Using HSPA to improve the telemedical links on a moving ambulance

As the demand for faster and more effective health care increases, there is a growing need to establish mobile, high-speed communications between a moving ambulance and a consultation point (usually a hospital). The recent addition of HSPA (HSDPA and HSUPA) into the UMTS suite provides higher bandwidth and reduced delays, making this choice ideal for real-time telemedical applications. In this paper, we will describe a set of scenarios that took place in a typical large city area, along with their equivalent results: a moving ambulance was linked with a consultation station using HSPA and several videoconferencing sessions were initiated. Best-case, worst-case and average scenarios were recorded. Furthermore, in areas where the UMTS reception was marginal, a repeater was placed on top of the vehicle to boost up the signal power and thus maintain the higher bandwidth. Finally, treating doctors were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of this system’s outputs, based on a variety of objective and subjective criteria

Effects of a long term water level reduction on the ecology and water quality in an eastern Mediterranean lake

Water level fluctuations play a significant role in the lake nutrient dynamics, and consequently may have a strong influence on the biological communities and productivity. In this article we investigated the effects of a long term water level reduction on key chemistry parameters and major biological communities in an eastern Mediterranean lake. Our approach is based on temporal data regarding water quality, fish, zooplankton and aquatic vegetation that are representative of different water level periods. The results revealed significant correlations between water level, conductivity and chloride concentration suggesting a clear effect of the water level reduction on the water quality. Among the key findings of this study is the significant increase of zoobenthivorous fish (roach and carp) from 1973 to 1999 that correlates with the water level reduction. A decline of charophytes is also noted whereas the reed beds appear to have expanded at the shallower parts of the lake. The zooplankton composition of the lake is mostly dominated by nauplii, rotifer and small-sized crustaceans indicating a possible effect of fish predation. Overall, this article has ascertained an alarming shift of water quality and composition of biological communities that can be attributed to the combined effects of eutrophication and the extreme water level decrease

MRFS: A Multi-Resource Fair Scheduling Algorithm in Heterogeneous Cloud Computing

Task scheduling in cloud computing is considered as a significant issue that has attracted much attention over the last decade. In cloud environments, users expose considerable interest in submitting tasks on multiple Resource types. Subsequently, finding an optimal and most efficient server to host users’ tasks seems a fundamental concern. Several attempts have suggested various algorithms, employing Swarm optimization and heuristics methods to solve the scheduling issues associated with cloud in a multi-resource perspective. However, these approaches have not considered the equalization of dominant resources on each specific resource type. This substantial gap leads to unfair allocation, SLA degradation and resource contention. To deal with this problem, in this paper we propose a novel task scheduling mechanism called MRFS. MRFS employs Lagrangian multipliers to locate tasks in suitable servers with respect to the number of dominant resources and maximum resource availability. To evaluate MRFS, we conduct time-series experiments in the cloudsim driven by randomly generated workloads. The results show that MRFS maximizes per-user utility function by %15-20 in FFMRA compared to FFMRA in absence of MRFS. Furthermore, the mathematical proofs confirm that the sharingincentive, and Pareto-efficiency properties are improved under MRF

An extension of SPARQL for expressing qualitative preferences

In this paper we present SPREFQL, an extension of the SPARQL language that allows appending a PREFER clause that expresses "soft" preferences over the query results obtained by the main body of the query. The extension does not add expressivity and any SPREFQL query can be transformed to an equivalent standard SPARQL query. However, clearly separating preferences from the "hard" patterns and filters in the WHERE clause gives queries where the intention of the client is more cleanly expressed, an advantage for both human readability and machine optimization. In the paper we formally define the syntax and the semantics of the extension and we also provide empirical evidence that optimizations specific to SPREFQL improve run-time efficiency by comparison to the usually applied optimizations on the equivalent standard SPARQL query.Comment: Accepted to the 2017 International Semantic Web Conference, Vienna, October 201

Effectiveness of a comprehensive mental skills curriculum in enhancing surgical performance: Results of a randomized controlled trial

