Whereas high-flow nasal cannula use is gaining prevalence, its high gas flow raises concerns about aerosolization of infectious particles and spread of infection. This randomized controlled crossover ...non-inferiority trial (N = 20) evaluated the degree of environmental contamination by viable bacteria associated with the use of high-flow nasal cannula compared with conventional oxygen mask for critically ill patients with Gram-negative pneumonia. The results show that high-flow nasal cannula use was not associated with increased air or contact surface contamination by either Gram-negative bacteria or total bacteria, suggesting that additional infection control measures are not required.
Person re-identification (Re-ID) aims at retrieving a person of interest across multiple non-overlapping cameras. With the advancement of deep neural networks and increasing demand of intelligent ...video surveillance, it has gained significantly increased interest in the computer vision community. By dissecting the involved components in developing a person Re-ID system, we categorize it into the closed-world and open-world settings. The widely studied closed-world setting is usually applied under various research-oriented assumptions, and has achieved inspiring success using deep learning techniques on a number of datasets. We first conduct a comprehensive overview with in-depth analysis for closed-world person Re-ID from three different perspectives, including deep feature representation learning, deep metric learning and ranking optimization. With the performance saturation under closed-world setting, the research focus for person Re-ID has recently shifted to the open-world setting, facing more challenging issues. This setting is closer to practical applications under specific scenarios. We summarize the open-world Re-ID in terms of five different aspects. By analyzing the advantages of existing methods, we design a powerful AGW baseline, achieving state-of-the-art or at least comparable performance on twelve datasets for four different Re-ID tasks. Meanwhile, we introduce a new evaluation metric (mINP) for person Re-ID, indicating the cost for finding all the correct matches, which provides an additional criteria to evaluate the Re-ID system for real applications. Finally, some important yet under-investigated open issues are discussed.
Background Expressed in naturally occurring CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells, FoxP3 plays an important role in maintaining immune tolerance. We therefore evaluated the possibility that the peripheral ...blood FOXP3+ T‐cell deficiency is associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Materials and methods The FOXP3 expression in peripheral blood T cells were evaluated and correlated to the CD4 and CD25 expression by flow cytometric analysis. Cell frequencies of FOXP3+ T cells among CD4+ T cells and absolute FOXP3+ T cell counts in SLE and RA patients were determined for the statistical comparison with those in normal controls, and their correlation with disease activities in SLE patients was evaluated. The FOXP3 transcript levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were also determined to correlate the FOXP3+ T‐cell quantity and to evaluate the possible dysregulation in the expression of two FOXP3 mRNA variants in patients.
Results SLE patients had the higher FOXP3+ T‐cell frequency and absolute CD4+CD25−FOXP3+ cell count than normal individuals, and the frequencies of CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ and CD4+FOXP3+ cells were positively correlated with the disease activities in SLE patients. In contrast, the differences in frequencies and absolute counts of FOXP3+ T cells between normal controls and RA patients were found to be insignificant. Moreover, SLE and RA patients appear to express two FOXP3 transcript variants in peripheral blood mononuclear cells at the levels similar to normal individuals.
Conclusions The peripheral blood FOXP3+ T‐cell frequency among CD4+ T cells is altered in SLE patients with the active disease activity. Therefore, the analysis on peripheral blood FOXP3+ T cells may be useful for the evaluation of lupus disease activity.
ABSTRACT We report the results of the statistical analysis of planetary signals discovered in MOA-II microlensing survey alert system events from 2007 to 2012. We determine the survey sensitivity as ...a function of planet-star mass ratio, q, and projected planet-star separation, s, in Einstein radius units. We find that the mass-ratio function is not a single power law, but has a change in slope at q ∼ 10−4, corresponding to ∼20 M⊕ for the median host-star mass of ∼0.6 . We find significant planetary signals in 23 of the 1474 alert events that are well-characterized by the MOA-II survey data alone. Data from other groups are used only to characterize planetary signals that have been identified in the MOA data alone. The distribution of mass ratios and separations of the planets found in our sample are well fit by a broken power-law model of the form for q > qbr and for q < qbr, where qbr is the mass ratio of the break. We also combine this analysis with the previous analyses of Gould et al. and Cassan et al., bringing the total sample to 30 planets. This combined analysis yields , n = −0.93 0.13, , and for qbr 1.7 × 10−4. The unbroken power-law model is disfavored with a p-value of 0.0022, which corresponds to a Bayes factor of 27 favoring the broken power-law model. These results imply that cold Neptunes are likely to be the most common type of planets beyond the snow line.
