Laser therapy in pressure ulcers: evaluation by the Pressure Ulcer Scale for Healing and Nursing Outcomes Classification

AbstractOBJECTIVETo describe the pressure ulcer healing process in critically ill patients treated with conventional dressing therapy plus low-intensity laser therapy evaluated by the Pressure Ulcer Scale for Healing (PUSH) and the result of Wound Healing: Secondary Intention, according to the Nursing Outcomes Classification (NOC).METHODCase report study according to nursing process conducted with an Intensive Care Unit patient. Data were collected with an instrument containing the PUSH and the result of the NOC. In the analysis we used descriptive statistics, considering the scores obtained on the instrument.RESULTSA reduction in the size of lesions of 7cm to 1.5cm of length and 6cm to 1.1cm width, in addition to the increase of epithelial tissue and granulation, decreased secretion and odor.CONCLUSIONThere was improvement in the healing process of the lesion treated with adjuvant therapy and the use of NOC allowed a more detailed and accurate assessment than the PUSH.

Structural characterization of laser-treated Cr3C2-NiCr coatings

The interconnected porosity of the Cr3C2-NiCr coatings obtained by high-velocity oxy fuel spraying is detrimental in corrosion and wear resistance applications. Laser treatments allow sealing of their surfaces through melting and resolidification of a thin superficial layer. A Nd:YAG laser beam was used to irradiate Cr3C2-NiCr coatings either in the continuous wave mode or at different repetition rates in the pulsed one. Results indicated that high peak and low mean laser irradiances are not good, since samples presented deep grooves and an extensive crack network. At low peak and higher mean laser irradiances the surface was molten, and only a few shallow cracks were observed. The interconnected porosity was completely eliminated in a layer up to 80 m thick, formed by large Cr7C3 grains imbedded in a NiCr matrix.

Structural characterization of laser-treated Cr3C2-NiCr coatings

The interconnected porosity of the Cr3C2-NiCr coatings obtained by high-velocity oxy fuel spraying is detrimental in corrosion and wear resistance applications. Laser treatments allow sealing of their surfaces through melting and resolidification of a thin superficial layer. A Nd:YAG laser beam was used to irradiate Cr3C2-NiCr coatings either in the continuous wave mode or at different repetition rates in the pulsed one. Results indicated that high peak and low mean laser irradiances are not good, since samples presented deep grooves and an extensive crack network. At low peak and higher mean laser irradiances the surface was molten, and only a few shallow cracks were observed. The interconnected porosity was completely eliminated in a layer up to 80 m thick, formed by large Cr7C3 grains imbedded in a NiCr matrix.

Laser-TIG hybrid welding process

Joining processes and techniques need to meet the trend of new applications and the development of new materials. The application in connection with thick and thin plates in industrial fields is wide and the joining technology is in very urgent need. The laser-TIG hybrid welding technology can play the respective advantages of both of them. One major advantage of the hybrid laser-TIG welding technology is its efficient use of laser energy. Additionally, it can develop into a high and new advanced welding technology and become a hot spot in both the application and research area. This thesis investigated laser –TIG hybrid welding with the aim of enlightening the reader on its advantages, disadvantages and future areas of improvement. The main objective is to investigate laser-TIG hybrid on the welding of various metals (steels, magnesium, aluminium etc.). In addition, it elaborates on various possible combinations on hybrid laser-TIG welding technology and their benefits. The possibility of using laser-TIG hybrid in welding of thick materials was investigated. The method applied in carrying out this research is by using literature review. The results showed that hybrid laser-TIG is applicable to almost all weldable metals. Also it proves to be effective in welding refractive metals. The possibility of welding with or without filler materials is of economic advantage especially in welding of materials with no filler material. Thick plate’s hybrid laser-TIG welding is showing great prospects although it normally finds its used in welding thin materials in the range of 0.4 to 0.8 mm. The findings show that laser-TIG hybrid welding can be a versatile welding process and therefore will be increasingly used industrially due to its numerous advantages and the development of new TIG arc that enhances its capabilities.

Probe-level linear model fitting and mixture modeling results in high accuracy detection of differential gene expression

Affiliation: Institut de recherche en immunologie et en cancérologie, Université de Montréal

Transient high level mammalian reovirus replication in a bat epithelial cell line occurs without cytopathic effect

