Botanical resources usage in the tourist product of the city: cartographic vision

Urban tourism is identified as one of the main destinations of the XXI century. Its intensification is associated with overcoming the critical situation in the industry, which will require expanding the variety of tourist products. The potential opportunity for this matter will include active involvement of botanical resources in them, which will enable increasing interest for the existing projects as well as selecting the most promising ones. It is noted that vegetation cover is an integral component of all urbanized territories not used in the full volume in the tourist product of cities despite the resources’ high potential. Cartographic method is presented as the universal, informative, visual and operational-predictive one. The purpose of the study was to create a cartographic interpretation of the botanical resources potential usage for urban tourism development using the example of Khabarovsk. For the first time, a map “Objects with high potential of botanical resources for tourism development in Khabarovsk” (scale 1

On Ice: Life and Lunch at Mercato di Rialto

Visitors consume Venice’s Mercato di Rialto most often with their eyes and cameras. Venetians, in contrast, consume it with their mouths. During the week they voice their orders gently, but on Saturday mornings shopping lists become full-volume announcements that compete against the market noise. By analysing the history and role of the Pescheria at Rialto Market and its culinary and cultural representations, this article considers the entanglement between seafood and people, ice and freshness, and life and lunch.

Computed tomography-based radiomics analysis to predict lymphovascular invasion in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Objective The present study explored the value of preoperative CT radiomics in predicting lymphovascular invasion (LVI) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods A retrospective analysis of 294 pathologically confirmed ESCC patients undergoing surgical resection and their preoperative chest-enhanced CT arterial images were used to delineate the target area of the lesion. All patients were randomly divided into a training cohort and a validation cohort at a ratio of 7:3. Radiomics features were extracted from single-slice, three-slice, and full-volume regions of interest (ROIs). The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression method was applied to select valuable radiomics features. Radiomics models were constructed using logistic regression method and were validated using leave group out cross-validation (LGOCV) method. The performance of the three models was evaluated using the receiver characteristic curve (ROC) and decision curve analysis (DCA). Results A total of 1218 radiomics features were separately extracted from single-slice ROIs, three-slice ROIs, and full-volume ROIs, and 16, 13 and 18 features, respectively, were retained after optimization and screening to construct a radiomics prediction model. The results showed that the AUC of the full-volume model was higher than that of the single-slice and three-slice models. According to LGOCV, the full-volume model showed the highest mean AUC for the training cohort and the validation cohort. Conclusion The full-volume radiomics model has the best predictive performance and thus can be used as an auxiliary method for clinical treatment decision making. Advances in knowledge: LVI is considered to be an important initial step for tumor dissemination. CT radiomics features correlate with LVI in ESCC and can be used as potential biomarkers for predicting LVI in ESCC.

Deep learning based MRI contrast synthesis using full volume prediction

In Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), depending on the image acquisition settings, a large number of image types or contrasts can be generated showing complementary information of the same imaged subject. This multi-spectral information is highly beneficial since can improve MRI analysis tasks such as segmentation and registration, thanks to pattern ambiguity reduction. However, the acquisition of several contrasts is not always possible due to time limitations and patient comfort constraints. Contrast synthesis has emerged recently as an approximate solution to generate other image types different from those acquired originally. Most of the previously proposed methods for contrast synthesis are slice-based which result in intensity inconsistencies between neighbor slices when applied in 3D. We propose the use of a 3D convolutional neural network (CNN) capable of generating T2 and FLAIR images from a single anatomical T1 source volume. The proposed network is a 3D variant of the UNet that processes the whole volume at once breaking with the inconsistency in the resulting output volumes related to 2D slice or patch-based methods. Since working with a full volume at once has a huge memory demand we have introduced a spatial-to-depth and a reconstruction layer that allows working with the full volume but maintain the required network complexity to solve the problem. Our approach enhances the coherence in the synthesized volume while improving the accuracy thanks to the integrated three-dimensional context-awareness. Finally, the proposed method has been validated with a segmentation method, thus demonstrating its usefulness in a direct and relevant application.

