Evaluation Of Novel Technique Research Articles

Evaluation of novel techniques to improve the clinical learning of medical students

Evaluation of novel techniques to improve the clinical learning of medical students

A Dataset for Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring: Design and Implementation

A NILM dataset is a valuable tool in the development of Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring techniques, as it provides a means of evaluation of novel techniques and algorithms, as well as for benchmarking. The figure of merit of a NILM dataset includes characteristics such as the sampling frequency of the voltage, current, or power, the availability of indications (ground-truth) of load events during recording, the variety and representativeness of the loads, and the variety of situations these loads are subject to. Considering such aspects, the proposed LIT-Dataset was designed, populated, evaluated, and made publicly available to support NILM development. Among the distinct features of the LIT-Dataset is the labeling of the load events at sample level resolution and with an accuracy and precision better than 5 ms. The availability of such precise timing information, which also includes the identification of the load and the sort of power event, is an essential requirement both for the evaluation of NILM algorithms and techniques, as well as for the training of NILM systems, particularly those based on Machine Learning.

Magnet Activated Cell Sorting Method in Sperm Selection and Their Benefit in Human Assisted Reproduction

Center of Assisted Reproduction in University Hospital Brno is the oldest one in Czech Republic and is linked to academic institution, Masaryk University Brno. We have long time experiences with the therapy of human infertility. During last years we are focused on evaluation of novel techniques in assisted reproduction. Sperm selection for assisted reproductive techniques (ART) is very important step for successful in vitro fertilization [l-6].Classical ICSI (introcytoplasmatic sperm injection) method is not optimal for subjective sperm selection based on only morphology and motility of spermatozoa. For this reason there is currently a trend to combine multiple methods to segregate inappropriate sperm based on multiple parameters to increase the likelihood of successful fertilization. Is it usually classical separation method like swim-up or density gradient and a group of additional techniques like PICSI (ICSI with preselected sperm). One of these additional methods is MACS (magnet activated cell sorting). How many methods are best combined, and whether a new MACS selection method really brings a better prognosis in terms of conception success, or from the point of view of the subsequent development of the foetus, has already been studied several times.

Preclinical Mouse Models for the Evaluation of Novel Techniques in Particle Therapy.

Preclinical mouse models that allow the evaluation of novel techniques in radiotherapy using charged particles like protons or heavier ions are discussed here. Focused beams of protons or carbon ions offer distinct physical characteristics that might contribute to an overall improved risk-benefit profile in radiotherapy. In the last decade, novel concepts in radiotherapy aimed to optimize the delivery of high radiation doses to the tumor while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue. 2D in vitro tumor cell cultures provide experimental models to determine the radiosensitivity of isolated cells to different radiation qualities. However, these cell culture models are not capable of mimicking the complexity and heterogeneity of 3-dimensionally growing clinical tumors with their individual tumor microenvironment. Therefore, small animal tumor models are urgently needed to study radiation responses after particle radiotherapy in vivo. Here we describe the recent developments and the accurate testing of novel techniques in particle radiotherapy using up-to-date preclinical animal models.

Categorized Question Template Generation for Ontology-Based Assessment Questions

This paper discusses how to generate question templates by interpreting existing assessment questions from textbooks and validating concepts from existing ontologies. Previous work shows that most of the concepts that exist in the ontologies can be used as keywords to generate useful assessment questions. In this paper, we consider questions generated from a variety of ontologies, and question taxonomies, which include definitions, concept completions, and comparisons. Evaluation of novel techniques for question generation provides insights on how to extract a pattern from assessment questions in a textbook in order to create question templates that can be used with concepts presented in ontologies to generate useful questions. This paper discusses the method used and the experimental results

Long-term quality of life and risk factors for recurrence after laparoscopic repair of paraesophageal hernia.

