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BACKGROUND Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting patients of a variety of ages that can cause difficulty with communication and social interactions as well as complicated family dynamics. Digital health interventions, especially wearable digital therapies, can reduce treatment costs and promote healthy lifestyle changes for patients, and while these therapies can be adjunctive or they can even replace traditional treatments. However, issues with cooperation and compliance prevent preschool ASD patients from applying these tools. In this open-label, randomized controlled trial, we developed a non-wearable digital therapy, named Virtual Reality incorporated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (VR-CBT). OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to assess the adjunctive function of VR-CBT on preschool children with ASD through comparing the effect of receiving VR-CBT plus Learning Style Profile (LSP) intervention with LSP intervention alone. METHODS This randomized, controlled trial was done in Shanghai, China. A total of 78 children (aged 3–6 years, IQ over 70) diagnosed with ASD were randomized to receive a twenty-week VR-CBT plus LSP intervention (intervention group, 39/78, 50.0%) or LSP intervention only (control group, 39/78, 50.0%). The primary outcome was the change of scores from baseline to week 20, assessed by using the parent rating Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC). Secondary outcomes included the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), ADHD Rating Scale-IV (ADHD-RS-IV), and behavioral performance data (accuracy and reaction time) in Go/No-Go task. All primary and secondary outcomes were analyzed in the intention-to-treat population. RESULTS After a 20-week intervention, there was an intervention effect on total ABC (β=-5.528, P CONCLUSIONS The findings show potentially positive effects of non-wearable digital therapy plus LSP on core symptoms associated with ASD, and lead to a modest improvement in function of sensory, motor and response inhibition, while reducing impulsivity and hyperactivity in those preschool autistics with comorbid ADHD. VR-CBT was found to be an effective and feasible adjunctive digital tool. CLINICALTRIAL ChiCTR2100053165

Background: Vanadium, an important pollutant produced from anthropogenic activities, has been suggested to be embryotoxic and fetotoxic in animal studies. However, little is known about its effects on humans. We aimed to assess the association of prenatal exposure to vanadium with the risk of adverse birth outcomes in babies born to women in China. Methods: For this population-based cohort study, the Healthy Baby Cohort, women were recruited from three cities in Hubei Province, China. Women included in this analysis were recruited from Wuhan Women and Children Medical Care Center, Wuhan. We measured urinary concentrations of vanadium and other metals simultaneously using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. We used multivariable logistic regressions, with adjustment for potential confounders, to estimate the associations of natural logarithm transformed creatinine-corrected urinary vanadium (Ln-vanadium) concentrations as continuous variables and categorised into quartiles (Q; Q1: ≤0·84 μg/g creatinine, Q2: 0·84–1·40 μg/g creatinine, Q3: 1·40–2·96 μg/g creatinine, Q4: >2·96 μg/g creatinine, with the lowest quartile set as reference) with preterm delivery, early-term delivery, low birthweight, and being small for gestational age. We applied restricted cubic spline models to evaluate the dose-response relationships. Findings: Data from 7297 women recruited between Sept 22, 2012, and Oct 22, 2014, were included in this study. Urinary Ln-vanadium concentrations showed non-linear dose-response relationships with risk of preterm delivery (S-shaped, p

Few studies have investigated the association of environmental chromium exposure and preterm birth in general population. This study was designed to investigate whether maternal chromium exposure during pregnancy is associated with reduced gestational age or risk of preterm birth using the data from Healthy Baby Cohort study conducted in Hubei, China between 2012 and 2014 (n = 7290). Chromium concentrations in maternal urine samples collected at delivery were measured with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Tertiles of chromium concentrations was negatively associated with gestational age in multivariable linear regression analyses [β (95% CI): low = reference; middle = −0.67 days (−1.14, −0.20); high = −2.30 days (−2.93, −1.67); p trend p trend p trend

BackgroundHigh-risk infants refer to newborns exposed to high-risk factors in the prenatal, natal or postnatal period. High-risk infants are at high risk of developmental retardation, and early identification of developmental abnormalities plays a vital role in improving high-risk infants’ quality of life.AimsTo describe the neurodevelopment of high-risk infants aged less than 1 year old, and to analyse the incidences and influencing factors of neurodevelopmental abnormalities in order to provide a basis for neurodevelopment monitoring and management of high-risk infants.MethodsHigh-risk infants born between January 2016 and December 2016 in the maternity and infant health hospitals of three districts in Shanghai were followed up. The Gesell Developmental Scale was used to assess the neurodevelopmental level at the time of recruitment (0–2 months) and at 9 months. Univariate and multivariate analyses of the influencing factors were conducted.Results484 high-risk infants (male 51%, female 49%) with an average gestation age of 36.5±2.2 weeks were recruited. At the time of recruitment, the average age was 2.1 (0.8) months, and the developmental quotient (DQ) scores of full-term high-risk infants in motor (t=3.542,p=0.001), cognitive (t=3.125,p=0.002), language (t=3.189,p=0.002) and social (t=3.316,p=0.001) areas were higher than those of preterm infants. The incidences of developmental abnormalities of full-term high-risk infants in motor (χ2=9.452,p=0.002), cognitive (χ2=6.258,p=0.012), language (χ2=12.319,p=0.001) and social (χ2=6.811,p=0.009) areas were lower than the preterm infants. At 9 months, there was no difference in the DQ scores and incidences of developmental abnormalities in four areas between full-term and preterm high-risk infants, and the incidence of developmental abnormalities was around 10%.ConclusionThe incidence of neurodevelopmental abnormalities in high-risk infants aged less than 1 year old is high. Preterm birth and parental bad habits are significant factors affecting the neurodevelopment. Monitoring and early interventions help to improve high-risk infants’ neurodevelopment.

