36 research outputs found
Foursquare & Flickr activities in 20 cities
No full text<p>10 millions flickr photos in 10 US & 10 European cities (photo_id, user_id, time_taken, GPS_coordinates, city, if available: associated venue id)</p>
<p>4.5 million checkins (anonymized user_id, venue id, local time, city)</p>
<p>400k venues (venue id, name, GPS_coordinates, city, category id)</p>
<p>Please cite our paper if you're using this data in your own work</p>
<p>@inproceedings{Thesis15,<br>author = {{Le Falher}, G\'{e}raud and Gionis, Aristides and Mathioudakis, Michael},<br>booktitle = {International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media},<br>title = {{Where Is the Soho of Rome? Measures and Algorithms for Finding Similar Neighborhoods in Cities}},<br>url = {http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM15/paper/view/10514},<br>year = {2015}<br>}</p>
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Study of the NOTCH3 Gene Reveals the First CADASIL Cases in Crete and a Novel Pathogenic Variant
No full textBACKGROUND: NOTCH3 gene variants are associated with cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL). In this study we aimed to examine the presence of pathogenic NOTCH3 variants in individuals with suspected CADASIL on the Greek island of Crete. This represents the first report of CADASIL patients in Crete.
METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of the University Hospital of Heraklion and identified three patients with the clinical diagnosis of CADASIL. In these patients pathogenic NOTCH3 variants were identified through targeted or whole-exome sequencing (WES).
RESULTS: A novel heterozygous variant in exon 4 of the NOTCH3 gene (p.Cys206Trp; NM_000435.3:c.618C\u3eG) was found in a 67-year-old woman who suffered from recurrent ischemic strokes, cognitive impairment, depression, and headache, as well as her son, who presented with headache, anxiety disorder, and insomnia. Brain MRI for both patients revealed white matter disease, including the anterior temporal lobes. The characteristics of this variant (a Cys-related variant in the epidermal growth factor repeats area) support its pathogenicity. We also identified a 72-year-old patient affected by CADASIL and carrying a previously described p.Arg607Cys (NM_000435.3:c.1819C\u3eT) NOTCH3 variant.
CONCLUSIONS: This report extends the geographic and genotypic spectrum of pathogenic NOTCH3 variants and documents the first CADASIL cases on the island of Crete, Greece
High Prevalence of Transthyretin-Related Amyloidosis in Crete, Greece is Due to Three TTR Pathogenic Variants with Markedly Differing Phenotypic Presentations
No full textObjective: To describe occurrence and clinical features of hereditary Transthyretin-Related Amyloidosis (hATTR) in Crete, Greece.
Background: Over the past 27 years, we have diagnosed several hATTR patients presenting with heterogeneous clinical manifestations.
Design/Methods: Since 1993, we evaluated 33 subjects, members of 12 unrelated families, for various reasons including polyneuropathy, cardiac involvement, visual symptoms and family history suggestive of hATTR. All patients underwent genetic testing and were positive for a pathogenic TTR variant.
Results: Nineteen subjects (12 women) with the predominantly polyneuropathic phenotype were heterozygous for the p.Val50Met TTR mutation. The median age of symptom onset was 31 years (range 25 to 43 years). Common presenting manifestations were paresthesias, temperature sensory loss and weakness of the lower extremities, urinary difficulties, postural dizziness, diarrhea, and weight loss. Heart failure developed in 4 patients late in the disease course. Fourteen patients underwent orthotopic liver transplantation. Ten patients (4 females) with the predominantly cardiopathic phenotype harbored the p.Val114Ala TTR mutation. Their median age at onset was 69.8 years (range 54–78 years). These patients presented with congestive heart failure due to restrictive cardiomyopathy and showed cardiac amyloid deposition on 99mTc scintigraphy or biopsy. All patients had peripheral neuropathy, autonomic system involvement and carpal tunnel syndrome. By screening their offspring, 3 asymptomatic carriers of the p.Val114Ala TTR mutation were found. Finally, one 50-year old male with predominantly ocular involvement and positive family history of progressive visual loss harbored the p.Arg54Gly TTR change. Based on patients surviving in Crete in January 2019, we estimated the prevalence of hATTR on the island to be 35.3 per 1 million.
Conclusions: Hereditary amyloidosis is common in Crete, Greece, placing the region among those with the highest hATTR frequency world-wide. The disease is caused by three different TTR pathogenic variants with markedly differing ages of onset and phenotypic expressions
Interventions to improve inhaler technique for people with asthma.
No full textBACKGROUND: Asthma is a common chronic disease worldwide. Inhalers are often prescribed to help control asthma symptoms, improve quality of life and reduce the risk of exacerbations or flare-ups. However, evidence suggests that many people with asthma do not use their inhaler correctly. It is therefore important to evaluate whether interventions aimed specifically at improving technique are effective and safe, and whether use of these interventions translates into improved clinical outcomes. OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of interventions to improve inhaler technique on clinical outcomes and safety in adults and children with asthma. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Airways Trials Register, which contains records compiled from multiple electronic and handsearched resources. We also searched trial registries and reference lists of primary studies. We conducted the most recent search on 23 November 2016. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included studies comparing a group of adults or children with asthma receiving an inhaler technique intervention versus a group receiving a control or alternative intervention. We included parallel and cluster-randomised trials of any duration conducted in any setting, and planned to include only the first phase of any cross-over trials identified. We included studies reported as full-text articles, those published as abstracts only and unpublished data. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors screened the search results for eligible studies. We extracted outcome data, assessed risk of bias in duplicate and resolved discrepancies by involving another review author. We grouped studies making similar comparisons by consensus (e.g. all those comparing enhanced inhaler technique education vs usual care) and conducted meta-analyses only if treatments, participants and the underlying clinical question were similar enough for pooling to make sense. We analysed dichotomous data as odds ratios, and continuous data as mean differences or standardised mean differences, all with random-effects models. We described skewed data narratively. We graded the results and presented evidence in 'Summary of findings' tables for each comparison. Primary outcomes were inhaler technique, asthma control and exacerbations requiring at least oral corticosteroids (OCS). MAIN RESULTS: This review includes 29 parallel randomised controlled trials (RCTs) (n = 2210), although not all reported relevant or useable data. All participants had asthma, and follow-up ranged from 2 to 26 weeks. Most studies were at low or unclear risk of selection and attrition biases and at high risk for biases associated with blinding. We considered most of the evidence to be of low quality owing to these biases and to imprecision in the estimates of effect.We classified studies into three comparisons: enhanced face-to-face training session(s), multi-media-delivered inhaler training (e.g. DVD, computer app or game) and technique feedback devices. Differences between interventions, populations and outcome measures limited quantitative analyses, particularly for exacerbations, adverse events, unscheduled visits to a healthcare provider and absenteeism from work or school.Enhanced inhaler technique education and multi-media training improved technique in most studies immediately after the intervention and at follow-up, although the variety of checklists used meant that this was difficult to assess reliably. For both adults and children, how and when inhaler technique was assessed appeared to affect whether inhaler technique improved and by how much.Analyses of the numbers of people who demonstrated correct or 'good enough' technique were generally more useful than checklist scores. Adult studies of enhanced education showed benefit when this metric was used at 2 to 26 weeks' follow-up (odds ratio (OR) 5.00, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.83 to 13.65; 258 participants; three studies; 31 per 100 with correct technique in the control group compared with 69 (95% CI 45 to 86) in the education group; moderate-quality evidence). A similar result was seen in studies looking at feedback devices at four weeks' follow-up (OR 4.80, 95% CI 1.87 to 12.33; 97 participants; one study; 51 per 100 with correct technique in the control group compared with 83 (95% CI 66 to 93) in the feedback group; low-quality evidence). However, the benefit of multi-media training for adults even immediately after the intervention was uncertain (OR 2.15, 95% CI 0.84 to 5.50; 164 participants; two studies; I² = 49%; 30 per 100 in the control group with correct technique compared with 47 (95% CI 26 to 70) in the multi-media group; moderate-quality evidence). Evidence tended to be less clear for children, usually because results were based on fewer and smaller studies.Some studies did not report exacerbations in a way that allowed meta-analysis; others provided inconclusive results. Inhaler technique interventions provided some benefit for asthma control and quality of life but generally did not lead to consistent or important clinical benefits for adults or children. Confidence intervals included no difference or did not reach a threshold that could be considered clinically important. Responder analyses sometimes showed improvement among more people in the intervention groups, even though the mean difference between groups was small. We found no evidence about harms. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Although interventions to improve inhaler technique may work in some circumstances, the variety of interventions and measurement methods used hampered our ability to perform meta-analyses and led to low to moderate confidence in our findings. Most included studies did not report important improvement in clinical outcomes. Guidelines consistently recommend that clinicians check regularly the inhaler technique of their patients; what is not clear is how clinicians can most effectively intervene if they find a patient's technique to be inadequate, and whether such interventions will have a discernible impact on clinical outcomes
An observational study of a magneto-acoustic wave in the solar corona
No full textThe Solar Eclipse Corona Imaging System (SECIS) observed a strong 6-s oscillation in an active region coronal loop, during the 1999 August 11 total solar eclipse. In the present paper we show that this oscillation is associated with a fast-mode magneto-acoustic wave that travels through the loop apex with a velocity of 2100 km s−1. We use near-simultaneous SOHO observations to calculate the parameters of the loop and its surroundings such as density, temperature and their spatial variation. We find that the temporal evolution of the intensity is in agreement with the model of an impulsively generated, fast-mode wave
Presence of antiphospholipid antibodies is associated with increased implantation failure following in vitro fertilization technique and embryo transfer: A systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textPurpose A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted comparing the presence of antiphospholipid (anti-PL) antibodies between women of reproductive age, without diagnosis of antiphospholipid syndrome, who experienced at least two implantation failures following in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET), and either women who had a successful implantation after IVF-ET or women with at least one successful spontaneous pregnancy or unselected healthy fertile women with no history of IVF-ET. Methods Systematic search of the literature and meta-analysis of the relevant studies studying presence of antiphospholipid antibodies in women experiencing at least two implantation failures in IVF-ET as compared to either women who had a successful implantation after IVF-ET or/ and women with at least one successful spontaneous pregnancy or unselected healthy fertile women with no history of IVF-ET. Six hundred ninety-four published reports were retrieved; 17 of them fulfilled the inclusion criteria set. Results Presence of either any type of anti-phospholipid or anticardiolipin antibodies or lupus-anticoagulant in women experiencing at least two implantation failures in IVF-ET was associated with increased implantation failure compared to women who had a successful implantation after IVF-ET (relative risk, RR: 3.06, 5.06 and 5.81, respectively). Presence of either anticardiolipin or lupus-anticoagulant or anti-beta2 glycoprotein-I or anti-phosphatidylserine antibodies in women experiencing at least two implantation failures in IVF-EΤ was associated with increased implantation failure compared to unselected healthy fertile women with no history of IVF-ET (RR:13.92, 6.37, 15.04 and 164.58, respectively). Conclusion The prevalence of antiphospholipid antibodies, particularly that of anti-beta2 glycoprotein-I and anti-phosphatidylserine antibodies, in women experiencing at least two implantation failures in IVF-ET without diagnosis of antiphospholipid syndrome is significantly greater than either in women who had a successful implantation after IVF-ET or women with at least one successful spontaneous pregnancy or unselected healthy fertile women with no history of IVF-ET. Trial registration number PROSPERO ID: CRD42018081458 Copyright: © 2022 Papadimitriou et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Prevalence and clinical implications of respiratory viruses in stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and exacerbations: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol
No full textIntroduction Both stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and acute exacerbations represent leading causes of death, disability and healthcare expenditure. They are complex, heterogeneous and their mechanisms are poorly understood. The role of respiratory viruses has been studied extensively but is still not adequately addressed clinically. Through a rigorous evidence update, we aim to define the prevalence and clinical burden of the different respiratory viruses in stable COPD and exacerbations, and to investigate whether viral load of usual respiratory viruses could be used for diagnosis of exacerbations triggered by viruses, which are currently not diagnosed or treated aetiologically. Methods and analysis Based on a prospectively registered protocol, we will systematically review the literature using standard methods recommended by the Cochrane Collaboration and the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation working group. We will search Medline/PubMed, Excerpta Medica dataBASE (EMBASE), the Cochrane Library, the WHO's Clinical Trials Registry and the proceedings of relevant international conferences on 2 March 2020. We will evaluate: (A) the prevalence of respiratory viruses in stable COPD and exacerbations, (B) differences in the viral loads of respiratory viruses in stable COPD vs exacerbations, to explore whether the viral load of prevalent respiratory viruses could be used as a diagnostic biomarker for exacerbations triggered by viruses and (C) the association between the presence of respiratory viruses and clinical outcomes in stable COPD and in exacerbations. