Towards Mindless Stress Regulation in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems: A Systematic Review.

Background: Stress can frequently occur in the driving context. Its cognitive effects can be deleterious and lead to uncomfortable or risky situations. While stress detection in this context is well developed, regulation using dedicated advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) is still emergent. Objectives: This systematic review focuses on stress regulation strategies that can be qualified as "subtle" or "mindless": the technology employed to perform regulation does not interfere with an ongoing task. The review goal is 2-fold: establishing the state of the art on such technological implementation in the driving context and identifying complementary technologies relying on subtle regulation that could be applied in driving. Methods: A systematic review was conducted using search operators previously identified through a concept analysis. The patents and scientific studies selected provide an overview of actual and potential mindless technology implementations. These are then analyzed from a scientific perspective. A classification of results was performed according to the different stages of emotion regulation proposed by the Gross model. Results: A total of 47 publications were retrieved, including 21 patents and 26 studies. Six of the studies investigated mindless stress regulation in the driving context. Patents implemented strategies mostly linked to attentional deployment, while studies tended to investigate response modulation strategies. Conclusions: This review allowed us to identify several ADAS relying on mindless computing technologies to reduce stress and better understand the underlying mechanisms allowing stress reduction. Further studies are necessary to better grasp the effect of mindless technologies on driving safety. However, we have established the feasibility of their implementation as ADAS and proposed directions for future research in this field.

Respiration and Heart Rate Modulation Due to Competing Cognitive Tasks While Driving.

Research works on operator monitoring underline the benefit of taking into consideration several signal modalities to improve accuracy for an objective mental state diagnosis. Heart rate (HR) is one of the most utilized systemic measures to assess cognitive workload (CW), whereas, respiration parameters are hardly utilized. This study aims at verifying the contribution of analyzing respiratory signals to extract features to evaluate driver's activity and CW variations in driving. Eighteen subjects participated in the study. The participants carried out two different cognitive tasks requiring different CW demands, a single task as well as a competing cognitive task realized while driving in a simulator. Our results confirm that both HR and breathing rate (BR) increase in driving and are sensitive to CW. However, HR and BR are differently modulated by the CW variations in driving. Specifically, HR is affected by both driving activity and CW, whereas, BR is suitable to evidence a variation of CW only when driving is not required. On the other hand, spectral features characterizing respiratory signal could be also used similarly to HR variability indices to detect high CW episodes. These results hint the use of respiration as an alternative to HR to monitor the driver mental state in autonomic vehicles in order to predict the available cognitive resources if the user has to take over the vehicle.

Effect of an extruded pea or rice diet on postprandial insulin and cardiovascular responses in dogs.

Peas are increasing in popularity as a source of carbohydrate, protein and fibre in extruded canine diets. The aim of this study was to test the health effects of two canine diets with identical macronutrient profiles, but containing either yellow field peas or white rice as the carbohydrate source on metabolism, cardiovascular outcomes and adiposity. First, the acute glycemic, insulinemic and cardiovascular responses to the pea- or rice-based diets were determined in normal weight beagles (n = 7 dogs). The glycemic index did not differ between the pea diet (56 ± 12) and rice diet (63 ± 9). Next, obese beagles (n = 9) were fed the yellow field pea diet or white rice diet ad libitum for 12 weeks in a crossover study. Adiposity (measured using computed tomography), metabolic (oral glucose tolerance test, plasma leptin, adiponectin, C-reactive protein) and cardiovascular assessments (echocardiography and blood pressure) were performed before and after each crossover study period. After 12 weeks on each diet, peak insulin (p = 0.05) and area under the curve (AUC) for insulin after a 10 g oral glucose tolerance test (p = 0.05) were lower with the pea than the rice diet. Diet did not show a significant effect on body weight, fat distribution, cardiovascular variables, adiponectin or leptin. In conclusion, a diet containing yellow field peas reduced the postprandial insulin response after glucose challenge in dogs despite continued obesity, indicating improved metabolic health.

Characterization of the peri-infarct zone by contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance imaging is a powerful predictor of post-myocardial infarction mortality.

