Effect of double inversion recovery (DIR) technique, by magnetic resonance imaging, in the characterization of brain pathologies: systematic review

Currently, the Double Inversion Recovery (DIR) technique has an uncertain impact on clinical routine. According to some authors, the study of the brain by Magnetic Resonance with the DIR technique increases the diagnostic sensitivity for certain pathologies, however, further studies are needed to determine whether this technique should be added to the standard protocol in case of specific clinical indications. This study aimed to analyze the impact of the DIR technique appliance, in Magnetic Resonance, in the clinical routine of cerebral pathologies, through a systematic review of the literature.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

ITSM automation - Using machine learning to predict incident resolution category

Problem resolution is a key issue in the IT service industry, and it is still difficult for large enterprises to guarantee the service quality of the Incident Management (IM) process because of the difficulty in handling frequent incidents timely, even though IT Service Management (ITSM) standard process have already been established (Zhao & Yang, 2013). In this work, we propose an approach to predict the incident solution category, by exploring and combining the application of natural language processing techniques and machine learning algorithms on a real dataset from a large organization. The tickets contain information across a vast range of subjects from inside the organization with a vocabulary specific to these subjects. By exploring the text-based attributes, our findings show that the full description of an incident is better than the short description and after stop words removal, the use of additional preprocessing techniques and the addition of tickets nominal attributes such as have no impact to the classification performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Mobile CRM development for real estate agents

Purpose – Real estate agents are professionals who need up-to-date and accurate information about their clients in order to maintain profitable and long-lasting relationships with each of them. A satisfied customer can be very valuable and profitable in the long term. This research focuses on solving the problem of the lack of a mobile Customer Relationship Management (CRM) adapted to the needs of professionals. The importance of solving this problem is related to the importance of optimizing work and resources in a highly abundant information industry. Design/methodology/approach – It was developed of a CRM for mobile devices capable of managing information about the customers and business partners of each user, which provides a set of features well defined by the professionals. These features were collected through 15 face-to-face interviews and validated with six video conference interviews with industry specialists. For the development and evaluation of this artefact was followed the DSR methodology, corresponding each interview to an iteration of this model. Findings – From this research resulted a selection of functionalities considered essential to the real estate agent’s work. These features were successfully implemented in a mobile application that real estate agents appreciate for its simplicity and that they feel adds real value to their daily lives. Using this service, the productivity and performance of real estate agents might be improved. Originality/value – It was verified that the mobile CRM solution developed is a desired solution by real estate agents in terms of customer portfolio management, enhancing the evolution of their relationships and monitoring professional’s performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Sport tourism: regional promotion strategies

The main purposes of this paper are (i) to analyze the regional promotion strategies of the UEFA Euro 2004 and (ii) to contribute for the improvement of planning and implementation strategies of tourism marketing at regional level. Data regarding these strategies were collected and synthesized. We verified if these strategies match some of the theoretical issues of promotion and tourism marketing. Despite the fact that already many studies have been made, internationally, on the impact of sport events, the present study contains something new as it introduces an ante analysis on the regional promotion strategies of major sport events. Unlikely, the results show that no specific and integrated regional promotion strategy was pursuit, and no substantial additional financial effort was made. In what concerns the private regional tourism agents, no promotion could be found. The main tourism promotion competition came from across the boarder, with dynamic promotion actions of the nearby Spanish regional tourism responsibles

The LSTS open-source communication and autonomy software: enabling networked vehicle systems to find track, and sample dynamic features of the ocean

