Add-on Technique Research Articles

In vitro maturation of oocytes in light of ovarian mitochondrial improvement: effectiveness and safety.

In vitro maturation of oocytes (IVM) represents an assisted reproductive technique that involves the minimal or absence of ovarian stimulation and is beneficial to specific groups of patients. These may include women with polycystic ovarian syndrome and/or patients who need a fertility preservation option before undergoing gonadotoxic treatment. However, when IVM is applied in cases where it is not recommended, it can be considered as an add-on technique, as described by the ESHRE Guideline Group on Female Fertility Preservation. Interestingly, IVM has not been proven yet to be as effective as conventional IVF in the laboratory, in terms of clinical pregnancy and live birth rates, while concerns have been raised for its long-term safety. As a result, both safety and efficacy of IVM remain still questionable and additional data are needed to draw conclusions.

“Double mirror” reflections technique: a case study in creative interactive poetry therapy (CIPT)

ABSTRACT The aim of the article is to offer a therapeutical technique as part of the Creative Interactive Poetry Therapy (CIPT) expressive writing process. A teen Client analyzes self-authored poems according to two points of view: (1) Looking “objectively” at each poem (detached third person perspective) directly through the words reflecting on the “surface of the mirror” and (2) Looking “subjectively” (deeply involved perspective) on what is hidden behind the words, as the “mirror” reflects the inner depth of the writer. At the end of the process of writing poems and reflections, the adolescent Client discusses the benefits and drawbacks of this approach and how all of this influenced him during the therapy. Any therapist may use this “Double Mirror” add-on technique to deepen the understanding of the potential in written spontaneous poetry and of the Client writer - all as part of the phenomenon of writing poetry for well-being.

Arthroscopic remplissage: history, indications, and clinical outcomes.

Several surgical procedures have been proposed to address anterior glenohumeral instability, which is one of the most common complaints in the general population. The remplissage, first described in early 2000s, is a procedure performed simultaneously with the arthroscopic Bankart repair to correct large, engaging Hill-Sachs lesions (HSLs). This procedure stabilizes the joint by tenodesing the infraspinatus tendon into the HSL to fill and disengage the defect. This procedure gained popularity because it has relatively low risk and is able to improve shoulder stability while being less invasive than other bone-blocking procedures. The remplissage has become a valuable add-on technique that can substantially improve outcomes in unstable patients undergoing arthroscopic Bankart repair. Nevertheless, several studies in the literature have raised concerns regarding its efficacy in critically unstable patients and the potential range of motion limitations that can arise postoperatively. Additional comparative studies and trials should be conducted to appropriately establish the role of remplissage in treating anterior instability, especially in patients with critical bone loss.

Cloud security: literature survey

<span lang="EN-US">Today, the growth of digitalization has made the ease for livelihood for all the organizations. Cloud computing the storage provider for all the computer resources has made it easy for accessing the data from anywhere anytime. But at the same time the security for cloud data storage is the major drawback which is provided by various cryptographic algorithms. These algorithms convert the data into unreadable format, known as cipher text, Rivest, Shamir and Adleman (RSA) one of the most popularly used asymmetric algorithm. This paper gives detailed review about such different cryptographic algorithms used for the cloud data security. The comparison study is also made for the size of data and to analyze the encryption time and decryption time, which concludes that to enhance the cloud data security some addon techniques are to be used along with these cryptographic algorithms. To increase the security level and to increase the transmission speed of plaintext, integrated method will be proposed by encoding the plaintext to intermediate plaintext and then intermediate plaintext will be compressed using any one of the compression techniques to increase the compression ratio, lastly the compressed file is encrypted to further enhance the security level.</span>

An ISI Scrambling Technique for Dynamic Element Matching Current-Steering DACs

The linearity of high-resolution current-steering digital-to-analog converters (DACs) is often limited by inter-symbol interference (ISI). While dynamic element matching (DEM) can be applied to convert a portion of the ISI to uncorrelated noise instead of nonlinear distortion, DEM alone fails to prevent ISI from at least introducing strong second-order nonlinear distortion. This paper addresses this problem by proposing, analyzing, and experimentally demonstrating a low-cost add-on technique, called ISI scrambling, that, in conjunction with DEM, causes a DAC’s ISI to be free of nonlinear distortion. The ISI scrambling technique is demonstrated in a 1-GS/s, 14-bit DEM DAC implemented in 90 nm CMOS technology. The DAC’s measured linearity is in line with the state-of-the-art and its measured output power spectra closely match those predicted by this paper’s theoretical results.

