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New medical research concerning the spine and its diseases are incrementally made available through biomedical literature repositories. Several Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks, like Semantic Role Labelling (SRL) and Information Extraction (IE), can offer support for, automatically, extracting relevant information about spine, from scientific papers. This paper presents a domain-specific FrameNet, called SpiNet, for automatic information extraction about spine concepts and their semantic types. For this, we use the frame semantic and the MeSH ontology in order to extract the relevant information about a disease, a treatment, a medication, a sign or symptom, related to spine medical domain. The differential of this work is the enrichment of SpiNet's base with the MeSH ontology, whose terms, concepts, descriptors and semantic types enable automatic semantic annotation. We use the SpiNet framework in order to annotate one hundred of scientific papers and the F1-score metric, calculated between the classification of relevant sentences performed by the system and the human physiotherapists, achieved the result of 0.83., (©2020 AMIA - All rights reserved.)

Background: Traumatic injury to the spine can be a complex diagnostic and therapeutic entity often with devastating consequences. Outside of the isolated vertebral column injury costs; annual costs associated with spinal cord injury (SCI) are estimated to exceed $9.7 billion., Objective: To identify the 100 most-cited articles on spine trauma., Methods: The Thomson Reuters Web of Science citation indexing service was queried. The articles were sorted by times cited in descending order. Two independent reviewers reviewed the article titles and abstracts to identify the top 100 most-cited articles., Results: The top 100 articles were found to be cited between 108 (articles #99-100) and 1595 times (article #1). The most-cited basic science article was cited 340 times (#12 on the top 100 list). The oldest article on the top 100 list was from 1953 and most recent from 2012. The number of patients, when applicable, in a study ranged from 9 (article #34) to 34,069 (article #5). Top 100 articles were published in 41 different journals with a wide range of specialities and fields most commonly multidisciplinary. Basic science research encompassed 34 of the 100 articles on the list., Conclusions: We present the 100 most-cited articles in spinal trauma with emphases on important contributions from both basic science and clinical research across a wide range of authors, specialties, patient populations, and countries. Recognizing some of the most important contributions in the field of spinal trauma may provide insight and guide future work., Competing Interests: None

To minimize exposure dose during lateral spine X-Ray testing and obtain optimal image for diagnosis a water filter was made to measure and evaluate dose distribution. When applying the water filter, as thickness increased exposure dose decreased. When applying 2 cm of water filter, clarity of contrast and boundary was found to be 4.5 ± 0.5 and resolution was found to be 2.00 ± 0.5 Lp/mm which was almost identical image quality compared to not applying water filter which showed clarity of contrast and boundary of 5.0 ± 0.0, and resolution of 2.50 ± 0.0 Lp/mm, while reducing exposure dose by 55%. This result is expected to have many uses as important basic data to predict exposure dose of patients and to minimize medical exposure dose through applying water filters during lateral spine X-Ray testing.

Purpose: Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are important tools to assess patient function, pain, disability, and quality of life. We aim to study the efficiency and validity of digital PROMs collection using a smartphone app compared to traditional paper PROMs. Methods: Patients undergoing evaluation for full-endoscopic spine surgery were recruited from the outpatient clinic at Harborview Medical Center. Visual analogue scale (VAS), Oswestry disability index (ODI), and EQ5-5D PROMs were administered on paper and through a smartphone app called SpineHealthie. Compliance rates were collected, and PROM results were assessed for correlation between paper and digital methods. Results: 123 patients were enrolled. 57.7% of patients completed paper PROMs, 82.9% completed digital PROMs, and 48.8% completed both. Of the patients that completed both, Spearman's correlation was greatest for VAS leg, ODI, and EQ5 index scores. Correlation was weaker for VAS back pain, neck pain, and upper extremity pain. Patients tended to report lower disability and higher quality of life on the digital PROM compared to the paper PROM. Conclusion: The SpineHealthie app effectively and accurately collects PROMs digitally, showing strong concordance with traditional paper PROMs. We conclude that digital PROMs constitute a promising strategy for monitoring patients after spine surgery over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the efficacy of nighttime bracing combined with self-directed physical activity in halting Cobb angle advancement among adolescents diagnosed with moderate-grade idiopathic scoliosis. It discusses the outcomes of nighttime bracing, the impact of self-managed physical activities on scoliosis progression, and the benefits observed in preventing curvature worsening in this specific patient group.

