Deep Learning-Based Electrocardiogram Signal Noise Detection and Screening Model / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVES: Biosignal data captured by patient monitoring systems could provide key evidence for detecting or predicting critical clinical events; however, noise in these data hinders their use. Because deep learning algorithms can extract features without human annotation, this study hypothesized that they could be used to screen unacceptable electrocardiograms (ECGs) that include noise. To test that, a deep learning-based model for unacceptable ECG screening was developed, and its screening results were compared with the interpretations of a medical expert. METHODS: To develop and apply the screening model, we used a biosignal database comprising 165,142,920 ECG II (10-second lead II electrocardiogram) data gathered between August 31, 2016 and September 30, 2018 from a trauma intensive-care unit. Then, 2,700 and 300 ECGs (ratio of 9:1) were reviewed by a medical expert and used for 9-fold cross-validation (training and validation) and test datasets. A convolutional neural network-based model for unacceptable ECG screening was developed based on the training and validation datasets. The model exhibiting the lowest cross-validation loss was subsequently selected as the final model. Its performance was evaluated through comparison with a test dataset. RESULTS: When the screening results of the proposed model were compared to the test dataset, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and the F1-score of the model were 0.93 and 0.80 (sensitivity = 0.88, specificity = 0.89, positive predictive value = 0.74, and negative predictive value = 0.96). CONCLUSIONS: The deep learning-based model developed in this study is capable of detecting and screening unacceptable ECGs efficiently.

Intermittent theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation for autism spectrum disorder: an open-label pilot study

Objective: Theta-burst stimulation (TBS) modulates synaptic plasticity more efficiently than standard repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation delivery and may be a promising modality for neuropsychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). At present there are few effective interventions for prefrontal cortex dysfunction in ASD. We report on an open-label, pilot study of intermittent TBS (iTBS) to target executive function deficits and restricted, repetitive behaviors in male children and adolescents with ASD. Methods: Ten right-handed, male participants, aged 9-17 years with ASD were enrolled in an open-label trial of iTBS treatment. Fifteen sessions of neuronavigated iTBS at 100% motor threshold targeting the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were delivered over 3 weeks. Results: Parent report scores on the Repetitive Behavior Scale Revised and the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale demonstrated improvements with iTBS treatment. Participants demonstrated improvements in perseverative errors on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and total time for the Stroop test. The iTBS treatments were well tolerated with no serious adverse effects. Conclusion: These preliminary results suggest that further controlled interventional studies of iTBS for ASD are warranted.

Lateral visual hemifield asymmetry and sex differences in recognizing low and high spatial frequency filtered faces

The present study investigated whether low and high spatial frequency filtered images of faces were recognized differently when briefly presented in the right and the left visual fields of men and women. The method of confidence rating was applied to assess pooled Receiver Operating Characteristic curves based on z scores and the d´ parameter of Signal Detection Theory for recognition indices, in addition to response times. The results showed that men better recognized low spatial frequency filtered faces than high spatial frequency filtered faces in both visual fields, suggesting that both the right and left hemispheres in males prioritize low spatial frequencies to recognize faces. The results for women were similar to men only when the faces were shown in the left visual field. When the faces were presented in the right visual field, women better recognized high spatial frequency filtered faces, suggesting that the left hemisphere in females prioritizes high spatial frequencies, whereas the right hemisphere in females prioritizes low spatial frequencies to recognize faces...

The research progress in brain vigilance detection / 生物医学工程学杂志

Vigilance is the body level of awareness for objective things. It has been used in security, medical and other fields since people used it as an objective indicator. Therefore automatical vigilance detection has become a major issue needed to be resolved as soon as possible. The methods of vigilance detection at home and abroad in recent years was analyzed in this paper, which will benefit the research and the people dedicated in vigilance detection.

Lateral interactions in visual perception of temporal signals: cortical and subcortical components

The aim of this work was to isolate and investigate subcortical and cortical lateral interactions involved in flicker perception. We quantified the perceived flicker strength (PFS) in the center of a test stimulus which was simultaneously modulated with a surround stimulus (50 percent Michelson contrast in both stimuli). Subjects were requested to adjust the modulation depth of a separate matching stimulus that was physically identical to the center of the test stimulus but without the surround. Using LCD goggles, synchronized to the frame rate of a CRT screen, the center and surround could be presented monoptically or dichoptically. In the monoptic condition, center-surround interactions can have both subcortical and cortical origins. In the dichoptic condition, center-surround interactions cannot occur in the retina and the LGN, therefore isolating a cortical mechanism. Results revealed both a strong monoptic (subcortical plus cortical) lateral interaction and a weaker dichoptic (cortical) lateral interaction. Subtraction of the dichoptic from the monoptic data revealed a subcortical mechanism of the lateral interaction. While the modulation of the cortical PFS component showed a low-pass temporal-frequency tuning, the modulation of the subcortical PFS component was maximal at 6 Hz. These findings are consistent with two separate temporal channels influencing the monoptic PFS, each with distinct lateral interactions strength and frequency tuning characteristics. We conclude that both subcortical and cortical lateral interactions modulate flicker perception.

