The Filipino Customs Brokers' Perception on the Proposed Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) of the Philippines

Abstract The study focused on the perception of the Filipino Customs Brokers on the proposed Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) of the Philippines

Symptoms of depression and anxiety among health care workers during COVID-19 pandemia in Latvia : A cohort study

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Comparing the performance of conventional and robotic catheters in transcatheter aortic valve implantation

In this paper we investigate the performance of a recently developed robotic catheterization platform in comparison to conventional surgical equipment. Transcather aortic valve implantation (TAVI) was chosen as the test case and 12 interventionists (6 experts and 6 novices) participated in experiments with a silicon aorta model. Video sequences of the fluoroscopic monitor, used for guiding the instruments, were captured and processed with specialized software. To evaluate and compare the two systems the 2-D position of the catheter/guidewire tip is tracked and the shape of the phantom model is extracted in the video frames. In our analysis, we focus on three metrics; the procedure time, the average speed and the average distance to the vessel wall. The obtained results show that procedure time is capable of discriminating the participants of the different experience groups, achieving p=0.008 in the first stage of the experiment. In addition, experts consistently exhibit a higher average speed than novices. Ultimately, the increased average distance to the vessel wall demonstrated by the robotic system is an indication of improved precision and safer catheter/guidewire navigation

Osteology of the Late Cretaceous Argentinean sauropod dinosaur Mendozasaurus neguyelap: implications for basal titanosaur relationships

The titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur Mendozasaurus neguyelap is represented by several partial skeletons from a single locality within the Coniacian (lower Upper Cretaceous) Sierra Barrosa Formation in the south of Mendoza Province, northern Neuquén Basin, Argentina. A detailed revision of Mendozasaurus, including previously undocumented remains from the holotype site, allows us to more firmly establish its position within Titanosauria, as well as enabling an emended diagnosis of this taxon. Autapomorphies include: (1) middle and posterior cervical vertebrae with tall and transversely expanded neural spines that are wider than the centra, formed laterally by spinodiapophyseal laminae that are not connected with the pre- or postzygapophyses; (2) anterior caudal vertebrae (excluding anteriormost) with ventrolateral ridge-like expansion of prezygapophyses; and (3) humerus with divided lateral distal condyle on anterior surface. New remains demonstrate that the presacral vertebrae of Mendozasaurus were not unusually short anteroposteriorly, with this compression instead resulting from taphonomic crushing. Comparative studies of articulated pedes of other taxa allow us to interpret that the pedal formula of Mendozasaurus was 2-2-2-2-0, based on disarticulated bones that form a right hind foot. Mendozasaurus was incorporated into an expanded version of a titanosauriform-focussed phylogenetic data matrix, along with several other contemporaneous South American titanosaurs. The resultant data matrix comprises 84 taxa scored for 423 characters, and our phylogenetic analysis recovers Mendozasaurus as the most basal member of a diverse Lognkosauria, including Futalognkosaurus and the gigantic titanosaurs Argentinosaurus, Notocolossus, Patagotitan and Puertasaurus. Lognkosauria forms a clade with Rinconsauria (Muyelensaurus + Rinconsaurus), with Epachthosaurus and Pitekunsaurus recovered at the base of this grouping. A basal lithostrotian position for this South American clade is well supported, contrasting with some analyses that have placed these taxa outside of Lithostrotia or closer to Saltasauridae. The sister clade to this South American group is composed of an array of near-global taxa and supports the hypothesis that most titanosaurian clades were widespread by the Early–middle Cretaceous

