Double-orifice mitral valve and an associated malformation: secundum atrial septal defect

The authors report a case of double-orifice mitral valve (DOMV) which showed mitral stenosis and mild insufficiency. An associated anomaly was secundum atrial septal defect. DOMV is an unusual congenital heart defect. The occurrence of this anomaly with or without secundum atrial septal defect is very rare. More often it is associated with other congenital malformations arising from atrioventricular canal defects. There may be no haemodynamic consequences but mitral insufficiency and/or stenosis may complicate this malformation. Treatment can be summarised as abstention, surgical repair or valve replacement

Data Analytics of Building Automation Systems: A Case Study

In today’s technology, when costs of time, energy and human resources are considered, efficient use of resources providessignificant advantages over many aspects. In light of this, role of building automation systems, which are a part of smart cities, becomeeven more important. At the very core of building automation systems there lies the efficient use of resources and systems for providingcomfortable living situations. With the advancement in network technology, systems can be programmed smartly and any malfunctions onthe systems can be detected and fixed remotely. In addition to that, all data gathered during this process can be analyzed to create machine learning solutions for a system to control and program itself. In this document we are presenting a Web application offering features ofdata analysis and most importantly predictive modeling in the context of building data energy management. As of today, the implementationis made from a CUNY building at John Jay College and contains thousands of data collected from hundreds of sensors over a period oftwo years, and regularly updated. That is a particular context but the tool can easily be adapted to any type of data environment based ontime series. The system articulates around three concepts: visualization, and predicting statistics and forecasting. Visualization is madepossible with powerful widgets, and statistics and forecasting based on Python modules. The web client server architecture has severalpurposes, including, of course, the ones related to any web application, but what is most important it allows transparency between users;every user being able to see each other works. Overall, the originality of this application comes from its high degree of customization:indeed it contains an on-the-fly python interpreter ready to be used with the data, itself encapsulated inside a python object. Therefore, allkind of formulation is allowed to be immediately displayed. The forecasting part is versatile as well, and it sits on python machine learningfeatures, but adapted to manipulate time series

A Case Study on English as a Second Language Speakers for Sustainable MOOC Study

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have a great potential for sustainable education.Millions of learners annually enrol on MOOCs designed to meet the needs of an increasingly diverseand international student population. Participants’ backgrounds vary by factors including age,education, location, and first language. MOOC authors address consequent needs by ensuring coursesare well-organised. Learning is structured into discrete steps, prioritising clear communication;video components incorporate subtitles. Variability in participants’ language abilities inevitably createbarriers to learning, a problem most extreme for those studying in a language which is not their first.This paper investigates how to identify ESL participants and how best to predict factors associatedwith their course completion. This study proposes a novel method for automatically categorising(English as Primary and Official Language; English as Official but not Primary Language; and Englishas a second Language groups) 25,598 participants studying FutureLearn “Understanding Language:Learning and Teaching” MOOC using natural language processing. We compared algorithms’performance when extracting discernible features in participants’ engagement. Engagement indiscussions at the end of the first week is one of the strongest predictive features, while overall,learner behaviours in the first two weeks were identified as the most strongly predictive feature

HEEL: A new clustering method to improve wireless sensor network lifetime

In wireless sensor networks, some resources such as memory and energy are limited. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in improving network lifetime. Node energy plays an important role in the network lifetime. Along with this remarkable growth in wireless sensor networks, however, there is an increasing concern over network lifetime. The principal purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the effects of other parameters on selecting a cluster head. The methodological approach taken in this study is a mixed methodology typically based on the node's energy. The authors have operated four parameters to select the cluster head: Node energy, the energy of the node's neighbours, number of hops and number of links to neighbours. Each of these parameters has an impact in selecting the cluster head. They accurately observed hop size, energy of each sensor node, average energy of sensor neighbours, links to sensor nodes (HEEL) has better improvements in comparison of Node ranked Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (Nr-LEACH), Modified Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (ModLEACH), Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy-B (LEACH-B), Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH), Power-Efficient Gathering in Sensor Information System (PEGASIS), energy-aware clustering scheme with transmission power control for sensor networks (EACLE) and hybrid energy efficient distributed clustering (HEED) algorithms in possible case of network lifetime and throughput

Joint Optimization of Device to Device Resource and Power Allocation Based on Genetic Algorithm

Device-to-device (D2D) communication plays an important role in the next generation ofcommunication systems. Enabling D2D communication decreases latency and expands the coverage of acell in cellular networks. In addition, D2D underlaying cellular users benefit from high spectral efficiency.However, it creates interference to cellular communications. In this paper, we propose a genetic algorithmbased method to minimize the interference and maximize the spectral efficiency. One of the advantagesof genetic algorithm is that it escapes from local maximums and evolves toward global maximum bysearching different parts of search space simultaneously. Since D2D underlay cellular network degrades thesignal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR), a minimum SINR is considered for cellular users. Numericalevaluations demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed technique in terms of spectral efficiencyand interference mitigation

The etemic model of Gypsy Roma Traveller community vulnerability: is it time to rethink our understanding of vulnerability?