BACKGROUND: Accurate risk stratification is crucial for effective treatment planning after myocardial infarction (MI). Previous studies suggest that the peri-infarct border zone may be an important arrhythmogenic substrate. In this pilot study, we tested the hypothesis that the extent of the peri-infarct zone quantified by contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is an independent predictor of post-MI mortality. METHODS AND RESULTS: We studied 144 patients with documented coronary artery disease and abnormal myocardial delayed enhancement (MDE) consistent with MI. A computer-assisted, semiautomatic algorithm quantified the total infarct size and divided it into the core and peri-infarct regions based on signal-intensity thresholds (>3 SDs and 2 to 3 SDs above remote normal myocardium, respectively). The peri-infarct zone was normalized as a percentage of the total infarct size (%MDE(periphery)). After a median follow-up of 2.4 years, 29 (20%) patients died. Patients with an above-median %MDE(periphery) were at higher risk for death compared with those with a below-median %MDE(periphery) (28% versus 13%, log-rank P<0.01). Multivariable analysis showed that left ventricular systolic volume index and %MDE(periphery) were the strongest predictors of all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] for %MDE(periphery), 1.45 per 10% increase; P=0.002) and cardiovascular mortality (adjusted HR, 1.51 per 10% increase; P=0.009). Similarly, after adjusting for age and left ventricular ejection fraction, %MDE(periphery) maintained strong and independent associations with all-cause mortality (adjusted HR, 1.42; P=0.005) and cardiovascular mortality (adjusted HR, 1.49; P=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with a prior MI, the extent of the peri-infarct zone characterized by CMR provides incremental prognostic value beyond left ventricular systolic volume index or ejection fraction. Infarct characteristics by CMR may prove to be a unique and valuable noninvasive predictor of post-MI mortality.

[Bone angioscintigraphy]. / L'angioscintigraphie osseuse.

Classical bone scintigraphy can be completed by a dynamic study of the blood supply of a previously defined anatomical region. Our protocol consists of the recording of early images in the histogram mode, centred on the selected pathological region and on the symmetrical region which acts as a control. One film is taken every 3 seconds for 3 minutes following an intravenous injection of 20 mci of Tc99m MDP into a cubital fossa vein. More limited symmetrical zones of interest are visualised on the image obtained by summation of all of the information obtained during the second minute following the arterial passage of the radioactive bolus. The curve reflecting the variation in activity for each zone of interest over these three minutes can therefore be obtained. The first part of the curve, until the first slope change, corresponds to the arterial phase (blood flow), the second part, which includes a brief venous phase, corresponds to the vasculo-tissue phase (blood pool). The value of these bone image, which allow a very detailed analysis of the topography and intensity of the uptake, is above all diagnostic, while the early, vascular images and the resulting curves are essentially of pathophysiological interest. Bone angioscintigraphy is a triple examination and one of its best applications is in reflex sympathetic dystrophy. It is able to distinguish very objectively between "hot" and "cold" forms and it can indicate the most appropriate treatment for each case and follow the effects of treatment. The other indications for bone angioscintigraphy also include Paget's disease, especially the monitoring of treatment, osteomyelitis, sarcomas and osteonecrosis.

[Brachial plexus paralysis caused by hematoma during anticoagulant treatment]. / Paralysie du plexus brachial par hématome au cours d'un traitement anticoagulant.

The authors describe a case of brachial plexus'lesion at axillary level in a patient under anticoagulation therapy. They underline the use of CT scan and digitalized angiography to establish the diagnosis and choice the treatment.

[Extramucosal parietal lesions of the sigmoid of different aetiologies in children: report on two cases (author's transl)]. / Deux cas d'atteinte pariétale extra-muqueuse du sigmoïde d'étiologie différente chez l'enfant.

Rare, atypical, extramucosal parietal lesions in the rectosigmoid regions were observed in two children. The first child, with Henoch-Schönlein purpura, developed an intramural haematoma, a complication rarely reported in the literature. The second child had a perivisceral abscess of probable adnexial origin, arising during the course of pelvic septicaemia.

[Primary osteogenic renal sarcomas (author's transl)]. / Sarcome ostéogénique primitif du rein.

Renal sarcomas are rare malignant connective tissue tumors and they only represent 1 to 5% of renal cancers, according to various authors [18]. The appearance of a primary osteogenic tumor within a renal sarcoma is an extremely rare occurrence, and the mechanism by which it develops is not completely understood. The two interesting points raised by the case described in this report were the possibility of suspecting the diagnosis of renal osteogenic sarcoma on a straight x-ray film, and the images observed on ultrasonography.