The unfamiliar face effect on forensic craniofacial reconstruction and recognition.

Previous research into the reliability of forensic craniofacial reconstruction (CFR) has focused primarily on the accuracy of reconstructed faces from European or African ancestry skulls. Moreover, the recognition of CFR in relation to the experience and ancestry of the practitioners and the assessors has not been previously considered. The cross-race effect is a recognised phenomenon in psychology studies, where familiar ancestry faces are recognised more readily than unfamiliar ancestry faces, but there is a paucity of research addressing the relationship between the accuracy of reconstructed faces and the familiarity with this ancestry by the practitioners/assessors. The aims of this research were to investigate whether 'unfamiliar-race effect' has any influence on the accuracy of CFR and to evaluate how much the correct recognition rate of CFR is affected by the cross-race effect. Eight CFRs from three ancestry groups were produced by experienced practitioners in order to explore the aims. The results demonstrated that practitioners produced more recognisable CFRs using skulls from a familiar ancestry than skulls from unfamiliar ancestries

The EPICure study: association between hemodynamics and lung function at 11 years after extremely preterm birth.

To investigate the relationship between disturbed lung function and large-artery hemodynamics in school-age children born extremely preterm (EP) (at 25 completed weeks of gestation or less)

Detectable Changes in The Blood Transcriptome Are Present after Two Weeks of Antituberculosis Therapy

Globally there are approximately 9 million new active tuberculosis cases and 1.4 million deaths annually. Effective antituberculosis treatment monitoring is difficult as there are no existing biomarkers of poor adherence or inadequate treatment earlier than 2 months after treatment initiation. Inadequate treatment leads to worsening disease, disease transmission and drug resistance.To determine if blood transcriptional signatures change in response to antituberculosis treatment and could act as early biomarkers of a successful response.Blood transcriptional profiles of untreated active tuberculosis patients in South Africa were analysed before, during (2 weeks and 2 months), at the end of (6 months) and after (12 months) antituberculosis treatment, and compared to individuals with latent tuberculosis. An active-tuberculosis transcriptional signature and a specific treatment-response transcriptional signature were derived. The specific treatment response transcriptional signature was tested in two independent cohorts. Two quantitative scoring algorithms were applied to measure the changes in the transcriptional response. The most significantly represented pathways were determined using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis.An active tuberculosis 664-transcript signature and a treatment specific 320-transcript signature significantly diminished after 2 weeks of treatment in all cohorts, and continued to diminish until 6 months. The transcriptional response to treatment could be individually measured in each patient.Significant changes in the transcriptional signatures measured by blood tests were readily detectable just 2 weeks after treatment initiation. These findings suggest that blood transcriptional signatures could be used as early surrogate biomarkers of successful treatment response

HIV-tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome is characterized by Toll-like receptor and inflammasome signalling

Patients with HIV-associated tuberculosis (TB) initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) may develop immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS). No biomarkers for TB-IRIS have been identified and the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Here we perform transcriptomic profiling of the blood samples of patients with HIV-associated TB. We identify differentially abundant transcripts as early as week 0.5 post ART initiation that predict downstream activation of proinflammatory cytokines in patients who progress to TB-IRIS. At the characteristic time of TB-IRIS onset (week 2), the signature is characterized by over-representation of innate immune mediators including TLR signalling and TREM-1 activation of the inflammasome. In keeping with the transcriptional data, concentrations of plasma cytokines and caspase-1/5 are elevated in TB-IRIS. Inhibition of MyD88 adaptor and group 1 caspases reduces secretion of cytokines including IL-1 in TB-IRIS patients. These data provide insight on the pathogenesis of TB-IRIS and may assist the development of specific therapies

Diurnal pattern of salivary cortisol and progression of aortic stiffness: Longitudinal study

Background: The positive direct relation between stress and the development of cardiovascular disease has increasingly been recognized. However, the link between hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) dysregulation and subclinical cardiovascular disease has not been studied longitudinally. We investigated the relation of diurnal salivary cortisol, as a biological marker of stress levels, with progression of aortic stiffness over five years. Methods: A total of 3281 people (mean age 65.5) in the Whitehall II prospective study provided six saliva samples on a single weekday. We assessed the diurnal salivary cortisol using the daytime slope and bedtime level. Aortic stiffness was measured by carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) at baseline (2007–2009) and five years later (2012–2013). Linear mixed models were used to estimate the association of diurnal salivary cortisol with baseline PWV and five-year longitudinal changes. Results: Diurnal salivary cortisol were not associated with PWV at baseline. Among women but not men, a 1-SD shallower salivary cortisol slope at baseline was associated with a five-year increase in PWV (β = 0.199; 95% CI = 0.040, 0.358 m/s) and higher bedtime cortisol level (β = 0.208, 95% CI = 0.062, 0.354 m/s). Conclusions: Dysregulation of the HPA axis measured using salivary cortisol (shallower slope, higher bedtime level) predicted the rate of progression of aortic stiffness among women

