Efficient Egocentric Visual Perception Combining Eye-tracking, a Software Retina and Deep Learning

We present ongoing work to harness biological approaches to achieving highly efficient egocentric perception by combining the space-variant imaging architecture of the mammalian retina with Deep Learning methods. By pre-processing images collected by means of eye-tracking glasses to control the fixation locations of a software retina model, we demonstrate that we can reduce the input to a DCNN by a factor of 3, reduce the required number of training epochs and obtain over 98% classification rates when training and validating the system on a database of over 26,000 images of 9 object classes.Comment: Accepted for: EPIC Workshop at the European Conference on Computer Vision, ECCV201

A diagnostic challenge: primary omental torsion and literature review - a case report

A case report of omental torsion, which is a rare differential diagnosis of the acute abdomen. Intraoperative diagnosis and treatment by resection are the current management of choice, however with increasing use of pre-operative imaging this may need to be reconsidered

Single exponential decay waveform; a synergistic combination of electroporation and electrolysis (E2) for tissue ablation.

BackgroundElectrolytic ablation and electroporation based ablation are minimally invasive, non-thermal surgical technologies that employ electrical currents and electric fields to ablate undesirable cells in a volume of tissue. In this study, we explore the attributes of a new tissue ablation technology that simultaneously delivers a synergistic combination of electroporation and electrolysis (E2).MethodA new device that delivers a controlled dose of electroporation field and electrolysis currents in the form of a single exponential decay waveform (EDW) was applied to the pig liver, and the effect of various parameters on the extent of tissue ablation was examined with histology.ResultsHistological analysis shows that E2 delivered as EDW can produce tissue ablation in volumes of clinical significance, using electrical and temporal parameters which, if used in electroporation or electrolysis separately, cannot ablate the tissue.DiscussionThe E2 combination has advantages over the three basic technologies of non-thermal ablation: electrolytic ablation, electrochemical ablation (reversible electroporation with injection of drugs) and irreversible electroporation. E2 ablates clinically relevant volumes of tissue in a shorter period of time than electrolysis and electroporation, without the need to inject drugs as in reversible electroporation or use paralyzing anesthesia as in irreversible electroporation

Sex differences in DNA methylation assessed by 450 K BeadChip in newborns.

BackgroundDNA methylation is an important epigenetic mark that can potentially link early life exposures to adverse health outcomes later in life. Host factors like sex and age strongly influence biological variation of DNA methylation, but characterization of these relationships is still limited, particularly in young children.MethodsIn a sample of 111 Mexican-American subjects (58 girls , 53 boys), we interrogated DNA methylation differences by sex at birth using the 450 K BeadChip in umbilical cord blood specimens, adjusting for cell composition.ResultsWe observed that ~3% of CpG sites were differentially methylated between girls and boys at birth (FDR P < 0.05). Of those CpGs, 3031 were located on autosomes, and 82.8% of those were hypermethylated in girls compared to boys. Beyond individual CpGs, we found 3604 sex-associated differentially methylated regions (DMRs) where the majority (75.8%) had higher methylation in girls. Using pathway analysis, we found that sex-associated autosomal CpGs were significantly enriched for gene ontology terms related to nervous system development and behavior. Among hits in our study, 35.9% had been previously reported as sex-associated CpG sites in other published human studies. Further, for replicated hits, the direction of the association with methylation was highly concordant (98.5-100%) with previous studies.ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first reported epigenome-wide analysis by sex at birth that examined DMRs and adjusted for confounding by cell composition. We confirmed previously reported trends that methylation profiles are sex-specific even in autosomal genes, and also identified novel sex-associated CpGs in our methylome-wide analysis immediately after birth, a critical yet relatively unstudied developmental window

The prevalence of childhood bereavement in Scotland and its relationship with disadvantage : the significance of a public health approach to death, dying and bereavement

