Detection of bimanual gestures everywhere: why it matters, what we need and what is missing

Bimanual gestures are of the utmost importance for the study of motor coordination in humans and in everyday activities. A reliable detection of bimanual gestures in unconstrained environments is fundamental for their clinical study and to assess common activities of daily living. This paper investigates techniques for a reliable, unconstrained detection and classification of bimanual gestures. It assumes the availability of inertial data originating from the two hands/arms, builds upon a previously developed technique for gesture modelling based on Gaussian Mixture Modelling (GMM) and Gaussian Mixture Regression (GMR), and compares different modelling and classification techniques, which are based on a number of assumptions inspired by literature about how bimanual gestures are represented and modelled in the brain. Experiments show results related to 5 everyday bimanual activities, which have been selected on the basis of three main parameters: (not) constraining the two hands by a physical tool, (not) requiring a specific sequence of single-hand gestures, being recursive (or not). In the best performing combination of modeling approach and classification technique, five out of five activities are recognized up to an accuracy of 97%, a precision of 82% and a level of recall of 100%.Comment: Submitted to Robotics and Autonomous Systems (Elsevier

Utility of bilateral superficial cervical plexus block in thyroidectomy patients for post-operative analgesia

Background: Thyroidectomy is painful procedure hence multimodal analgesia is required. Superficial cervical plexus block can be used for analgesia in thyroid surgeries. USG guided cervical plexus block administration is safe and latest technique as a part of multimodal analgesia for thyroid surgery.Methods: After obtaining consent 60 ASA grade I-II adult patients undergoing elective thyroid surgery were included and randomly divided into two groups (group B)-0.25% bupivacaine and (group S)-normal saline. Induction and maintenance under general anesthesia carried out as per standard protocol. After Induction USG guided block was administered with the drug solution as per allocated group. After surgery, patients were extubated and shifted to recovery room. Vital parameters were monitored. Patients were asked about their pain based on the 11-point numerical rating scales (NRS) score. The NRS score and other variables were documented at 3rd hour, 6th hour, 12th hour, and 24th hour at wards after the end of surgery. Time since the end of surgery to the first analgesia request was documented together with total analgesia consumed in the first 24 hours. If NRS score was ≥4 inj. Tramadol iv in incremental doses of 25 mg was given until pain relieved.Results: Time to first dose of analgesia was higher in group B compared to group S. Total analgesic dose of tramadol during first 24 hours was lower in group B compared to group SConclusions: bilateral superficial cervical plexus block can be used as a part of multi-modal analgesia in patients of thyroidectoy

Outcomes of ovulation induction-intrauterine insemination in lean, overweight, and obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Objective: To compare pregnancy rates between lean, overweight, and obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) undergoing ovulation induction-intrauterine insemination (OI-IUI). Design: Retrospective cohort study Setting: Academic training program Patient(s): All women with PCOS undergoing OI-IUI from January 2000 to November 2013. Interventions: Ovulation induction-intrauterine insemination with oral (oral OI-IUI) or combined oral and injectable (combined OI-IUI) agents. Main Outcome Measures: Clinical pregnancy rates (CPR) per IUI were compared in 198 women undergoing oral OI-IUI and combined OI-IUI. Multivariate logistic regression was used to calculate the odds of clinical pregnancy while adjusting for potential confounders. Results were expressed as adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI), using lean women as the referent population. Results: In lean PCOS patients undergoing combined OI-IUI, the unadjusted CPR was 52%; CPR was comparatively lower in overweight (22%), obese (27%) and morbidly obese (21%) women for all cycles. Adjusting for age and duration of infertility, the odds of clinical pregnancy after combined OI-IUI was significantly diminished in overweight (OR=0.27 CI=0.12-0.63), obese (OR=0.41, CI=0.20-0.83) and morbidly obese women (OR=0.33 CI=0.14-0.78) as compared to the lean PCOS referent. A similar but non-significant trend was identified in women undergoing oral OI-IUI. Conclusion: Lean women with PCOS have a higher CPR after combined OI-IUI as compared to their overweight, obese, and morbidly obese counterparts. Patients with a lean PCOS phenotype may preferentially benefit from this treatment approach

