514 research outputs found
Supplemental Material, Menarini_angina_Supplementary_v1.2 - Sta<i>B</i>le Angina: Pe<i>R</i>cept<i>I</i>on of Nee<i>D</i>s, Quality of Life and Mana<i>G</i>em<i>E</i>nt of Patients (BRIDGE Study)—A Multinational European Physician Survey
No full textSupplemental Material, Menarini_angina_Supplementary_v1.2 for StaBle Angina: PeRceptIon of NeeDs, Quality of Life and ManaGemEnt of Patients (BRIDGE Study)—A Multinational European Physician Survey by Giuseppe Ambrosio, Peter Collins, Ralf Dechend, Jose Lopez-Sendon, Athanasios J. Manolis, and A. John Camm in Angiology</p
ARB-based single-pill platform to guide a practical therapeutic approach to hypertensive patients
No full textHypertension is a major modifiable risk for the development of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and renal diseases. Thus, effective treatment of high blood pressure is an important strategy for reducing disease burden; however, in spite of the availability of numerous effective therapies only 30-40 % of patients with hypertension achieve the recommended blood pressure goals of <140/90 mmHg. Lack of adherence to therapy and reluctance to intensify therapy are cited frequently to explain the discrepancy between potential and attained outcomes. Adherence is closely related to the tolerability, effectiveness and complexity of therapy. Therapeutic inertia may be influenced by concerns over tolerability, as well as the lack of clear preferences for therapies when managing patients with risk factors and comorbidities. Effective and well-tolerated single pill combination therapies are now available that improve adherence and simplify treatment. The combination of a renin-angiotensin system blocker with a calcium channel blocker and a diuretic improves adherence to therapy. We have devised a practical tool for orienting the application of well-tolerated single pill 2/3 drug fixed dose combination therapies in clinical situations commonly encountered when treating hypertensive patients. This approach employs the angiotensin receptor blocker olmesartan alone or in combinations with amlodipine and/or hydrochlorothiazide. This platform is based on clinical evidence, guidelines, best practice, and clinical experience where none of these is available. We believe it will increase the percentage of hypertensive patients who achieve blood pressure control when applied as part of an integrative approach that includes regular follow-up and instruction on lifestyle changes. © 2014 Springer International Publishing
Erratum to: ARB-Based Single-Pill Platform to Guide a Practical Therapeutic Approach to Hypertensive Patients.
No full textHypertension is a major modifiable risk for the development of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and renal diseases. Thus, effective treatment of high blood pressure is an important strategy for reducing disease burden; however, in spite of the availability of numerous effective therapies only 30-40 % of patients with hypertension achieve the recommended blood pressure goals of <140/90 mmHg. Lack of adherence to therapy and reluctance to intensify therapy are cited frequently to explain the discrepancy between potential and attained outcomes. Adherence is closely related to the tolerability, effectiveness and complexity of therapy. Therapeutic inertia may be influenced by concerns over tolerability, as well as the lack of clear preferences for therapies when managing patients with risk factors and comorbidities. Effective and well-tolerated single pill combination therapies are now available that improve adherence and simplify treatment. The combination of a renin-angiotensin system blocker with a calcium channel blocker and a diuretic improves adherence to therapy. We have devised a practical tool for orienting the application of well-tolerated single pill 2/3 drug fixed dose combination therapies in clinical situations commonly encountered when treating hypertensive patients. This approach employs the angiotensin receptor blocker olmesartan alone or in combinations with amlodipine and/or hydrochlorothiazide. This platform is based on clinical evidence, guidelines, best practice, and clinical experience where none of these is available. We believe it will increase the percentage of hypertensive patients who achieve blood pressure control when applied as part of an integrative approach that includes regular follow-up and instruction on lifestyle change
AHA! meets Auld Linky : Integrating Designed and Freeform Hypertext Systems
No full textIn this paper we present our efforts to integrate two adaptive hypermedia systems that take very different approaches. The Adaptive Hypermedia Architecture (AHA!) aims to establish a consistently organized, strictly designed form of hypertext while Auld Linky takes an open and potentially sculptural approach, producing more freeform, less deterministic hypertexts. We describe the difficulties in reconciling the two approaches. This leads us to draw a number of conclusions about the benefits and disadvantages of both and the concessions that are required to combine them successfully
Personalised Single-Pill Combination Therapy in Hypertensive Patients: An Update of a Practical Treatment Platform
