Computer and Mathematical Modeling: Translational Research and Economics in Clinical Diagnostics

The computer and modeling approach has begun to be used extensively in clinical intelligence diagnosis, we have refined the necessary techniques related to intelligence medicine, and we have performed economics-directional analysis of models and structures of artificial intelligence in the translational medicine sense.At the same time, the development of clinical diagnostic techniques is also the result of constant innovation, and we propose the necessary strategy for a cross-disciplinary approach to clinical diagnostics and computer and mathematical modeling, with the authors reporting in conjunction with the results of the study

Object as Query: Lifting any 2D Object Detector to 3D Detection

3D object detection from multi-view images has drawn much attention over the past few years. Existing methods mainly establish 3D representations from multi-view images and adopt a dense detection head for object detection, or employ object queries distributed in 3D space to localize objects. In this paper, we design Multi-View 2D Objects guided 3D Object Detector (MV2D), which can lift any 2D object detector to multi-view 3D object detection. Since 2D detections can provide valuable priors for object existence, MV2D exploits 2D detectors to generate object queries conditioned on the rich image semantics. These dynamically generated queries help MV2D to recall objects in the field of view and show a strong capability of localizing 3D objects. For the generated queries, we design a sparse cross attention module to force them to focus on the features of specific objects, which suppresses interference from noises. The evaluation results on the nuScenes dataset demonstrate the dynamic object queries and sparse feature aggregation can promote 3D detection capability. MV2D also exhibits a state-of-the-art performance among existing methods. We hope MV2D can serve as a new baseline for future research.Comment: technical repor

Eliminating Cross-modal Conflicts in BEV Space for LiDAR-Camera 3D Object Detection

Recent 3D object detectors typically utilize multi-sensor data and unify multi-modal features in the shared bird's-eye view (BEV) representation space. However, our empirical findings indicate that previous methods have limitations in generating fusion BEV features free from cross-modal conflicts. These conflicts encompass extrinsic conflicts caused by BEV feature construction and inherent conflicts stemming from heterogeneous sensor signals. Therefore, we propose a novel Eliminating Conflicts Fusion (ECFusion) method to explicitly eliminate the extrinsic/inherent conflicts in BEV space and produce improved multi-modal BEV features. Specifically, we devise a Semantic-guided Flow-based Alignment (SFA) module to resolve extrinsic conflicts via unifying spatial distribution in BEV space before fusion. Moreover, we design a Dissolved Query Recovering (DQR) mechanism to remedy inherent conflicts by preserving objectness clues that are lost in the fusion BEV feature. In general, our method maximizes the effective information utilization of each modality and leverages inter-modal complementarity. Our method achieves state-of-the-art performance in the highly competitive nuScenes 3D object detection dataset. The code is released at https://github.com/fjhzhixi/ECFusion.Comment: Accepted by ICRA 202

Healthy lifestyle, DNA methylation age acceleration, and incident risk of coronary heart disease

Background DNA methylation clocks emerged as a tool to determine biological aging and have been related to mortality and age-related diseases. Little is known about the association of DNA methylation age (DNAm age) with coronary heart disease (CHD), especially in the Asian population. Results Methylation level of baseline blood leukocyte DNA was measured by Infinium Methylation EPIC BeadChip for 491 incident CHD cases and 489 controls in the prospective China Kadoorie Biobank. We calculated the methylation age using a prediction model developed among Chinese. The correlation between chronological age and DNAm age was 0.90. DNA methylation age acceleration (Δage) was defined as the residual of regressing DNA methylation age on the chronological age. After adjustment for multiple risk factors of CHD and cell type proportion, compared with participants in the bottom quartile of Δage, the OR (95% CI) for CHD was 1.84 (1.17, 2.89) for participants in the top quartile. One SD increment in Δage was associated with 30% increased risk of CHD (OR = 1.30; 95% CI 1.09, 1.56; Ptrend = 0.003). The average number of cigarette equivalents consumed per day and waist-to-hip ratio were positively associated with Δage; red meat consumption was negatively associated with Δage, characterized by accelerated aging in those who never or rarely consumed red meat (all P  Conclusions We first identified the association between DNAm age acceleration and incident CHD in the Asian population, and provided evidence that unfavorable lifestyle-induced epigenetic aging may play an important part in the underlying pathway to CHD

