Prophylactic oral calcium supplementation therapy to prevent early post thyroidectomy hypocalcemia and evaluation of postoperative parathyroid hormone levels to detect hypocalcemia: A prospective randomized study.

Science.gov (United States)

Arer, Ilker Murat; Kus, Murat; Akkapulu, Nezih; Aytac, Huseyin Ozgur; Yabanoglu, Hakan; Caliskan, Kenan; Tarim, Mehmet Akin

2017-02-01

Postoperative hypocalcemia is the most common complication after total thyroidectomy. Postoperative parathyroid hormone (PTH) measurement is one of the methods to detect or prevent postoperative hypocalcemia. Prophylactic oral calcium supplementation is another method to prevent early postoperative hypocalcemia. The aim of this study is to detect the accurate timing of PTH and evaluate efficacy of routine oral calcium supplementation for postoperative hypocalcemia. A total of 106 patients were performed total thyroidectomy. Rotuine oral calcium supplementation was given to group 1 and no treatment to group 2 according to randomization. Serum calcium and PTH level of patients in group 2 at postoperative 6, 12 and 24 h and patients in both groups at postoperative day 7 were evaluated. Patients were compared according to age, sex, operation findings, serum calcium and PTH levels and symptomatic hypocalcemia. Half of the patients (50%) were in group 1. Most of the patients were female (83%). The most common etiology of thyroid disease was multinodular goiter (64.1%). Oral calcium supplementation was given to 18 (33.9%) patients in group 2. Symptomatic hypocalcemia for group 1 and 2 was found to be 1.9 and 33.9% respectively (p hypocalcemia. Prophylactic oral calcium supplementation therapy can prevent early post-thyroidectomy hypocalcemia with advantages of being cost effective and safe. Copyright © 2016 IJS Publishing Group Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

75 FR 7282 - Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection and Control Advisory Committee (BCCEDCAC)

Science.gov (United States)

2010-02-18

... Cervical Cancer Early Detection and Control Advisory Committee (BCCEDCAC) In accordance with section 10(a... detection and control of breast and cervical cancer. The committee makes recommendations regarding national.... Preventive Services Task Force guidelines for breast and cervical cancer screening; Impact of the revised...

Early prevention of obesity

OpenAIRE

Claudio Maffeis

2014-01-01

Childhood obesity is the metabolic disorder with the highest prevalence in both children and adults. Urgency to treat and prevent childhood obesity is based on the clear evidence that obesity tends to track from childhood to adulthood, is associated to morbidity also in childhood and to long-term mortality. Early life, i.e., intrauterine life and the first two years, is a sensitive window for prevention. Anatomical and functional maturation of the hypothalamic structures devoted to regulating...

On the potential of ultrasound elastography for pressure ulcer early detection.

OpenAIRE

Deprez , Jean-François; Brusseau , Elisabeth; Fromageau , Jérémie; Cloutier , Guy; Basset , Olivier

2011-01-01

International audience; PURPOSE: Pressure ulcers are areas of soft tissue breakdown induced by a sustained mechanical stress that damages the skin and underlying tissues. They represent a considerable burden to the society in terms of health care and cost. Yet, techniques for prevention and detection of pressure ulcers still remain very limited. In this article, the authors investigated the potential of ultrasound elastography for pressure ulcer early detection. Elastography is an imaging tec...

Individual responsibility in early detection of prostate gland cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nodal Laugart, Ramon Lemay; Rodriguez Ardi, Maricel; Tamayo Tamayo, Iser

2011-01-01

Starting from the point that morbidity and mortality rate due to prostate gland cancer has increased in Santiago de Cuba, the authors of this work decided to analyze the relation to individual responsibility in order to early detect the aforementioned condition. Therefore, 48 men over 50 years old belonging to the health area of Frank Pais Garcia University Polyclinic in Santiago de Cuba were surveyed during the first months of the year 2011 to determine the factors that influenced on the low risk perception. Results showed the urgent need of carrying out actions of health promotion and disease prevention in order to achieve the individual feels more responsible of his health care. Of the case material, 85,4 % participants admitted they did not have the tests to guarantee the early diagnosis or detect this tumor.(author)

Early prevention of obesity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Claudio Maffeis

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Childhood obesity is the metabolic disorder with the highest prevalence in both children and adults. Urgency to treat and prevent childhood obesity is based on the clear evidence that obesity tends to track from childhood to adulthood, is associated to morbidity also in childhood and to long-term mortality. Early life, i.e., intrauterine life and the first two years, is a sensitive window for prevention. Anatomical and functional maturation of the hypothalamic structures devoted to regulating energy intake and expenditure and body size mainly occurs in the first 1,000 days of life. Therefore, factors affecting the foetal exposition to maternal metabolic environment and early postnatal nutrition are crucial in modulating the definition of the metabolic programming processes in the brain. Maternal diseases, mainly malnutrition for defect or excess, obesity and diabetes, placental disorders and dysfunctions, maternal use of alcohol and drugs, smoking, affect long term metabolic programming of the foetus with lifelong consequences. Similarly, early nutrition contributes to complete the long-term metabolic regulating framework initiated in the uterus. Breastfeeding, adequate weaning, attention to portion size and diet composition are potential tools for reducing the obesity risk later in childhood. Longitudinal randomized controlled studies are needed for exploring the efficacy of obesity prevention strategies initiated after conception.Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Neonatology · Cagliari (Italy · October 22nd-25th, 2014 · The last ten years, the next ten years in Neonatology Guest Editors: Vassilios Fanos, Michele Mussap, Gavino Faa, Apostolos Papageorgiou

[Skin cancer and sun radiation: peruvian experience in the prevention and early detection of skin cancer and melanoma].

Science.gov (United States)

Sordo, Carlos; Gutiérrez, César

2013-03-01

The excessive exposure to sun radiation, especially to ultraviolet radiation (UV), has led to various diseases, in particular to skin cancer. In 1995, the Peruvian Dermatological Association conducted the first "Campaign for Education, Prevention and Early Detection of Skin Cancer and Melanoma" called "Mole's Day". The Ministry of Health has turned it into an official event, and the Health Social Security (EsSalud) also participates. This is a free campaign that takes place every year nationwide. 118,092 people attended from 1995 to 2011 in 76 sites distributed in 18 cities throughout the country. A cutaneous lesion were malignancy was suspected was identified in 2.8% of people attending, out of which 64.9% corresponded to basal cell carcinoma, 26.7% to cutaneous melanoma, and 8.4% to squamous cell carcinoma. These campaigns are highly important not only because of the assistance given, but also because of the educational activities aimed at promoting a prevention culture in favor of the most vulnerable populations. Finally, we believe it is important to continue educating the population on skin cancer prevention, to build awareness among the authorities so that they actively participate in the performance of these activities, and to ask all physicians to coordinately join this initiative, in order to continue growing, and to improve all that has been attained for the benefit of our country.

Breast Cancer Awareness and Prevention Behavior Among Women of Delhi, India: Identifying Barriers to Early Detection

OpenAIRE

Dey, Subhojit; Sharma, Surabhi; Mishra, Arti; Krishnan, Suneeta; Govil, Jyotsna; Dhillon, Preet K.

2016-01-01

Background Globally, breast cancer (BC) has become the leading cause of mortality in women. Awareness and early detection can curb the growing burden of BC and are the first step in the battle against BC. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the awareness and perceived barriers concerning the early detection of BC. Methods A total of 20 focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted during May 2013–March 2014. Pre-existing themes were used to conduct FGDs; each FGD group consisted ...

77 FR 71193 - Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Federal Advisory Committee

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-29

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Federal Advisory Committee Correction: This notice was published in the Federal Register on November 5, 2012, Volume 77, Number 214, Page 66469. A teleconference line...

Early Detection of Sporadic Pancreatic Cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Chari, Suresh T.; Kelly, Kimberly; Hollingsworth, Michael A.; Thayer, Sarah P.; Ahlquist, David A.; Andersen, Dana K.; Batra, Surinder K.; Brentnall, Teresa A.; Canto, Marcia; Cleeter, Deborah F.; Firpo, Matthew A.; Gambhir, Sanjiv Sam; Go, Vay Liang W.; Hines, O. Joe; Kenner, Barbara J.; Klimstra, David S.; Lerch, Markus M.; Levy, Michael J.; Maitra, Anirban; Mulvihill, Sean J.; Petersen, Gloria M.; Rhim, Andrew D.; Simeone, Diane M.; Srivastava, Sudhir; Tanaka, Masao; Vinik, Aaron I.; Wong, David

2015-01-01

Abstract Pancreatic cancer (PC) is estimated to become the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States by 2020. Early detection is the key to improving survival in PC. Addressing this urgent need, the Kenner Family Research Fund conducted the inaugural Early Detection of Sporadic Pancreatic Cancer Summit Conference in 2014 in conjunction with the 45th Anniversary Meeting of the American Pancreatic Association and Japan Pancreas Society. This seminal convening of international representatives from science, practice, and clinical research was designed to facilitate challenging interdisciplinary conversations to generate innovative ideas leading to the creation of a defined collaborative strategic pathway for the future of the field. An in-depth summary of current efforts in the field, analysis of gaps in specific areas of expertise, and challenges that exist in early detection is presented within distinct areas of inquiry: Case for Early Detection: Definitions, Detection, Survival, and Challenges; Biomarkers for Early Detection; Imaging; and Collaborative Studies. In addition, an overview of efforts in familial PC is presented in an addendum to this article. It is clear from the summit deliberations that only strategically designed collaboration among investigators, institutions, and funders will lead to significant progress in early detection of sporadic PC. PMID:25931254

Early Prevention Method for Power Systems Instability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dmitrova, Evgenia

containing no voltage sources). The main functionality of the early prevention method is to deliver control solution allowing escape from instability on the basis of data obtained by PMU measurements. The developed algorithm performs identification of the optimal node for countermeasure application...... instability was created. Utilizing synthetic PMU data, the early prevention method proposed a location and an amount of the countermeasure which will prevent instability; the prediction of the resulting stability margins corresponding to application of the suggested countermeasure was carried out....... The predicted effect of the suggested countermeasure application is in a good agreement with the results obtained by RMS dynamic simulation. Developed method enables adaptive preventive control for near real-time stability maintenance. The achieved results are opening promising perspective for power system...

Ethics dilemmas of early detection of obesity

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vallgårda, Signild

2016-01-01

Aim: To discuss the ethics dilemmas of the early detection of overweight and obesity. Methods: Analysis of the ethical aspects of early detection. Results: The early detection of overweight and obesity entails a number of ethical dilemmas because it may both be helpful and harmful. It may help...

A Policy Analysis on the Proactive Prevention of Chronic Disease: Learnings from the Initial Implementation of Integrated Measurement for Early Detection (MIDO

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Roberto Tapia-Conyer

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Mexico, like many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs, faces an epidemic of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs, specifically diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and lipid disorders. Many people with these NCDs may not be aware that they have a disease, pointing to the need for broader screening programs. The traditional prevention policy in Mexico was based on screening with a paper-based risk factor questionnaire. However, this was used to screen patients already seeking healthcare services at facilities, and screening goals were set as a function of the number of questionnaires applied, not number of individuals screened. Due to this, Fundación Carlos Slim developed Medición Integrada para la Detección Oportuna (MIDOTM, or Integrated Measurement for Early Detection, an NCD screening and proactive prevention policy. This document is a policy analysis based on early learnings from the initial implementation of MIDO in eight primary healthcare centers in two central Mexican states. MIDO was found to expand screening programs beyond clinic walls, systematize community screening strategies, emphasize the detection of pre-disease phases, incorporate lifestyle counseling, and propose screening goals based on population targets. In collaboration with the Mexican Ministry of Health, MIDO has successfully screened over 500 000 individuals—about 40% of whom would not have been screened under previous policies. Of these more than 500 000 screened individuals, 13.4% had pre-diabetes (fasting glucose between 100 and 125 mg/dL, and 5.8% had undiagnosed diabetes (defined as fasting glucose above 126 mg/dL or random glucose above 200 mg/dL. However, there is still room for improvement in linking positive results from screening with disease confirmation and with patient incorporation into disease management. The experience of implementing MIDO in Mexico suggests that primary and secondary prevention programs in other parts of the world should

Efficient Flame Detection and Early Warning Sensors on Combustible Materials Using Hierarchical Graphene Oxide/Silicone Coatings.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Qian; Gong, Li-Xiu; Li, Yang; Cao, Cheng-Fei; Tang, Long-Cheng; Wu, Lianbin; Zhao, Li; Zhang, Guo-Dong; Li, Shi-Neng; Gao, Jiefeng; Li, Yongjin; Mai, Yiu-Wing

2018-01-23

Design and development of smart sensors for rapid flame detection in postcombustion and early fire warning in precombustion situations are critically needed to improve the fire safety of combustible materials in many applications. Herein, we describe the fabrication of hierarchical coatings created by assembling a multilayered graphene oxide (GO)/silicone structure onto different combustible substrate materials. The resulting coatings exhibit distinct temperature-responsive electrical resistance change as efficient early warning sensors for detecting abnormal high environmental temperature, thus enabling fire prevention below the ignition temperature of combustible materials. After encountering a flame attack, we demonstrate extremely rapid flame detection response in 2-3 s and excellent flame self-extinguishing retardancy for the multilayered GO/silicone structure that can be synergistically transformed to a multiscale graphene/nanosilica protection layer. The hierarchical coatings developed are promising for fire prevention and protection applications in various critical fire risk and related perilous circumstances.

Prevention of overweight and obesity in early life.

Science.gov (United States)

Lanigan, Julie

2018-05-29

Childhood obesity is a serious challenge for public health. The problem begins early with most excess childhood weight gained before starting school. In 2016, the WHO estimated that 41 million children under 5 were overweight or obese. Once established, obesity is difficult to reverse, likely to persist into adult life and is associated with increased risk of CVD, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers. Preventing obesity is therefore of high importance. However, its development is multi-factorial and prevention is a complex challenge. Modifiable lifestyle behaviours such as diet and physical activity are the most well-known determinants of obesity. More recently, early-life factors have emerged as key influencers of obesity in childhood. Understanding risk factors and how they interact is important to inform interventions that aim to prevent obesity in early childhood. Available evidence supports multi-component interventions as effective in obesity prevention. However, relatively few interventions are available in the UK and only one, TrimTots, has been evaluated in randomised controlled trials and shown to be effective at reducing obesity risk in preschool children (age 1-5 years). BMI was lower in children immediately after completing TrimTots compared with waiting list controls and this effect was sustained at long-term follow-up, 2 years after completion. Developing and evaluating complex interventions for obesity prevention is a challenge for clinicians and researchers. In addition, parents encounter barriers engaging with interventions. This review considers early-life risk factors for obesity, highlights evidence for preventative interventions and discusses barriers and facilitators to their success.

Lung Cancer Workshop XI: Tobacco-Induced Disease: Advances in Policy, Early Detection and Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Mulshine, James L; Avila, Rick; Yankelevitz, David; Baer, Thomas M; Estépar, Raul San Jose; Ambrose, Laurie Fenton; Aldigé, Carolyn R

2015-05-01

The Prevent Cancer Foundation Lung Cancer Workshop XI: Tobacco-Induced Disease: Advances in Policy, Early Detection and Management was held in New York, NY on May 16 and 17, 2014. The two goals of the Workshop were to define strategies to drive innovation in precompetitive quantitative research on the use of imaging to assess new therapies for management of early lung cancer and to discuss a process to implement a national program to provide high quality computed tomography imaging for lung cancer and other tobacco-induced disease. With the central importance of computed tomography imaging for both early detection and volumetric lung cancer assessment, strategic issues around the development of imaging and ensuring its quality are critical to ensure continued progress against this most lethal cancer.

Alzheimer's disease prevention: from risk factors to early intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Crous-Bou, Marta; Minguillón, Carolina; Gramunt, Nina; Molinuevo, José Luis

2017-09-12

Due to the progressive aging of the population, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is becoming a healthcare burden of epidemic proportions for which there is currently no cure. Disappointing results from clinical trials performed in mild-moderate AD dementia combined with clear epidemiological evidence on AD risk factors are contributing to the development of primary prevention initiatives. In addition, the characterization of the long asymptomatic stage of AD is allowing the development of intervention studies and secondary prevention programmes on asymptomatic at-risk individuals, before substantial irreversible neuronal dysfunction and loss have occurred, an approach that emerges as highly relevant.In this manuscript, we review current strategies for AD prevention, from primary prevention strategies based on identifying risk factors and risk reduction, to secondary prevention initiatives based on the early detection of the pathophysiological hallmarks and intervention at the preclinical stage of the disease. Firstly, we summarize the evidence on several AD risk factors, which are the rationale for the establishment of primary prevention programmes as well as revising current primary prevention strategies. Secondly, we review the development of public-private partnerships for disease prevention that aim to characterize the AD continuum as well as serving as platforms for secondary prevention trials. Finally, we summarize currently ongoing clinical trials recruiting participants with preclinical AD or a higher risk for the onset of AD-related cognitive impairment.The growing body of research on the risk factors for AD and its preclinical stage is favouring the development of AD prevention programmes that, by delaying the onset of Alzheimer's dementia for only a few years, would have a huge impact on public health.

Early Detection of Sporadic Pancreatic Cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Kenner, Barbara J.; Chari, Suresh T.; Cleeter, Deborah F.; Go, Vay Liang W.

2015-01-01

Abstract Innovation leading to significant advances in research and subsequent translation to clinical practice is urgently necessary in early detection of sporadic pancreatic cancer. Addressing this need, the Early Detection of Sporadic Pancreatic Cancer Summit Conference was conducted by Kenner Family Research Fund in conjunction with the 2014 American Pancreatic Association and Japan Pancreas Society Meeting. International interdisciplinary scientific representatives engaged in strategic facilitated conversations based on distinct areas of inquiry: Case for Early Detection: Definitions, Detection, Survival, and Challenges; Biomarkers for Early Detection; Imaging; and Collaborative Studies. Ideas generated from the summit have led to the development of a Strategic Map for Innovation built upon 3 components: formation of an international collaborative effort, design of an actionable strategic plan, and implementation of operational standards, research priorities, and first-phase initiatives. Through invested and committed efforts of leading researchers and institutions, philanthropic partners, government agencies, and supportive business entities, this endeavor will change the future of the field and consequently the survival rate of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. PMID:25938853

Invasive species information networks: Collaboration at multiple scales for prevention, early detection, and rapid response to invasive alien species

Science.gov (United States)

Simpson, Annie; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Madsen, John; Westbrooks, Randy G.; Fournier, Christine; Mehrhoff, Les; Browne, Michael; Graham, Jim; Sellers, Elizabeth A.

2009-01-01

Accurate analysis of present distributions and effective modeling of future distributions of invasive alien species (IAS) are both highly dependent on the availability and accessibility of occurrence data and natural history information about the species. Invasive alien species monitoring and detection networks (such as the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England and the Invasive Plant Atlas of the MidSouth) generate occurrence data at local and regional levels within the United States, which are shared through the US National Institute of Invasive Species Science. The Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network's Invasives Information Network (I3N), facilitates cooperation on sharing invasive species occurrence data throughout the Western Hemisphere. The I3N and other national and regional networks expose their data globally via the Global Invasive Species Information Network (GISIN). International and interdisciplinary cooperation on data sharing strengthens cooperation on strategies and responses to invasions. However, limitations to effective collaboration among invasive species networks leading to successful early detection and rapid response to invasive species include: lack of interoperability; data accessibility; funding; and technical expertise. This paper proposes various solutions to these obstacles at different geographic levels and briefly describes success stories from the invasive species information networks mentioned above. Using biological informatics to facilitate global information sharing is especially critical in invasive species science, as research has shown that one of the best indicators of the invasiveness of a species is whether it has been invasive elsewhere. Data must also be shared across disciplines because natural history information (e.g. diet, predators, habitat requirements, etc.) about a species in its native range is vital for effective prevention, detection, and rapid response to an invasion. Finally, it has been our

Preventability of early vs. late readmissions in an academic medical center.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kelly L Graham

Full Text Available It is unclear if the 30-day unplanned hospital readmission rate is a plausible accountability metric.Compare preventability of hospital readmissions, between an early period [0-7 days post-discharge] and a late period [8-30 days post-discharge]. Compare causes of readmission, and frequency of markers of clinical instability 24h prior to discharge between early and late readmissions.120 patient readmissions in an academic medical center between 1/1/2009-12/31/2010.Sum-score based on a standard algorithm that assesses preventability of each readmission based on blinded hospitalist review; average causation score for seven types of adverse events; rates of markers of clinical instability within 24h prior to discharge.Readmissions were significantly more preventable in the early compared to the late period [median preventability sum score 8.5 vs. 8.0, p = 0.03]. There were significantly more management errors as causative events for the readmission in the early compared to the late period [mean causation score [scale 1-6, 6 most causal] 2.0 vs. 1.5, p = 0.04], and these errors were significantly more preventable in the early compared to the late period [mean preventability score 1.9 vs 1.5, p = 0.03]. Patients readmitted in the early period were significantly more likely to have mental status changes documented 24h prior to hospital discharge than patients readmitted in the late period [12% vs. 0%, p = 0.01].Readmissions occurring in the early period were significantly more preventable. Early readmissions were associated with more management errors, and mental status changes 24h prior to discharge. Seven-day readmissions may be a better accountability measure.

Intrusion Detection amp Prevention Systems - Sourcefire Snort

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rajesh Vuppala

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Information security is a challenging issue for all business organizations today amidst increasing cyber threats. While there are many alternative intrusion detection amp prevention systems available to choose from selecting the best solution to implement to detect amp prevent cyber-attacks is a difficult task. The best solution is of the one that gets the best reviews and suits the organizations needs amp budget. In this review paper we summarize various classes of intrusion detection and prevention systems compare features of alternative solutions and make recommendation for implementation of one as the best solution for business organization in Fiji.

Nanotechnology for Early Cancer Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joon Won Park

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Vast numbers of studies and developments in the nanotechnology area have been conducted and many nanomaterials have been utilized to detect cancers at early stages. Nanomaterials have unique physical, optical and electrical properties that have proven to be very useful in sensing. Quantum dots, gold nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, gold nanowires and many other materials have been developed over the years, alongside the discovery of a wide range of biomarkers to lower the detection limit of cancer biomarkers. Proteins, antibody fragments, DNA fragments, and RNA fragments are the base of cancer biomarkers and have been used as targets in cancer detection and monitoring. It is highly anticipated that in the near future, we might be able to detect cancer at a very early stage, providing a much higher chance of treatment.

Toward an early detection of PWR control rod anomalous dropping

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blazquez, J.; Vallejo, I.

1998-01-01

Some anomalous PWR control rods dropping occurred in the past. It is assumed to be caused by a geometrical deformation of its guide tube, which might be related with neutron fluence and its sharp changes. Now at days, this problem is an open field of research, oriented to the understanding and prevention of the event. Work here is focused toward early detection. A differential equation modelling control rod free fall movement is found. There result three acceleration terms: gravity; friction with fluid; and friction with its guide tube. From recorded Plant measurements, both friction coefficients are estimated. The one from guide tube experiences a large variation in case of anomalous dropping; so relationship with neutron fluence is proposed for the prevention purpose. (Author)

"Greenlight study": a controlled trial of low-literacy, early childhood obesity prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanders, Lee M; Perrin, Eliana M; Yin, H Shonna; Bronaugh, Andrea; Rothman, Russell L

2014-06-01

Children who become overweight by age 2 years have significantly greater risks of long-term health problems, and children in low-income communities, where rates of low adult literacy are highest, are at increased risk of developing obesity. The objective of the Greenlight Intervention Study is to assess the effectiveness of a low-literacy, primary-care intervention on the reduction of early childhood obesity. At 4 primary-care pediatric residency training sites across the US, 865 infant-parent dyads were enrolled at the 2-month well-child checkup and are being followed through the 24-month well-child checkup. Two sites were randomly assigned to the intervention, and the other sites were assigned to an attention-control arm, implementing the American Academy of Pediatrics' The Injury Prevention Program. The intervention consists of an interactive educational toolkit, including low-literacy materials designed for use during well-child visits, and a clinician-centered curriculum for providing low-literacy guidance on obesity prevention. The study is powered to detect a 10% difference in the number of children overweight (BMI > 85%) at 24 months. Other outcome measures include observed physician-parent communication, as well as parent-reported information on child dietary intake, physical activity, and injury-prevention behaviors. The study is designed to inform evidence-based standards for early childhood obesity prevention, and more generally to inform optimal approaches for low-literacy messages and health literacy training in primary preventive care. This article describes the conceptual model, study design, intervention content, and baseline characteristics of the study population. Copyright © 2014 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Organizing the early detection of cancers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nyamdavaa, N.

1995-01-01

In early detection and diagnosing cancers: 1. organizing the preventive different examinations among the population in the servicing sphere, involving the family doctors to them. 2.Discharging the patients from hospitals after making the complex analysis to negate cancers and consulting with gynaecologist regardless the diagnosis of female in-patients aged over 20 who were hospitalized. 3.Making the analysis to negate cancers to the in-patients with indefinite diagnosis for the period of 14 days since their hospitalization and also the in-patients, who were shivered indefinitely.4.Making the analysis to negate cancers to all persons, who are first visited at out-patient clinics in the given year, who aged over 40, consulting the female patient, who aged over 25 with gynaecologist and making the USV examination to the persons, who were ill with infectious hepatitis now virus carriers at least 2 times for year

Multisectoral approaches to early pregnancy prevention in colleges ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Multisectoral approaches to early pregnancy prevention in colleges in Togo. The goal of this program is to generate knowledge about the early pregnancy phenomenon through operational research, and to develop multisectoral strategies focusing on teens, in conjunction with stakeholders in the education, health and legal ...

Early detection of COPD in general practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dahl, Ronald; Ulrik, Charlotte Suppli; Løkke, Anders

2011-01-01

Early detection enables the possibility for interventions to reduce the future burden of COPD. The Danish National Board of Health recommends that individuals >35 years with tobacco/occupational exposure, and at least 1 respiratory symptom should be offered a spirometry to facilitate early detect...

Improved Motion Estimation Using Early Zero-Block Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Lin

2008-07-01

Full Text Available We incorporate the early zero-block detection technique into the UMHexagonS algorithm, which has already been adopted in H.264/AVC JM reference software, to speed up the motion estimation process. A nearly sufficient condition is derived for early zero-block detection. Although the conventional early zero-block detection method can achieve significant improvement in computation reduction, the PSNR loss, to whatever extent, is not negligible especially for high quantization parameter (QP or low bit-rate coding. This paper modifies the UMHexagonS algorithm with the early zero-block detection technique to improve its coding performance. The experimental results reveal that the improved UMHexagonS algorithm greatly reduces computation while maintaining very high coding efficiency.

Students' Reports of Severe Violence in School as a Tool for Early Detection and Prevention

Science.gov (United States)

Yablon, Yaacov B.

2017-01-01

Early detection of severe violence is a significant challenge for many schools. Three studies were conducted on samples of 6th, 8th, and 10th graders (12-16 years old). The first study, based on paired reports of teachers and students (n = 130), showed that a high percentage of both victims and perpetrators of severe violence are not identified by…

75 FR 57472 - Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection and Control Advisory Committee (BCCEDCAC): Notice of...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-09-21

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection and Control Advisory Committee (BCCEDCAC): Notice of Charter Renewal This gives notice under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. 92-463) of October 6, 1972, that the...

Early detection and prevention of domestic violence using the Women Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) in primary health care clinics in Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Yut-Lin, Wong; Othman, Sajaratulnisah

2008-01-01

Despite being an emergent major public health problem, little research has been done on domestic violence from the perspectives of early detection and prevention. Thus, this cross-sectional study was conducted to identify domestic violence among female adult patients attending health centers at the primary care level and to determine the relationship between social correlates of adult patients and domestic violence screening and subsequent help/health-seeking behavior if abused. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 710 female adult patients from 8 health centers in Selangor who matched the inclusion criteria and consented to participate in the study, using a structured questionnaire that included adaptation of a validated 8-item Women Abuse Screening Tool (WAST). Statistical tests showed significant differences in ethnicity, income, and education between those screened positive and those screened negative for domestic violence. Of the participants, 92.4% reported that during consultations, doctors had never asked them whether they were abused by their husband/partner. Yet, 67.3% said they would voluntarily tell the doctor if they were abused by their husband/partner. The findings indicate that primary care has an important role in identifying domestic violence by applying the WAST screening tool, or an appropriate adaptation, with women patients during routine visits to the various health centers. Such assessment for abuse could be secondary prevention for the abused women, but more important, it will serve as primary prevention for nonabused women. This approach not only will complement the existing 1-stop crisis center policy by the Ministry of Health that copes with crisis intervention but also will spearhead efforts toward prevention of domestic violence in Malaysia.

Breast cancer risk accumulation starts early: prevention must also.

Science.gov (United States)

Colditz, Graham A; Bohlke, Kari; Berkey, Catherine S

2014-06-01

Nearly one in four breast cancers is diagnosed before the age of 50, and many early-stage premalignant lesions are present but not yet diagnosed. Therefore, we review evidence to support the strategy that breast cancer prevention efforts must begin early in life. This study follows the literature review methods and format. Exposures during childhood and adolescence affect a woman's long-term risk of breast cancer, but have received far less research attention than exposures that occur later in life. Breast tissue undergoes rapid cellular proliferation between menarche and first full-term pregnancy, and risk accumulates rapidly until the terminal differentiation that accompanies first pregnancy. Evidence on childhood diet and growth in height, and adolescent alcohol intake, among other adolescent factors is related to breast cancer risk and risk of premalignant proliferative benign lesions. Breast cancer prevention efforts will have the greatest effect when initiated at an early age and continued over a lifetime. Gaps in knowledge are identified and deserve increase attention to inform prevention.

Colorectal anastomotic leakage: aspects of prevention, detection and treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Daams, Freek; Luyer, Misha; Lange, Johan F

2013-04-21

All colorectal surgeons are faced from time to time with anastomotic leakage after colorectal surgery. This complication has been studied extensively without a significant reduction of incidence over the last 30 years. New techniques of prevention, by innovative anastomotic techniques should improve results in the future, but standardization and "teachability" should be guaranteed. Risk scoring enables intra-operative decision-making whether to restore continuity or deviate. Early detection can lead to reduction in delay of diagnosis as long as a standard system is used. For treatment options, no firm evidence is available, but future studies could focus on repair and saving of the anastomosis on the one hand or anastomotical breakdown and definitive colostomy on the other hand.

Breast Cancer Awareness and Prevention Behavior among Women of Delhi, India: Identifying Barriers to Early Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Subhojit Dey

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Background Globally, breast cancer (BC has become the leading cause of mortality in women. Awareness and early detection can curb the growing burden of BC and are the first step in the battle against BC. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the awareness and perceived barriers concerning the early detection of BC. Methods A total of 20 focus group discussions (FGDs were conducted during May 2013–March 2014. Pre-existing themes were used to conduct FGDs; each FGD group consisted of an average of ~10 women (aged ≥18–70 years who came to participate in a BC awareness workshop. All FGDs were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were inductively analyzed using ATLAS.ti. Based on emerged codes and categories, thematic analysis was done, and theory was developed using the grounded theory approach. Results Data were analyzed in three major themes: i knowledge and perception about BC; ii barriers faced by women in the early presentation of BC; and iii healthcare-seeking behavior. The findings revealed that shyness, fear, and posteriority were the major behavioral barriers in the early presentation of BC. Erroneously, pain was considered as an initial symptom of BC by most women. Financial constraint was also mentioned as a cause for delay in accessing treatment. Social stigma that breast problems reflect bad character of women also contributed in hiding BC symptoms. Conclusions Lack of BC awareness was prevalent, especially in low socioeconomic class. Women's ambivalence in prioritizing their own health and social and behavioral hurdles should be addressed by BC awareness campaigns appropriately suited for various levels of social class.

Breast Cancer Awareness and Prevention Behavior Among Women of Delhi, India: Identifying Barriers to Early Detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Dey, Subhojit; Sharma, Surabhi; Mishra, Arti; Krishnan, Suneeta; Govil, Jyotsna; Dhillon, Preet K

2016-01-01

Globally, breast cancer (BC) has become the leading cause of mortality in women. Awareness and early detection can curb the growing burden of BC and are the first step in the battle against BC. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the awareness and perceived barriers concerning the early detection of BC. A total of 20 focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted during May 2013-March 2014. Pre-existing themes were used to conduct FGDs; each FGD group consisted of an average of ~10 women (aged ≥18-70 years) who came to participate in a BC awareness workshop. All FGDs were audio taped and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were inductively analyzed using ATLAS.ti. Based on emerged codes and categories, thematic analysis was done, and theory was developed using the grounded theory approach. Data were analyzed in three major themes: i) knowledge and perception about BC; ii) barriers faced by women in the early presentation of BC; and iii) healthcare-seeking behavior. The findings revealed that shyness, fear, and posteriority were the major behavioral barriers in the early presentation of BC. Erroneously, pain was considered as an initial symptom of BC by most women. Financial constraint was also mentioned as a cause for delay in accessing treatment. Social stigma that breast problems reflect bad character of women also contributed in hiding BC symptoms. Lack of BC awareness was prevalent, especially in low socioeconomic class. Women's ambivalence in prioritizing their own health and social and behavioral hurdles should be addressed by BC awareness campaigns appropriately suited for various levels of social class.

ACTING OF THE MEDICAL GENETIC ADVISORY CENTER IN THE EARLY DETECTION AND PREVENTION OF PERSONS WITH PSHYCHOPHYSICAL DISORDERS IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. KJAEVA-PEJKOVSKA

1997-03-01

prevention of the psychological disorders gains its importance because the early detection and prevention of these diseases on the territory of our country has gained advantage for the patients and the society as a whole.

Evaluating surveillance strategies for the early detection of low pathogenicity avian influenza infections.

Science.gov (United States)

Comin, Arianna; Stegeman, Arjan; Marangon, Stefano; Klinkenberg, Don

2012-01-01

In recent years, the early detection of low pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI) viruses in poultry has become increasingly important, given their potential to mutate into highly pathogenic viruses. However, evaluations of LPAI surveillance have mainly focused on prevalence and not on the ability to act as an early warning system. We used a simulation model based on data from Italian LPAI epidemics in turkeys to evaluate different surveillance strategies in terms of their performance as early warning systems. The strategies differed in terms of sample size, sampling frequency, diagnostic tests, and whether or not active surveillance (i.e., routine laboratory testing of farms) was performed, and were also tested under different epidemiological scenarios. We compared surveillance strategies by simulating within-farm outbreaks. The output measures were the proportion of infected farms that are detected and the farm reproduction number (R(h)). The first one provides an indication of the sensitivity of the surveillance system to detect within-farm infections, whereas R(h) reflects the effectiveness of outbreak detection (i.e., if detection occurs soon enough to bring an epidemic under control). Increasing the sampling frequency was the most effective means of improving the timeliness of detection (i.e., it occurs earlier), whereas increasing the sample size increased the likelihood of detection. Surveillance was only effective in preventing an epidemic if actions were taken within two days of sampling. The strategies were not affected by the quality of the diagnostic test, although performing both serological and virological assays increased the sensitivity of active surveillance. Early detection of LPAI outbreaks in turkeys can be achieved by increasing the sampling frequency for active surveillance, though very frequent sampling may not be sustainable in the long term. We suggest that, when no LPAI virus is circulating yet and there is a low risk of virus introduction

Evaluating surveillance strategies for the early detection of low pathogenicity avian influenza infections.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arianna Comin

Full Text Available In recent years, the early detection of low pathogenicity avian influenza (LPAI viruses in poultry has become increasingly important, given their potential to mutate into highly pathogenic viruses. However, evaluations of LPAI surveillance have mainly focused on prevalence and not on the ability to act as an early warning system. We used a simulation model based on data from Italian LPAI epidemics in turkeys to evaluate different surveillance strategies in terms of their performance as early warning systems. The strategies differed in terms of sample size, sampling frequency, diagnostic tests, and whether or not active surveillance (i.e., routine laboratory testing of farms was performed, and were also tested under different epidemiological scenarios. We compared surveillance strategies by simulating within-farm outbreaks. The output measures were the proportion of infected farms that are detected and the farm reproduction number (R(h. The first one provides an indication of the sensitivity of the surveillance system to detect within-farm infections, whereas R(h reflects the effectiveness of outbreak detection (i.e., if detection occurs soon enough to bring an epidemic under control. Increasing the sampling frequency was the most effective means of improving the timeliness of detection (i.e., it occurs earlier, whereas increasing the sample size increased the likelihood of detection. Surveillance was only effective in preventing an epidemic if actions were taken within two days of sampling. The strategies were not affected by the quality of the diagnostic test, although performing both serological and virological assays increased the sensitivity of active surveillance. Early detection of LPAI outbreaks in turkeys can be achieved by increasing the sampling frequency for active surveillance, though very frequent sampling may not be sustainable in the long term. We suggest that, when no LPAI virus is circulating yet and there is a low risk of virus

Prevention of food allergy - Early dietary interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

Du Toit, George; Foong, Ru-Xin M; Lack, Gideon

2016-10-01

The prevalence of food allergy has increased over the last 30 years and remains a disease, which significantly impacts on the quality of life of children and their families. Several hypotheses have been formulated to explain the increasing prevalence; this review will focus on the hypothesis that dietary factors may influence the development of food allergy. Historically, the prevention of food allergy has focused on allergen avoidance. However, recent findings from interventional studies have prompted a shift in the mind set from avoidance to early introduction of potentially allergenic foods. This review aims to facilitate a better understanding of contemporary research studies that make use of early introduction of common allergenic foods into infant diets as a preventative strategy against the development of food allergy. Copyright © 2016 Japanese Society of Allergology. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Potential utility of environmental DNA for early detection of Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum)

Science.gov (United States)

Newton, Jeremy; Sepulveda, Adam; Sylvester, K; Thum, Ryan

2016-01-01

EWM invasions have negative impacts on native biodiversity, recreational boating, fishing, and other types of aquatic tourism (e.g., Eiswerth et al. 2000). On a broader scale, EWM can also be harmful to man-made aquatic infrastructure, such as hydroelectric dams. If an EWM invasion can be detected in an early stage where eradication is still a possibility, many of these negative consequences can be limited or prevented altogether (e.g., Madsen et al. 2002). The purpose of this research was to develop and validate a traditional polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for the detection of pure and hybridized EWM DNA using both laboratory and field experiments. We performed a pilot experiment in outdoor tanks to determine the basic functionality and sensitivity of the assay. Following this initial test, we collected field samples from Michigan and Montana lakes with and without known EWM populations. Taken together, our findings suggest that eDNA techniques have potential to be a useful strategy for the early detection of EWM.

Early detection of psychosis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Tor Ketil; Melle, Ingrid; Auestad, B.

2011-01-01

Background During the last decades we have seen a new focus on early treatment of psychosis. Several reviews have shown that duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is correlated to better outcome. However, it is still unknown whether early treatment will lead to a better long-term outcome....... This study reports the effects of reducing DUP on 5-year course and outcome. Method During 1997–2000 a total of 281 consecutive patients aged >17 years with first episode non-affective psychosis were recruited, of which 192 participated in the 5-year follow-up. A comprehensive early detection (ED) programme...... and cognitive factors and for global assessment of functioning for social functioning at 5-year follow-up. The ED group also had more contacts with friends. Regression analysis did not find that these differences could be explained by confounders. Conclusions Early treatment had positive effects on clinical...

Surveillance and threat detection prevention versus mitigation

CERN Document Server

Kirchner, Richard

2014-01-01

Surveillance and Threat Detection offers readers a complete understanding of the terrorist/criminal cycle, and how to interrupt that cycle to prevent an attack. Terrorists and criminals often rely on pre-attack and pre-operational planning and surveillance activities that can last a period of weeks, months, or even years. Identifying and disrupting this surveillance is key to prevention of attacks. The systematic capture of suspicious events and the correlation of those events can reveal terrorist or criminal surveillance, allowing security professionals to employ appropriate countermeasures and identify the steps needed to apprehend the perpetrators. The results will dramatically increase the probability of prevention while streamlining protection assets and costs. Readers of Surveillance and Threat Detection will draw from real-world case studies that apply to their real-world security responsibilities. Ultimately, readers will come away with an understanding of how surveillance detection at a high-value, f...

Comparison of efficacy of phenytoin and levetiractetam for prevention of early post traumatic seizures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khan, S.A.; Bhatti, S.N.; Afridi, E.A.K.; Zadran, K.K.; Shah, S.S.A.; Khan, A.A.

2016-01-01

The incidence of early post-traumatic seizures after civilian traumatic brain injury ranges 4-25%. The control of early post-traumatic seizure is mandatory because these acute insults may add secondary damage to the already damaged brain with poor outcome. Prophylactic use of anti-epileptic drugs have been found to be have variable efficacy against early post-traumatic seizures. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of Phenytion and Levetiracetam in prevention of early post-traumatic seizures in moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. Methods: This Randomized Controlled Trial was conducted in department of Neurosurgery, Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad from March, 2012 to March 2014. The patients with moderate to severe head injury were randomly allocated in two groups. Patients in group A were given phenytoin and patients in group B were given Levetiracetam. Patients were followed for one week to detect efficacy of drug in terms of early post traumatic seizures. Results: The 154 patients included in the study were equally divided into two groups. Out of 154 patients 115 (74.7%) were male while 29 (25.3%) were females. Age of patients ranges from 7-48 (24.15 ± 9.56) years. Ninety one (59.1%) patients had moderate head injury while 63 (40.9%) patients had severe head injury. Phenytoin was effective in preventing early post traumatic seizures in 73 (94.8%) patients whereas Levetiracetam effectively controlled seizures in 70 (90.95%) cases (p-value of .348). Conclusion: There is no statistically significant difference in the efficacy of Phenytoin and Levetiracetam in prophylaxis of early post-traumatic seizures in cases of moderate to severe traumatic brain injury. (author)

Justification for screening programs for early detection of HBV infections

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Małgorzata Leźnicka

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Background: The objective of the study was to collect the data on undetected hepatitis B virus (HBV in the frequently hospitalized (at least twice in the last 5 years population of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie voivodship. The study results could be used by occupational health services and local governments to take preventive actions. Material and Methods: The study focused on empirical data derived from hepatitis B Screening Programme in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie voivodship. The study comprised 6332 people tested for hepatitis B virus surface antigen – HBsAg. They had been hospitalized at least twice. The diagnostic survey was based on an anonymous questionnaire, developed for this study. For the statistical analysis the Statistica 10.0 program was used. A level of statistical significance was assumed at a value of α = 0.05. The results showing that the probability test p satisfy the inequality p < 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant. Results: HBs antigen was detected in 34 patients (0.54%. There was no association between the detected infections and the gender of the respondents. There was no relationship between the detected infections and transfusion of blood and blood products before 1992. Surgical procedures performed in the patients did not increase the risk of hepatitis B infection. Conclusions: Actions aimed at detecting asymptomatic infections should primarily focus on the 35–39 age group. Effective identification of chronically-infected people and application of optimal treatment play a key role in reducing the risk of disease progression in the whole population. Therefore, the implementation of screening programs is warranted for prevention and early detection of hepatitis B. Med Pr 2014;65(6:777–784

Early detection of COPD in general practice

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ulrik, Charlotte Suppli; Løkke, Anders; Dahl, Ronald

2011-01-01

Early detection enables the possibility for interventions to reduce the future burden of COPD. The Danish National Board of Health recommends that individuals >35 years with tobacco/occupational exposure, and at least 1 respiratory symptom should be offered a spirometry to facilitate early...... detection of COPD. The aim, therefore, was to provide evidence for the feasibility and impact of doing spirometry in this target population....

The state of the art in intrusion prevention and detection

CERN Document Server

Pathan, Al-Sakib Khan

2013-01-01

The State of the Art in Intrusion Prevention and Detection analyzes the latest trends and issues surrounding intrusion detection systems in computer networks, especially in communications networks. Its broad scope of coverage includes wired, wireless, and mobile networks; next-generation converged networks; and intrusion in social networks.Presenting cutting-edge research, the book presents novel schemes for intrusion detection and prevention. It discusses tracing back mobile attackers, secure routing with intrusion prevention, anomaly detection, and AI-based techniques. It also includes infor

Factors preventing early case detection for women affected by leprosy: a review of the literature

Science.gov (United States)

Price, Victoria Grace

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Background: Although leprosy can affect both sexes equally, it is globally reported that men are affected, or simply report, more often than females at the average ratio of 2:1. If cases are simply not being reported, women may be suffering in silence more often than men, and, therefore, understanding the social reasons for this in a number of countries could support the prevention of long-term disabilities caused as a result of leprosy. Objectives: The objective of this review is to recognise the current academic literature surrounding the potential factors for late diagnosis of women affected by leprosy, giving possible explanations for the 2:1 gender disparity observed in case detection globally. It is hoped that health practitioners will become more equipped to recognise these barriers and ensure they are doing whatever possible to encourage women to report the early symptoms of leprosy. Methods: The review used a systematic search process in order to identify gender-related publications using robust research, useful for gleaning a cross-cultural perception of issues women may confront on the prospect of a diagnosis of leprosy. Results: Identifying 12 publications from just five countries, the review found there to be four overarching areas which may be considered barriers more often faced by women: societal stigma; women’s dependence and low status; self-stigmatising attitudes; and the gender insensitivity of leprosy services. Conclusion: Stigma surrounding leprosy experienced from these four overarching areas can all be attributed to the later diagnosis of women affected by leprosy, in relation to their male counterparts. The need for future research surrounding the specific experience of women affected by leprosy is pressing. PMID:28853325

Powerful qPCR assays for the early detection of latent invaders: interdisciplinary approaches in clinical cancer research and plant pathology.

Science.gov (United States)

Luchi, Nicola; Capretti, Paolo; Pazzagli, Mario; Pinzani, Pamela

2016-06-01

Latent invaders represent the first step of disease before symptoms occur in the host. Based on recent findings, tumors are considered to be ecosystems in which cancer cells act as invasive species that interact with the native host cell species. Analogously, in plants latent fungal pathogens coevolve within symptomless host tissues. For these reasons, similar detection approaches can be used for an early diagnosis of the invasion process in both plants and humans to prevent or reduce the spread of the disease. Molecular tools based on the evaluation of nucleic acids have been developed for the specific, rapid, and early detection of human diseases. During the last decades, these techniques to assess and quantify the proliferation of latent invaders in host cells have been transferred from the medical field to different areas of scientific research, such as plant pathology. An improvement in molecular biology protocols (especially referring to qPCR assays) specifically designed and optimized for detection in host plants is therefore advisable. This work is a cross-disciplinary review discussing the use of a methodological approach that is employed within both medical and plant sciences. It provides an overview of the principal qPCR tools for the detection of latent invaders, focusing on comparisons between clinical cancer research and plant pathology, and recent advances in the early detection of latent invaders to improve prevention and control strategies.

Early detection of ecosystem regime shifts

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lindegren, Martin; Dakos, Vasilis; Groeger, Joachim P.

2012-01-01

methods may have limited utility in ecosystem-based management as they show no or weak potential for early-warning. We therefore propose a multiple method approach for early detection of ecosystem regime shifts in monitoring data that may be useful in informing timely management actions in the face...

[Early detection of occupational skin diseases in sewer workers].

Science.gov (United States)

Lang, V; Lauffer, F; Fincan, Y; Biedermann, T; Zink, A

2018-04-25

Skin diseases affect 30-70% of the world population, and globally, skin cancer rates are continuously increasing. In this respect, prevention programs and early detection of skin diseases are of particular importance. To screen sewer workers for skin diseases with regard to their work-related risk. Employees of the municipal utilities in Munich (Münchner Stadtentwässerung) underwent a whole-body examination of the skin, conducted by two dermatologists. In addition, all employees completed a paper-based questionnaire on risk behavior and preventive measures. We examined 81 employees (79 men, 2 women, mean age 45.7 ± 9.5 years). Skin lesions in need of treatment were found in 30.9% (n = 25): the most frequent diagnosis was mycosis pedis (16.1%). In addition, one employee was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma and two with actinic keratoses. According to the questionnaire, 43.5% of the employees had undergone a physician-led skin cancer screening in the past, whereas sun-protection practices were rarely applied. According to our findings, employee skin cancer screening seems to be beneficial for the detection of work-related skin diseases and is associated with a high participation rate. Furthermore, the study suggests that sewer workers have a high rate of mycosis pedis, possibly a work-related effect.

Early detection of doxorubicin-induced cariotoxocity and its prevention by alpha-tocopherol

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ajmal, K.; Khan, B.T.

2014-01-01

To detect doxorubicin-induced myocardial injury by quantitative estimation of cardiospecific protein, Cardiac Troponin I (cTnI) at early stage and to evaluate the cardioprotective effects of Tocopherol. Study Design: Labbased randomized controlled in-vivo study in rabbits. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pharmacology in collaboration with Pathology department, Army Medical College Rawalpindi, Pakistan from Jan 2012 to Dec 2012. Material and Methods: Eighteen healthy male adult rabbits were used. Cardiotoxicity was induced by single intravenous injection of 12 mg /kg of doxorubicin in a group of rabbits, control group was treated with normal saline only and the rabbits of third group were pretreated with Tocopherol 200 mg/kg of body weight for ten days before injection of doxorubicin 12mg/kg. Results: Doxorubicin produced severe cardiotoxicity confirmed by markedly raised serum levels of cTnI, CK-MB, LDH and grade 3 necrosis of the heart issue in rabbits. The pre-treatment with Tocopherol resulted in improved serum levels of cTnI and the histological picture of heart tissue. Conclusions: The quantitative cTnI estimation for detection of cardiotoxicity at subclinical level can lead to significant economic impact in management of cancer patients because the troponin-negative subjects can be excluded from long term cardiac monitoring programs, which require high cost imaging techniques. Furthermore, the outcome of most potent and widely used doxorubicin chemotherapy can be made successful with the concurrent use of alpha-Tocopherol. (author)

Early detection and intervention in first-episode schizophrenia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Tor Ketil; Friis, Svein; Haahr, U

2001-01-01

OBJECTIVE: To review the literature on early intervention in psychosis and to evaluate relevant studies. METHOD: Early intervention was defined as intervention in the prodromal phase (primary prevention) and intervention after the onset of psychosis, i.e. shortening of duration of untreated psych...

Automated early detection of diabetic retinopathy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Abràmoff, M.D.; Reinhardt, J.M.; Russell, S.R.; Folk, J.C.; Mahajan, V.B.; Niemeijer, M.; Quellec, G.

2010-01-01

Purpose To compare the performance of automated diabetic retinopathy (DR) detection, using the algorithm that won the 2009 Retinopathy Online Challenge Competition in 2009, the Challenge2009, against that of the one currently used in EyeCheck, a large computer-aided early DR detection project.

