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It's not just a picture: Why digital literacy matters in the fight against image-based sexual abuse among young adults in Nigeria
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Catheter detection and segmentation in X-ray images via multi-task learning
No full textPurpose: Automated detection and segmentation of surgical devices, such as catheters or wires, in X-ray fluoroscopic images have the potential to enhance image guidance in minimally invasive heart surgeries. Methods: In this paper, we present a convolutional neural network model that integrates a resnet architecture with multiple prediction heads to achieve real-time, accurate localization of electrodes on catheters and catheter segmentation in an end-to-end deep learning framework. We also propose a multi-task learning strategy in which our model is trained to perform both accurate electrode detection and catheter segmentation simultaneously. A key challenge with this approach is achieving optimal performance for both tasks. To address this, we introduce a novel multi-level dynamic resource prioritization method. This method dynamically adjusts sample and task weights during training to effectively prioritize more challenging tasks, where task difficulty is inversely proportional to performance and evolves throughout the training process. Results: The proposed method has been validated on both public and private datasets for single-task catheter segmentation and multi-task catheter segmentation and detection. The performance of our method is also compared with existing state-of-the-art methods, demonstrating significant improvements, with a mean J of 64.37/63.97 and with average precision over all IoU thresholds of 84.15/83.13, respectively, for detection and segmentation multi-task on the validation and test sets of the catheter detection and segmentation dataset. Conclusions: Our approach achieves a good balance between accuracy and efficiency, making it well-suited for real-time surgical guidance applications
Cross-sectional associations between clinical biochemistry and nutritional biomarkers and sarcopenic indices of skeletal muscle in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging
Get PDFBackground: Investigating relationships between nutritional and clinical biochemistry biomarkers and skeletal muscle mass, strength and function (sarcopenic indices) may 1) highlight micronutrients of interest for potential preventive or treatment strategies for sarcopenia, or 2) highlight biomarkers that may be useful for identifying individuals at risk of sarcopenia. Objectives: Investigate associations between nutritional biomarkers (vitamin D, vitamin B 12, folate, magnesium, potassium, calcium, and iron), clinical biomarkers (hemoglobin, ferritin, albumin, creatinine, and hemoglobin A1c: HbA1c), and sarcopenic indices (appendicular lean mass: ALM); height-adjusted ALM: ALM ht; fat-free mass as a percentage of total body weight; extended short physical performance battery score: extSPPB; height-adjusted hand grip strength: HGS ht; height-adjusted knee extension concentric strength, and; height-adjusted knee extension isometric strength) in males and females. Methods: Using multivariable linear regression analysis, we investigated cross-sectional associations between biomarkers and sarcopenic indices in data collected from 1761 participants (age 22–103 y) from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Results: Hemoglobin was positively associated with ALM (β = 0.20, P = 0.021), HGS ht (β = 0.25, P = 0.001), and extSPPB (β = 0.13, P = 0.024) in males, and with extSPPB in females (β = 0.15, P = 0.019). In males, serum iron was positively associated with ALM ht (β = 0.0021, P = 0.038) and extSPPB (β = 0.0043, P = 0.045). In females, ferritin was positively associated with knee-extension strength measurements. Serum creatinine was positively associated with lean mass measures in males and females and with muscle strength and function measures in males with normal renal function (estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m 2). In males, high HbA1c was associated with lower ALM ht (β = –0.21, P = 0.023), extSPPB (β = –0.40, P = 0.027), and HGS ht (β = –0.56, P = 0.031). In males and females, magnesium was positively associated with extSPPB, and potassium was positively associated with measures of knee-extension strength. Conclusions: The associations found between measures of iron status and creatinine and sarcopenic indices, in males in particular, indicate potential importance for muscle health. Future longitudinal and intervention studies are warranted to confirm these findings
Rapport in police interviews with victims: A linguistic comparison between UK and Spain
