Assistance

RATIONALE: When evaluating complex, tailorable digital behavioural interventions, additional approaches may be required alongside established methodologies such as randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Research evaluating a computer-assisted therapy (CAT) programme for substance misuse, Breaking Free Online (BFO), is informed by Medical Research Council (MRC) guidance recommending examination of 'mechanisms of action' of individual intervention strategies, which is relevant when evaluating digital interventions with content that may evolve over time...

This paper studied surface fracture, roughness and morphology, phase transformations, and material removal mechanisms of lithium metasilicate/disilicate glass ceramics (LMGC/LDGC) in CAD/CAM-milling and subsequent surface treatments. LMGC (IPS e.max CAD) blocks were milled using a chairside dental CAD/CAM milling unit and then treated in sintering, polishing and glazing processes. X-ray diffraction was performed on all processed surfaces. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was applied to analyse surface fracture and morphology...

BACKGROUND: The Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patients with Pain-Revised (SOAPP-R) is a 24-item assessment designed to assist in the prediction of aberrant drug-related behavior (ADB) among patients with chronic pain. Recent work has created shorter versions of the SOAPP-R, including a static 12-item short form and two computer-based methods (curtailment and stochastic curtailment) that monitor assessments in progress. The purpose of this study was to cross-validate these shorter versions in two new populations...

Magnesium alloys are promising candidates for load-bearing orthopedic implants due to their biodegradability and mechanical resemblance to natural bone tissue. However, the high degradation rate and the risk of implant-associated infections pose grand challenges for their clinical applications. Herein, we developed a nano-multilayered coating strategy through polydopamine and chitosan assisted layer-by-layer assembly of osteoinductive carbonated apatite and antibacterial sliver nanoparticles on the surface of AZ31 magnesium alloys...

With the assistance of acetic acid (CH3COOH), a novel 3D flower-like Bi2O3 was synthesized via hydrothermal process followed by calcination. For the first time, the role of CH3COOH as a capping agent in the formation of flower-like structure was investigated. The as-prepared flower-like Bi2O3 had a high activity on the degradation of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) under simulated solar light irradiation due to the narrow band gap of 2.69eV, high percentage of β-Bi2O3 as well as high intensity of polar facets (120) and (200)...

Understanding the metal behavior at the soil-root interface is of utmost significance for a successful implementation of phytoremediation. In this study, we investigated the differences in chromium (Cr) uptake, chemical changes in soil solution and the shifts in rhizosphere bacterial communities of two genotypes of Silene vulgaris (SV21, SV38) with different tolerance to Cr. A greenhouse experiment was performed in two soils that differed on pH and organic matter (OM) content. An industrial sludge with high content in Cr was used as pollution source...

OBJECTIVES: To report the utility of abdominal ultrasonography (US) to identify the presence of portal venous gas (PVG) during non-occlusive mesenteric ischemia (NOMI), and to follow the disappearance of portal venous gas after resolution of the NOMI. DATA SOURCES: This was a clinical observation of a patient, with images of abdominal computed tomography (CT), and a video of portal venous gas identified by ultrasonography. DATA SYNTHESIS: We describe the case of an adult patient admitted to our ICU for NOMI developing 48h after cardiac surgery...

Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a unique class of endogenous RNAs which could be used as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of many diseases. Our study aimed to investigate circRNA profiles in human granulosa cells (GCs) during maternal aging and to uncover age-related circRNA variations that potentially reflect decreased oocyte competence. CircRNAs in GCs from in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients with young age (YA, ≤ 30 years) and advanced age (AA, ≥ 38 years) were profiled by microarray, and validated in 20 paired samples...

Foxtail millet (Setaria italica), a very important grain crop in China, has become a new model plant for cereal crops and biofuel grasses. Although its reference genome sequence was released recently, quantitative trait loci (QTLs) controlling complex agronomic traits remains limited. The development of massively parallel genotyping methods and next-generation sequencing technologies provides an excellent opportunity for developing single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for linkage map construction and QTL analysis of complex quantitative traits...

