Search Results (20)

Background and Clinical Significance: Heart failure and kidney diseases often coexist and are difficult to clinically manage. Dysfunction in either organ exacerbates dysfunction in the other, potentially leading to cardiorenal syndrome (CRS). CRS has five different subtypes, with CRS type 5 being the most problematic given that it consists of an acute insult superimposed upon chronic CRS. Additionally, type 5 CRS can be complicated by heart failure-related cardiogenic shock (HF-CS), which is associated with increased hospitalizations and has a high 1-year mortality rate. The standard treatment for patients with HF-CS consists of guideline-directed medical therapy for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) as tolerated, along with inotropic therapies and surgical mechanical left ventricular (LV) support, guided by invasive hemodynamic monitoring. Case Presentation: This case study reports the presentation of a 57-year-old man who presented with type 5 CRS who rapidly decompensated to stage E HF-CS and was effectively and safely treated with aggressive intravenous hydration, a defined plant-based diet (DPBD), and reduction of guideline-directed prescription medications without invasive hemodynamic monitoring. Conclusions: Hydration, a DPBD, and a reduction in medication burden may be effective in CRS. Pilot studies are warranted to evaluate the efficacy of this intervention in CRS in a larger cohort. Full article

This study investigates the use of Augmented Reality (AR) to teach the concept of chirality—a fundamental topic in organic chemistry. Building on Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and previous research on AR’s educational benefits, we designed an AR learning environment to facilitate students’ understanding of chirality by allowing them to interact with and superimpose virtual and physical models of chiral molecules. An initial pilot study involving 11th-grade students revealed positive student attitudes towards AR, with participants reporting enhanced comprehension of chirality and a preference for AR-based learning over traditional methods. The follow-up study refined the AR lesson based on pilot feedback, extending its scope to introduce, rather than review, the concept of chirality. Results indicated significant learning gains, low extraneous cognitive load, and high acceptance of AR technology among students. These findings underscore the potential of AR to support complex spatial learning in chemistry, though further research, such as value-added studies, is recommended to explore the generalizability and long-term impacts of AR on different student populations. Full article

Coffee is a key agricultural product in national and international markets. Physiological parameters, such as plant growth indicators, can signal interruptions in these processes. This study aimed to characterize the temperature obtained by a thermal camera embedded in a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) and evaluate its relationship with the water potential (WP) and stomatal conductance (gs) of an experimental coffee plantation using geostatistical techniques. The experiment was conducted at the Federal University of Lavras, Minas Gerais, Brazil. A rotary-wing RPA with an embedded thermal camera flew autonomously at a height of 10 m and speed of 10 m/s. Images were collected on 26 November 2019 (rainy season), and 11 August 2020 (dry season), between 9:30 am and 11:30 am. Data on gs and WP were collected in the field. The thermal images were processed using FLIR Tools 5.13, and temperature analysis and spatialization were undertaken using geostatistical tools and isocolor maps by Kriging interpolation in R 4.3.2 software. Field data were superimposed on final crop temperature maps using QuantumGIS version 3.10 software. The study found that with decreasing WP, stomatal closure and reduction in gs occurred, increasing the temperature due to water deficit. The temperature distribution maps identified areas of climatic variations indicating water deficit. Full article

In response to the evolving landscape of maritime operations, new technologies are on the horizon as mixed reality (MR), which shall enhance navigation safety and efficiency during remote assistance as, e.g., in the remote pilotage use case. However, up to now, it is uncertain if this technology can provide benefits in terms of usability and situational awareness (SA) compared with screen-based visualizations, which are established in maritime navigation. Thus, this paper initially tests and assesses novel approaches to pilotage in the congested maritime environment, which integrates augmented reality (AR) for ship captains and virtual reality (VR) and desktop applications for pilots. The tested prototype employs AR glasses, notably the Hololens 2, to superimpose the Automatic Identification System (AIS) data directly into the captain’s field of view, while pilots on land receive identical information alongside live 360-degree video feeds from cameras installed on the ship. Additional minimum functionalities include waypoint setting, bearing indicators, and voice communication. The efficiency and usability of these technologies are evaluated through in situ tests conducted with experienced pilots on a real ship using the System Usability Scale, the Situational Awareness Rating Technique, as well as Simulator Sickness Questionnaires during the assessment. This includes a first indicative comparison of VR and desktop applications for the given use case. Full article

