Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of Mobile Health Technologies for Self-tracking Purposes among Seniors: A Comparison to the General Adult Population in Canada

Based on a national survey of adults investigating digital self-tracking in Canada, this study compares seniors’ use of mHealth technologies to the general population, and explores the factors related to their use. Despite significant differences between the two groups on smart technologies and Internet use, a considerable number of seniors in the community use smart phones and digital tablets and are familiar with smart devices/wearables. Yet, only 20% reported downloading mobile applications (mApps) and 12% indicated using smart devices/wearables. The majority of mApps downloaded by seniors were health-related; interestingly, their use was sustained over a longer period of time compared to the general population. No significant differences were observed between the two groups with regard to satisfaction with mHealth technologies and intention to continue using them, which were favorable. Leveraging these technologies in partnership with health care providers, and sharing of health/wellbeing data with health professionals, family members or friends remains very limited.
A framework of co-operative practice between radiation oncologists and traditional health practitioners in the management of patients with cancer in KwaZulu-Natal province

Background Cancer is a global concern because it affects and kills millions of people worldwide. In South Africa, patients frequently move between traditional health practitioners and radiation oncologists to seek cure of cancer, yet these health practitioners do not communicate with each other. Consequently, the treatment is often disrupted and imcomplete therefore compromising the survival of patients. The future of the health system in effective treatment of patients with cancer is dependent on health practitioners’ changing fundamentally in their co-operative practice. The aim of this study was to explore the practice of traditional health practitioners in the treatment of patients with cancer in order to describe a viable co-operative practice between them and radiation oncologists and ultimately develop traditional health practitioners as a component in the health system in the treatment of patients with cancer. Methods An exploratory descriptive qualitative study using an interpretive phenomenological approach was employed to collect data from 28 traditional health practitioners and four radiation oncologists in KwaZulu-Natal utilising snowball and stratified purposive samplings for the former and latter, respectively. Semi-structured face-to-face and group interviews were employed to collect primary data from traditional health practitioners and data from the radiation oncologists were collected through face-to-face and email interviews. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using framework analysis. Results It emerged that the referral of patients, in addition to external conditions, individual attributes, trusting attitudes of participants as well as organisational dynamics and philosophy of practice, were the main categories used by participants in their understanding of co-operative practice in KwaZulu-Natal. The patient is the main player in the co-operation between parties, and coordinates the health practitioners’ activities during treatment. Effective co-operative practice is time consuming and requires commitment, co-operation and training of the participants. Conclusion Considering the problems associated with treatment of cancer when patients move freely between the traditional health practitioners and radiation oncologists, resulting in interruptions in treatment, co-operative practice between the two health practitioners is paramount. The development of traditional health practitioners could result in extending their role in the management of cancer and therefore increasing the accessibility of cancer services. It follows that a workable practice between traditional health practitioners and radiation oncologists in the treatment of patients with cancer could be an inclusive health system where the parties work in parallel with the patient being the main actor in the collaboration. There should be a healthy relationship between all those involved in the collaboration in order to facilitate referral of patients between the health practitioners.
The Tibiofemoral Contact Forces in Human Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstructed and Healthy Knees and their Association with Articular Tissue Degeneration

Osteoarthritis is a prevalent and debilitating joint disease. The global prevalence of osteoarthritis is estimated to be 3.6-4.1% of the global population, making it the 11th highest contributor to global disability. Osteoarthritis most commonly occurs in the medial tibiofemoral compartment of the knee. Inappropriate knee loading, during daily activities, is believed to be a principle cause of knee osteoarthritis. Moreover, individuals who have sustained anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture and reconstruction (ACLR) are at particularly high risk of onset of knee OA in the near future. Within 12 years following ACL injury approximately 50% of people will develop knee OA. Worse still, many individuals who have sustained an ACL injury show signs of early knee degeneration as little as 4-5 years post- surgery. The question arises, what is it about ACL injury that results in such high risk of future OA onset? Individuals with ACLR have abnormal gait biomechanics and muscle activation patterns, which may influence the knee contact forces. As well, the autograft donor muscles are often impaired following harvesting. This muscle impairment also likely influences the knee contact forces. However, what links exist between the altered knee contact forces and degeneration of the articular tissues have not been established. To date, there are no literature reports of the knee contact forces during both daily gait tasks and sporting movements. Likewise, an investigation of the differences in the knee contact forces between ACLR and healthy individuals during different movement tasks has not been performed. Finally, the literature lacks an assessment of the relationships between the tibiofemoral contact forces that arise during daily activity and the structural health of the articular tissues in the knees of ACLR individuals.
Cervical Extraoral Traction Therapy in Early Treatment of Class II Malocclusion. A systematic review

