bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of Metoclopramide on the Incidence of Early Postoperative Aspiration Pneumonia in Dogs with Acquired Idiopathic Laryngeal Paralysis
Authors: Milovancev Milan , Townsend Katy , Spina Jason , Hurley Connie , Ralphs S. Christopher , Trumpatori Brian , Seguin Bernard , Jermyn Kieri
Published: June 2016

Objective

Evaluate the effect of a perioperative intravenous continuous rate infusion (CRI) of metoclopramide on the incidence of aspiration pneumonia in the short term postoperative period in dogs undergoing unilateral arytenoid lateralization.

Study Design

Prospective, randomized, multi‐center clinical trial.

Animals

61 client‐owned dogs with idiopathic laryngeal paralysis and normal preoperative thoracic radiographs.

Methods

All dogs underwent unilateral arytenoid lateralization with a uniform anesthetic, analgesic, and management protocol. Dogs in the treatment group received an intravenous CRI of metoclopramide for 24 hours perioperative. All dogs were assessed for clinical signs of aspiration pneumonia based on the results of physical examination and owner interview up to the point of suture removal (10–14 days postoperative). Any dog with suspected aspiration pneumonia had thoracic radiographs performed.

Results

Six dogs developed aspiration pneumonia in the short term postoperative period (2/28 control dogs and 4/33 treated dogs), accounting for an overall frequency of 10% with no significant difference between control and treated dogs. No variables measured in the study were significantly different between control and treated dogs.

Conclusions

Perioperative metoclopramide, at the doses used in this study, did not affect the incidence of aspiration pneumonia in the short term postoperative period in dogs with idiopathic laryngeal paralysis undergoing unilateral arytenoid lateralization.
RELAY BEAMFORMING TO MITIGATE INTER-RELAY INTERFERENCE IN MULTI-CELL SCENARIO
Authors: Fadoul Moubachir Madani , Leow Chee Yen
Published: June 2016

In relay assisted Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) network, enhanced Node B (eNB) autonomously selects different backhaul sub-frame configurations to adopt traffic variations, which might cause inter-relay interference (IRI) between relay nodes (RNs) in adjacent cells.  IRI can happen due to asynchronous transmission between adjacent cells, which results in IRI from the access link to the backhaul link of adjacent relay in the downlink direction and vice versa. This causes severe loss in system capacity and introduces high outage probability.  In this article, we consider the IRI problem in a multi-cell relaying system.  Previous studies consider the beamforming design for cooperative relay network as a single-cell problem, without taking into account the occurrence of IRI.  However, the performance of the RN assisted network is limited by the IRI from adjacent RN.  A hybrid zero-forcing and singular value decomposition (ZF-SVD) beamforming technique is proposed to eliminate the IRI. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme out-performs the comparable scheme in both the ergodic capacity and outage probability.
LOW SIDELOBE AND WIDEBAND CHARACTERISTICS OF DENSITY TAPERED ARRAYS FOR 5G MOBILE SYSTEMS
Authors: Zainal Noor Ainniesafina , Yamada Yoshihide , Kamarudin Muhammad Ramlee
Published: June 2016

Conventional mobile base station antennas are composed of equally spaced linear array antennas. In order to achieve low side lobe characteristics, excitation coefficients for array elements are determined by a feeding network. Because of complexity of the feeding network, applicable frequency range is limited. In 5G mobile system, multi frequency band operation is requested. For achieving low sidelobe and wide frequency characteristics, a density tapered array configuration is promising. Because of uniform excitation coefficients, feed network has no frequency dependence and wide frequency range application is expected. In this paper, abilities and design method of low sidelobe characteristics are investigated. By density tapering, sidelobe levels are reduced from -13dB to -16dB. As for wide band characteristics, low sidelobe characteristics are maintained during 28GHz to 56GHz operations. Usefulness of a density tapered array is numerically clarified.
TRAFFIC SIGN DETECTION BASED ON SIMPLE XOR AND DISCRIMINATIVE FEATURES
Authors: Madani Ahmed , Yusof Rubiyah
Published: June 2016

Traffic Sign Detection (TSD) is an important application in computer vision. It plays a crucial role in driver assistance systems, and provides drivers with safety and precaution information. In this paper, in addition to detecting Traffic Signs (TSs), the proposed technique also recognizes the shape of the TS. The proposed technique consist of two stages. The first stage is an image segmentation technique that is based on Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ), which divides the image into six different color regions. The second stage is based on discriminative features (area, color, and aspect ratio) and the exclusive OR logical operator (XOR). The output is the location and shape of the TS. The proposed technique is applied on the German Traffic Sign Detection Benchmark (GTSDB), and achieves overall detection and shape matching of around 97% and 100% respectively. The testing speed is around 0.8 seconds per image on a mainstream PC, and the technique is coded using the Matlab toolbox.
LEARNING SOLUTIONS WITH CLOUD TECHNOLOGIES
Authors: Zudilova Tatiana , Odinochkina Svetlana , Prygun Victor
Published: June 2016

