A roadmap to designing advergames: how major video games can help in the design of advergames and the impact of memories

This paper looks into ways to design advergames and tries to incorporate memories into them. To assess it, two experimental groups were created: one watched a The Sims 2 video and another one a generic Ikea advergame. At the end, as expected, when happy memories of past experiences playing major video games were activated willingness to buy increased. Therefore, to create the biggest amount of value possible, companies should use elements of major titles, from gameplay to audio tracks, when designing an advergame, so players can relieve good times they had when paying them

HOME-MADE FROZEN STENTED ELEPHANT TRUNK FOR ACUTE ARCH DISSECTION: AN HYBRID OFF-THE-SHELF TREATMENT IN AN EMERGENCY SETTING

Introduction: Involvement of the ascending/aortic arch in the thoracic aorta pathology can preclude thoracic endovas- cular aortic repair (TEVAR) due to the absence of an adequate proximal landing zone. Hybrid interventions combining ascending/aortic arch replacement with TEVAR of the descending thoracic aorta (DTA) are associated with good outcomes. Despite the existence of dedicated devices (E-vita®, Thoraflex®), they may not be available in good time in emergent cases that might require inventive solutions, like the one we present. Case Report: A 53-year-old hypertensive, active smoker male was admitted due to a non-A-non-B acute aortic dissection, complicated with a contained rupture at the aortic isthmus and a left haemothorax. Considering the absence of a secure proximal landing zone we decided on an aortic arch replacement and frozen stented elephant trunk using off-the-shelf devices. Debranching of the innominate and left common carotid arteries was performed with a 16×8mm bifurcated graft. The aortic arch replacement was performed with a 28 mm Dacron, under hypothermic circulatory arrest. A 30×30×157mm stent graft was anterogradely advanced to the DTA, under direct vision, with its proximal part parked at the level of the Dacron anastomosis. The proximal arch anastomosis was completed at the level of the sinotubular junction. Completion angiography revealed appropriately reconstructed aortic arch, successful exclusion of the entry tear and rupture site, as well as adequate renal and visceral perfusion. The patient had an uneventful postoperative course, being discharged on postoperative day 23. Control CTA demonstrated successful arch reconstruction, true lumen expansion and no signs of complications. Conclusion: This hybrid approach with off-the-shelf devices was successful and avoided the cumulative morbidity of an additional left thoracotomy as the technical difficulty of a full open surgery in this setting. In the absence of readily available dedicated devices, hybrid techniques will undoubtedly play a role in the treatment of acute aortic syndromes. The existence of an “Aortic Team” available to evaluate, decide and combine the expertise of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery was essential in this case

Characterization of Static Strength, Vertical Jumping, and Isokinetic Strength in Soccer Players According to Age, Competitive Level, and Field Position

: Muscular strength is strongly related to speed and agility tasks, which have been described as the most decisive actions preceding goals in the soccer game. This study aimed to characterize the players’ strength indicators and to analyze the variation associated with age, competition level, and positional role. Eighty-three male soccer players from A team (n = 22), B team (n = 17), U-23 (n = 19), and U-19 (n = 25) participated in this study. Handgrip strength was assessed using a hand dynamometer (Jamar Plus+), countermovement jump (CMJ) and the squat jump (SJ) were evaluated using Optojump Next, and a Biodex System 4 Pro Dynamometer was used to assess the isokinetic strength of knee extension/flexion. Team A players showed increased lower-body strength compared to their peers, mainly through their increased vertical jumping capacity (i.e., CMJ and SJ; ps < 0.019), and superior performance in isokinetic assessments (i.e., peak torque, total work, and average power). Overall, older players outperformed their younger peers regarding vertical jumping, static strength, and average power in isokinetic strength (ps < 0.005). This study emphasizes the superior strength levels of professional soccer players compared with their lower-division peers, even after controlling by age. This information is of great value to sports agents and coaches, underlining the need to design and include strength-specific content during soccer training.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Revisiting niche fundamentals with Tukey depth

1. The first attempts to describe species ecological niches were simple geometric procedures that depict the niche boundaries directly from environmental data. The convex hull was one of such procedures, popular for its simplicity, clear ecological rational and precise definition of the niche. However, it lacked the ability to differentiate areas of the niche with different probabilities of occurrence according to environmental suitability. 2. We incorporate the Tukey depth, a mathematical tool to measure the centrality of a point within a cloud of points on a multidimensional space, in the convex hull approach to (i) propose a new procedure (CH-Tukey) to estimate species’ environmental suitability, and (ii) estimate niche overlap coherently. In addition to a clear ecological rational and simplicity the CHTukey procedure has a number of attractive features: use of presence-only data; independence from background data; invariance to scale; robustness to outliers; and the decomposition of the niche into a finite number of isosuitability levels, permitting the computation of consistent overlap indices. We illustrate the use of CH-Tukey, using occurrence data of the main Quercus species and subspecies from Western Mediterranean Europe, comparing its outputs with BIOCLIM and MAXENT. 3. Results showed distinct niche geometries among the different approaches. BIOCLIM produced rectilinear niches reflecting the assumption that ecological variables are independent in their action on the species. CHTukey, relaxing this assumption, adjusts niche outer boundary and the inner suitability levels to the known occurrences. MAXENT produced unbounded niche geometries, showing abrupt shifts in the species response to the environmental variables. 4. The niche predictions obtained with geometric approaches, BIOCLIM and CH Tukey, are simpler but better aligned with Hutchinson’s niche concept than those obtained with MAXENT, this latter showing ecologically implausible relationships with the environmental variables. CH-Tukey and the related overlap measures provide an adequate tool to explore niche properties and species-environment relationships

