cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Fusion of Various Band Selection Methods for Hyperspectral Imagery
Creators: name: Wang, Yulei
name: Wang, Lin
name: Xie, Hongye
name: Chang, Chein-I
Publisher: name: MDPI
Year: 2019
Subjects: Band prioritization (BP)
Band selection (BS)
Band selection fusion (BSF)
Information divergence (ID)
Progressive BSF (PBSF)
Simultaneous BSF (SBSF)
Virtual dimensionality (VD)

description: This paper presents an approach to band selection fusion (BSF) which fuses bands produced by a set of different band selection (BS) methods for a given number of bands to be selected, nBS. Since each BS method has its own merit in finding the desired bands, various BS methods produce different band subsets with the same nBS. In order to take advantage of these different band subsets, the proposed BSF is performed by first finding the union of all band subsets produced by a set of BS methods as a joint band subset (JBS). Due to the fact that a band selected by one BS method in JBS may be also selected by other BS methods, in this case each band in JBS is prioritized by the frequency of the band appearing in the band subsets to be fused. Such frequency is then used to calculate the priority probability of this particular band in the JBS. Because the JBS is obtained by taking the union of all band subsets, the number of bands in the JBS is at least equal to or greater than nBS. So, there may be more than nBS bands, in which case, BSF uses the frequency-calculated priority probabilities to select nBS bands from JBS. Two versions of BSF, called progressive BSF and simultaneous BSF, are developed for this purpose. Of particular interest is that BSF can prioritize bands without band de-correlation, which has been a major issue in many BS methods using band prioritization as a criterion to select bands.
Highlighted Findings Related to Use of Smokeless Tobacco and Prevalence of Precancerous Oral Lesions from Wave 1 (2013-2014) of Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health dataset
Creators: name: NALLAPANENI, SRAVYA
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2020

description: Aim: To determine if there is any difference in the prevalence of pre-cancerous oral lesions in people using smokeless tobacco compared to people who are not using smokeless tobacco from wave 1 of Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health dataset
Background:
One of the major reasons of chronic disease and death all around the world including United States is the use of tobacco. Smokeless tobacco is one of the most prevalent forms of tobacco used in adults. (2) Antioxidant defense mechanisms are affected in oral epithelium due to free radicals of oxygen and nitrogen, which are produced during the consumption of snuff. Free radicals are capable of promoting mutations by complex mechanisms (11) According to an article by Galucci et al. purchase of smokeless tobacco by retailers and wholesalers from manufacturers rose by 2.22 million pounds within one year. They found that the sales of moist snuff accounted to 85.6% of total smokeless tobacco sales in 2011. (17)
Methods:
Data that is used for the analysis are from wave 1 of PATH dataset which has used a four- stage stratified area probability sample design with a two-phase design for sampling adults in the final stage. Population Assessment of Tobacco Health screens households by using computer assisted personal interviewing while adult and youth interviews were done using parent interview and computer assisted self-interviewing. Statistical analysis of the data is done using SAS 9.4 software
Results:
In the adjusted multivariable regression model the covariate age is the only one which yielded statistically significant results (p
Discussion:
Public health research plays a very significant role in preventing major global health issues. Oral cancer is one such problem which is affecting people world-wide based on the empirical evidence of many studies. Research shows that use of smokeless tobacco can result in the occurrence of pre- cancerous oral lesions and oral cancer. Considering other covariates such as age and smoking the results of this analysis showed that there is a statistically significant association between usage of smokeless tobacco and occurrence of pre-cancerous oral lesions.
Analyse von Wassermenge und Wasserbeschaffenheit für Klima- und Bewirtschaftungsszenarien : Aufbau und Nutzung einer Modellkaskade für das Spreeeinzugsgebiet
Creators: name: Pohle, Ina
Publisher: name: Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde, Koblenz
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Water resources research

description: Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung / BfG – Jahrgang: 60.2016,3 - ISSN 1439-1783
Stillbirth Risk during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Arizona, USA.
Creators: name: Khare, Smriti
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2020

description: INTRODUCTION:  Influenza pandemic of 1918 was the most devastating pandemics to date, affecting approximately one-third of the population worldwide. Prior works have documented the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on pregnant mothers and pregnancy outcomes like birth defects, miscarriages or preterm births, but the impact of infection on stillbirth is not studied well.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the stillbirth risk due to the 1918 influenza pandemic in Arizona, USA.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study to assess the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on stillbirth risk. We manually retrieved 21,334 birth records for the Maricopa County of Arizona state for the years 1915-1925 from a publicly available genealogy database. Logistic regression using SAS statistical software was done to assess the impact of influenza on the risk of stillbirth. Additionally, the study evaluated the risk of stillbirth with advanced maternal age.