Sarcopenia, low muscle mass, is an increasing problem in our ageing society. The prevalence of sarcopenia varies extremely between elderly cohorts ranging from 7% to over 50%. Without consensus on ...the definition of sarcopenia, a variety of diagnostic criteria are being used. We assessed the degree of agreement between seven different diagnostic criteria for sarcopenia based on muscle mass and handgrip strength, described in literature. In this cross-sectional study, we included men (
n
= 325) and women (
n
= 329) with complete measurements of handgrip strength and body composition values as measured by bioimpedance analysis within the Leiden Longevity Study. Prevalence of sarcopenia was stratified by gender and age. In men (mean age 64.5 years), the prevalence of sarcopenia with the different diagnostic criteria ranged from 0% to 20.8% in the lowest age category (below 60 years), from 0% to 31.2% in the middle (60 to 69 years) and from 0% to 45.2% in the highest age category (above 70 years). In women (mean age 61.8 years), the prevalence of sarcopenia ranged from 0% to 15.6%, 0% to 21.8% and 0% to 25.8% in the lowest, middle and highest age category, respectively. Only one participant (0.2%) was identified having sarcopenia according to all diagnostic criteria that marked prevalence above 0%. We conclude that the prevalence of sarcopenia is highly dependent on the applied diagnostic criteria. It is necessary to reach a consensus on the definition of sarcopenia in order to make studies comparable and for implementation in clinical care.
Multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (MDR-GNB) are an emerging public health threat. Accurate estimates of their clinical impact are vital for justifying interventions directed towards ...preventing or managing infections caused by these pathogens. A retrospective observational cohort study was conducted between 1 January 2007 and 31 July 2009, involving subjects with healthcare-associated and nosocomial Gram-negative bacteraemia at two large Singaporean hospitals. Outcomes studied were mortality and length of stay post-onset of bacteraemia in survivors (LOS). There were 675 subjects (301 with MDR-GNB) matching study inclusion criteria. On multivariate analysis, multidrug resistance was not associated with 30-day mortality, but it was independently associated with longer LOS in survivors (coefficient, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.21–0.48; p < 0.001). The excess LOS attributable to multidrug resistance after adjustment for confounders was 6.1 days. Other independent risk factors for higher mortality included male gender, higher APACHE II score, higher Charlson comorbidity index, intensive care unit stay and presence of concomitant pneumonia. Concomitant urinary tract infection and admission to a surgical discipline were associated with lower risk of mortality. Appropriate empirical antibiotic therapy was neither associated with 30-day mortality nor LOS, although the study was not powered to assess this covariate adequately. Our study adds to existing evidence that multidrug resistance per se is not associated with higher mortality when effective antibiotics are used for definitive therapy. However, its association with longer hospitalization justifies the use of control efforts.
This paper conducts a systematic study on the role of visual attention in video object pattern understanding. By elaborately annotating three popular video segmentation datasets ...(DAVIS<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">_{16}</tex-math> <mml:math><mml:msub><mml:mrow/><mml:mn>16</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="shen-ieq1-2966453.gif"/> </inline-formula>, Youtube-Objects, and SegTrack<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">_{V_2}</tex-math> <mml:math><mml:msub><mml:mrow/><mml:msub><mml:mi>V</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:msub></mml:math><inline-graphic xlink:href="shen-ieq2-2966453.gif"/> </inline-formula>) with dynamic eye-tracking data in the unsupervised video object segmentation (UVOS) setting. For the first time, we quantitatively verified the high consistency of visual attention behavior among human observers, and found strong correlation between human attention and explicit primary object judgments during dynamic, task-driven viewing. Such novel observations provide an in-depth insight of the underlying rationale behind video object pattens. Inspired by these findings, we decouple UVOS into two sub-tasks: UVOS-driven Dynamic Visual Attention Prediction (DVAP) in spatiotemporal domain, and Attention-Guided Object Segmentation (AGOS) in spatial domain. Our UVOS solution enjoys three major advantages: 1) modular training without using expensive video segmentation annotations, instead, using more affordable dynamic fixation data to train the initial video attention module and using existing fixation-segmentation paired static/image data to train the subsequent segmentation module; 2) comprehensive foreground understanding through multi-source learning; and 3) additional interpretability from the biologically-inspired and assessable attention. Experiments on four popular benchmarks show that, even without using expensive video object mask annotations, our model achieves compelling performance compared with state-of-the-arts and enjoys fast processing speed (10 fps on a single GPU). Our collected eye-tracking data and algorithm implementations have been made publicly available at https://github.com/wenguanwang/AGS .
Epigenetic aberrations have been reported in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this study of patients with unresectable HCC and chronic liver disease, epigenetic therapy with the histone deacetylase ...inhibitor belinostat was assessed. The objectives were to determine dose-limiting toxicity and maximum-tolerated dose (MTD), to assess pharmacokinetics in phase I, and to assess activity of and explore potential biomarkers for response in phase II.
