The Egyptian Cardiothoracic Surgeon (ECTS - E-Journal)
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Localized Multispectral Crop Imaging Sensors Engineering & Validation of a Cost Effective Plant Stress and Disease Sensor
No full textClose proximity hyperspectral and multispectral imaging of crops and soils offers significant potential to optimize sustainable intensification of arable produce and seeds breeding, through the real-time precision management of plant pathogens, viruses and pests and the non-destructive high throughput screening for beneficial crop traits. These opportunities have been recently reported and are the subject of ongoing R&D within industry and academia. The broad uptake of the technology by large commercial end-users, through integration with in-field and glasshouse machinery, is limited by cost and equipment reliability. It is further restricted by spectral and spatial resolution, power budget and size, when extending its applicability to consumer markets and small-holder farmers. This study verifies, for the first time, that multispectral sensor systems architectures, exploiting proprietary narrowband LEDs and silicon C-MOS imaging detectors, are capable of substituting for conventional and more expensive line-scanning hyperspectral imaging systems when operated in close proximity (c. 1-2m) of a crop canopy. This was achieved by comparing the data from a prototype version of the new LED-sensor system versus a reference laboratory hyperspectral imaging unit, which was previously developed for crop phenotyping, and the early detection of two fungal pathogen borne diseases in whole barley and sugar beet plants. The choice of crops and diseases replicates earlier studies, with the reference hyperspectral unit, and serves to demonstrate the generic applicability of the new LED-sensor system to cereal and tuber classes of crops. The results indicate that the new approach can deliver data of comparable quality to that of the reference system, for in-field duties, and offers the opportunity for higher sensitivity and spatial resolution. Future potential to apply the new multispectral, LED-based system within commercial products is then discussed
Food allergy in the Netherlands: differences in clinical severity, causative foods, sensitization and DBPCFC between community and outpatients.
No full textBACKGROUND: It is unknown whether food allergy (FA) in an unselected population is comparable to those from an outpatient clinic population. OBJECTIVE: To discover if FA in a random sample from the Dutch community is comparable to that of outpatients. METHODS: This study was part of the Europrevall-project. A random sample of 6600 adults received a questionnaire. Those with symptoms to one of 24 defined priority foods were tested for sIgE. Participants with a positive case history and elevated sIgE were evaluated by double-blind placebo-controlled food challenge (DBPCFC). Outpatients with a suspicion of FA were evaluated by questionnaire, sIgE and DBPCFC. RESULTS: In the community, severe symptoms were reported less often than in outpatients (39.3% vs. 54.3%). Participants in the community were less commonly sensitized to any of the foods. When selecting only those with a probable FA (i.e. symptoms of priority food and elevation of sIgE to the respective food), no major differences were observed with respect to severity, causative foods, sensitization and DBPCFC between the groups. CONCLUSION: In the Netherlands, there are large differences in self-reported FA between community and outpatients. However, Dutch community and outpatients with a probable FA do not differ with respect to severity, causative foods, sensitization and DBPCFC-outcome
The grey matter correlates of impaired decision-making in multiple sclerosis
No full textOBJECTIVE: People with multiple sclerosis (MS) have difficulties with decision-making but it is unclear if this is due to changes in impulsivity, risk taking, deliberation or risk adjustment, and how this relates to brain pathology.nnMETHODS: We assessed these aspects of decision-making in 105 people with MS and 43 healthy controls. We used a novel diffusion MRI method, diffusion orientational complexity (DOC), as an index of grey matter pathology in regions associated with decision-making and also measured grey matter tissue volumes and white matter lesion volumes.nnRESULTS: People with MS showed less adjustment to risk and slower decision-making than controls. Moreover, impaired decision-making correlated with reduced executive function, memory and processing speed. Decision-making impairments were most prevalent in people with secondary progressive MS. They were seen in patients with cognitive impairment and those without cognitive impairment. On diffusion MRI, people with MS showed DOC changes in all regions except the occipital cortex, relative to controls. Risk adjustment correlated with DOC in the hippocampi and deliberation time with DOC in the medial prefrontal, middle frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate and caudate parcellations and with white matter lesion volumes.nnCONCLUSIONS: These data clarify the features of decision-making deficits in MS, and provide the first evidence that they relate to grey and white matter abnormalities seen using MRI
Glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels and their relationships to clinical outcomes in type 2 diabetes: a retrospective cohort study
No full textPositron emission tomography in neurodegenerative disorders - evolving techniques and new tracers
No full textA Lattice-Boltzmann scheme for the simulation of diffusion in intracellular crowded systems
No full textBackground The intracellular environment is a complex and crowded medium where the diffusion of proteins, metabolites and other molecules can be decreased. One of the most popular methodologies for the simulation of diffusion in crowding systems is the Monte Carlo algorithm (MC) which tracks the movement of each particle. This can, however, be computationally expensive for a system comprising a large number of molecules. On the other hand, the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) tracks the movement of collections of molecules, which represents significant savings in computational time. Nevertheless in the classical manifestation of such scheme the crowding conditions are neglected. Methods In this paper we use Scaled Particle Theory (SPT) to approximate the probability to find free space for the displacement of hard-disk molecules and in this way to incorporate the crowding effect to the LBM. This new methodology which couples SPT and LBM is validated using a kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) algorithm, which is used here as our "computational experiment". Results The results indicate that LBM over-predicts the diffusion in 2D crowded systems, while the proposed coupled SPT-LBM predicts the same behaviour as the kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) algorithm but with a significantly reduced computational effort. Despite the fact that small deviations between the two methods were observed, in part due to the mesoscopic and microscopic nature of each method, respectively, the agreement was satisfactory both from a qualitative and a quantitative point of view. Conclusions A crowding-adaptation to LBM has been developed using SPT, allowing fast simulations of diffusion-systems of different size hard-disk molecules in two-dimensional space. This methodology takes into account crowding conditions; not only the space fraction occupied by the crowder molecules but also the influence of the size of the crowder which can affect the displacement of molecules across the lattice system
Grandparents’ Stories of Family Life After Donor Conception (Parents of heterosexual couples with children conceived using donor sperm or eggs)
No full textThis leaflet is written for the parents of heterosexual couples who have, or are planning, children using donor conception. It is based on many hours of research interviews, during which parents and grandparents of donor-conceived children told usabout their experiences of family life after donor conception.This leaflet is one of a series of four, written for parents and grandparents with donor-conceived children. They are based on research from the Relative Strangers project
Proxy-Reporting in Health Survey Research
No full textThis chapter offers readers a general overview of proxy reporting in health surveys. The primary objective of health surveys is to collect high quality information from a sample of persons carefully selected from the population of interest. The chapter first reviews the rationale for collecting proxy reports as a substitute for self-reports. Second, a description of three target populations that are commonly the focus of proxy reporting (children, elderly, and disabled) and the extent to which proxy reporting is used for each is provided. Examples of measures commonly collected using proxy respondents are then examined. The chapter also reviews the quality issues surrounding the collection of proxy reports and how such reports may impact the survey results. Lastly, some general conclusions about proxy reporting in health surveys are outlined