Computer Vision-Aided Intelligent Monitoring of Coffee: Towards Sustainable Coffee Production

Coffee which is prepared from the grinded roasted seeds of harvested coffee cherries, is one of the most consumed beverage and traded commodity, globally. To manually monitor the coffee field regularly, and inform about plant and soil health, as well as estimate yield and harvesting time, is labor-intensive, time-consuming and error-prone. Some recent studies have developed sensors for estimating coffee yield at the time of harvest, however a more inclusive and applicable technology to remotely monitor multiple parameters of the field and estimate coffee yield and quality even at pre-harvest stage, was missing. Following precision agriculture approach, we employed machine learning algorithm YOLO, for image processing of coffee plant. In this study, the latest version of the state-of-the-art algorithm YOLOv7 was trained with 324 annotated images followed by its evaluation with 82 unannotated images as test data. Next, as an innovative approach for annotating the training data, we trained K-means models which led to machine-generated color classes of coffee fruit and could thus characterize the informed objects in the image. Finally, we attempted to develop an AI-based handy mobile application which would not only efficiently predict harvest time, estimate coffee yield and quality, but also inform about plant health. Resultantly, the developed model efficiently analyzed the test data with a mean average precision of 0.89. Strikingly, our innovative semi-supervised method with an mean average precision of 0.77 for multi-class mode surpassed the supervised method with mean average precision of only 0.60, leading to faster and more accurate annotation. The mobile application we designed based on the developed code, was named CoffeApp, which possesses multiple features of analyzing fruit from the image taken by phone camera with in field and can thus track fruit ripening in real time

UniMóvil: A Mobile Health Clinic Providing Primary Care to the Colonias of the Rio Grande Valley, South Texas

Background: We describe a mobile unit (UniMóvil) designed to improve poor healthcare access delivery to residents in two South Texas underserved Colonias. The interprofessional team measured seven clinical outcomes [obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, and depression], and using the Duke Health Profile, assessed the health-related quality of life (HrQoL). Methods: The investigators used previously reported disease prevalence, an implementation model, and community needs-assessments to design an outreach healthcare delivery model. A retrospective review of the cohort provides data used to determine potential predictors of clinical variables, 11 domains of HrQOL, and inter/intra Colonia differences. Results: The average age of patients was 45 years-old and females represented 67% of the population served. Results include a high prevalence of obesity (55.5%), hypertension (39%), diabetes (32.5%), and depression (19%), gender differences, and inter-Colonia differences. A generalized linear mixed model analysis provided associations between clinical outcomes and predictors (age, sex, BMI, PHQ-9 score, HbA1c, blood pressure, serum cholesterol, low HDL, triglycerides, and HrQOL domains). The HrQol domain of low self-perceived health, relates to obesity, diabetes, low HDL, and depression. Depression predicted all 11 domains of the HrQol. Conclusion: The prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and depression remains epidemic. Mobile clinics increase access and address highly prevalent illnesses in the Colonias. The data collected can be used to address chronic disease and quality of life, focus care, and direct research in high-need underserved areas

A Demografia Econômica do COVID-19 no Paraná: diagnóstico e perspectivas

A epidemia do COVID-19 teve início na América Latina e no Caribe no final de fevereiro de 2020, dois meses após seu início na China e um mês após o início na Europa. Em 15/04/2019, dados oficiais reportados pelo Ministério da Saúde revelam um total de 28.320 casos confirmados e 1.736 óbitos, com taxa de letalidade estimada em 6,1%. No Paraná, são 803 casos confirmados (3%) e 38 óbitos (2,3%). Se comparado com outros países, onde o contágio se encontra em estado mais avançado, tais como os países Europeus e da Ásia, a taxa de crescimento da epidemia na América Latina e do Caribe é mais elevada Contudo, a baixa disponibilidade e cobertura dos testes do COVID-19 na América Latina e Caribe tem dificultado a mensuração do estágio atual e real da epidemia. Este cenário pode indicar que haja grande subnotificação dos casos e dos óbitos. Neste contexto, em uma parceria com a Secretaria do Estado da Saúde do Estado do Paraná, buscamos analisar a distribuição e a evolução espacial e temporal dos indicadores demográficos relacionados ao COVID-19 no estado do Paraná. Como objetivos específicos, temos: 1. Investigar a distribuição temporal e espacial dos casos confirmados e óbitos; 2. Analisar a distribuição etária e os principais grupos etários de risco da doença; 3. Correlacionar os indicadores demográficos com indicadores econômicos, tais como: Índice Paranaense de Desempenho Municipal (IPD-M), PIB per capita; 4. Analisar as tendências da taxa de fecundidade total, das taxas específicas de fecundidade, mortalidade por causa e fluxos migratórios pós-COVID; 5. Aplicar metodologias para a correção da notificação de pessoas infectadas e dos óbitos com base em metodologias internacionais (subnotificação)

