44227 research outputs found
Sort by
Utilizing Image Processing Techniques for Wound Management and Evaluation in Clinical Practice: Establishing the Feasibility of Implementing Artificial Intelligence in Routine Wound Care
No full textOBJECTIVE: To develop a generalizable and accurate method for automatically analyzing wound images captured in clinical practice and extracting key wound characteristics such as surface area measurement. METHODS: The authors used image processing techniques to create a robust algorithm for segmenting pressure injuries from digital images captured by nurses during clinical practice. The algorithm also measured the real-world wound surface area. They used the hue-saturation-value color space to analyze red color values and to detect and segment the wound region within the entire image. To assess the accuracy of the algorithm's wound segmentation, the authors compared the results against wound image annotations. RESULTS: The algorithm performed impressively, achieving an intersection-over-union score of up to 0.85 and 100% intersection with the annotations. The algorithm effectively analyzed wound images obtained during clinical practice and accurately extracted the surface area of the documented pressure injuries. These results support the feasibility and applicability of this methodology. CONCLUSIONS: Accurate determination of wound size and healing supports decision-making regarding treatment and is essential to successful outcomes. This innovative approach for visual assessment of chronic wounds highlights the potential of computerized wound analysis in clinical practice. By leveraging advanced computational techniques, healthcare providers can gain valuable insights into wound progression, enabling more accurate assessments to support their decision-making.This work was supported by a competitive grant from the Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund, with funding co-contribution from the Department of Nursing at the University of Melbourne, the Melbourne Academic Centre for Health, and Mölnlycke Health Care. This work was also partially supported by the Israeli Ministry of Science & Technology (Medical Devices Program grant no. 3-17421, awarded to Professor Amit Gefen in 2020). The authors thank Ms Carla Bondini for her assistance with data collection and management for this study and Mr Daniel Kapp for proofreading the manuscript. The authors have disclosed no other financial relationships related to this article. Submitted February 1, 2024; accepted in revised form April 16, 2024. Supplemental digital content is available for this article. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal’s website (www.ASWCjournal.com)
Maternal hemodynamics assessment: Key to unlocking ignored functionalities of the female circulation
No full textThis chapter focuses on currently underappreciated aspects of the maternal circulation: blood pressure phenotypes, venous hemodynamics, intra-abdominal pressure, and body water homeostasis. Based on the hemodynamic balance between cardiac output and total peripheral resistance, flow-dominant and resistance-dominant phenotypes of normotension and hypertension exist, with different impacts on gestational outcome. Cardiac diastolic function and venous hemodynamics play a prominent role in gestational changes in cardiac output. An increase in intraabdominal pressure during pregnancy interferes with body water volume homeostasis, similar to syndromes of multi-organ dysfunctions in non-pregnant individuals. Today, non-invasive maternal hemodynamics assessment allows for obtaining important information on these ignored circulatory functions in addition to conventional sphygmomanometric blood pressure measurement. This offers perspectives to improve current strategies for screening, diagnosis, and management of gestational hypertension disorders, a path, however, to be paved first by intensified multifaceted and multidisciplinary research.This research is part of the Limburg Clinical Research Center (LCRC) UHasselt- ZOL-Jessa, supported by the foundation Limburg Sterk Merk, province of Limburg, Flemish government, Hasselt University, Jessa Hospital and Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg. P. Dreesen was funded by a PhD grant from Hasselt University (LCRC and BOF), Belgium (LCRC PhD-2019/FP03 & BOF20DOC18)
Reaching New Limits: Discovery of Multi-Dimensional Disjunctive Subsequence-Queries with Intervals
No full textA query model for sequence data was introduced in Kleest-Meißner et al. (2022) in the form of subsequence-queries with wildcards and gap-size constraints (swg-queries, for short). These queries consist of a pattern over an alphabet of variables and values, as well as a global window size
and a number of local gap-size constraints.
