Amyand's hernia-a vermiform appendix presenting in an inguinal hernia: a case series

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>A vermiform appendix in an inguinal hernia, inflamed or not, is known as Amyand's hernia. Here we present a case series of four men with Amyand's hernia.</p> <p>Case presentations</p> <p>We retrospectively studied 963 Caucasian patients with inguinal hernia who were admitted to our surgical department over a 12-year period. Four patients presented with Amyand's hernia (0.4%). A 32-year-old Caucasian man had an inflamed vermiform appendix in his hernial sac (acute appendicitis), presenting as an incarcerated right groin hernia, and underwent simultaneous appendectomy and Bassini suture hernia repair. Two patients, Caucasian men aged 36 and 43 years old, had normal appendices in their sacs, which clinically appeared as non-incarcerated right groin hernias. Both underwent a plug-mesh hernia repair without appendectomy. The fourth patient, a 25-year-old Caucasian man with a large but not inflamed appendix in his sac, had a plug-mesh hernia repair with appendectomy.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A hernia surgeon may encounter unexpected intraoperative findings, such as Amyand's hernia. It is important to be prepared and apply the appropriate treatment.</p

A music sharing platform using an embedded system

Due to the rapid growth of technology over the last few decades, the urban e-waste generation rate has constantly been increasing. Discarded electronic appliances such as mobile phones, computers and televisions have caused increasing environmental concerns. Recycling and reusing these products is the only way to make a sustainable environment. In this paper, we propose a low cost system based on the Arduino Nano microcontroller that uses obsolete hardware that would otherwise be considered garbage, such as floppy and disk drives to play music using MIDI files. The system can be used as an instrument in schools to teach students about music, about how sound is produced and also compose music. The cost of the proposed system is lower compared to other implementations found in literature. Finally, we evaluated the performance of the proposed prototype by using a wide range of audio files in different scenarios

Secure Autonomous Cloud Brained Humanoid Robot Assisting Rescuers in Hazardous Environments

On 31 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency after the discovery of a new pandemic disease that caused severe lung problems. The spread of the disease at an international level drew the attention of many researchers who attempted to find solutions to ameliorate the problem. The implementation of robotics has been one of the proposed solutions, as automated humanoid robots can be used in many situations and limit the exposure of humans to the disease. Many humanoid robot implementations are found in the literature; however, most of them have some distinct drawbacks, such as a high cost and complexity. Our research proposes a novel, secure and efficient programmable system using a humanoid robot that is able to autonomously move and detect survivors in emergency scenarios, with the potential to communicate verbally with victims. The proposed humanoid robot is powered by the cloud and benefits from the powerful storage, computation, and communication resources of a typical modern data center. In order to evaluate the proposed system, we conducted multiple experiments in synthetic hazardous environments

Design and Implementation of a Robotic Arm Assistant with Voice Interaction Using Machine Vision

It is evident that the technological growth of the last few decades has signaled the development of several application domains. One application domain that has expanded massively in recent years is robotics. The usage and spread of robotic systems in commercial and non-commercial environments resulted in increased productivity, efficiency, and higher quality of life. Many researchers have developed systems that improve many aspects of people’s lives, based on robotics. Most of the engineers use high-cost robotic arms, which are usually out of the reach of typical consumers. We fill this gap by presenting a low-cost and high-accuracy project to be used as a robotic assistant for every consumer. Our project aims to further improve people’s quality of life, and more specifically people with physical and mobility impairments. The robotic system is based on the Niryo-One robotic arm, equipped with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) HD (High Definition) camera on the end-effector. To achieve high accuracy, we modified the YOLO algorithm by adding novel features and additional computations to be used in the kinematic model. We evaluated the proposed system by conducting experiments using PhD students of our laboratory and demonstrated its effectiveness. The experimental results indicate that the robotic arm can detect and deliver the requested object in a timely manner with a 96.66% accuracy

Secure Autonomous Cloud Brained Humanoid Robot Assisting Rescuers in Hazardous Environments

On 31 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency after the discovery of a new pandemic disease that caused severe lung problems. The spread of the disease at an international level drew the attention of many researchers who attempted to find solutions to ameliorate the problem. The implementation of robotics has been one of the proposed solutions, as automated humanoid robots can be used in many situations and limit the exposure of humans to the disease. Many humanoid robot implementations are found in the literature; however, most of them have some distinct drawbacks, such as a high cost and complexity. Our research proposes a novel, secure and efficient programmable system using a humanoid robot that is able to autonomously move and detect survivors in emergency scenarios, with the potential to communicate verbally with victims. The proposed humanoid robot is powered by the cloud and benefits from the powerful storage, computation, and communication resources of a typical modern data center. In order to evaluate the proposed system, we conducted multiple experiments in synthetic hazardous environments

Envisioning IoT applications in a smart city to underpin an effective municipal strategy: The smartbin project

Due to the Earth’s population rapid growth and the modern lifestyle, the urban waste creation rate constantly increases.Organic waste, which forms a significant part of municipal solid waste, has caused increasing environmental concerns. Recycling is the only way to make a sustainable environment. According to estimations from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, around 24 percent of the total waste can be composted. Instead, most of it is land filled and incinerated. By composting organic waste,we can preserve resources and produce a valuable by-product that can be used as a locally produced fertilizer. In this paper, we propose a solution: a low-cost and effective Smart Compost Bin that utilizes modern technologies, such as environmental sensors and the LoRaWAN protocol to assist with the compost process.A centralized Information System collects measurements from smart bins that can be deployed anywhere and can further assist with the waste collection process. We have performed several experiments with our smart bin prototype, evaluated its efficiency and concluded that it is a feasible solution

Searching Online for Art and Culture: User Behavior Analysis

With the constant expansion of the Web, search engines became part of people’s daily routines. How users behave during the search process depends on a variety factors, one of which is the topic of their search interest. This study focused on the behavior of users searching the Web for content related to art and cultural heritage. A proprietary, publicly available, federated search engine, in the form of a web and mobile app, was developed for this research’s purposes. This platform was used to monitor actual user behavior during a six-month period. Quantitative data related to the platform’s usage were collected and analyzed in order to provide a detailed picture of the way interested parties engaged with it. This information pertained not only to the search queries and results viewed, but also to the various characteristics of the search sessions themselves. The study presented an analysis of these data, with emphasis on query and result characteristics, usage devices, login preferences and session duration, and drew conclusions. The study’s findings showed, among other things, that art searchers showed a preference for shorter queries, a tendency for higher query repeatability, and showed interest in a wider number of results than general purpose searchers. Additionally, they were more keen to use desktop devices instead of mobile ones and displayed higher engagement metrics during longer search sessions or when logged in. These findings outlined an art searcher who was interested in concepts and people often revisited searches and results, showed interest for more than the first few hits, was attracted by rich content, and understood the art search process as a task which requires focus. They also pointed out a duality in the art search process itself which can be long and involved or short and purposeful