Medical Industry Research Articles

Emerging Educational and Networking Platforms in Interventional Cardiology: Expanding Beyond Traditional Social Media.

With ubiquitous use of smartphones and other Internet-enabled devices, clinicians have access to a plethora of multimedia platforms that enable them to network, share educational content, and learn. Several platforms also enable resources that support clinical decision making. Traditional social media has been used extensively by cardiologists for several years and now extends to the entire care team including trainees, advanced practitioners, nurses and technologists. Numerous challenges include concerns about patient privacy and security, lack of peer-review and organization, and chances of propagating misinformation. More recently, newer networking platforms have emerged within cardiology to overcome several of the limitations of traditional social media. Additionally, mobile applications have emerged as an educational tool that provides clinicians with easy access to the latest information including guidelines, consensus documents, risk estimators and treatment algorithms. These point-of-care learning and decision-making tools are especially relevant and impactful in a procedural field like interventional cardiology. While professional societies are major drivers of these emerging platforms, there are also other stakeholders including educational institutions and the medical device industry. In this review article, we examine the role of traditional social media and describe newer networking platforms as well as mobile applications applicable to interventional cardiology with a discussion about their relative advantages and disadvantages.

Therapeutic Potential of the Herbal Plant Uncaria gambir: A Systematic Review

Background: Uncaria gambir is an Indonesian medicinal herb with healing effects. This plant contains flavonoids, which can be used as antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents to accelerate healing. In Indonesia, Uncaria gambir is widely accessible, simple to grow, and has a long history of use as an alternative medicine. Following this, studies are conducted in the medical industry using Uncaria gambir. Objective: This study aimed to comprehensively review the use of Uncaria gambir extract as an herbal plant for treating experimental animals. Methods: This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta- Analyses guidelines, and the risk of bias was evaluated by modifying the ARRIVE guidelines. Results: A report was presented on review articles from 12 publications sourced from PubMed, ScienceDirect, Wiley Online Library, ProQuest, EBSCO Host, and other relevant studies. The Uncaria gambir isolates tested were catechin and ethyl acetate, used primarily for lesions, pain, edema, and diabetes in experimental Wistar rats. Conclusion: Uncaria gambir is an herbal plant that contains flavonoids, which can be used as antiinflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, and hepatoprotective agents and can potentially be applied in the medical field as adjuvant therapy.

Review on Hydrogel Based Systems and their use in Drug Delivery for Wound Healing & Wound Management

Abstract: The largest organ of the human body, the skin, shields the body from the outside environment. Despite having a great capacity for regeneration, major skin abnormalities cannot heal on their own and must be covered with artificial skin. In recent years, significant advancements have been achieved in the area of skin tissue engineering to create novel skin replacements. Because of their porous as well as moisturized polymeric structural composition, hydrogels are one of the choices with the greatest ability to imitate the natural skin microenvironment. Naturally derived polymers, synthesized polymers, polymerizable synthetic monomolecules, as well as mixtures of natural and synthesized polymers, can all be used to create hydrogels. They can be used to assist in the regeneration as well as repair of the wounded dermis, epidermis or else both by dressing various wounds permanently or temporarily. Hydrogels possess distinct properties like lightweight, stretchable, biocompatible, and biodegradable; they have the potential to be incorporated as flexible solutions for the care of chronic wounds. Additionally, these characteristics make hydrogels appropriate for use in the pharmaceutical and medical industries. Physical, chemical, and hybrid bonding are all involved in the creation of hydrogels. Several processes, including solution casting, solution mixing, bulk crosslinking polymerization, the free radical mechanism, radiation therapy, and the development of interpenetrating networks, are used to create the bonding. This review primarily focuses on the type of wounds with phases in wound healing and the many kinds of hydrogels based on cross-linking, ionic charge, physical properties, source etc., and it also describes potential fabrication techniques for hydrogel design in biomedical applications, drug delivery as well as wound management hydrogel systems. Hydrogel-based systems for wound recovery and management are described, as well as current research & future prospective of hydrogel-based drug delivery systems in wound healing for topical applications.

