105 research outputs found
How Polarized Have We Become? A Multimodal Classification of Trump Followers and Clinton Followers
Polarization in American politics has been extensively documented and
analyzed for decades, and the phenomenon became all the more apparent during
the 2016 presidential election, where Trump and Clinton depicted two radically
different pictures of America. Inspired by this gaping polarization and the
extensive utilization of Twitter during the 2016 presidential campaign, in this
paper we take the first step in measuring polarization in social media and we
attempt to predict individuals' Twitter following behavior through analyzing
ones' everyday tweets, profile images and posted pictures. As such, we treat
polarization as a classification problem and study to what extent Trump
followers and Clinton followers on Twitter can be distinguished, which in turn
serves as a metric of polarization in general. We apply LSTM to processing
tweet features and we extract visual features using the VGG neural network.
Integrating these two sets of features boosts the overall performance. We are
able to achieve an accuracy of 69%, suggesting that the high degree of
polarization recorded in the literature has started to manifest itself in
social media as well.Comment: 16 pages, SocInfo 2017, 9th International Conference on Social
Informatic
ACL reconstruction with unicondylar replacement in knee with functional instability and osteoarthritis
Severe symptomatic osteoarthritis in young and active patients with pre-existing deficiency of the anterior cruciate ligament and severe functionally instability is a difficult subgroup to manage. There is considerable debate regarding management of young patients with isolated unicompartment osteoarthritis and concomitant ACL deficiency. A retrospective analysis of was done in 9 patients with symptomatic osteoarthritis with ACL deficiencies and functional instability that were treated with unicompartment knee arthroplasty and ACL reconstruction between April 2002 and June 2005. The average arc of flexion was 119° (range 85° to 135°) preoperatively and 125° (range 105° to 140°). There were no signs of instability during the follow up of patients. No patients in this group were reoperated. In this small series we have shown that instability can be corrected and pain relieved by this combined procedure
Radiological Decision Aid to determine suitability for medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty: development and preliminary validation
Aims: An evidence-based radiographic Decision Aid for meniscal-bearing unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) has been developed and this study investigates its performance at an independent centre. Patients: and Methods Pre-operative radiographs, including stress views, from a consecutive cohort of 550 knees undergoing arthroplasty (UKA or total knee arthroplasty; TKA) by a single-surgeon were assessed. Suitability for UKA was determined using the Decision Aid, with the assessor blinded to treatment received, and compared with actual treatment received, which was determined by an experienced UKA surgeon based on history, examination, radiographic assessment including stress radiographs, and intra-operative assessment in line with the recommended indications as described in the literature. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of the Decision Aid was 92% and 88%, respectively. Excluding knees where a clear pre-operative plan was made to perform TKA, i.e. patient request, the sensitivity was 93% and specificity 96%. The false-positive rate was low (2.4%) with all affected patients readily identifiable during joint inspection at surgery. In patients meeting Decision Aid criteria and receiving UKA, the five-year survival was 99% (95% confidence intervals (CI) 97 to 100). The false negatives (3.5%), who received UKA but did not meet the criteria, had significantly worse functional outcomes (flexion p < 0.001, American Knee Society Score - Functional p < 0.001, University of California Los Angeles score p = 0.04), and lower implant survival of 93.1% (95% CI 77.6 to 100). Conclusion: The radiographic Decision Aid safely and reliably identifies appropriate patients for meniscal-bearing UKA and achieves good results in this population. The widespread use of the Decision Aid should improve the results of UKA
Oxford Phase 3 unicompartmental knee arthroplasty: medium-term results of a minimally invasive surgical procedure
PURPOSE: In the last decade, a major increase in the use of and interest in unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) has developed. The Oxford Phase 3 UKA is implanted with a minimally invasive technique using newly developed instruments. The objective of this prospective study was to evaluate the outcome of UKA in patients with medial osteoarthritis of the knee in a high-volume unit. METHODS: Two-hundred and forty-four UKAs were performed with a minimally invasive approach. The median age was 72 (43-91) years. The median follow-up was 4.2 years (range 1-10.4 years). Fourteen patients died, and nine were considered to be lost to follow-up, but all had a well-functioning prosthesis in situ until their last follow-up. Pain, function and health-related quality of life were evaluated pre- and postoperatively using patient- and assessor-based outcome scores, as well as radiographic evidence. RESULTS: The mean Knee Society knee and function scores, WOMAC-scores, Oxford-score and VAS pain and satisfaction all improved. Nine knees required revision. Eleven patients required an additional arthroscopic procedure due to persisting pain secondary to intra-articular pathology, and four patients required manipulation under anaesthesia because of limited range of motion. The 7-year cumulative survival rate of the arthroplasty was 94.4%. A low incidence (21%) of a radiolucent line beneath the tibial component was observed at 5 years of follow-up. CONCLUSION: This study showed a high survival rate of the Oxford Phase 3 UKA. Patient satisfaction and functional performance were also very high. Major complication rate was low; in addition, the incidence of radiolucency under the tibial component, when compared to present literature, was low. When strict indication criteria are followed, excellent, durable, and in our opinion reliable, results can be expected for this procedur
Hypertension and type 2 diabetes: What family physicians can do to improve control of blood pressure - an observational study
Background: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is rising, and most of these patients also have hypertension,
substantially increasing the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The majority of these patients do not
reach target blood pressure levels for a wide variety of reasons. When a literature review provided no clear focus
for action when patients are not at target, we initiated a study to identify characteristics of patients and providers
associated with achieving target BP levels in community-based practice.
