Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationships between measures of malaria at delivery and adverse birth outcomes in a high-transmission area of Uganda.

BACKGROUND Clinical trials of interventions for preventing malaria in pregnancy often use measures of malaria at delivery as their primary outcome. Although the objective of these interventions is to improve birth outcomes, data on associations between different measures of malaria at delivery and adverse birth outcomes are limited. METHODS Data came from 637 Ugandan women enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy. Malaria at delivery was detected using peripheral and placental blood microscopy, placental blood loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and placental histopathology. Multivariate analyses were used to estimate associations between measures of malaria at delivery and risks of low birth weight (LBW), small-for-gestational age (SGA) and preterm birth (PTB). RESULTS Detection of malaria parasites by microscopy or LAMP was not associated with adverse birth outcomes. Presence of malaria pigment detected by histopathology in > 30% of high-powered fields was strongly associated with LBW (aRR=3.42, p=0.02) and SGA (aRR=4.24, p<0.001), but not preterm birth (aRR=0.88, p=0.87). CONCLUSIONS A semi-quantitative classification system based on histopathologically detected malaria pigment provided the best surrogate measure of adverse birth outcomes in a high transmission setting and should be considered for use in malaria in pregnancy intervention studies.
SJTU Entry in Blizzard Challenge 2019

This paper presents the techniques that were used in sjtu-tts entry in Blizzard Challenge 2019. The main architecture is Tacotron with WaveNet vocoder. The corpus in BC2019 is 8 hours audios from a Chinese male speaker with mixed Mandarin and English speech. The audios and transcriptions are found on the Internet with heavily corruption and noise. To deal with the corpus, our system is divided into 4 parts, data pre-processing, spectrogram model, WaveNet vocoder and speech bandwidth extension. The WaveNet vocoder is more relative to the speech quality and the spectrogram model is more relative to the prosody(pitch and duration). We didn’t successfully train a good WaveNet vocoder for the predicted mel-spectrogram. Thus, some useful techniques in other parts have no signiﬁcant improvement after WaveNet vocoding. These attempts which were not included in the ﬁnal submission are also analyzed.
High Threshold Motor Units Are Eventually Recruited During Low Force Efforts to Volitional Fatigue: 3514 Board #6 June 3 9

There is disagreement in the literature regarding the magnitude of relative loads necessary to optimize muscle hypertrophy. Most recommend loads of 60-80% of 1 RM, while others demonstrate similar increases with loads as low as 30% 1 RM, as long as volitional fatigue is reached. PURPOSE: To use a deterministic model of individual motor unit and whole muscle fatigue to evaluate MU recruitment during low and high relative force efforts to volitional fatigue. METHODS: Our deterministic model predicts the forces and force capacities of 120 motor units, and the whole muscle, for the full range of excitations. We estimated: relative force, excitation threshold, initial firing rate, maximum firing rate and excitation adaptation of each MU. During sustained, constant force contractions, we calculated the required excitation level to meet the force demand, and monitored the instantaneous levels of each variable listed above, to determine force and force capacity changes in each active MU and the whole muscle over 0.1 s intervals. The model provided very good estimates of endurance times for intensities ranging from 15% to 90% MVC, compared to published values. RESULTS: The model predicted endurance times of 509.0 s and 14.4 s at 20% and 80% MVC, respectively, at which time all MUs were recruited for both intensities. The 20% MVC condition resulted in larger relative decreases in strength (i.e. ‘fatigue’) for all 120 MUs. At the endurance time for the 20% condition, fatigue was 6.4%, 81.8%, 7.4% and 54.3% for the lowest MU (#1), middle MU (#60), and highest threshold MU (#120) and average MU, respectively. In contrast, at the endurance time for the 80% condition, fatigue was 0.2%, 2.3%, 3.8% and 4.3% for MUs 1, 60, and 120, and average MU, respectively. Excitation adaptations resulted in decreases in firing rates for all motor units, relative to initial maximum rested values. CONCLUSION: The 20% MVC endurance trials resulted in the eventual recruitment of all MUs and > 10-fold greater average fatigue for the MU population compared to the 80% MVC condition. Therefore, low intensity contractions, sustained to volitional fatigue, may provide more challenge to the motor unit population, and a more profound overall stimulus for muscle hypertrophy, compared to high intensity contractions.
Participation and Activities of Daily Living, Cognition, And Motor Function According to Residential Area in Stroke Survivors

