Monitoring Wound Healing with Contactless Measurements and Augmented Reality

Objective: This work presents a device for non-invasive wound parameters assessment, designed to overcome the drawbacks of traditional methods, which are mostly rough, inaccurate, and painful for the patient. The device estimates the morphological parameters of the wound and provides augmented reality (AR) visual feedback on the wound healing status by projecting the wound border acquired during the last examination, thus improving doctor-patient communication. Methods: An accurate 3D model of the wound is created by stereophotogrammetry and refined through self-organizing maps. The 3D model is used to estimate physical parameters for wound healing assessment and integrates AR functionalities based on a miniaturized projector. The physical parameter estimation functionalities are evaluated in terms of precision, accuracy, inter-operator variability, and repeatability, whereas AR wound border projection is evaluated in terms of accuracy on the same phantom. Results: The accuracy and precision of the device are respectively 2% and 1.2% for linear parameters, and 1.7% and 1.3% for area and volume. The AR projection shows an error distance <1 mm. No statistical difference was found between the measurements of different operators. Conclusion: The device has proven to be an objective and non-operator-dependent tool for assessing the morphological parameters of the wound. Comparison with non-contact devices shows improved accuracy, offering reliable and rigorous measurements. Clinical Impact: Chronic wounds represent a significant health problem with high recurrence rates due to the ageing of the population and diseases such as diabetes and obesity. The device presented in this work provides an easy-to-use non-invasive tool to obtain useful information for treatment

Infrared spectroscopy of small-molecule endofullerenes

Hydrogen is one of the few molecules which has been incarcerated in the molecular cage of C$_{60}$ and forms endohedral supramolecular complex H$_2$@C$_{60}$. In this confinement hydrogen acquires new properties. Its translational motion becomes quantized and is correlated with its rotations. We applied infrared spectroscopy to study the dynamics of hydrogen isotopologs H$_2$, D$_2$ and HD incarcerated in C$_{60}$. The translational and rotational modes appear as side bands to the hydrogen vibrational mode in the mid infrared part of the absorption spectrum. Because of the large mass difference of hydrogen and C$_{60}$ and the high symmetry of C$_{60}$ the problem is identical to a problem of a vibrating rotor moving in a three-dimensional spherical potential. The translational motion within the C$_{60}$ cavity breaks the inversion symmetry and induces optical activity of H$_2$. We derive potential, rotational, vibrational and dipole moment parameters from the analysis of the infrared absorption spectra. Our results were used to derive the parameters of a pairwise additive five-dimensional potential energy surface for H$_2$@C$_{60}$. The same parameters were used to predict H$_2$ energies inside C$_{70}$[Xu et al., J. Chem. Phys., {\bf 130}, 224306 (2009)]. We compare the predicted energies and the low temperature infrared absorption spectra of H$_2$@C$_{70}$.Comment: Updated author lis

Vacuum String Field Theory ancestors of the GMS solitons

We define a sequence of VSFT D-branes whose low energy limit leads exactly to a corresponding sequence of GMS solitons. The D-branes are defined by acting on a fixed VSFT lump with operators defined by means of Laguerre polynomials whose argument is quadratic in the string creation operators. The states obtained in this way form an algebra under the SFT star product, which is isomorphic to a corresponding algebra of GMS solitons under the Moyal product. In order to obtain a regularized field theory limit we embed the theory in a constant background B field.Comment: 1+16 pages; v2: typos corrected; v3: two appendices added, final versio

Chan-Paton factors and Higgsing from Vacuum String Field Theory

We give a description of open strings stretched between N parallel D-branes in VSFT. We show how higgsing is generated as the branes are displaced: the shift in the mass formula for on-shell states stretched between different branes is due to a twist anomaly, a contribution localized at the midpoint.Comment: 20 pages, JHEP clas

Assessment and treatment of distorted schemas in sexual offenders

The aim of this review is to examine the literature related to the assessment and treatment of sex offenders’ distorted schemas. Where appropriate, the review draws upon current insights from the field of social cognition to aid in the critical evaluation of the findings. First, the review considers the various different methodologies for assessing distorted schemas, discussing their strengths and limitations. Second, the review examines the work related to the treatment of sex offenders’ schemas. Suggestions for future research, and the implications for clinical practice, are highlighted in the article

Yang-Mills instantons and dyons on homogeneous G_2-manifolds

We consider Lie G-valued Yang-Mills fields on the space R x G/H, where G/H is a compact nearly K"ahler six-dimensional homogeneous space, and the manifold R x G/H carries a G_2-structure. After imposing a general G-invariance condition, Yang-Mills theory with torsion on R x G/H is reduced to Newtonian mechanics of a particle moving in R^6, R^4 or R^2 under the influence of an inverted double-well-type potential for the cases G/H = SU(3)/U(1)xU(1), Sp(2)/Sp(1)xU(1) or G_2/SU(3), respectively. We analyze all critical points and present analytical and numerical kink- and bounce-type solutions, which yield G-invariant instanton configurations on those cosets. Periodic solutions on S^1 x G/H and dyons on iR x G/H are also given.Comment: 1+26 pages, 14 figures, 6 miniplot

Closed String Tachyon Condensation: An Overview

These notes are an expanded version of a review lecture on closed string tachyon condensation at the RTN workshop in Copenhagen in September 2003. We begin with a lightning review of open string tachyon condensation, and then proceed to review recent results on localized closed string tachyon condensation, focusing on two simple systems, C/Z_n orbifolds and twisted circle compactifications.Comment: harvmac, 59 pages; references adde

Contact Manifolds, Contact Instantons, and Twistor Geometry

Recently, Kallen and Zabzine computed the partition function of a twisted supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on the five-dimensional sphere using localisation techniques. Key to their construction is a five-dimensional generalisation of the instanton equation to which they refer as the contact instanton equation. Subject of this article is the twistor construction of this equation when formulated on K-contact manifolds and the discussion of its integrability properties. We also present certain extensions to higher dimensions and supersymmetric generalisations.Comment: v3: 28 pages, clarifications and references added, version to appear in JHE

Zoledronic acid in metastatic chondrosarcoma and advanced sacrum chordoma: two case reports

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Chondrosarcomas and chordomas are usually chemoresistant bone tumors and may have a poor prognosis when advanced. They are usually associated with worsening pain difficult to control.</p> <p>Patients and Methods</p> <p>Zoledronic acid was used in a 63-year-old man with metastatic chondrosarcoma and in a 66-year-old woman with a diagnosis of sacrum chordoma both reporting severe pain related to tumor.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the first case, zoledronic acid was able to maintain pain control despite disease progression following chemotherapy, in the other case, zoledronic acid only produced significant clinical benefit.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Control of pain associated with bone tumors such as chondrosarcoma and chondroma may significantly improve from use of zoledronic acid, independently from tumor response to other treatments. Evaluation on larger series are needed to confirm the clinical effect of this bisphosphonate on such tumors.</p

Vacuum String Field Theory with B field

We continue the analysis of Vacuum String Field Theory in the presence of a constant B field. In particular we give a proof of the ratio of brane tensions is the expected one. On the wake of the recent literature we introduce wedge-like states and orthogonal projections. Finally we show a few examples of the smoothing out effects of the B field on some of the singularities that appear in VSFT.Comment: 20 pages; v2: typos corrected, references added; final versio