RESULTS: The results did not show a significant impact of a pandemic on stillbirth risk. January 1920 experienced the highest rate of stillbirths with 59 stillbirths per 1000 births, 9-10 months later, the deadly second pandemic wave. There was also a higher rate of stillbirth in July 1919, with 49 stillbirths per 1000 births.
Additionally, there was a significant association between stillbirth and advanced maternal age (P-value 0.0096, at 0.05 level of significance) with stillbirth risk of 1.42 (95% Confidence interval: 1.17, 1.72) in younger women (<35 yrs.) compared to older women (?35 yrs.). The results showed that the risk of stillbirth is least if the age of the mother is approximately 26 years at the time of pregnancy.

DISCUSSION: Though the results did not show a significant impact of the pandemic on stillbirth risk, the study did observe a higher rate of stillbirth in July 1919, consistent with natality decline reported in the previous study in the same month in Arizona. Also, the results are in line with prior work and found that there is a high risk of stillbirths with advanced maternal age.
Effekte des Klimawandels und von Reduktionsmaßnahmen auf die Nährstoffeinträge und -frachten im Elbegebiet bis zur Jahrhundermitte
Creators: name: Roers, Michael
Publisher: name: Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde, Koblenz
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Water resources research

description: Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung / BfG – Jahrgang: 60.2016,3 - ISSN 1439-1783
An Iterative Mixed Pixel Classification for Brain Tissues and White Matter Hyperintensity in Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Creators: name: Chen, Chi-Chang Clayton
name: Chai, Jyh-Wen
name: Chen, Hung-Chieh
name: Wang, Hsin Che
name: Chang, Yung-Chieh
name: Wu, Yi-Ying
name: Chen, Wen-Hsien
name: Chen, Hsian-Min
name: Lee, San-Kan
name: Chang, Chein-I
Publisher: name: IEEE
Year: 2019
Subjects: Hyperspectral imaging
brain tissue classification
Gabor filters
Information filters
Iterative linear constrained minimum variance (ILCMV)
Lesions
Magnetic resonance imaging
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
White matter
White matter hyperintensities (WMH)

description: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) generally can be detected and diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It has been pointed out that WMH is closely associated with stroke, cognitive impairment, dementia, and even is very relevant to the increased risk of death. This paper proposes a new iterative linearly constrained minimum variance (ILCMV) classification-based method which expands an iterative constrained energy minimization (ICEM) detection-based method developed for hyperspectral image classification. It explores the potential of ILCMV combined with different spatial filters in classification of brain normal tissues and WMH and also develops an alternative version of ILCMV, called Multi-class ICEM (MCICEM) for a comparative study. The synthetic images in BrainWeb are used for quantitative evaluation of ILCMV and the real brain MR images are used for visual assessment. The experimental results suggest that the Gaussian filter is most suitable for ILCMV and MCICEM if the computational time is factored into consideration. Otherwise, ILCMV/MCICEM combined with a Gabor filter yields the best classification. In addition, the average Dice similarity indexes (DSI) of CSF/GM/WM volume measurement produced by ILCMV method combined with Gaussian filter were 0.936/0.948/0.975 in synthetic MR images with all noise levels and were better than the results reported in the literature. ILCMV can simultaneously classifies brain normal tissues and WMH lesions in MR brain images and does better than detection of WMH alone. In addition, its computational time is also less than MCICEM. It is our belief that the proposed methodology demonstrates its promising in classification of brain tissue and WMH in MRI applications.
Standortbewertung potenzieller Hochwasserrückhaltestandorte durch eine Wirkungsanalyse mittels Niederschlags-Abfluss-Modellierung und 2D-Berechnung am Beispiel des Isareinzugsgebietes
Creators: name: Stahl, Natalie
Publisher: name: Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde, Koblenz
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Water resources research

description: Hydrologie und Wasserbewirtschaftung / BfG – Jahrgang: 60.2016,3 - ISSN 1439-1783
Conversion and Reversion of Tuberculin Skin and QuantiFERON Gold-in-tube Tests Among Persons Experiencing Homelessness During a Multi-Shelter Screening Effort in Atlanta, Georgia (2008-2018)
Creators: name: Parikh, Rishika
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2020

