Book review: The sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois: racialized modernity and the global color line by José Itzigsohn and Karida L. Brown

In this post celebrating the start of Black History Month in the UK, Mohamad el-Harake reviews The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois: Racialized Modernity and the Global Color Line by José Itzigsohn and Karida L. Brown, which advocates for the importance of a Du Boisian sociology that recentres race, class and colonialism at the heart of sociological analysis with the goal of undoing the global colour line and all forms of oppression, patriarchy and exclusion. The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois: Racialized Modernity and the Global Color Line. José Itzigsohn and Karida L. Brown. NYU Press. 2020

Runtime Enforcement for Component-Based Systems

Runtime enforcement is an increasingly popular and effective dynamic validation technique aiming to ensure the correct runtime behavior (w.r.t. a formal specification) of systems using a so-called enforcement monitor. In this paper we introduce runtime enforcement of specifications on component-based systems (CBS) modeled in the BIP (Behavior, Interaction and Priority) framework. BIP is a powerful and expressive component-based framework for formal construction of heterogeneous systems. However, because of BIP expressiveness, it remains difficult to enforce at design-time complex behavioral properties. First we propose a theoretical runtime enforcement framework for CBS where we delineate a hierarchy of sets of enforceable properties (i.e., properties that can be enforced) according to the number of observational steps a system is allowed to deviate from the property (i.e., the notion of k-step enforceability). To ensure the observational equivalence between the correct executions of the initial system and the monitored system, we show that i) only stutter-invariant properties should be enforced on CBS with our monitors, ii) safety properties are 1-step enforceable. Given an abstract enforcement monitor (as a finite-state machine) for some 1-step enforceable specification, we formally instrument (at relevant locations) a given BIP system to integrate the monitor. At runtime, the monitor observes and automatically avoids any error in the behavior of the system w.r.t. the specification. Our approach is fully implemented in an available tool that we used to i) avoid deadlock occurrences on a dining philosophers benchmark, and ii) ensure the correct placement of robots on a map.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1109.5505 by other author

Myocardial Elastography for the Diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease and Coronary Microvascular Disease

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death globally, and prevalence has nearly doubled over the past three decades. It is estimated that up to 90% of cardiovascular events are preventable, but early detection and treatment is crucial. In this dissertation, we report on the optimization of the ultrasound-based cardiac strain imaging technique known as Myocardial Elastography (ME), a method for the detection of the most common and most lethal forms of heart disease: Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) which affects the major coronary arteries, and Coronary Microvascular Disease (CMD) which affects smaller coronary vessels. CAD has historically been the primary focus of clinical cardiac imaging, whereas CMD has been under-diagnosed due to a lack of awareness and challenges associated with imaging at the microvascular level. Ultrasound-based cardiac strain imaging has been shown capable of detecting functional changes due to CAD and may be effective in CMD detection, although the latter has not yet been sufficiently investigated. However, the diagnostic accuracy of strain imaging is reduced by noise from transcostal imaging, known as clutter, and by the limited lateral resolution of high framerate ultrasound. These factors preclude accurate strain imaging in up to 30% of patients. Myocardial elastography is a precise high framerate strain imaging technique that analyzes radiofrequency (RF) signals to quantify myocardial deformation. We hypothesize that ME can effectively image and diagnose the functional effects of CMD and CAD, and that novel beamforming and clutter-filtering techniques can improve ME imaging and strain estimation quality, thereby increasing diagnostic accuracy. To improve disease detection, Stress ME (S-ME) was proposed as a method to compare strain measurements at rest to strain during induced cardiac stress. A novel strain difference (Δ) metric was presented and investigated in a canine model of induced acute ischemia, as well as in a human CAD patient study with validation by myocardial perfusion imaging. In the canine model, flow-limiting stenosis was induced by partial ligation in N=2 canines, and stenosis was found to significantly reduce Δ in the affected myocardial regions. In the clinical study, radial and circumferential ME strain and radial Δ was measured in N=49 myocardial segments from 8 patients suspected to have ischemia or infarction due to CAD. The median Δ?, radial strain, and circumferential strain magnitudes were lowest in infarcted regions and highest in regions with normal perfusion, while measurements in ischemic regions fell in between. ROC analysis of radial strain metrics revealed that Δ had the highest AUC for detecting ischemia (AUC=0.788 p0.05, infarct AUC=0.58 p>0.05). The results thus indicate that S-ME may improve detection of mild CAD cases that are functionally asymptomatic at rest. Despite these promising findings, accurate strain imaging remains hindered by clutter noise and poor image quality. Two complementary techniques were thus developed to improve image quality and strain estimation in high frame rate cardiac strain imaging; a novel Sliding Window implementation of the Minimum Variance beamformer (SWMV) was proposed to enhance speckle quality, while a spatiotemporal singular value decomposition filter (SVD) was developed to increase tissue visibility and contrast by suppressing static clutter signals using automated cutoff selection. SWMV and SVD were shown to effectively improve image quality in simulation studies and phantom imaging experiments. In vivo performance evaluation consisted of applying SWMV beamforming and SVD filtering techniques to a dataset of N=70 strain images from 13 patients suspected to have CAD. CCTA imaging was used for validation of strain estimation. Tracking was improved in 92% of cases with a median improvement of 15% in displacement estimation accuracy as evaluated by an intersection-over-union (IoU) metric. The proposed techniques also improve agreement with CCTA results; ROC analysis shows improved AUC with SWMV+SVD compared to DAS when comparing healthy regions to those with any degree of stenosis (AUC 0.64 vs 0.56) as well as when comparing healthy to severely stenosed regions (AUC 0.69 vs 0.60). The observed results point to significant improvement in strain estimation reliability due to SWMV beamforming combined with SVD processing. The final aim and the overarching goal of this work is a culmination of the previous sections for a clinical evaluation of ME as a diagnostic tool for CAD and CMD. In this clinical study, the enhanced ME technique utilizing SWMV and SVD filtering was applied to a cohort of N=201 patients with suspected coronary disease. All patients underwent invasive angiography or noninvasive cardiac imaging in the form of coronary computed tomography or nuclear stress testing. In addition, demographic information and patient clinical history were collected and accounted for in a multivariate statistical analysis. A K-nearest-neighbor (KNN) classifier was trained to distinguish between healthy and stenosed myocardial regions, and achieved an AUC of 0.91, with sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 85% after training with 10-fold cross validation. CMD was also shown to significantly reduce regional strain measurements. This retrospective study identified the clinical factors which impact strain, and assessed the potential advantages of incorporating ME imaging to the existing clinical imaging pipeline for CAD and CMD diagnosis

