The developments in sensing, actuation, and algorithms, both in terms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data treatment, have open up a wide range of possibilities for improving the quality of the production systems in diverse industrial fields. The present paper describes the automatizing process performed in a production line for high-quality bearings. The actuation considered new sensing elements at the machine level and the treatment of the information, fusing the different sources in order to detect quality defects in the grinding process (waviness, burns) and monitoring the state of the tool.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The substitution of cannabis for alcohol and other drugs has been conceptualised in a harm reduction framework as where cannabis is used to reduce the negative side-effects, addiction potential, and social stigma of other drugs. There is currently mixed evidence with recent reviews suggesting cannabis co-use patterns may vary by age and ethnicity. Yet few studies have had large enough samples to examine this demographic variation in detail.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Thorac Cardiovasc Surg
August 2024
Objectives: Myocardial ischaemia following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is a potentially devastating complication. Nevertheless, the incidence, aetiology and prognostic relevance of unplanned coronary angiography (uCAG) remain understudied. We aimed to investigate the prevalence and outcome of patients undergoing urgent, uCAG in the postoperative period following CABG.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: To assesses the alcohol-related burden of child maltreatment among Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. We compared the risk of child maltreatment among Māori (0-17 years) exposed to parents with alcohol-related hospitalisation or mental health/addiction service use. We also conducted a sensitivity analysis to estimate the number of cases of maltreatment that could be attributed to alcohol among Māori.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Quantifying the health burden of alcohol has largely focused upon harm to drinkers, which is an underestimate. There is a growing literature on alcohol's harm to others (HTO), but it lacks the systematic transfer of HTO into a comparative risk assessment framework. This study calculated disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), interpersonal violence and traffic injury due to another's drinking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Rapid recovery pathways (RRP) for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients undergoing posterior spinal instrumentation and fusion (PSIF) have been shown to be successful in reducing hospital length of stay (LOS). Although the majority of patients are discharged within 3 days, some patients require longer hospital admission. Previous studies in the United States have identified predictors of prolonged LOS for this patient population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLittle is known about daily vaping of different substances, particularly cannabis. To explore daily vaping of cannabis and nicotine products in a sample of people who use drugs in New Zealand. The online New Zealand Drug Trends convenience survey ( = 23,500) was promoted to those aged 16+ a targeted Facebook™ campaign, with 9,042 reporting vaping in the past six months.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: New asthma guidelines (GINA, 2022; NAEPP EPR-4, 2020) include considerable changes in treatment recommendations, specifically regarding anti-inflammatory rescue and Single MAintenance and Reliever Therapy (SMART).
Objective: To explore American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology members' preferred treatment and perceived hurdles.
Methods: A survey (SurveyMonkey) regarding steps 1 to 3 asthma therapy was e-mailed to American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology members.
The direct coupling of shelf-stable, tetrachloro--hydroxyphthalimide ester (TCNHPI) glycosyl donors with a variety of alkylzinc reagents under redox catalysis is described. Alkyl -glycosides are formed directly by a decarboxylative, Negishi-type process in 31-73% yields without the need for photocatalytic activation or additional reductants. Extension of this approach to the coupling of TCNHPI donors with stereodefined α-alkoxy furan-containing alkylzinc halides enabled synthesis of methylene-linked -disaccharides via an Achmatowicz rearrangement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: With incidence and prevalence rates of asthma diagnoses steadily increasing in the United States and worldwide over the past 30 years, people with asthma are an emerging vocational rehabilitation (VR) consumer population.
Objective: This article describes the job acquisition and return to work considerations facing employees with asthma.
Methods: Following an overview of the etiology, incidence, prevalence, and career development implications of this chronic respiratory disease, the authors present career preparatory and return to work recommendations to meet the needs of Americans with asthma across the phases of the VR process.
