Acute kidney injury in stable COPD and at exacerbation.

BACKGROUND: While acute kidney injury (AKI) alone is associated with increased mortality, the incidence of hospital admission with AKI among stable and exacerbating COPD patients and the effect of concurrent AKI at COPD exacerbation on mortality is not known. METHODS: A total of 189,561 individuals with COPD were identified from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. Using Poisson and logistic regressions, we explored which factors predicted admission for AKI (identified in Hospital Episode Statistics) in this COPD cohort and concomitant AKI at a hospitalization for COPD exacerbation. Using survival analysis, we investigated the effect of concurrent AKI at exacerbation on mortality (n=36,107) and identified confounding factors. RESULTS: The incidence of AKI in the total COPD cohort was 128/100,000 person-years. The prevalence of concomitant AKI at exacerbation was 1.9%, and the mortality rate in patients with AKI at exacerbation was 521/1,000 person-years. Male sex, older age, and lower glomerular filtration rate predicted higher risk of AKI or death. There was a 1.80 fold (95% confidence interval: 1.61, 2.03) increase in adjusted mortality within the first 6 months post COPD exacerbation in patients suffering from AKI and COPD exacerbation compared to those who were AKI free. CONCLUSION: In comparison to previous studies on general populations and hospitalizations, the incidence and prevalence of AKI is relatively high in COPD patients. Coexisting AKI at exacerbation is prognostic of poor outcome

Learning Optimal Deep Projection of 18^{18}F-FDG PET Imaging for Early Differential Diagnosis of Parkinsonian Syndromes

Several diseases of parkinsonian syndromes present similar symptoms at early stage and no objective widely used diagnostic methods have been approved until now. Positron emission tomography (PET) with $^{18}$F-FDG was shown to be able to assess early neuronal dysfunction of synucleinopathies and tauopathies. Tensor factorization (TF) based approaches have been applied to identify characteristic metabolic patterns for differential diagnosis. However, these conventional dimension-reduction strategies assume linear or multi-linear relationships inside data, and are therefore insufficient to distinguish nonlinear metabolic differences between various parkinsonian syndromes. In this paper, we propose a Deep Projection Neural Network (DPNN) to identify characteristic metabolic pattern for early differential diagnosis of parkinsonian syndromes. We draw our inspiration from the existing TF methods. The network consists of a (i) compression part: which uses a deep network to learn optimal 2D projections of 3D scans, and a (ii) classification part: which maps the 2D projections to labels. The compression part can be pre-trained using surplus unlabelled datasets. Also, as the classification part operates on these 2D projections, it can be trained end-to-end effectively with limited labelled data, in contrast to 3D approaches. We show that DPNN is more effective in comparison to existing state-of-the-art and plausible baselines.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, conference, MICCAI DLMIA, 201

Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Drought Occurrences over Japan

The drought climate of Japan from 1902 to 2009 was analyzed using an effective drought index (EDI). Drought regions were identified by hierarchical cluster analysis using drought characteristics (duration, severity, and onset and end dates) obtained from 50 observation stations. The results indicated that droughts could be divided into four groups (G1–G4) that reflected the local climate. The four groups were related to precipitation as follows. The summer rainy season affected groups G2–G4, in which droughts occurred mainly during spring and summer and were relieved before and after the rainy season. The G1 group was not affected by the summer rainy season and droughts were spread evenly throughout the year; it even had cases of droughts relieved by winter snow. All groups included dry conditions over the 108-yr period, and the driest conditions occurred in the late twentieth century. The statistical analysis of drought data showed that a total of 23 country-wide droughts occurred and that the most extreme droughts occurred in 1939–41 and 1984–85, with an EDI of −1.55. In addition, four dry seasons (1939–45, 1997–98, 1994–97, and 2005–09) were found using regime shift analysis. Regional droughts occurred 54, 54, 49, and 59 times in groups G1–G4, respectively. On average, short-term droughts with a duration shorter than 6 months occurred 3.5 times per decade, whereas long-term droughts extending over 1 yr occurred 0.3 times per decade. The drought duration and intensity were used to calculate the statistical return period of country-wide droughts. The 1939–41 drought had the longest return period, at 104.7 yr. The 1987–88 and 1995–97 droughts had return periods of 65.9 and 65.5 yr, respectively

Strategic Missile Forces in Ukraine: Brief Survey of Past and Present Environmental Problems

Various environmental problems related to the former strategic missile forces located in Ukraine are outlined and analyzed. As the combat units and equipment have been disarmed and mostly utilized according to international agreements, various axiliary units, equipment, parts, stockpiles of the rocket fuel and oxidizer remained in Ukraine outside the agreements

