Smart TV face monitoring for children privacy

© 2018 Taiwan Academic Network Management Committee. All Rights Reserved. Many of the modern Television (TV) sets and digital TV set-top boxes are endowed with Smart TV capabilities. Those include computing and connectivity to online services such as video on demand, online games and even sports and healthcare. A lot of Smart TV devices also have built-in cameras, microphones and other sensors that provide for environmental monitoring and consequent context dependent feedback. Such Smart TV capabilities, however, can lead to privacy violations through unwanted tracking and user profiling by broadcasters and other service providers. There is a concern when underage users such as children who may not fully understand the concept of privacy are involved in using the Smart TV services. To address this issue, face recognition experiments were conducted with the IBM\u27s Watson and the Microsoft\u27s Face Application Programming Interface to reveal the potential of integrating facial recognition in future privacy aware Smart TV services

Adaptive correction of thermal distortions of multichannel laser radiation

Results of the simulation of multichannel radiation propagation under conditions of thermal blooming are presented. The correction of nonlinear thermal distortion by means of the beam phase and amplitudephase control is considered. The results show the dependence of the correction effectiveness on the number of channels and on the precision of the reference beam phase retrieval. An additional increase in the effectiveness is possible by means of adjustment of amplification in the channels of the optical system, i.e., with the use of amplitude-phase control over the beam wavefront

Neural network parametrization of the lepton energy spectrum in semileptonic B meson decays

We construct a parametrization of the lepton energy spectrum in inclusive semileptonic decays of B mesons, based on the available experimental information: moments of the spectrum with cuts, their errors and their correlations, together with kinematical constraints. The result is obtained in the form of a Monte Carlo sample of neural networks trained on replicas of the experimental data, which represents the probability density in the space of lepton energy spectra. This parametrization is then used to extract the b quark mass m_b^{1S} in a way that theoretical uncertainties are minimized, for which the value m_b^{1S}=4.84 \pm 0.14^{exp}\pm 0.05^{th} GeV is obtained.Comment: 32 pages, 22 figures, JHEP3 class. v4 version accepted for publication in JHE

Experience in genetic testing of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy using nanopore DNA sequencing

Aim. To investigate the application of the Oxford Nanopore Technologies’ third generation sequencing for the genetic testing of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.Material and methods. The study involved 12 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy aged 18 to 67 years (women, 9; men, 3). Using the PCR barcoding amplicons (SQK-LSK109) protocol, DNA libraries were created which contained long-range PCR fragments of the MYH7, MYBPC3, TNNT2, TNNI3 and TPM1 genes. The sequencing was performed using the MinION system by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (UK). Bioinformatic algorithms for data analysis included Guppy v.5.0.7, Nanopolish and Clairvoyante. The identified genetic variants were confirmed by Sanger sequencing.Results. Data on the complete sequence of the five major sarcomeric genes for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy were obtained. We found eight potentially disease-causing sequence variants in MYH7, MYBPC3 and TNNT2 genes by monomolecular sequencing. However, only three mutations p.Arg243Cys, p.Tyr609Asn, p.Arg870His in the MYH7 gene, and one mutation p.Lys985Asn in the MYBPC3 were confirmed by Sanger sequencing. Cascade screening of pathogenic variant p.Arg870His in the MYH7 gene was performed. We found one asymptomatic carrier.Conclusion. It appears that monomolecular sequencing technology is a feasible approach to identify mutations in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Although improvement in accuracy of DNA sequencing, as well as optimization and simplification of bioinformatic algorithms for identification of the genetic variants are needed

Do antibiotic-impregnated shunts in hydrocephalus therapy reduce the risk of infection? An observational study in 258 patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Shunt infection in hydrocephalus patients is a severe, even life-threatening complication. Antibiotic-impregnated shunts (AIS) have been developed in an attempt to reduce rate of shunt infection. The study was performed to analyze if AIS can diminish the rate of shunt infection. The pathogenic nature of shunt infection in patients with AIS systems and those without antibiotic impregnated shunts (non-AIS) was compared.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Over a period of 24 months in the Department of Neurosurgery at University Hospital of Tübingen shunt surgery was performed in 258 patients. In 86 patients AIS systems were implanted. Shunt catheters were commercially impregnated with clindamycin and rifampicin. Analysis of the clinical data included sex, age, classification of hydrocephalus, shunt types and risk factors for shunt infection [age (< 1 year and > 80 years), prematurely born patients, external ventricular drainage, former shunt infection, former systemic infection, disturbance of consciousness, former radiation-/chemotherapy]. Infection rates and underlying bacterial pathogens of patients with AIS were compared to patients with implanted non-AIS systems (172 patients).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>AIS and non-AIS patients did not differ in sex, etiology of hydrocephalus and the shunt type. In the AIS group 72 out of 86 patients had at least one risk factor (83.7 %), compared to 126 patients in the non-AIS group (73.3 %). There was no significant difference between the two groups (p = 0.0629; Fisher's exact test). In patients with no risk factors, only one patient with non-AIS suffered from shunt infection. In patients with one or more risk factors the rate for shunt infection was 7.14 % in patients with non-AIS and 6.94 % in patients with AIS. Former shunt infection (p = 0.0124) was related to higher risk for shunt infection. The use of AIS had therefore no significant advantage (p = 0.8611; multiple logistic regression).</p> <p>Significantly related to a shunt infection was the number of shunt surgeries. 190 interventions in the AIS group (2.21 interventions per patient) and 408 in the non-AIS group (2.37 interventions per patient) had been performed (p = 0.3063; Wilcoxon). There was no shunt infection in the group of patients on whom only one shunt surgery was performed. In patients with at least two shunt surgeries the infection rate was 9%. The infection rate in AIS patients was 5/52 (9.6 %) and in the non-AIS 10/114 (8.77 %), (p = 1.0; Fisher's exact test). Staphylococcus epidermidis was the most frequent pathogen for shunt infection. Fourteen out of 15 infections occurred within the first 6 months of surgery. The most frequent pathogen for shunt infection was S. epidermidis. No toxic or allergic complications were seen using the AIS shunt systems. The presented data show a remarkably low infection rate of 5.8 % in the non-AIS group compared to other studies which demonstrated a significant decrease in the infection rate by AIS.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>AIS did not significantly reduce shunt infection in hydrocephalus patients in the presented study. In the AIS group three patients suffered from shunt infections caused by skin ulceration or neurosurgical procedures with exposure of the cerebrospinal liquor after shunt implantation. AIS was not developed to prevent infection in such cases, therefore an advantage of AIS can not be excluded. In view of the presented data and the small number of reported studies a prospective randomized multicenter study is required.</p