Aim (Background): Social participation is important in stroke survivors. Although participation restriction is affected by several factors, a few studies have focused on the effect of living in a particular residential area on participation restriction after stroke. We aimed to investigate the factors affecting participation restriction according to living area in stroke survivors. Materials and methods: One hundred sixty-six stroke patients (including 130 living in an urban area, and 36 living in a rural area) were recruited for this study. The Korean Modified Barthel Index (K-MBI) was used to assess activity of daily living (ADL). The Korean Mini-Mental Exam Status (MMSE-K) was used to assess cognition; motor function was assessed by the Fugl-Meyer function assessment (FMA). Path analysis was used to test a hypothesized model of participation restriction. Results: The proposed path model showed good fit indices. For rural areas, the direct effects were significant between ADLs and participation restriction (β = -0.673). For urban areas, the direct effects were significant between ADLs and participation restriction (β = -0.457), and between cognition and participation restriction (β = -0.252). In both area types, motor function and cognition had a significant direct effect on ADLs. Discussion: For urban community-dwelling stroke survivors, ADLs and cognition had a direct effect on participation restriction. For rural area stroke survivors, ADLs had a direct effect on participation restriction. Conclusion: Activity level exercise programs help reduce participation restriction. It is especially important to address cognition training to improve participation in urban community-dwelling stroke survivors.
New aspects about the search for the most relevant parameters for optimization of SLM materials

While the volumetric energy density is commonly used to qualify a process parameter set, and to quantify its influence on the microstructure and performance of additively manufactured (AM) materials and components, it has been already shown that this description is by no means exhaustive. In this work, new aspects of the optimization of the selective laser melting process are investigated for AM Ti-6Al-4V. We focus on the amount of near-surface residual stress (RS), often blamed for the failure of components, and on the porosity characteristics (amount and spatial distribution). First, using synchrotron x-ray diffraction we show that higher RS in the subsurface region is generated if a lower energy density is used. However, we show that laser de-focusing and sample positioning inside the build chamber also play an eminent role, and we quantify this influence. In parallel, using X-ray Computed Tomography, we observe that porosity is mainly concentrated in the contour region, except in the case where the laser speed is small. The low values of porosity (less than 1%) do not influence RS.
A plausible way for excretion of metal nanoparticles via active targeting

Abstract Even so, the metal nanoparticles (metal NPs) have attractive optical and biomedical applications, the translation of metal NPs into the clinical practice remains a challenge due to their severe accumulation in the body. Active targeting to renal podocytes opens the door for enhancing kidney targeting and clearance. The goal of this study was to assess the excretion of larger particle size through kidney podocyte via active targeting. To reach this goal, PEGylated quantum dots (QDs) were coated with vapreotide (VAP) for selectively reaching somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) expressed in the podocyte cells. This QDs-VAP was tested on isolated primary podocytes, while the flow cytometry (FACS), confocal microscopy (CLSM), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) were used to confirm this hypothesis. The results showed highly specific interactions with podocyte cells as detected by FACS, and CLSM. Moreover, ICP-MS demonstrated higher amount of QDs in the podocyte cells one-hour post-incubation (67.99% ID/g tissue), while the unmodified QDs did not accumulate. This study confirmed that QDs-VAP can target the podocyte’s SSTRs then can be cleared via podocyte cells. Moreover, these results are considered as a highly promising approach for future therapy, targeting, clearance, and diagnosis of podocyte-associated diseases.
Association of Factors With Elevated Amyloid Burden in Clinically Normal Older Individuals.

Importance The Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer disease (A4) Study is an ongoing prevention trial in clinically normal older individuals with evidence of elevated brain amyloid. The large number of participants screened with amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) and standardized assessments provides an unprecedented opportunity to evaluate factors associated with elevated brain amyloid. Objective To investigate the association of elevated amyloid with demographic and lifestyle factors, apolipoprotein E (APOE), neuropsychological testing, and self- and study partner reports of cognitive function. Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study included screening data in the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer Disease (A4) Study collected from April 2014 to December 2017 and classified by amyloid status. Data were was analyzed from 2018 to 2019 across 67 sites in the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan and included 4486 older individuals (age 65-85 years) who were eligible for amyloid PET (clinically normal [Clinical Dementia Rating = 0] and cognitively unimpaired [Mini-Mental State Examination score, ≥25; logical memory IIa 6-18]). Main Outcomes and Measures Screening demographics, lifestyle variables, APOE genotyping, and cognitive testing (Preclinical Alzheimer Cognitive Composite), self- and study partner reports of high-level daily cognitive function (Cognitive Function Index). Florbetapir amyloid PET imaging was used to classify participants as having elevated amyloid (Aβ+) or not having elevated amyloid (Aβ-). Results Amyloid PET results were acquired for 4486 participants (mean [SD] age, 71.29 [4.67] years; 2647 women [59%]), with 1323 (29.5%) classified as Aβ+. Aβ+ participants were slightly older than Aβ-, with no observed differences in sex, education, marital or retirement status, or any self-reported lifestyle factors. Aβ+ participants were more likely to have a family history of dementia (3320 Aβ+ [74%] vs 3050 Aβ- [68%]) and at least 1 APOE ε4 allele (2602 Aβ+ [58%] vs 1122 Aβ- [25%]). Aβ+ participants demonstrated worse performance on screening Preclinical Alzheimer Cognitive Composite results and reported higher change scores on the Cognitive Function Index. Conclusions and Relevance Among a large group of older individuals screening for an Alzheimer disease (AD) prevention trial, elevated brain amyloid was associated with family history and APOE ε4 allele but not with multiple other previously reported risk factors for AD. Elevated amyloid was associated with lower test performance results and increased reports of subtle recent declines in daily cognitive function. These results support the hypothesis that elevated amyloid represents an early stage in the Alzheimer continuum and demonstrate the feasibility of enrolling these high-risk participants in secondary prevention trials aimed at slowing cognitive decline during the preclinical stages of AD.
Accurate and Precise Time-Delay Estimation for Ultrasound Elastography With Prebeamformed Channel Data

