Adverse Maternal Outcomes in Nevada: Does Asthma Matter?

Objective. Asthma is a common clinical complication of pregnancy and women with asthma are at greater risk of having complications. This study compared adverse maternal outcomes between women with asthma and women without asthma in Nevada. Methods. A total of 64,664 hospital discharges of delivery were abstracted from the Nevada 2003-2004 hospital discharges and thirteen adverse maternal outcomes were examined. Logistic regression was applied to compare the maternal outcomes between women with and without asthma. Results. Women with asthma were more likely to have pre-eclampsia (OR [CI] 1.73 [1.13, 2.65]), transient hypertension of pregnancy (OR [CI] 1.76 [1.11, 2.78]), pregnancy-induced hypertension (OR [CI] 1.89 [1.42, 2.53]), gestational diabetes (OR [CI] 1.89 [1.32, 2.72]), infection of the amniotic cavity (OR [CI] 2.15 [1.29, 3.58]), and cesarean section (OR [CI] 1.87 [1.56, 2.23] ). Conclusion. Women with asthma experienced a greater risk of having adverse maternal outcomes. Community-based education programs, as well as, services offered in traditional healthcare settings should be supported to educate pregnant women about the potential risk factors and the relationship between asthma and maternal outcomes

Adaptive low rank and sparse decomposition of video using compressive sensing

We address the problem of reconstructing and analyzing surveillance videos using compressive sensing. We develop a new method that performs video reconstruction by low rank and sparse decomposition adaptively. Background subtraction becomes part of the reconstruction. In our method, a background model is used in which the background is learned adaptively as the compressive measurements are processed. The adaptive method has low latency, and is more robust than previous methods. We will present experimental results to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method.Comment: Accepted ICIP 201

MIMO Channel Information Feedback Using Deep Recurrent Network

In a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system, the availability of channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter is essential for performance improvement. Recent convolutional neural network (NN) based techniques show competitive ability in realizing CSI compression and feedback. By introducing a new NN architecture, we enhance the accuracy of quantized CSI feedback in MIMO communications. The proposed NN architecture invokes a module named long short-term memory (LSTM) which admits the NN to benefit from exploiting temporal and frequency correlations of wireless channels. Compromising performance with complexity, we further modify the NN architecture with a significantly reduced number of parameters to be trained. Finally, experiments show that the proposed NN architectures achieve better performance in terms of both CSI compression and recovery accuracy

Adverse Maternal Outcomes for Women with Different Health Insurance Statuses in Nevada

Objective. Nevada women with unfavorable health insurance status may face greater barriers than women in the rest of the nation, since the development of healthcare infrastructure in Nevada is running behind population growth. This study examines the relationship between health insurance status and adverse maternal outcomes in Nevada. Methods. Hospital discharge information of 33,149 women aged 13 or older who delivered in 2004 was abstracted from the 2004 State Inpatient Data for Nevada. A total of 13 measures of complications associated with pregnancy were identified, including preterm labor, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, gestational diabetes, ante-partum hemorrhage, membrane disorders, cesarean section, prolonged labor, postpartum hemorrhage, and fetal death. Multiple logistic regression was applied for data analysis. Results. As compared to women covered by private insurance, women with Medicaid were more likely to have abruptio placenta (OR [95% confidence interval (CI)] 1.67 [1.24, 2.26]), prolonged labor (OR [CI] 1.16 [1.03, 1.31]), and fetal death (OR [CI] 1.59 [1.11, 2.27]). Uninsured women had a higher risk of having prolonged labor (OR [CI] 1.20 [1.01, 1.42]) and fetal death (OR [CI] 1.70 [1.05, 2.74]), but had a lower risk of experiencing pre-eclampsia (OR [CI] 0.72 [0.53, 0.98]), pregnancy-induced hypertension (OR [CI] 0.70 [0.56, 0.88]), gestational diabetes (OR [CI] 0.75 [0.57, 0.98]), and a cesarean section (OR [CI] 0.69 [0.62, 0.77]). Conclusion. Policies promoting prenatal care and case management programs for female Medicaid recipients can help to reduce the risk of maternal complications. Joint efforts by policy makers, public health advocates, social support groups, and health care practitioners to offer integrated programs to help both Medicaid and uninsured women are likely to succeed in improving maternal outcomes

Multicell Edge Coverage Enhancement Using Mobile UAV-Relay

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted communication is a promising technology in future wireless communication networks. UAVs can not only help offload data traffic from ground base stations (GBSs) but also improve the Quality of Service (QoS) of cell-edge users (CEUs). In this article, we consider the enhancement of cell-edge communications through a mobile relay, i.e., UAV, in multicell networks. During each transmission period, GBSs first send data to the UAV, and then the UAV forwards its received data to CEUs according to a certain association strategy. In order to maximize the sum rate of all CEUs, we jointly optimize the UAV mobility management, including trajectory, velocity, and acceleration, and association strategy of CEUs to the UAV, subject to minimum rate requirements of CEUs, mobility constraints of the UAV, and causal buffer constraints in practice. To address the mixed-integer nonconvex problem, we transform it into two convex subproblems by applying tight bounds and relaxations. An iterative algorithm is proposed to solve the two subproblems in an alternating manner. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm achieves higher rates of CEUs as compared with the existing benchmark schemes

Theoretical investigation of the thermal performance of a novel solar loop-heat-pipe façade-based heat pump water heating system

The aim of the paper was to present a dedicated theoretical investigation into the thermal performance of a novel solar loop-heat-pipe façade based heat pump water heating system. This involved thermo-fluid analyses, computer numerical model development, the model running up, modelling result analyses and conclusion. An energy balance network was established on each part and the whole range of the system to address the associated energy conversion and transfer processes. On basis of this, a computer numerical model was developed and run up to predict the thermal performance of such a system at different system configurations, layouts and operational conditions. It was suggested that the loop heat pipes could be filled with either water, R134a, R22 or R600a; of which R600a is the favourite working fluid owing to its relatively larger heat transfer capacity and positive pressure in operation. Variations in the system configuration, i.e., glazing covers, heat exchangers, would lead to identifiable differences in the thermal performance of the system, represented by the thermal efficiency and COP. Furthermore, impact of the external operational parameters, i.e., solar radiation and ambient air temperature, to the system's thermal performance was also investigated. The research was based on an innovative loop-heat-pipe façade and came up with useful results reflecting the thermal performance of the combined system between the façade and heat pump. This would help promote development and market penetration of such an innovative solar heating technology, and thus contribute to achieving the global targets in energy saving and carbon emission reduction

What Drives Consumers in China to Buy Clothing Online? Application of the Technology Acceptance Model

An enormous number of Internet users have made China a profitable e-commerce marketplace, and clothing is one of the most frequently purchased items. This study explores the predictors of consumers’ motivation to buy clothing online in China by extending the technology acceptance model. Data were collected via an online questionnaire, resulting in 504 returned responses. The results indicate that perceived usefulness has a significant effect on consumers’ intention to buy clothing online; however, no direct relationship between perceived ease of use and buying intention was found. Furthermore, perceived convenience, perceived money saving, and perceived time-saving can explain why consumers perceive buying clothing online as useful, and these perceptions have positive effects on buying intention. Additionally, the findings imply that fashion innovativeness and friend circles significantly influence consumers’ intention to purchase clothing online. This article discusses the results and provides recommendations for implication and future research