Background: Congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT) represent 20-30% of all birth defects and are often associated with extra-renal malformations. We investigated the frequency of brain/spine malformations and neurological features in children with CAKUT., Methods: We reviewed the clinico-radiological and genetic data of 199 out of 1,165 children with CAKUT evaluated from 2006 to 2023 (99 males, mean age at MRI 6.4 years) who underwent brain and/or spine MRI. Patients were grouped according to the type of CAKUT (CAKUT-K involving the kidney and CAKUT-H involving the inferior urinary tract). Group comparisons were performed using χ 2 and Fisher exact tests., Results: Brain/spine malformations were observed in 101/199 subjects (50.7%), 8.6% (101/1165) of our CAKUT population, including midbrain-hindbrain anomalies (40/158, 25.3%), commissural malformations (36/158, 22.7%), malformation of cortical development (23/158, 14.5%), Chiari I anomaly (12/199, 6%), cranio-cervical junction malformations (12/199, 6%), vertebral defects (46/94, 48.9%), caudal regression syndrome (29/94, 30.8%), and other spinal dysraphisms (13/94, 13.8%). Brain/spine malformations were more frequent in the CAKUT-K group (62.4%, p < 0.001). Sixty-two subjects (62/199, 31.2%) had developmental delay/intellectual disability. Neurological examination was abnormal in 40/199 (20.1%). Seizures and/or electroencephalographic anomalies were reported in 28/199 (14%) and behavior problems in 19/199 subjects (9%). Developmental delay/intellectual disability was more frequent in kidney dysplasia (65.2%) and agenesis (40.7%) (p = 0.001)., Conclusions: We report a relative high frequency of brain/spine malformations and neurodevelopmental disorders in children with CAKUT who underwent MRI examinations in a tertiary referral center, widening the spectrum of anomalies associated with this condition., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to International Pediatric Nephrology Association.)

Purpose: To describe the physiology of spinal growth in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS)., Methods: Narrative review of the literature with a focus on mechanisms of growth., Results: In his landmark publication On Growth and Form, D'Arcy Thompson wrote that the anatomy of an organism reflects the forces it is subjected to. This means that mechanical forces underlie the shape of tissues, organs and organisms, whether healthy or diseased. AIS is called idiopathic because the underlying cause of the deformation is unknown, although many factors are  associated. Eventually, however, any deformity is due to mechanical forces. It has long been shown that the typical curvature and rotation of the scoliotic spine could result from vertebrae and intervertebral discs growing faster than the ligaments attached to them. This raises the question why in AIS the ligaments do not keep up with the speed of spinal growth. The spine of an AIS patient deviates from healthy spines in various ways. Growth is later but faster, resulting in higher vertebrae and intervertebral discs. Vertebral bone density is lower, which suggests  less spinal compression. This also preserves the notochordal cells and the swelling pressure in the nucleus pulposus. Less spinal compression is due to limited muscular activity, and low muscle mass indeed underlies the lower body mass index (BMI) in AIS patients. Thus, AIS spines grow faster because there is less spinal compression that counteracts the force of growth (Hueter-Volkmann Law). Ligaments consist of collagen fibres that grow by tension, fibrillar sliding and the remodelling of cross-links. Growth and remodelling are enhanced by dynamic loading and by hormones like estrogen. However, they are opposed by static loading., Conclusion: Increased spinal elongation and reduced ligamental growth result in differential strain and a vicious circle of scoliotic deformation. Recognising the physical and biological cues that contribute to differential growth  allows earlier diagnosis of AIS and prevention in children at risk., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Objectives: To develop an automatic computer-based method that can help clinicians in assessing spine growth potential based on EOS radiographs., Methods: We developed a deep learning-based (DL) algorithm that can mimic the human judgment process to automatically determine spine growth potential and the Risser sign based on full-length spine EOS radiographs. A total of 3383 EOS cases were collected and used for the training and test of the algorithm. Subsequently, the completed DL algorithm underwent clinical validation on an additional 440 cases and was compared to the evaluations of four clinicians., Results: Regarding the Risser sign, the weighted kappa value of our DL algorithm was 0.933, while that of the four clinicians ranged from 0.909 to 0.930. In the assessment of spine growth potential, the kappa value of our DL algorithm was 0.944, while the kappa values of the four clinicians were 0.916, 0.934, 0.911, and 0.920, respectively. Furthermore, our DL algorithm obtained a slightly higher accuracy (0.973) and Youden index (0.952) compared to the best values achieved by the four clinicians. In addition, the speed of our DL algorithm was 15.2 ± 0.3 s/40 cases, much faster than the inference speeds of the clinicians, ranging from 177.2 ± 28.0 s/40 cases to 241.2 ± 64.1 s/40 cases., Conclusions: Our algorithm demonstrated comparable or even better performance compared to clinicians in assessing spine growth potential. This stable, efficient, and convenient algorithm seems to be a promising approach to assist doctors in clinical practice and deserves further study., Clinical Relevance Statement: This method has the ability to quickly ascertain the spine growth potential based on EOS radiographs, and it holds promise to provide assistance to busy doctors in certain clinical scenarios., Key Points: • In the clinic, there is no available computer-based method that can automatically assess spine growth potential. • We developed a deep learning-based method that could automatically ascertain spine growth potential. • Compared with the results of the clinicians, our algorithm got comparable results., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to European Society of Radiology.)