description: Background: The aim of this study was to determine the proportion of persons experiencing homelessness (PEH) who converted or reverted a tuberculin skin test (TST) or QuantiFERON Gold-in-tube test (QFT) and examine the risk factors associated with prevalence of latent tuberculosis infection.
Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of all PEH screened for latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) by TST or QFT from 2008-2018 in Fulton County, Georgia.
Results: Out of 16,444 PEH in the study cohort who were screened by TST or QFT, 1603 (9.7%, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 9.2 – 10.1%) had a positive TB screening. Factors associated with positive results were older age, being male, being Asian, HIV co-infection and history of incarceration. Of those initially negative with a second test (n=3491), 8.5% became positive during a total follow-up period of 102521 person-months, corresponding to an incidence rate of 2.9 cases per 1000 person-months. The rate of conversion was higher among male, older adults and PEH with HIV. Of those initially positive with a second test (n=241), 36.5% reverted to negative during a total follow-up period of 6655 person-months, corresponding to reversion rate of 13.2 cases per 1000 person-months. The rate of reversion was highest among older adults.
Discussion: We found higher rates of QFT/TST conversion and reversion. Targeted QFT/TST screening and LTBI treatment among PEH should be an active strategy to reduce TB morbidity.
INDICATORS THE DYNAMIC OF THE GERMINATION OF THE WHEAT SPROUTED FROM PLANT
Creators: name: To'rayeva, N.I.
name: Zaynutdinova, G.F.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: Our republic has a population of grain and bread products to the needs of the growth of the grain to produce to increase and its quality increase requires will. The world 's population the most part present at the time less from eating suffer suffer. In children with protein failure is the lack of the developing countries the most important problems is one. This problem solve to for high oqsilli of grain cultivation, nutritional quality to improve particular attention focus should, because these crops are cheap, and protein of the substance as it is available. Tritikale this need to satisfy to ability to have new grain crops is. This with in conjunction with today's day, the population of livestock to cost the requirement each time you grow up has been. High and quality of grain yield of the formation of very many factors, including, ekilayotgan varieties of genetic properties, soil-climate conditions, o'tmishdosh crops, feeding and watering regime related is. From year to year the population number increased may go for the reason flour and him ready term for the product, the demand is incredibly increased has.
Public Transit and Ambient Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Levels in Four Atlanta Neighborhoods
Creators: name: Alhonaiti, Tareq
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2020

description: INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study is to explore elements of the built environment related to transportation, including state and interstate roads, railroads, daily traffic and bus stops and their relationship to ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO2)levels. Taking place in predominantly African American communities of Atlanta across more affluent and poorer census tracts, this study also considered SES demographics. This study will pay particular attention to identify associations between NO2 levels and proximity to bus stops.
METHODS: NO2 data (ug/kg) was sampled in 2013 and distance to transportation was estimated. SES data was taken from the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) at the block group level for the 17 block groups where NO2 readings were taken. A multiple linear regression was modelled to test the relationship between NO2 and distance from roads, bus stops, railroads, and attributes such as average daily traffic while controlling for SES variables.
RESULTS: In multivariable models, controlling for each variable through stepwise selection, variance was attributed more so to site distance to state road (m) (?=-0.1564; CI (-0.2114, -0.1014)), distance from bus stops (?=-1.3226; CI(-2.0459, -0.5993)), and average annual daily vehicle counts (?=0.00178; CI (0.000484, 0.00308)), than to demographic differences. Once controlling for traffic variables, no SES variables where selected into the model. Using the maximum r-squared approach to variable selection, the final model included 3 variables and an adjusted r-squared of 0.3835.
DISCUSSION: We were able to identify elements of the built environment that contribute to the increase of NO2 in an urban area. Results show that factors such as proximity to roads and bus stops plays a statistically significant role in increased NO2 readings. While exploratory in nature, and despite stated limitations, we were able to identify a statistically significant association between bus stops, state roads and daily traffic counts and increased NO2 levels.
Classification with Conceptual Safeguards
Creators: name: Joren, Hailey
name: Marx, Charles
name: Ustun, Berk
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: We propose a new approach to promote safety in classification tasks with established concepts. Our approach -- called a conceptual safeguard -- acts as a verification layer for models that predict a target outcome by first predicting the presence of intermediate concepts. Given this architecture, a safeguard ensures that a model meets a minimal level of accuracy by abstaining from uncertain predictions. In contrast to a standard selective classifier, a safeguard provides an avenue to improve coverage by allowing a human to confirm the presence of uncertain concepts on instances on which it abstains. We develop methods to build safeguards that maximize coverage without compromising safety, namely techniques to propagate the uncertainty in concept predictions and to flag salient concepts for human review. We benchmark our approach on a collection of real-world and synthetic datasets, showing that it can improve performance and coverage in deep learning tasks.
Psychological Distress Among Orphaned Youth and Youth Reporting Sexual Exploitation in Kampala, Uganda
Creators: name: Perry, Elizabeth
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2020

