“Birthday-Banding” as a Strategy to Moderate the Relative Age Effect: A Case Study Into the England Squash Talent Pathway

The relative age effect (RAE) is almost pervasive throughout youth sports, whereby relatively older athletes are consistently overrepresented compared to their relatively younger peers. Although researchers regularly cite the need for sports programs to incorporate strategies to moderate the RAE, organizational structures often continue to adopt a one-dimensional (bi)annual-age group approach. In an effort to combat this issue, England Squash implemented a “birthday-banding” strategy in its talent pathway, whereby young athletes move up to their next age group on their birthday, with the aim to remove particular selection time points and fixed chronological bandings. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the potential effects of the birthday-banding strategy on birth quarter (BQ) distributions throughout the England Squash talent pathway. Three mixed-gender groups were populated and analyzed: (a) ASPIRE athletes (n = 250), (b) Development and Potential athletes (n = 52), and (c) Senior team and Academy athletes (n = 26). Chi-square analysis and odds ratios were used to test BQ distributions against national norms and between quartiles, respectively. Results reveal no significant difference between BQ distributions within all three groups (P > 0.05). In contrast to most studies examining the RAE within athlete development settings, there appears to be no RAE throughout the England Squash talent pathway. These findings suggest that the birthday-banding strategy may be a useful tool to moderate RAE in youth sports

Medulloblastoma has a global impact on health related quality of life: Findings from an international cohort.

BackgroundUnderstanding the global impact of medulloblastoma on health related quality of life (HRQL) is critical to characterizing the broad impact of this disease and realizing the benefits of modern treatments. We evaluated HRQL in an international cohort of pediatric medulloblastoma patients.MethodsSeventy-six patients were selected from 10 sites across North America, Europe, and Asia, who participated in the Medulloblastoma Advanced Genomics International Consortium (MAGIC). The Health Utilities Index (HUI) was administered to patients and/or parents at each site. Responses were used to determine overall HRQL and attributes (ie specific subdomains). The impact of various demographic and medical variables on HRQL was considered-including molecular subgroup.ResultsThe majority of patients reported having moderate or severe overall burden of morbidity for both the HUI2 and HUI3 (HUI2 = 60%; HUI3 = 72.1%) when proxy-assessed. Self-care in the HUI2 was rated as higher (ie better outcome) for patients from Western versus Eastern sites, P = .02. Patients with nonmetastatic status had higher values (ie better outcomes) for the HUI3 hearing, HUI3 pain, and HUI2 pain, all P < .05. Patients treated with a gross total resection also had better outcomes for the HUI3 hearing (P = .04). However, those who underwent a gross total resection reported having worse outcomes on the HUI3 vision (P = .02). No differences in HRQL were evident as a function of subgroup.ConclusionsBy examining an international sample of survivors, we characterized the worldwide impact of medulloblastoma. This is a critical first step in developing global standards for evaluating long-term outcomes

A Theory of Cheap Control in Embodied Systems

We present a framework for designing cheap control architectures for embodied agents. Our derivation is guided by the classical problem of universal approximation, whereby we explore the possibility of exploiting the agent's embodiment for a new and more efficient universal approximation of behaviors generated by sensorimotor control. This embodied universal approximation is compared with the classical non-embodied universal approximation. To exemplify our approach, we present a detailed quantitative case study for policy models defined in terms of conditional restricted Boltzmann machines. In contrast to non-embodied universal approximation, which requires an exponential number of parameters, in the embodied setting we are able to generate all possible behaviors with a drastically smaller model, thus obtaining cheap universal approximation. We test and corroborate the theory experimentally with a six-legged walking machine. The experiments show that the sufficient controller complexity predicted by our theory is tight, which means that the theory has direct practical implications. Keywords: cheap design, embodiment, sensorimotor loop, universal approximation, conditional restricted Boltzmann machineComment: 27 pages, 10 figure

Familial hypercholesterolaemia: identification and management. Evidence reviews for case-finding, diagnosis and statin monotherapy

This guideline covers identifying and managing familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), a specific type of high cholesterol that runs in the family, in children, young people and adults. It aims to help identify people at increased risk of coronary heart disease as a result of having FH. In November 2017, we reviewed the evidence for case finding and diagnosis, identification using cascade testing, and management using statins. We amended recommendations in sections 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3

Hotspot SF3B1 mutations induce metabolic reprogramming and vulnerability to serine deprivation.

Cancer-associated mutations in the spliceosome gene SF3B1 create a neomorphic protein that produces aberrant mRNA splicing in hundreds of genes, but the ensuing biologic and therapeutic consequences of this missplicing are not well understood. Here we have provided evidence that aberrant splicing by mutant SF3B1 altered the transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome of human cells, leading to missplicing-associated downregulation of metabolic genes, decreased mitochondrial respiration, and suppression of the serine synthesis pathway. We also found that mutant SF3B1 induces vulnerability to deprivation of the nonessential amino acid serine, which was mediated by missplicing-associated downregulation of the serine synthesis pathway enzyme PHGDH. This vulnerability was manifest both in vitro and in vivo, as dietary restriction of serine and glycine in mice was able to inhibit the growth of SF3B1MUT xenografts. These findings describe a role for SF3B1 mutations in altered energy metabolism, and they offer a new therapeutic strategy against SF3B1MUT cancers