Deep Recurrent Neural Networks for seizure detection and early seizure detection systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Talathi, S. S. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

2017-06-05

Epilepsy is common neurological diseases, affecting about 0.6-0.8 % of world population. Epileptic patients suffer from chronic unprovoked seizures, which can result in broad spectrum of debilitating medical and social consequences. Since seizures, in general, occur infrequently and are unpredictable, automated seizure detection systems are recommended to screen for seizures during long-term electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings. In addition, systems for early seizure detection can lead to the development of new types of intervention systems that are designed to control or shorten the duration of seizure events. In this article, we investigate the utility of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) in designing seizure detection and early seizure detection systems. We propose a deep learning framework via the use of Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) RNNs for seizure detection. We use publicly available data in order to evaluate our method and demonstrate very promising evaluation results with overall accuracy close to 100 %. We also systematically investigate the application of our method for early seizure warning systems. Our method can detect about 98% of seizure events within the first 5 seconds of the overall epileptic seizure duration.

Detection of Early lung Cancer Among Military Personnel (DECAMP)

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-01

Award Number: W81XWH-11-2-0161 TITLE: Detection of Early lung Cancer Among Military Personnel (DECAMP) PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Avrum E. Spira...W81XWH-11-2-0161 Detection of Early lung Cancer Among Military Personnel (DECAMP) 5b. GRANT NUMBER W81XWH-11-2-0161 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6...biomarkers found in blood, tissues, or other bodily fluids, which may be used for the early detection of lung cancer among military personnel and

First Consensus on Primary Prevention and Early Intervention in Aesthetic Medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Landau, Marina; Anand, Chytra V; Besins, Thierry; Chao, Yates Yen Yu; Fabi, Sabrina Guillen; Gout, Uliana; Kerscher, Martina; Pavicic, Tatjana; Peng, Peter Hsien Li; Rzany, Berthold; Sattler, Gerhard; Tiryaki, Tunk; Waldorf, Heidi A; Braz, Andre

2017-09-01

Facial aging is a complex interplay of extrinsic and intrinsic factors leading to progressive changes in the skin, subcutaneous tissue, and bone. Clinical experience suggests that early aesthetic intervention may slow the signs of aging, but treatment in the absence of symptoms or with minimal signs of aging has not yet been properly addressed. To provide treatment recommendations for primary prevention and early intervention in individuals with no or minimal signs of aging. Fourteen specialists in aesthetic medicine convened over a full-day meeting under the guidance of a certified moderator. Tailored treatment recommendations have been provided for prevention and early intervention of fine wrinkles, static lines and folds, irregular pigmentation, laxity, and subcutaneous volume loss by protecting the epidermis, stimulating neocollagenesis, reducing hyperkinetic musculature, and reinforcing supporting structures. Preventive measures and early therapeutic interventions that may alter the course of facial aging were defined. Further studies are needed to support these recommendations with the best possible evidence. J Drugs Dermatol. 2017;16(9):846-854..

Breast cancer risk accumulation starts early – Prevention must also

Science.gov (United States)

Colditz, Graham A; Bohlke, Kari; Berkey, Catherine S.

2014-01-01

Purpose Nearly 1 in 4 breast cancers is diagnosed before the age of 50, and many early-stage premalignant lesions are present but not yet diagnosed. Therefore, we review evidence to support the strategy that breast cancer prevention efforts must begin early in life. Methods Literature review Results Exposures during childhood and adolescence affect a woman’s long-term risk of breast cancer, but have received far less research attention than exposures that occur later in life. Breast tissue undergoes rapid cellular proliferation between menarche and first full-term pregnancy, and risk accumulates rapidly until the terminal differentiation that accompanies first pregnancy. Evidence on childhood diet and growth in height, and adolescent alcohol intake, among other adolescent factors are related to breast cancer risk and risk of premalignant proliferative benign lesions. Conclusion Breast cancer prevention efforts will have the greatest effect when initiated at an early age and continued over a lifetime. Gaps in knowledge are identified and deserve increase attention to inform prevention. PMID:24820413

Estimation for aerial detection effectiveness with cooperation efficiency factors of early-warning aircraft in early-warning detection SoS under BSC framework

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Feng; Hu, Xiaofeng; He, Xiaoyuan; Guo, Rui; Li, Kaiming; Yang, Lu

2017-11-01

In the military field, the performance evaluation of early-warning aircraft deployment or construction is always an important problem needing to be explored. As an effective approach of enterprise management and performance evaluation, Balanced Score Card (BSC) attracts more and more attentions and is studied more and more widely all over the world. It can also bring feasible ideas and technical approaches for studying the issue of the performance evaluation of the deployment or construction of early-warning aircraft which is the important component in early-warning detection system of systems (SoS). Therefore, the deep explored researches are carried out based on the previously research works. On the basis of the characteristics of space exploration and aerial detection effectiveness of early-warning detection SoS and the cardinal principle of BSC are analyzed simply, and the performance evaluation framework of the deployment or construction of early-warning aircraft is given, under this framework, aimed at the evaluation issue of aerial detection effectiveness of early-warning detection SoS with the cooperation efficiency factors of the early-warning aircraft and other land based radars, the evaluation indexes are further designed and the relative evaluation model is further established, especially the evaluation radar chart being also drawn to obtain the evaluation results from a direct sight angle. Finally, some practical computer simulations are launched to prove the validity and feasibility of the research thinking and technologic approaches which are proposed in the paper.

The Effectiveness of Fraud Prevention and Detection Methods at Universities in Indonesia

OpenAIRE

Zamzami, Faiz; Nusa, Nabella Duta; Timur, Rudi Prasetya

2016-01-01

Some cases of corruption have taken place in several universities in Indonesia. To prevent and handle the cases, internal auditors play pivotal roles in detecting and preventing fraud. Therefore, effective methods to detect and prevent fraud are needed. The methods are expected to set the appropriate measures to detect and prevent fraud effectively. This research proposed a question how the internal auditors perceive the effectiveness of fraud detection and prevention methods. The research ai...

Corruption Early Prevention: Decision Support System for President of the Republic of Indonesia

Science.gov (United States)

Sasmoko; Widhoyoko, S. A.; Ariyanto, S.; Indrianti, Y.; Noerlina; Muqsith, A. M.; Alamsyah, M.

2017-01-01

Corruption is an extraordinary crime, and then the prevention must also be extraordinary, simultaneously (national) in the form of early warning that involves all elements; government, industry, and society. To realize it the system needs to be built which in this study is called the Corruption Early Prevention (CEP) as a Decision Support System for President of the Republic of Indonesia. This study aims to examine 1) how is the construct of the Corruption Early Prevention as a Decision Support System for President of the Republic of Indonesia?, and 2) how is the design form of the system of Corruption Early Prevention as a Decision Support System for President of Republic of Indonesia? The research method is using Neuro-Research which is the collaboration of qualitative and quantitative research methods and the model development of Information Technology (IT). The research found that: 1) the construct of CEP is theoretically feasible, valid and reliable by content to be developed in the context of the prevention of corruption in Indonesia as an early prevention system that diagnoses Indonesia simultaneously and in real time, and 2) the concept of system design and business process of CEP is predicted to be realized in the IT-based program.

Detection of early osteoarthritis in the centrodistal joints of Icelandic horses: Evaluation of radiography and low-field magnetic resonance imaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Ley, C J; Björnsdóttir, S; Ekman, S; Boyde, A; Hansson, K

2016-01-01

Validated noninvasive detection methods for early osteoarthritis (OA) are required for OA prevention and early intervention treatment strategies. To evaluate radiography and low-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the detection of early stage OA osteochondral lesions in equine centrodistal joints using microscopy as the reference standard. Prospective imaging of live horses and imaging and microscopy of cadaver tarsal joints. Centrodistal (distal intertarsal) joints of 38 Icelandic research horses aged 27-29 months were radiographed. Horses were subjected to euthanasia approximately 2 months later and cadaver joints examined with low-field MRI. Osteochondral joint specimens were classified as negative or positive for OA using light microscopy histology or scanning electron microscopy. Radiographs and MRIs were evaluated for osteochondral lesions and results compared with microscopy. Forty-two joints were classified OA positive with microscopy. Associations were detected between microscopic OA and the radiography lesion categories; mineralisation front defect (Pradiography and low-field MRI pooled lesion categories, but radiography was often superior when individual lesion categories were compared. Early stage centrodistal joint OA changes may be detected with radiography and low-field MRI. Detection of mineralisation front defects in radiographs may be a useful screening method for detection of early OA in centrodistal joints of young Icelandic horses. © 2015 EVJ Ltd.

Outcomes Associated With Early Preventive Dental Care Among Medicaid-Enrolled Children in Alabama

Science.gov (United States)

Morrisey, Michael A.; Sen, Bisakha

2017-01-01

Importance There is a recommendation for children to have a dental home by 6 months of age, but there is limited evidence supporting the effectiveness of early preventive dental care or whether primary care providers (PCPs) can deliver it. Objective To investigate the effectiveness of preventive dental care in reducing caries-related treatment visits among Medicaid enrollees. Design, Setting, and Participants High-dimensional propensity scores were used to address selection bias for a retrospective cohort study of children continuously enrolled in coverage from the Alabama Medicaid Agency from birth between 2008 and 2012, adjusting for demographics, access to care, and general health service use. Exposures Children receiving preventive dental care prior to age 2 years from PCPs or dentists vs no preventive dental care. Main Outcome and Measures Two-part models estimated caries-related treatment and expenditures. Results Among 19 658 eligible children, 25.8% (n = 3658) received early preventive dental care, of whom 44% were black, 37.6% were white, and 16.3% were Hispanic. Compared with matched children without early preventive dental care, children with dentist-delivered preventive dental care more frequently had a subsequent caries-related treatment (20.6% vs 11.3%, P dental expenditures ($168 vs $87 per year, P dental care was associated with an increase in the expected number of caries-related treatment visits by 0.14 per child per year (95% CI, 0.11-0.16) and caries-related treatment expenditures by $40.77 per child per year (95% CI, $30.48-$51.07). Primary care provider–delivered preventive dental care did not significantly affect caries-related treatment use or expenditures. Conclusions and Relevance Children with early preventive care visits from dentists were more likely to have subsequent dental care, including caries-related treatment, and greater expenditures than children without preventive dental care. There was no association with subsequent

Fulfilling the potential of cancer prevention and early detection

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Curry, Susan J; Byers, Tim; Hewitt, Maria Elizabeth

2003-01-01

... competences and with regard for appropriate balance. Support for this project was provided by the National Cancer Institute; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the American Cancer Society; Abbott Laboratories; the American Society of Clinical Oncology; Amgen, Inc.; Aventis; and the United Health Care Foundation. The views pre...

Early cell death detection with digital holographic microscopy.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicolas Pavillon

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Digital holography provides a non-invasive measurement of the quantitative phase shifts induced by cells in culture, which can be related to cell volume changes. It has been shown previously that regulation of cell volume, in particular as it relates to ionic homeostasis, is crucially involved in the activation/inactivation of the cell death processes. We thus present here an application of digital holographic microscopy (DHM dedicated to early and label-free detection of cell death. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We provide quantitative measurements of phase signal obtained on mouse cortical neurons, and caused by early neuronal cell volume regulation triggered by excitotoxic concentrations of L-glutamate. We show that the efficiency of this early regulation of cell volume detected by DHM, is correlated with the occurrence of subsequent neuronal death assessed with the widely accepted trypan blue method for detection of cell viability. CONCLUSIONS: The determination of the phase signal by DHM provides a simple and rapid optical method for the early detection of cell death.

Identifying economic hurdles to early adoption of preventative practices: The case of trunk diseases in California winegrape vineyards

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan Kaplan

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Despite the high likelihood of infection and substantial yield losses from trunk diseases, many California practitioners wait to adopt field-tested, preventative practices (delayed pruning, double pruning, and application of pruning-wound protectants until after disease symptoms appear in the vineyard at around 10 years old. We evaluate net benefits from adoption of these practices before symptoms appear in young Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards and after they become apparent in mature vineyards to identify economic hurdles to early adoption. We simulate winegrape production in select counties of California and find widespread benefits from early adoption, increasing vineyard profitable lifespans, in some cases, by close to 50%. However, hurdles may result from uncertainty about the cost and returns from adoption, labor constraints, long time lags in benefits from early adoption, growers’ perceived probabilities of infection, and their discount rate. Development of extension resources communicating benefits and potential hurdles to growers likely reduces uncertainty, increasing early adoption. Improvements in efficacy of preventative practices, perhaps by detecting when pathogen spores are released into the vineyard, will increase early adoption. Lastly, practice cost reductions will increase early adoption too, especially when the time it takes for adoption to payoff and infection uncertainty are influential in adoption decisions.

Emerging Cardiac Imaging Modalities for the Early Detection of Cardiotoxicity Due to Anticancer Therapies.

Science.gov (United States)

López-Fernández, Teresa; Thavendiranathan, Paaladinesh

2017-06-01

The undeniable advances in the field of oncology have finally led to a decrease in overall cancer-related mortality. However, this population of long-term cancer survivors is now facing a shift toward a substantial increase in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Because the development of overt cardiotoxicity can be associated with poor outcomes, preclinical identification of cardiac toxicity is important. This will promote early instauration of treatments to prevent overt heart dysfunction and allow oncologists to continue cancer therapy in an uninterrupted manner. Surveillance strategies for the early detection of cardiac injury include cardiac imaging and biomarkers during treatment. In this review, we outline existing cardiac imaging modalities to detect myocardial changes in patients undergoing cancer treatment and in survivors, and their strengths and limitations. Copyright © 2017 Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Promoting early detection of melanoma during the mammography experience

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A.K. Rzepecki, BS

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Invasive melanoma, a lethal form of skin cancer, is the seventh most common cancer in women. Factors such as a history of indoor tanning or sunburn and a personal or family history of skin cancer increase a woman’s risk of developing a melanoma. Objective: Because the majority of melanomas occur in patients age 40 years or older, which is the age that is recommended for women to begin screening mammograms, the mammogram experience could be used to promote early detection of melanoma by introducing skin self-examinations (SSE to a population of women who are already invested in preventive health. Methods: This was a pilot and feasibility study that was designed to promote the early detection of melanoma among women who undergo a mammogram at the Lynn Sage Breast Center at the Northwestern Medicine/Prentice Women’s Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. The study was conducted in three phases: development of the materials, delivery of the program, and assessment of the program effectiveness. Results: Eighty six percent of women with scheduled mammogram appointments participated in the study (n = 560. Among these women, 68% noticed the SSE information in the changing rooms, 78% thought the information applied to them, and 68% identified with at least one of the risk factors for melanoma. Twenty percent of the patients checked their skin in the changing room, 13% noticed a concerning mole, and 60% of those women who noted a concerning lesion stated their intent to see a dermatologist for further evaluation. Conclusion: A large proportion of the women in our study had risk factors for developing a melanoma and noticed the SSE information in the screening center. Placing an intervention to encourage methods for the early detection of melanoma in an outpatient mammography environment is an effective strategy to increase awareness in a large proportion of at-risk women. Keywords: melanoma, skin self-examination, skin cancer screening

FluBreaks: early epidemic detection from Google flu trends.

Science.gov (United States)

Pervaiz, Fahad; Pervaiz, Mansoor; Abdur Rehman, Nabeel; Saif, Umar

2012-10-04

The Google Flu Trends service was launched in 2008 to track changes in the volume of online search queries related to flu-like symptoms. Over the last few years, the trend data produced by this service has shown a consistent relationship with the actual number of flu reports collected by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), often identifying increases in flu cases weeks in advance of CDC records. However, contrary to popular belief, Google Flu Trends is not an early epidemic detection system. Instead, it is designed as a baseline indicator of the trend, or changes, in the number of disease cases. To evaluate whether these trends can be used as a basis for an early warning system for epidemics. We present the first detailed algorithmic analysis of how Google Flu Trends can be used as a basis for building a fully automated system for early warning of epidemics in advance of methods used by the CDC. Based on our work, we present a novel early epidemic detection system, called FluBreaks (dritte.org/flubreaks), based on Google Flu Trends data. We compared the accuracy and practicality of three types of algorithms: normal distribution algorithms, Poisson distribution algorithms, and negative binomial distribution algorithms. We explored the relative merits of these methods, and related our findings to changes in Internet penetration and population size for the regions in Google Flu Trends providing data. Across our performance metrics of percentage true-positives (RTP), percentage false-positives (RFP), percentage overlap (OT), and percentage early alarms (EA), Poisson- and negative binomial-based algorithms performed better in all except RFP. Poisson-based algorithms had average values of 99%, 28%, 71%, and 76% for RTP, RFP, OT, and EA, respectively, whereas negative binomial-based algorithms had average values of 97.8%, 17.8%, 60%, and 55% for RTP, RFP, OT, and EA, respectively. Moreover, the EA was also affected by the region's population size

Early detection of rogue waves by the wavelet transforms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bayındır, Cihan

2016-01-01

Highlights: • The advantages of wavelet analysis over the Fourier analysis for the early detection of rogue waves are discussed. • The triangular wavelet spectra can be detected at early stages of the development of rogue waves. • The wavelet analysis is capable of detecting not only the emergence but also the location of a rogue wave. • Wavelet analysis is also capable of predicting the characteristic distances between successive rogue waves. - Abstract: We discuss the possible advantages of using the wavelet transform over the Fourier transform for the early detection of rogue waves. We show that the triangular wavelet spectra of the rogue waves can be detected at early stages of the development of rogue waves in a chaotic wave field. Compared to the Fourier spectra, the wavelet spectra are capable of detecting not only the emergence of a rogue wave but also its possible spatial (or temporal) location. Due to this fact, wavelet transform is also capable of predicting the characteristic distances between successive rogue waves. Therefore multiple simultaneous breaking of the successive rogue waves on ships or on the offshore structures can be predicted and avoided by smart designs and operations.

Early detection of rogue waves by the wavelet transforms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bayındır, Cihan, E-mail: cihan.bayindir@isikun.edu.tr

2016-01-08

Highlights: • The advantages of wavelet analysis over the Fourier analysis for the early detection of rogue waves are discussed. • The triangular wavelet spectra can be detected at early stages of the development of rogue waves. • The wavelet analysis is capable of detecting not only the emergence but also the location of a rogue wave. • Wavelet analysis is also capable of predicting the characteristic distances between successive rogue waves. - Abstract: We discuss the possible advantages of using the wavelet transform over the Fourier transform for the early detection of rogue waves. We show that the triangular wavelet spectra of the rogue waves can be detected at early stages of the development of rogue waves in a chaotic wave field. Compared to the Fourier spectra, the wavelet spectra are capable of detecting not only the emergence of a rogue wave but also its possible spatial (or temporal) location. Due to this fact, wavelet transform is also capable of predicting the characteristic distances between successive rogue waves. Therefore multiple simultaneous breaking of the successive rogue waves on ships or on the offshore structures can be predicted and avoided by smart designs and operations.

Early breast cancer detection in the hospital setting

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vega, A.; Ortega, E.; Garcia-Valtuille, R.; Erasun, F.; Millan, R.; Garijo, F.

1997-01-01

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the benefits of mammography in general and particularly as a screening method in the early detection of breast cancer in our hospital. All the cases of breast carcinoma registered in our section between 1989 and 1995 were reviewed retrospectively. The total number of carcinomas was 775, 168 (22%) of which were diagnosed solely on the basis of mammography. The percentage of carcinomas detected on the basis of mammography alone increased progressively (from 13% in 1989-1990 to 28% in 1994-1995), coinciding with a progressive rise in the volume of screening mammography. Early carcinomas, referring to those in stages O or I, represented 67% of those detected by mammography in general and 17% of those detected by palpation (p<0.001). The proportion was even greater among cases of carcinoma detected exclusively by screening mammography (78 versus 17%; p<0.001). Although mammography has been instrumental in increasing the rate of early detection of breast carcinoma in our center, a large number of patients still present with palpable lesions. Thus, a greater effort should be made to increase the practice of mammography in asymptomatic women. (Author) 13 refs

The use of cell cycle arrest biomarkers in the early detection of acute kidney injury. Is this the new renal troponin?

Science.gov (United States)

Ortega, Luis M; Heung, Michael

2018-04-05

Acute kidney injury (AKI) has a high prevalence in critical care patients. Early detection might prevent patients from developing chronic kidney disease and requirement for renal replacement therapy. If we compare AKI with acute coronary syndrome, in which an increase in cardiac troponin may trigger early diagnosis and therapeutic intervention, we could extrapolate a similar technique in patients with early AKI without changes in urinary frequency or serum creatinine. The objective is to identify biomarker-positive, creatinine-negative patients that would allow therapeutic interventions to be initiated before finding changes in serum creatinine, preventing kidney damage. Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 2 and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 are cell cycle arrest biomarkers that have demonstrated, in recent clinical trials, to have good sensitivity and specificity for early detection of AKI. Other recent studies have shown that the joint use of these biomarkers with serum creatinine and urine production could improve the prognosis of AKI in critical patients. The application of these biomarkers in clinical practice would enable the early identification of patients at risk of AKI, establishing interventions that would improve the survival of renal function. Copyright © 2017 Sociedad Española de Nefrología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Charts for weight loss to detect hypernatremic dehydration and prevent formula supplementing.

Science.gov (United States)

van Dommelen, Paula; Boer, Suzanne; Unal, Sevim; van Wouwe, Jacobus P

2014-06-01

Most breast-fed newborns get the milk they need. However, very rarely milk intake is insufficient mostly as a result of poor breastfeeding techniques. Dramatic weight loss and hypernatremic dehydration may occur. Our aim was to construct charts for weight loss. A case-control study was performed. Charts with standard deviation score (SDS) lines for weight loss in the first month were constructed for 2,359 healthy breast-fed term newborns and 271 cases with breastfeeding-associated hypernatremic dehydration with serum sodium level > 149 mEq/L. Day 0 was defined as the day of birth. Many cases with (or who will develop) hypernatremic dehydration (84%; +1 SDS line) fell below the -1 SDS line at day 3, the -2 SDS line at day 4, and the -2.5 SDS line at day 5 in the chart of the healthy breast-fed newborns. Weight loss of cases with permanent residual symptoms was far below the -2.5 SDS. Already at an early age, weight loss differs between healthy breast-fed newborns and those with hypernatremic dehydration. Charts for weight loss are, therefore, useful tools to detect early, or prevent newborns from developing, breastfeeding-associated hypernatremic dehydration, and also to prevent unnecessary formula supplementing. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Determinants of Cancer Early Detection Behaviors:Application of Protection Motivation Theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Rahaei, Zohreh; Ghofranipour, Fazlollah; Morowatisharifabad, Mohammad Ali; Mohammadi, Eesa

2015-01-01

Cancer is account for 13% of all deaths around the world and is the third cause of mortality in Iran. More than one third of these cases are pre-ventable and about 33% are curable with early detection. The aim of this study was to determine the predictors of cancer early detection (CED) behaviors applying Protection Motivation Theory (PMT). In this cross-sectional study, cluster sampling method was employed to recruit 260 individuals of above 20 years old in Yazd, Iran and a researcher designed questionnaire was completed through interviews for each of the respondents. PMT theoretical variables and CED behaviors were the basis of data collection procedure. Participants acquired 64.47% of the protection motivation, 30.97% of the passive and 45.64% of the active behaviors‟ possible scores. Theory constructs predicted 19.8%, 15.6% and 9.6% of the variations for protection motivation, passive and active behavior respectively. Protection motivation was responsible for 3.6% of passive and 8% of active behaviors‟ variations. Considering the scarceness of CED behaviors and the applicability of PMT in predicting these behaviors, utilization of the PMT‟s constructs in any interventional programs to accelerate CED behaviors could be an alternate methodological choice in the cancer control initiatives.

Fault prevention by early stage symptoms detection for automatic vehicle transmission using pattern recognition and curve fitting

Science.gov (United States)

Balbin, Jessie R.; Cruz, Febus Reidj G.; Abu, Jon Ervin A.; Siño, Carlo G.; Ubaldo, Paolo E.; Zulueta, Christelle Jianne T.

2017-06-01

Automobiles have become essential parts of our everyday lives. It can correlate many factors that may affect a vehicle primarily those which may inconvenient or in some cases harm lives or properties. Thus, focusing on detecting an automatic transmission vehicle engine, body and other parts that cause vibration and sound may help prevent car problems using MATLAB. By using sound, vibration, and temperature sensors to detect the defects of the car and with the help of the transmitter and receiver to gather data wirelessly, it is easy to install on to the vehicle. A technique utilized from Toyota Balintawak Philippines that every car is treated as panels(a, b, c, d, and e) 'a' being from the hood until the front wheel of the car and 'e' the rear shield to the back of the car, this was applied on how to properly place the sensors so that precise data could be gathered. Data gathered would be compared to the normal graph taken from the normal status or performance of a vehicle, data that would surpass 50% of the normal graph would be considered that a problem has occurred. The system is designed to prevent car accidents by determining the current status or performance of the vehicle, also keeping people away from harm.

PRIMARY PREVENTION OF DIABETES MELLITUS: CORRECTION OF EARLY DISORDERS OF GLUCOSE METABOLISM IN CARDIOLOGY PRACTICE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. N. Mamedov

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Early glucose metabolism disorders (GMD are of interest in development of effective approaches to prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM. Data of international clinical trials shows that early GMD are an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The possibilities of GMD prevention and early treatment are discussed. Antihyperglycemic medications classification, their mode of action and efficacy are presented from evidence-based medicine point of view. This data confirms that successful DM primary prevention at early stage of GMD reduces the risk of cardiovascular complications.

Associations between follow-up screening after gestational diabetes and early detection of diabetes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olesen, Christinna Rebecca; Hyldgaard Nielsen, Jane; Mortensen, Rikke Nørmark

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: Women whose pregnancy was complicated by gestational diabetes have a 7-fold higher risk of developing diabetes, primarily type 2. Early detection can prevent or delay the onset of late complications, for which follow-up screening is important. This study investigated the extent...... of participation in follow-up screening and the possible consequences of nonattendance in the Region of North Jutland, Denmark. METHOD: In Danish national registers covering the years 1994-2011 we identified 2171 birthing women whose pregnancy was complicated by first-time gestational diabetes. Control visits...... and treatment after gestational diabetes than women not attending. The results for women attending testing at biochemical departments also showed an increased risk of initiation of treatment. Women attending at least one general practitioners control had a significantly higher risk of early diabetes diagnosis...

Prevent Cervical Cancer!

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

2015-01-08

Cervical cancer can be prevented. Listen as two friends—one a doctor—talk about screening tests and early detection. Learn what test you might need.  Created: 1/8/2015 by National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP).   Date Released: 1/8/2015.

Early Detection of Emotional and Behavioural Problems in Preschool Children: : The use of the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment in preventive child health care

NARCIS (Netherlands)

I. Kruizinga (Ingrid)

2015-01-01

markdownabstract__Abstract__ Psychosocial problems are already prevalent in very young children. Early detection of such problems is important because it improves the prognosis. One instrument that is developed for the early detection of psychosocial problems and delay in competencies is the

Early Detection Of Cancer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V B Bhatnagar

1987-04-01

Full Text Available Farly detection of cancer is based upon three fundamental assumptions, firstly that the trea'ment of benign and precancerous lesions reduces the incidence of cancer, secondly, that the treatment of in situ cancers is conducive to total cure and thirdly that early diagnosis and management of invasive cancer ensures be.ter survival. When patient seeks medical advice for vague symptoms, which could however be due to a possible malignant tumour at a particular site, the alert clinician should investigate the patient immediately to exclude cancer. At this stage cancer is usually not significantly advanced. Currently the U. I. C. C. (International Union for Cancer Control} is studying the epidemiology of cancers in various countries The importance of this is two folds : Firstly by focussing attention on a section of population vulnerable to a particular cancer an early detection is facilitated Secondly by changing the causative factors responsible to a particular cancer, the incidence of that cancer can be reduced e. g. reduction in lung cancer following campaigns against ciguette smoking and reductioi in breast cancer after campaigns for advocating breast feeding of infants, lowering fat consumption and encouraging self palpation of breast regularly. Indeed early diagnosis of cancer implies diagnosis of cancer in almost a symptomatic stage It involves motiva’ion of the population towards acquisitio : of knowledge, attitude and practice.. Epidemiologies and clinicians should be able to recognise high risk cases exposed to particular neoplasia and knowledge of alarming symptoms should be pro- pogated for wide publicity through common available media and means. Probable cases should have regular clhrcal examination periodically and relevant investigations including radiological, imaging techniques and Bio-Chemical examination should be undertaken as and when desired Suspicious lesions should be investigated by specific tests including smear cytology

Assessment and comparison of two early warning indicator methods in the perspective of prevention of atypical accident scenarios

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paltrinieri, Nicola; Øien, Knut; Cozzani, Valerio

2012-01-01

Some severe major accidents occurred in Europe in recent years (e.g. the Vapour Cloud Explosion at Buncefield in 2005), which were not foreseen by their site “Seveso-II” safety reports. Detailed analyses of such “atypical” scenarios demonstrated that they are the result of a number of failures at different technical and organizational levels. Thus, their prevention is a major challenge and must be coordinated through different kinds of approaches, among which improved early detection plays an important role. Proactive methodologies for the development of early warning indicators can unveil early deviations in the causal chain. Two examples are the Resilience-based Early Warning Indicator (REWI) method and the so-called “Dual Assurance” method. The aim of this study was to analyse the possible integration of early warning indicators in the hazard identification process. A Buncefield-like site was analysed to obtain indicators that were compared with the actual causes that led to the accident at Buncefield (and to similar accident scenarios). The results show that indicators from both methods could have prevented the accidents from happening. However, one main difference is related to the issue of hazard identification, which is fundamental for the prevention of atypical accident scenarios. The REWI method is not dependent on the outcome of the hazard identification process. Instead it provides complementarities to the first prevention approach (improved identification of atypical scenarios), demonstrating that a mutual activity would be an effective strategy in which human, organizational, cultural and technical factors are treated in an integrated manner. - Highlights: ► Early warning indicators were created through 2 methods for the Buncefield oil depot. ► A general capacity to cover causes of atypical events was demonstrated. ► The Dual Assurance method showed to mainly cover operability failures. ► The REWI method showed to promote acts

Kidney Disease: Early Detection and Treatment

Science.gov (United States)

... Bar Home Current Issue Past Issues Special Section Kidney Disease: Early Detection and Treatment Past Issues / Winter ... called a "urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio." Treating Kidney Disease Kidney disease is usually a progressive disease, ...

Central congenital hypothyroidism due to gestational hyperthyroidism: detection where prevention failed.

Science.gov (United States)

Kempers, Marlies J E; van Tijn, David A; van Trotsenburg, A S Paul; de Vijlder, Jan J M; Wiedijk, Brenda M; Vulsma, Thomas

2003-12-01

Much worldwide attention is given to the adverse effects of maternal Graves' disease on the fetal and neonatal thyroid and its function. However, reports concerning the adverse effects of maternal Graves' disease on the pituitary function, illustrated by the development of central congenital hypothyroidism (CCH) in the offspring of these mothers, are scarce. We studied thyroid hormone determinants of 18 children with CCH born to mothers with Graves' disease. Nine mothers were diagnosed after pregnancy, the majority after their children were detected with CCH by neonatal screening. Four mothers were diagnosed during pregnancy and treated with antithyroid drugs since diagnosis. Another four mothers were diagnosed before pregnancy, but they used antithyroid drugs irregularly; free T(4) concentrations less than 1.7 ng/dl (hyperthyroid fetal environment impaired maturation of the fetal hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid system. The frequent occurrence of this type of CCH (estimated incidence 1:35000) warrants early detection and treatment to minimize the risk of cerebral damage. A T(4)-based screening program appears useful in detecting this type of CCH. However, the preferential and presumably best strategy to prevent CCH caused by maternal Graves' disease is preserving euthyroidism throughout pregnancy.

Leveraging biospecimen resources for discovery or validation of markers for early cancer detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Schully, Sheri D; Carrick, Danielle M; Mechanic, Leah E; Srivastava, Sudhir; Anderson, Garnet L; Baron, John A; Berg, Christine D; Cullen, Jennifer; Diamandis, Eleftherios P; Doria-Rose, V Paul; Goddard, Katrina A B; Hankinson, Susan E; Kushi, Lawrence H; Larson, Eric B; McShane, Lisa M; Schilsky, Richard L; Shak, Steven; Skates, Steven J; Urban, Nicole; Kramer, Barnett S; Khoury, Muin J; Ransohoff, David F

2015-04-01

Validation of early detection cancer biomarkers has proven to be disappointing when initial promising claims have often not been reproducible in diagnostic samples or did not extend to prediagnostic samples. The previously reported lack of rigorous internal validity (systematic differences between compared groups) and external validity (lack of generalizability beyond compared groups) may be effectively addressed by utilizing blood specimens and data collected within well-conducted cohort studies. Cohort studies with prediagnostic specimens (eg, blood specimens collected prior to development of clinical symptoms) and clinical data have recently been used to assess the validity of some early detection biomarkers. With this background, the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) and the Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) held a joint workshop in August 2013. The goal was to advance early detection cancer research by considering how the infrastructure of cohort studies that already exist or are being developed might be leveraged to include appropriate blood specimens, including prediagnostic specimens, ideally collected at periodic intervals, along with clinical data about symptom status and cancer diagnosis. Three overarching recommendations emerged from the discussions: 1) facilitate sharing of existing specimens and data, 2) encourage collaboration among scientists developing biomarkers and those conducting observational cohort studies or managing healthcare systems with cohorts followed over time, and 3) conduct pilot projects that identify and address key logistic and feasibility issues regarding how appropriate specimens and clinical data might be collected at reasonable effort and cost within existing or future cohorts. © Published by Oxford University Press 2015.

Radiation Detection System for Prevention of Radiological and Nuclear Terrorism

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwak, Sung-Woo; Yoo, Ho-Sik; Jang, Sung-Sun; Kim, Jae-Kwang; Kim, Jung-Soo

2007-01-01

After the September 11 terrorist attack, the threat of a potential for a radiological or nuclear terrorist attack became more apparent. The threats relating to radiological or nuclear materials include a Radiological Dispersion Device (RDD), an Improved Nuclear Device (IND) or a State Nuclear Device (such as a Soviet manufactured suitcase nuclear weapon). For more effective countermeasures against the disaster, multilayer protection concept - prevention of smuggling of radioactive or nuclear material into our country through seaports or airports, detection and prevention of the threat materials in transit on a road, and prevention of their entry into a target building - is recommended. Due to different surrounding circumstances of where detection system is deployed, different types of radiation detection systems are required. There have been no studies on characteristics of detection equipment required under Korean specific conditions. This paper provides information on technical requirements of radiation detection system to achieve multi-layer countermeasures for the purpose of protecting the public and environment against radiological and nuclear terrorism

Missed, Misused, or Mismanaged: Improving Early Detection Systems to Optimize Child Outcomes

Science.gov (United States)

Macy, Marisa; Marks, Kevin; Towle, Alexander

2014-01-01

Early detection efforts have been shown to vary greatly in practice, and there is a general lack of systematic accountability built into monitoring early detection effort impact. This article reviews current early detection practices and the drawbacks of these practices, with particular attention given to prevalent issues of mismeasurement,…

Direct detection of early-stage cancers using circulating tumor DNA

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Phallen, Jillian; Sausen, Mark; Adleff, Vilmos

2017-01-01

Early detection and intervention are likely to be the most effective means for reducing morbidity and mortality of human cancer. However, development of methods for noninvasive detection of early-stage tumors has remained a challenge. We have developed an approach called targeted error correction...

Early prevention of pressure ulcers among elderly patients admitted through emergency departments: a cost-effectiveness analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Pham, Ba'; Teague, Laura; Mahoney, James; Goodman, Laurie; Paulden, Mike; Poss, Jeff; Li, Jianli; Ieraci, Luciano; Carcone, Steven; Krahn, Murray

2011-11-01

Every year, approximately 6.2 million hospital admissions through emergency departments (ED) involve elderly patients who are at risk of developing pressure ulcers. We evaluated the cost-effectiveness of pressure-redistribution foam mattresses on ED stretchers and beds for early prevention of pressure ulcers in elderly admitted ED patients. Using a Markov model, we evaluated the incremental effectiveness (quality-adjusted life-days) and incremental cost (hospital and home care costs) between early prevention and current practice (with standard hospital mattresses) from a health care payer perspective during a 1-year time horizon. The projected incidence of ED-acquired pressure ulcers was 1.90% with current practice and 1.48% with early prevention, corresponding to a number needed to treat of 238 patients. The average upgrading cost from standard to pressure-redistribution mattresses was $0.30 per patient. Compared with current practice, early prevention was more effective, with 0.0015 quality-adjusted life-days gained, and less costly, with a mean cost saving of $32 per patient. If decisionmakers are willing to pay $50,000 per quality-adjusted life-year gained, early prevention was cost-effective even for short ED stay (ie, 1 hour), low hospital-acquired pressure ulcer risk (1% prevalence), and high unit price of pressure-redistribution mattresses ($3,775). Taking input uncertainty into account, early prevention was 81% likely to be cost-effective. Expected value-of-information estimates supported additional randomized controlled trials of pressure-redistribution mattresses to eliminate the remaining decision uncertainty. The economic evidence supports early prevention with pressure-redistribution foam mattresses in the ED. Early prevention is likely to improve health for elderly patients and save hospital costs. Copyright © 2011 American College of Emergency Physicians. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Non-invasive method for screening and early detection of breast tumors using thermal field analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

O. Drosu

2009-10-01

Full Text Available The paper refers to general presentation of international and European evaluation regarding breast cancer incidence and mortality as well as recommendations for prevention, screening, detection and treatment.The past years international research development in biomedical engineering has put a particular emphasis on the thermography use in breast pathology diagnosis and its main advantages, such as: an early diagnose of the breast cancer, in that stage when the mammography or ultrasounds can not easily detect the changes of the tissue; a totally non-invasive interaction with human body; very low costs and possibilities for the women to do a self thermographic test.We also present some important results of our research within the field of breast tumor detection using the numerical analysis of the thermal inverse problem.

Early chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: definition, assessment, and prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Rennard, Stephen I; Drummond, M Bradley

2015-05-02

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death worldwide. COPD, however, is a heterogeneous collection of diseases with differing causes, pathogenic mechanisms, and physiological effects. Therefore a comprehensive approach to COPD prevention will need to address the complexity of COPD. Advances in the understanding of the natural history of COPD and the development of strategies to assess COPD in its early stages make prevention a reasonable, if ambitious, goal. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Angular cheilitis and oral pigmentation as early detection of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maharani Laillyza Apriasari

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Background: Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS is an inherited autosomal dominant disease determined by a mutation localized at 19p13.3 characterized by the occurrence of gastrointestinal hamartomatous polyps in association with mucocutaneous hyperpigmentation. The manifestation of PJS may first be encountered by a dentist during routine examination due to the presence of pigmented spots in the oral cavity. Purpose: To prevent a high risk of PJS, the dentist must establish its oral manifestation through early detection. Case: A 14-year-old male patient attended complaining of a week-long pain at the corners of the lips. An extra-oral exam revealed fissure lesions, redness, white crust and pain. The patient had experienced bleeding in his bowel movements, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting since childhood. A number of black, painless, macular lesions, some 1-3 mm in diameter, were present on the upper lips, lower lips, fingers and palms. Case management: The patient was referred for a complete blood count check. The results obtained confirmed him to be suffering from severe anemia and he was, therefore, referred to an internist for treatment for PJS. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the early detection of PJS is crucial in order that the patient receives prompt treatment.

Early detection and monitoring of Malaria

Science.gov (United States)

Rahman, Md Z.; Roytman, Leonid; Kadik, Abdelhamid; Miller, Howard; Rosy, Dilara A.

2015-05-01

Global Earth Observation Systems of Systems (GEOSS) are bringing vital societal benefits to people around the globe. In this research article, we engage undergraduate students in the exciting area of space exploration to improve the health of millions of people globally. The goal of the proposed research is to place students in a learning environment where they will develop their problem solving skills in the context of a world crisis (e.g., malaria). Malaria remains one of the greatest threats to public health, particularly in developing countries. The World Health Organization has estimated that over one million die of Malaria each year, with more than 80% of these found in Sub-Saharan Africa. The mosquitoes transmit malaria. They breed in the areas of shallow surface water that are suitable to the mosquito and parasite development. These environmental factors can be detected with satellite imagery, which provide high spatial and temporal coverage of the earth's surface. We investigate on moisture, thermal and vegetation stress indicators developed from NOAA operational environmental satellite data. Using these indicators and collected epidemiological data, it is possible to produce a forecast system that can predict the risk of malaria for a particular geographical area with up to four months lead time. This valuable lead time information provides an opportunity for decision makers to deploy the necessary preventive measures (spraying, treated net distribution, storing medications and etc) in threatened areas with maximum effectiveness. The main objective of the proposed research is to study the effect of ecology on human health and application of NOAA satellite data for early detection of malaria.

SCREENING FOR EARLY DETECTION OF EATING DISORDERS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elisaveta Pavlova

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Eating Disorders (EDs are characterized by a persistent disturbance of eating or eating-related behavior that significantly impairs physical health or psychosocial functioning. EDs are caused by a complex interaction of genetic, biological, behavioral, psychological, and social factors. Their epidemiology is rising for the past decades, and EDs affect all races, social levels and both genders. Due to the long and expensive treatment, chronic course, and the fact that most of the sufferers do not realize the need for therapy or do not seek treatment, the demand on developing prevention programs, early detection and assessment is essential. Despite the fact, that many new EDs screening tools were developed already, there is a great lack of validated screening instruments, adapted to the Bulgarian conditions. Objects and methods: Our study aimed at eliciting a comprehensive battery for screening of not only specific ED pathology, but also some risk factors, such as negative body image, weight and depressive symptoms. The object of our study consisted of 201 females, aged 18 to 45 (mean 24.65. SCOOF- questionnaire, Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale (EDDS-5, Body Image Questionnaire-34 and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI were applied. Results: Our preliminary results show that approximately 45% of the tested subjects show some of the: negative body image, eating disorders’ clinical pathology, distorted eating patterns, subclinical eating disorders pathology, overweight/obesity, or depressive symptoms. Conclusion: Our ongoing efforts in area of research also are aimed at developing and refining strategies for preventing and treating ED among adolescents and adults.

A nationwide web-based automated system for early outbreak detection and rapid response in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yilan Liao

2011-03-01

Full Text Available Timely reporting, effective analyses and rapid distribution of surveillance data can assist in detecting the aberration of disease occurrence and further facilitate a timely response. In China, a new nationwide web-based automated system for outbreak detection and rapid response was developed in 2008. The China Infectious Disease Automated-alert and Response System (CIDARS was developed by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention based on the surveillance data from the existing electronic National Notifiable Infectious Diseases Reporting Information System (NIDRIS started in 2004. NIDRIS greatly improved the timeliness and completeness of data reporting with real time reporting information via the Internet. CIDARS further facilitates the data analysis, aberration detection, signal dissemination, signal response and information communication needed by public health departments across the country. In CIDARS, three aberration detection methods are used to detect the unusual occurrence of 28 notifiable infectious diseases at the county level and to transmit that information either in real-time or on a daily basis. The Internet, computers and mobile phones are used to accomplish rapid signal generation and dissemination, timely reporting and reviewing of the signal response results. CIDARS has been used nationwide since 2008; all Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC in China at the county, prefecture, provincial and national levels are involved in the system. It assists with early outbreak detection at the local level and prompts reporting of unusual disease occurrences or potential outbreaks to CDCs throughout the country.

Sensors and Instrumentation towards early detection of osteoporosis

KAUST Repository

Afsarimanesh, Nasrin; Mukhopadhyay, Subhas C; Kruger, Marlena; Yu, Pak-Lam; Kosel, Jü rgen

2016-01-01

A label-free non-invasive sensing system for detection of C-terminal telopeptide of type-I collagen (CTX-I) has been developed in order to detect bone loss at an early stage, by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). A planar interdigital

Early Marriage: a Policy for Infertility Prevention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Ali Karimzadeh

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Female fertility begins to decline many years prior to the onset of menopause despite continued regular ovulatory cycles. Age related infertility is due to oocyte abnormalities and decreased ovarian reserve. Treatment of infertility when the cause is limited to decreased ovarian reserve is empirical at present except for oocyte donation. This mini review of the literature covers all available English biomedical journals that have been published from 1995 to 2008. The search based on combination of the words age, fertility, infertility, and oocyte abnormalities. The important findings from this search strategy are summarized and presented in the sub headings including female age and fertility, miscarriage and in vitro fertilization. Regarding infertility prevention, this mini review suggested that early marriage is a primordial, effective, inexpensive and easy way to prevent infertility.

Early Detection of Brain Pathology Suggestive of Early AD Using Objective Evaluation of FDG-PET Scans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James C. Patterson

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The need for early detection of AD becomes critical as disease-modifying agents near the marketplace. Here, we present results from a study focused on improvement in detection of metabolic deficits related to neurodegenerative changes consistent with possible early AD with statistical evaluation of FDG-PET brain images. We followed 31 subjects at high risk or diagnosed with MCI/AD for 3 years. 15 met criteria for diagnosis of MCI, and five met criteria for AD. FDG-PET scans were completed at initiation and termination of the study. PET scans were read clinically and also evaluated objectively using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM. Using standard clinical evaluation of the FDG-PET scans, 11 subjects were detected, while 18 were detected using SPM evaluation. These preliminary results indicate that objective analyses may improve detection; however, early detection in at-risk normal subjects remains tentative. Several FDA-approved software packages are available that use objective analyses, thus the capacity exists for wider use of this method for MCI/AD.

Prevention, not just treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Connors, G L; Hilling, L

1998-03-01

A tragic burden of disease, disability, and death has resulted from smoking. The role of pulmonary rehabilitation is not only in treatment and rehabilitation of lung disease but in the prevention of lung disease. The skills of the pulmonary rehabilitation specialist should be used in the earlier detection and prevention of lung disease through primary and secondary prevention. The spirometer must gain acceptance in the medical community as the early tool to evaluate lung health, not the chest radiograph or the stethoscope. The lung age formula and sputum pap smears are just a few of the evaluation tools used to detect and motivate susceptible individuals. Prevention is the key to enhancing lung health.

Interagency partnering for weed prevention--progress on development of a National Early Detection and Rapid Response System for Invasive Plants in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Westbrooks, R.; Westbrooks, R.

2011-01-01

Over the past 50 years, experience has shown that interagency groups provide an effective forum for addressing various invasive species issues and challenges on multiple land units. However, more importantly, they can also provide a coordinated framework for early detection, reporting, identification and vouchering, rapid assessment, and rapid response to new and emerging invasive plants in the United States. Interagency collaboration maximizes the use of available expertise, resources, and authority for promoting early detection and rapid response (EDRR) as the preferred management option for addressing new and emerging invasive plants. Currently, an interagency effort is underway to develop a National EDRR System for Invasive Plants in the United States. The proposed system will include structural and informational elements. Structural elements of the system include a network of interagency partner groups to facilitate early detection and rapid response to new invasive plants, including the Federal Interagency Committee for the Management of Noxious and Exotic Weeds (FICMNEW), State Invasive Species Councils, State Early Detection and Rapid Response Coordinating Committees, State Volunteer Detection and Reporting Networks, Invasive Plant Task Forces, and Cooperative Weed Management Areas. Informational elements and products being developed include Regional Invasive Plant Atlases, and EDRR Guidelines for EDRR Volunteer Network Training, Rapid Assessment and Rapid Response, and Criteria for Selection of EDRR Species. System science and technical support elements which are provided by cooperating state and federal scientists, include EDRR guidelines, training curriculum for EDRR volunteers and agency field personnel, plant identification and vouchering, rapid assessments, as well as predictive modeling and ecological range studies for invasive plant species.

Early interventions to prevent retinal vasculopathy in diabetes: a review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Harrison WW

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Wendy W Harrison, Vladimir YevseyenkovArizona College of Optometry, Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ, USAAbstract: Diabetic eye disease is a public health concern in all areas of the world as a leading cause of blindness in the working aged to elderly populations. Diabetes damages the lining of the microvasculature throughout the body through prolonged exposure to hyperglycemic conditions. The ocular changes are progressive with very little recourse for improvement once damage begins. Current treatments for the eye focus mainly on the late stages of the disease when neovascularization or edema threatens sight. Early interventions for diabetic vasculopathy involve metabolic therapy to improve blood glucose and blood pressure control. Technology improvements have a large part to play in advancing diagnosis of diabetic eye disease. These new technologies offer both structural and functional means for assessment of retinal health. This review focuses on current treatments for diabetic eye disease at all stages with an emphasis on new and early interventions. It also details established and emerging technologies used for earlier detection of diabetic eye disease, which is vital to the development and approval of much needed treatments targeted at earlier stages of diabetic retinopathy. Possible future treatments should be aimed to prevent retinal vasculopathy from progressing. This review will explore current research on this topic and what is needed moving forward.Keywords: diabetes, diabetic retinopathy, vascular disease

Smartphone-Based Solutions for Fall Detection and Prevention: Challenges and Open Issues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Ashfak Habib

2014-04-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a state-of-the-art survey of smartphone (SP-based solutions for fall detection and prevention. Falls are considered as major health hazards for both the elderly and people with neurodegenerative diseases. To mitigate the adverse consequences of falling, a great deal of research has been conducted, mainly focused on two different approaches, namely, fall detection and fall prevention. Required hardware for both fall detection and prevention are also available in SPs. Consequently, researchers’ interest in finding SP-based solutions has increased dramatically over recent years. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no published review on SP-based fall detection and prevention. Thus in this paper, we present the taxonomy for SP-based fall detection and prevention solutions and systematic comparisons of existing studies. We have also identified three challenges and three open issues for future research, after reviewing the existing articles. Our time series analysis demonstrates a trend towards the integration of external sensing units with SPs for improvement in usability of the systems.

The educative prevention of the early stage of educationist’s formation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marta Alfonso Nazco

2010-04-01

Full Text Available The article introduces a characterization of the educative prevention stage at the early professional formation process of educacionist in Sancti Spìritus province. The study is done by the indication analysis of assistant, learning, permanence and behavior at youths who course pedagogical carrers, and haven’t expressed a desire stage yet. The main shown results dealt with the assumption of the searching variables and its indicators, the construction of instruments and the definition of aspects concerning the educative prevention at the early stage of educationist’s formation in the selected choosing. Theoretical, empirical and statistical- math, methods were used which were helped by the constructed instruments and the triangulations among them thus arriving to generalizations for the caracterization. The results have better the work at the area project of the educative prevention in adolescents and youths in the territory, witch mainly concern the desing and implementation of actions withing the pedagogical process, foccuse in the integration of institutions, socializer and educative agents functioning to eductive prevention.