description: Psychological distress is an increasingly recognized public health priority in low-income countries due to its long-term physical, social, and economic impact. The purpose of this study was to compute the prevalence of self-reported psychological distress among youth living in the slums of Kampala, Uganda and examine how orphan status and self-reported experiences of commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) are related to psychological distress. Data were derived from a cross-sectional survey which consisted of a convenience sample of service-seeking youth (N = 1134) living in the slums or on the streets of Kampala, Uganda. Bivariate and multivariable multinomial regression analyses were used to determine associations between orphan status, self-reported experiences of sexual exploitation, and psychological distress defined as experiencing hopelessness only, worry only, and worry/hopelessness co-occurrence. Among youth participants, 83.2% (n = 937) reported at least 1 type of psychological distress; 51.3% (n = 578) reported experiencing both types. The reported prevalence of any type of psychological distress was much higher among single double orphans (90.0%), single orphans (83.8%), and youth who reported experiencing sexual exploitation (91.2%). Experiencing both types was associated with being a double orphan (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 2.92, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.77, 4.81), reporting CSE (AOR = 2.71, 95% CI = 1.67, 4.41), and increased age (AOR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.20, 1.44). Psychological distress is prevalent among youth living in the slums of Kampala and is associated with orphan status and experiencing CSE independently. These findings underscore the urgent need to intervene with youth who have lost both parents and to prevent CSE among this vulnerable, underserved population.
Assessing Baseline Knowledge and Practices on Trauma-Informed Care across Workforce Sectors
Creators: name: Malasky, Amanda
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2020

description: INTRODUCTION: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic exposures that have a profound impact in children’s lives. The Kaiser-CDC ACE Study was instrumental to informing the SAMHSA trauma-informed care (TIC) framework. Building trauma-informed ecosystems in family and child-serving sectors is critical, especially given that ACEs are widespread. However, there remains a lack of information on baseline knowledge and practices across various sectors.
AIM: The purpose of this study is to explore the baseline knowledge and practices of trauma-informed care among adults working in four different sectors: child welfare, education, healthcare, and law enforcement in Georgia.      
METHODS: The present study utilizes secondary evaluation data from participants who took The Why and How of Trauma-Informed Care© from 2017-2018. The data were collected as a baseline evaluation assessment for the workforce training and includes the following sectors: healthcare; child welfare, advocacy, and justice; and educational sectors. In total, 148 individuals responded to the baseline questionnaire. Analysis was conducted using SAS 9.4 to calculate the proportion who had knowledge and/or education. Chi-square statistics were used to examine differences in knowledge and practice across sectors using an alpha of p<.05.
RESULTS: Examination of sectors in aggregate indicated that a quarter of participants don’t know or do not think it is applicable that there be education or training to help staff members talk about a crisis after it happens (29.64%). Additionally, close to a quarter (24.03%) indicated that they did not know or thought it was not applicable to discuss self-care topics in team meetings. Other findings of importance included that 80% had previously received education or training on what is traumatic stress.   
CONCLUSION: Given the findings, baseline knowledge and training appear to be highly evident in most of the workforce who took part in the study. However, an area that appears to need more attention includes the aspects about self-care in the context of secondary trauma. Also, more work needs to be done to ensure universal education and training across sectors.
Survival Analysis of Infections in Dialysis Patients by Patient Characteristics and Modality
Creators: name: Guney, Brianna
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2020

description: INTRODUCTION:  Although infections are a growing concern for patients undergoing dialysis (Karkar 2018), little current research has been done on the characteristics of dialysis patients who get an infection.

AIM:
The objective of this study is to investigate the patient characteristics associated with dialysis-related infections. Our secondary aim is to determine if these associations are modified by dialysis modality.

METHODS:
For this study, we linked data from the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) with Kaiser Permanente Georgia databases. To compare the covariates with the outcome variable of dialysis-related infection, we used a Bivariable Cox hazard ratio model. Descriptive baseline data are presented as mean±SD or median and interquartile range (IQR), as suitable. Baseline characteristics in PD and HD patients were compared by comparison testing, Kruskal-Wallis test, or chi-square proportion test.

RESULTS:
Our cohort of 3431 dialysis patients were 58.8% male and 41.2% female, 70.5% black and had an average age of 55.83 ±14.66. Among hemodialysis patients, the percentage of bacteremia infections (27.59%) was highest, where in peritoneal dialysis patients, the percentage of peritonitis infections (9.87%) was the highest. Bivariate analysis, using Cox’s Proportional Hazards Model, identified that the risk of infection while undergoing peritoneal dialysis (HR, 1.244; 95% CI, 1. 076-1.440) is greater than undergoing hemodialysis. When adding demographic variables to the model, the risk factors for contracting an infection are age (HR, 1.023; 95% CI, 1.018-1.027) and gender (HR, 1.194; 95% CI, 1.055-1.352).

