A novel explainable machine learning-based healthy ageing scale.

Background: Ageing is one of the most important challenges in our society. Evaluating how one is ageing is important in many aspects, from giving personalized recommendations to providing insight for long-term care eligibility. Machine learning can be utilized for that purpose, however, user reservations towards "black-box" predictions call for increased transparency and explainability of results.

Unveiling nuances in data analysis to illuminate marine pilot strain.

Maritime studies, encompassing a range of disciplines, increasingly rely on advanced data analytics, particularly in the context of navigation. As technology advances, the statistical averaging of large datasets has become a critical component of these analyses. However, recent studies have highlighted discrepancies between statistical predictions and observable realities, especially in high-stress environments like port approach procedures conducted by marine pilots.

Physiological Signals and Affect as Predictors of Advertising Engagement.

This study investigated the use of affect and physiological signals of heart rate, electrodermal activity, pupil dilation, and skin temperature to classify advertising engagement. The ground truth for the affective and behavioral aspects of ad engagement was collected from 53 young adults using the User Engagement Scale. Three gradient-boosting classifiers, LightGBM (LGBM), HistGradientBoostingClassifier (HGBC), and XGBoost (XGB), were used along with signal fusion to evaluate the performance of different signal combinations as predictors of engagement.

Analysis of Marine-Pilot Biometric Data Recordings during Port-Approach Using a Full-Mission Simulator.

The purpose of this study is to analyse data from the marine pilots' bio-sensor readings to determine how experience affects their biometrical response during the port approach. The experiences play a significant role in the participant's decision-making process and correlate with the repetitions. Through the repetitions of the experimental task, the participants gain experience, which correlates with the biometrical response, e.

Cognitive Relevance Transform for Population Re-Targeting.

This work examines the differences between a human and a machine in object recognition tasks. The machine is useful as much as the output classification labels are correct and match the dataset-provided labels. However, very often a discrepancy occurs because the dataset label is different than the one expected by a human.

Application of the 3R principles: Vertebrae as an additional source of murine bone-marrow cells.

Experimental murine models are an essential tool in the field of bone marrow (BM) transplantation research. Therefore, numerous mice are required to obtain a sufficient number of BM cells, which is in contrast with the Reduction principle of the 3R principles. The selection of the cell source and the isolation protocol are therefore critical in obtaining a sufficient yield of cells for experiments.

Detection of peripheral arterial disease with an improved automated device: comparison of a new oscillometric device and the standard Doppler method.

In occidental countries, peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is an important health issue; however, most subjects are asymptomatic (~50%) and therefore undiagnosed and untreated. Current guidelines recommend screening for PAD in primary care setting using ankle brachial index (ABI) in all patients with cardiovascular risks. This is, however, not performed strictly because the standard Doppler method is cumbersome and time-consuming.

Urinary immunoglobulin G to albumin ratio and N-Acetyl-Beta-D-Glucosaminidase as early predictors of therapeutic response in ANCA-associated glomerulonephritis.

Background: The aim of our study was to evaluate the prognostic value of glomerular and tubular proteinuria and tubular enzymuria as early indicators of therapeutic response to induction therapy with i.v. pulse cyclophosphamide (CyC) and methylprednisolone (MP) in patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) associated glomerulonephritis.

Characterization of spatiotemporal changes for the classification of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic-resonance breast lesions.

Objective: The early detection of breast cancer is one of the most important predictors in determining the prognosis for women with malignant tumours. Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic-resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) is an important imaging modality for detecting and interpreting the different breast lesions from a time sequence of images and has proved to be a very sensitive modality for breast-cancer diagnosis. However, DCE-MRI exhibits only a moderate specificity, thus leading to a high rate of false positives, resulting in unnecessary biopsies that are stressful and physically painful for the patient and lead to an increase in the cost of treatment.

The hazards of DAPI photoconversion: effects of dye, mounting media and fixative, and how to minimize the problem.

Immunocytochemistry is a powerful tool for detection and visualization of specific molecules in living or fixed cells, their localization and their relative abundance. One of the most commonly used fluorescent DNA dyes in immunocytochemistry applications is 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole dihydrochloride, known as DAPI. DAPI binds strongly to DNA and is used extensively for visualizing cell nuclei.

The music perception abilities of prelingually deaf children with cochlear implants.

Objective: To investigate the music perception abilities of prelingually deaf children with cochlear implants, in comparison to a group of normal-hearing children, and to consider the factors that contribute to music perception.

Methods: The music perception abilities of 39 prelingually deaf children with unilateral cochlear implants were compared to the abilities of 39 normal hearing children. To assess the music listening abilities, the MuSIC perception test was adopted.

Unsupervised quantification of whisking and head movement in freely moving rodents.

The rodent whisker system has become the leading experimental paradigm for the study of active sensing. Thanks to more sophisticated behavioral paradigms, progressively better neurophysiological methods, and improved video hardware/software, there is now the prospect of defining the precise connection between the sensory apparatus and brain activity in awake, exploring animals. Achieving this ambitious goal requires quantitative, objective characterization of head and whisker kinematics.

Telemedicine in the blood transfusion laboratory: remote interpretation of pre-transfusion tests.

We have developed a telemedicine system for blood transfusion work, to supply the local hospital laboratory with an expert opinion from the central reference laboratory. The telemedicine system allows remote inspection and interpretation of pre-transfusion tests, which are performed by ID-cards (micro-tube gel technology). The system was installed at three blood transfusion laboratories in Slovenia, approximately 70 km apart.

Is the ABO incompatibility a risk factor in bone marrow transplantation?

ABO histo-bloodgroups are strong transplantation antigens. In bone marrow transplantation, foreign ABO red cell antigens are not ignored by the immune system of the host, neither by the immunocompetent cells of the graft. Although ABO incompatibility is not considered a contraindication in bone marrow transplantation (BMT), its clinical consequences are still a matter of investigation.