Methods: We conducted a practice- based, cross-sectional observational and mailed survey study. The setting was
the practices of 27 family physicians and nurse practitioners in 3 eastern provinces in Canada. The participants
were all patients with type 2 diabetes who could understand English, were able to give consent, and would be
available for follow-up for more than one year. Data were collected from each patient’s medical record and from
each patient and physician/nurse practitioner by mailed survey. Our main outcome measures were overall blood
pressure at target (< 130/80), systolic blood pressure at target, and diastolic blood pressure at target. Analysis
included initial descriptive statistics, logistic regression models, and multivariate regression using hierarchical
nonlinear modeling (HNLM).
Results: Fifty-four percent were at target for both systolic and diastolic pressures. Sixty-two percent were at systolic
target, and 79% were at diastolic target. Patients who reported eating food low in salt had higher odds of
reaching target blood pressure. Similarly, patients reporting low adherence to their medication regimen had lower
odds of reaching target blood pressure.
Conclusions: When primary care health professionals are dealing with blood pressures above target in a patient
with type 2 diabetes, they should pay particular attention to two factors. They should inquire about dietary salt
intake, strongly emphasize the importance of reduction, and refer for detailed counseling if necessary. Similarly,
they should inquire about adherence to the medication regimen, and employ a variety of patient-oriented
strategies to improve adherence
Mantle heat drives hydrothermal fluids responsible for carbonate-hosted base metal deposits: evidence from 3He/4He of ore fluids in the Irish Pb-Zn ore district
There is little consensus on whether carbonate-hosted base metal deposits, such as
the world-class Irish Zn+Pb ore field, formed in collisional or extensional tectonic
settings. Helium isotopes have been analysed in ore fluids trapped in sulphides
samples from the major base metal deposits of the Irish Zn-Pb ore field in order to
quantify the involvement of mantle-derived volatiles, that require melting to be realised,
as well as test prevailing models for the genesis of the ore fields. 3He/4He ratios
range up to 0.2 Ra, indicating that a small but clear mantle helium contribution is
present in the mineralising fluids trapped in galena and marcasite. Sulfides from ore
deposits with the highest fluid inclusion temperatures (~200°C) also have the highest
3He/4He (> 0.15 Ra). Similar 3He/4He are recorded in fluids from modern continental
regions that are undergoing active extension. By analogy we consider that the
hydrothermal fluids responsible for the carbonate-hosted Irish base metal
mineralization circulated in thinned continental crust, undergoing extension, and
demonstrates that enhanced mantle heat flow is ultimately responsible for driving fluid
convection
Basal and post-ischemic vascular compliance in children/adolescents born small for gestational age
Comparative genomics reveals phylogenetic distribution patterns of secondary metabolites in Amycolatopsis species
Background
Genome mining tools have enabled us to predict biosynthetic gene clusters that might encode compounds with valuable functions for industrial and medical applications. With the continuously increasing number of genomes sequenced, we are confronted with an overwhelming number of predicted clusters. In order to guide the effective prioritization of biosynthetic gene clusters towards finding the most promising compounds, knowledge about diversity, phylogenetic relationships and distribution patterns of biosynthetic gene clusters is necessary.
Results
Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the model actinobacterial genus Amycolatopsis and its potential for the production of secondary metabolites. A phylogenetic characterization, together with a pan-genome analysis showed that within this highly diverse genus, four major lineages could be distinguished which differed in their potential to produce secondary metabolites. Furthermore, we were able to distinguish gene cluster families whose distribution correlated with phylogeny, indicating that vertical gene transfer plays a major role in the evolution of secondary metabolite gene clusters. Still, the vast majority of the diverse biosynthetic gene clusters were derived from clusters unique to the genus, and also unique in comparison to a database of known compounds. Our study on the locations of biosynthetic gene clusters in the genomes of Amycolatopsis’ strains showed that clusters acquired by horizontal gene transfer tend to be incorporated into non-conserved regions of the genome thereby allowing us to distinguish core and hypervariable regions in Amycolatopsis genomes.
Conclusions
Using a comparative genomics approach, it was possible to determine the potential of the genus Amycolatopsis to produce a huge diversity of secondary metabolites. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates that horizontal and vertical gene transfer play an important role in the acquisition and maintenance of valuable secondary metabolites. Our results cast light on the interconnections between secondary metabolite gene clusters and provide a way to prioritize biosynthetic pathways in the search and discovery of novel compounds
Minimally invasive total knee replacement : techniques and results
In this review, we outlined the definition of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) in total knee replacement (TKR) and described the different surgical approaches reported in the literature. Afterwards we went through the most recent studies assessing MIS TKR. Next, we searched for potential limitations of MIS knee replacement and tried to answer the following questions: Are there selective criteria and specific patient selection for MIS knee surgery? If there are, then what are they? After all, a discussion and conclusion completed this article. There is certainly room for MIS or at least less invasive surgery (LIS) for appropriate selected patients. Nonetheless, there are differences between approaches. Mini medial parapatellar is easy to master, quick to perform and potentially extendable, whereas mini subvastus and mini midvastus are trickier and require more caution related to risk of hematoma and VMO nerve damage. Current evidence on the safety and efficacy of mini-incision surgery for TKR does not appear fully adequate for the procedure to be used without special arrangements for consent and for audit or continuing research. There is an argument that a sudden jump from standard TKR to MIS TKR, especially without computer assistance such as navigation, patient specific instrumentation (PSI) or robotic, may breach a surgeon's duty of care toward patients because it exposes patients to unnecessary risks. As a final point, more evidence is required on the long-term safety and efficacy of this procedure which will give objective shed light on real benefits of MIS TKR
Reduced bone activity in the native compartments after medial mobile-bearing unicompartmental knee arthroplasty. A prospective SPECT/CT study
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