Avoidable 30‐day readmissions in patients undergoing vascular surgery

Background: Vascular surgery has one of the highest unplanned 30-day readmission rates of all surgical specialities. The degree to which these may be avoidable and the optimal strategies to reduce their occurrence is unknown. The aim of this study was to identify and classify avoidable 30-day readmissions in patients undergoing vascular surgery in order to plan targeted interventions to reduce their occurrence, improve outcomes and reduce cost. Methods: A retrospective analysis of discharges over a 12-month period from a single tertiary vascular unit was performed. A multidisciplinary panel conducted a manual case note review to identify and classify those 30-day unplanned emergency readmissions deemed avoidable. Results: An unplanned 30-day readmission occurred in 72/885 (8.1%) admissions. These unplanned readmissions were deemed avoidable in 50.0% (36/72) and were most frequently due to unresolved medical issues (19/36, 52.8%) and inappropriate admission with the potential for outpatient management (7/36, 19.4%). A smaller number were due to inadequate social care provision (4/36, 11.1%) and the occurrence of other avoidable adverse events (4/36, 11.1%). Conclusion: Half of all 30-day readmissions in vascular patients are potentially avoidable. Multidisciplinary coordination of inpatient care and the transition from hospital to community care following discharge need to be improved

A Survey on the Current Status and Future Challenges Towards Objective Skills Assessment in Endovascular Surgery

Minimally-invasive endovascular interventions have evolved rapidly over the past decade, facilitated by breakthroughs in medical imaging and sensing, instrumentation and most recently robotics. Catheter based operations are potentially safer and applicable to a wider patient population due to the reduced comorbidity. As a result endovascular surgery has become the preferred treatment option for conditions previously treated with open surgery and as such the number of patients undergoing endovascular interventions is increasing every year. This fact coupled with a proclivity for reduced working hours, results in a requirement for efficient training and assessment of new surgeons, that deviates from the “see one, do one, teach one” model introduced by William Halsted, so that trainees obtain operational expertise in a shorter period. Developing more objective assessment tools based on quantitative metrics is now a recognised need in interventional training and this manuscript reports the current literature for endovascular skills assessment and the associated emerging technologies. A systematic search was performed on PubMed (MEDLINE), Google Scholar, IEEXplore and known journals using the keywords, “endovascular surgery”, “surgical skills”, “endovascular skills”, “surgical training endovascular” and “catheter skills”. Focusing explicitly on endovascular surgical skills, we group related works into three categories based on the metrics used; structured scales and checklists, simulation-based and motion-based metrics. This review highlights the key findings in each category and also provides suggestions for new research opportunities towards fully objective and automated surgical assessment solutions

Performance of three model-based iterative reconstruction algorithms using a CT task-based image quality metric

In this study we evaluated the task-based image quality of a low contrast clinical task for the abdomen protocol (e.g., pancreatic tumour) of three different CT vendors, exploiting three model-based iterative reconstruction (MBIR) levels. We used three CT systems equipped with a full, partial, advanced MBIR algorithms. Acquisitions were performed on a phantom at three dose levels. Acquisitions were reconstructed with a standard kernel, using filtered back projection algorithm (FBP) and three levels of the MBIR. The noise power spectrum (NPS), the normalized one (nNPS) and the task-based transfer function (TTF) were computed following the method proposed by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine task group report-233 (AAPM TG-233). Detectability index (d') of a small lesion (small feature; 100 HU and 5-mm diameter) was calculated using non-prewhitening with eye-filter model observer (NPWE).The nNPS, NPS and TTF changed differently depending on CT system. Higher values of d' were obtained with advanced-MBIR, followed by full-MBIR and partial-MBIR.Task-based image quality was assessed for three CT scanners of different vendors, considering a clinical question. Detectability can be a tool for protocol optimisation and dose reduction since the same dose levels on different scanners correspond to different d' values.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 3 table

PERICLES Deliverable 4.3:Content Semantics and Use Context Analysis Techniques

The current deliverable summarises the work conducted within task T4.3 of WP4, focusing on the extraction and the subsequent analysis of semantic information from digital content, which is imperative for its preservability. More specifically, the deliverable defines content semantic information from a visual and textual perspective, explains how this information can be exploited in long-term digital preservation and proposes novel approaches for extracting this information in a scalable manner. Additionally, the deliverable discusses novel techniques for retrieving and analysing the context of use of digital objects. Although this topic has not been extensively studied by existing literature, we believe use context is vital in augmenting the semantic information and maintaining the usability and preservability of the digital objects, as well as their ability to be accurately interpreted as initially intended.PERICLE