ConnecSenS, a Versatile IoT Platform for Environment Monitoring: Bring Water to Cloud.

Climate change is having an increasingly rapid impact on ecosystems and particularly on the issue of water resources. The Internet of Things and communication technologies have now reached a level of maturity that allows sensors to be deployed more easily on sites to monitor them. The communicating node based on LoRaWAN technology presented in this article is open and allows the interfacing of numerous sensors for designing long-term environmental monitoring systems of isolated sites. The data integration in the cloud is ensured by a workflow driving the storage and indexing of data, allowing a simple and efficient use of the data for different users (scientists, administration, citizens) through specific dashboards and extractions. This article presents this infrastructure through environmental monitoring use cases related to water resources.

Total Customized Alloplastic Reconstruction for Treatment of Severe Temporomandibular Joint Pathologic Conditions: A Case Series of Combined Intraoral and Extraoral Approach.

ABSTRACT: Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) reconstruction with customized alloplastic implants has become a safe and effective treatment option of TMJ end-stage pathology with excellent outcomes reported in the literature. The purpose of this study is to report 5 cases of severe TMJ pathology and customized alloplastic reconstruction using a combined intraoral approach and extraoral approach. Four patients with TMJ involved for benign tumor and one patient with severe TMJ resorption were enrolled. Compromised joints were replaced with customized prosthesis under general anesthesia using an association of intraoral approach/extraoral approach. An implant handpiece with adapted drills for bone drilling and the insertion of screws was used to fixate the mandibular component intraorally; the fossa component was inserted via preauricular approach. The hemimandibulectomies/codilectomy with safety margin were successfully performed and for 2 patients Orthognathic Surgery was also required. Follow-up period was from 15 to 28 months (average 22 months), with no history of surgical site infection or damage to the prostheses. Occlusal relationship and function, as well as facial symmetry were kept stable in all patients. The combination of an intraoral and extraoral approach for total TMJ replacement with customized prosthesis may be an alternative and reliable strategy for pathologic reconstruction, keeping function and reducing aesthetic damage.

Nasolabial soft tissue effects of segmented and non-segmented Le Fort I osteotomy using a modified alar cinch technique-a cone beam computed tomography evaluation.

The aim of this study was to verify soft tissues changes and the effect of a minimally invasive surgical technique in the nasolabial region after segmented and non-segmented Le Fort I osteotomy, using cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) evaluation of three-dimensional (3D) volume surfaces. Two groups were evaluated: group 1, bimaxillary surgery with maxillary segmentation (n=40); group 2, bimaxillary surgery without maxillary segmentation (n=40). In both groups, a specific alar cinching technique was used to control nasal base broadening. CBCT evaluation was performed at three different treatment time points: T0, 1 month before surgery; T1, 1 month after surgery; T2, 1year after surgery. The results showed statistically significant differences in the nasolabial area (P<0.001). For group 1, the mean change in alar base width (Alinf-Alinf) was 1.31±1.40mm at T1 and 0.93±1.77mm at T2; for group 2 these values were 1.12±2.01mm at T1 and 0.54±1.54mm at T2. For group 1, the mean changes in inter-alar width (Al-Al) were 1.68±1.46mm at T1 and 1.49±1.33mm at T2; for group 2, they were 2.22±1.93mm at T1 and 1.34±1.79mm at T2. The alar cinch technique proposed here appears to be effective in controlling nasolabial soft tissue widening.

Hierarchy of surgical stability in orthognathic surgery: overview of systematic reviews.

The purpose was to perform an overview of systematic reviews in order to create a hierarchical scale of stability in orthognathic surgery with the aid of the highest level of scientific evidence. The systematic search was conducted in the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library databases. The grey literature was investigated in Google Scholar and a manual search was done of the references lists of included studies. Fifteen studies were included in the final sample, of which eight were systematic reviews and seven were meta-analyses. These were assessed for methodological quality using the AMSTAR 2 tool and all were considered to be of medium to high methodological quality. The clinical studies included in the 15 reviews and meta-analyses were classified by the review authors as having a moderate to high potential for risk of bias. The hierarchical pyramid of stability in orthognathic surgery was established, with two surgical procedures considered highly unstable: (1) maxillary expansion with semi-rigid internal fixation evaluated at the dental level in the posterior region, and (2) clockwise rotation of the mandible with rigid internal fixation of bicortical screws in the sagittal direction.