Paying attention to the safety of global edible seaweeds after the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water from Japan

Macroalgae play a crucial role as primary producers in the ecosystem. The increasing human demand for macroalgae has led to the development of the macroalgae aquaculture industry, which is seen as a potential solution to future food shortages. However, the Japanese Government's plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water, which is projected to continue until at least 2053 with a total volume of at least 1.3 million metric tons, poses a significant threat to the macroalgae industry, ecosystems, and human health. Macroalgae can accumulate radionuclides from nuclear-contaminated water, which may then be transferred to other marine organisms or humans through the food chain or web, and the long-term implications of this ‘butterfly effect’ remain uncertain. In principle, international supervision and regulations should govern the management of nuclear waste, further filling the gaps in international law, including all aspects of addressing complaints and prohibiting the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water, to ensure responsible management based on scientific evidence. However, the current Japanese government's determination to proceed with the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water has revealed deficiencies in international legislation and a lack of enforcement power within international regulatory organizations, which demand further improvement. Herein, we call upon phycologists specializing in the utilization of macroalgal resources, marine organisms, and marine ecology to pay further attention to and conduct in-depth investigations into the potential long-term impacts of this event. Regardless, against the backdrop of Japan's ongoing discharge of nuclear-contaminated water, the commitment to advancing the health and stability of the global macroalgae industry and safeguarding the rights of seaweed farmers represents a lengthy but highly significant scientific endeavor.

Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Platforms: Development and Outlook

Background: Multi-degree-of-freedom platforms are frequently employed in space docking devices, motion modeling, and robotics. Complex research is being done on multidegree- of-freedom platforms, including work on spatial route creation, control simulation, and forward and backward platform motion solutions. The development of research platforms in their current state is advantageous for advancing multi-degree-of-freedom motion research, which has the potential to advance numerous sectors through new technology. Objective: In this patent study, the benefits and drawbacks of various platforms are explored to analyze the development trend of platforms for academics and engineers through the most recent development of multi-degree-of-freedom platforms. Methods: By using the research methodology, research substance, and inventive structure of the most recent representative patents of the multi-degree-of-freedom platform, the platform's operating principle and characteristics are demonstrated. Results: By contrasting multi-degree-of-freedom platforms in various application domains, the issues with current multi-degree-of-freedom platforms are enumerated, and the platforms' potential future development path and research topics are suggested. Conclusion: The growth of the aviation, medical, and military industries is aided by the development of multi-degree-of-freedom platforms, and the flexible distribution of high-precision parallel platforms has promising future development.

Delivery of dendritic cells targeting 3M2e-HA2 nanoparticles with a CpG adjuvant via lysosomal escape of Salmonella enhances protection against H9N2 avian influenza virus

Avian influenza virus (AIV) subtype H9N2 still poses a great threat to the poultry farming industry and public health worldwide, and the development of a new influenza vaccine that is safe and conservative and able to address influenza virus mutations is highly promising for application. HA2, the neck of the HA protein, and M2e, the extracellular N-terminal structural domain of the M2 protein, are conserved and effective protective antigens.In this study, the HA2 sequences were fused with three M2e copies (H9N2, H1N1 and H5N1) to the norovirus VP1 protein via the SpyTag-SpyCatcher platform to form self-assembled nanoparticles and display antigenic proteins on its surface, yielding pYL262. The chicken dendritic cells (DCs) targeting the nanobody phage-54 were then fused to HA2-3M2e to yield pYL327. Finally, a synthesized 20-repeat CpG adjuvant gene fragment was inserted into pYL327, resulting in the plasmid pYL331. All the constructed plasmids were then transformed into the sifA gene-deficient Salmonella vector χYL56 for oral immunization.The results showed that sifA-deficient Salmonella could efficiently increase antigen-specific mucosal sIgA antibody titers, especially in alveolar lavage samples, whereas the presence of the phage-54 nanobody could dramatically increase intracellular IFN-γ mRNA levels, indicating its ability to enhance the Th1-type immune response. Finally, the presence of the CpG adjuvant clearly increased T-cell proliferation and promoted DC activation, with elevated splenic TLR21 levels observed. Strikingly, after oral immunization with χYL56 (pYL331), chickens were protected against challenge with the G57 genotype H9N2 virus, which presented similar or even better levels of virus shedding and body weight gain compared with the commercial inactivated vaccine, providing a new option for controlling H9N2 virus infection in the future.