Minimal improvement in coronary artery disease risk prediction in Chinese population using polygenic risk scores: evidence from the China Kadoorie Biobank

Background: Several studies have reported that polygenic risk scores (PRSs) can enhance risk prediction of coronary artery disease (CAD) in European populations. However, research on this topic is far from sufficient in non-European countries, including China. We aimed to evaluate the potential of PRS for predicting CAD for primary prevention in the Chinese population. Methods: Participants with genome-wide genotypic data from the China Kadoorie Biobank were divided into training (n = 28,490) and testing sets (n = 72,150). Ten previously developed PRSs were evaluated, and new ones were developed using clumping and thresholding or LDpred method. The PRS showing the strongest association with CAD in the training set was selected to further evaluate its effects on improving the traditional CAD risk-prediction model in the testing set. Genetic risk was computed by summing the product of the weights and allele dosages across genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Prediction of the 10-year first CAD events was assessed using hazard ratios (HRs) and measures of model discrimination, calibration, and net reclassification improvement (NRI). Hard CAD (nonfatal I21–I23 and fatal I20–I25) and soft CAD (all fatal or nonfatal I20–I25) were analyzed separately. Results: In the testing set, 1214 hard and 7201 soft CAD cases were documented during a mean follow-up of 11.2 years. The HR per standard deviation of the optimal PRS was 1.26 (95% CI:1.19–1.33) for hard CAD. Based on a traditional CAD risk prediction model containing only non-laboratory-based information, the addition of PRS for hard CAD increased Harrell's C index by 0.001 (–0.001 to 0.003) in women and 0.003 (0.001 to 0.005) in men. Among the different high-risk thresholds ranging from 1% to 10%, the highest categorical NRI was 3.2% (95% CI: 0.4–6.0%) at a high-risk threshold of 10.0% in women. The association of the PRS with soft CAD was much weaker than with hard CAD, leading to minimal or no improvement in the soft CAD model. Conclusions: In this Chinese population sample, the current PRSs minimally changed risk discrimination and offered little to no improvement in risk stratification for soft CAD. Therefore, this may not be suitable for promoting genetic screening in the general Chinese population to improve CAD risk prediction

Genome-wide DNA methylation profiling in blood reveals epigenetic signature of incident acute coronary syndrome

DNA methylation (DNAm) has been implicated in acute coronary syndrome (ACS), but the causality remains unclear in cross-sectional studies. Here, we conduct a prospective epigenome-wide association study of incident ACS in two Chinese cohorts (discovery: 751 nested case-control pairs; replication: 476 nested case-control pairs). We identified and validated 26 differentially methylated positions (DMPs, false discovery rate [FDR] <0.05), including three mapped to known cardiovascular disease genes (PRKCZ, PRDM16, EHBP1L1) and four with causal evidence from Mendelian randomization (PRKCZ, TRIM27, EMC2, EHBP1L1). Two hypomethylated DMPs were negatively correlated with the expression in blood of their mapped genes (PIGG and EHBP1L1), which were further found to overexpress in leukocytes and/or atheroma plaques. Finally, our DMPs could substantially improve the prediction of ACS over traditional risk factors and polygenic scores. These findings demonstrate the importance of DNAm in the pathogenesis of ACS and highlight DNAm as potential predictive biomarkers and treatment targets

Postoperative hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction and long-term hormone replacement in patients with childhood-onset craniopharyngioma