Melanoides tuberculata as intermediate host of Philophthalmus gralli in Brazil

Melanoides tuberculata that naturally harbored trematode larvae were collected at the Pampulha dam, Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais, Brazil), during malacological surveys conducted from 2006 to 2010. From 7,164 specimens of M. tuberculata collected, 25 (0.35%) were infected by cercariae, which have been morphologically characterized as belonging to the Megalurous group, genus Philophthalmus. Excysted metacercariae were used for successful experimental infection of Gallus gallus domesticus, and adult parasites recovered from the nictitating membranes of chickens were identified as Philophthalmus gralli. This is the first report of P. gralli in M. tuberculata in Brazil

Infecções em dispositivos neurológicos implantáveis em crianças e adolescentes

OBJETIVO: Determinar a freqüência, as causas, o sítio específico e as manifestações clínicas e laboratoriais das infecções em crianças e adolescentes após a implantação de dispositivos neurológicos (DVP) no Hospital Governador João Alves Filho (Aracaju SE). MÉTODO: Estudo prospectivo, observacional, não controlado de 50 pacientes, submetidos a DVP (58 procedimentos), no período de janeiro de 2003 a outubro de 2004. RESULTADOS: Observaram-se taxas de infecção por procedimento de 27,6%, taxas de infecção de índice cirúrgico zero, 1 e 2 de 25,7% e 30,4%, respectivamente (NNIS-CDC). A infecção de sítio cirúrgico foi a principal complicação com 50% das infecções. CONCLUSÃO: Taxa de infecção por procedimento, paciente e índice de risco cirúrgico mostraram-se elevadas. Não houve significância estatística com relação à idade, etiologia da hidrocefalia, ao tipo de procedimento (derivação primária e reinserção), tempo de internação pré-operatória, duração da cirurgia, antibioticoprofilaxia, cateter SNC prévio e índice de risco cirúrgico. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE: To determine frequency, etiology, site and clinical and laboratory findings of ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) infections in children and adolescents with hydrocephalus managed in Hospital Governador João Alves Filho, Aracaju SE, Brazil. METHOD: A non-controlled prospective observational study comprising 50 patients that underwent VPS (58 procedures) from January/2003 to October/2004. RESULTS: Infection rate per procedure was 27.6%; surgical risk index (NNISS-CDC) 0 and 1-2 were 25.7% and 30.4% respectively; surgical site infection was the main complication with 50% of the cases. CONCLUSION: Infection rates per procedure, per patient, and per surgical risk index were high. No statistical differences were found related to the following: age, etiology of hydrocephalus, type of procedure, pre-operative length of stay, duration of procedure, antibiotic prophylaxis, previous central nervous system catheter, and surgical risk index

Community assessment to advance computational prediction of cancer drug combinations in a pharmacogenomic screen

The effectiveness of most cancer targeted therapies is short-lived. Tumors often develop resistance that might be overcome with drug combinations. However, the number of possible combinations is vast, necessitating data-driven approaches to find optimal patient-specific treatments. Here we report AstraZeneca’s large drug combination dataset, consisting of 11,576 experiments from 910 combinations across 85 molecularly characterized cancer cell lines, and results of a DREAM Challenge to evaluate computational strategies for predicting synergistic drug pairs and biomarkers. 160 teams participated to provide a comprehensive methodological development and benchmarking. Winning methods incorporate prior knowledge of drug-target interactions. Synergy is predicted with an accuracy matching biological replicates for >60% of combinations. However, 20% of drug combinations are poorly predicted by all methods. Genomic rationale for synergy predictions are identified, including ADAM17 inhibitor antagonism when combined with PIK3CB/D inhibition contrasting to synergy when combined with other PI3K-pathway inhibitors in PIK3CA mutant cells.Peer reviewe