This paper presents a new approach to the organization of ICT training courses on the basis of the designed and developed a private training cloud prototype. The developed prototype was built on the Microsoft System Center 2012 resources, which allowed consolidating high-performance computing tools, combined different classes of storage devices and provided these resources on demand. We describe the implementation of SaaS private cloud model for ICT user courses and PaaS model - for ICT programming courses.
A GENERAL PURPOSE MODEL FOR CONTEXT AWARE BASED FLOOD MONITORING SYSTEM
Authors: R. Widiasari Indrastanti , Edi Nugroho Lukito , Widyawan Widyawan
Published: June 2016

One of the natural disasters that often occur is flood. Flood causes many victims both materially and fatalities, especially in poor and developing countries where people are less concerned with the surrounding natural environment. In this research we will build a model for the detection and monitoring system of the flood disaster that will explore the context obtained through the sensor. The model of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based flood detection and monitoring system includes four main functional components: physical phenomena, local data, context awareness, and user purposed. The system develop some useful insight information prediction scheme based on contexts and time dependent data models.
SECURE DATA SENSOR SHARING ON UBIQUITOUS ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH MONITORING APPLICATION
Authors: Huda Samsul , Fahmi Nurul , Sudarsono Amang , Al Rasyid M. Udin Harun
Published: June 2016

In Internet of Things (IoT) era, The limitation storage on Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) can be solved by synchronized data sensors from the gateway node to the data center server. Data in the data center can be remotely accessed by the user at any time and anywhere from end user devices such as PCs, laptop PCs, and smart phones., and data should be accessed securely. The Only legitimated user can access the data sensor from an environmental health data center. CP-ABE (Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption) is becoming a robust cryptographic scheme solution to this issue. To enable a secure data sensor sharing and access on an environmental health data center, we propose a secure system model using CP-ABE which ensures confidentiality, integrity, and user privacy features. Experimental results prove that the implementation of CP-ABE does not overload the system.
DESIGNING E-LEARNING SYSTEM FOR ASSISTING TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONALISM IMPROVEMENT IN INDONESIA RURAL AREAS
Authors: Hasiholan Tobing Roy Deddy
Published: June 2016

Being a teacher is a noble profession that helping the nation to prepare its young generation to be high-skilled, competitive, and tough human resources. However, the number of competent teachers is still low in Indonesia, especially in rural area. Many teachers still do not fit the latest government regulation about the standard of teacher competency. Nonetheless, Indonesian government has encouraged teachers to improve their academic capacity and professionalism by providing money incentives for certified professional teachers. In this research, an e-learning system is developed in order to give solution to the problem and assist the improvement process of teachers’ professionalism. The target users of this application development are mainly teachers in rural area who have limited access to information and resources on how to be a competent educator regarding government policies. This e-learning system harvests the benefits of available information technology tools in term of software and hardware. The research methodology consists of information gathering on the topic of e-learning, teacher and the nature of its competency, analyzing the information to design and develop a model of e-learning application for assisting the process of teachers’ professionalism improvement, implementing the design into a prototype and testing the application.
A PROPOSED MONITORING DASHBOARD OF SMART CABLE GUARD (SCG)
Authors: Lumbantoruan Rosni
Published: June 2016

One of services that DNVGL provides to its customers is to continuously monitor distribution cable circuits for upcoming defects. This monitoring system called Smart Cable Guard (SCG), which monitors over 100 circuits with an average of 5 discharges circuit per minute. Regardless of the amount of circuits and pulse discharges per minute, the system should be able to complete all processes within one hour or less. While in order to offers best services to the clients, DNVGL do analysis to the incoming smart cable data, applied defined knowledge rules, communicate to the customers for certain state of their cable circuit. To help the analyst monitoring the ongoing process and enable them to take a decisive action at the right time, proposed a monitoring dashboard. Dashboard is the solution when the nature of the works is to monitor day-to-day operational such as monitoring strategic information, operational information that changes daily.
FACE RECOGNITION SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD TO ACCESS OUT-PATIENT INFORMATION
Authors: Pabiania Maribelle Dequilla , P. Santos Krizchel Ann , M. Villa-Real Maureen , N. Villareal Jervin Angelo
Published: June 2016

The study aimed to create an enhanced monitoring and management system of patients’ medical records for hospital clinics to provide easy identification of patients and give easy access to the doctors and nurses regarding patient’s medical information. A face recognition system to access patient information was created by means of hardware and software integration. The hardware consisted mainly of a webcam for capturing the image of the patient’s face. The webcam, together with the servos were connected to a gizDuino v4.0 microcontroller to allow the camera to track the face. An interface and software program using C# (.Net Framework 4) with the use of Viola-Jones algorithm code sources for face detection, Eigen-faces sources for face recognition, and Arduino IDE to program the microcontroller was developed. The content of the medical record were based on the conducted survey answered by medical professionals and saved in MySQL database. With the use of five-point Likert scale, the user-acceptability of the system was tested by doctors, nurses, medical technologists, and other medical professionals. A good result was obtained where 8 out of 10 questions were rated as ‘strongly agreed’ and the other two were rated ‘agreed’ by the survey respondents. The test for face detection yielded a 100% result and out of 30 trials conducted for face recognition, 25 were recognized with its respective record. This indicates that the system is functional and of good quality.
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF INDUCTIVELY DEGENERATED CMOS LNA
Authors: Muhamad Maizan , Soin Norhayati , Ramiah Harikrishnan , Mohd Noh Norlaili
Published: June 2016

