Toulon Var Technologies (France)

Unilateral biportal endoscopy (UBE) is increasingly used for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation. In this bimanual technique, adapting surgeon positioning according to herniation laterality may negatively affect ergonomics and operating room workflow. The feasibility and clinical impact of a fixed surgeon-positioning strategy independent of herniation laterality remain insufficiently documented. Can a fixed surgeon positioning strategy be safely and effectively applied across all lumbar disc herniation types in UBE? A standardized left-sided surgeon positioning strategy is described for the treatment of lumbar disc herniations, including central, paramedian, foraminal, extraforaminal, and calcified or migrated herniations. Interlaminar, transforaminal, and extraforaminal approaches are detailed, with technical adaptations allowing maintenance of a constant left-sided surgeon position. This strategy was evaluated in a retrospective consecutive case series including all patients who underwent UBE for symptomatic lumbar disc herniation between August 2024 and December 2024, with a 3-month follow-up. Sixty-seven patients were included. Left-sided disc herniations accounted for 57% of cases (n = 38), while right-sided herniations represented 43% (n = 29). The standardized left-sided surgeon positioning strategy was feasible in all cases, with no conversion to open surgery and no change in surgeon position. Mean operative time was 35 ± 11 minutes for left-sided herniations and 42 ± 14 minutes for right-sided herniations (P = 0.021). Maintaining a constant left-sided surgeon position in UBE allows safe decompression across the full spectrum of lumbar disc herniation types without compromising surgical access or visualization.

Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) are effective bariatric procedures but are associated with long-term complications, including gastroesophageal reflux and marginal ulcers. The metabolic reversible sleeve (MRS) is a novel, reversible procedure designed to preserve gastric anatomy while providing metabolic benefits. The aim of the current article is to report the safety outcomes of the first 10 consecutive patients undergoing MRS. Preoperative evaluation included nutritional, psychiatric, and radiological assessments. The operative technique involved laparoscopic gastric bipartition and jejunal bypass, preserving the stomach. Perioperative management followed a standardized protocol. Safety outcomes, including intraoperative complications, postoperative morbidity, and early readmissions, were recorded. Ten patients (5 females, 5 males; mean BMI: 50.74 kg/m2) underwent MRS. All procedures were completed laparoscopically without conversion. Operative time averaged 159 ± 31 minutes. There were no intraoperative complications. Postoperative recovery was uneventful in all patients: no anastomotic leaks, bleeding, or need for reoperation occurred. All patients were discharged between postoperative day 2 and 3. Early postoperative laboratory values (hemoglobin and C Reactive protein (CRP)) were within expected ranges (mean of hemoglobin = 13.3 ± 1.0 g/dL, mean of CRP = 90.4 ± 36.9 mg/L). Mild, transient nausea occurred in 2 patients and resolved spontaneously. In this initial series, MRS appears to be a safe and feasible bariatric procedure, with no major perioperative complications. Larger studies with long-term follow-up are required to confirm safety and efficacy.

Understanding cetacean whistles is crucial for assessing their social interactions, behaviours, and responses to anthropic activities. Identifying the various types of whistles present in acoustic recordings is often challenging, but necessary for this purpose. To facilitate this process, we have developed a semi-automated deep learning approach called the “Draw Your Own Contours” (DYOC) method. This is available as an open-source software along with its associated dataset. It utilises YOLOv8m and ResNet18 to identify whistle contours. DYOC was applied to 808 minutes of audio recordings of wild, free-ranging short-beaked common dolphins from the Bay of Biscay, France. It enabled the annotation of 8,730 whistle contours, six times faster than manual annotation. These recordings were associated with observations of dolphin behaviour, the presence of fishing nets, and the activation of the DOLPHINFREE acoustic beacon. Analyses revealed that these variables affected the signal-to-noise ratio, the number of inflections, and the frequency and/or duration of recorded whistles. This study provides the first characterisation of whistle features for a population of short-beaked common dolphins in the Bay of Biscay. The annotation of whistle contours using the DYOC method helped reveal the complex acoustic behaviour of dolphins in response to external variables.

