Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deep Learning in Biomedical Optics

This article reviews deep learning applications in biomedical optics with a particular emphasis on image formation. The review is organized by imaging domains within biomedical optics and includes microscopy, fluorescence lifetime imaging, in vivo microscopy, widefield endoscopy, optical coherence tomography, photoacoustic imaging, diffuse tomography, and functional optical brain imaging. For each of these domains, we summarize how deep learning has been applied and highlight methods by which deep learning can enable new capabilities for optics in medicine. Challenges and opportunities to improve translation and adoption of deep learning in biomedical optics are also summarized. Lasers Surg. Med. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC
The expression of care: Alloparental care frequency predicts neural control of facial muscles in primates

The adaptive value of facial expressions has been debated in evolutionary biology ever since Darwin's seminal work. Among mammals, primates, including humans, exhibit the most intricate facial displays. Although previous work has focused on the role of sociality in the evolution of primate facial expressions, this relationship has not been verified in a wide sample of species. Here, we examine the relationship between allomaternal care (paternal or alloparental) and the morphology of three orofacial brainstem nuclei (facial; trigeminal motor; hypoglossal) across primates to test the hypothesis that allomaternal care explains variation in the complexity of facial expressions, proxied by relative facial nucleus size and neuropil fraction. The latter represents the proportion of synaptically dense tissue and may, therefore, correlate with dexterity. We find that alloparental care frequency predicts relative neuropil fraction of the facial nucleus, even after controlling for social system organization, whereas allomaternal care is not associated with the trigeminal motor or hypoglossal nuclei. Overall, this work suggests that alloparenting requires increased facial dexterity to facilitate nonverbal communication between infants and their nonparent caregivers and/or between caregivers. Accordingly, alloparenting and complex facial expressions are likely to have coevolved in primates.
Displacement between anterior chamber width obtained by swept-source anterior segment optical coherence tomography and white-to-white distance

Purpose To determine the relationship between the external limbal location, represented by white-to-white (WTW) distance, and the actual angle location, represented by spur-to-spur (STS) and angle-to-angle (ATA) distances. Methods 166 eyes from 166 participants were imaged using CASIA2 anterior chamber optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) and LenStar LS 900 optical biometer. The horizontal ATA and STS were measured using the swept-source Fourier-domain AS-OCT (CASIA2). The horizontal WTW was automatically measured using LenStar. The displacement lengths (DL) between WTW-STS and WTW-ATA were calculated. Bland-Altman plots and intraclass correlation were performed. Results The study showed that WTW has a positive correlation with STS (ICC = 0.82, p<0.001) and ATA (ICC = 0.82, p<0.001). The Bland-Altman analysis demonstrated that the mean difference of WTW-STS is 0.10 mm (95% CI 0.06 to 0.14 mm) with limits of agreement of -0.42 to 0.63 mm between WTW and STS, and the mean difference of WTW-ATA is 0.10 mm (95% CI 0.06 to 0.15 mm) with limits of agreement of -0.48 to 0.64 mm between WTW and ATA. Linear regression with adjustment showed that a WTW value greater than 12.07 mm is associated with a greater DL (WTW-STS DL ß 0.18, p = 0.003; WTW-ATA DL ß 0.14, p = 0.03). Conclusions Greater WTW was significantly associated with higher displacement of WTW from the two distances representing anterior chamber width. External limbal location may not accurately represent the actual angle location in eyes with larger WTW.
Corticosteroids in SARS-COV2 infection: certainties and uncertainties in clinical practice