Spinal regionalization has important implications for the evolution of vertebrate body plans. We determined the variation in the number and morphology of vertebrae across the vertebral column (i.e., vertebral formula) for 63 snake species representing 13 families using intracolumnar variation in vertebral shape. Vertebral counts were used to determine the position of the heart, pylorus, and left kidney for each species. Across all species we observed a conspicuous midthoracic transition in vertebral shape, indicating four developmental domains of the precloacal vertebral column (cervical, anterior thoracic, posterior thoracic, and lumbar). Using phylogenetic analyses, the boundary between the anterior and posterior thoracic vertebrae was correlated with heart position. No associations were found between shifts in morphology of the vertebral column and either the pylorus or left kidney. We observed that among taxa, the number of preapex and postapex vertebrae could change independently from one another and from changes in the total number of precloacal vertebrae. Ancestral state reconstruction of the preapex and postapex vertebrae illustrated several evolutionary pathways by which diversity in the vertebral column and heart position have been attained. In addition, no conspicuous pattern was observed among the heart, pylorus, or kidney indicating that their relative positions to each other evolve independently. We conclude that snakes exhibit four morphologically distinct regions of the vertebral column. We discuss the implications of the forebody and hindbody vertebral formula on the morphological diversification of snakes., (© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Evidence based medicine should underpin the practice of all orthopaedic surgeons. Spinal pathology should be considered in the differential diagnosis for pain in every upper and lower limbs region and an understanding of spinal anatomy and physiology is vital in the management of the trauma patient. We present ten key articles, which have been selected for their impact within the field. They encompass trauma, degenerative, inflammatory, deformity and emergency spinal disorders. The articles range from level I randomized control trials to level V expert opinion. An understanding of their methodology and key findings should be part of the core knowledge encompassing spinal surgery and will, in particular, be of benefit for those preparing for final professional examinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To promote a better radiological interpretation of spine degeneration, a consistent standardization of the acquisition, interpretation and description of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) l findings. Materials and methods: In order to achieve this objective, a consensus among experts in imaging of degenerative spine disease (DSD) from Italian radiological societies (SIRM—Italian Society of Radiology, AINR—Italian Association of Neuroradiology) was achieved. The representatives of the Italian inter-societal working group examined the literature produced by European/American task forces on optimizing the study sequences, classification of degenerative disc changes, spondylo-arthrosis, osteochondrosis, synovial and ligament pathologies of the spinal column, and on canal and foraminal stenosis. The document-resulted from the consensus between experts—was then presented to the scientific societies of Neurosurgery (SINCH) and Orthopedics and Traumatology (SIOT) for their approval. Results: This position paper presents a proposal for an optimized MRI protocol for studying DSD and provides a glossary of terms related to this pathology and indications on their use. The international terminological recommendations have been translated and adapted to the Italian language and clinical practice and clinical cases have been used to illustrate some of the main classifications. Conclusions: This revision of international DSD guidelines/recommendations and consensus made it possible to (1) update the nomenclature to international standards and (2) harmonize the MRI protocol and description of radiological findings, adapting both (1, 2) to the Italian context. With this position paper we intend to contribute to an improvement of the communication among doctors and between physicians and their patients as well as the quality of the radiological reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) is a devastating occurrence that significantly contributes to global morbidity and mortality. Surgical decompression with stabilization is the most effective way to minimize the damaging sequelae that follow acute tSCI. In recent years, strong evidence has emerged that supports the rationale that early surgical intervention, within 24 h following the initial injury, is associated with a better prognosis and functional outcomes. In this review, we have summarized the evidence and elaborated on the nuances of this concept. Additionally, we have reviewed further concepts that stem from "time is spine," including earlier cutoffs less than 24 h and the challenging entity of central cord syndrome, as well as the emerging concept of adequate surgical decompression. Lastly, we identify barriers to early surgical care for acute tSCI, a key aspect of spine care that needs to be globally addressed via research and policy on an urgent basis., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.)

It is critical to understand the relationship between under-body blast (UBB) loading and occupant response to provide optimal protection to the warfighter from serious injuries, many of which affect the spine. Previous studies have examined component and whole body response to accelerative based UBB loading. While these studies both informed injury prediction efforts and examined the shortcomings of traditional anthropomorphic test devices in the evaluation of human injury, few studies provide response data against which future models could be compared and evaluated. The current study examines four different loading conditions on a seated occupant that demonstrate the effects of changes in the floor, seat, personal protective equipment (PPE), and reclined posture on whole body post-mortem human surrogate (PMHS) spinal response in a sub-injurious loading range. Twelve PMHS were tested across floor velocities and time-to-peak (TTP) that ranged from 4.0 to 8.0 m/s and 2 to 5 ms, respectively. To focus on sub-injurious response, seat velocities were kept at 4.0 m/s and TTP ranged from 5 to 35 ms. Results demonstrated that spine response is sensitive to changes in TTP and the presence of PPE. However, spine response is largely insensitive to changes in floor loading. Data from these experiments have also served to develop response corridors that can be used to assess the performance and predictive capability of new test models used as human surrogates in high-rate vertical loading experiments., (© 2020. Biomedical Engineering Society.)

