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COVID-19 disease is characterized by serious clinical manifestations which could require urgent hospitalization. Prolonged hospitalization, with catabolism and immobilization, induces a decrease in weight and muscle mass which can result in sarcopenia, a condition that impairs respiratory and cardiac function, worsening the prognosis. In this scenario there is an urgent need of nutritional indications aimed to prevent or contrast hospital malnutrition by improving the patient's response to therapy and to facilitate healthcare professionals in managing nutritional interventions on patients, reducing their already high workload due to the state of emergency.

The primary intention of any scientific work is to share the gained knowledge and to contribute to the knowledge and progress in the scientific domain. The wide range of journals and conferences, each with specific submission requirements, can be difficult to navigate, especially for young scientists without extensive experience. But a suitable publication strategy can be helpful, especially at the beginning of a scientific career. Using the annual conference of the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS) e.V. as an example, this editorial highlights fundamental differences, advantages and disadvantages, as well as assistance in selecting the right form of submission.

Research literature terminology illustrates that publications claim to pertain to “disciplinary” approaches and researcher’s align themselves to specific, multi-, inter- or trans-disciplinarities. Ambiguity exists in definition and application of disciplinarity, hence there is need to establish a coherent application of disciplinarity. We present results of content analysis of research literature claiming to be inter-, multi-, or transdisciplinary to assist in ascertaining commonalities or differences for those disciplinarities. We analyse the abstracts and keywords of 8834 papers, using n-grams and bi-grams, dating from 1970 until 2018, extracting a list of 76,552 terms for comparison. The top 15 most frequent terms characterise each disciplinarity and Venn diagrams of the top 15 features illustrate differences and overlap. A total of six terms appear common to all approaches in the abstracts, with four shared by multi- and inter-, two between inter- and trans-, and none common to multi- and trans-. The term “social science(s)” appears to be a unique feature in the trans- abstracts and our findings identify common text terms such as the “research” feature, common to all disciplinarities. This supports characterising the nature of transdisciplinarity and its unique differences from other approaches such as inclusion of social science(s).

Today, in modern large-scale industrial processes, each step-in manufacturing produces a bulk of variables, which are highly precise in nature. However, great challenges are faced under different real-time operating conditions when using just the basic data-driven methods. One of the sultriest research points for convoluted process control is the usage of big data analytics. The aim of big data analytics is to take full advantages of the large amounts of obtained process data and mine helpful details present within. Compared to the well-developed model-based approaches, usage of big data analytics provides productive elective answers for various modern issues under different working conditions. Majority of the modelling in process control in a closed loop system is based on varying the command input to obtain desired controlled output. However, modelling of the process control in a closed loop system based on the disturbance using conventional methods is time consuming since disturbance data is too big and too complex. Utilization of advanced big data analytical methods to mine the disturbance data can lead towards more informed decisions to model the process control in the system. Thus, relevant solutions can be obtained to some of the challenges in the modeling of process control using big data analytics.

Objective Examination of de-classified Monsanto documents from litigation in order to expose the impact of the company's efforts to influence the reporting of scientific studies related to the safety of the herbicide, glyphosate. Methods A set of 141 recently de-classified documents, made public during the course of pending toxic tort litigation, In Re Roundup Products Liability Litigation were examined. Results The documents reveal Monsanto-sponsored ghostwriting of articles published in toxicology journals and the lay media, interference in the peer review process, behind-the-scenes influence on retraction and the creation of a so-called academic website as a front for the defense of Monsanto products. Conclusion The use of third-party academics in the corporate defense of glyhphosate reveals that this practice extends beyond the corruption of medicine and persists in spite of efforts to enforce transparency in industry manipulation.

BACKGROUND: Computer works are associated with Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs). There are several methods have been developed to assess computer work risk factor related to MSDs. OBJECTIVE: This review aims to give an overview of current techniques available for pen-and-paper-based observational methods in assessing ergonomic risk factors of computer work. METHODS: We searched an electronic database for materials from 1992 until 2015. The selected methods were focused on computer work, pen-and-paper observational methods, office risk factors and musculoskeletal disorders. This review was developed to assess the risk factors, reliability and validity of pen-and-paper observational method associated with computer work. Two evaluators independently carried out this review. RESULTS: Seven observational methods used to assess exposure to office risk factor for work-related musculoskeletal disorders were identified. The risk factors involved in current techniques of pen and paper based observational tools were postures, office components, force and repetition. From the seven methods, only five methods had been tested for reliability. They were proven to be reliable and were rated as moderate to good. For the validity testing, from seven methods only four methods were tested and the results are moderate. CONCLUSION: Many observational tools already exist, but no single tool appears to cover all of the risk factors including working posture, office component, force, repetition and office environment at office workstations and computer work. Although the most important factor in developing tool is proper validation of exposure assessment techniques, the existing observational method did not test reliability and validity. Futhermore, this review could provide the researchers with ways on how to improve the pen-and-paper-based observational method for assessing ergonomic risk factors of computer work.