Self-assembling nanoparticle vaccine elicits a robust protective immune response against avian influenza H5N6 virus in chickens

The continuous circulation and evolution of the H5N6 subtype highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) challenge the development of the global poultry industry and human public health security. To address the potential threat of the H5N6 virus, a secure and efficacious vaccine is urgent. In our research, a self-assembling nanoparticle vaccine presenting the hemagglutinin of the H5N6 AIV was developed based on the ferritin antigen display platform. The results showed that a single-dose vaccination of this nanoparticle vaccine elicited potent hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibody responses and neutralizing antibody responses in the chickens. Meanwhile, the fused HA-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine induced significantly higher levels of Th1/Th2 immune responses. After a lethal attack with the H5N6 virus, the fused HA-ferritin nanoparticle vaccine conferred chickens with 100 % (10/10) challenge protection. Importantly, the fused HA-ferritin nanoparticle with only 28 hemagglutination units (HAU) provided chickens with immune protection comparable to commercial inactivated vaccines and protected the chickens from severe lung pathological damage. These results in our study support the superiority of ferritin as an antigen display platform and suggest that self-assembled nanoparticle vaccines based on this platform possess the potential as an avian influenza candidate vaccine.

Integrative transcriptomic and metabolomic reveals squalene alleviating the inflammatory response and enhancing immunity of hybrid grouper (♀ Epinephelus fuscoguttatus × ♂ E. lanceolatu)

Our previous study on plant oil substitution for fish oil found that corn oil induced inflammatory responses in grouper, while olive oil was effective in anti-inflammatory and immune enhancing. As a vital active ingredient in olive oil, squalene has been widely studied for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Therefore, the present study was designed to use corn oil as the main lipid source to create a model of inflammation or low immunity and investigate the regulatory effect of squalene on the immunity of grouper, and to perform hepatic transcriptomic and metabolomic assays of grouper using omics technology, with the aim of providing basic data for the study of the mechanism of squalene. The results showed: squalene ingestion did not affect the growth performance of grouper (P > 0.05) but significantly improved immunity and the resistance of grouper to Vibrio harveyi (P < 0.05). Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses showed that squalene activated the Wnt/β-Catenin signaling pathway and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway. Western blot results showed that squalene ingestion significantly upregulated Wnt/β-Catenin protein expression and downregulated the Axin protein expression (P < 0.05). Above results demonstrated that squalene enhanced immunity and disease resistance in grouper may be related to the activation of PI3K-Akt/ Wnt/β-Catenin signaling pathway, while the activation of β-Catenin could reduce the inflammatory response by inhibiting NF-κB-mediated inflammatory factors. The findings will contribute to the application of squalene as an immune enhancer for aquaculture and medical industry.

Security Mechanism in MAMATA Healthcare System Using Rule based Algorithm for Maternal Hospitals and Pathology Laboratories

Recently, innovation in the digital health industry has grown steadily, trending with medical cyber-physical systems’ (MCPS) integrated solutions, regulations, real-time analytics, and software frameworks. Amid these advancements, the paramount concern is the security of medical information, particularly in maternity hospitals where data breaches must be rigorously avoided. While some researchers have explored security methods, they have encountered limitations and identified existing risks. In this research article, the authors propose a novel security mechanism/method called MAMATA Agent/BOT (i.e. Medical-data-Access-for-Maternal-Treat-ment-in-rural-Area) to discover and mitigate trending vulnerabilities, drawing reference from the OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) Top 10 Report 2017/2020. The author’s approach leverages a rule-based algorithm, enhancing the robustness of the security mechanism. This MCPS system and security mechanism are implemented within PHP and Laravel environments, and comparative analysis is carried out against a few existing security methods commonly employed in general healthcare (like SOA/SOD Framework, Andrew Austin test, Marcelo test, etc..). Results demonstrate a quantified improvement, e.g., 60-70% improvement in detectable vulnerabilities compared to prior approaches. Additionally, the authors extend their previous research by depicting different turns of events and applying a more stable, secured structure tailored to medical applications. Quantitative data presented with comparative analysis in tabular format validates the effectiveness of the proposed methods by detecting and, or fixing 7 to 9 major vulnerabilities (out of the top 10) identified by security assessment tools like ‘Burp Suite Proxy’ and ‘Nikto’.

Navigating the Challenges Faced By Employees In The Medical Transcription Industry: A Review Of Current Issues

Medical transcription (MT) is a crucial component of healthcare documentation, translating physician dictations into written records. Despite its importance, employees in the medical transcription industry face numerous challenges that can impact their job performance, job satisfaction, and overall well-being. This review explores the primary challenges encountered by employees in the medical transcription industry, including technological changes, workload pressures, quality assurance, and the evolving nature of healthcare documentation. The discussion is supported by relevant literature and provides insights into potential strategies for improvement.

