Intelligent Bayes Classifier (IBC) for ENT infection classification in hospital environment

Electronic Nose based ENT bacteria identification in hospital environment is a classical and challenging problem of classification. In this paper an electronic nose (e-nose), comprising a hybrid array of 12 tin oxide sensors (SnO(2)) and 6 conducting polymer sensors has been used to identify three species of bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) responsible for ear nose and throat (ENT) infections when collected as swab sample from infected patients and kept in ISO agar solution in the hospital environment. In the next stage a sub-classification technique has been developed for the classification of two different species of S. aureus, namely Methicillin-Resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and Methicillin Susceptible S. aureus (MSSA). An innovative Intelligent Bayes Classifier (IBC) based on "Baye's theorem" and "maximum probability rule" was developed and investigated for these three main groups of ENT bacteria. Along with the IBC three other supervised classifiers (namely, Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Probabilistic neural network (PNN), and Radial Basis Function Network (RBFN)) were used to classify the three main bacteria classes. A comparative evaluation of the classifiers was conducted for this application. IBC outperformed MLP, PNN and RBFN. The best results suggest that we are able to identify and classify three bacteria main classes with up to 100% accuracy rate using IBC. We have also achieved 100% classification accuracy for the classification of MRSA and MSSA samples with IBC. We can conclude that this study proves that IBC based e-nose can provide very strong and rapid solution for the identification of ENT infections in hospital environment

Lax pair and first integrals for two of nonlinear coupled oscillators

The system of two nonlinear coupled oscillators is studied. As partial case this system of equation is reduced to the Duffing oscillator which has many applications for describing physical processes. It is well known that the inverse scattering transform is one of the most powerful methods for solving the Cauchy problems of partial differential equations. To solve the Cauchy problem for nonlinear differential equations we can use the Lax pair corresponding to this equation. The Lax pair for ordinary differential or systems or for system ordinary differential equations allows us to find the first integrals, which also allow us to solve the question of integrability for differential equations. In this report we present the Lax pair for the system of coupled oscillators. Using the Lax pair we get two first integrals for the system of equations. The considered system of equations can be also reduced to the fourth-order ordinary differential equation and the Lax pair can be used for the ordinary differential equation of fourth order. Some special cases of the system of equations are considered.Comment: 9 page

Use of information on disease diagnoses from databases for animal health economic, welfare and food safety purposes: strengths and limitations of recordings

Many animal health, welfare and food safety databases include data on clinical and test-based disease diagnoses. However, the circumstances and constraints for establishing the diagnoses vary considerably among databases. Therefore results based on different databases are difficult to compare and compilation of data in order to perform meta-analysis is almost impossible. Nevertheless, diagnostic information collected either routinely or in research projects is valuable in cross comparisons between databases, but there is a need for improved transparency and documentation of the data and the performance characteristics of tests used to establish diagnoses. The objective of this paper is to outline the circumstances and constraints for recording of disease diagnoses in different types of databases, and to discuss these in the context of disease diagnoses when using them for additional purposes, including research. Finally some limitations and recommendations for use of data and for recording of diagnostic information in the future are given. It is concluded that many research questions have such a specific objective that investigators need to collect their own data. However, there are also examples, where a minimal amount of extra information or continued validation could make sufficient improvement of secondary data to be used for other purposes. Regardless, researchers should always carefully evaluate the opportunities and constraints when they decide to use secondary data. If the data in the existing databases are not sufficiently valid, researchers may have to collect their own data, but improved recording of diagnostic data may improve the usefulness of secondary diagnostic data in the future

First Impressions of HIV Risk: It Takes Only Milliseconds to Scan a Stranger

Research indicates that many people do not use condoms consistently but instead rely on intuition to identify sexual partners high at risk for HIV infection. The present studies examined neural correlates for first impressions of HIV risk and determined the association of perceived HIV risk with other trait characteristics. Participants were presented with 120 self-portraits retrieved from a popular online photo-sharing community (www.flickr.com). Factor analysis of various explicit ratings of trait characteristics yielded two orthogonal factors: (1) a ‘valence-approach’ factor encompassing perceived attractiveness, healthiness, valence, and approach tendencies, and (2) a ‘safeness’ factor, entailing judgments of HIV risk, trustworthiness, and responsibility. These findings suggest that HIV risk ratings systematically relate to cardinal features of a high-risk HIV stereotype. Furthermore, event-related brain potential recordings revealed neural correlates of first impressions about HIV risk. Target persons perceived as risky elicited a differential brain response in a time window from 220–340 ms and an increased late positive potential in a time window from 350–700 ms compared to those perceived as safe. These data suggest that impressions about HIV risk can be formed in a split second and despite a lack of information about the actual risk profile. Findings of neural correlates of risk impressions and their relationship to key features of the HIV risk stereotype are discussed in the context of the ‘risk as feelings’ theory

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Platelet rich plasma injection grafts for musculoskeletal injuries: a review