This paper features the design approach of a low noise amplifier (LNA) which dissipates 19.89 mW from a 1.2 V power supply that was designed based on a 0.13 μm RFCMOS process. A detailed methodology that leads to a power-efficient design of the LNA is presented. A theoretical noise figure optimization using fixed power and physics-based gm/ID characteristics were used as a design optimization guide. Simultaneous noise and input matching under constrained power (PCSNIM) was achieved with an extra gate-source capacitor while gain enhancement was obtained by employing a capacitive feedback at the cascode transistor.  The LNA is further optimized by implementing the forward biasing scheme to attain good LNA performance at low power. The end-design of the optimized LNA produces a noise figure of 3.55 dB, a power gain of 17.12 dB, a Third Order Input Intercept Point (IIP3) of -19.70 dBm, an input reflection coefficient of -14.15 dB and an output reflection coefficient of -18.37 dB. Simulated results validate peak performance at 2.45GHz, which makes the LNA suitable for Bluetooth and the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) applications.
DS-DASHBOARD: DISTRIBUTED SERVER’S RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, CASE STUDY INSTITUT TEKNOLOGI DEL
Authors: Timbul Sigiro Marojahan Mula
Published: June 2016

Most of organizations or companies nowadays heavily rely on the Information Technology to manage their activity. They deploy many servers and application which each of them handle or keep specific tasks. File server, email server, user account, application server and many others. These resources are stored and manage by servers that may have different configuration and different platform. To manage these resources is a complicated task because of those different attribute and platform. DS-Dashboard is a system that provides transparency to manage user’s resources that distributed on different servers. A different approach is taken where the resources seen as attribute or part of main resources which is user.
Temperature Uniformity Improvement of an Air-Cooled High-Power Lithium-Ion Battery Using Metal and Nonmetal Foams
Authors: Mohammadian Shahabeddin K. , Zhang Yuwen
Published: June 2016

In order to improve the temperature uniformity inside the battery, the effects of partially utilizing metal and nonmetal materials on the heat sink of an air-cooled Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery module were studied. Aluminum and aluminum foam as heat conductors and ceramic, and ceramic foam as insulators were examined using two-dimensional transient numerical simulation. The effects of the length of utilizing each material to the total length of the battery pack from the inlet by assuming that the other part of the heat sink is aluminum were investigated. The results showed that using aluminum foam and ceramic as part of the heat sink decreases the temperature uniformity of the battery pack. However, using the ceramic foam at the inlet section of the heat sink improves the temperature uniformity of the battery significantly. Furthermore, partially inserting the aluminum foam inside the air flow channel from outlet was investigated, and significant enhancement on the temperature uniformity of the battery pack was found. Overall, higher temperature reduction and higher temperature uniformity were achieved inside the battery pack using the combination of both ceramic and aluminum foams.
Suppressed Dry-out in Two-Phase Microchannels via Surface Structures
Authors: Zhu Yangying , Antao Dion S. , Zhang Tiejun , Wang Evelyn N.
Published: June 2016

We demonstrated suppressed dry-out on structured surfaces during flow boiling in microchannels. We designed and fabricated microchannels with well-defined silicon micropillar arrays (heights of ~25 µm, diameters of 10 µm and pitches of 40 µm) coated with silicon dioxide on the bottom heated channel wall. We visualized the flow fields inside a smooth and structured surface microchannel during the annular flow boiling regime with a high speed camera at a frame rate of 2000 fps. Time-lapse images revealed two distinct dry-out dynamics for the two types of surfaces. For the smooth surface, the thin liquid film broke-up into smaller liquid drops/islands and the surface stayed in a dry state after the drops evaporated. The microstructured surface, on the other hand, preserved the thin liquid film initially due to capillary wicking. Dry patches eventually formed at the center of the microchannel which indicated wicking in the transverse direction (from the sidewalls inward) in addition to wicking in the flow direction. Overall, the structured surface showed less instances of dry-out both spatially and temporally. These visualizations aid in the understanding of the stability of the thin liquid film in the annular flow boiling regime and provide insight into heat transfer enhancement mechanisms by leveraging surface structure design in microchannels.
Controlled Wetting in Nanoporous Membranes for Thin Film Evaporation
Authors: Wilke Kyle L. , Barabadi Banafsheh , Zhang TieJun , Wang Evelyn N.
Published: June 2016