Mammalian reoviruses exhibit a large host range and infected cells are generally killed; however, most studies examined only a few cell types and host species, and are probably not representative of all possible interactions between virus and host cell. Many questions thus remain concerning the nature of cellular factors that affect viral replication and cell death. In the present work, it was observed that replication of the classical mammalian reovirus serotype 3 Dearing in a bat epithelial cell line, Tb1.Lu, does not result in cell lysis and is rapidly reduced to very low levels. Prior uncoating of virions by chymotrypsin treatment, to generate infectious subviral particles, increased the initial level of infection but without any significant effect on further viral replication or cell survival. Infected cells remain resistant to virus reinfection and secrete an antiviral factor, most likely interferon, that is protective against the unrelated encephalomyocarditis virus. Although, the transformed status of a cell is believed to promote reovirus replication and viral “oncolysis”, resistant Tb1.Lu cells exhibit a classical phenotype of transformed cells by forming colonies in semisolid soft agar medium. Further transduction of Tb.Lu cells with a constitutively-active Ras oncogene does not seem cell growth or reovirus effect on these cells. Infected Tb1.Lu cells can produce low-level of infectious virus for a long time without any apparent effect, although these cells are resistant to reinfection. The results suggest that Tb1.Lu cells can mount an unusual antiviral response. Specific properties of bat cells may thus be in part responsible for the ability of the animals to act as reservoirs for viruses in general and for novel reoviruses in particular. Their peculiar resistance to cell lysis also makes Tb1.Lu cells an attractive model to study the cellular and viral factors that determine the ability of reovirus to replicate and destroy infected cells.

Tunable diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy ,Nir Overtone and Life Studies of Some Organic Compound

The present work is mainly concentrated on setting up a NIR tunable diode laser absorption (TDLA) spectrometer for high-resolution molecular spectroscopic studies. For successfully recording the high-resolution tunable diode laser spectrum, various experimental considerations are to be taken into account like the setup should be free from mechanical vibrations, sample should be kept at a low pressure, laser should be in a single mode operation etc. The present experimental set up considers all these factors. It is to be mentioned here that the setting up of a high resolution NIR TDLA spectrometer is a novel experiment requiring much effort and patience. The analysis of near infrared (NIR) vibrational overtone spectra of some substituted benzene compounds using local mode model forms another part of the present work. An attempt is made to record the pulsed laser induced fluorescence/Raman spectra of some organic compounds. A Q-switched Nd:YAG laser is used as the excitation source. A TRIAX monochromator and CCD detector is used for the spectral recording. The observed fluorescence emission for carbon disulphide is centered at 680 nm; this is assigned as due to the n, p* transition. Aniline also shows a broad fluorescence emission centered at 725 nm, which is due to the p,p* transition. The pulsed laser Raman spectra of some organic compounds are also recorded using the same experimental setup. The calibration of the set up is done using the laser Raman spectra of carbon tetrachloride and carbon disulphide. The observed laser Raman spectra for aniline, o-chloroaniline and m-chlorotoluene show peaks characteristics of the aromatic ring in common and the characteristics peaks due to the substitutuent groups. Some new peaks corresponding to low-lying vibrations of these molecules are also assigned

Semantic-level Visual Content Descriptor combining visual and textual cues as collaterals

In this paper, we introduce a novel high-level visual content descriptor which is devised for performing semantic-based image classification and retrieval. The work can be treated as an attempt to bridge the so called “semantic gap”. The proposed image feature vector model is fundamentally underpinned by the image labelling framework, called Collaterally Confirmed Labelling (CCL), which incorporates the collateral knowledge extracted from the collateral texts of the images with the state-of-the-art low-level image processing and visual feature extraction techniques for automatically assigning linguistic keywords to image regions. Two different high-level image feature vector models are developed based on the CCL labelling of results for the purposes of image data clustering and retrieval respectively. A subset of the Corel image collection has been used for evaluating our proposed method. The experimental results to-date already indicates that our proposed semantic-based visual content descriptors outperform both traditional visual and textual image feature models.

Collaterally cued labelling framework underpinning semantic-level visual content descriptor

In this paper, we introduce a novel high-level visual content descriptor devised for performing semantic-based image classification and retrieval. The work can be treated as an attempt for bridging the so called "semantic gap". The proposed image feature vector model is fundamentally underpinned by an automatic image labelling framework, called Collaterally Cued Labelling (CCL), which incorporates the collateral knowledge extracted from the collateral texts accompanying the images with the state-of-the-art low-level visual feature extraction techniques for automatically assigning textual keywords to image regions. A subset of the Corel image collection was used for evaluating the proposed method. The experimental results indicate that our semantic-level visual content descriptors outperform both conventional visual and textual image feature models.

A micro-level simulation for the prediction of intention and behaviour

In this contribution we aim at anchoring Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) simulations in actual models of human psychology. More specifically, we apply unidirectional ABM to social psychological models using low level agents (i.e., intra-individual) to examine whether they generate better predictions, in comparison to standard statistical approaches, concerning the intentions of performing a behavior and the behavior. Moreover, this contribution tests to what extent the predictive validity of models of attitude such as the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) or Model of Goal-directed Behavior (MGB) depends on the assumption that peoples’ decisions and actions are purely rational. Simulations were therefore run by considering different deviations from rationality of the agents with a trembling hand method. Two data sets concerning respectively the consumption of soft drinks and physical activity were used. Three key findings emerged from the simulations. First, compared to standard statistical approach the agent-based simulation generally improves the prediction of behavior from intention. Second, the improvement in prediction is inversely proportional to the complexity of the underlying theoretical model. Finally, the introduction of varying degrees of deviation from rationality in agents’ behavior can lead to an improvement in the goodness of fit of the simulations. By demonstrating the potential of ABM as a complementary perspective to evaluating social psychological models, this contribution underlines the necessity of better defining agents in terms of psychological processes before examining higher levels such as the interactions between individuals.