Rationale, study design, and analysis plan of the Alveolar Recruitment for ARDS Trial (ART): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is associated with high in-hospital mortality. Alveolar recruitment followed by ventilation at optimal titrated PEEP may reduce ventilator-induced lung injury and improve oxygenation in patients with ARDS, but the effects on mortality and other clinical outcomes remain unknown. This article reports the rationale, study design, and analysis plan of the Alveolar Recruitment for ARDS Trial (ART). Methods/Design: ART is a pragmatic, multicenter, randomized (concealed), controlled trial, which aims to determine if maximum stepwise alveolar recruitment associated with PEEP titration is able to increase 28-day survival in patients with ARDS compared to conventional treatment (ARDSNet strategy). We will enroll adult patients with ARDS of less than 72 h duration. The intervention group will receive an alveolar recruitment maneuver, with stepwise increases of PEEP achieving 45 cmH(2)O and peak pressure of 60 cmH2O, followed by ventilation with optimal PEEP titrated according to the static compliance of the respiratory system. In the control group, mechanical ventilation will follow a conventional protocol (ARDSNet). In both groups, we will use controlled volume mode with low tidal volumes (4 to 6 mL/kg of predicted body weight) and targeting plateau pressure &lt;= 30 cmH2O. The primary outcome is 28-day survival, and the secondary outcomes are: length of ICU stay; length of hospital stay; pneumothorax requiring chest tube during first 7 days; barotrauma during first 7 days; mechanical ventilation-free days from days 1 to 28; ICU, in-hospital, and 6-month survival. ART is an event-guided trial planned to last until 520 events (deaths within 28 days) are observed. These events allow detection of a hazard ratio of 0.75, with 90% power and two-tailed type I error of 5%. All analysis will follow the intention-to-treat principle. Discussion: If the ART strategy with maximum recruitment and PEEP titration improves 28-day survival, this will represent a notable advance to the care of ARDS patients. Conversely, if the ART strategy is similar or inferior to the current evidence-based strategy (ARDSNet), this should also change current practice as many institutions routinely employ recruitment maneuvers and set PEEP levels according to some titration method.Hospital do Coracao (HCor) as part of the Program 'Hospitais de Excelencia a Servico do SUS (PROADI-SUS)'Brazilian Ministry of Healt

A Scalable Framework to Predict Bitcoin Price Using Support Vector Machine

Stock analysts have been predicting other stocks prices in financial markets by understanding their patterns. Bitcoin is an example of cryptocurrency that has grow enormously since 2020 despite being in the market since 2009. However, cryptocurrencies are volatile and sensitive to thousands of factors and consequently is complex for humans to make predictions even more when those predictions should occur in a daily basis, requiring hence a significant effort. Due to this fact, investor profiles prefer long-term investments which can constraint their revenues. To overcome the aforementioned scenario this work proposes a scalable framework relying in Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm to predict the price of bitcoin by automatically collecting and cleaning the data directly from the Web to process the dataset as input for training. This framework can also leverage new business models at scale by assisting the investors aiming realize its value in short periods in a continuous fashion.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Remaining kidney volume indexed to weight as a strong predictor of estimated glomerular filtration rate at 1 year and mid‐term renal function after living‐donor nephrectomy ‐ a retrospective observational study

The donors' estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) after living nephrectomy has been a concern, particularly in donors with smaller kindeys. Therefore, we developed this retrospective observational study in 195 donors to determine the ability remaining kidney volume indexed to weight (RKV/W) to predict eGFR at 1 year through multivariate linear regression and to explore this relationship between annual eGFR change from 1 to 4 years postdonation evaluated by a linear mixed model. Comparing RKV/W tertiles (T1, T2, T3), RKV/W was a good predictor of 1-year eGFR which was significantly better in T3 donors. Gender, predonation eGFR, and RKV/W were independent predictors of eGFR at 1-year. In a subgroup with predonation eGFR < 90mL/min/1.73 m2 , a significant prediction of eGFR < 60mL/min/1.73 m2 was detected in males with RKV/W ≤ 2.51cm3 /kg. Annual eGFR (ml/min/year) change from 1 to 4 years was + 0.77. RKV/W divided by tertiles (T1-T3) was the only significant predictor: T2 and T3 donors had an annual eGFR improvement opposing to T1. RKV/W was a good predictor of eGFR at 1 year, independently from predonation eGFR. A higher RKV/W was associated with improved eGFR at 1 year. A decline in eGFR on the four years after surgery was only noticeable in donors with RKV/W ≤ 2.13cm3 /kg.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Characterization of Static Strength, Vertical Jumping, and Isokinetic Strength in Soccer Players According to Age, Competitive Level, and Field Position

Muscular strength is strongly related to speed and agility tasks, which have been described as the most decisive actions preceding goals in the soccer game. This study aimed to characterize the players&rsquo; strength indicators and to analyze the variation associated with age, competition level, and positional role. Eighty-three male soccer players from A team (n = 22), B team (n = 17), U-23 (n = 19), and U-19 (n = 25) participated in this study. Handgrip strength was assessed using a hand dynamometer (Jamar Plus+), countermovement jump (CMJ) and the squat jump (SJ) were evaluated using Optojump Next, and a Biodex System 4 Pro Dynamometer was used to assess the isokinetic strength of knee extension/flexion. Team A players showed increased lower-body strength compared to their peers, mainly through their increased vertical jumping capacity (i.e., CMJ and SJ; ps &lt; 0.019), and superior performance in isokinetic assessments (i.e., peak torque, total work, and average power). Overall, older players outperformed their younger peers regarding vertical jumping, static strength, and average power in isokinetic strength (ps &lt; 0.005). This study emphasizes the superior strength levels of professional soccer players compared with their lower-division peers, even after controlling by age. This information is of great value to sports agents and coaches, underlining the need to design and include strength-specific content during soccer training