INTRODUCTION: Placental histologic examination can assist in revealing the mechanism leading to preterm birth. Accumulating evidence suggests an association between intrauterine pathological processes, morbidity and mortality of premature infants, and their long term outcome. Neonatal brain activity is increasingly monitored in neonatal intensive care units by amplitude integrated EEG (aEEG) and indices of background activity and sleep cycling patterns were correlated with long term outcome...

Social communication is among the core areas of impairment for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The training of social orientation is important for improving social communication of children with ASD. In recent years, technology-assisted ASD intervention had gained momentum due to its potential advantages in terms of precision, sustainability, flexibility and cost. In this paper, we propose a closed-loop autonomous computer system, named ASOTS, for training social orientation skills to young children with ASD...

People with physical and mobility impairments continue to struggle to attain independence in the performance of routine activities and tasks. For example, browsing in a store and interacting with products located beyond an arm's length may be impossible without the enabling intervention of a human assistant. This research article describes a study undertaken to design, develop, and evaluate potential interaction methods for motor-impaired individuals, specifically those who use wheelchairs. Our study includes a user-centered approach, and a categorization of wheelchair users based upon the severity of their disability and their individual needs...

The goal of this study was to examine the impact of assistance with donning and time on quantitative fit factors (FF) and pass rates for subjects wearing an N95 filtering facepiece respirator (FFR) and a non-certified adhesive mask. Fit factors were measured using two side-by-side TSI Portacount instruments sampling second-by-second simultaneous inside- and outside-facepiece concentrations. Naïve subjects made two visits at least one week apart. At each visit subjects first donned either the respirator or adhesive mask without assistance and performed a five-exercise fast fit test...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

An understanding of the structural stability and formation mechanism of ligated gold nanoclusters with triply coordinated μ3-sulfido (μ3-S) motifs is important not only for gold chemistry but also for the design of more effective catalysts or drug carriers for various applications. In this article, a new elementary block Au3(μ3-S) with zero valence electrons [referred to as Au3(μ3-S)(0e)] has been identified, which describes all crystallized ligated gold clusters with μ3-S motifs, in conjunction with the previously reported Au3(2e) and Au4(2e) elementary blocks, in a grand unified model (GUM)...

In the last three decades, researchers have examined extensively how context-aware systems can assist people, specifically those suffering from incurable diseases, to help them cope with their medical illness. Over the years, a huge number of studies on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) have been published. However, how to derive relevant attributes and early detection of COPD exacerbations remains a challenge. In this research work, we will use an efficient algorithm to select relevant attributes where there is no proper approach in this domain...

Pathologic calcification leads to structural deterioration of implant materials via stiffening, stress cracking, and other structural disintegration mechanisms, and the effect can be critical for implants intended for long-term or permanent implantation. This study demonstrates the potential of using specific metal ions (MI)s for inhibiting pathological calcification in polyurethane (PU) implants. The hypothesis of using MIs as anti-calcification agents was based on the natural calcium-antagonist role of Mg(2+) ions in human body, and the anti-calcification effect of Fe(3+) ions in bio-prosthetic heart valves has previously been confirmed...

Automatic detection of fall events is vital to providing fast medical assistance to the causality, particularly when the injury causes loss of consciousness. Optimization of the energy consumption of mobile applications, especially those which run 24/7 in the background, is essential for longer use of smartphones. In order to improve energy-efficiency without compromising on the fall detection performance, we propose a novel 3-tier architecture that combines simple thresholding methods with machine learning algorithms...

Mental health disorders in adolescence are a significant problem, relatively common, and amenable to treatment or intervention. Obstetrician-gynecologists who see adolescent patients are highly likely to see adolescents and young women who have one or more mental health disorders. Some of these disorders may interfere with a patient's ability to understand or articulate her health concerns and appropriately adhere to recommended treatment. Some disorders or their treatments will affect the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis, causing anovulatory cycles and various menstrual disturbances...

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women in the United States and the second leading cause of cancer death in American women (1). Regular screening mammography starting at age 40 years reduces breast cancer mortality in average-risk women (2). Screening, however, also exposes women to harm through false-positive test results and overdiagnosis of biologically indolent lesions. Differences in balancing benefits and harms have led to differences among major guidelines about what age to start, what age to stop, and how frequently to recommend mammography screening in average-risk women (2-4)...