Study Design: Bibliometric literature review., Objective: The aim of this study was to recognize and analyze the most frequently cited manuscripts published in the journal Spine., Summary of Background Data: Although the journal Spine is considered a premiere location for distributing influential spine research, no previous study has evaluated which of their publications have had the most impact. Knowledge and appreciation of the most influential Spine publications can guide and inspire future research endeavors., Methods: Using the Scopus database, the 100 most cited articles published in Spine were accessed. The frequency of citations, year of publication, country of origin, level-of-evidence (LOE), article type, and contributing authors/institutions were recorded. The 10 most cited articles (per year) from the past decade were also determined., Results: "Guidelines For The Process Of Cross-Cultural Adaptation Of Self-Report Measures" by Beaton DE was the most cited article with 2960 citations. 2000 to 2009 (n = 46) was the most productive period. A LOE of III (n = 35) followed by II (n = 34) were the most common. Deyo RA (n = 8), Bombardier C (n = 6), and Waddell G (n = 6) produced the most articles. University of Washington (n = 8) and University of Toronto (n = 8) ranked first for institutional output. Clinical Outcome (n = 28) was the most recurring article topic. The United States (n = 51) ranked first for country of origin., Conclusion: Using citation analysis as an objective proxy for influence, certain publications can be distinguished from others due to their lasting impact and recognition from peers. Of the top cited Spine publications, many pertained to clinical outcomes (28%) and had a LOE of I, II, or III (60%). Although older publications have had longer time to accrue citations, those in the most recent decade comprise this list almost 2:1. Knowledge of these "classic" publications allows for a better overall understanding of the diagnosis, management, and future direction of spine health care.Level of Evidence: 3., (Copyright © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

The factors influencing the backing process of the book block spine are determined and their priorities are established. The method of backing the spine of book blocks in the production of publications by the method of perfect binding is proposed. This method involves gluing the backing-captal braid to the spine of the block with a pre-applied adhesive layer. The positive influence of the presence of the adhesive layer of a certain thickness on the physical and mechanical characteristics of the backing material is determined. It is established that the thickness of the blocks, the type of paper, from which the publications are made, and the direction of the cutting of the backing material is influenced by the process of backing the spine. With the growth of the tension deformation of backing materials from 1.2% (for kraft paper) to 3.8% (for the backing braid), the stability of the spine zone of the block increases to damage in the process of multiple flippers. The investigated materials in the longitudinal direction are more durable than in the transverse in 2-2.5 times, so the backed blocks can withstand 4,800 to 15,000 flippers when using kraft paper and backing braid, respectively. With the help of optical microscopy, changes in the structure of the backing-captal braid after the multiple flippers of the book block have been investigated. It is shown that the strength of the binding of a book block depends on the choice of the method of backing. In the process of optimizing the parameters of backing the block root, various variants of linear models were tested, which are described by the functions of the dependences of the breaking forces in the longitudinal or transverse directions Z on the thickness of the block Tb. The allowable elongation of the edging material for its longitudinal and transverse cuttingV is also taken into account. The obtained models allow for the particular type of paper to pick up the necessary backing materials, which will provide a sufficient strength to the perfect binding book blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most diseases of the spine disproportionately impact older persons, with the modal (i.e., commonest) patient a female in their 8th decade of life. We examined the corpus of spinal RCTs to determine how many included "average" spine patients. We searched PubMed for randomized clinical trials published in the top 7 spine journals over a period of 5 years from 2016 to 2020 and extracted nominal upper age cut-offs and the distribution of ages actually recruited. We identified 186 trials of 26,238 patients. We found that only 4.8% of trials could be applied to an "average" 75-year-old patient. This age-based exclusion was not dependent on funding source. Age-based exclusion was exacerbated by explicit upper age cut-offs, however, the age-based exclusion went beyond explicit age cut-offs. Only few trials were applicable to older patients even amongst trials with no age cut-off specified. Age-based exclusion from clinical trials starts at late middle age. The mismatch between spinal patient's age seen in clinical practice and spinal patient's age in trials was so severe that over the 5 years (2016-2020) almost no RCT evidence was produced applicable to the "average" aged-patient across the body of literature available. In conclusion, age-based exclusion is ubiquitous, multifactorial, and happens on a supratrial level. Eliminating age-based exclusion involves more than an arbitrary lifting of explicitly stated upper age cut-offs. Instead, recommendations include increasing input from geriatricians and ethics committees, establishing updated or new models of cares, and creating new protocols to facilitate further research., (© 2023. Crown.)

Purpose: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are integral to the assessment of treatment success, but loss to follow-up (attrition) may lead to bias in the results reported. We sought to evaluate the extent, nature and implications of attrition in a long-established, single-centre spine registry., Methods: The registry contained the data of 15,264 consecutive spine surgery patients. PROMs included the Core Outcome Measures Index (COMI) and a rating of the Global Treatment Outcome (GTO) and Satisfaction with Care. Baseline characteristics associated with returning a 12-month PROM (= "responder") were analysed (logistic regression). The 3-month outcomes of 12-month responders versus 12-month non-responders were compared (ANOVA and Chi-square)., Results: In total, 14,758/15,264 (97%) patients (60 ± 17y; 46% men) had consented to the use of their registry data for research. Preoperative, 3-month post-operative and 12-month post-operative PROMs were returned by 91, 90 and 86%, respectively. Factors associated with being a 12-month responder included: greater age, born in the country of the study, no private/semi-private insurance, better baseline status (lower COMI score), fewer previous surgeries, less comorbidity and no perioperative medical complications. 12-month non-responders had shown significantly worse outcomes in their 3-month PROMs than had 12-month responders (respectively, 66% vs 80% good GTO ("treatment helped/helped a lot"); 77% vs 88% satisfied/very satisfied; and 49% vs 63% achieved MCIC on COMI)., Conclusion: Although attrition in this cohort was relatively low, 12-month non-responders displayed distinctive characteristics and their early outcomes were significantly worse than those of 12-month responders. If loss to follow-up is not addressed, treatment success will likely be overestimated, with erroneously optimistic results being reported., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Study Design: Experimental Cadaveric Biomechanical Study., Objective: To establish an experimental procedure in cadavers to estimate joint stiffness/stability at craniovertebral junction (CVJ) region with various implant systems and to develop/validate an indigenous cost effective 3D-FEM (three-dimensional finite element model) of CVJ region., Summary of Background Data: Finite element analysis (FEM) tools can provide estimates of internal stress and strain in response to external loading of various implant systems used in CVJ fixations., Methods: Experimental setup for conducting biomechanical movements on CVJ region of cadaver was developed using cost effective innovative tools. A manually actuated seven- degrees of freedom parallel manipulator motion testing system (MA7DPM) was designed and developed to impart designed trajectories and to conduct various biomechanical motion studies at CVJ region for the present study., Results: FEM model of CVJ region was developed and subsequently validated with CVJ morphometry data of 15 human subjects of Asian origin. Validated FEM was subjected to force motion studies at the CVJ region. The force-motion maps obtained from the FEM studies were subsequently validated against biomechanical experiment results from cadaveric experiment results obtained with three different implant fixations., Conclusions: A cost effective biomechanical tool (which did not require decapitation of cadaveric head) and a customised chair (to place cadaver in sitting position during conduct of biomechanical movements simulating real-life scenario) was indigenously designed and developed. Developed biomechanical tool (MA7DPM) for this study is likely to be useful for stress-testing analysis of various implant systems for individual patients undergoing surgery at CVJ region in near future., Level of Evidence: 5.