DISCUSSION:
In this cohort, the risk factors identified for contracting an infection were peritoneal dialysis, age, and gender. This tells us that patients with these characteristics should exercise caution when undergoing dialysis and be informed of current infection control practices and the differences between modality options.
E.coli in Tanyard Creek: An Analysis on the Temporal and Spatial Patterns and the Influence of Rainfall
Creators: name: Syed, Anam
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2020

description: INTRODUCTION: Tanyard Creek is an urban creek in the City of Atlanta. It receives the treated discharge from Tanyard Creek Combined Sewage Overflow (CSO), before flowing into the Chattahoochee River. One of the significant issues surrounding the creek is the lack of regulation, monitoring, and maintenance -- leading to broken pipes, fecal pollution and input of street debris According to the recreational water quality standards, Tanyard Creek is impaired because of the high concentration of E. coli and other microbials present in the creek. AIM: This study will analyze, compare, and observe E. coli concentration present in Tanyard Creek over time (October 2018-February 2020) and spatially (from site to site). Additionally, this study will determine if there is a relationship between rainfall amounts in Atlanta and elevated E. coli concentration in Tanyard Creek over the periods 24 and 48 hours before sampling, as well as cumulatively. METHODS: Water samples were collected from Tanyard Creek on a weekly basis for 54 weeks. For this research, the sampling time duration is from October 16, 2018, through February 12, 2020. Samples were collected from 10 pre-determined sites every week, and all the sites were located along the stretch of a 1-mile trail. The samples were processed using membrane filtration and BioRad RAPID'E. coli 2™ medium was used for the assay of E. coli count. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Temporally, there is variability in the E. coli concentration on a weekly basis, and there is no particular trend by seasons. The results support the hypothesis, and E. coli concentrations in Tanyard Creek consistently violate EPA recreational water quality standards and the creek is impaired for recreational use. For all three of the rainfall amounts, there was no relationship between rainfall and elevated E. coli concentration. The only consistent factor is that the average E. coli concentrations exceed the acceptable EPA standards for recreational waters
Seasonal Variation of Microbial Quality of Irrigation Water in Different Sources in the Kathmandu valley, Nepal
Creators: name: S. Shrestha
name: E. Haramoto
name: J. B. Sherchand
name: S. Rajbhandari
name: M. Prajapati
name: J. Shindo
Publisher: name: Faculty of Engineering Naresuan University
Year: 2016
Subjects: Indicator Bacteria,Irrigation Water,Kathmandu,Protozoa,Seasonal Variation

description: Supplement 1, 11, NARESUAN UNIVERSITY ENGINEERING JOURNAL
Machine-learning heat flux closure for multi-moment fluid modeling of nonlinear Landau damping
Creators: name: Huang, Ziyu
name: Dong, Chuanfei
name: Wang, Liang
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2025
Subjects: subject: Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: Space Physics (physics.space-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Nonlinear plasma physics problems are usually simulated through comprehensive modeling of phase space. The extreme computational cost of such simulations has motivated the development of multi-moment fluid models. However, a major challenge has been finding a suitable fluid closure for these fluid models. Recent developments in physics-informed machine learning have led to a renewed interest in constructing accurate fluid closure terms. In this study, we take an approach that integrates kinetic physics from the first-principles Vlasov simulations into a fluid model (through the heat flux closure term) using the Fourier neural operator - a neural network architecture. Without resolving the phase space dynamics, this new fluid model is capable of capturing the nonlinear evolution of the Landau damping process that exactly matches the Vlasov simulation results. This machine learning-assisted new approach provides a computationally affordable framework that surpasses previous fluid models in accurately modeling the kinetic evolution of complex plasma systems.
description: 6 figures
Characterization of Colorings Obtained by a Method of Szlam
Creators: name: Myzelev, Eric
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Combinatorics (math.CO)
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: Szlam's Lemma began life as a way of getting upper bounds on the chromatic numbers of distance graphs in normed vector spaces. Now analogs are available in a variety of hypergraph settings, but the method always involves a shrewdly chosen 2-coloring of the vertex set of a hypergraph, together with a subset of the vertex set which satisfies certain requirements with reference to the 2-coloring. From these ingredients a proper coloring of the hypergraphs is cooked up.
 In this paper, we separate the process from the conclusion of Szlam's Lemma by defining Szlam colorings of the vector spaces $\mathbb R^d$, and then a more regimented variety of these, which we call ordered Szlam colorings, which we characterize.
The Trend of Numbers of Tropical Cyclone Moves toward Thailand under Climate Change
Creators: name: Aphantree Yuttaphan
name: Sombat Chuenchooklin
name: Somchai Baimoung
Publisher: name: Faculty of Engineering Naresuan University
Year: 2016
Subjects: Tropical cyclone,Climate change,Sea surface temperature,El Nino,La Nina

description: Supplement 1, 11, NARESUAN UNIVERSITY ENGINEERING JOURNAL
Correlates of Self-Rated Health Among Youth in Kampala Slums, Uganda
Creators: name: Patterson, Annabel
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2020