ABSTRACT Introduction The SARS-COV-2 pandemic is a worldwide public health problem due to the large medical burden and limited number of therapies available. Corticosteroids have a rather unclear efficacy in viral non-SARS-COV-2 pneumonias and therefore their use is not universally recommended. In SARS-COV-2 pneumonia however, it is expected that they can reduce the deleterious consequences of the virus-related systemic inflammation. Areas covered a MEDLINE search covering the period 1995–2020 was completed to identify relevant papers. SARS-COV-2 pathogenesis is very complex and is represented by the interplay of many cytokine-driven inflammation pathways. Its most severe form so called cytokine storm, is an exaggerate reaction of the host infected by the virus rapidly resulting in multiple organ dysfunction (MODS). Corticosteroids have the potential to blunt the inflammation response in such patients, but their efficacy is not the same for all patients. Further on the certainties and uncertainties regarding the efficacy of this therapy in SARS-COV-2 pneumonia are discussed Expert Opinion In patients with severe SARS-COV-2 pneumonia, corticosteroids can be efficacious, but it is still not clear if they can be safely used in patients with comorbid cardiovascular disease or how the optimal duration of therapy can be established.
Short/long-term cryopreservation prior to comet assay of whole-blood leukocytes and in vitro-cultured lung fibroblasts

Abstract Single-cell gel electrophoresis (comet assay) is a valuable test that can be used in ecotoxicological, epidemiological, and biomonitoring contexts. We assessed the effects of short- (without cryopreservation) and long-term (with cryopreservation) storage of DMEM-cultivated human peripheral blood leukocytes (HPBLs) and a human lung fibroblast cell line (FLECH-104) on comet assay results. Samples were stored for 6 or 24 h at room temperature (23°С) or 4 °C and frozen at −80 °C or −196 °C for 1, 2, or 4 weeks. Short-term storage led to significant increases in the comet tail intensity (TI) and Olive tail moment (OTM) in HPBL and FLECH-104 samples. Freezing FLECH-104 samples at −80°С and −196°С resulted in TI mean increases, with no differences in OTM. All frozen HPBL samples did not exhibit significant increases in TI or OTM, and instead exhibited a slight decrease in TI versus the control at both −80 °C and −196 °C. Increased frequency of highly damaged cells was observed in FLECH-104 and HPBL cultures during both short-term storage and after freezing, which may indicate a significant destructive effect. Therefore, freezing of cell cultures and whole blood according to our protocol is not recommended.
The impact of delayed management of fall-related hip fracture management on health outcomes for African American older adults

Supplemental digital content is available in the text. BACKGROUND Black hip fracture patients experience worse health outcomes than otherwise similar White patients, but causes of these disparities are not known. We sought to determine if delays in hip fracture surgery and/or hospital structures contribute to racial disparities in hip fracture outcomes. METHODS Using 2006 to 2016 Trauma Quality Program Public Use Files, we identified hip fracture patients with primary mechanisms of fall from standing and determined surgical treatment category (no surgery, surgery within 24 hours after arrival, surgery 24–48 hours after arrival, surgery more than 48 hours after arrival) as well as hospital structure characteristics (trauma center designation, teaching status, profit status, bed size). We used generalized structural equation models to conduct path analyses and determine if hip fracture treatment and hospital characteristics mediated the relationship between race (non-Hispanic Black/non-Hispanic White) and outcomes (complications, length of stay, disposition). RESULTS Non-Hispanic Black patients were more likely than non-Hispanic White patients to receive treatment at an academic medical center (49.1% vs. 28.0%), at a hospital with >600 inpatient beds (39.5% vs. 25.3%), and at a level I or II trauma center (86.8% vs. 77.7%); were more likely to go without hip fracture repair surgery (22.8% vs. 21.4%); and were more likely to have delayed surgery >48 hours after hospital arrival (15.5% vs. 10.6%). Path analysis suggests hip fracture treatment group and hospital characteristics mediate the relationship with complications, length of stay, and disposition. CONCLUSION Non-Hispanic Black patients with fall-related hip fracture are more likely to experience delays in care, complications, and longer inpatient stays. Hospital characteristics contribute to increased risk of complications and longer length of stay, both as independent determinants of outcomes and as determinants of delays in hip fracture surgery. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic and epidemiologic, level III.
Serum survivin is decreased in women with preeclampsia

ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate the serum survivin level in preeclampsia. Methods: Eighty-eight pregnancies complicated with preeclampsia and 88 gestational-age (GA)-matched uncomplicated pregnancies were evaluated. Results: Mean serum survivin was detected to be significantly decreased in the early- (EOPE) and late-onset (LOPE) preeclampsia subgroups than the GA-matched control-groups; and were comparable in EOPE- and LOPE-groups after correction for GA. Serum survivin had weak negative correlations with systolic and diastolic arterial blood pressure. Conclusion: The serum survivin level was decreased in preeclamptic patients than the GA-matched controls. More comprehensive studies are needed to clarify the timing and extent of placental apoptosis in preeclampsia.
Probing Lexical Ambiguity: Word Vectors Encode Number and Relatedness of Senses

Lexical ambiguity-the phenomenon of a single word having multiple, distinguishable senses-is pervasive in language. Both the degree of ambiguity of a word (roughly, its number of senses) and the relatedness of those senses have been found to have widespread effects on language acquisition and processing. Recently, distributional approaches to semantics, in which a word's meaning is determined by its contexts, have led to successful research quantifying the degree of ambiguity, but these measures have not distinguished between the ambiguity of words with multiple related senses versus multiple unrelated meanings. In this work, we present the first assessment of whether distributional meaning representations can capture the ambiguity structure of a word, including both the number and relatedness of senses. On a very large sample of English words, we find that some, but not all, distributional semantic representations that we test exhibit detectable differences between sets of monosemes (unambiguous words; N = 964), polysemes (with multiple related senses; N = 4,096), and homonyms (with multiple unrelated senses; N = 355). Our findings begin to answer open questions from earlier work regarding whether distributional semantic representations of words, which successfully capture various semantic relationships, also reflect fine-grained aspects of meaning structure that influence human behavior. Our findings emphasize the importance of measuring whether proposed lexical representations capture such distinctions: In addition to standard benchmarks that test the similarity structure of distributional semantic models, we need to also consider whether they have cognitively plausible ambiguity structure.
Application and comparative analysis of 3.0T MRI and ultrasound in diagnosing CSP after caesarean section.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of 3.0T MRI and ultrasonography in the diagnosis of uterine scar pregnancy (CSP) after caesarean section, and to compare their diagnostic value for CSP. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective analysis was conducted on 60 patients with CSP treated in our hospital over a period of July 2018 to March 2020. All patients underwent 3.0T MRI, ultrasonography, and surgical termination of pregnancy and pathological analysis. The value of 3.0T MRI and ultrasonography in the diagnosis of CSP was analyzed. RESULTS (1) The 60 patients were pathologically analyzed. Among these patients, 2 of whom were trophoblastic diseases, 5 were pregnancy abortion, 8 were cervical pregnancy, and 45 were CSP. (2) The results of ultrasound detection were 37 cases of CSP, 7 cases of misdiagnosis, and 8 cases of missed diagnosis; 3.0T MRI results were 44 cases of CSP, 1 case of misdiagnosis, and 1 case of missed diagnosis. (3) The sensitivity (97.78%), specificity (93.33%), coincidence rate (96.67%), positive diagnosis rate (97.78%), negative diagnosis rate (93.33%), AUC (0.973), and 95% CI (0.914-0.996) of 3.0T MRI in diagnosing CSP were significantly higher than those of ultrasound diagnosis (82.22%, 53.33%, 84.09%, 84.09%, 50%, 0.681, 0.051-0.776) (P<0.05). CONCLUSION The coincidence rate of 3.0T MRI in the diagnosis of CSP after caesarean section is significantly better than that of ultrasound diagnosis, and it can be used to provide reference for clinical diagnosis of CSP after cesarean section.
A machine learning framework to predict antibiotic resistance traits and yet unknown genes underlying resistance to specific antibiotics in bacterial strains

