Long wavelength optical coherence tomography for painted objects

Optical Coherence Tomography has been successfully applied to the imaging of painted objects in recent years. However, a significant limitation is the low penetration depth of OCT in paint because of the high opacity of paint due to either scattering or absorption. It has been shown that the optimum spectral window for OCT imaging of paint layers is around 2.2μm in wavelength. In this paper, we demonstrate a 1950nm OCT for imaging painted objects using a superfluorescent fiber source at low power

High resolution fourier domain optical coherence tomography at 2 microns for painted objects

Optical Coherence Tomography has been successfully applied to the non-invasive imaging of subsurface microstructure of a variety of materials from biological tissues to painted objects of art. One of the limitations of the technique is the low depth of penetration due to the strong scattering and absorption in the material. Previous studies found that for paint materials, the optimum window for large depth of penetration is around 2.2 microns. This is also true for many other materials with low water content. We have previously demonstrated OCT systems in this wavelength regime for imaging with improved depth of penetration. In this paper, we present an improved 2 micron high resolution Fourier domain OCT system using a broadband supercontinuum source. The system achieved a depth resolution of 9 microns in air (or 6 microns in paint or any polymer)

High resolution Fourier domain optical coherence tomography in the 2 μm wavelength range using a broadband supercontinuum source

A 220 nm bandwidth supercontinuum source in the two-micron wavelength range has been developed for use in a Fourier domain optical coherence tomography (FDOCT) system. This long wavelength source serves to enhance probing depth in highly scattering material with low water content. We present results confirming improved penetration depth in high opacity paint samples while achieving the high axial resolution needed to resolve individual paint layers. This is the first FDOCT developed in the 2 μm wavelength regime that allows fast, efficient capturing of 3D image cubes at a high axial resolution of 13 μm in air (or 9 μm in paint)

Evaluation of early and late presentation of patients with ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid to two major tertiary referral hospitals in the United Kingdom

PURPOSE: Ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid (OcMMP) is a sight-threatening autoimmune disease in which referral to specialists units for further management is a common practise. This study aims to describe referral patterns, disease phenotype and management strategies in patients who present with either early or established disease to two large tertiary care hospitals in the United Kingdom.\ud \ud PATIENTS AND METHODS: In all, 54 consecutive patients with a documented history of OcMMP were followed for 24 months. Two groups were defined: (i) early-onset disease (EOD:<3 years, n=26, 51 eyes) and (ii) established disease (EstD:>5 years, n=24, 48 eyes). Data were captured at first clinic visit, and at 12 and 24 months follow-up. Information regarding duration, activity and stage of disease, visual acuity (VA), therapeutic strategies and clinical outcome were analysed.\ud \ud RESULTS: Patients with EOD were younger and had more severe conjunctival inflammation (76% of inflamed eyes) than the EstD group, who had poorer VA (26.7%=VA<3/60, P<0.01) and more advanced disease. Although 40% of patients were on existing immunosuppression, 48% required initiation or switch to more potent immunotherapy. In all, 28% (14) were referred back to the originating hospitals for continued care. Although inflammation had resolved in 78% (60/77) at 12 months, persistence of inflammation and progression did not differ between the two phenotypes. Importantly, 42% demonstrated disease progression in the absence of clinically detectable inflammation.\ud \ud CONCLUSIONS: These data highlight that irrespective of OcMMP phenotype, initiation or escalation of potent immunosuppression is required at tertiary hospitals. Moreover, the conjunctival scarring progresses even when the eye remains clinically quiescent. Early referral to tertiary centres is recommended to optimise immunosuppression and limit long-term ocular damage.\ud \u

Customised and Noncustomised Birth Weight Centiles and Prediction of Stillbirth and Infant Mortality and Morbidity: A Cohort Study of 979,912 Term Singleton Pregnancies in Scotland.

