The ability of very low birth weight (VLBW) premature infants to respond differentially to real versus a sham heelstick conditions was examined in this crossover study. Using a multidimensional assessment of responses of premature infants (n = 48) between 26 and 31 weeks gestational age (GA) at the time of the study, it was found that they respond differentially to real versus sham heelstick both behaviourally and physiologically. The multivariate effect of condition (real/sham) was significant with maximum heart rate and upper facial action (lower facial action was not scored) contributing significantly to the main effect. GA had a main multivariate effect, with the younger infants responding less robustly. The variability outcome measures of heart rate standard deviation and range of transfontanelle intracranial pressure contributed significantly to the main effect of GA, but not to the effect of condition. Young VLBW premature infants are capable of a multidimensional differential response to pain. GA is an important factor to consider when assessing pain in premature infants.

Background Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are central to many biological processes. Considering that the experimental methods for identifying PPIs are time-consuming and expensive, it is important to develop automated computational methods to better predict PPIs. Various machine learning methods have been proposed, including a deep learning technique which is sequence-based that has achieved promising results. However, it only focuses on sequence information while ignoring the structural information of PPI networks. Structural information of PPI networks such as their degree, position, and neighboring nodes in a graph has been proved to be informative in PPI prediction. Results Facing the challenge of representing graph information, we introduce an improved graph representation learning method. Our model can study PPI prediction based on both sequence information and graph structure. Moreover, our study takes advantage of a representation learning model and employs a graph-based deep learning method for PPI prediction, which shows superiority over existing sequence-based methods. Statistically, Our method achieves state-of-the-art accuracy of 99.15% on Human protein reference database (HPRD) dataset and also obtains best results on Database of Interacting Protein (DIP) Human, Drosophila , Escherichia coli ( E. coli ), and Caenorhabditis elegans ( C. elegan ) datasets. Conclusion Here, we introduce signed variational graph auto-encoder (S-VGAE), an improved graph representation learning method, to automatically learn to encode graph structure into low-dimensional embeddings. Experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms other existing sequence-based methods on several datasets. We also prove the robustness of our model for very sparse networks and the generalization for a new dataset that consists of four datasets: HPRD, E.coli , C.elegan , and Drosophila .

SUMMARY Twenty‐eight preterm infants of 28 weeks gestational age were observed four times over eight weeks in order to determine changes in their pain response. Both routine and sham heelstick procedures were used. Physiological (heart rate and oxygen saturations) and behavioural parameters (three upper facial actions) were used as outcomes. The responses to real heelstick were significantly greater than to sham heelstick for heart rate and all facial actions except one at 28 weeks gestational age, but not for oxygen saturation. The magnitude of response to both real and sham heelstick increased over time. Thus, the older the infant, the more robust and recognisable the response. Since even the youngest infants showed a differential response to pain, professionals caring for such infants need to be able to recognize their more subtle pain responses. RÉSUMÉ Modifications développementales en réponse à hi pitúire chez le prématuré: une étude prospective de cohorte Vingt‐huit prématurés de 28 semaines d'âge de gestation furent observés quatre fois sur une période de huit semaines dans le but de déterminer les modifications dans leurs réponses à la douleur. Les procédures de piqûrcs de talon et de fausses piqûres de talon furent utilisées. Des paramètres physiologiqucs (rythme cardiaque et saturation d'oxygène) et comportementaux furent utilisés pour apprécier les effets. Les réponses aux vraies piqûres furent significativement plus fortes que pour les fausses piqûres en ce qui concernait le rythme cardiaque et toutes les expressions faciales sauf dans un cas à 28 semaines d'âge de gestation, mais non pour la saturation en oxygène. L'amplitude de la réponse pour les fausses et les vraies piqûrcs augmentait avec le temps. Plus le nourrisson était âgé. plus la réponse était forte et identifiable. Puisque même les nourrissons les plus jeunes présentent une réponse différenciée à la douleur, les professionnels de soins de ces enfants devraicnt êire capables de reconnaître leurs plus subtiles réponses à la douleur. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Veränderungen der Reaklion von Frühgeborenen aufden Fersenslich Acht und zwanzig Frühgeborene mit einem Gestationsalter von 28 Wochen wurden in acht Wochen viermal kontrolliert, um Veränderungen ihrer Schmerzreaktion festzustellen. Es wurden reguläre sowie vorgetäuschte Fcrsenstichc durchgeführt. Physiologische (Herzfrequenz und 02‐Sättigung) und Verhaltensparameter (drei Gesichtsreaktionen) wurden als Ergebnis ausgewertet. Außer bei einem Kind mit einem Gestationsalter von 28 Wochen veränderten sich Herzfrequenz und alle Gesichtsreaktionen auf den regulären Fersenstich sigifikant stärker als auf den vorgetäuschten, was bei der 02‐Sättigung nicht zu beobachten war. Die Reaktion auf den regulären wie auf den vorgetäuschten Fersenstich nahm mit der Zeit zu. Je älter das Kind war, desto eindeutiger und erkennbarer war die Reaktion. Da selbst die jüngsten Kinder eine differenzierte Schmerzreaktion zeigten, sollte das Fachpersonal, das diese Kinder betreut, in der Lage sein, ihre eher subtilen Schmer...

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a b s t r a c tAccurate estimation of grassland biomass and its dynamics are crucial not only for the biogeochemical dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems, but also for the sustainable use of grassland resources. However, estimations of grassland biomass on large spatial scale usually suffer from large variability and mostly lack quantitative uncertainty analyses. In this study, the spatial grassland biomass estimation and its uncertainty were assessed based on 265 field measurements and remote sensing data across Northern China during [2001][2002][2003][2004][2005]. Potential sources of uncertainty, including remote sensing data sources (DATsrc), model forms (MODfrm) and model parameters (biomass allocation, BMallo, e.g. root:shoot ratio), were determined and their relative contribution was quantified. The results showed that the annual grassland biomass in Northern China was 1268.37 ± 180.84 Tg (i.e., 532.02 ± 99.71 g/m 2 ) during 2001-2005, increasing from western to eastern area, with a mean relative uncertainty of 19.8%. There were distinguishable differences among the uncertainty contributions of three sources (BMallo > DATsrc > MODfrm), which contributed 52%, 27% and 13%, respectively. This study highlighted the need to concern the uncertainty in grassland biomass estimation, especially for the uncertainty related to BMallo.