Inappropriate prescribing: criteria, detection and prevention.

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

O'Connor, Marie N

2012-06-01

Inappropriate prescribing is highly prevalent in older people and is a major healthcare concern because of its association with negative healthcare outcomes including adverse drug events, related morbidity and hospitalization. With changing population demographics resulting in increasing proportions of older people worldwide, improving the quality and safety of prescribing in older people poses a global challenge. To date a number of different strategies have been used to identify potentially inappropriate prescribing in older people. Over the last two decades, a number of criteria have been published to assist prescribers in detecting inappropriate prescribing, the majority of which have been explicit sets of criteria, though some are implicit. The majority of these prescribing indicators pertain to overprescribing and misprescribing, with only a minority focussing on the underprescribing of indicated medicines. Additional interventions to optimize prescribing in older people include comprehensive geriatric assessment, clinical pharmacist review, and education of prescribers as well as computerized prescribing with clinical decision support systems. In this review, we describe the inappropriate prescribing detection tools or criteria most frequently cited in the literature and examine their role in preventing inappropriate prescribing and other related healthcare outcomes. We also discuss other measures commonly used in the detection and prevention of inappropriate prescribing in older people and the evidence supporting their use and their application in everyday clinical practice.

Malignant external otitis: early scintigraphic detection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Strashun, A.M.; Nejatheim, M.; Goldsmith, S.J.

1984-01-01

Pseudomonas otitis externa in elderly diabetics may extend aggressively to adjacent bone, cranial nerves, meninges, and vessels, leading to a clinical diagnosis of ''malignant'' external otitis. Early diagnosis is necessary for successful treatment. This study compares the findings of initial radiographs, thin-section tomography of temporal bone, CT scans of head and neck, technetium-99m methylene diphosphonate (MDP) and gallium-67 citrate scintigraphy, and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) for detection of temporal bone osteomylitis in ten patients fulfilling the clinical diagnostic criteria of malignant external otitis. Skull radiographs were negative in all of the eight patients studied. Thin-section tomography was positive in one of the seven patients studied using this modality. CT scanning suggested osteomyelitis in three of nine patients. Both Tc-99m and Ga-67 citrate scintigraphy were positive in 10 of 10 patients. These results suggest that technetium and gallium scintigraphy are more sensitive than radiographs and CT scans for early detection of malignant external otitis

Early detection of invasive plants: principles and practices

Science.gov (United States)

Welch, Bradley A.; Geissler, Paul H.; Latham, Penelope

2014-01-01

Invasive plants infest an estimated 2.6 million acres of the 83 million acres managed by the National Park Service (NPS) in the United States. The consequences of these invasions present a significant challenge for the NPS to manage the agency’s natural resources “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” More NPS lands are infested daily despite diligent efforts to curtail the problem. Impacts from invasive species have been realized in most parks, resulting in an expressed need to control existing infestations and restore affected ecosystems. There is a growing urgency in the NPS and other resource management organizations to be proactive. The NPS I&M Program, in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Status and Trends Program, compiled this document to provide guidance and insight to parks and other natural areas engaged in developing early-detection monitoring protocols for invasive plants. While several rapid response frameworks exist, there is no consistent or comprehensive guidance informing the active detection of nonnative plants early in the invasion process. Early-detection was selected as a primary focus for invasive-species monitoring because, along with rapid response, it is a key strategy for successful management of invasive species. Eradication efforts are most successful on small infestations (that is less than 1 hectare) and become less successful as infestation size increases, to the point that eradication is unlikely for large (that is greater than 1,000 hectares) populations of invasive plants. This document provides guidance for natural resource managers wishing to detect invasive plants early through an active, directed monitoring program. It has a Quick-Start Guide to direct readers to specific chapters and text relevant to their needs. Decision trees and flow charts assist the reader in deciding what methods to choose and when to use them. This document is written in a modular format to accommodate use of

Early prevention of the antisocial behaviour of youth: situation in Latvia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilona Kronberga

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Public opinion on prevention is often very narrow and stigmatised: the concept of prevention is more often related to a crime than to antisocial behaviour. Often such approach limits not only the understanding of the usability and content of prevention methods but also the age of children at which a successful use of these methods is acceptable. Due to the aforementioned, it is possible to put forward a hypothesis: successful prevention of antisocial behaviour in the work with children at a young age decreases the necessity of crime prevention in later years of children and youth development. Therefore, this publication will focus on the use and practice of prevention methods in the early period of child development – pre-school and primary school.

Development of methods for the 'early detection' toxigenic fungi in food matrices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nobili, Chiara; Del Fiore, Antonella; De Rossi, Patrizia; Tolaini, Valentina

2015-01-01

The quality of a food product is intended, in addition that as a consumer suitability for possession of requirements Toilet, also for the presence of characteristics of merit and excellence from a chemical, physical and sensory, in a market increasingly attentive to the demands of Modern demanding and informed consumer. In this work the diagnostic techniques are described that by allowing detecting the presence of the fungus in the early times, when other inspection methods do not allow it, may make a concrete contribution to the contamination control fungal and to the prevention of any synthesis of mycotoxins. [it

Development and psychometric testing of the 'Motivation and Self-Efficacy in Early Detection of Skin Lesions' index.

Science.gov (United States)

Dyson, Judith; Cowdell, Fiona

2014-12-01

To develop and psychometrically test the Motivation and Self-Efficacy in Early Detection of Skin Lesions Index. Skin cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer worldwide. The primary strategy used to prevent skin cancer is promotion of sun avoidance and the use of sun protection. However, despite costly and extensive campaigns, cases of skin cancer continue to increase. If found and treated early, skin cancer is curable. Early detection is, therefore, very important. The study was conducted in 2013. Instrument Development. A literature review and a survey identified barriers (factors that hinder) and levers (factors that help) to skin self-examination. These were categorized according to a the Theoretical Domains Framework and this formed the basis of an instrument, which was tested for validity and reliability using confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha respectively. A five-factor 20-item instrument was used that tested well for reliability and construct validity. Test-retest reliability was good for all items and domains. The five factors were: (i) Outcome expectancies; (ii) Intention; (iii) Self-efficacy; (iv) Social influences; (v) Memory. The Motivation and Self-Efficacy in Early Detection of Skin Lesions Index provides a reliable and valid method of assessing barriers and levers to skin self-examination. The next step is to design a theory-based intervention that can be tailored according to individual determinants to behaviour change identified by this instrument. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Prevention and early intervention to improve mental health in higher education students: a review.

Science.gov (United States)

Reavley, Nicola; Jorm, Anthony F

2010-05-01

The age at which most young people are in higher education is also the age of peak onset for mental and substance use disorders, with these having their first onset before age 24 in 75% of cases. In most developed countries, over 50% of young people are in higher education. To review the evidence for prevention and early intervention in mental health problems in higher education students. The review was limited to interventions targeted to anxiety, depression and alcohol misuse. Interventions to review were identified by searching PubMed, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Interventions were included if they were designed to specifically prevent or intervene early in the general (non-health professional) higher education student population, in one or more of the following areas: anxiety, depression or alcohol misuse symptoms, mental health literacy, stigma and one or more behavioural outcomes. For interventions to prevent or intervene early for alcohol misuse, evidence of effectiveness is strongest for brief motivational interventions and for personalized normative interventions delivered using computers or in individual face-to-face sessions. Few interventions to prevent or intervene early with depression or anxiety were identified. These were mostly face-to-face, cognitive-behavioural/skill-based interventions. One social marketing intervention to raise awareness of depression and treatments showed some evidence of effectiveness. There is very limited evidence that interventions are effective in preventing or intervening early with depression and anxiety disorders in higher education students. Further studies, possibly involving interventions that have shown promise in other populations, are needed.

Long-term follow-up of the TIPS early detection in psychosis study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Simonsen, Erik; Hegelstad, Wenche ten Welden; Larsen, Tor Ketil

2012-01-01

ill patients dropping out of the study in the usual-detection area. Except for higher levels of excitative symptoms in the early-detection area, there were no symptom differences between the groups. Early-detection recovery rates were higher largely because of higher employment rates for patients...

Early detection of congenital syphilis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nagalakshmi Chowdhary

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Late congenital syphilis is a very rare clinical entity, and its early diagnosis and treatment is essential. Dental findings often provide valuable evidence for the diagnosis of late congenital syphilis. It occurs due to the transmission of the disease from an infected mother to her fetus through placenta. This long forgotten disease continues to effect pregnant women resulting in perinatal morbidity and mortality. Congenital syphilis is a preventable disease, and its presence reflects a failure of prenatal care delivery system, as well as syphilis control programs. We are reporting a case of late congenital syphilis with only Hutchinson′s teeth.

Retcam fluorescein gonioangiography: a new modality for early detection of angle neovascularization in diabetic retinopathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Azad, Rajvardhan; Arora, Tarun; Sihota, Ramanjit; Chandra, Parijat; Mahajan, Deepankur; Sain, Siddarth; Sharma, Yograj

2013-10-01

To evaluate the role of Retcam fluorescein gonioangiography in detecting neovascularization of the angle and correlate the same with gonioscopy in diabetic retinopathy. One hundred and fifty eyes of 150 patients (25 each of mild, moderate, severe, very severe nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR); and PDR with high-risk characteristics) were recruited. They underwent complete ocular examination including applanation tonometry, gonioscopy, Retcam fluorescein gonioangiography, and fundus fluorescein angiography. Using Retcam fluorescein gonioangiography, of 150 eyes neovascularization of the angle was detected in 37 eyes (24.66%) compared with 22 eyes (14.66%) on gonioscopy (P = 0.04). Small newly formed vessels were evident only with Retcam fluorescein gonioangiography. In 10 of 50 patients (20%) with severe/very severe NPDR, angle neovascularization was appreciable on Retcam fluorescein angiography compared with 5 patients (10%) on gonioscopy. Similarly, 25 of 50 patients (50%) with PDR/PDR with high-risk characteristics had neovascularization of the angle on Retcam gonioangiography compared with 17 (34%) on gonioscopy. Retcam fluorescein gonioangiography is a novel technique for early detection of angle neovascularization in diabetic retinopathy and hence preventing progression to neovascular glaucoma. The objective nature of this test helps in precise decision making compared with gonioscopy for early intervention especially in cases of pre-PDR.

Early-Life Obesity Prevention: Critique of Intervention Trials During the First One Thousand Days.

Science.gov (United States)

Reilly, John J; Martin, Anne; Hughes, Adrienne R

2017-06-01

To critique the evidence from recent and ongoing obesity prevention interventions in the first 1000 days in order to identify evidence gaps and weaknesses, and to make suggestions for more informative future intervention trials. Completed and ongoing intervention trials have had fairly modest effects, have been limited largely to high-income countries, and have used relatively short-term interventions and outcomes. Comparison of the evidence from completed prevention trials with the evidence from systematic reviews of behavioral risk factors shows that some life-course stages have been neglected (pre-conception and toddlerhood), and that interventions have neglected to target some important behavioral risk factors (maternal smoking during pregnancy, infant and child sleep). Finally, while obesity prevention interventions aim to modify body composition, few intervention trials have used body composition measures as outcomes, and this has limited their sensitivity to detect intervention effects. The new WHO Healthy Lifestyles Trajectory (HeLTI) initiative should address some of these weaknesses. Future early obesity prevention trials should be much more ambitious. They should, ideally: extend their interventions over the first 1000 days; have longer-term (childhood) outcomes, and improved outcome measures (body composition measures in addition to proxies for body composition such as the BMI for age); have greater emphasis on maternal smoking and child sleep; be global.

Development of Early Warning System Using ALOS-2/PALSAR-2 Data to Detect and Prevent Deforestation

Science.gov (United States)

Hayashi, M.; Nagatani, I.; Watanabe, T.; Tadono, T.; Miyoshi, H.; Watanabe, M.; Koyama, C.; Shimada, M.; Ogawa, T.; Ishii, K.; Higashiuwatoko, T.; Miura, M.; Okonogi, H.; Adachi, K.; Morita, T.

2017-12-01

Satellite observation is an efficient method for monitoring deforestation, and a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is useful especially in cloudy tropical forest regions. In this context, JICA and JAXA cooperate to operate the deforestation monitoring system acquired data by the Phased Array type L-band SAR-2 (PALSAR-2) onboard the Advanced Land Observing Satellite-2 (ALOS-2), which is named as "JICA-JAXA Forest Early Warning System in the Tropics" (JJ-FAST), and it have been released on November 2016. JJ-FAST detects deforestation areas, and provides their positional information for 77 countries, which is covering almost all tropical forests. It uses PALSAR-2 ScanSAR observation mode (wide-observation swath width) image, which is 50 m spatial resolution acquired at 1.5 months interval. The dark change areas compared with in two acquisitions by PALSAR-2 HV-polarization images are identified as deforestations in the system. We conducted field surveys to validate detection accuracy of the JJ-FAST in Peru (November and December, 2016), Botswana (April, 2017), and Gabon (July, 2017). As the results, 15 of 18 detected areas were correct deforestation areas, therefore user's accuracy could be confirmed as 83.3 % from limited number of the validation data. Erroneous detection areas were caused by seasonal change in agricultural land and open burning in grass land. For improvement of the accuracy, such areas must be excluded from the analysis by additional algorithms e.g. estimation of accurate masking for non-forested areas. Therefore, we are revising the forest map used for pre-processing step in the system. The JJ-FAST can be expected to contribute to monitor and reduce illegal deforestation activities in tropical forests.

Affinity fluorescence-labeled peptides for the early detection of cancer in Barrett's esophagus

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Meng; Lu, Shaoying; Piraka, Cyrus; Appelman, Henry; Kwon, Rich; Soetikno, Roy; Kaltenbach, Tonya; Wang, Thomas D.

2009-02-01

Fluorescence-labeled peptides that affinity bind to neoplastic mucsosa are promising for use as a specific contrast agent in the detection of pre-malignant tissue in the esophagus. This method is can be used to identify expression of biological markers associated with dysplasia on endoscopic imaging as a guide for biopsy and represents a novel method for the early detection and prevention of cancer. We demonstrate the use of phage display to select affinity peptides and identify the sequence "ASYNYDA" that binds with high target-to-background ratio to dysplastic esophageal mucosa compared to that of intestinal metaplasia. Validation of preferential binding is demonstrated for neoplasia in the setting of Barrett's esophagus. An optimal tradeoff between sensitivity and specificity of 82% and 85% was found at the relative threshold of 0.60 with a target-to-background ratio of 1.81 and an area under the ROC curve of 0.87. Peptides are a novel class of ligand for targeted detection of pre-malignant mucosa for purposes of screening and surveillance.

Colorectal Cancer: The Importance of Early Detection

Science.gov (United States)

... of this page please turn JavaScript on. Feature: Colorectal Cancer The Importance of Early Detection Past Issues / Summer ... Cancer of the colon or rectum is called colorectal cancer. The colon and the rectum are part of ...

Kick Detection at the Bit: Early Detection via Low Cost Monitoring

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tost, Brian [National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Albany, OR (United States). Oak Ridge Inst. for Science and Education (ORISE); Rose, Kelly [National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Albany, OR (United States); Aminzadeh, Fred [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Petroleum Engineering; Ante, Magdalene A. [Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Petroleum Engineering; Huerta, Nicolas [National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Albany, OR (United States)

2016-06-07

Formation fluid influxes (i.e. kicks) pose persistent challenges and operational costs during drilling operations. Implications of kicks range in scale but cumulatively result in substantial costs that affect drilling safety, environment, schedule, and infrastructure. Early kick detection presents a low-cost, easily adopted solution for avoiding well control challenges associated with kicks near the bit. Borehole geophysical tools used during the drilling process as part of the logging-while-drilling (LWD) and measurement-while-drilling (MWD) provide the advantage of offering real-time downhole data. LWD/MWD collect data on both the annulus and borehole wall. The annular data are normally treated as background, and are filtered out to isolate the formation measurements. Because kicks will change the local physical properties of annular fluids, bottom-hole measurements are among the first indicators that a formation fluid has invaded the wellbore. This report describes and validates a technique for using the annular portion of LWD/MWD data to facilitate early kick detection using first order principles. The detection technique leverages data from standard and cost-effective technologies that are typically implemented during well drilling, such as MWD/LWD data in combination with mud-pulse telemetry for data transmission.

The Science of Cancer Prevention

Science.gov (United States)

The science of cancer prevention is described by Dr. Barnett S. Kramer, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute (NCI). The Division of Cancer Prevention administers a broad spectrum of research that spans basic pre-clinical, laboratory research, supportive and palliative care research, early detection, and randomized controlled clinical trials. The Division also supports the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program and is devoted to the balanced communication of scientific results.

A Cognitive Behavioral Depression Prevention Program for Early Adolescents

Science.gov (United States)

Miloseva, Lence

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to present results of our one year experience with Cognitive Behavioral Psychology Program, in order to contribute to the building of whole school approach and positive psychology preventive mental health problems model. Based on Penn Resilience program (PRP), we modify and create program for early adolescents: how to…

On-Board Particulate Filter Failure Prevention and Failure Diagnostics Using Radio Frequency Sensing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sappok, Alex [Filter Sensing Technologies; Ragaller, Paul [Filter Sensing Technologies; Herman, Andrew [CTS Corporation; Bromberg, L. [Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Prikhodko, Vitaly Y [ORNL; Parks, II, James E [ORNL; Storey, John Morse [ORNL

2017-01-01

The increasing use of diesel and gasoline particulate filters requires advanced on-board diagnostics (OBD) to prevent and detect filter failures and malfunctions. Early detection of upstream (engine-out) malfunctions is paramount to preventing irreversible damage to downstream aftertreatment system components. Such early detection can mitigate the failure of the particulate filter resulting in the escape of emissions exceeding permissible limits and extend the component life. However, despite best efforts at early detection and filter failure prevention, the OBD system must also be able to detect filter failures when they occur. In this study, radio frequency (RF) sensors were used to directly monitor the particulate filter state of health for both gasoline particulate filter (GPF) and diesel particulate filter (DPF) applications. The testing included controlled engine dynamometer evaluations, which characterized soot slip from various filter failure modes, as well as on-road fleet vehicle tests. The results show a high sensitivity to detect conditions resulting in soot leakage from the particulate filter, as well as potential for direct detection of structural failures including internal cracks and melted regions within the filter media itself. Furthermore, the measurements demonstrate, for the first time, the capability to employ a direct and continuous monitor of particulate filter diagnostics to both prevent and detect potential failure conditions in the field.

Sports and Marfan Syndrome: Awareness and Early Diagnosis Can Prevent Sudden Death.

Science.gov (United States)

Salim, Mubadda A.; Alpert, Bruce S.

2001-01-01

Physicians who work with athletes play an important role in preventing sudden death related to physical activity in people who have Marfan syndrome. Flagging those who have the physical stigmata and listening for certain cardiac auscultation sounds are early diagnostic keys that can help prevent deaths. People with Marfan syndrome should be…

Child/Youth Homelessness: housing affordability, early intervention, and preventive care in Australia

OpenAIRE

Shiga, Fumiya

2009-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to explore the child/youth homelessness including its preventive care.This paper explores the housing support program implemented across Australia in brief at first, and then profile child/youth homelessness and housing policy. Based on that, it discusses early intervention and preventive methods followed by the conclusion.

77 FR 66469 - Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection and Control Advisory Committee (BCCEDCAC)

Science.gov (United States)

2012-11-05

... Cervical Cancer Early Detection and Control Advisory Committee (BCCEDCAC) In accordance with section 10(a..., and the Director, CDC, regarding the early detection and control of breast and cervical cancer. The... National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program; presentations on outcomes of Care Coordination...

Technologies, Methodologies and Challenges in Network Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nicoleta STANCIU

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents an overview of the technologies and the methodologies used in Network Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (NIDPS. Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDPS technologies are differentiated by types of events that IDPSs can recognize, by types of devices that IDPSs monitor and by activity. NIDPSs monitor and analyze the streams of network packets in order to detect security incidents. The main methodology used by NIDPSs is protocol analysis. Protocol analysis requires good knowledge of the theory of the main protocols, their definition, how each protocol works.

Plagiarism detection and prevention techniques in engineering education

OpenAIRE

Halak, Basel; El-Hajjar, Mohammed

2016-01-01

Plagiarism seriously damages the education process in a number of ways; it prevents students from developing the skills of creative thinking and critical analysis; it undermines the trust between lectures and students, and if goes undetected, it can impact the reputation of the academic institution and devalue its degrees. In this paper, we present two techniques for plagiarism detection and prevention. The first method is based on the allocation of a unique assignment for each student, and t...

Evaluation of anatomical and visual function for early detection of ethambutol toxicity among tuberculosis patients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jessica Mani Penny Tevaraj

2017-11-01

Full Text Available AIM: To evaluate if early ethambutol toxicity can be detected by comparing pre-and post-treatment anatomical and visual function using retinal nerve fiber thickness, pattern visual evoked potentials and conventional optic nerve function tests.METHODS:This was a prospective study involving 72 eyes of 36 patients treated with ethambutol according to directly observed treatment short-course(DOTSstrategy in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kelantan, Malaysia. The visual acuity and optic nerve function tests were performed by a single investigator. Likewise, Humphrey automated perimetry, optical coherence tomography(OCTmeasurement of the retinal nerve fibre layer(RNFLand pattern visual evoked potential(PVEPwere performed by a single technician. The examinations were performed before initiating ethambutol treatment and 3mo after that.RESULTS: There was no change in visual acuity, colour vision, light brightness, red saturation and fundus findings pre and post ethambutol. However, there was a statistically significant deterioration in the mean deviation of the visual field post treatment(P=0.010. There were also significant changes on OCT and PVEP, with increased RNFL thickness in all quadrants(PPCONCLUSION: Ethambutol toxicity is a known complication of tuberculosis treatment. Early detection of this toxicity may prevent severe irreversible visual loss. The use of OCT to detect RNFL thickness and PVEP to assess P100 latency and amplitude can assist in the detection of subclinical anatomical and visual function changes prior to development of abnormalities on conventional optic nerve function tests.

Level of Awareness of Various Aspects of Lung Cancer Among College Teachers in India: Impact of Cancer Awareness Programmes in Prevention and Early Detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Shankar, Abhishek; Roy, Shubham; Malik, Abhidha; Rath, G K; Julka, P K; Kamal, Vineet Kumar; Barnwal, Keshav; Upadhyaya, Sneha; Singh, Rajan; Srivastava, Vivek

2016-12-01

Lung cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer mortality among men in India and incidence is increasing, but actually, they are largely preventable diseases. In India, advanced stage at the time of presentation is responsible for high mortality and morbidity and early detection is the only way to reduce it. The purpose of this study is to know the level of awareness of various aspects of lung cancer among college teachers and impact of awareness programmes in its prevention and early detection. This assessment was part of Pink Chain Campaign-a campaign on cancer awareness. During the cancer awareness events in 2011-2013 at various women colleges in different parts in India, pre-test related to lung cancer was followed by awareness programme. Post-test using the same questionnaire was conducted at the end of interactive session, at 6 months and 1 year. A total of 872 out of 985 teachers participated in the study (overall response rate was 88.5 %). Mean age of the study population was 41.6 years (range 26-59 years). There was a significant increase in the level of knowledge regarding lung cancer at 6 months, and this was sustained at 1 year. Among teachers who were just asked yes or no question, 117 teachers (13.4 %) were smokers and 241 teachers (27.6 %) were alcoholics. Magazines and newspapers were sources for knowledge in 50-60 % of teachers, whereas approximately 30 % of teachers were educated by TV and Internet regarding various aspects of lung cancer. Post awareness at 6 months and 1 year, Pink Chain Campaign was the major source of knowledge related to lung cancer in more than 90 % of teachers by continuous and timely update on subject. Post awareness at 6 months and 1 year, there was a significant change in alcohol and smoking habits. Major reasons for not going for check-up were ignorance (83.1 %), fear (30.1 %) and lethargic attitude (29.3 %) initially, but over time, lack of time, lethargic attitude and hesitation became

Nanotechnology-Based Detection of Novel microRNAs for Early Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer

Science.gov (United States)

2017-08-01

AWARD NUMBER: W81XWH-15-1-0157 TITLE: Nanotechnology -Based Detection of Novel microRNAs for Early Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer PRINCIPAL...TITLE AND SUBTITLE Nanotechnology -Based Detection of Novel microRNAs for Early Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER...identify novel differentially expressed miRNAs in the body fluids (blood, urine, etc.) for an early detection of PCa. Advances in nanotechnology and

Preventing aggressive incidents and seclusions in forensic care by means of the 'Early Recognition Method'

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fluttert, F.A.J.; Meijel, B.K.G. van; Nijman, H.L.I.; Björkly, S.; Grypdonck, M.H.F.

2010-01-01

Objective. The Early Recognition Method aims at improving collaboration between nurses and patients to prevent aggression in forensic psychiatric care. To achieve this goal, Early Recognition Method strongly focuses on early signs of aggression. In the current study, we investigated whether

Early tumour detection: a transillumination, time-resolved technique

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Behin-Ain, S.; Van Doorn, T.; Patterson, J.

2000-01-01

Full text: Research into transillumination techniques for the detection of tumours in soft tissue has been ongoing for over 70 years. The resolution and contrast, however, remain severely limited by scatter. Single photon detection techniques, with ideally infinite extinction coefficients, have been proposed to accumulate sub-hertz photon transmitted frequencies in the early part of a transmitted pulse. Computer based simulations have been undertaken to examine the theoretical performance requirements of the detector and the resultant image qualities that may be expected with this imaging technique. This paper reports on the computational techniques required for implementing these simulations in an efficient manner. Controlled Monte Carlo (CMC) and Convolution of Layers (CL) techniques were employed to constrain the photon to those having more chance of detection and hence enhance the detection statistics. Extrapolation techniques are proposed to reconstruct the early part of the temporal profile. Computational methods were implemented to evaluate Path Integrals, which are otherwise overly complex to evaluate. CMC and CL reduce the computational time by more than 10 orders of magnitude by only tracking those photons more likely to reach the detector. In the case of an optically thick medium with high scattering coefficient, extrapolation techniques are used to reconstruct the early part of temporal profile. Analytical solutions were found to be too involved for the simplest geometries. However the CL and implementation of computational techniques make Path integrals a useful analytical tool to compliment full Monte Carlo techniques. Results have shown that these methods collectively enable detection of small inhomogeneites within soft tissues. Reduced computation times and full reconstruction of the temporal profile of transmitted photons through optically thick medium enable fast simulations of single photon detectors to be achieved with the above described

Detection of early caries by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Sasazawa, Shuhei; Kakino, Satoko; Matsuura, Yuji

2015-07-01

To improve sensitivity of dental caries detection by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis, it is proposed to utilize emission peaks in the ultraviolet. We newly focused on zinc whose emission peaks exist in ultraviolet because zinc exists at high concentration in the outer layer of enamel. It was shown that by using ratios between heights of an emission peak of Zn and that of Ca, the detection sensitivity and stability are largely improved. It was also shown that early caries are differentiated from healthy part by properly setting a threshold in the detected ratios. The proposed caries detection system can be applied to dental laser systems such as ones based on Er:YAG-lasers. When ablating early caries part by laser light, the system notices the dentist that the ablation of caries part is finished. We also show the intensity of emission peaks of zinc decreased with ablation with Er:YAG laser light.

Annual meeting on nuclear technology 1980. Technical meeting: Early detection methods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1980-01-01

The practical methods refer to the neutron noise analysis of BWR-type reactors, the development and implementation of an early detection system for BWR-type reactors and the possibilities of the noise analysis in natrium-cooled fast breeder reactors. The mathematical methods are concerned with the stochastic analysis, high-frequency acoustic monitoring and early detection of damage in PWR-type reactors. (DG) [de

A Forest Early Fire Detection Algorithm Based on Wireless Sensor Networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CHENG Qiang

2014-03-01

Full Text Available Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN adopt GHz as their communication carrier, and it has been found that GHz carrier attenuation model in transmission path is associated with vegetation water content. In this paper, based on RSSI mechanism of WSN nodes we formed vegetation dehydration sensors. Through relationships between vegetation water content and carrier attenuation, we perceived forest vegetation water content variations and early fire gestation process, and established algorithms of early forest fires detection. Experiments confirm that wireless sensor networks can accurately perceive vegetation dehydration events and forest fire events. Simulation results show that, WSN dehydration perception channel (P2P representing 75 % amounts of carrier channel or more, it can meet the detection requirements, which presented a new algorithm of early forest fire detection.

Early Detection and Prevention of Mental Health Problems: Developmental Epidemiology and Systems of Support.

Science.gov (United States)

Costello, E Jane

2016-01-01

This article reviews the role of developmental epidemiology in the prevention of child and adolescent mental disorders and the implications for systems of support. The article distinguishes between universal or primary prevention, which operates at the level of the whole community to limit risk exposure before the onset of symptoms, and secondary or targeted prevention, which operates by identifying those at high risk of developing a disorder. It discusses different aspects of time as it relates to risk for onset of disease, such as age at first exposure, duration of exposure, age at onset of first symptoms, and time until treatment. The study compares universal and targeted prevention, describing the systems needed to support each, and their unintended consequences.

Early detection of children at risk for antisocial behaviour using data from routine preventive child healthcare

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Youth antisocial behaviour is highly prevalent. Young people are usually not willing to disclose such behaviour to professionals and parents. Our aim was to assess whether child health professionals (CHP) working in preventive child healthcare could identify pre-adolescents at risk for antisocial behaviour through using data that they obtain in routine practice. Methods CHPs examined a national sample of 974 pre-adolescents aged 8-12 years (response 79.1%), and interviewed parents and children during routine well-child assessments. We obtained data on family background and current health of the child from the CHP; on developmental concerns from parents, and on social and emotional well-being, injuries, and substance use from the children. Antisocial behaviour concerned the adolescent-reported 15 item International Self-Reported Delinquency study questionnaire, among which are 5 items on violence against people. Results The prevalence of 2+acts of any antisocial behaviour was 21.8%, and 33.9% for 1+acts of violence (10.5% for 2+). Children who were male, had a young mother, no parent employed, recent injuries, poor performance at school or who were bored by school, and who had parental concerns more often reported 2+antisocial acts and 1+violence against people. Detection algorithms on the basis of these variables were moderately able to classify outcomes, with Areas-Under-the-Curves ranging from 0.66 to 0.71. Conclusions Data from routine well-child assessment can help CHPs to detect pre-adolescents at risk for antisocial behaviour, but detection algorithms need to be further improved. This could be done by obtaining additional information on factors that are associated with antisocial behaviour. PMID:22405493

Early detection of children at risk for antisocial behaviour using data from routine preventive child healthcare

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reijneveld Sijmen A

2012-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Youth antisocial behaviour is highly prevalent. Young people are usually not willing to disclose such behaviour to professionals and parents. Our aim was to assess whether child health professionals (CHP working in preventive child healthcare could identify pre-adolescents at risk for antisocial behaviour through using data that they obtain in routine practice. Methods CHPs examined a national sample of 974 pre-adolescents aged 8-12 years (response 79.1%, and interviewed parents and children during routine well-child assessments. We obtained data on family background and current health of the child from the CHP; on developmental concerns from parents, and on social and emotional well-being, injuries, and substance use from the children. Antisocial behaviour concerned the adolescent-reported 15 item International Self-Reported Delinquency study questionnaire, among which are 5 items on violence against people. Results The prevalence of 2+acts of any antisocial behaviour was 21.8%, and 33.9% for 1+acts of violence (10.5% for 2+. Children who were male, had a young mother, no parent employed, recent injuries, poor performance at school or who were bored by school, and who had parental concerns more often reported 2+antisocial acts and 1+violence against people. Detection algorithms on the basis of these variables were moderately able to classify outcomes, with Areas-Under-the-Curves ranging from 0.66 to 0.71. Conclusions Data from routine well-child assessment can help CHPs to detect pre-adolescents at risk for antisocial behaviour, but detection algorithms need to be further improved. This could be done by obtaining additional information on factors that are associated with antisocial behaviour.

COMPARATIVE STUDY ON SPECIFIC AND EARLY DETECTION ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The objective of this study was to compare the sensitivity and specificity of smear and culture methods with rapid serological EIA myco kits manufactured by Omega diagnostics, for the early detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) complex. Sera from various categories of smear and culture results were compared ...

A Theater-Based Approach to Primary Prevention of Sexual Behavior for Early Adolescents

Science.gov (United States)

Lieberman, Lisa D.; Berlin, Cydelle; Palen, Lori-Ann; Ashley, Olivia Silber

2012-01-01

Early adolescence is a crucial period for preventing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. This study evaluated STAR LO, a theater-based intervention designed to affect antecedents of sexual activity among urban early adolescents (N = 1,143). Public elementary/middle schools received the intervention or served as a wait-listed…

Early Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy in Fluorescent Angiography Retinal Images Using Image Processing Methods

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meysam Tavakoli

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Diabetic retinopathy (DR is the single largest cause of sight loss and blindness in the working age population of Western countries; it is the most common cause of blindness in adults between 20 and 60 years of age. Early diagnosis of DR is critical for preventing vision loss so early detection of microaneurysms (MAs as the first signs of DR is important. This paper addresses the automatic detection of MAs in fluorescein angiography fundus images, which plays a key role in computer assisted diagnosis of DR, a serious and frequent eye disease. Material and Methods: The algorithm can be divided into three main steps. The first step or pre-processing was for background normalization and contrast enhancement of the image. The second step aimed at detecting landmarks, i.e., all patterns possibly corresponding to vessels and the optic nerve head, which was achieved using a local radon transform. Then, MAs were extracted, which were used in the final step to automatically classify candidates into real MA and other objects. A database of 120 fluorescein angiography fundus images was used to train and test the algorithm. The algorithm was compared to manually obtained gradings of those images. Results: Sensitivity of diagnosis for DR was 94%, with specificity of 75%, and sensitivity of precise microaneurysm localization was 92%, at an average number of 8 false positives per image. Discussion and Conclusion: Sensitivity and specificity of this algorithm make it one of the best methods in this field. Using local radon transform in this algorithm eliminates the noise sensitivity for microaneurysm detection in retinal image analysis.

Early Childhood Malaria Prevention and Children's Patterns of School Leaving in the Gambia

Science.gov (United States)

Zuilkowski, Stephanie S.; Jukes, Matthew C. H.

2014-01-01

Background: Early childhood malaria is often fatal, but its impact on the development and education of survivors has not received much attention. Malaria impacts cognitive development in a number of ways that may impact later educational participation. Aims: In this study, we examine the long-term educational effects of preventing early childhood…

Primary haemochromatosis. Early detection of commitment myocardium through cardiac magnetic resonance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Corbella, F.; Rivas, Carlos; Dragonetti, Laura; Eyheremendy, Eduardo; Calo, Claudia

2009-01-01

Primary haemochromatosis is the most common genetic disease of the West (1 in 300 to 400 people). Cardiac involvement during its early stages is not detected by imaging techniques.During this period potentially lethal arrhythmias can occur. Using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) with T2 star sequence it is possible an early detection of cardiac involvement as well as a risk stratification and a monitoring the progress of the therapy. [es

77 FR 30972 - Empowering Consumers to Prevent and Detect Billing for Unauthorized Charges (“Cramming...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-05-24

.... 98-170; FCC 12-42] Empowering Consumers to Prevent and Detect Billing for Unauthorized Charges... (Commission or FCC) proposes additional rules to help consumers prevent and detect the placement of... ``cramming.'' Several commenters in this proceeding support additional measures to prevent cramming...

'RIG'- surgical gamma probe for early breast cancer detection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Walinjkar, P.B.; Singh, Gursharan; Kumar, Umesh; Pendharkar, A.S.; Choudhary, P.S.

2004-01-01

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, which if detected in early stage can be effectively treated and cured. Early detection is carried out by collecting a sentinel lymph node (SLN) and testing it for cancer. The surgical gamma probe is a hand-held device used in the localization of SLN. It enables the localization of the active node. Isotope Applications Division, BARC has developed indigenously a RIG Surgical Gamma Probe in consultation with the doctors from Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi. The system consists of microcomputer-based gamma counting system that displays the number of pulses detected by the probe in counts per second and has an audible signal in direct correlation with the count density. The detector probe is based on the scintillation detector housed in a stainless steel housing with lead collimator. The physical parameters are a high sensitivity of 5000 cps/MBq at probe tip with good spatial resolution. The performance of this probe was clinically evaluated on the basis of spatial resolution and accuracy to detect the active node. (author)

Early detection of drillstring washouts reduces fishing jobs

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dudleson, B. (Dubai Petroleum Co. (FR)); Arnold, M.; McCann, D. (Sedco Forex (FR))

1990-10-01

Rapid detection of unexpected drilling events requires continuous monitoring of drilling parameters. A major R and D program by a drilling contractor has led to the introduction of a computerized monitoring system on its offshore rigs. System includes advanced color graphics displays and new smart alarms to help both contractor and operator personnel detect and observe drilling events before they would normally be apparent with conventional rig instrumentation. This article describes a module of this monitoring system, which uses expert system technology to detect the earliest stages of drillstring washouts. Field results demonstrate the effectiveness of the smart alarm incorporated in the system. Early detection allows the driller to react before a twist-off results in expensive fishing operations.

Hot topics in research: Preventive neuroradiology in brain aging and cognitive decline

NARCIS (Netherlands)

C.A. Raji; H. Eyre; S.H. Wei; D.E. Bredesen; S. Moylan (Steven); M. Law; G. Small; P.M. Thompson (Paul); R.M. Friedlander; D.H. Silverman; B.T. Baune; T.A. Hoang; N. Salamon; A.W. Toga (Arthur); M.W. Vernooij (Meike)

2015-01-01

textabstractPreventive neuroradiology is a new concept supported by growing literature. The main rationale of preventive neuroradiology is the application of multimodal brain imaging toward early and subclinical detection of brain disease and subsequent preventive actions through identification of

Early esophageal cancer detection using RF classifiers

Science.gov (United States)

Janse, Markus H. A.; van der Sommen, Fons; Zinger, Svitlana; Schoon, Erik J.; de With, Peter H. N.

2016-03-01

Esophageal cancer is one of the fastest rising forms of cancer in the Western world. Using High-Definition (HD) endoscopy, gastroenterology experts can identify esophageal cancer at an early stage. Recent research shows that early cancer can be found using a state-of-the-art computer-aided detection (CADe) system based on analyzing static HD endoscopic images. Our research aims at extending this system by applying Random Forest (RF) classification, which introduces a confidence measure for detected cancer regions. To visualize this data, we propose a novel automated annotation system, employing the unique characteristics of the previous confidence measure. This approach allows reliable modeling of multi-expert knowledge and provides essential data for real-time video processing, to enable future use of the system in a clinical setting. The performance of the CADe system is evaluated on a 39-patient dataset, containing 100 images annotated by 5 expert gastroenterologists. The proposed system reaches a precision of 75% and recall of 90%, thereby improving the state-of-the-art results by 11 and 6 percentage points, respectively.

Lithium prevents long-term neural and behavioral pathology induced by early alcohol exposure.

Science.gov (United States)

Sadrian, B; Subbanna, S; Wilson, D A; Basavarajappa, B S; Saito, M

2012-03-29

Fetal alcohol exposure can cause developmental defects in offspring known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). FASD symptoms range from obvious facial deformities to changes in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology that disrupt normal brain function and behavior. Ethanol exposure at postnatal day 7 in C57BL/6 mice induces neuronal cell death and long-lasting neurobehavioral dysfunction. Previous work has demonstrated that early ethanol exposure impairs spatial memory task performance into adulthood and perturbs local and interregional brain circuit integrity in the olfacto-hippocampal pathway. Here we pursue these findings to examine whether lithium prevents anatomical, neurophysiological, and behavioral pathologies that result from early ethanol exposure. Lithium has neuroprotective properties that have been shown to prevent ethanol-induced apoptosis. Here we show that mice co-treated with lithium on the same day as ethanol exposure exhibit dramatically reduced acute neurodegeneration in the hippocampus and retain hippocampal-dependent spatial memory as adults. Lithium co-treatment also blocked ethanol-induced disruption in synaptic plasticity in slice recordings of hippocampal CA1 in the adult mouse brain. Moreover, long-lasting dysfunctions caused by ethanol in olfacto-hippocampal networks, including sensory-evoked oscillations and resting state coherence, were prevented in mice co-treated with lithium. Together, these results provide behavioral and physiological evidence that lithium is capable of preventing or reducing immediate and long-term deleterious consequences of early ethanol exposure on brain function. Copyright © 2012 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Combined Screening for Early Detection of Pre-Eclampsia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hee Jin Park

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Although the precise pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia remains unknown, this condition continues to be a major cause of maternal and fetal mortality. Early prediction of pre-eclampsia would allow for timely initiation of preventive therapy. A combination of biophysical and biochemical markers are superior to other tests for early prediction of the development of pre-eclampsia. Apart from the use of parameters in first-trimester aneuploidy screening, cell-free fetal DNA quantification is emerging as a promising marker for prediction of pre-eclampsia. This article reviews the current research of the most important strategies for prediction of pre-eclampsia, including the use of maternal risk factors, mean maternal arterial pressure, ultrasound parameters, and biomarkers.

Early Detection of Undiagnosed Hypertension Based on Occupational Screening in the Hotel and Restaurant Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reingard Seibt

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Blood pressure is the most important, modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Lifestyle factors and also workload are the main, potential risk factors for the development of hypertension. This study focused on the early detection of unknown hypertension by screening employees in the hotel and restaurant industry (HRI. 148 HRI employees without hypertension (mean age: 34 years, men: 45% self-measured their blood pressure during rest and for 24 hours of a normal workday. Individuals with a resting blood pressure ≥ 135/85 mmHg were classified as hypertensive. A further analysis investigated whether the currently applicable thresholds for hypertension during work, leisure, and sleep were exceeded on a working day. At rest, 36% of the study participants suffered from hypertension, which increased to 70% under workload and 46% during leisure time and dropped to 8% during sleep. Normal nocturnal dipping (10–20% occurred only in 18% of cases; 78% were extreme dippers (>20%. Occupational hypertension screening is a suitable component of preventive healthcare. Resting blood pressure measurement alone is insufficient for the early detection of risk individuals and should be supplemented by 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring under working conditions. The impact of workload on blood pressure needs to be given more attention in the guidelines.

Early Detection of Undiagnosed Hypertension Based on Occupational Screening in the Hotel and Restaurant Industry.

Science.gov (United States)

Seibt, Reingard; Hunger, Bettina; Stieler, Lisa; Stoll, Regina; Kreuzfeld, Steffi

2018-01-01

Blood pressure is the most important, modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Lifestyle factors and also workload are the main, potential risk factors for the development of hypertension. This study focused on the early detection of unknown hypertension by screening employees in the hotel and restaurant industry (HRI). 148 HRI employees without hypertension (mean age: 34 years, men: 45%) self-measured their blood pressure during rest and for 24 hours of a normal workday. Individuals with a resting blood pressure ≥ 135/85 mmHg were classified as hypertensive. A further analysis investigated whether the currently applicable thresholds for hypertension during work, leisure, and sleep were exceeded on a working day. At rest, 36% of the study participants suffered from hypertension, which increased to 70% under workload and 46% during leisure time and dropped to 8% during sleep. Normal nocturnal dipping (10-20%) occurred only in 18% of cases; 78% were extreme dippers (>20%). Occupational hypertension screening is a suitable component of preventive healthcare. Resting blood pressure measurement alone is insufficient for the early detection of risk individuals and should be supplemented by 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring under working conditions. The impact of workload on blood pressure needs to be given more attention in the guidelines.

The investigation of early warning signs of aggression in forensic

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Frans Fluttert; prof Berno van Meijel; Mieke Grypdonck; Bjørkly Stal; Mirjan van Leeuwen

2012-01-01

Aims and objectives. The Forensic Early Warning Signs of Aggression Inventory (FESAI) was developed to assist nurses and patients in identifying early warning signs and constructing individual early detection plans (EDP) for the prevention of aggressive incidents. The aims of this research were as

Prevention of alcohol use in early adolescents: A joint venture of school and parents

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Koning, H.M.

2011-01-01

More than half of the Dutch adolescents start drinking before age 12 (Monshouwer et al., 2009). Early drinking is related to several developmental risks and to later alcohol and drug abuse (Behrendt et al., 2009). A Dutch alcohol prevention program (PAS) targets early adolescents and their parents

Integrating Early Child Development and Violence Prevention Programs: A Systematic Review

Science.gov (United States)

Efevbera, Yvette; McCoy, Dana C.; Wuermli, Alice J.; Betancourt, Theresa S.

2018-01-01

Limited evidence describes promoting development and reducing violence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), a missed opportunity to protect children and promote development and human capital. This study presents a systematic literature review of integrated early childhood development plus violence prevention (ECD+VP) interventions in…

Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound and Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of the Neonatal Bowel: Novel, Bedside, Noninvasive, and Radiation-Free Imaging for Early Detection of Necrotizing Enterocolitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Al-Hamad, Suzanne; Hackam, David J; Goldstein, Seth D; Huisman, Thierry A G M; Darge, Kassa; Hwang, Misun

2018-05-31

Despite extensive research and improvements in the field of neonatal care, the morbidity and mortality associated with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) have remained unchanged over the past three decades. Early detection of ischemia and necrotic bowel is vital in improving morbidity and mortality associated with NEC; however, strategies for predicting and preventing NEC are lacking. Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) are novel techniques in pediatrics that have been proven as safe modalities. CEUS has benefits over conventional ultrasound (US) by its improved real-time evaluation of the micro- and macrovascularities of normally and abnormally perfused tissue. US has been implemented as a useful adjunct to X-ray for earlier evaluation of NEC. NIRS is another noninvasive technique that has shown promise in improving early detection of NEC. The purpose of this article is to review the current understanding of changes in bowel perfusion in NEC, discuss the accuracy of abdominal US in detecting NEC, and explain how the use of CEUS and NIRS will enhance the precise and early detection of altered/pathological bowel wall perfusion in the initial development and course of NEC. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Early detection of sporadic pancreatic cancer: strategic map for innovation--a white paper.

Science.gov (United States)

Kenner, Barbara J; Chari, Suresh T; Cleeter, Deborah F; Go, Vay Liang W

2015-07-01

Innovation leading to significant advances in research and subsequent translation to clinical practice is urgently necessary in early detection of sporadic pancreatic cancer. Addressing this need, the Early Detection of Sporadic Pancreatic Cancer Summit Conference was conducted by Kenner Family Research Fund in conjunction with the 2014 American Pancreatic Association and Japan Pancreas Society Meeting. International interdisciplinary scientific representatives engaged in strategic facilitated conversations based on distinct areas of inquiry: Case for Early Detection: Definitions, Detection, Survival, and Challenges; Biomarkers for Early Detection; Imaging; and Collaborative Studies. Ideas generated from the summit have led to the development of a Strategic Map for Innovation built upon 3 components: formation of an international collaborative effort, design of an actionable strategic plan, and implementation of operational standards, research priorities, and first-phase initiatives. Through invested and committed efforts of leading researchers and institutions, philanthropic partners, government agencies, and supportive business entities, this endeavor will change the future of the field and consequently the survival rate of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Early detection of radioactive fall-out by gamma-spectrometry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Aage, Helle Karina; Korsbech, Uffe C C; Bargholz, K.

2003-01-01

Radioactive fallout should be detected as early as possible. A new and efficient method for detection of low-level irradiation from manmade radioactivity is developed. Radiation abnormalities are detectable down to air kerma rate, of 0.5 to 1.0 nGy h(-1) for Cs-137 and even lower for I-131...... For multi-gamma energy radioactivity the detection level is 2.6-3.5 nGy h(-1). A standard NaI detector and a 512-channel analyser are used together with noise adjusted singular value decomposition (NASVD). Statistical noise is removed and the measured spectra are reproduced using spectral components...... radioactive sources need to be detected....

Early detection and assertive community treatment of young psychotics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, P; Nordentoft, M; Abel, M B

2000-01-01

Recent research indicates that early detection of young persons suffering from psychosis and subsequent intensive intervention enhances treatment response and prognosis, but the data are only preliminary and suggestive....

Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Early Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S. A. Perepelitsa

2012-01-01

Full Text Available to improve treatment results in premature infants with neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS, by establishing developmental mechanisms and elaborating methods for its early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Material and methods. The paper analyzes the results of a clinical observation and laboratory, instrumental, immunological, morphological, and radiological studies of 320 premature neonates at 26—35 weeks gestational age. The following groups of neonates were identified: 1 40 premature neonatal infants without NRDS and with the physiological course of an early neonatal period (a comparison group; 2 190 premature neonates with severe NRDS in whom the efficiency of therapy with exogenous surfactants, such as surfactant BL versus curosurf, was evaluated; 3 90 premature newborn infants who had died from NRDS at its different stages. Results. The poor maternal somatic, obstetric, and gynecological histories in the early periods of the current pregnancy create prerequisites for its termination, favor the development of severe acute gestosis, and cause abnormal placental changes. Each gestational age is marked by certain placental changes that promote impaired uterineplacentalfetal blood flow and premature birth. Alveolar and bronchial epithelial damages, including those ante and intranatally, microcircula tory disorders play a leading role in the tanatogenesis of NRDS. Intranatal hypoxia and amniotic fluid aspiration are one of the important factors contributing to alveolar epithelial damage and NRDS in premature neonates. Exogenous surfactants prevent the development of hyaline membranes and are useful in the normalization of ventilation-perfusion relationships and lung biomechanical properties. Conclusion. This study could improve the diagnosis and treatment of NRDS, which assisted in reducing the duration of mechanical ventilation from 130±7.6 to 65±11.6 hours, the number of complications (the incidence of intragastric

Effectiveness of a community-based program for suicide prevention among elders with early-stage dementia: A controlled observational study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jong-Pill; Yang, Jinhyang

The purpose of this study was to develop a small-group-focused suicide prevention program for elders with early-stage dementia and to assess its effects. This was a quasi-experimental study with a control group pretest-posttest design. A total of 62 elders diagnosed with early-stage dementia who were receiving care services at nine daycare centers in J City Korea participated in this study. The experimental group participated in the suicide prevention program twice a week for 5 weeks with a pretest and two posttests The developed suicide prevention program had a significant effect on the perceived health status, social support, depression, and suicidal ideation of elders with early-stage dementia. Nurses should integrate risk factors such as depression and protective factors such as health status and social support into a suicide prevention program. This community-based program in geriatric nursing practice can be effective in preventing suicide among elders with early-stage dementia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multianalyte Tests for the Early Detection of Cancer: Speedbumps and Barriers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael A. Tainsky

2007-01-01

Full Text Available It has become very clear that a single molecular event is inadequate to accurately predict the biology (or pathophysiology of cancer. Furthermore, using any single molecular event as a biomarker for the early detection of malignancy may not comprehensively identify the majority of individuals with that disease. Therefore, the fact that technologies have arisen that can simultaneously detect several, possibly hundreds, of biomarkers has propelled the field towards the development of multianalyte-based in vitro diagnostic early detection tests for cancer using body fl uids such as serum, plasma, sputum, saliva, or urine. These multianalyte tests may be based on the detection of serum autoantibodies to tumor antigens, the presence of cancer-related proteins in serum, or the presence of tumor-specific genomic changes that appear in plasma as free DNA. The implementation of non-invasive diagnostic approaches to detect early stage cancer may provide the physician with evidence of cancer, but the question arises as to how the information will affect the pathway of clinical intervention. The confirmation of a positive result from an in vitro diagnostic cancer test may involve relatively invasive procedures to establish a true cancer diagnosis. If in vitro diagnostic tests are proven to be both specific, i.e. rarely produce false positive results due to unrelated conditions, and sufficiently sensitive, i.e. rarely produce false negative results, then such screening tests offer the potential for early detection and personalized therapeutics using multiple disease-related targets with convenient and non-invasive means. Here we discuss the technical and regulatory barriers inherent in development of clinical multianalyte biomarker assays.