In Europe and the United States, there is an increasing prevalence of the use of autologous blood products to facilitate healing in a variety of applications. Recently, we have learned more about specific growth factors, which play a crucial role in the healing process. With that knowledge there is abundant enthusiasm in the application of concentrated platelets, which release a supra-maximal quantity of these growth factors to stimulate recovery in non-healing injuries. For 20 years, the application of autologous PRP has been safely used and documented in many fields including; orthopedics, sports medicine, dentistry, ENT, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, urology, wound healing, cosmetic, cardiothoracic, and maxillofacial surgery. This article introduces the reader to PRP therapy and reviews the current literature on this emerging treatment modality. In summary, PRP provides a promising alternative to surgery by promoting safe and natural healing. However, there are few controlled trials, and mostly anecdotal or case reports. Additionally the sample sizes are frequently small, limiting the generalization of the findings. Recently, there is emerging literature on the beneficial effects of PRP for chronic non-healing tendon injuries including lateral epicondylitis and plantar fasciitis and cartilage degeneration (Mishra and Pavelko, The American Journal of Sports Medicine 10(10):1–5, 2006; Barrett and Erredge, Podiatry Today 17:37–42, 2004). However, as clinical use increases, more controlled studies are needed to further understand this treatment

Pre-dialysis patients' perceived autonomy, self-esteem and labor participation: associations with illness perceptions and treatment perceptions. A cross-sectional study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Compared to healthy people, patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) participate less in paid jobs and social activities. The aim of the study was to examine a) the perceived autonomy, self-esteem and labor participation of patients in the pre-dialysis phase, b) pre-dialysis patients' illness perceptions and treatment perceptions, and c) the association of these perceptions with autonomy, self-esteem and labor participation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Patients (N = 109) completed questionnaires at home. Data were analysed using bivariate and multivariate analyses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results showed that the average autonomy levels were not very high, but the average level of self-esteem was rather high, and that drop out of the labor market already occurs during the pre-dialysis phase. Positive illness and treatment beliefs were associated with higher autonomy and self-esteem levels, but not with employment. Multiple regression analyses revealed that illness and treatment perceptions explained a substantial amount of variance in autonomy (17%) and self-esteem (26%). The perception of less treatment disruption was an important predictor.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Patient education on possibilities to combine CKD and its treatment with activities, including paid work, might stimulate positive (realistic) beliefs and prevent or challenge negative beliefs. Interventions focusing on these aspects may assist patients to adjust to CKD, and ultimately prevent unnecessary drop out of the labor market.</p

An Environment-Sensitive Synthetic Microbial Ecosystem

Microbial ecosystems have been widely used in industrial production, but the inter-relationships of organisms within them haven't been completely clarified due to complex composition and structure of natural microbial ecosystems. So it is challenging for ecologists to get deep insights on how ecosystems function and interplay with surrounding environments. But the recent progresses in synthetic biology show that construction of artificial ecosystems where relationships of species are comparatively clear could help us further uncover the meadow of those tiny societies. By using two quorum-sensing signal transduction circuits, this research designed, simulated and constructed a synthetic ecosystem where various population dynamics formed by changing environmental factors. Coherent experimental data and mathematical simulation in our study show that different antibiotics levels and initial cell densities can result in correlated population dynamics such as extinction, obligatory mutualism, facultative mutualism and commensalism. This synthetic ecosystem provides valuable information for addressing questions in ecology and may act as a chassis for construction of more complex microbial ecosystems

Current practice in analysing and reporting binary outcome data—a review of randomised controlled trial reports

Background Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) need to be reported so that their results can be unambiguously and robustly interpreted. Binary outcomes yield unique challenges, as different analytical approaches may produce relative, absolute, or no treatment effects, and results may be particularly sensitive to the assumptions made about missing data. This review of recently published RCTs aimed to identify the methods used to analyse binary primary outcomes, how missing data were handled, and how the results were reported. Methods Systematic review of reports of RCTs published in January 2019 that included a binary primary outcome measure. We identified potentially eligible English language papers on PubMed, without restricting by journal or medical research area. Papers reporting the results from individually randomised, parallel-group RCTs were included. Results Two hundred reports of RCTs were included in this review. We found that 64% of the 200 reports used a chi-squared-style test as their primary analytical method. Fifty-five per cent (95% confidence interval 48% to 62%) reported at least one treatment effect measure, and 38% presented only a p value without any treatment effect measure. Missing data were not always adequately described and were most commonly handled using available case analysis (69%) in the 140 studies that reported missing data. Imputation and best/worst-case scenarios were used in 21% of studies. Twelve per cent of articles reported an appropriate sensitivity analysis for missing data. Conclusions The statistical analysis and reporting of treatment effects in reports of randomised trials with a binary primary endpoint requires substantial improvement. Only around half of the studied reports presented a treatment effect measure, hindering the understanding and dissemination of the findings. We also found that published trials often did not clearly describe missing data or sensitivity analyses for these missing data. Practice for secondary endpoints or observational studies may differ