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval is not required since no primary data will be collected. Our findings will be presented in national and international scientific conferences and will be published in peer reviewed journals. Respiratory viruses currently represent a lost opportunity to improve the outcomes of both stable COPD and exacerbations. Our work aspires to ' demystify' the prevalence and clinical burden of viruses in stable COPD and exacerbations and to promote clinical and translational research. PROSPERO registration number CRD42019147658. © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ
Application of Deep Learning to the Classification of Stokes Profiles: From the Quiet Sun to Sunspots
No full textThe morphology of circular polarization profiles from solar spectropolarimetric observations encodes information about the magnetic field strength, inclination, and line-of-sight velocity gradients. Previous studies used manual methods or unsupervised machine learning (ML) to classify the shapes of circular polarization profiles. We trained a multilayer perceptron comparing classifications with unsupervised ML. The method was tested on quiet Sun data sets from Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), Hinode, and GREGOR, as well as simulations of granulation and a sunspot. We achieve validation metrics typically close to or above 90%. We also present the first statistical analysis of quiet Sun DKIST/ViSP data using inversions and our supervised classifier. We demonstrate that classifications with unsupervised ML alone can introduce systemic errors that could compromise statistical comparisons. DKIST and Hinode classifications in the quiet Sun are similar, despite our modeling indicating spatial resolution differences should alter the shapes of circular polarization signals. Asymmetrical (symmetrical) profiles are less (more) common in GREGOR than DKIST or Hinode data, consistent with narrower response functions in the 1564.85 nm line. Single-lobed profiles are extremely rare in GREGOR data. In the sunspot simulation, the 630.25 nm line produces "double" profiles in the penumbra, likely a manifestation of magneto-optical effects in horizontal fields; these are rarer in the 1564.85 nm line. We find the 1564.85 nm line detects more reverse polarity magnetic fields in the penumbra, in contradiction to observations. We detect mixed-polarity profiles in nearly one fifth of the penumbra. Supervised ML robustly classifies solar spectropolarimetric data, enabling detailed statistical analyses of magnetic fields. © 2025. The Author(s).The observational data used during this research are openly available. Readers can access DKIST data from the DKIST Data Center Archive14 under proposal identifier pid_1_36, Hinode data from the Community Spectropolarimetric Analysis Center,15 and GREGOR data from the KIS Science Data Center.16
We would like to thank Jose Carlos del Toro Iniesta, Rolf Schlichenmaier, and Javier Trujillo Bueno for their very insightful discussions of magneto-optical effects in sunspots. R.J.C. and M.M. acknowledge support from STFC (ST/P000304/1, ST/X000923/1) and the EU Horizon 2020 program (SOLARNET, 824135). The 1.5 m GREGOR solar telescope was built by a German consortium under the leadership of the Institute for Solar Physics (KIS) in Freiburg with the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, the Institute for Astrophysics Göttingen, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen as partners, and with contributions by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. GREGOR’s redesign was carried out by KIS, whose technical staff is gratefully acknowledged. Hinode is a Japanese mission developed and launched by ISAS/JAXA, collaborating with NAOJ, NASA, and UKSA. Support for the post-launch operation is provided by JAXA and NAOJ (Japan), UKSA (U.K.), NASA, ESA, and NSC (Norway). The research is based in part on data collected with the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), a facility of the National Solar Observatory (NSO). NSO is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc., and is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF or AURA. DKIST is located on land of spiritual and cultural significance to Native Hawaiian people. The use of this important site to further scientific knowledge is done so with appreciation and respect. We use data provided by M. Rempel at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The NCAR is sponsored by the NSF.Peer reviewe