ObjectiveHypothalamic-pituitary axis dysfunction is a common complication in post-operative craniopharyngioma(CP) patients, and it greatly impacts the long-term quality of life of such patients. To better understand the effects of postoperative hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction and long-term hormone replacement therapy in patients with childhood CP, we assessed approximately 200 patients with childhood-onset CP postoperatively.MethodsClinical details of patients with childhood-onset CP who underwent sellar tumor resection in Beijing Children’s Hospital and Beijing Tiantan Hospital from 2018 to 2019 were retrieved retrospectively. The participants were followed up to assess the effects of post-operative long-term hormone replacement therapy and assess the tumor recurrence rate.ResultsThe median age of admission was 8.1 (1.8, 14.3) years. Headache (45.5%), visual impairment (39.5%), and nausea (33.0%) were the most common clinical manifestations. ACP accounted for 95% of all CP cases. The incidence of central adrenal insufficiency and central hypothyroidism within the first week after surgery was 56.2% and 70.3%, respectively. At the same time 85.5% of the patients required at least one dose of desmopressin to control urine output. Total survival and tumor recurrence rates were 98.6% and 26.1%, respectively, with a median follow-up time of 29.7 (19.0, 40.3) months. During the follow-up period, 28.1% patients met the diagnostic criteria for short stature, while 54.4% fit the criteria for obesity. In addition, 94.4% of the patients were taking at least one kind of hormone substitution, and 74.7% were taking three or more. The prevalence of levothyroxine, glucocorticoid, desmopressin, and growth hormone replacement therapy was 87.3%, 77.5%, 78.9% and 31.0%, respectively. The proportion of patients treated with the substitutive combination of levothyroxine, hydrocortisone, and desmopressin was 54.9%.ConclusionThis study is a large-sample systematic postoperative endocrine function evaluation of patients with childhood-onset CP. Due to the high prevalence of post-operative hypothalamic-pituitary dysfunction, patients with CP usually require long-term multiple hormone substitution therapy. Individualized management and accurate hormone replacement dosage for postoperative childhood-onset CP patients are of great importance

The changing precipitation storm properties under future climate change

Changes in precipitation storm characteristics especially extreme precipitation events have been frequently reported during recent years, which poses great challenges for flood controls of reservoir basins. In this study, we present a comprehensive examination on the evolution of storm properties during two distinct rainy seasons in Changtan Reservoir Basin located on the southeastern coast of China. We compare the differences in storm duration, inter-storm period, the average storm intensity, and with-in storm pattern between the Meiyu flood season (MFS) and typhoon flood season (TFS). We also explore the future projections of these storm properties based on Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project 6 (CMIP6) precipitation outputs. Our results indicate that precipitation storms in TFS exhibit shorter duration and higher average storm intensity than those of MFS, the flood risk in June is mainly due to accumulative precipitation (longer duration), while in July to September, is mainly due to the storms with high intensity. The projected precipitation shows uncertainties for different emission scenarios, especially during TFS. However, the increasing trend of the average storm intensity is relatively consistent, which is supposed to bring more pressure on flood control in the study area. The results can provide a beneficial reference to water resources management. HIGHLIGHTS The evolution of storm properties was investigated.; Precipitation in typhoon flood season exhibits shorter duration and higher intensity than those of the Meiyu flood season.; Flood risk in June is mainly due to accumulative precipitation in the study area.; Flood risk from July to September is due to storms with high intensity.; Projected precipitation shows uncertainties but a consistent increasing trend in storm intensity.

Possible Effects and Mechanisms of Dietary Natural Products and Nutrients on Depression and Anxiety: A Narrative Review

Depression and anxiety are severe public health problems and have attracted more and more attention from researchers of food science and nutrition. Dietary natural products and nutrients, such as fish, coffee, tea, n-3 PUFA, lycopene, and dietary fiber, could play a vital role in the prevention and management of these diseases. The potential mechanisms of action mainly include inhibiting inflammation, ameliorating oxidative stress, modulating the microbiota&ndash;gut&ndash;brain axis, suppressing hypothalamic&ndash;pituitary&ndash;adrenal axis hyperactivity, and regulating the levels of monoamine neurotransmitters. In this narrative review, we summarize the most recent advancements regarding the effects of dietary natural products and nutrients on depression and anxiety, and their underlying mechanisms are discussed. We hope that this paper can provide a better understanding of the anti-depressive and anxiolytic action of dietary natural products, and that it is also helpful for developing dietary natural products for functional food, dietary supplements, or auxiliary agents for the prevention and management of these diseases