A combination of circulating miRNAs for the early detection of ovarian cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Yokoi, Akira; Yoshioka, Yusuke; Hirakawa, Akihiro; Yamamoto, Yusuke; Ishikawa, Mitsuya; Ikeda, Shun-ichi; Kato, Tomoyasu; Niimi, Kaoru; Kajiyama, Hiroaki; Kikkawa, Fumitaka; Ochiya, Takahiro

2017-01-01

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of gynecologic cancer mortality, due to the difficulty of early detection. Current screening methods lack sufficient accuracy, and it is still challenging to propose a new early detection method that improves patient outcomes with less-invasiveness. Although many studies have suggested the utility of circulating microRNAs in cancer detection, their potential for early detection remains elusive. Here, we develop novel predictive models using a combination of 8 circulating serum miRNAs. This method was able to successfully distinguish ovarian cancer patients from healthy controls (area under the curve, 0.97; sensitivity, 0.92; and specificity, 0.91) and early-stage ovarian cancer from patients with benign tumors (0.91, 0.86 and 0.83, respectively). This method also enables subtype classification in 4 types of epithelial ovarian cancer. Furthermore, it is found that most of the 8 miRNAs were packaged in extracellular vesicles, including exosomes, derived from ovarian cancer cells, and they were circulating in murine blood stream. The circulating miRNAs described in this study may serve as biomarkers for ovarian cancer patients. Early detection and subtype determination prior to surgery are crucial for clinicians to design an effective treatment strategy for each patient, as is the goal of precision medicine. PMID:29163790

Computer-aided detection in computed tomography colonography. Current status and problems with detection of early colorectal cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morimoto, Tsuyoshi; Nakijima, Yasuo; Iinuma, Gen; Arai, Yasuaki; Shiraishi, Junji; Moriyama, Noriyuki; Beddoe, G.

2008-01-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of computer-aided detection (CAD) in diagnosing early colorectal cancer using computed tomography colonography (CTC). A total of 30 CTC data sets for 30 early colorectal cancers in 30 patients were retrospectively reviewed by three radiologists. After primary evaluation, a second reading was performed using CAD findings. The readers evaluated each colorectal segment for the presence or absence of colorectal cancer using five confidence rating levels. To compare the assessment results, the sensitivity and specificity with and without CAD were calculated on the basis of the confidence rating, and differences in these variables were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The average sensitivities for the detection without and with CAD for the three readers were 81.6% and 75.6%, respectively. Among the three readers, only one reader improved sensitivity with CAD compared to that without. CAD decreased specificity in all three readers. CAD detected 100% of protruding lesions but only 69.2% of flat lesions. On ROC analysis, the diagnostic performance of all three readers was decreased by use of CAD. Currently available CAD with CTC does not improve diagnostic performance for detecting early colorectal cancer. An improved CAD algorithm is required for detecting fiat lesions and reducing the false-positive rate. (author)

[CODEPEH 2014 recommendations for the early detection of delayed hearing loss].

Science.gov (United States)

Núñez-Batalla, Faustino; Jáudenes-Casaubón, Carmen; Sequí-Canet, José Miguel; Vivanco-Allende, Ana; Zubicaray-Ugarteche, José

2016-10-01

The latest scientific literature considers early diagnosis of deafness as key element to define the educational prognosis and inclusion of the deaf child, as advantage can be taken in the critical period of development (0-4 years). Highly significant differences exist between those deaf persons who have been stimulated early and those who have received late or inappropriate intervention. Early identification of late-onset disorders requires special attention and knowledge of all childcare professionals. Programs and additional actions beyond neonatal screening should be designed and planned in order to ensure that every child with a significant hearing loss is detected early. For this purpose, the Committee for the Early Detection of Deafness (CODEPEH) would like to highlight the need for continuous monitoring on the hearing health of children. And, for this reason, CODEPEH drafts the recommendations included in the present document. Copyright © 2015 Asociación Española de Pediatría. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Early hearing detection and intervention: 2010 CODEPEH recommendation.

Science.gov (United States)

Trinidad-Ramos, Germán; de Aguilar, Valentín Alzina; Jaudenes-Casaubón, Carmen; Núñez-Batalla, Faustino; Sequí-Canet, José Miguel

2010-01-01

Newborn hearing screening is currently performed routinely in many regional health-care systems in Spain. Despite the remarkable expansion in newborn hearing screening since 2000, its feasibility and the benefits of early identification and intervention, many major challenges still remain. In this article, the Committee for the Early Detection of Hearing Loss (Comisión para la Detección Precoz de la Hipoacusia, CODEPEH) updates the recommendations that are considered important for the future development of early hearing detection and intervention (EDHI) systems in the following points: 1. Screening protocols: Separate protocols are recommended for NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Units) and well-infant nurseries. 2. Diagnostic audiology evaluation. Professionals with skills and expertise in evaluating newborn and young infants should provide diagnosis, selection and fitting of amplification devices. 3. Medical evaluation. Risk factors for congenital and acquired hearing loss have been combined in a single list rather than grouped by time of onset. A stepwise diagnostic paradigm is diagnostically more efficient and cost-effective than a simultaneous testing approach. 4. Early intervention and surveillance. All individuals providing services to infants with hearing loss should have specialized training and expertise in the development of audition, speech and language. Regular surveillance should be performed on developmental milestones, auditory skills, parental concerns, and middle ear status. 5. Quality control. Data management as part of an integrated system is important to monitor and improve the quality of EDHI services. 2009 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.

Partial discharge early-warning through ultraviolet spectroscopic detection of SO2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhao, Yu; Wang, Xianpei; Dai, Dangdang; Dong, Zhengcheng; Huang, Yunguang

2014-01-01

Surveillance of SF 6  decomposition products is significant for detection of partial discharge (PD) in gas insulation switchgear (GIS). As a basis in on-site detection and diagnosis, PD early-warning aims to quickly find the abnormalities using a simple and cheap device. In this paper, SO 2  is chosen as a feature product and detected through ultraviolet spectroscopy. The derivative method is employed for baseline correction and spectral enhancement. The standard gases of the main decomposition products are qualitatively and quantitatively detected. Then decomposition experiments with different defects are designed to further verify the feasibility. As a stable decomposition product under PD, SO 2  is proved to be applicable for PD early-warning in the field. By selecting the appropriate wavelength range, namely 290–310 nm, ultraviolet derivative spectroscopy is sensitive enough to the trace SO 2  in the decomposed gas and the interference of other products can be avoided. Fast Fourier transform could be used for feature extraction in qualitative detection. Concentrations of SO 2  and other by-products increase with increasing discharge time and could be affected by the discharge energy and PD type. Ultraviolet detection based on SO 2  is effective for PD early-warning but the threshold should still be carefully selected in practice. (paper)

Early detection of fungi damage in citrus using NIR spectroscopy

Science.gov (United States)

Blasco, Jose; Ortiz, Coral; Sabater, Maria D.; Molto, Enrique

2000-12-01

Early detection of defects and diseases in fruit helps to correctly classify them and make more adequate decisions about the destination of the product: internal market, export or industry. An early fungi infection detection is especially important because a few infected fruits can disseminate the infection to a whole batch, causing great economic losses and affecting to further exports. Ensure products with excellent quality and absolute absence of fungi infections is particularly important in those batches for long conservation or to be exported. The main objective of this work is to detect the fungi infections before they can be visible. Near Infrared spectroscopy has been employed in this work, because it is a non-destructive technique and can be easily implemented on line due to the high speed and simplicity of the process.

A Virtual Bioinformatics Knowledge Environment for Early Cancer Detection

Science.gov (United States)

Crichton, Daniel; Srivastava, Sudhir; Johnsey, Donald

2003-01-01

Discovery of disease biomarkers for cancer is a leading focus of early detection. The National Cancer Institute created a network of collaborating institutions focused on the discovery and validation of cancer biomarkers called the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN). Informatics plays a key role in enabling a virtual knowledge environment that provides scientists real time access to distributed data sets located at research institutions across the nation. The distributed and heterogeneous nature of the collaboration makes data sharing across institutions very difficult. EDRN has developed a comprehensive informatics effort focused on developing a national infrastructure enabling seamless access, sharing and discovery of science data resources across all EDRN sites. This paper will discuss the EDRN knowledge system architecture, its objectives and its accomplishments.

Cost of Services Provided by the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program

Science.gov (United States)

Ekwueme, Donatus U.; Subramanian, Sujha; Trogdon, Justin G.; Miller, Jacqueline W.; Royalty, Janet E.; Li, Chunyu; Guy, Gery P.; Crouse, Wesley; Thompson, Hope; Gardner, James G.

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) is the largest cancer screening program for low-income women in the United States. This study updates previous estimates of the costs of delivering preventive cancer screening services in the NBCCEDP. METHODS We developed a standardized web-based cost-assessment tool to collect annual activity-based cost data on screening for breast and cervical cancer in the NBCCEDP. Data were collected from 63 of the 66 programs that received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the 2006/2007 fiscal year. We used these data to calculate costs of delivering preventive public health services in the program. RESULTS We estimated the total cost of all NBCCEDP services to be $296 (standard deviation [SD], $123) per woman served (including the estimated value of in-kind donations, which constituted approximately 15% of this total estimated cost). The estimated cost of screening and diagnostic services was $145 (SD, $38) per women served, which represented 57.7% of the total cost excluding the value of in-kind donations. Including the value of in-kind donations, the weighted mean cost of screening a woman for breast cancer was $110 with an office visit and $88 without, the weighted mean cost of a diagnostic procedure was $401, and the weighted mean cost per breast cancer detected was $35,480. For cervical cancer, the corresponding cost estimates were $61, $21, $415, and $18,995, respectively. CONCLUSIONS These NBCCEDP cost estimates may help policy makers in planning and implementing future costs for various potential changes to the program. PMID:25099904

[Early detection of autism in children. Review of literature].

Science.gov (United States)

Pisula, E

1997-01-01

The difficulties with early detection of autistic disorder in children are discussed. DSM-IV diagnostic criteria are presented. Usefulness of clinical interview and clinical experiment in diagnosing autistic disorder are analyzed.

Early Prevention of Severe Neurodevelopmental Behavior Disorders: An Integration

Science.gov (United States)

Schroeder, Stephen R.; Courtemanche, Andrea

2012-01-01

There is a very substantial literature over the past 50 years on the advantages of early detection and intervention on the cognitive, communicative, and social-emotional development of infants and toddlers at risk for developmental delay due to premature birth or social disadvantage. Most of these studies excluded children with severe delays or…

Cervical screening with Luviva machine for early detection of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Cervical screening with Luviva machine for early detection of cervical dysplasia: ... glandular cell (AGC), Atypical glandular cell favouring neoplasia (AGC-FN), ... in low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion was recorded among the patients.

FabryScan: a screening tool for early detection of Fabry disease

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Arning, Kathrin; Naleschinski, Dennis; Maag, Rainer; Biegstraaten, Marieke; Kropp, Peter; Lorenzen, Jürgen; Hollak, Carla E. M.; van Schaik, Ivo N.; Harten, Pontus; Zeuner, Rainald A.; Binder, Andreas; Baron, Ralf

2012-01-01

Fabry disease, an X-linked lipid storage disorder, is associated early morbidity and mortality. Since enzyme replacement therapy is available, accurate detection of unrecognized cases is important. Characteristic early symptoms are recurrent episodes of burning and lancinating pain in the distal

Early in-flight detection of SO2 via Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy: a feasible aviation safety measure to prevent potential encounters with volcanic plumes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

U. Platt

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Volcanic ash constitutes a risk to aviation, mainly due to its ability to cause jet engines to fail. Other risks include the possibility of abrasion of windshields and potentially serious damage to avionic systems. These hazards have been widely recognized since the early 1980s, when volcanic ash provoked several incidents of engine failure in commercial aircraft. In addition to volcanic ash, volcanic gases also pose a threat. Prolonged and/or cumulative exposure to sulphur dioxide (SO2 or sulphuric acid (H2SO4 aerosols potentially affects e.g. windows, air frame and may cause permanent damage to engines. SO2 receives most attention among the gas species commonly found in volcanic plumes because its presence above the lower troposphere is a clear proxy for a volcanic cloud and indicates that fine ash could also be present. Up to now, remote sensing of SO2 via Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS in the ultraviolet spectral region has been used to measure volcanic clouds from ground based, airborne and satellite platforms. Attention has been given to volcanic emission strength, chemistry inside volcanic clouds and measurement procedures were adapted accordingly. Here we present a set of experimental and model results, highlighting the feasibility of DOAS to be used as an airborne early detection system of SO2 in two spatial dimensions. In order to prove our new concept, simultaneous airborne and ground-based measurements of the plume of Popocatépetl volcano, Mexico, were conducted in April 2010. The plume extended at an altitude around 5250 m above sea level and was approached and traversed at the same altitude with several forward looking DOAS systems aboard an airplane. These DOAS systems measured SO2 in the flight direction and at ±40 mrad (2.3° angles relative to it in both, horizontal and vertical directions. The approaches started at up to 25 km distance to the plume and SO2 was measured at all times well above the

Early in-flight detection of SO2 via Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy: A feasible aviation safety measure to prevent potential encounters with volcanic plumes

Science.gov (United States)

Vogel, L.; Galle, B.; Kern, C.; Delgado, Granados H.; Conde, V.; Norman, P.; Arellano, S.; Landgren, O.; Lubcke, P.; Alvarez, Nieves J.M.; Cardenas, Gonzales L.; Platt, U.

2011-01-01

Volcanic ash constitutes a risk to aviation, mainly due to its ability to cause jet engines to fail. Other risks include the possibility of abrasion of windshields and potentially serious damage to avionic systems. These hazards have been widely recognized 5 since the early 1980s, when volcanic ash provoked several incidents of engine failure in commercial aircraft. In addition to volcanic ash, volcanic gases also pose a threat. Prolonged and/or cumulative exposure to sulphur dioxide (SO2) or sulphuric acid (H2SO4) aerosols potentially affects e.g. windows, air frame and may cause permanent damage to engines. SO2 receives most attention among the gas species commonly found in 10 volcanic plumes because its presence above the lower troposphere is a clear proxy for a volcanic cloud and indicates that fine ash could also be present. Up to now, remote sensing of SO2 via Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) in the ultraviolet spectral region has been used to measure volcanic clouds from ground based, airborne and satellite platforms. Attention has been given to vol- 15 canic emission strength, chemistry inside volcanic clouds and measurement procedures were adapted accordingly. Here we present a set of experimental and model results, highlighting the feasibility of DOAS to be used as an airborne early detection system of SO2 in two spatial dimensions. In order to prove our new concept, simultaneous airborne and ground-based measurements of the plume of Popocatepetl volcano, Mexico, were conducted in April 2010. The plume extended at an altitude around 5250 m above sea level and was approached and traversed at the same altitude with several forward looking DOAS systems aboard an airplane. These DOAS systems measured SO2 in the flight direction and at ±40 mrad (2.3◦) angles relative to it in both, horizontal and vertical directions. The approaches started at up to 25 km distance to 25 the plume and SO2 was measured at all times well above the detection

Point/Counterpoint: early detection of prostate cancer: do the benefits outweigh the consequences?

Science.gov (United States)

Carroll, Peter R; Vickers, Andrew J

2014-05-01

Few clinical issues have polarized the oncology community as much as screening for prostate cancer, with advocates of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing vocal on one side and skeptics just as vocal on the other. At the NCCN 19th Annual Conference, Dr. Peter R. Carroll and Dr. Andrew J. Vickers tackled the controversy surrounding early detection of prostate cancer, focusing attention on the randomized trial results at the heart of the matter; over-detection (the Achilles' heel of screening); and the rationale behind the new, streamlined 2014 NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Prostate Cancer Early Detection, which emphasize selective early detection and treatment and are tightly aligned with the NCCN Guidelines for Prostate Cancer. Copyright © 2014 by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Value of mammography in the early detection of breast cancer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sabate, J.; Molina, L.; Jimenez, A.; Fernandez, E.

1997-01-01

Breast cancer is the most prevalent malignant tumor in women; the etiopathogenesis is unknown and it is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. In the fifties, different screening programs were developed for the early detection of breast cancer in the attempt to reduce the mortality attributed to this disease process. Mammography is one of the cornerstones of these programs because of its efficacy in the detection of subclinical tumors. We carried out a retrospective review of nine campaigns for the early detection of breast cancer, studying 11, 328 case reports; among these patients, there were 43 cases of breast cancer. Mammography was positive in 90.6% of these cases. Only in two patients did the image fail to reveal changes indicative of possible neoplasm; in both cases, the breasts involved were very dense. (Author) 26 refs

Leverage of an Existing Cervical Cancer Prevention Service Platform to Initiate Breast Cancer Control Services in Zambia: Experiences and Early Outcomes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leeya F. Pinder

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Purpose: In 2005, the Cervical Cancer Prevention Program in Zambia (CCPPZ was implemented and has since provided cervical cancer screen-and-treat services to more than 500,000 women. By leveraging the successes and experiences of the CCPPZ, we intended to build capacity for the early detection and surgical treatment of breast cancer. Methods: Our initiative sought to build capacity for breast cancer care through the (1 formation of a breast cancer advocacy alliance to raise awareness, (2 creation of resource-appropriate breast cancer care training curricula for mid- and high-level providers, and (3 implementation of early detection and treatment capacity within two major health care facilities. Results: Six months after the completion of the initiative, the following outcomes were documented: Breast health education and clinical breast examination (CBE services were successfully integrated into the service platforms of four CCPPZ clinics. Two new breast diagnostic centers were opened, which provided access to breast ultrasound, ultrasound-guided core needle biopsy, and needle aspiration. Breast health education and CBE were provided to 1,955 clients, 167 of whom were evaluated at the two diagnostic centers; 55 of those evaluated underwent core-needle biopsy, of which 17 were diagnosed with invasive cancer. Newly trained surgeons performed six sentinel lymph node mappings, eight sentinel lymph node dissections, and 10 breast conservation surgeries (lumpectomies. Conclusion: This initiative successfully established clinical services in Zambia that are critical for the early detection and surgical management of breast cancer.

Improved Detection of Microsatellite Instability in Early Colorectal Lesions.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeffery W Bacher

Full Text Available Microsatellite instability (MSI occurs in over 90% of Lynch syndrome cancers and is considered a hallmark of the disease. MSI is an early event in colon tumor development, but screening polyps for MSI remains controversial because of reduced sensitivity compared to more advanced neoplasms. To increase sensitivity, we investigated the use of a novel type of marker consisting of long mononucleotide repeat (LMR tracts. Adenomas from 160 patients, ranging in age from 29-55 years old, were screened for MSI using the new markers and compared with current marker panels and immunohistochemistry standards. Overall, 15 tumors were scored as MSI-High using the LMRs compared to 9 for the NCI panel and 8 for the MSI Analysis System (Promega. This difference represents at least a 1.7-fold increase in detection of MSI-High lesions over currently available markers. Moreover, the number of MSI-positive markers per sample and the size of allelic changes were significantly greater with the LMRs (p = 0.001, which increased confidence in MSI classification. The overall sensitivity and specificity of the LMR panel for detection of mismatch repair deficient lesions were 100% and 96%, respectively. In comparison, the sensitivity and specificity of the MSI Analysis System were 67% and 100%; and for the NCI panel, 75% and 97%. The difference in sensitivity between the LMR panel and the other panels was statistically significant (p<0.001. The increased sensitivity for detection of MSI-High phenotype in early colorectal lesions with the new LMR markers indicates that MSI screening for the early detection of Lynch syndrome might be feasible.

Early biotic stress detection in tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) by BVOC emissions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kasal-Slavik, Tina; Eschweiler, Julia; Kleist, Einhard; Mumm, Roland; Goldbach, Heiner E.; Schouten, Sander; Wildt, Jürgen

2017-01-01

We investigated impacts of early and mild biotic stress on Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (BVOC) emissions from tomato in order to test their potential for early (biotic) stress detection. Tomato plants were exposed to two common fungal pathogens, Botrytis cinerea and Oidium neolycopesici and

Preventive child health care findings on early childhood predict peer-group social status in early adolescence.

Science.gov (United States)

Jaspers, Merlijne; de Winter, Andrea F; Veenstra, René; Ormel, Johan; Verhulst, Frank C; Reijneveld, Sijmen A

2012-12-01

A disputed social status among peers puts children and adolescents at risk for developing a wide range of problems, such as being bullied. However, there is a lack of knowledge about which early predictors could be used to identify (young) adolescents at risk for a disputed social status. The aim of this study was to assess whether preventive child health care (PCH) findings on early childhood predict neglected and rejected status in early adolescence in a large longitudinal community-based sample. Data came from 898 participants who participated in TRAILS, a longitudinal study. Information on early childhood factors was extracted from the charts of routine PCH visits registered between infancy and age of 4 years. To assess social status, peer nominations were used at age of 10-12 years. Multinomial logistic regression showed that children who had a low birth weight, motor problems, and sleep problems; children of parents with a low educational level (odds ratios [ORs] between 1.71 and 2.90); and those with fewer attention hyperactivity problems (ORs = .43) were more likely to have a neglected status in early adolescence. Boys, children of parents with a low educational level, and children with early externalizing problems were more likely to have a rejected status in early adolescence (ORs between 1.69 and 2.56). PCH findings on early childhood-on motor and social development-are predictive of a neglected and a rejected status in early adolescence. PCH is a good setting to monitor risk factors that predict the social status of young adolescents. Copyright © 2012 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Deep learning classifier with optical coherence tomography images for early dental caries detection

Science.gov (United States)

Karimian, Nima; Salehi, Hassan S.; Mahdian, Mina; Alnajjar, Hisham; Tadinada, Aditya

2018-02-01

Dental caries is a microbial disease that results in localized dissolution of the mineral content of dental tissue. Despite considerable decline in the incidence of dental caries, it remains a major health problem in many societies. Early detection of incipient lesions at initial stages of demineralization can result in the implementation of non-surgical preventive approaches to reverse the demineralization process. In this paper, we present a novel approach combining deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging modality for classification of human oral tissues to detect early dental caries. OCT images of oral tissues with various densities were input to a CNN classifier to determine variations in tissue densities resembling the demineralization process. The CNN automatically learns a hierarchy of increasingly complex features and a related classifier directly from training data sets. The initial CNN layer parameters were randomly selected. The training set is split into minibatches, with 10 OCT images per batch. Given a batch of training patches, the CNN employs two convolutional and pooling layers to extract features and then classify each patch based on the probabilities from the SoftMax classification layer (output-layer). Afterward, the CNN calculates the error between the classification result and the reference label, and then utilizes the backpropagation process to fine-tune all the layer parameters to minimize this error using batch gradient descent algorithm. We validated our proposed technique on ex-vivo OCT images of human oral tissues (enamel, cortical-bone, trabecular-bone, muscular-tissue, and fatty-tissue), which attested to effectiveness of our proposed method.

Early detection of abnormal patient arrivals at hospital emergency department

KAUST Repository

Harrou, Fouzi; Sun, Ying; Kadri, Farid; Chaabane, Sondes; Tahon, Christian

2015-01-01

Overcrowding is one of the most crucial issues confronting emergency departments (EDs) throughout the world. Efficient management of patient flows for ED services has become an urgent issue for most hospital administrations. Handling and detection of abnormal situations is a key challenge in EDs. Thus, the early detection of abnormal patient arrivals at EDs plays an important role from the point of view of improving management of the inspected EDs. It allows the EDs mangers to prepare for high levels of care activities, to optimize the internal resources and to predict enough hospitalization capacity in downstream care services. This study reports the development of statistical method for enhancing detection of abnormal daily patient arrivals at the ED, which able to provide early alert mechanisms in the event of abnormal situations. The autoregressive moving average (ARMA)-based exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) anomaly detection scheme proposed was successfully applied to the practical data collected from the database of the pediatric emergency department (PED) at Lille regional hospital center, France.

Early detection of abnormal patient arrivals at hospital emergency department

KAUST Repository

Harrou, Fouzi

2015-10-21

Overcrowding is one of the most crucial issues confronting emergency departments (EDs) throughout the world. Efficient management of patient flows for ED services has become an urgent issue for most hospital administrations. Handling and detection of abnormal situations is a key challenge in EDs. Thus, the early detection of abnormal patient arrivals at EDs plays an important role from the point of view of improving management of the inspected EDs. It allows the EDs mangers to prepare for high levels of care activities, to optimize the internal resources and to predict enough hospitalization capacity in downstream care services. This study reports the development of statistical method for enhancing detection of abnormal daily patient arrivals at the ED, which able to provide early alert mechanisms in the event of abnormal situations. The autoregressive moving average (ARMA)-based exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) anomaly detection scheme proposed was successfully applied to the practical data collected from the database of the pediatric emergency department (PED) at Lille regional hospital center, France.

Health Literacy: Cancer Prevention Strategies for Early Adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Simmons, Robert A; Cosgrove, Susan C; Romney, Martha C; Plumb, James D; Brawer, Rickie O; Gonzalez, Evelyn T; Fleisher, Linda G; Moore, Bradley S

2017-09-01

Health literacy, the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand health information and services needed to make health decisions, is an essential element for early adults (aged 18-44 years) to make informed decisions about cancer. Low health literacy is one of the social determinants of health associated with cancer-related disparities. Over the past several years, a nonprofit organization, a university, and a cancer center in a major urban environment have developed and implemented health literacy programs within healthcare systems and in the community. Health system personnel received extensive health literacy training to reduce medical jargon and improve their patient education using plain language easy-to-understand written materials and teach-back, and also designed plain language written materials including visuals to provide more culturally and linguistically appropriate health education and enhance web-based information. Several sustainable health system policy changes occurred over time. At the community level, organizational assessments and peer leader training on health literacy have occurred to reduce communication barriers between consumers and providers. Some of these programs have been cancer specific, including consumer education in such areas as cervical cancer, skin cancer, and breast cancer that are targeted to early adults across the cancer spectrum from prevention to treatment to survivorship. An example of consumer-driven health education that was tested for health literacy using a comic book-style photonovel on breast cancer with an intergenerational family approach for Chinese Americans is provided. Key lessons learned from the health literacy initiatives and overall conclusions of the health literacy initiatives are also summarized. Copyright © 2017 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Impact of the Prevention Plan on Employee Health Risk Reduction

OpenAIRE

Loeppke, Ronald; Edington, Dee W.; Bég, Sami

2010-01-01

This study evaluated the impact of The Prevention Plan™ on employee health risks after 1 year of integrated primary prevention (wellness and health promotion) and secondary prevention (biometric and lab screening as well as early detection) interventions. The Prevention Plan is an innovative prevention benefit that provides members with the high-tech/high-touch support and encouragement they need to adopt healthy behaviors. Support services include 24/7 nurse hotlines, one-on-one health coach...

Multi-disciplinary team for early gastric cancer diagnosis improves the detection rate of early gastric cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Di, Lianjun; Wu, Huichao; Zhu, Rong; Li, Youfeng; Wu, Xinglong; Xie, Rui; Li, Hongping; Wang, Haibo; Zhang, Hua; Xiao, Hong; Chen, Hui; Zhen, Hong; Zhao, Kui; Yang, Xuefeng; Xie, Ming; Tuo, Bigung

2017-12-06

Gastric cancer is a frequent malignant tumor worldwide and its early detection is crucial for curing the disease and enhancing patients' survival rate. This study aimed to assess whether the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) can improve the detection rate of early gastric cancer (EGC). The detection rate of EGC at the Digestive Endoscopy Center, Affiliated Hospital, Zunyi Medical College, China between September 2013 and September 2015 was analyzed. MDT for the diagnosis of EGC in the hospital was established in September 2014. The study was divided into 2 time periods: September 1, 2013 to August 31, 2014 (period 1) and September 1, 2014 to September 1, 2015 (period 2). A total of 60,800 patients' gastroscopies were performed during the two years. 61 of these patients (0.1%) were diagnosed as EGC, accounting for 16.44% (61/371) of total patients with gastric cancer. The EGC detection rate before MDT (period 1) was 0.05% (16/29403), accounting for 9.09% (16/176) of total patients with gastric cancer during this period. In comparison, the EGC detection rate during MDT (period 2) was 0.15% (45/31397), accounting for 23% (45/195) of total patients with gastric cancer during this period (P cooperation with Department of Pathology (OR = 10.1, 95% CI 2.39-43.3, P < 0.05). MDT could improve the endoscopic detection rate of EGC.

A New Method for Early Anomaly Detection of BWR Instabilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ivanov, K.N.

2005-01-01

The objective of the performed research is to develop an early anomaly detection methodology so as to enhance safety, availability, and operational flexibility of Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) nuclear power plants. The technical approach relies on suppression of potential power oscillations in BWRs by detecting small anomalies at an early stage and taking appropriate prognostic actions based on an anticipated operation schedule. The research utilizes a model of coupled (two-phase) thermal-hydraulic and neutron flux dynamics, which is used as a generator of time series data for anomaly detection at an early stage. The model captures critical nonlinear features of coupled thermal-hydraulic and nuclear reactor dynamics and (slow time-scale) evolution of the anomalies as non-stationary parameters. The time series data derived from this nonlinear non-stationary model serves as the source of information for generating the symbolic dynamics for characterization of model parameter changes that quantitatively represent small anomalies. The major focus of the presented research activity was on developing and qualifying algorithms of pattern recognition for power instability based on anomaly detection from time series data, which later can be used to formulate real-time decision and control algorithms for suppression of power oscillations for a variety of anticipated operating conditions. The research being performed in the framework of this project is essential to make significant improvement in the capability of thermal instability analyses for enhancing safety, availability, and operational flexibility of currently operating and next generation BWRs.

Recursive SVM biomarker selection for early detection of breast cancer in peripheral blood.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Fan; Kaufman, Howard L; Deng, Youping; Drabier, Renee

2013-01-01

Breast cancer is worldwide the second most common type of cancer after lung cancer. Traditional mammography and Tissue Microarray has been studied for early cancer detection and cancer prediction. However, there is a need for more reliable diagnostic tools for early detection of breast cancer. This can be a challenge due to a number of factors and logistics. First, obtaining tissue biopsies can be difficult. Second, mammography may not detect small tumors, and is often unsatisfactory for younger women who typically have dense breast tissue. Lastly, breast cancer is not a single homogeneous disease but consists of multiple disease states, each arising from a distinct molecular mechanism and having a distinct clinical progression path which makes the disease difficult to detect and predict in early stages. In the paper, we present a Support Vector Machine based on Recursive Feature Elimination and Cross Validation (SVM-RFE-CV) algorithm for early detection of breast cancer in peripheral blood and show how to use SVM-RFE-CV to model the classification and prediction problem of early detection of breast cancer in peripheral blood.The training set which consists of 32 health and 33 cancer samples and the testing set consisting of 31 health and 34 cancer samples were randomly separated from a dataset of peripheral blood of breast cancer that is downloaded from Gene Express Omnibus. First, we identified the 42 differentially expressed biomarkers between "normal" and "cancer". Then, with the SVM-RFE-CV we extracted 15 biomarkers that yield zero cross validation score. Lastly, we compared the classification and prediction performance of SVM-RFE-CV with that of SVM and SVM Recursive Feature Elimination (SVM-RFE). We found that 1) the SVM-RFE-CV is suitable for analyzing noisy high-throughput microarray data, 2) it outperforms SVM-RFE in the robustness to noise and in the ability to recover informative features, and 3) it can improve the prediction performance (Area Under

UWB based low-cost and non-invasive practical breast cancer early detection

Science.gov (United States)

Vijayasarveswari, V.; Khatun, S.; Fakir, M. M.; Jusoh, M.; Ali, S.

2017-03-01

Breast cancer is one of the main causes of women death worldwide. Breast tumor is an early stage of cancer that locates in cells of a human breast. As there is no remedy, early detection is crucial. Towards this, Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is a prominent candidate. It is a wireless communication technology which can achieve high bandwidth with low power utilization. UWB is suitable to be used for short range communication systems including breast cancer detection since it is secure, non-invasive and human health friendly. This paper presents the low-cost and non-invasive early breast cancer detection strategy using UWB sensor (or antenna). Emphasis is given here to detect breast tumor in 2D and 3D environments. The developed system consisted of hardware and software. Hardware included UWB transceiver and a pair of home-made directional sensor/antenna. The software included feed-forward back propagation Neural Network (NN) module to detect the tumor existence, size and location along with soft interface between software and hardware. Forward scattering technique was used by placing two sensors diagonally opposite sides of a breast phantom. UWB pulses were transmitted from one side of phantom and received from other side, controlled by the software interface in PC environment. Collected received signals were then fed into the NN module for training, testing and validation. The system exhibited detection efficiency on tumor existence, location (x, y, z), and size were approximately 100%, (78.17%, 70.66%, 92.46%), 85.86% respectively. The proposed UWB based early breast cancer detection system could be more practical with low-cost, user friendly and non-harmful features. This project may help users to monitor their breast health regularly at their home.

Monitoring of lipoxygenase-related plant emission for early detection of drought stress in greenhouse

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Takayama, K.; Jansen, R.M.C.; Verstappen, F.W.A.; Bouwmeester, H.J.

2008-01-01

Early detection of plant stress is a key to effective plant management for crop production. Drought stress is a common abiotic stress in crop production and early detection of drought stress allows us to improve water usage effi ciency and crop quality by demandbased irrigation. This study

Early cystic fibrosis lung disease: Role of airway surface dehydration and lessons from preventive rehydration therapies in mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Mall, Marcus A; Graeber, Simon Y; Stahl, Mirjam; Zhou-Suckow, Zhe

2014-07-01

Cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease starts in the first months of life and remains one of the most common fatal hereditary diseases. Early therapeutic interventions may provide an opportunity to prevent irreversible lung damage and improve outcome. Airway surface dehydration is a key disease mechanism in CF, however, its role in the in vivo pathogenesis and as therapeutic target in early lung disease remains poorly understood. Mice with airway-specific overexpression of the epithelial Na(+) channel (βENaC-Tg) recapitulate airway surface dehydration and phenocopy CF lung disease. Recent studies in neonatal βENaC-Tg mice demonstrated that airway surface dehydration produces early mucus plugging in the absence of mucus hypersecretion, which triggers airway inflammation, promotes bacterial infection and causes early mortality. Preventive rehydration therapy with hypertonic saline or amiloride effectively reduced mucus plugging and mortality in neonatal βENaC-Tg mice. These results support clinical testing of preventive/early rehydration strategies in infants and young children with CF. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

HIV treatment as prevention: debate and commentary--will early infection compromise treatment-as-prevention strategies?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Myron S Cohen

Full Text Available Universal HIV testing and immediate antiretroviral therapy for infected individuals has been proposed as a way of reducing the transmission of HIV and thereby bringing the HIV epidemic under control. It is unclear whether transmission during early HIV infection--before individuals are likely to have been diagnosed with HIV and started on antiretroviral therapy--will compromise the effectiveness of treatment as prevention. This article presents two opposing viewpoints by Powers, Miller, and Cohen, and Williams and Dye, followed by a commentary by Fraser.

Indices allowing early detection of chronic pulmonary emphysema

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamaguchi, Kazuhiro; Soejima, Kenzo; Koda, Eiichi; Mori, Masaaki; Matsubara, Hiroaki; Oguma, Tsuyoshi; Kawamura, Masahumi; Kobayashi, Koichi

1996-01-01

To establish criteria allowing early detection of pathologically significant alterations in pulmonary emphysema caused by smoking, pulmonary-function tests and high-resolution computed tomography were done in 104 subjects categorized into three groups: nonsmoking healthy adults, smokers with a normal FEV 1 %, and smokers with a low FEV 1 % (cross-sectional analysis). Fifty-six of the 104 patients underwent pulmonary-function testing and high-resolution computed tomography once per year for 3 years (longitudinal analysis). Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses showed that abnormalities in functional residual capacity, in single-breath diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide, and in the average tomographic density of sections in the lower lung fields obtained after a deep inspiration could be used to predict whether the disease would reach an advanced stage, even if the patients had no significant symptoms at the time of testing. Relative areas of low-attenuation regions, which were alleged to directly reflect the size of emphysematous areas, appear not to be useful for early detection of pathological emphysema. (author)

Early detection monitoring for larval dreissenid mussels: how much plankton sampling is enough?

Science.gov (United States)

Counihan, Timothy D; Bollens, Stephen M

2017-03-01

The development of quagga and zebra mussel (dreissenids) monitoring programs in the Pacific Northwest provides a unique opportunity to evaluate a regional invasive species detection effort early in its development. Recent studies suggest that the ecological and economic costs of a dreissenid infestation in the Pacific Northwest of the USA would be significant. Consequently, efforts are underway to monitor for the presence of dreissenids. However, assessments of whether these efforts provide for early detection are lacking. We use information collected from 2012 to 2014 to characterize the development of larval dreissenid monitoring programs in the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington in the context of introduction and establishment risk. We also estimate the effort needed for high-probability detection of rare planktonic taxa in four Columbia and Snake River reservoirs and assess whether the current level of effort provides for early detection. We found that the effort expended to monitor for dreissenid mussels increased substantially from 2012 to 2014, that efforts were distributed across risk categories ranging from high to very low, and that substantial gaps in our knowledge of both introduction and establishment risk exist. The estimated volume of filtered water required to fully census planktonic taxa or to provide high-probability detection of rare taxa was high for the four reservoirs examined. We conclude that the current level of effort expended does not provide for high-probability detection of larval dreissenids or other planktonic taxa when they are rare in these reservoirs. We discuss options to improve early detection capabilities.

It’s Not Just About Baby Teeth: Preventing Early Childhood Caries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennifer D. Zwicker

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Early Childhood Caries (ECC is a serious disease that is about much more than cavities on baby teeth. In Canada, it is a growing public health problem with adverse long-term effects on children's physical, emotional and intellectual well-being. The failure to invest in preventive care has resulted in reactive, rather than proactive, measures against this disease. These measures are expensive and a needless drain on costs in the public health-care system. Children with severe ECC end up in hospital; in fact, in Canada, this disease is the most common reason children undergo day surgery. From 2010 to 2012, one in 100 children under age five required day surgery for ECC, with approximately 19,000 of these surgeries performed each year on children under age six. Canadian hospital costs for ECC day surgery in children aged one to five ranged from $1,271 to $1,963 per child, totalling $21.2 million between 2010 and 2012. Children from low-income families, along with aboriginal, immigrant and refugee children are disproportionately affected by dental disease, with between 50 per cent and 90 per cent of suffering from some form of ECC. This compares to an average of 57 per cent of children affected in the general population. A recent Alberta study indicates that when municipalities cease fluoridating their water supplies, children suffer increased levels of tooth decay. This has reignited the discussion around whether municipalities should add fluoride to the drinking water, or reinstate it in places where the water used to be fluoridated. While fluoridation can be an effective prevention strategy, this study also shows that fluoride alone is not enough. To reduce the costs and developmental consequences associated with severe ECC and improve well-being, oral health policies focused on disease prevention and health promotion are still necessary. This briefing paper provides background on the etiology, risk factors and prevalence of ECC in Canada to

Biomarkers for Early Detection of Malignant Mesothelioma: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Application

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tomasetti, Marco, E-mail: m.tomasetti@univpm.it; Santarelli, Lory [Department of Molecular Pathology and Innovative Therapies, Occupational Medicine, Polytechnic University of Marche, via Tronto 10/A Torrette 60020, Ancona (Italy)

2010-04-14

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a rare and aggressive tumour of the serosal cavities linked to asbestos exposure. Improved detection methods for diagnosing this type of neoplastic disease are essential for an early and reliable diagnosis and treatment. Thus, focus has been placed on finding tumour markers for the non-invasive detection of MM. Recently, some blood biomarkers have been described as potential indicators of early and advanced MM cancers. The identification of tumour biomarkers alone or in combination could greatly facilitate the surveillance procedure for cohorts of subjects exposed to asbestos, a common phenomenon in several areas of western countries.

A German e-learning-training in the context of early preventive intervention and child protection: preliminary findings of a pre-post evaluation.

Science.gov (United States)

Bressem, Kristina; Ziegenhain, Ute; Doelitzsch, Claudia; Hofer, Alexandra; Besier, Tanja; Fegert, Joerg M; Kuenster, Anne K

2016-01-01

In recent years, a number of government-sponsored initiatives have been implemented in Germany that are focused on early preventive intervention in child protection. In response to the need for interdisciplinary training in this area, the internet-based e-learning program "Early Preventive Intervention and Child Protection" was developed for professionals in the child welfare and health care systems working with families with infants and toddlers. The program is currently undergoing evaluation for effectiveness and user satisfaction. In a pre-post design, users are requested to complete questionnaires that assess three measures of expertise: theoretical knowledge of relevant fields, the ability to correctly identify subtle signals of infant communication, and the ability to assess maternal sensitivity. This article presents the contents of the program and the pre-training results (N = 1.294 participants). Descriptive analyses as well as Pearson correlations and Bonferroni corrections of error were conducted using the statistical program SPSS v. 21.0. The findings show that a wide range of professionals are making use of the program, and that their existing theoretical knowledge about early preventive intervention, as well as their ability to identify subtle signals of infant communication, is relatively good. However, their ability to assess maternal sensitivity, which is considered a crucial indicator for the risk of child abuse, was low. The outcome of the pre-training results indicates that professionals working in the area of child protection need to develop more capability in recognizing maternal sensitivity, in order to ensure early detection of families who are at risk and thus in need of support. Finally, the number of years of professional experience did not correlate with the scores on any of the three measures, which emphasizes the importance of providing interdisciplinary training in this area for all those working in child and family services

A SURVEY ON DELAY AND NEIGHBOR NODE MONITORING BASED WORMHOLE ATTACK PREVENTION AND DETECTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sudhir T Bagade

2016-12-01

Full Text Available In Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANET, network layer attacks, for example wormhole attacks, disrupt the network routing operations and can be used for data theft. Wormhole attacks are of two types: hidden and exposed wormhole. There are various mechanisms in literature which are used to prevent and detect wormhole attacks. In this paper, we survey wormhole prevention and detection techniques and present our critical observations for each. These techniques are based on cryptographic mechanisms, monitoring of packet transmission delay and control packet forwarding behavior of neighbor nodes. We compare the techniques using the following criteria- extra resources needed applicability to different network topologies and routing protocols, prevention/detection capability, etc. We conclude the paper with potential research directions.

Are both early egg introduction and eczema treatment necessary for primary prevention of egg allergy?

Science.gov (United States)

Matsumoto, Kenji; Mori, Rintaro; Miyazaki, Celine; Ohya, Yukihiro; Saito, Hirohisa

2018-06-01

The Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) study proved that early introduction of peanut significantly prevented the development of peanut allergy. However, in regard to similar attempts to prevent egg allergy through early egg introduction, the Prevention of Egg Allergy in High-risk Infants with Eczema (PETIT) study is the only randomized intervention trial to show a statistically significant effect. Meta-analysis of those studies indicated that neither the total amount nor pretreatment of egg showed any effect on egg allergy at the age of 12 months. However, raw egg powder resulted in a significantly higher prevalence of allergic reactions at initial introduction, whereas use of boiled egg was much safer. The prevalence of atopic dermatitis/eczema at introduction of egg correlated significantly with the subsequent prevalence of allergic reactions at initial introduction. In addition, the prevalence of egg allergy in the late introduction group correlated significantly with the prevalence of atopic dermatitis at introduction, even when the atopic dermatitis was proactively treated with a topical corticosteroid ointment. It is definitely true that the number of trials and number of participants in each trial are insufficient for drawing firm conclusions, especially regarding the optimal dose, raw versus boiled, when to start, and for whom to intervene. Therefore we propose various studies that should be performed to generate stronger data and conclusions. However, on the basis of the most recent results, we postulate that simultaneous intervention by both early boiled egg introduction and eczema treatment is probably indispensable for primary prevention of egg allergy. Copyright © 2018 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Early detection of materials degradation

Science.gov (United States)

Meyendorf, Norbert

2017-02-01

Lightweight components for transportation and aerospace applications are designed for an estimated lifecycle, taking expected mechanical and environmental loads into account. The main reason for catastrophic failure of components within the expected lifecycle are material inhomogeneities, like pores and inclusions as origin for fatigue cracks, that have not been detected by NDE. However, material degradation by designed or unexpected loading conditions or environmental impacts can accelerate the crack initiation or growth. Conventional NDE methods are usually able to detect cracks that are formed at the end of the degradation process, but methods for early detection of fatigue, creep, and corrosion are still a matter of research. For conventional materials ultrasonic, electromagnetic, or thermographic methods have been demonstrated as promising. Other approaches are focused to surface damage by using optical methods or characterization of the residual surface stresses that can significantly affect the creation of fatigue cracks. For conventional metallic materials, material models for nucleation and propagation of damage have been successfully applied for several years. Material microstructure/property relations are well established and the effect of loading conditions on the component life can be simulated. For advanced materials, for example carbon matrix composites or ceramic matrix composites, the processes of nucleation and propagation of damage is still not fully understood. For these materials NDE methods can not only be used for the periodic inspections, but can significantly contribute to the material scientific knowledge to understand and model the behavior of composite materials.

Prevention of Graves' ophthalmopathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartalena, Luigi

2012-06-01

Smoking is the most important risk factor for the occurrence/progression of Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO), as well as for its lower/slower response to immunosuppression. Accordingly, refrain from smoking should be urged, both as primary prevention (removal of risk factors in Graves' patients without GO), secondary prevention (early detection and treatment of asymptomatic/very mild GO) and tertiary prevention (reduction of complications/disability of overt GO). A 6-month course of 200 μg/day sodium selenite can prevent progression of mild GO to more severe GO and is, therefore, a form of secondary prevention and, probably, primary prevention. Correction of thyroid dysfunction and stable maintenance of euthyroidism are important preventive measures. The optimal treatment for hyperthyroidism in patients with GO is uncertain, because evidence demonstrating the superiority of antithyroid drugs over thyroid ablation (radioiodine, thyroidectomy, or both) is lacking. If radioiodine is used, low-dose steroid prophylaxis is recommended, particularly in smokers, to prevent radioiodine-associated GO progression. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Toward Primary Prevention of Asthma. Reviewing the Evidence for Early-Life Respiratory Viral Infections as Modifiable Risk Factors to Prevent Childhood Asthma

Science.gov (United States)

Feldman, Amy S.; He, Yuan; Moore, Martin L.; Hershenson, Marc B.

2015-01-01

A first step in primary disease prevention is identifying common, modifiable risk factors that contribute to a significant proportion of disease development. Infant respiratory viral infection and childhood asthma are the most common acute and chronic diseases of childhood, respectively. Common clinical features and links between these diseases have long been recognized, with early-life respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and rhinovirus (RV) lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) being strongly associated with increased asthma risk. However, there has long been debate over the role of these respiratory viruses in asthma inception. In this article, we systematically review the evidence linking early-life RSV and RV LRTIs with asthma inception and whether they could therefore be targets for primary prevention efforts. PMID:25369458

Early detection of breast and cervical cancer among indigenous communities in Morelos, Mexico.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lourdes Campero

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Objective. To analyze the perception in relation to when and how to perform actions for the early detection of breast and cervical cancer among women and health care providers in communities with a high percentage of indigenous population in Morelos, Mexico. Materials and methods. Ten health providers and 58 women users of health services were interviewed which have a first level of attention in five communities. The analysis was developed under the approach of the Grounded Theory. Results. Providers are poorly informed about current regulations and specific clinical indications for the detection of cervical and breast cancer. Few propitiate health literacy under intercultural sensitization. The users have imprecise or wrong notions of the early detection. Conclusions. The need for training in adherence to norms is evident. It is urgent to assume a culturally relevant approach to enable efficient communication and promote health literacy for early detection of these two cancers.

Early Detection and Identification of Anomalies in Chemical Regime

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Figedy, Stefan; Smiesko, Ivan

2011-01-01

This paper provides a brief information about the basic features of a newly developed diagnostic system for early detection and identification of anomalies incoming in the water chemistry regime of the primary and secondary circuit of VVER-440 reactor. This system, called SACHER (System of Analysis of CHEmical Regime) is being installed within the major modernization project at the NPP-V2 Bohunice in the Slovak Republic. System SACHER has been developed fully in MATLAB environment. The availability of prompt information about the chemical conditions of the primary and secondary circuit is very important to prevent the undue corrosion and deposit build-up. The typical chemical information systems that exist and work at the NPPs give the user values of the measured quantities together with their time trends and other derived values. It is then the experienced user's role to recognize the situation the monitored process is in and make the subsequent decisions and take the measures. The SACHER system, based on the computational intelligence techniques, inserts the elements of intelligence into the overall chemical information system. It has the modular structure with the following most important modules: normality module- its aim is to recognize that the process starts to deviate from the normal one and serves as the early warning to the staff to take the adequate measures, fuzzy identification module- its aim is to identify the anomaly on the basis of a set of fuzzy rules, time-prediction module- its aim is to predict the behavior/trend of selected chemical quantities 8 hours ahead in 15 min step from the moment of request, validation module- its aim is to validate the measured quantities, trend module- this module serves for showing the trends of the acquired quantities

Nanostructured materials with plasmonic nanobiosensors for early cancer detection: A past and future prospect.

