The CRADLE app (ComputeR Assisted Detector LEukocoia) searches for traces of abnormal reflections from the retina called leukocoria or “white eye,” a primary symptom of retinoblastoma, as well as other common eye disorders. The study, published in the journal Science Advances, found the app is an effective tool to augment clinical leukocoria screenings, allowing parents to efficiently and effectively screen their children more often throughout their development.

CRADLE — developed by Baylor University researchers Bryan F. Shaw, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and biochemistry, along with Greg Hamerly, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science — searches through family photographs for signs of leukocoria.

According to the study’s first author, Baylor senior University Scholar Micheal Munson, researchers determined the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the prototype by analyzing more than 50,000 photographs of children taken prior to their diagnosis. For children with diagnosed eye disorders, CRADLE was able to detect leukocoria for 80 percent of the children. The app detected leukocoria in photos that were taken on average of 1.3 years prior to their official diagnosis.

The effectiveness of traditional screenings during a general physical exam is limited, with signs of retinoblastoma via the detection of leukocoria in only 8 percent of cases. CRADLE’s sensitivity for children age 2 and younger surpassed 80 percent. That 80 percent threshold is regarded by ophthalmologists as the ”gold standard” of sensitivity for similar devices, Munson said.

Researchers found the CRADLE app to be more effective simply by the breadth and frequency of its sample sizes: everyday family photos, according to the study. Given the number of photos taken by family and friends and the variety of environments, there is a variety of opportunities for light to reflect off the ocular lesions regardless of its location in the eye.

As the app’s algorithm has become more sophisticated, its ability to detect even slight instances of leukocoria has improved.

“This is one of the most critical parts of building the app,” Shaw said. “We wanted to be able to detect all hues and intensities of leukocoria. As a parent of a child with retinoblastoma, I am especially interested in detecting the traces of leukocoria that appear as a ‘gray’ pupil and are difficult to detect with the naked eye.”

Initially, the CRADLE app was used primarily to identify retinoblastoma — a rare eye disease that is the most common form of eye cancer in children up to age 5. Shaw’s own experience as a parent of a child with retinoblastoma formed the genesis of the app.

Shaw and Hamerly created the app in 2014 for the iPhone and in 2015 for Android devices after Shaw’s son Noah lost his right eye, but his left eye was able to be salvaged. He is now 11.

“We suspected that the app would detect leukocoria associated with other more common disorders and some rare ones,” Shaw said. “We were right. So far parents, and some doctors, have used it to detect cataract, myelin retinal nerve fiber layer, refractive error, Coats’ disease, and of course retinoblastoma.”

Said Munson: “I just kept the goal in mind: saving the sight and potentially the lives of children throughout the world.”

Shaw said they are retraining the algorithm with Baylor undergraduates currently tagging and sorting about 100,000 additional photos. He said they also are looking at additional features to cut down on false positive detections.

The app can be downloaded for free and can be found under the name “White Eye Detector.”

*Study co-authors included researchers from Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

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Materials provided by Baylor University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

To find out, a team of engineers at Purdue University has been conducting one of the largest studies of its kind in the office spaces of a building rigged with thousands of sensors. The goal is to identify all types of indoor air contaminants and recommend ways to control them through how a building is designed and operated.

“If we want to provide better air quality for office workers to improve their productivity, it is important to first understand what’s in the air and what factors influence the emissions and removal of pollutants,” said Brandon Boor, an assistant professor of civil engineering with a courtesy appointment in environmental and ecological engineering.

The data is showing that people and ventilation systems greatly impact the chemistry of indoor air — possibly more than anything else in an office space. The researchers will present their initial findings at the 2019 American Association for Aerosol Research Conference in Portland, Oregon, Oct. 14-18.

“The chemistry of indoor air is dynamic. It changes throughout the day based on outdoor conditions, how the ventilation system operates and occupancy patterns in the office,” Boor said.

The building, called the Living Labs at Purdue’s Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, uses an array of sensors to precisely monitor four open-plan office spaces and to track the flow of indoor and outdoor air through the ventilation system. The team developed a new technique to track occupancy by embedding temperature sensors in each desk chair.