Transcriptome analysis reveals that PRV XJ delgE/gI/TK protects against intestinal damage in nose-dropping-infected mice by regulating ECM-ITGA/ITGB-P-FAK.

Pseudorabies virus (PRV) is an ideal model for mechanistic investigations into α-herpesvirus. The neurotropism and latent infection of PRV have been extensively studied. Apart from neurological symptoms, diarrhea caused by PRV infection is also an essential cause of mortality in newborn and weaned piglets. However, little research has been done on PRV invasion of the gut. To fill this gap, a nasal drip PRV-infection mouse model was developed, consisting of three groups: the challenged group (Group A), the immunization-challenged group (Group B), and a mock group (Group C). The results showed that immunization with PRV XJ delgE/gI/TK successfully prevented intestinal damage caused by PRV drop-nose infection. Subsequently, intestines were collected for transcriptional analysis. Differentially expressed genes analysis revealed that PRV XJ delgE/gI/TK was effective in reducing the organismal intestinal transcriptional activity caused by PRV. The Group A vs Group C and Group A vs Group B had similar Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG)-enriched signaling pathways and the differentially expressed genes were primarily enriched in pathways, such as cell adhesion molecules, focal adhesion kinase, and actin cytoskeleton regulation. Notably, transcriptome analysis indicated that genes associated with the focal adhesion kinase (FAK) signaling pathway (ECM-ITGA/ITGB-p-FAK) were significantly more highly expressed in Group A than in Group B and Group C. The results of quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) and western blotting were consistent with KEGG analysis. Therefore, we hypothesized that PRV promotes self-infection through activation of the ECM-ITGA/ITGB-p-FAK signaling pathway and that PRV XJ delgE/gI/TK immunization could attenuate the intestinal damage caused by PRV by inhibiting the activation of this pathway.IMPORTANCEPseudorabies virus (PRV) poses a significant threat to the swine industry and public health due to its ability to infect multiple species, including humans, leading to substantial economic losses and potential health risks. This study addresses a critical gap in understanding the impact of PRV infection on the gut, which has been less explored compared to its neurological effects. By developing a drip-nose PRV-infection mouse model, the research indicated that PRV might promote self-infection through activation of the ECM-ITGA/ITGB-p-FAK signaling pathway, and PRV XJ delgE/gI/TK immunization effectively prevents intestinal damage by significantly reducing the expression of genes in the ECM-ITGA/ITGB-p-FAK signaling pathway. The research has important implications for the swine industry and public health by contributing to the development of better vaccines and treatments, ultimately helping to control PRV and prevent its cross-species transmission.

Cannabis Care: Intellectual Humility and Instructional Strategies

The challenge healthcare faculty are encountering when discussing cannabis education with students is the effect that misperceptions, media influence, and lack of evidence can have regarding cannabis care. This article shares an innovative teaching strategy and qualitative results based on increasing intellectual humility using the Collective Rethinking Model. The instructional design of this study included three assignments: a role and responsibility analysis, a more nuanced conversation about cannabis, mental health, and athletes, and promoting student curiosity using a virtual cannabis field trip. Each assignment consisted of a cannabis-related activity followed by a written response (n=99). These responses were coded, and thematic analysis was confirmed by the research team. For the role and responsibility analysis assignment, themes reflected existing stigmas and a new awareness of evolving cannabis research. For the nuanced conversation assignment about cannabis, mental health, and athletes, the results identified three themes: concern for the ethics of the suspension, the need for more research regarding cannabis and PTSD care, and an increased awareness of the inconsistencies in drug policies from a global perspective. The last assignment designed to promote cannabis curiosity used a virtual cannabis field trip. It demonstrated curiosity across a broad spectrum of cannabis industry topics and issues. The results demonstrate today's healthcare students have curiosity about their potential role in cannabis care. The lessons learned from this study have implications for designing nursing and interprofessional health curricula that rigorously and creatively engage students in the practice of cannabis care, mental health promotion, ethics, regulation, and industry.

Current Insights into Industrial Trans Fatty Acids Legal Frameworks and Health Challenges in the European Union and Spain

Current Insights into Industrial Trans Fatty Acids Legal Frameworks and Health Challenges in the European Union and Spain

Measuring improvements in occupational health and safety in the artificial stone benchtop industry.

