Viral exanthema can cause rash in a pregnant woman and should be considered even in countries that have comprehensive vaccination programmes. Measles and rubella can cause intrauterine death. Intrauterine infection with rubella can lead to congenital rubella syndrome in the liveborn baby. In this podcast, Jack Carruthers, honorary clinical...

JC Henquin
Nov 1, 2000; 49:1751-1760
Articles

Michael Brownlee
Jun 1, 2005; 54:1615-1625
Banting Lecture 2004

Sunder Mudaliar
Jul 1, 2016; 39:1115-1122
Diabetes Care Symposium

Military Entrance Processing Stations won't process individuals who have had COVID-19 for military service, even if they've fully recovered from the virus, the Pentagon confirmed this week.

The National Commission on Recognition of Dental Specialties and Certifying Boards announced March 4 it recognizes the American Dental Board of Anesthesiology as the national certifying board for dental anesthesiology.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine announced March 5 that it does not find that the National Toxicology Program adequately supported its conclusion that fluoride is “presumed” to be a cognitive neurodevelopmental hazard to humans.

The American Dental Association has created a tip sheet with guidance from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health group at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help health care professionals avoid buying or using counterfeit N95 respirators, which are often simply referred to as masks.

John R. White
Jan 1, 2003; 21:
Feature Articles

[Rome?] : [publisher not identified], [1807?]

New York : Experimental Manpower Laboratory at Mobilization for Youth, Inc., [1971]

Sihai Dave Zhao, Yet Tien Nguyen.

Source: Electronic Journal of Statistics, Volume 14, Number 1, 110--142.

Abstract:
It is frequently of interest to identify simultaneous signals, defined as features that exhibit statistical significance across each of several independent experiments. For example, genes that are consistently differentially expressed across experiments in different animal species can reveal evolutionarily conserved biological mechanisms. However, in some problems the test statistics corresponding to these features can have complicated or unknown null distributions. This paper proposes a novel nonparametric false discovery rate control procedure that can identify simultaneous signals even without knowing these null distributions. The method is shown, theoretically and in simulations, to asymptotically control the false discovery rate. It was also used to identify genes that were both differentially expressed and proximal to differentially accessible chromatin in the brains of mice exposed to a conspecific intruder. The proposed method is available in the R package github.com/sdzhao/ssa.

A. Philip Dawid, Vanessa Didelez

Source: Statist. Surv., Volume 4, 184--231.

Abstract:
We consider the problem of learning about and comparing the consequences of dynamic treatment strategies on the basis of observational data. We formulate this within a probabilistic decision-theoretic framework. Our approach is compared with related work by Robins and others: in particular, we show how Robins’s ‘ G -computation’ algorithm arises naturally from this decision-theoretic perspective. Careful attention is paid to the mathematical and substantive conditions required to justify the use of this formula. These conditions revolve around a property we term stability , which relates the probabilistic behaviours of observational and interventional regimes. We show how an assumption of ‘sequential randomization’ (or ‘no unmeasured confounders’), or an alternative assumption of ‘sequential irrelevance’, can be used to infer stability. Probabilistic influence diagrams are used to simplify manipulations, and their power and limitations are discussed. We compare our approach with alternative formulations based on causal DAGs or potential response models. We aim to show that formulating the problem of assessing dynamic treatment strategies as a problem of decision analysis brings clarity, simplicity and generality.

References:
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Dawid, A. P. (2003). Causal inference using influence diagrams: The problem of partial compliance (with Discussion). In Highly Structured Stochastic Systems ( P. J. Green, N. L. Hjort and S. Richardson, eds.) 45–81. Oxford University Press.

Dawid, A. P. (2010). Beware of the DAG! In Proceedings of the NIPS 2008 Workshop on Causality. Journal of Machine Learning Research Workshop and Conference Proceedings ( D. Janzing, I. Guyon and B. Schölkopf, eds.) 6 59–86. http://tinyurl.com/33va7tm

Dawid, A. P. and Didelez, V. (2008). Identifying optimal sequential decisions. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI-08) ( D. McAllester and A. Nicholson, eds.). 113-120. AUAI Press, Corvallis, Oregon. http://tinyurl.com/3899qpp

Dechter, R. (2003). Constraint Processing. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.

Didelez, V., Dawid, A. P. and Geneletti, S. G. (2006). Direct and indirect effects of sequential treatments. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI-06) ( R. Dechter and T. Richardson, eds.). 138-146. AUAI Press, Arlington, Virginia. http://tinyurl.com/32w3f4e

Didelez, V., Kreiner, S. and Keiding, N. (2010). Graphical models for inference under outcome dependent sampling. Statistical Science (to appear).

Didelez, V. and Sheehan, N. S. (2007). Mendelian randomisation: Why epidemiology needs a formal language for causality. In Causality and Probability in the Sciences, ( F. Russo and J. Williamson, eds.). Texts in Philosophy Series 5 263–292. College Publications, London.