MUM-1 immunohistochemistry has high accuracy and reliability in the diagnosis of chronic endometritis: a multi-centre comparative study with CD-138 immunostaining.

The current gold standard for chronic endometritis (CE) diagnosis is immunohistochemistry (IHC) for CD-138. However, IHC for CD-138 is not exempt from diagnostic limitations. The aim of our study was to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of MUM-1 IHC, as compared with CD-138. This is a multi-centre, retrospective, observational study, which included three tertiary hysteroscopic centres in university teaching hospitals. One hundred ninety-three consecutive women of reproductive age were referred to our hysteroscopy services due to infertility, recurrent miscarriage, abnormal uterine bleeding, endometrial polyps or myomas. All women underwent hysteroscopy plus endometrial biopsy. Endometrial samples were analysed through histology, CD138 and MUM-1 IHC. The primary outcome was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of MUM-1 IHC for CE, as compared with CD-138 IHC. Sensitivity and specificity of CD-138 and MUM-1 IHC were respectively 89.13%, 79.59% versus 93.48% and 85.03%. The overall diagnostic accuracy of MUM-1 and CD-138 IHC were similar (AUC = 0.893 vs AUC = 0.844). The intercorrelation coefficient for single measurements was high between the two techniques (ICC = 0.831, 0.761-0.881 95%CI). However, among CE positive women, MUM-1 allowed the identification of higher number of plasma cells/hpf than CD-138 (6.50 [SD 4.80] vs 5.05 [SD 3.37]; p = 0.017). Additionally, MUM-1 showed a higher inter-observer agreement as compared to CD-138. IHC for MUM-1 and CD-138 showed a similar accuracy for detecting endometrial stromal plasma cells. Notably, MUM-1 showed higher reliability in the paired comparison of the individual samples than CD-138. Thus, MUM-1 may represent a novel, promising add-on technique for the diagnosis of CE.

Role of Calretinin Immunohistochemical Stain in Evaluation of Hirschsprung’s Disease

Introduction: Hirschsprung’s Disease (HD) is a common congenital disorder characterised by absence of enteric neurons along a variable length of large bowel involving a segment of the rectum and the adjacent proximal bowel. The definitive diagnosis is based on histopathological study of rectal seromuscular biopsies. Calretinin Immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining adds to the diagnostic yield as it allows better appreciation of the mature and immature ganglion cells including the segments with paucity of ganglion cells. Aim: To assess the usefulness of calretinin IHC in the diagnosis of HD as an add-on technique to routine Haematoxylin and Eosin staining. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective study carried out in the Department of Pathology, SCB Medical College, Cuttack during the period from August 2016 to July 2018. Full thickness rectal biopsy specimens were processed and subjected to routine Hematoxylin and Eosin Stain (H&E) staining and Calretinin IHC staining. A thorough search of ganglion cells was made in both types of stained slides. The observations were tabulated and compared for diagnostic accuracy. Statistical analysis was done using Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) Inc, Chicago IL version 15.0 windows. Through, ANOVA and Chi-square test. Results: Calretinin IHC provided superior diagnostic yield compared to routine H&E staining. A total number of 45 cases were studied. Sensitivity of 95.4% and specificity of 55.5% were obtained. It also presented higher accuracy values, than H&E (p=0.49). Conclusion: Calretinin is a superior immunohistochemical staining method that serves as a reliable additional diagnostic tool for better morphological appreciation of ganglion cells and thereby helps in establishing the diagnosis of HD.

Neuronal imaging with ultrahigh dynamic range multiphoton microscopy

Multiphoton microscopes are hampered by limited dynamic range, preventing weak sample features from being detected in the presence of strong features, or preventing the capture of unpredictable bursts in sample strength. We present a digital electronic add-on technique that vastly improves the dynamic range of a multiphoton microscope while limiting potential photodamage. The add-on provides real-time negative feedback to regulate the laser power delivered to the sample, and a log representation of the sample strength to accommodate ultrahigh dynamic range without loss of information. No microscope hardware modifications are required, making the technique readily compatible with commercial instruments. Benefits are shown in both structural and in-vivo functional mouse brain imaging applications.