Introduction: Limb ischemia is a severe complication of peripheral veno-arterial extracorporeal life support (V-A ECLS). Several techniques have been developed to prevent this, but it remains a major and frequent adverse event (incidence: 10-30%). In 2019, a new cannula with bidirectional flow (retrograde towards the heart and antegrade towards the distal limb) has been introduced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study developed a measurement tool to assess stringency and 'on-the-ground' impact of four key alcohol policy domains to create an alcohol policy index suitable for benchmarking alcohol policy and assessing change over time in middle- and high-income countries. It involved a collaboration between researchers in 12 diverse countries: New Zealand; Australia; England; Scotland; Netherlands; Vietnam; Thailand; South Africa; Turkey; Chile; Saint Kitts and Nevis and Mongolia. Data on the four most effective alcohol policy domains (availability, pricing policy, alcohol marketing, drink driving) were used to create an alcohol policy index based on their association with alcohol per capita consumption (APC) of commercial (recorded) alcohol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) is 100% caused by alcohol. The lifelong disability caused by prenatal alcohol exposure cannot be reversed. Lack of reliable national prevalence estimates of FASD is common internationally and true of Aotearoa, New Zealand.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: Children are an important group harmed by others' alcohol consumption. This study (1) compared the risk of occurrence of child maltreatment among children exposed versus not exposed to parents with an alcohol-attributable hospitalization or service use for mental health/addiction and (2) conducted sensitivity analyses to estimate the cases of child maltreatment that could be attributable to alcohol under two different conditions in New Zealand.
Design: A cohort study conducted among children 0-17 years and their parents (years 2000-2017) using the Statistics New Zealand Integrated Data Infrastructure.
Introduction: Alcohol abstinence remains common among adults globally, although low and middle-income countries are experiencing declines in abstention. The effect of alcohol policies on lifetime abstinence is poorly understood. The International Alcohol Control (IAC) policy index was developed to benchmark and monitor the uptake of effective alcohol policies and has shown strong associations with alcohol per capita consumption and drinking patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTreatment of aortic arch aneurysms and dissections require highly complex surgical procedures with devastating complications and mortality rates. Currently, repair of the complete arch until the proximal descending thoracic aorta consists of a two-stage procedure, called elephant trunk (ET) technique, or a single stage a single-stage technique referred to as frozen elephant trunk (FET). There is conflicting evidence about the perioperative results of ET in comparison with FET.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe use of biomarkers is undisputed in the diagnosis of primary myocardial infarction (MI), but their value for identifying MI is less well studied in the postoperative phase following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). To identify patients with periprocedural MI (PMI), several conflicting definitions of PMI have been proposed, relying either on cardiac troponin (cTn) or the MB isoenzyme of creatine kinase, with or without supporting evidence of ischaemia. However, CABG inherently induces the release of cardiac biomarkers, as reflected by significant cTn concentrations in patients with uncomplicated postoperative courses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTricuspid regurgitation is a complex disease that carries a poor prognosis, and surgical repair is associated with high mortality. In light of the success of other transcatheter-based valve interventions, transcatheter tricuspid therapy has recently seen exponential use both clinically and in innovation. Given the rapid development of many tricuspid systems and multiple on-going clinical trials, the aim of this review is to highlight the current state of transcatheter tricuspid therapeutics and to provide an up-to-date view of their clinical use, outcomes and future directions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pulmonary atresia and ventricular septal defect (PA-VSD), with or without systemic pulmonary collateral arteries (SPCAs), represents a complex anatomic and surgical spectrum of congenital heart disease. Currently, there is limited evidence on homograft durability after complete correction, which potentially could be affected by anatomic differences in pulmonary vasculature.
Methods: This retrospective single-center study included all 69 consecutive PA-VSD patients (46 with SPCAs, 23 without SPCAs) operated on between 1978 and 2018.
Purpose: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is associated with a poor prognosis. Multianalyte signatures, including liquid biopsy and traditional clinical variables, have shown promise for improving prognostication in other solid tumors but have not yet been rigorously assessed for PDAC.
Materials And Methods: We performed a prospective cohort study of patients with newly diagnosed locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) or metastatic PDAC (mPDAC) who were planned to undergo systemic therapy.
This article discusses how COVID-19 has impacted the American workforce, symptoms of Long COVID syndrome, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, and ways to avoid triggering its symptoms when sanitizing the workplace and using Universal Design practices to increase accessibility and decrease transmission of COVID-19 among workers. Interface with healthcare providers, rehabilitation professionals, and employers is emphasized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpisodic memory is reconstructive and is thus prone to false memory formation. Although false memories are proposed to develop via associative processes, the nature of their neural representations, and the effect of sleep on false memory processing is currently unclear. The present research employed the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm and a daytime nap to determine whether semantic false memories and true memories could be differentiated using event-related potentials (ERPs).
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