Management of pseudoaneurysms of the internal carotid artery in postirradiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients

postprin

Selected static foot assessments do not predict medial longitudinal arch motion during running

Background: Static assessments of the foot are commonly advocated within the running community to classify the foot with a view to recommending the appropriate type of running shoe. The aim of this work was to determine whether selected static foot assessment could predict medial longitudinal arch (MLA) motion during running. Methods: Fifteen physically active males (27 ± 5 years, 1.77 ± 0.04m, 80 ± 10kg) participated in the study. Foot Posture Index (FPI-6), MLA angle and rearfoot angle were measured in a relaxed standing position. MLA motion was calculated using the position of retro-reflective markers tracked by a VICON motion analysis system, while participants ran barefoot on a treadmill at a self-selected pace (2.8 ± 0.5m.s-1). Bivariate linear regression was used to determine whether the static measures predicted MLA deformation and MLA angles at initial contact, midsupport and toe off. Results: All three foot classification measures were significant predictors of MLA angle at initial contact, midsupport and toe off (p < .05) explaining 41-90% of the variance. None of the static foot classification measures were significant predictors of MLA deformation during the stance phase of running. Conclusion: Selected static foot measures did not predict dynamic MLA deformation during running. Given that MLA deformation has theoretically been linked to running injuries, the clinical relevance of predicting MLA angle at discrete time points during the stance phase of running is questioned. These findings also question the validity of the selected static foot classification measures when looking to characterise the foot during running. This indicates that alternative means of assessing the foot to inform footwear selection are required

“Charity Begins at Home”: Informal Caring Barriers to Formal Volunteering Among Older People

Formal volunteering is an important economic and social activity. In many countries, prevalence of volunteering is decreasing overall, including among older people who constitute a major volunteering resource. This qualitative study explored reasons for non-volunteering among seniors, with a focus on those who attribute their non-volunteering to their existing helping commitments. Forty-nine Australian interviewees aged 60 + years described a range of social, psychological, and temporal factors that resulted in their prioritization of informal rather than formal volunteering activities. These factors are mapped onto a theoretical framework matrix, with social identity and social capital theories appearing to possess the most explanatory power. The findings suggest that programs designed to encourage formal volunteering among older people need to be implemented in a manner that recognizes that members of this group can hold many other responsibilities that limit their ability to participate, especially those assisting in the care of multiple generations

Functional gait rehabilitation in elderly people following a fall-related hip fracture using a treadmill with visual context: design of a randomized controlled trial

Background: Walking requires gait adjustments in order to walk safely in continually changing environments. Gait adaptability is reduced in older adults, and (near) falls, fall-related hip fractures and fear of falling are common in this population. Most falls occur due to inaccurate foot placement relative to environmental hazards, such as obstacles. The C-Mill is an innovative, instrumented treadmill on which visual context (e. g., obstacles) is projected. The C-Mill is well suited to train foot positioning relative to environmental properties while concurrently utilizing the high-intensity practice benefits associated with conventional treadmill training. The present protocol was designed to examine the efficacy of C-Mill gait adaptability treadmill training for improving walking ability and reducing fall incidence and fear of falling relative to conventional treadmill training and usual care. We hypothesize that C-Mill gait adaptability treadmill training and conventional treadmill training result in better walking ability than usual care due to the enhanced training intensity, with superior effects for C-Mill gait adaptability treadmill training on gait adaptability aspects of walking given the concurrent focus on practicing step adjustments. Methods/design: The protocol describes a parallel group, single-blind, superiority randomized controlled trial with pre-tests, post-tests, retention-tests and follow-up. Hundred-twenty-six older adults with a recent fall-related hip fracture will be recruited from inpatient rehabilitation care and allocated to six weeks of C-Mill gait adaptability treadmill training (high-intensity, adaptive stepping), conventional treadmill training (high-intensity, repetitive stepping) or usual care physical therapy using block randomization, with allocation concealment by opaque sequentially numbered envelopes. Only data collectors are blind to group allocation. Study parameters related to walking ability will be assessed as primary outcome pre-training, post-training, after 4 weeks retention and 12 months follow-up. Secondary study parameters are measures related to fall incidence, fear of falling and general health. Discussion: The study will shed light on the relative importance of adaptive versus repetitive stepping and practice intensity for effective intervention programs directed at improving walking ability and reducing fall risk and fear of falling in older adults with a recent fall-related hip fracture, which may help reduce future fall-related health-care costs

Customer network management system for managing ATM virtual private networks

As enterprises use ATM networks for their private networks and as these private networks use public ATM networks for wide area communication. the need for the customers to be able to manage both private and public networks is increasing. Currently, some standardization work is bring done towards providing this capability to customers. In this paper, we propose a new customer network management (CNM) system architecture for the management of both private and public ATM networks in a uniform way. The particular features of the proposed architecture lies in the efficient support of the complex hierarchical TRIN manager-agent relationships at M3 and M4 interfaces, and the support of SNMP and CMIP integration. The TRIN hierarchical many-to-many manager-agent relationships are realized by the utilization of a CORBA-based Shared Management Knowledge (SMK) system. We have implemented a prototype of ATM CNM system, and measured the performance for the demonstration of the suitability of the proposed architecture.open111sciescopu

Fault detection and diagnosis in IP-based mission critical industrial process control networks

Mission-critical industrial process control networks support secure and reliable communications of devices in a controlling or manufacturing environment. They used to mostly use proprietary protocols and networks. Recently, however, many of them are being migrated to IP-based networks to consolidate many different types of networks into a single common network to simplify network operation, administration, and maintenance, and reduce operational expenses and capital expenditures. Despite their wide deployment, most operators have very little knowledge on how to operate them reliably and securely. This is mainly due to the operators&apos; unfamiliarity with various faults that occur on IP-based process control networks. The current process of detecting and diagnosing faults in process control networks is mostly manual and thus the operators detect the problems only after noticeable process malfunctions. This article presents an overview of industrial process control networks and discusses the issues of introducing IP technologies into them. We then propose a fault detection and diagnosis method which is suitable for IP-based process control networks. We also present the system architecture and implementation of fault detection and diagnosis system as well as its deployment at POSCO. Finally, based on operational experience, we have generated a failure prediction model that can be used to predict potential alarms.X115sciescopu

HiMang: Highly Manageable Network and Service Architecture for New Generation

The Internet is a very successful modern technology and is considered to be one of the most important means of communication. Despite that success, fundamental architectural and business limitations exist in the Internet&apos;s design. Among these limitations, we focus on a specific issue, the lack of manageability, in this paper. Although it is generally understood that management is a significant and important part of network and service design, it has not been considered as an integral part in their design phase. We address this problem with our future Internet management architecture called highly manageable network and service architecture for new generation (HiMang), which is a novel architecture that aims at integrating management capabilities into network and service design. HiMang is highly manageable in the sense that it is autonomous, scalable, robust, and evolutionary while reducing the complexity of network management. Unlike any other management framework, HiMang provides management support for the revolutionary networks of the future while maintaining backward compatibility for existing networks.X11sciescopuskc