Background The prevalence of MSS among office workers is high worldwide, having a significant effect on medical costs, absenteeism, and quality of life. In Bangladesh, there are many office workers but there is no data on the prevalence and impact of MSS. Objective The aim of this pilot study was to determine the prevalence and distribution of MSS among paper based office workers from one local office in order to determine whether or not an ergonomic intervention is required and the focus of the intervention needed. Methods A cross sectional study was conducted among 200 paper based office workers using a proportional stratified random sample. The Standardized Nordic Questionnaire was used to determine the prevalence and distribution of MSS. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Results The mean age of the respondents was 43.0 years with a mean of 12.0 years work experience. 76.0% (n=152) of the respondents reported having MSS during the last 12 months. MSS complaints were reported primarily in the lower back region. 40.5% (n=81) of the respondents reported interruption of their normal daily activities within the last 12 months reportedly due to MSS. Conclusion The current study showed the high prevalence rate of MSS among office workers in one workplace in Bangladesh. This was a pilot study, but it suggests that there is likely a need for further study into office workers' work sites and work practices to prevent work related injuries.

Scientific communication is gradually changing. In the web era the genre of the printed paper has survived in digital format as static PDF, but annotations, multimedia and access to data are appearing as new interactive features of innovative scholarly journals. Together they justify the term Rich Internet Publication (RIP) as name for a new emerging genre. Because of the authoritative role of publications in highly ranked journals, a RIP is mostly used as a ‘showcase’ to publish supplementary material that could not be made available otherwise, and to generate a broader interest in a project. The traditional authoring of linear text does not adequately fit the new situation, in which the author has to deal with much more information in various formats and has access to new options for presentation. This paper describes a strategy to transform a regular paper into a RIP. The strategy is divided into a conceptual stage, in which focal points are created and a balanced mixture of different media are achieved divided over different levels, and the implementation.

In our data driven society in which we expect that all major decisions are backed up by empirical evidence based on high quality data, broad access to these data is a must. However, the benefits of broad data access need to be balanced against potential risks of disclosure. Most data gathered by government agencies are collected under the pledge of confidentiality and the agencies have a legal and moral obligation to guarantee this pledge. Furthermore, if respondents get the impression that their data are not sufficiently protected they might refuse to participate or purposely provide wrong answers jeopardizing the quality of the collected data. Statistical agencies thus have to address this trade-off and much progress has been made in the last decades increasing the amount of data available for the general public while maintaining the confidentiality of the survey respondents. Still, there are certain types of data for which addressing this trade-off is particularly difficult. Medical records containing sensitive information on health status are one example, another example are business data. These data are particularly difficult to protect since a few variables usually suffice to identify larger businesses in the data. At the same time the collected information is often sensitive since other establishments might gain an edge if they learn certain attributes

Computers have become extremely important in most functions of modern business activity. Their optimal exploitation, however, can currently be achieved only if the staff who operate them are prepared to adapt to the machines. Human Computer Interface (HCI) research aims to reduce this human adaptation and produce a more «user natural» environment. One approach particularly relevant to business and managements staff is electronic paper (EP) since it enables untutored staff to utilise powerful computer facilities without the need for specialised computer training and understanding. This paper describes the concept of EP and some typical applications that are practical now and in the future. The historical development and current state of the technology required to produce successful EP devices are also discussed. A list of key commercial systems is provided

Intelligent systems on Paper currency recognition and verification are inevitable for modern banking services. These systems are used in Auto-seller machines, vending machines etc. Extracting sufficient and reliable monetary characteristics are essential for accuracy and performance of such systems. This paper proposes a new intelligent system for paper currency recognition. Pakistani paper currency has been considered, as a case study, for intelligent recognition. This paper identifies, introduces, and extracts robust features from Pakistani banknotes. After extracting these features, the paper proposes to use three layers feed-forward Backpropagation Neural Network (BPN) for intelligent classification. The proposed technique and system are simple and comparatively less time consuming which makes it suitable for real-time applications. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed technique, experiments have been conducted on 175 Pakistani banknotes. The results indicate that system has 100% recognition ability on properly captured images.

