Introduction: Symptomatic and etiopathologic heterogeneity of schizophrenia (SCH) and bipolar disorder (BD) can be adequately addressed using a dimensional approach to psychopathology, as well as interpreting physiological properties and markers as predictors of disease onset and relapse. Risk factors, genetic and environmental, are likely to modify the neurobiological processes characteristic of certain physiological processes that manifest to a greater degree of overlapping symptoms. One of the most common laboratory tests in psychiatric patients is a standard laboratory blood test. It gives us an insight into the general somatic condition of the patient. It assesses the ability to transport oxygen to tissues and carbon dioxide back to the lungs via erythrocytes (RBC) and hemoglobin (HGB) as their most important constituents, and is also an indicator of iron status and blood oxygenation. Aim: Schizophrenia (SCH) and bipolar disorder (BD) are psychiatric disorders whose complex etiology and pathogenesis are still far from known. A correlation between red blood cell abnormalities and these diseases has been recognized in some studies. One of the most common laboratory tests in psychiatric patients is a standard laboratory blood test. However, so far there is a small number of published papers that relate to the relationship between laboratory parameters of blood and the aim of this paper is to reveal more light in this subject. Methods: The research was done as an observational prospective clinical study that has evaluated different physiological and pathological parameters in patients with BD and SCH over a two-year period. A total of 159 patients with schizophrenia, 61 patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder and 82 healthy subjects participated in this study. Results: At baseline, BD compared to SCH patients had higher mean lymphocyte count (2,6±0,7 vs. 2,0±0,6x109; p=0,006) and haemoglobin concentration (146,8±12,2 vs. 140,2±14,7 g/L; p=0,03), and significantly lower red cell distribution width (13,6±2,2 vs. 14,7±1,8%; p=0,008). In both BD and SCH patients there was a significant number of patients with low red blood cells count and low haemoglobin concentration, and high MCH and MCHC at baseline and at 3 and 6 months of follow up. Conclusions: The finding that SCH as well as BD differed from controls with respect to red blood cells, hemoglobin, lymphocytes, and average platelet count was consistent with previous findings and could be understood as a qualitative measure in the evaluation of this sample. The fact that no association with other parameters was found, as well as an association with the diagnosis, does not exclude that these associations can be found in larger samples.

Background: Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) in premature neonates has high morbidity, and it is encountered as one of the most common pathological conditions in these patients. This prospective study included 51 patients with a mean gestational age of 31 gestational weeks, hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in a tertiary-level university hospital. Aims and Objectives: The aim of our study is a comparison between lung ultrasound (US) and chest radiography in diagnosing RDS in premature neonates. Materials and Methods: US findings were classified into three profile scales and X-ray findings into a four-grade radiographic scale. Results: The results show a good concordance between chest radiography and lung US with kappa, sensitivity, and negative predictive value results in favor of US. Most of the patients had US-profile 1, which corresponds to X-ray profiles 3 and 4. US finding included the presence of confluent B lines, “white lungs,” subpleural consolidations, and thick pleura, but also A-lines, mostly found in a resolution of the disease and mild cases. Conclusion: Lung US still is not a routine procedure despite its wide use in NICUs, and as non-harmful, repeatable method, it can be used as a complementary modality to a chest X-ray. By introducing lung US as a standard method of examination in day-to-day work, it would be possible to reduce the use of X-ray studies in premature neonates.

Introduction: Many evidence indicates that Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and Carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9) have strong reactivity with tumor cells and may serve as a useful marker in identifying patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Objectives: The goal of this study was to evaluate the relationship between preoperative concentration of serum levels of CEA and CA 19-9 and progression of colorectal cancer. Methods: The retrospective study included 80 patients operated for colorectal cancer at the Clinic for General and Abdominal Surgery, Clinical Center of University of Sarajevo, from 2013 to 2018. The following clinical and laboratory parameters were observed: age, sex, preoperatively measured concentrations of CEA and CA 19-9 antigens, CRC localization, postoperative histopathological findings and CRC stage (TNM classification). All of the data above were processed by relevant statistical methods, with an accepted level of statistical significance of p <0.05. Results: The highest serum levels of CEA and CA 19-9 were observed in stage IV of CRC. Average CEA and CA 19-9 values did not differ significantly between tumor stages (p>0.05). Preoperatively measured serum concentrations of CEA and CA 19-9 in patients with CRC were significantly correlated (rho = 0.328, p = 0.001). An increase in the depth of tumor invasion of the intestinal wall tumor (pT) is followed by an increase in the serum value of the CEA marker, but this ratio was not statistically significant (rho=0.194, p=0.080), while the relationship between depth of intestinal wall invasion and serum level of CA 19-9 was significantly positive correlation (rho = 0.252, p = 0.024). However, the linear regression analysis model showed that serum levels of CEA and CA 19-9 could not be predictors of CRC stage and depth of tumor invasion of the intestinal wall (p> 0.05). Conclusion: Preoperatively measured serum values of CEA and CA 19-9 cannot indicate the specific stage and histopathological size of the CRC.