No full textPurpose: This study aims to explore how rapport is operationalised in police interviews with victims in the United Kingdom and Spain. Rapport is considered a key element in the success of investigative interviewing and therefore, police interviewers are trained to use rapport-building techniques throughout the interview. Previous research has enabled us to understand what rapport is and how it works in interviews with victims (Abbe and Brandon, 2012; Dando et al., 2016; Walsh and Bull, 2010). However, it has been highlighted that the expression of rapport may vary between cultures (Matsumoto and Hwang, 2021), as there are cultural and linguistic differences concerning interactional factors. Design/methodology/approach: To uncover this, British and Spanish police interviewing guidelines are examined with regard to rapport techniques and how they are conceptualised. Then, a discourse-pragmatic and ethnographic approach is applied to real interviews with victims in the United Kingdom and Spain, to analyse what happens in real practice and how rapport with victims is expressed linguistically in British English and European Spanish. Findings: The study unfolds certain linguistic subtleties in relation to “face-related issues” that need to be considered for future research on rapport in investigative interviews with victims, particularly in multicultural interviewing contexts. Originality/value: The findings from this study contribute to a better understanding of how rapport is operationalised in different contexts and how the expression of rapport is tied to cultural and linguistic patterns that influence how people communicate
Environmental American Studies
No full textGreen BAAS special issue of New Area Studies Vol 4, issue 3, 2024
Effects of a temperate heatwave on diel rhythms of insect activity: A comparison across habitats
Get PDFThe increasing frequency and intensity of heatwave events in temperate climates threaten to alter behavioural rhythms of ectothermic animals, such as insects. However, it is poorly understood how heatwaves affect daily activity patterns of insects, and whether shaded microclimates can moderate these responses. We investigated the impacts of a heatwave on the diel profile of insect activity, comparing effects across open, tree-covered, and hedged habitats. Using yellow pan traps, insect activity was monitored from 07:00 AM to 07:00 PM on ten non-consecutive days, including two during a heatwave. Insect counts exhibited a unimodal relationship with temperature. On heatwave days, open habitat exhibited a significant (81.9%) reduction in counts compared to two ‘non-heatwave’ days, one before and one after the heatwave. Smaller, non-significant reductions were observed in the tree-covered (32.3%) and hedged (17.8%) habitats. The diel rhythm of activity on non-heatwave days approximated a unimodal relationship, with model-estimated counts peaking around 03:00 PM; by contrast, heatwave days exhibited a bimodal profile, with predicted counts highest in the morning and evening. Such heatwave-induced deformations of activity patterns, modelled as interactions between heatwave and time of day, were significant across all three habitat types. The findings suggest that temperate heatwaves can markedly decrease insect activity levels, and that whilst shade-providing vegetational features may reduce this effect, diel patterns of activity are affected landscape-wide. As heatwaves become more frequent, the preservation of trees and hedges in temperate landscapes is likely crucial to support the resilience of insect activity and of wider ecosystem functioning
Investigating the impact of trial retractions on the healthcare evidence ecosystem (VITALITY Study I): Retrospective cohort study
Get PDFObjective: To investigate the impact of retracted trials on the production and use of healthcare evidence in the evidence ecosystem. Design: Retrospective cohort study based on forward citation searching. Data sources: Retraction Watch up to 5 November 2024. Study selection: Randomised controlled trials in humans that were retracted for any reason. Methods: Forward citation searching via Google Scholar and Scopus was used to identify evidence synthesis research (21 November 2024) that quantitatively incorporated retracted trials. Data were independently extracted by two groups of researchers. The results of meta-analyses were updated after exclusion of the retracted trials. The proportions of meta-analyses that changed direction of the pooled effect and/or the significance of the P value were estimated. A generalised linear mixed model was used to investigate the association between the number of included studies and the impact, measured by odds ratio and 95% confidence interval (CI). The impact of distorted evidence on clinical practice guidelines was also investigated on the basis of citation searching. Results: The searches identified 1330 retracted trials and 847 systematic reviews that quantitatively synthesised retracted trials, with a total of 3902 meta-analyses that could be replicated. After the potential clustering effects were accounted for, the exclusion of the retracted trials led to a change in the direction of the pooled effect in 8.4% (95% CI 6.8% to 10.1%), in its statistical significance in 16.0% (14.2% to 17.9%), and in both direction and significance in 3.9% (2.5% to 5.2%) and a >50% change in the magnitude of the effect in 15.7% (13.5% to 17.9%). An obvious non-linear association existed between the number of included studies and the impact on the results, with a lower number of studies having higher impact (eg, for 10 studies versus ≥20 studies, change of direction: odds ratio 2.63, 95% CI 1.29 to 5.38; P<0.001). Evidence from 68 systematic reviews with conclusions distorted by retracted trials was used in 157 guideline documents. Conclusion: Retracted trials have a substantial impact on the evidence ecosystem, including evidence synthesis, clinical practice guidelines, and evidence based clinical practice. Evidence generators, synthesisers, and users must pay attention to this problem, and feasible approaches that assist with easier identification and correction of such potential contamination are needed. Study registration: Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/7eazq/)