Laparoscopic repair of paraesophageal hernia (PEH) has been shown to result in excellent relief of symptoms and improved quality of life (QOL) despite a relatively high radiographically identified recurrence rate. To assess potential risk factors for recurrence and long-term change in QOL after laparoscopic repair of PEH. This was a prospective study of 111 patients who underwent elective laparoscopic repair of type III PEH with biological mesh buttressed over a primary cruroplasty from April 3, 2009, through July 31, 2014, at the Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University of Medicine. We administered a modified version of a validated gastroesophageal reflux disease-specific QOL tool to patients before and at 2, 12, and 36 months after the procedure. Higher QOL scores represent greater severity of symptoms. An upper gastrointestinal tract barium-contrast radiographic examination was performed at 1 year to assess for recurrence. Demographic factors, comorbidities, and preoperative radiographic findings were analyzed as possible indicators for recurrence using logistic regression. Quality of life, measured by the gastroesophageal reflux disease-specific QOL tool, and recurrence, defined as a PEH of greater than 2 cm. Median patient age was 61 years, 63.1% of patients were women, and 81.1% of patients were white. Four patients required reoperation, of which only 1 was for symptomatic recurrent PEH. The mean follow-up time for the 36-month QOL assessment was 43.5 months. The overall preoperative and 2-, 12-, and 36-month QOL scores were 28.50, 10.18, 9.74, and 10.58, respectively (P < .001). Recurrences were found in 19 of the 70 patients (27%) who completed the 1-year radiographic examination. Compared with baseline, all individual symptoms improved significantly except for early satiety (mean [SD] score, 3.18 [1.88] at baseline vs 2.07 [1.70] at the 36-month follow-up; P = .07), nausea (1.69 [1.63] vs 0.77 [1.25]; P = .08), pain with swallowing (1.06 [1.50] vs 0.53 [0.90]; P = .73), and bloating/gas (3.28 [1.71] vs 2.23 [1.72]; P = .05) at the 36-month QOL assessment. Although not statistically significant, preoperative hernias containing most of the stomach were more likely to recur after repair when compared with those involving gastric cardia and fundus (odds ratio, 3.74 [95% CI, 0.93-15.14]; P = .06). Overall, laparoscopic repair of PEH with biological mesh results in excellent long-term QOL. The cause of recurrence is likely multifactorial and individualized to each patient. Further evaluation of novel techniques and unidentified patient factors is needed.

Establishment of a Rat Model for Alveolar Cleft With Bone Wax

Although treatment of cleft lip and cleft palate is becoming standardized, treatment of alveolar cleft remains controversial. Thus, preclinical animal work remains necessary to improve clinical outcome. This study established an alveolar cleft model in the rat. Maxillary first molars were extracted to create a 4- × 4- × 3-mm complete alveolar cleft on the right and left sides in 25 8-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats. The left cleft was filled with bone wax and the right side remained untreated. Animals were sacrificed at 0, 4 and 8weeks after surgery. Harvested alveolar cleft samples were evaluated by micro-computed tomographic and histologic analyses. The healing rate and osteoblast activity of the left cleft were less than those of the right cleft. This model of a critical-size alveolar cleft can be used efficiently for the therapeutic evaluation of novel techniques for the treatment of alveolar cleft.

Evaluation of Novel Technique for Studying Ureteral Functionin Vivo

Knowledge of the ureteral response to instrumentation is limited. Ureterodynamic parameters such as intraureteral pressure, conduction velocity, direction of peristalsis, and electromyography have been measured using a variety of methods; however, these techniques are impractical for routine clinical use. The aim of this study was to evaluate a new commercial ureteral pressure transducer catheter, which records peristaltic frequency, conduction velocity, and intraureteral pressure. This device was assessed in an animal model and in patients who had undergone ureteroscopy. An ambulatory urodynamic monitoring system was adapted to record the output from two pressure transducers mounted on a 4F ureteral catheter, which was inserted into the left ureters of six anesthetized pigs to record peristalsis. In six patients who had undergone ureteroscopy with or without stone removal, the recording catheter was inserted at the end of the procedure, and recovery of peristalsis was monitored for as long as 24 hours. The un-instrumented pig ureter showed spontaneous peristalsis immediately on catheter insertion, whereas the instrumented human ureter displayed a variable response that appeared to be related to previous physical or pharmacologic effects. Peristaltic frequency, pressure, and conduction velocity can be measured with the ureteral catheter described in both the experimental and clinical settings. Within the first 24 hours after ureteroscopy, peristaltic recovery is variable. Such information may enable both elucidation of the underlying mechanisms and improvement in the treatment of a variety of upper urinary-tract disorders.