Introduction and objective: Cervical headgear has been used for decades as a treatment of class II malocclusion. Although the effects have been reported previously they are somewhat contradictory. The objective was to determine the available scientific evidence that supports the parameters of clinical use for therapy with cervical extraoral traction in early treatment for class II malocclusion. Materials and methods: A systematic search was conducted using Medline, Google Scholar, Cochrane, and Lilacs databases. The search involved articles in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and German using previously selected MeSH terms and free-text terms. The search included articles dealing with cervical extraoral traction treatment, systematic reviews, meta-analysis, clinical trials, and cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies. Methodological quality was evaluated using various scales according to the type of study. Results: The search generated 334 articles, 259 were eliminated because they were duplicates, and 34 were eliminated because they did not meet the inclusion criteria. 41 articles were evaluated in full text, 21 were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria, leaving a total of 20 articles. Conclusions: The articles offered varied, yet clear, recommendations. According to the literature and clinical judgment, treatment timing is recommended during the pubertal growth spurt. The most efficient force is 450 to 500g per side for 12 to 14 hours per day. A long outer bow bent 15o degrees upward should be used in patients with normal and hypodivergent patterns. Maxillary growth control depends on age, force, treatment duration, etc. Changes in overjet can be expected due to changes in dental inclination, growth, or the use of additional appliances; an average molar distalization of 1 mm to 2 mm can be achieved.
Upper Plate Heterogeneity Along the Southern Hikurangi Margin, New Zealand

Controlled and natural source seismic data are used to build a 3‐D P wave model for southern North Island, New Zealand, where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the Australian Plate at a rate of ~41 mm/year. Our analysis reveals an abrupt along‐strike transition in overthrusting plate structure within Cook Strait. Contrasts in properties (Vp, Vp/Vs, and Qs) likely reflects the degree of deformation in the Australian Plate, where the Alpine‐Wairau and Awatere Faults mark the northern boundary of a terrane that has undergone >50° of clockwise vertical‐axis rotation since the early Miocene. Heterogeneity of the crustal transition is likely associated with changes in frictional and elastic properties that may impact elastic stress accumulation and inhibit southward propagation of megathrust earthquakes. Low connectivity of faults in Cook Strait is consistent with the heterogeneity we observe and may promote complex earthquake triggering by lateral stress loading during earthquakes or slow slip events.
Assessment and improvement of predictive value of complexity based features for sepsis prediction

Data analytics is not embedded into critical environments such as Intensive Care Unit. It is now realized that there is an untapped potential of Big-data in improving patient care. However, this is not taken into practice due to lack of communication between the doctors and the data-analysts. To bridge this gap, we worked on Intensive Care Unit (ICU) data from two sources, one being numeric data from version 3.1 of the Multiparameter intelligent monitoring in intensive care (MIMIC II) waveform Matched subset and second one being Vital Monitoring data from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. This thesis presents unsupervised modelling on Numeric data of MIMIC Matched Subset, called Permutation Distribution Clustering (PDC). It is a complexity-based approach to cluster time series data. Clusters obtained by clustering are validated for their clinical potential and examined in order to determine the enrichment of sepsis. It is calculated using SIRS score which uses numeric and clinical data of MIMIC. This work also involves development of a doctor-friendly dashboard that carries out analytics on the Vital Monitoring data from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. It displays key patient indices calculated from the continuous data. The dashboard is updated regularly in an hourly fashion. The dashboard has deployed Quality Check, Basic Analytics and Advanced Analytics modalities. This dashboard is designed for Quality Improvement through display of basic Quality Check mechanisms such as patient information checks, technical anomalies and fidelity of sensor data. It is also designed to give care-related feedback to Intensivists and Nurses.
Investigation on thermally aged natural ester oil for real‐time monitoring and analysis of transformer insulation

Thermal aging of natural ester oil shows drastic reduction in partial discharge inception voltage (PDIV) and a significant variation is observed only above a certain aging time, under AC, DC, high frequency AC voltages and with harmonic voltages with different total harmonic distortion. Weibull distribution studies on PDIV measurements indicate a reduction in scale parameter (α) with increase in thermal aging temperature. A characteristic reduction in breakdown voltage was observed with the thermally aged ester oil, under AC, DC and standard lightning impulse voltage. The breakdown voltage variation with aged ester oil follows normal distribution. Ultraviolet (UV) analysis of ester oil thermally aged at 160°C has revealed a regular shift of the derived absorbance parameter to longer wavelengths. The interfacial tension and turbidity exhibits an inverse relationship with the thermally aged ester oil. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometric analysis of the thermally aged ester oil predicted the formation of more carboxylic acids and ketones with aging duration. The steady-state fluorescence on thermally aged ester oil exhibits a shift in its emission profile, which is in tandem with the UV absorption spectroscopic analysis. Fluorescence analysis can be adopted as a real-time monitoring tool in transformers, to understand the condition of liquid insulation. The viscosity dependence on the wavelength of derivative absorption maxima follows a direct relationship with the thermally aged natural ester oil.
Visualization Analysis for Tunnel Researches Based on CiteSpace