Science.gov (United States)

Sugumaran, Sathish; Jamlos, Mohd Faizal; Ahmad, Mohd Noor; Bellan, Chandar Shekar; Schreurs, Dominique

2018-02-15

Early cancer detection and treatment is an emerging and fascinating field of plasmonic nanobiosensor research. It paves to enrich a life without affecting living cells leading to a possible survival of the patient. This review describes a past and future prospect of an integrated research field on nanostructured metamaterials, microwave transmission, surface plasmonic resonance, nanoantennas, and their manifested versatile properties with nano-biosensors towards early cancer detection to preserve human health. Interestingly, (i) microwave transmission shows more advantages than other electromagnetic radiation in reacting with biological tissues, (ii) nanostructured metamaterial (Au) with special properties like size and shape can stimulate plasmonic effects, (iii) plasmonic based nanobiosensors are to explore the efficacy for early cancer tumour detection or single molecular detection and (iv) nanoantenna wireless communication by using microwave inverse scattering nanomesh (MISN) technique instead of conventional techniques can be adopted to characterize the microwave scattered signals from the biomarkers. It reveals that the nanostructured material with plasmonic nanobiosensor paves a fascinating platform towards early detection of cancer tumour and is anticipated to be exploited as a magnificent field in the future. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer: The Role of Industry in the Development of Biomarkers.

Science.gov (United States)

Kenner, Barbara J; Go, Vay Liang W; Chari, Suresh T; Goldberg, Ann E; Rothschild, Laura J

A diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is devastating owing to its poor prognosis, with a 5-year survival rate of only 9%. Currently, most individuals are diagnosed at a late stage when treatment options are limited. Early detection of pancreatic cancer provides the greatest hope for making substantial improvements in survival. The Kenner Family Research Fund in partnership with the American Pancreatic Association has sponsored a series of fora to stimulate discussion and collaboration on early detection of pancreatic cancer. At the first forum in 2014, "Early Detection of Sporadic Pancreatic Cancer Summit Conference," a strategic plan was set forth by an international group of interdisciplinary scientific representatives and subsequently The Strategic Map for Innovation was generated. The current conference report is the third forum in the series, "Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer: The Role of Industry in the Development of Biomarkers," which was held in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 27, 2016. This report provides an overview of examples of innovative initiatives by industry and confirms the critical need for collaboration among industry, government, research institutions, and advocacy groups in order to make pancreatic cancer more easily detectable in its earlier stages, when it is more treatable.

Portable microfluidic raman system for rapid, label-free early disease signature detection

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wu, Meiye [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Davis, Ryan Wesley [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States); Hatch, Anson [Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)

2015-09-01

In the early stages of infection, patients develop non-specific or no symptoms at all. While waiting for identification of the infectious agent, precious window of opportunity for early intervention is lost. The standard diagnostics require affinity reagents and sufficient pathogen titers to reach the limit of detection. In the event of a disease outbreak, triaging the at-risk population rapidly and reliably for quarantine and countermeasure is more important than the identification of the pathogen by name. To expand Sandia's portfolio of Biological threat management capabilities, we will utilize Raman spectrometry to analyze immune subsets in whole blood to rapidly distinguish infected from non-infected, and bacterial from viral infection, for the purpose of triage during an emergency outbreak. The goal of this one year LDRD is to determine whether Raman spectroscopy can provide label-free detection of early disease signatures, and define a miniaturized Raman detection system meeting requirements for low- resource settings.

Prevention of caries with probiotic bacteria during early childhood. Promising but inconsistent findings

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jørgensen, Mette Rose; pqd956, pqd956; Twetman, Svante

2016-01-01

PURPOSE: This review summarized the available literature on the prevention of childhood caries through biofilm engineering with probiotic bacteria in early childhood. METHODS: Three databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library and Trip) were searched through January, 2016 for randomized controlled trials...

Evidence of Effectiveness of Current Therapies to Prevent and Treat Early Childhood Caries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Twetman, Svante; Dhar, Vineet

2015-01-01

PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper was to systematically review the quality of evidence related to self-applied and professionally applied fluorides, antimicrobial agents, fissure sealants, temporary restorations, and restorative care for the prevention and management of early childhood caries (E...

Early detection strategies for untreated first-episode psychosis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johannessen, Jan Olav; McGlashan, T H; Larsen, Tor Ketil

2001-01-01

-year inclusion period (1997-2000) are described. It includes targeted information towards the general public, health professionals and schools, and ED teams to recruit appropriate patients into treatment as soon as possible. This plus easy access to psychiatric services via ED teams systematically changed......Some studies in first-episode schizophrenia correlate shorter duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) with better prognosis, suggesting that timing of treatment may be important. A three-site prospective clinical trial in Norway and Denmark is underway to investigate the effect of the timing......-episode cases. The study ultimately will compare early detected with usual detected patients. This paper describes the study's major independent intervention variable, i.e. a comprehensive education and detection system to change DUP in first onset psychosis. System variables and first results from the four...

Retinal microaneurysms detection using local convergence index features

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dashtbozorg, B.; Zhang, J.; Huang, F.; ter Haar Romeny, B.M.

2018-01-01

Retinal microaneurysms (MAs) are the earliest clinical sign of diabetic retinopathy disease. Detection of microaneurysms is crucial for the early diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy and prevention of blindness. In this paper, a novel and reliable method for automatic detection of microaneurysms in

Retinal microaneurysms detection using local convergence index features

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dasht Bozorg, B.; Zhang, J.; ter Haar Romeny, B.M.

2017-01-01

Retinal microaneurysms are the earliest clinical sign of diabetic retinopathy disease. Detection of microaneurysms is crucial for the early diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy and prevention of blindness. In this paper, a novel and reliable method for automatic detection of microaneurysms in retinal

All-optical photoacoustic imaging and detection of early-stage dental caries

Science.gov (United States)

Sampathkumar, Ashwin; Hughes, David A.; Longbottom, Chris; Kirk, Katherine J.

2015-02-01

Dental caries remain one of the most common oral diseases in the world. Current detection methods, such as dental explorer and X-ray radiography, suffer from poor sensitivity and specificity at the earliest (and reversible) stages of the disease because of the small size (tooth decay. This AOPAI system provides a non-contact, non-invasive and non-ionizing means of detecting early-stage dental caries. Ex-vivo teeth exhibiting early-stage, white-spot lesions were imaged using AOPAI. Experimental scans targeted each early-stage lesion and a reference healthy enamel region. Photoacoustic (PA) signals were generated in the tooth using a 532-nm pulsed laser and the light-induced broadband ultrasound signal was detected at the surface of the tooth with an optical path-stabilized Michelson interferometer operating at 532 nm. The measured time-domain signal was spatially resolved and back-projected to form 2D and 3D maps of the lesion using k-wave reconstruction methods. Experimental data collected from areas of healthy and diseased enamel indicate that the lesion generated a larger PA response compared to healthy enamel. The PA-signal amplitude alone was able to detect a lesion on the surface of the tooth. However, time- reversal reconstructions of the PA scans also quantitatively depicted the depth of the lesion. 3D PA reconstruction of the diseased tooth indicated a sub-surface lesion at a depth of 0.6 mm, in addition to the surface lesion. These results suggest that our AOPAI system is well suited for rapid clinical assessment of early-stage dental caries. An overview of the AOPAI system, fine-resolution PA and histology results of diseased and healthy teeth will be presented.

Genetics and Early Detection in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Science.gov (United States)

Putman, Rachel K.; Rosas, Ivan O.

2014-01-01

Genetic studies hold promise in helping to identify patients with early idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Recent studies using chest computed tomograms (CTs) in smokers and in the general population have demonstrated that imaging abnormalities suggestive of an early stage of pulmonary fibrosis are not uncommon and are associated with respiratory symptoms, physical examination abnormalities, and physiologic decrements expected, but less severe than those noted in patients with IPF. Similarly, recent genetic studies have demonstrated strong and replicable associations between a common promoter polymorphism in the mucin 5B gene (MUC5B) and both IPF and the presence of abnormal imaging findings in the general population. Despite these findings, it is important to note that the definition of early-stage IPF remains unclear, limited data exist to definitively connect abnormal imaging findings to IPF, and genetic studies assessing early-stage pulmonary fibrosis remain in their infancy. In this perspective we provide updated information on interstitial lung abnormalities and their connection to IPF. We summarize information on the genetics of pulmonary fibrosis by focusing on the recent genetic findings of MUC5B. Finally, we discuss the implications of these findings and suggest a roadmap for the use of genetics in the detection of early IPF. PMID:24547893

An Early Fire Detection Algorithm Using IP Cameras

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hector Perez-Meana

2012-05-01

Full Text Available The presence of smoke is the first symptom of fire; therefore to achieve early fire detection, accurate and quick estimation of the presence of smoke is very important. In this paper we propose an algorithm to detect the presence of smoke using video sequences captured by Internet Protocol (IP cameras, in which important features of smoke, such as color, motion and growth properties are employed. For an efficient smoke detection in the IP camera platform, a detection algorithm must operate directly in the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT domain to reduce computational cost, avoiding a complete decoding process required for algorithms that operate in spatial domain. In the proposed algorithm the DCT Inter-transformation technique is used to increase the detection accuracy without inverse DCT operation. In the proposed scheme, firstly the candidate smoke regions are estimated using motion and color smoke properties; next using morphological operations the noise is reduced. Finally the growth properties of the candidate smoke regions are furthermore analyzed through time using the connected component labeling technique. Evaluation results show that a feasible smoke detection method with false negative and false positive error rates approximately equal to 4% and 2%, respectively, is obtained.

The continuing challenge of early detection of acute otitis media in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective: The aim of the study is to highlight the clinical problem of acute otitis media in children as seen in Uyo with particular reference to difficulties of early detection over a 6 year period (1999-2004). Methodology: A six-year retrospective study (1999-2004) was carried out to evaluate the clinical presentation and early ...

Early Prevention Toward Sexual Abuse on Children

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Ira Paramastri

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Child sexual abuse is a worldwide problem. Although most studies on the longterm consequences of child sexual abuse have focused on women, sexual abuse of both boys and girls is common. Peer sexual abuse in schools was an often overlooked problem that contributes to a hostile school environment: one major study found that 85% of girls and 76% of boys reported experiencing some form of sexual abuse in school. 85% of child sexual abuse is committed by relatives, close family friend or an adult that the child knows and trusts. The childhood sexual abuse variables taken into account are commonly age of onset, duration, abuse forms and relationship between the child and the perpetrator. The objective of this study was to gather information or opinion about sexual abuse concept, methods and media of the elementary students, parents, teachers and experts. A qualitative study, involving one to one interviews, was conducted with 7 experts, focus group discussion with 40 elementary students, and with 40 parents in Yogyakarta district about child sexual abuse issues. Data were analysed according to Miles and Huberman’s data reduction, data display and conclusion verification process. These findings strongly indicate that boys and girls are vulnerable to this form of childhood sexual abuse ; the similarity in the likelihood for multiple behavioral, mental and social outcomes among men and women suggest the need to identify and treat all adults affected by child sexual abuse. Themes related to the child sexual abuse were: paperwork design, good facilitator, guidelines for students, parents and teachers. Students prefer media that can help them understand concept with komik paperwork as media for early prevention. Parents, teachers and experts prefer that this prevention program can run as soon. With careful paperwork design and evaluation of prevention program, the success of program implementation can be enhanced.

Interventional prevention of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome in infertility patients with polycystic ovaries syndrome

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liang Weixiang; Chen Zhiyi; Yuan Wenlin; Chen Xia; Cai Kuan; Wang Weiqun; Zhu Junlin

2008-01-01

Objective: To assess the efficacy of aspiration of small follicles(ASF) guided by trans-vaginal ultra- sound (TVS) in preventing moderate and severe ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) in women with polycystic ovaries syndrome (PCOS). Methods: ASF was undertaken by trans-vaginally during artificial cycles in 25 women with PCOS who had early signs of OHSS during the early period of the cycle according to the ovaries and follicles detected by TVS. Small follicles(≤ 12 mm in diameter) were aspirated at the early period of gonadotropin therapy according to the follicle testing, three or less excellent follicles were reserve. All the patients were followed up for symptoms and signs of OHSS. Results: None of the patients developed moderate or severe OHSS. Successful intrauterine pregnancy were found in 7 cases (28%). Conclusion: ASF after gonadotropin injections is of significance to prevent moderate and severe OHSS and obtain a higher pregnancy rate in susceptible patients with PCOS during the early period of the cycles. Time of ASF is the main factor to prevent OHSS. TVS may be an important tool in the detection of early period of follicles development. (authors)

A Novel Arc Fault Detector for Early Detection of Electrical Fires.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Kai; Zhang, Rencheng; Yang, Jianhong; Liu, Canhua; Chen, Shouhong; Zhang, Fujiang

2016-04-09

Arc faults can produce very high temperatures and can easily ignite combustible materials; thus, they represent one of the most important causes of electrical fires. The application of arc fault detection, as an emerging early fire detection technology, is required by the National Electrical Code to reduce the occurrence of electrical fires. However, the concealment, randomness and diversity of arc faults make them difficult to detect. To improve the accuracy of arc fault detection, a novel arc fault detector (AFD) is developed in this study. First, an experimental arc fault platform is built to study electrical fires. A high-frequency transducer and a current transducer are used to measure typical load signals of arc faults and normal states. After the common features of these signals are studied, high-frequency energy and current variations are extracted as an input eigenvector for use by an arc fault detection algorithm. Then, the detection algorithm based on a weighted least squares support vector machine is designed and successfully applied in a microprocessor. Finally, an AFD is developed. The test results show that the AFD can detect arc faults in a timely manner and interrupt the circuit power supply before electrical fires can occur. The AFD is not influenced by cross talk or transient processes, and the detection accuracy is very high. Hence, the AFD can be installed in low-voltage circuits to monitor circuit states in real-time to facilitate the early detection of electrical fires.

A Novel Arc Fault Detector for Early Detection of Electrical Fires

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Kai; Zhang, Rencheng; Yang, Jianhong; Liu, Canhua; Chen, Shouhong; Zhang, Fujiang

2016-01-01

Arc faults can produce very high temperatures and can easily ignite combustible materials; thus, they represent one of the most important causes of electrical fires. The application of arc fault detection, as an emerging early fire detection technology, is required by the National Electrical Code to reduce the occurrence of electrical fires. However, the concealment, randomness and diversity of arc faults make them difficult to detect. To improve the accuracy of arc fault detection, a novel arc fault detector (AFD) is developed in this study. First, an experimental arc fault platform is built to study electrical fires. A high-frequency transducer and a current transducer are used to measure typical load signals of arc faults and normal states. After the common features of these signals are studied, high-frequency energy and current variations are extracted as an input eigenvector for use by an arc fault detection algorithm. Then, the detection algorithm based on a weighted least squares support vector machine is designed and successfully applied in a microprocessor. Finally, an AFD is developed. The test results show that the AFD can detect arc faults in a timely manner and interrupt the circuit power supply before electrical fires can occur. The AFD is not influenced by cross talk or transient processes, and the detection accuracy is very high. Hence, the AFD can be installed in low-voltage circuits to monitor circuit states in real-time to facilitate the early detection of electrical fires. PMID:27070618

Improving early detection initiatives: a qualitative study exploring perspectives of older people and professionals.

Science.gov (United States)

Lette, Manon; Stoop, Annerieke; Lemmens, Lidwien C; Buist, Yvette; Baan, Caroline A; de Bruin, Simone R

2017-06-23

A wide range of initiatives on early detection and intervention have been developed to proactively identify problems related to health and wellbeing in (frail) older people, with the aim of supporting them to live independently for as long as possible. Nevertheless, it remains unclear what the best way is to design such initiatives and how older people's needs and preferences can be best addressed. This study aimed to address this gap in the literature by exploring: 1) older people's perspectives on health and living environment in relation to living independently at home; 2) older people's needs and preferences in relation to initiating and receiving care and support; and 3) professionals' views on what would be necessary to enable the alignment of early detection initiatives with older people's own needs and preferences. In this qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 36 older people and 19 professionals in proactive elderly care. Data were analysed using the framework analysis method. From the interviews with older people important themes in relation to health and living environment emerged, such as maintaining independence, appropriate housing, social relationships, a supporting network and a sense of purpose and autonomy. Older people preferred to remain self-sufficient, and they would rather not ask for help for psychological or social problems. However, the interviews also highlighted that they were not always able or willing to anticipate future needs, which can hinder early detection or early intervention. At the same time, professionals indicated that older people tend to over-estimate their self-reliance and therefore advocated for early detection and intervention, including social and psychological issues. Older people have a broad range of needs in different domains of life. Discrepancies exist between older people and professionals with regard to their views on timing and scope of early detection initiatives. This study aimed

Early non-destructive biofouling detection and spatial distribution: Application of oxygen sensing optodes

KAUST Repository

Farhat, Nadia

2015-06-11

Biofouling is a serious problem in reverse osmosis/nanofiltration (RO/NF) applications, reducing membrane performance. Early detection of biofouling plays an essential role in an adequate anti-biofouling strategy. Presently, fouling of membrane filtration systems is mainly determined by measuring changes in pressure drop, which is not exclusively linked to biofouling. Non-destructive imaging of oxygen concentrations (i) is specific for biological activity of biofilms and (ii) may enable earlier detection of biofilm accumulation than pressure drop. The objective of this study was to test whether transparent luminescent planar O2 optodes, in combination with a simple imaging system, can be used for early non-destructive biofouling detection. This biofouling detection is done by mapping the two-dimensional distribution of O2 concentrations and O2 decrease rates inside a membrane fouling simulator (MFS). Results show that at an early stage, biofouling development was detected by the oxygen sensing optodes while no significant increase in pressure drop was yet observed. Additionally, optodes could detect spatial heterogeneities in biofouling distribution at a micro scale. Biofilm development started mainly at the feed spacer crossings. The spatial and quantitative information on biological activity will lead to better understanding of the biofouling processes, contributing to the development of more effective biofouling control strategies.

The pathogenesis, detection and prevention of Vibrio parahaemolyticus

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Rongzhi eWang

2015-03-01

Full Text Available Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a Gram-negative motile bacterium that inhabits marine and estuarine environments throughout the world, is a major food-borne pathogen that causes life-threatening diseases in humans after the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood. The global occurrence of V. parahaemaolyticus accentuates the importance of investigating its virulence factors and their effects on the human host. This review describes the virulence factors of V. parahaemolyticus reported to date, including hemolysin, urease, two type III secretion systems (T3SS and two type VI secretion systems (T6SS, which both cause both cytotoxicity in cultured cells and enterotoxicity in animal models. We describe various types of detection methods, based on virulence factors, that are used for quantitative detection of V. parahaemolyticus in seafood. We also discuss some useful preventive measures and therapeutic strategies for the diseases mediated by V. parahaemolyticus, which can reduce, to some extent, the damage to humans and aquatic animals attributable to V. parahaemolyticus. This review extends our understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of V. parahaemolyticus mediated by virulence factors and the diseases it causes in its human host. It should provide new insights for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of V. parahaemolyticus infection.

Early detection of foot ulcers through asymmetry analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Kaabouch, Naima; Chen, Yi; Hu, Wen-Chen; Anderson, Julie; Ames, Forrest; Paulson, Rolf

2009-02-01

Foot ulcers affect millions of Americans annually. Areas that are likely to ulcerate have been associated with increased local skin temperatures due to inflammation and enzymatic autolysis of tissue. Conventional methods to assess skin, including inspection and palpation, may be valuable approaches, but usually they do not detect changes in skin integrity until an ulcer has already developed. Conversely, infrared imaging is a technology able to assess the integrity of the skin and its many layers, thus having the potential to index the cascade of physiological events in the prevention, assessment, and management of foot ulcers. In this paper, we propose a technique, asymmetry analysis, to automatically analyze the infrared images in order to detect inflammation. Preliminary results show that the proposed technique can be reliable and efficient to detect inflammation and, hence, predict potential ulceration.

Early detection and treatment of Speckled leukoplakia

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Selviana Tampoma

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Background: Leukoplakia is one of potentially malignant disorders that can be found on oral mucosa. Speckled leukoplakia is a rare type of leukoplakia with a very high risk of premalignant growth. Approximately 3 % of worldwide population has suffered from leukoplakia, 5-25% of which tend to be malignant leukoplakia. Purpose: This case report was aimed to discuss about early detection of speckled leukoplakia as one of potentially malignant disorders. Case: A 62 year old male patient came with chief complaint of bald and painful tongue since one month ago. The patient has a history of allergic reaction, hypertension, uric acid, and hepatitis B. He had been a heavy smoker since young until 10 years ago. Intra oral examination showed a firm, rough, non scrapable white plaque lesion with a size of 1 x 1.5 cm, surrounded by painful erosion with diffuse boundary. Case Management: Based on cytology examination, the patient was reffered to oncologist to get an excisional biopsy. Next, the patient succesfully underwent the excisional biopsy and came for control. The results showed the healing process of the lesion with a minimal complaint of bald tongue, especially when eating spicy or hot meal. To improve healing process, the patient then was given an antibacterial mouth rinse containing zinc and mulvitamin. Conclusion: Speckled leukoplakia could show high malignant transformation rate, therefore, early detection and treatment are necessary.

A Context-Aware EEG Headset System for Early Detection of Driver Drowsiness

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Gang Li

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Driver drowsiness is a major cause of mortality in traffic accidents worldwide. Electroencephalographic (EEG signal, which reflects the brain activities, is more directly related to drowsiness. Thus, many Brain-Machine-Interface (BMI systems have been proposed to detect driver drowsiness. However, detecting driver drowsiness at its early stage poses a major practical hurdle when using existing BMI systems. This study proposes a context-aware BMI system aimed to detect driver drowsiness at its early stage by enriching the EEG data with the intensity of head-movements. The proposed system is carefully designed for low-power consumption with on-chip feature extraction and low energy Bluetooth connection. Also, the proposed system is implemented using JAVA programming language as a mobile application for on-line analysis. In total, 266 datasets obtained from six subjects who participated in a one-hour monotonous driving simulation experiment were used to evaluate this system. According to a video-based reference, the proposed system obtained an overall detection accuracy of 82.71% for classifying alert and slightly drowsy events by using EEG data alone and 96.24% by using the hybrid data of head-movement and EEG. These results indicate that the combination of EEG data and head-movement contextual information constitutes a robust solution for the early detection of driver drowsiness.

High-Throughput Analysis of Plasma Hybrid Markers for Early Detection of Cancers

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Jung-hyun Rho

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Biomarkers for the early detection of cancer in the general population have to perform with high sensitivity and specificity in order to prevent the costs associated with over-diagnosis. There are only a few current tissue or blood markers that are recommended for generalized cancer screening. Despite the recognition that combinations of multiple biomarkers will likely improve their utility, biomarker panels are usually limited to a single class of molecules. Tissues and body fluids including plasma and serum contain not only proteins, DNA and microRNAs that are differentially expressed in cancers but further cancer specific information might be gleaned by comparing different classes of biomolecules. For example, the level of a certain microRNA might be related to the level of a particular protein in a cancer specific manner. Proteins might have cancer-specific post-translational modifications (e.g., phosphorylation or glycosylation or lead to the generation of autoantibodies. Most currently approved biomarkers are glycoproteins. Autoantibodies can be produced as a host’s early surveillance response to cancer-specific proteins in pre-symptomatic and pre-diagnostic stages of cancer. Thus, measurement of the level of a protein, the level of its glycosylation or phosphorylation and whether autoantibodies are produced to it can yield multi-dimensional information on each protein. We consider specific proteins that show consistent cancer-specific changes in two or three of these measurements to be “hybrid markers”. We hypothesize these markers will suffer less variation between different individuals since one component can act to “standardize” the other measurement. As a proof of principle, a 180 plasma sample set consisting of 120 cases (60 colon cancers and 60 adenomas and 60 controls were analyzed using our high-density antibody array for changes in their protein, IgG-complex and sialyl-Lewis A (SLeA modified proteins. At p < 0

Skin cancer prevention and detection campaign at golf courses on Spain's Costa del Sol.

Science.gov (United States)

del Boz, J; Fernández-Morano, T; Padilla-España, L; Aguilar-Bernier, M; Rivas-Ruiz, F; de Troya-Martín, M

2015-01-01

Skin cancer prevention and detection campaigns targeting specific groups are necessary and have proven to be more effective than those aimed at the general population. Interventions in outdoor tourist spots have proven successful, although none have specifically targeted golf courses. The aims of this study were to describe the risk profile of golfers and golf course workers and evaluate the impact of a skin cancer prevention and early detection intervention. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted at 6 golf courses. The intervention included a skin examination and completion of a questionnaire about demographic details, risk factors, and sun exposure and sun protection habits. Participants were also given advice on sun protection measures, self-examination, and use of sunscreens, and were asked about their satisfaction with the intervention and their intention to change their current behaviors. The effect was measured in terms of the diagnoses made, satisfaction with the intervention, reported intention to change, and potential effect in terms of existing risk factors. Of the 351 participants (57% golfers and 43% golf course workers), 70.4% had fair skin, 11.7% had a family history of skin cancer, and 8.5% had a personal history of skin cancer. Skin cancer and actinic keratoses were diagnosed in 10.7% and 40% of the golfers, respectively. The session was rated positively by 99.4% of the participants; 93.9% stated that they intended to improve their sun exposure habits and 93.4% said that they planned to examine their skin more frequently. Our findings confirm that golf course workers and, in particular, golfers are an important target for skin cancer prevention campaigns. This is the first intervention to specifically target golf courses, and it proved to be both feasible and useful. Its success appears to be attributable to numerous factors: it was conducted at golf courses, had multiple components, and was preceded by a motivational campaign

Development of methodology for early detection of BWR instabilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alessandro Petruzzi; Shin Chin; Kostadin Ivanov; Asok Ray; Fan-Bill Cheung

2005-01-01

Full text of publication follows: The objective of the work presented in this paper research, which is supported by the US Department of Energy under the NEER program, is to develop an early anomaly detection methodology in order to enhance safety, availability, and operational flexibility of Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) nuclear power plants. The technical approach relies on suppression of potential power oscillations in BWRs by detecting small anomalies at an early stage and taking appropriate prognostic actions based on an anticipated operation schedule. The model of coupled (two-phase) thermal-hydraulic and neutron flux dynamics, based on the US NRC coupled code TRACE/PARCS, is being utilized as a generator of time series data for anomaly detection at an early stage. The concept of the methodology is based on the fact that nonlinear systems show bifurcation, which is a change in the qualitative behavior as the system parameters vary. Some of these parameters may change on their own accord and account for the anomaly, while certain parameters can be altered in a controlled fashion. The non-linear, non-autonomous BWR system model considered in this research exhibits phenomena at two time scales. Anomalies occur at the slow time scale while the observation of the dynamical behavior, based on which inferences are made, takes place at the fast time scale. It is assumed that: (i) the system behavior is stationary at the fast time scale; and (ii) any observable non-stationary behavior is associated with parametric changes evolving at the slow time scale. The goal is to make inferences about evolving anomalies based on the asymptotic behavior derived from the computer simulation. However, only sufficient changes in the slowly varying parameter may lead to detectable difference in the asymptotic behavior. The need to detect such small changes in parameters and hence early detection of an anomaly motivate the utilized stimulus-response approach. In this approach, the model

Towards software-based signature detection for intrusion prevention on the network card

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bos, H.; Huang, Kaiming

2006-01-01

CardGuard is a signature detection system for intrusion detection and prevention that scans the entire payload of packets for suspicious patterns and is implemented in software on a network card equiped with an Intel IXP1200 network processor. One card can be used to protect either a single host, or

PREVENTION OF NIPPLE CRACKS OF THE MAMMARY GLAND IN THE EARLY POSTNATAL PERIOD

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Marina L. Travina

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Preservation and prolongation of the lactation period is not only a guarantee of the child's full physical and mental development but also one of the most important methods for reducing the risk of developing breast cancer. Problems with the mammary gland nipple in a woman in the early postnatal period lead to a refusal of lactation. We carried out a retrospective analysis (period from 2010 to 2016 of the causes of traumatizing mammary gland nipples in the early postnatal period in 172 women (mean age 29.1 ± 4.3 years. Methods of prevention and treatment of nipple injuries in the early postnatal period have been offered for the lactation period prolongation.

Advancing early detection of autism spectrum disorder by applying an integrated two-stage screening approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oosterling, Iris J.; Wensing, Michel; Swinkels, Sophie H.; van der Gaag, Rutger Jan; Visser, Janne C.; Woudenberg, Tim; Minderaa, Ruud; Steenhuis, Mark-Peter; Buitelaar, Jan K.

Background: Few field trials exist on the impact of implementing guidelines for the early detection of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The aims of the present study were to develop and evaluate a clinically relevant integrated early detection programme based on the two-stage screening approach of

Role of EEG as Biomarker in the Early Detection and Classification of Dementia

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Noor Kamal Al-Qazzaz

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The early detection and classification of dementia are important clinical support tasks for medical practitioners in customizing patient treatment programs to better manage the development and progression of these diseases. Efforts are being made to diagnose these neurodegenerative disorders in the early stages. Indeed, early diagnosis helps patients to obtain the maximum treatment benefit before significant mental decline occurs. The use of electroencephalogram as a tool for the detection of changes in brain activities and clinical diagnosis is becoming increasingly popular for its capabilities in quantifying changes in brain degeneration in dementia. This paper reviews the role of electroencephalogram as a biomarker based on signal processing to detect dementia in early stages and classify its severity. The review starts with a discussion of dementia types and cognitive spectrum followed by the presentation of the effective preprocessing denoising to eliminate possible artifacts. It continues with a description of feature extraction by using linear and nonlinear techniques, and it ends with a brief explanation of vast variety of separation techniques to classify EEG signals. This paper also provides an idea from the most popular studies that may help in diagnosing dementia in early stages and classifying through electroencephalogram signal processing and analysis.

EWAS: Modeling Application for Early Detection of Terrorist Threats

Science.gov (United States)

Qureshi, Pir Abdul Rasool; Memon, Nasrullah; Wiil, Uffe Kock

This paper presents a model and system architecture for an early warning system to detect terrorist threats. The paper discusses the shortcomings of state-of-the-art systems and outlines the functional requirements that must to be met by an ideal system working in the counterterrorism domain. The concept of generation of early warnings to predict terrorist threats is presented. The model relies on data collection from open data sources, information retrieval, information extraction for preparing structured workable data sets from available unstructured data, and finally detailed investigation. The conducted investigation includes social network analysis, investigative data mining, and heuristic rules for the study of complex covert networks for terrorist threat indication. The presented model and system architecture can be used as a core framework for an early warning system.

PRECISION MEDICINE - The Golden Gate for Detection, Treatment and Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Hampel, H; O'Bryant, S E; Castrillo, J I; Ritchie, C; Rojkova, K; Broich, K; Benda, N; Nisticò, R; Frank, R A; Dubois, B; Escott-Price, V; Lista, S

2016-12-01

During this decade, breakthrough conceptual shifts have commenced to emerge in the field of Alzheimer's disease (AD) recognizing risk factors and the non-linear dynamic continuum of complex pathophysiologies amongst a wide dimensional spectrum of multi-factorial brain proteinopathies/neurodegenerative diseases. As is the case in most fields of medicine, substantial advancements in detecting, treating and preventing AD will likely evolve from the generation and implementation of a systematic precision medicine strategy. This approach will likely be based on the success found from more advanced research fields, such as oncology. Precision medicine will require integration and transfertilization across fragmented specialities of medicine and direct reintegration of Neuroscience, Neurology and Psychiatry into a continuum of medical sciences away from the silo approach. Precision medicine is biomarker-guided medicine on systems-levels that takes into account methodological advancements and discoveries of the comprehensive pathophysiological profiles of complex multi-factorial neurodegenerative diseases, such as late-onset sporadic AD. This will allow identifying and characterizing the disease processes at the asymptomatic preclinical stage, where pathophysiological and topographical abnormalities precede overt clinical symptoms by many years to decades. In this respect, the uncharted territory of the AD preclinical stage has become a major research challenge as the field postulates that early biomarker guided customized interventions may offer the best chance of therapeutic success. Clarification and practical operationalization is needed for comprehensive dissection and classification of interacting and converging disease mechanisms, description of genomic and epigenetic drivers, natural history trajectories through space and time, surrogate biomarkers and indicators of risk and progression, as well as considerations about the regulatory, ethical, political and

School Rampage Shootings and Other Youth Disturbances: Early Preventative Interventions. Psychosocial Stress Series

Science.gov (United States)

Nader, Kathleen, Ed.

2012-01-01

Together, "School Rampage Shootings and Other Youth Disturbances" and its accompanying CD provide a complete toolkit for using early preventative interventions with elementary-school age children. In ten thoughtful, clearly written chapters, both new and experienced practitioners will find a wealth of research- and evidence-based…

Early detection of infantile endocarditis by gallium-67 scintigraphy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hardoff, R; Luder, A S; Lorber, A; Dembo, L

1989-04-01

An infant with suspected soft tissue infection of the knee was studied by /sup 67/Ga-scintigraphy. In addition to knee and hip joint increased activity, heart uptake was also demonstrated prior to the development of clinical signs of endocarditis. The early detection and treatment resulted in satisfactory clinical resolution.

Early detection of infantile endocarditis by gallium-67 scintigraphy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hardoff, R.; Luder, A.S.; Lorber, A.; Dembo, L.; Technion-Israel Inst. of Tech., Haifa. Faculty of Medicine)

1989-01-01

An infant with suspected soft tissue infection of the knee was studied by 67 Ga-scintigraphy. In addition to knee and hip joint increased activity, heart uptake was also demonstrated prior to the development of clinical signs of endocarditis. The early detection and treatment resulted in satisfactory clinical resolution. (orig.)

Children, Teachers, and Families Working Together to Prevent Childhood Obesity: Intervention Strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Stegelin, Dolores A.

2008-01-01

Obesity rates for children, adolescents, and adults continue to escalate in the United States and globally. Educators, health specialists, psychologists, and sociologists are studying the complex problems related to early obesity. Like other health problems, prevention and early detection are the most effective strategies. The causes and…

Early detection of tooth wear by en-face optical coherence tomography

Science.gov (United States)

Mărcăuteanu, Corina; Negrutiu, Meda; Sinescu, Cosmin; Demjan, Eniko; Hughes, Mike; Bradu, Adrian; Dobre, George; Podoleanu, Adrian G.

2009-02-01

Excessive dental wear (pathological attrition and/or abfractions) is a frequent complication in bruxing patients. The parafunction causes heavy occlusal loads. The aim of this study is the early detection and monitoring of occlusal overload in bruxing patients. En-face optical coherence tomography was used for investigating and imaging of several extracted tooth, with a normal morphology, derived from patients with active bruxism and from subjects without parafunction. We found a characteristic pattern of enamel cracks in patients with first degree bruxism and with a normal tooth morphology. We conclude that the en-face optical coherence tomography is a promising non-invasive alternative technique for the early detection of occlusal overload, before it becomes clinically evident as tooth wear.

Cardiac Diastolic Evaluation in Pregnant Women with Abnormal Glucose Tolerance: An Opportunity to Detect the Early and Subclinical Alterations and Prevent Cardiovascular Diseases

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Pintaudi

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives of this study were to assess diastolic function in pregnant women with abnormal glucose tolerance (AGT, compared with normal glucose tolerance (NGT women, and to evaluate the insulin resistance status and its association with Doppler-echocardiographic indexes. Echocardiograms of 108 consecutive Caucasian women with singleton pregnancies were performed. Insulin resistance status was estimated by the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR and the quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI. All the studied women showed normal diastolic patterns. Patients with AGT (50.9%, as compared with NGT women, had higher HOMA-IR (1.70±1.30 versus 1.01±0.81, P=0.003, lower QUICKI (0.36±0.005 versus 0.40±0.06, P=0.004, higher lateral mitral annulus late diastolic velocity (13.6±4.9 versus 11.9±4.9, P=0.03, and higher A-wave velocity, the wave responsible for the active atrial contraction component (75.2±14.2 versus 67.7±16.2, P=0.01. At multivariate regression analysis HOMA-IR was the only parameter associated with A-wave velocity. In conclusion, women with AGT had an increased subclinical diastolic active participation, which is associated with higher levels of insulin resistance. For the increased risk of deterioration of cardiac diastolic function, earlier and more seriously than normal pregnancy, AGT women may have a careful followup to detect the early signs of cardiac alteration and to prevent cardiovascular diseases.

Mental health: early intervention and prevention in children and young people.

Science.gov (United States)

Membride, Heather

It is estimated that 10% of children and young people have mental health problems so significant that they impact not only on their day-to-day life but, if left untreated, they will continue into adulthood. In this article, the author discusses mental health issues affecting children and young people and examines evidence-based early intervention and prevention programmes that have been shown to support better outcomes for children, young people and their families.

[Early detection of ovarian cancer: tomorrow? A review].

Science.gov (United States)

Chene, G; Penault-Llorca, F; Robin, N; Cayre, A; Provencher, D M; Dauplat, J

2013-02-01

Ovarian cancer is the most lethal of the gynaecological malignancies because this «silent killer» is almost always diagnosed at an advanced stage. Precursor lesions have at least been discovered. This review will describe in details specific features of tubal and ovarian preinvasive lesions and the old and novel techniques that could be used for early detection of ovarian cancer. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Early detection of coolant boiling in research reactors with MTR-type fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kozma, R.; Turkcan, E.; Verhoef, J.P.

1992-10-01

A reactor core monitoring system having the function of early detection of boiling in the coolant channels of research reactors with MTR-type fuel is introduced. The system is based on the on-line analysis of signals of various ex-core and in-core neutron detectors. Early detection of coolant boiling cannot be accomplished by the evaluation of the DC components of these detectors in a number of practically important cases of boiling anomaly. It is shown that the noise component of the available neutron detector signals can be used for the detection of boiling in these cases. Experiments have been carried out at a boiling setup in the research reactor HOR of the Interfaculty Reactor Institute, Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands. (author). 8 refs., 11 figs

Growth monitoring as an early detection tool: a systematic review

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scherdel, P.; Dunkel, L.; Dommelen, P. van; Goulet, O.; Salaün, J.F.; Brauner, R.; Heude, B.; Chalumeau, M.

2016-01-01

Growth monitoring of apparently healthy children aims at early detection of serious underlying disorders. However, existing growth-monitoring practices are mainly based on suboptimal methods, which can result in delayed diagnosis of severe diseases and inappropriate referrals. We did a systematic

Early detection of protozoan grazers in algal biofuel cultures.

Science.gov (United States)

Day, John G; Thomas, Naomi J; Achilles-Day, Undine E M; Leakey, Raymond J G

2012-06-01

Future micro-algal biofuels will most likely be derived from open-pond production systems. These are by definition open to "invasion" by grazers, which could devastate micro-algal mass-cultures. There is an urgent requirement for methodologies capable of early detection and control of grazers in dense algal cultures. In this study a model system employing the marine alga Nannochloropsis oculata was challenged by grazers including ciliates, amoebae and a heterotrophic dinoflagellate. A FlowCAM flow-cytometer was used to detect all grazers investigated (size range 80 μm in length) in the presence of algae. Detection limits were 1.4 × 10(8) cells ml(-1) (>0.5 g l(-1) dry wt.). Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Best clinical practice guidance for management of early caries lesions in children and young adults

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kühnisch, J; Ekstrand, K R; Pretty, I

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: The European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry (EAPD) encourages prevention and arrest of active dental caries. Therefore, the present guidance provides evidence- and clinically-based recommendations for detecting and diagnosing early/non-cavitated caries lesions, risk assessment......-invasively in the majority of cases. The spectrum of measures includes a low cariogenicity tooth-friendly diet, daily and appropriate management of the biofilm, home and within the dental office/surgery usage of fluorides as well as sealing techniques. CONCLUSION: The detection and management of non-cavitated caries...... is an essential aspect of preventive dentistry. Therefore, the EAPD encourages oral health care providers and caregivers to implement preventive practices that can arrest early caries and improve individual and public dental health....

Evidence for the prevention of bone loss in elderly and old early non-metastatic breast cancer patients treated with aromatase inhibitors

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gunmalm, V.; Jørgensen, N. R.; Abrahamsen, B.

2017-01-01

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer amongst women worldwide. Bone health is emerging as an important issue for BC survivors. In this literature study, we focus on agents for preventing bone loss in early non-metastatic estrogen receptor positive BC in treatment with aromatase inhibitors...... (AI) and to assess the evidence for antiresorptive treatment of bone loss in early non-metastatic breast cancer. We included randomized controlled trials (RCT's) comparing: (a) bisphosphonates and control; (b) different bisphosphonates; (c) denosumab and control and (d) bisphosphonates vs. denosumab...... in early non-metastatic BC women in AI treatment. Among antiresorptives, zoledronic acid currently has the highest evidence for prevention of AI associated bone loss in early non-metastatic BC. Data on fracture prevention among all patients, elderly and old is sparse. More randomized controlled studies...

Strategies for Early Outbreak Detection of Malaria in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia

Science.gov (United States)

Nekorchuk, D.; Gebrehiwot, T.; Mihretie, A.; Awoke, W.; Wimberly, M. C.

2017-12-01

Traditional epidemiological approaches to early detection of disease outbreaks are based on relatively straightforward thresholds (e.g. 75th percentile, standard deviations) estimated from historical case data. For diseases with strong seasonality, these can be modified to create separate thresholds for each seasonal time step. However, for disease processes that are non-stationary, more sophisticated techniques are needed to more accurately estimate outbreak threshold values. Early detection for geohealth-related diseases that also have environmental drivers, such as vector-borne diseases, may also benefit from the integration of time-lagged environmental data and disease ecology models into the threshold calculations. The Epidemic Prognosis Incorporating Disease and Environmental Monitoring for Integrated Assessment (EPIDEMIA) project has been integrating malaria case surveillance with remotely-sensed environmental data for early detection, warning, and forecasting of malaria epidemics in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, and has five years of weekly time series data from 47 woredas (districts). Efforts to reduce the burden of malaria in Ethiopia has been met with some notable success in the past two decades with major reduction in cases and deaths. However, malaria remains a significant public health threat as 60% of the population live in malarious areas, and due to the seasonal and unstable transmission patterns with cyclic outbreaks, protective immunity is generally low which could cause high morbidity and mortality during the epidemics. This study compared several approaches for defining outbreak thresholds and for identifying a potential outbreak based on deviations from these thresholds. We found that model-based approaches that accounted for climate-driven seasonality in malaria transmission were most effective, and that incorporating a trend component improved outbreak detection in areas with active malaria elimination efforts. An advantage of these early

Early detection and prevention of adolescent alcohol use: Parenting and psychosocial factors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Visser, Leenke

2014-01-01

Alcohol use among adolescents has become a major public health concern over the past decade. This alcohol use is associated with various other problems, therefore it is important to detect at-risk adolescents as a starting point for interventions. The main aim of this thesis is to identify

On the detection of early osteoarthritis by quantitative microscopic imaging

Science.gov (United States)

Mittelstaedt, Daniel John

measurements. These studies demonstrate the ability to use two quantitative microscopic imaging techniques, microCT and microMRI, to detect microscopic changes in collagen and GAG from healthy, biochemically degraded, and early OA cartilage. The capability for microscopic imaging to detect alterations at the earliest stages of OA will ultimately improve the understanding of degradation and may help aid in the detection for the prevention of disease and repair of damaged cartilage.

28 CFR 104.71 - Procedures to prevent and detect fraud.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Procedures to prevent and detect fraud. 104.71 Section 104.71 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (CONTINUED) SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIM COMPENSATION FUND OF 2001 Measures To Protect the Integrity of the Compensation Program § 104.71 Procedures to...

Early forest fire detection using low-energy hydrogen sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. Nörthemann

2013-11-01

Full Text Available Most huge forest fires start in partial combustion. In the beginning of a smouldering fire, emission of hydrogen in low concentration occurs. Therefore, hydrogen can be used to detect forest fires before open flames are visible and high temperatures are generated. We have developed a hydrogen sensor comprising of a metal/solid electrolyte/insulator/semiconductor (MEIS structure which allows an economical production. Due to the low energy consumption, an autarkic working unit in the forest was established. In this contribution, first experiments are shown demonstrating the possibility to detect forest fires at a very early stage using the hydrogen sensor.

Social-class indicators differentially predict engagement in prevention vs. detection behaviours.

Science.gov (United States)

Haught, Heather M; Rose, Jason P; Brown, Jill A

2016-01-01

Few systematic studies have examined the contexts in which social-class variables will predict engagement in health-relevant behaviours. The current research examined whether the impact of social-class on health behaviours depends upon how social-class is assessed and the category of health behaviour under consideration. Our sample was drawn from the Health Information National Trends Survey in 2012 (N = 3959). Participants reported their income and education as well as their engagement in a variety of prevention and detection behaviours. Consistent with our hypothesised framework, we found that income predicted engagement in a variety of detection behaviours above and beyond education, whereas education predicted engagement in a variety of prevention behaviours above and beyond income. Our findings suggest that income and education operate on health behaviours via different pathways and have implications for public health policy and intervention.

Detecting COPD exacerbations early using daily telemonitoring of symptoms and k-means clustering: a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanchez-Morillo, Daniel; Fernandez-Granero, Miguel Angel; Jiménez, Antonio León

2015-05-01

COPD places an enormous burden on the healthcare systems and causes diminished health-related quality of life. The highest proportion of human and economic cost is associated with admissions for acute exacerbation of respiratory symptoms (AECOPD). Since prompt detection and treatment of exacerbations may improve outcomes, early detection of AECOPD is a critical issue. This pilot study was aimed to determine whether a mobile health system could enable early detection of AECOPD on a day-to-day basis. A novel electronic questionnaire for the early detection of COPD exacerbations was evaluated during a 6-months field trial in a group of 16 patients. Pattern recognition techniques were applied. A k-means clustering algorithm was trained and validated, and its accuracy in detecting AECOPD was assessed. Sensitivity and specificity were 74.6 and 89.7 %, respectively, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.84. 31 out of 33 AECOPD were early identified with an average of 4.5 ± 2.1 days prior to the onset of the exacerbation that was considered the day of medical attendance. Based on the findings of this preliminary pilot study, the proposed electronic questionnaire and the applied methodology could help to early detect COPD exacerbations on a day-to-day basis and therefore could provide support to patients and physicians.

Oxygen-tension measurements - The first step towards prevention and early detection of anastomotic leakage

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tanase, D.; French, P.J.; Komen, N.; Kleinrensink, G.J.; Jeekel, J.; Lange, J.F.; Draaijer, A.

2007-01-01

Many patients still die every year as a result of anastomotic leakage after surgery. The medical world needs an objective aid to detect leakage during surgery and during the critical recovery period. We propose a miniature measurement system to detect adequate tissue oxygenation pre- and

Early Seizure Detection Based on Cardiac Autonomic Regulation Dynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonatas Pavei

2017-10-01

Full Text Available Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that causes changes in the autonomic nervous system. Heart rate variability (HRV reflects the regulation of cardiac activity and autonomic nervous system tone. The early detection of epileptic seizures could foster the use of new treatment approaches. This study presents a new methodology for the prediction of epileptic seizures using HRV signals. Eigendecomposition of HRV parameter covariance matrices was used to create an input for a support vector machine (SVM-based classifier. We analyzed clinical data from 12 patients (9 female; 3 male; age 34.5 ± 7.5 years, involving 34 seizures and a total of 55.2 h of interictal electrocardiogram (ECG recordings. Data from 123.6 h of ECG recordings from healthy subjects were used to test false positive rate per hour (FP/h in a completely independent data set. Our methodological approach allowed the detection of impending seizures from 5 min to just before the onset of a clinical/electrical seizure with a sensitivity of 94.1%. The FP rate was 0.49 h−1 in the recordings from patients with epilepsy and 0.19 h−1 in the recordings from healthy subjects. Our results suggest that it is feasible to use the dynamics of HRV parameters for the early detection and, potentially, the prediction of epileptic seizures.

Metagenomic Detection Methods in Biopreparedness Outbreak Scenarios

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karlsson, Oskar Erik; Hansen, Trine; Knutsson, Rickard

2013-01-01

In the field of diagnostic microbiology, rapid molecular methods are critically important for detecting pathogens. With rapid and accurate detection, preventive measures can be put in place early, thereby preventing loss of life and further spread of a disease. From a preparedness perspective...... of a clinical sample, creating a metagenome, in a single week of laboratory work. As new technologies emerge, their dissemination and capacity building must be facilitated, and criteria for use, as well as guidelines on how to report results, must be established. This article focuses on the use of metagenomics...

Early fault detection using design models for collision prevention in medical equipment

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mooij, A.J.; Hooman, J.; Albers, R.

2013-01-01

In the medical domain there is a tension between the requested speed of innovation and the time needed to deliver a certifiable system. To ensure the required safety, usually a long test and integration phase is needed. To shorten this phase and to avoid late bug fixing, the aim is to detect faults

Early fault detection and on-line diagnosis in real-time environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreas Bye

1993-01-01

Full Text Available This paper describes an approach to fault detection and diagnosis involving the simultaneous employment of quantitative and qualitative reasoning techniques. We show that early identification of process anomalies by means of a separate fault detection module paves the way for a fast and accuratc follow-up diagnosis. The diagnosis task is dramatically simplified because the diagnostic inferences can be performed at the soonest possible time: when the detection module first spots deviations between its calculated reference points and the corresponding measurements from the process.

The role of health centers in preventive care provision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shemetova G.N.

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Aim: to assess the importance of the Centers of Health in the organization and provision of preventive care to the population, in the early detection of risk factors for the development of chronic non-communicable diseases and the development of a healthy lifestyle. Material and Methods. On the basis of the Health Center of Engels Center for Medical Prevention in the Saratov Region, the detection of risk factors for 2011-2015 was analyzed according to statistical reporting (form No. 68 and health cards (form025-CZ/y of 207 patients. To assess the satisfaction of visitors with the work of the Center, a specially developed questionnaire was conducted, which included 22 questions that characterize the patient profile, his attitude to the organization and the results of the survey, and the motivation to modify the way of life. Results. The study confirmed the important role of the Centers of Health in the organization and provision of preventive care to the population, the formation of a healthy lifestyle and the early detection of diseases and risk factors for their development. Conclusion. Only joint efforts of medical institutions, authorities, educational organizations, mass media can lead to the formation of the population's responsibility for their health and readiness to modify the way of life.

Important first encounter: Service user experience of pathways to care and early detection in first-episode psychosis.