Central venous catheter use in severe malaria: time to reconsider the World Health Organization guidelines?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To optimize the fluid status of adult patients with severe malaria, World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines recommend the insertion of a central venous catheter (CVC) and a target central venous pressure (CVP) of 0-5 cmH₂O. However there are few data from clinical trials to support this recommendation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty-eight adult Indian and Bangladeshi patients admitted to the intensive care unit with severe <it>falciparum </it>malaria were enrolled in the study. All patients had a CVC inserted and had regular CVP measurements recorded. The CVP measurements were compared with markers of disease severity, clinical endpoints and volumetric measures derived from transpulmonary thermodilution.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There was no correlation between the admission CVP and patient outcome (p = 0.67) or disease severity (p = 0.33). There was no correlation between the baseline CVP and the concomitant extravascular lung water (p = 0.62), global end diastolic volume (p = 0.88) or cardiac index (p = 0.44). There was no correlation between the baseline CVP and the likelihood of a patient being fluid responsive (p = 0.37). On the occasions when the CVP was in the WHO target range patients were usually hypovolaemic and often had pulmonary oedema by volumetric measures. Seven of 28 patients suffered a complication of the CVC insertion, although none were fatal.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The WHO recommendation for the routine insertion of a CVC, and the maintenance of a CVP of 0-5 cmH₂O in adults with severe malaria, should be reconsidered.</p

Aquarium Nitrification Revisited: Thaumarchaeota Are the Dominant Ammonia Oxidizers in Freshwater Aquarium Biofilters

Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) outnumber ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in many terrestrial and aquatic environments. Although nitrification is the primary function of aquarium biofilters, very few studies have investigated the microorganisms responsible for this process in aquaria. This study used quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) to quantify the ammonia monooxygenase (amoA) and 16S rRNA genes of Bacteria and Thaumarchaeota in freshwater aquarium biofilters, in addition to assessing the diversity of AOA amoA genes by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and clone libraries. AOA were numerically dominant in 23 of 27 freshwater biofilters, and in 12 of these biofilters AOA contributed all detectable amoA genes. Eight saltwater aquaria and two commercial aquarium nitrifier supplements were included for comparison. Both thaumarchaeal and bacterial amoA genes were detected in all saltwater samples, with AOA genes outnumbering AOB genes in five of eight biofilters. Bacterial amoA genes were abundant in both supplements, but thaumarchaeal amoA and 16S rRNA genes could not be detected. For freshwater aquaria, the proportion of amoA genes from AOA relative to AOB was inversely correlated with ammonium concentration. DGGE of AOA amoA genes revealed variable diversity across samples, with nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) indicating separation of freshwater and saltwater fingerprints. Composite clone libraries of AOA amoA genes revealed distinct freshwater and saltwater clusters, as well as mixed clusters containing both freshwater and saltwater amoA gene sequences. These results reveal insight into commonplace residential biofilters and suggest that aquarium biofilters may represent valuable biofilm microcosms for future studies of AOA ecology

A Symbiotic Brain-Machine Interface through Value-Based Decision Making

BACKGROUND: In the development of Brain Machine Interfaces (BMIs), there is a great need to enable users to interact with changing environments during the activities of daily life. It is expected that the number and scope of the learning tasks encountered during interaction with the environment as well as the pattern of brain activity will vary over time. These conditions, in addition to neural reorganization, pose a challenge to decoding neural commands for BMIs. We have developed a new BMI framework in which a computational agent symbiotically decoded users' intended actions by utilizing both motor commands and goal information directly from the brain through a continuous Perception-Action-Reward Cycle (PARC). METHODOLOGY: The control architecture designed was based on Actor-Critic learning, which is a PARC-based reinforcement learning method. Our neurophysiology studies in rat models suggested that Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) contained a rich representation of goal information in terms of predicting the probability of earning reward and it could be translated into an evaluative feedback for adaptation of the decoder with high precision. Simulated neural control experiments showed that the system was able to maintain high performance in decoding neural motor commands during novel tasks or in the presence of reorganization in the neural input. We then implanted a dual micro-wire array in the primary motor cortex (M1) and the NAcc of rat brain and implemented a full closed-loop system in which robot actions were decoded from the single unit activity in M1 based on an evaluative feedback that was estimated from NAcc. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that adapting the BMI decoder with an evaluative feedback that is directly extracted from the brain is a possible solution to the problem of operating BMIs in changing environments with dynamic neural signals. During closed-loop control, the agent was able to solve a reaching task by capturing the action and reward interdependency in the brain

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Heartbeats in the Wild: A Field Study Exploring ECG Biometrics in Everyday Life

This paper reports on an in-depth study of electrocardiogram (ECG) biometrics in everyday life. We collected ECG data from 20 people over a week, using a non-medical chest tracker. We evaluated user identification accuracy in several scenarios and observed equal error rates of 9.15% to 21.91%, heavily depending on 1) the number of days used for training, and 2) the number of heartbeats used per identification decision. We conclude that ECG biometrics can work in the wild but are less robust than expected based on the literature, highlighting that previous lab studies obtained highly optimistic results with regard to real life deployments. We explain this with noise due to changing body postures and states as well as interrupted measures. We conclude with implications for future research and the design of ECG biometrics systems for real world deployments, including critical reflections on privacy.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, CHI'2