Abstract
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a drift scan radio telescope operating across the 400–800 MHz band. CHIME is located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical ...Observatory near Penticton, BC, Canada. The instrument is designed to map neutral hydrogen over the redshift range 0.8–2.5 to constrain the expansion history of the universe. This goal drives the design features of the instrument. CHIME consists of four parallel cylindrical reflectors, oriented north–south, each 100 m × 20 m and outfitted with a 256-element dual-polarization linear feed array. CHIME observes a two-degree-wide stripe covering the entire meridian at any given moment, observing three-quarters of the sky every day owing to Earth’s rotation. An FX correlator utilizes field-programmable gate arrays and graphics processing units to digitize and correlate the signals, with different correlation products generated for cosmological, fast radio burst, pulsar, very long baseline interferometry, and 21 cm absorber back ends. For the cosmology back end, the
N
feed
2
correlation matrix is formed for 1024 frequency channels across the band every 31 ms. A data receiver system applies calibration and flagging and, for our primary cosmological data product, stacks redundant baselines and integrates for 10 s. We present an overview of the instrument, its performance metrics based on the first 3 yr of science data, and we describe the current progress in characterizing CHIME’s primary beam response. We also present maps of the sky derived from CHIME data; we are using versions of these maps for a cosmological stacking analysis, as well as for investigation of Galactic foregrounds.
The death toll and economic loss resulting from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic are stark reminders that we are vulnerable to zoonotic viral threats. ...Strategies are needed to identify and characterize animal viruses that pose the greatest risk of spillover and spread in humans and inform public health interventions. Using expert opinion and scientific evidence, we identified host, viral, and environmental risk factors contributing to zoonotic virus spillover and spread in humans. We then developed a risk ranking framework and interactive web tool, SpillOver, that estimates a risk score for wildlife-origin viruses, creating a comparative risk assessment of viruses with uncharacterized zoonotic spillover potential alongside those already known to be zoonotic. Using data from testing 509,721 samples from 74,635 animals as part of a virus discovery project and public records of virus detections around the world, we ranked the spillover potential of 887 wildlife viruses. Validating the risk assessment, the top 12 were known zoonotic viruses, including SARS-CoV-2. Several newly detected wildlife viruses ranked higher than known zoonotic viruses. Using a scientifically informed process, we capitalized on the recent wealth of virus discovery data to systematically identify and prioritize targets for investigation. The publicly accessible SpillOver platform can be used by policy makers and health scientists to inform research and public health interventions for prevention and rapid control of disease outbreaks. SpillOver is a living, interactive database that can be refined over time to continue to improve the quality and public availability of information on viral threats to human health.
Microtubules (MTs) are cytoskeletal fibers that undergo dynamic instability (DI), a remarkable process involving phases of growth and shortening separated by stochastic transitions called catastrophe ...and rescue. Dissecting DI mechanism(s) requires first characterizing and quantifying these dynamics, a subjective process that often ignores complexity in MT behavior. We present a
tatistical
ool for
utomated
ynamic
nstability
nalysis (STADIA) that identifies and quantifies not only growth and shortening, but also a category of intermediate behaviors that we term "stutters." During stutters, the rate of MT length change tends to be smaller in magnitude than during typical growth or shortening phases. Quantifying stutters and other behaviors with STADIA demonstrates that stutters precede most catastrophes in our in vitro experiments and dimer-scale MT simulations, suggesting that stutters are mechanistically involved in catastrophes. Related to this idea, we show that the anticatastrophe factor CLASP2γ works by promoting the return of stuttering MTs to growth. STADIA enables more comprehensive and data-driven analysis of MT dynamics compared with previous methods. The treatment of stutters as distinct and quantifiable DI behaviors provides new opportunities for analyzing mechanisms of MT dynamics and their regulation by binding proteins.
Telerehabilitation for people with low vision Bittner, Ava K; Wykstra, Stephanie L; Yoshinaga, Patrick D ...
Cochrane database of systematic reviews,
08/2015, Letnik:
8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Low vision affects over 300 million people worldwide and can compromise both activities of daily living and quality of life. Rehabilitative training and vision assistive equipment (VAE) may help, but ...some visually impaired people have limited resources to attend in-person visits at rehabilitation clinics. These people may be able to overcome barriers to care through remote, Internet-based consultation (i.e., telerehabilitation).