description: INTRODUCTION: Self-rated physical health is a valuable measure that has been utilized to determine a person’s perception of health, which is dependent on their biological, emotional, physical, cognitive, and social context. This measure has been used throughout the world but has not been utilized as a marker for health and well-being among adolescent youth living in the slums of Kampala, Uganda.
AIM: This thesis aims to determine how youth in Kampala slums rate their physical health and determine the associations between self-rated health and a range of risk behaviors across domains such as demographic characteristics, mental health, violence, substance use, and sexual risk behaviors.
METHODS: Data from the 2014 Kampala Youth Survey (N=1134) of youth ages 12 to 18 years was used to analyze associations between “self-rated physical health” and independent variables ranging from demographics, housing characteristics, alcohol use behavior, experience of injury and abuse, HIV/STI diagnosis, and mental health characteristics.
RESULTS: Overall, the majority of youth participants rated their health as “excellent” or “good.” Self-rated physical health was associated with many of the variables examined, such as education, parental status, housing status and experiencing homelessness, alcohol consumption, and drunkenness, HIV/STI diagnosis, ever experiencing injury and violence, and mental health characteristics.
DISCUSSION: Given the strong associations between a range of health risk behaviors and poor self-rated health, a simple self-rated health question may be used as a marker for other high-risk behaviors and health disparities, even among youth. The findings underscore severe health disparities among youth as young as 12 to 18 years that need to be targeted to improve overall health and well-being.
Engaging researchers with DMPs
Creators: name: Plomp, Esther
name: Karvovskaya, Lena
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: Presentation for the workshop 'Engaging researchers with data management plans' for the DCC spring days, taking place at Utrecht (SURF) from 12:30-16:00 on the 11th of April, 2024.

This workshop aimed at starting research support staff who are beginners or have intermediate knowledge regarding data management plans (DMPs). The goal is to equip participants with the skills to effectively engage researchers in discussions about research data management using DMPs. DMPs can be particularly helpful to discuss ways of workings in research labs or in larger projects, as they are an opportunity to align different ways of working and to document these in the DMP. You will engage in smaller group discussions on how to approach these DMP engagements, focused on the discipline you’re supporting (where possible - subjectable to sign-ups). At the end of the workshop you will be able to use the DMP as a tool to engage researchers in discussions about research data management and to facilitate them to optimise group workflows and align different ways of working within research projects. We will discuss various engagement strategies to meet researchers “where they are” in their workflow and help researchers see research data management as a part of their research process.
Correlation Between Auditory Processing And Occupational Performance Of Office Workers
Creators: name: Domnoglou, Maria
Publisher: name: Aristotle Biomedical Journal
Year: 2024
Subjects: auditory processing; occupational performance

description: Abstract
Objective: Auditory processing is essential for everyday communication throughout different aspects of one’s everyday life. The present study aims to investigate the correlation between auditory processing and work performance. Methods: Thirty-eight office workers were recruited. Auditory processing ability was assessed with speech in noise, duration pattern, and auditory memory tests. High and low-performance groups were formed for each test. Occupational performance was self-reported with the Amsterdam Checklist for Hearing and Work (ACHW). Pure-tone audiograms (PTA) were also conducted. Results: Temporal processing correlated with social support, career satisfaction, and job control. Working memory correlated with listening effort, frequency of following conversations in quiet, and job control. Speech in noise perceptual ability correlated with the frequency of distinguishing between sounds. Conclusion: Results from this study suggest that there is a correlation between auditory processing and work performance, particularly in temporal processing skills. The latter was correlated with social support and career satisfaction. Better working memory was correlated with less listening effort and more frequent conversations in quiet, respectively. Furthermore, better recognition of speech in noise in the left ear was linked to more frequent distinguishing between sounds at work. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of auditory processing abilities in occupational performance for office workers. Future research including a larger population or participants working at noisy workplaces could shed light on this particular connection.

 

 
description: Aristotle Biomedical Journal, Vol 6, No 2 (2024)
Examination of Household Drinking Water Quality in the Dominican Republic
Creators: name: Douglas, Quonesha
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2020

