PSON: A Serialization Format for IoT Sensor Networks.

In many Internet of Things (IoT) environments, the lifetime of a sensor is linked to its power supply. Sensor devices capture external information and transmit it. They also receive messages with control commands, which means that one of the largest computational overheads of sensor devices is spent on data serialization and deserialization tasks, as well as data transmission.

Outlier Detection Transilience-Probabilistic Model for Wind Tunnels Based on Sensor Data.

Anomaly Detection research is focused on the development and application of methods that allow for the identification of data that are different enough-compared with the rest of the data set that is being analyzed-and considered anomalies (or, as they are more commonly called, outliers). These values mainly originate from two sources: they may be errors introduced during the collection or handling of the data, or they can be correct, but very different from the rest of the values. It is essential to correctly identify each type as, in the first case, they must be removed from the data set but, in the second case, they must be carefully analyzed and taken into account.

Chair-based exercise programs in institutionalized older women: Salivary steroid hormones, disabilities and frailty changes.

Purpose: Many people experience aging-related losses in different physical domains, which leads to a condition often called physical frailty (PF). The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of two different, 28-weeks, class chair-exercise protocols on salivary steroid hormones (SH), PF, and functional disabilities (FD) in frail older women.

Methods: A sample of older frail individuals (n = 60, 817.

Exploring the potential of salivary and blood immune biomarkers to elucidate physical frailty in institutionalized older women.

Identification of older populations at increased risk of physical frailty using biochemical approaches could improve screening accuracy. The aim of this study was to study the relationship between immune markers and independent components of physical frailty in institutionalized older women. A sample of 358 institutionalized-dwelling women, aged 75 years and older, were assessed for biosocial factors and general health status, pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines, sex steroid hormones, salivary anti-microbial proteins, blood cells counts and the five Fried's physical frailty components that allowed for classification of the sample into frail, prefrailty and not-frail subgroups.

Physical frailty and health outcomes of fitness, hormones, psychological and disability in institutionalized older women: an exploratory association study.

Little is known about symptoms associated with frailty in institutionalized Portuguese older adults. This study aimed to investigate the association of frailty with diverse geriatric health characteristics. Cross-sectional data from 140 women aged between 75 and 85 years were analyzed.

A Novel Ecological Approach Reveals Early Executive Function Impairments in Huntington's Disease.

Impairments in executive functions are common in neurogenetic disorders such as Huntington's disease (HD) and are thought to significantly influence the patient's functional status. Reliable tools with higher ecological validity that can assess and predict the impact of executive dysfunction in daily-life performance are needed. This study aimed to develop and validate a novel non-immersive virtual reality task ("EcoKitchen") created with the purpose of capturing cognitive and functional changes shown by HD carriers without clinical manifestations of the disease (Premanifest HD), in a more realistic setting.

Thinger.io: An Open Source Platform for Deploying Data Fusion Applications in IoT Environments.

In the last two decades, data and information fusion has experienced significant development due mainly to advances in sensor technology. The sensors provide a continuous flow of data about the environment in which they are deployed, which is received and processed to build a dynamic estimation of the situation. With current technology, it is relatively simple to deploy a set of sensors in a specific geographic area, in order to have highly sensorized spaces.

Ischemic Stroke Incidence in Patients With Microvascular Ocular Motor Palsy Versus Patients With Lacunar Ischemic Stroke.

Objective: Presumed microvascular ischemia is the most frequent cause of ocular motor palsy (OMP). Ischemic stroke incidence after an episode of microvascular OMP (mOMP) is not established, contrasting with other common vascular conditions, such as lacunar ischemic stroke (LS). We sought to compare the incidence of subsequent ischemic stroke between mOMP and LS populations.

Association between Adipokines and Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Adipose tissue dysfunction has been implicated in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease. However, the involvement of adipokines, particularly adiponectin, remains unclear.

Objective: To compare serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of adiponectin, leptin and leptin-to-adiponectin ratio in patients within the spectrum of Alzheimer's disease and evaluate their relationship with classical biomarkers and their value as markers of progression.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as an Intervention Tool to Recover from Language, Swallowing and Attentional Deficits after Stroke: A Systematic Review.

Background: Following a stroke event, patients often are severely affected by disabilities that hinder their quality-of-life. There are currently several rehabilitative options and strategies, and it is crucial to find the most effective interventions. The applicability of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the recovery of nonmotor functions such as communication skills, swallowing ability and spatial attention after stroke remains important clinical questions.

Burnout in radiation therapists: Systematic review with meta-analysis.

The main aim of this review is to evaluate the burnout levels experienced by radiation therapists. PubMed, Lilacs and Google Scholar were searched for articles reporting burnout levels in radiation therapists. Only studies explicitly assessing burnout and using a validated instrument were retrieved.