Workers in the stone benchtop industry in Australia are at high risk of silicosis due to exposure to respirable crystalline silica (RCS) from the dry processing of artificial stone. In Victoria, Australia, a multifaceted response including education, regulatory changes, inspection site visits, and occupational health screening programme began in 2019. We aimed to review the success of this approach to safety practices in the industry. Data were available from 2 sources: first, responses provided by workers during their occupational health screening (2019 to 2024), which included a systematic occupational history. Jobs examined included roles in the stone benchtop industry with RCS exposure and were analysed in relation to reported safety practices pre and postregulatory changes in August 2019, which prohibited unrestricted dry cutting. Second, data were obtained from the Regulator describing the numbers of visits to industry worksites and the numbers and types of compliance notices issued between 2018 and 2024. In total, 1921 jobs from 1007 workers were eligible for analysis, of which 869 were prior to the 2019 regulatory change and 557 commenced after. The proportion of workers reporting "never" dry cutting rose from 17.3% to 67.2% (P < 0.001), use of recommended ventilation and respirator increased from 26.0% to 36.5% (P < 0.001), and 44.9% to 86.5% (P < 0.001), respectively. Of the 543 worksites visited (2757 site visits in total), 352 (64.8%) received at least one compliance notice and the types of notices varied over time. Administrative controls/housekeeping and health monitoring notices were the most common in 2019 to 2021 but tools/equipment notices increased substantially in 2022 onwards. Prior to the changes, a large proportion of jobs involved unrestricted dry processing of artificial stone with inadequate protection. After the changes, practices improved although some jobs continued to involve dry processing without adequate control of dust. This multifaceted approach vastly improved safety practices in the stone benchtop industry over 5 years. These data are relevant to occupational health and safety professionals and regulators in countries where artificial stone is used and potentially for implementation of new measures in response to a new workplace hazard in future.

Metabolic transformation of paralytic shellfish toxins in the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis under different exposure modes

Gymnodinium catenatum is a widely distributed toxic marine dinoflagellate that produces paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs). It is prone to causing algal blooms and poses a serious threat to the shellfish industry and human health. Previous studies have shown that when algal blooms occur, shellfish can accumulate PSTs in their bodies due to filtration. In this study, mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) were fed with G. catenatum at different fixed or varied cell density over time, with the latter designed to mimic the changes in algal cell density over time in the wild. The PST concentration in the mussels was positively correlated with the number of algal cells, and PSTs rapidly accumulated in the mussels under both feeding modes. Compared with constant feeding in the low feeding group, variable cell density feeding over time was more conducive to the accumulation of PSTs in M. galloprovincialis. An obvious toxin transformation process was also detected in the mussels, which transformed the less toxic gonyautoxins-5 and -6 and N-sulfocarbamoyl gonyautoxin-3 ingested from G. catenatum into the more toxic decarbamoyl gonyautoxin-2, decarbamoyl saxitoxin, and decarbamoyl neosaxitoxin. The ratio of epimer pairs, α:β, tended to stabilize when the toxin concentration was highest, and it increased rapidly after mussels stopped consuming toxigenic algae. These results suggested that the formation of α-stable toxoids mainly occurred during the process of toxin depuration. Toxins were also transformed from low to high toxicity, and α-stable toxoids were formed mainly in the hepatopancreas. These results provided basic data for better understanding of the laws governing metabolic transformation of PSTs in bivalves during algal blooms.

Development of Sustainable Industrial Safety and Health Policy for Electronic Industry in Korea: A Study on the Relationship Between Safety Leadership of Managers, Safety Climate, and Safety Behavior

This study aimed to identify the relationship between the safety leadership of safety and health managers, the safety climate of the organization, and the safety behavior of workers in the electronics industry in order to develop a sustainable industrial safety and health policy. The study included 842 individuals working at electronics industry cooperators. After analyzing the correlation between safety leadership of managers, safety climate, and safety behavior using SPSS 23.0, measurement model analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were performed using AMOS 26.0 to evaluate their relationships. We observed that the safety leadership of managers was associated with safety climate and safety behavior. Additionally, among the sub-dimensional variables of safety climate, the management’s commitment to safety and health and the delivery and communication of safety and health information were related to safety behavior. Therefore, enhancing worker participation and behavior requires strengthening the safety leadership of managers, increasing management’s commitment to safety and health, and improving the effectiveness of safety and health information delivery and communication.