Science.gov (United States)

Jansen, Jens Einar; Pedersen, Marlene Buch; Hastrup, Lene Halling; Haahr, Ulrik Helt; Simonsen, Erik

2018-04-01

Long duration of untreated psychosis is associated with poor clinical and functional outcomes. However, few systematic attempts have been made to reduce this delay and little is known of service users' experience of early detection efforts. We explored service users' experience of an early detection service and transition to specialized treatment service, including pathway to care, understanding of illness and barriers to adequate assessment and treatment. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 service users (median age 21, range 18-27, five males and five females) who were diagnosed with a first-episode non-affective psychosis and who were seen by an early detection team (TOP) and currently enrolled in a specialized early intervention service for this disorder (OPUS). Stigma and fear of the 'psychiatric system' were reported as significant barriers to help seeking, while family members were seen as a crucial support. Moreover, the impact of traumatic events on the experience and development of psychosis was highlighted. Finally, participants were relieved by the prospect of receiving help and the early detection team seemed to create a trusting relationship by offering a friendly, 'anti-stigmatized' space, where long-term symptomatology could be disclosed through accurate and validating questioning. Early detection services have two important functions. One is to make accurate assessments and referrals. The other is to instil hope and trust, and to facilitate further treatment by forming an early therapeutic alliance. The findings in this study provide important insights into the way in which early detection efforts and pathways to care are experienced by service users, with direct implications for improving psychiatric services. © 2015 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Familial risk factors in social anxiety disorder: calling for a family-oriented approach for targeted prevention and early intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Knappe, Susanne; Beesdo-Baum, Katja; Wittchen, Hans-Ulrich

2010-12-01

Within the last decade, social anxiety disorder (SAD) has been identified as a highly prevalent and burdensome disorder. Both the characterization of its symptomatology and effective treatment options are widely documented. Studies particularly indicate that SAD aggregates in families and has its onset in early adolescence. Given the family as an important context for children's cognitive, emotional and behavioural development, familial risk factors could be expected to significantly contribute to the reliable detection of populations at risk for SAD. Reviewing studies on familial risk factors for SAD argues for the importance of parental psychopathology and unfavourable family environment, but also denotes to several shortcomings such as cross-sectional designs, short follow-up periods, diverging methodologies and the focus on isolated factors. Using a prospective longitudinal study that covers the high-risk period for SAD, including a broader spectrum of putative risk factors may help to overcome many of the methodological limitations. This review sets out to develop a more family-oriented approach for predicting the onset and maintenance of SAD that may be fruitful to derive targeted prevention and early intervention in SAD.

Computational chemistry approach for the early detection of drug-induced idiosyncratic liver toxicity.

Science.gov (United States)

Cruz-Monteagudo, Maykel; Cordeiro, M Natália D S; Borges, Fernanda

2008-03-01

Idiosyncratic drug toxicity (IDT), considered as a toxic host-dependent event, with an apparent lack of dose response relationship, is usually not predictable from early phases of clinical trials, representing a particularly confounding complication in drug development. Albeit a rare event (usually approach proposed in the present study, can play an important role in addressing IDT in early drug discovery. We report for the first time a systematic evaluation of classification models to predict idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity based on linear discriminant analysis (LDA), artificial neural networks (ANN), and machine learning algorithms (OneR) in conjunction with a 3D molecular structure representation and feature selection methods. These modeling techniques (LDA, feature selection to prevent over-fitting and multicollinearity, ANN to capture nonlinear relationships in the data, as well as the simple OneR classifier) were found to produce QSTR models with satisfactory internal cross-validation statistics and predictivity on an external subset of chemicals. More specifically, the models reached values of accuracy/sensitivity/specificity over 84%/78%/90%, respectively in the training series along with predictivity values ranging from ca. 78 to 86% of correctly classified drugs. An LDA-based desirability analysis was carried out in order to select the levels of the predictor variables needed to trigger the more desirable drug, i.e. the drug with lower potential for idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity. Finally, two external test sets were used to evaluate the ability of the models in discriminating toxic from nontoxic structurally and pharmacologically related drugs and the ability of the best model (LDA) in detecting potential idiosyncratic hepatotoxic drugs, respectively. The computational approach proposed here can be considered as a useful tool in early IDT prognosis.

Error detection and prevention in Embedded Systems Software

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kamel, Hani Fouad

1996-01-01

Despite many efforts to structure the development and design processes of embedded systems, errors are discovered at the final stages of production and sometimes after the delivery of the products. The cost of such errors can be prohibitive.Different design techniques to detect such errors...... systems, a formal model for such systems is introduced. The main characteristics of embedded systems design and the interaction of these properties are described. A taxonomy for the structure of the software developed for such systems based on the amount of processes and processors involved is presented.......The second part includes methods and techniques to detect software design errors.The third part deals with error prevention. It starts with a presentation of different models of the development processes used in industry and taught at universities. This leads us to deduce the major causes of errors...

Early skin tumor detection from microscopic images through image processing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Siddiqi, A.A.; Narejo, G.B.; Khan, A.M.

2017-01-01

The research is done to provide appropriate detection technique for skin tumor detection. The work is done by using the image processing toolbox of MATLAB. Skin tumors are unwanted skin growth with different causes and varying extent of malignant cells. It is a syndrome in which skin cells mislay the ability to divide and grow normally. Early detection of tumor is the most important factor affecting the endurance of a patient. Studying the pattern of the skin cells is the fundamental problem in medical image analysis. The study of skin tumor has been of great interest to the researchers. DIP (Digital Image Processing) allows the use of much more complex algorithms for image processing, and hence, can offer both more sophisticated performance at simple task, and the implementation of methods which would be impossibly by analog means. It allows much wider range of algorithms to be applied to the input data and can avoid problems such as build up of noise and signal distortion during processing. The study shows that few works has been done on cellular scale for the images of skin. This research allows few checks for the early detection of skin tumor using microscopic images after testing and observing various algorithms. After analytical evaluation the result has been observed that the proposed checks are time efficient techniques and appropriate for the tumor detection. The algorithm applied provides promising results in lesser time with accuracy. The GUI (Graphical User Interface) that is generated for the algorithm makes the system user friendly. (author)

Attitudes of the German general population toward early diagnosis of dementia--results of a representative telephone survey.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tobias Luck

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Early detection of dementia has clearly improved. Even though none of the currently available treatments for the most common form of dementia, Alzheimer's dementia, promises a cure, early diagnosis provides several benefits for patients, caregivers, and health care systems. This study aimed to describe attitudes toward early diagnosis of dementia in the German general population. METHODS: A representative telephone survey of the German population aged 18+ years (n = 1,002 was conducted in 2011. RESULTS: The majority of respondents (69% would be willing to be examined for early diagnosis of dementia. Almost two thirds reported that they would prefer their general practitioner (GP as the first source of professional help. More than half of the respondents (55% stated their belief that dementia could be prevented. Respondents mostly indicated psychosocial prevention options. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the general population in Germany is very open to early diagnosis of dementia; however, this seems connected with large expectations on the effectiveness of prevention options. Dementia awareness campaigns may be employed to carefully inform the public about the prevention options currently available and their efficacy. To exploit GPs' potential as a gatekeeper for early detection of dementia, their ability to identify patients with antecedent and mild stages of the disease must be improved.

Wellness Programs: Preventive Medicine to Reduce Health Care Costs.

Science.gov (United States)

Martini, Gilbert R., Jr.

1991-01-01

A wellness program is a formalized approach to preventive health care that can positively affect employee lifestyle and reduce future health-care costs. Describes programs for health education, smoking cessation, early detection, employee assistance, and fitness, citing industry success figures. (eight references) (MLF)

Early detection of Alzheimer disease: methods, markers, and misgivings.

Science.gov (United States)

Green, R C; Clarke, V C; Thompson, N J; Woodard, J L; Letz, R

1997-01-01

There is at present no reliable predictive test for most forms of Alzheimer disease (AD). Although some information about future risk for disease is available in theory through ApoE genotyping, it is of limited accuracy and utility. Once neuroprotective treatments are available for AD, reliable early detection will become a key component of the treatment strategy. We recently conducted a pilot survey eliciting attitudes and beliefs toward an unspecified and hypothetical predictive test for AD. The survey was completed by a convenience sample of 176 individuals, aged 22-77, which was 75% female, 30% African-American, and of which 33% had a family member with AD. The survey revealed that 69% of this sample would elect to obtain predictive testing for AD if the test were 100% accurate. Individuals were more likely to desire predictive testing if they had an a priori belief that they would develop AD (p = 0.0001), had a lower educational level (p = 0.003), were worried that they would develop AD (p = 0.02), had a self-defined history of depression (p = 0.04), and had a family member with AD (p = 0.04). However, the desire for predictive testing was not significantly associated with age, gender, ethnicity, or income. The desire to obtain predictive testing for AD decreased as the assumed accuracy of the hypothetical test decreased. A better short-term strategy for early detection of AD may be computer-based neuropsychological screening of at-risk (older aged) individuals to identify very early cognitive impairment. Individuals identified in this manner could be referred for diagnostic evaluation and early cases of AD could be identified and treated. A new self-administered, touch-screen, computer-based, neuropsychological screening instrument called Neurobehavioral Evaluation System-3 is described, which may facilitate this type of screening.

Sleep Spindles as Biomarker for Early Detection of Neurodegenerative Disorders

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

2015-01-01

The present invention relates to the use of sleep spindles as a novel biomarker for early diagnosis of synucleinopathies, in particular Parkinson's disease (PD). The method is based on automatic detection of sleep spindles. The method may be combined with measurements of one or more further...

Guidelines for the early detection of osteoporosis and prediction of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Objective. To assess methods available in clinical practice for the early detection of osteoporosis and prediction of fracture risk, and to set guidelines for their use. To make recommendations regarding cost-effective screening of asymptomatic subjects by physicians. Options. Three methods to predict fracture risk are ...

Early Detection and Localization of Downhole Incidents in Managed Pressure Drilling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Willersrud, Anders; Imsland, Lars; Blanke, Mogens

2015-01-01

Downhole incidents such as kick, lost circulation, pack-off, and hole cleaning issues are important contributors to downtime in drilling. In managed pressure drilling (MPD), operations margins are typically narrower, implying more frequent incidents and more severe consequences. Detection...... and handling of symptoms of downhole drilling contingencies at an early stage are therefore crucial for the reliability and safety of MPD operations. In this paper we describe a method for early detection and localization of such incidents, based on a fit for purpose model of the downhole pressure hydraulics...... successfully been tested on experimental data from a medium-scale horizontal flow loop in Sta- vanger, Norway. The flow loop represents a 700 m borehole with emulation of the following downhole contingencies: drillstring washout, drill bit nozzle plugging, gas influx and fluid loss. In the tests...

Early Hearing Detection and Intervention: Can Your Baby Hear?

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

This podcast discusses how important it is that every child receives a hearing screening as soon as possible after birth. It also gives specific ways that parents and health providers can find out if a child has a possible hearing loss and where to get further information. (Created 6/5/2007 by the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program, NCBDDD).

Framework for evaluating public health surveillance systems for early detection of outbreaks: recommendations from the CDC Working Group.

Science.gov (United States)

Buehler, James W; Hopkins, Richard S; Overhage, J Marc; Sosin, Daniel M; Tong, Van

2004-05-07

The threat of terrorism and high-profile disease outbreaks has drawn attention to public health surveillance systems for early detection of outbreaks. State and local health departments are enhancing existing surveillance systems and developing new systems to better detect outbreaks through public health surveillance. However, information is limited about the usefulness of surveillance systems for outbreak detection or the best ways to support this function. This report supplements previous guidelines for evaluating public health surveillance systems. Use of this framework is intended to improve decision-making regarding the implementation of surveillance for outbreak detection. Use of a standardized evaluation methodology, including description of system design and operation, also will enhance the exchange of information regarding methods to improve early detection of outbreaks. The framework directs particular attention to the measurement of timeliness and validity for outbreak detection. The evaluation framework is designed to support assessment and description of all surveillance approaches to early detection, whether through traditional disease reporting, specialized analytic routines for aberration detection, or surveillance using early indicators of disease outbreaks, such as syndromic surveillance.

PRECISION MEDICINE - The Golden Gate for Detection, Treatment and Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease

Science.gov (United States)

Hampel, H.; O’Bryant, S.E.; Castrillo, J.I.; Ritchie, C.; Rojkova, K.; Broich, K.; Benda, N.; Nisticò, R.; Frank, R.A.; Dubois, B.; Escott-Price, V.; Lista, S.

2016-01-01

During this decade, breakthrough conceptual shifts have commenced to emerge in the field of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) recognizing risk factors and the non-linear dynamic continuum of complex pathophysiologies amongst a wide dimensional spectrum of multi-factorial brain proteinopathies/neurodegenerative diseases. As is the case in most fields of medicine, substantial advancements in detecting, treating and preventing AD will likely evolve from the generation and implementation of a systematic precision medicine strategy. This approach will likely be based on the success found from more advanced research fields, such as oncology. Precision medicine will require integration and transfertilization across fragmented specialities of medicine and direct reintegration of Neuroscience, Neurology and Psychiatry into a continuum of medical sciences away from the silo approach. Precision medicine is biomarker-guided medicine on systems-levels that takes into account methodological advancements and discoveries of the comprehensive pathophysiological profiles of complex multi-factorial neurodegenerative diseases, such as late-onset sporadic AD. This will allow identifying and characterizing the disease processes at the asymptomatic preclinical stage, where pathophysiological and topographical abnormalities precede overt clinical symptoms by many years to decades. In this respect, the uncharted territory of the AD preclinical stage has become a major research challenge as the field postulates that early biomarker guided customized interventions may offer the best chance of therapeutic success. Clarification and practical operationalization is needed for comprehensive dissection and classification of interacting and converging disease mechanisms, description of genomic and epigenetic drivers, natural history trajectories through space and time, surrogate biomarkers and indicators of risk and progression, as well as considerations about the regulatory, ethical, political and

It’s Not Just About Baby Teeth: Preventing Early Childhood Caries

OpenAIRE

Jennifer D. Zwicker; Carolyn Dudley; J.C. Herbert Emery

2016-01-01

Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is a serious disease that is about much more than cavities on baby teeth. In Canada, it is a growing public health problem with adverse long-term effects on children's physical, emotional and intellectual well-being. The failure to invest in preventive care has resulted in reactive, rather than proactive, measures against this disease. These measures are expensive and a needless drain on costs in the public health-care system. Children with severe ECC end up in ho...

Early detection of crop injury from herbicide glyphosate by leaf biochemical parameter inversion

Science.gov (United States)

Early detection of crop injury from glyphosate is of significant importance in crop management. In this paper, we attempt to detect glyphosate-induced crop injury by PROSPECT (leaf optical PROperty SPECTra model) inversion through leaf hyperspectral reflectance measurements for non-Glyphosate-Resist...

Developing a discrete choice experiment in Malawi: eliciting preferences for breast cancer early detection services.

Science.gov (United States)

Kohler, Racquel E; Lee, Clara N; Gopal, Satish; Reeve, Bryce B; Weiner, Bryan J; Wheeler, Stephanie B

2015-01-01

In Malawi, routine breast cancer screening is not available and little is known about women's preferences regarding early detection services. Discrete choice experiments are increasingly used to reveal preferences about new health services; however, selecting appropriate attributes that describe a new health service is imperative to ensure validity of the choice experiment. To identify important factors that are relevant to Malawian women's preferences for breast cancer detection services and to select attributes and levels for a discrete choice experiment in a setting where both breast cancer early detection and choice experiments are rare. We reviewed the literature to establish an initial list of potential attributes and levels for a discrete choice experiment and conducted qualitative interviews with health workers and community women to explore relevant local factors affecting decisions to use cancer detection services. We tested the design through cognitive interviews and refined the levels, descriptions, and designs. Themes that emerged from interviews provided critical information about breast cancer detection services, specifically, that breast cancer interventions should be integrated into other health services because asymptomatic screening may not be practical as an individual service. Based on participants' responses, the final attributes of the choice experiment included travel time, health encounter, health worker type and sex, and breast cancer early detection strategy. Cognitive testing confirmed the acceptability of the final attributes, comprehension of choice tasks, and women's abilities to make trade-offs. Applying a discrete choice experiment for breast cancer early detection was feasible with appropriate tailoring for a low-income, low-literacy African setting.

Developing a discrete choice experiment in Malawi: eliciting preferences for breast cancer early detection services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kohler RE

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Racquel E Kohler,1 Clara N Lee,2 Satish Gopal,3 Bryce B Reeve,1 Bryan J Weiner,1 Stephanie B Wheeler11Department of Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health, 2Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; 3UNC Project-Malawi, Tidziwe Center, Lilongwe, MalawiBackground: In Malawi, routine breast cancer screening is not available and little is known about women’s preferences regarding early detection services. Discrete choice experiments are increasingly used to reveal preferences about new health services; however, selecting appropriate attributes that describe a new health service is imperative to ensure validity of the choice experiment.Objective: To identify important factors that are relevant to Malawian women’s preferences for breast cancer detection services and to select attributes and levels for a discrete choice experiment in a setting where both breast cancer early detection and choice experiments are rare.Methods: We reviewed the literature to establish an initial list of potential attributes and levels for a discrete choice experiment and conducted qualitative interviews with health workers and community women to explore relevant local factors affecting decisions to use cancer detection services. We tested the design through cognitive interviews and refined the levels, descriptions, and designs.Results: Themes that emerged from interviews provided critical information about breast cancer detection services, specifically, that breast cancer interventions should be integrated into other health services because asymptomatic screening may not be practical as an individual service. Based on participants’ responses, the final attributes of the choice experiment included travel time, health encounter, health worker type and sex, and breast cancer early detection strategy. Cognitive testing confirmed the acceptability of the final attributes

A Mass Spectrometric Analysis Method Based on PPCA and SVM for Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Jiang; Ji, Yanju; Zhao, Ling; Ji, Mengying; Ye, Zhuang; Li, Suyi

2016-01-01

Background. Surfaced-enhanced laser desorption-ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF-MS) technology plays an important role in the early diagnosis of ovarian cancer. However, the raw MS data is highly dimensional and redundant. Therefore, it is necessary to study rapid and accurate detection methods from the massive MS data. Methods. The clinical data set used in the experiments for early cancer detection consisted of 216 SELDI-TOF-MS samples. An MS analysis method based on probabilistic principal components analysis (PPCA) and support vector machine (SVM) was proposed and applied to the ovarian cancer early classification in the data set. Additionally, by the same data set, we also established a traditional PCA-SVM model. Finally we compared the two models in detection accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity. Results. Using independent training and testing experiments 10 times to evaluate the ovarian cancer detection models, the average prediction accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the PCA-SVM model were 83.34%, 82.70%, and 83.88%, respectively. In contrast, those of the PPCA-SVM model were 90.80%, 92.98%, and 88.97%, respectively. Conclusions. The PPCA-SVM model had better detection performance. And the model combined with the SELDI-TOF-MS technology had a prospect in early clinical detection and diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

Environmental DNA as a new method for early detection of New Zealand mudsnails (Potamopyrgus antipodarum)

Science.gov (United States)

Goldberg, Caren S.; Sepulveda, Adam; Ray, Andrew; Baumgardt, Jeremy A.; Waits, Lisette P.

2013-01-01

Early detection of aquatic invasive species is a critical task for management of aquatic ecosystems. This task is hindered by the difficulty and cost of surveying aquatic systems thoroughly. The New Zealand mudsnail (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) is a small, invasive parthenogenic mollusk that can reach very high population densities and severely affects ecosystem functioning. To assist in the early detection of this invasive species, we developed and validated a highly sensitive environmental deoxyribonucleic acid (eDNA) assay. We used a dose–response laboratory experiment to investigate the relationship between New Zealand mudsnail density and eDNA detected through time. We documented that as few as 1 individual in 1.5 L of water for 2 d could be detected with this method, and that eDNA from this species may remain detectable for 21 to 44 d after mudsnail removal. We used the eDNA method to confirm the presence of New Zealand mudsnail eDNA at densities as low as 11 to 144 snails/m2 in a eutrophic 5th-order river. Combined, these results demonstrate the high potential for eDNA surveys to assist with early detection of a widely distributed invasive aquatic invertebrate.

Multiparametric MRI of the prostate. Method for early detection of prostate cancer?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schlemmer, Heinz-Peter

2010-01-01

Current approaches for the early detection of prostate cancer are controversially discussed because the disease is characterized by a high incidence rate with a relatively low morbidity rate, availability of only limited prognostic markers, and continued therapy-related morbidity. Conventional morphological MRI does not play a role in early detection since small tumor foci cannot be delineated. However, if there is clinical suspicion for prostate cancer, multiparametric MRI is currently the most accurate method for detecting and characterizing suspicious lesions in the prostate. The potential to identify the so-called 'index lesion', i.e., the tumor area that is most aggressive and determines treatment, is particularly important. This information can increase the accuracy of prostate biopsy and serve as a biomarker for follow-up during active surveillance. The method may considerably contribute to the urgently required separation of clinically significant from clinically insignificant prostate cancers. (orig.)

Prevention of microalbuminuria using early intervention with renin-angiotensin system inhibitors in patients with type 2 diabetes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Persson, Frederik; Lindhardt, Morten; Rossing, Peter

2016-01-01

Hypothesis/objectives: Early prevention of diabetic nephropathy by way of blocking the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in patients with normoalbuminuria seems rational, but trials have so far shown conflicting results. The present meta-analysis was undertaken to investigate if such treatment can...... prevent development of microalbuminuria. Materials and methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library (2 June 2014) for randomised controlled trials, with a population of patients with type 2 diabetes and normoalbuminuria, comparing angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEis......-cause mortality(p=0.07). Conclusions: We conclude that in patients with type 2 diabetes and normoalbuminuria, early intervention with ACEis or ARBs reduces the risk for development of microalbuminuria....

Sensors and Instrumentation towards early detection of osteoporosis

KAUST Repository

Afsarimanesh, Nasrin

2016-07-27

A label-free non-invasive sensing system for detection of C-terminal telopeptide of type-I collagen (CTX-I) has been developed in order to detect bone loss at an early stage, by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). A planar interdigital sensor was functionalized by immobilizing streptavidin agarose on the sensing area of the sensor to introduce selectivity for the antigen-antibody solution. Different concentrations of CTX-I were tested using the functionalized sensing surface to capture the target molecule. Preliminary results are provided in the paper assisted with the respective equivalent circuit of the working technology on the sensor using Complex Non-linear Least Square (CNLS). The results are encouraging and will be used to develop a complete system for commercialization complementing the existing systems. © 2016 IEEE.

Contribution of scanner to early detection of pleuropulmonary manifestations of asbestosis and silicosis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Champeix, J.; Gabrillargues, D.; Caillaud, D.; Catilina, P.; Catilina, M.J.; Chamoux, A.; Pignide, L.; Puvinel, B.

1989-01-01

The early detection of pleuropulmonary diseases in workers previously exposed to asbestos fibers or silica dusts is of importance. Current radiology often provides insufficient data. Can the CT-scan contribute to an early diagnosis. This technique was performed on both miners exposed to silicosis hazard and asbestos exposed workers [fr

Early Detection System of Vascular Disease and Its Application Prospect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huan Liu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Markers of imaging, structure, and function reflecting vascular damage, integrating a long time accumulation effect of traditional and unrecognized cardiovascular risk factors, can be regarded as surrogate endpoints of target organ damage before the occurrence of clinical events. Prevention of cardiovascular disease requires risk stratification and treatment of traditional risk factors, such as smoking, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes. However, traditional risk stratification is not sufficient to provide accurate assessment of future cardiovascular events. Therefore, vascular injury related parameters obtained by ultrasound or other noninvasive devices, as a surrogate parameter of subclinical cardiovascular disease, can improve cardiovascular risk assessment and optimize the preventive treatment strategy. Thus, we will summarize the research progress and clinical application of early assessment technology of vascular diseases in the present review.

Moderately early (7-14 days) postnatal corticosteroids for preventing chronic lung disease in preterm infants.

Science.gov (United States)

Halliday, H L; Ehrenkranz, R A; Doyle, L W

2003-01-01

Corticosteroids have been used late in the neonatal period to treat chronic lung disease (CLD) in preterm babies, and early to try to prevent it. CLD is likely to be the result of persisting inflammation in the lung and the use of powerful anti-inflammatory drugs like dexamethasone has some rationale. Early use tends to be associated with increased adverse effects so that studies of moderately early treatment (7-14 days postnatal) might have the dual benefits of fewer side effects and onset of action before chronic inflammation is established. To determine if moderately early (7-14 days) postnatal corticosteroid treatment vs control (placebo or nothing) is of benefit in the prevention and/or treatment of early chronic lung disease in the preterm infant. Randomised controlled trials of postnatal corticosteroid therapy were sought from the Oxford Database of Perinatal Trials, Cochrane Database of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE (1966 - October 2002), hand searching paediatric and perinatal journals, examining previous review articles and information received from practicing neonatologists. Authors of all studies were contacted, where possible, to confirm details of reported follow-up studies, or to obtain any information about long-term follow-up where none had been reported. Randomised controlled trials of postnatal corticosteroid treatment from 7-14 days of birth in high risk preterm infants were selected for this review. Data regarding clinical outcomes including mortality, CLD (including late rescue with corticosteroids, or need for home oxygen therapy), death or CLD, failure to extubate, complications during the primary hospitalisation (including infection, hyperglycaemia, hypertension, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, pneumothorax, severe intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH), necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), gastrointestinal bleeding, and severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP)), and long term outcome (including blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy and major neurosensory

Impact of nutrition since early life on cardiovascular prevention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guardamagna Ornella

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract The cardiovascular disease represents the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Western countries and it is related to the atherosclerotic process. Cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, insulin resistance, obesity, accelerate the atherosclerotic process which begins in childhood and progresses throughout the life span. The cardiovascular disease risk factor detection and management through prevention delays the atherosclerotic progression towards clinical cardiovascular disease. Dietary habits, from prenatal nutrition, breastfeeding, complementary feeding to childhood and adolescence nutrition play a basic role for this topic. The metabolic and neuroendocrine environment of the fetus is fundamental in the body’s “metabolic programming”. Further several studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of breastfeeding on cardiovascular risk factors reduction. Moreover the introduction of complementary foods represents another important step, with particular regard to protein intake. An adequate distribution between macronutrients (lipids, proteins and carbohydrates is required for correct growth development from infancy throughout adolescence and for prevention of several cardiovascular disease risk determinants in adulthood. The purpose of this review is to examine the impact of nutrition since early life on disease. La malattia cardiovascolare rappresenta la principale causa di morbilità e mortalità dei paesi occidentali ed è correlata a degenerazione vascolare aterosclerotica. I fattori di rischio cardiovascolari quali dislipidemia, ipertensione, insulino resistenza e obesità accelerano tale processo il cui esordio è noto sin dell’età pediatrica ed evolve nel corso della vita. L’individuazione e la cura dei fattori di rischio cardiovascolari mediante la prevenzione dei fattori causali ritardano la progressione dell’aterosclerosi e l’insorgenza dei sintomi cardiovascolari. La

Developing an early laekage detection system for thermal power plant boiler tubes by using acoustic emission technology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Sang Bum [RECTUSON, Co., LTD, Masan (Korea, Republic of); Roh, Seon Man [Samcheonpo Division, Korea South-East Power Co., Samcheonpo (Korea, Republic of)

2016-06-15

A thermal power plant has a heat exchanger tube to collect and convert the heat generated from the high temperature and pressure steam to energy, but the tubes are arranged in a complex manner. In the event that a leakage occurs in any of these tubes, the high-pressure steam leaks out and may cause the neighboring tubes to rupture. This leakage can finally stop power generation, and hence there is a dire need to establish a suitable technology capable of detecting tube leaks at an early stage even before it occurs. As shown in this paper, by applying acoustic emission (AE) technology in existing boiler tube leak detection equipment (BTLD), we developed a system that detects these leakages early enough and generates an alarm at an early stage to necessitate action; the developed system works better that the existing system used to detect fine leakages. We verified the usability of the system in a 560 MW-class thermal power plant boiler by conducting leak tests by simulating leakages from a variety of hole sizes (⌀2, ⌀5, ⌀10 mm). Results show that while the existing fine leakage detection system does not detect fine leakages of ⌀2 mm and ⌀5 mm, the newly developed system could detect leakages early enough and generate an alarm at an early stage, and it is possible to increase the signal to more than 18 dB.

Developing an early laekage detection system for thermal power plant boiler tubes by using acoustic emission technology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Sang Bum; Roh, Seon Man

2016-01-01

A thermal power plant has a heat exchanger tube to collect and convert the heat generated from the high temperature and pressure steam to energy, but the tubes are arranged in a complex manner. In the event that a leakage occurs in any of these tubes, the high-pressure steam leaks out and may cause the neighboring tubes to rupture. This leakage can finally stop power generation, and hence there is a dire need to establish a suitable technology capable of detecting tube leaks at an early stage even before it occurs. As shown in this paper, by applying acoustic emission (AE) technology in existing boiler tube leak detection equipment (BTLD), we developed a system that detects these leakages early enough and generates an alarm at an early stage to necessitate action; the developed system works better that the existing system used to detect fine leakages. We verified the usability of the system in a 560 MW-class thermal power plant boiler by conducting leak tests by simulating leakages from a variety of hole sizes (⌀2, ⌀5, ⌀10 mm). Results show that while the existing fine leakage detection system does not detect fine leakages of ⌀2 mm and ⌀5 mm, the newly developed system could detect leakages early enough and generate an alarm at an early stage, and it is possible to increase the signal to more than 18 dB

Validation of Candidate Serum Ovarian Cancer Biomarkers for Early Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng Su

2007-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: We have previously analyzed protein profi les using Surface Enhanced Laser Desorption and Ionization Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectroscopy (SELDI-TOF-MS [Kozak et al. 2003, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 100:12343–8] and identified 3 differentially expressed serum proteins for the diagnosis of ovarian cancer (OC [Kozak et al. 2005, Proteomics, 5:4589–96], namely, apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I, transthyretin (TTR and transferin (TF. The objective of the present study is to determine the efficacy of the three OC biomarkers for the detection of early stage (ES OC, in direct comparison to CA125.Methods: The levels of CA125, apoA-I, TTR and TF were measured in 392 serum samples [82 women with normal ovaries (N, 24 women with benign ovarian tumors (B, 85 women with ovarian tumors of low malignant potential (LMP, 126 women with early stage ovarian cancer (ESOC, and 75 women with late stage ovarian cancer (LSOC], obtained through the GOG and Cooperative Human Tissue Network. Following statistical analysis, multivariate regression models were built to evaluate the utility of the three OC markers in early detection.Results: Multiple logistic regression models (MLRM utilizing all biomarker values (CA125, TTR, TF and apoA-I from all histological subtypes (serous, mucinous, and endometrioid adenocarcinoma distinguished normal samples from LMP with 91% sensitivity (specifi city 92%, and normal samples from ESOC with a sensitivity of 89% (specifi city 92%. MLRM, utilizing values of all four markers from only the mucinous histological subtype showed that collectively, CA125, TTR, TF and apoA-I, were able to distinguish normal samples from mucinous LMP with 90% sensitivity, and further distinguished normal samples from early stage mucinous ovarian cancer with a sensitivity of 95%. In contrast, in serum samples from patients with mucinous tumors, CA125 alone was able to distinguish normal samples from LMP and early stage ovarian cancer with a sensitivity of

Relevant test set using feature selection algorithm for early detection ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The objective of feature selection is to find the most relevant features for classification. Thus, the dimensionality of the information will be reduced and may improve classification's accuracy. This paper proposed a minimum set of relevant questions that can be used for early detection of dyslexia. In this research, we ...

The attendance of women in mammographic early detection programme and the results of the observation of the breast glands condition. 1. The attendance of higher schools female employees in mammography examination

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Romejko, M.; Kleszczewska, J.; Liszek, A.; Tarlowska, L.; Wronkowski, Z.

1993-01-01

The aim of the first part of this work is to assess the attendance in the early detection (mammography) in female employees of Warsaw-based higher schools aged 40-69. During the 4.5 year period (1985-1989) 1325 female employees of higher schools (23.5% of the schools' total employment) turned up to the Female Cancer Prevention Center of The Higher Schools' Medical Center (ZOZ) in Warsaw. Observation of this group continued until June 30, 1992. Majority of the women (56.5%) showed up only once, 21.7% came twice, and 21.8% at least three times. Out of the 1021 women (77% of all the examined female employees) who showed no symptoms in the first test, only 37% came again for the second checkup. Out of the 305 women who had changes detected in their X-ray images, 66% turned up for the second test. 23 women (1.7%) had suspicious mammography results or typical cancer symptoms in the first test. The present work shows that the reason of the insufficient attendance of higher schools' female employees in early detection programs need to be investigated and that a more efficient early detection system must be developed. (author)

Smoke regions extraction based on two steps segmentation and motion detection in early fire

Science.gov (United States)

Jian, Wenlin; Wu, Kaizhi; Yu, Zirong; Chen, Lijuan

2018-03-01

Aiming at the early problems of video-based smoke detection in fire video, this paper proposes a method to extract smoke suspected regions by combining two steps segmentation and motion characteristics. Early smoldering smoke can be seen as gray or gray-white regions. In the first stage, regions of interests (ROIs) with smoke are obtained by using two step segmentation methods. Then, suspected smoke regions are detected by combining the two step segmentation and motion detection. Finally, morphological processing is used for smoke regions extracting. The Otsu algorithm is used as segmentation method and the ViBe algorithm is used to detect the motion of smoke. The proposed method was tested on 6 test videos with smoke. The experimental results show the effectiveness of our proposed method over visual observation.

[Validation of three screening tests used for early detection of cervical cancer].

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez-Reyes, Esperanza Rosalba; Cerda-Flores, Ricardo M; Quiñones-Pérez, Juan M; Cortés-Gutiérrez, Elva I

2008-01-01

to evaluate the validity (sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy) of three screening methods used in the early detection of the cervical carcinoma versus the histopathology diagnosis. a selected sample of 107 women attended in the Opportune Detection of Cervicouterine Cancer Program in the Hospital de Zona 46, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social in Durango, during the 2003 was included. The application of Papa-nicolaou, acetic acid test, and molecular detection of human papillomavirus, and histopatholgy diagnosis were performed in all the patients at the time of the gynecological exam. The detection and tipification of the human papillomavirus was performed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and analysis of polymorphisms of length of restriction fragments (RFLP). Histopathology diagnosis was considered the gold standard. The evaluation of the validity was carried out by the Bayesian method for diagnosis test. the positive cases for acetic acid test, Papanicolaou, and PCR were 47, 22, and 19. The accuracy values were 0.70, 0.80 and 0.99, respectively. since the molecular method showed a greater validity in the early detection of the cervical carcinoma we considered of vital importance its implementation in suitable programs of Opportune Detection of Cervicouterino Cancer Program in Mexico. However, in order to validate this conclusion, cross-sectional studies in different region of country must be carried out.

Detection of Early Faults in Rotating Machinery Based on Wavelet Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Meng Hee Lim

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This paper explores the application of wavelet analysis for the detection of early changes in rotor dynamics caused by common machinery faults, namely, rotor unbalance and minor blade rubbing conditions. In this paper, the time synchronised wavelet analysis method was formulated and its effectiveness to detect machinery faults at the early stage was evaluated based on signal simulation and experimental study. The proposed method provides a more standardised approach to visualise the current state of rotor dynamics of a rotating machinery by taking into account the effects of time shift, wavelet edge distortion, and system noise suppression. The experimental results showed that this method is able to reveal subtle changes of the vibration signal characteristics in both the frequency content distribution and the amplitude distortion caused by minor rotor unbalance and blade rubbing conditions. Besides, this method also appeared to be an effective tool to diagnose and to discriminate the different types of machinery faults based on the unique pattern of the wavelet contours. This study shows that the proposed wavelet analysis method is promising to reveal machinery faults at early stage as compared to vibration spectrum analysis.

Early life programming as a target for prevention of child and adolescent mental disorders

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

This paper concerns future policy development and programs of research for the prevention of mental disorders based on research emerging from fetal and early life programming. The current review offers an overview of findings on pregnancy exposures such as maternal mental health, lifestyle factors, and potential teratogenic and neurotoxic exposures on child outcomes. Outcomes of interest are common child and adolescent mental disorders including hyperactive, behavioral and emotional disorders. This literature suggests that the preconception and perinatal periods offer important opportunities for the prevention of deleterious fetal exposures. As such, the perinatal period is a critical period where future mental health prevention efforts should be focused and prevention models developed. Interventions grounded in evidence-based recommendations for the perinatal period could take the form of public health, universal and more targeted interventions. If successful, such interventions are likely to have lifelong effects on (mental) health. PMID:24559477

The Role of Breast Ultrasound in Early Cancer Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huay-Ben Pan

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Ultrasonography (US is currently considered the first-line examination in the detection and characterization of breast lesions including the evaluation of breast cancer. Yet only few single-center cohort studies analyzing breast US in the framework of screening could be identified. In spite of mammography consider as the primary method for screening especially the noteworthy ability of microcalcifications detection. US is good in mass or mass- like lesion detection, especially in the dense breast population that proved by the study of ACRIN 6666. A lobular hypoechoic area; lesion with ductal extension and dilatation; and a hypoechoic nodular lesion with a dilated lactiferous duct leading to the retroareolar region, that were the common ultrasound findings in Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS and probably related to nuclear grade of cancer. Computer programs have been developed and approved for use in clinical practice, the application including CAD (computer aided/assisted detection/diagnosis, ABUS (automated breast US, elastography and microbubbles in contrast-enhanced ultrasound. Furthermore the standardized scanning; improving with computer technology implementation and familiar to the picture of DCIS is necessary for progress the competence of early breast cancer detection.

Genetic Testing for Type 2 Diabetes in High-Risk Children: the Case for Primordial Prevention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennifer Wessel

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Extensive research now demonstrates that lifestyle modification can significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D in high-risk adults. In children, the evidence for lifestyle modification is not as robust, but the rapidly rising rate of obesity in children coupled with the substantial difficulty in changing behaviors later in life illuminates the need to implement prevention efforts early in the life course of children. Genetic data can now be used early in the life course to identify children at high-risk of developing T2D before traditional clinical measures can detect the presence of prediabetes; a metabolic condition associated with obesity that significantly increases risk for developing T2D.  Such early detection of risk may enable the promotion of “primordial prevention” in which parents implement behavior change for their at risk children.  Young children with genetic risk are a novel target population.  Here we review the literature on genetic testing for prevention as it relates to chronic diseases and specifically use T2D as a model. We discuss the history of primordial prevention, the need for primordial prevention of T2D and the role genetic testing has in primordial prevention of high-risk families.

Why Ambiguity Detection Is a Predictor of Early Reading Skill

Science.gov (United States)

Wankoff, Lorain Szabo; Cairns, Helen Smith

2009-01-01

This study was designed to determine the contributions of metalinguistic skill and psycholinguistic processing ability to children's ability to detect the ambiguity of sentences and the relationship among all three factors to early reading ability. A total of 20 first graders and 20 second graders were given tasks testing the following abilities:…

[Mexican adolescentes' goals as determinants in the prevention of early pregnancies].

Science.gov (United States)

Atienzo, Erika E; Campero, Lourdes; Lozada, Ana Lilia; Herrera, Cristina

2014-01-01

This study aims to explore adolescents' intentions related to the early formation of a family. We administered a survey to students in eight schools in Morelos and Mexico City, in 2010. We analyzed intentions of marrying or having a child and fitted an exploratory path model to assess predictors of the intentions of having a child before the age of 20 (n=2974). Around 77% of adolescents expect to have their first child at 20 years or later; 21% show ambivalence or incongruence regarding this, whereas 2% expect to have a child before the age of 20. Parents' expectations for their child's education influence the importance that adolescents give to education. The latter promotes the idea of postponing childbearing until 20 years or later (β=0.13). In order to prevent early pregnancies, interventions and programs should encourage the construction of personal and professional goals.

RED Alert – Early warning or detection of global re-emerging infectious disease (RED)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Deshpande, Alina [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2016-07-13

This is the PDF of a presentation for a webinar given by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) on the early warning or detection of global re-emerging infectious disease (RED). First, there is an overview of LANL biosurveillance tools. Then, information is given about RED Alert. Next, a demonstration is given of a component prototype. RED Alert is an analysis tool that can provide early warning or detection of the re-emergence of an infectious disease at the global level, but through a local lens.

Wearable technology and ECG processing for fall risk assessment, prevention and detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Melillo, Paolo; Castaldo, Rossana; Sannino, Giovanna; Orrico, Ada; de Pietro, Giuseppe; Pecchia, Leandro

2015-01-01

Falls represent one of the most common causes of injury-related morbidity and mortality in later life. Subjects with cardiovascular disorders (e.g., related to autonomic dysfunctions and postural hypotension) are at higher risk of falling. Autonomic dysfunctions increasing the risk of falling in the short and mid-term could be assessed by Heart Rate Variability (HRV) extracted by electrocardiograph (ECG). We developed three trials for assessing the usefulness of ECG monitoring using wearable devices for: risk assessment of falling in the next few weeks; prevention of imminent falls due to standing hypotension; and fall detection. Statistical and data-mining methods are adopted to develop classification and regression models, validated with the cross-validation approach. The first classifier based on HRV features enabled to identify future fallers among hypertensive patients with an accuracy of 72% (sensitivity: 51.1%, specificity: 80.2%). The regression model to predict falls due to orthostatic dropdown from HRV recorded before standing achieved an overall accuracy of 80% (sensitivity: 92%, specificity: 90%). Finally, the classifier to detect simulated falls using ECG achieved an accuracy of 77.3% (sensitivity: 81.8%, specificity: 72.7%). The evidence from these three studies showed that ECG monitoring and processing could achieve satisfactory performances compared to other system for risk assessment, fall prevention and detection. This is interesting as differently from other technologies actually employed to prevent falls, ECG is recommended for many other pathologies of later life and is more accepted by senior citizens.

Early fault detection and diagnosis for nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berg, O.; Grini, R.; Masao Yokobayashi

1988-01-01

Fault detection based on a number of reference models is demonstrated. This approach is characterized by the possibility of detecting faults before a traditional alarm system is triggered, even in dynamic situations. Further, by a proper decomposition scheme and use of available process measurements, the problem area can be confined to the faulty process parts. A diagnosis system using knowledge engineering techniques is described. Typical faults are classified and described by rules involving alarm patterns and variations of important parameters. By structuring the fault hypotheses in a hierarchy the search space is limited which is important for real time diagnosis. Introduction of certainty factors improve the flexibility and robustness of diagnosis by exploring parallel problems even when some data are missing. A new display proposal should facilitate the operator interface and the integration of fault detection and diagnosis tasks in disturbance handling. The techniques of early fault detection and diagnosis are presently being implemented and tested in the experimental control room of a full-scope PWR simulator in Halden

Early Findings of Preventive Child Healthcare Professionals Predict Psychosocial Problems in Preadolescence : The TRAILS Study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jaspers, M.; de Winter, A.F.; de Meer, G.; Stewart, R.E.; Verhulst, F.C.; Ormel, J.; Reijneveld, S.A.

Objective To develop and validate a prediction model for psychosocial problems in preadolescence using data on early developmental factors from routine Preventive Child Healthcare (PCH). Study design The data come from the 1692 participants who take part in the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives

Early Findings of Preventive Child Healthcare Professionals Predict Psychosocial Problems in Preadolescence: The TRAILS Study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jaspers, M.; De Winter, A.F.; de Meer, G.; Stewart, R.E; Verhulst, F.C.; Ormel, J.; Reijneveld, S.A.

2010-01-01

Objective To develop and validate a prediction model for psychosocial problems in preadolescence using data on early developmental factors from routine Preventive Child Healthcare (PCH). Study design The data come from the 1692 participants who take part in the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives

The neglected shadow: European perspectives on emotional supports for early school leaving prevention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paul Downes

2011-11-01

Full Text Available OECD reports emphasise ten key steps to equity in education, with concrete targets related to low attainment and early school leaving. Such steps, however, neglect the importance of emotional dimensions to early school leaving and the consequent need for system level emotional supports. The current study involves qualitative research interviews with senior government officials and secondary school management representatives across eight European countries, with a particular focus on school climate and emotional support issues. Issues raised by interviewees for students at risk of early school leaving include supports for withdrawn children, for those at risk of suicide and those being bullied at school affecting their nonattendance. Other emerging themes include alternatives to suspension and teacher education for improving their conflict resolution skills. Some interviewees explicitly observe the dearth of emotional support services available in practice in their countries. The pervasive policy gaps across national levels for a mental health and emotional support strategy, as part of an early school leaving prevention strategy, requires serious and immediate attention.

2014 CODEPEH recommendations: Early detection of late onset deafness, audiological diagnosis, hearing aid fitting and early intervention.

Science.gov (United States)

Núñez-Batalla, Faustino; Jáudenes-Casaubón, Carmen; Sequí-Canet, Jose Miguel; Vivanco-Allende, Ana; Zubicaray-Ugarteche, Jose

2016-01-01

The latest scientific literature considers early diagnosis of deafness as the key element to define the educational and inclusive prognosis of the deaf child, because it allows taking advantage of the critical period of development (0-4 years). Highly significant differences exist between deaf people who have been stimulated early and those who have received late or improper intervention. Early identification of late-onset disorders requires special attention and knowledge on the part of every childcare professional. Programs and additional actions beyond neonatal screening should be designed and planed to ensure that every child with a significant hearing loss is detected early. For this purpose, the CODEPEH would like to highlight the need for continuous monitoring of children's auditory health. Consequently, CODEPEH has drafted the recommendations included in the present document. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and Sociedad Española de Otorrinolaringología y Patología Cérvico-Facial. All rights reserved.

Early detection of Alzheimer's disease using the Cambridge Cognitive Examination (CAMCOG)

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schmand, B.; Walstra, G.; Lindeboom, J.; Teunisse, S.; Jonker, C.

2000-01-01

Dementia screening instruments, such as the Cambridge Cognitive Examination (CAMCOG), measure a variety of cognitive functions. However, memory impairment generally is the first sign of Alzheimer's disease (AD). It seems logical, therefore, to use only memory-related items for the early detection of

Serial cranial ultrasonography or early MRI for detecting preterm brain injury?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Plaisier, Annemarie; Raets, Marlou M A; Ecury-Goossen, Ginette M; Govaert, Paul; Feijen-Roon, Monique; Reiss, Irwin K M; Smit, Liesbeth S; Lequin, Maarten H; Dudink, Jeroen

OBJECTIVE: To investigate detection ability and feasibility of serial cranial ultrasonography (CUS) and early MRI in preterm brain injury. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Level III neonatal intensive care unit. PATIENTS: 307 infants, born below 29 weeks of gestation. METHODS: Serial CUS

Early intervention for preventing posttraumatic stress disorder: an Internet-based virtual reality treatment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sara A. Freedman

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD develops in approximately 20% of people exposed to a traumatic event, and studies have shown that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT is effective as a treatment for chronic PTSD. It has also been shown to prevent PTSD when delivered early after a traumatic event. However, studies have shown that uptake of early treatment is generally low, and therefore, the need to provide interventions through other mediums has been identified. The use of technology may overcome barriers to treatment. Objective: This paper describes a randomized controlled trial that will examine an early CBT intervention for PTSD. The treatment incorporates virtual reality (VR as a method for delivering exposure-based elements of the treatment. The intervention is Internet based, such that the therapist and patient will “meet” in a secure online site. This site will also include multi-media components of the treatment (such as videos, audios, VR that can be accessed by the patient between sessions. Method: Two hundred patients arriving to a Level 1 emergency department following a motor vehicle accident will be randomly assigned to either treatment or control groups. Inclusion criteria are age 18–65, PTSD symptoms 2 weeks posttrauma related to current trauma, no suicidality, no psychosis. Patients will be assessed by telephone by a team blind to the study group, on four occasions: before and after treatment, and 6 and 12 months posttreatment. The primary outcome is PTSD symptoms at follow up. Secondary outcomes include depression and cost effectiveness. Analyses will be on an intention-to-treat basis. Discussion: The results will provide more insight into the effects of preventive interventions, in general, and Internet-based early interventions, in particular, on PTSD, in an injured population, during the acute phase after trauma. We will discuss possible strengths and limitations.

Early stage detection of β→α transition in Sn by Mössbauer spectroscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Skwarek, Agata, E-mail: askwarek@ite.waw.pl [Institute of Electron Technology Cracow Division, Zabłocie 39, 30-701 Kraków (Poland); Zachariasz, Piotr [Institute of Electron Technology Cracow Division, Zabłocie 39, 30-701 Kraków (Poland); Żukrowski, Jan [AGH University of Science and Technology, Academic Center for Materials and Nanotechnology, A. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków (Poland); Synkiewicz, Beata; Witek, Krzysztof [Institute of Electron Technology Cracow Division, Zabłocie 39, 30-701 Kraków (Poland)

2016-10-01

Mössbauer spectroscopy was used for the early stage detection of the β→α transition (tin pest) in Sn matrix. The results were compared with the data from X-ray diffraction and a variance in the sensitivity for both methods has been proven. Mössbauer spectroscopy is more responsive method than XRD to tin pest finding and with possible detection level of even 1.8%. Furthermore, in reference sample, suspected to be pure α-Sn, large content of white tin (β-Sn), even after 6 years of exposure at sub-zero temperature, has been identified. 48% of α-Sn phase but also 52% of non-transferred β-Sn has been still detectable. - Highlights: • β→α transition (tin pest) could completely disintegrate Sn-rich material. • Early stage detection of β→α transition still exhibits substantial difficulties. • Mössbauer spectroscopy is very sensitive method in detection of β→α transition in Sn matrix. • Different values of Mössbauer-Lamb factors for β and α-Sn allow to detect tin pest at the level of 1.8%.

Design of Detection and Prevention System of Unauthorized Data Sending from the Local Network

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. A. Moskvin

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Malware often aims at breaking confidentiality. A malicious program gets inside the local network, finds out necessary data and then illegally transfers this data to the intruder. Prevention of unauthorized data transfer requires development of a special software product, which will detect and prevent leak of information from the local network.

Glypican1 identifies cancer exosomes and facilitates early detection of cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Melo, Sonia A.; Luecke, Linda B.; Kahlert, Christoph; Fernandez, Agustin F.; Gammon, Seth T.; Kaye, Judith; LeBleu, Valerie S.; Mittendorf, Elizabeth A.; Weitz, Juergen; Rahbari, Nuh; Reissfelder, Christoph; Pilarsky, Christian; Fraga, Mario F.; Piwnica-Worms, David; Kalluri, Raghu

2016-01-01

Summary Exosomes are lipid bilayer-enclosed extracellular vesicles (EVs) that contain proteins and nucleic acids. They are secreted by all cells and circulate in the blood. Specific detection and isolation of cancer cell-derived exosomes in circulation is currently lacking. Using mass spectrometry analyses, we identified a cell surface proteoglycan, glypican-1 (GPC1), specifically enriched on cancer cell-derived exosomes. GPC1+ circulating exosomes (crExos) were monitored and isolated using flow cytometry from the serum of cancer patients and mice with cancer. GPC1+ crExos were detected in the serum of patients with pancreas cancer with absolute specificity and sensitivity, distinguishing healthy subjects and patients with a benign pancreas disease from patients with early and late stage pancreas cancer. Levels of GPC1+ crExos correlate with tumor burden and survival in patients pre- and post-surgical tumor resection. GPC1+ crExos from patients and from mice with spontaneous pancreas tumors driven by oncogenic KRAS contained RNA with specific KRAS mutation, and it emerges as a reliable biomarker for the detection of PanIN lesions despite negative signal by MRI in mice. GPC1+ crExos may serve as a potential non-invasive diagnostic and screening tool to detect early stages of pancreas cancer to facilitate possible curative surgical therapy. PMID:26106858

Inversion Method for Early Detection of ARES-1 Case Breach Failure

Science.gov (United States)

Mackey, Ryan M.; Kulikov, Igor K.; Bajwa, Anupa; Berg, Peter; Smelyanskiy, Vadim

2010-01-01

A document describes research into the problem of detecting a case breach formation at an early stage of a rocket flight. An inversion algorithm for case breach allocation is proposed and analyzed. It is shown how the case breach can be allocated at an early stage of its development by using the rocket sensor data and the output data from the control block of the rocket navigation system. The results are simulated with MATLAB/Simulink software. The efficiency of an inversion algorithm for a case breach location is discussed. The research was devoted to the analysis of the ARES-l flight during the first 120 seconds after the launch and early prediction of case breach failure. During this time, the rocket is propelled by its first-stage Solid Rocket Booster (SRB). If a breach appears in SRB case, the gases escaping through it will produce the (side) thrust directed perpendicular to the rocket axis. The side thrust creates torque influencing the rocket attitude. The ARES-l control system will compensate for the side thrust until it reaches some critical value, after which the flight will be uncontrollable. The objective of this work was to obtain the start time of case breach development and its location using the rocket inertial navigation sensors and GNC data. The algorithm was effective for the detection and location of a breach in an SRB field joint at an early stage of its development.

Preventive evolutionary medicine of cancers.

Science.gov (United States)

Hochberg, Michael E; Thomas, Frédéric; Assenat, Eric; Hibner, Urszula

2013-01-01

Evolutionary theory predicts that once an individual reaches an age of sufficiently low Darwinian fitness, (s)he will have reduced chances of keeping cancerous lesions in check. While we clearly need to better understand the emergence of precursor states and early malignancies as well as their mitigation by the microenvironment and tissue architecture, we argue that lifestyle changes and preventive therapies based in an evolutionary framework, applied to identified high-risk populations before incipient neoplasms become clinically detectable and chemoresistant lineages emerge, are currently the most reliable way to control or eliminate early tumours. Specifically, the relatively low levels of (epi)genetic heterogeneity characteristic of many if not most incipient lesions will mean a relatively limited set of possible adaptive traits and associated costs compared to more advanced cancers, and thus a more complete and predictable understanding of treatment options and outcomes. We propose a conceptual model for preventive treatments and discuss the many associated challenges.

Long-term consequences of nutrition and growth in early childhood and possible preventive interventions.

Science.gov (United States)

Adair, Linda S

2014-01-01

Maternal nutritional deficiencies and excesses during pregnancy, and faster infant weight gain in the first 2 years of life are associated with increased risk of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in adulthood. The first 1,000 days of life (from conception until the child reaches age 2 years) represent a vulnerable period for programming of NCD risk, and are an important target for prevention of adult disease. This paper takes a developmental perspective to identify periconception, pregnancy, and infancy nutritional stressors, and to discuss mechanisms through which they influence later disease risk with the goal of informing age-specific interventions. Low- and middle-income countries need to address the dual burden of under- and overnutrition by implementing interventions to promote growth and enhance survival and intellectual development without increasing chronic disease risk. In the absence of good evidence from long-term follow-up of early life interventions, current recommendations for early life prevention of adult disease presume that interventions designed to optimize pregnancy outcomes and promote healthy infant growth and development will also reduce chronic disease risk. These include an emphasis on optimizing maternal nutrition prior to pregnancy, micronutrient adequacy in the preconception period and during pregnancy, promotion of breastfeeding and high-quality complementary foods, and prevention of obesity in childhood and adolescence. © 2014 Nestec Ltd., Vevey/S. Karger AG, Basel.

Early Detection Rapid Response Program Targets New Noxious Weed Species in Washington State

Science.gov (United States)

Andreas, Jennifer E.; Halpern, Alison D.; DesCamp, Wendy C.; Miller, Timothy W.

2015-01-01

Early detection, rapid response is a critical component of invasive plant management. It can be challenging, however, to detect new invaders before they become established if landowners cannot identify species of concern. In order to increase awareness, eye-catching postcards were developed in Washington State as part of a noxious weed educational…

Early Forest Fire Detection Using Low Energy Hydrogen Sensors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jürgen Müller

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The North-east German Lowlands is a region with one of the highest forest fire risks in Europe. In order to keep damage levels as low as possible, it is important to have an effective early warning system. Such a system is being developed on the basis of a hydrogen sensor, which makes it possible to detect a smouldering forest fire before the development of open flames. The prototype hydrogen sensor produced at the Humboldt University Berlin has a metal/ solid electrolyte/insulator/ semiconductor (MEIS structure, which allows cost-effective production. Due to the low energy consumption, an autarchic working unit could be installed in the forest. Field trials have shown that it is possible to identify a forest fire in its early stages when hydrogen concentrations are still low. A significant change in the signal due to a fire was measured at a distance of about 100m. In view of the potential impacts of climate change, the innovative pre-ignition warning system is an important early diagnosis and monitoring module for the protection of the forests.

Early detection of structual changes in random signal

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuroda, Yoshiteru; Yokota, Katsuhiro

1981-01-01

Early detection of structual changes in observed random signal is very important from the point of system diagnosis. In this paper, the following procedures are applied to this problem and the results are compared. (1) auto-regressive model to random signal to calculate the prediction error, i.e., the defference between observed and predicted values. (2) auto-regressive method to caluculate the sum of the prediction error. (3) a method is based on AIC (Akaike Information Criterion). Simulation is made of these procedures, indicating their merits and demerits as a diagostic tools. (author)

Early detection of the first episode of schizophrenia and suicidal behavior

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Melle, Ingrid; Johannesen, Jan Olav; Friis, Svein

2006-01-01

The suicide rate in schizophrenia is high, with the risk being highest early in the course. The rate of suicide attempts before treatment onset is also high and is often the event leading up to first treatment contact. A previous report showed that the duration of untreated psychosis can be reduced...... through an early detection program, and that the reduction was associated with lower symptom levels at treatment initiation. Treatment programs that bring first-episode patients into treatment at lower symptom levels can have the potential to reduce risk for suicide attempts....

DESI-Detection of early-season invasives (software-installation manual and user's guide version 1.0)

Science.gov (United States)

Kokaly, Raymond F.

2011-01-01

This report describes a software system for detecting early-season invasive plant species, such as cheatgrass. The report includes instructions for installing the software and serves as a user's guide in processing Landsat satellite remote sensing data to map the distributions of cheatgrass and other early-season invasive plants. The software was developed for application to the semi-arid regions of southern Utah; however, the detection parameters can be altered by the user for application to other areas.

Mexican adolescents’ goals as determinants in the prevention of early pregnancies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Erika E Atienzo

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Objective. This study aims to explore adolescents’ intentions related to the early formation of a family. Materials and methods. We administered a survey to students in eight schools in Morelos and Mexico City, in 2010. We analyzed intentions of marrying or having a child and fitted an exploratory path model to assess predictors of the intentions of having a child before the age of 20 (n=2974. Results. Around 77% of adolescents expect to have their first child at 20 years or later; 21% show ambivalence or incongruence regarding this, whereas 2% expect to have a child before the age of 20. Parents’ expectations for their child’s education influence the importance that adolescents give to education. The latter promotes the idea of postponing childbearing until 20 years or later (β=0.13. Conclusions. In order to prevent early pregnancies, interventions and programs should encourage the construction of personal and professional goals.

Primary prevention of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in primary care.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Molen, Thys; Schokker, Siebrig

2009-12-01

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a prevalent disease, with cigarette smoking being the main risk factor. Prevention is crucial in the fight against COPD. Whereas primary prevention is targeted on whole populations, patient populations are the focus of primary care; therefore, prevention in this setting is mainly aimed at preventing further deterioration of the disease in patients who present with the first signs of disease (secondary prevention). Prevention of COPD in primary care requires detection of COPD at an early stage. An accurate definition of COPD is crucial in this identification process. The benefits of detecting new patients with COPD should be determined before recommending screening and case-finding programs in primary care. No evidence is available that screening by spirometry results in significant health gains. Effective treatment options in patients with mild disease are lacking. Smoking cessation is the cornerstone of COPD prevention. Because cigarette smoking is not only a major cause of COPD but is also a major cause of many other diseases, a decline in tobacco smoking would result in substantial health benefits.

Skin Cancer Concerns in People of Color: Risk Factors and Prevention

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, Alpana K; Bharadwaj, Mausumi; Mehrotra, Ravi

2016-01-01

Background: Though people of color (POC) are less likely to become afflicted with skin cancer, they are much more likely to die from it due to delay in detection or presentation. Very often, skin cancer is diagnosed at a more advanced stage in POC, making treatment difficult. The purpose of this research was to improve awareness regarding skin cancers in people of color by providing recommendations to clinicians and the general public for early detection and photo protection preventive measures. Methods: Data on different types of skin cancers were presented to POC. Due to limited research, there are few resources providing insights for evaluating darkly pigmented lesions in POC. Diagnostic features for different types of skin cancers were recorded and various possible risk factors were considered. Results: This study provided directions for the prevention and early detection of skin cancer in POC based on a comprehensive review of available data. Conclusions: The increased morbidity and mortality rate associated with skin cancer in POC is due to lack of awareness, diagnosis at a more advanced stage and socioeconomic barriers hindering access to care. Raising public health concerns for skin cancer prevention strategies for all people, regardless of ethnic background and socioeconomic status, is the key to timely diagnosis and treatment. PMID:28125871

Initiatives on early detection and intervention to proactively identify health and social problems in older people: experiences from the Netherlands.

Science.gov (United States)

Lette, Manon; Baan, Caroline A; van den Berg, Matthijs; de Bruin, Simone R

2015-10-30

Over the last years, several initiatives on early detection and intervention have been put in place to proactively identify health and social problems in (frail) older people. An overview of the initiatives currently available in the Netherlands is lacking, and it is unknown whether they meet the preferences and needs of older people. Therefore, the objectives of this study were threefold: 1. To identify initiatives on early detection and intervention for older people in the Netherlands and compare their characteristics; 2. To explore the experiences of professionals with these initiatives; and 3. To explore to what extent existing initiatives meet the preferences and needs of older people. We performed a qualitative descriptive study in which we conducted semi-structured interviews with seventeen experts in preventive elderly care and three group interviews with volunteer elderly advisors. Data were analysed using the framework analysis method. We identified eight categories of initiatives based on the setting (e.g. general practitioner practice, hospital, municipality) in which they were offered. Initiatives differed in their aims and target groups. The utilization of peers to identify problems and risks, as was done by some initiatives, was seen as a strength. Difficulties were experienced with identifying the target group that would benefit from proactive delivery of care and support most, and with addressing prevalent issues among older people (e.g. psychosocial issues, self-reliance issues). Although there is a broad array of initiatives available, there is a discrepancy between supply and demand. Current initiatives insufficiently address needs of (frail) older people. More insight is needed in "what should be done by whom, for which target group and at what moment", in order to improve current practice in preventive elderly care.

Early Intervention and Maltreated Children: A Current Look at the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act and Part C

Science.gov (United States)

Moxley, Kathleen M.; Squires, Jane; Lindstrom, Lauren

2012-01-01

Current literature regarding the prevalence of child abuse and neglect, resulting developmental impacts on children, and early intervention services for children and families involved in the child welfare system is summarized. While early intervention eligibility referrals are mandated for this population under the Child Abuse Prevention and…

Early Educational Provision--Emphasised in Education Policy Reforms in Norway? An Analysis of Education Policy Documents

Science.gov (United States)

Bjørnsrud, Halvor; Nilsen, Sven

2014-01-01

The article analyses how the intentions of early provision in Norwegian schools have been expressed in the education policy reforms in Norway from the 1970s to the present day. The first area deals with the intentions that most explicitly cover early provision; prevention, early detection and intervention. The second area of analysis relates to…

[Opinion and Participation in the Regional Early Breast Cancer Detection Program in 2007 on the part of family physicians from a health district in the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Spain].

Science.gov (United States)

Garrido Elustondo, Sofía; Sánchez Padilla, Elisabeth; Ramírez Alesón, Victoria; González Hernández, Ma José; González Navarro, Andrés; López Gómez, Carlos

2008-01-01

Mammogram screening is the most effective method for the early detection of breast cancer. The objective of this study is to evaluate the degree of knowledge, the opinion and the participation in the early breast cancer detection program on the part of the family physicians of the Autonomous Community of Madrid. The population studied was comprised of family physicians from Madrid Health District Seven. An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire comprised of 30 questions grouped into physicians characteristics and opinion concerning the early breast cancer detection programs. A total of 46% of the physicians replied. A total of 94% of the physicians believed that it is their duty to inform their patients concerning preventive activities, including breast cancer screening, and 95% believed their advice to be useful for convincing women to have a mammogram. A total of 72% believed information to be lacking on this program. During the time when mammograms are being taken at their centres, 24% of the physicians surveyed always or almost always ask the women if they have any doubts or would like further information, 43% having set up appointments for them and 95% advising them to have a mammogram taken. The family physicians have a good opinion of the early breast cancer detection program and feel their advice to be effective for improving the participation in the program. They report lack of information and inform women about the program to only a small degree.

Measuring telomere length for the early detection of precursor lesions of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lin, Shih-Wen; Wang, Guo-Qing; Wei, Wen-Qiang; Lu, Ning; Taylor, Philip R; Qiao, You-Lin; Dawsey, Sanford M; Abnet, Christian C; Freedman, Neal D; Murphy, Gwen; Risques, Rosana; Prunkard, Donna; Rabinovitch, Peter; Pan, Qin-Jing; Roth, Mark J

2013-01-01

Esophageal cancer is the sixth leading cause of cancer death worldwide; current early detection screening tests are inadequate. Esophageal balloon cytology successfully retrieves exfoliated and scraped superficial esophageal epithelial cells, but cytologic reading of these cells has poor sensitivity and specificity for detecting esophageal squamous dysplasia (ESD), the precursor lesion of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Measuring telomere length, a marker for chromosomal instability, may improve the utility of balloon cytology for detecting ESD and early ESCC. We examined balloon cytology specimens from 89 asymptomatic cases of ESD (37 low-grade and 52 high-grade) and 92 age- and sex-matched normal controls from an esophageal cancer early detection screening study. All subjects also underwent endoscopy and biopsy, and ESD was diagnosed histopathologically. DNA was extracted from the balloon cytology cells, and telomere length was measured by quantitative PCR. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted for telomere length as a diagnostic marker for high-grade dysplasia. Telomere lengths were comparable among the low- and high-grade dysplasia cases and controls, with means of 0.96, 0.96, and 0.92, respectively. The area under the ROC curve was 0.55 for telomere length as a diagnostic marker for high-grade dysplasia. Further adjustment for subject characteristics, including sex, age, smoking, drinking, hypertension, and body mass index did not improve the use of telomere length as a marker for ESD. Telomere length of esophageal balloon cytology cells was not associated with ESCC precursor lesions. Therefore, telomere length shows little promise as an early detection marker for ESCC in esophageal balloon samples

Job Aids for Using Preventive Radiological/Nuclear Detection Equipment for Consequence Management

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Buddemeier, Brooke R. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Haynes, Daniel [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Wood-Zika, Annmarie R. [Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Klemic, Gladys [US Department of Homeland Security National Urban

2017-10-02

The overall objective of this project is to research, evaluate, and test first responder preventive radiological/nuclear detection equipment (PRND) to provide state and local agencies with guidance on how to best use this equipment for response after a radiological/nuclear release or detonation.

Application of SVM classifier in thermographic image classification for early detection of breast cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Oleszkiewicz, Witold; Cichosz, Paweł; Jagodziński, Dariusz; Matysiewicz, Mateusz; Neumann, Łukasz; Nowak, Robert M.; Okuniewski, Rafał

2016-09-01

This article presents the application of machine learning algorithms for early detection of breast cancer on the basis of thermographic images. Supervised learning model: Support vector machine (SVM) and Sequential Minimal Optimization algorithm (SMO) for the training of SVM classifier were implemented. The SVM classifier was included in a client-server application which enables to create a training set of examinations and to apply classifiers (including SVM) for the diagnosis and early detection of the breast cancer. The sensitivity and specificity of SVM classifier were calculated based on the thermographic images from studies. Furthermore, the heuristic method for SVM's parameters tuning was proposed.

A Simulation-Based Study on the Comparison of Statistical and Time Series Forecasting Methods for Early Detection of Infectious Disease Outbreaks.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Eunjoo; Park, Hyun Woo; Choi, Yeon Hwa; Kim, Jusim; Munkhdalai, Lkhagvadorj; Musa, Ibrahim; Ryu, Keun Ho

2018-05-11

Early detection of infectious disease outbreaks is one of the important and significant issues in syndromic surveillance systems. It helps to provide a rapid epidemiological response and reduce morbidity and mortality. In order to upgrade the current system at the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), a comparative study of state-of-the-art techniques is required. We compared four different temporal outbreak detection algorithms: the CUmulative SUM (CUSUM), the Early Aberration Reporting System (EARS), the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), and the Holt-Winters algorithm. The comparison was performed based on not only 42 different time series generated taking into account trends, seasonality, and randomly occurring outbreaks, but also real-world daily and weekly data related to diarrhea infection. The algorithms were evaluated using different metrics. These were namely, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), F1 score, symmetric mean absolute percent error (sMAPE), root-mean-square error (RMSE), and mean absolute deviation (MAD). Although the comparison results showed better performance for the EARS C3 method with respect to the other algorithms, despite the characteristics of the underlying time series data, Holt⁻Winters showed better performance when the baseline frequency and the dispersion parameter values were both less than 1.5 and 2, respectively.

Barriers to early detection of cervical-uterine cancer in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Lazcano-Ponce, E C; Castro, R; Allen, B; Nájera, P; Alonso de Ruíz, P A; Hernández-Avila, M

1999-04-01

In Mexico, a woman dies of cervical-uterine cancer every 2 hours, indicating a low impact by the national program for early detection of this cancer, principally because of problems related to quality and coverage. Through a qualitative study, we identified the principal barriers to use of the detection program from the point of view of actual and potential program users. Four focus groups were organized in standard conditions in Mexico City (urban, developed) and in the southern state of Oaxaca (rural, economically disadvantaged area). Participants were either women with at least one previous Papanicolaou (Pap) test or women who had never had the test. Barriers to Pap test use included (1) lack of knowledge about cervical-uterine cancer etiology, (2) not knowing that the Pap test exists, (3) the conception that cancer is an inevitably fatal disease, (4) problems in doctor/medical institution-patient relationships, (5) giving priority to unmet needs related to extreme poverty, (6) opposition by the male sexual partner, (7) rejection of the pelvic examination, (8) long waits for sample collection and receiving results, and (9) perceived high costs for care. To increase coverage of the early detection program for cervical-uterine cancer in Mexico, the needs, perceptions, and beliefs of women and their partners must be taken into account when developing policy and planning, given the role these factors play in the decision-making process that leads to their participation or nonparticipation in this program.

A global hydrographic array for early detection of floods and droughts

Science.gov (United States)

Brakenridge, G.; Nghiem, S.; Caquard, S.

An array of over 700 20 km-long river gaging reaches, distributed world-wide, is imaged by the SeaWinds radar scatterometer aboard QuikSCAT every 2.5 days. Strongly negative HH/VV polarity ratios indicate large amounts of surface water. We set individual reach thresholds so that the transition from bankfull to overbank river flow can be identified according to changes in this ratio. Similarly, the wide-swath MODIS optical sensors provide frequent repeat coverage of the reaches at much higher spatial resolution (250 m). In this case, several reach water surface area thresholds can be identified: low flow or drought conditions, normal in-channel flow, overbank flow, and extreme flood conditions. Sustained data collection for the reaches by both sensors allows the radar response to changing surface water to be defined, and allows evaluation of the sensitivity of the MODIS data to river discharge changes. New approaches, such as ``unmixing'' analysis of mixed water/land MODIS pixels can extend detection limits to smaller rivers and streams. It is now possible for wide-area, frequent revisit terrestrial remote sensing to provide human society with early warning of both floods and droughts and by direct observation of the runoff component of the Earth's hydrologic cycle. Examples of both radar and optical approaches towards this end are at the web sites below: http://www.dartmouth.edu/˜ floods/Modisrapidresponse.html http://www.dartmouth.edu/˜ floods/sensorweb/SensorWebindex.html http://www.dartmouth.edu/˜ floods/Quikscat/Regional2/CurrentTisza.jpg} In particular, early flood detection results are obtained over an extensive region in eastern Europe including the Tisza River basin, Romania, Hungary, and adjacent nations. Flood detection maps are updated weekly at the web site. The combination of QuikSCAT and MODIS takes advantage of the large-area coverage of these sensors together with the high temporal resolution of QuikSCAT and the high spatial resolution of MODIS

Prevention of and Early Intervention for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: Systems to Support Data-Based Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Timothy J.; Mitchell, Barbara S.

2012-01-01

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders are at great risk for long-term negative outcomes. Researchers and practitioners alike acknowledge the need for evidence-based, preventive, and early intervention strategies. Accordingly, in this chapter an expanded view of prevention is presented as a series of data driven decisions to guide…

Dielectric Spectroscopic Detection of Early Failures in 3-D Integrated Circuits.

Science.gov (United States)

Obeng, Yaw; Okoro, C A; Ahn, Jung-Joon; You, Lin; Kopanski, Joseph J

The commercial introduction of three dimensional integrated circuits (3D-ICs) has been hindered by reliability challenges, such as stress related failures, resistivity changes, and unexplained early failures. In this paper, we discuss a new RF-based metrology, based on dielectric spectroscopy, for detecting and characterizing electrically active defects in fully integrated 3D devices. These defects are traceable to the chemistry of the insolation dielectrics used in the through silicon via (TSV) construction. We show that these defects may be responsible for some of the unexplained early reliability failures observed in TSV enabled 3D devices.

Inclusion of methods for early detection of chronic kidney disease in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Background The burden and magnitude of chronic kidney disease (CKD) are enormous. The incidence and prevalence of chronic kidney disease are rising all over the world. Thus, there is the urgent and pressing need for methods of early detection of CKD, to be included in guidelines for management of noncommunicable ...

Gene screening and prevention of hereditary breast cancer: a clinical view

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klijn, J. G. M.; Meijers-Heijboer, H.

2003-01-01

Nowadays, the major tasks of the increasing number of family cancer clinics are to provide general information about cancer, to perform risk assessment, to offer (presymptomatic) DNA-testing, to advise on lifestyle, to take steps for early detection and prevention of cancer, for psychological

Detection of oral early cancerous lesion by using polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography: mice model

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hong-Yi; Chen, Ping-Hsien; Lee, Tzu-Han; Chang, Kuo-Wei; Kuo, Wen-Chuan

2018-02-01

Oral cancer is the 11th most common cancer worldwide, especially in a male adult. The median age of death in oral cancer was 55 years, 10-20 years earlier than other cancers. Presently, oral cancer is often found in late stage, because the lesion is often flat in early stage and is difficult to diagnose under traditional white light imaging. The only definitive method for determining cancer is an invasive biopsy and then using histology examination. How to detect precancerous lesions or early malignant lesions is an important issue for improving prognosis of oral cancer. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a new optical tool for diagnosing early malignant lesions in the skin or gastrointestinal tract recently. Here we report a new method for detecting precancerous or early malignant oral lesions by using swept source polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) with center-wavelength 1310 nm, bandwidth 110 nm and 100 kHz swept rate. We used all single-mode fiber design to detect the change of birefringence information in the epithelium structure. This system has an advantage that enables measurement of backscattered intensity and birefringence simultaneously with only one A-scan per transverse location. In preliminary result, we computed the slope of the every A-scan signal in tissue part using a linear-curve fitting in backscattered intensity and birefringence on the enface. In this research, we used an oral cancer mice model for observing the change of structure and birefringence properties in different stages of oral cancer mice. We presented the parametric enface imaging that can detect the early oral malignant lesions.

[The Alliance for the Prevention of Colorectal Cancer in Spain. A civil commitment to society].

Science.gov (United States)

Morillas, Juan Diego; Castells, Antoni; Oriol, Isabel; Pastor, Ana; Pérez-Segura, Pedro; Echevarría, José Manuel; Caballero, Begoña; González-Navarro, Andrés; Bandrés, Fernando; Brullet, Enric; Iniesta, Antonio; Carballo, Fernando; Bouzas, Rosa; Ariza, Aurelio; Ibisate, Alfredo; García-Alfonso, Pilar; Escudero, Beatriz; Camacho, Silvia; Fernández-Marcos, Ana; González, Teresa; Quintero, Enrique; Lanas, Angel; Marzo, Mercè; Mascort, Juanjo; Andréu, Monserrat; Cerezo, Laura; Vázquez-Sequeiros, Enrique; Borrás, Josep María; Salas, Dolores; Ascunce, Nieves; Portillo, Isabel; Herráiz, Mayte; Valle, María Luisa; Sotoca, Amalia; Nieto, Santiago; Hué, Carlos; Paz-Ares, Luis

2012-03-01

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common malignant tumor in Spain, when men and women are considered together, and the second leading cause of cancer death. Every week in Spain over 500 cases of CRC are diagnosed, and nearly 260 people die from the disease. Epidemiologic estimations for the coming years show a significant increase in the number of annual cases. CRC is a perfectly preventable tumor and can be cured in 90% of cases if detected in the early stages. Population-based screening programs have been shown to reduce the incidence of CRC and mortality from the disease. Unless early detection programs are established in Spain, it is estimated that in the coming years, 1 out of 20 men and 1 out of 30 women will develop CRC before the age of 75. The Alliance for the Prevention of Colorectal Cancer in Spain is an independent and non-profit organization created in 2008 that integrates patients' associations, altruistic non-governmental organizations and scientific societies. Its main objective is to raise awareness and disseminate information on the social and healthcare importance of CRC in Spain and to promote screening measures, early detection and prevention programs. Health professionals, scientific societies, healthcare institutions and civil society should be sensitized to this highly important health problem that requires the participation of all sectors of society. The early detection of CRC is an issue that affects the whole of society and therefore it is imperative for all sectors to work together. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier España, S.L. y AEEH y AEG. All rights reserved.

Computer Aided Diagnosis System for Early Lung Cancer Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fatma Taher

2015-11-01

Full Text Available Lung cancer continues to rank as the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. One of the most promising techniques for early detection of cancerous cells relies on sputum cell analysis. This was the motivation behind the design and the development of a new computer aided diagnosis (CAD system for early detection of lung cancer based on the analysis of sputum color images. The proposed CAD system encompasses four main processing steps. First is the preprocessing step which utilizes a Bayesian classification method using histogram analysis. Then, in the second step, mean shift segmentation is applied to segment the nuclei from the cytoplasm. The third step is the feature analysis. In this step, geometric and chromatic features are extracted from the nucleus region. These features are used in the diagnostic process of the sputum images. Finally, the diagnosis is completed using an artificial neural network and support vector machine (SVM for classifying the cells into benign or malignant. The performance of the system was analyzed based on different criteria such as sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. The evaluation was carried out using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC curve. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of the SVM classifier over other classifiers, with 97% sensitivity and accuracy as well as a significant reduction in the number of false positive and false negative rates.

Rank-Based miRNA Signatures for Early Cancer Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Lauria

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We describe a new signature definition and analysis method to be used as biomarker for early cancer detection. Our new approach is based on the construction of a reference map of transcriptional signatures of both healthy and cancer affected individuals using circulating miRNA from a large number of subjects. Once such a map is available, the diagnosis for a new patient can be performed by observing the relative position on the map of his/her transcriptional signature. To demonstrate its efficacy for this specific application we report the results of the application of our method to published datasets of circulating miRNA, and we quantify its performance compared to current state-of-the-art methods. A number of additional features make this method an ideal candidate for large-scale use, for example, as a mass screening tool for early cancer detection or for at-home diagnostics. Specifically, our method is minimally invasive (because it works well with circulating miRNA, it is robust with respect to lab-to-lab protocol variability and batch effects (it requires that only the relative ranking of expression value of miRNA in a profile be accurate not their absolute values, and it is scalable to a large number of subjects. Finally we discuss the need for HPC capability in a widespread application of our or similar methods.

Methodological pitfalls in early detection studies–the NAPE Lecture 2002

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Svein, Friis; Tor Ketil, Larsen; Melle, Ingrid

2003-01-01

Identifies and discusses methodological pitfalls that may help explain why many questions around early detection (ED) and duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) are still unsolved. This paper concentrates on pitfalls in sampling, measurement, and data analyses. The main problems seem to be: (1) Sa...... to identify the pitfalls, and to estimate and discuss their influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)...

Endoscopic Tri-Modal Imaging (ETMI With Optical Magnification in the Detection of Barrett's Early Neoplasia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarmed S. Sami

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Early lesion detection and characterisation is vital to ensure accurate management in patients with gastrointestinal neoplasia. Endoscopic Tri-modal Imaging (ETMI technology has been shown to improve the targeted detection of early dysplastic lesions in Barrett's Oesophagus, but these results were not confirmed in non-expert hands [1]. This technology incorporates high resolution while light endoscopy (HRE, Auto Fluorescence Imaging (AFI and Narrow Band Imaging (NBI in one endoscope. The mucosa is first inspected with HRE, and then AFI is switched on to help in highlighting any suspicious areas in the mucosa [2]. These areas can be further examined by switching to NBI mode with magnification which helps to characterise mucosal patterns and identify early neoplasia [3].

Blueprint of quartz crystal microbalance biosensor for early detection of breast cancer through salivary autoantibodies against ATP6AP1.

Science.gov (United States)

Arif, Sania; Qudsia, Syeda; Urooj, Samina; Chaudry, Nazia; Arshad, Aneeqa; Andleeb, Saadia

2015-03-15

Breast cancer represents a significant health problem because of its high prevalence. Tests like mammography, which are used abundantly for the detection of breast cancer, suffer from serious limitations. Mammography correctly detects malignancy about 80-90% of the times, failing in places when (1) the tumor is small at early stage, (2) breast tissue is dense or (3) in women of less than 40 years. Serum-based detection of biomarkers involves risk of disease transfer, along with other concerns. These techniques compromise in the early detection of breast cancer. Early detection of breast cancer is a crucial factor to enhance the survival rate of patient. Development of regular screening tests for early diagnosis of breast cancer is a challenge. This review highlights the design of a handy and household biosensor device aimed for self-screening and early diagnosis of breast cancer. The design makes use of salivary autoantibodies for specificity to develop a noninvasive procedure, breast cancer specific biomarkers for precision for the development of device, and biosensor technology for sensitivity to screen the early cases of breast cancer more efficiently. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Breast cancer early detection via tracking of skin back-scattered secondary speckle patterns

Science.gov (United States)

Bennett, Aviya; Sirkis, Talia; Beiderman, Yevgeny; Agdarov, Sergey; Beiderman, Yafim; Zalevsky, Zeev

2018-02-01

Breast cancer has become a major cause of death among women. The lifetime risk of a woman developing this disease has been established as one in eight. The most useful way to reduce breast cancer death is to treat the disease as early as possible. The existing methods of early diagnostics of breast cancer are mainly based on screening mammography or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) periodically conducted at medical facilities. In this paper the authors proposing a new approach for simple breast cancer detection. It is based on skin stimulation by sound waves, illuminating it by laser beam and tracking the reflected secondary speckle patterns. As first approach, plastic balls of different sizes were placed under the skin of chicken breast and detected by the proposed method.

Early Hearing Detection and Intervention: Can Your Baby Hear?

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

2007-06-15

This podcast discusses how important it is that every child receives a hearing screening as soon as possible after birth. It also gives specific ways that parents and health providers can find out if a child has a possible hearing loss and where to get further information. (Created 6/5/2007 by the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program, NCBDDD).  Created: 6/15/2007 by National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.   Date Released: 6/25/2007.

An Experimental Investigation On Minimum Compressive Strength Of Early Age Concrete To Prevent Frost Damage For Nuclear Power Plant Structures In Cold Climates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koh, Kyungtaek; Kim, Dogyeum; Park, Chunjin; Ryu, Gumsung; Park, Jungjun; Lee, Janghwa

2013-01-01

Concrete undergoing early frost damage in cold weather will experience significant loss of not only strength, but also of permeability and durability. Accordingly, concrete codes like ACI-306R prescribe a minimum compressive strength and duration of curing to prevent frost damage at an early age and secure the quality of concrete. Such minimum compressive strength and duration of curing are mostly defined based on the strength development of concrete. However, concrete subjected to frost damage at early age may not show a consistent relationship between its strength and durability. Especially, since durability of concrete is of utmost importance in nuclear power plant structures, this relationship should be imperatively clarified. Therefore, this study verifies the feasibility of the minimum compressive strength specified in the codes like ACI-306R by evaluating the strength development and the durability preventing the frost damage of early age concrete for nuclear power plant. The results indicate that the value of 5 MPa specified by the concrete standards like ACI-306R as the minimum compressive strength to prevent the early frost damage is reasonable in terms of the strength development, but seems to be inappropriate in the viewpoint of the resistance to chloride ion penetration and freeze-thaw. Consequently, it is recommended to propose a minimum compressive strength preventing early frost damage in terms of not only the strength development, but also in terms of the durability to secure the quality of concrete for nuclear power plants in cold climates

An Experimental Investigation On Minimum Compressive Strength Of Early Age Concrete To Prevent Frost Damage For Nuclear Power Plant Structures In Cold Climates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Koh, Kyungtaek; Kim, Dogyeum; Park, Chunjin; Ryu, Gumsung; Park, Jungjun; Lee, Janghwa [Korea Institute Construction Technology, Goyang (Korea, Republic of)

2013-06-15

Concrete undergoing early frost damage in cold weather will experience significant loss of not only strength, but also of permeability and durability. Accordingly, concrete codes like ACI-306R prescribe a minimum compressive strength and duration of curing to prevent frost damage at an early age and secure the quality of concrete. Such minimum compressive strength and duration of curing are mostly defined based on the strength development of concrete. However, concrete subjected to frost damage at early age may not show a consistent relationship between its strength and durability. Especially, since durability of concrete is of utmost importance in nuclear power plant structures, this relationship should be imperatively clarified. Therefore, this study verifies the feasibility of the minimum compressive strength specified in the codes like ACI-306R by evaluating the strength development and the durability preventing the frost damage of early age concrete for nuclear power plant. The results indicate that the value of 5 MPa specified by the concrete standards like ACI-306R as the minimum compressive strength to prevent the early frost damage is reasonable in terms of the strength development, but seems to be inappropriate in the viewpoint of the resistance to chloride ion penetration and freeze-thaw. Consequently, it is recommended to propose a minimum compressive strength preventing early frost damage in terms of not only the strength development, but also in terms of the durability to secure the quality of concrete for nuclear power plants in cold climates.

[Diabetes screening and prevention in a large chemical company].

Science.gov (United States)

Neumann, S; Webendörfer, S; Lang, S; Germann, C; Oberlinner, C

2015-05-01

Diabetes is with 6 million cases in Germany one of the most common and most expensive chronic diseases. Studies presume a high number of unreported cases. Early detection of diabetes with a specific screening method is very important. In Germany family physicians offer a preventive check-up starting at the age of 35 years but only 19% males participate. From this background the BASF department for Occupational Medicine and Health Protection introduced for all 35.000 employees at the headquarter, in Ludwigshafen a general health check focused on the early detection of lifestyle diseases. From April 2011 to June 2013 12.114 employees participated in the general health check offered by the medical department (2.530 women, 9.584 men). All participants filled out a questionnaire named "Findrisk" a scientifically validated questionnaire which focuses on risk factors for diabetes. Furthermore, the blood glucose and the HbA1c of the participants have also been checked in a laboratory test Following the Findrisk criteria the results are: 1.368 employees had an elevated risk of 17%, 854 employees a risk factor of 33% and 131 employees a risk factor of 33%. In 1.533 employees (13,2% of all participants) we diagnosed a prediabetes with an elevated HbA1c-parameter between 5.7 to 6,4%. In 243 employees a manifest diabetes disease with HbA1c of > than 6,5% was diagnosed. We found out that diabetes prevention within the workplace setting is helpful to detect prediabetes and diabetes earlier than family doctors outside the company are able to do.Occupational physicians have the opportunity to inform the employees on risks for lifestyle diseases at an early stage when they are still healthy (primary prevention).For secondary prevention surveillance and clearance examination can be easily combined with screening tests for diabetes. For further diagnostics and therapy the family doctors will be addressed. This system helps individuals to prevent negative health effects, it helps the

Health economics evaluation of a gastric cancer early detection and treatment program in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Dan; Yuan, Yuan; Sun, Li-Ping; Fang, Xue; Zhou, Bao-Sen

2014-01-01

To use health economics methodology to assess the screening program on gastric cancer in Zhuanghe, China, so as to provide the basis for health decision on expanding the program of early detection and treatment. The expense of an early detection and treatment program for gastric cancer in patients found by screening, and also costs of traditional treatment in a hospital of Zhuanghe were assessed. Three major techniques of medical economics, namely cost-effective analysis (CEA), cost-benefit analysis (CBA) and cost-utility analysis (CUA), were used to assess the screening program. RESULTS from CEA showed that investing every 25, 235 Yuan on screening program in Zhuanghe area, one gastric cancer patient could be saved. Data from CUA showed that it was cost 1, 370 Yuan per QALY saved. RESULTS from CBA showed that: the total cost was 1,945,206 Yuan with a benefit as 8,669,709 Yuan and an CBR of 4.46. The early detection and treatment program of gastric cancer appears economic and society-beneficial. We suggest that it should be carry out in more high risk areas for gastric cancer.

Early Detection and Screening for Breast Cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Coleman, Cathy

2017-05-01

To review the history, current status, and future trends related to breast cancer screening. Peer-reviewed articles, web sites, and textbooks. Breast cancer remains a complex, heterogeneous disease. Serial screening with mammography is the most effective method to detect early stage disease and decrease mortality. Although politics and economics may inhibit organized mammography screening programs in many countries, the judicious use of proficient clinical and self-breast examination can also identify small tumors leading to reduced morbidity. Oncology nurses have exciting opportunities to lead, facilitate, and advocate for delivery of high-quality screening services targeting individuals and communities. A practical approach is needed to translate the complexities and controversies surrounding breast cancer screening into improved care outcomes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Imaging spectroscopy for early detection of nitrogen deficiency in grass swards

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schut, A.G.T.; Ketelaars, J.J.M.H.

2003-01-01

The potential of an experimental imaging spectroscopy system with high spatial (0.16–0.28 mm²) ) and spectral resolution (5–13 nm) was explored for early detection of nitrogen (N) stress. From June through October 2000, a greenhouse experiment was conducted with 15 Lolium perenne L. mini-swards and

A case of early detection of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw

OpenAIRE

Mori, Miyu; Koide, Tetsuro; Matsui, Yuriyo; Matsuda, Toru

2015-01-01

Osteonecrosis of the jaws is an adverse reaction associated with the use of bisphosphonates. Although the diagnosis of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ) is based on symptomatology, it is often detected late because the patients become symptomatic only after osteonecrosis is well established. We describe a case of early oral BRONJ detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) accidentally. Head MRI revealed low signal of T1-weight images in left mandibula. Patient had been...

Forest Health Management and Detection of Invasive Forest Insects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kaelyn Finley

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The objectives of this review paper are to provide an overview of issues related to forest health and forest entomology, explain existing methods for forest insect pest detection, and provide background information on a case study of emerald ash borer. Early detection of potentially invasive insect species is a key aspect of preventing these species from causing damage. Invasion management efforts are typically more feasible and efficient if they are applied as early as possible. Two proposed approaches for detection are highlighted and include dendroentomology and near infrared spectroscopy (NIR. Dendroentomology utilizes tree ring principles to identify the years of outbreak and the dynamics of past insect herbivory on trees. NIR has been successfully used for assessing various forest health concerns (primarily hyperspectral imaging and decay in trees. Emerald ash borer (EAB (Agrilus planipennis, is a non-native beetle responsible for widespread mortality of several North American ash species (Fraxinus sp.. Current non-destructive methods for early detection of EAB in specific trees are limited, which restricts the effectiveness of management efforts. Ongoing research efforts are focused on developing methods for early detection of emerald ash borer.

Stabilizing ER Ca2+ channel function as an early preventative strategy for Alzheimer's disease.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shreaya Chakroborty

Full Text Available Alzheimer's disease (AD is a devastating neurodegenerative condition with no known cure. While current therapies target late-stage amyloid formation and cholinergic tone, to date, these strategies have proven ineffective at preventing disease progression. The reasons for this may be varied, and could reflect late intervention, or, that earlier pathogenic mechanisms have been overlooked and permitted to accelerate the disease process. One such example would include synaptic pathology, the disease component strongly associated with cognitive impairment. Dysregulated Ca(2+ homeostasis may be one of the critical factors driving synaptic dysfunction. One of the earliest pathophysiological indicators in mutant presenilin (PS AD mice is increased intracellular Ca(2+ signaling, predominantly through the ER-localized inositol triphosphate (IP(3 and ryanodine receptors (RyR. In particular, the RyR-mediated Ca(2+ upregulation within synaptic compartments is associated with altered synaptic homeostasis and network depression at early (presymptomatic AD stages. Here, we offer an alternative approach to AD therapeutics by stabilizing early pathogenic mechanisms associated with synaptic abnormalities. We targeted the RyR as a means to prevent disease progression, and sub-chronically treated AD mouse models (4-weeks with a novel formulation of the RyR inhibitor, dantrolene. Using 2-photon Ca(2+ imaging and patch clamp recordings, we demonstrate that dantrolene treatment fully normalizes ER Ca(2+ signaling within somatic and dendritic compartments in early and later-stage AD mice in hippocampal slices. Additionally, the elevated RyR2 levels in AD mice are restored to control levels with dantrolene treatment, as are synaptic transmission and synaptic plasticity. Aβ deposition within the cortex and hippocampus is also reduced in dantrolene-treated AD mice. In this study, we highlight the pivotal role of Ca(2+ aberrations in AD, and propose a novel strategy to

Early detection of COPD in primary care--the Copenhagen COPD Screening Project

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lyngsø, Anne Marie; Backer, Vibeke; Gottlieb, Vibeke

2010-01-01

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is among the leading causes of death in the world, and further increases in the prevalence and mortality are predicted. Delay in diagnosing COPD appears frequently even though current consensus guidelines emphasize the importance of early detection...

Prospective assessment of early fetal loss using an immunoenzymometric screening assay for detection of urinary human chorionic gonadotropin.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, C A; Overstreet, J W; Samuels, S J; Boyers, S P; Canfield, R E; O'Connor, J F; Hanson, F W; Lasley, B L

1992-06-01

To develop an economical, nonradiometric immunoenzymometric assay (IEMA) for the detection of urinary human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in studies of early fetal loss. To be effective, the IEMA must have a sensitivity equal to the standard immunoradiometric assay (IRMA) and sufficient specificity to eliminate the need for screening most nonconceptive cycles with the expensive and labor-intensive IRMA. Two different assays were used to measure hCG in daily early morning urine samples from potential conceptive cycles. Women undergoing donor artificial insemination (AI) were evaluated in a prospective study. Ninety-two women volunteers were selected on the basis of apparent normal reproductive health. Artificial insemination with nonfrozen donor semen was performed by cervical cup twice each menstrual cycle at 48-hour intervals, and daily urine samples were self-collected throughout the menstrual cycle. An IEMA was developed to detect urinary hCG using the same antibodies as in the standard IRMA; a study was designed to determine whether this nonradiometric assay could successfully detect the early fetal loss that was detected by the IRMA. Of 224 menstrual cycles analyzed by both assays, a total of six early fetal losses were detected by the IRMA. When the tentative screening rule was set to allow all six of these losses and 95% of future losses to be detected by the IEMA, an additional 34 false-positive results were detected by the IEMA. The specificity of the IEMA with this rule was calculated to be 84%. An IEMA based on the same antibodies used for the standard IRMA can serve as an efficient screening assay for the detection of early fetal loss. When the IEMA is used in this manner, nearly 80% of screened menstrual cycles can be eliminated without further testing by the IRMA.

Home visitation programs: An untapped opportunity for the delivery of early childhood obesity prevention

Science.gov (United States)

Salvy, Sarah-Jeanne; de la Haye, Kayla; Galama, Titus; Goran, Michael I.

2016-01-01

Background Extant obesity efforts have had limited impact among low-income underserved children, in part because of limitations inherent to existing programs: 1) short duration and low intensity; 2) late timing of implementation, when children are already overweight or obese; 3) intervention delivery limiting their accessibility and sustainability; and 4) failure to address barriers such as a lack of culturally competent services, poverty and housing instability, which interfere with healthy lifestyle changes. Objective This concept paper proposes an innovative model of obesity prevention implemented in infancy and sustained throughout early childhood to address the limitations of current obesity prevention efforts. Specifically, we propose to integrate sustained, weekly, in-home obesity prevention as part of the services already delivered by ongoing Home Visitation Programs, which currently do not target obesity prevention. Conclusion The home visiting structure represents an ideal model for impactful obesity prevention as home visitation programs: (1) already provide comprehensive services to diverse low-income infants and families who are most at risk for obesity and poor health due to socio-economic and structural conditions; (2) services are initiated in infancy and sustained throughout critical developmental periods for the formation of healthy/unhealthy behaviors; and (3) have been in place for more than 40 years, with a widespread presence across the United States and nationwide, which is critical for the scalability and sustainability of obesity prevention. PMID:27911984

Home visitation programs: an untapped opportunity for the delivery of early childhood obesity prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

Salvy, S-J; de la Haye, K; Galama, T; Goran, M I

2017-02-01

Extant obesity efforts have had limited impact among low-income underserved children, in part because of limitations inherent to existing programs: (i) short duration and low intensity; (ii) late timing of implementation, when children are already overweight or obese; (iii) intervention delivery limiting their accessibility and sustainability; and (iv) failure to address barriers such as a lack of culturally competent services, poverty and housing instability, which interfere with healthy lifestyle changes. This concept paper proposes an innovative model of obesity prevention implemented in infancy and sustained throughout early childhood to address the limitations of current obesity prevention efforts. Specifically, we propose to integrate sustained, weekly, in-home obesity prevention as part of the services already delivered by ongoing Home Visitation Programs, which currently do not target obesity prevention. The home visiting structure represents an ideal model for impactful obesity prevention as home visitation programs: (i) already provide comprehensive services to diverse low-income infants and families who are most at risk for obesity and poor health because of socio-economic and structural conditions; (ii) services are initiated in infancy and sustained throughout critical developmental periods for the formation of healthy/unhealthy behaviors; and (iii) have been in place for more than 40 years, with a widespread presence across the United States and nationwide, which is critical for the scalability and sustainability of obesity prevention. © 2016 World Obesity Federation.

Secondary Prevention of Chronic PTSD by Early and Short-Term Administration of Escitalopram: A Prospective Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Zohar, Joseph; Fostick, Leah; Juven-Wetzler, Alzabeta; Kaplan, Zeev; Shalev, Hadar; Schreiber, Gavriel; Miroshnik, Natalie; Shalev, Arieh Y; Stein, Dan J; Seedat, Soraya; Suliman, Sharain; Klein, Ehud

Prospective studies have not identified a viable pharmacologic strategy for secondary prevention of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The authors examined whether preventive intervention via early and short-term administration of a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), within 1 month of exposure to a traumatic event (before diagnosis of PTSD could be made), may reduce the severity of PTSD symptoms according to DSM-IV at 13 months' follow-up. Over 25,000 screening calls to patients referred to an emergency department for a traumatic event performed between June 2006 and December 2008 yielded 353 participants who were recruited within the month following a traumatic event . Participants were randomly assigned in a double-blind design to escitalopram (n = 176) or placebo (n = 177). The per-protocol analysis comprised 198 participants (escitalopram, n = 102; placebo, n = 96) who received treatment for 12 to 24 weeks and were available for follow-up at week 56. The primary outcome measure, the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), revealed no prevention effect. However, a secondary outcome, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory (PSQI), showed better results for the SSRI group than for the placebo group. For a subset of participants who experienced intentional trauma (missile attacks, rape, or physical assault; n = 50), the prevention effect was found on both primary and secondary measures (CAPS, PSQI and measures of depression and global illness severity). Early and short-term administration of escitalopram was not shown to prevent PTSD, although it did improve sleep quality. In a subgroup of participants who experienced intentional trauma, however, this early-treatment approach may be effective as secondary prevention. This large study is the first to investigate the preventive effect of early administration of escitalopram on PTSD. It highlights the relevance of the type of trauma (intentional vs unintentional) to the outcome. Clinical

Two Early Gamma-ray Bursts Optical Afterglow Detections with TAOS Telescopes--GRB 071010B and GRB 071112C

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, K. Y.; Wang, S. Y.; Urata, Y.

2009-01-01

We present on two early detections of GRB afterglows with the Taiwanese-American Occltation Sruvey (TAOS) telescopes. The robotic TAOS system has been devised so that the routine Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) survey is interrupted when a GRB alert is triggered. Our first detection, GRB 071010B was detected by TAOS 62 s after the burst and showed a weak early brightening during the observations. No significant correction with the prompt gamma-ray emission indicated that our optical emission detected is afterglow emission. The second detection of TAOS, GRB 071112C was detected 96 s after the burst, also showed a possible initial raising then followed a steep decay in the R-band light curve.

The Cool Little Kids randomised controlled trial: population-level early prevention for anxiety disorders.