Eichler, M. and Didelez, V. (2010). Granger-causality and the effect of interventions in time series. Lifetime Data Analysis 16 3–32.

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Gill, R. D. and Robins, J. M. (2001). Causal inference for complex longitudinal data: The continuous case. Annals of Statistics 29 1785–1811.

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Henderson, R., Ansel, P. and Alshibani, D. (2010). Regret-regression for optimal dynamic treatment regimes. Biometrics (to appear). doi:10.1111/j.1541-0420.2009.01368.x

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Moodie, E. M., Richardson, T. S. and Stephens, D. A. (2007). Demystifying optimal dynamic treatment regimes. Biometrics 63 447–455.

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Sterne, J. A. C., May, M., Costagliola, D., de Wolf, F., Phillips, A. N., Harris, R., Funk, M. J., Geskus, R. B., Gill, J., Dabis, F., Miro, J. M., Justice, A. C., Ledergerber, B., Fatkenheuer, G., Hogg, R. S., D’Arminio-Monforte, A., Saag, M., Smith, C., Staszewski, S., Egger, M., Cole, S. R. and When To Start Consortium (2009). Timing of initiation of antiretroviral therapy in AIDS-Free HIV-1-infected patients: A collaborative analysis of 18 HIV cohort studies. Lancet 373 1352–1363.

Taubman, S. L., Robins, J. M., Mittleman, M. A. and Hernán, M. A. (2009). Intervening on risk factors for coronary heart disease: An application of the parametric g-formula. International Journal of Epidemiology 38 1599–1611.

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Given a multivariate data set, sparse principal component analysis (SPCA) aims to extract several linear combinations of the variables that together explain the variance in the data as much as possible, while controlling the number of nonzero loadings in these combinations. In this paper we consider 8 different optimization formulations for computing a single sparse loading vector; these are obtained by combining the following factors: we employ two norms for measuring variance (L2, L1) and two sparsity-inducing norms (L0, L1), which are used in two different ways (constraint, penalty). Three of our formulations, notably the one with L0 constraint and L1 variance, have not been considered in the literature. We give a unifying reformulation which we propose to solve via a natural alternating maximization (AM) method. We show the the AM method is nontrivially equivalent to GPower (Journ'{e}e et al; JMLR 11:517--553, 2010) for all our formulations. Besides this, we provide 24 efficient parallel SPCA implementations: 3 codes (multi-core, GPU and cluster) for each of the 8 problems. Parallelism in the methods is aimed at i) speeding up computations (our GPU code can be 100 times faster than an efficient serial code written in C++), ii) obtaining solutions explaining more variance and iii) dealing with big data problems (our cluster code is able to solve a 357 GB problem in about a minute).

Kerstin Spitzer, Marta Pelizzola, Andreas Futschik.

Source: The Annals of Applied Statistics, Volume 14, Number 1, 202--220.

Abstract:
Evolve and resequence studies provide a popular approach to simulate evolution in the lab and explore its genetic basis. In this context, Pearson’s chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test as well as the Cochran–Mantel–Haenszel test are commonly used to infer genomic positions affected by selection from temporal changes in allele frequency. However, the null model associated with these tests does not match the null hypothesis of actual interest. Indeed, due to genetic drift and possibly other additional noise components such as pool sequencing, the null variance in the data can be substantially larger than accounted for by these common test statistics. This leads to $p$-values that are systematically too small and, therefore, a huge number of false positive results. Even, if the ranking rather than the actual $p$-values is of interest, a naive application of the mentioned tests will give misleading results, as the amount of overdispersion varies from locus to locus. We therefore propose adjusted statistics that take the overdispersion into account while keeping the formulas simple. This is particularly useful in genome-wide applications, where millions of SNPs can be handled with little computational effort. We then apply the adapted test statistics to real data from Drosophila and investigate how information from intermediate generations can be included when available. We also discuss further applications such as genome-wide association studies based on pool sequencing data and tests for local adaptation.

Stephen Berg, Jun Zhu, Murray K. Clayton, Monika E. Shea, David J. Mladenoff.

Source: The Annals of Applied Statistics, Volume 13, Number 4, 2312--2340.

Abstract:
The Wisconsin Public Land Survey database describes historical forest composition at high spatial resolution and is of interest in ecological studies of forest composition in Wisconsin just prior to significant Euro-American settlement. For such studies it is useful to identify recurring subpopulations of tree species known as communities, but standard clustering approaches for subpopulation identification do not account for dependence between spatially nearby observations. Here, we develop and fit a latent discrete Markov random field model for the purpose of identifying and classifying historical forest communities based on spatially referenced multivariate tree species counts across Wisconsin. We show empirically for the actual dataset and through simulation that our latent Markov random field modeling approach improves prediction and parameter estimation performance. For model fitting we introduce a new stochastic approximation algorithm which enables computationally efficient estimation and classification of large amounts of spatial multivariate count data.

