A Review Of Multilevel Multibiometric Fusion System

Biometric systems allow automatic person recognition and authenticate based on the physical or behavioral characteristic. In recent years, researchers have paid close attention to the design of efficient multi-modal biometric systems due to their ability to withstand spoof attacks. Sometimes single biometric traits fail to extract relevant information for verifying the identity of a person. Therefore, combining multiple modalities, enhanced performance reliability could be achieved. If the security level increases then multi-level fusion techniques are used. This paper discusses the many fusion levels: algorithms, level of fusion, methods used for integrating the multiple verifiers and their applications

Fetomaternal outcome in pregnancy with oligohydramnios

Background: Oligohydramnios has been correlated with increased risk of FGR, meconium aspiration, birth asphyxia, low APGAR scores and congenital anomalies. Early detection of oligohydramnios and its management may help in reduction of perinatal morbidity and mortality. The aim and objectives of the study was to study the effect of oligohydramnios on fetal outcome in form of FGR, fetal distress, altered APGAR scores, NICU admission and early neonatal morbidity and mortality and to study maternal morbidity in the form of operative delivery and induced labour.Methods: 100 patients in third trimester of pregnancy with oligohydramnios confirmed by ultrasound measurement of AFI were selected randomly after satisfying inclusion and exclusion criteria.Results: Incidence of oligohydramnios and operative intervention for the same was seen more in primipara (52%). Most common causes of oligohydramnios were idiopathic (52%) followed by PIH (25%). Operative morbidity was highest in PIH (60%). Most common indication of caesarean section was fetal distress due to cord compression or FGR. 7% patients had fetoplacental insufficiency on Doppler study.Conclusions: Oligohydramnios demands intensive fetal surveillance and proper antepartum and intrapartum care. Due to high rates of intrapartum complications, perinatal morbidity and mortality, rates of caesarean section are rising, but decision between vaginal delivery and caesarean section should be well balanced so that unnecessary operative morbidity is prevented without jeopardizing the fetal well-being

Adverse reactions to intravenous iodinated contrast media: a prospective study

Background: Adverse reactions to intravenous iodinated contrast media may be classified as general and organ-specific, such as contrast-induced nephrotoxicity. General adverse reactions may be sub classified into acute and delayed types. Acute general adverse reactions can range from transient minor reactions to life-threatening severe reactions. This study was done to determine clinical adverse effects of the iodinated contrast media.Methods: Data of 899 consecutive patients at C.U. Shah Medical College and Hospital, Surendranagar, who received sodium meglumine diatrizoate intravenous iodinated contrast media during the period of May 2011 to April 2012, were collected for any adverse drug reactions.Results: Out of 899, 189 patients developed adverse contrast reactions. The incidences of mild, moderate and severe adverse reactions were 19.47%, 1.33% and 0.28%, respectively. There were no differences in the incidence of adverse reactions according to gender (males 21.1%; females 20.7%; p= >0.05) or age (p= >0.05). The incidence of adverse reactions was significantly higher in patients with a history of previous reactions (50%) than in those with no history (21.25%; p= <0.05).Conclusions: The skin was the most commonly affected site of reactions. In reactions, mild forms were more common compared to moderate and severe

Do humans adapt their emails so that agents can understand?

Proceedings of AAAI Symposium on Mixed Initiative Problem Solving Assistants, November 2005. Retrieved 3/16/2006 from http://www.cs.drexel.edu/~pmodi/papers/modi-aaaiFallSymp-05.pdf.Natural language processing is a difficult problem and is currently a technical barrier in building personal assistant agents that aim to interact with humans in natural language. One possible solution is to rely on humans to restrict or adapt their language into more computer friendly ways. We study the feasibility of this approach in the context of a personal assistant agent that parses emails relevant to meeting scheduling in order to assist the user in calendar management tasks. We design an experiment in which humans are given email writing tasks and then given feedback on how well those emails were understood by an agent. We wish to see if the humans learn to adapt their email writing to what is understandable by their agent

Genomic Profiling of Childhood Tumor Patient-Derived Xenograft Models to Enable Rational Clinical Trial Design.

Accelerating cures for children with cancer remains an immediate challenge as a result of extensive oncogenic heterogeneity between and within histologies, distinct molecular mechanisms evolving between diagnosis and relapsed disease, and limited therapeutic options. To systematically prioritize and rationally test novel agents in preclinical murine models, researchers within the Pediatric Preclinical Testing Consortium are continuously developing patient-derived xenografts (PDXs)-many of which are refractory to current standard-of-care treatments-from high-risk childhood cancers. Here, we genomically characterize 261 PDX models from 37 unique pediatric cancers; demonstrate faithful recapitulation of histologies and subtypes; and refine our understanding of relapsed disease. In addition, we use expression signatures to classify tumors for TP53 and NF1 pathway inactivation. We anticipate that these data will serve as a resource for pediatric oncology drug development and will guide rational clinical trial design for children with cancer

