1,720,982 research outputs found
ADVANCED VIRTUALLY ASSISTED TELEMEDICINE in ADVERSE REMOTENESS (AVATAR)
Full text linkThe popularity of extreme sport and activities in remotes areas is steadily increasing together with the number of participant and correlated diseases per year.
Until today all the emergencies in remote areas are, at best, managed by a telephone interview, without any real time physiological data evaluation by the attending physician.
This kind of current service shows evident weaknesses:
1. It is based exclusively on a telephone contact
2. There are no automatic mechanisms to intercept and prevent critical situations
3. Is impossible to send automatic alarms in case of need
4. It assumes that the injured has active telephone network coverage
5. It assumes that the injured can actively interact with the emergency alarm center or that other bystanders can do so
6. All the health information is collected by telephone interview without any “real” physiological data obtained by the patient
The object of AVATAR: (Advanced Virtually Assisted Telemedicine in Adverse Remoteness), focuses on developing and assembling technologies allowing to monitor, record, transmit, process physiological data, and, as a consequence, provide assistance and guidance by remote control to: bystanders, rescuers, health-care professionals, as well as possibly patients themselves, in case of emergencies in extreme environment such as: diving, high altitude and space.
The project aims at providing real time physiological and environmental information from remote areas and to develop specific algorithms to elaborate this information to permit a more accurate management of accidents in remote areas, based on an advanced bidirectional telemedicine concept.
The final goal, and also the original challenge of AVATAR, could be to realize a dedicated international control center able to receive and manage physiological and environmental data received from remote areas and, supported by customized wearable technology, augmented and virtual reality and exposure monitoring electronic devices, to provide appropriate instructions to assist accident victims supported by real-time medical, environmental and exposure information.
During the three years of Ph.D we developing and assembling devices allowing to monitor, recording and transmit physiological and environmental data and developing the data base, the algorithms and the software allowing the AVATAR system function.
To permit a correct interpretation of remotely collected data we also developing physiological scientific protocols to investigate the body adaptation to extreme environment.The popularity of extreme sport and activities in remotes areas is steadily increasing together with the number of participant and correlated diseases per year.
Until today all the emergencies in remote areas are, at best, managed by a telephone interview, without any real time physiological data evaluation by the attending physician.
This kind of current service shows evident weaknesses:
1. It is based exclusively on a telephone contact
2. There are no automatic mechanisms to intercept and prevent critical situations
3. Is impossible to send automatic alarms in case of need
4. It assumes that the injured has active telephone network coverage
5. It assumes that the injured can actively interact with the emergency alarm center or that other bystanders can do so
6. All the health information is collected by telephone interview without any “real” physiological data obtained by the patient
The object of AVATAR: (Advanced Virtually Assisted Telemedicine in Adverse Remoteness), focuses on developing and assembling technologies allowing to monitor, record, transmit, process physiological data, and, as a consequence, provide assistance and guidance by remote control to: bystanders, rescuers, health-care professionals, as well as possibly patients themselves, in case of emergencies in extreme environment such as: diving, high altitude and space.
The project aims at providing real time physiological and environmental information from remote areas and to develop specific algorithms to elaborate this information to permit a more accurate management of accidents in remote areas, based on an advanced bidirectional telemedicine concept.
The final goal, and also the original challenge of AVATAR, could be to realize a dedicated international control center able to receive and manage physiological and environmental data received from remote areas and, supported by customized wearable technology, augmented and virtual reality and exposure monitoring electronic devices, to provide appropriate instructions to assist accident victims supported by real-time medical, environmental and exposure information.
During the three years of Ph.D we developing and assembling devices allowing to monitor, recording and transmit physiological and environmental data and developing the data base, the algorithms and the software allowing the AVATAR system function.
