A Novel Web-Based Depth Video Rewind Approach toward Fall Preventive Interventions in Hospitals

Falls in the hospital rooms are considered a huge burden on healthcare costs. They can lead to injuries, extended length of stay, and increase in cost for both the patients and the hospital. It can also lead to emotional trauma for the patients and their families [1]. Having Microsoft Kinects installed in the hospital rooms to capture and process every movement in the room, we deployed our previously developed fall-detection system to detect naturally occurring falls, generate a real-time fall alarm and broadcast it to hospital nurses for immediate intervention. These systems also store a processed and reduced version of the 3D depth videos on a central file storage to provide information to the dedicated nursing team for post-fall quality improvement process. The compression technique that helps reducing video size by omitting non-movement frames from it also makes it almost impossible for the hospital staff to find the event that led to a fall alarm. There was a need to visualize fall events and the video contents accordingly. In this paper, we describe a web-application with a handy user interface to easily search among terabytes of depth videos to facilitate the finding and reviewing of the chain of events that lead to a patient fall. We will also discuss the improvements in the new version of the application which reduced the size of transferred videos by converting them to MP4 videos and makes the application platform free. This improvements in speed and compatibility on different browsers, caused more user satisfaction and more frequent use of the web-application

Possible co-existence of local itinerancy and global localization in a quasi-one-dimensional conductor

In the chain compound PrBa$_2$Cu$_4$O$_8$ localization appears simultaneously with a dimensional crossover in the electronic ground state when the scattering rate in the chains exceeds the hopping rate between the chains. Here we report the discovery of a large, transverse magnetoresistance in PrBa$_2$Cu$_4$O$_8$ in the localized regime. This result suggests a novel form of localization whereby electrons retain their metallic (quasi-one-dimensional) character over a microscopic length scale despite the fact that macroscopically, they exhibit localized (one-dimensional) behavior.Comment: 4 pages, 4 Figure

Special Section on Local and Distributed Electricity Markets

Driven by the Goals of Clean Energy and Zero Carbon Emissions, the Power Industry is Undergoing Significant Transformations. the Rapid Growth of Diverse Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) at Grid Edge Such as Rooftop Photovoltaics (PVs) and Electric Vehicles is Transforming the Traditional Centralized Power Grid Management to a Decentralized, Bottom-Up, and Localized Control Paradigm. Establishing Local and Distribution-Level Electricity Markets Provides an Effective Solution to Managing Large Amounts of Small-Scale DERs. New Regulations Such as the Recent FERC Order 2222 in the U.S. Open the Door to DERs in the Wholesale Markets. through Coordinating the Local and Distribution-Level Markets with the Transmission-Level Wholesale Market, the DERs and Prosumers Can Trade Energy and Flexibility Locally with Each Other and Meanwhile Provide Energy, Flexibility and Ancillary Services to the Bulk Power Grid. during This Transition, There Are Many New Technical Challenges to Address, Calling for Innovative Ideas and Interdisciplinary Research in This Promising Direction. Advanced Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Are Needed, as a Key Enabler, for the Development and Practical Implementation of Local and Distribution Electricity Markets. Research into Local and Distribution Markets is Strongly Interdisciplinary, Involving the State of the Art in Power Engineering, Economics, and Digital/information Technology. a Broad Spectrum of Contributors from Universities, Industry, Research Laboratories and Policy Makers is Sought to Develop and Present Solutions and Technologies that Will Facilitate and Advance Practical Applications and Implementations of Local and Distribution-Level Electricity Markets to Uncover the Values of DERs

Anxiety as a consequence of modern dietary pattern in adults in Tehran-Iran

Food intake patterns in relation to mental health have already been revealed. To investigate the relationship between processed food consumption behavior and anxiety disorder, a cross sectional study was conducted. Overall, 1782 young adults aged 18-35 years were randomly selected using cluster sampling method from 22 districts of Tehran Iran in 2011. Diet assessment was done using a 24 hour recall questionnaire in two times with a week interval. Anxiety level was determined using the validated Speilburger test (Persian version). A proportional odds regression model was used to assess the effect of processed food consumption on anxiety variables. A significant statistical difference was found between men and women in terms of processed food consumption (p<0.001). Adjusting for age, total calorie intake, gender, body mass index, socioeconomic status, and history of sedative drug consumption as well as mental health disorders, the proportional odds regression model showed a significant relationship between increased consumption of processed foods and anxiety (OR = 4.73, 95 CI: 2.89-12.54 for state and OR = 4.91, 95 CI: 2.88-13.99 for trait). Identification, modification and adjusting incorrect food patterns in the community could be considered as valuable steps to turn down nutritional-based health difficulties. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Scorpion fauna (Arachnida: Scorpiones) in Darmian county, Iran (2015-2016)