Critical Science Plan for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST)
No full textFull list of authors: Rast, Mark P.; Bello González, Nazaret; Bellot Rubio, Luis; Cao, Wenda; Cauzzi, Gianna; Deluca, Edward; de Pontieu, Bart; Fletcher, Lyndsay; Gibson, Sarah E.; Judge, Philip G.; Katsukawa, Yukio; Kazachenko, Maria D.; Khomenko, Elena; Landi, Enrico; Martínez Pillet, Valentín; Petrie, Gordon J. D.; Qiu, Jiong; Rachmeler, Laurel A.; Rempel, Matthias; Schmidt, Wolfgang; Scullion, Eamon; Sun, Xudong; Welsch, Brian T.; Andretta, Vincenzo; Antolin, Patrick; Ayres, Thomas R.; Balasubramaniam, K. S.; Ballai, Istvan; Berger, Thomas E.; Bradshaw, Stephen J.; Campbell, Ryan J.; Carlsson, Mats; Casini, Roberto; Centeno, Rebecca; Cranmer, Steven R.; Criscuoli, Serena; Deforest, Craig; Deng, Yuanyong; Erdélyi, Robertus; Fedun, Viktor; Fischer, Catherine E.; González Manrique, Sergio J.; Hahn, Michael; Harra, Louise; Henriques, Vasco M. J.; Hurlburt, Neal E.; Jaeggli, Sarah; Jafarzadeh, Shahin; Jain, Rekha; Jefferies, Stuart M.; Keys, Peter H.; Kowalski, Adam F.; Kuckein, Christoph; Kuhn, Jeffrey R.; Kuridze, David; Liu, Jiajia; Liu, Wei search; Longcope, Dana; Mathioudakis, Mihalis; McAteer, R. T. James; McIntosh, Scott W.; McKenzie, David E.; Miralles, Mari Paz; Morton, Richard J.; Muglach, Karin; Nelson, Chris J.; Panesar, Navdeep K.; Parenti, Susanna; Parnell, Clare E.; Poduval, Bala; Reardon, Kevin P.; Reep, Jeffrey W.; Schad, Thomas A.; Schmit, Donald; Sharma, Rahul; Socas-Navarro, Hector; Srivastava, Abhishek K.; Sterling, Alphonse C.; Suematsu, Yoshinori; Tarr, Lucas A.; Tiwari, Sanjiv; Tritschler, Alexandra; Verth, Gary; Vourlidas, Angelos; Wang, Haimin; Wang, Yi-Ming.-- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.The National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) will revolutionize our ability to measure, understand, and model the basic physical processes that control the structure and dynamics of the Sun and its atmosphere. The first-light DKIST images, released publicly on 29 January 2020, only hint at the extraordinary capabilities that will accompany full commissioning of the five facility instruments. With this Critical Science Plan (CSP) we attempt to anticipate some of what those capabilities will enable, providing a snapshot of some of the scientific pursuits that the DKIST hopes to engage as start-of-operations nears. The work builds on the combined contributions of the DKIST Science Working Group (SWG) and CSP Community members, who generously shared their experiences, plans, knowledge, and dreams. Discussion is primarily focused on those issues to which DKIST will uniquely contribute. © 2021, The Author(s).This work rests on many years of sustained vision, effort, and dedication by DKIST and DKIST instrument, team scientists, engineers, and administrative, support personnel, the unwavering commitment of the National Science Foundation, and the support of the US taxpayers. It includes contributions from members of the DKIST Science Working Group and the DKIST Critical Science Plan Community, all of whom generously shared their experiences, plans, knowledge, and dreams. The research reported herein was based in part on the National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), a facility of the National Solar Observatory (NSO). NSO is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709.Peer reviewe
Factors related to morbidity and mortality of meningiomas resection-associated venous thromboembolism (Review)
No full textPatients undergoing intracranial meningioma removal have been reported to have an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). The present study aimed to study meningioma operations and ascertain rates of postoperative VTE more closely and to find out the associated parameters with VTE-related morbidity and mortality in meningioma patients following resection. This meta-analysis included articles involving meningiomas surgery and postoperative VTE [thromboembolic complications: deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE)] published in full-text form between January 1980 and January 2021). Collected variables included: First author name, study period covered, publication year, total number of patients and age, number of males, surgical duration, body mass index (BMI), tumor location, proliferation marker for human tumor cells Ki-67 and VTE-related morbidity and mortality. After the initial search and applying all exclusion and inclusion criteria, five articles were left in the final article pool. The total number of patients was 6,505 who underwent surgery for meningiomas and 299 (4.5%) revealed postoperative VTE. The final results showed no potentially significant difference between the total sample and the postoperative VTE group in tumor location and proliferation marker Ki-67 for human cells. By contrast, the results of the analysis for surgical duration and BMI showed a statistically significant difference. Patients who had experienced open surgery for meningiomas were associated with postoperative VTE. Furthermore, surgical duration and BMI were statistically significant VTE-related parameters in patients who underwent meningioma surgery, showing an association with VTE-related morbidity and mortality. © 2023 Georgakopoulou et al