Three-dimensional analysis of nasolabial soft tissue changes after Le Fort I osteotomy: a systematic review of the literature.

A systematic review was conducted to investigate the three-dimensional (3D) effect of Le Fort I osteotomy on the nasolabial soft tissues. The literature search was conducted using the MEDLINE (accessed via PubMed), Embase, and Cochrane electronic databases until January 2018. A total of 333 studies were identified (PubMed, n=292; Embase, n=41; Cochrane Library, n=0). Seventeen met the inclusion criteria. The studies were essentially retrospective. The risk of bias was considered high in 15 studies, medium in one study, and low in one study. 3D soft tissue analysis was performed at least 6months after surgery (mean 8.3months). The main image acquisition technique reported was cone beam computed tomography (CBCT), associated or not with 3D photography. Approximately 50% of the studies performed two-jaw surgery, 25% performed maxillary surgery only, and the other 25% included heterogeneous intervention groups. The most reported nasolabial changes were anterior and lateral movements of the nasomaxillary soft tissues and upper lip, together with anterior and superior movement of the nasal tip. The alar cinch suture and V-Y closure technique seemed to have little effect in counteracting the undesirable postoperative nasolabial changes. CBCT superimposition presented a reliable 3D assessment for simultaneous measurement of skeletal and soft tissue changes.

Stability and surgical complications in segmental Le Fort I osteotomy: a systematic review.

This systematic review was conducted to evaluate the stability and surgical complications of segmental Le Fort I osteotomy. The search was divided into a main search (PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library), grey literature search (Google Scholar), and manual search. Twenty-three studies were included: 14 evaluating stability as the outcome and nine evaluating surgical complications. The level of agreement between the authors was considered excellent (κ=0.893 for study selection and κ=0.853 for study eligibility). The segmental Le Fort I osteotomy provides stable outcomes in the sagittal plane, is less stable dentally than skeletally in the transverse plane, and provides little stability in the posterior segment after downward movement. The most frequent complications are oral fistula (six studies) and damage to the adjacent teeth (five studies), but the most prevalent complication is postoperative infection (32.62%). Four studies evaluating stability as the outcome showed a medium potential risk of bias, whereas all studies addressing surgical complications showed a high potential risk of bias. The segmental Le Fort I osteotomy should not be excluded from the technical armamentarium in orthognathic surgery. On the contrary, the literature consulted suggests it to be a useful tool for the three-dimensional surgical correction of maxillary malposition.

Adaptive management of energy consumption, reliability and delay of wireless sensor node: Application to IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensor node.

Designing a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) to achieve a high Quality of Service (QoS) (network performance and durability) is a challenging problem. We address it by focusing on the performance of the 802.15.4 communication protocol because the IEEE 802.15.4 Standard is actually considered as one of the reference technologies in WSNs. In this paper, we propose to control the sustainable use of resources (i.e., energy consumption, reliability and timely packet transmission) of a wireless sensor node equipped with photovoltaic cells by an adaptive tuning not only of the MAC (Medium Access Control) parameters but also of the sampling frequency of the node. To do this, we use one of the existing control approaches, namely the viability theory, which aims to preserve the functions and the controls of a dynamic system in a set of desirable states. So, an analytical model, describing the evolution over time of nodal resources, is derived and used by a viability algorithm for the adaptive tuning of the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC protocol. The simulation analysis shows that our solution allows ensuring indefinitely, in the absence of hardware failure, the operations (lifetime duration, reliability and timely packet transmission) of an 802.15.4 WSN and one can temporarily increase the sampling frequency of the node beyond the regular sampling one. This latter brings advantages for agricultural and environmental applications such as precision agriculture, flood or fire prevention. Main results show that our current approach enable to send more information when critical events occur without the node runs out of energy. Finally, we argue that our approach is generic and can be applied to other types of WSN.