Evaluation of Novel Techniques for Measurement of Air−Water Exchange of Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxicants in Lake Superior

We report initial measurements of concentrations and net air-water exchange fluxes of target persistent bioaccumulative toxicants (PBTs) in Lake Superior utilizing techniques not previously applied for this purpose. Gaseous PBTs are collected in diffusion denuders containing sections of commercial chromatography columns and subsequently thermally extracted into the cooled injection inlet of a high-resolution gas chromatograph. The PBT sampling/analytical methods enable accurate determination of gas-phase PBT concentration and micrometeorological measurement of fluxes to be carried out. PBT fluxes are measured by the modified Bowen ratio technique in which sensible heat flux is related to PBT flux, with the assumption of identical transfer velocities of heat and PBTs between two heights in the atmospheric surface layer. Micrometeorological measurement of flux accounts for all sources of resistance to mass transfer, including atmospheric stability effects, surface films, waves, sea spray, and bubbles. The sensible heatflux, PBT concentration, and PBT flux measurements carried out in 14 2- or 3-h periods during seven sampling events in Lake Superior in summer and fall 2002 and spring 2003 demonstrate advantages under the constraints of the techniques. The uncertainty of the flux measurements was typically in the range from 1% to 160%. Gaseous concentrations of a-hexachlorocyclohexane (alpha-HCH) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB) over Lake Superior were in the range from 6 to 170 and 12-95 pg/m3, respectively. Fluxes out of Lake Superior were measurable in 75% of the cases in which a concentration gradient was measured, and were in the range from -0.17 to +0.064 ng/m2 x h for alpha-HCH and from -0.60 to -0.093 ng/m2 x h for HCB.

PLX: An Instruction Set Architecture and Testbed for Multimedia Information Processing

PLX is a concise instruction set architecture (ISA) that combines the most useful features from previous generations of multimedia instruction sets with newer ISA features for high-performance, low-cost multimedia information processing. Unlike previous multimedia instruction sets, PLX is not added onto a base processor ISA, but designed from the beginning as a standalone processor architecture optimized for media processing. Its design goals are high performance multimedia processing, general-purpose programmability to support an ever-growing range of applications, simplicity for constrained environments where low power and low cost are paramount, and scalability for higher performance in less constrained multimedia systems. Another design goal of PLX is to facilitate exploration and evaluation of novel techniques in instruction set architecture, microarchitecture, arithmetic, VLSI implementations, compiler optimizations, and parallel algorithm design for new computing paradigms. Key characteristics of PLX are a fully subword-parallel architecture with novel features like wordsize scalability from 32-bit to 128-bit words, a new definition of predication, and an innovative set of subword permutation instructions. We demonstrate the use and high performance of PLX on some frequently-used code kernels selected from image, video, and graphics processing applications: discrete cosine transform, pixel padding, clip test, and median filter. Our results show that a 64-bit PLX processor achieves significant speedups over a basic 64-bit RISC processor and over IA-32 processors with MMX and SSE multimedia extensions. Using PLX's wordsize scalability feature, PLX-128 often provides an additional 2× speedup over PLX-64 in a cost-effective way. Superscalar or VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word) PLX implementations can also add additional performance through inter-instruction, rather than intra-instruction parallelism. We also describe the PLX testbed and its software tools for architecture and related research.

MR Microscopy of the Arterial Wall in an Experimental Model of Atherosclerosis: Preliminary Results

To obtain images of the arterial lumen and wall in a rabbit model of atherosclerosis with use of high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to follow morphologic changes during the induction of atherosclerosis and, hence, develop a non-invasive tool to investigate restenosis. In vivo microscopic MR images of rabbit aorta were acquired after balloon injury. Measurements of wall and lumen diameter from MR images area were compared with measurements obtained from histologic and angiographic examination. Injured rabbits exhibited an obvious thickening of the arterial wall, accompanied by an increased wall conspicuity, probably due to increases in T2. Quantitative MR morphometry corresponded well with morphologic measurements based on angiographic and histologic study. MR implanted coil technology affords imaging of the arterial lumen and wall, allowing temporal assessment of the morphologic changes due to intimal hyperplasia after balloon dilation and may enable the evaluation of novel techniques to eliminate restenosis.