With the ever increasing cooling demands of advanced electronics, thin film evaporation has emerged as one of the most promising thermal management solutions. High heat transfer rates can be achieved in thin films of liquids due to a small conduction resistance through the film to the evaporating interface. In thin film evaporation, maintaining a stable liquid film to attain high evaporation rates is challenging. We investigated nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes to supply liquid to the evaporating surface via capillarity. In this work, we achieved enhanced experimental control via the creation of a hydrophobic section within the nanopore. By creating a non-wetting section, the liquid is confined within the membrane to a region of well-controlled geometry. This non-wetting section also prevents flooding, where the formation of a thick liquid film degrades device performance. When heat flux is applied to the membrane surface, the liquid wicks into the membrane from the bottom and becomes pinned at the onset of the hydrophobic layer. As a result, the wetting in the membrane is controlled, flooding is prevented, and a stable evaporating surface in achieved. With this approach, thin film evaporation from nanoporous media can now be studied for varying parameters such as pore size, porosity, and location of the meniscus within the pore.
Design and Simulation of Three Degrees-of-Freedom Tracking Systems for Capsule Endoscope
Authors: Mohammed Ibrahim K.
Published: June 2016

Wireless capsule endoscopes (WCE) are a new technology for inspection of the intestines, which offer many advantages over conventional endoscopes, while devices currently in use are passive and can only follow the natural transit of the intestines. There is a considerable interest in methods of controlled actuation for these devices. In this paper, an actuation system based on magnetic levitation is proposed, utilizing a small permanent magnet within the capsule and an arrangement of digitally controlled electromagnet placed on a movable frame. The objective of this paper is to design a multi-input multi-output (MIMO), three degrees-of-freedom (3DOF) tracking system for capsule endoscope. Two techniques, entire eigenstructure assignment (EEA) and linear quadratic regulator (LQR), are presented to design the controller of the system. The performance of the EEA and LQR controllers was compared based on the stability parameters to validate the proposed actuation system. Finally, simulation results suggest that the LQR approach can be used to synthesize a suitable and simple controller for this application.
Approximating
Markov Chain Approach to Optimal Feedback Control of a Flexible
Needle
Authors: Sovizi Javad , Kumar Suren , Krovi Venkat
Published: June 2016

We present a computationally efficient approach for the intra-operative update of the feedback control policy for the steerable needle in the presence of the motion uncertainty. The solution to dynamic programming (DP) equations, to obtain the optimal control policy, is difficult or intractable for nonlinear problems such as steering flexible needle in soft tissue. We use the method of approximating Markov chain to approximate the continuous (and controlled) process with its discrete and locally consistent counterpart. This provides the ground to examine the linear programming (LP) approach to solve the imposed DP problem that significantly reduces the computational demand. A concrete example of the two-dimensional (2D) needle steering is considered to investigate the effectiveness of the LP method for both deterministic and stochastic systems. We compare the performance of the LP-based policy with the results obtained through more computationally demanding algorithm, iterative policy space approximation. Finally, the reliability of the LP-based policy dealing with motion and parametric uncertainties as well as the effect of insertion point/angle on the probability of success is investigated.
Design of a Passive Upper Limb Exoskeleton for Macaque Monkeys
Authors: Lu Junkai , Haninger Kevin , Chen Wenjie , Gowda Suraj , Tomizuka Masayoshi , Carmena Jose M.
Published: June 2016

Integrating an exoskeleton as the external apparatus for a brain–machine interface (BMI) has the advantage of providing multiple contact points to determine body segment postures and allowing control to and feedback from each joint. When using macaques as subjects to study the neural control of movement, an upper limb exoskeleton design with unlikely singularity is required to guarantee safe and accurate tracking of joint angles over all possible range of motion (ROM). Additionally, the compactness of the design is of more importance considering macaques have significantly smaller body dimensions than humans. This paper proposes a six degree-of-freedom (DOF) passive upper limb exoskeleton with 4DOFs at the shoulder complex. System kinematic analysis is investigated in terms of its singularity and manipulability. A real-time data acquisition system is set up, and system kinematic calibration is conducted. The effectiveness of the proposed exoskeleton system is finally demonstrated by a pilot animal test in the scenario of a reach and grasp task.
An Expert System for Differential Diagnosis of Myocardial Infarction
Authors: Jaleel Abdul , Tafreshi Reza , Tafreshi Leyla
Published: June 2016

Automated early detection of myocardial infarction (MI) has been long studied for the purpose of saving human lives. In this paper, we propose a rule-based expert system to analyze a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) for various types of MI. This system is developed by mapping clinical definitions of different types of MI and their differential diagnosis into corresponding algorithmic rule sets. Essential preprocessing steps such as baseline correction, removal of ectopic beats, and median filtering are carried out on recorded ECG. Techniques such as multistage polynomial correction and QRS subtraction are exploited to achieve reliable preprocessing. The processed ECG is then delineated using a time-domain differential-based search algorithm recently proposed by the team to obtain the relevant features and measures. These features and measures are further utilized by an if-then rule set to classify the ECG into various groups. The performance of the system when validated on sample MI database exhibited a sensitivity of 95.7% and specificity of 94.6%. Unlike many previous works, this reliable performance is achieved without the use of abstract classifiers or the need of prior training. Being based on medical definitions, the system is also easily comprehensible, modifiable, and compatible with manual diagnosis.
Heuristics-Based Prototyping Strategy Formation: Development and Testing of a New Prototyping Planning Tool
Authors: Dunlap Brock U. , Hamon Christopher L. , Camburn Bradley A. , Crawford Richard H. , Jensen Dan D. , Green Matthew G. , Otto Kevin , Wood Kristin L.
Published: June 2016

