Cost-Effectiveness of Advanced Imaging Technologies in the Presurgical Workup of Epilepsy.

The cost-effectiveness and benefit of many diagnostic tests used in the presurgical evaluation for persons with epilepsy is for the most part uncertain as is their influence on decision-making. The options we have at our disposal are ever increasing. Advanced imaging modalities aim to improve surgical candidacy by helping us better define the epileptogenic zone and optimize surgical planning. However, judicious use is important. Randomized controlled trials delineating which mode of investigation is superior are lacking. Presurgical tests do have incremental value by increasing surgical candidacy and refining surgical planning. The yield of additional imaging will increase with complex localization. However, every case must be tailored by hypothesis, cost, and accessibility. Future studies using a quantitative cost-benefit framework are needed to determine the cost-effectiveness of advanced diagnostic tests (beyond magnetic resonance imaging) in the presurgical evaluation of those with epilepsy

Farm Appraiser: A Neural Network for Agricultural Appraisal

This paper describes the research and development of a neural network, Farm Appraiser, that could conceivably reduce the amount of time required for an agricultural appraisal and could also significantly reduce the cost. Neural networkshave been successfully applied to urban residential appraisal. However, very little if any application of this technique has been applied to the agricultural market. For this research, Farm Appraiser was trained and tested with 155 real farmland sales data in Mason County, Illinois. The current neural network predicted the price of farmland averaging 90% of actual selling price which is quite impressive prediction for this type of application. Given the speed of the appraisal (matter of seconds) and ease of use, this system could significantly expedite the appraisal process and considerably reduce the cost

Language Models as Zero-Shot Trajectory Generators

Large Language Models (LLMs) have recently shown promise as high-level planners for robots when given access to a selection of low-level skills. However, it is often assumed that LLMs do not possess sufficient knowledge to be used for the low-level trajectories themselves. In this work, we address this assumption thoroughly, and investigate if an LLM (GPT-4) can directly predict a dense sequence of end-effector poses for manipulation skills, when given access to only object detection and segmentation vision models. We study how well a single task-agnostic prompt, without any in-context examples, motion primitives, or external trajectory optimisers, can perform across 26 real-world language-based tasks, such as "open the bottle cap" and "wipe the plate with the sponge", and we investigate which design choices in this prompt are the most effective. Our conclusions raise the assumed limit of LLMs for robotics, and we reveal for the first time that LLMs do indeed possess an understanding of low-level robot control sufficient for a range of common tasks, and that they can additionally detect failures and then re-plan trajectories accordingly. Videos, code, and prompts are available at: https://www.robot-learning.uk/language-models-trajectory-generators.Comment: 19 pages, 21 figure

Let the Rhythm Move You: A Scoping Review of Music and Athletic Performance

PURPOSE: Numerous athletes utilize music to train, warm-up, and during competition. Listening to music during sport activity can capture attention, distract from fatigue and comfort, alter mood state, relieve stress, and evoke a sense of power. The purpose of this study is to examine the literature to determine the impact of music on athletic performance. METHODS: Three databases were searched in September 2022. These included PubMed, Science Direct, Taylor & Francis Online, and the California State Polytechnic University Pomona OneSearch, which indexes over 20 databases within the field of exercise science. Articles that described an intervention program that utilized music as a part of their regimen, exercise bouts of varying intensity/duration were included for review. Studies were excluded if they did not focus on effects of music, were animal-based studies, or not published in English. RESULTS: Fourteen articles were identified. The current literature provides multiple positive impacts on athletic performance when combined with music. Studies reported that the introduction of a music stimulus has improved running cadence, and overall improved running performance over a six- minute time trial. Additionally, studies found music with a higher tempo has provided subjects with a greater blood flow rate, heart rate and heart rate recovery post exercise. Studies vary by the genre and tempo of music listened to. Studies primarily investigated the impact of listening to music during activity; very few assessed the impact of listening to music only during the warmup before activity. CONCLUSION: The need for research on the relationship of music and athletic performance is still necessary. Exercise is extremely beneficial for an individual’s health and if the introduction of music into a workout regimen is able to improve the performance of individuals, that exhibits the need for proper research comparing music’s effect of performance

Intrinsic antimicrobial resistance determinants in the superbug Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria pose a serious threat in the clinic. This is particularly true for opportunistic pathogens that possess high intrinsic resistance. Though many studies have focused on understanding the acquisition of bacterial resistance upon exposure to antimicrobials, the mechanisms controlling intrinsic resistance are not well understood. In this study, we subjected the model opportunistic superbug Pseudomonas aeruginosa to 14 antimicrobials under highly controlled conditions and assessed its response using expression-and fitness-based genomic approaches. Our results reveal that gene expression changes and mutant fitness in response to sub-MIC antimicrobials do not correlate on a genomewide scale, indicating that gene expression is not a good predictor of fitness determinants. In general, fewer fitness determinants were identified for antiseptics and disinfectants than for antibiotics. Analysis of gene expression and fitness data together allowed the prediction of antagonistic interactions between antimicrobials and insight into the molecular mechanisms controlling these interactions. IMPORTANCE Infections involving multidrug-resistant pathogens are difficult to treat because the therapeutic options are limited. These infections impose a significant financial burden on infected patients and on health care systems. Despite years of antimicrobial resistance research, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the intrinsic mechanisms controlling antimicrobial resistance. This work uses two fine-scale genomic approaches to identify genetic loci important for antimicrobial resistance of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Our results reveal that antibiotics have more resistance determinants than antiseptics/disinfectants and that gene expression upon exposure to antimicrobials is not a good predictor of these resistance determinants. In addition, we show that when used together, genomewide gene expression and fitness profiling can provide mechanistic insights into multidrug resistance mechanisms.open

