Long-term peritoneal dialysis and encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis in children

Encapsulating peritoneal sclerosis (EPS) is the most serious complication of long-term peritoneal dialysis (PD), with a mortality rate that exceeds 30%. There have been many reports of the incidence of EPS being strongly correlated to the duration of PD. Patients on PD for longer than 5 years, and especially those receiving this treatment for more than 8 years, should undergo careful and repeated surveillance for risk factors associated with the development of EPS. The development of ultrafiltration failure, a high dialysate/plasma creatinine ratio, as determined by the peritoneal equilibration test, peritoneal calcification, a persistently elevated C-reactive protein level, and severe peritonitis in patients on PD for longer than 8 years are signals that should prompt the clinician to consider terminating PD as a possible means of preventing the development of EPS. The impact of the newer, biocompatible PD solutions on the incidence of EPS has not yet been determined

Semi-actively implemented non-linear damping for building isolation under seismic loadings

It is well-known that semi-active solution can achieve building isolation with much less energy requirements than active solutions. Also, it has been shown in previous studies that compared to linear damping, non-linear damping performs better for building isolation under sinusoidal ground motions. The present study is concerned with the extension of the application of the semi-actively implemented non-linear damping to building isolation under seismic loadings. A two-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) scaled building model is used for simulation studies. Experimental tests on a physical building model have been used to validate the effectiveness of the 2-DOF scaled building model in representing the behaviors of a physical building structure. The optimal design of the semi-actively implemented non-linear damping for building isolation under design seismic motions is then carried out using the 2-DOF scaled building model based on simulation studies. The results show that an optimal design of semi-actively implemented non-linear damping can improve the performance of building isolation under design seismic motions in terms of both absolute acceleration and inter-story drift

Attribute-aware Semantic Segmentation of Road Scenes for Understanding Pedestrian Orientations

Semantic segmentation is an interesting task for many deep learning researchers for scene understanding. However, recognizing details about objects' attributes can be more informative and also helpful for a better scene understanding in intelligent vehicle use cases. This paper introduces a method for simultaneous semantic segmentation and pedestrian attributes recognition. A modified dataset built on top of the Cityscapes dataset is created by adding attribute classes corresponding to pedestrian orientation attributes. The proposed method extends the SegNet model and is trained by using both the original and the attribute-enriched datasets. Based on an experiment, the proposed attribute-aware semantic segmentation approach shows the ability to slightly improve the performance on the Cityscapes dataset, which is capable of expanding its classes in this case through additional data training

Efeitos dos exercícios pilates na função do tronco e na dor de pacientes com lombalgia / Effects of pilates exercices on trunk function and pain in patients with low back pain

Introdução: Evidências científi cas atuais apontam que a falta de resistência da musculatura lombar é o principal fator para desenvolvimento das dores lombares. O exercício físico em geral tem se mostrado benéfi co para recuperação da funcionalidade bem como para melhora dos sintomas clínicos dos pacientes com lombalgia crônica. Objetivo: Avaliar os efeitos de um treinamento físico por meio dos exercícios de Pilates de solo nas variáveis de dor, flexibilidade, equilíbrio, força e resistência dos músculos lombares em pacientes com lombalgia de origem desconhecida. Método: Foram avaliados 12 pacientes com lombalgia crônica (idade média de 33 anos), que realizaram um período de treinamento com o método tradicional de 13 exercícios Pilates (básico e intermediário no mat), duas vezes na semana, com duração de uma hora, durante um total de 11 semanas. As principais medidas de resultados analisadas pré- e pós-treinamento Pilates foram: (1) flexibilidade (Banco de Wells), (2) equilíbrio unipodal (plataforma de força), (3) força lombar (dinamometria), (4) resistência lombar (teste de Sorensen), e dor (Escala Visual Analógica: EVA). Resultados: A amostra fi nal do estudo foi de quatro voluntários devido à perda experimental. Os resultados mostraram uma diminuição significativa da dor (P < 0.05), mas nenhuma diferença significativa entre pré- e pós-treinamento Pilates para as demais variáveis, apesar da leve melhora na fl exibilidade e força. Conclusão: Os resultados do presente estudo apresentaram efeitos benéfi cos do treinamento Pilates para diminuir os sintomas de dor. Entretanto, novos estudos com maior número amostral devem ser realizados para melhor estabelecer os protocolos de exercícios Pilates em pacientes com lombalgia crônica. Introduction: Scientific evidences report that poor back muscle endurance is the most risk factor for developing low back pain. Overall, physical exercise has been effective to recovery of the functioning as well as to improve the clinical symptoms of patients with low back pain. Objective: To assess the effects of Pilates training on mat in variables of flexibility, balance, strength and endurance of the lumbar extensor muscles in patients with low back pain unknown. Method: 16 patients with chronic low back pain (mean age 33 yrs) performed a training program with a mat method of 13 Pilates exercises (basic and intermediate), 2 x a week for a session of approximately 1h, during 11 weeks. The main outcome measures analyzed before (pre-) and post-Pilates training were: fl exibility (sit-and-reach during a Wells test), unipodal support (under a force platform), strength (lumbar dynamometer) and endurance (Sorensen test) of lumbar muscles and pain (VAS). Results: Significant decrease of the pain was found (P < 0.05). However, no significant changes were found for other variables analyzing in pre- and post-training, although the slight improvement in the flexibility and strength. Conclusions: The results of the present study showed the effi cacy of the Pilates exercises to decrease pain. However, more studies would be conducted using much more subjects to establish better standardization of Pilates exercises in patients with low back pain

A new application of reduced Rayleigh equations to electromagnetic wave scattering by two-dimensional randomly rough surfaces

The small perturbations method has been extensively used for waves scattering by rough surfaces. The standard method developped by Rice is difficult to apply when we consider second and third order of scattered fields as a function of the surface height. Calculations can be greatly simplified with the use of reduced Rayleigh equations, because one of the unknown fields can be eliminated. We derive a new set of four reduced equations for the scattering amplitudes, which are applied to the cases of a rough conducting surface, and to a slab where one of the boundary is a rough surface. As in the one-dimensional case, numerical simulations show the appearance of enhanced backscattering for these structures.Comment: RevTeX 4 style, 38 pages, 16 figures, added references and comments on the satellites peak

The impact of inpatient suicide on psychiatric nurses and their need for support

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The nurses working in psychiatric hospitals and wards are prone to encounter completed suicides. The research was conducted to examine post-suicide stress in nurses and the availability of suicide-related mental health care services and education.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Experiences with inpatient suicide were investigated using an anonymous, self-reported questionnaire, which was, along with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised, administered to 531 psychiatric nurses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The rate of nurses who had encountered patient suicide was 55.0%. The mean Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) score was 11.4. The proportion of respondents at a high risk (≥ 25 on the 88-point IES-R score) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was 13.7%. However, only 15.8% of respondents indicated that they had access to post-suicide mental health care programmes. The survey also revealed a low rate of nurses who reported attending in-hospital seminars on suicide prevention or mental health care for nurses (26.4% and 12.8%, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results indicated that nurses exposed to inpatient suicide suffer significant mental distress. However, the low availability of systematic post-suicide mental health care programmes for such nurses and the lack of suicide-related education initiatives and mental health care for nurses are problematic. The situation is likely related to the fact that there are no formal systems in place for identifying and evaluating the psychological effects of patient suicide in nurses and to the pressures stemming from the public perception of nurses as suppliers rather than recipients of health care.</p