Exploration and practice of cultivating innovation ability of postgraduates majoring in biological and medical sciences with the new strategy of "six integration and six optimizations"

The emerging biomedical industry has an increasing demand for the professional talents and puts forward higher requirements for the quality, especially the innovation ability of the talents. Exploring a new model for fostering the innovation ability of postgraduates majoring in biological and medical sciences based on the principle of integrating production, education and research is of practical significance for improving the quality of professional talents and empowering the bio-economic development. Taking the training of innovation ability of postgraduates majoring in biological and medical sciences at Jiangnan University as an example, this paper introduced a new training system of "six integration and six optimizations". This system included ideological guidance, discipline system, training program, faculty, research innovation platform, and communication and cooperation. Satisfactory cultivation results were achieved with this new system. This paper is expected to provide reference for the training of innovative talents in the biological and medical industry.

Research on insured risk of insurance companies based on TOPSIS comprehensive evaluation model and regression analysis

Extreme weather events due to climate change are one of the most significant risks facing the world today, and while insurers can help society share the resulting losses, for example through premium pricing, the industry is also facing increasing challenges. To address the issue of meeting the needs of insurers for long-term health in the face of current challenges, we have developed a risk assessment model and a profitability model for insurers, with a focus on the U.S. East Coast. In the risk assessment model we are based on entropy weighting method to find the weight of TOPSIS superiority and inferiority of the solution distance method to derive the score of each evaluation object, and ultimately obtain the low-risk, medium-risk, high-risk intervals are [0,0.014]; [0.014,0.055]; [0.055,0.386]. The profit function was built using multiple regression in the profitability model: , and to draw the final conclusion: when an insurer is in a medium-low risk area, or a high-risk area but with a profit value greater than 0, the insurer can write in that area and take on a certain amount of risk. This conclusion will help insurers make better insurance choices in light of the current risk challenges and will benefit the long-term health of the insurance industry.

Effect of Bio‐Based Plasticizers From Modified Vegetable Oils in a New Formulation of PVC Materials

ABSTRACTThis study investigates the performance of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plasticized with diisononyl phthalate (DINP), rapeseed oil epoxidized ester (ROE), and rapeseed oil carbonated ester (ROC). The formulations were evaluated for surface resistance, wettability, migration, mechanical properties, and resistance to aging and thermal degradation. PVC/ROC exhibited the highest surface resistance of 1.5 × 1016 Ω, indicating superior electrical insulation. Wettability tests showed PVC/ROE with the highest contact angle at 63°, while PVC/ROC and PVC/DINP demonstrated lower contact angles of 44° and 43°, respectively. Migration tests revealed that PVC/ROC had the lowest migration rates: 0.1% in distilled water and 1.5% in 95% ethanol. Mechanical testing under algae exposure demonstrated that PVC/ROC achieved the highest tensile strength of 43 MPa and a strain at break of 200%. After 1008 h of thermo‐oxidative aging, PVC/ROC retained superior tensile strength and hardness, while PVC/ROE showed a slight decrease. PVC/ROC also demonstrated improved thermal stability at 255°C compared with DINP (245°C). These results confirm that ROC is an effective bio‐based plasticizer, providing enhanced mechanical properties, reduced migration, and greater durability compared to conventional DINP, offering a sustainable alternative for diverse PVC applications in medical, automotive, and packaging industries.

Automatic Cardiac Pathology Recognition in Echocardiography Images using Higher Order Dynamic Mode Decomposition and a Vision Transformer for Small Datasets

Heart diseases are the main international cause of human defunction. According to the WHO, nearly 18 million people decease each year because of heart diseases. Also considering the increase of medical data, much pressure is put on the health industry to develop systems for early and accurate heart disease recognition. In this work, an automatic cardiac pathology recognition system based on a novel deep learning framework is proposed, which analyses in real-time echocardiography video sequences. The system works in two stages. The first one transforms the data included in a database of echocardiography sequences into a machine learning-compatible collection of annotated images which can be used in the training phase of any kind of machine learning-based framework, including deep learning. This includes the use of the Higher Order Dynamic Mode Decomposition (HODMD) algorithm, for the first time to the authors’ knowledge, for both data augmentation and feature extraction in the medical field. The second stage is focused on building and training a Vision Transformer (ViT), barely explored in the related literature. The ViT is adapted for an effective training from scratch, even with small datasets. The designed neural network analyses images from an echocardiography sequence to predict the heart state. The results obtained show the efficacy of the HODMD algorithm and the superiority of the proposed system, even outperforming pretrained Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), which are so far the method of choice in the literature.