Max-Min Fairness Based on Cooperative-NOMA Clustering for Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications

In this paper, the performance of a cooperative relaying technique in a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system, briefly named cooperative NOMA (C-NOMA), is considered in short packet communications with finite blocklength (FBL) codes. We examine the performance of a decode-and-forward (DF) relaying along with selection combining (SC) and maximum ratio combining (MRC) strategies at the receiver. Our goal is user clustering based on C-NOMA to maximize fair throughput in a DL-NOMA scenario. In each cluster, the user with a stronger channel (strong user) acts as a relay for the other one (weak user), and optimal power and blocklength are allocated to achieve max-min throughput.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, This paper has been submitted for IEEE systems journa

CATARACT SURGERY IN CHILDREN-A REVIEW ARTICLE

Introduction: Cataract is one of the underlying causes of poor vision and blindness. Quality of life and increased longevity have led to the prevalence of cataract in developed and developing countries. Based on the results of different studies, the incidence of cataract doubles with a 10-year-increase in age after the age of 40 in Australia; so, by a rule of thumb, all people are suffering from cataract at the age of 90. Methodology: In this review article, the databases Medline, Cochrane, Science Direct, and Google Scholar were thoroughly searched to identify the studies Cataract surgery in children. In this review, the papers published until early January 2017 that were conducted to study the Cataract surgery in children were selected. In searching for the articles, those English papers were selected that had investigated Cataract surgery in children. Findings: Surgical procedure, the unique physiological response to surgery, and the improvement of visual acuity are the most common, and possible, problems with cataract surgery in children. Although cataract therapy in children requires group work, the role of surgery is undeniable in achieving desirable visual outcomes, and experience with the awareness of the differences and challenges of cataract treatment in children compared to adults is the basis of this role. Discussion and conclusion: Pre-operative eye examinations are appropriate for, and off course different in, each stage during operation, and ultimately, the post-surgical procedure and follow-up considerations in general, especially in children. An ophthalmologist's surgeon should be aware of the details of the issues as a head of the group in cataract surgery in children. Having knowledge about these differences leads to better surgical results, better vision and less complications. Key word: Cataract , surgery , childre

Application of Uterus Manipulator in Total Abdominal Hysterectomy for Benign Diseases

Objective: Pelvic access is a challenging matter in abdominal hysterectomy especially in obese patients and presence of pelvic adhesions. Uterus manipulators (UM) have been used in a number of studies on laparoscopic approach to improve surgical performance. This study aimed to assess the impact of UM application on the operation time and blood loss in total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH) for benign diseases. Materials and methods: Forty-one patients aged 34 to 56 years were enrolled for abdominal hysterectomy – 20 as the case group (hysterectomy with UM application) and 21 as the control group (conventional hysterectomy). In the case group, UM was used after uterus artery ligation during TAH. The control group underwent traditional TAH. Results: The mean operation time was significantly less in TAH with UM compared to traditional TAH (90.23 ± 10.54 minutes vs. 140.5 ± 16.61 minutes; p-value<0.001). The mean decline between preoperative and 12-hour postoperative hemoglobin was 0.74 ± 0.23 mg/dL in the TAH with UM group and 1.65± 1.02 mg/dL in the traditional TAH group (p-value<0.001). Also, no difference was detected in intra- and post-operative complications. Conclusion: The current study showed that, using UM is beneficial in total abdominal hysterectomy by decreasing the operative time and blood loss

Reflection of Pragmatic Knowledge in Iranian High School English Textbooks (Vision Series)

Pragmatic competence is an essential language pedagogy component represented in English textbooks. The paper attempts to examine the extent to which pragmatic knowledge was reflected in Iranian high school English textbooks (Vision series). Hence, Halliday’s (1973) model and Halliday, et al.’s (1964) model were used to investigate subcategories of functional knowledge and sociolinguistic knowledge. The data was described by descriptive statistics. The findings revealed the Iranian culture-deprived representation (e.g., traditional customs, and ceremonies such as Nowruz, Chaharshanbesori, and Yalda). Moreover, the results highlighted only a limited number of pragmatic components implicitly introduced in the Vision series, and attention was given to their representation and problematic distribution. Furthermore, the English sociocultural patterns were limited and attempts were made to reflect the Iranian culture and convection of daily communication. Thus, some pedagogical implications were offered to improve the Vision series, using authentic pragmatic content instead of proclaiming the fictitious prescription of its authors

Cooperative NOMA-Based User Pairing for URLLC : A Max-Min Fairness Approach

In this paper, cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (C-NOMA) is considered in short packet communications with finite blocklength (FBL) codes. The performance of a decode-and-forward (DF) relaying along with selection combining (SC) and maximum ratio combining (MRC) strategies at the receiver side is examined. We explore joint user pairing and resource allocation to maximize fair throughput in a downlink (DL) scenario. In each pair, the user with a stronger channel (strong user) acts as a relay for the other one (weak user), and optimal power and blocklength are allocated to achieve max-min throughput. To this end, first, only one pair is considered, and optimal resource allocation is explored. Also, a suboptimal algorithm is suggested, which converges to a near-optimal solution. Finally, the problem is extended to a general scenario, and a suboptimal C-NOMA-based user pairing is proposed. Numerical results show that the proposed C-NOMA scheme in both SC and MRC strategies significantly improves the users’ fair throughput compared to the NOMA and OMA. It is also investigated that the proposed pairing scheme based on C-NOMA outperforms the Hybrid NOMA/OMA scheme from the average throughput perspective, while the fairness index degrades slightl

