Validation of cervical lesion proportion measure using a gridded imaging techique to assess cervical pathology in women with genital schistosomiasis

Female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) is characterized by a pattern of lesions which manifest at the cervix and the vagina, such as homogeneous and grainy sandy patches, rubbery papules in addition to neovascularization. A tool for quantification of the lesions is needed to improve FGS research and control programs. Hitherto, no tools are available to quantify clinical pathology at the cervix in a standardized and reproducible manner. This study aimed to develop and validate a cervical lesion proportion (CLP) measure for quantification of cervical pathology in FGS. A digital imaging technique was applied in which a grid containing 424 identical squares was positioned on high resolution digital images from the cervix of 70 women with FGS. A CLP was made for each image by counting the total number of squares containing at least one type of pathognomonic lesions. For validation of inter- and intra-observer reliability, three different observers estimated CLP independently. In addition, a rubbery papule count (RPC) was determined in a similar manner. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.94 (excellent) for the CLP inter-rater reliability and 0.90 (good) for intra-rater reliability and the coefficients for the RPC were 0.88 and 0.80 (good), respectively. The CLP facilitated a reliable and reproducible quantification of the surface of the cervix affected by FGS pathognomonic lesions. Grading of cervical pathology by CLP can provide insight into the natural course of schistosome egg-induced pathology of the cervix. Moreover, CLP provides a measure for the efficacy of treatment.

Download Full-text

Objective Assessment of Chronic Pain in Horses Using the Horse Chronic Pain Scale (HCPS): A Scale-Construction Study

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani11061826 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1826

Author(s):

Johannes P. A. M. van Loon ◽

Lucia Macri

Keyword(s):

Chronic Pain ◽

Facial Expression ◽

Objective Assessment ◽

Intraclass Correlation ◽

Diagnostic Procedures ◽

Pain Scale ◽

Treatment Regimens ◽

Observer Reliability ◽

Healthy Control ◽

And Control

The objective assessment of chronic pain is of utmost importance for improving welfare and quality of life in horses. Freedom from disease and pain is one of the ‘five freedoms’ that are necessary for animal welfare. The aim of this study was to develop a pain scale for the assessment of chronic pain in horses (Horse Chronic Pain Scale; HCPS), which is based on behavioural and facial expressions. The scale was used to assess 53 horses (26 horses diagnosed with chronic painful conditions by means of clinical examination and additional diagnostic procedures (consisting of osteoarthritis, chronic laminitis, chronic back and neck problems, chronic dental disorders) and 27 healthy control animals). Animals were assessed once daily for three consecutive days by two observers that were blinded to the condition of the animals and were unaware of any analgesic treatment regimens. The HCPS consists of two parts, the Horse Chronic Pain Composite Pain Scale (HCP CPS, with behavioural parameters) and the EQUUS-FAP (Equine Utrecht University Scale for Facial Assessment of Pain). The HCP CPS had good inter-observer reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.84, p < 0.001), while the EQUUS-FAP component (with facial expression-based parameters) had poor inter-observer reliability (ICC = 0.45, p < 0.05). The inter-observer reliability of the combined HCPS was good (ICC = 0.78, p < 0.001). The HCPS revealed significant differences between horses with chronic painful conditions and control horses on 2 out of 3 days (p < 0.05). In conclusion, we tested a composite pain scale for the assessment of chronic pain in horses based on behavioural and facial expression-based parameters. Further studies are needed to validate this pain scale before it can be used in practice.

Download Full-text

An insight into Case Management and Challenges in Veteran Suicide Prevention

International Journal of Humanities and Applied Social Science ◽

10.33642/ijhass.v5n9p2 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 14-25

Author(s):

Tamara Green

Keyword(s):

Case Management ◽

Suicide Prevention ◽

Suicide Risk ◽

Digital Transformation ◽

Prevention Science ◽

Historical Records ◽

Military Members ◽

Prediction And Control ◽

And Control ◽

Insight Into

Much of the literature, policies, programs, and investment has been made on mental health, case management, and suicide prevention of veterans. The Australian “veteran community is facing a suicide epidemic for the reasons that are extremely complex and beyond the scope of those currently dealing with them.” (Menz, D: 2019). Only limited work has considered the digital transformation of loosely and manual-based historical records and no enablement of Artificial Intelligence (A.I) and machine learning to suicide risk prediction and control for serving military members and veterans to date. This paper presents issues and challenges in suicide prevention and management of veterans, from the standing of policymakers to stakeholders, campaigners of veteran suicide prevention, science and big data, and an opportunity for the digital transformation of case management.

