High resolution time frequency representation with significantly reduced cross-terms

A novel algorithm is proposed for efficiently smoothing the slices of the Wigner distribution by exploiting the recently developed relation between the Radon transform of the ambiguity function and the fractional Fourier transformation. The main advantage of the new algorithm is its ability to suppress cross-term interference on chirp-like auto-components without any detrimental effect to the auto-components. For a signal with N samples, the computational complexity of the algorithm is O(N log N) flops for each smoothed slice of the Wigner distribution

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Study of quantitative sleeping Electroencephalography (EEG) in bruxism cases

Bruxism is a behavioral disorder characterized by daytime or nighttime tooth grinding. Many etiological factors have been suggested for sleep bruxism. Among these, elevated mental and physical alertness have been proposed to characterize subjects with this disorder

Genotyping of PrP gene in native Turkish sheep breeds

Scrapie is an infectious fatal disease of sheep that affects the central nervous system. Polymorphisms in sheep PrP gene are known to be related to scrapie susceptibility. Selection programmes for scrapie based on PrP genotyping data are available for many of the European sheep breeds. So far comparable data for local Turkish sheep breeds are not available. The aim of this study was genotyping of PrP gene in Turkish native sheep to find out their risk groups. Therefore, in this study 109 native Turkish sheep belonging to Kivircik, Sakiz and Imroz breeds were genotyped by means of PCR and direct sequencing. The polymorphism detected in the prion gene was made up six alleles ARR, ARQ, AHQ, VRQ, TRQ, ARH and 12 genotypes, ARR/ARR, ARR/TRQ, ARR/ARQ, ARQ/AHQ, ARH/TRQ, TRQ/TRQ, ARQ/TRQ, ARQ/ARQ, ARQ/ARH, ARH/ARH, ARR/VRQ and ARQ/VRQ. In addition, eight polymorphisms were identified (M112T, A116E, R138M, N146S, Y172D, S173N, V179E and R231R) at different codons of PrP gene. The data have shown that PrP genes of the analysed sheep are highly variable and the most of the genotypes belong to risk groups 1 and 2. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

MELF Pattern for Predicting Lymph Node Involvement and Survival in Grade I-II Endometrioid-type Endometrial Cancer

The aim of this study was to examine the associations between microcystic, elongated, and fragmented (MELF) pattern and other prognostic factors and lymph node involvement, disease-free survival, and overall survival (OS) using a case-control group consisting of grade I-II endometrioid endometrial carcinoma (EEC) patients with/without lymph node involvement. The files of the patients were searched electronically for all hysterectomy specimens with a diagnosis of grade I-II EEC of the uterine body from January 1, 2008 to July 31, 2014. Lymph node involvement was detected in 27 patients who were histologically diagnosed with grade I-II EEC, and these patients made up the case group. Using a dependent random sampling method, 28 grade I-II EEC patients without lymph node involvement were selected. According to multivariate regression analysis, lymphovascular space invasion [odds ratio, 23.5; 95% confidence interval (CI), 2.4-223.5] and MELF pattern (odds ratio, 13.3; 95% CI, 1.4-121.8) were significant predictors of lymph node involvement. There was recurrence in 15.8% of cases that showed a MELF pattern and in 19.4% of those that did not (P=0.738). According to Kaplan-Meier analysis, the MELF pattern revealed no significant differences in disease-free survival (hazard ratio, 1.0; 95% CI, 0.1-36.5), whereas the effect on OS was significant (hazard ratio, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.3-4.2). The presence of MELF pattern was a substantial risk factor for detecting lymph node involvement in patients with grade I-II EEC. The MELF pattern may be important for identifying which patients need staging surgery, in addition to its effect on the OS