The flat-end surfaces of dinosaur vertebral centra led to the presumption that intervertebral discs occupied the space between their vertebrae. A set of fused hadrosaur vertebrae allowed that hypothesis to be tested. The Tyrannosaurus rex responsible for this pathology did not escape unscathed. It left behind a tooth crown that had fractured. Fragments of that tooth were scattered through the intervertebral space, evidencing that there was no solid structure to impede its movement. That eliminates the possibility of an intervertebral disc and instead proves the presence of an articular space, similar to that in modern reptiles, but at variance to what is noted in birds. While avian cervical vertebral centra appear to be separated by diarthrodial joints, the preponderance of their thoracic vertebral centra is not separated by synovial joints., (© 2020 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.)

Background: Critical spinal epidural pathologies can cause paralysis or death if untreated. Although magnetic resonance imaging is the preferred modality for visualizing these pathologies, computed tomography (CT) occurs far more commonly than magnetic resonance imaging in the clinical setting., Objective: A machine learning model was developed to screen for critical epidural lesions on CT images at a large-scale teleradiology practice. This model has utility for both worklist prioritization of emergent studies and identifying missed findings., Materials and Methods: There were 153 studies with epidural lesions available for training. These lesions were segmented and used to train a machine learning model. A test data set was also created using previously missed epidural lesions. The trained model was then integrated into a teleradiology workflow for 90 days. Studies were sent to secondary manual review if the model detected an epidural lesion but none was mentioned in the clinical report., Results: The model correctly identified 50.0% of epidural lesions in the test data set with 99.0% specificity. For prospective data, the model correctly prioritized 66.7% of the 18 epidural lesions diagnosed on the initial read with 98.9% specificity. There were 2.0 studies flagged for potential missed findings per day, and 17 missed epidural lesions were found during a 90-day time period. These results suggest almost half of critical spinal epidural lesions visible on CT imaging are being missed on initial diagnosis., Conclusion: A machine learning model for identifying spinal epidural hematomas and abscesses on CT can be implemented in a clinical workflow., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

The effects of tetrachloro-1,2-benzoquinone (TCQ), a component in bleached kraft mill effluents (BKME), on vertebral and physiological parameters were investigated in juvenile fourhorn sculpin, Myoxocephalus quadricornis L. After about 4.5 months of exposure to 0.1 and 0.5 mg TCQ/liter in 7% salinity brackish water, the fish demonstrated vertebral deformities, aberrant mechanical properties of the vertebrae, effects on white and red blood cell counts, enhanced activity of delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase in erythrocytes, and increased levels of ascorbic acid in the liver. The effects are discussed in relation to those previously observed in fish exposed to complex BKME in the field and the laboratory.

In a laboratory investigation fourhorn sculpin (Myoxocephalus quadricornis) were exposed for 5-9 months to wastewater from pine and birch lines from a bleached kraft pulp plant. This long-term exposure to bleached kraft mill effluent (BKME) affected the hematology, the ion balance, and the vertebral structure. Decreased values for hematocrit and hemoglobin and a reduced red blood cell count, as well as increased levels of methemoglobin, indicated disturbances in the red blood cell status. The white blood cell picture was not significantly affected by the BKME exposure. Decreased levels of potassium and chloride ions in the blood plasma in some of the exposed fish suggest an impaired ability to maintain ion homeostasis. Elevated frequencies of vertebral deformations in fish exposed to BKME confirm previous observations of vertebral damage in feral fourhorn sculpin caught in the receiving body of water of the same bleached kraft pulp industry. Many of the parameters analyzed in this investigation may be used as health indicators in future laboratory and field studies on fish exposed to BKME.