Biomechanical analysis of lateral interbody fusion strategies for adjacent segment degeneration in the lumbar spine

Background ContextSurgical treatment of symptomatic adjacent segment disease (ASD) typically involves extension of previous instrumentation to include the newly affected level(s). Disruption of the incision site can present challenges and increases the risk of complication. Lateral-based interbody fusion techniques may provide a viable surgical alternative that avoids these risks. This study is the first to analyze the biomechanical effect of adding a lateral-based construct to an existing fusion. PurposeThe study aimed to determine whether a minimally invasive lateral interbody device, with and without supplemental instrumentation, can effectively stabilize the rostral segment adjacent to a two-level fusion when compared with a traditional posterior revision approach. Study Design/SettingThis is a cadaveric biomechanical study of lateral-based interbody strategies as add-on techniques to an existing fusion for the treatment of ASD. MethodsTwelve lumbosacral specimens were non-destructively loaded in flexion, extension, lateral bending, and torsion. Sequentially, the tested conditions were intact, two-level transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) (L3–L5), followed by lateral lumbar interbody fusion procedures at L2–L3 including interbody alone, a supplemental lateral plate, a supplemental spinous process plate, and then either cortical screw or pedicle screw fixation. A three-level TLIF was the final instrumented condition. In all conditions, three-dimensional kinematics were tracked and range of motion (ROM) was calculated for comparisons. Institutional funds (<$50,000) in support of this work were provided by Medtronic Spine. ResultsThe addition of a lateral interbody device superadjacent to a two-level fusion significantly reduced motion in flexion, extension, and lateral bending (p<.05). Supplementing with a lateral plate further reduced ROM during lateral bending and torsion, whereas a spinous process plate further reduced ROM during flexion and extension. The addition of posterior cortical screws provided the most stable lateral lumbar interbody fusion construct, demonstrating ROM comparable with a traditional three-level TLIF. ConclusionsThe data presented suggest that a lateral-based interbody fusion supplemented with additional minimally invasive instrumentation may provide comparable stability with a traditional posterior revision approach without removal of the existing two-level rod in an ASD revision scenario.

A Secure Intrusion-Detection System Using an Acknowledgment-Based Approach for the Detection of Routing Misbehavior in MANETS

The migration to wireless network from wired network has been a global trends in the past few decades. The mobility and scalability brought by wireless network made it possible in many applications. Among all the contemporary wireless networks, Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET) is one of the most important and unique applications. On the contrary to traditional network architecture, MANET does not require a fixed network infrastructure; every single node works as both a transmitter and a receiver. In general, routing protocols for MANETs are designed based on the assumption that all participating nodes are fully cooperative. Nodes communicate directly with each other when they are both within the same communication range. Otherwise, they rely on their neighbors to relay messages. One such routing misbehavior is that some selfish nodes will participate in the route discovery and maintenance processes but refuse to forward data packets. In this paper, we propose the 2ACK scheme and a new intrusion-detection system named Enhanced Adaptive ACKnowledgment (EAACK) specially designed for MANETs that serves as an add-on technique for routing schemes to detect routing misbehavior and to mitigate their adverse effect. The main idea of the 2ACK scheme is to send two-hop acknowledgment packets in the opposite direction along with the EAACK demonstrates higher malicious behavior detection rates in certain circumstances while does not greatly affect the network performances of the routing path. In order to reduce additional routing overhead, only a fraction of the received data packets are acknowledged in the 2ACK scheme. Analytical and simulation results are presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme.

An Extensive Approach on Random Testing with Add-On Technique for Novel Test Case Generation

An Extensive Approach on Random Testing with Add-On Technique for Novel Test Case Generation

Detection of sickle cell hemoglobin in Haiti by genotyping and hemoglobin solubility tests.

