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Clinical Infectious Diseases : An... Nov 2021
Topics: Antiviral Agents; Hepacivirus; Hepatitis C, Chronic; Humans; Retreatment
PubMed: 32887999
DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciaa1329 -
European Journal of Radiology Open 2020Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common focal epilepsy in adults and often causes pharmacoresistant seizures. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and PET studies have...
Temporal lobe epilepsy is the most common focal epilepsy in adults and often causes pharmacoresistant seizures. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and PET studies have widely demonstrated a number of morphological and molecular abnormalities in epilepsy. However, considering the dopaminergic system, only a bilateral F-DOPA uptake reduction within the basal ganglia has been described. We report the unusual finding of increased F-DOPA uptake in a patient with focal recurrent seizures and "deja vu" experiences in the setting of cortical swelling detected at MRI exam. The final diagnosis was in in keeping with hippocampal sclerosis, confirmed during follow-up MR exams. In this case F-DOPA uptake may represent increased dopamine transport induced by seizures. Nuclear medicine physicians and radiologists should be aware of clinical and electroencephalographic findings when interpreting brain areas of tracer uptake, which are not always related to malignancy.
PubMed: 32695848
DOI: 10.1016/j.ejro.2020.100241 -
British Dental Journal Jul 2020
PubMed: 32651494
DOI: 10.1038/s41415-020-1908-9 -
Journal of Occupational Health Jan 2020On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) received reports of pneumonia cases of unknown etiology in the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province, China. The agent...
On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) received reports of pneumonia cases of unknown etiology in the city of Wuhan in Hubei Province, China. The agent responsible was subsequently identified as a coronavirus-SARS-CoV-2. The WHO declared this disease as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern at the end of January 2020. This event evoked a sense of déjà vu, as it has many similarities to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) of 2002-2003. Both illnesses were caused by a zoonotic novel coronavirus, both originated during winter in China and both spread rapidly all over the world. However, the case-fatality rate of SARS (9.6%) is higher than that of COVID-19 (<4%). Another zoonotic novel coronavirus, MERS-CoV, was responsible for the Middle East respiratory syndrome, which had a case-fatality rate of 34%. Our experiences in coping with the previous coronavirus outbreaks have better equipped us to face the challenges posed by COVID-19, especially in the health care setting. Among the insights gained from the past outbreaks were: outbreaks caused by viruses are hazardous to healthcare workers; the impact of the disease extends beyond the infection; general principles of prevention and control are effective in containing the disease; the disease poses both a public health as well as an occupational health threat; and emerging infectious diseases pose a continuing threat to the world. Given the perspectives gained and lessons learnt from these past events, we should be better prepared to face the current COVID-19 outbreak.
Topics: Betacoronavirus; COVID-19; China; Coronavirus Infections; Disease Outbreaks; Health Personnel; History, 21st Century; Humans; Occupational Diseases; Occupational Health; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral; SARS-CoV-2; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; World Health Organization
PubMed: 32515882
DOI: 10.1002/1348-9585.12128 -
Journal of Intelligence Jun 2020Nearly a century ago, Spearman proposed that "specific factors can be regarded as the 'nuts and bolts' of cognitive performance…, while the general factor is the...
Nearly a century ago, Spearman proposed that "specific factors can be regarded as the 'nuts and bolts' of cognitive performance…, while the general factor is the mental energy available to power the specific engines". Geary (2018; 2019) takes Spearman's analogy of "mental energy" quite literally and doubles-down on the notion by proposing that a unitary energy source, the mitochondria, explains variations in both cognitive function and health-related outcomes. This idea is reminiscent of many earlier attempts to describe a low-level biological determinant of general intelligence. While Geary does an admirable job developing an innovative theory with specific and testable predictions, this new theory suffers many of the shortcomings of previous attempts at similar goals. We argue that Geary's theory is generally implausible, and does not map well onto known psychological and genetic properties of intelligence or its relationship to health and fitness. While Geary's theory serves as an elegant model of "what could be", it is less successful as a description of "what is".