Background and Method: There is an absence of research on the prevalence of bereavement during early childhood and the relationship between childhood bereavement and socioeconomic status (SES) and this poses a challenge in both understanding and supporting children’s bereavement experiences. Using longitudinal data from the Growing Up in Scotland study, which tracks the lives of three nationally representative cohorts of children, this paper aimed to address these gaps in research. It specifically drew on data from Birth Cohort 1 to document the recorded bereavements of 2,815 children who completed all 8 sweeps of data collection, from age 10 months to 10 years. Findings: The study found that 50.8% of all children are bereaved of a parent, sibling, grandparent or other close family member by age 8 and this rises to 62% by age 10. The most common death experienced was that of a grandparent or other close relative. The study also found that children born into the lowest income households are at greater risk of being bereaved of a parent or sibling than those born into the highest income households. Discussion and Conclusion: Given the prevalence of childhood bereavement and its relationship with disadvantage, this paper argues that there is an important need to understand bereavement as a universal issue that is affected by the social conditions in which a child becomes bereaved, as well as an individual experience potentially requiring specialist support. This paper thus seeks to position childhood bereavement more firmly within the public health approach to palliative and bereavement care discourse and contends that doing so provides a unique and comprehensive opportunity to better understand and holistically respond to the experience of bereavement during childhood

Human urinary mutagenicity after wood smoke exposure during traditional temazcal use.

In Central America, the traditional temazcales or wood-fired steam baths, commonly used by many Native American populations, are often heated by wood fires with little ventilation, and this use results in high wood smoke exposure. Urinary mutagenicity has been previously employed as a non-invasive biomarker of human exposure to combustion emissions. This study examined the urinary mutagenicity in 19 indigenous Mayan families from the highlands of Guatemala who regularly use temazcales (N = 32), as well as control (unexposed) individuals from the same population (N = 9). Urine samples collected before and after temazcal exposure were enzymatically deconjugated and extracted using solid-phase extraction. The creatinine-adjusted mutagenic potency of urine extracts was assessed using the plate-incorporation version of the Salmonella mutagenicity assay with strain YG1041 in the presence of exogenous metabolic activation. The post-exposure mutagenic potency of urine extracts were, on average, 1.7-fold higher than pre-exposure samples (P < 0.005) and also significantly more mutagenic than the control samples (P < 0.05). Exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) was ~10 times higher following temazcal use (P < 0.0001), and both CO level and time spent in temazcal were positively associated with urinary mutagenic potency (i.e. P < 0.0001 and P = 0.01, respectively). Thus, the wood smoke exposure associated with temazcal use contributes to increased excretion of conjugated mutagenic metabolites. Moreover, urinary mutagenic potency is correlated with other metrics of exposure (i.e. exhaled CO, duration of exposure). Since urinary mutagenicity is a biomarker associated with genetic damage, temazcal use may therefore be expected to contribute to an increased risk of DNA damage and mutation, effects associated with the initiation of cancer

Welfare budget lessons from Pre-Industrial England: why the ‘big society’ idea may not work

Cutting welfare spending is unlikely to lead to an increase in private voluntary work and charitable giving, explain Nina Boberg-Fazlic and Paul Sharp. Using historical data from late eighteenth and early nineteenth century England, they illustrate how parts of the country that saw increased levels of spending under the Poor Laws also enjoyed higher levels of charitable income

Chapter 9 Bipolar disorder

The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) series provides data on the prevalence of both treated and untreated psychiatric disorder in the English adult population (aged 16 and over). This survey is the fourth in a series and was conducted by NatCen Social Research, in collaboration with the University of Leicester, for NHS Digital. The previous surveys were conducted in 1993 (16-64 year olds) and 2000 (16-74 year olds) by the Office for National Statistics, which covered England, Scotland and Wales. The 2007 Survey included people aged over 16 and covered England only. The survey used a robust stratified, multi-stage probability sample of households and assesses psychiatric disorder to actual diagnostic criteria for several disorders. The report features chapters on: common mental disorders, mental health treatment and service use, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychotic disorder, autism, personality disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, alcohol, drugs, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and self-harm, and comorbidity. All the APMS surveys have used largely consistent methods. They have been designed so that the survey samples can be combined. This is particularly useful for examination of low prevalence population groups and disorders. For example, in the APMS 2014 survey report, analyses of psychotic disorder (Chapter 5) and autism (Chapter 6) have been run using the 2007 and 2014 samples combined. Due to the larger sample size, we consider estimates based on the combined sample to be the more robust. Further notes on the Autism chapter can be found with that chapter and in the ‘Additional notes on autism’ document below