Sickle cell disease is a growing global health concern because infants born with the disorder in developing countries are now surviving longer with little access to diagnostic and management options. In Haiti, the current state of sickle cell disease/trait in the population is unclear. To inform future screening efforts in Haiti, we assayed sickle hemoglobin mutations using traditional hemoglobin solubility tests (HST) and add-on techniques, which incorporated spectrophotometry and insoluble hemoglobin separation. We also generated genotype data as a metric for HST performance. We found 19 of 202 individuals screened with HST were positive for sickle hemoglobin, five of whom did not carry the HbS allele. We show that spectrophotometry and insoluble hemoglobin separation add-on techniques could resolve false positives associated with the traditional HST approach, with some limitations. We also discuss the incorporation of insoluble hemoglobin separation observation with HST in suboptimal screening settings like Haiti.

English

An mobile ad-hoc network (MANETs) is a set of limited range wireless nodes that function in a cooperative manner so as to increase the overall range of the network. In general, routing protocols for MANETs are designed based on the assumption that all participating nodes are fully cooperative. However, due to the open structure and scarcely available battery-based energy, node misbehaviors may exist. One such routing misbehavior is that some selfish nodes will participate in the route discovery and maintenance processes but refuse to forward data packets. In this paper, we propose the 2ACK scheme that serves as an add-on technique for routing schemes to detect routing misbehavior and to mitigate their adverse effect. The main idea of the 2ACK scheme is to send two-hop acknowledgment packets in the opposite direction of the routing path. In order to reduce additional routing overhead, only a fraction of the received data packets are acknowledged in the 2ACK scheme. Analytical and simulation results are presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme.

A Sensitive Hydrazine Electrochemical Sensor Based on Zinc Oxide Nano-Wires

A sensitive hydrazine electrochemical sensor based on Zinc oxide nano-wires (ZnO NWs) synthesized from low temperature hydrothermal method has been fabricated using an add-on technique. The morphology, crystalline structures, and composition of synthesized ZnO NWs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The batch-made ZnO NWs were used as electrocatalytic material and modified on the gold electrode surface through a printing-like method via Nafion to obtain Nafion/ZnO NWs/Au hydrazine electrochemical sensor. To optimize performance, the effect of the ZnO modified quantity on sensitivity was evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopic, and single-potential amperometry techniques. The results show that the optimum ZnO NWs modified quantity is about 170 μg·cm−2. The optimized Nafion/ZnO NWs/Au hydrazine electrochemical sensor has a high sensitivity of 3.8 μA·μM−1·cm−2, a short response time of 3 s, and a very low detection limit of 0.0144 μM with a linear hydrazine concentration response range from 3.0 to 562 μM.

Localized Geographic Routing to a Mobile Sink with Guaranteed Delivery in Sensor Networks

We propose a novel localized Integrated Location Service and Routing (ILSR) scheme, based on the geographic routing protocol GFG, for data communications from sensors to a mobile sink in wireless sensor networks. The objective is to enable each sensor to maintain a slow-varying routing next hop to the sink rather than the precise knowledge of quick-varying sink position. In ILSR, sink updates location to neighboring sensors after or before a link breaks and whenever a link creation is observed. Location update relies on flooding, restricted within necessary area, where sensors experience (next hop) change in GFG routing to the sink. Dedicated location update message is additionally routed to selected nodes for prevention of routing failure. Considering both unpredictable and predictable (controllable) sink mobility, we present two versions. We prove that both of them guarantee delivery in a connected network modeled as unit disk graph. ILSR is the first localized protocol that has this property. We further propose to reduce message cost, without jeopardizing this property, by dynamically controlling the level of location update. A few add-on techniques are as well suggested to enhance the algorithm performance. We compare ILSR with an existing competing algorithm through simulation. It is observed that ILSR generates routes close to shortest paths at dramatically lower (90% lower) message cost.

Power-aware system-on-chip test scheduling using enhanced rectangle packing algorithm

The current semiconductor technology allows integration of all components onto a single chip called system-on-chip (SoC), which scales down the size of product and improves the performance. When a system becomes more complicated, testing process, such as test scheduling, becomes more challenging. Recently, peak power has also been considered as constraints in the test scheduling problem. Besides these constraints, some add-on techniques including pre-emption and non-consecutive test bus assignment have been introduced. The main contribution of each technique is the reduction of idling time in the test scheduling and thus reducing the total test time. This paper proposes a power-aware test scheduling called enhanced rectangle packing (ERP). In this technique, we formulate the test scheduling problem as the rectangle packing with horizontally and vertically split-able items (rectangles) which are smaller to fill up more compactly the test scheduling floor plan. Experimental results conducted on ITC’02 SoC benchmark circuits revealed positive improvement of the power-aware ERP algorithm in reducing total SoC test time.