Jeng-Min Chiou, Yu-Ting Chen, Tailen Hsing.

Source: The Annals of Applied Statistics, Volume 13, Number 3, 1430--1463.

Abstract:
Motivated by the study of road segmentation partitioned by shifts in traffic conditions along a freeway, we introduce a two-stage procedure, Dynamic Segmentation and Backward Elimination (DSBE), for identifying multiple changes in the mean functions for a sequence of functional data. The Dynamic Segmentation procedure searches for all possible changepoints using the derived global optimality criterion coupled with the local strategy of at-most-one-changepoint by dividing the entire sequence into individual subsequences that are recursively adjusted until convergence. Then, the Backward Elimination procedure verifies these changepoints by iteratively testing the unlikely changes to ensure their significance until no more changepoints can be removed. By combining the local strategy with the global optimal changepoint criterion, the DSBE algorithm is conceptually simple and easy to implement and performs better than the binary segmentation-based approach at detecting small multiple changes. The consistency property of the changepoint estimators and the convergence of the algorithm are proved. We apply DSBE to detect changes in traffic streams through real freeway traffic data. The practical performance of DSBE is also investigated through intensive simulation studies for various scenarios.

After his haircut, Sen. Ted Cruz said, "It was ridiculous to see somebody sentenced to seven days in jail for cutting hair."

BIS Bulletin No 8, April 2020. Information on local labour markets and Google searches can be used to construct a measure of the vulnerability of employment in different regions of the United States to the Covid-19 shock. Regional exposure to Covid-19 varies significantly, ranging from a low of 2% to a high of 98% of total local employment. We test for the usefulness of the Covid-19 exposure measure by showing that areas with higher exposure report more Google search queries related to the pandemic and unemployment benefits.

Here is what you should know as Quebec loosens travel restrictions in some regions.

CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani says the global pandemic will result in a change in World Cup qualifying for the region that covers North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Laura Chouinard's encounter with the runaway ox had her gripped by fear. But in the midst of the battle she resolved, "I am not going to die today."

The World Curling Federation announced Thursday it is proposing to the International Olympic Committee that the 2021 world curling championships will determine which countries will book their tickets to Beijing 2022.

Quantifying RNA is an important and necessary step before most RNA analysis techniques. Methods for quantifying RNA can be classified into two categories: ultraviolet (UV) spectrophotometric methods, which are based on the absorption spectra of the purine and pyrimidine bases; and fluorescent dye-based methods, which measure the fluorescence intensity of dyes that selectively fluoresce when bound to nucleic acids. If the RNA sample is pure (i.e., without significant amounts of contaminants such as proteins, phenol, agarose, or other nucleic acids), UV spectrophotometric measurement of the amount of UV irradiation absorbed by the bases is simple and accurate. However, if the sample contains significant quantities of impurities or if the concentration of RNA is very low, it is better to use fluorescent dye-based methods. An overview of spectrophotometric and fluorescent dye-based RNA quantification methods is given here, as are several options for storing purified RNA preparations. Proper storage of RNA samples is important; it can help minimize RNase contamination and consequent sample degradation.

The post SOLIDWORKS Electrical Formula SAE Tutorial: Assigning, Creating and Modifying Manufacturer Part appeared first on SOLIDWORKS Education Blog.

Apple is shifting a substantial portion of its current AirPods production from China to Vietnam, and appears to be considering a release schedule later than previously predicted for an AirPods refresh.

Purifying and culturing cells from the central nervous system (CNS) has proved to be an incredibly powerful tool for dissecting fundamental neuron and glial properties, and especially powerful in understanding neuronal–glial interactions. In a series of detailed protocols, we have provided step-by-step instructions for purifying and culturing specific types of neurons, glia, and vascular cells from the CNS by immunopanning. This article discusses common pitfalls and errors as well as important design considerations for the immunopanning procedure.

Europe's top competition for amateur players returns for 2018/19 with 39 nations discovering the fate of their eventual representatives in the preliminary and intermediate round draws.

Rooting out teacher bias and focusing on family engagement are some of the steps schools can take to identify more English-language learners for gifted and talented education.

Literature about polymorphic expression of an apparent life-threatening event (ALTE), particularly that concerning discrimination between ALTE with evident cause and idiopathic ALTE, is scarce. Relationships between SIDS and ALTEs have been supposed but data are still controversial and no genetic data are available.

Genetic analysis (5HTT and MAOA) on ALTEs and idiopathic ALTEs discriminated the 2 syndromes and found a link between the idiopathic form and SIDS. Consequently, we hypothesized that the 2 latter syndromes could be different phenotype expressions of a common genetic base. (Read the full article)

Social and environmental risks related to substandard housing contribute to adverse health outcomes. Partnerships between the health care and legal systems can help families address such risks and help clinicians understand the legal context of health.

