Towards a Model Based Sensor Measurement Variance Input for Extended Kalman Filter State Estimation

In this paper, we present an alternate method for the generation and implementation of the sensor measurement variance used in an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). Furthermore, it demonstrates the limitations of a conventional EKF implementation and postulates an alternate form for representing the sensor measurement variance by extending and improving the characterisation methodology presented in the previous work. As presented in earlier work, the use of surveying grade optical measurement instruments allows for a more effective characterisation of Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) localisation sensors; however, in cluttered environments, the sensor measurement variance will change, making this method not robust. To compensate for the noisier readings, an EKF using a model based sensor measurement variance was developed. This approach allows for a more accurate representation of the sensor measurement variance and leads to a more robust state estimation system. Simulations were run using synthetic data in order to test the effectiveness of the EKF against the originally developed EKF; next, the new EKF was compared to the original EKF using real world data. The new EKF was shown to function much more stably and consistently in less ideal environments for UWB deployment than the previous version

Understanding the Acceptability and Effect of Psychiatric Care via Telemedicine as an Alternative Option for Patients Living with Intellectual Disabilities in Group Homes

Telemedicine has become a popular alternative to in-person clinic visits in the field of psychiatry, but few studies examine the impact of telemedicine mental healthcare provided to patients with intellectual disabilities living in group homes. Our study aims to fill this gap in the literature. A ten-question survey was designed to evaluate the effect of telemedicine services on access to care, quality of care, and patient and caregiver stress. This survey was distributed to caregivers of patients living in group homes who received care at the University of Alabama Medical Center. The majority of respondents indicated that telemedicine visits improved access to care, did not result in lower quality care compared to in-person visits, and adequately addressed the needs of the patient. Our findings suggest that telemedicine is an acceptable method of delivery of healthcare for a significant proportion of caregivers of patients surveyed

Information-Derived Mechanistic Hypotheses for Structural Cardiotoxicity

Adverse events resulting from drug therapy can be a cause of drug withdrawal, reduced and or restricted clinical use, as well as a major economic burden for society. To increase the safety of new drugs, there is a need to better understand the mechanisms causing the adverse events. One way to derive new mechanistic hypotheses is by linking data on drug adverse events with the drugs’ biological targets. In this study, we have used data mining techniques and mutual information statistical approaches to find associations between reported adverse events collected from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System and assay outcomes from ToxCast, with the aim to generate mechanistic hypotheses related to structural cardiotoxicity (morphological damage to cardiomyocytes and/or loss of viability). Our workflow identified 22 adverse event-assay outcome associations. From these associations, 10 implicated targets could be substantiated with evidence from previous studies reported in the literature. For two of the identified targets, we also describe a more detailed mechanism, forming putative adverse outcome pathways associated with structural cardiotoxicity. Our study also highlights the difficulties deriving these type of associations from the very limited amount of data available

Unmet needs and wish for support of family caregivers of primary brain tumor patients

Background Most primary brain tumor patients rely on family caregivers for support. Caregiving can be rewarding, but also leads to significant burden from unmet needs. We aimed to: (1) identify and characterize caregivers’ unmet needs; (2) determine associations between unmet needs and wish for support; (3) evaluate acceptability of the Caregiver Needs Screen (CNS) and perceived feasibility in clinical practice. Methods Family caregivers of primary brain tumor patients were recruited from outpatient clinics and asked to complete an adapted version of the CNS consisting of 33 common issues caregivers report (item scale 0–10), and the wish for support (yes/no). Participants ranked acceptability and feasibility (item scale 0–7; higher scores being positive) of the adapted CNS. Descriptive and non-parametric correlational analyses were applied. Results Caregivers (N = 71) reported 1–33 unmet caregiving needs (M = 17.20, sd = 7.98) but did not always wish for support (range 0–28, M = 5.82, sd = 6.96). A weak correlation was found between total number of unmet needs and wish for support (r = 0.296, P = .014). Most distressing items were patients’ changes in memory/concentration (M = 5.75, sd = 3.29), patients’ fatigue (M = 5.58, sd = 3.43), and signs of disease progression (M = 5.23, sd = 3.15).Caregivers most often wished support with recognizing disease progression (N = 24), and least often with managing spiritual issues (N = 0). Caregivers evaluated acceptability and feasibility of the CNS tool positively (mean scores ranged 4.2–6.2). Conclusions Family caregivers experience distress resulting from many neuro-oncology specific needs, but this is not directly related to wish for support. Family caregiver needs screening could be useful to tailor support to suit their preferences in clinical practice