This study aims to improve the level of water ecological civilization (WEC) in the urbanization process based on the data of prefecture-level cities in Jiangxi, China, from 2011 to 2020. This paper applies spatial analysis methods such as the natural fracture method, barycenter transfer model, and standard deviation ellipse method to explore the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of WEC and the impact of new urbanization (NU) on WEC. The NU pilot construction is further regarded as an exogenous impact, and the “net effect” of the NU pilot policy on WEC is tested. The results showed that (1) the spatial distribution pattern of the east–west polarization of WEC was broken, and a spatial distribution pattern of strong in the north and weak in the south was gradually formed. (2) NU contributes to improving the WEC level, among which population, digital, and green urbanization can significantly promote the WEC level, while economic urbanization impedes the improvement of the WEC. This conclusion is still valid following a series of robustness tests. (3) heterogeneity analysis showed that the impact of NU in improving the level of WEC is more evident in cities with scarce water resources, non-resource-based cities, and non-old industrial base cities after the implementation of NU planning. (4) NU’s pilot policy can help improve the WEC level in the region and the WEC level in neighboring regions through the spillover effect of policy. Therefore, it is necessary to make use of the superimposed effect of multidimensional urbanization based on urban characteristics, implement differentiated policy, break administrative barriers, make use of the spatial spillover effect of pilot policy, and improve the WEC level. Full article

Climate change and increasing human impacts are more emphasised in recharge regions, where the main flow direction is downward, resulting in negative water balance. Two wetlands located in the recharge position of regional groundwater flow systems were investigated in the Nyírség region, Hungary, as pilot areas for representing wetlands in similar hydraulic positions. Hydraulic data processes, chemical data evaluations, and numerical simulations revealed that the wetlands are fed via local flow systems, superimposing regional-scale recharge conditions in the area. The wetlands are discharge and flow-through types in connection with local flow systems. Nevertheless, in the case of significant regional water table decline—due to the high vulnerability of recharge areas to climate change—local flows are degraded, so they are not able to sustain the wetlands. To preserve the groundwater-dependent ecosystems in the areas, water retention at the local recharge areas of the wetlands may help in the mitigation of water level decline under present-day conditions. If the regional water table continues to decline, comprehensive water retention solutions are needed in the whole region. The results highlight that understanding the natural wetland–groundwater interactions at different scales is crucial for the preservation of wetlands and for successful water retention planning. Full article

Orthogonal time-frequency space (OTFS) modulation outperforms orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing in high-mobility scenarios through better channel estimation. Current superimposed pilot (SP)-based channel estimation improves the spectral efficiency (SE) when compared to that of the traditional embedded pilot (EP) method. However, it requires an additional non-superimposed EP delay-Doppler frame to estimate the delay-Doppler taps for the following SP-aided frames. To handle this problem, we propose a channel estimation method with high SE, which superimposes the perfect binary array (PBA) on data symbols as the pilot. Utilizing the perfect autocorrelation of PBA, channel estimation is performed based on a linear search to find the correlation peaks, which include both delay-Doppler tap information and complex channel gain in the same superimposed PBA frame. Furthermore, the optimal power ratio of the PBA is then derived by maximizing the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) to optimize the SE of the proposed system. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve a similar channel estimation performance to the existing EP method while significantly improving the SE. Full article

The re-deposition of detached dust during online pulse-jet cleaning is an important issue encountered during filter regeneration. To reduce dust re-deposition, multi-pulsing jet cleaning schemes were designed and experimentally tested. A pilot-scale pulse-jet cleaning dust collector was built with one vertically installed pleated filter cartridge. The effects of pulse duration and interval on the pulse pressure were tested, and the dust re-deposition rate and mechanism were studied and analyzed. It was found that, for the single-pulsing jet, the pulse duration had a critical value of approximately 0.080 s in this test, above which the pulse pressure remained at approximately 0.75 kPa and did not increase further. For the multi-pulsing jet with a small pulse interval (less than approximately 0.10 s), the pulse flows superimposed and reached a higher pulse pressure with a slight inhibition of dust re-deposition. For the multi-pulsing jet with a long pulse interval (over 0.15 s), dust re-deposition was clearly inhibited. The re-deposition rate decreased from 63.8% in the single-pulsing scheme to 24.4% in the multi (five)-pulsing scheme with the same total pulse duration of 0.400 s. The multi-pulsing scheme lengthens the duration of reverse pulse flow, resulting in more elapsed time for the detached dust to freely fall, and inhibiting the re-deposition of dust. The elapsed time in the five-pulsing jet scheme with the recommended pulse duration of 0.080 s and interval of 0.25 s was 2.8 times higher than that of the single-pulsing jet with the same total pulse duration. Full article

