Augmented Reality App to improve quality of life of people with cognitive and sensory disabilities

In the last decades, number of people affected by cognitive decline is rising significantly. The main cause of this problem is believed to be the overall drift of the average population age. In general, cognitive impairment varies from mild to severe with mild represented as people may begin to notice a slight change in their cognitive functions while still be able to conduct their daily activities without major limitations; on the other hand, severe state of cognitive impairment leads to a progressive loss of comprehensive abilities as well as evaluating situations. These impairments may be represented by losing the ability to talk and write that leads to the inability to conduct an independent lifestyle. The decay of intellectual functions is associated with a progressive increase of sensory impairment (vision and hearing). In this paper we present a tool to help and support people who suffer from both mild age- related cognitive decline and sensory impairment. We developed an augmented reality home-made App designed for smart glasses. This App would be a useful tool to provide more independence to patients during actual daily living activities and it will be able to notify users about a potentially dangerous situations, by providing cues in real time. In this way, elderly people, will be able continue their life at home for a longer time before having the need to move into an assisting living facility

Characterization of variable regions of the Gp120 protein from HIV-1 subtype C virus variants obtained from individuals at different disease stages in Sub-Saharan Africa

Background: The development of a vaccine against HIV/AIDS capable of preventing virus infection has been hampered by the HIV envelope (Env) heterogeneity that makes it difficult to induce neutralizing antibodies against Env proteins from different HIV clades. Several studies have indicated that gp120 Env protein sequence tends to change considerably during the course of HIV disease which allows the virus to escape the immune responses. In order to define gp120 sequence changes, we have characterized the V1, V2, V4 and V5 variable regions of gp120 variants from 72 HIV-1-clade-C-infected subjects from South Africa and Swaziland, which were naïve to antiretroviral (ARV) therapy and at different disease stages. Sequence characteristics, such as aminoacid sequence length, presence of Putative N- Glycosylation Sites (PNGSs) and electric charge were investigated. Methods: According to the Avidity Index value and CD4+ T cell count, patients were classified for disease stage in three groups: recent, chronic and late stage, each one comprised of 24 patients. The V1 to V5 Env variable regions were directly PCR amplified from plasma virus RNA and sequenced. Results: A significant increase in the amino acid sequence length of V1 and V4 domains, and a corresponding increase of the “shifting” PNGSs were observed in the HIV variants obtained from individuals at chronic stage of disease, as compared to the recent infection group. Finally, a significant increase of the net electric positive charge of the V5 loop was found in the HIV variants from the group of subjects with late disease, as compared to the chronic disease group. Conclusion: We conclude that changes in sequence length, glycosylation pattern and net electrical charge in the variable V1, V4 and V5 regions of gp120 occur in the course of HIV infection, possibly in response to the pressure of the host immune response

A novel formulation for blood trauma prediction by a modified power-law mathematical model

With the increasing use of artificial organs, blood damage has been raising ever more clinical concern. Blood trauma is in fact a major complication resulting from the implantation of medical devices and the use of life support apparatuses. Red blood cells damage predictive models furnish critical information on both the design and the evaluation of artificial organs, because their correct usage and implementation are thought to provide clear and rational guidance for the improvement of safety and efficacy. The currently adopted power-law shear-induced haemolysis prediction model lacks sensitivity with respect to the cumulative effect of previously applied stress magnitudes. An alternative model is proposed where a mechanical quantity was defined, able to describe the blood damage sustained by red cells under unsteady stress conditions, taking into account the load history. The proposed formulation predicted the same trend as the available experimental data. The obtained results have to be considered a preliminary validation of the basic hypothesis of this modified red blood cell damage prediction model. To date, the necessity to design further experiments to validate the proposed damage function clashes with the limitations inherent to current systems to get the time-varying shear stress completely under control

Virtual microscopy and digital cytology: state of the art

The paper approaches a new technological scenario relevant for the introduction of the digital cytology (D-CYT) in the health service. A detailed analysis of the state of the art on the status of the introduction of D-CYT in the hospital and more in general in the dispersed territory has been conducted. The analysis was conducted in a form of review and was arranged into two parts: the first part focused on the technological tools needed to carry out a successful service (client server architectures, e-learning, quality assurance issues); the second part focused on issues oriented to help the introduction and evaluation of the technology (specific training in D-CYT, health technology assessment in-routine application, data format standards and picture archiving computerized systems (PACS) implementation, image quality assessment, strategies of navigation, 3D-virtual-reality potentialities). The work enlightens future scenarios of actions relevant for the introduction of the technology

Valutazione di algoritmi di stima della velocita' di fluidi biologici mediante ultrasonografia

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7, Rome / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal

Patient-specific three-dimensional aortic arch modeling for automatic measurements: Clinical validation in aortic coarctation

AimA validated algorithm for automatic aortic arch measurements in aortic coarctation (CoA) patients could standardize procedures for clinical planning.MethodsThe model-based assessment of the aortic arch anatomy consisted of three steps: first, machine-learning-based algorithms were trained on 212 three-dimensional magnetic resonance (MR) data to automatically allocate the aortic arch position in patients and segment the aortic arch; second, for each CoA patient (N = 33), the min/max aortic arch diameters were measured using the proposed software, manually and automatically, from noncontrast-enhanced three-dimensional steady-state free precession MRI sequence at five selected sites and compared ('internal comparison' referring to the same environment); third, moreover, the same min/max aortic arch diameters were compared, obtaining them independently, manually from common MR management software (MR Viewforum) and automatically from the model (external comparison). The measured sites were: aortic sinus, sino-tubular junction, mid-ascending aorta, transverse arch and thoracoabdominal aorta at the level of the diaphragm.ResultsManual and software-assisted measurements showed a good agreement: the difference between diameter measurements was not statistically significant (at α = 0.05), with only one exception, for both internal and external comparison. A high coefficient of correlation was attained for both maximum and minimum diameters in each site (for internal comparison, R > 0.73 for every site, with P < 2 × 10-5). Notably, in tricuspid aortic valve patients external comparison showed no statistically significant difference at any measurement sites.ConclusionThe automatically derived aortic arch model, starting from three-dimensional MR images, could be a support to take the measurements in CoA patients and to quickly provide a patient-specific model of aortic arch anomalies