This work seeks to introduce and evaluate effects of a novel method for designing prototyping strategies. This newly developed heuristics-based tool guides designers in planning a prototyping strategy based on answers to Likert-scale questions that embody empirically validated heuristics. We created this tool to augment prior work in the development of prototyping planning methods. The new tool guides designers through six critical prototype strategy choices: (1) How many concepts should be prototyped? (2) How many iterations of a concept should be built? (3) Should the prototype be virtual or physical? (4) Should subsystems be isolated? (5) Should the prototype be scaled? (6) Should the design requirements be temporarily relaxed?

We assessed the new planning tool in two environments: (1) a controlled experiment in which volunteers completed a prototyping design challenge, and (2) a capstone design class with a diverse range of open-ended sponsored design projects. In both cases, students received training for the method and then employed it in their own efforts.

In our study the new tool caused student teams to employ significantly more efficient and effective prototyping strategies, such as prototyping early and often. The results indicate a higher functional performance of prototypes from groups using the new planning tool compared to control groups. This paper describes the new prototyping strategy planning tool, details both sets of experiments, and discusses results.
Robotics takes off
Authors: Yang Guang-Zhong , McNutt Marcia
Published: June 2016

In a mere 50 years, robots have gone from being a topic of science fiction to becoming an integral part of modern society. They now are ubiquitous on factory floors, build complex deep-sea installations, explore icy worlds beyond the reach of humans, and assist in precision surgeries. These robots are improving our health, adding to our scientific understanding, raising productivity, and performing tasks that humans cannot do. The rapid increase in the capabilities, varieties, and applications of robots has been built on scientific and engineering research into power and actuation systems, artificial intelligence, onboard navigation, environmental sensors, manipulators, control systems, novel materials, microfluidics, systems integration, and many other advances. With this growth, the research community that is engaged in robotics has expanded globally. To help meet the need to communicate discoveries across all domains of robotics research, we are proud to announce that
Science Robotics
is open for submissions.
Infectious Bronchitis Coronavirus Limits Interferon Production by Inducing a Host Shutoff That Requires Accessory Protein 5b
Authors: Kint Joeri , Langereis Martijn A. , Maier Helena J. , Britton Paul , van Kuppeveld Frank J. , Koumans Joseph , Wiegertjes Geert F. , Forlenza Maria
Published: June 2016

During infection of their host cells, viruses often inhibit the production of host proteins, a process that is referred to as host shutoff. By doing this, viruses limit the production of antiviral proteins and increase production capacity for viral proteins. Coronaviruses from the genera
Alphacoronavirus
and
Betacoronavirus
, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), establish host shutoff via their nonstructural protein 1 (nsp1). The
Gammacoronavirus
and
Deltacoronavirus
genomes, however, do not encode nsp1, and it has been suggested that these viruses do not induce host shutoff. Here, we show that the
Gammacoronavirus
infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) does induce host shutoff, and we find that its accessory protein 5b is indispensable for this function. Importantly, we found that 5b-null viruses, unlike wild-type viruses, induce production of high concentrations of type I interferon protein
in vitro
, indicating that host shutoff by IBV plays an important role in antagonizing the host's innate immune response. Altogether, we demonstrate that 5b is a functional equivalent of nsp1, thereby answering the longstanding question of whether lack of nsp1 in gammacoronaviruses is compensated for by another viral protein. As such, our study is a significant step forward in the understanding of coronavirus biology and closes a gap in the understanding of some IBV virulence strategies.

IMPORTANCE
Many viruses inhibit protein synthesis by their host cell to enhance virus replication and to antagonize antiviral defense mechanisms. This process is referred to as host shutoff. We studied gene expression and protein synthesis in chicken cells infected with the important poultry pathogen infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). We show that IBV inhibits synthesis of host proteins, including that of type I interferon, a key component of the antiviral response. The IBV-induced host shutoff, however, does not require degradation of host RNA. Furthermore, we demonstrate that accessory protein 5b of IBV plays a crucial role in the onset of host shutoff. Our findings suggest that inhibition of host protein synthesis is a common feature of coronaviruses and primarily serves to inhibit the antiviral response of the host.
Plasmodium falciparum Histidine-Rich Protein II Compromises Brain Endothelial Barriers and May Promote Cerebral Malaria Pathogenesis
Authors: Pal Priya , Daniels Brian P. , Oskman Anna , Diamond Michael S. , Klein Robyn S. , Goldberg Daniel E.
Published: June 2016

Cerebral malaria (CM) is a disease of the vascular endothelium caused by
Plasmodium falciparum
. It is characterized by parasite sequestration, inflammatory cytokine production, and vascular leakage. A distinguishing feature of
P. falciparum
infection is parasite production and secretion of histidine-rich protein II (HRPII). Plasma HRPII is a diagnostic and prognostic marker for falciparum malaria. We demonstrate that disruption of a human cerebral microvascular endothelial barrier by
P. falciparum
-infected erythrocytes depends on expression of HRPII. Purified recombinant or native HRPII can recapitulate these effects. HRPII action occurs via activation of the inflammasome, resulting in decreased integrity of tight junctions and increased endothelial permeability. We propose that HRPII is a virulence factor that may contribute to cerebral malaria by compromising endothelial barrier integrity within the central nervous system.

