Estimation of spatial-temporal gait parameters in level walking based on a single accelerometer: Validation on normal subjects by standard gait analysis

This paper investigates the ability of a single wireless inertial sensing device stuck on the lower trunk to provide spatial-temporal parameters during level walking. The 3-axial acceleration signals were filtered and the timing of the main gait events identified. Twenty-two healthy subjects were analyzed with this system for validation, and the estimated parameters were compared with those obtained with state-of-the-art gait analysis, i.e. stereophotogrammetry and dynamometry. For each side, from four to six gait cycles were measured with the device, of which two were validated by gait analysis. The new acquisition system is easy to use and does not interfere with regular walking. No statistically significant differences were found between the acceleration-based measurements and the corresponding ones from gait analysis for most of the spatial-temporal parameters, i.e. stride length, stride duration, cadence and speed, etc.; significant differences were found for the gait cycle phases, i.e. single and double support duration, etc. The system therefore shows promise also for a future routine clinical use.     

Methodological design and comparative evaluation of a MAS providing AmI

Researches on Ambient Intelligent and Ubiquitous Computing using wireless technologies have increased in the last years. In this work, we review several scenarios to define a multi-agent architecture that support the information needs of these new technologies, for heterogeneous domain. Our contribution consists of designing in a methodological way a Context Aware System (involving location services) using agents that can be used in very different domains. We describe all the steps followed in the design of the agent system. We apply a hybridizing methodology between GAIA and AUML. Additionally we propose a way to compare different agent architectures for Context Aware System using agent interactions. So, in this paper, we describe the assignment of weight values to agents interaction in two different MAS architectures for Context Aware problems solving different scenarios inspired in FIPA standard negotiation protocols.     

Linking Organizational Resources and Work Engagement to Employee Performance and Customer Loyalty: The Mediation of Service Climate.

This study examined the mediating role of service climate in the prediction of employee performance and customer loyalty. Contact employees (N=342) from 114 service units (58 hotel front desks and 56 restaurants) provided information about organizational resources, engagement, and service climate. Furthermore, customers (N=1,140) from these units provided information on employee performance and customer loyalty. Structural equation modeling analyses were consistent with a full mediation model in which organizational resources and work engagement predict service climate, which in turn predicts employee performance and then customer loyalty. Further analyses revealed a potential reciprocal effect between service climate and customer loyalty. Implications of the study are discussed, together with limitations and suggestions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The W-Process for Software Product Evaluation: A Method for Goal-Oriented Implementation of the ISO 14598 Standard

The importance of software product evaluations will grow with the awareness of the need for better software quality. The process to conduct such evaluations is crucial to get evaluation results that can be applied and meet customers' expectations. This paper reviews a well-known evaluation process: the ISO 14598 standard. The review focuses on the difficulties in selecting and evaluating the appropriate evaluation techniques. The review shows that the standard has problems in applying evaluation processes in practice due to insufficient attention to goal definition and to relationships between activities being implicit. Also, the standard ignores the trade-off between goals and resources and pays insufficient attention to feedback. To address these deficiencies, the W-process is proposed. It extends the standard through an improved process structure and additional guidelines.     

Academic trajectories of newcomer immigrant youth.

Immigration to the United States presents both challenges and opportunities that affect students' academic achievement. Using a 5-year longitudinal, mixed-methods approach, we identified varying academic trajectories of newcomer immigrant students from Central America, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico. Latent class growth curve analysis revealed that although some newcomer students performed at high or improving levels over time, others showed diminishing performance. Multinomial logistic regressions identified significant group differences in academic trajectories, particularly between the high-achieving youth and the other groups. In keeping with ecological–developmental and stage–environment fit theories, School Characteristics (school segregation rate, school poverty rate, and student perceptions of school violence), Family Characteristics (maternal education, parental employment, and household structure), and Individual Characteristics (academic English proficiency, academic engagement, psychological symptoms, gender, and 2 age-related risk factors, number of school transitions and being overaged for grade placement) were associated with different trajectories of academic performance. A series of case studies triangulate many of the quantitative findings as well as illuminate patterns that were not detected in the quantitative data. Thus, the mixed-methods approach sheds light on the cumulative developmental challenges that immigrant students face as they adjust to their new educational settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forecasting with unequally spaced data by a functional principal component approach

The Principal Component Regression model of multiple responses is extended to forccast a continuous-time stochastic process. Orthogonal projection on a subspace of trigonometric functions is applied in order to estimate the principal components using discrete-time observations from a sample of regular curves. The forecasts provided by this approach are compared with classical principal component regression on simulated data.     