Associations between drug and alcohol use, smoking, and frailty among people with HIV across the United States in the current era of antiretroviral treatment.

OBJECTIVE: To examine associations between frailty and drug, alcohol, and tobacco use among a large diverse cohort of people with HIV (PWH) in clinical care in the current era. METHODS: PWH at 7 sites across the United States completed clinical assessments of patient-reported measures and outcomes between 2016 and 2019 as part of routine care including drug and alcohol use, smoking, and other domains. Frailty was assessed using 4 of the 5 components of the Fried frailty phenotype and PWH were categorized as not frail, pre-frail, or frail. Associations of substance use with frailty were assessed with multivariate Poisson regression. RESULTS: Among 9336 PWH, 43% were not frail, 44% were prefrail, and 13% were frail. Frailty was more prevalent among women, older PWH, and those reporting current use of drugs or cigarettes. Current methamphetamine use (1.26: 95% CI 1.07-1.48), current (1.65: 95% CI 1.39-1.97) and former (1.21:95% CI 1.06-1.36) illicit opioid use, and former cocaine/crack use (1.17: 95% CI 1.01-1.35) were associated with greater risk of being frail in adjusted analyses. Current smoking was associated with a 61% higher risk of being frail vs. not frail (1.61: 95% CI 1.41-1.85) in adjusted analyses. CONCLUSIONS: We found a high prevalence of prefrailty and frailty among a nationally distributed cohort of PWH in care. This study identified distinct risk factors that may be associated with frailty among PWH, many of which, such as cigarette smoking and drug use, are potentially modifiable

On the path to gold: Monoanionic Au bisdithiolate complexes with antimicrobial and antitumor activities

International audienceThe emergence of resistance to antimicrobial and anticancer drugs poses severe threats to public health worldwide, highlighting the need for more efficient treatments. Here, four monoanionic Au bisdithiolate complexes [Au(mnt)] (where mnt = 1,1-dicyanoethylene-2,2-dithiolate)(1), [Au(i-mnt)] (where i-mnt = 2,2-dicyanoethylene-1,1-dithiolate)(2), [Au(cdc)] (where cdc = cyanodithioimido carbonate)(3), and [Au(qdt)] (where qdt = quinoxaline-2,3-dithiolate)(4) were screened for their antimicrobial and antitumor activities. Complexes 3 and 4 showed antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus [minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) = 15.3 and 14.7 μg/mL, respectively]. Complex 3 also caused significant growth inhibition of Candida glabrata (MIC = 7.0 μg/mL). Concentrations of complexes 1-4 up to 125 μg/mL had no growth inhibition activity against Escherichia coli. The cytotoxic activity of complexes 1-4 was evaluated against the ovarian cancer cells A2780 and A2780cisR, sensitive and resistant to cisplatin, respectively. All compounds showed high cytotoxic activities against both tumoral cell lines, exhibiting IC values in the low micromolar range (0.9-5.5 μM) upon 48 h incubation. In contrast to complex 1, the complexes 2-4 induced a dose-dependent formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), similar to the observed for the reference drugs auranofin and cisplatin. Opposite to 4, complexes 1-3 were able to activate caspase 3/7, suggesting the involvement of apoptosis in the mechanism of cell death. Contrasting with cisplatin, complexes 3, 4 and auranofin did not cause DNA damage. Combined, these data provide evidence that these monoanionic gold bisdithiolates, particularly complex 3, are potential lead compounds to further explore as therapeutic drugs