Deep learning of HIV field-based rapid tests

Although deep learning algorithms show increasing promise for disease diagnosis, their use with rapid diagnostic tests performed in the field has not been extensively tested. Here we use deep learning to classify images of rapid human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) tests acquired in rural South Africa. Using newly developed image capture protocols with the Samsung SM-P585 tablet, 60 fieldworkers routinely collected images of HIV lateral flow tests. From a library of 11,374 images, deep learning algorithms were trained to classify tests as positive or negative. A pilot field study of the algorithms deployed as a mobile application demonstrated high levels of sensitivity (97.8%) and specificity (100%) compared with traditional visual interpretation by humans-experienced nurses and newly trained community health worker staff-and reduced the number of false positives and false negatives. Our findings lay the foundations for a new paradigm of deep learning-enabled diagnostics in low- and middle-income countries, termed REASSURED diagnostics1, an acronym for real-time connectivity, ease of specimen collection, affordable, sensitive, specific, user-friendly, rapid, equipment-free and deliverable. Such diagnostics have the potential to provide a platform for workforce training, quality assurance, decision support and mobile connectivity to inform disease control strategies, strengthen healthcare system efficiency and improve patient outcomes and outbreak management in emerging infections

Taking connected mobile-health diagnostics of infectious diseases to the field.

Mobile Health or mHealth - The application of mobile devices, their components and related technologies to healthcare is improving patients’ access to treatment and advice. Now, in combination with connected diagnostic devices it offers new possibilities to diagnose, track and control infectious diseases and improve health system efficiencies. In this context we look at these technologies and highlight their promise but also the challenges in realising their potential to increase patient access to testing, aid in their treatment and improve the capability of public health authorities to monitor outbreaks, implement responses, and assess the impact of interventions across the world

Compression of Interstellar Clouds in Spiral Density-Wave Shocks

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Impact of Space Weather on Climate and Habitability of Terrestrial Type Exoplanets

The current progress in the detection of terrestrial type exoplanets has opened a new avenue in the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres and in the search for biosignatures of life with the upcoming ground-based and space missions. To specify the conditions favorable for the origin, development and sustainment of life as we know it in other worlds, we need to understand the nature of astrospheric, atmospheric and surface environments of exoplanets in habitable zones around G-K-M dwarfs including our young Sun. Global environment is formed by propagated disturbances from the planet-hosting stars in the form of stellar flares, coronal mass ejections, energetic particles, and winds collectively known as astrospheric space weather. Its characterization will help in understanding how an exoplanetary ecosystem interacts with its host star, as well as in the specification of the physical, chemical and biochemical conditions that can create favorable and/or detrimental conditions for planetary climate and habitability along with evolution of planetary internal dynamics over geological timescales. A key linkage of (astro) physical, chemical, and geological processes can only be understood in the framework of interdisciplinary studies with the incorporation of progress in heliophysics, astrophysics, planetary and Earth sciences. The assessment of the impacts of host stars on the climate and habitability of terrestrial (exo)planets will significantly expand the current definition of the habitable zone to the biogenic zone and provide new observational strategies for searching for signatures of life. The major goal of this paper is to describe and discuss the current status and recent progress in this interdisciplinary field and to provide a new roadmap for the future development of the emerging field of exoplanetary science and astrobiology.Comment: 206 pages, 24 figures, 1 table; Review paper. International Journal of Astrobiology (2019

Activity in perceptual classification networks as a basis for human subjective time perception

Despite being a fundamental dimension of experience, how the human brain generates the perception of time remains unknown. Here, we provide a novel explanation for how human time perception might be accomplished, based on non-temporal perceptual classification processes. To demonstrate this proposal, we build an artificial neural system centred on a feed-forward image classification network, functionally similar to human visual processing. In this system, input videos of natural scenes drive changes in network activation, and accumulation of salient changes in activation are used to estimate duration. Estimates produced by this system match human reports made about the same videos, replicating key qualitative biases, including differentiating between scenes of walking around a busy city or sitting in a cafe or office. Our approach provides a working model of duration perception from stimulus to estimation and presents a new direction for examining the foundations of this central aspect of human experience

Higher incidence of clear cell adenocarcinoma of the cervix and vagina among women born between 1947 and 1971 in the United States