EFFECT OF BREAST MILK ADMINISTERED ORALLY AS MINIMAL ENTERAL NUTRITION PRIOR TO TUBE FEEDING (OMEN) IN PRETERM INFANTS – SINGLE CENTER RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL

BACKGROUND: Safety and clinical benets of early Minimum Enteral Nutrition (MEN) have been demonstrated by several trials. MEN is administered as tube feed bypassing the oral phase of digestion. Oropharyngeal administration of colostrum has shown positive trend to achieve feed tolerance. Aims: To study the effect of early initiation and subsequent continuation of minimal oral feeding prior to tube feeds on duration to achieve of full enteral feeds. METHODOLOGY: DESIGN: Open label RCT. Setting: Tertiary level care NICU. Participants: Hundred preterm very low birth weight neonates with no anomaly. Intervention: Infants received 3mL/kg/d of breastmilk or nothing via oral route q2h, beginning within 24-48h of birth which was continued until oral feedings initiated. In both groups tube feeds were introduced (10 ml/kg/d within 24-96 h) & increased (10-20 ml/kg/d) until 180 ml/kg/d. Oral feeding was based on infants cues and a post menstrual age of ≥32 week or weight ≥1250 gram. Outcome: Primary: Time to reach full tube feeds (days). Secondary: NEC, sepsis, mortality, and duration of hospital stay. Duration: 1 year. RESULTS: Infants in OMEN group reached full enteral feeds earlier (14.2 ± 9.0 vs 18.8 ± 11.8, p 0.03) and were discharged at relatively younger post menstrual age compared to those in the TMEN group. There was no signicant difference in the incidence of NEC, sepsis and mortality. CONCLUSION: Administration of small quantity of human milk orally before each tube feed led to earlier achievement of full volume enteral feeds.

Effect of interventional edge-to-edge repair in tricuspid regurgitation on ring dimensions

Background The concept of percutaneous tricuspid valve edge-to-edge repair (pTVR) is based on the connection of leaflets in the area of insufficiency using a coaptation device. By closing the coaptation device a considerable tractive force is applied on the leaflets, which might have an effect on the valve ring. Aim of the study was to examine the impact of device implantation on tricuspid ring dimensions. Methods During pTVR 3D zoom loops of tricuspid valve were acquired before and after clip placement using transoesophageal echocardiography. Measurements of TV ring dimensions included the following parameters: ring area (TV area), maximal diameter, minimal diameter, eccentricity index (Figure 1). Tenting area was derived from a four-chamber view of the valve. In addition, regurgitation severity was graded from 1+ to 5+ by measuring vena contracta area (VCA3D) in 3D full volume colour Doppler loop using multiplanar reconstruction. Right atrial (RA) and ventricular volumes (RVVd3D, RVVs3D) and function (RVEF3D) were assessed in a 3D full volume loop. Results The study population comprised 97 patients (age 78±6 years, 47 male), who underwent pTVR at our hospital. As expected cavity dimension correlated with TV area size (for RVVd3D r=0.51, p<0.001 and for RA volume r=0.71, p<0.001). The mean TV ring area was significantly reduced (ring area 8.53±2.23 cm2/m2BSA vs. 7.55±2.18 cm2/m2BSA, p<0.001) and the ring shape became more oval (Eccentricity index 1.2±0.15 vs. 1.29±0.17, p<0.001) after pTVR. The reduction of ring area (12±7%, range 0.7–28%) showed an only modest correlation to the number of implanted coaptation devices (r=0.30, p<0.001) and percentage reduction of VCA3D (r=0.36, p<0.001). In the patient group with a ring area change ≥12% a reduction to TR grade ≤2+ by pTVR was achieved in 83% of cases, whereas only 62% of patients reached moderate TR when area change was below 12%. Conclusion pTVR using coaptation devices reduces the ring area. This effect is related to the number of devices implanted. FUNDunding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.