Fascial Innervation: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Currently, myofascial pain has become one of the main problems in healthcare systems. Research into its causes and the structures related to it may help to improve its management. Until some years ago, all the studies were focused on muscle alterations, as trigger points, but recently, fasciae are starting to be considered a new, possible source of pain. This systematic review has been conducted for the purpose of analyze the current evidence of the muscular/deep fasciae innervation from a histological and/or immunohistochemical point of view. A literature search published between 2000 and 2021 was made in PubMed and Google Scholar. Search terms included a combination of fascia, innervation, immunohistochemical, and different immunohistochemical markers. Of the 23 total studies included in the review, five studies were performed in rats, four in mice, two in horses, ten in humans, and two in both humans and rats. There were a great variety of immunohistochemical markers used to detect the innervation of the fasciae; the most used were Protein Gene Marker 9.5 (used in twelve studies), Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (ten studies), S100 (ten studies), substance P (seven studies), and tyrosine hydroxylase (six studies). Various areas have been studied, with the thoracolumbar fascia being the most observed. Besides, the papers highlighted diversity in the density and type of innervation in the various fasciae, going from free nerve endings to Pacini and Ruffini corpuscles. Finally, it has been observed that the innervation is increased in the pathological fasciae. From this review, it is evident that fasciae are well innerved, their innervation have a particular distribution and precise localization and is composed especially by proprioceptors and nociceptors, the latter being more numerous in pathological situations. This could contribute to a better comprehension and management of pain.     

Exciton storage by Mn(2+) in colloidal Mn(2+)-doped CdSe quantum dots

Colloidal Mn (2+)-doped CdSe quantum dots showing long excitonic photoluminescence decay times of up to tau exc = 15 mus at temperatures over 100 K are described. These decay times exceed those of undoped CdSe quantum dots by approximately 10 (3) and are shown to arise from the creation of excitons by back energy transfer from excited Mn (2+) dopant ions. A kinetic model describing thermal equilibrium between Mn (2+ 4)T 1 and CdSe excitonic excited states reproduces the experimental observations and reveals that, for some quantum dots, excitons can emit with near unity probability despite being approximately 100 meV above the Mn (2+ 4)T 1 state. The effect of Mn (2+) doping on CdSe quantum dot luminescence at high temperatures is thus completely opposite from that at low temperatures described previously.     

Analyzing the problem of unsustainable health information systems in less-developed economies: Case studies from Tanzania and Mozambique

Most of donor-supported information technology (IT)–based projects developed or implemented in less-developed economies (LDEs) end up as complete or partial failures or unsustainable. Notably, a number of intra-organizational and external factors are associated with this problem, including inadequate infrastructure and human resource capacity, fragmented donor policy, and lack of policies to manage the sustainability problem. Accordingly, IT initiatives are often donor-driven, top-down, and hijacked by top managers who (normally) do not have adequate skills, but have enormous power to enforce such initiatives across organizational hierarchies.

In analyzing the concepts from sustainability and institutionalization, key insights towards a better understanding of the problem of unsustainability are developed. It is argued that health information systems (HISs) become sustainable if they are institutionalized in the sense of being integrated into the everyday routine of the user organization. However, a sustainable HIS should also be flexible enough to allow changes as the user needs change. Moreover, introduction of a new HIS is not only a technical change, but requires the cultivation and institutionalization of a new kind of culture.

Through a comparative case analysis of the HIS development and implementation processes in Tanzania and Mozambique, we have identified two sets of relationships, between the Ministry of Health (MoH) and donor agencies and between the MoH and software development agencies as critical and contributing factors to the unsustainability of a HIS. Given this setting, we highlight three key strategies for dealing with the problem of unsustainability in LDEs: (a) integration of a HIS, (b) local shaping of new cultures, and (c) cultivation approach to systems development. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

LncRNA H19 Impairs Chemo and Radiotherapy in Tumorigenesis

Various treatments based on drug administration and radiotherapy have been devoted to preventing, palliating, and defeating cancer, showing high efficiency against the progression of this disease. Recently, in this process, malignant cells have been found which are capable of triggering specific molecular mechanisms against current treatments, with negative consequences in the prognosis of the disease. It is therefore fundamental to understand the underlying mechanisms, including the genes—and their signaling pathway regulators—involved in the process, in order to fight tumor cells. Long non-coding RNAs, H19 in particular, have been revealed as powerful protective factors in various types of cancer. However, they have also evidenced their oncogenic role in multiple carcinomas, enhancing tumor cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. In this review, we analyze the role of lncRNA H19 impairing chemo and radiotherapy in tumorigenesis, including breast cancer, lung adenocarcinoma, glioma, and colorectal carcinoma.