Study Design: A bibliometric review of the literature., Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the most highly cited articles relating to imaging of the spine and to analyze the most influential papers and evolving trends in spinal imaging research., Summary of Background Data: Spinal imaging is being performed with increasing frequency and is an essential step in the diagnosis and treatment planning of spinal pathology. A comprehensive review of the most influential articles in spinal imaging has not been performed, until now., Methods: A selection of search terms and keywords were inputted into the "Web of Science" database and the most highly cited articles in spinal imaging were selected from high impact factor journals. The top 100 articles were analyzed for year of publication, authorship, publishing journals, institution and country of origin, subject matter, article type, and level of evidence. In addition to total citation count, the number of annual citations was also calculated. Citation counts from Scopus and Google Scholar were also obtained for comparison across other citation index platforms., Results: The most highly cited articles in spinal imaging were published over 30 years, between 1983 and 2013. Total citation count ranged from 98 to 1243 with annual citation count ranging from 3.8 to 91.8. The greatest number of highly cited articles was produced in the United States (n = 49), involved magnetic resonance (n = 73) or multimodal (n = 17) imaging and focused on the lumbar spine (n = 42). The journals that contributed the most articles were Spine and Radiology each publishing 26 articles., Conclusion: Our study provided an extensive list of the most historically significant spinal imaging articles, acknowledging the key contributions made to the advancement of this specialist field., Level of Evidence: 5.

Low recovery rate of intact crania in conflict-related contexts necessitates the use of postcranial elements for ancestry estimation. This study aimed to develop a new method to discriminate between Korean and U.S. White casualties from the Korean War using vertebrae. Maximum body heights of C2 through L5 were measured from 75 Korean and 51 U.S. males to generate discriminant functions. U.S. vertebral heights were statistically greater than Koreans in 18 out of 23 vertebrae (C2, C4-6, T3-6, and T8-L5). The functions with lumbar vertebrae tended to yield higher correct classification ratios (CCR) than those with cervical or thoracic vertebrae. Inclusion of the femur and tibia lengths in the vertebrae-involved functions enhanced the CCR's. Discriminant functions using the femur and tibia length were also presented. The results of this study are expected to complement the current practices of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and the Ministry of National Defense Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification, which are primarily based on cranial and dental morphology., (© 2019 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.)

Competing Interests: Disclosure: The Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest form is provided with the online version of the article (http://links.lww.com/JBJS/G827).

Landslides are a kind of geological hazard with great destructive potential. When a landslide event occurs, a reliable landslide segmentation method is important for assessing the extent of the disaster and preventing secondary disasters. Although deep learning methods have been applied to improve the efficiency of landslide segmentation, there are still some problems that need to be solved, such as the poor segmentation due to the similarity between old landslide areas and the background features and missed detections of small-scale landslides. To tackle these challenges, a proposed high-resolution semantic segmentation algorithm for landslide scenes enhances the accuracy of landslide segmentation and addresses the challenge of missed detections in small-scale landslides. The network is based on the high-resolution network (HR-Net), which effectively integrates the efficient channel attention mechanism (efficient channel attention, ECA) into the network to enhance the representation quality of the feature maps. Moreover, the primary backbone of the high-resolution network is further enhanced to extract more profound semantic information. To improve the network's ability to perceive small-scale landslides, atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP) with ECA modules is introduced. Furthermore, to address the issues arising from inadequate training and reduced accuracy due to the unequal distribution of positive and negative samples, the network employs a combined loss function. This combined loss function effectively supervises the training of the network. Finally, the paper enhances the Loess Plateau landslide dataset using a fractional-order-based image enhancement approach and conducts experimental comparisons on this enriched dataset to evaluate the enhanced network's performance. The experimental findings show that the proposed methodology achieves higher accuracy in segmentation performance compared to other networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Design: Bibliometric analysis., Objective: To apply the established technique of citation analysis to identify the 100 most influential articles in scoliosis surgery research published between 1900 and 2015., Summary of Background Data: Previous studies have applied the technique of citation analysis to other areas of study. This is the first article to apply this technique to the field of scoliosis surgery., Methods: A two-step search of the Thomson Reuters Web of Science was conducted to identify all articles relevant to the field of scoliosis surgery. The top 100 articles with the most citations were identified based on analysis of titles and abstracts. Further statistical analysis was conducted to determine whether measures of author reputation and overall publication influence affected the rate at which publications were recognized and incorporated by other researchers in the field., Results: Total citations for the final 100 publications included in the list ranged from 82 to 509. The period for publication ranged from 1954 to 2010. Most studies were published in the journal Spine (n = 63). The most frequently published topics of study were surgical techniques (n = 35) and outcomes (n = 35). Measures of author reputation (number of total studies in the top 100, number of first-author studies in the top 100) were found to have no effect on the rate at which studies were adopted by other researchers (number of years until first citation, and number of years until maximum citations). The number of citations/year a publication received was found to be negatively correlated with the rate at which it was adopted by other researchers, indicating that more influential manuscripts attained more rapid recognition by the scientific community at large., Conclusion: In assembling this publication, we have strived to identify and recognize the 100 most influential articles in scoliosis surgery research from 1900 to 2015., Level of Evidence: N/A.

