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Caregiver-infant interactions shape infants' early visual experience; however, there is limited work from low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) in characterizing the visual cognitive dynamics of these interactions. Here, we present an innovative dyadic visual cognition pipeline using machine learning methods which captures, processes, and analyses the visual dynamics of caregiver-infant interactions across cultures. We undertake two studies to examine its application in both low (rural India) and high (urban UK) resource settings. Study 1 develops and validates the pipeline to process caregiver-infant interaction data captured using head-mounted cameras and eye-trackers. We use face detection and object recognition networks and validate these tools using 12 caregiver-infant dyads (4 dyads from a 6-month-old UK cohort, 4 dyads from a 6-month-old India cohort, and 4 dyads from a 9-month-old India cohort). Results show robust and accurate face and toy detection, as well as a high percent agreement between processed and manually coded dyadic interactions. Study 2 applied the pipeline to a larger data set (25 6-month-olds from the UK, 31 6-month-olds from India, and 37 9-month-olds from India) with the aim of comparing the visual dynamics of caregiver-infant interaction across the two cultural settings. Results show remarkable correspondence between key measures of visual exploration across cultures, including longer mean look durations during infant-led joint attention episodes. In addition, we found several differences across cultures. Most notably, infants in the UK had a higher proportion of infant-led joint attention episodes consistent with a child-centered view of parenting common in western middle-class families. In summary, the pipeline we report provides an objective assessment tool to quantify the visual dynamics of caregiver-infant interaction across high- and low-resource settings.

Abstract Background It can be challenging to diagnose the cause of a patient’s dizziness. Patients face significant delays before receiving a correct diagnosis as they will undergo many diagnostic tests under several different medical specialities. As well as prolonging the suffering of patients, these problems place a significant financial burden on health services worldwide. We have developed a wearable medical device which has the potential to diagnose the cause of a patient’s dizziness using vestibular telemetry captured over a thirty-day period. We sought to quantify the potential direct cost savings of an alternative diagnostic pathway using our diagnostic device. Methods In this work, we identified the existing diagnostic pathways followed by patients reporting dizziness to their General Practitioner, and modelled the best and worst-case direct costs of providing a patient with a correct diagnosis. We estimated the potential cost of our alternative pathway, and calculated the cost savings this could provide to the NHS. Results The results show that our alternative diagnostic pathway could reduce the time and direct cost associated with providing a correct diagnosis. We present a potential indicative cost-saving of between £631 and £1305, per patient. Conclusion Our alternative diagnostic pathway would reduce the time taken to correctly diagnose patients with vertigo. This in turn would facilitate faster access to targeted treatments, reduce unnecessary interventions, and reduce the suffering of patients. These improvements would also lead to other savings, such as reducing the amount of sick leave taken by patients to attend appointments, and freeing up of NHS time to see other patients.

Leaves display a remarkable range of forms, from flat sheets with simple outlines to cup-shaped traps. Although much progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms of planar leaf development, it is unclear whether similar or distinctive mechanisms underlie shape transformations during development of more complex curved forms. Here, we use 3D imaging and cellular and clonal analysis, combined with computational modelling, to analyse the development of cup-shaped traps of the carnivorous plant Utricularia gibba. We show that the transformation from a near-spherical form at early developmental stages to an oblate spheroid with a straightened ventral midline in the mature form can be accounted for by spatial variations in rates and orientations of growth. Different hypotheses regarding spatiotemporal control predict distinct patterns of cell shape and size, which were tested experimentally by quantifying cellular and clonal anisotropy. We propose that orientations of growth are specified by a proximodistal polarity field, similar to that hypothesised to account for Arabidopsis leaf development, except that in Utricularia, the field propagates through a highly curved tissue sheet. Independent evidence for the polarity field is provided by the orientation of glandular hairs on the inner surface of the trap. Taken together, our results show that morphogenesis of complex 3D leaf shapes can be accounted for by similar mechanisms to those for planar leaves, suggesting that simple modulations of a common growth framework underlie the shaping of a diverse range of morphologies.