Download Full-text

Galileo Unbound

10.1093/oso/9780198805847.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

David D. Nolte

Keyword(s):

Free Fall ◽

The Sun ◽

Quantum Field ◽

Many Worlds ◽

Quantum Particles ◽

Light Rays ◽

History Of ◽

And Control ◽

The Universe ◽

Insight Into

Galileo Unbound: A Path Across Life, The Universe and Everything traces the journey that brought us from Galileo’s law of free fall to today’s geneticists measuring evolutionary drift, entangled quantum particles moving among many worlds, and our lives as trajectories traversing a health space with thousands of dimensions. Remarkably, common themes persist that predict the evolution of species as readily as the orbits of planets or the collapse of stars into black holes. This book tells the history of spaces of expanding dimension and increasing abstraction and how they continue today to give new insight into the physics of complex systems. Galileo published the first modern law of motion, the Law of Fall, that was ideal and simple, laying the foundation upon which Newton built the first theory of dynamics. Early in the twentieth century, geometry became the cause of motion rather than the result when Einstein envisioned the fabric of space-time warped by mass and energy, forcing light rays to bend past the Sun. Possibly more radical was Feynman’s dilemma of quantum particles taking all paths at once—setting the stage for the modern fields of quantum field theory and quantum computing. Yet as concepts of motion have evolved, one thing has remained constant, the need to track ever more complex changes and to capture their essence, to find patterns in the chaos as we try to predict and control our world.

Download Full-text

Ultrasound Imaging Evaluation of Textural Features in Athletes with Soleus Pathology—A Novel Case-Control Study

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18041983 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 1983 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Blanca De-la-Cruz-Torres ◽

Emmanuel Navarro-Flores ◽

Daniel López-López ◽

Carlos Romero-Morales

Keyword(s):

Ultrasound Imaging ◽

Soleus Muscle ◽

Muscle Injury ◽

Intraclass Correlation ◽

Muscle Thickness ◽

Tendon Injury ◽

Muscle Injuries ◽

Imaging Evaluation ◽

Rater Reliability ◽

Group A

Background: the aim of this study was to compare the echotexture of patients with soleus muscle injury and age matched controls. Methods: a sample of 62 athletes was recruited at the private clinic and was divided in two group: a healthy group (n = 31) and a soleus pathology group whose athletes had soleus muscle injury, located in the central tendon (n = 31). The muscle thickness (MTh), echointensity (EI) and echovariation (EV) were analyzed. An intra-rater reliability test (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient-ICC) was performed in order to analyze the reliability of the values of the measurements. Results: Sociodemographic variables did not show statistically significant differences (p > 0.05). Ultrasound imaging measurements who reported statistically significant differences were EI (p = 0.001) and standard deviation (SD) (p = 0.001). MTh and EV variables did not show statistically significant differences (p = 0.381 and p = 0.364, respectively). Moreover, reliability values for the MTh (ICC = 0.911), EI (ICC = 0.982), SD (ICC = 0.955) and EV (ICC = 0.963). Based on these results the intra-rater reliability was considered excellent. Conclusion: Athletes with a central tendon injury of soleus muscle showed a lower EI when they were compared to healthy athletes. The echogenicity showed by the quantitative ultrasound imaging measurement may be a more objective parameter for the diagnosis and follow-up the soleus muscle injuries.

Download Full-text

Closed-form time derivatives of the equations of motion of rigid body systems

Multibody System Dynamics ◽

10.1007/s11044-021-09796-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Andreas Müller ◽

Shivesh Kumar

Keyword(s):

Rigid Body ◽

Closed Form ◽

Multibody Systems ◽

Equations Of Motion ◽

Alternative Formulation ◽

Dynamics Of Rigid Body ◽

Control Forces ◽

And Control ◽

Derivatives Of ◽

Insight Into

AbstractDerivatives of equations of motion (EOM) describing the dynamics of rigid body systems are becoming increasingly relevant for the robotics community and find many applications in design and control of robotic systems. Controlling robots, and multibody systems comprising elastic components in particular, not only requires smooth trajectories but also the time derivatives of the control forces/torques, hence of the EOM. This paper presents the time derivatives of the EOM in closed form up to second-order as an alternative formulation to the existing recursive algorithms for this purpose, which provides a direct insight into the structure of the derivatives. The Lie group formulation for rigid body systems is used giving rise to very compact and easily parameterized equations.