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Bayer, Jordana K; Rapee, Ronald M; Hiscock, Harriet; Ukoumunne, Obioha C; Mihalopoulos, Cathrine; Clifford, Susan; Wake, Melissa

2011-01-05

The World Health Organization predicts that by 2030 internalising problems (e.g. depression and anxiety) will be second only to HIV/AIDS in international burden of disease. Internalising problems affect 1 in 7 school aged children, impacting on peer relations, school engagement, and later mental health, relationships and employment. The development of early childhood prevention for internalising problems is in its infancy. The current study follows two successful 'efficacy' trials of a parenting group intervention to reduce internalising disorders in temperamentally inhibited preschool children. Cool Little Kids is a population-level randomised trial to determine the impacts of systematically screening preschoolers for inhibition then offering a parenting group intervention, on child internalising problems and economic costs at school entry. This randomised trial will be conducted within the preschool service system, attended by more than 95% of Australian children in the year before starting school. In early 2011, preschool services in four local government areas in Melbourne, Australia, will distribute the screening tool. The ≈16% (n≈500) with temperamental inhibition will enter the trial. Intervention parents will be offered Cool Little Kids, a 6-session group program in the local community, focusing on ways to develop their child's bravery skills by reducing overprotective parenting interactions. Outcomes one and two years post-baseline will comprise child internalising diagnoses and symptoms, parenting interactions, and parent wellbeing. An economic evaluation (cost-consequences framework) will compare incremental differences in costs of the intervention versus control children to incremental differences in outcomes, from a societal perspective. Analyses will use the intention-to-treat principle, using logistic and linear regression models (binary and continuous outcomes respectively) to compare outcomes between the trial arms. This trial addresses gaps

Pulmonary berylliosis. Experimental induction. Early detection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andre, Stephane

1984-01-01

This research thesis reports the study of the biological reactivity of industrial and environmental aerosols, notably beryllium powder aerosols. In order to study beryllium toxicity under its metal form, and the dose-effect relationship and the suspected carcinogen effect, a pulmonary berylliosis has been experimentally induced in rat and monkey. In order to develop means of rapid detection of exposure and sensitisation to beryllium, the author studied early pathological cellular mechanisms occurring during a pulmonary granulomatosis. Quantitative and qualitative modifications have been searched for, more particularly at the level of endo-alveolar cellular populations of macrophages and lymphocytes. The study has also been extended to the sensitisation of lymphocytes with respect to beryllium. After some generalities about beryllium (properties, sources, uses, exposure sources), and an overview of its toxicity (epidemiology, pathologies, experiments, biological mechanisms, detoxification), the author reports the introduction of a chronic pulmonary berylliosis into animals, discusses the various noticed pathologies and their analysis, and reports in situ and in vitro studies [fr

Early detection of breast cancer mass lesions by mammogram segmentation images based on texture features

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mahmood, F.H.

2012-01-01

Mammography is at present one of the available method for early detection of masses or abnormalities which is related to breast cancer.The calcifications. The challenge lies in early and accurate detection to overcome the development of breast cancer that affects more and more women throughout the world. Breast cancer is diagnosed at advanced stages with the help of the digital mammogram images. Masses appear in a mammogram as fine, granular clusters, which are often difficult to identify in a raw mammogram. The incidence of breast cancer in women has increased significantly in recent years. This paper proposes a computer aided diagnostic system for the extraction of features like mass lesions in mammograms for early detection of breast cancer. The proposed technique is based on a four-step procedure: (a) the preprocessing of the image is done, (b) regions of interest (ROI) specification, (c) supervised segmentation method includes two to stages performed using the minimum distance (M D) criterion, and (d) feature extraction based on Gray level Co-occurrence matrices GLC M for the identification of mass lesions. The method suggested for the detection of mass lesions from mammogram image segmentation and analysis was tested over several images taken from A L-llwiya Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq.The proposed technique shows better results.

Early Detection of At-Risk Undergraduate Students through Academic Performance Predictors

Science.gov (United States)

Rowtho, Vikash

2017-01-01

Undergraduate student dropout is gradually becoming a global problem and the 39 Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) are no exception to this trend. The purpose of this research was to develop a method that can be used for early detection of students who are at-risk of performing poorly in their undergraduate studies. A sample of 279 students…

Enhancing early detection of exotic pests in agricultural and forest ecosystems using an urban-gradient framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Colunga-Garcia, Manuel; Magarey, Roger A; Haack, Robert A; Gage, Stuart H; Qi, Jiaquo

2010-03-01

Urban areas are hubs of international transport and therefore are major gateways for exotic pests. Applying an urban gradient to analyze this pathway could provide insight into the ecological processes involved in human-mediated invasions. We defined an urban gradient for agricultural and forest ecosystems in the contiguous United States to (1) assess whether ecosystems nearer more urbanized areas were at greater risk of invasion, and (2) apply this knowledge to enhance early detection of exotic pests. We defined the gradient using the tonnage of imported products in adjacent urban areas and their distance to nearby agricultural or forest land. County-level detection reports for 39 exotic agricultural and forest pests of major economic importance were used to characterize invasions along the gradient. We found that counties with more exotic pests were nearer the urban end of the gradient. Assuming that the exotic species we analyzed represent typical invaders, then early detection efforts directed at 21-26% of U.S. agricultural and forest land would likely be able to detect 70% of invaded counties and 90% of the selected species. Applying an urban-gradient framework to current monitoring strategies should enhance early detection efforts of exotic pests, facilitating optimization in allocating resources to areas at greater risk of future invasions.

An automated approach for early detection of diabetic retinopathy using SD-OCT images.

Science.gov (United States)

ElTanboly, Ahmed H; Palacio, Agustina; Shalaby, Ahmed M; Switala, Andrew E; Helmy, Omar; Schaal, Shlomit; El-Baz, Ayman

2018-01-01

  This study was to demonstrate the feasibility of an automatic approach for early detection of diabetic retinopathy (DR) from SD-OCT images. These scans were prospectively collected from 200 subjects through the fovea then were automatically segmented, into 12 layers. Each layer was characterized by its thickness, tortuosity, and normalized reflectivity. 26 diabetic patients, without DR changes visible by funduscopic examination, were matched with 26 controls, according to age and sex, for purposes of statistical analysis using mixed effects ANOVA. The INL was narrower in diabetes (p = 0.14), while the NFL (p = 0.04) and IZ (p = 0.34) were thicker. Tortuosity of layers NFL through the OPL was greater in diabetes (all p diabetes. In turn, carries the promise to a reliable non-invasive diagnostic tool for early detection of DR.

Big data analytics for early detection of breast cancer based on machine learning

Science.gov (United States)

Ivanova, Desislava

2017-12-01

This paper presents the concept and the modern advances in personalized medicine that rely on technology and review the existing tools for early detection of breast cancer. The breast cancer types and distribution worldwide is discussed. It is spent time to explain the importance of identifying the normality and to specify the main classes in breast cancer, benign or malignant. The main purpose of the paper is to propose a conceptual model for early detection of breast cancer based on machine learning for processing and analysis of medical big dataand further knowledge discovery for personalized treatment. The proposed conceptual model is realized by using Naive Bayes classifier. The software is written in python programming language and for the experiments the Wisconsin breast cancer database is used. Finally, the experimental results are presented and discussed.

Development of a metabolic biosignature for detection of early Lyme disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Molins, Claudia R; Ashton, Laura V; Wormser, Gary P; Hess, Ann M; Delorey, Mark J; Mahapatra, Sebabrata; Schriefer, Martin E; Belisle, John T

2015-06-15

Early Lyme disease patients often present to the clinic prior to developing a detectable antibody response to Borrelia burgdorferi, the etiologic agent. Thus, existing 2-tier serology-based assays yield low sensitivities (29%-40%) for early infection. The lack of an accurate laboratory test for early Lyme disease contributes to misconceptions about diagnosis and treatment, and underscores the need for new diagnostic approaches. Retrospective serum samples from patients with early Lyme disease, other diseases, and healthy controls were analyzed for small molecule metabolites by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). A metabolomics data workflow was applied to select a biosignature for classifying early Lyme disease and non-Lyme disease patients. A statistical model of the biosignature was trained using the patients' LC-MS data, and subsequently applied as an experimental diagnostic tool with LC-MS data from additional patient sera. The accuracy of this method was compared with standard 2-tier serology. Metabolic biosignature development selected 95 molecular features that distinguished early Lyme disease patients from healthy controls. Statistical modeling reduced the biosignature to 44 molecular features, and correctly classified early Lyme disease patients and healthy controls with a sensitivity of 88% (84%-95%), and a specificity of 95% (90%-100%). Importantly, the metabolic biosignature correctly classified 77%-95% of the of serology negative Lyme disease patients. The data provide proof-of-concept that metabolic profiling for early Lyme disease can achieve significantly greater (P Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Enhancing early bladder cancer detection with fluorescence-guided endoscopic optical coherence tomography

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Pan, Y. T.; Xie, T. Q.; Du, C. W.; Bastacky, S.; Meyers, S.; Zeidel, M. L.

2003-12-01

We report an experimental study of the possibility of enhancing early bladder cancer diagnosis with fluorescence-image-guided endoscopic optical coherence tomography (OCT). After the intravesical instillation of a 10% solution of 5-aminolevulinic acid, simultaneous fluorescence imaging (excitation of 380-420 nm, emission of 620-700 nm) and OCT are performed on rat bladders to identify the photochemical and morphological changes associated with uroepithelial tumorigenesis. The preliminary results of our ex vivo study reveal that both fluorescence and OCT can identify early uroepithelial cancers, and OCT can detect precancerous lesions (e.g., hyperplasia) that fluorescence may miss. This suggests that a cystoscope combining 5-aminolevulinic acid fluorescence and OCT imaging has the potential to enhance the efficiency and sensitivity of early bladder cancer diagnosis.

IoT-Based Intelligent Modeling of Smart Home Environment for Fire Prevention and Safety

OpenAIRE

Faisal Saeed; Anand Paul; Abdul Rehman; Won Hwa Hong; Hyuncheol Seo

2018-01-01

Fires usually occur in homes because of carelessness and changes in environmental conditions. They cause threats to the residential community and may result in human death and property damage. Consequently, house fires must be detected early to prevent these types of threats. The immediate notification of a fire is the most critical issue in domestic fire detection systems. Fire detection systems using wireless sensor networks sometimes do not detect a fire as a consequence of sensor failure....

Combating Violence against Children: Jordanian Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers' Perceptions towards Child Abuse and Neglect

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Fayez, Merfat; Takash, Hanan Mahmoud; Al-Zboon, Eman Khleif

2014-01-01

Early childhood teachers play major roles in defying child abuse and neglect and alleviating its detrimental effects on young children. Therefore, this study aimed at exploring how Jordanian pre-service early childhood teachers define and perceive violence against children and their role in child abuse detection and prevention. Furthermore, the…

Classification tree analyses reveal limited potential for early targeted prevention against childhood overweight.

Science.gov (United States)

Beyerlein, Andreas; Kusian, Dennis; Ziegler, Anette-Gabriele; Schaffrath-Rosario, Angelika; von Kries, Rüdiger

2014-02-01

Whether specific combinations of risk factors in very early life might allow identification of high-risk target groups for overweight prevention programs was examined. Data of n = 8981 children from the German KiGGS study were analyzed. Using a classification tree approach, predictive risk factor combinations were assessed for overweight in 3-6, 7-10, and 11-17-year-old children. In preschool children, the subgroup with the highest overweight risk were migrant children with at least one obese parent, with a prevalence of 36.6 (95% confidence interval or CI: 22.9, 50.4)%, compared to an overall prevalence of 10.0 (8.9, 11.2)%. The prevalence of overweight increased from 18.3 (16.8, 19.8)% to 57.9 (46.6, 69.3)% in 7-10-year-old children, if at least one parent was obese and the child had been born large-for-gestational-age. In 11-17-year-olds, the overweight risk increased from 20.1 (18.9, 21.3)% to 63.0 (46.4, 79.7)% in the highest risk group. However, high prevalence ratios were found only in small subgroups, containing <10% of all overweight cases in the respective age group. Our results indicate only a limited potential for early targeted preventions against overweight in children and adolescents. Copyright © 2013 The Obesity Society.

Early childhood family intervention and long-term obesity prevention among high-risk minority youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Brotman, Laurie Miller; Dawson-McClure, Spring; Huang, Keng-Yen; Theise, Rachelle; Kamboukos, Dimitra; Wang, Jing; Petkova, Eva; Ogedegbe, Gbenga

2012-03-01

To test the hypothesis that family intervention to promote effective parenting in early childhood affects obesity in preadolescence. Participants were 186 minority youth at risk for behavior problems who enrolled in long-term follow-up studies after random assignment to family intervention or control condition at age 4. Follow-up Study 1 included 40 girls at familial risk for behavior problems; Follow-up Study 2 included 146 boys and girls at risk for behavior problems based on teacher ratings. Family intervention aimed to promote effective parenting and prevent behavior problems during early childhood; it did not focus on physical health. BMI and health behaviors were measured an average of 5 years after intervention in Study 1 and 3 years after intervention in Study 2. Youth randomized to intervention had significantly lower BMI at follow-up relative to controls (Study 1 P = .05; Study 2 P = .006). Clinical impact is evidenced by lower rates of obesity (BMI ≥95th percentile) among intervention girls and boys relative to controls (Study 2: 24% vs 54%, P = .002). There were significant intervention-control group differences on physical and sedentary activity, blood pressure, and diet. Two long-term follow-up studies of randomized trials show that relative to controls, youth at risk for behavior problems who received family intervention at age 4 had lower BMI and improved health behaviors as they approached adolescence. Efforts to promote effective parenting and prevent behavior problems early in life may contribute to the reduction of obesity and health disparities.

Radiation Detection System for Prevention of Illicit Trafficking of Nuclear and Radioactive Materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwak, Sung Woo; Chang, Sung Soon; Yoo, Ho Sik

2010-01-01

Fixed radiation portal monitors (RPMs) deployed at border, seaport, airport and key traffic checkpoints have played an important role in preventing the illicit trafficking and transport of nuclear and radioactive materials. However, the RPM is usually large and heavy and can't easily be moved to different locations. These reasons motivate us to develop a mobile radiation detection system. The objective of this paper is to report our experience on developing the mobile radiation detection system for search and detection of nuclear and radioactive materials during road transport. Field tests to characterize the developed detection system were performed at various speeds and distances between the radioactive isotope (RI) transporting car and the measurement car. Results of measurements and detection limits of our system are described in this paper. The mobile radiation detection system developed should contribute to defending public's health and safety and the environment against nuclear and radiological terrorism by detecting nuclear or radioactive material hidden illegally in a vehicle

Feeding blueberry diets in early life prevent senescence of osteoblasts and bone loss in ovariectomized adult female rats.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jian Zhang

Full Text Available Appropriate nutrition during early development is essential for maximal bone mass accretion; however, linkage between early nutrition, childhood bone mass, peak bone mass in adulthood, and prevention of bone loss later in life has not been studied.In this report, we show that feeding a high quality diet supplemented with blueberries (BB to pre-pubertal rats throughout development or only between postnatal day 20 (PND20 and PND34 prevented ovariectomy (OVX-induced bone loss in adult life. This protective effect of BB is due to suppression of osteoblastic cell senescence associated with acute loss of myosin expression after OVX. Early exposure of pre-osteoblasts to serum from BB-fed rats was found to consistently increase myosin expression. This led to maintenance osteoblastic cell development and differentiation and delay of cellular entrance into senescence through regulation of the Runx2 gene. High bone turnover after OVX results in insufficient collagenous matrix support for new osteoblasts and their precursors to express myosin and other cytoskeletal elements required for osteoblast activity and differentiation.These results indicate: 1 a significant prevention of OVX-induced bone loss from adult rats can occur with only 14 days consumption of a BB-containing diet immediately prior to puberty; and 2 the molecular mechanisms underlying these effects involves increased myosin production which stimulates osteoblast differentiation and reduces mesenchymal stromal cell senescence.

Falls and Fall Prevention in Older Adults With Early-Stage Dementia: An Integrative Review.

Science.gov (United States)

Lach, Helen W; Harrison, Barbara E; Phongphanngam, Sutthida

2017-05-01

Older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early-stage dementia have an increased risk of falling, with risks to their health and quality of life. The purpose of the current integrative review was to evaluate evidence on fall risk and fall prevention in this population. Studies were included if they examined falls or fall risk factors in older adults with MCI or early-stage dementia, or reported interventions in this population; 40 studies met criteria. Evidence supports the increased risk of falls in individuals even in the early stages of dementia or MCI, and changes in gait, balance, and fear of falling that may be related to this increased fall risk. Interventions included exercise and multifactorial interventions that demonstrated some potential to reduce falls in this population. Few studies had strong designs to provide evidence for recommendations. Further study in this area is warranted. [Res Gerontol Nurs. 2017; 10(03):139-148.]. Copyright 2016, SLACK Incorporated.

A multi-wavelength (u.v. to visible) laser system for early detection of oral cancer

Science.gov (United States)

Najda, S. P.; Perlin, P.; Leszczyński, M.; Slight, T. J.; Meredith, W.; Schemmann, M.; Moseley, H.; Woods, J. A.; Valentine, R.; Kalra, S.; Mossey, P.; Theaker, E.; Macluskey, M.; Mimnagh, G.; Mimnagh, W.

2015-03-01

A multi-wavelength (360nm - 440nm), real-time Photonic Cancer Detector (PCD) optical system based on GaN semiconductor laser technology is outlined. A proof of concept using blue laser technology for early detection of cancer has already been tested and proven for esophageal cancer. This concept is expanded to consider a wider range of wavelengths and the PCD will initially be used for early diagnosis of oral cancers. The PCD creates an image of the oral cavity (broad field white light detection) and maps within the oral cavity any suspicious lesions with high sensitivity using a narrow field tunable detector.

Dynamic MRI-based computer aided diagnostic systems for early detection of kidney transplant rejection: A survey

Science.gov (United States)

Mostapha, Mahmoud; Khalifa, Fahmi; Alansary, Amir; Soliman, Ahmed; Gimel'farb, Georgy; El-Baz, Ayman

2013-10-01

Early detection of renal transplant rejection is important to implement appropriate medical and immune therapy in patients with transplanted kidneys. In literature, a large number of computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) systems using different image modalities, such as ultrasound (US), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and radionuclide imaging, have been proposed for early detection of kidney diseases. A typical CAD system for kidney diagnosis consists of a set of processing steps including: motion correction, segmentation of the kidney and/or its internal structures (e.g., cortex, medulla), construction of agent kinetic curves, functional parameter estimation, diagnosis, and assessment of the kidney status. In this paper, we survey the current state-of-the-art CAD systems that have been developed for kidney disease diagnosis using dynamic MRI. In addition, the paper addresses several challenges that researchers face in developing efficient, fast and reliable CAD systems for the early detection of kidney diseases.

Knowledge representation methods for early failure detection

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Scherer, K.P.; Stiller, P.

1990-01-01

To supervise technical processes like nuclear power plants, it is very important to detect failure modes in an early stage. In the nuclear research center at Karlsruhe an expert system is developed, embedded in a computer network of autonomous computers, which are used for intelligent prepocessing. Events, process data and actual parameter values are stored in slots of special frames in the knowledge base of the expert system. Both rule based and fact based knowledge representations are employed to generate cause consequence chains of failure states. By on-line surveillance of the reactor process, the slots of the frames are dynamically actualized. Immediately after the evaluation, the inference engine starts in the special domain experts (triggered by metarules from a manager) and detects the correspondend failures or anomaly state. Matching the members of the chain and regarding a catalogue of instructions and messages, what is to do by the operator, future failure states can be estimated and propagation can be prohibited. That means qualitative failure prediction based on cause consequence in the static part of the knowledge base. Also, a time series of physical data can be used to predict on analytical way future process state and to continue such a theoretical propagation with matching the cause consuquence chain

Why Wait? Early Determinants of School Dropout in Preventive Pediatric Primary Care.

Science.gov (United States)

Theunissen, Marie-José; Bosma, Hans; Verdonk, Petra; Feron, Frans

2015-01-01

To answer the question of what bio-psychosocial determinants in infancy, early and middle childhood, and adolescence predict school drop-out in young adulthood, we approached the complex process towards school dropout as a multidimensional, life-course phenomenon. The aim is to find signs of heightened risks of school dropout as early as possible which will eventually help public health workers in reducing these risks. In a case-control design, we used data from both the Preventive Pediatric Primary Care (PPPC) files (that contain information from birth onwards) and additional questionnaires filled out by 529 youngsters, aged 18-23 years, and living in the South-east of the Netherlands. We first conducted univariate logistic regression analyses with school-dropout as the dependent variable. Backward and forward stepwise analyses with the significant variables were done with variables pertaining to the 0 to 4 year period. Remaining significant variables were forced into the next model and subsequently variables pertaining to respectively the 4 to 8, 8 to 12 and 12 to 16 year period were introduced in a stepwise analysis. All analyses were cross-validated in an exploratory and confirmatory random half of the sample. One parent families and families with a non-Western background less often attended the health examinations of the PPPC and such less attendance was related to school dropout. The birth of a sibling (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43-0.93) in infancy and self-efficacy (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.38-0.74) in adolescence decreased the odds of school dropout; externalizing behavior (OR 2.81, 95% CI 1.53-5.14) in middle childhood and (sickness) absence (OR 5.62, 95% CI 2.18-14.52) in adolescence increased the risks. To prevent school dropout, PPPC professionals should not wait until imminent dropout, but should identify and tackle risk factors as early as possible and actively approach youngsters who withdraw from public health care.

Why Wait? Early Determinants of School Dropout in Preventive Pediatric Primary Care.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie-José Theunissen

Full Text Available To answer the question of what bio-psychosocial determinants in infancy, early and middle childhood, and adolescence predict school drop-out in young adulthood, we approached the complex process towards school dropout as a multidimensional, life-course phenomenon. The aim is to find signs of heightened risks of school dropout as early as possible which will eventually help public health workers in reducing these risks.In a case-control design, we used data from both the Preventive Pediatric Primary Care (PPPC files (that contain information from birth onwards and additional questionnaires filled out by 529 youngsters, aged 18-23 years, and living in the South-east of the Netherlands. We first conducted univariate logistic regression analyses with school-dropout as the dependent variable. Backward and forward stepwise analyses with the significant variables were done with variables pertaining to the 0 to 4 year period. Remaining significant variables were forced into the next model and subsequently variables pertaining to respectively the 4 to 8, 8 to 12 and 12 to 16 year period were introduced in a stepwise analysis. All analyses were cross-validated in an exploratory and confirmatory random half of the sample.One parent families and families with a non-Western background less often attended the health examinations of the PPPC and such less attendance was related to school dropout. The birth of a sibling (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43-0.93 in infancy and self-efficacy (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.38-0.74 in adolescence decreased the odds of school dropout; externalizing behavior (OR 2.81, 95% CI 1.53-5.14 in middle childhood and (sickness absence (OR 5.62, 95% CI 2.18-14.52 in adolescence increased the risks.To prevent school dropout, PPPC professionals should not wait until imminent dropout, but should identify and tackle risk factors as early as possible and actively approach youngsters who withdraw from public health care.

Why Wait? Early Determinants of School Dropout in Preventive Pediatric Primary Care

Science.gov (United States)

Theunissen, Marie-José; Bosma, Hans; Verdonk, Petra; Feron, Frans

2015-01-01

Background To answer the question of what bio-psychosocial determinants in infancy, early and middle childhood, and adolescence predict school drop-out in young adulthood, we approached the complex process towards school dropout as a multidimensional, life-course phenomenon. The aim is to find signs of heightened risks of school dropout as early as possible which will eventually help public health workers in reducing these risks. Methods In a case-control design, we used data from both the Preventive Pediatric Primary Care (PPPC) files (that contain information from birth onwards) and additional questionnaires filled out by 529 youngsters, aged 18–23 years, and living in the South-east of the Netherlands. We first conducted univariate logistic regression analyses with school-dropout as the dependent variable. Backward and forward stepwise analyses with the significant variables were done with variables pertaining to the 0 to 4 year period. Remaining significant variables were forced into the next model and subsequently variables pertaining to respectively the 4 to 8, 8 to 12 and 12 to 16 year period were introduced in a stepwise analysis. All analyses were cross-validated in an exploratory and confirmatory random half of the sample. Results One parent families and families with a non-Western background less often attended the health examinations of the PPPC and such less attendance was related to school dropout. The birth of a sibling (OR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43–0.93) in infancy and self-efficacy (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.38–0.74) in adolescence decreased the odds of school dropout; externalizing behavior (OR 2.81, 95% CI 1.53–5.14) in middle childhood and (sickness) absence (OR 5.62, 95% CI 2.18–14.52) in adolescence increased the risks. Conclusion To prevent school dropout, PPPC professionals should not wait until imminent dropout, but should identify and tackle risk factors as early as possible and actively approach youngsters who withdraw from public health care

Early life programming as a target for prevention of child and adolescent mental disorders

OpenAIRE

Lewis, Andrew James; Galbally, Megan; Gannon, Tara; Symeonides, Christos

2014-01-01

This paper concerns future policy development and programs of research for the prevention of mental disorders based on research emerging from fetal and early life programming. The current review offers an overview of findings on pregnancy exposures such as maternal mental health, lifestyle factors, and potential teratogenic and neurotoxic exposures on child outcomes. Outcomes of interest are common child and adolescent mental disorders including hyperactive, behavioral and emotional disorders...

Early Improper Motion Detection in Golf Swings Using Wearable Motion Sensors: The First Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Stančin, Sara; Tomažič, Sašo

2013-01-01

This paper presents an analysis of a golf swing to detect improper motion in the early phase of the swing. Led by the desire to achieve a consistent shot outcome, a particular golfer would (in multiple trials) prefer to perform completely identical golf swings. In reality, some deviations from the desired motion are always present due to the comprehensive nature of the swing motion. Swing motion deviations that are not detrimental to performance are acceptable. This analysis is conducted using a golfer's leading arm kinematic data, which are obtained from a golfer wearing a motion sensor that is comprised of gyroscopes and accelerometers. Applying the principal component analysis (PCA) to the reference observations of properly performed swings, the PCA components of acceptable swing motion deviations are established. Using these components, the motion deviations in the observations of other swings are examined. Any unacceptable deviations that are detected indicate an improper swing motion. Arbitrarily long observations of an individual player's swing sequences can be included in the analysis. The results obtained for the considered example show an improper swing motion in early phase of the swing, i.e., the first part of the backswing. An early detection method for improper swing motions that is conducted on an individual basis provides assistance for performance improvement. PMID:23752563

Early Detection of Foot-And-Mouth Disease Virus from Infected Cattle Using A Dry Filter Air Sampling System.

Science.gov (United States)

Pacheco, J M; Brito, B; Hartwig, E; Smoliga, G R; Perez, A; Arzt, J; Rodriguez, L L

2017-04-01

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious livestock disease of high economic impact. Early detection of FMD virus (FMDV) is fundamental for rapid outbreak control. Air sampling collection has been demonstrated as a useful technique for detection of FMDV RNA in infected animals, related to the aerogenous nature of the virus. In the current study, air from rooms housing individual (n = 17) or two groups (n = 4) of cattle experimentally infected with FDMV A24 Cruzeiro of different virulence levels was sampled to assess the feasibility of applying air sampling as a non-invasive, screening tool to identify sources of FMDV infection. Detection of FMDV RNA in air was compared with first detection of clinical signs and FMDV RNA levels in serum and oral fluid. FMDV RNA was detected in room air samples 1-3 days prior (seven animals) or on the same day (four animals) as the appearance of clinical signs in 11 of 12 individually housed cattle. Only in one case clinical signs preceded detection in air samples by one day. Overall, viral RNA in oral fluid or serum preceded detection in air samples by 1-2 days. Six individually housed animals inoculated with attenuated strains did not show clinical signs, but virus was detected in air in one of these cases 3 days prior to first detection in oral fluid. In groups of four cattle housed together, air detection always preceded appearance of clinical signs by 1-2 days and coincided more often with viral shedding in oral fluid than virus in blood. These data confirm that air sampling is an effective non-invasive screening method for detecting FMDV infection in confined to enclosed spaces (e.g. auction barns, milking parlours). This technology could be a useful tool as part of a surveillance strategy during FMD prevention, control or eradication efforts. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Test of TEDA, Tsunami Early Detection Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Bressan, Lidia; Tinti, Stefano

2010-05-01

mainly characterized by the astronomical tide and white noise. TEDA has been tested on specific events recorded by Adak Island tide-gauge, in Alaska, and by DART buoys, located offshore Alaska, thanks to the collaboration with NCTR of PMEL/NOAA (NOAA Centre for Tsunami Research of Pacific and Marine Environmental Laboratory/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). Three methods for the characterization of the background signal have been tested and compared with different characterization settings, in order to find the most appropriate calibration. To evaluate the algorithm performance, different indicators have been taken into account, such as the number of false detections, the number of events detected, the delay of detection and the duration of the tsunami alert state. Particular attention has been reserved to the number of false detections, which compromise heavily the reliability of a detection algorithm and undermine the usefulness of the algorithm itself. The method to test TEDA is presented here and is proposed as an example of procedure to evaluate the performance of the tsunami detection algorithms used in the Tsunami Early Warning Systems practice.

Computer-aided detection of early interstitial lung diseases using low-dose CT images

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Park, Sang Cheol; Kim, Soo Hyung [School of Electronics and Computer Engineering, Chonnam National University, Gwangju 500-757 (Korea, Republic of); Tan, Jun; Wang Xingwei; Lederman, Dror; Leader, Joseph K; Zheng Bin, E-mail: zhengb@upmc.edu [Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 (United States)

2011-02-21

This study aims to develop a new computer-aided detection (CAD) scheme to detect early interstitial lung disease (ILD) using low-dose computed tomography (CT) examinations. The CAD scheme classifies each pixel depicted on the segmented lung areas into positive or negative groups for ILD using a mesh-grid-based region growth method and a multi-feature-based artificial neural network (ANN). A genetic algorithm was applied to select optimal image features and the ANN structure. In testing each CT examination, only pixels selected by the mesh-grid region growth method were analyzed and classified by the ANN to improve computational efficiency. All unselected pixels were classified as negative for ILD. After classifying all pixels into the positive and negative groups, CAD computed a detection score based on the ratio of the number of positive pixels to all pixels in the segmented lung areas, which indicates the likelihood of the test case being positive for ILD. When applying to an independent testing dataset of 15 positive and 15 negative cases, the CAD scheme yielded the area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC = 0.884 {+-} 0.064) and 80.0% sensitivity at 85.7% specificity. The results demonstrated the feasibility of applying the CAD scheme to automatically detect early ILD using low-dose CT examinations.

Serum anti-Ku86 is a potential biomarker for early detection of hepatitis C virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nomura, Fumio, E-mail: fnomura@faculty.chiba-u.jp [Department of Molecular Diagnosis, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University and Divisions of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Genetics and Proteomics, Chiba University Hospital, Chiba (Japan); Sogawa, Kazuyuki; Noda, Kenta; Seimiya, Masanori; Matsushita, Kazuyuki; Miura, Toshihide [Department of Molecular Diagnosis, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University and Divisions of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Genetics and Proteomics, Chiba University Hospital, Chiba (Japan); Tomonaga, Takeshi [Laboratory of Proteome Research, National Institute of Biomedical Innovation, Ibaraki (Japan); Yoshitomi, Hideyuki [Department of General Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba (Japan); Imazeki, Fumio [Department of Medicine and Clinical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba (Japan); Takizawa, Hirotaka [Kashiwado Clinic in Port-Square of the Kashiwado Memorial Foundation, Chiba (Japan); Mogushi, Kaoru [Information Center for Medical Sciences, Tokyo Dental and Medical University, Tokyo (Japan); Miyazaki, Masaru [Department of General Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba (Japan); Yokosuka, Osamu [Department of Medicine and Clinical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba (Japan)

2012-05-18

Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Overexpression of Ku86 in human liver cancer was shown by immunohistochemistry. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Serum anti-Ku86 was significantly elevated in early hepatocellular carcinoma. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Anti-Ku86 may be more sensitive than the conventional markers for early detection. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Serum anti-Ku86 significantly decreased after surgical resection of liver tumors. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Elevation of serum anti-Ku86 in other non-liver solid tumors was minimal. -- Abstract: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the predominant form of primary liver cancer, is one of the most common cancers worldwide and the third most common cause of cancer-related death. Imaging studies including ultrasound and computed tomography are recommended for early detection of HCC, but they are operator dependent, costly and involve radiation. Therefore, there is a need for simple and sensitive serum markers for the early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In our recent proteomic studies, a number of proteins overexpressed in HCC tissues were identified. We thought if the serum autoantibodies to these overexpressed proteins were detectable in HCC patients. Of these proteins, we focused on Ku86, a nuclear protein involved in multiple biological processes and aimed to assess the diagnostic value of serum anti-Ku86 in the early detection of HCC. Serum samples were obtained prior to treatment from 58 consecutive patients with early or relatively early hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related HCC and 137 patients with HCV-related liver cirrhosis without evidence of HCC. Enzyme immunoassays were used to measure serum levels of autoantibodies. Serum levels of anti-Ku86 antibodies were significantly elevated in HCC patients compared to those in liver cirrhosis patients (0.41 {+-} 0.28 vs. 0.18 {+-} 0.08 Abs at 450 nm, P < 0001). Setting the cut-off level to give 90% specificity, anti-Ku86 was positive in 60.7% of

Declines in Connected Language Are Associated with Very Early Mild Cognitive Impairment: Results from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention

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Kimberly D. Mueller

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Changes to everyday spoken language (“connected language” are evident in persons with AD dementia, yet little is known about when these changes are first detectable on the continuum of cognitive decline. The aim of this study was to determine if participants with very early, subclinical memory declines were also showing declines in connected language. We analyzed connected language samples obtained from a simple picture description task at two time points in 264 participants from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP. In parallel, participants were classified as either “Cognitively Healthy” or “Early Mild Cognitive Impairment” based on longitudinal neuropsychological test performance. Linear mixed effects models were used to analyze language parameters that were extracted from the connected language samples using automated feature extraction. Participants with eMCI status declined faster in features of speech fluency and semantic content than those who were cognitively stable. Measures of lexical diversity and grammatical complexity were not associated with eMCI status in this group. These findings provide novel insights about the relationship between cognitive decline and everyday language, using a quick, inexpensive, and performance-based method.

Obesity Prevention Interventions in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings with Parental Involvement: A Systematic Review

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Morris, Heather; Skouteris, Helen; Edwards, Susan; Rutherford, Leonie

2015-01-01

Partnering early childhood education and care (ECEC) and the home together may be more effective in combating obesogenic risk factors in preschool children. Thus, an evaluation of ECEC obesity prevention interventions with a parental component was conducted, exploring parental engagement and its effect on obesity and healthy lifestyle outcomes. A…

Gender-Specific HIV Prevention with Urban Early-Adolescent Girls: Outcomes of the Keepin' It Safe Program

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Di Noia, Jennifer; Schinke, Steven P.

2007-01-01

This study evaluates the efficacy of Keepin' It Safe, a theory-based, gender-specific, CD-ROM-mediated HIV prevention program for urban, early adolescent girls. Intervention effects were examined in a randomized, pretest-posttest wait-list control-group design. Changes in HIV/AIDS knowledge, protective attitudes, and skills for reducing HIV…

Attitudes of women after the age of 50 towards preventive screening.

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Skórzyńska, Hanna; Krawczyk-Suszek, Marlena; Kulik, Teresa B; Pacian, Anna; Stefanowicz, Agata; Skowronek, Anna

2017-12-23

Prevention is one of the major branches of the health sector. The National Health Programme encompasses main risk factors, elimination of which may lead to a reduced incidence of illnesses in the society. At the same time, the criteria of selecting people eligible for preventive screening are established according to risk groups determined by sex, as well as age in the population of women. The perimenopausal and menopausal period contributes to occurrence of numerous systemic diseases and to an increased risk of illnesses, especially cancers. The objective of the research was to evaluate the performance of preventive screening tests of women after 50 aimed at early detection of cervical and breast cancer. Furthermore, the research estimated frequency of pathological lesions detected and regularity of their monitoring. The research covered 150 women after 50 years of age. The database was statistically examined with STATISTICA software. A low percentage of the respondents, in comparison to the risk increasing with age, had a Pap test (61.3%) and mammography (51.3%) in the last two years. In the case of women whose latest Pap test or mammography showed abnormalities and was the basis for diagnosing pathological lesions, 69.2% of them were under regular medical supervision if abnormalities were identified by a Pap test and 68.7% if lesions were detected in breast structure. In the examined group we observed a small percentage of women undergo Pap tests and mammography. Furthermore, medical recommendations regarding early detection of cancers are frequently ignored and disregarded by patients.

Effective surveillance for early classical swine fever virus detection will utilize both virus and antibody detection capabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Panyasing, Yaowalak; Kedkovid, Roongtham; Thanawongnuwech, Roongroje; Kittawornrat, Apisit; Ji, Ju; Giménez-Lirola, Luis; Zimmerman, Jeffrey

2018-03-01

Early recognition and rapid elimination of infected animals is key to controlling incursions of classical swine fever virus (CSFV). In this study, the diagnostic characteristics of 10 CSFV assays were evaluated using individual serum (n = 601) and/or oral fluid (n = 1417) samples collected from -14 to 28 days post inoculation (DPI). Serum samples were assayed by virus isolation (VI), 2 commercial antigen-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), virus neutralization (VN), and 3 antibody ELISAs. Both serum and oral fluid samples were tested with 3 commercial real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) assays. One or more serum samples was positive by VI from DPIs 3 to 21 and by antigen-capture ELISAs from DPIs 6 to 17. VN-positive serum samples were observed at DPIs ≥ 7 and by antibody ELISAs at DPIs ≥ 10. CSFV RNA was detected in serum samples from DPIs 2 to 28 and in oral fluid samples from DPIs 4 to 28. Significant differences in assay performance were detected, but most importantly, no single combination of sample and assay was able to dependably identify CSFV-inoculated pigs throughout the 4-week course of the study. The results show that effective surveillance for CSFV, especially low virulence strains, will require the use of PCR-based assays for the detection of early infections (<14 days) and antibody-based assays, thereafter. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Sudden and unexpected and near death during the early neonatal period: A multicenter study

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Pei-Chen Tsao

2012-02-01

Conclusion: More effort on promotion of autopsy to discover the underlying disease is necessary and helpful. To build up an alarm system or protocol for education and early detection is the basis to prevent this tragedy.

Computer-assisted detection (CAD) methodology for early detection of response to pharmaceutical therapy in tuberculosis patients

Science.gov (United States)

Lieberman, Robert; Kwong, Heston; Liu, Brent; Huang, H. K.

2009-02-01

The chest x-ray radiological features of tuberculosis patients are well documented, and the radiological features that change in response to successful pharmaceutical therapy can be followed with longitudinal studies over time. The patients can also be classified as either responsive or resistant to pharmaceutical therapy based on clinical improvement. We have retrospectively collected time series chest x-ray images of 200 patients diagnosed with tuberculosis receiving the standard pharmaceutical treatment. Computer algorithms can be created to utilize image texture features to assess the temporal changes in the chest x-rays of the tuberculosis patients. This methodology provides a framework for a computer-assisted detection (CAD) system that may provide physicians with the ability to detect poor treatment response earlier in pharmaceutical therapy. Early detection allows physicians to respond with more timely treatment alternatives and improved outcomes. Such a system has the potential to increase treatment efficacy for millions of patients each year.

[The Outpatient Clinic for Adolescent Risk-taking and Self-harm behaviors (AtR!Sk) - A Pioneering Approach of Outpatient Early Detection and Intervention of Borderline Personality Disorder].

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Kaess, Michael; Ghinea, Denisa; Fischer-Waldschmidt, Gloria; Resch, Franz

2017-07-01

The Outpatient Clinic for Adolescent Risk-taking and Self-harm behaviors (AtR!Sk) - A Pioneering Approach of Outpatient Early Detection and Intervention of Borderline Personality Disorder Self-harm and risk-taking behaviors are frequently occurring problems in adolescents' everyday life and commonly challenge the present child and adolescent health-care system. Those behaviors are typical features of borderline-personality disorder (BPD), a severe mental disorder that is associated with immense psychological strain, increased risk of mortality and poor psychosocial functioning. Despite controversy in the past, recent evidence shows that BPD is a valid and reliable diagnosis in adolescence. Consequently, specified and effective intervention programs for this age group are necessary. Instead, present health-care services for children and adolescents in Germany are usually characterized by long waiting periods for specialized outpatient treatments and unnecessary expanses of unnecessary long inpatient stays. Alternatively, and in order to prevent serious long-term consequences, new concepts - integrated in an ambulatory setting and close to patients' daily routines - should focus on early detection and treatment of adolescents at-risk presenting with borderline personality features. The specialist outpatient clinic AtR!Sk at the University Hospital Heidelberg ensures a low-threshold initial contact service, comprehensive and accurate diagnosis of BPD features, and rapidly "tailored" therapy for young people presenting with any types of risk-taking and self-harm behavior. AtR!Sk - as a pioneering approach in south Germany - provides evidence-based early detection and intervention for adolescent BPD.

Detection of Early Morning Daily Activities with Static Home and Wearable Wireless Sensors

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David Vanderpool

2007-10-01

Full Text Available This paper describes a flexible, cost-effective, wireless in-home activity monitoring system for assisting patients with cognitive impairments due to traumatic brain injury (TBI. The system locates the subject with fixed home sensors and classifies early morning bathroom activities of daily living with a wearable wireless accelerometer. The system extracts time- and frequency-domain features from the accelerometer data and classifies these features with a hybrid classifier that combines Gaussian mixture models and a finite state machine. In particular, the paper establishes that despite similarities between early morning bathroom activities of daily living, it is possible to detect and classify these activities with high accuracy. It also discusses system training and provides data to show that with proper feature selection, accurate detection and classification are possible for any subject with no subject specific training.

Annual Fasting; the Early Calories Restriction for Cancer Prevention

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Solat Eslami

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Essentially, people’s diet and nutritional status has been changed substantially worldwide and several lines of evidence suggest that these changes are to the detriment of their health. Additionally, it has been well documented that unhealthy diet especially the fast foods, untraditional foods or bad-eating-habits influence the human gut microbiome. The gut microbiota shapes immune responses during human life and affects his/her metabolomic profiles. Furthermore, many studies highlight the molecular pathways that mediate host and symbiont interactions that regulate proper immune function and prevention of cancer in the body. Intriguingly, if cancer forms in a human body due to the weakness of immune system in detriment of microbiome, the removal of cancer stem cells can be carried out through early Calories Restriction with Annual Fasting (AF before tumor development or progress. Besides, fasting can b balance the gut microbiome for enhancement of immune system against cancer formation.

Kinetic examination of the thyroid for an early detection of localized autonomy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Das, B.K.; Kissel, H.J.; Schnabel, K.

1980-01-01

Early diagnosis of localised thyroid autonomy can in many cases be of high importance for the patient. By manifesting accelerated radioiodine kinetics in suspicious lobes or regions of the thyroid, autonomies of the thyroid can be detected early and definitely. Examination covered 50 euthyroidic patients showing only an asymmetric thyroidal configuration in the scintiscan. Unilateral determining of the radioiodine kinetics at the Auger-camera helped to find out if, and in how many cases, there is really an accelerated iodine metabolism in the thyroids represented asymmetrically. Fire of the examinated patients showed, compared with the opposite side, both increased iodine uptake and accelerated iodine output in the lobes which are seen more clearly in the scintiscan. This might be an indication of a very early stage of thyroidal autonomy. (orig.) [de

The Early Prevention of Obesity in CHildren (EPOCH Collaboration - an Individual Patient Data Prospective Meta-Analysis

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Simes John

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Efforts to prevent the development of overweight and obesity have increasingly focused early in the life course as we recognise that both metabolic and behavioural patterns are often established within the first few years of life. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs of interventions are even more powerful when, with forethought, they are synthesised into an individual patient data (IPD prospective meta-analysis (PMA. An IPD PMA is a unique research design where several trials are identified for inclusion in an analysis before any of the individual trial results become known and the data are provided for each randomised patient. This methodology minimises the publication and selection bias often associated with a retrospective meta-analysis by allowing hypotheses, analysis methods and selection criteria to be specified a priori. Methods/Design The Early Prevention of Obesity in CHildren (EPOCH Collaboration was formed in 2009. The main objective of the EPOCH Collaboration is to determine if early intervention for childhood obesity impacts on body mass index (BMI z scores at age 18-24 months. Additional research questions will focus on whether early intervention has an impact on children's dietary quality, TV viewing time, duration of breastfeeding and parenting styles. This protocol includes the hypotheses, inclusion criteria and outcome measures to be used in the IPD PMA. The sample size of the combined dataset at final outcome assessment (approximately 1800 infants will allow greater precision when exploring differences in the effect of early intervention with respect to pre-specified participant- and intervention-level characteristics. Discussion Finalisation of the data collection procedures and analysis plans will be complete by the end of 2010. Data collection and analysis will occur during 2011-2012 and results should be available by 2013. Trial registration number ACTRN12610000789066

Clinical Perspective of 3D Total Body Photography for Early Detection and Screening of Melanoma.

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Rayner, Jenna E; Laino, Antonia M; Nufer, Kaitlin L; Adams, Laura; Raphael, Anthony P; Menzies, Scott W; Soyer, H Peter

2018-01-01

Melanoma incidence continues to increase across many populations globally and there is significant mortality associated with advanced disease. However, if detected early, patients have a very promising prognosis. The methods that have been utilized for early detection include clinician and patient skin examinations, dermoscopy (static and sequential imaging), and total body photography via 2D imaging. Total body photography has recently witnessed an evolution from 2D imaging with the ability to now create a 3D representation of the patient linked with dermoscopy images of individual lesions. 3D total body photography is a particularly beneficial screening tool for patients at high risk due to their personal or family history or those with multiple dysplastic naevi-the latter can make monitoring especially difficult without the assistance of technology. In this perspective, we discuss clinical examples utilizing 3D total body photography, associated advantages and limitations, and future directions of the technology. The optimal system for melanoma screening should improve diagnostic accuracy, be time and cost efficient, and accessible to patients across all demographic and socioeconomic groups. 3D total body photography has the potential to address these criteria and, most importantly, optimize crucial early detection.

Efficacy of light based detection systems for early detection of oral cancer and oral potentially malignant disorders: Systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Nagi, R; Reddy-Kantharaj, Y-B; Rakesh, N; Janardhan-Reddy, S; Sahu, S

2016-07-01

Earlier detection of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMD) is essential for dental professionals to improve patient survival rates. The aim of this systematic review is to to evaluate the effectiveness of devices that utilise the principles of chemiluminescence and tissue autofluorescence as adjuncts in the detection of OSCC and OPMD. The electronic retrieval systems and databases searched for relevant articles were PubMed [MEDLINE] and Science direct. The search was for limited articles published in English or with an English abstract and articles published during the period from January 2005 to April 2014. Clinical trials utilized ViziLite, Microlux TM/DL and Visual Enhanced Light scope (VELscope) for early detection of OPMD and OSCC. Twenty primary studies published satisfied our criteria for selection - 10 utilised chemiluminescence and 10 tissue autofluorescence. Senstivity of Vizilite for detecting OSCC nad OPMD ranged from 77.1 % to 100% and specificity was low that ranged from 0% to 27.8%.Most have shown that chemiluminescence increases the brightness and margins of oral mucosal white lesions and thus assist in identification of mucosal lesions not considered under Conventional visual examination. However, it preferentially detects leukoplakia and may fail to spot red patches. Clinical trials demonstrated that sensitivity of VELscope in detecting malignancy and OPMD ranged from 22 % to 100 % and specificity ranged from 16 % to 100%. Most studies concluded that VELscope can help the experienced clinician to find oral precursor malignant lesions. But it couldnot differentiate between dysplasia and benign inflammatory conditions. Both devices are simple, non-invasive test of the oral mucosa but are suited for clinicians with sufficient experience and training. More clinical trials in future should be conducted to establish optical imaging as an efficacious adjunct tool in early diagnosis of OSCC and OPMD.

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP): early detection of Toxoplasma gondii infection in mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Qing-Ming; Lu, Shao-Hong; Tong, Qun-Bo; Lou, Di; Chen, Rui; Zheng, Bin; Kumagai, Takashi; Wen, Li-Yong; Ohta, Nobuo; Zhou, Xiao-Nong

2012-01-03

Toxoplasmosis is a widespread zoonotic parasitic disease that occurs in both animals and humans. Traditional molecular assays are often difficult to perform, especially for the early diagnosis of Toxoplasma gondii infections. Here, we established a novel loop-mediated isothermal amplification targeting the 529 bp repeat element (529 bp-LAMP) to detect T. gondii DNA in blood samples of experimental mice infected with tachyzoites of the RH strain. The assay was performed with Bst DNA polymerase at 65°C for 1 h. The detection limit of the 529 bp-LAMP assay was as low as 0.6 fg of T. gondii DNA. The sensitivity of this assay was 100 and 1000 fold higher than that of the LAMP targeting B1 gene (B1-LAMP) and nested PCR targeting 529 bp repeat element (529 bp-nested PCR), respectively. The specificity of the 529 bp-LAMP assay was determined using the DNA samples of Trypanosoma evansi, Plasmodium falciparum, Paragonimus westermani, Schistosoma japonicum, Fasciola hepatica and Angiostrongylus cantonensis. No cross-reactivity with the DNA of any parasites was found. The assay was able to detect T. gondii DNA in all mouse blood samples at one day post infection (dpi). We report the following findings: (i) The detection limit of the 529 bp-LAMP assay is 0.6 fg of T. gondii DNA; (ii) The assay does not involve any cross-reactivity with the DNA of other parasites; (iii) This is the first report on the application of the LAMP assay for early diagnosis of toxoplasmosis in blood samples from experimentally infected mice. Due to its simplicity, sensitivity and cost-effectiveness for common use, we suggest that this assay should be used as an early diagnostic tool for health control of toxoplasmosis.

[Pediatrician-parent interaction and early prevention : A review about the limits in addressing psychosocial risks during well-child visits].

Science.gov (United States)

Barth, Michael

2016-10-01

Pediatricians can be a door opener to early prevention for families at risk. The German well-child program is well-established, but there is a gap between the structural possibilities and the observed placements. The aim of this review is to show how pediatricians and parents talk about psychosocial risks under the very structured conditions of well-child visits. The challenges and traps of the framed interactions will be described and options for early prevention will be shown. The review is primarily based on the work of conversational and ethnomethodological studies reconstructing the pediatrician's discussion with parents about psychosocial issues in the family. Well-child visits are a highly routinized practice. Talking about family issues for both partners is a difficult task. Discussions about psychosocial issues are seldom and vague . Predominantly, they work cooperatively on reciprocal normalization of the child's development. Based on this shared orientation, pediatricians make an early, mostly general, prescription of parental tasks, supporting the child in the next developmental step. This kind of routine anticipatory counselling puts some pressure on the parents. Parents under unknown stress could be overburdened with this advice. In the script of well-child visits, there are no slots that indicate to pediatricians and parents when, which, how and for what purpose psychosocial issues can be discussed and negotiated. For implementing such slots in well-child visits, three steps are necessary: a structured and regular assessment of psychosocial issues, a trained pediatrician in motivational interviewing and a social worker guiding the family in the network of early prevention.