Background: Delirium and dementia are two of the most common geriatric syndromes, which requires innovative rehabilitation approaches. Aim: We aimed at determining which occupational therapy and physiotherapy interventions are applied with older people with delirium and dementia in different care settings. We also identified the assessment tools that were used. Materials and methods: We conducted a literature search for scientific articles published from 2012 to 2022 (PubMed, MEDLINE, AMED and CINAHL) with adults aged >65 years including experimental study designs with randomized or non-randomized intervention, exploratory studies, pilot studies, quasi-experimental studies, case series and/or clinical cases. Studies that did not use interventions that could be classified as occupational therapy or physiotherapy were excluded. Results: After applying the exclusion criteria, 9 articles were selected. The most widely used assessment to define dementia was the MMSE (N = 5; 55.5%), whereas the CAM (N = 2; 22.2%), CAM-ICU (N = 2; 22.2%) and RASS (N = 3; 33.3%) were the most widely used to define delirium. The rehabilitation interventions that were most frequently performed were early mobilization, inclusion of the caregiver during treatment, modification of the environment to encourage orientation and autonomy, the interprofessional systemic approach and engaging persons in meaningful activities. Conclusions: Despite the growing evidence on its effectiveness, the role of physiotherapy and occupational therapy interventions in the prevention and treatment of people with dementia and delirium is still emerging. More research is needed to investigate if effective occupational therapy programs known to reduce the behavioral and psychological symptoms in people with dementia are also useful for treating delirium and specifically delirium superimposed on dementia. Regarding physiotherapy, it is crucial to know about the amount and timing of intervention required. Further studies are needed including older adults with delirium superimposed on dementia to define the role of the interprofessional geriatric rehabilitation team. Full article

We explore the feasibility of Terrestrial Broadcasting in a Single-Frequency Network (SFN) with standard 5G New Radio (5GNR) numerology designed for uni-cast transmission. Instead of the classical OFDM symbol-by-symbol detector scheme or a more complex equalization technique, we designed a Recurrent-Neural-Network (RNN)-based detector that replaces the channel estimation and equalization blocks. The RNN is a bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (bi-LSTM) that computes the log-likelihood ratios delivered to the LDPC decoder starting from the received symbols affected by strong intersymbol/intercarrier interference (ISI/ICI) on time-varying channels. To simplify the RNN receiver and reduce the system overhead, pilot and data signals in our proposed scheme are superimposed instead of interspersed. We describe the parameter optimization of the RNN and provide end-to-end simulation results, comparing them with those of a classical system, where the OFDM waveform is specifically designed for Terrestrial Broadcasting. We show that the system outperforms classical receivers, especially in challenging scenarios associated with large intersite distance and large mobility. We also provide evidence of the robustness of the designed RNN receiver, showing that an RNN receiver trained on a single signal-to-noise ratio and user velocity performs efficiently also in a large range of scenarios with different signal-to-noise ratios and velocities. Full article

Contour planting minimizes soil degradation, making agricultural production more sustainable. Currently, geotechnologies can provide more precise and fast data from relief than rudimentary data acquisition for agricultural management. Thus, the objective of this work was to analyze the similarities between contour lines from topography and Remotely Piloted Aircraft, using the Hausdorff distance algorithm. This study was carried out in the period between January 2020 and November 2021 in four localities in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: two areas located in the municipality of Bom Jardim and two areas in the municipality of Seropédica. Data were acquired through a conventional topographic survey and an aerial photogrammetric survey by Remotely Piloted Aircraft. From the acquired field data for the studied areas, the Digital Elevation Models were generated with a spatial resolution of 0.20 m and the contour lines with an equidistance of one meter. The contour lines obtained by both techniques were superimposed and their similarity was verified using the Hausdorff distance. The results show that there was a better similarity among the contour lines in areas with a very rugged relief than in a smooth relief. Also, the lowest altimetric differences observed in the Digital Elevation Models were associated with the smallest Hausdorff distance. These adjustments correspond, respectively, to the segments between the contour lines with the best and the worst individual similarity for each area. We observed that the similarity between the contour lines from topography and RPA yielded slope differences lower than 6.1% for at least 95% of all studied areas. The Hausdorff distance analysis allowed us to conclude that contour planting can be performed from data obtained via Remotely Piloted Aircraft, provided that vertical accuracy analysis controls the quality of the Digital Elevation Models. Full article

A simple data-aided carrier synchronization scheme is proposed for variable modulation (VM) communication systems under the initial conditions of a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and normalized carrier frequency offset (CFO) symbol rate of 20%. The proposed carrier synchronization scheme is simplified into two steps; a reconfigurable L&R (RLR) algorithm and pilot-aided (PA) phase linear interpolation algorithm is applied for carrier frequency recovery (CFR) and carrier phase recovery (CPR), respectively. Furthermore, the autocorrelation values of multi-pilot blocks are superimposed to improve the accuracy of the CFR algorithm, and the algorithm formulas are decomposed and modularized to simplify the implementation complexity of the RLR algorithm. Simulation results show that the RLR algorithm can track and lock the CFO up to a 33.2% symbol rate and reduce the CFO to 0.024%. The bit error rate (BER) performance of the carrier synchronization scheme almost coincides with the theoretical curve results. Comparison of hardware complexity shows that the multiplication resource consumption can be reduced by at least 72.47%. Full article