A medical-legal partnership colocated in a pediatric primary care setting identified and treated a large cluster of poor quality, substandard housing. Housing improvements were possible because of strong collaboration between clinicians, attorneys, community partners, and families. (Read the full article)

Today’s adolescents increasingly use the Internet to explore their sexual identity. There is public concern that the Internet, because of its accessibility, affordability, and anonymity, stimulates adolescents to engage in online sexual risk behavior (eg, sending sexual images to strangers).

This 4-wave panel study is the first to delineate the typical development of online sexual risk behavior, its relationship with offline sexual risk behavior, and the factors (eg, sensation seeking, family cohesion, life satisfaction, education, online communication) that predict both behaviors. (Read the full article)

Children have been shown to imitate behaviors they see on screen.

Modifying what children watch can improve their observed behavior. (Read the full article)

The demand for donor kidneys for transplantation exceeds supply. En bloc kidney transplantation and donation after determination of circulatory death from pediatric donors increases the potential donor pool.

Newborn infants undergoing elective withdrawal of life support in the NICU are a previously unrecognized source of potential kidney donors. (Read the full article)

Studies assessing the accuracy of brief screening tools for postpartum depression have been conducted among adult women; however, no similar validation studies have been conducted among adolescent mothers. Accurate and valid brief depression screening tools are needed for adolescent mothers.

We found that the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and 2 subscales, the EPDS-7 and EPDS-2, are highly accurate at identifying postpartum depression among adolescent mothers. In pediatric settings with limited time and resources, these brief scales have potential to be used as effective depression screening tools. (Read the full article)

Children born very preterm (VPT) are at high risk of educational delay. School readiness has been identified as a potentially useful clinical framework for early detection of those at greatest risk. However, evidence to support its predictive validity is limited.

VPT preschoolers are at risk of impairment across the 5 American Academy of Pediatrics school readiness domains. The number of domains affected predicted likelihood of later learning problems, supporting the utility of schoolreadiness frameworks for identifying children needing surveillance and/or support. (Read the full article)

Behavioral observations influence a clinician’s decision to diagnose or refer, and may even override formal screening results. In the case of autism spectrum disorder, an expected rate of atypical behavior during the span of a medical visit is unknown.

We are the first to quantify the high base rates of typical behavior in young children who have autism and language delay. When observation times are brief, the preponderance of typical behaviors may negatively impact referral decision accuracy. (Read the full article)

War-affected youth often suffer from multiple co-occurring mental health problems. The relationship of these conditions to later mental health has yet to be thoroughly investigated. There is a need to explore potential targets for mental health interventions.

After controlling for preexisting conditions and contemporary confounders, internalizing (depression and anxiety) remained the major predictor of future mental health symptoms (internalizing symptoms, prosocial attitudes/behaviors, and posttraumatic stress symptoms). Interventions targeting internalizing in war-affected youth hold promise. (Read the full article)

Forty-six teams have entered European qualifying for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France, with 16 involved in the preliminary round draw on 19 January.

Two-time winners Germany will take on Iceland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and the Faroe Islands in Group 5 following the qualifying group stage draw in Nyon.

As the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying group stage kicks off, we explain how Europe's eight berths alongside hosts France will be decided with tight ties in prospect.

The FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying group stage has begun with the likes of England, Norway, Germany, Iceland and Austria all in goalscoring form.

European champions the Netherlands opened qualifying with a dramatic defeat of Norway as Iceland shocked Germany before being held themselves in October's fixtures.

England, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Spain and Finland maintained their perfect records but European champions the Netherlands were held by the Republic of Ireland.

Many transferable quinolone-resistance mechanisms have been already identified in Gram-negative bacteria. The plasmid-encoded 65 amino-acid long ciprofloxacin-modifying enzyme, namely CrpP, was recently identified in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We analyzed a collection of 100 clonally-unrelated and multidrug-resistant P. aeruginosa clinical isolates among which 46 (46%) were found positive for crpP-like genes, encoding five CrpP variants conferring variable levels of reduced susceptibility to fluoroquinolones. Those crpP-like genes were chromosomally located, as part of PAGI-like pathogenicity genomic islands.

The elite round line-up is set, with 26 teams earning spots alongside Germany and holders Spain in the 23 November draw.

The 2019/20 qualifying round draw has been made, setting the first steps on the road to Sweden.

Seven of the 12 places at UEFA Futsal EURO 2018 in Slovenia will be decided when the main round is played between Saturday and Tuesday, with Spain beginning their title defence.

The future of European futsal – male and female – was displayed over the last week in qualifying for the 2018 Youth Olympic games with Russia and Portugal coming out on top.