Download Full-text

Intra-Rater (Live vs. Video Assessment) and Inter-Rater (Expert vs. Novice) Reliability of the Test of Gross Motor Development—Third Edition

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18041652 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (4) ◽

pp. 1652

Author(s):

Aida Carballo-Fazanes ◽

Ezequiel Rey ◽

Nadia C. Valentini ◽

José E. Rodríguez-Fernández ◽

Cristina Varela-Casal ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Physical Education ◽

Motor Development ◽

Intraclass Correlation ◽

Slow Motion ◽

Healthy Children ◽

Gross Motor ◽

Rater Reliability ◽

Video Assessment ◽

Gross Motor Development ◽

Ball Skills

The Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD) is one of the most common tools for assessing the fundamental movement skills (FMS) in children between 3 and 10 years. This study aimed to examine the intra-rater and inter-rater reliability of the TGMD—3rd Edition (TGMD-3) between expert and novice raters using live and video assessment. Five raters [2 experts and 3 novices (one of them BSc in Physical Education and Sport Science)] assessed and scored the performance of the TGMD-3 of 25 healthy children [Female: 60%; mean (standard deviation) age 9.16 (1.31)]. Schoolchildren were attending at one public elementary school during the academic year 2019–2020 from Santiago de Compostela (Spain). Raters scored each children performance through two viewing moods (live and slow-motion). The ICC (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient) was used to determine the agreement between raters. Our results showed moderate-to-excellent intra-rater reliability for overall score and locomotor and ball skills subscales; moderate-to-good inter-rater reliability for overall and ball skills; and poor-to-good for locomotor subscale. Higher intra-rater reliability was achieved by the expert raters and novice rater with physical education background compared to novice raters. However, the inter-rater reliability was more variable in all the raters regardless of their experience or background. No significant differences in reliability were found when comparing live and video assessments. For clinical practice, it would be recommended that raters reach an agreement before the assessment to avoid subjective interpretations that might distort the results.

Download Full-text

Identification of Diagnostic and Prognostic microRNAs for Recurrent Vitreous Hemorrhage in Patients with Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm8122217 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 2217 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Parviz Mammadzada ◽

Juliette Bayle ◽

Johann Gudmundsson ◽

Anders Kvanta ◽

Helder André

Keyword(s):

Diabetic Retinopathy ◽

Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy ◽

Vitreous Hemorrhage ◽

Control Group ◽

Ocular Tissues ◽

Recurrent Hemorrhage ◽

Pars Plana ◽

And Control ◽

Insight Into ◽

Recurrent Vitreous Hemorrhage

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can provide insight into the pathophysiological states of ocular tissues such as proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). In this study, differences in miRNA expression in vitreous from PDR patients with and without incidence of recurrent vitreous hemorrhage (RVH) after the initial pars-plana vitrectomy (PPV) were analyzed, with the aim of identifying biomarkers for RVH. Fifty-four consented vitreous samples were analyzed from patients undergoing PPV for PDR, of which eighteen samples underwent a second surgery due to RVH. Ten of the sixty-six expressed miRNAs (miRNAs-19a, -20a, -22, -27a, -29a, -93, -126, -128, -130a, and -150) displayed divergences between the PDR vitreous groups and to the control. A significant increase in the miRNA-19a and -27a expression was determined in PDR patients undergoing PPV as compared to the controls. miRNA-20a and -93 were significantly upregulated in primary PPV vitreous samples of patients afflicted with RVH. Moreover, this observed upregulation was not significant between the non-RVH and control group, thus emphasizing the association with RVH incidence. miRNA-19a and -27a were detected as putative vitreous biomarkers for PDR, and elevated levels of miRNA-20a and -93 in vitreous with RVH suggest their biomarker potential for major PDR complications such as recurrent hemorrhage incidence.

Download Full-text