description: Introduction: Safely managed water is a basic need for all populations. However, the lack of global infrastructure decreases the provision of universal access to safely managed and improved water. In developing countries such as the Dominican Republic, contaminants are commonly found in water sources. Often, communities are expected to use those sources for household drinking water without any additional treatment. There is a need for understanding contaminants in household drinking water in the Dominican Republic. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine household drinking water quality in the Dominican Republic by determining the factors that contribute to household drinking water quality.
Results: A total of 1153 observations were collected through a four-month prospective cohort study from September 2005 to January 2006 from 186 households in Bonao, Dominican Republic. Evidence suggested that there was E. coli MPN/100mL variability among household drinking water was significantly related to water source used for collection, storage container, and household water treatment. Total coliform MPN/100mL variability in household drinking water was predicted by household water treatment, storage container, and water source used for collection. Mean turbidity NTU of household drinking water was mostly predicted by water treatment and water source used for water collection. Lastly, mean pH of household drinking water was solely predicted by water source for collection.
Conclusion: Understanding the factors that contribute to E. coli, total coliform, turbidity, and pH variability in household drinking water will help implement and promote programs that support water safety and management in developing countries to ensure that the community has access to safe and improved water.
A Band Subset Selection Approach Based on Sparse Self-Representation and Band Grouping for Hyperspectral Image Classification
Creators: name: Liu, Keng-Hao
name: Chen, Yu-Kai
name: Chen, Tsun-Yang
Publisher: name: MDPI
Year: 2022
Subjects: band grouping (BG)
band selection (BS)
band subset selection (BSS)
hyperspectral image (HSI)
sparse self-representation (SSR)

description: Band subset selection (BSS) is one of the ways to implement band selection (BS) for a hyperspectral image (HSI). Different from conventional BS methods, which select bands one by one, BSS selects a band subset each time and preserves the best one from the collection of the band subsets. This paper proposes a BSS method, called band grouping-based sparse self-representation BSS (BG-SSRBSS), for hyperspectral image classification. It formulates BS as a sparse self-representation (SSR) problem in which the entire bands can be represented by a set of informatively complementary bands. The BG-SSRBSS consists of two steps. To tackle the issue of selecting redundant bands, it first applies band grouping (BG) techniques to pre-group the entire bands to form multiple band groups, and then performs band group subset selection (BGSS) to find the optimal band group subset. The corresponding representative bands are taken as the BS result. To efficiently find the nearly global optimal subset among all possible band group subsets, sequential and successive iterative search algorithms are adopted. Land cover classification experiments conducted on three real HSI datasets show that BG-SSRBSS can improve classification accuracy by 4–20% compared to the existing BSS methods and requires less computation time.
New records of marine sponges (Porifera: Demospongiae) from the Gulf of Mexico
Creators: name: Gómez, Patricia
name: Ugalde, Diana
name: Simoes, Nuno
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: subject: Porifera
subject: Porifera/classification
subject: Poriferan
subject: Porifera/anatomy & histology
subject: Porifera/growth & development
subject: Marine biodiversity
subject: Biodiversity
subject: Biodiversity conservation
subject: Biodiversity
subject: Biodiversity conservation
subject: Biodiversity protection
subject: Reef
subject: Coral reef
subject: Coral Reefs
subject: Gulf of Mexico
subject: sponge species
subject: New records
subject: Alacranes reef,
subject: Erylus trisphaerus
subject: GBIF: 5182570
subject: Lobatus gigas
subject: GBIF: 4963453
subject: Strongylacidon bermuda
subject: Hymeniacidon heliophila
subject: Verongula reiswig
subject: GBIF: 2239241
subject: Spicule

description: Este poster fue presentado en "9th World Sponge Conference", en Fremantle western, Australia en el 2013.

This poster was presented at the 9th World Sponge Conference in Fremantle Western, Australia in 2013.Este cartel fue elaborado en colaboración con el proyecto Biodiversidad Marina de Yucatán.  https://www.bdmy.org.mx/
The Association Between Housing Status and CD4 Count Among People Living with HIV and Utilizing Homelessness and Homelessness Prevention Services in the State of Georgia
Creators: name: Smith, Raheem
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2020

description: INTRODUCTION: Previous studies have indicated an association between housing insecurity and the management of HIV. Specifically, several of these studies have documented an association between having temporary housing and low CD4 count, one marker for HIV viral load suppression. However, there is some variation in the literature that may suggest that housing status alone does not predict CD4 count. The objective of this study is to further examine this association between temporary housing status and low CD4 count.
METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with clients (n=117) sampled from a Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). These clients were separated into two housing categories (temporary and permanent) and two CD4 count categories (below 200 cells/µL and above 200 cells/µL). Logistic regression was performed to obtain odds ratios from two models (crude and adjusted) to examine the association between housing status and CD4 count.
RESULTS: There was no statistically significant association between temporary housing status and CD4 count under 200 cells/µL in the crude model (OR=2.275, 95% CI: 0.628, 8.241). However, there was a statistically significant association between temporary housing status and CD4 count under 200 cells/µL in the adjusted model (OR=5.708, 95% CI: 1.087, 29.979).
DISCUSSION: The findings of the adjusted model were statistically significant. However, the confidence interval was very wide, and the lower bound was very close to the null. This was likely a result of limited statistical power from low sample size (n=117). Future research is needed to further explore this association and to assess the impact of possible mediating factors such as injection drug use, sexual activity, and incarceration history.
A Deep Pipelined Implementation of Hyperspectral Target Detection Algorithm on FPGA Using HLS
Creators: name: Lei, Jie
name: Li, Yunsong
name: Zhao, Dongsheng
name: Xie, Jing
name: Chang, Chein-I
name: Wu, Lingyun
name: Li, Xuepeng
name: Zhang, Jintao
name: Li, Wenguang
Publisher: name: MDPI
Year: 2018
Subjects: constrained energy minimization
deep pipelined background statistics
high-level synthesis
hyperspectral image
real-time processing