Sex-differences in COVID-19 diagnosis, risk factors and disease comorbidities: a large US-based cohort study

Introduction: Morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 are higher among men, however, underlying pathways remain controversial. We aim to investigate sex-gender differences in COVID-19 in a large US-based cohort, namely COVID-19 Research Database. More specifically, the objectives are to explore the socio-economic characteristics of COVID-19 male and female patients and to examine potential sex differences in lifestyle factors and disease comorbidities among diagnosed patients. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study contrasting male vs. female patients with test-confirmed COVID-19. The study used Healthjump electronic medical records (e.g., demographics, encounters, medical history, and vitals) extracted from January 2020 to December 2021 (N = 62,310). Results: Significant sociodemographic and comorbidity differences were observed between males and females (p < 0.05). For example, a significantly higher proportion of males (vs. females) were aged ≥70-year-old (17.04 vs. 15.01%) and smokers (11.04 vs. 9.24%, p < 0.0001). In addition, multiple logistic regression showed that hypertension and diabetes were significantly more frequent in males [adjusted odds ratio (ORa) = 66.19 and ORa = 22.90]. Conclusions: Understanding the differences in outcomes between male and female patients will inform gender equity responsive approach to COVID-19 and enhance the effectiveness of clinical practice, health policy and interventions

Examining the feasibility and acceptability of valuing the Arabic version of SF-6D in a Lebanese population

Objectives: The SF-6D is a preference-based measure of health developed to generate utility values from the SF-36. The aim of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility and acceptability of using the standard gamble (SG) technique to generate preference-based values for the Arabic version of SF-6D in a Lebanese population. Methods: The SF-6D was translated into Arabic using forward and backward translations. Forty-nine states defined by the SF-6D were selected using an orthogonal design and grouped into seven sets. A gender-occupation stratified sample of 126 Lebanese adults from the American University of Beirut were recruited to value seven states and the pits using SG. The sample size is appropriate for a pilot study, but smaller than the sample required for a full valuation study. Both interviewers and interviewees reported their understanding and effort levels in the SG tasks. Mean and individual level multivariate regression models were fitted to estimate preference weights for all SF-6D states. The models were compared with those estimated in the UK. Results: Interviewers reported few problems in completing SG tasks (0.8% with a lot of problems) and good respondent understanding (5.6% with little effort and concentration), and 25% of respondents reported the SG task was difficult. A total of 992 SG valuations were useable for econometric modeling. There was no significant change in the test–retest values from 21 subjects. The mean absolute errors in the mean and individual level models were 0.036 and 0.050, respectively, both of which were lower than the UK results. The random effects model adequately predicts the SG values, with the worst state having a value of 0.322 compared to 0.271 in the UK. Conclusion: This pilot confirmed that it was feasible and acceptable to generate preference values with the SG method for the Arabic SF-6D in a Lebanese population. However, further work is needed to extend this to a more representative population, and to explore why no utility values below zero were observed

Assessing the nutritional content and adequacy of food parcels among vulnerable Lebanese during a double crisis: COVID-19 pandemic and an economic meltdown

Abstract Objectives: This study aimed to explore the nutritional content and quality of food parcels distributed in Lebanon and assess their adherence to dietary guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic and an unprecedented economic crisis. Design: Cross-sectional study (June–July 2020); phone survey (thirty items). Setting: Lebanon. Participants: Food parcel providers (FPP; n 72) involved in food parcel distribution (FPD), mainly to Lebanese households. Results: FPP included international non-governmental organizations (INGO) (n 3), local non-governmental organizations (n 45) and personal initiatives (n 24). Overall, low adherence to the World Food Programme (WFP) food parcel guidelines were observed among FPP for specific food items, including vegetables, fish, legumes and cereals, whereas salt content significantly surpassed the guidelines (all P-values <0·001). On average, a food parcel provided 608·4 ± 55 kcal/d/person. The greatest contributors to total energy intake (TE) in the food parcel were carbohydrates (46·4 %) and fats (46·8 %), while protein contributed to 7 %TE. In addition, %TE from fats and sugars significantly surpassed the dietary reference intakes (DRI) for a single person per d (134–234 % and 185 % of DRI, respectively, P-values <0·001). Only 10–15 % of daily needs for key micronutrients, including Fe, Zn, thiamin, riboflavin and dietary folate, were met through the food parcels. Adequate food safety and hygiene practices were reported among FPP, yet dramatic changes in food costs due to overlapping crises affected the quality and quantity of food in parcels. Conclusions: Findings highlight the need to improve the nutritional content of food parcels and adherence to dietary guidelines to alleviate food and nutrition insecurity while preventing diet-related diseases among vulnerable beneficiaries in Lebanon

Ayurvéda : des actifs majeurs de la cosmétique de demain

Originaire de l’Inde, l’Ayurvéda est un système médical traditionnel complet reconnu par l’OMS. Cette médecine englobe la science médicale, la philosophie, la psychologie, l’alchimie et la compréhension spirituelle, ainsi que l’astrologie et l’astronomie dans le but de traiter l’être humain dans sa totalité. De plus en plus de laboratoires cosmétiques développent des soins inspirés de l’Ayurvéda, qui semble être alors une source d’actifs cosmétiques prometteurs et révolutionnaires. Le but de cette étude est de s’intéresser à l’histoire et aux principes de l’Ayurvéda ; et de démontrer le potentiel de ses actifs dans la cosmétique de demain à travers des publications scientifiques. Une étude approfondie sur le vitiligo et l’alopécie androgénétique a été réalisée

Thrombus Flottant Carotidien : étude monocentrique de 50 patients et revue de la littérature

Objectif : le thrombus flottant carotidien (TFC) est une entité rare avec une incidence de 1.45% rapportée par une cohorte monocentrique de 29 patients. Le but de ce travail était de décrire la prise en charge de patients atteints de TFC dans notre centre et de comparer les données épidémiologique, diagnostique et thérapeutique avec celles de la littérature.Matériel & Méthodes : une revue de la littérature dans Pubmed a permis l'étude de 327 patients issus de 35 publications. Une étude monocentrique rétrospective a été menée dans l'unité NeuroVasculaire (UNV) du CHU Timone. Une analyse descriptive et comparative entre ces deux populations a été effectuée.Résultats : entre 2017 et 2019, 50 patients porteurs de TFC sur 2038 infarctus cérébraux ont été pris en charge (incidence 2.45%). On notait 32 hommes et 18 femmes (sex ratio 1.77). La moyenne d'âge était de 58 +/-11.7 ans (27-79 ans). Les étiologies retrouvées étaient : l'athérosclérose dans 46% des cas, les diaphragmes et dissections carotidiennes dans 20 %, les troubles hématologiques dans 18 % et les arythmies dans 10%. Le traitement médical a été réalisé chez 76 % des patients. Un traitement chirurgical a été effectué chez 22% d'entre eux (p60% NASCET (p<0.05). Le suivi clinico-radiologique entre 3-6 mois a révélé une récidive d'AIT/AVC de 4% (n=2) indépendamment de la prise en charge. Les données épidémiologiques de cette série étaient équivalentes à celles des 327 patients issus de la littérature. Une comparaison de notre prise en charge avec celle de la plus grande cohorte monocentrique a révélé un taux de récidive plus faible et un délai de chirurgie plus tardif (p<0.001).Conclusion : notre travail a permis de décrire et d'analyser la prise en charge monocentrique de 50 patients avec TFC. Comme dans la littérature les patients atteints de TFC sont jeunes, majoritairement de sexe masculin et porteurs de plaque d'athérome. Malgré l'absence de consensus, la stratégie chirurgicale du TFC initialement prônée a laissé progressivement la place à une stratégie médicale avec un taux de récidive plus faible

Contribution à l'étude de Nigella sativa L.

AIX-MARSEILLE2-BU Pharmacie (130552105) / SudocPARIS-BIUP (751062107) / SudocSudocFranceF