Psychological impact and acceptability of magnetic resonance imaging and X-ray mammography: the MARIBS Study

BACKGROUND: As part of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Breast Screening (MARIBS), Study women with a family history of breast cancer were assessed psychologically to determine the relative psychological impact and acceptability of annual screening using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and conventional X-ray mammography (XRM). METHODS: Women were assessed psychologically at baseline (4 weeks before MRI and XRM), immediately before, and immediately after, both MRI and XRM, and at follow-up (6 weeks after the scans). RESULTS: Overall, both procedures were found to be acceptable with high levels of satisfaction (MRI, 96.3% and XRM, 97.7%; NS) and low levels of psychological morbidity throughout, particularly at 6-week follow-up. Low levels of self-reported distress were reported for both procedures (MRI, 13.5% and XRM, 7.8%), although MRI was more distressing (P=0.005). Similarly, higher anticipatory anxiety was reported before MRI than before XRM (P=0.003). Relative to XRM, MRI-related distress was more likely to persist at 6 weeks after the scans in the form of intrusive MRI-related thoughts (P=0.006) and total MRI-related distress (P=0.014). More women stated that they intended to return for XRM (96.3%) than for MRI (88%; P<0.0005). These effects were most marked for the first year of screening, although they were also statistically significant in subsequent years. CONCLUSION: Given the proven benefits of MRI in screening for breast cancer in this population, these data point to the urgent need to provide timely information and support to women undergoing MRI.The national study is supported by a grant from the UK Medical Research Council (G960413

Prevalence and Characterization of Motile Salmonella in Commercial Layer Poultry Farms in Bangladesh

Salmonella is a globally widespread food-borne pathogen having major impact on public health. All motile serovars of Salmonella enterica of poultry origin are zoonotic, and contaminated meat and raw eggs are an important source to human infections. Information on the prevalence of Salmonella at farm/holding level, and the zoonotic serovars circulating in layer poultry in the South and South-East Asian countries including Bangladesh, where small-scale commercial farms are predominant, is limited. To investigate the prevalence of Salmonella at layer farm level, and to identify the prevalent serovars we conducted a cross-sectional survey by randomly selecting 500 commercial layer poultry farms in Bangladesh. Faecal samples from the selected farms were collected following standard procedure, and examined for the presence of Salmonella using conventional bacteriological procedures. Thirty isolates were randomly selected, from the ninety obtained from the survey, for serotyping and characterized further by plasmid profiling and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Results of the survey showed that the prevalence of motile Salmonella at layer farm level was 18% (95% confidence interval 15–21%), and Salmonella Kentucky was identified to be the only serovar circulating in the study population. Plasmid analysis of the S. Kentucky and non-serotyped isolates revealed two distinct profiles with a variation of two different sizes (2.7 and 4.8 kb). PFGE of the 30 S. Kentucky and 30 non-serotyped isolates showed that all of them were clonally related because only one genotype and three subtypes were determined based on the variation in two or three bands. This is also the first report on the presence of any specific serovar of Salmonella enterica in poultry in Bangladesh

Biology of archaea from a novel family Cuniculiplasmataceae (Thermoplasmata) ubiquitous in hyperacidic environments