INTRODUCTION: We hypothesized that the implementation of a novel mental skills curriculum (MSC) during laparoscopic simulator training would improve mental skills and performance, and decrease stress. METHODS: Sixty volunteer novices were randomized into intervention and control groups. All participants received FLS training while the intervention group also participated in the MSC. Skill transfer and retention were assessed on a live porcine model after training and 2 months later, respectively. Performance was assessed using the Test of Performance Strategies-2 (TOPS-2) for mental skills, FLS metrics for laparoscopic performance, and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-6) and heart rate (HR) for stress. RESULTS: Fifty-five participants (92%) completed training and the transfer test, and 46 (77%) the retention test. There were no significant differences between groups at baseline. Compared to controls the intervention group significantly improved their mental skill use, demonstrated higher laparoscopic skill improvement during retention, and reported less stress during the transfer test. CONCLUSIONS: The MSC implemented in this study effectively enhanced participants' mental skill use, reduced cognitive stress in the operating room with a small impact on laparoscopic performance

Restless legs syndrome/Willis–Ekbom disease prevalence in beta thalassemia patients

Purpose Both beta thalassemia and restless legs syndrome (RLS) patients share some common pathophysiological characteristics related to iron handling. In the present study, the aim was to explore the prevalence of RLS as well as to explore potential association between the syndrome and various quality of life-related parameters in a sample of beta thalassemia patients. Methods One hundred fourteen (age 40 ± 11 yr, 59 M/55F) beta thalassemia patients participated in this cross-sectional descriptive study. Patients were screened for RLS based on the international RLS study group diagnostic criteria as well as a battery of validated questionnaires. Results The prevalence of RLS in this sample of beta thalassemia patients was zero. The quality of life score was low (78 ± 18). Iron levels were within normal range (191 ± 66 mcg/dL) while ferritin levels were high as expected (1836 ± 225 ng/dL). Conclusions Our sample of patients comes from central Greece where the prevalence of RLS in the general population is 4% while in renal failure patients is 27%. To our surprise, there was no presence of RLS among this sample of beta thalassemia patients. The adequate levels of iron and ferritin often seen in these patients could be the reason of the absence of RLS symptoms

ProsocialLearn: D2.5 evaluation strategy and protocols

This document describes the evaluation strategy for the assessment of game effectiveness, market value impact and ethics procedure to drive detailed planning of technical validation, short and longitudinal studies and market viability tests

Combining SiRPα decoy-coengineered T cells and antibodies augments macrophage-mediated phagocytosis of tumor cells.

The adoptive transfer of T cell receptor-engineered (TCR-engineered) T cells (ACT) targeting the HLA-A2-restricted cancer-testis epitope NY-ESO-1157-165 (A2/NY) has yielded favorable clinical responses against several cancers. Two approaches to improve ACT are TCR affinity optimization and T cell coengineering to express immunomodulatory molecules that can exploit endogenous immunity. By computational design we previously developed a panel of binding-enhanced A2/NY-TCRs including A97L, which augmented the in vitro function of gene-modified T cells as compared with WT. Here, we demonstrated higher persistence and improved tumor control by A97L-T cells. In order to harness macrophages in tumors, we further coengineered A97L-T cells to secrete a high-affinity signal regulatory protein α (SiRPα) decoy (CV1) that blocks CD47. While CV1-Fc-coengineered A97L-T cells mediated significantly better control of tumor outgrowth and survival in Winn assays, in subcutaneous xenograft models the T cells, coated by CV1-Fc, were depleted. Importantly, there was no phagocytosis of CV1 monomer-coengineered T cells by human macrophages. Moreover, avelumab and cetuximab enhanced macrophage-mediated phagocytosis of tumor cells in vitro in the presence of CV1 and improved tumor control upon coadministration with A97L-T cells. Taken together, our study indicates important clinical promise for harnessing macrophages by combining CV1-coengineered TCR-T cells with targeted antibodies to direct phagocytosis against tumor cells