Bone-anchored maxillary protraction (BAMP) is effective for skeletal Class III malocclusion. However, infection, screw and plate loosening, and device failures occur with conventional plates. This pilot prospective study analyzed the feasibility of individualized BAMP using preoperative simulation and 3D titanium printing in patients referred by the orthodontic department for four BAMP miniplates. Preoperative cone beam computed tomography data were analyzed using CAD/CAM software to fabricate the individualized 3D-printed BAMP device. The customized plates were printed using selective laser sintering and inserted onto the bone through an adjunct transfer jig. The accuracy of preoperative simulation and actual placement of the BAMP device were tested by superimposing simulated positioned digital images and postoperative computed tomography data. The growth modification effect depended on superimposition of lateral cephalograms and comparative changes in SNA, SNB, ANB, and Wits. Two male patients were finally included in the study. BAMP decreased the ANB difference (−4.56 to −1.09) and Wits appraisal (−7.52 to −3.26) after 2 years. Normal measurement indices for sagittal and vertical growth indicated successful growth modification. The mean accuracy between preoperative simulation and actual surgery was 0.1081 ± 0.5074 mm. This treatment modality involving preoperative simulation and 3D titanium printing for fabricating and placing customized BAMP devices precisely at planned locations is effective for treating skeletal Class III malocclusion. Full article

The purpose of this research is to identify and correlate the referred pain evocated by myofascial trigger points (TrPs) pressure pain threshold (PPT) in the sternocleidomastoid muscle using thermal infrared imaging (IR). Facial IR images of 46 volunteers (21 male and 25 female, average age 32 ± 6.3) undergoing PPT of five TrPs locations on the sternocleidomastoid belly were recorded. Each PPT lasted 10 s, with an interstimulus interval of 2 min. Sixteen thermal IR images were recorded for each subject: at baseline (t0), 2 s before PPT (t1), 2 s (t2) and 60 s (t3) after PPT of each TrPs location. During the interstimulus interval, subjects were asked to draw over a head–neck template displayed on a computer screen the areas of referred pain eventually evoked by the stimulation and the referred pain intensity by means of a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The VAS template was then superimposed with the IR records. Two temperature (T) variations were calculated: ΔT₁ = T(t2) − T(t1) and ΔT₂ = T(t3) − T(t1). Differences in ∆T range ≥ 0.2 °C have been considered significant. In 77% of the superimpositions, the referred pain area corresponded to a ΔT₂ ≥ 0.2 °C while only the 59% corresponded to a ΔT₁ ≥ 0.2 °C. In 19% of superimpositions, a ΔT₂ ≥ 0.2 °C did not correspond to a referred pain area indicated by the patient, and this percentage lowers to 4% for ΔT₁ ≥ 0.2 °C. None of the areas that reported a VAS of 0 or 1 showed a ΔT₁ ≥ 0.2 °C or a ΔT₂ ≥ 0.2 °C. Considering the limitations of this pilot study, IR could be used to identify referred pain evocated by TrPs on sternocleidomastoid muscle. Full article

Analysis of short-term results regarding dimensional stability of post-extraction sockets managed via a preservation protocol using deproteinized bovine bone matrix and a xenogeneic collagen matrix. Materials and methods Fifteen patients needing extraction of one single-rooted premolar tooth were treated in a pilot study. Five patients were treated in each centre. After tooth extraction, sockets were filled with anorganic bovine bone matrix and covered with a xenogeneic collagen matrix. Six months later, implants were placed. Dimensional changes in the treated sites were digitally evaluated using the best-fit superimposition of pre-and post-socket preservation models. Results After six months of healing, the vertical reduction of the grafted sites was 0.31 ± 0.24 mm (p < 0.001). Volumetric analysis of superimposed models showed an average palatal-lingual contraction of 0.33 ± 0.51 mm³ (p = 0.02). At the vestibular level, the average contraction was found to be 0.8 ± 0.3 mm³ (p < 0.001). Finally, the analysis of linear variations in the treated sites on a single sagittal section at the crystal level, and at 3 and 7 mm apically respect to the crest, both towards the vestibule and palate, generally showed more marked resorption at the crestal level compared to apical measurements. Conclusion: The clinical protocol herein employed for socket preservation showed a positive effect in preventing the physiological post-extraction remodeling. Full article