ELECTROMYOGRAPHY ACTIVITIES OF UPPER AND LOWER EXTREMITIES IN TABLE TENNIS DURING FOREHAND TOPSPIN AND NO SPIN STROKE: A CASE STUDY

The purpose of this study was to compare upper and lower extremity muscles activations between the forehand topspin and no spin strokes. A right-handed male elite table tennis player performed 13 forehand topspin strokes and 13 forehand no spin strokes against a ball machine. Electromyography (EMG) activities from his 10 upper and lower extremity muscles were recorded during these strokes and analyzed using a wireless EMG device. According to descriptive statistics, there seemed to be high-level differences in muscular activities between forehand no spin and forehand topspin strokes

Skin lesion classification with deep CNN ensembles

Early detection of skin cancer is vital when treatment is most likely to be successful. However, diagnosis of skin lesions is a very challenging task due to the similarities between lesions in terms of appearance, location, color, and size. We present a deep learning method for skin lesion classification by fusing and fine-tuning three pre-trained deep learning architectures (Xception, Inception-ResNet-V2, and NasNetLarge) using training images provided by ISIC2019 organizers. Additionally, the outliers and the heavy class imbalance are addressed to further enhance the classification of the lesion. The experimental results show that the proposed framework obtained promising results that are comparable with the ISIC2019 challenge leader board

Prediction of right ventricular dysfunction from radiographic estimates of right descending pulmonary artery in hemodynamically stable pulmonary embolism patients

Background: The evaluation of right ventricular (RV) dysfunction by echocardiography isone of the most important established determinants of the prognosis of acute pulmonary embolism.The aim of the study was to investigate possible association between diameter of rightdescending pulmonary artery on chest X-rays and RV dysfunction by echocardiography inhemodynamically stable pulmonary embolism patients.Methods: Eighty-nine patients with the diagnosis of hemodynamically stable pulmonaryembolism were included.Results: The frequency of RV dysfunction was signifi cantly higher in patients with anenlarged right descending pulmonary artery on chest X-rays (p = 0.001). There wasa signifi cant positive correlation between the diameter of the right descending pulmonary arteryon postero-anterior chest X-rays and the diameter of the RV (r = 0.469; p = 0.002). Diameterof right descending pulmonary artery on chest X-rays was also found as a signifi cant predictorof RV dysfunction besides the troponin-T levels and systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (p < 0.05).Conclusions: Diameter of right descending pulmonary artery on chest X-rays may provideinformation about the risk for pulmonary embolism patients and may be used as a prognosticradiological parameter for the appropriate management of acute pulmonary embolism

Prognostic importance of central thrombus in hemodynamically stable patients with pulmonary embolism

Background: The association between mortality and localization of central thrombus in hemodynamically stable patients with pulmonary embolism (PE) is unclear. Sufficient data are not available to help clinicians to select between low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), unfractionated heparin (UFH) and thrombolytics for the management of central thrombus. The present study aims to investigate whether central thrombus in the pulmonary artery affects 30-day mortality rate, and to compare the outcomes of different treatment approaches in patients with central thrombus. Methods: This multi-central, prospective, observational study included 874 hemodynamically stable patients with PE confirmed by multidetector computed tomography scan. The localization of the emboli was evaluated and categorized as central (saddle or at least one main pulmonary artery), lobar or distal. The primary study outcome was 30-day all-cause mortality. Results: Localization of the emboli was central in 319 (36.5%) patients, lobar in 264 (30.2%) and distal in 291 (33.2%) patients. Seventy-four (8.5%) patients died during the 30-day follow-up period. All-cause mortality rate was 11.9%, 6.8% and 6.2% in patients with central, lobar, and distal emboli, respectively (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis did not show that hemodynamically stable central thrombus was an independent predictor of mortality. Additionally, mortality rate was not significantly different between UFH, LMWH and thrombolytic therapy groups. Conclusions: The present study showed that central thrombus was not an independent predictor of mortality in hemodynamically stable PE patients. LMWH and UFH were similarly effective in the treatment of this patient group.

A Query Result Merging Scheme for Providing Energy Efficiency in Underwater Sensor Networks

Underwater sensor networks are emerging as a promising distributed data management system for various applications in underwater environments, despite their limited accessibility and restricted energy capacity. With the aid of recent developments in ubiquitous data computing, an increasing number of users are expected to overcome low accessibility by applying queries to underwater sensor networks. However, when multiple users send queries to an underwater sensor network in a disorganized manner, it may incur lethal energy waste and problematic network traffic. The current query management mechanisms cannot effectively deal with this matter due to their limited applicability and unrealistic assumptions. In this paper, a novel query management scheme involving query result merging is proposed for underwater sensor networks. The mechanism is based on a relational database model and is adjusted to the practical restrictions affecting underwater communication environments. Network simulations will prove that the scheme becomes more efficient with a greater number of queries and a smaller period range