In order to find out the history, present situation and hot trend of tunnel research, this article is based on the literature data of tunnel study from 1997 to 2017 in CNKI database, using CiteSpace visual econometric analysis software to co-occurrence analysis and keyword co-word analysis and processing by citation data of authors and research institutions. The results showed that there is close cooperation among the authors of the main research groups, haveing a good cooperative relationship chain among the research institutions, and the keywords of hot research are diversion tunnel, deep buried tunnel, numerical simulation, water conveyance tunnel, lining, rock burst, rock mechanics, surrounding rock, river diversion tunnel, TBM and so on.
Like Water & Oil: Merging Human Science Insights with Natural Science (Engineering) Thinking… the experiential way

Oil and water don’t mix: a common expression describing two things that do not usually combine well. In this paper I use this analogy to discuss some of the techniques and methods used within a Danish postgraduate engineering stream to merge the contested territory between Human Science, abductive thinking and Natural Science, logical preconceptions (Water & Oil). The course was designed to help young engineers to step outside their normal positivist system of thinking and to explore, embrace or at least suspend judgement on various forms of emotional/meta-physical logic. Students were introduced to practical methods for developing deeper insight into specific human experiences and to apply this genuinely human-centred perspective to their 'engineered' solutions. The broader goal being, to help students to come to deeper understandings and appreciation of the people for whom they would propose design 'solutions'. The pedagogical process was intended to disrupt their preconceptions in such a way as to help them see many situations more clearly; a process of in-sight based engineering.
Transcostal focused ultrasound surgery : treatment through the ribcage

Tissue-mimicking phantoms, including bovine serum albumin (BSA) phantom and egg white phantom, have been developed for, and in laboratory use for real-time visualization of HIFU-induced thermal coagulative necrosis since 2001. However, until now, very few data are available concerning their thermophysical properties. In this paper, a step-wise transient plane source (TPS) method has been used to determine the values of thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and specific heat capacity of egg white phantoms with elevated egg white concentrations (0 to 40 % v/v, by 10 % v/v interval) at room temperature (~20 °C). The measured thermophysical properties were close to previously reported values; the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity were linearly proportional to the egg white concentration within the investigation range, while the specific heat capacity decreased as the egg white concentration increased. Taking account of large differences between real experiment and ideal model, data variations within 20 % were accepted.
Human-Centered Design Strategies for Device Selection in mHealth Programs: Development of a Novel Framework and Case Study

Background Despite the increasing use of remote measurement technologies (RMT) such as wearables or biosensors in health care programs, challenges associated with selecting and implementing these technologies persist. Many health care programs that use RMT rely on commercially available, “off-the-shelf” devices to collect patient data. However, validation of these devices is sparse, the technology landscape is constantly changing, relative benefits between device options are often unclear, and research on patient and health care provider preferences is often lacking. Objective To address these common challenges, we propose a novel device selection framework extrapolated from human-centered design principles, which are commonly used in de novo digital health product design. We then present a case study in which we used the framework to identify, test, select, and implement off-the-shelf devices for the Remote Assessment of Disease and Relapse-Central Nervous System (RADAR-CNS) consortium, a research program using RMT to study central nervous system disease progression. Methods The RADAR-CNS device selection framework describes a human-centered approach to device selection for mobile health programs. The framework guides study designers through stakeholder engagement, technology landscaping, rapid proof of concept testing, and creative problem solving to develop device selection criteria and a robust implementation strategy. It also describes a method for considering compromises when tensions between stakeholder needs occur. Results The framework successfully guided device selection for the RADAR-CNS study on relapse in multiple sclerosis. In the initial stage, we engaged a multidisciplinary team of patients, health care professionals, researchers, and technologists to identify our primary device-related goals. We desired regular home-based measurements of gait, balance, fatigue, heart rate, and sleep over the course of the study. However, devices and measurement methods had to be user friendly, secure, and able to produce high quality data. In the second stage, we iteratively refined our strategy and selected devices based on technological and regulatory constraints, user feedback, and research goals. At several points, we used this method to devise compromises that addressed conflicting stakeholder needs. We then implemented a feedback mechanism into the study to gather lessons about devices to improve future versions of the RADAR-CNS program. Conclusions The RADAR device selection framework provides a structured yet flexible approach to device selection for health care programs and can be used to systematically approach complex decisions that require teams to consider patient experiences alongside scientific priorities and logistical, technical, or regulatory constraints.
Estimating Causal Effects of Occupational Exposures