Background and purpose: Venomous bite and specific morphological features of scorpions are the most important reasons for paying attention to scorpions. Anxiety and stress caused by scorpions and their stings are amongst the important health issues in many countries especially in Iran. This study was conducted on scorpions’ fauna in Darmian County, South Khorasan province, Iran. Materials and methods: In this study, 21 districts in Darmian were sampled including plains, mountains, residential, non-residential, rural and urban areas. Sampling effort was conducted monthly in 2015-16. Scorpions were collected by actively searching in day and night using pitfall trap. The specimens were identified by appropriate identification keys. Results: Totally 685 specimens were collected. Five species including Mesobuthus eupeus, M. caucasicus Androctonus crassicauda, Orthochirus scrobiculosus, and Compsobuthus matthiesseni were identified from Butidae family. The most frequent species was M. eupeus (n= 373, 54.5%), while A. crassicauda (n= 22, 3.2%) was recognized as the least frequency species. Conclusion: Androctonus crassicauda (black scorpion) was found as the most dangerous species in Iran, so, alongside care programs for scorpionism in Darmian, prescription of anti-scorpion serum in cases stung by scorpion should be done by considering the coloring of scorpion and residential area of injured person. © 2016, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved

Fragile three-dimensionality in the quasi-one-dimensional cuprate PrBa_2Cu_4O_8

In this article we report on the experimental realization of dimensional crossover phenomena in the chain compound PrBa$_2$Cu$_4$O$_8$ using temperature, high magnetic fields and disorder as independent tuning parameters. In purer crystals of PrBa$_2$Cu$_4$O$_8$, a highly anisotropic three-dimensional Fermi-liquid state develops at low temperatures. This metallic state is extremely susceptible to disorder however and localization rapidly sets in. We show, through quantitative comparison of the relevant energy scales, that this metal/insulator crossover occurs precisely when the scattering rate within the chain exceeds the interchain hopping rate(s), i.e. once carriers become confined to a single conducting element.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, published at http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1367-2630/8/9/172/njp6_9_172.htm

Case study exemplar of detecting severe diastolic dysfunction using ballistocardiogram

The specific aim of this case study was to describe how monitoring ballistocardiogram (BCG) waveforms can detect early heart failure (HF) changes. HF significantly impairs quality of life and is the principal cause for hospital readmissions in older adults. HF prevalence in American adults aged 65 years and older is expected to increase over 70% by 2030. Detecting worsening HF is challenging. Invasive arterial waveforms display blood pressure changes with each heartbeat; BCG waveforms display repetitive body motions resulting from ejection of blood into the great vessels. BCG waveforms change as cardiac function changes. Currently, BCG signals can be captured non-invasively using sensors placed under a bed mattress and provide heart and respiratory rates. We have developed a new way to analyze the BCG waveform using an innovative closed-loop physiological model of the cardiovascular system. The subject, a 94-year old female with hypertension, presented to her physician with symptoms associated with a new diagnosis of acute mixed congestive HF. Mean heart and respiratory rate trends obtained from her bed sensor in the prior two months did not indicate HF. We simulated cardiac cycles using normal cardiac function data, mildly impaired diastolic function data, and the subject’s echocardiography data. The results demonstrated BCG waveform changes that correlated with decreasing cardiac output related to worsening diastolic function. New methods for clinically interpreting BCG waveforms present a significant opportunity for improving early HF detection and improving outcomes. Working on a clinical problem from an engineering perspective merges two disciplines, creating a new methodology

In vitro activation and enzyme kinetic analysis of recombinant midgut serine proteases from the Dengue vector mosquito Aedes aegypti

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The major Dengue virus vector <it>Aedes aegypti </it>requires nutrients obtained from blood meal proteins to complete the gonotrophic cycle. Although bioinformatic analyses of <it>Ae. aegypti </it>midgut serine proteases have provided evolutionary insights, very little is known about the biochemical activity of these digestive enzymes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We used peptide specific antibodies to show that midgut serine proteases are expressed as zymogen precursors, which are cleaved to the mature form after blood feeding. Since midgut protein levels are insufficient to purify active proteases directly from blood fed mosquitoes, we engineered recombinant proteins encoding a heterologous enterokinase cleavage site to permit generation of the bona fide mature form of four midgut serine proteases (AaET, AaLT, AaSPVI, AaSPVII) for enzyme kinetic analysis. Cleavage of the chromogenic trypsin substrate BApNA showed that AaET has a catalytic efficiency (k_cat/K_M) that is ~30 times higher than bovine trypsin, and ~2-3 times higher than AaSPVI and AaSPVII, however, AaLT does not cleave BApNA. To measure the enzyme activities of the mosquito midgut proteases using natural substrates, we developed a quantitative cleavage assay based on cleavage of albumin and hemoglobin proteins. These studies revealed that the recombinant AaLT enzyme was indeed catalytically active, and cleaved albumin and hemoglobin with equivalent efficiency to that of AaET, AaSPVI, and AaSPVII. Structural modeling of the AaLT and AaSPVI mature forms indicated that AaLT is most similar to serine collagenases, whereas AaSPVI appears to be a classic trypsin.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data show that <it>in vitro </it>activation of recombinant serine proteases containing a heterologous enterokinase cleavage site can be used to investigate enzyme kinetics and substrate cleavage properties of biologically important mosquito proteases.</p