Preterm neonatal lateral ventricle volume from three-dimensional ultrasound is not strongly correlated to two-dimensional ultrasound measurements

The aim of this study is to compare longitudinal two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound (US) estimates of ventricle size in preterm neonates with posthemorrhagic ventricular dilatation (PHVD) using quantitative measurements of the lateral ventricles. Cranial 2-D US and 3-D US images were acquired from neonatal patients with diagnosed PHVD within 10 min of each other one to two times per week and analyzed offline. Ventricle index, anterior horn width, third ventricle width, and thalamo-occipital distance were measured on the 2-D images and ventricle volume (VV) was measured from 3-D US images. Changes in the measurements between successive image sets were also recorded. No strong correlations were found between VV and 2-D US measurements (R-2 between 0.69 and 0.36). Additionally, weak correlations were found between changes in 2-D US measurements and 3-D US VV (R-2 between 0.13 and 0.02). A trend was found between increasing 2-D US measurements and 3-D US-based VV, but this was not the case when comparing changes between 3-D US VV and 2-D US measurements. If 3-D US-based VV provides a more accurate estimate of ventricle size than 2-D US measurements, moderate-weak correlations with 3-D US suggest that monitoring preterm patients with PHVD using 2-D US measurements alone might not accurately represent whether the ventricles are progressively dilating. A volumetric measure (3-D US or MRI) could be used instead to more accurately represent changes. (C) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI

Clinical Study Rehabilitation after ACL Injury: A Fluoroscopic Study on the Effects of Type of Exercise on the Knee Sagittal Plane Arthrokinematics

A safe rehabilitation exercise for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries needs to be compatible with the normal knee arthrokinematics to avoid abnormal loading on the joint structures. The objective of this study was to measure the amount of the anterior tibial translation (ATT) of the ACL-deficient knees during selective open and closed kinetic chain exercises. The intact and injured knees of fourteen male subjects with unilateral ACL injury were imaged using uniplanar fluoroscopy, while the subjects performed forward lunge and unloaded/loaded open kinetic knee extension exercises. The ATTs were measured from fluoroscopic images, as the distance between the tibial and femoral reference points, at seven knee flexion angles, from 0 ∘ to 90 ∘ . No significant differences were found between the ATTs of the ACL-deficient and intact knees at all flexion angles during forward lunge and unloaded open kinetic knee extension ( &lt; 0.05). During loaded open kinetic knee extension, however, the ATTs of the ACL deficient knees were significantly larger than those of the intact knees at 0 ∘ ( = 0.002) and 15 ∘ ( = 0.012). It was suggested that the forward lunge, as a weight-bearing closed kinetic chain exercise, provides a safer approach for developing muscle strength and functional stability in rehabilitation program of ACL-deficient knees, in comparison with open kinetic knee extension exercise

Comparison of Lumbopelvic Movement Patterns in People with and Without Low Back Pain During Stair Descending Task

Background: Decreased lumbar spine control may be associated with early and/ or excessive lumbopelvic motion with trunk and lower extremity movements during functional and daily activities. This study investigated differences in lumbopelvic movement patterns in people with and without low back pain (LBP) during a stair descending (SD) task. Methods: A total of 36 subjects, 18 females with non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP) and 18 healthy females, participated in this study. A threedimensional motion capture system was used to record kinematics during the SD task. Results: The results showed that in the LBP group, the start-time of the lumbar muscles occurred early in the movement (P=0.015). Additionally, subjects with LBP showed excessive lumbar spine and pelvic movement during the SD task (P<0.05). Conclusion: LBP patients make early and excessive lumbopelvic movements during a SD task, and this can be an important factor contributing to the development or persistence of their LBP problem. This finding should be considered by clinicians when evaluating functional tasks as part of movementbased examinations and rehabilitation programs for people with LB

Usage of SWI (susceptibility weighted imaging) acquired at 7T for qualitative evaluation of temporal lobe epilepsy patients with histopathological and clinical correlation: An initial pilot study.

OBJECTIVES: Ultra high field MRI at 7T is able to provide much improved spatial and contrast resolution which may aid in the diagnosis of hippocampal abnormalities. This paper presents a preliminary experience on qualitative evaluation of 7T MRI in temporal lobe epilepsy patients with a focus on comparison to histopathology. METHODS: 7T ultra high field MRI data, using T1-weighted, T2*-weighted and susceptibility-weighted images (SWI), were acquired for 13 patients with drug resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) during evaluation for potential epilepsy surgery. Qualitative evaluation of the imaging data for scan quality and presence of hippocampal and temporal lobe abnormalities were scored while blinded to the clinical data. Correlation of imaging findings with the clinical data was performed. Blinded evaluation of 1.5T scans was also performed. RESULTS: On the 7T MRI findings, eight out of 13 cases demonstrated concordance with the clinically suspected TLE. Among these concordant cases, three exhibited supportive abnormal 7T MRI findings which were not detected by the clinical 1.5T MRI. Of the ten cases that progressed to epilepsy surgery, seven showed concordance between 7T MRI findings and histopathology; of these, four cases had hippocampal sclerosis. SWI had the highest concordance with the clinical and histopathological findings. Similar clinical and histopathological concordance was found with 1.5T MRI. CONCLUSIONS: There was moderate and high concordance between the 7T imaging findings with the clinical data and histopathology respectively