BACKGROUND: There is limited evidence to support the use of customised centile charts to identify those at risk of stillbirth and infant death at term. We sought to determine birth weight thresholds at which mortality and morbidity increased and the predictive ability of noncustomised (accounting for gestational age and sex) and partially customised centiles (additionally accounting for maternal height and parity) to identify fetuses at risk. METHODS: This is a population-based linkage study of 979,912 term singleton pregnancies in Scotland, United Kingdom, between 1992 and 2010. The main exposures were noncustomised and partially customised birth weight centiles. The primary outcomes were infant death, stillbirth, overall mortality (infant and stillbirth), Apgar score <7 at 5 min, and admission to the neonatal unit. Optimal thresholds that predicted outcomes for both non- and partially customised birth weight centiles were calculated. Prediction of mortality between non- and partially customised birth weight centiles was compared using area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUROC) and net reclassification index (NRI). FINDINGS: Birth weight ≤25th centile was associated with higher risk for all mortality and morbidity outcomes. For stillbirth, low Apgar score, and neonatal unit admission, risk also increased from the 85th centile. Similar patterns and magnitude of associations were observed for both non- and partially customised birth weight centiles. Partially customised birth weight centiles did not improve the discrimination of mortality (AUROC 0.61 [95%CI 0.60, 0.62]) compared with noncustomised birth weight centiles (AUROC 0.62 [95%CI 0.60, 0.63]) and slightly underperformed in reclassifying pregnancies to different risk categories for both fatal and non-fatal adverse outcomes (NRI -0.027 [95% CI -0.039, -0.016], p < 0.001). We were unable to fully customise centile charts because we lacked data on maternal weight and ethnicity. Additional analyses in an independent UK cohort (n = 10,515) suggested that lack of data on ethnicity in this population (in which national statistics show 98% are white British) and maternal weight would have misclassified ~15% of the large-for-gestation fetuses. CONCLUSIONS: At term, birth weight remains strongly associated with the risk of stillbirth and infant death and neonatal morbidity. Partial customisation does not improve prediction performance. Consideration of early term delivery or closer surveillance for those with a predicted birth weight ≤25th or ≥85th centile may reduce adverse outcomes. Replication of the analysis with fully customised centiles accounting for ethnicity is warranted.SI is funded by a UK Medical Research Council skills development fellowship (MR/N015177/1). DAL works in a Unit that receives funding from the University of Bristol and the UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12013/5); she is a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator (NF-SI-0611-10196). This work is also supported by the NIHR through the University of Bristol NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and the University of Cambridge BRC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Month of Conception and Learning Disabilities: A Record-Linkage Study of 801,592 Children.

Learning disabilities have profound, long-lasting health sequelae. Affected children born over the course of 1 year in the United States of America generated an estimated lifetime cost of $51.2 billion. Results from some studies have suggested that autistic spectrum disorder may vary by season of birth, but there have been few studies in which investigators examined whether this is also true of other causes of learning disabilities. We undertook Scotland-wide record linkage of education (annual pupil census) and maternity (Scottish Morbidity Record 02) databases for 801,592 singleton children attending Scottish schools in 2006-2011. We modeled monthly rates using principal sine and cosine transformations of the month number and demonstrated cyclicity in the percentage of children with special educational needs. Rates were highest among children conceived in the first quarter of the year (January-March) and lowest among those conceived in the third (July-September) (8.9% vs 7.6%; P < 0.001). Seasonal variations were specific to autistic spectrum disorder, intellectual disabilities, and learning difficulties (e.g., dyslexia) and were absent for sensory or motor/physical impairments and mental, physical, or communication problems. Seasonality accounted for 11.4% (95% confidence interval: 9.0, 13.7) of all cases. Some biologically plausible causes of this variation, such as infection and maternal vitamin D levels, are potentially amendable to intervention.Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research & PolicyThis is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Oxford University Press via http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aje/kww09

Prevalence and predictors of video game addiction: a study based on a national representative sample of gamers

Video gaming has become a popular leisure activity in many parts of the world, and an increasing number of empirical studies examine the small minority that appears to develop problems as a result of excessive gaming. This study investigated prevalence rates and predictors of video game addiction in a sample of gamers, randomly selected from the National Population Registry of Norway (N =3389). Results showed there were 1.4 % addicted gamers, 7.3 % problem gamers, 3.9 % engaged gamers, and 87.4 % normal gamers. Gender (being male) and age group (being young) were positively associated with addicted-, problem-, and engaged gamers. Place of birth (Africa, Asia, South- and Middle America) were positively associated with addicted- and problem gamers. Video game addiction was negatively associated with conscientiousness and positively associated with neuroticism. Poor psychosomatic health was positively associated with problem- and engaged gaming. These factors provide insight into the field of video game addiction, and may help to provide guidance as to how individuals that are at risk of becoming addicted gamers can be identified

Living Machines: A study of atypical animacy

This paper proposes a new approach to animacy detection, the task of determining whether an entity is represented as animate in a text. In particular, this work is focused on atypical animacy and examines the scenario in which typically inanimate objects, specifically machines, are given animate attributes. To address it, we have created the first dataset for atypical animacy detection, based on nineteenth-century sentences in English, with machines represented as either animate or inanimate. Our method builds on recent innovations in language modeling, specifically BERT contextualized word embeddings, to better capture fine-grained contextual properties of words. We present a fully unsupervised pipeline, which can be easily adapted to different contexts, and report its performance on an established animacy dataset and our newly introduced resource. We show that our method provides a substantially more accurate characterization of atypical animacy, especially when applied to highly complex forms of language use

Impaired perceptual learning in a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome is mediated by parvalbumin neuron dysfunction and is reversible.

To uncover the circuit-level alterations that underlie atypical sensory processing associated with autism, we adopted a symptom-to-circuit approach in the Fmr1-knockout (Fmr1-/-) mouse model of Fragile X syndrome. Using a go/no-go task and in vivo two-photon calcium imaging, we find that impaired visual discrimination in Fmr1-/- mice correlates with marked deficits in orientation tuning of principal neurons and with a decrease in the activity of parvalbumin interneurons in primary visual cortex. Restoring visually evoked activity in parvalbumin cells in Fmr1-/- mice with a chemogenetic strategy using designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs was sufficient to rescue their behavioral performance. Strikingly, human subjects with Fragile X syndrome exhibit impairments in visual discrimination similar to those in Fmr1-/- mice. These results suggest that manipulating inhibition may help sensory processing in Fragile X syndrome

Vaccination with DNA plasmids expressing Gn coupled to C3d or alphavirus replicons expressing Gn protects mice against rift valley fever virus

Background: Rift Valley fever (RVF) is an arthropod-borne viral zoonosis. Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is an important biological threat with the potential to spread to new susceptible areas. In addition, it is a potential biowarfare agent. Methodology/Principal Findings: We developed two potential vaccines, DNA plasmids and alphavirus replicons, expressing the Gn glycoprotein of RVFV alone or fused to three copies of complement protein, C3d. Each vaccine was administered to mice in an all DNA, all replicon, or a DNA prime/replicon boost strategy and both the humoral and cellular responses were assessed. DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn elicited high titer neutralizing antibodies that were similar to titers elicited by the live-attenuated MP12 virus. Mice vaccinated with an inactivated form of MP12 did elicit high titer antibodies, but these antibodies were unable to neutralize RVFV infection. However, only vaccine strategies incorporating alphavirus replicons elicited cellular responses to Gn. Both vaccines strategies completely prevented weight loss and morbidity and protected against lethal RVFV challenge. Passive transfer of antisera from vaccinated mice into naïve mice showed that both DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn elicited antibodies that protected mice as well as sera from mice immunized with MP12. Conclusion/Significance: These results show that both DNA plasmids expressing Gn-C3d and alphavirus replicons expressing Gn administered alone or in a DNA prime/replicon boost strategy are effective RVFV vaccines. These vaccine strategies provide safer alternatives to using live-attenuated RVFV vaccines for human use. © 2010 Bhardwaj et al