Healthcare 4.0: Trends, Challenges and Benefits

The Fourth Industry Revolution, known as Industry 4.0, refers to the forces that are transforming industry, including the healthcare industry, where it has been termed Healthcare 4.0. Though lagging other industries in the adoption of new innovative technologies, the healthcare industry is embracing the potential benefits that arise from new innovative technologies. New trends revealed both in the academic literature and by industry practice show that researchers and practitioners are becoming more aware of the benefits technology can bring to an industry as complex as the healthcare industry. The object of the study is to identify the challenges, trends and gaps in the existing body of research with regard to Healthcare 4.0. In this study, a systematic literature review on Healthcare 4.0 research papers was conducted to identify trends, challenges and the perceived benefits that may arise from it. This paper found that there is a need to conduct more empirical studies in this area. It, further, identified the need to implement practical procedures in the industry to get feedback from patients and healthcare participants in order to promote the adoption of new Healthcare 4.0 technologie

Genotyping of Virulence Factors of Uropathogenic Escherichia coli by PCR

Background: Escherichia coli is the most causative agent of urinary tract infections (UTIs). Apart from all human infectious diseases, UTI have a high prevalence and in most cases, Escherichia coli is a dominance bacterium which can cause pyelonephritis and cystitis. The aim of the study was to determine the occurrence of some virulence genes expressing fimbriae, production of hemolysin and aerobactin among a hundred Escherichia coli isolates obtained from in-and outpatients of Karaj Shahid Rajaii hospital, showing clinical and laboratory signs of UTI.Materials and Methods: In this investigation we isolated Escherichia coli strains from urine samples of patients with UTI during the period of July to December 2012 and studied them for the presence of the virulence genes by PCR.Results and Conclusion: The most abundant virulence factor in this study was fimH. The prevalence of the virulence factors for fimbriae type 1 (fimH gene), pyelonephritis associated pili (pap gene), S-family adhesions (sfa gene), hemolysin (hly gene) and aerobactin (aer gene), was 73%, 46%, 32%, 47%, 57%, respectively

Artificial Neural Network prediction of Cu–Al2O3 composite properties prepared by powder metallurgy method

AbstractArtificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are excellent tools for prediction of complex processes that have many variables and complex interactions. In the present study, the properties of copper based composite prepared from sintering of mechanically alloyed powders, were predicted using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach. In order to prepare copper based composites, copper powder with four different amounts of Al2O3 reinforcement (1, 1.5, 2, 2.5wt%) were mechanically alloyed and the consolidated compacts of prepared powders were sintered in five different temperatures of 725–925°C at seven several sintering times of 15–180min. Hardness and electrical conductivity measurements were performed to evaluate the properties of these composites. Then, for modeling and prediction of hardness and electrical conductivity, a multi layer perceptron back propagation feed forward neural network was constructed to evaluate and compare the experimental calculated data to predicted values. It was found that, in a given sintering temperature of 875°C, the electrical conductivity increases as the sintering time increases and the amount of Al2O3 reinforcement decreases. Also, increasing of reinforcement amount and sintering time in a given sintering temperature of 875°C leads to a decrease in hardness. Furthermore, electrical conductivity and hardness of specimens have shown a consistency with predicted results of ANN. These trained values had an average error of 3% and 5% for electrical conductivity and hardness values, respectively

Comparison of Coupled and Uncoupled Consolidation Equations Using Finite Element Method in Plane-Strain Condition

