Une belle gauloise... A propos d'une fibule inscrite de Laon

International audienceA Roman brooch in shoe sole shape, found at Laon (Aisne), shows an inscription associating Latin and Gaulish : ave vimpi. The morphological study of the item, replaced in its typo-chronolgical context of the 2nd c. AD, gives the opportunity to re-examine the dali life accessories using the two languages, with special focus on the occurrences of the Gaulish word "vimpi".Une fibule romaine en forme de semelle de chaussure, trouvée à laon (Aisne), porte une inscription associant latin et gaulois : ave vimpi. L'étude morphologique de cet objet, replacé dans le cadre typo-chronologique du IIe s. de n. ère, fournit l'occasion de revenir sur les objets de la vie quotidienne utilisant ces deux langues, et notamment les attestations du mot gaulois "vimpi"

Financial access to health care in Karuzi, Burundi: a household-survey based performance evaluation.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: In 2003, Médecins Sans Frontières, the provincial government, and the provincial health authority began a community project to guarantee financial access to primary health care in Karuzi province, Burundi. The project used a community-based assessment to provide exemption cards for indigent households and a reduced flat fee for consultations for all other households. METHODS: An evaluation was carried out in 2005 to assess the impact of this project. Primary data collection was through a cross-sectional household survey of the catchment areas of 10 public health centres. A questionnaire was used to determine the accuracy of the community-identification method, households' access to health care, and costs of care. Household socioeconomic status was determined by reported expenditures and access to land. RESULTS: Financial access to care at the nearest health centre was ensured for 70% of the population. Of the remaining 30%, half experienced financial barriers to access and the other half chose alternative sites of care. The community-based assessment increased the number of people of the population who qualified for fee exemptions to 8.6% but many people who met the indigent criteria did not receive a card. Eighty-eight percent of the population lived under the poverty threshold. Referring to the last sickness episode, 87% of households reported having no money available and 25% risked further impoverishment because of healthcare costs even with the financial support system in place. CONCLUSION: The flat fee policy was found to reduce cost barriers for some households but, given the generalized poverty in the area, the fee still posed a significant financial burden. This report showed the limits of a programme of fee exemption for indigent households and a flat fee for others in a context of widespread poverty

TriadNet: Sampling-free predictive intervals for lesional volume in 3D brain MR images

The volume of a brain lesion (e.g. infarct or tumor) is a powerful indicator of patient prognosis and can be used to guide the therapeutic strategy. Lesional volume estimation is usually performed by segmentation with deep convolutional neural networks (CNN), currently the state-of-the-art approach. However, to date, few work has been done to equip volume segmentation tools with adequate quantitative predictive intervals, which can hinder their usefulness and acceptation in clinical practice. In this work, we propose TriadNet, a segmentation approach relying on a multi-head CNN architecture, which provides both the lesion volumes and the associated predictive intervals simultaneously, in less than a second. We demonstrate its superiority over other solutions on BraTS 2021, a large-scale MRI glioblastoma image database.Comment: Accepted for presentation at the Workshop on Uncertainty for Safe Utilization of Machine Learning in Medical Imaging (UNSURE) at MICCAI 202

Multi-layer Aggregation as a key to feature-based OOD detection

Deep Learning models are easily disturbed by variations in the input images that were not observed during the training stage, resulting in unpredictable predictions. Detecting such Out-of-Distribution (OOD) images is particularly crucial in the context of medical image analysis, where the range of possible abnormalities is extremely wide. Recently, a new category of methods has emerged, based on the analysis of the intermediate features of a trained model. These methods can be divided into 2 groups: single-layer methods that consider the feature map obtained at a fixed, carefully chosen layer, and multi-layer methods that consider the ensemble of the feature maps generated by the model. While promising, a proper comparison of these algorithms is still lacking. In this work, we compared various feature-based OOD detection methods on a large spectra of OOD (20 types), representing approximately 7800 3D MRIs. Our experiments shed the light on two phenomenons. First, multi-layer methods consistently outperform single-layer approaches, which tend to have inconsistent behaviour depending on the type of anomaly. Second, the OOD detection performance highly depends on the architecture of the underlying neural network.Comment: Accepted for presentation at the Workshop on Uncertainty for Safe Utilization of Machine Learning in Medical Imaging (UNSURE) at MICCAI 202

Post-mortem (re)distribution of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 'Ecstasy') : human and animal data

In this paper, the distribution and redistribution of the amphetamine derivative, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) is brought into focus. Animal experimental data were compared with internationally reported MDMA-related human fatalities: in general, these turned out to be parallel with each other. Due to its inherent properties (e. g. significant volume of distribution), MDMA is liable to postmortem redistribution. Indeed, very high concentrations have been found in cardiac blood and tissues located centrally in the body (blood-rich organs such as lungs and liver in particular). This confirms that post-mortem redistribution due to diffusion from higher to lower concentration can easily take place, mainly at longer post-mortem intervals and when putrefaction occurs. Therefore, we can conclude that for post-mortem quantitation of amphetamine and derivatives, and MDMA in particular, peripheral blood sampling (e. g. femoral vein) remains compulsory. However, if the latter is impossible, MDMA quantification in a few alternative matrices such as vitreous humour and iliopsoas muscle may provide additional information to come to a reliable conclusion. Furthermore, it should be stressed that - at present - it is impossible to estimate the individual susceptibility to the various possible adverse effects of MDMA, which implies that it is impossible to provide a "safe" or "therapeutic" blood MDMA level. Therefore, in current forensic practice, the post-mortem pathological and toxicological findings should form an entity in order to draw a well-grounded conclusion

Visualizing and analyzing human-centered data streams

Thesis (M. Eng. and S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-73).The mainstream population is readily adapting to the notion that the carrying of mobile computational devices such as cell phones and PDAs on one's person is as essential as taking along one's watch or credit cards. In addition to their stated and oftentimes proprietary functionality, these technological innovations have the potential to also function as powerful sensory data collectors. These devices are able to record and store a variety of data about their owner's everyday activities, a new development that may significantly impact the way we recall information. Human memory, with its limitations and subjective recall of events, may now be supplemented by the latent potential of these in-place devices to accurately record one's daily activities, thereby giving us access to a wealth of information about our own lives. In order to make use of this recorded information, it must be presented in an easily understood format: timelines have been a traditional display metaphor for this type of data. This thesis explores the visualization and navigation schemes available for these large temporal data sets, and the types of analyzation that they facilitate.by Michel Joseph Lambert.M.Eng.and S.B