Breast density classification with deep convolutional neural networks

Breast density classification is an essential part of breast cancer screening. Although a lot of prior work considered this problem as a task for learning algorithms, to our knowledge, all of them used small and not clinically realistic data both for training and evaluation of their models. In this work, we explore the limits of this task with a data set coming from over 200,000 breast cancer screening exams. We use this data to train and evaluate a strong convolutional neural network classifier. In a reader study, we find that our model can perform this task comparably to a human expert

A qualitative analysis of perceptions of venue: Do professional soccer players and managers concur with the conceptual home advantage framework?

While a considerable amount of archival research has been dedicated to exploring the home advantage, little is known about the beliefs which key agents hold about the phenomenon. The aim of the study was to explore the cognitions of professional soccer coaches and players to ascertain their perceived reasons for why teams perform consistently better at home than away. A purposeful sample consisting of three male professional soccer players and six male professional soccer managers participated in semi-structured interviews. Framework analysis was employed to investigate consistency with Carron, Loughead and Bray's revision of Courneya and Carron's original conceptual home advantage framework. The results indicate that key stakeholders' views are in keeping with the framework, though both players and managers place a greater emphasis on the impact of the referee. These findings offer a number of insights into implications for behaviour and suggest avenues for further research

A study of the factors of psychological abuse and control in two relationships: Domestic violence and cultic systems

This study explored the factors of psychological abuse and control, as it exists in different types of abusive relationships. A review of the literature reveals that this type of abuse has been noted in such relationships as domestic violence, cultic systems, prisoners of war and hostage detainment (Boulette & Anderson, 1986; Herman, 1992; Ward, 2000; West, 1993). However, although evidence regarding these factors of control across groups of abusive relationships is reported in the literature, it is only noted on a clinical basis without any empirical support. ^ This study focused on the presence of these factors of abuse and control across two groups, victims of domestic violence and cultic systems. The first part of the research involved the development of an instrument, Across Groups Psychological Abuse and Control Scale (AGPAC), to measure psychological abuse and control in these two populations. A Factor Analysis derived three factors in the new scale, Verbal Abuse, Isolation and Activity Control and Emotional Abuse, each with a high degree of internal consistency. ^ The second part of this study involved administering the AGPAC to 98 ex-cult and 100 domestic violence participants in order to determine how each of these groups related to the factors of psychological abuse and control. In addition, participants in the study were given a questionnaire on anxiety, the Multidimensional Anxiety Questionnaire (Reynolds, 1999), a frequently noted consequence of abusive relationships (Herman, 1992; Jones, 1994; Singer, 1992; Walker, 1979). Both groups were profiled as experiencing the factors of psychological abuse and control while in their respective relationships. However, the domestic violence participants were profiled as severely anxious while the ex-cult participants were mildly anxious. This study indicated that there are also differences in both groups as they relate to the subscales of the AGPAC, which warrants further investigation. ^ This research has just begun to explore the similarities and differences in psychological abuse and control as experienced in two different types of abusive relationships. Additional investigation into a more universal understanding of this abusive behavior should provide important information for a society struggling to better serve victims of abuse.

Breastfeeding is associated with reduced childhood hospitalization: evidence from a Scottish birth cohort (1997-2009)

Objective: To evaluate the risk of childhood hospitalization associated with infant feeding patterns at 6-8 weeks of age in Scotland. Study design: A retrospective population level study based on the linkage of birth, death, maternity, infant health, child health surveillance, and admission records for children born as single births in Scotland between 1997 and 2009 (n = 502 948) followed up to March 2012. Descriptive analyses, Kaplan Meier tests, and Cox regression were used to quantify the association between the mode of infant feeding and risk of childhood hospitalization for respiratory, gastrointestinal, and urinary tract infections, and other common childhood ailments during the study period. Results: Within the first 6 months of life, there was a greater hazard ratio (HR) of hospitalization for common childhood illnesses among formula-fed infants (HR 1.40; 95% CI 1.35-1.45) and mixed-fed infants (HR 1.18; 95% CI 1.11-1.25) compared with infants exclusively breastfed after adjustment for parental, maternal, and infant health characteristics. Within the first year of life and beyond, a greater relative risk of hospitalization was observed among formula-fed infants for a range of individual illnesses reported in childhood including gastrointestinal, respiratory, and urinary tract infections, otitis media, fever, asthma, diabetes, and dental caries. Conclusions: Using linked administrative data, we found greater risks of hospitalization in early childhood for a range of common childhood illnesses among Scottish infants who were not exclusively breastfed at 6-8 weeks of age