Simple Summary In early-stage (cT1-2N0) oral cancer, occult lymph node metastases are present in 20–30% of patients. Accordingly, accurate staging of the clinically negative cervical nodal basin is warranted in these patients. Sentinel lymph node biopsy has proven to reliably stage the clinically negative cervical nodal basin in early-stage oral cancer. However, due to the limited resolution of conventional sentinel lymph node imaging, occult lymph node metastasis may be missed in particular circumstances. Therefore, technical developments are necessary to bring the diagnostic accuracy of sentinel lymph node biopsy, in early-stage oral cancer, to a higher level. This review evaluates novel sentinel lymph node imaging techniques for early-stage oral cancer, such as MR lymphography, CT lymphography, PET lymphoscintigraphy and contrast-enhanced lymphosonography. Their reported diagnostic accuracy is described and their relative merits, disadvantages and potential applications are outlined. Abstract Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is a diagnostic staging procedure that aims to identify the first draining lymph node(s) from the primary tumor, the sentinel lymph nodes (SLN), as their histopathological status reflects the histopathological status of the rest of the nodal basin. The routine SLNB procedure consists of peritumoral injections with a technetium-99m [99mTc]-labelled radiotracer followed by lymphoscintigraphy and SPECT-CT imaging. Based on these imaging results, the identified SLNs are marked for surgical extirpation and are subjected to histopathological assessment. The routine SLNB procedure has proven to reliably stage the clinically negative neck in early-stage oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). However, an infamous limitation arises in situations where SLNs are located in close vicinity of the tracer injection site. In these cases, the hotspot of the injection site can hide adjacent SLNs and hamper the discrimination between tracer injection site and SLNs (shine-through phenomenon). Therefore, technical developments are needed to bring the diagnostic accuracy of SLNB for early-stage OSCC to a higher level. This review evaluates novel SLNB imaging techniques for early-stage OSCC: MR lymphography, CT lymphography, PET lymphoscintigraphy and contrast-enhanced lymphosonography. Furthermore, their reported diagnostic accuracy is described and their relative merits, disadvantages and potential applications are outlined.

Our basic objects will be compact, even-dimensional, locally symmetric Riemannian manifolds with strictly negative sectional curvature. The goal of the present paper is to investigate the prime geodesic theorems that are associated with this class of spaces. First, following classical Randol’s appraoch in the compact Riemann surface case, we improve the error term in the corresponding result. Second, we reduce the exponent in the newly acquired remainder by using the Gallagher–Koyama techniques. In particular, we improve DeGeorge’s bound Oxη, 2ρ − ρn ≤ η < 2ρ up to Ox2ρ−ρnlogx−1, and reduce the exponent 2ρ − ρn replacing it by 2ρ − ρ4n+14n2+1 outside a set of finite logarithmic measure. As usual, n denotes the dimension of the underlying locally symmetric space, and ρ is the half-sum of the positive roots. The obtained prime geodesic theorem coincides with the best known results proved for compact Riemann surfaces, hyperbolic three-manifolds, and real hyperbolic manifolds with cusps.