Purpose: Wei et al. evaluated the global research in spine using scientometric methods based on a sample of 13,115 papers published in 5 spine journals from 2004 to 2013. This study builds on this pioneering study and provides up-to-date and thorough information on spine based on a sample of 166,962 papers for the stakeholders.Method: ‘Articles’ and ‘reviews’ published in ‘English’ in the journals indexed by the ‘Web of Science’ primary databases between 1980 and 2017 were retrieved through the use of an optimal keyword set for titles of both papers and ten spine journals. The information on document types and number of papers, authors, countries, funding bodies, institutions, publication years, journals, ‘Web of Science’ subject categories, and ten top citation classics were analyzed.Results: A large sample of 166,962 papers were retrieved. The ‘reviews’ and ‘proceedings papers’ formed 5.8 and 2.8% of the sample, respectively. ‘Fehlings’, ‘Vaccaro’, ‘Takahashi’, ‘Lenke’, and ‘Gokaslan’ were the most-prolific authors. Nearly 0.7% of the papers had group authors besides single authors. The US was the most prolific country publishing 37.3% of the sample whilst Europe contributed to more than 39.8% of the sample. Only, 26.6% of the papers disclosed research funding. Among 40,897 institutions, ‘Harvard University’ was the most-prolific institution whilst the US institutions dominated the top-institution list. The research output steadily rose from 1375 papers in 1980 to 9357 papers in 2016 whilst 69.2% of the papers were published after 2000. Ten spine journals published only 23.4% of the sample. ‘Clinical Neurology’, ‘Orthopedics’, ‘Neurosciences’, and ‘Surgery’ was the most prolific subject categories. The top citation classic was a paper by van der Linden et al. on ankylosing spondylitis.Conclusions: The optimal design of research sample made it possible to obtain nearly 13 times the size of the sample in Wei et al. as a true representation of the research in spine through the use of an optimal keyword set for the titles of both papers and 10 spine journals. However, despite the inefficient design of the incentive structures for the relevant stakeholders, the research in spine had expanded 6.8 times since 1980. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern urban traffic, vehicles and pedestrians are fundamental elements in the study of traffic dynamics. Vehicle and pedestrian detection have significant practical value in fields like autonomous driving, traffic management, and public security. However, traditional detection methods struggle in complex environments due to challenges such as varying scales, target occlusion, and high computational costs, leading to lower detection accuracy and slower performance. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an improved vehicle and pedestrian detection algorithm based on YOLOv8, with the aim of enhancing detection in complex traffic scenes. The motivation behind our design is twofold: first, to address the limitations of traditional methods in handling targets of different scales and severe occlusions, and second, to improve the efficiency and accuracy of real-time detection. The new generation of dense pedestrian detection technology requires higher accuracy, less computing overhead, faster detection speed, and more convenient deployment. Based on the above background, this paper proposes a synchronous end-to-end vehicle pedestrian detection algorithm based on improved YOLOv8, aiming to solve the detection problem in complex scenes. First of all, we have improved YOLOv8 by designing a deformable convolutional improved backbone network and attention mechanism, optimized the network structure, and improved the detection accuracy and speed. Secondly, we introduced an end-to-end target search algorithm to make the algorithm more stable and accurate in vehicle and pedestrian detection. The experimental results show that, using the algorithm designed in this paper, our model achieves an 11.76% increase in precision and a 6.27% boost in mAP. In addition, the model maintains a real-time detection speed of 41.46 FPS, ensuring robust performance even in complex scenarios. These optimizations significantly enhance both the efficiency and robustness of vehicle and pedestrian detection, particularly in crowded urban environments. We further apply our improved YOLOv8 model for real-time detection in intelligent transportation systems and achieve exceptional performance with a mAP of 95.23%, outperforming state-of-the-art models like YOLOv5, YOLOv7, and Faster R-CNN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The freshness of aquatic products is directly related to the safety and health of the people. Traditional methods of detecting the freshness of Conger myriaster rely on manual operations, which are labor‐intensive, inefficient, and highly subjective. This paper combines computer vision and the DWG‐YOLOv8 network model to establish an intelligent classification method for C. myriaster freshness. Through image augmentation, 484 C. myriaster samples were expanded to 2904 samples. The YOLOv8n model was improved by simplifying the network backbone, introducing Ghost convolution and the new DW‐GhostConv, thereby reducing the number of parameters and computational load. Test results show that the recognition accuracy of the DWG‐YOLOv8 model reached 98.958%, outperforming models such as ResNet18, Mobilenetv3 small, and Swin transformer v2 tiny. The model's parameter count is 16.609 K, the inference time is 57.80 ms, and the model size is only 102 KB. The research provides a reliable method for online intelligent and nondestructive detection of C. myriaster freshness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we describe the histology and microanatomy of vertebral centra of the iconic pelycosaur-grade synapsids Edaphosaurus boanerges and Dimetrodon spp. Vertebrae from different axial positions and, in the case of Dimetrodon, from different ontogenetic stages were selected. For the histological description, we produced histological petrographic thin sections ground to a thickness of 50-80 μm of the vertebrae in the sagittal and transversal cutting planes. After the preparation process, the thin sections were examined under transmitted and cross-polarized light in a polarized microscope. The analyzed vertebrae reveal similar bone tissues, where both taxa have cortical parallel-fibered bone (PFB). PFB and lamellar bone (LB) forms in the cancellous part. However, in juvenile Dimetrodon, woven-fibered bone (WFB) is also deposited and shows a high degree of vascularity. This suggests that Dimetrodon had slightly faster bone growth than Edaphosaurus, which is mainly made of PFB and LB and shows poorly developed vascular canals. In addition, one specimen of Dimetrodon displays the preservation of an ossified notochord, which can be assumed to be indicative of how the intervertebral tissues were developed. Historically, evidence of how the joint between Dimetrodon vertebral centra was built was lacking until this specimen appeared. If the notochord ran persistently through the vertebrae, it would have possibly increased the stiffness of the vertebral column and would have affected the limbs and locomotion. Furthermore, the organization of trabeculae and relative thickness of the vertebral cortex gives insights into how the animals were adapted to their habitat., (© 2020 The Authors. The Anatomical Record published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Association of Anatomists.)

