This work presents a perceptual-based no-reference objective image sharpness/blurriness metric by integrating the concept of just noticeable blur into a probability summation model. Unlike existing ...objective no-reference image sharpness/blurriness metrics, the proposed metric is able to predict the relative amount of blurriness in images with different content. Results are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed perceptual-based sharpness metric. These results show that the proposed sharpness metric correlates well with the perceived sharpness being able to predict with high accuracy the relative amount of blurriness in images with different content.
Mature red blood cells (RBCs) lack internal organelles and canonical defense mechanisms, making them both a fascinating host cell, in general, and an intriguing choice for the deadly malaria parasite ...Plasmodium falciparum (Pf), in particular. Pf, while growing inside its natural host, the human RBC, secretes multipurpose extracellular vesicles (EVs), yet their influence on this essential host cell remains unknown. Here we demonstrate that Pf parasites, cultured in fresh human donor blood, secrete within such EVs assembled and functional 20S proteasome complexes (EV-20S). The EV-20S proteasomes modulate the mechanical properties of naïve human RBCs by remodeling their cytoskeletal network. Furthermore, we identify four degradation targets of the secreted 20S proteasome, the phosphorylated cytoskeletal proteins β-adducin, ankyrin-1, dematin and Epb4.1. Overall, our findings reveal a previously unknown 20S proteasome secretion mechanism employed by the human malaria parasite, which primes RBCs for parasite invasion by altering membrane stiffness, to facilitate malaria parasite growth.
This paper presents a no-reference image blur metric that is based on the study of human blur perception for varying contrast values. The metric utilizes a probabilistic model to estimate the ...probability of detecting blur at each edge in the image, and then the information is pooled by computing the cumulative probability of blur detection (CPBD). The performance of the metric is demonstated by comparing it with existing no-reference sharpness/blurriness metrics for various publicly available image databases.
In the case of an incident with nerve agents, the timely and ready detection and identification of such a substance on suspected surfaces is essential. However, the detection of low levels of nerve ...agents on a surface is a considerable challenge for conventional detection equipment, especially with VX, a highly toxic nerve agent with low volatility. Here, we report the development of a metal–organic framework (MOF)/fabric composite that gives a rapid, visual, and sensitive color response when pre-wetted and rubbed over a VX-contaminated surface. The fabric is composed of cotton textile modified with the zirconium-based MOF MOF-808 that possesses a bidentate reactive dye, ditopic 5,5-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB), on its nodes. The crystal structure of DTNB@MOF-808 showed that DTNB bridges between two adjacent nodes in MOF-808. The colorless composite changes to bright orange upon contact with VX as a result of the degradation of VX and the concomitant reaction of the dye with a VX degradation product in the MOF pores.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
This paper presents a discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based locally adaptive perceptual image coder, which discriminates between image components based on their perceptual relevance for achieving ...increased performance in terms of quality and bit rate. The new coder uses a locally adaptive perceptual quantization scheme based on a tractable perceptual distortion metric. Our strategy is to exploit human visual masking properties by deriving visual masking thresholds in a locally adaptive fashion. The derived masking thresholds are used in controlling the quantization stage by adapting the quantizer reconstruction levels in order to meet the desired target perceptual distortion. The proposed coding scheme is flexible in that it can be easily extended to work with any subband-based decomposition in addition to block-based transform methods. Compared to existing perceptual coding methods, the proposed perceptual coding method exhibits superior performance in terms of bit rate and distortion control. Coding results are presented to illustrate the performance of the presented coding scheme.
Purpose
Whether epinephrine or norepinephrine is preferable as the continuous intravenous vasopressor used to treat post-resuscitation shock is unclear. We assessed outcomes of patients with ...post-resuscitation shock after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest according to whether the continuous intravenous vasopressor used was epinephrine or norepinephrine.
Methods
We conducted an observational multicenter study of consecutive patients managed in 2011–2018 for post-resuscitation shock. The primary outcome was all-cause hospital mortality, and secondary outcomes were cardiovascular hospital mortality and unfavorable neurological outcome (Cerebral Performance Category 3–5). A multivariate regression analysis and a propensity score analysis were performed, as well as several sensitivity analyses.
Results
Of the 766 patients included in five hospitals, 285 (37%) received epinephrine and 481 (63%) norepinephrine. All-cause hospital mortality was significantly higher in the epinephrine group (OR 2.6; 95%CI 1.4–4.7;
P
= 0.002). Cardiovascular hospital mortality was also higher with epinephrine (aOR 5.5; 95%CI 3.0–10.3;
P
< 0.001), as was the proportion of patients with CPC of 3–5 at hospital discharge. Sensitivity analyses produced consistent results. The analysis involving adjustment on a propensity score to control for confounders showed similar findings (aOR 2.1; 95%CI 1.1–4.0;
P
= 0.02).