PubMed: 32498282
DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence8020024 -
Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery :... Mar 2020
PubMed: 32367911
DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1709952 -
Der Anaesthesist May 2020
Topics: COVID-19; Humans; Ventilators, Mechanical
PubMed: 32328694
DOI: 10.1007/s00101-020-00782-x -
Drug Discovery Today May 2020In the past decade we have seen two major Ebola virus outbreaks in Africa, the Zika virus in Brazil and the Americas and the current pandemic of coronavirus disease... (Review)
Review
In the past decade we have seen two major Ebola virus outbreaks in Africa, the Zika virus in Brazil and the Americas and the current pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). There is a strong sense of déjà vu because there are still no effective treatments. In the COVID-19 pandemic, despite being a new virus, there are already drugs suggested as active in in vitro assays that are being repurposed in clinical trials. Promising SARS-CoV-2 viral targets and computational approaches are described and discussed. Here, we propose, based on open antiviral drug discovery approaches for previous outbreaks, that there could still be gaps in our approach to drug discovery.
Topics: Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2; Animals; Antiviral Agents; Betacoronavirus; COVID-19; Chlorocebus aethiops; Computer Simulation; Coronavirus Infections; Drug Discovery; Drug Repositioning; Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola; Humans; In Vitro Techniques; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus; Molecular Docking Simulation; Pandemics; Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A; Pneumonia, Viral; Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus; SARS-CoV-2; Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome; Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus; Vero Cells; Zika Virus Infection; COVID-19 Drug Treatment
PubMed: 32320852
DOI: 10.1016/j.drudis.2020.03.019 -
F1000Research 2019The 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone led the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to set minimum standards of staffing (medical/non-medical) at the district level...
The 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone led the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to set minimum standards of staffing (medical/non-medical) at the district level for the provision of basic essential health services (BPEHS). In one of the worst Ebola affected districts in Sierra Leone, we assessed staffing levels measured against these stipulated standards before, during, and 16 months after the Ebola outbreak. The study population included all health workers in 83 health facilities. We assessed staffing levels at three points in time: pre-Ebola (April 2014); the end of the outbreak (November 2015); and 16 months post-Ebola (March 2017). April 2014 was immediately prior to the Ebola outbreak and thus representative of the human resource situation before the outbreak. November 2015 was the month when Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free, and thus reflects the end-situation after Ebola. March 2017 was two years since the launch of the BPEHS, and some progress should be expected. Against recommended medical staff numbers during pre-, intra- and post-Ebola periods, deficits were 67%, 65% and 60% respectively. Similarly, against recommended non-medical staff numbers during pre-, intra- and post-Ebola periods, the deficit remained at 92% throughout. In the post-Ebola period, there was a deficit of 73% against 1,389 recommended health worker positions. in the state of human resources for health, and urgent measures are needed to rectify the situation and prevent a in the advent of a new Ebola outbreak.
Topics: Disease Outbreaks; Health Facilities; Health Workforce; Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola; Humans; Sierra Leone; Workforce
PubMed: 32148756
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.18566.2 -
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Feb 2020One of the core challenges in visual multi-target tracking is occlusion. This is especially important in applications such as video surveillance and sports analytics....
One of the core challenges in visual multi-target tracking is occlusion. This is especially important in applications such as video surveillance and sports analytics. While offline batch processing algorithms can utilise future measurements to handle occlusion effectively, online algorithms have to rely on current and past measurements only. As such, it is markedly more challenging to handle occlusion in online applications. To address this problem, we propagate information over time in a way that it generates a sense of déjà vu when similar visual and motion features are observed. To achieve this, we extend the Generalized Labeled Multi-Bernoulli (GLMB) filter, originally designed for tracking point-sized targets, to be used in visual multi-target tracking. The proposed algorithm includes a novel false alarm detection/removal and label recovery methods capable of reliably recovering tracks that are even lost for a substantial period of time. We compare the performance of the proposed method with the state-of-the-art methods in challenging datasets using standard visual tracking metrics. Our comparisons show that the proposed method performs favourably compared to the state-of-the-art methods, particularly in terms of ID switches and fragmentation metrics which signifies occlusion.
PubMed: 32050574
DOI: 10.3390/s20030929