Recently, the frequency of observing bacterial strains without known genetic components underlying phenotypic resistance to antibiotics has increased. There are several strains of bacteria lacking known resistance genes; however, they demonstrate resistance phenotype to drugs of that family. Although such strains are fewer compared to the overall population, they pose grave emerging threats to an already heavily challenged area of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), where death tolls have reached ~700 000 per year and a grim projection of ~10 million deaths per year by 2050 looms. Considering the fact that development of novel antibiotics is not keeping pace with the emergence and dissemination of resistance, there is a pressing need to decipher yet unknown genetic mechanisms of resistance, which will enable developing strategies for the best use of available interventions and show the way for the development of new drugs. In this study, we present a machine learning framework to predict novel AMR factors that are potentially responsible for resistance to specific antimicrobial drugs. The machine learning framework utilizes whole-genome sequencing AMR genetic data and antimicrobial susceptibility testing phenotypic data to predict resistance phenotypes and rank AMR genes by their importance in discriminating the resistance from the susceptible phenotypes. In summary, we present here a bioinformatics framework for training machine learning models, evaluating their performances, selecting the best performing model(s) and finally predicting the most important AMR loci for the resistance involved.
Roadside surveys of drinking and driving in Cameroon

Abstract Objective This study aimed to assess the prevalence of drinking and driving on roadways in urban areas and highways in Cameroon, and to determine the associations between drinking and driving and socio-demographic factors. Methods A cross-sectional study of motor vehicle drivers was performed on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between May and September 2020 with three driver groups: (1) random motor vehicle drivers (including riders) on major highways, (2) drivers recruited at car stations in Yaoundé, and (3) at fuel stations in Douala. Alcohol was measured using breathalyzers, and a questionnaire collected socio-demographic data. Results In total, 2402 motor vehicle drivers were asked to participate in the study and 1701 (70.8%) gave informed consent. The vast majority (98.6%) were men. Drivers aged 30-39 years constituted the largest age group on highways and in Yaoundé, whereas 18-29 years was the largest age group in Douala. The highest prevalence of alcohol was observed among drivers in Yaoundé, which included mainly clandestine taxi car drivers and motorcycle taxi riders, where about 30% had blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) above the legal limit of 0.08%. The proportion with BACs above the legal limit was about 6% among the drivers in Douala, which included mainly motorcycle taxi riders, and about 4% among drivers on highways. Conclusions The findings indicate that drinking and driving is a major traffic safety problem on Cameroonian public roads, especially among motorcycle taxi riders and clandestine taxi drivers in towns, which represent the major mass transportation means in the country. Drinking and driving education and legislation should be better developed and enforced in order to reduce the number road traffic crashes.
Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Interstitial Pneumonia Exhibit Pancreatic Hyperenzymemia and Not Acute Pancreatitis

Objectives Gastrointestinal manifestations of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) have been well established, but pancreatic involvement is under debate. Our aims were to evaluate the presence of acute pancreatitis in COVID-19 patients and to assess the frequency of pancreatic hyperenzymemia. Methods From April 1, 2020, to April 30, 2020, 110 consecutive patients (69 males, 41 females; mean age, 63.0 years; range, 24–93 years) met these criteria and were enrolled in the study. The clinical data and serum activity of pancreatic amylase and lipase were assayed in all patients using commercially available kits. Results None of the patients studied developed clinical signs or morphological alterations compatible with acute pancreatitis. However, it was found that 24.5% of the patients had amylase values above 53 IU/L and 16.4% had lipase values above 300 IU/L. Only 1 patient (0.9%) had both amylase and lipase values in excess of 3-fold the upper normal limit without clinical signs of pancreatitis. Conclusions The presence of pancreatic hyperenzymemia in a patient with COVID-19 requires the management of these patients be guided by clinical evaluation and not merely by evaluation of the biochemical results.
Progress of recovery of low concentration coal bed methane

A great amount of low concentration coal bed methane are released during coal mining,and it is important for energy utilization and environmental protection to make good use of this resource. The challenge of the recovery of low concentration coal bed methane is to separate nitrogen and methane economically. In this paper,several kinds of CH4/N2 separation technologies are introduced,and their application prospect in coal bed methane concentration is discussed. Researches on different adsorbents in pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process for nitrogen and methane separation are reviewed as well as their advantages and disadvantages in coal bed methane concentration. Preparation of carbon molecular sieves (CMS) is also presented to make the CMS more suitable for coal bed methane concentration.
The effect of online training-based continuous nursing care for rectal cancer-patients undergoing permanent colostomy.