The order Thermoplasmatales (Euryarchaeota) is represented by the most acidophilic organisms known so far that are poorly amenable to cultivation. Earlier culture-independent studies in Iron Mountain (California) pointed at an abundant archaeal group, dubbed 'G-plasma'. We examined the genomes and physiology of two cultured representatives of a Family Cuniculiplasmataceae, recently isolated from acidic (pH 1-1.5) sites in Spain and UK that are 16S rRNA gene sequence-identical with 'G-plasma'. Organisms had largest genomes among Thermoplasmatales (1.87-1.94 Mbp), that shared 98.7-98.8% average nucleotide identities between themselves and 'G-plasma' and exhibited a high genome conservation even within their genomic islands, despite their remote geographical localisations. Facultatively anaerobic heterotrophs, they possess an ancestral form of A-type terminal oxygen reductase from a distinct parental clade. The lack of complete pathways for biosynthesis of histidine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine and proline pre-determines the reliance on external sources of amino acids and hence the lifestyle of these organisms as scavengers of proteinaceous compounds from surrounding microbial community members. In contrast to earlier metagenomics-based assumptions, isolates were S-layer-deficient, non-motile, non-methylotrophic and devoid of iron-oxidation despite the abundance of methylotrophy substrates and ferrous iron in situ, which underlines the essentiality of experimental validation of bioinformatic predictions

MRI compared to conventional diagnostic work-up in the detection and evaluation of invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast: a review of existing literature

Item does not contain fulltextPURPOSE: The clinical diagnosis and management of invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) of the breast presents difficulties. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been proposed as the imaging modality of choice for the evaluation of ILC. Small studies addressing different aspects of MRI in ILC have been presented but no large series to date. To address the usefulness of MRI in the work-up of ILC, we performed a review of the currently published literature. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a literature search using the query "lobular AND (MRI OR MR OR MRT OR magnetic)" in the Cochrane library, PubMed and scholar.google.com, to retrieve all articles that dealt with the use of MRI in patients with ILC. We addressed sensitivity, morphologic appearance, correlation with pathology, detection of additional lesions, and impact of MRI on surgery as different endpoints. Whenever possible we performed meta-analysis of the pooled data. RESULTS: Sensitivity is 93.3% and equal to overall sensitivity of MRI for malignancy in the breast. Morphologic appearance is highly heterogeneous and probably heavily influenced by interreader variability. Correlation with pathology ranges from 0.81 to 0.97; overestimation of lesion size occurs but is rare. In 32% of patients, additional ipsilateral lesions are detected and in 7% contralateral lesions are only detected by MRI. Consequently, MRI induces change in surgical management in 28.3% of cases. CONCLUSION: This analysis indicates MRI to be valuable in the work-up of ILC. It provides additional knowledge that cannot be obtained by conventional imaging modalities which can be helpful in patient treatment

Cardiomyocyte Specific Ablation of p53 Is Not Sufficient to Block Doxorubicin Induced Cardiac Fibrosis and Associated Cytoskeletal Changes

Doxorubicin (Dox) is an anthracycline used to effectively treat several forms of cancer. Unfortunately, the use of Dox is limited due to its association with cardiovascular complications which are manifested as acute and chronic cardiotoxicity. The pathophysiological mechanism of Dox induced cardiotoxicity appears to involve increased expression of the tumor suppressor protein p53 in cardiomyocytes, followed by cellular apoptosis. It is not known whether downregulation of p53 expression in cardiomyocytes would result in decreased rates of myocardial fibrosis which occurs in response to cardiomyocyte loss. Further, it is not known whether Dox can induce perivascular necrosis and associated fibrosis in the heart. In this study we measured the effects of acute Dox treatment on myocardial and perivascular apoptosis and fibrosis in a conditional knockout (CKO) mouse model system which harbours inactive p53 alleles specifically in cardiomyocytes. CKO mice treated with a single dose of Dox (20 mg/kg), did not display lower levels of myocardial apoptosis or reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS/RNS) compared to control mice with intact p53 alleles. Interestingly, CKO mice also displayed higher levels of interstitial and perivascular fibrosis compared to controls 3 or 7 days after Dox treatment. Additionally, the decrease in levels of the microtubule protein α-tubulin, which occurs in response to Dox treatment, was not prevented in CKO mice. Overall, these results indicate that selective loss of p53 in cardiomyocytes is not sufficient to prevent Dox induced myocardial ROS/RNS generation, apoptosis, interstitial fibrosis and perivascular fibrosis. Further, these results support a role for p53 independent apoptotic pathways leading to Dox induced myocardial damage and highlight the importance of vascular lesions in Dox induced cardiotoxicity