A new tunnel advanced detection method is proposed using disc cutter of tunnel boring machine(TBM) as a center electrode with DC resistivity principle, and unfavorable geology front or side of tunnel face is predicted. The numerical simulation of electrical resistivity is carried out using finite element method, meanwhile, the electric field distribution is calculated and discussed about abnormal characteristics under different ground conditions. Then the classifier based on support vector machine(SVM) algorithm is built to differentiate the position of abnormal geology body: front or side of tunnel face. The K-cross validation is used to choose the optimal parameters of SVM. According to the results, it can be said that the proposed method is useful and reliable means to predict the position of anomaly and provide the reference for site geological prediction.

Study question Is prenatal vanadium exposure associated with adverse birth outcomes? Summary answer The odds of low birthweight (LBW) are increased 2.23-fold in mothers with a urinary vanadium of ≥2.91 μg/g creatinine compared with that in mothers with a urinary vanadium of ≤1.42 μg/g creatinine. What is known already Human exposure to vanadium occurs through intake of food, water and polluted air. Vanadium has been suggested to have fetotoxicity and developmental toxicity in animal studies, and epidemiological studies have reported an association between a decrease in birthweight and vanadium exposure estimated from particulate matter. Study design, size, duration A nested case-control study involving 816 study participants (204 LBW cases and 612 matched controls) was conducted with data from the prospective Healthy Baby Cohort between 2012 and 2014 in the province of Hubei, China. Participants/materials, setting, methods Vanadium concentrations in 816 maternal urine samples collected before delivery [the median gestational age was 39 weeks (range 27-42 weeks)] were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Information on the infants' birth outcomes was obtained from medical records. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Main results and the role of chance The median urinary vanadium concentration of the cases was much higher than that of the controls (3.04 μg/g creatinine versus 1.93 μg/g creatinine). The results revealed a significant positive trend between the odds of LBW and level of maternal urinary vanadium [relative to the lowest tertile; adjusted OR = 1.69 (95% CI: 0.92, 3.10) for the medium tertile; adjusted OR = 2.23 (95% CI: 1.23, 4.05) for the highest tertile; P-trend = 0.02]. Additionally, the association was not modified by maternal age (P for heterogeneity = 0.70) or infant gender (P for heterogeneity = 0.21). Limitations, reasons for caution The maternal urine sample was collected before labor, and the maternal urinary vanadium levels measured at one point in time may not accurately reflect the vanadium burden during the entire pregnancy. Wider implications of the findings The results of this study can enrich the biological monitoring data on urinary vanadium in pregnant women; and may be evidence that vanadium may affect fetal development. Study funding/competing interests This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21437002, 81372959 and 81402649), the R&D Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry (Environment) (201309048) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, HUST (2016YXZD043). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Inclinometer is used to measure roll and pitch angles in laser target system of TBM. A synthetic method based on wavelet analysis is proposed to decrease the measurement error of inclinometer under great vibration, improving the accuracy of TBM attitude angles. It is applied to reduce edge effect based on signal extension and orthogonal polynomials extension of approximate coefficients. Different denoising parameters are chosen to get minimum error according to the characteristic of the signal. Experiment shows that the proposed method is more effective and versatile than average calculation method used in the field and traditional wavelet denoising method, and the error is compensated less than 1mrad.

It is well known that the real-time high accuracy attitude measurement is required during the tunnel construction. The vibration is caused by hard rock tunneling, which makes the inclinometer fail to work, and then the current system can not meet the demand of auto-guide control. In this paper, we describe the fusion and test of an optic fiber gyroscope and inclinometer based on multi-sensor fusion algorithm. The proposed multi-sensor is used for measuring the attitude of TBM(Tunnel Boring Machine),which can solve those problems. Inclinometer has the advantage of high accuracy output and gyro is not sensitive to vibrations. The system discusses fuse information from two sensors and develops the fusion algorithms. Firstly, stochastic error model of gyro is built on the basis of ARMA(auto regressive moving average) modeling. Secondly, the detail modeling of fuse information for multi-sensor is made by using Kalman filter, which estimates and compensates zero drift of gyro with the high accurate output of inclinometer. The attitude under the strong vibration is calculated by compensated gyro. Finally, using test results, it is shown that the multi-sensor information fusion algorithm is effective and improves the accuracy of attitude measurement. It ensures that the error of multi-sensor attitude measurement system is less than 2 milliradian under the static and dynamic state.

This paper presents a low-cost laser tracking system to measure attitudes of dynamic object and position of the moving target which only need one feature point fixed on it. An attitude measurement modeling is built up to show the coupling of the three attitudes named yaw, pitch and roll. Installation error and lens distortion error are referred to improve the precision of this system. The improvement of the measurement modeling is transferred to be a nonlinear least-squares problem. A Gauss-Newton iterative method is proposed to solve the nonlinear modeling and optimize error parameters. The experiments successfully examined the effectiveness of the proposed modeling and algorithm in terms of: (1) The attitude measurement modeling perfectly describes the relationship of attitudes and measured parameters by system. (2) The corrected modeling takes installation error and lens distortion error into consideration.(3)The error modeling using G-N iteration optimizes error parameters and availably reduces the error of the system.