No full textDespite the improvements in the management of hypertension during the last three decades, it continues to be one of the leading causes of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide. Effective and sustained reductions in blood pressure (BP) reduce the incidence of myocardial infarction, stroke, congestive heart failure and cardiovascular death. However, the proportion of patients who achieve the recommended BP goal (< 140/90 mmHg) is persistently low, worldwide. Poor adherence to therapy, complex therapeutic regimens, clinical inertia, drug-related adverse events and multiple risk factors or comorbidities contribute to the disparity between the potential and actual BP control rate. Previously we published a practical therapeutic platform for the treatment of hypertension based on clinical evidence, guidelines, best practice and clinical experience. This platform provides a personalised treatment approach and can be used to improve BP control and simplify treatment. It uses long-acting, effective and well-tolerated angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) olmesartan, in combination with a calcium channel blocker amlodipine, and/or a thiazide diuretic hydrochlorothiazide. These drugs were selected based on the availability in most European Countries of single-pill, fixed formulations in a wide range of doses for both dual- and triple-drug combinations. The platform approach could be applied to other ARBs or angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors available in single-pill, fixed-dose combinations. Here, we present an update, which takes into account the results of the recently published studies and extends the applicability of the platform to common conditions that are often neglected or poorly considered in clinical practice guidelines
Aircraft Marshaling Signals Dataset of FMCW Radar and Event-Based Camera for Sensor Fusion
No full textDataset Introduction
The advent of neural networks capable of learning salient features from variance in the radar data has expanded the breadth of radar applications, often as an alternative sensor or a complementary modality to camera vision. Gesture recognition for command control is the most commonly explored application. Nevertheless, more suitable benchmarking datasets are needed to assess and compare the merits of the different proposed solutions. Furthermore, most current publicly available radar datasets used in gesture recognition provide little diversity, do not provide access to raw ADC data, and are not significantly challenging. To address these shortcomings, we created and made available a new dataset that combines two synchronized modalities: radar and dynamic vision camera of 10 aircraft marshalling signals at several distances and angles, recorded from 13 people. Moreover, we propose a sparse encoding of the time domain (ADC) signals that achieve a dramatic data rate reduction (>76%) while retaining the efficacy of the downstream FFT processing (<2% accuracy loss on recognition tasks). Finally, we demonstrate early sensor fusion results based on compressed radar data encoding in range-Doppler maps with dynamic vision data. This approach achieves higher accuracy than either modality alone.
Dataset Structure
The dataset has a common directory structure which contains additional information about the captures.
dataset_dir///--/ofxRadar8Ghz_yyyy-mm-dd_HH-MM-SS.rad
Identifiers
stage [train, test].
room: [conference_room, foyer, open_space].
person: [0-9]. Note that 0 stands for no person, and 1 for an unlabeled, random person (only present in test).
gesture: ['none', 'emergency_stop', 'move_ahead', 'move_back_v1', 'move_back_v2', 'slow_down' 'start_engines', 'stop_engines', 'straight_ahead', 'turn_left', 'turn_right'].
distance: ['xxx', '100', '150', '200', '250', '300', '350', '400', '450'] (in cm). Note that xxx is used for none gestures when there is no person present in front of the radar (i.e. background samples), or when a person is walking infront of the radar with varying distances but performing no gesture.If you use this dataset, please also cite our accompanying paper:
@inproceedings{mueller2023aircraft, title={Aircraft Marshalling Signals Dataset of Radar and Event-Based Camera for Sensor Fusion}, author={M\"uller, Leon and Sifalakis, Manolis and Eissa, Sherif and Yousefzadeh, Amirreza and Detterer, Paul and Stuijk, Sander, and Corradi, Federico}, journal={IEEE Radar Conference, San Antonio, TX}, volume={}, number={1}, pages={1--15}, year={2023}, publisher={IEE}
Strategies to meet the need for long-term data
No full textChronic diseases afflict patients for many years, often to the end of life, and there is increasing need for estimating lifelong risk and for evaluating the effects of treatment in the long-term. Yet recommendations for lifelong treatment are most frequently based on findings from randomised clinical trials lasting only a few years. There is therefore a clear need for much longer-term data, and here we present the advantages and disadvantages of many strategies, including the use of long-term post-trial follow-up, of long-term prospective cohort studies, registry databases, and of administrative data bases. We also emphasise the need for long-term cost-effectiveness studies. One of the most promising strategies comes from linkage of data gathered through the ever-expanding pool of administrative data bases worldwide with data from other sources, including randomised trials and the many forms of observational study
Impact of stable angina on health status and quality of life perception of currently treated patients. The BRIDGE 2 survey.