Free-hand palpation ultrasound elastography is a noninvasive approach for detecting pathological alteration in tissue. In this method, the tissue is compressed by a handheld probe and displacement of each sample is estimated, a process which is also known as time-delay estimation (TDE). Even with the simplifying assumption that ignores out of plane motion, TDE is an ill-posed problem requiring estimation of axial and lateral displacements for each sample from its intensity. A well-known class of methods for making elastography a well-posed problem is regularized optimization-based methods, which imposes smoothness regularization in the associated cost function. In this article, we propose to utilize channel data that have been compensated for time gain and time delay (introduced by transmission) instead of postbeamformed radio frequency (RF) data in the optimization problem. We name our proposed method Channel data for GLobal Ultrasound Elastography (CGLUE). We analytically derive bias and variances of TDE as functions of data noise for CGLUE and Global Ultrasound Elastography (GLUE) and use the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality to prove that CGLUE provides a TDE with lower bias and variance error. To further illustrate the improved performance of CGLUE, the results of simulation, experimental phantom, and ex-vivo experiments are presented.
Zinc regulates reactive oxygen species generation in platelets

Abstract Vascular complications resulting from atherosclerosis development are a major cause of death. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced by platelets during activation, and have been demonstrated to positively regulate platelet activatory responses. Zn2+ is also an important hemostatic cofactor in platelets, acting both as a platelet agonist and second messenger. Whilst the effect of Zn2+-dependent signaling mechanisms on ROS production in nucleated cells has been demonstrated, comparable roles in platelets have yet to be investigated. In this study we investigated the relationship between fluctuations in cytosolic Zn2 [Zn2+]i and platelet ROS production. Agonist-evoked ROS production, GSH levels and GPx activity are abrogated in platelets treated with the Zn2+-chelator, TPEN. Conversely, increasing platelet [Zn2+]i using Zn2+ ionophores potentiated ROS generation and decreased GSH levels and GPx activity. Zn2+-dependent ROS production was sensitive to pretreatment with DPI or mitoTEMPO, NADPH oxidase and mitochondria inhibitors respectively. Increasing [Zn2+]i resulted in increases of Erk1/2 and JNK phosphorylation. Our data are consistent with a functional association between [Zn2+]i and ROS production in platelets that could influence thrombus formation in a clinical context.
The gaze bias effect in toddlers: Preliminary evidence for the developmental study of visual decision‐making

Abstract Several studies have investigated the interactive relationship between attention and decision‐making, which is known as the gaze bias effect. Although the generalizability of the gaze bias effect has recently been observed among young and older adults, it remains unknown in which developmental period individuals start to exhibit this relationship. This question was addressed in the current study by recruiting 58 toddlers aged 2–4 years. Participants were asked to do a two‐alternative forced‐choice task in which they chose one of two soft toys they preferred while their eye movements were recorded. Results demonstrated that toddlers exhibited gaze bias regardless of age. We also found that the number of gaze shifts during the task increased according to age. These results suggest that the interactive relationship between attention and decision is acquired by the age of two. The implications of the increased number of gaze shifts for visual decision‐making are discussed.
Snapstream: Snapshot-based Interaction in Live Streaming for Visual Art

Live streaming visual art such as drawing or using design software is gaining popularity. An important aspect of live streams is the direct and real-time communication between streamers and viewers. However, currently available text-based interaction limits the expressiveness of viewers as well as streamers, especially when they refer to specific moments or objects in the stream. To investigate the feasibility of using snapshots of streamed content as a way to enhance streamer-viewer interaction, we introduce Snapstream, a system that allows users to take snapshots of the live stream, annotate them, and share the annotated snapshots in the chat. Streamers can also verbally reference a specific snapshot during streaming to respond to viewers' questions or comments. Results from live deployments show that participants communicate more expressively and clearly with increased engagement using Snapstream. Participants used snapshots to reference part of the artwork, give suggestions on it, make fun images or memes, and log intermediate milestones. Our findings suggest that visual interaction enables richer experiences in live streaming.
Effects of Obtrusive Observation and Rules on Classroom Behavior of Adolescents in a Juvenile Residential Treatment Setting

