1,869 research outputs found
Beyond deficiency:Potential benefits of increased intakesof vitamin K for bone and vascular health
Vitamin K is wellknown for its role in the synthesisof a number of blood coagulationfactors.During recent years vitaminK-dependent proteins werediscovered to be of vital importancefor bone and vascular health.Recommendations for dietary vitaminK intake have been made onthe basis of the hepatic requirementsfor the synthesis of bloodcoagulation factors.Accumulatingevidence suggests that the requirementsfor other functions thanblood coagulation may be higher.This paper is the result of a closedworkshop (Paris,November 2002)in which a number of Europeanvitamin K experts reviewed theavailable data and formulated theirstandpoint with respect to recommendeddietary vitamin K intakeand the use of vitamin K-containingsupplements
What do we require from surveillance technology? A review of the needs of people with dementia and informal caregivers
Introduction: Dementia has become a major global concern and surveillance technology might provide support for informal caregivers and people with dementia. However, the needs of caregivers and people with dementia for surveillance technology have not been reviewed. Method: A scoping literature review was used to identify the needs of caregivers and/or people with dementia towards surveillance technology. Electronic database searching was undertaken on LexisNexis, PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing, Allied Health Literature, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Assistive Technology database, and Google Scholar. Eligible studies were synthesized by theme. Results: Twenty-eight eligible studies were identified, with the majority reporting the needs of caregivers rather than people with dementia. The predominant themes for caregivers were location accuracy, and increasing the safety of the person with dementia. People with dementia wanted simple useful technology that fits within their capacity and existing routines. Conclusions: The needs of people with dementia must be considered when designing surveillance products. Studies have mostly focused on caregivers and discount ST product requirements. Further work is required to establish effective use of surveillance technology in dementia care. Therefore, further research should cross analyze these results by examining both the needs of caregivers, and people with dementia
Heineken in the House: Improving Online Media Reputation through Featuring a Sponsored Brand Community
Selling surveillance technology: semiotic themes in advertisements for ageing in place with dementia
Six advertisements were explored that sell surveillance technologies for people living with dementia through qualitative content analysis. Advertisements from the United Kingdom, Sweden, and the Netherlands were analysed to explore semiotic textual meaning and people living with dementia (N = 5) and carers (N = 4) responded to these advertisements. The semiotic themes report a “wanderer” discourse which signals to track people living with dementia, children pets and possessions. Mainly negative representations communicate the dangers of wandering towards younger-female carers, few positive representations show a smiling person with dementia and only one person was represented as interacting with technology. Participants did not understand the advertisements and people living with dementia felt stigmatised. There is a lack of reflexivity when people living with dementia are seen as objects. The reliance on stereotypes targeted at carers with misunderstood conceivable trackers hinders resilience for people living with dementia and implies the continuous stigmatisation that occurs when they are disregarded as human technology-users
Stress-strain behavior and geometrical properties of packings of elongated particles
We present a numerical analysis of the effect of particle elongation on the
quasistatic behavior of sheared granular media by means of the Contact Dynamics
method. The particle shapes are rounded-cap rectangles characterized by their
elongation. The macroscopic and microstructural properties of several packings
subjected to biaxial compression are analyzed as a function of particle
elongation. We find that the shear strength is an increasing linear function of
elongation. Performing an additive decomposition of the stress tensor based on
a harmonic approximation of the angular dependence of branch vectors, contact
normals and forces, we show that the increasing mobilization of friction force
and the associated anisotropy are key effects of particle elongation. These
effects are correlated with partial nematic ordering of the particles which
tend to be oriented perpendicular to the major principal stress direction and
form side-to-side contacts. However, the force transmission is found to be
mainly guided by cap-to-side contacts, which represent the largest fraction of
contacts for the most elongated particles. Another interesting finding is that,
in contrast to shear strength, the solid fraction first increases with particle
elongation, but declines as the particles become more elongated. It is also
remarkable that the coordination number does not follow this trend so that the
packings of more elongated particles are looser but more strongly connected.Comment: Submited to Physical Review
SILAGE IN DIETS FOR ORGANIC SOWS IN GESTATION
This study was conducted to determine whether the supply of grass silage or grass silage mixed with barley or CCM to organically raised gestating sows would allow a reduction of compound feed allowance without loss in animal performance. On average, sows fed grass silage or mixed silage were able to compensate for a pre-set reduction of 1 kg or 1.5 kg compound feed, respectively. However, the variation in silage intake between individual sows was large, with a number of mainly young sows consuming less silage than the required amount. Consequently, these sows showed a net back fat loss during the experimental period from d 7 of gestation to weaning. Our results indicate that more feeder space than 1 for 8 sows is required to allow adequate silage intake in group housed sows. From this study we cannot derive whether that would be also allow young sows to realise an adequate silage intake. In conclusion, it seems possible to replace 1 kg compound feed by free access to grass silage and 1.5 kg compound by mixed barley or CCM silage, provided that variation between sows is reduced and young sows would also be able to ingest an adequate amount of silage
Joint Segmentation and Uncertainty Visualization of Retinal Layers in Optical Coherence Tomography Images using Bayesian Deep Learning
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is commonly used to analyze retinal layers
for assessment of ocular diseases. In this paper, we propose a method for
retinal layer segmentation and quantification of uncertainty based on Bayesian
deep learning. Our method not only performs end-to-end segmentation of retinal
layers, but also gives the pixel wise uncertainty measure of the segmentation
output. The generated uncertainty map can be used to identify erroneously
segmented image regions which is useful in downstream analysis. We have
validated our method on a dataset of 1487 images obtained from 15 subjects (OCT
volumes) and compared it against the state-of-the-art segmentation algorithms
that does not take uncertainty into account. The proposed uncertainty based
segmentation method results in comparable or improved performance, and most
importantly is more robust against noise
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