IMPORTANCE
Cerebral malaria is a devastating disease. Patients have high levels of the protein HRPII in their blood. We have found that endothelial cell barriers become leaky when treated with concentrations of HRPII similar to those found in patients. This result suggests that HRPII may be important in cerebral malaria. Our finding that HRPII functions by causing inflammation suggests points of intervention for therapy or vaccination against this disease.
A prospective quality improvement study in the emergency department targeting paediatric sepsis
Authors: Long Elliot , Babl Franz E , Angley Eleanor , Duke Trevor
Published: June 2016

Objective

Quality improvement sepsis initiatives in the paediatric emergency department have been associated with improved processes, but an unclear effect on patient outcome. We aimed to evaluate and improve emergency department sepsis processes and track subsequent changes in patient outcome.

Study design

A prospective observational cohort study in the emergency department of The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. Participants were children aged 0–18 years of age meeting predefined criteria for the diagnosis of sepsis. The following shortcomings in management were identified and targeted in a sepsis intervention: administration of antibiotics and blood sampling for a venous gas at the time of intravenous cannulation, and rapid administration of all fluid resuscitation therapy. The primary outcome measure was hospital length of stay.

Results

102 patients were enrolled pre-intervention, 113 post-intervention. Median time from intravenous cannula insertion to antibiotic administration decreased from 55 min (IQR 27–90 min) pre-intervention to 19 min (IQR 10–32 min) post-intervention (p≤0.01). Venous blood gas at time of first intravenous cannula insertion was performed in 60% of patients pre-intervention vs 79% post-intervention (p≤0.01). Fluids were administered using manual push-pull or pressure-bag methods in 31% of patients pre-intervention and 84% of patients post-intervention (p≤0.01). Median hospital length of stay decreased from 96 h (IQR 64–198 h) pre-intervention to 80 h (IQR 53–167 h) post-intervention (p=0.02). This effect persisted when corrected for unequally distributed confounders between pre-intervention and post-intervention groups (uncorrected HR: 1.36, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.80, p=0.02; corrected HR: 1.34, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.80, p=0.04).

Conclusions

Use of quality improvement methodologies to improve the management of paediatric sepsis in the emergency department was associated with a reduction in hospital length of stay.
Acupuncture in Osgood-Schlatter disease
Authors: Morris Eleanor
Published: June 2016

This article describes the use of acupuncture in the management of knee pain in Osgood-Schlatter disease. Manual and electroacupuncture were used. The patient responded well to acupuncture and found it effective in relieving his knee pain. Acupuncture should be considered in Osgood-Schlatter disease, both to manage the pain and to limit the need to take oral analgaesics for a prolonged period.
Using league tables to reduce missed dose medication errors on mental healthcare of older people wards
Authors: Cottney Alan
Published: June 2016

The unintentional omission of medication is one of the most commonly-reported administration errors on hospital wards throughout the world. The omission of a dose of medication can severely harm the patient affected, but to date there is limited evidence about cost-effective means for reducing the incidence of such errors. The current report describes a quality improvement project, conducted on the mental healthcare of older people (MHCOP) wards in East London NHS Foundation Trust, which led to a greater than 90% reduction in the rate of unintentionally omitted doses of medication. The project involved the publication of a fortnightly league table which ranked each of the wards by how many doses they had missed, with the ward missing the fewest doses receiving a prize. PDSA cycles were used to refine the concept, with the final incarnation of the fortnightly league table also incorporating the publication of a poster for each ward which showed how many weeks it had been since the ward missed a dose, and the ward’s overall trend in missed doses. The project has resulted in the average missed dose rate on the MCHOP wards decreasing from 1.07% to 0.07%. In real terms, this represents a reduction from an estimated 2878 to 188 missed doses per year on the six MHCOP wards. By greatly reducing the risk of patients experiencing adverse drug events as a result of missed doses, this project has given rise to a potential cost-saving of around £34,000 per year across the wards studied. The use of league tables represents a simple, cost-effective means of tackling the problem of doses of medication being unintentionally omitted on hospital wards.
“A monster that lives in our lives”: experiences of caregivers of people with motor neuron disease and identifying avenues for support
Authors: Anderson Nicole Hennessy , Gluyas Cathy , Mathers Susan , Hudson Peter , Ugalde Anna
Published: June 2016

Background

A developing body of evidence has provided valuable insight into the experiences of caregivers of people with motor neuron disease; however, understandings of how best to support caregivers remain limited.

