Anticipating Daily Intention using On-Wrist Motion Triggered Sensing

Anticipating human intention by observing one's actions has many applications. For instance, picking up a cellphone, then a charger (actions) implies that one wants to charge the cellphone (intention). By anticipating the intention, an intelligent system can guide the user to the closest power outlet. We propose an on-wrist motion triggered sensing system for anticipating daily intentions, where the on-wrist sensors help us to persistently observe one's actions. The core of the system is a novel Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and Policy Network (PN), where the RNN encodes visual and motion observation to anticipate intention, and the PN parsimoniously triggers the process of visual observation to reduce computation requirement. We jointly trained the whole network using policy gradient and cross-entropy loss. To evaluate, we collect the first daily "intention" dataset consisting of 2379 videos with 34 intentions and 164 unique action sequences. Our method achieves 92.68%, 90.85%, 97.56% accuracy on three users while processing only 29% of the visual observation on average

The Association of Thyrotropin and Autoimmune Thyroid Disease in Developing Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Background. Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common type of malignant thyroid neoplasm. However, the incidence of PTC with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) varies between studies. This study aims to investigate whether patients with AITD have increased incidence of PTC. We also analyzed the relationship of serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and PTC in relation to AITD based on histopathological data. Methods. A total of 533 participants who underwent thyroidectomy were enrolled in this retrospective study based on clinicohistopathological data and known thyroid autoantibodies. Patients were divided into PTC and benign groups according to histopathologic diagnosis. Age, gender, body mass index, and serum TSH level before thyroidectomy were recorded. Results. Of the 533 enrolled patients, 159 (29.8%) were diagnosed with PTC, of which 38 (35.5%) had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT). More patients with HT were female, and patients with HT, Graves’ disease, and thyroid nodules with higher TSH level had a higher incidence of PTC. Conclusions. A high proportion of the patients with PTC had HT. There was a trend that a higher serum TSH level was associated with a greater risk of thyroid cancer

Co-exposure of dimethomorph and imidacloprid: effects on soil bacterial communities in vineyard soil

In Taiwan, the pesticides dimethomorph and imidacloprid are recommended for pest control in vineyards. Therefore, tank-mixing of these two pesticides is usually a routine practice before application. This study analyzed the influence of vineyard soil microbial flora under the recommended and high dosages (100 times the recommended dosage) of dimethomorph and imidacloprid. Individual and combined applications of pesticides were also tested through batches of soil incubation experiments. Four treatments—control (C), dimethomorph (DT), imidacloprid (IM), and mixed application of dimethomorph and imidacloprid (ID)—were used in the experimental design. From the soil metabolism, no significant reaction was observed after 2 months in the recommended dosage group, regardless of whether the pesticides were being applied individually or combined. For the high dosage, imidacloprid showed a higher effect than the co-exposure treatments, showing a possible prolonged effect after its repetitive application. From PCoA analysis, pesticide treatments altered the soil ecology after 2 months, and the effect of imidacloprid can be explicitly observed at high dosages. At the phylum level, Acidobacteria can indicate pesticide application around the recommended dosage. It was inhibited by ID on day 7 and was augmented by all pesticides on day 63. The effect of the recommended dosage of pesticide mixtures after 2 months of incubation was revealed in the minor families Gemmataceae and Pirellulaceae, while the high dosage treatments affected both the core and the minor families. Our findings verified the changes in the composition of microbial communities upon pesticide application, which would affect carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous cycles, and contaminant removal ability within the vineyard

First measurement of anti-kT_\mathrm{T} jet spectra and jet substructure using the archived ALEPH e+e−e^+e^- data at 91.2 GeV

We present the first anti-k$_{T}$ jet spectrum and substructure measurements using the archived ALEPH $e^+e^-$ data taken in 1994 at a center of mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 91.2$ GeV. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-k$_{T}$ algorithm with a resolution parameter of 0.4. It is the cleanest test of jets and QCD without the complication of hadronic initial states. The fixed center-of-mass energy also allows the first direct test of pQCD calculation. We present both the inclusive jet energy spectrum and the leading dijet energy spectra, together with a number of substructure observables. They are compared to predictions from PYTHIA6, PYTHIA8, Sherpa, HERWIG, VINCIA, and PYQUEN. None of the models fully reproduce the data. The data are also compared to two perturbative QCD calculations at NLO and with NLL'+R resummation. The results can also serve as reference measurements to compare to results from hadronic colliders. Future directions, including testing jet clustering algorithms designed for future electron-ion collider experiments, will also be discussed

