Mees Line of Nails, Osler Nodes, Janeway Lesions as evidence of disseminated intravascular coagulation

Podeu consultar la versió en català a: http://hdl.handle.net/11703/8944

Posterolateral Lumbar Spinal Fusion with Autogenous Bone Chips from Laminectomy Extended with OsteoSet®

BackgroundThis study was conducted to evaluate posterolateral lumbar fusion with autogenous corticocancellous bone chips from the laminae and spinous processes extended with OsteoSet® instead of cancellous bone from the iliac crest.MethodsA total of 124 patients who underwent posterior decompression and posterolateral fusion with instrumentation between May 2001 and December 2003 were analyzed retrospectively. The study population comprised 49 males and 75 females with a mean age of 66 ± 9.5 years. In all the patients, corticocancellous bone chips from laminectomy and OsteoSet® were used as the graft material. There was no cancellous bone harvested from the iliac crest. The follow-up period was 28 + 7.1 months.ResultsThe overall union rate was 91%, and the average union time was 3.9 months. There were 3 complications, including 2 patients with dura tear, and 1 with deep infection. At the final follow-up, the good and excellent results were up to 83.9%.ConclusionGraft material from laminae and spinous processes extended with OsteoSet® is reliable and effective enough to replace the graft from the posterior iliac crest

Doctor-patient mutual trust, telemedicine quality, and satisfaction: The role of knowledge management

Abstract. Distant medical care satisfaction demands high quality care result. Both quality and satisfaction rely heavily on collective operations on knowledge of and relations between patients and doctors. Thus, knowledge sharing and doctor-patient trust are among the two critical factors that may lead to medical care quality and satisfaction. However, existing literature discussed the abovementioned in a scant fashion and without considering the gap between knowledge of owners in this context (i.e., care offerers such as doctors and receivers like patients). This paper proposes a conceptual model for an integrative discussion of the relationships among knowledge sharing, trust, medical care quality and patient satisfaction, from a fresh perspective of knowledge gap. Theoretical and practical implications are expected to be rich because this conceotual piece offer discussions from a viewpoint that starts from the mnost fundamental factor – collective knowledge attribute in terms of its heterogeneous structure.Keywords. Knowledge sharing, Trust, Distant medical care, Quality, Satisfaction.JEL. D80, D83, D84, D85

Does compensative subsidy alleviate pollutant emission and improve welfare under crossindustry pollution?

This paper establishes a cross-industry pollution externality model under centralized labor union. In delineating the motivations of a benevolent government, it might be possible to tax part of the welfare gains and use the revenue to compensate the affected polluting industry for the damage costs, thereby improving welfare. We show that the magnitude of marginal pollution plays a critical role. When the marginal pollution is large, the government should tax the pollution firm to reduce the pollution. However, when the marginal pollution is small, the government should subsidize the polluted firm to increase output and enhance consumer surplus

The impact of institutional entrepreneurship on value co-creation in long-term care context: A case study

Abstract. "Human-centered" is the core logic for long-term care development. Traditional though on value creation focuses on the financial profits generated in the transaction between product/service suppliers and customers. Differently, value co-creation emphasizes on collective creation of effective impacts (economic and social) via the knowledge and experiences exchanges between key stakeholders. Long-term care is a setting that deals both macro-level institutional and micro-level stakeholder behavioral concerns. The latter is embedded in the former; thus, it is critical to systematically discuss the influences of institutional change on the evolutionary value co-creation in long-term care context. The present article tries to search for theoretical essence and elements of value co-creation in long-term care, which is expected to be achieved jointly by service provider (the caring), receiver (the cared), the healthcare organization (e.g., hospitals), the government units, and other parties. Then the influences of institutional entrepreneurship’s changes on these theoretical elements of value co-creation would be discussed. The article sets to offer clearer understanding of what value co-creation is in the long-term care context and how institutional entrepreneurship can alter value co-creation. Implications for research, practices, and health policy were discussed.Keywords. Institutional change, Long-term care, Value co-creation.JEL. B14, B24, B51

Socially-enhanced variants of mobile bingo game: Towards personalized cognitive and social engagement among seniors

Elderlies often feel isolated or disregarded. This may lead to depression, lack of cognitive and social engagement. This project thus aims to engage the elderlies through three variants of a mobile bingo game application designed based on Norman’s usability principles. This paper presents the design and development of three variants of the mobile bingo game to suit the needs of senior citizens. User testing outcomes on user experience, usability and cognitive load are positive

Calculation of Weighted Geometric Dilution of Precision

To achieve high accuracy in wireless positioning systems, both accurate measurements and good geometric relationship between the mobile device and the measurement units are required. Geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) is widely used as a criterion for selecting measurement units, since it represents the geometric effect on the relationship between measurement error and positioning determination error. In the calculation of GDOP value, the maximum volume method does not necessarily guarantee the selection of the optimal four measurement units with minimum GDOP. The conventional matrix inversion method for GDOP calculation demands a large amount of operation and causes high power consumption. To select the subset of the most appropriate location measurement units which give the minimum positioning error, we need to consider not only the GDOP effect but also the error statistics property. In this paper, we employ the weighted GDOP (WGDOP), instead of GDOP, to select measurement units so as to improve the accuracy of location. The handheld global positioning system (GPS) devices and mobile phones with GPS chips can merely provide limited calculation ability and power capacity. Therefore, it is very imperative to obtain WGDOP accurately and efficiently. This paper proposed two formations of WGDOP with less computation when four measurements are available for location purposes. The proposed formulae can reduce the computational complexity required for computing the matrix inversion. The simpler WGDOP formulae for both the 2D and the 3D location estimation, without inverting a matrix, can be applied not only to GPS but also to wireless sensor networks (WSN) and cellular communication systems. Furthermore, the proposed formulae are able to provide precise solution of WGDOP calculation without incurring any approximation error

Ontology-based Fuzzy Markup Language Agent for Student and Robot Co-Learning

An intelligent robot agent based on domain ontology, machine learning mechanism, and Fuzzy Markup Language (FML) for students and robot co-learning is presented in this paper. The machine-human co-learning model is established to help various students learn the mathematical concepts based on their learning ability and performance. Meanwhile, the robot acts as a teacher's assistant to co-learn with children in the class. The FML-based knowledge base and rule base are embedded in the robot so that the teachers can get feedback from the robot on whether students make progress or not. Next, we inferred students' learning performance based on learning content's difficulty and students' ability, concentration level, as well as teamwork sprit in the class. Experimental results show that learning with the robot is helpful for disadvantaged and below-basic children. Moreover, the accuracy of the intelligent FML-based agent for student learning is increased after machine learning mechanism.Comment: This paper is submitted to IEEE WCCI 2018 Conference for revie

Simultaneous Penile Gangrene and Testicular Infarction Secondary to Calciphylaxis in a Uremic Patient

We report here a 46-year-old man with end stage renal disease (ESRD) secondary to type 2 diabetes, who had been on hemodialysis for 5 years. He had a painful glans lesion for 1 week. Five days later, he also complained of right testicular pain. Computed tomography of the pelvis demonstrated calcification of both penile arteries. Scrotal sonography revealed right testicular infarction. He received partial penectomy and right orchiectomy because of progressive lesions and intractable pain. Pathologic examination revealed testicular and penile tissue with necrotizing inflammation accompanied by multifocal calcification in the tunica media, compatible with calciphylaxis. This is the first report to document simultaneous penile gangrene and testicular infarction secondary to calciphylaxis