To permit a correct interpretation of remotely collected data we also developing physiological scientific protocols to investigate the body adaptation to extreme environment
Feasibility of chest ultrasound up to 42 m underwater
Full text linkAfter recent advancements, ultrasound has extended its applications from bedside clinical practice to wilderness medicine. Performing ultrasound scans in extreme environments can allow direct visualization of unique pathophysiological adaptations but can be technically challenging. This paper summarizes how a portable ultrasound apparatus was marinized to let scientific divers and sonographers perform ultrasound scans of the lungs underwater up to - 42 m. A metallic case protected the ultrasound apparatus inside; a frontal transparent panel with a glove allowed visualization and operation of the ultrasound by the diving sonographer. The inner pressure was equalized with environmental pressure through a compressed air tank connected with circuits similar to those used in SCUBA diving. Finally, the ultrasound probe exited the metallic case through a sealed aperture. No technical issues were reported after the first testing step and the real experiments
Oxidative stress and motion sickness in one crew during competitive offshore sailing
Full text linkCompetitive Offshore Ocean Sailing is a highly demanding activity in which subjects are exposed to psychophysical stressors for a long time. To better define the physiological adaptations, we investigated the stress response of subjects exposed to 3-days long ocean navigation with disruption of circadian rhythms. 6 male subjects were involved in the study and provided urine and saliva samples before setting sail, during a single day of inshore sailing, during 3-days long ocean navigation, and at the arrival, to measure oxidative stress, cortisol, nitric oxide metabolites (NOx) and metabolic response. Motion Sickness questionnaires were also administered during the navigation. The crew suffered a mean weight loss of 1.58 kg. After the long navigation, a significant increase in ROS production and decrease in total antioxidant capacity and uric acid levels were observed. Lipid peroxidation, NO metabolites, ketones, creatinine, and neopterin levels were also increased. Furthermore, a significant increase in cortisol levels was measured. Finally, we found a correlation between motion sickness questionnaires with the increase of NOx, and no correlation with cortisol levels. Physical and psychological stress response derived from offshore sailing resulted in increased oxidative stress, nitric oxide metabolites, and cortisol levels, unbalanced redox status, transient renal function impairment, and ketosis. A direct correlation between motion sickness symptoms evaluated through questionnaires and NOx levels was also found
Serum Amino Acid Profile Changes After Repetitive Breath-Hold Dives: A Preliminary Study
Full text linkBACKGROUND: The aim of this work was to investigate the serum amino acid (AA) changes after a breath-hold diving (BH-diving) training session under several aspects including energy need, fatigue tolerance, nitric oxide (NO) production, antioxidant synthesis and hypoxia adaptation. Twelve trained BH-divers were investigated during an open sea training session and sampled for blood 30 min before the training session, 30 min and 4 h after the training session. Serum samples were assayed for AA changes related to energy request (alanine, histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, proline threonine, valine), fatigue tolerance (ornithine, phenylalanine, tyrosine), nitric oxide production (citrulline), antioxidant synthesis (cystine, glutamate, glycine) and hypoxia adaptation (serine, taurine). MAIN RESULTS: Concerning the AA used as an energy support during physical effort, we found statistically significant decreases for all the investigated AA at T1 and a gradual return to the basal value at T2 even if alanine, proline and theonine still showed a slight significant reduction at this time. Also, the changes related to the AA involved in tolerance to physical effort showed a statistically significant decrease only at T1 respect to pre-diving value and a returned to normal value at T2. Citrulline, involved in NO production, showed a clear significant reduction both at T1 and T2. Concerning AA involved in endogenous antioxidant synthesis, the behaviour of the three AA investigated is different: we found a statistically significant increase in cystine both at T1 and T2, while glycine showed a statistically significant reduction (T1 and T2). Glutamate did not show any statistical difference. Finally, we found a statistically significant decrease in the AA investigated in other hypoxia conditions serine and taurine (T1 and T2). CONCLUSIONS: Our data seem to indicate that the energetic metabolic request is in large part supported by AA used as substrate for fuel metabolism and that also fatigue tolerance, NO production and antioxidant synthesis are supported by AA. Finally, there are interesting data related to the hypoxia stimulus that indirectly may confirm that the muscle apparatus works under strong exposure conditions notwithstanding the very short/low intensity of exercise, due to the intermittent hypoxia caused by repetitive diving
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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