Conclusion
Among patients with post-resuscitation shock after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, use of epinephrine was associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular-specific mortality, compared with norepinephrine infusion. Until additional data become available, intensivists may want to choose norepinephrine rather than epinephrine for the treatment of post-resuscitation shock after OHCA.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
On March 25 and 26, 2015, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute sponsored a meeting on the State of the Science in Transfusion Medicine on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in ...Bethesda, Maryland, which was attended by a diverse group of 330 registrants. The meeting's goal was to identify important research questions that could be answered in the next 5 to 10 years and which would have the potential to transform the clinical practice of transfusion medicine. These questions could be addressed by basic, translational, and/or clinical research studies and were focused on four areas: the three “classical” transfusion products (i.e., red blood cells, platelets, and plasma) and blood donor issues. Before the meeting, four working groups, one for each area, prepared five major questions for discussion along with a list of five to 10 additional questions for consideration. At the meeting itself, all of these questions, and others, were discussed in keynote lectures, small‐group breakout sessions, and large‐group sessions with open discourse involving all meeting attendees. In addition to the final lists of questions, provided herein, the meeting attendees identified multiple overarching, cross‐cutting themes that addressed issues common to all four areas; the latter are also provided. It is anticipated that addressing these scientific priorities, with careful attention to the overarching themes, will inform funding priorities developed by the NIH and provide a solid research platform for transforming the future practice of transfusion medicine.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Most existing efforts in image and video compression have focused on developing methods to minimize not perceptual but rather mathematically tractable, easy to measure, distortion metrics. While ...nonperceptual distortion measures were found to be reasonably reliable for higher bit rates (high-quality applications), they do not correlate well with the perceived quality at lower bit rates and they fail to guarantee preservation of important perceptual qualities in the reconstructed images despite the potential for a good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This paper presents a perceptual-based image coder, which discriminates between image components based on their perceptual relevance for achieving increased performance in terms of quality and bit rate. The new coder is based on a locally adaptive perceptual quantization scheme for compressing the visual data. Our strategy is to exploit human visual masking properties by deriving visual masking thresholds in a locally adaptive fashion based on a subband decomposition. The derived masking thresholds are used in controlling the quantization stage by adapting the quantizer reconstruction levels to the local amount of masking present at the level of each subband transform coefficient. Compared to the existing non-locally adaptive perceptual quantization methods, the new locally adaptive algorithm exhibits superior performance and does not require additional side information. This is accomplished by estimating the amount of available masking from the already quantized data and linear prediction of the coefficient under consideration. By virtue of the local adaptation, the proposed quantization scheme is able to remove a large amount of perceptually redundant information. Since the algorithm does not require additional side information, it yields a low entropy representation of the image and is well suited for perceptually lossless image compression.
Recent guidelines have emphasized actively avoiding fever to improve outcomes in patients who are comatose following resuscitation from cardiac arrest (ie, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest). However, ...whether targeted temperature management between 32 °C and 36 °C (TTM32-36) can improve neurologic outcome in some patients remains debated.
Is there an association between the use of TTM32-36 and outcome according to severity assessed at ICU admission using a previously derived risk score?
Data prospectively collected in the Sudden Death Expertise Center (SDEC) registry (France) between May 2011 and December 2017 and in the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium Continuous Chest Compressions (ROC-CCC) trial (United States and Canada) between June 2011 and May 2015 were used for this study. Severity at ICU admission was assessed through a modified version of the Cardiac Arrest Hospital Prognosis (mCAHP) score, divided into tertiles of severity. The study explored associations between TTM32-36 and favorable neurologic status at hospital discharge by using multiple logistic regression as well as in tertiles of severity for each data set.
A total of 2,723 patients were analyzed in the SDEC data set and 4,202 patients in the ROC-CCC data set. A favorable neurologic status at hospital discharge occurred in 728 (27%) patients in the French data set and in 1,239 (29%) patients in the North American data set. Among the French data set, TTM32-36 was independently associated with better neurologic outcome in the tertile of patients with low (adjusted OR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.15-2.30; P = .006) and high (adjusted OR, 1.94; 95% CI, 1.06-3.54; P = .030) severity according to mCAHP at ICU admission. Similar results were observed in the North American data set (adjusted ORs of 1.36 95% CI, 1.05-1.75; P = .020 and 2.42 95% CI, 1.38-4.24; P = .002, respectively). No association was observed between TTM32-36 and outcome in the moderate groups of the two data sets.
TTM32-36 was significantly associated with a better outcome in patients with low and high severity at ICU admission assessed according to the mCAHP score. Further studies are needed to evaluate individualized temperature control following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This study sought to assess the relationship between an immediate invasive strategy and survival after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) of presumed cardiac cause, according to prognosis ...evaluated on hospital arrival.
An immediate coronary angiogram (CAG) may be associated with better outcome after OHCA in neurologically preserved patients but could be futile in other cases.
From May 2011 to May 2015, we collected data for all patients admitted in hospital after OHCA in Paris and its suburbs (France). Risk of in-hospital death was retrospectively calculated using the validated Cardiac Arrest Hospital Prognosis score, which includes age, setting, initial rhythm, durations from collapse to basic life support and from basic life support to return of spontaneous circulation, pH, and epinephrine dose. Independent predictors of survival at discharge (including immediate CAG) were assessed in multivariate logistic regression in each of the 3 pre-defined subgroups of Cardiac Arrest Hospital Prognosis score: low risk (<150 points), medium risk (150 to 200 points), and high risk (>200 points) for in-hospital death.
A total of 1,410 patients were included and overall survival rate at hospital discharge was 32%. Distribution in the low-, medium-, and high-risk Cardiac Arrest Hospital Prognosis subgroups was 667 (47%), 469 (33%), and 274 patients (20%), respectively. The rate of early CAG was 86%, 66%, and 47% in the low-, medium-, and high-risk subgroups, respectively (p < 0.001). Early invasive strategy was independently associated with better survival in low-risk patients (odds ratio: 2.3; 95% confidence interval: 1.4 to 3.9; p = 0.001), but not in medium-risk (p = 0.55) and high-risk (p = 0.43) patients. Sensitivity analysis found consistent results.
In cardiac arrest patients, our results suggest that investigations regarding early CAG after OHCA should focus on patients with preserved neurological status.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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