Landmark-Assisted Compensation of User's Body Shadowing on RSSI for Improved Indoor Localisation with Chest-Mounted Wearable Device.

Nowadays, location awareness becomes the key to numerous Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Among the various methods for indoor localisation, received signal strength indicator (RSSI)-based fingerprinting attracts massive attention. However, the RSSI fingerprinting method is susceptible to lower accuracies because of the disturbance triggered by various factors from the indoors that influence the link quality of radio signals. Localisation using body-mounted wearable devices introduces an additional source of error when calculating the RSSI, leading to the deterioration of localisation performance. The broad aim of this study is to mitigate the user's body shadowing effect on RSSI to improve localisation accuracy. Firstly, this study examines the effect of the user's body on RSSI. Then, an angle estimation method is proposed by leveraging the concept of landmark. For precise identification of landmarks, an inertial measurement unit (IMU)-aided decision tree-based motion mode classifier is implemented. After that, a compensation model is proposed to correct the RSSI. Finally, the unknown location is estimated using the nearest neighbour method. Results demonstrated that the proposed system can significantly improve the localisation accuracy, where a median localisation accuracy of 1.46 m is achieved after compensating the body effect, which is 2.68 m before the compensation using the classical K-nearest neighbour method. Moreover, the proposed system noticeably outperformed others when comparing its performance with two other related works. The median accuracy is further improved to 0.74 m by applying a proposed weighted K-nearest neighbour algorithm.

Adherence to Measuring What Matters: Description of an Inpatient Palliative Care Service of an Urban Teaching Hospital.

BACKGROUND: Benefits of palliative care have been extensively described; however, reports on adherence to national quality indicators are limited. OBJECTIVES: This study focuses on describing the characteristics of patients who were seen at an urban academic hospital and their care team's adherence to 5 out of 10 Measuring What Matters (MWM) quality indicators. DESIGN: Retrospective chart review Setting/Subjects: Patients seen by inpatient palliative care service from January 2014 to December 2015 in an urban academic hospital. MEASUREMENTS: Patient age, gender, ethnicity, disease category, discharge end point, life-sustaining preferences, surrogate decision-maker documentation, and initial palliative assessment were analyzed using descriptive, parametric, and nonparametric statistics. RESULTS: During two years, 1272 patients were seen by the inpatient palliative care service. Fifty-one percent of patients were male, with an average age of 68 years. The majority were Caucasian (57%) and African American (41%). Life-limiting illnesses included were cancer, complex chronic illnesses, and gastrointestinal illness. Adherence to comprehensive palliative care assessment was measured at 64%; initial visit assessment for physical symptoms was 38%; code status preference was 99%; care consistent with preference in vulnerable elders was 99%; and surrogate documentation was noted at 33%. Compared to hospital patients discharged without hospice, patients discharged with hospice care had consults with higher adherence to comprehensive assessment and surrogate documentation quality standards (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to MWM measures was variable. Subjects discharged with hospice services were more likely to receive comprehensive assessment within 5 days of admission and surrogate documentation compared to those subjects without hospice care.

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy significantly improves acute gastrointestinal toxicity in pancreatic and ampullary cancers.

PURPOSE: Among patients with upper abdominal malignancies, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) can improve dose distributions to critical dose-limiting structures near the target. Whether these improved dose distributions are associated with decreased toxicity when compared with conventional three-dimensional treatment remains a subject of investigation. METHODS AND MATERIALS: 46 patients with pancreatic/ampullary cancer were treated with concurrent chemoradiation (CRT) using inverse-planned IMRT. All patients received CRT based on 5-fluorouracil in a schema similar to Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 97-04. Rates of acute gastrointestinal (GI) toxicity for this series of IMRT-treated patients were compared with those from RTOG 97-04, where all patients were treated with three-dimensional conformal techniques. Chi-square analysis was used to determine if there was a statistically different incidence in acute GI toxicity between these two groups of patients. RESULTS: The overall incidence of Grade 3-4 acute GI toxicity was low in patients receiving IMRT-based CRT. When compared with patients who had three-dimensional treatment planning (RTOG 97-04), IMRT significantly reduced the incidence of Grade 3-4 nausea and vomiting (0% vs. 11%, p = 0.024) and diarrhea (3% vs. 18%, p = 0.017). There was no significant difference in the incidence of Grade 3-4 weight loss between the two groups of patients. CONCLUSIONS: IMRT is associated with a statistically significant decrease in acute upper and lower GI toxicity among patients treated with CRT for pancreatic/ampullary cancers. Future clinical trials plan to incorporate the use of IMRT, given that it remains a subject of active investigation.