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy has originally been described in the 1950s in concussion-providing sports such as boxing. Since the early 2010s, the concept is used for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffering from long-lasting neuropsychological symptoms following blast-related mild traumatic brain injury. The aim of the work is to synthesize evidence regarding any correlation between wartime blast exposure in military veterans and damage to white matter tracts on neuroimaging.Systematic review conducted on Medline database from inception to 2024 using the MeSH terms "blast" and "white matter" in the title, looking for military patient series with extractable data correlating neuropsychological symptoms and damage to white matter tracts on diffusion tensor brain MRI.The research yielded 11 articles for a total of 544 patients, with a mean age of 32.9 (± 7.5) years-old, and male / female sex ratio of 21.6/1. Most frequently damage white matter tracts were the corticospinal tract (88.2%), anterior thalamic radiations (81.2%), cingulum (60.0%), SLF (55.9%), ILF (27.4%), the uncinate (27.1%), the fornices (27.1%). 5 articles (n = 293 patients) reported correlation between white matter tracts damage and physical symptoms, with direct correlation for the forceps major, the IFOF, the ILF. 7 articles (n = 455 blast patients) reported correlation between white matter tracts damage and PTSD, with direct correlation for the ILF and SLF.There is a growing body of evidence suggesting a correlation between blast-induced mTBI, microstructural damage to specific white matter tracts on diffusion tensor brain MRI, and neuropsychological symptoms (level of evidence 3a).

• Hydrological forecast value is evaluated for hydropower generation. • Elements of the forecasting chain are altered to determine their relative importance. • No single element has a dominant contribution to forecast value. • To improve forecast value, at least three elements must be improved simultaneously. • Hydrological model, forcing data and objective function are the most important elements. Water resources management relies heavily on hydrological forecasting, and continuous improvements are made to better manage hydropower reservoirs and improve their profitability. The significance of hydrological forecasting has been extensively studied in the literature, but the relative value of the various elements composing a forecasting system has been less investigated to date, making it hard to pinpoint which element to focus research on to improve the overall profitability of hydropower systems. This paper investigates if one or more of the following four elements of the hydrological forecasting chain has more impact on the variance in profit generation in an operational context, namely 1) the hydrological model, 2) the hydrometeorological dataset, 3) the objective function used for calibration, and 4) the bias/dispersion in the ensemble streamflow prediction (ESP) system. The value of these elements is assessed by making a full factorial design experiment. The elements are changed in various combinations to generate various ESPs, feeding a test bench which simulates a single hydropower generating reservoir. A linear programming algorithm is then used to optimize water management decisions. The value of the analyzed elements in the forecasting chain is evaluated by comparing the variance in the average profit generated by each of the ESPs, grouped by combination for each element. The impacts of other constraints such as energy purchase price and minimum load constraints are also evaluated. For the studied system, results show that the elements taken independently have little impact on the average profit variance, while higher-order interactions between the elements lead to a larger impact on profitability. However, bias/dispersion and its interactions with other elements show no significant impact on the profit variance under the operational conditions in this study. Results show that multiple elements need to be simultaneously improved to achieve this goal.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of Kinesio Taping (KT) application on the single-leg counter-movement jump (CMJ) and surface electromyographic (sEMG) activity in trained female athletes, in both resting and fatigued states. In this single-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial, twenty-four healthy trained female athletes were randomly assigned to either the KT (n=12) or the sham tape group (n=12). KT was applied using an inhibition technique on rectus femoris, vastus medialis, biceps femoris, and lateral gastrocnemius muscles of the dominant leg. A single-leg CMJ test and sEMG activity were recorded at baseline (no tape), as well as at 1 hour, 24 hours, and 48 hours after taping. To induce acute neuromuscular fatigue, a 30-second repetitive CMJ test was used to evaluate KT in fatigued states. In the resting states, both groups exhibited improvements in jump height, power, mean velocity, and sEMG activity (%EMGmax) over time, with no significant between-group differences. The single-leg CMJ performance was similarly decreased after the muscle fatigue protocol in both groups, showing no between-group differences. Our findings suggest that KT treatment does not appear to influence jumping performance, sEMG activity, or muscle fatigue in female athletes.