To compare the effects of telerehabilitation with face-to-face (e.g., in-office or inpatient) vision rehabilitation services for improving vision-related quality of life and reading speed in people with visual function loss due to any ocular condition. Secondary objectives are to evaluate compliance with scheduled rehabilitation sessions, abandonment rates for visual assistive equipment devices, and patient satisfaction ratings.
We searched CENTRAL (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group Trials Register) (2015 Issue 5), Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid MEDLINE In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations, Ovid MEDLINE Daily, Ovid OLDMEDLINE (January 1980 to June 2015), EMBASE (January 1980 to June 2015), PubMed (1980 to June 2015), ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov) and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) (www.who.int/ictrp/search/en). We did not use any language restriction or study design filter in the electronic searches; however, we restricted the searches from 1980 onwards because the Internet was not introduced to the public until 1982. We last searched the electronic databases on 15 June 2015.
We planned to include randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or controlled clinical trials (CCTs) in which participants were diagnosed with low vision and were undergoing low vision rehabilitation using an Internet, web-based technology compared with an approach based on in-person consultations.
Two authors independently screened titles and abstracts, and then full-text articles against the eligibility criteria. We planned to have two authors independently abstract data from included studies. We resolved discrepancies by discussion.
We did not find any study that met the inclusion criteria for this review and, hence, we did not conduct a quantitative analysis. As a part of the background, we discussed review articles on telemedicine for facilitating communication with elderly individuals or for providing remote ophthalmological care.
We did not find any evidence on whether the use of telerehabilitation is feasible or a potentially viable means to remotely deliver rehabilitation services to individuals with low vision. Given the disease burden and the growing interest in telemedicine, there is a need for future pilot studies and subsequent clinical trials to explore the potential for telerehabilitation as a platform for providing services to people with low vision.
Similar to mastectomy, breast conserving surgery (BCS) is currently the reference standard of surgical treatment of sporadic breast cancer in patients. However, its oncologic safety for BRCA mutation ...carriers has remained controversial. Thus, we conducted a systematic review to critically evaluate the best evidence from reported studies. A comprehensive search was performed of the Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Cochrane databases using a predefined strategy. The retrieved studies were independently screened and rated for relevance. Data were extracted for qualitative synthesis in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol for systematic reviews. No randomized controlled trial has directly compared BCS and mastectomy for BRCA mutation carriers. Of the 18 studies included in our review, the pooled analysis of overall survival at 5, 10, and 15 years were comparable between BCS and mastectomy (88.7%, 89.0% and 83.6% with BCS and 83%, 86.0%, and 83.2% with mastectomy, respectively). However, the pooled ipsilateral breast cancer recurrence rates at 5, 10, and 15 years were higher in the BCS group (8.2%, 15.5%, and 23%, respectively) than in the mastectomy group (3.4%, 4.9%, and 6.4%, respectively). BCS was associated with a greater rate of ipsilateral breast cancer recurrence in BRCA mutation carriers. However, it was not associated with adverse short- and long-term survival outcomes. BCS should be offered as an option to BRCA mutation carriers with proper preoperative counseling.
Abstract
Background
Recovery after surgery intersects physical, psychological, and social domains. In this study we aim to assess the feasibility and usability of a mobile health application called ...PositiveTrends to track recovery in these domains amongst participants undergoing hip, knee arthroplasty or spine surgery. Our secondary aim was to generate procedure-specific, recovery trajectories within the pain and medication, psycho-social and patient-reported outcomes domain.
Methods
Prospective, observational study in participants greater than eighteen years of age. Data was collected prior to and up to one hundred and eighty days after completion of surgery within the three domains using PositiveTrends. Feasibility was assessed using participant response rates from the PositiveTrends app. Usability was assessed quantitatively using the System Usability Scale. Heat maps and effect plots were used to visualize multi-domain recovery trajectories. Generalized linear mixed effects models were used to estimate the change in the outcomes over time.