NOVEL TOPICAL ANTI-AGING HERBAL COMPOSITION

Objective: Anti-aging formulations are among the premier skin care products in the global market that are in huge demand. Different treatments are available to slow down skin aging, but are very expensive and are often found to produce adverse reactions to the skin in prolong use. Hence, present study has been designed to formulate poly herbal anti-aging skin care products and their evaluation thereon. Methods: Anti-aging herbal skin care cream, gel and serum were prepared using two medicinal plants Hippophae salicifolia and Celosia argentea along with three bioactives caffeine, rutin and bakuchiol. The formulations were evaluated for physicochemical parameters like pH, texture analysis, acid value, short-term stability study, etc. Phenolics and flavanoid content were determined. Anti-aging potential was gauged by in silico studies using the glide tool of ‘Schrodinger’. Results: Cream, gel and serum showed good physical appearance and were free from gritty particles and with smooth texture. Accelerated stability studies indicated insignificant changes in physicochemical parameters of the formulations. Based on the docking score and interaction with amino acid, compounds present in the plant extracts and bioactive showed good anti-aging activity. Conclusion: The prepared herbal anti-aging formulations were found to be stable and exhibited good potential as an anti-aging combination. So, they can be used as an effective combination to protect skin from aging

Soil Structure Interaction Effect on High Rise and Low Rise Buildings

Effect of supporting soil on the response of structure has been analyzed in the present study. A low rise (G+ 5 storey) and a high rise (G+12 storey) building has been taken for the analysis. For both type of buildings, the response of building with and without consideration of soil structure interaction effect has been compared.Without interaction case is the case in which ends of the structure are assumed to be fixed while in interaction case, structure is assumed to be resting on soil strata (ends are not fix). Type of supporting soil has been also changed based on modulus of elasticity of soil (soft, medium and hard soil). STAAD Pro. 2006 software has been used for analysis. It has been observed that response of G+12 storey building is affected more by soil structure interaction effect as compared to G+5 storey building. In case of soft soil the response of both type of buildings are changed very drastically compared to without interaction case. While in case of hard soil there is not much difference in response of buildings compared to without interaction case. Medium soil is showing intermediate effects

Circuit-PSI with Linear Complexity via Relaxed Batch OPPRF

In $2$-party Circuit-based Private Set Intersection (Circuit-PSI), $P_0$ and $P_1$ hold sets $\mathsf{S}_{0}$ and $\mathsf{S}_{1}$ respectively and wish to securely compute a function $f$ over the set $\mathsf{S}_{0} \cap \mathsf{S}_{1}$ (e.g., cardinality, sum over associated attributes, or threshold intersection). Following a long line of work, Pinkas et al. ($\mathsf{PSTY}$, Eurocrypt 2019) showed how to construct a concretely efficient Circuit-PSI protocol with linear communication complexity. However, their protocol requires super-linear computation. In this work, we construct concretely efficient Circuit-PSI protocols with linear computational and communication cost. Further, our protocols are more performant than the state-of-the-art, $\mathsf{PSTY}$ -- we are $\approx 2.3\times$ more communication efficient and are up to $2.8\times$ faster. We obtain our improvements through a new primitive called Relaxed Batch Oblivious Programmable Pseudorandom Functions ($\mathsf{RBOPPRF}$) that can be seen as a strict generalization of Batch $\mathsf{OPPRF}$s that were used in $\mathsf{PSTY}$. We believe that this primitive could be of independent interest

OCCLUSION IN IMPLANT-AT A GLANCE

Objectives: Occlusion is a critical and very important component for the clinical success and longevity of dental implants. This review article focuses on the various aspects of implant protective occlusion. Our scientific literature regarding implant occlusion, particularly in implant-supported fixed dental prostheses remains controversial.Materials and methods: A search strategy was performed in MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar with keywords – ‘implants’ and ‘occlusion’, ‘implants’ and ‘fixed prosthesis, ‘implants’ and ‘fixed dental prostheses’, ‘implants’ and ‘partial edentulism’, ‘implants’ and ‘complications’, ‘implants’ and ‘failures’, ‘implants’ and ‘cantilever’, ‘implants’ and ‘occlusal load’.Results: 135 articles were retrieved. After hand search a total of 290 articles were identified. Ultimately, 30 articles were selected and summarized and discussed as they met the selection criteria.Conclusion: Most of the available clinical data are controversial. Implant-protected occlusion can be accomplished by decreasing the width of the occlusal table and improving the direction of force. By doing these things, we can minimize overload on bone-implant interfaces and implant prostheses, to maintain an implant load within the physiological limits of individualized occlusion, and ultimately provide long-term stability of implants and implant prostheses. Current clinical practices rely heavily on principles extracted from the natural dentition or removable dental prostheses on complete edentulous patients and on expert opinions

Mixed connective tissue disease presenting with isolated pulmonary hypertension, and limited cutaneous sclerosis

Mixed connective tissue disease (MCTD) was first recognized by Sharp and Colleagues in 1972 among a group of patients with overlapping clinical features of systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE), scleroderma and myositis, with the presence of distinctive antibodies against, what now is known to be U1ribonucleoprotein (RNP). We report an unusual case of a 29-year old female with MCTD characterized by the coexistence of signs, symptoms and immunological features of 3 defined autoimmune diseases isolated PHT, cutaneous sclerosis (SSc), hypothyroidism