[Comparison between metacognitive therapy, fluvoxamine and combined therapy in the improvement of thought control strategies and stop signal criteria in obsessive compulsive disorder]

This study was conducted to compare the efficacy of metacognitive therapy [MCT], fluvoxamine and the combination of MCT with fluvoxamine, in improving thought control strategies and stop signal criteria in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder [OCD]. Twenty one individuals among outpatients with OCD presenting to clinics in Tehran were selected and randomly divided into three groups: metacognitive therapy, fluvoxamine [50-300 mg/d] and combined therapy. All groups received 10 days of treatment. The Thought Control Questionnaire [TCQ] and Stop Signal Questionnaire [SSQ] were administered pre-treatment and post-treatment to all subjects. Kruskal Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U-test, and ANCOVA were used to analyze data. In comparison with fluvoxamine, MCT and combined treatment led to significant improvements in worry, self-punishment and reappraisal strategies of thought control and stop signal criteria [p<0.01]. There was no significant difference between MCT and combined therapy. MCT and combined treatment are more effective than fluvoxamine [50-300 mg/d] in improving thought control strategies and stop signal criteria in patients with OCD. Adding medication to MCT does not improve the patients' outcome

Dados demográficos, psicológicos e comportamentais de crianças e adolescentes vítimas de abuso sexual / Demographic, psychological and behavioral characteristics of child and adolescent victims of sexual abuse

CONTEXTO: A relação entre transtorno mental e histórico de abuso sexual é frequentemente observada na prática clínica e relatada na literatura. OBJETIVO: Descrever os dados demográficos e os aspectos emocionais e comportamentais em crianças e adolescentes vítimas de abuso sexual. MÉTODO: 205 crianças e adolescentes com idade entre 6 e 14 anos, sendo 130 meninas (9,6 ± 3,4 anos) e 75 meninos (7,2 ± 2,9 anos) vítimas de abuso sexual passaram por avaliação psicológica e psiquiátrica individual no período de 2005 a 2009. As variáveis estudadas foram: gênero, faixa etária, grau de relação da vítima com o perpetrador, aspectos psicológicos, dados psiquiátricos, aspectos comportamentais e afetivo-emocionais (culpa, vergonha, medo, insegurança, percepção da figura masculina e feminina e de si em relação ao ambiente). RESULTADOS: As meninas são as maiores vítimas (63,4 por cento). A faixa etária de maior risco para as meninas é entre 7 e 10 anos de idade (48,5 por cento), enquanto para os meninos é de 3 a 6 anos (54,6 por cento). Os pais são os maiores perpetradores do abuso sexual (38 por cento), seguidos do padrasto (29 por cento). Meninos e meninas expressaram elevada frequência para depressão e transtorno de estresse pós-traumático (TEPT). As meninas expressam comportamento mais erotizado, enquanto os meninos ficam mais isolados. CONCLUSÃO: Este estudo permitiu identificar uma parcela relevante de aspectos psicológicos, psiquiátricos e comportamentais, os quais podem afetar de forma impactante o desenvolvimento emocional de crianças e adolescentes.

BACKGROUND: There is a well known relationship between sexual abuse in children and mental health disorders, which is seen both in clinical practice as in the scientific literature. OBJECTIVE: To describe demographic profile as well as behavioral and emotional features of a cohort of children and adolescents sexually abused. MÉTODO: 205 children and adolescent, ranging from 6 to 14 years old, 130 girls (age 9.6 ± 3.4 yo) and 75 boys (age 7.2 ± 2.9 yo) were evaluated due to being victims of sexual abuse between the years 2005 and 2009. Gender, age, relationship with the perpetrator, psychological and psychiatric symptoms, behavioral and affective-emotional features (blame, shame, fearfulness, male and female figures image and self perception) were all properly evaluated. RESULTS: Girls were the main victims (63.4 percent). The riskier age ranging from 7 to 10 yo (48.5 percent) among then, and from 3 to 6 yo (54.6 percent) for the boys. Fathers are the major perpetrators (38 percent) followed by step-fathers (29 percent). Boys and girls show high risk for depression and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Girls tend to be more sexualized whilst boys tend to isolate themselves. DISCUSSION: This research allowed to identify an important set of psychological, psychiatric and behavioral characteristics that affect the normal emotional development of children and adolescents.