Results
Forty-two participants were enrolled over a four-month recruitment period. Proportion of app responses was highest for participants who underwent spine surgery (median = 78, range = 36–100), followed by those who underwent knee arthroplasty (median = 72, range = 12–100), and hip arthroplasty (median = 62, range = 12–98). System Usability Scale mean score was 82 ± 16 at 180 days postoperatively. Function improved by 8 and 6.4 points per month after hip and knee arthroplasty, respectively. In spine participants, the Oswestry Disability Index decreased by 1.4 points per month. Mood improved in all three cohorts, however stress levels remained elevated in spine participants. Pain decreased by 0.16 (95% Confidence Interval: 0.13–0.20,
p
< 0.001), 0.25 (95% CI: 0.21–0.28,
p
< 0.001) and 0.14 (95% CI: 0.12–0.15,
p
< 0.001) points per month in hip, knee, and spine cohorts respectively. There was a 10.9-to-40.3-fold increase in the probability of using no medication for each month postoperatively.
Conclusions
In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility and usability of PositiveTrends, which can map and track multi-domain recovery trajectories after major arthroplasty or spine surgery.
Contemporary planetary urbanisation has resulted in increasingly uneven and ‘hyper-mobile’ socio-spatial development across the globe. Within a ‘new mobilities paradigm’, emerging and highly dynamic ...social and physical mobilities intersect at multiple scales to amplify the mobilities of particular social actors and spaces, while intensifying the immobility of others. A single method for studying socio-spatial inequalities is insufficient to capture complex mobility interactions across different scales of transformation, yet multi-dimensional methodologies lack sufficient elaboration. Within our original methodological framework, selected methods are integrated and cross-referenced to employ different dimensions of social and physical mobility (commute patterns, spatial accessibility, power relations, everyday practices), at interlinking scales (municipality region, neighbourhood, and architectural). Through a pilot study in Huangyan-Taizhou, China, we demonstrate how methods support one another to reflect how (im)mobilities between and within social groups and spaces interrelate through urbanisation. The findings show that informality generated opportunities and risks for mobility; inequalities have intensified and actors with less resources are excluded from the benefits of transformation. Our methodological approach for socio-spatial inequality presents a framework with potential for adaptation in other global transitional contexts, supporting socio-spatial interventions and policy-making toward more balanced and sustainable mobility interactions with comprehensive empirical evidence.
•Planetary urbanisation is charactertised by increasing polarisation.•Multi-dimensional methodologies are crucial in capturing socio-spatial inequalities.•The integrative methodology reflects the interactions between social and physical moblity.•Multiple methods support findings at varying scales and perspectives.
Abstract
The 3q29 deletion (3q29Del) confers high risk for schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. However, no single gene in this interval is definitively associated ...with disease, prompting the hypothesis that neuropsychiatric sequelae emerge upon loss of multiple functionally-connected genes. 3q29 genes are unevenly annotated and the impact of 3q29Del on the human neural transcriptome is unknown. To systematically formulate unbiased hypotheses about molecular mechanisms linking 3q29Del to neuropsychiatric illness, we conducted a systems-level network analysis of the non-pathological adult human cortical transcriptome and generated evidence-based predictions that relate 3q29 genes to novel functions and disease associations. The 21 protein-coding genes located in the interval segregated into seven clusters of highly co-expressed genes, demonstrating both convergent and distributed effects of 3q29Del across the interrogated transcriptomic landscape. Pathway analysis of these clusters indicated involvement in nervous-system functions, including synaptic signaling and organization, as well as core cellular functions, including transcriptional regulation, posttranslational modifications, chromatin remodeling, and mitochondrial metabolism. Top network-neighbors of 3q29 genes showed significant overlap with known schizophrenia, autism, and intellectual disability-risk genes, suggesting that 3q29Del biology is relevant to idiopathic disease. Leveraging “guilt by association”, we propose nine 3q29 genes, including one hub gene, as prioritized drivers of neuropsychiatric risk. These results provide testable hypotheses for experimental analysis on causal drivers and mechanisms of the largest known genetic risk factor for schizophrenia and highlight the study of normal function in non-pathological postmortem tissue to further our understanding of psychiatric genetics, especially for rare syndromes like 3q29Del, where access to neural tissue from carriers is unavailable or limited.
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