Abstract Heat dissipation in nanoelectronics has become a major bottleneck to further scaling in next-generation integrated circuits. In order to address this problem and develop more energy-efficient nanoelectronic transistor, sensor, and storage devices, we must understand thermal processes at the atomic scale, which requires numerical simulation of the interaction between electrons and heat, carried by quantized lattice vibrations called phonons. Here we examine in detail the phonon emission and absorption spectra in silicon at several elevated values for the electron temperature. The effect of electric field on the electron distribution and equivalent electron temperature is obtained from full-band Monte Carlo simulation for bulk silicon. The electron distributions are used to numerically compute the phonon emission and absorption spectra and discover trends in their behavior at high electron temperatures. The concept of electron temperature is used to understand the relationship between field and heat emission, and it is found that longitudinal acoustic (LA) phonon emission increases at high electron temperatures. It is also found that emission of slower zone-edge phonons increases for all phonon branches at high electron temperatures. These conclusions at high electric fields can be used to enable heat-conscious design of future silicon devices.

We propose a new estimator to measure directed dependencies in time series. The dimensionality of data is first reduced using a new non-uniform embedding technique, where the variables are ranked according to a weighted sum of the amount of new information and improvement of the prediction accuracy provided by the variables. Then, using a greedy approach, the most informative subsets are selected in an iterative way. The algorithm terminates, when the highest ranked variable is not able to significantly improve the accuracy of the prediction as compared to that obtained using the existing selected subsets. In a simulation study, we compare our estimator to existing state-of-the-art methods at different data lengths and directed dependencies strengths. It is demonstrated that the proposed estimator has a significantly higher accuracy than that of existing methods, especially for the difficult case, where the data are highly correlated and coupled. Moreover, we show its false detection of directed dependencies due to instantaneous couplings effect is lower than that of existing measures. We also show applicability of the proposed estimator on real intracranial electroencephalography data.

Abstract This article gives an overview of the applications of algebraic topology methods in signal processing. We explain how the notions and invariants such as (co)chain complexes and (co)homology of simplicial complexes can be used to gain insight into higher-order interactions of signals. The discussion begins with some basic ideas in classical circuits, continues with signals over graphs and simplicial complexes, and culminates with an overview of sheaf theory and the connections between sheaf cohomology and signal processing.

Abstract Detecting the dependency between integration test cases plays a vital role in the area of software test optimization. Classifying test cases into two main classes – dependent and independent – can be employed for several test optimization purposes such as parallel test execution, test automation, test case selection and prioritization, and test suite reduction. This task can be seen as an imbalanced classification problem due to the test cases’ distribution. Often the number of dependent and independent test cases is uneven, which is related to the testing level, testing environment and complexity of the system under test. In this study, we propose a novel methodology that consists of two main steps. Firstly, by using natural language processing we analyze the test cases’ specifications and turn them into a numeric vector. Secondly, by using the obtained data vectors, we classify each test case into a dependent or an independent class. We carry out a supervised learning approach using different methods for handling imbalanced datasets. The feasibility and possible generalization of the proposed methodology is evaluated in two industrial projects at Bombardier Transportation, Sweden, which indicates promising results.

Crossed fused renal ectopia (CFRE) is a rare congenital abnormality of the urinary tract where the kidneys are fused on one side, while the ureter of the ectopic kidney crosses the midline with the normal entrance in the bladder on the contralateral side. Congenital anomalies are associated with a stone formation whose management represents a real challenge. To our knowledge, we report the second case of CFRE associated with ureteral stone, which has been successfully resolved with Extracorporeal Shockwave Lithotripsy (ESWL) and the first of its kind where a sufficient degree of stone disintegration has been achieved after a single session with a complete stone clearance during the follow-up. Radiological examination showed an inferior type of CFRE with stone in the proximal part of the ureter of the upper kidney. ESWL is an acceptable and effective treatment option in CFRE patients due to the minimally invasive approach, potentially high stone-free rate, and rare complications.

Abstract This paper introduces and compares the various techniques for identification and analysis of low frequency oscillations in a power system. Inter-area electromechanical oscillations are the focus of this paper. After multiresolution decomposition of characteristic signals, physical characteristics of system oscillations in signal components are identified and presented using the Fourier transform, Prony’s method, Matrix Pencil Analysis Method, S-transform, Global Wavelet Spectrum and Hilbert Huang transform (Hilbert Marginal Spectrum) in time-frequency domain representation. The analyses were performed on real frequency signals obtained from FNET/GridEye system during the earthquake that triggered the shutdown of the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station in the east coast of the United States. In addition, according to the obtained results the proposed methods have proven to be reliable for identification of the model parameters of low-frequency oscillation in power systems. The relevant analyses are carried out in MATLAB coding environment.