Performance of Six Clinical Physiological Scoring Systems in Predicting In-Hospital Mortality in Elderly and Very Elderly Patients with Acute Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding in Emergency Department

Background and Objectives: The aim of this study is to compare the performance of six clinical physiological-based scores, including the pre-endoscopy Rockall score, shock index (SI), age shock index (age SI), Rapid Acute Physiology Score (RAPS), Rapid Emergency Medicine Score (REMS), and Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS), in predicting in-hospital mortality in elderly and very elderly patients in the emergency department (ED) with acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (AUGIB). Materials and Methods: Patients older than 65 years who visited the ED with a clinical diagnosis of AUGIB were enrolled prospectively from July 2016 to July 2021. The six scores were calculated and compared with in-hospital mortality. Results: A total of 336 patients were recruited, of whom 40 died. There is a significant difference between the patients in the mortality group and survival group in terms of the six scoring systems. MEWS had the highest area under the curve (AUC) value (0.82). A subgroup analysis was performed for a total of 180 very elderly patients (i.e., older than 75 years), of whom 27 died. MEWS also had the best predictive performance in this subgroup (AUC, 0.82). Conclusions: This simple, rapid, and obtainable-by-the-bed parameter could assist emergency physicians in risk stratification and decision making for this vulnerable group

Rapid Trio Exome Sequencing for Autosomal Recessive Renal Tubular Dysgenesis in Recurrent Oligohydramnios

Oligohydramnios is not a rare prenatal finding. However, recurrent oligohydramnios is uncommon, and genetic etiology should be taken into consideration. We present two families with recurrent fetal oligohydramnios that did not respond to amnioinfusion. Rapid trio-whole-exome sequencing (WES) revealed mutations in the AGT gene in both families within 1 week. The first family had a compound heterozygous mutation with c.856 + 1G > T and c.857-619_1269 + 243delinsTTGCCTTGC changes. The second family had homozygous c.857-619_1269 + 243delinsTTGCCTTGC mutations. AGT gene mutation may lead to autosomal recessive renal tubular dysgenesis, a rare and lethal disorder that can result in early neonatal death. Both the alleles identified are known alleles associated with pathogenicity. Our findings suggest that trio-WES analysis may help rapidly identify causative etiologies that can inform prompt counseling and decision-making prenatally

BLM Overexpression as a Predictive Biomarker for CHK1 Inhibitor Response in PARP Inhibitor–Resistant BRCA-Mutant Ovarian Cancer

Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPis) have changed the treatment paradigm in breast cancer gene (BRCA)–mutant high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC). However, most patients eventually develop resistance to PARPis, highlighting an unmet need for improved therapeutic strategies. Using high-throughput drug screens, we identified ataxia telangiectasia and rad3-related protein/checkpoint kinase 1 (CHK1) pathway inhibitors as cytotoxic and further validated the activity of the CHK1 inhibitor (CHK1i) prexasertib in PARPi-sensitive and -resistant BRCA-mutant HGSC cells and xenograft mouse models. CHK1i monotherapy induced DNA damage, apoptosis, and tumor size reduction. We then conducted a phase 2 study (NCT02203513) of prexasertib in patients with BRCA-mutant HGSC. The treatment was well tolerated but yielded an objective response rate of 6% (1 of 17; one partial response) in patients with previous PARPi treatment. Exploratory biomarker analyses revealed that replication stress and fork stabilization were associated with clinical benefit to CHK1i. In particular, overexpression of Bloom syndrome RecQ helicase (BLM) and cyclin E1 (CCNE1) overexpression or copy number gain/amplification were seen in patients who derived durable benefit from CHK1i. BRCA reversion mutation in previously PARPi-treated BRCA-mutant patients was not associated with resistance to CHK1i. Our findings suggest that replication fork–related genes should be further evaluated as biomarkers for CHK1i sensitivity in patients with BRCA-mutant HGSC