Joining the dots: Conditional pass and programmatic assessment enhances recognition of problems with professionalism and factors hampering student progress

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Programmatic assessment that looks across a whole year may contribute to better decisions compared with those made from isolated assessments alone. The aim of this study is to describe and evaluate a programmatic system to handle student assessment results that is aligned not only with learning and remediation, but also with defensibility. The key components are standards based assessments, use of "Conditional Pass", and regular progress meetings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The new assessment system is described. The evaluation is based on years 4-6 of a 6-year medical course. The types of concerns staff had about students were clustered into themes alongside any interventions and outcomes for the students concerned. The likelihoods of passing the year according to type of problem were compared before and after phasing in of the new assessment system.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The new system was phased in over four years. In the fourth year of implementation 701 students had 3539 assessment results, of which 4.1% were Conditional Pass. More in-depth analysis for 1516 results available from 447 students revealed the odds ratio (95% confidence intervals) for failure was highest for students with problems identified in more than one part of the course (18.8 (7.7-46.2) p < 0.0001) or with problems with professionalism (17.2 (9.1-33.3) p < 0.0001). The odds ratio for failure was lowest for problems with assignments (0.7 (0.1-5.2) NS). Compared with the previous system, more students failed the year under the new system on the basis of performance during the year (20 or 4.5% compared with four or 1.1% under the previous system (p < 0.01)).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The new system detects more students in difficulty and has resulted in less "failure to fail". The requirement to state conditions required to pass has contributed to a paper trail that should improve defensibility. Most importantly it has helped detect and act on some of the more difficult areas to assess such as professionalism.</p

Safety and efficacy of fluticasone propionate in the topical treatment of skin diseases

Fluticasone propionate - the first carbothioate corticosteroid - has been classified as a potent anti-inflammatory drug for dermatological use. It is available as 0.05% cream and 0.005% ointment formulations for the acute and maintenance treatment of patients with dermatological disorders such as atopic dermatitis, psoriasis and vitiligo. This glucocorticoid is characterized by high lipophilicity, high glucocorticoid receptor binding and activation, and a rapid metabolic turnover in skin. Although skin blanching following fluticasone propionate exceeds that of corticosteroids of medium strength, several clinical trials demonstrate a low potential for cutaneous and systemic side-effects, even in difficult-to-treat areas like the face, the eyelids and intertriginous areas. Even among paediatric patients with atopic dermatitis, fluticasone propionate proved to be safe and effective. These pharmacological and clinical properties are reflected by the high therapeutic index of this glucocorticoid

Exploring the value of a cyber threat intelligence function in an organization

Organizations can struggle to cope with the rapidly advancing threat landscape. A cyber threat intelligence (CTI) function broadly aims to understand how threats operate to better protect the organization from future attacks. This seems like a natural step to take in hardening security. However, CTI is understood and experienced differently across organizations. To explore the value of this function this study used a qualitative method, guided by the Socio-Technical Framework, to understand how the CTI function is interpreted by organizations in South Africa. Thematic analysis was used to provide an in-depth view of how each organization implemented its CTI function and what benefits and challenges they’ve experienced. Findings show that CTI tasks tend to be more manual and resource-intensive, but these challenges can be resolved through automation. It was noted that only larger organizations seem to have the budget and resources available to implement the CTI function, whereas smaller organizations put more reliance on tools. It was observed that skills for the CTI function can be learned on the job, but that formal education provides a good foundation. The findings illustrate the value the CTI function can provide an organization but also the challenges, thereby enabling other organizations to improve preparation before such a function is adopted

Four patients with a history of acute exacerbations of COPD: implementing the CHEST/Canadian Thoracic Society guidelines for preventing exacerbations

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A blind accuracy assessment of computer-modeled forensic facial reconstruction using computed tomography data from live subjects.

A computer modeling system for facial reconstruction has been developed that employs a touch-based application to create anatomically accurate facial models focusing on skeletal detail. This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the system and illustrates its accuracy and reliability with a blind study using computed tomography (CT) data of living individuals. Three-dimensional models of the skulls of two white North American adults (one male, one female) were imported into the computer system. Facial reconstructions were produced by two practitioners following the Manchester method. Two posters were produced, each including a face pool of five surface model images and the facial reconstruction. The face pool related to the sex, age, and ethnic group of the target individual and included the surface model image of the target individual. Fifty-two volunteers were asked to choose the face from the face pool that most resembled each reconstruction. Both reconstructions received majority percentage hit rates that were at least 50% greater than any other face in the pool. The combined percentage hit rate was 50% above chance (70%). A quantitative comparison of the facial morphology between the facial reconstructions and the CT scan models of the subjects was carried out using Rapidform(™) 2004 PP2-RF4. The majority of the surfaces of the facial reconstructions showed less than 2.5 mm error and 90% of the male face and 75% of the female face showed less than 5 mm error. Many of the differences between the facial reconstructions and the facial scans were probably the result of positional effects caused during the CT scanning procedure, especially on the female subject who had a fatter face than the male subject. The areas of most facial reconstruction error were at the ears and nasal tip