Effects and mechanisms of Herba dendrobii on rats with stomach-heat syndrome / 中国中药杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To observe the effects of Herba dendrobii on rats with stomach-heat syndrome and to explore the mechanisms.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>Rats were fed with decoction of Rhizoma Zingiberis for 15 continuous days to induce the model of stomach-heat syndrome. After modeling, Herba Dendrobii (HD) decoction were given (in the doses of 1.5, 0.75 g x kg(-1) respectively) for 10 days. After treatment, amount of the daily diet, volume and absorbance of urine, pellet number and moistness of excrement, color and coating degree of tongue were recorded; the body thermal effects were detected with thermal texture maps (TTM) system; the biochemical indexes of blood reflecting the physiological function of stomach, including thromboxaneB2 (TXB2), 6-keto-prostaglandin F1alpha(6-keto-PGF1alpha), motilin (MTL), gastrin (Gas), somatostation (SS), interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-8 (IL-8) were measured by radio immunoassay; and the histological changes of gastric mucosa were observed by hematoxylin-eosin (HE) stain.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>The model rat had yellow coating and red tongues (P < 0.05). The amount of daily diet were increased (over 10%), urine volume and excrement pellet number were decreased (over 10%). The their urine color became deep (P < 0.01) and their excrement became dry. The temperatures in head, neck, left fore-armpit, chest, up-abdomen, mid-abdomen of the model rats were raised up (difference > 0.5 degrees C or difference > 1.0 degree C ). The content of 6-keto-PGF1alpha in blood of model rats decreased evidently (P < 0.01), and the contents of MTL, Gas and IL-8 increased conspicuously (P < 0.01). The histological changes of gastric mucosa in the model rats were as follows: diffuse congestion, infiltration of neutrophil, less secretion, decrease of the number of chief and parietal cells, etc (P < 0. 05 or P < 0.01). After treatment with HD, except the daily food weight, the temperatures in head, neck and chest, the content of MTL and the number of chief cells, the other indexes observed above were improved noticeably (difference > 0.5 RC or difference > 1.0 degree C, P < 0.05 or P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The reason why HD relieves the general symptom and sign the gastric mucosa of rats with stomach-heat syndrome is that HD can increase 6-keto-PGF1alpha and decrease IL-8, Gas, TXB2 in their blood.</p>

Colour in action: evidence for a redundancy signal effect when driving motor responses by combined colour and spatial cues

Several studies have demonstrated that either chromatic or spatial information can guide motor behaviour, but so far interactions between these two visual features are little understood. Here we addressed this issue by measuring reaction times (RT) for pointing hand movements which were instructed by either cues for spatial (thought to be predominantly processed in the dorsal visual stream), colour (thought to be predominantly processed in the ventral visual stream) or redundant (combination of colour and spatial information) conditions. While faster responses were found for spatial than for colour cues, most importantly, the shortest RTs were measured for the combined cues (redundancy signal effect, RSE). The data are inconsistent with the predictions of the race model which assumes parallel and independent input from the two streams to the motor system. Instead, the data are better explained by the coactivation model, which proposes combined sensory information from the different stimuli and detection process from the sum of the signals. Here, the redundancy signal effect results from the combination of colour and spatial information. The results provide behavioural evidence for an integration of colour and spatial cues when guiding hand movements.

A review on the applications of acoustic analysis in diagnosing disease / 生物医学工程学杂志

Acoustic analysis is one of the important branches of biometric recognition technology widely used now. The mainly aim of the technology is to recognize the identity of person and judge the content of speech or diagnose the illness automatically according to the features extracted from the speaker's waveforms. All these features are related with the characteristics of speaker's physiological, pathological and psychological action. Speaker recognition study has its 50-year old history already, but acoustic analysis in diagnosing disease has been founded since 1970s. This paper introduces the main concept and research background of this diagnosing system generally and discusses the problems generated during processing. At last the prospect for the applications of acoustic analysis is forecasted.

