844 research outputs found
Towards Deep Cellular Phenotyping in Placental Histology
The placenta is a complex organ, playing multiple roles during fetal
development. Very little is known about the association between placental
morphological abnormalities and fetal physiology. In this work, we present an
open sourced, computationally tractable deep learning pipeline to analyse
placenta histology at the level of the cell. By utilising two deep
Convolutional Neural Network architectures and transfer learning, we can
robustly localise and classify placental cells within five classes with an
accuracy of 89%. Furthermore, we learn deep embeddings encoding phenotypic
knowledge that is capable of both stratifying five distinct cell populations
and learn intraclass phenotypic variance. We envisage that the automation of
this pipeline to population scale studies of placenta histology has the
potential to improve our understanding of basic cellular placental biology and
its variations, particularly its role in predicting adverse birth outcomes.Comment: Updated MRC funding material. Corrected typo that suggested
ensembling and Inception accuracy were the same (updated to reflect the fact
the ensemble model is 1% better than previously reported
Search for Fractional Charges in Water
Results are presented from a search for fractional charges in water from a variety of natural sources. About 30 000 water drops have been measured, comprising 51 μg of water and dissolved materials. No evidence for fractional charge was seen
Outcome of index upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in patients presenting with dysphagia in a tertiary care hospital-A 10 years review
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients with malignant tumours of the upper gastrointestinal tract tumours exhibit important alarm symptoms such as dysphagia that warrant clinical investigations. An endoscopic examination of the upper gastrointestinal tract will be required in most cases. This study evaluates the diagnostic potential of index endoscopy in a random population of patients with dysphagia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This is a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data over 10 years. Patients with previous endoscopic evaluation or upper gastrointestinal pathology were excluded from the study. Data was analysed to see the number and frequency of abnormal findings in upper gastrointestinal tract, and their significance in relation to the presenting symptoms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Total number of index endoscopies was 13, 881. 913 patients were included in the study including 465 males (age range: 17–92 years, median: 55 years) and 448 females (age range: 18–100, median: 59 years), with male to female ratio of 1.04: 1. Oesophagus was abnormal in 678 cases (74%) and biopsies were taken in 428 patients (47%). Superficial oesophagitis, Barrett's oesophagus, oesophageal cancer, and oesophageal ulcer were main histological findings. Age more than 50 years and weight loss were significant predictors of oesophageal cancer (p < 0.0001). Male gender, heartburn, epigastric pain, weight loss and vomiting were significantly related to Barrett's oesophagus. A total of 486 gastric and 56 duodenal biopsies were also taken. There were 20 cases of gastric adenocarcinoma.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>OGD is an effective initial investigation to assess patients with dysphagia, especially males above the age of 50 years. Patients may be started on treatment or referred for further investigations, for example, a barium meal in the absence of any anatomical abnormality.</p
Effects of air pollution from a nickel–copper industrial complex on boreal forest vegetation in the joint Russian–Norwegian–Finnish border area
Costs and Quality of Life in Multiple Sclerosis. A Cross-Sectional Observational Study in the UK
Abstract: We performed a cross-sectional, "bottom-up" observational study of resource consumption and quality of life of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) in the United Kingdom. Three centers participated in the study. Patients received a questionnaire either by mail or during a clinic visit, and a total of 619 patients returned the questionnaire (the answer rate being around 70%). Patients provided information on all resource consumption, medical and non-medical, work absence and informal care related to their MS. Disease scores (Expanded Disability Status Scale, EDSS) were available for a majority of patients from the study centers, and were assigned using a matrix of disease (mobility) descriptions and EDSS scores. Mean total cost per patient and year was 16’717 £. When this cost is extrapolated to an estimated patient population in the UK of 80’000, total costs to society are estimated at 1.34 billion £. Direct costs represented 28%, informal care accounted for 26% and indirect costs amounted to 46%. Of the direct costs, an estimated £ per patient or % of total costs are paid for by the NHS. Intangible costs were estimated at 5000 £ per patient and year. The mean age of the cohort was 44 years (disease onset 34), the mean utility measured with EQ-5D was 0.487 (0.919 to –0.594), and the mean EDSS score 5.1 (1.0 to 9.5). All costs (direct, informal care, indirect) increased with increasing EDSS scores, while utilities decreased.multiple sclerosis; cost-of-illness; quality of life; EDSS; utility
Search for Fractional Charges Produced in Heavy-Ion Collisions at 1.9 GeV/nucleon
An experiment was performed to capture fractionally charged particles produced in heavy-ion collisions and to concentrate them in samples suitable for analysis by various techniques. Two of the samples so produced have been searched, with use of an automated version of Millikan\u27s oil-drop apparatus. The beam was 56Fe at 1.9 GeV/nucleon, incident on a lead target. Less than one fractional charge per 1.0× 104 Fe-Pb collisions was found to be produced, and, with further assumptions, less than one per 2.0× 106 collisions
Sex differences in the risk of coronary heart disease associated with type 2 diabetes:a Mendelian Randomization analysis
OBJECTIVE Observational studies have demonstrated that type 2 diabetes is a stronger risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) in women compared with men. However, it is not clear whether this reflects a sex differential in the causal effect of diabetes on CHD risk or results from sex-specific residual confounding. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Using 270 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for type 2 diabetes identified in a type 2 diabetes genome-wide association study, we performed a sex-stratified Mendelian randomization (MR) study of type 2 diabetes and CHD using individual participant data in UK Biobank (251,420 women and 212,049 men). Weighted median, MR-Egger, MR-pleiotropy residual sum and outlier, and radial MR from summary-level analyses were used for pleiotropy assessment. RESULTS MR analyses showed that genetic risk of type 2 diabetes increased the odds of CHD for women (odds ratio 1.13 [95% CI 1.08–1.18] per 1-log unit increase in odds of type 2 diabetes) and men (1.21 [1.17–1.26] per 1-log unit increase in odds of type 2 diabetes). Sensitivity analyses showed some evidence of directional pleiotropy; however, results were similar after correction for outlier SNPs. CONCLUSIONS This MR analysis supports a causal effect of genetic liability to type 2 diabetes on risk of CHD that is not stronger for women than men. Assuming a lack of bias, these findings suggest that the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes for CHD risk reduction is of equal priority in both sexes
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