Controle genético da regeneração in vitro em progênies de Eucalyptus grandis / Genetic control of in vitro regeneration of Eucalyptus grandis

Com o objetivo de avaliar o controle genético da regeneração direta in vitro a partir de plântulas de Eucalyptus grandis, foram utilizadas sementes de 10 progênies de polinização aberta da população base, origem Atherton, localizada em Anhembi, Estado de São Paulo. Vinte dias de cultivo após a germinação, 196 segmentos distais dos hipocótilos por progênie foram inoculados in vitro num Delineamento em Blocos Completos Aleatorizado Generalizado, com duas unidades experimentais por bloco e sete repetições por bloco, usando a interação blocos por progênie como estimadora do erro experimental. Após 14 semanas de cultivo, foram feitas avaliações da regeneração. Houve diferenças significativas de regeneração entre as progênies (P<0,0001) com extremos de regeneração de 11 por cento a 60 por cento. A herdabilidade no sentido restrito entre as médias das unidades experimentais do caráter foi alta (h2m=0,94), indicando que houve um forte controle genético na regeneração in vitro dentro da população. Houve também alta variabilidade dentro da amostra estudada, assim como um forte efeito do progenitor materno sobre a regeneração.

The genetic control of in vitro direct regeneration was tested on seedlings of ten open-pollinated progenies from the base population of Atherton origin of Eucalyptus grandis at University of São Paulo (Brazil). Seeds were germinated in vitro, after twenty days, distal hypocotyls segments from 196 seedlings per progeny were inoculated in culture media at Generalized Complete Randomized Block Design, with two experimental units per block and seven repetitions, using the interaction blocks by progenies as an estimate of the experimental error. At week 14 from the inoculation bud induction was evaluated. Regeneration among progenies were significantly different (P<0.0001). Regeneration varied from 11 to 60 percent. The narrow-sense heritability between means of experimental units for in vitro regeneration was height. (h2m=0.94), indicating a strong genetic control of the trait within the population and also a high maternal effect. High variability within the study sample was found.

[Aztreonam versus tobramycin in acute pyelonephritis. A comparative study]. / Aztrenonam versus tobramicina en pielonefritis agudas. Estudio comparativo.

We performed a comparative study between the monobactam antibiotic aztreonam and the aminoglycoside tobramycin in patients diagnosed as having acute pyelonephritis. The respective doses were 1 gr. IM daily for 7 days, and 100 mgr. IM q 12 h for the same period of time. Clinically, 100% of uncomplicated acute pyelonephritis and 87.5% of complicated infections cured with aztreonam. Tobramycin achieved an 80% cure rate for both types of infections. Microbiologically aztreonam was effective in all uncomplicated acute pyelonephritis, and in 69.56% of the complicated cases (overall microbiological cure rate = 78.7%). The therapeutic failures were ascribable to infections from S. faecalis, an organism naturally resistant to aztreonam. Thus, the microbiological cure rate was 84.2% in complicated pyelonephritis from organisms sensitive to this antimicrobial. The microbiological cure rate for tobramycin was 70% in acute uncomplicated, and 80% in complicated infections. We observed a good clinical and biological tolerance to both antimicrobials. No side effects were observed. Serum and blood biochemical analyses, and coagulation tests revealed no changes.