Wind pressure on a single building immersed in a low-jet wind profile

This paper for the first time discuss the wind pressure distribution on the building surface immersed in wind profile of low-level jet rather than a logarithmic boundary-layer profile. Two types of building models are considered, low-rise and high-rise building, relative to the low-level jet height. CFD simulation is carried out. The simulation results show that the wind pressure distribution immersed in a low-jet wine profile is very different from the typical uniform and boundary-layer flow. For the low-rise building, the stagnation point is located at the upper level of windward façade for the low-level jet wind case, and the separation zone above the roof top is not as obvious as the uniform case. For the high-rise building model, the height of stagnation point is almost as high as the low-level jet height.

The interaction of moist convection and mid-level dry air in the advance of the onset of the Indian monsoon

The advance of the onset of the Indian monsoon is here explained in terms of a balance between the low-level monsoon flow and an over-running intrusion of mid-tropospheric dry air. The monsoon advances, over a period of about 6 weeks, from the south of the country to the northwest. Given that the low-level monsoon winds are westerly or southwesterly, and the midlevel winds northwesterly, the monsoon onset propagates upwind relative to midlevel flow, and perpendicular to the low-level flow, and is not directly caused by moisture flux toward the northwest. Lacking a conceptual model for the advance means that it has been hard to understand and correct known biases in weather and climate prediction models. The mid-level northwesterlies form a wedge of dry air that is deep in the far northwest of India and over-runs the monsoon flow. The dry layer is moistened from below by shallow cumulus and congestus clouds, so that the profile becomes much closer to moist adiabatic, and the dry layer is much shallower in the vertical, toward the southeast of India. The profiles associated with this dry air show how the most favourable environment for deep convection occurs in the south, and onset occurs here first. As the onset advances across India, the advection of moisture from the Arabian Sea becomes stronger, and the mid-level dry air is increasingly moistened from below. This increased moistening makes the wedge of dry air shallower throughout its horizontal extent, and forces the northern limit of moist convection to move toward the northwest. Wetting of the land surface by rainfall will further reinforce the north-westward progression, by sustaining the supply of boundary layer moisture and shallow cumulus. The local advance of the monsoon onset is coincident with weakening of the mid-level northwesterlies, and therefore weakened mid-level dry advection.

Segmentation-level fusion for iris recognition

This paper investigates the potential of fusion at normalisation/segmentation level prior to feature extraction. While there are several biometric fusion methods at data/feature level, score level and rank/decision level combining raw biometric signals, scores, or ranks/decisions, this type of fusion is still in its infancy. However, the increasing demand to allow for more relaxed and less invasive recording conditions, especially for on-the-move iris recognition, suggests to further investigate fusion at this very low level. This paper focuses on the approach of multi-segmentation fusion for iris biometric systems investigating the benefit of combining the segmentation result of multiple normalisation algorithms, using four methods from two different public iris toolkits (USIT, OSIRIS) on the public CASIA and IITD iris datasets. Evaluations based on recognition accuracy and ground truth segmentation data indicate high sensitivity with regards to the type of errors made by segmentation algorithms.

Dentin hypersensitivity clinical study comparing LILT and LEDT keeping the same irradiation parameters

Dentin hypersensitivity is a common condition associated with high dental pain. A new LED-based (light emitting diode) light source has been used as an experimental tool in some studies. Purpose: The main objective was to compare these two light sources emitting in the same spectral band (red from 625 to 660 nm) to promote pain relief. Material and methods: A total of 6 sessions were accomplished, being three irradiation sessions and three follow-up sessions. This single-blind study compared a control group (Placebo) and two other groups with different equipments: low laser intensity treatment (LILT) and a light emitting diode system treatment (LEDT). Results: The results showed that there is no statistical difference between LILT and LEDT groups, however, both were better than control group (p=0.01) in terms of treatment efficiency; there is no difference between the second and the third sessions for both treatment, it means that the third session was not necessary; finally, the improvement at the end of the entire research (follow up care of 30 days) was very expressive in comparison to pre-treatment situation for all teeth (p=0.01). Conclusion: LILT and LEDT were equally effective to treat dentine hypersensitivity, a 3rd treatment session was not necessary/two sessions are enough.

Strategies to Increase Course Completion Rates in Lower-Level, High-Enrollment Classes

With an increase in performance-based funding based on credit hours, retention, and graduation rates, administrators seek strategies to increase course completion rates in low-level, high-enrollment courses. This report examines pedagogical strategies implemented within the classroom to increase course completion rates in gateway courses. It also examines how administrators identify qualities that indicate experience and motivation to improve students’ success when hiring new faculty.