Detection of Routing Misbehavior in MANETs with 2ACK scheme

The Routing misbehavior in MANETs (Mobile Ad Hoc Networks) is considered in this paper. Commonly routing protocols for MANETs [1] are designed based on the assumption that all participating nodes are fully cooperative. Routing protocols for MANETs are based on the assumption which are, all participating nodes are fully cooperative. Node misbehaviors may take place, due to the open structure and scarcely available battery-based energy. One such routing misbehavior is that some nodes will take part in the route discovery and maintenance processes but refuse to forward data packets. In this, we propose the 2ACK [2] scheme that serves as an add-on technique for routing schemes to detect routing misbehavior and to mitigate their effect. The basic idea of the 2ACK scheme is to send two-hop acknowledgment packets in the opposite direction of the routing path. To reduce extra routing overhead, only a few of the received data packets are acknowledged in the 2ACK scheme.

An Acknowledgment-Based Approach for the Detection of Routing Misbehavior in MANETs

We study routing misbehavior in MANETs (mobile ad hoc networks) in this paper. In general, routing protocols for MANETs are designed based on the assumption that all participating nodes are fully cooperative. However, due to the open structure and scarcely available battery-based energy, node misbehaviors may exist. One such routing misbehavior is that some selfish nodes will participate in the route discovery and maintenance processes but refuse to forward data packets. In this paper, we propose the 2ACK scheme that serves as an add-on technique for routing schemes to detect routing misbehavior and to mitigate their adverse effect. The main idea of the 2ACK scheme is to send two-hop acknowledgment packets in the opposite direction of the routing path. In order to reduce additional routing overhead, only a fraction of the received data packets are acknowledged in the 2ACK scheme. Analytical and simulation results are presented to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme

Random-dot pattern design of a light guide in an edge-lit backlight: integration of optical design and dot generation scheme by the molecular-dynamics method

We present the methodology of an integration of a dot generation scheme by a molecular-dynamics (MD) method and the subsequent software optical design phase by software. The MD dot generation scheme proposed has great advantages when integrated into the optical design phase. These advantages include the variable r-cut and reflective boundary condition techniques, both of which could achieve a high-density variation of dot distribution. In addition, we use a cell technique where the domain is divided into a number of smaller cells, allowing for flexibility in adjusting the dot density within each cell, as well as for using the add-on or remove-from technique of the dots in one cell to achieve an equal-luminance condition. In addition, a simple proportional rule of luminance to dot density is also proposed to perform dot optimization. Finally, an illustration is shown for the optimal dot distribution of a LED backlight. The result that a two-dimensional dot density distribution near the light source changes gradually to a one-dimensional dot density distribution with increasing distance from the light source shows the validity of the present integration of the MD dot generation scheme into the optical design phase.

Learning to Integrate Web Taxonomies

We investigate machine learning methods for automatically integrating objects from different taxonomies into a master taxonomy. This problem is not only currently pervasive on the Web, but is also important to the emerging Semantic Web. A straightforward approach to automating this process would be to build classifiers through machine learning and then use these classifiers to classify objects from the source taxonomies into categories of the master taxonomy. However, conventional machine learning algorithms totally ignore the availability of the source taxonomies. In fact, source and master taxonomies often have common categories under different names or other more complex semantic overlaps. We introduce two techniques that exploit the semantic overlap between the source and master taxonomies to build better classifiers for the master taxonomy. The first technique, Cluster Shrinkage, biases the learning algorithm against splitting source categories by making objects in the same category appear more similar to each other. The second technique, Co-Bootstrapping, tries to facilitate the exploitation of inter-taxonomy relationships by providing category indicator functions as additional features for the objects. Our experiments with real-world Web data show that these proposed add-on techniques can enhance various machine learning algorithms to achieve substantial improvements in performance for taxonomy integration.