Several studies have used interdependent group contingencies to decrease disruptive behavior and increase appropriate behavior for groups of adolescents. In addition, one study demonstrated that rules plus feedback about rule violations, without additional group contingencies, decreased problem behavior and increased appropriate behavior for adolescents in three classrooms within a residential juvenile facility. Given the rapid behavior change observed in the aforementioned study, it is possible behavior changes were produced by reactivity to obtrusive observation from program implementers. To address this question, we used two A-B designs in conjunction with the conservative dual-criterion (CDC) method to evaluate the extent to which obtrusive observation alone and rules, without systematic consequences, decreased problem behaviors in two classrooms within a residential juvenile facility. Results from visual and CDC analyses indicate that (a) obtrusive observation did not affect problem behavior in either classroom and (b) rules decreased problem behavior in both classrooms and increased appropriate behavior in one classroom. In addition, a measure of social validity indicated that the procedures and outcomes were acceptable to the classroom teacher.
Risk of severe hypoglycaemia and its impact in type 2 diabetes in DEVOTE

To undertake a post‐hoc analysis, utilizing a hypoglycaemia risk score based on DEVOTE trial data, to investigate if a high risk of severe hypoglycaemia was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events, and whether reduced rates of severe hypoglycaemia in patients identified as having the highest risk affected the risk of cardiovascular outcomes.
Open-Source Automatic Segmentation of Ocular Structures and Biomarkers of Microbial Keratitis on Slit-Lamp Photography Images Using Deep Learning

We propose a fully-automatic deep learning-based algorithm for segmentation of ocular structures and microbial keratitis (MK) biomarkers on slit-lamp photography (SLP) images. The dataset consisted of SLP images from 133 eyes with manual annotations by a physician, P1. A modified region-based convolutional neural network, SLIT-Net, was developed and trained using P1's annotations to identify and segment four pathological regions of interest (ROIs) on diffuse white light images (stromal infiltrate (SI), hypopyon, white blood cell (WBC) border, corneal edema border), one pathological ROI on diffuse blue light images (epithelial defect (ED)), and two non-pathological ROIs on all images (corneal limbus, light reflexes). To assess inter-reader variability, 75 eyes were manually annotated for pathological ROIs by a second physician, P2. Performance was evaluated using the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) and Hausdorff distance (HD). Using seven-fold cross-validation, the DSC of the algorithm (as compared to P1) for all ROIs was good (range: 0.62–0.95) on all 133 eyes. For the subset of 75 eyes with manual annotations by P2, the DSC for pathological ROIs ranged from 0.69–0.85 (SLIT-Net) vs. 0.37–0.92 (P2). DSCs for SLIT-Net were not significantly different than P2 for segmenting hypopyons (p > 0.05) and higher than P2 for WBCs (p < 0.001) and edema (p < 0.001). DSCs were higher for P2 for segmenting SIs (p < 0.001) and EDs (p < 0.001). HDs were lower for P2 for segmenting SIs (p = 0.005) and EDs (p < 0.001) and not significantly different for hypopyons (p > 0.05), WBCs (p > 0.05), and edema (p > 0.05). This prototype fully-automatic algorithm to segment MK biomarkers on SLP images performed to expectations on an exploratory dataset and holds promise for quantification of corneal physiology and pathology.
Identifying barriers and facilitators to implementing family-centred care in adult audiology practices: a COM-B interview study exploring staff perspectives

Abstract Objective: This study explored staff perspectives of the barriers and facilitators to improving the implementation of family-centred care (FCC) in audiology practice. Design: Semi-structured interviews, informed by the COM-B (Capability–Opportunity–Motivation–Behaviour) model, were conducted with staff members at a private hearing care company in Australia. Study Sample: Thirteen participants were interviewed including managers, clinicians, and front-of-house staff. Results: Staff with different roles had different perspectives on barriers; however, the main barriers included: (1) insufficient knowledge regarding the principles of FCC and its benefits; (2) insufficient knowledge regarding the reasons why a family member should attend the appointment; (3) inadequate skills in how to ask for family member attendance; (4) experiencing discomfort when asking clients to bring a family member to their appointment; (5) inconsistent training and tools to support the implementation of FCC; (6) organisational culture not supporting FCC; and (7) a lack of confidence in abilities to manage conflict between clients and family members within appointments. Conclusions: The study indicated that there were numerous barriers to be overcome for staff to further implement FCC into their current practice. The interview findings will be used to develop an intervention to improve the implementation of FCC in audiology practice.