In the current paper, the consolidation settlement of a strip footing over a finite layer of saturated soil has been studied using the finite element method. In Biot’s coupled consolidation equations, the soil deformation and excess pore pressure are determined simultaneously in every time step which refers to the hydro-mechanical coupling. By considering a constant total stress throughout the time and by assuming that volume strain is a function of isotropic effective stress, uncoupled consolidation equations can be obtained using coupled consolidation equations. In these uncoupled equations, excess pore pressure and deformation are determined separately. In this approach, the excess pore pressure can be identified in the first stage. Using the calculated excess pore pressure, the soil deformation is determined through effective stress-strain analyses. A computer code was developed based on coupled and uncoupled equations that are capable of performing consolidation analyses. To verify the accuracy of these analyses, the obtained results have been compared with the precise solution of Terzaghi’s one-dimensional consolidation theory. The capability of these two approaches in estimation of pore water pressure and settlement and to show Mandel-Crayer’s effect in soil consolidation is discussed. Then, the necessity of utilizing coupled analyses for evaluating soil consolidation analysis was investigated by comparing the coupled and uncoupled analyses results

Sleep Pattern, Duration and Quality in Relation with Glycemic Control in People with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Sleep disturbances have been shown to be associated with diabetes control, but the relation between planned wakings or napping with glycemic indices has not been evaluated yet. This study evaluated the relation between sleep quality, duration, and pattern, including daytime napping of people with diabetes and their glycemic control. A cross-sectional correlation research design was used for this study. We enrolled 118 people with type 2 diabetes receiving oral agents without major complications at the Shahid Bahonar Center, Kerman. The age, weight, height, serum HbA1c, as well as other glycemic indices and lipid profile were measured. BMI was also calculated. All participants were requested to fill in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire to evaluate their sleep quality. In addition, they were inquired about their sleep schedule during day and night. Pearson correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the correlation between HbA1c and sleep pattern variables. The variables were also compared between participants with or without napping using t-test. All analyses were performed with the SPSS version 19 (SPSS, Chicago, IL, USA). The mean age was 58±11 years and mean HbA1c (%) was 7.8±11 (62±13 mmol/mol). Sleep duration and the number of sleep segments significantly predicted HbA1c (F (2,114)=5.232, P=0.007, R2=0.084). A one-hour increment in sleep duration was associated with a 0.174% (1.4 mmol/mol) decrement in HbA1c. PSQI score did not contribute to the regression model. Moreover, participants who napped (66%) had a lower HbA1c (7.6±1) compared to others (8.1±1.3) (P=0.04). We concluded that napping and segmented sleep are associated with a better glycemic control in type 2 diabetes and there is a linear correlation between sleep duration and better glycemic control

Overall Survival and Functional Results of Prostate-Sparing Cystectomy

Purpose: To compare two matched groups of men with bladder transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) who underwent prostate-sparing cystectomy (PSC) or conventional radical cystoprostatectomy (CRC). Materials and Methods: Twenty-three men who have undergone PSC with the diagnosis of EODGGHU�7&&��7D±7���IURP������WR������LQ�7HKUDQ��,UDQ�ZHUH�LQFOXGHG�LQ�WKH�VWXG\�DV�WKH�H[- perimental group. The control group composed of 27 men with comparable tumor characteristics and age range, who had non-nerve-sparing radical cystoprostatectomy and orthotopic ileal W pouch reconstruction in the same center. All the procedures were performed by the same surgical group under the supervision of different attending staff. Results: Mean follow-up period was 39 months in PSC and 35 months in CRC group. The 5-year overall survival was 47% and 30% in PSC and CRC groups, respectively. Median survival was 48 months in PSC and 36 months in CRC group, using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis (P > .05). Impotence was observed in 16.6% in PSC and in 83.3% in CRC group (P� ��������0HDQ�,QWHUQDWLRQDO�,QGH[�RI�(UHFWLOH�)XQFWLRQ���VFRUH�RI�WKH�36&�JURXS�ZDV� 19.8 compared with 5.7 in the CRC group (P = .003). Only one patient in each group was completely incontinent. Urethral anastomosis stricture occurred in 2 patients in CRC group. Conclusion: Patients who underwent PSC did not show decreased overall survival compared to CRC, which provided better functional results. Keywords: urinary bladder neoplasms, transitional cell carcinoma, cystectomy, male, prognosis, adverse effect