The control of deliberate waiting strategies in a stop-signal task

To inhibit an ongoing flow of thoughts or actions has been largely considered to be a crucial executive function, and the stop-signal paradigm makes inhibitory control measurable. Stop-signal tasks usually combine two concurrent tasks, i.e., manual responses to a primary task (go-task) are occasionally countermanded by a stimulus which signals participants to inhibit their response in that trial (stop-task). Participants are always instructed not to wait for the stop-signal, since waiting strategies cause the response times to be unstable, invalidating the data. The aim of the present study was to experimentally control the strategies of waiting deliberately for the stop-signal in a stop-task by means of an algorithm that measured the variation in the reaction times to go-stimuli on-line, and displayed a warning legend urging participants to be faster when their reaction times were more than two standard deviations of the mean. Thirty-four university students performed a stop-task with go- and stop-stimuli, both of which were delivered in the visual modality and were lateralized within the visual field. The participants were divided into two groups (group A, without the algorithm, vs group B, with the algorithm). Group B exhibited lower variability of reaction times to go-stimuli, whereas no significant between-group differences were found in any of the measures of inhibitory control, showing that the algorithm succeeded in controlling the deliberate waiting strategies. Differences between deliberate and unintentional waiting strategies, and anxiety as a probable factor responsible for individual differences in deliberate waiting behavior, are discussed.

Visual and acoustic communication in non-human animals: a comparison.

The visual and auditory systems are two major sensory modalities employed in communication. Although communication in these two sensory modalities can serve analogous functions and evolve in response to similar selection forces, the two systems also operate under different constraints imposed by the environment and the degree to which these sensory modalities are recruited for non-communication functions. Also, the research traditions in each tend to differ, with studies of mechanisms of acoustic communication tending to take a more reductionist tack often concentrating on single signal parameters, and studies of visual communication tending to be more concerned with multivariate signal arrays in natural environments and higher level processing of such signals. Each research tradition would benefit by being more expansive in its approach.

Indícios de maltratos familiares em idosos / Evidence of elder abuse in the family

This is an exploratory-descriptive survey with the aim of investigating signs of elderly abuse, receiving treatment in basic health units in Maringá. The data were collected in November, 1998 with 60 elderly, using a semi structured interview and observations. The majority of the population interviewed (56%) were over 70 years old, 53% were female, and 95% reported to make continuous use of medication. Great part of them (40%) has already felt prejudiced and 50% of them were prejudiced by their own family; 21% complained that they do not receive help when they need it and when they receive help; it comes from their children in 83% of the cases. The help they refer to is mainly in health care 39% and financial matter 31%. Among the old people interviewed, they go accompanied 62 % to the doctor, but 60% if they are alone. It is considered sign of mistreatment the fact that only 45% of them are visited sometimes or rarely; 35% of them do not take part in any family decision or conversation; 50% do not go out for a ride with de family; 10% complained that their families take their belongings without asking permission, and 5% of them reported to suffer physical abuse by a family member. It was observed that there are no signs of mistreatment when referred to the routine aspects. Most of the data show absence of mistreatment in the majority of the elder interviewed. However even a small percentage, they are present in our environment and must be taken into account by the health professionals that aim to provide an integral and humanized assistance...

Relaçöes entre aspectos gráficos e textuais: a maiúscula e a segmentaçäo do texto na escrita de narrativas infantis / Relations between graphic and textual aspects: the capital letter and segmentation at handwritting in children narratives

Estuda as relaçöes entre aspectos gráficos e textuais na escrita de narrativas infantis e tem como foco a aquisiçäo do uso da maiúscula inicial de frase. Toma como pontos de partida o desenvolvimento histórico da maiúscula e seu funcionamento no texto. Inscreve-se em um marco teórico piagetiano e compöe-se de dois estudos articulados. O primeiro define a evoluçäo dos procedimentos de capitalizaçäo em um corpus de 64 transcriçöes realizadas por alunos de 1ª série de escola particular. O segundo estudo utiliza os resultados do primeiro para analisar um corpus de 67 reescritas da história "Chapeuzinho Vermelho" realizadas por turmas de 1ª série de 4 diferentes escolas: 2 escolas públicas e 2 escolas particulares. Uma das escolas públicas e uma das particulares têm como unidade de ensino a frase e as outras duas tomam como unidade o texto. A evoluçäo dos procedimentos de capitalizaçäo é analisada em relaçäo à evoluçäo da pontuaçäo e dos organizadores textuais. A comparaçäo aponta para a confirmaçäo da descriçäo evolutiva da aquisiçäo da capitalizaçäo. Analisa também o desenvolvimento da pontuaçäo, do uso de organizadores textuais e a presença de entrada posposta ao discurso direto em cada uma das 4 classes do 2§ estudo verificando o impacto de uma didática apoiada em uma concepçäo aditiva de texto e concluindo que a variável intervençäo pedagógica parece pesar mais, no universo pesquisado, do que a variável origem social, considerando-se as diferenças que se expressam na produçäo textual dos alunos