Three-Dimensional Analysis of Long-Term Stability After Bilateral Sagittal Split Ramus Osteotomy Fixed With a Single Miniplate With 4 Monocortical Screws and 1 Bicortical Screw: A Retrospective 2-Center Study.

PURPOSE: This study evaluated the long-term stability of bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy fixed with a single miniplate with 4 monocortical screws and 1 bicortical screw (hybrid technique [HT]) using 3-dimensional (3D) analysis and an objective measuring tool, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-four patients who underwent bimaxillary surgery with mandibular advancement fixed with the HT were selected from 2 different institutions and enrolled in this retrospective study. All patients underwent CBCT preoperatively, 1 month after surgery, and 12 months after surgery. To estimate the long-term stability of the HT, volumetric comparisons were performed using the following measurements: distance between the gonion and the B point in the sagittal plane; distance between the right and left gonion transversally; and the angle of the line connecting the mandibular notch and the gonion and the line connecting the gonion and the B point vertically. RESULTS: Statistical analysis showed no relevant relapse (<1 mm or <1°) when using the HT. However, a positive correlation between the amount of advancement and the amount of postoperative relapse was observed. CONCLUSION: The HT produces stable postoperative 3D results after 12 months.

[Soft tissue management to control nasal changes after Le Fort I Osteotomy]. / Ostéotomie de Le Fort 1 : gérer les tissus mous pour contrôler les modifications du nez.

INTRODUCTION: Adverse effects in the nasolabial region should be anticipated after Le Fort I osteotomy. Intraoperative factors such as the extent of surgical dissection, type of closure and perinasal soft tissue reconstruction seem to influence soft tissue response. Attempts to control these changes have been made over the years and several techniques have been proposed. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors present a minimally invasive alternative surgical technique to control alar base widening as well as lip shortening.

A Scalable Context-Aware Objective Function (SCAOF) of Routing Protocol for Agricultural Low-Power and Lossy Networks (RPAL).

In recent years, IoT (Internet of Things) technologies have seen great advances, particularly, the IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy Networks (RPL), which provides a powerful and flexible routing framework that can be applied in a variety of application scenarios. In this context, as an important role of IoT, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) can utilize RPL to design efficient routing protocols for a specific application to increase the ubiquity of networks with resource-constrained WSN nodes that are low-cost and easy to deploy. In this article, our work starts with the description of Agricultural Low-power and Lossy Networks (A-LLNs) complying with the LLN framework, and to clarify the requirements of this application-oriented routing solution. After a brief review of existing optimization techniques for RPL, our contribution is dedicated to a Scalable Context-Aware Objective Function (SCAOF) that can adapt RPL to the environmental monitoring of A-LLNs, through combining energy-aware, reliability-aware, robustness-aware and resource-aware contexts according to the composite routing metrics approach. The correct behavior of this enhanced RPL version (RPAL) was verified by performance evaluations on both simulation and field tests. The obtained experimental results confirm that SCAOF can deliver the desired advantages on network lifetime extension, and high reliability and efficiency in different simulation scenarios and hardware testbeds.

Remote continuous cardiac arrhythmias detection and monitoring.

The current techniques used to diagnose cardiac arrhythmias such as Holter, Rtest and telemetry systems are partially efficient because they are limited either in time or in space. In this paper, a platform dedicated to the real-time remote continuous cardiac arrhythmias detection and monitoring is proposed. Such a platform allows to improve the accuracy and the efficiency of the diagnostic of ventricular tachycardia among the high-risk patients and enables the implantation of ICD to prevent sudden death. The new method allows the patient to lead a normal life while being remotely monitored in real-time by an ambulatory wireless ECG sensor. When a cardiac arrhythmia is detected a message including a sequence of ECG signals and the patient's images (indoors only) is sent to a remote surveillance server. According to the gravity of the symptom, the cardiologist can intervene in real time or later. The system has been evaluated on some ten patients with regard to heartbeat and cardiac rhythm disturbance. The real-time results are similar to those offered by HP telemetry systems.