Combination Intrathecal Drug Therapy Strategies for Pain Management

Background: Numerous combination intrathecal drug therapy (CIDT) strategies exist and are utilized for varying pain syndromes, typically when monotherapy dose escalation or medication alternation is deemed untenable or unfeasible. Unfortunately, the supportive evidence basis for the use of these strategies and specific drug combinations is generally lacking and unclear, with many medications being used for off-label indications. Objective: In this manuscript, we provide a robust exploration and analysis of the literature to provide an evidence-based narrative for the use of CIDT strategies in regard to clinical indications, pharmacologic parameters, specific drug combinations, safety profiles, and future directions. Study design: Narrative review. Methods: This was an evidence based narrative performed after extensive review of the literature. Results: Variances in intrathecal pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are utilized advantageously with CIDT strategies to achieve improved analgesic benefit; however, appropriate use may be limited by increased or compounded risk of adverse effects. The supportive evidence for CIDT use for chronic pain conditions is largely lacking and limited to small, uncontrolled, observational studies, with many having various confounding factors, including a lack of standardized dosing. The most evidenced CIDT strategies include polyanalgesia with morphine-ziconotide, opioid-clonidine, and morphine-bupivacaine. Notably, in addition to pain relief, morphine-bupivacaine has been shown to decrease early opioid escalation requirements. Limitations: The supportive evidence for CIDT use for chronic pain conditions is largely lacking and limited to small, uncontrolled, observational studies, with many having various confounding factors including a lack of standardized dosing. Conclusions: CIDT strategies and polyanalgesia combinations can be effective for treating various patient populations with chronic pain. The appropriate use of these strategies may be limited by increased or compounded risk of adverse effects, both of which are highly patient and scenario dependent. Therefore, practitioners should maintain a particularly low threshold of suspicion for adverse effects in patients with CIDT such that safety profiles associated with this therapy can be favorably maintained

Deletion of Glutamate Delta-1 Receptor in Mouse Leads to Aberrant Emotional and Social Behaviors

The delta family of ionotropic glutamate receptors consists of glutamate δ1 (GluD1) and glutamate δ2 (GluD2) receptors. While the role of GluD2 in the regulation of cerebellar physiology is well understood, the function of GluD1 in the central nervous system remains elusive. We demonstrate for the first time that deletion of GluD1 leads to abnormal emotional and social behaviors. We found that GluD1 knockout mice (GluD1 KO) were hyperactive, manifested lower anxiety-like behavior, depression-like behavior in a forced swim test and robust aggression in the resident-intruder test. Chronic lithium rescued the depression-like behavior in GluD1 KO. GluD1 KO mice also manifested deficits in social interaction. In the sociability test, GluD1 KO mice spent more time interacting with an inanimate object compared to a conspecific mouse. D-Cycloserine (DCS) administration was able to rescue social interaction deficits observed in GluD1 KO mice. At a molecular level synaptoneurosome preparations revealed lower GluA1 and GluA2 subunit expression in the prefrontal cortex and higher GluA1, GluK2 and PSD95 expression in the amygdala of GluD1 KO. Moreover, DCS normalized the lower GluA1 expression in prefrontal cortex of GluD1 KO. We propose that deletion of GluD1 leads to aberrant circuitry in prefrontal cortex and amygdala owing to its potential role in presynaptic differentiation and synapse formation. Furthermore, these findings are in agreement with the human genetic studies suggesting a strong association of GRID1 gene with several neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorders and major depressive disorder

HER2-enriched subtype and novel molecular subgroups drive aromatase inhibitor resistance and an increased risk of relapse in early ER+/HER2+ breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Oestrogen receptor positive/ human epidermal growth factor receptor positive (ER+/HER2+) breast cancers (BCs) are less responsive to endocrine therapy than ER+/HER2- tumours. Mechanisms underpinning the differential behaviour of ER+HER2+ tumours are poorly characterised. Our aim was to identify biomarkers of response to 2 weeks’ presurgical AI treatment in ER+/HER2+ BCs. METHODS: All available ER+/HER2+ BC baseline tumours (n=342) in the POETIC trial were gene expression profiled using BC360™ (NanoString) covering intrinsic subtypes and 46 key biological signatures. Early response to AI was assessed by changes in Ki67 expression and residual Ki67 at 2 weeks (Ki672wk). Time-To-Recurrence (TTR) was estimated using Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox models adjusted for standard clinicopathological variables. New molecular subgroups (MS) were identified using consensus clustering. FINDINGS: HER2-enriched (HER2-E) subtype BCs (44.7% of the total) showed poorer Ki67 response and higher Ki672wk (p<0.0001) than non-HER2-E BCs. High expression of ERBB2 expression, homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) and TP53 mutational score were associated with poor response and immune-related signatures with High Ki672wk. Five new MS that were associated with differential response to AI were identified. HER2-E had significantly poorer TTR compared to Luminal BCs (HR 2.55, 95% CI 1.14–5.69; p=0.0222). The new MS were independent predictors of TTR, adding significant value beyond intrinsic subtypes. INTERPRETATION: Our results show HER2-E as a standardised biomarker associated with poor response to AI and worse outcome in ER+/HER2+. HRD, TP53 mutational score and immune-tumour tolerance are predictive biomarkers for poor response to AI. Lastly, novel MS identify additional non-HER2-E tumours not responding to AI with an increased risk of relapse

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030