description: Real-time target detection for hyperspectral images (HSI) has received considerable interest in recent years. However, owing to enormous data volume provided by HSI, detection algorithms are generally computationally complex, thus developing rapid processing techniques for target detection has encountered several challenging issues. It seems that using a deep pipelined structure can improve the detection speed, and implementing on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) can also achieve concurrent operations rather than run streams of sequential instruction. This paper presents a deep pipelined background statistics (DPBS) approach to optimizing and implementing a well-known subpixel target detection algorithm, called constrained energy minimization (CEM) on FPGA by using high-level synthesis (HLS). This approach offers significant benefits in terms of increasing data throughput and improving design efficiency. To overcome a drawback of HLS on implementing a task-level pipelined circuit that includes a feedback data path, a script based circuit design method is further developed to make connections between some of the modules created by HLS. Experimental results show that the proposed method can detect targets on a real-hyperspectral data set (HyMap Data) only in 0.15 s without compromising detection accuracy.
A Hyperspectral Imaging Approach to White Matter Hyperintensities Detection in Brain Magnetic Resonance Images
Creators: name: Chen, Hsian-Min
name: Wang, Hsin Che
name: Chai, Jyh-Wen
name: Chen, Chi-Chang Clayton
name: Xue, Bai
name: Wang, Lin
name: Yu, Chunyan
name: Wang, Yulei
name: Song, Meiping
name: Chang, Chein-I
Publisher: name: MDPI
Year: 2017
Subjects: band expansion process (BEP)
constrained energy minimization (CEM)
correlation band expansion process (CBEP)
iterative CEM (ICEM)
nonlinear band expansion (NBE)
Otsu’s method

description: White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are closely related to various geriatric disorders including cerebrovascular diseases, cardiovascular diseases, dementia, and psychiatric disorders of elderly people, and can be generally detected on T2 weighted (T2W) or fluid attenuation inversion recovery (FLAIR) brain magnetic resonance (MR) images. This paper develops a new approach to detect WMH in MR brain images from a hyperspectral imaging perspective. To take advantage of hyperspectral imaging, a nonlinear band expansion (NBE) process is proposed to expand MR images to a hyperspectral image. It then redesigns the well-known hyperspectral subpixel target detection, called constrained energy minimization (CEM), as an iterative version of CEM (ICEM) for WMH detection. Its idea is to implement CEM iteratively by feeding back Gaussian filtered CEM-detection maps to capture spatial information. To show effectiveness of NBE-ICEM in WMH detection, the lesion segmentation tool (LST), which is an open source toolbox for statistical parametric mapping (SPM), is used for comparative study. For quantitative analysis, the synthetic images in BrainWeb provided by McGill University are used for experiments where our proposed NBE-ICEM performs better than LST in all cases, especially for noisy MR images. As for real images collected by Taichung Veterans General Hospital, the NBE-ICEM also shows its advantages over and superiority to LST.
DEF VIII excerpt: Health Care, Life Sciences Research and Industry Synergies for Economic Growth
Creators: name: Drosatos, Konstantinos
Publisher: name: Aristotle Biomedical Journal
Year: 2024
Subjects: Technology transfer, Science parks, Health, Life Sciences, Pharma Industry, Biotechnology

description: The report is an excerpt of the panel discussion on “Successful Models of Health Care, Life Sciences Research and Pharma Industry for Economic Growth” that was held at the Delphi Economic Forum VIII (2023). The report highlights the potential for growth in health and life sciences research and entrepreneurship in Greece, despite challenges such as low investment levels and brain drain. Drawing parallels with successful models like the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, USA, and Israel's startup ecosystem, the abstract emphasizes the importance of creating synergies between academia, industry, and government. It discusses the need for incentives, supportive regulatory environments, and strong leadership to foster innovation and job creation. Additionally, it explores the role of biomedical engineering as a potential driver for Greece's advancement in the life sciences sector, citing its capacity to translate scientific knowledge into practical solutions. The abstract concludes by outlining key challenges, including the disconnect between academia and industry, funding inconsistencies, and bureaucratic barriers, which must be addressed to realize Greece's potential in healthcare and life sciences. Overall, it underscores the importance of strategic investments and collaborative efforts to propel Greece towards becoming a pioneering hub in these sectors.
description: Aristotle Biomedical Journal, Vol 6, No 2 (2024)