Effectiveness of Acupuncture on Pain, Functional Disability, and Quality of Life in Rheumatoid Arthritis of the Hand: Results of a Double-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by pain, functional disability, poor quality of life (QoL), high socioeconomic impact, and annual costs of over $56 billion in the United States. Acupuncture (AC) is widely in use; however, studies show severe methodological shortcomings, did not consider the functional diagnosis for the allocation of acupoints and their results showed no differences between verum and control groups.

Objective: The authors aimed to objectively assess the safety and efficacy of AC treatments for RA.

Choroidal thickness changes stratified by outcome in real-world treatment of diabetic macular edema.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) as a marker of outcome in real-world treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME) and to correlate it with choroidal thicknesses (CT) collected around the fovea.

Methods: Prospective interventional case series included a total of 126 eyes from 126 patients with recently diagnosed DME treated with a 3-monthly loading dose of ranibizumab or aflibercept and PRN thereafter until 24 months (M). CT was manually measured in the central 3500 μm area, subfoveally (SFCT), at 1750 μm right and left from the center in the horizontal plane and at 1750 μm up and down from the center in the vertical plane, by OCT.

Using Resistin, glucose, age and BMI to predict the presence of breast cancer.

Background: The goal of this exploratory study was to develop and assess a prediction model which can potentially be used as a biomarker of breast cancer, based on anthropometric data and parameters which can be gathered in routine blood analysis.

Methods: For each of the 166 participants several clinical features were observed or measured, including age, BMI, Glucose, Insulin, HOMA, Leptin, Adiponectin, Resistin and MCP-1. Machine learning algorithms (logistic regression, random forests, support vector machines) were implemented taking in as predictors different numbers of variables.

Sonographic Criteria Predictive of Malignant Thyroid Nodules: Which Lesions Should be Biopsied?

Rationale And Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the ultrasound features of thyroid nodules and their association with malignancy, focusing on establishing feature-oriented ultrasound criteria to determine proper management of a thyroid nodule.

Materials And Methods: A sample of 379 thyroid nodules were biopsied (from a total of 357 patients aged 59.8 ± 14.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess neuroadaptation to multifocal intraocular lenses.

Purpose: To evaluate the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess neuroadaptation to multifocal intraocular lenses (IOLs).

Setting: Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.

Design: Prospective case study.

The Use of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Stroke Rehabilitation: A Systematic Review.

Objectives: Stroke is a leading cause of disability. Alternative and more effective techniques for stroke rehabilitation have been sought to overcome limitations of conventional therapies. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) arises as a promising tool in this context.

Physical Fitness and Frailty Syndrome in Institutionalized Older Women.

Associations between frailty and physical-functional fitness (PFF) indicators in frail women over 65 years of age remain largely unexplored. This study analyzed the relationship between frailty syndrome (FS) and PFF indicators and assessed how the latter might predict the former. Participants were 119 elderly women (81.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Assess the Neurobehavioral Impact of Dysphotopsia with Multifocal Intraocular Lenses.

Purpose: To investigate the association between dysphotopsia and neural responses in visual and higher-level cortical regions in patients who recently received multifocal intraocular lens (IOL) implants.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Participants: Thirty patients 3 to 4 weeks after bilateral cataract surgery with diffractive IOL implantation and 15 age- and gender-matched control subjects.

GABA deficiency in NF1: A multimodal [11C]-flumazenil and spectroscopy study.

Objective: To provide a comprehensive investigation of the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) that allows understanding the nature of the GABA imbalance in humans at pre- and postsynaptic levels.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we employed multimodal imaging and spectroscopy measures to investigate GABA type A (GABAA) receptor binding, using [(11)C]-flumazenil PET, and GABA concentration, using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Fourteen adult patients with NF1 and 13 matched controls were included in the study.

Hyperresistinemia and metabolic dysregulation: a risky crosstalk in obese breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women worldwide. There is extensive literature on the relationship between body weight and breast cancer risk but some doubts still remain about the role of adipokines per se, the role of insulin and glucose regardless of obesity, as well as the crosstalk between these players. Thus, in this study, we intend to determine the relation between body mass index (BMI), glycaemia, insulinemia, insulin-resistance, blood adipokine levels and tumour characteristics in a Portuguese group of pre- and postmenopausal overweight/obese women with breast cancer.

Glucose uptake and lipid metabolism are impaired in epicardial adipose tissue from heart failure patients with or without diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a complex metabolic disease, and cardiovascular disease is a leading complication of diabetes. Epicardial adipose tissue surrounding the heart displays biochemical, thermogenic, and cardioprotective properties. However, the metabolic cross-talk between epicardial fat and the myocardium is largely unknown.

Catch-up growth in term and preterm infants after surgical closure of ventricular septal defect in the first year of life.

Unlabelled: Growth impairment in infants with unrestrictive ventricular septal defects (VSD) is common, and normalisation of growth has been reported after surgical correction. Literature is inconsistent about growth velocity after surgery in term and preterm infants. We aimed to establish the pattern of catch-up growth in term and preterm infants submitted to VSD surgical correction before 1 year of age.