Exploring Neutral Hydrogen and Galaxy Evolution with the SKA

One of the key science drivers for the development of the SKA is to observe the neutral hydrogen, HI, in galaxies as a means to probe galaxy evolution across a range of environments over cosmic time. Over the past decade, much progress has been made in theoretical simulations and observations of HI in galaxies. However, recent HI surveys on both single dish radio telescopes and interferometers, while providing detailed information on global HI properties, the dark matter distribution in galaxies, as well as insight into the relationship between star formation and the interstellar medium, have been limited to the local universe. Ongoing and upcoming HI surveys on SKA pathfinder instruments will extend these measurements beyond the local universe to intermediate redshifts with long observing programmes. We present here an overview of the HI science which will be possible with the increased capabilities of the SKA and which will build upon the expected increase in knowledge of HI in and around galaxies obtained with the SKA pathfinder surveys. With the SKA1 the greatest improvement over our current measurements is the capability to image galaxies at reasonable linear resolution and good column density sensitivity to much higher redshifts (0.2 < z < 1.7). So one will not only be able to increase the number of detections to study the evolution of the HI mass function, but also have the sensitivity and resolution to study inflows and outflows to and from galaxies and the kinematics of the gas within and around galaxies as a function of environment and cosmic time out to previously unexplored depths. The increased sensitivity of SKA2 will allow us to image Milky Way-size galaxies out to redshifts of z=1 and will provide the data required for a comprehensive picture of the HI content of galaxies back to z~2 when the cosmic star formation rate density was at its peak.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables. Contribution to the conference 'Advancing Astrophysics with the Square Kilometre Array', June 8-13, 2014, Giardini Naxos, Ital

Tracing Spasmodic Dysphonia: the source of Ludwig Traube’s priority

Objectives: Since the mid-20th century, one citation is given historical priority as the first description of Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD): Ludwig Traube’s 1871 case of the “spastic form of nervous hoarseness”. Our objective is to understand how this case serves as the foundation of understanding laryngeal movement disorders. Methods: The original German paper was located and translated. Bibliographical and bibliometric methods are used to determine the citation history of this original source over the past 140 years. Results: Although secondary citations in contemporary publications typically credit Traube for establishing the clinical entity SD, his case does not conform to currently accepted diagnostic features. Citation patterns indicate the source of Traube’s priority is publications by Arnold and Luchsinger, mid-20th century ENT clinician, particularly their influential 1965 textbook used to train US and UK clinicians on voice disorders for several generations. Conclusions: Sometimes secondary citations in medical literature lead to the inadvertent perpetuation of factual misrepresentation. The clinical picture of Traube’s original case does not represent what clinicians would recognize as SD today. The rich 19th century literature on voice disorders is a valuable resource for present day clinicians

Co-exposure of C60 fullerene with benzo[a]pyrene results in enhanced biological effects in cells as determined by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy

C60 fullerene (C60) is a promising manufactured carbon-based nanoparticles (NPs). With an increasing number of applications, it is being found in the environment. In addition, C60 is likely to associate with other environmental toxic contaminants. How such interactions with C60 can impact on the environmental fate, transport and bioavailability of toxicants remains unknown. Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). Herein, two cell lines (fish gill or MCF-7 cells) were employed to explore the biological impacts of co-exposure to C60 and B[a]P. Post-exposure cells were interrogated using Fourier-transformation infrared (FTIR) microspectroscopy. By inputting spectral data into principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis, data reduction allowed for visualisation of cell categorization and identification of wavenumber-related biomarkers corresponding to cellular alterations. Our results indicate that low-dose C60 increases B[a]P-induced alterations, while C60 at high concentrations reduces these effects. We also found that although C60 co-exposure increases B[a]P-induced CYP1A1 induction, co-exposure seemingly attenuates the levels of oxidative damage induced by either agent singly. This suggests that interactions between environmental NPs and contaminants are complex and unpredictable

HIV prevalence and undiagnosed infection among a community sample of gay and bisexual men in Scotland, 2005-2011: implications for HIV testing policy and prevention

&lt;b&gt;Objective&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; To examine HIV prevalence, HIV testing behaviour, undiagnosed infection and risk factors for HIV positivity among a community sample of gay men in Scotland.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Methods&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; Cross-sectional survey of gay and bisexual men attending commercial gay venues in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland with voluntary anonymous HIV testing of oral fluid samples in 2011. A response rate of 65.2% was achieved (1515 participants).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Results&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; HIV prevalence (4.8%, 95% confidence interval, CI 3.8% to 6.2%) remained stable compared to previous survey years (2005 and 2008) and the proportion of undiagnosed infection among HIV-positive men (25.4%) remained similar to that recorded in 2008. Half of the participants who provided an oral fluid sample stated that they had had an HIV test in the previous 12 months; this proportion is significantly higher when compared to previous study years (50.7% versus 33.8% in 2005, p&#60;0.001). Older age (&#62;25 years) was associated with HIV positivity (1.8% in those &#60;25 versus 6.4% in older ages group) as was a sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis within the previous 12 months (adjusted odds ratio 2.13, 95% CI 1.09–4.14). There was no significant association between age and having an STI or age and any of the sexual behaviours recorded.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Conclusion&lt;/b&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; HIV transmission continues to occur among gay and bisexual men in Scotland. Despite evidence of recent testing within the previous six months, suggesting a willingness to test, the current opt-out policy may have reached its limit with regards to maximising HIV test uptake. Novel strategies are required to improve regular testing opportunities and more frequent testing as there are implications for the use of other biomedical HIV interventions.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt

Nonlinear Analysis of Irregular Variables

The Fourier spectral techniques that are common in Astronomy for analyzing periodic or multi-periodic light-curves lose their usefulness when they are applied to unsteady light-curves. We review some of the novel techniques that have been developed for analyzing irregular stellar light or radial velocity variations, and we describe what useful physical and astronomical information can be gained from their use.Comment: 31 pages, to appear as a chapter in `Nonlinear Stellar Pulsation' in the Astrophysics and Space Science Library (ASSL), Editors: M. Takeuti & D. Sasselo