Aim

This study sought to understand concepts related to the motor neuron disease caregiver experience which could inform the development of supportive interventions.

Design

A qualitative thematic analysis of a one-off semistructured interview with caregivers was undertaken.

Setting/participants

Caregivers of people with motor neuron disease were recruited from a progressive neurological diseases clinic in Melbourne, Australia.

Results

15 caregivers participated. Three key themes were identified: (1) The Thief: the experience of loss and grief across varied facets of life; (2) The Labyrinth: finding ways to address ever changing challenges as the disease progressed; (3) Defying fate: being resilient and hopeful as caregivers tried to make the most of the time remaining.

Conclusions

Caregivers are in need of more guidance and support to cope with experiences of loss and to adapt to changeable care giving duties associated with disease progression. Therapeutic interventions which target these experiences of loss and change are worth investigation.

Trial registration number

ACTRN12615000120572, pre-results.
Controlling pain in cats
Authors: Drozdzynska Maja , Pelligand Ludovic
Published: June 2016

Pain should be assessed in cats as a part of triage and a validated pain scoring system should be used. A good understanding of pain physiology and pharmacology of analgesic agents is essential for choosing the most appropriate analgesic drug combination and reducing the risk of side effects. With diligent acute pain management, the risk of chronic pain development is reduced. This article summarises the physiology of adaptive and maladaptive pain, and provides an overview of currently available techniques and therapeutics used to assess and treat acute perioperative and chronic pain in cats.
Physical, emotional and sexual adolescent abuse victimisation in South Africa: prevalence, incidence, perpetrators and locations
Authors: Meinck Franziska , Cluver Lucie D , Boyes Mark E , Loening-Voysey Heidi
Published: June 2016

Background

Physical, emotional and sexual abuse of children is a major problem in South Africa, with severe negative outcomes for survivors. To date, no known studies have used data directly obtained from community-based samples of children to investigate prevalence, incidence, locations and perpetrators of child abuse victimisation. This study aims to investigate prevalence and incidence, perpetrators, and locations of child abuse victimisation in South Africa using a multicommunity sample.

Methods

3515 children aged 10–17 years (56.6% female) were interviewed from all households in randomly selected census enumeration areas in two South African provinces. Child self-report questionnaires were completed at baseline and at 1-year follow-up (96.7% retention).

Results

Prevalence was 56.3% for lifetime physical abuse (18.2% past-year incidence), 35.5% for lifetime emotional abuse (12.1% incidence) and 9% for lifetime sexual abuse (5.3% incidence). 68.9% of children reported any type of lifetime victimisation and 27.1% reported lifetime multiple abuse victimisation. Main perpetrators of abuse were reported: for physical abuse, primary caregivers and teachers; for emotional abuse, primary caregivers and relatives; and for sexual abuse, girlfriend/boyfriends or other peers.

Conclusions

This is the first study assessing current self-reported child abuse through a large, community-based sample in South Africa. Findings of high rates of physical, emotional and sexual abuse demonstrate the need for targeted and effective interventions to prevent incidence and re-victimisation.
Factors that affect stabilisation times of canine spontaneous hypoadrenocorticism
Authors: Roberts E. , Boden L. A. , Ramsey I. K.
Published: June 2016

The objective of this retrospective study was to examine factors that may have affected the stabilisation times of 50 dogs with spontaneous hypoadrenocorticism that were being treated with fludrocortisone acetate, with particular emphasis on dosing frequency and the concurrent use of prednisolone. Stabilisation was defined as an absence of clinical signs with a sodium:potassium ratio >27:1 and both electrolyte concentrations within a laboratory reference range. It was found that the median time till stabilisation was three months. The frequency of fludrocortisone treatment (once, twice or changed from once to twice a day) had no effect on the stabilisation time. The two groups of dogs that were started and stabilised on once a day or twice a day dosing had a median stabilisation time of two months. However, dogs that failed to stabilise on once a day dosing of fludrocortisone and were then changed onto twice a day dosing then stabilised a median of one month later. Concurrent use of prednisolone resulted in significantly faster stabilisation times. It was concluded that dogs with hypoadrenocorticism should be continued on prednisolone therapy until they are stabilised. If a dog is failing to stabilise on once a day fludrocortisone acetate, a change to twice a day administration could be considered.
Age, human performance, and physical employment standards
Authors: Kenny Glen P. , Groeller Herbert , McGinn Ryan , Flouris Andreas D.
Published: June 2016