No full textOBJECTIVE: to explore 1) the perception of stable angina (SA) - impact on quality of life (QoL) and current condition related to SA; 2) SA burden - symptoms and frequency of anginal episodes; 3) impairment attributable to SA - limitations in daily activities and impact on work; 4) characteristics that might affect the patients' perception." METHOD: a proprietary questionnaire was administered on-line to SA patients selected using a purpose-built screening program from general population panels collaborating with IQVIA in Italy, Germany, Spain, and the UK. Exploratory analyses were performed: descriptive statistics on the total sample and different stratifications (gender, age class, time since diagnosis) were provided; we used Chi-square tests to compare subgroups. RESULTS: of more than 25,000 subjects who accessed the survey, 268 were eligible and completed the questionnaire: mean age was 61 years and women accounted for 30%. Despite being treated, about 40% of patients reported that SA impacted "completely" or "very much" their QoL, 10% rated their condition as "not good", and 45.1% stated that they felt "Fair". The majority of patients were still symptomatic and many of them perceived that SA had a major impact on their working life. Women, younger patients and those with a more recent diagnosis reported a worse self-assessment of their condition, QoL and symptom burden. CONCLUSIONS: the results of our survey provide new insights on how patients with SA perceived their own health status and suggest that any patient with SA deserves a more detailed and accurate evaluation by their physicians
Generation of mineralised cellular constructs using mouse embryonic stem cells encapsulated in alginate hydrogels and cultured within a custom-made rotating wall vessel perfusion bioreactor
No full textThe prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders is a major burden for modern societies. Due to the increasing aging population and the lifestyle changes, a significant number of people are severely affected worldwide. The important issue with these diseases is the fact that they cause pain and disability on a person's physical functioning for long time, thus diminishing the quality of life of the individual. Moreover, they are accompanied by a high financial cost for the society and the healthcare system. Current ways of treatment do not provide optimum therapy. They employ high concentration of growth factors and they are expensive, inefficient and many times exhibit various side effects. For this reason, an alternative solution is needed.
Tissue engineering (TE) strategies offer a novel approach to the problem. The combination of the appropriate cell source with the essential scaffold leads to the formation of three-dimensional (3D) constructs, which can be subsequently, cultured within a bioreactor, with the employment of proper osteoinductive factors. This process leads to the generation of high number of efficiently differentiated cells, which are needed for cellular therapies.
In this project, the generation of 3D mineralised cellular constructs was performed using mouse Embryonic Stem Cells (mESCs) encapsulated in alginate hydrogels. The novelty of this project lied on two components; the employment of a custom-made rotating wall vessel (RWV) perfusion bioreactor, which had been shown previously to exhibit advantageous properties regarding the efficient differentiation of high cell numbers needed for potential therapeutic applications and the use of simvastatin (Sim) in the culture media, acting as an osteoinductive substance in very low concentration of the nanomolar scale. Sim had been previously employed to induce osteoblast differentiation. The novelty lied on the total combined configuration with the low concentration of Sim and the perfusion bioreactor used for cell culture and differentiation.
Evaluation of cell proliferation and osteogenic differentiation was performed through several analyses. Extended gene expression was tested and obtained results were also compared with those acquired previously by the currently used protocol with dexamethasone (Dex). Acquired results indicated that the favorable environment of the perfusion bioreactor culture could support higher cell number sand more efficient osteogenic differentiation in comparison to static configuration. Sim was more efficient when supplied in the culture at the appropriate time point, after two weeks of initiation of the experiment. Sim and Dex indicated similar outcome in biochemical analysis. Osteogenic gene expression was strongly induced after Dex treatment while Sim supported the generation of higher cell numbers. These findings suggested the generation of a more progenitor cell type after Sim treatment and a more mature phenotype after Dex treatment.Open Acces
Loose ends: almost one in five human genes still have unresolved coding status
No full textThe authors have accidently omitted one co-author. Part of the work described in this study was performed in the laboratory of Dr Manolis Kellis, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA and The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Dr Kellis’ name has been added to the authorship and the published article has been updated
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