Based on previous extensions of swg-queries, namely multi-dimensional swg-queries and disjunctive swg-queries, we converge to common languages in the field of Complex Event Processing by introducing multi-dimensional disjunctive subsequence-queries with intervals. This pushes the
expressive power of the query language to certain kinds of inequalities as well. We discuss a suitable characterisation of containment of multi-dimensional disjunctive subsequence queries with intervals, and adapt results concerning the discovery of (multi-dimensional or disjunctive) swg-queries to multi-dimensional disjunctive subsequence-queries with intervals.Supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), CRC 1404: “FONDA: Foundation of Workflows for Large-Scale Scientific Data Analysis” and by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) under Grant No. G0B9623
Nitrofixing cyanobacteria: diversity, cultivation and biostimulant potential in consortia
No full textThe nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria consortia are an alternative to the indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers due to their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. It can be used as plant growth promoters, biofertilizers and soil conditioners. The objective of this research was to develop consortia of cyanobacteria isolated from the rhizosphere and roots of Carica papaya, applying biotechnological methods. Two stable growth consortia were obtained: C1 (Nostoc commune, Aphanothece minutissima, Planktothrix sp.) and C2 (N. commune, Calothrix sp., A. minutissima). The biostimulant properties of each consortium were determined using Cucumis sativus L. var. Market plus seeds, obtaining with the C2 consortium a higher percentage of germination (>90%), longer root length (>6 cm) and higher vigour index I (513), II (13.02). The effects of static magnetic field (SMF) on consortium growth and biochemical composition were also investigated in C2, using two ranges of magnetic induction (40-50 mT and 100-200 mT). It was demonstrated different
effects depending of the inductions range. At 40-50 mT, it was obtained the maximal concentration of chlorophyll a and carotenoids, proteins, and carbohydrates; SMF induced cells structural changes. At 100-200 mT, the biomass yield, lipid content, and total organic carbon content were increased. Otherwise, the effect of SMF in germination and development of C. sativus L. seedlings showed that the cyanobacterial consortium without treatment and those treated with the magnetic induction range of 40-50 mT stimulated the germination, promoting root length, vigour index, and stem length. This research contributes to expanding the spectrum of rhizosphere’s microorganisms with biostimulant potential
A remote expert wound nurse consultation intervention for pressure injury prevention and management: intervention design and results of a feasibility study and pilot randomised controlled trial
No full textIntroduction: The need for equitable access to specialist wound management nurses and building of capacity in the aged care work force was the impetus for a project that sought to innovate the care provided to residents of aged care who have or are at risk of pressure injuries. The project included the design and evaluation of a remote expert wound nurse consultation intervention
Benchmarks for low back pain in general practice in Flanders: electronic audit of INTEGO
No full textBackgroundLow back pain (LBP) is one of the most frequent reasons for encounter in general practice. Yet results from literature show adherence to clinical practice guidelines is low. Audit & feedback is a well-known strategy to improve adherence to guidelines. Benchmarking is an important step in the audit & feedback process. The objective of this study was to develop data-derived benchmarks for low back pain quality indicators.MethodsFour electronic health record extractable quality indicators were selected from an existing indicator set developed by CEBAM, an independent, multidisciplinary and interuniversity medical scientific institute in Belgium. Data from 2021-2022 from INTEGO, a general practice morbidity registry, were used to calculate benchmarks for the four quality indicators. The Achievable Benchmark of Care methodology was used to create benchmarks based on the performance of the 10% best-performing practices.ResultsThe following benchmarks were derived: 4.2% prescription for medical imaging, 12.7% prescription for opioids, 27.2% for prescription for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or acetaminophen, 37.7% prescription for physical therapy and 11.9% prescription for work absenteeism.ConclusionsBenchmarks for four electronic health record-extractable quality indicators have been established. They can be used for an electronic audit & feedback tool in primary practice in Flanders or other quality improvement initiatives.This study was funded as part of a master dissertation for the master after master Master of Medicine in Family Medicine at Ghent University in cooperation with UZ/KU Leuven
Polymer dynamics under tension: mean first passage time for looping
No full textThis study deals with polymer looping, an important process in many chemical and biological systems. We investigate basic questions on the looping dynamics of a polymer under tension using the freely-jointed chain (FJC) model. Previous theoretical approaches to polymer looping under tension have relied on barrier escape methods, which assume local equilibrium, an assumption that may not always hold. As a starting point we use an analytical expression for the equilibrium looping probability as a function of the number of monomers and applied force, predicting an inverse relationship between looping time and looping probability. Using molecular dynamics simulations the predictions of this theoretical approach are validated within the numerical precision achieved. We compare our predictions to those of the barrier escape approach, by way of a calculation of the mean first passage time (MFPT) for the ends of a polymer to cross. For this purpose, we derive the exact free energy landscape, but resulting temporal predictions do not agree with the observed inverse scaling. We conclude that the traditional barrier escape approach does not provide satisfactory predictions for polymer looping dynamics and that the inverse scaling with looping probability offers a more reliable alternative