Major eligibility criteria included histologically confirmed unresectable HCC, European Cooperative Oncology Group performance score ≤ 2, and adequate organ function. Phase I consisted of 18 patients; belinostat was given intravenously once per day on days 1 to 5 every 3 weeks; dose levels were 600 mg/m(2) per day (level 1), 900 mg/m(2) per day (level 2), 1,200 mg/m(2) per day (level 3), and 1,400 mg/m(2) per day (level 4). Phase II consisted of 42 patients. The primary end point was progression-free survival (PFS), and the main secondary end points were response according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) and overall survival (OS). Exploratory analysis was conducted on pretreatment tumor tissues to determine whether HR23B expression is a potential biomarker for response.
Belinostat pharmacokinetics were linear from 600 to 1,400 mg/m(2) without significant accumulation. The MTD was not reached at the maximum dose administered. Dose level 4 was used in phase II. The median number of cycles was two (range, one to 12). The partial response (PR) and stable disease (SD) rates were 2.4% and 45.2%, respectively. The median PFS and OS were 2.64 and 6.60 months, respectively. Exploratory analysis revealed that disease stabilization rate (complete response plus PR plus SD) in tumors having high and low HR23B histoscores were 58% and 14%, respectively (P = .036).
Epigenetic therapy with belinostat demonstrates tumor stabilization and is generally well-tolerated. HR23B expression was associated with disease stabilization.
Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from humans to other mammals, including pet animals, has been reported. However, with the exception of farmed mink, there is no previous evidence that these infected ...animals can infect humans, resulting in sustained human-to-human transmission. Following a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection of a pet shop worker, animals in the shop and the warehouse supplying it were tested for evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
In this case study, viral swabs and blood samples were collected from animals in a pet shop and its corresponding warehouse in Hong Kong. Nasal swab or saliva samples from human COVID-19 patients epidemiologically linked to the pet shop and from subsequent local cases confirmed to be infected by SARS-CoV-2 delta variant were collected. Oral swabs were tested by quantitative RT-PCR (RT-qPCR) for SARS-CoV-2 and blood samples were serologically tested by a surrogate virus neutralisation test and plaque reduction neutralisation test. The SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR positive samples were sequenced by next generation viral full genome sequencing using the ISeq sequencing platform (Illumina), and the viral genomes were phylogenetically analysed.
Eight (50%) of 16 individually tested Syrian hamsters in the pet shop and seven (58%) of 12 Syrian hamsters in the corresponding warehouse were positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection in RT-qPCR or serological tests. None of the dwarf hamsters (n=75), rabbits (n=246), guinea pigs (n=66), chinchillas (n=116), and mice (n=2) were confirmed positive for SARS-CoV-2 in RT-qPCR tests. SARS-CoV-2 viral genomes deduced from human and hamster cases in this incident all belong to the delta variant of concern (AY.127) that had not been circulating locally before this outbreak. The viral genomes obtained from hamsters were phylogenetically related with some sequence heterogeneity. Phylogenetic dating suggests infection in these hamsters occurred around Oct 14, 2021 (95% CI Sept 15 to Nov 9, 2021). Multiple zoonotic transmission events to humans were detected, leading to onward human-to-human transmission.
Pet hamsters can be naturally infected with SARS-CoV-2. The virus can circulate among hamsters and lead to human infections. Both genetic and epidemiological results strongly suggest that there was more than one hamster-to-human transmission event in this study. This incident also led to onward human transmission. Importation of SARS-CoV-2-infected hamsters was a likely source of this outbreak.
US National Institutes of Health, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong, Food and Health Bureau, and InnoHK.
Background and Purpose
Intravascular injection of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has been found to cause considerable vascular obstructions which may lead to serious outcomes, particularly after ...intra-arterial injection. However, the underlying mechanisms have been poorly understood.
Methods
In this study, we fractionated MSCs that had been cultured in monolayer for six passages into small (average diameter = 17.9 μm) and large (average diameter 30.4 μm) populations according to their sizes, and examined their vascular obstructions after intra-internal carotid artery injection in rats and mice in comparison with MSCs derived from 3D spheroids which were uniformly smaller in size (average diameter 12.6 μm).
Results
We found that 3D MSCs did not cause detectable infarct in the brain as evidenced by MRI scan and TTC stain, 2D MSCs in small size caused a microinfarct in one of five animals, which was co-localized to the area of entrapped MSCs (labeled with DiI), while 2D MSCs in large size caused much larger infarcts in all five animals, and substantial amounts of DiI-positive MSCs were found in the infarct. Meanwhile, corresponding neurological defects were observed in the animals with stroke. In consistence, injection of 2D MSCs (average diameter 26.5) caused a marked loss of cortical neurons and their axons in Thy1-GFP transgenic mice and the activation of microglia in CX3CR1-GFP transgenic mice in the area with MSC entrapment.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that the size of MSCs is a significant cause of MSC caused vascular obstructions and stroke.
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