The proportion of older workers has increased substantially in recent years, with over 25% of the Canadian labour force aged ≥55 years. Along with chronological age comes age-related declines in functional capacity associated with impairments to the cardiorespiratory and muscular systems. As a result, older workers are reported to exhibit reductions in work output and in the ability to perform and/or sustain the required effort when performing work tasks. However, research has presented some conflicting views on the consequences of aging in the workforce, as physically demanding occupations can be associated with improved or maintained physical function. Furthermore, the current methods for evaluating physical function in older workers often lack specificity and relevance to the actual work tasks, leading to an underestimation of physical capacity in the older worker. Nevertheless, industry often lacks the appropriate information and/or tools to accommodate the aging workforce, particularly in the context of physical employment standards. Ultimately, if appropriate workplace strategies and work performance standards are adopted to optimize the strengths and protect against the vulnerability of the aging workers, they can perform as effectively as their younger counterparts. Our aim in this review is to evaluate the impact of different individual (including physiological decline, chronic disease, lifestyle, and physical activity) and occupational (including shift work, sleep deprivation, and cold/heat exposure) factors on the physical decline of older workers, and therefore the risk of work-related injuries or illness.
Standard-setting methodology: Establishing performance standards and setting cut-scores to assist score interpretation
Authors: Zumbo Bruno D.
Published: June 2016

A critical step in the development and use of tests of physical fitness for employment purposes (e.g., fitness for duty) is to establish 1 or more cut points, dividing the test score range into 2 or more ordered categories reflecting, for example, fail/pass decisions. Over the last 3 decades elaborated theories and methods have evolved focusing on the process of establishing 1 or more cut-scores on a test. This elaborated process is widely referred to as “standard-setting”. As such, the validity of the test score interpretation hinges on the standard-setting, which embodies the purpose and rules according to which the test results are interpreted. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of standard-setting methodology. The essential features, key definitions and concepts, and various novel methods of informing standard-setting will be described. The focus is on foundational issues with an eye toward informing best practices with new methodology. Throughout, a case is made that in terms of best practices, establishing a test standard involves, in good part, setting a cut-score and can be conceptualized as evidence/data-based policy making that is essentially tied to test validity and an evidential trail.
Imagining the future, or how the Standard Model may survive the attacks
Authors: ’t Hooft Gerard
Published: June 2016

After the last missing piece, the Higgs particle, has probably been identified, the Standard Model of the subatomic particles appears to be a quite robust structure, that can survive on its own for a long time to come. Most researchers expect considerable modifications and improvements to come in the near future, but it could also be that the Model will stay essentially as it is. This, however, would also require a change in our thinking, and the question remains whether and how it can be reconciled with our desire for our theories to be “natural”.
Entrepreneurial Intention among Freshmen Students — Application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour in Saudi Context
Authors: Aloulou Wassim J.
Published: June 2016

This research aims to investigate whether attitude towards entrepreneurship, perceived entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social norm and gender predict entrepreneurial intentions of Saudi Freshmen students. Starting from the findings of GEM report in Kelley & al. (2010), entrepreneurial intention of Saudi people was recorded as the lowest rate of 1% among 59 countries. This research focuses on studying factors explaining intentions. Based on a literature review, we use a theoretical model of intention based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) which was tested earlier by Boissin et al. (2007a) to French context. We intend to retest it in Saudi context. We add gender as control variable and a potential predictor of intention. Then, we conduct a research survey from Autumn 2013 to Autumn 2014 of 289 Saudi (183 males and 106 females) students. The collected data was analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique. Then, results are shown and discussed, and finally, some recommendations are presented.
BIOMECHANICAL FIXATION STRENGTH COMPARISON OF ILIOINGUNIAL AND MEDIAL STOPPA APPROACHES ON ANTERIOR COLUMN FRACTURES
Authors: KAÇIRA BURKAY KUTLUHAN , ÖZKAYA MUSTAFA , KIRAN UYGAR , TÜRKMEN FAIK , ARAZI MEHMET , DEMIR TEYFIK
Published: June 2016

Background: Both the ilioinguinal and Stoppa approaches have been used as standard methods for treating anterior column fractures of the pelvis. Objective: We aimed to compare the rigidity of pelvises that were treated using these two approaches. Methods: Fifteen synthetic pelvises were used as test models. Of these, 5 pelvises did not undergo any treatment (control group), and 10 pelvises underwent treatment of one column using the ilioinguinal approach and the other using the medial Stoppa approach (treated group). The compression test was performed on all pelvises, and rigidity of the pelvises was compared between the control and treated groups. Results: A statistical difference was found in the angle between the center of the femoral head and the line from the pubic symphysis to load application between the control and treated groups, using the ilioinguinal approach. The parametric displacement was greater in the treated group using the ilioinguinal approach than in the control group. There were no significant differences between the control and treated groups using the Stoppa approach, and the ilioinguinal approaches. Conclusion: Clinically, the Stoppa approach has several advantages over the ilioinguinal approach. However, based on the compression test, there was no difference in biomechanical rigidity between the fixations performed using these two approaches.
Certain Metrics in m-Polar Fuzzy Graphs
Authors: Akram Muhammad , Waseem Neha
Published: June 2016

In this paper, we present certain metrics in m-polar fuzzy graphs including antipodal m-polar fuzzy graphs and self median m-polar fuzzy graph of given m-polar fuzzy graphs. We illustrate the concepts of metric in m-polar fuzzy graphs by several examples and investigate some of their properties. We discuss some properties of isomorphic m-polar fuzzy graphs. We also describe an application of m-polar fuzzy graph in a road network.