Author(s): Izano, Monika A | Advisor(s): Eisen, Ellen A | Abstract: Estimates of the risk of occupational exposures are typically based on observational workplace studies that are subject to bias due to the healthy worker survivor effect (HWSE), a ubiquitous process that results in the healthiest workers accruing the most exposure. This body of work is concerned with the estimation of causal effects of occupational exposures from observational workplace studies, in the context of the HWSE. We estimate the effect of cumulative exposure to straight, soluble, and synthetic metalworking fluids (MWFs) on the incidence of colon cancer in the United Autoworkers-General Motors (UAW-GM) cohort. We use longitudinal targeted minimum loss-based estimation (TMLE) to compute the 25-year risk difference if always exposed above compared to if always exposed below an exposure cutoff while at work. Exposure cutoffs were selected a priori at the median of exposed person-years among colon cancer cases. Risk differences are 0.038 (95% CI = 0.022 to 0.054), 0.002 (95% CI = -0.016 to 0.019), and 0.008 (95% CI = 0.002 to 0.014) for straight, soluble, and synthetic MWFs, respectively. By control of the time-varying confounding on the casual pathway that characterizes the HWSE, TMLE estimated effects that were undetectable in earlier reports. Most workers in UAW-GM were hired decades before the reporting of incident cancers began. Incident cancers that occurred before the start of reporting were left filtered. We show that if ignored, left filtering can lead to downward bias in exposure effect estimates. Further, we propose a novel delayed-entry adjusted Kaplan-Meier estimator that controls for time-varying confounding, and permits delayed risk-set entry. The estimator results in little bias in simulated datasets when the outcome is sufficiently rare. In addition to dynamic (realistic) interventions that assign exposure according to workers' employment status, causal contrasts can be defined under static (etiologic) interventions that additionally prevent leaving work. Causal effect estimates of the two classes of interventions can differ substantially. While ideally the choice of intervention would be driven by the research question, in practice it may be dictated by the available data. Furthermore, when estimates of the long-term etiologic effects of occupational exposures are not available, guidelines for exposure limits may be based on studies that estimated effects of realistic interventions. In a simulation study we investigate the conditions under which the two effect measures are comparable, and identify factors that drive the differences between the two.
The Media and Communications Study Skills Student Guide

All the tips, ideas and advice given to, and requested by, MA students in Media and Communications, are brought together in an easy-to-use accessible guide to help students study most effectively. Based upon many years of teaching study skills and hundreds of lecture slides and handouts this introduction covers a range of general and generic skills that the author relates specifically towards media and communications studies. As well as the mechanics of writing and presentations, the book also shows how students can work on and engage with the critical and contemplative elements of their degrees whilst retaining motivation and refining timekeeping skills. Of course the nuts and bolts of reading, writing, listening, seminars and the dreaded dissertation and essays are covered too. In addition advice on referencing, citation and academic style is offered for those with concerns over English grammar and expression. Aimed primarily at postgraduate students, there is significant crossover with undergraduate work, so this book will also prove of use to upper level undergraduate readers whether using English as a first or second language. Supplementary resources
White Rice Glycemic Index Measured in Venous and Capillary Blood Samples

This study was to examine the effects of certain methodologic choices for testing glycemic index (GI), incremental area under curve (IAUC), and blood glucose responses in 12 healthy adults, who were fed white rice, rice porridge, and overnight rice. Blood samples were collected from venous plasma (VP), capillary plasma (CP), and capillary blood (CB). The results showed the mean GI value (VP; 87 ± 2.5, CP; 85 ± 2.5, and CB; 84 ± 2.6); the mean IAUC (CB; 5006 ± 292, CP; 4844 ± 287, VP; 3784 ± 221 ); the mean postprandial glucose response (CB; 118.2 ± 3.3, CP; 115.2 ± 3.2, VP; 90.7 ± 2.4 ); Significant correlation was observed between three sampling methods ( p < 0.01). In conclusion, the VP sampling approach had a lower degree of dispersion and a higher stability that is a more effective methods to determine GI, IAUC and blood glucose responses. and rice porridge produced the highest GI, followed by white rice and overnight rice.