AIM: To present a new etemic model of vulnerability. BACKGROUND: Despite vulnerability being identified as a core consequence of health and health experiences there has been little research exploring the meaning of vulnerability as a concept. Yet being vulnerable is known to have dire physical/mental health consequences. It is therefore a fundamental issue for nurses to address. To date, the meaning of the term vulnerability has been influenced by the work of Spiers (2000, 2005). Spiers identified two aspects of vulnerability; the etic (external judgment of another persons' vulnerability and the emic (internal lived experience of vulnerability). This approach has led to a plethora of research which has explored the etic (external judgment) of vulnerability and rendered the internal lived (or emic) experience invisible. Consequences of this, for marginalised communities such as Gypsy Roma Travellers include a lack of culturally sensitive services compounding health inequalities. DESIGN: Position paper. METHOD: Drawing upon a qualitative phenomenological research study exploring the lived experience of vulnerability from a Gypsy Roma Travelling community (published previously), this paper presents a new model of vulnerability. This etemic model of vulnerability values both external and internal dimensions of vulnerability and argues for a fusion of these two opposing perspectives. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: If nurses and other health and social care professionals wish to develop practice that is successful in engaging with Gypsy Roma Travellers then there is a need to both understand and respect their community. This can be achieved through an etemic approach to understanding their vulnerability achieved by eliciting lived experience alongside the appreciation of epidemiological studies. Doing so would enable the development and delivery of culturally sensitive services facilitating health access to this community. Only then, will their poor health status be successfully addressed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Demonstration of the histopathological and immunohistochemical effects of a novel hemostatic agent, ankaferd blood stopper, on vascular tissue in a rat aortic bleeding model

Background: Ankaferd Blood Stopper®(ABS) is a folkloric medicinal plant extract used as a hemostatic agent in traditional Turkish medicine. This experimental study investigated the histopathological and immunohistochemical effects of ABS on vascular tissue in a rat model of aortic bleeding.Methods: Four groups of 11 Wistar albino rats were used. The abdominal aortas of the rats were wounded; an ABS-soaked tampon was applied to rats in Groups 1 and 3, and a plain gauze tampon was applied to rats in Groups 2 and 4 until the bleeding stopped. The bleeding time was recorded. Immediately following sacrificing, the arteriotomy sites from Groups 1 and 2 were removed. The abdominal incisions in Groups 3 and 4 were closed following hemostasis. On Day 7 of the study, Group 3 and 4 rats were sacrificed and the abdominal aorta arteriotomy sites were removed for histopathological and immunohistochemical evaluation.Results: The mean bleeding time in 15 animals in Groups 2 and 4 was 4.9 ± 0.6 s, and in 22 animals in Groups 1 and 3 was 3.1 ± 0.6 s. Distal aortic occlusion was not observed on either Day 1 or 7 in any group. Significantly more widespread and dense endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) staining was observed in Group 1 animals than Group 2. On Days 1 and 7 after application of ABS, histopathological changes, consisting of necrosis, inflammation, and endothelial cell loss, in the rat abdominal aortas did not differ between Groups 1 and 2. The basophilic discoloration in the ABS group on the operation day was a result of a foreign body reaction and hemosiderin-loaded histiocyte accumulation, which occurred on Day 7.Conclusions: In this study, hemostasis was successfully achieved with ABS in rat abdominal aortas. No histopathological change was found in the rat abdominal aortas between the ABS and control groups on Days 1 and 7. Further studies on the long-term effects of foreign body reactions and hemosiderin-loaded histiocyte accumulation are required. © 2010 Kandemir et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Metformin reverses early cortical network dysfunction and behavior changes in Huntington's disease

Catching primal functional changes in early, 'very far from disease onset' (VFDO) stages of Huntington's disease is likely to be the key to a successful therapy. Focusing on VFDO stages, we assessed neuronal microcircuits in premanifest Hdh150 knock-in mice. Employing in vivo two-photon Ca(2+) imaging, we revealed an early pattern of circuit dysregulation in the visual cortex- one of the first regions affected in premanifest Huntington's disease - characterized by an increase in activity, an enhanced synchronicity and hyperactive neurons. These findings are accompanied by aberrations in animal behavior. We furthermore show that the anti-diabetic drug metformin diminishes aberrant Huntingtin protein load and fully restores both, early network activity patterns and behavioral aberrations. This network-centered approach reveals a critical window of vulnerability far before clinical manifestation and establishes metformin as a promising candidate for a chronic therapy starting early in premanifest Huntington's disease pathogenesis long before the onset of clinical symptoms