OBJECTIVE The study explored and analyzed the effects of online training based continuous nursing care on the health-related life quality and self-care ability of rectal cancer patients undergoing permanent colostomy. METHODS A total of 119 patients who were hospitalized and underwent permanent colostomy due to rectal cancer from January 2018 to December 2019 were collected as research subjects and were divided into the control group (n=57) and the observation group (n=62) based on their admission time. The control group received routine nursing, while the observation group was treated with online training based continuous nursing care in addition to routine nursing. Both groups' self-efficacy, self-care ability, quality of life, psychological status and complications within 6 months after discharge were compared. RESULTS Both groups had increased scores in self-efficacy, and their dimensional scores and total scores of self-care ability after intervention were higher compared with pre-intervention (P<0.05), and the indexes of the observation group after intervention were significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.05). The two groups had remarkably increased SF-36 scores of each dimension after intervention compared with pre-intervention (P<0.05), and the observation group had apparently higher SF-36 scores than the control group after intervention (P<0.05). The two groups had increased SAS and SDS grades in post-intervention compared with pre-intervention (P<0.05), and the observation group had notably higher SAS and SDS scores than the control group (P<0.05). The complication rate within 6 months after discharge in the observation group was obviously lower than which in the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION An online training based continuous caring model can effectively improve the self-care ability and self-efficacy of rectal cancer patients with permanent enterostomy, thus promoting better life quality and psychological states, and effectively reducing the incidence of complications after discharge.
Cancer incidence and cancer death in relation to tobacco smoking in a population‐based Australian cohort study

Tobacco smoke is a known carcinogen, but the magnitude of smoking‐related cancer risk depends on country‐specific, generational smoking patterns. We quantified cancer risk in relation to smoking in a population‐based cohort, the 45 and Up Study (2006‐2009) in New South Wales, Australia. Cox proportional hazards regressions estimated adjusted hazard ratios (HR) by self‐reported smoking history at baseline (2006‐2009) for incident, primary cancers via linkage to cancer registry data to 2013 and cancer death data to 2015. Among 229 028 participants aged ≥45 years, 18 475 cancers and 5382 cancer deaths occurred. Current‐smokers had increased risks of all cancers combined (HR = 1.42, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.34‐1.51), cancers of the lung (HR = 17.66, 95%CI, 14.65‐21.29), larynx (HR = 11.29, 95%CI, 5.49‐23.20), head‐and‐neck (HR = 2.53, 95%CI, 1.87‐3.41), oesophagus (HR = 3.84, 95%CI, 2.33‐6.35), liver (HR = 4.07, 95%CI, 2.55‐6.51), bladder (HR = 3.08, 95%CI, 2.00‐4.73), pancreas (HR = 2.68, 95%CI, 1.93‐3.71), colorectum (HR = 1.31, 95%CI, 1.09‐1.57) and unknown primary site (HR = 3.26, 95%CI, 2.19‐4.84) versus never‐smokers. Hazards increased with increasing smoking intensity; compared to never‐smokers, lung cancer HR = 9.22 (95%CI, 5.14‐16.55) for 1‐5 cigarettes/day and 38.61 (95%CI, 25.65‐58.13) for >35 cigarettes/day. Lung cancer risk was lower with quitting at any age but remained higher than never‐smokers for quitters aged >25y. By age 80y, an estimated 48.3% of current‐smokers (41.1% never‐smokers) will develop cancer, and 14% will develop lung cancer, including 7.7% currently smoking 1‐5 cigarettes/day and 26.4% for >35 cigarettes/day (1.0% never‐smokers). Cancer risk for Australian smokers is significant, even for 'light' smokers. These contemporary estimates underpin the need for continued investment in strategies to prevent smoking uptake and facilitate cessation, which remain key to reducing cancer morbidity and mortality worldwide.