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study., Objectives: To investigate radiographic sagittal and spinopelvic parameters of patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) treated with bracing and assess differences among those treated successfully and unsuccessfully. AIS is a three-dimensional deformity of the spine, sharing an intricate relationship with pelvic morphology. However, the most relevant predictors of curve progression have historically been coronal parameters and skeletal maturity. Sagittal and spinopelvic parameters have not been thoroughly investigated as predictors of curve progression and brace treatment success., Methods: Retrospective review of AIS patients who underwent brace treatment. Coronal Cobb angles (CC), pelvic incidence (PI), sacral slope (SS), pelvic tilt (PT), thoracic kyphosis (TK), lumbar lordosis (LL), and thoracic spinopelvic angles (T1SP, T9SP) were measured prior to initiation of bracing. The sagittal and spinopelvic parameters of patients requiring surgical treatment due to curve progression were compared to those treated successfully with bracing., Results: No significant differences were found for age, race, gender, Risser category (0/1 vs 2/3), initial CC, TK, LL, T1SP, or T9SP between cohorts. The cohort requiring surgery had significantly lower PI (p  <  0.001, 42.0 v. 54.6), SS (p  <  0.001, 37.0 v. 44.5), and PT (p  =  0.003, 5.0 v. 10.2) compared to those successfully treated with bracing. Multivariable models controlling for Risser stage and Initial CC revealed the odds for successful brace treatment increases with an increase in PI (OR  =  1.47, CI 1.18-1.83, p  <  0.001), SS (OR  =  1.26, CI 1.07-1.48, p  =  0.006), and PT (OR  =  1.43, CI 1.09-1.86, p  =  0.006) (Table 3). The odds of successful brace treatment is given per one-unit increase for each radiographic measure after adjusting for Initial CC and Risser sign which were forced into each multivariable model., Conclusions: Spinopelvic parameters may indicate potential spine adaptability and skeletal maturity. For these reasons, we proposed that spinopelvic parameters may be a potential predictor of curve progression and brace treatment success. Our results demonstrated a higher risk of curve progression with lower PI, PT, or SS which support this hypothesis, however, given the small sample size and high variability, the magnitude of this effect should be viewed with caution and should serve as an impetus to further, larger scale studies to investigate the value spinopelvic parameters in curve progression and bracing efficacy., Level of Evidence: IV.

With the rapid development of globalization, the demand for translation between different languages is also increasing. Although pre-training has achieved excellent results in neural machine translation, the existing neural machine translation has almost no high-quality suitable for specific fields. Alignment information, so this paper proposes a pre-training neural machine translation with alignment information via optimal transport. First, this paper narrows the representation gap between different languages by using OTAP to generate domain-specific data for information alignment, and learns richer semantic information. Secondly, this paper proposes a lightweight model DR-Reformer, which uses Reformer as the backbone network, adds Dropout layers and Reduction layers, reduces model parameters without losing accuracy, and improves computational efficiency. Experiments on the Chinese and English datasets of AI Challenger 2018 and WMT-17 show that the proposed algorithm has better performance than existing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lower Jurassic Lufeng Formation in Yunnan Province of southwestern China provides one of the most abundant records of sauropodomorphs in the world. However, most of them have not been fully described. Xingxiulong chengi is among the most complete non-sauropodan sauropodomorphs ever discovered from Lufeng Formation and is represented by three partial skeletons. Here, we provide a detailed osteological description of its axial skeleton, including both the cranial and postcranial elements, and compare its anatomy with that of other known non-sauropodan sauropodomorphs. In general, the cranium of Xingxiulong is more similar to those of more basal sauropodomorphs than to sauropodiforms, as evidenced by features such as an only slightly concave dorsal margin of the postorbital, a caudally placed rostral margin of the infratemporal fenestra not extending below the orbit, and long and slender basipterygoid processes divergent from each other at an angle of approximately 80 degrees. However, its postcranial axial skeleton possesses some unique or relatively derived features among basal sauropodomorphs, such as four sacral vertebrae and caudal dorsal vertebrae with laterally expanded neural spine tables. This provides future workers with a reassessment of non-sauropodan sauropodomorphs through the lens of Xingxiulong chengi, which will serve to increase our knowledge on the anatomy, phylogeny, and furthermore, evolution of sauropodomorph dinosaurs. Anat Rec, 303:772-789, 2020. © 2019 American Association for Anatomy., (© 2019 American Association for Anatomy.)