Through use of the Living Labs, Boor’s team has begun to identify previously unknown behaviors of chemicals called volatile organic compounds, such as how they are transformed in ventilation systems and removed by filters.

“We wanted to shed light on the behind-the-scenes role ventilation systems have on the air we breathe,” Boor said.

Boor teamed up with researchers at RJ Lee Group to deploy a highly sensitive “nose” — an instrument that scientists call a proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The instrument, typically used for measuring outdoor air quality, helped “sniff” out compounds in human breath, such as isoprene, in real time. Boor’s team found that isoprene and many other volatile compounds linger in the office even after people have left the room.

A greater number of people in a room also means more emissions of these compounds. A YouTube video is available at https://youtu.be/mi1xi31QAfQ.

“Our preliminary results suggest that people are the dominant source of volatile organic compounds in a modern office environment,” Boor said. “We found levels of many compounds to be 10 to 20 times higher indoors than outdoors. If an office space is not properly ventilated, these volatile compounds may adversely affect worker health and productivity.”

The team also revealed that a pollutant entering from outside, ozone, disappears inside. This is because ozone interacts with other indoor compounds and the vast surfaces of a furnished office. The researchers found that ozone and compounds released from peeling an orange, called monoterpenes, mix to form new, super-tiny particles as small as one-billionth of a meter. The newly formed particles could be toxic because they are small enough to get into the deepest regions of a person’s lungs.

The effects of volatile compounds released in an office might not just be restricted to indoors. The researchers believe that chemicals emitted from self-care products such as deodorant, makeup, and hair spray may elevate levels outdoors as they are vented outside by the ventilation system.

This work is funded in part by the National Science Foundation Environmental Engineering Program, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Chemistry of Indoor Environments Program and the Purdue Research Foundation.

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Materials provided by Purdue University. Original written by Kayla Wiles. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

In a recent study, West Virginia University researcher Amna Umer explored how low birth weight correlates to cardiovascular risk factors in childhood. She and her colleagues assessed data of 20,000 fifth-graders born in West Virginia. They discovered that if children had a low birth weight, they were more likely to exhibit cardiovascular risk factors in fifth grade.

“Previously it was thought that risk factors for cardiovascular diseases were only observed in adults because cardiovascular disease is mostly seen in adults,” said Umer, a research assistant professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics. “But in the past few years, we’ve seen that these risk factors are observed in children as well.”

The team analyzed data from three sources: West Virginia birth certificates, the West Virginia WATCH/Birth Score program and the CARDIAC project. The children in the study comprised were all born full term — between 1994 and 2010 — across West Virginia’s 55 counties.

The researchers considered each child’s birth weight and his or her body mass index in fifth grade, among other variables. They also evaluated each fifth-grader’s level of triglycerides — fat that circulates in the blood — and various cholesterol types.

“Low birth weight was associated with higher levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol and lower levels of ‘good’ cholesterol,” Umer said. In addition, children with a low birth weight tended to have higher triglyceride level. These traits are risk factors for heart attack, stroke, peripheral artery disease, atherosclerosis and other disorders.

Even after the researchers took into account the children’s BMIs, socio-demographics, family medical histories and other factors, the relationship between these risk factors and low birth weight remained significant.

“We know that cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality not only in the U.S. but also in West Virginia,” Umer said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state has the 10th-highest rate of death from heart disease and the 12th-highest from stroke.

“We also know that low birth weight, which is an important predictor of a child’s health moving forward, is one of the poorest health indicators in West Virginia,” she said. About one in 10 babies born in the state has a low birth weight.

“Low birth weight doesn’t just happen at birth spontaneously,” said Christa Lilly, a member of the research team and an associate professor of biostatistics in the School of Public Health. “It’s a sign of slow growth in the womb. So, I think there’s an opportunity for intervening during pregnancy to reduce factors that can influence suboptimal fetal growth.”

That window of opportunity extends beyond birth and infancy, too. “We don’t want to say that once you have a low birth weight, there’s nothing you can do,” Umer said. “Now that you know there’s a low-birth-weight baby, you can make sure they have proper postnatal feeding, monitor their growth and teach kids about good diet, nutrition, physical activity and prevention of risky health behaviors such as smoking. You can intervene from childhood into adulthood.”

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Materials provided by West Virginia University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.