Electromyographic Comparison Between the Rear-Foot-Elevated vs. B-Stance Unilateral Back Squat Techniques

The Rear-Foot-Elevated back squat (RFE) and B-Stance (BS) are two unilateral back squat techniques with the latter commonly proposed as the more stable of the two. There is currently a lack of research comparing these two techniques with respect to neuromuscular demand and movement characteristics. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the muscle activation differences via surface electromyography (EMG) between the RFE vs. BS unilateral back squat techniques with equated load. METHODS: Thirteen healthy college-aged, resistance-trained male (n=10) and female (n=3) subjects were recruited for this study. Subjects visited the laboratory on two occasions separated by 5-7 days. Visit 1 included descriptive measurements and one-repetition max (1RM) testing for the RFE back squat. For visit 2, subjects performed the RFE and BS unilateral squat techniques under a load of 85% of RFE 1RM. Electromyographic assessment of the external oblique (OBL), rectus femoris (RF), gluteus maximums (GM) and biceps femoris (BF) was administered during each technique and subsequently compared. RESULTS: A paired sample t-test was used to compare mean and peak normalized root mean square (RMS) EMG between the RFE and BS techniques. There was no significant difference in mean and peak eccentric, concentric, and total activation between the RFE vs. BS for the OBL and RF. For GM, mean and peak eccentric, concentric, and total activation was greater during the RFE vs. BS (pCONCLUSION: The RFE unilateral back squat technique elicited overall greater activation of the hip extensors, GM and BF vs. BS. Based on these findings, the two unilateral squat techniques are not interchangeable from a muscle activation perspective which should be considered when employing unilateral back squat variations in training or rehabilitation programs

Cryptococcus neoformans Overcomes Stress of Azole Drugs by Formation of Disomy in Specific Multiple Chromosomes

Cryptococcus neoformans is a haploid environmental organism and the major cause of fungal meningoencephalitis in AIDS patients. Fluconazole (FLC), a triazole, is widely used for the maintenance therapy of cryptococcosis. Heteroresistance to FLC, an adaptive mode of azole resistance, was associated with FLC therapy failure cases but the mechanism underlying the resistance was unknown. We used comparative genome hybridization and quantitative real-time PCR in order to show that C. neoformans adapts to high concentrations of FLC by duplication of multiple chromosomes. Formation of disomic chromosomes in response to FLC stress was observed in both serotype A and D strains. Strains that adapted to FLC concentrations higher than their minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) contained disomies of chromosome 1 and stepwise exposure to even higher drug concentrations induced additional duplications of several other specific chromosomes. The number of disomic chromosomes in each resistant strain directly correlated with the concentration of FLC tolerated by each strain. Upon removal of the drug pressure, strains that had adapted to high concentrations of FLC returned to their original level of susceptibility by initially losing the extra copy of chromosome 1 followed by loss of the extra copies of the remaining disomic chromosomes. The duplication of chromosome 1 was closely associated with two of its resident genes: ERG11, the target of FLC and AFR1, the major transporter of azoles in C. neoformans. This adaptive mechanism in C. neoformans may play an important role in FLC therapy failure of cryptococcosis leading to relapse during azole maintenance therapy

ECG-QA: A Comprehensive Question Answering Dataset Combined With Electrocardiogram

Question answering (QA) in the field of healthcare has received much attention due to significant advancements in natural language processing. However, existing healthcare QA datasets primarily focus on medical images, clinical notes, or structured electronic health record tables. This leaves the vast potential of combining electrocardiogram (ECG) data with these systems largely untapped. To address this gap, we present ECG-QA, the first QA dataset specifically designed for ECG analysis. The dataset comprises a total of 70 question templates that cover a wide range of clinically relevant ECG topics, each validated by an ECG expert to ensure their clinical utility. As a result, our dataset includes diverse ECG interpretation questions, including those that require a comparative analysis of two different ECGs. In addition, we have conducted numerous experiments to provide valuable insights for future research directions. We believe that ECG-QA will serve as a valuable resource for the development of intelligent QA systems capable of assisting clinicians in ECG interpretations.Comment: 39 pages (9 pages for main text, 2 pages for references, 28 pages for supplementary materials

Pseudomonas aeruginosa Enhances Production of a Non-Alginate Exopolysaccharide during Long-Term Colonization of the Cystic Fibrosis Lung

The gram-negative opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the primary cause of chronic respiratory infections in individuals with the heritable disease cystic fibrosis (CF). These infections can last for decades, during which time P. aeruginosa has been proposed to acquire beneficial traits via adaptive evolution. Because CF lacks an animal model that can acquire chronic P. aeruginosa infections, identifying genes important for long-term in vivo fitness remains difficult. However, since clonal, chronological samples can be obtained from chronically infected individuals, traits undergoing adaptive evolution can be identified. Recently we identified 24 P. aeruginosa gene expression traits undergoing parallel evolution in vivo in multiple individuals, suggesting they are beneficial to the bacterium. The goal of this study was to determine if these genes impact P. aeruginosa phenotypes important for survival in the CF lung. By using a gain-of-function genetic screen, we found that 4 genes and 2 operons undergoing parallel evolution in vivo promote P. aeruginosa biofilm formation. These genes/operons promote biofilm formation by increasing levels of the non-alginate exopolysaccharide Psl. One of these genes, phaF, enhances Psl production via a post-transcriptional mechanism, while the other 5 genes/operons do not act on either psl transcription or translation. Together, these data demonstrate that P. aeruginosa has evolved at least two pathways to over-produce a non-alginate exopolysaccharide during long-term colonization of the CF lung. More broadly, this approach allowed us to attribute a biological significance to genes with unknown function, demonstrating the power of using evolution as a guide for targeted genetic studies.open6