Although the association between in utero exposure to diethylstilbestrol (DES) and clear cell adenocarcinoma of the cervix and vagina (CCA) was first reported among young women, subsequent case reports and cohort studies suggest that an elevated risk for CCA may persist with age. Data from the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program were used to construct indirect standardized incidence ratios (SIR) comparing CCA risk among women born during the exposure period 1947 through 1971, when DES was prescribed to pregnant women, to the relevant time period for nonexposed women born before or after DES exposure period. CCA incidence among the women born before the DES exposure period (ages 30–54 at diagnosis of CAA) or after the DES exposure period (ages 15–29 at diagnosis) were used to calculate the expected rates for women born during the DES exposure period. Among women aged 15–29 years, CCA risk increased with age and peaked in the 25–29 year age group, but the risk estimates were unstable (SIR = 6.06; 95% CI: 0.97, −251.07, SEER data). Among women aged 40–54 years, CCA risk was greatest in the 40–44 year age group (SIR = 4.55; 95% CI: 1.11, 40.19, SEER data and SIR = 3.94; 95% CI: 1.06, 33.01, NPCR/SEER data) and remained significantly elevated throughout this age group in the combined data set. Risk was not elevated among women aged 30–39 years. The observed risk of CCA, if causally related to DES exposure, reflects a persistent health impact from in utero exposure that is widespread in the general population. When assessing a woman’s cancer risks, whether her mother took DES while pregnant may still be a relevant aspect of the medical history for women born during the period of DES use in pregnancy

The estrogen-injected female mouse: new insight into the etiology of PCOS

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Female mice and rats injected with estrogen perinatally become anovulatory and develop follicular cysts. The current consensus is that this adverse response to estrogen involves the hypothalamus and occurs because of an estrogen-induced alteration in the GnRH delivery system. Whether or not this is true has yet to be firmly established. The present study examined an alternate possibility in which anovulation and cyst development occurs through an estrogen-induced disruption in the immune system, achieved through the intermediation of the thymus gland.</p> <p>Methods, Results and Conclusion</p> <p>A putative role for the thymus in estrogen-induced anovulation and follicular cyst formation (a model of PCOS) was examined in female mice by removing the gland prior to estrogen injection. Whereas all intact, female mice injected with 20 ug estrogen at 5–7 days of age had ovaries with follicular cysts, no cysts were observed in animals in which thymectomy at 3 days of age preceded estrogen injection. In fact, after restoring immune function by thymocyte replacement, the majority of thymectomized, estrogen-injected mice had ovaries with corpora lutea. Thus, when estrogen is unable to act on the thymus, ovulation occurs and follicular cysts do not develop. This implicates the thymus in the cysts' genesis and discounts the role of the hypothalamus. Subsequent research established that the disease is transferable by lymphocyte infusion. Transfer took place between 100-day-old estrogen-injected and 15-day-old naïve mice only when recipients were thymectomized at 3 days of age. Thus, a prerequisite for cyst formation is the absence of regulatory T cells. Their absence in donor mice was judged to be the result of an estrogen-induced increase in the thymus' vascular permeability, causing de facto circumvention of the final stages of regulatory T cell development. The human thymus has a similar vulnerability to steroid action during the fetal stage. We propose that in utero exposure to excessive levels of steroids such as estrogen has a long-term effect on the ability of the thymus to produce regulatory T cells. In female offspring this can lead to PCOS.</p

Cetuximab plus platinum-based chemotherapy in head and neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: a retrospective study in a single Comprehensive European Cancer Institution

Background: The use of cetuximab in combination with platinum (P) plus 5-fluorouracil (F) has previously been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of metastatic squamous cell cancer of head and neck (SCCHN). We investigated the efficacy and outcome of this protocol as a first-line treatment for patients with recurrent or metastatic disease. We evaluated overall-survival (OS), progression-free-survival (PFS), overall response rate (ORR) and the treatment toxicity profile in a retrospective cohort. Patients and Methods: This study enrolled 121 patients with untreated recurrent or metastatic SCCHN. The patients received PF+ cetuximab every 3 weeks for a maximum of 6 cycles. Patients with stable disease who received PF+ cetuximab continued to receive cetuximab until disease progressed or unacceptable toxic effects were experienced, whichever occurred first. Results: The median patient age was 53 (37-78) years. The patient cohort was 86.8% male. The addition of cetuximab to PF in the recurrent or metastatic setting provided an OS of 11 months (Confidential Interval, CI, 95%, 8.684-13.316) and PFS of 8 months (CI 95%, 6.051-9.949). The disease control rate was 48.9%, and the ORR was 23.91%. The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse events in the PF+ cetuximab regimen were febrile neutropenia (5.7%), skin rash (3.8%) and mucosistis (3.8%). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that cetuximab plus platinum-fluorouracil chemotherapy is a good option for systemic treatment in advanced SSCHN patients. This regimen has a well-tolerated toxicity profile.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Adaptive Evolution of the Myo6 Gene in Old World Fruit Bats (Family: Pteropodidae)

PMCID: PMC3631194This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited