Real-world indoor mobility with simulated prosthetic vision:The benefits and feasibility of contour-based scene simplification at different phosphene resolutions

Contains fulltext : 246314.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)Neuroprosthetic implants are a promising technology for restoring some form of vision in people with visual impairments via electrical neurostimulation in the visual pathway. Although an artificially generated prosthetic percept is relatively limited compared with normal vision, it may provide some elementary perception of the surroundings, re-enabling daily living functionality. For mobility in particular, various studies have investigated the benefits of visual neuroprosthetics in a simulated prosthetic vision paradigm with varying outcomes. The previous literature suggests that scene simplification via image processing, and particularly contour extraction, may potentially improve the mobility performance in a virtual environment. In the current simulation study with sighted participants, we explore both the theoretically attainable benefits of strict scene simplification in an indoor environment by controlling the environmental complexity, as well as the practically achieved improvement with a deep learning-based surface boundary detection implementation compared with traditional edge detection. A simulated electrode resolution of 26 x 26 was found to provide sufficient information for mobility in a simple environment. Our results suggest that, for a lower number of implanted electrodes, the removal of background textures and within-surface gradients may be beneficial in theory. However, the deep learning-based implementation for surface boundary detection did not improve mobility performance in the current study. Furthermore, our findings indicate that, for a greater number of electrodes, the removal of within-surface gradients and background textures may deteriorate, rather than improve, mobility. Therefore, finding a balanced amount of scene simplification requires a careful tradeoff between informativity and interpretability that may depend on the number of implanted electrodes.14 p

Are routinely collected NHS administrative records suitable for endpoint identification in clinical trials? Evidence from the West of Scotland coronary prevention study

Background: Routinely collected electronic patient records are already widely used in epidemiological research. In this work we investigated the potential for using them to identify endpoints in clinical trials.<p></p> Methods: The events recorded in the West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study (WOSCOPS), a large clinical trial of pravastatin in middle-aged hypercholesterolaemic men in the 1990s, were compared with those in the record-linked deaths and hospitalisations records routinely collected in Scotland.<p></p> Results: We matched 99% of fatal study events by date. We showed excellent matching (97%) of the causes of fatal endpoint events and good matching (.80% for first events) of the causes of nonfatal endpoint events with a slightly lower rate of mismatching of record linkage than study events (19% of first study myocardial infarctions (MI) and 4% of first record linkage MIs not matched as MI). We also investigated the matching of non-endpoint events and showed a good level of matching, with .78% of first stroke/TIA events being matched as stroke/TIA. The primary reasons for mismatches were record linkage data recording readmissions for procedures or previous events, differences between the diagnoses in the routinely collected data and the conclusions of the clinical trial expert adjudication committee, events occurring outside Scotland and therefore being missed by record linkage data, miscoding of cardiac events in hospitalisations data as ‘unspecified chest pain’, some general miscoding in the record linkage data and some record linkage errors.<p></p> Conclusions: We conclude that routinely collected data could be used for recording cardiovascular endpoints in clinical trials and would give very similar results to rigorously collected clinical trial data, in countries with unified health systems such as Scotland. The endpoint types would need to be carefully thought through and an expert endpoint adjudication committee should be involved.<p></p&gt

Does Migration Make You Happy?:A Longitudinal Study of Internal Migration and Subjective Well-Being

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (RES-625-28-0001). This project is part of the ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC). Financial support from the Marie Curie programme under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013) / Career Integration Grant n. PCIG10-GA-2011-303728 (CIG Grant NBHCHOICE, Neighbourhood choice, neighbourhood sorting, and neighbourhood effects).The majority of quantitative studies on the consequences of internal migration focus almost exclusively on the labour-market outcomes and the material well-being of migrants. We investigate whether individuals who migrate within the UK become happier after the move than they were before, and whether the effect is permanent or transient. Using life-satisfaction responses from twelve waves of the British Household Panel Survey and employing a fixed-effects model, we derive a temporal pattern of migrants’ subjective well-being around the time of the migration event. Our findings make an original contribution by revealing that, on average, migration is preceded by a period when individuals experience a significant decline in happiness for a variety of reasons, including changes in personal living arrangements. Migration itself causes a boost in happiness, and brings people back to their initial levels. The research contributes, therefore, to advancing an understanding of migration in relation to set-point theory. Perhaps surprisingly, long-distance migrants are at least as happy as short-distance migrants despite the higher social and psychological costs involved. The findings of this paper add to the pressure to retheorize migration within a conceptual framework that accounts for social well-being from a life-course perspective.PostprintPeer reviewe

Transcriptome analysis reveals the contribution of oligodendrocyte and radial glia-derived cues for maintenance of microglia identity

Microglia are increasingly being recognized as druggable targets in neurodegenerative disorders, and good in vitro models are crucial to address cell biological questions. Major challenges are to recapitulate the complex microglial morphology and their in vivo transcriptome. We have therefore exposed primary microglia from adult rhesus macaques to a variety of different culture conditions including exposure to soluble factors as M-CSF, IL-34, and TGF-β as well as serum replacement approaches, and compared their morphologies and transcriptomes to those of mature, homeostatic in vivo microglia. This enabled us to develop a new, partially serum-free, monoculture protocol, that yields high numbers of ramified cells. We also demonstrate that exposure of adult microglia to M-CSF or IL-34 induces similar transcriptomes, and that exposure to TGF-β has much less pronounced effects than it does on rodent microglia. However, regardless of culture conditions, the transcriptomes of in vitro and in vivo microglia remained substantially different. Analysis of differentially expressed genes inspired us to perform 3D-spherical coculture experiments of microglia with oligodendrocytes and radial glia. In such spheres, microglia signature genes were strongly induced, even in the absence of neurons and astrocytes. These data reveal a novel role for oligodendrocyte and radial glia-derived cues in the maintenance of microglial identity, providing new anchor points to study microglia in health and disease

An overview of Clinical Quality Registries (CQRs) on gynecological oncology worldwide

Introduction: Clinical Quality Registries (CQRs) were initiated in order to compare clinical outcomes between hospitals or regions within a country. To get an overview of these CQRs worldwide the aim of this study was to identify these CQRs for gynecological oncology and to summarize their characteristics, processes and QI's and to establish whether it is feasible to make an international comparison in the future. Methods: To identify CQRs in gynecological oncology a literature search in Pubmed was performed. All papers describing the use of a CQR were included. Administrative, epidemiological and cancer registries were excluded as these registries do not primarily serve to measure quality of care through QI's. The taskforce or contact person of the included CQR were asked to participate and share information on registered items, processes and indicators. Results: Five nations agreed to collaborate: Australia, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. Denmark, Netherlands and Sweden established a nationwide registry, collecting data on multiple tumor types, and various QI's. Australia and Italy included patients with ovarian cancer only. All nations had a different process to report feedback results to participating hospitals. Conclusion: CQRs serve the same purpose to improve quality of care but vary on different aspects. Although similarities are observed in the topics measured by the QI's, an international comparison was not feasible as numerators or denominators differ between registries. In order to compare on an international level it would be useful to harmonize these registries and to set an international standard to measure the quality of care with similar indicators

Plasma Apolipoprotein CI and CIII Levels Are Associated With Increased Plasma Triglyceride Levels and Decreased Fat Mass in Men With the Metabolic Syndrome

OBJECTIVE—To determine whether, in accordance with observations in mouse models, high concentrations of the lipoprotein lipase inhibitors apolipoprotein (Apo) CI and ApoCIII are associated with increased triglyceride concentrations and decreased fat mass in men with the metabolic syndrome

Plasma Apolipoprotein CI and CIII Levels Are Associated With Increased Plasma Triglyceride Levels and Decreased Fat Mass in Men With the Metabolic Syndrome

OBJECTIVE—To determine whether, in accordance with observations in mouse models, high concentrations of the lipoprotein lipase inhibitors apolipoprotein (Apo) CI and ApoCIII are associated with increased triglyceride concentrations and decreased fat mass in men with the metabolic syndrome