3D far-field Lidar sensing and computational modeling for human identification.

3D sensors offer depth sensing that may be used for task-specific data processing and computational modeling. Many existing methods for human identification using 3D depth sensors primarily focus on Kinect data, where the range is very limited. This work considers a 3D long-range Lidar sensor for far-field imaging of human subjects in 3D Lidar full motion video (FMV) of "walking" action.

Measures of Autonomic Dysfunction in Diabetic and Idiopathic Gastroparesis.

Background: Gastroparesis is a condition classically characterized by delayed gastric emptying and is associated with considerable morbidity. While the etiology of gastroparesis remains elusive, autonomic dysfunction may play an important role, especially as many patients with gastroparesis also have diabetes. The aim of this study was to determine whether measures of autonomic function differ between adults with diabetic gastroparesis (DG) and adults with idiopathic gastroparesis (IG).

Sweat pore reactivity as a surrogate measure of sympathetic nervous system activity in trauma-exposed individuals with and without posttraumatic stress disorder.

Stress analysis by FLIR (forward-looking infrared) evaluation (SAFE) has been demonstrated to monitor sweat pore activation (SPA) as a novel surrogate measure of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in a normal population. SNS responses to a series of 15 1-s, 82 dB, white noise bursts were measured by skin conductance (SC) and SAFE monitoring of SPA on the fingers (FiP) and face (FaP) in 10 participants with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 16 trauma-exposed participants without PTSD (Mage  = 48.92 ± 12.

Autonomic and Enteric Nervous System Dysfunction May Play a Role in Hyperemesis Gravidarum.

Background: Nausea and vomiting, seen in 70-85% of all pregnancies, becomes intractable in hyperemesis gravidarum (HG). We aimed to investigate the relationship between HG and autonomic nervous system functioning and gastric electrical activity.

Methods: Twenty-seven pregnant patients, 21 with HG and six normal, were studied with sympathetic adrenergic; percent vasoconstriction (%VC) and postural adjustment ratio (PAR); parasympathetic vagal cholinergic functions by R-to-R intervals (RRIs), a total autonomic score; and enteric nervous system measured by electrogastrography (EGG).

Electrophysiologic, morphologic, and serologic features of chronic unexplained nausea and vomiting: lessons learned from 121 consecutive patients.

Background: Despite substantive morbidity, unexplained nausea and vomiting has not been evaluated in a systematic manner via surgically obtained biopsies and direct electrophysiology of the gut, and this information has not been correlated with serologic information. We investigated consecutive patients with unexplained and refractory chronic nausea and vomiting to define the presence of morphologic, physiologic, and/or serologic abnormalities.

Methods: In all, 101 of 121 consecutive patients who experienced chronic nausea and vomiting of unknown etiology evaluated in 1 tertiary referral center over a 10-year period were profiled qualitatively by full-thickness small bowel biopsies with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and Smith's Silver stains, quantitatively by intraoperative gastric electrophysiology, and semiquantitatively, when it became available, by serum autoimmune Western blot analysis.