening, and has potential applications in other biochemical fields.

Urban health advantage and penalty in aging populations: a comparative study across major megacities in China.

Background: Urban living is linked to better health outcomes due to a combination of enhanced access to healthcare, transportation, and human development opportunities. However, spatial inequalities lead to disparities, resulting in urban health advantages and penalties. Understanding the relationship between health and urban development is needed to generate empirical evidence in promoting healthy aging populations. This study provides a comparative analysis using epidemiological evidence across diverse major Chinese cities, examining how their unique urban development trajectories over time have impacted the health of their aging residents. Methods: We tracked changes in air pollution (NO2, PM2.5, O3), green space (measured by NDVI), road infrastructure (ring road areas), and nighttime lighting over 20 years in six major cities in China. We followed a longitudinal cohort of 4992 elderly participants (average age 87.8 years) over 16,824 person-years. We employed Cox proportional hazard regression to assess longevity, assessing 14 variables, including age, sex, ethnicity, marital status, residence, household income, occupation, education, smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, and points of interest (POI) count of medicine-related facilities, sports, and leisure service-related places, and scenic spots within a 5 km-radius buffer. Findings: Geographic proximity to points of interest significantly improves survival. Elderly living in proximity of the POI-rich areas had a 34.6%-35.6% lower mortality risk compared to those in POI-poor areas, for the highest compared to the lowest quartile. However, POI-rich areas had higher air pollution levels, including PM2.5 and NO2, which was associated with a 21% and 10% increase in mortality risk for increase of 10 µg/m3, respectively. The benefits of urban living had higher effect estimates in monocentric cities, with clearly defined central areas, compared to polycentric layouts, with multiple satellite city centers. Interpretation: Spatial inequalities create urban health advantages for some and penalties for others. Proximity to public facilities and economic activities is associated with health benefits, and may counterbalance the negative health impacts of lower green space and higher air pollution. Our empirical evidence show optimal health gains for age-friendly urban environments come from a balance of infrastructure, points of interest, green spaces, and low air pollution. Funding: Natural Science Foundation of Beijing (IS23105), National Natural Science Foundation of China (82250610230, 72061137004), World Health Organization (2024/1463606-0), Research Fund Vanke School of Public Health Tsinghua University (2024JC002), Beijing TaiKang YiCai Public Welfare Foundation, National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC2000400).

The influence of travel time on perceived traveled distance varies by spatiotemporal scale.

The influence of travel time on perceived traveled distance has often been studied, but the results are inconsistent regarding the relationship between the two magnitudes. We argue that this is due to differences in the lengths of investigated travel distances and hypothesize that the influence of travel time differs for rather short compared to rather long traveled distances. We tested this hypothesis in a virtual environment presented on a desktop as well as through a head-mounted display. Our results show that, for longer distances, more travel time leads to longer perceived distance, while we do not find an influence of travel time on shorter distances. The presentation through an HMD vs. desktop only influenced distance judgments in the short distance condition. These results are in line with the idea that the influence of travel time varies by the length of the traveled distance, and provide insights on the question of how distance perception in path integration studies is affected by travel time, thereby resolving inconsistencies reported in previous studies.

Similar experimental study on diffusion and distribution of diesel exhaust in confined space of a coal mine.

In the confined space of the underground coal mine, which is dominated by transportation lanes, explosion-proof diesel-powered trackless rubber-wheeled vehicles are becoming the main transportation equipment, and the exhaust gas produced by them is hazardous to the health of workers and pollutes the underground environment. In this experiment, a similar test platform is built to study the effects of wind speed, vehicle speed, and different wind directions on the diffusion characteristics of exhaust gas. In this paper, CO and SO2 are mainly studied. The results show that the diffusion of CO and SO2 gas is similar and the maximum SO2 concentration only accounts for 11.4% of the CO concentration. Exhaust gas is better diluted by increasing the wind speed and vehicle speed, respectively. Downwind is affected by the reverse wind flow and diffuses to the driver's position, which is easy to cause occupational diseases. When the wind is a headwind, the exhaust gases spread upwards and make a circumvention movement, gathering at the top. When the wind speed and vehicle speed are both 0.6 m/s, the CO concentration corresponds to the change trend of the Lorentz function when the wind is downwind and the CO concentration corresponds to the change trend of the BiDoseResp function when the wind is headwind. The study of exhaust gas diffusion characteristics is of great significance for the subsequent purification of the air in the restricted mine space and the protection of the workers' occupational health.

Asymmetry of the Subjective Visual Vertical in Patients With Unilateral Peripheral Vestibular Deficit.

Background and Objectives: : Perception of verticality is clinically assessed using the subjective visual vertical (SVV), a test of the otolith system that consists of aligning a bar on the gravitational vertical in darkness. Patients with acute unilateral vestibulopathy (AUVP) show a systematic SVV bias toward the affected side, whichever the side of line orientation. Whether SVV estimates are symmetrical has not been investigated. Subjects and Methods: : This study included 10 patients with AUVP (vestibular neuritis) and 10 with BPPV (posterior semicircular canal). SVV measurements were made at two preset angles of line orientation (15° and 30°) toward the ipsilateral and contralateral sides, relative to the affected side. Results: : The results showed asymmetrical SVV estimates in the AUVP group, with significantly greater SVV errors for ipsilateral than contralateral line orientation, as well as for the preset angle of 30° compared to 15°. SVV estimates were significantly lower in patients with BPPV who also exhibited SVV asymmetry. SVV estimates remained unchanged just after the maneuver and were normalized some days later or after supplementary maneuvers. Conclusions: : SVV asymmetry should be routinely considered in the clinic. We recommend individually assessing ipsilateral and contralateral SVV and using at least two preset angles. This allows for a better assessment and diagnosis of otolith organ imbalance that can trigger chronic instability and dizziness. The contribution of neck afferents related to head position in space seems to be the main source of SVV asymmetry.