Peer Reviewe

The INFAUCI study

Funding Information: Financial support: this work was supported by an unrestricted grant from GIS (Grupo de Infecção e Sepsis, Hospital de São João, Porto, Portugal). Publisher Copyright: © 2014 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases2012 December 2014 10.1111/1469-0691.12738 Original Article INFECTIOUS DISEASES Original Articles © 2014 The Authors Clinical Microbiology and Infection © 2014 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.A prospective, cohort, clinical, observational study was performed in 14 Intensive Care Units (ICUs) to evaluate the contemporary epidemiology, morbi-mortality and determinants of outcome of the population with an infection on admission. All 3766 patients admitted during a consecutive 12-month period were screened. Their median age was 63 [26-83], 61.1% were male and 69.8% had significant comorbidities. On admission to the ICU 1652 patients (43.9%) had an infection, which was community acquired in 68.2% (one-fifth with healthcare-associated criteria) and ward-acquired in the others. Roughly half presented to the ICU with septic shock. As much as 488 patients with community-acquired infections were deemed stable enough to be first admitted to the ward, but had similar mortality to unstable patients directly admitted to the ICU (35.9% vs. 35.1%, p 0.78). Only 48.3% of this infected population had microbiological documentation and almost one-quarter received inappropriate initial antibiotic therapy. This, along with comorbidities, was a main determinant of mortality. Overall, infected patients on admission had higher mortality both in the ICU (28.0% vs. 19.9%, p <0.001) and in the hospital (38.2% vs. 27.5%, p <0.001) and even after being discharged to the ward (14.2% vs. 9.6%, p <0.001). Also, patients not infected on admission who acquired an infection in the ICU, had an increased risk of dying in the hospital (odds ratio 1.41 [1.12-1.83]). Consequently, infection, regardless of its place of acquisition, was associated with increased mortality. Improving the process of care, especially first-line antibiotic appropriateness, and preventing ICU-acquired infections, may lead to better outcomes.publishersversionpublishe

Transport systems and mobility for smart cities

Nowadays, cities appear to be the best place to live, attracting more and more people and activities. However, not only does this movement represent a threat to the environment but also provides challenges and opportunities for everyone, e.g., people, companies, organizations, and governments. To provide a good urban quality of life, the efficiency of all assets, buildings, infrastructures, and all systems, as well as taking care of the natural environment, must be addressed and achieved. This paper will, therefore, present the available literature on the subject to discuss the present context, the main challenges, as well as the concept of smart cities, with future cities relying on the mobility and evolution of transport systems for smart, sustainable, resilient, and inclusive mobility. As a result of the research, it is possible to infer that an integrated smart mobility approach can support the efficiency of all transport networks for everyone, today and tomorrow, while faced with the threat of climate change and the challenges of citizens.(undefined

Enhanced Optical Dichroism of Graphene Nanoribbons

The optical conductivity of graphene nanoribbons is analytical and exactly derived. It is shown that the absence of translation invariance along the transverse direction allows considerable intra-band absorption in a narrow frequency window that varies with the ribbon width, and lies in the THz range domain for ribbons 10-100nm wide. In this spectral region the absorption anisotropy can be as high as two orders of magnitude, which renders the medium strongly dichroic, and allows for a very high degree of polarization (up to ~85) with just a single layer of graphene. The effect is resilient to level broadening of the ribbon spectrum potentially induced by disorder. Using a cavity for impedance enhancement, or a stack of few layer nanoribbons, these values can reach almost 100%. This opens a potential prospect of employing graphene ribbon structures as efficient polarizers in the far IR and THz frequencies.Comment: Revised version. 10 pages, 7 figure

Impact of antibiotic therapy in severe community-acquired pneumonia: Data from the Infauci study

Antibiotic therapy (AT) is the cornerstone of the management of severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, the best treatment strategy is far from being established. To evaluate the impact of different aspects of AT on the outcome of critically ill patients with CAP, we performed a post hoc analysis of all CAP patients enrolled in a prospective, observational, multicentre study. Of the 502 patients included, 76% received combination therapy, mainly a β-lactam with a macrolide (80%). AT was inappropriate in 16% of all microbiologically documented CAP (n=177). Hospital and 6months mortality were 34% and 35%. In adjusted multivariate logistic regression analysis, combination AT with a macrolide was independently associated with a reduction in hospital (OR 0.17, 95%CI 0.06-0.51) and 6months (OR 0.21, 95%CI 0.07-0.57) mortality. Prolonged AT (>7days) was associated with a longer ICU (14 vs. 7days; p7days had no survival benefit and was associated with a longer LOS.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio