Enhancing Facial Expression Recognition through Light Field Cameras.

In this paper, we study facial expression recognition (FER) using three modalities obtained from a light field camera: sub-aperture (SA), depth map, and all-in-focus (AiF) images. Our objective is to construct a more comprehensive and effective FER system by investigating multimodal fusion strategies. For this purpose, we employ EfficientNetV2-S, pre-trained on AffectNet, as our primary convolutional neural network.

Associations of Depressive and Anxiety Disorders with Pulmonary Disorders in the Community: The PneumoLaus and PsyCoLaus Studies.

Introduction: Mental health disorders figure among the many comorbidities of obstructive respiratory diseases. The multisystemic characteristics of chronic respiratory disease and its impact on quality of life could affect depressive and/or anxiety disorders. We aimed to evaluate the association of spirometric indices, ventilatory disorders, and self-reported respiratory diseases with psychiatric disorders considering potential confounders.

Gut-derived short-chain fatty acids modulate skin barrier integrity by promoting keratinocyte metabolism and differentiation.

Barrier integrity is central to the maintenance of healthy immunological homeostasis. Impaired skin barrier function is linked with enhanced allergen sensitization and the development of diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD), which can precede the development of other allergic disorders, for example, food allergies and asthma. Epidemiological evidence indicates that children suffering from allergies have lower levels of dietary fibre-derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFA).

Swiss Recommendations for the Follow-Up and Treatment of Pulmonary Long COVID.

Introduction: Emerging evidence suggests that long-term pulmonary symptoms and functional impairment occurs in a proportion of individuals following SARS-CoV-2 infection. Although the proportion of affected patients remains to be determined, physicians are increasingly being confronted with patients reporting respiratory symptoms and impairment beyond the acute phase of COVID-19. In face of limited evidence, the Swiss Society for Pulmonology established a working group to address this area of unmet need and formulated diagnostic and treatment recommendations for the care of patients with pulmonary long COVID (LC).

Outcome of treatment of MDR-TB or drug-resistant patients treated with bedaquiline and delamanid: Results from a large global cohort.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends countries introduce new anti-TB drugs in the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. The aim of the study is to prospectively evaluate the effectiveness of bedaquiline (and/or delamanid)- containing regimens in a large cohort of consecutive TB patients treated globally. This observational, prospective study is based on data collected and provided by Global Tuberculosis Network (GTN) centres and analysed twice a year.

Multicenter analysis of sputum microbiota in tuberculosis patients.

The impact of tuberculosis and of anti-tuberculosis therapy on composition and modification of human lung microbiota has been the object of several investigations. However, no clear outcome has been presented so far and the relationship between M. tuberculosis pulmonary infection and the resident lung microbiota remains vague.

Use of biologicals in allergic and type-2 inflammatory diseases during the current COVID-19 pandemic: Position paper of Ärzteverband Deutscher Allergologen (AeDA), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Allergologie und Klinische Immunologie (DGAKI), Gesellschaft für Pädiatrische Allergologie und Umweltmedizin (GPA), Österreichische Gesellschaft für Allergologie und Immunologie (ÖGAI), Luxemburgische Gesellschaft für Allergologie und Immunologie (LGAI), Österreichische Gesellschaft für Pneumologie (ÖGP) in co-operation with the German, Austrian, and Swiss ARIA groups, and the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI).

Background: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the treatment of patients with allergic and atopy-associated diseases has faced major challenges. Recommendations for "social distancing" and the fear of patients becoming infected during a visit to a medical facility have led to a drastic decrease in personal doctor-patient contacts. This affects both acute care and treatment of the chronically ill.

Microbiome-induced antigen-presenting cell recruitment coordinates skin and lung allergic inflammation.

Background: Allergic skin inflammation often presents in early childhood; however, little is known about the events leading to its initiation and whether it is transient or long-term in nature.

Objective: We sought to determine the immunologic rules that govern skin inflammation in early life.

Methods: Neonatal and adult mice were epicutaneously sensitized with allergen followed by airway allergen challenge.

Genome sequencing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates revealed isoniazid resistance mechanisms undetected by conventional molecular methods.

A combination of targeted molecular methods and phenotypic drug-susceptibility testing is the most widely used approach to detect drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates. We report the delay in the introduction of an efficient anti-tuberculous drug regimen because of a M. tuberculosis strain displaying a high level of resistance to isoniazid, in the absence of the common mutations associated with isoniazid-resistance, including katG mutations and inhA promoter mutations.

Allergen immunotherapy in the current COVID-19 pandemic: A position paper of AeDA, ARIA, EAACI, DGAKI and GPA: Position paper of the German ARIA Group in cooperation with the Austrian ARIA Group, the Swiss ARIA Group, German Society for Applied Allergology (AEDA), German Society for Allergology and Clinical Immunology (DGAKI), Society for Pediatric Allergology (GPA) in cooperation with AG Clinical Immunology, Allergology and Environmental Medicine of the DGHNO-KHC and the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI).

No abstract available.

Immunotherapy-Induced Airway Disease: A New Pattern of Lung Toxicity of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been shown to improve overall and progression-free survival in various cancers but have been associated with various immune-related adverse events (IRAEs), including interstitial lung disease, especially organizing pneumonia. We report 2 cases of isolated severe airway disease attributable to ICIs, a rarely reported pattern of lung toxicity. The first patient received nivolumab with or without ipilimumab in a randomized double-blind trial for locoregional metastatic melanoma.

[Not Available].

PneumoLaus: Prevalence of Lung Function Abnormalities in a Sample of the General Population of Lausanne Reduced lung function predicts increased mortality. The prevalence of spirometric abnormalities depends on their definition, the references values used and the use or not of bronchodilation. In the PneumoLaus study, conducted between 2014 and 2017 in a sample of the general population of Lausanne, prevalence of chronic obstruction was 3,8 %, of reversible obstruction 2,5 % and of possible restriction 2,2 %.

[Obesity hypoventilation syndrome : 2019's management].

Obesity hypoventilation syndrome is an underdiagnosed pathology, whose prevalence is increasing due to the progressively higher prevalence of obesity in the general population. Early detection allows early management and lowers the risk of acute exacerbation, hospitalization and mortality. The diagnosis is done by excluding other, pulmonary or extra pulmonary, reasons of hypercapnia; a nocturnal polygraphy is mandatory to diagnose an associated obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.

[Computer instruments for the management of isolated pulmonary nodule. Detectability and prediction of malignancy].

Lung cancer remains the most common cause of cancer deaths in the world, but its mortality can be significantly reduced by diagnosis and early detection. Computerized resources were developed to assist radiologists in their management of the large volume of thoracic images to be analyzed. Their objective is the detection of pulmonary nodules with high sensitivity and a low rate of false-positives and the ability to differentiate benign and malignant nodules.

[What's new on asthma in primary care].

The international recommendations of the management of asthma have been modified last years. Several therapies used since long time have no place in the management of moderate asthma today. The use of targeted immunotherapies against phenotypes of asthma are used more and more.