We read with great interest the paper entitled “Interferon gamma +874 T/A polymorphism increases the risk of cervical cancer: evidence from a meta-analysis” published online by Sun et al. Their results suggest that interferon gamma ( IFNG) gene +874 T/A polymorphism might contribute to women’s susceptibility to cervical cancer. They also found that IFNG +874 T/A polymorphism is associated with increased cervical cancer risk in Asian female population. The result is encouraging. Nevertheless, several key issues are worth noticing. We re-evaluate the association between IFNG +874 T/A polymorphism and cervical cancer risk by performing an updated meta-analysis based on 2777 cases and 2542 controls of 11 studies. We found that IFNG +874 T/A polymorphism was not significantly associated with cervical cancer risk in overall population. We also observed that the polymorphism was associated with enhanced cervical cancer risk in Asian population and was relevant to increased squamous cell cervical cancer risk.

The purpose of this paper is to present a hybridized technique for analyzing the behavior of an industrial system stochastically by utilizing vague, imprecise, and uncertain data. In the present study two important tools namely Lambda-Tau methodology and particle swarm optimization are used to formulate the hybridized technique PSOBLT Particle swarm optimization based Lambda-Tau for analyzing the behavior of the complex industrial system stochastically up to a desired degree of accuracy. Expressions of reliability indices like failure rate, repair time, mean time between failures MTBF, expected number of failures ENOF, reliability and availability for the system are obtained by using Lambda-Tau methodology and particle swarm optimization is used to construct the membership function. Fault tree is used to model the system. The press unit of a paper mill situated in a northern part of India, producing approximately 200 tons of paper per day, has been considered to demonstrate the proposed approach. Sensitivity analysis of a system's behavior has also been done. The behavior analysis results computed by PSOBLT technique have a reduced region of prediction in comparison of existing Lambda-Tau and GABLT Genetic algorithm based Lambda-Tau technique region, i.e. uncertainties involved in the analysis are reduced. Thus, it may be a more useful analysis tool to assess the current system conditions and involved uncertainties. Thus the paper suggests an approach to improve the systems' performance.

The Alternative Uses Test is a measure of divergent thinking in which participants are asked to list non-obvious uses for a common object in a fixed amount of time. The goals of this study were to better understand this creativity test, explore how original ideas emerge, and provide suggestions for improvement to the test. Participants were asked to list alternative uses for a paperclip in three minutes. 293 participants, including engineers, designers and students, were tested and evaluated. Using infrequency of responses as a measure of originality, it was found that participants that produced more responses had more original responses. Later responses were significantly more original than early responses and originality of responses increased with quantity. On average, a participant would list 9 responses before arriving at highly original responses. Participants that did not reach 9 responses in the study were likely to have few if any highly original responses. Participants that were more elaborate in their responses had fewer responses in total and therefore fewer original responses. If this test maps to real world idea generation, it suggests that the first ideas we think of are likely to have been suggested already by others and thus not original. The results of this study can help restructure the format of the Alternative Uses Test and provide a database for a digital version of this test.

Image authentication is an important research topic of maintaining the integrity of digital image contents. Fragile image authentication is the technique for achieving the goal of image content integrity maintenance. This article presents a fragile image authentication scheme based on the concept of wet paper codes. The proposed scheme modifies dry pixels on an image to conceal an image signature. The proposed authentication scheme can exactly detect the tampered area on a tampered image. For saving computation cost of signature embedding, an exclusive-or operation is used in the proposed authentication scheme. The experimental results show that the proposedmethod not only has good visual quality of an authorized image but also successfully detects tampered areas on a tampered image.

A numerical study was carried out on the electrostatic sticking of a charged paper to photoreceptor in electrostatic transfer process for electrophotography. Numerical procedures to predict sticking of the paper were presented which consists of (1) determination of initial angle of the paper, (2) estimation of electric field intensity, (3) estimation of charge on paper created by Paschen's air breakdown, (4) estimation of electrostatic force acting on the paper and (5) calculation of deformation of paper. Deformation of the charged paper in electric field was numerically simulated according to the procedures and the dependencies of paper sticking on photoreceptor size and initial angle of paper were quantitatively clarified. It is clarified that the smaller and softer photoreceptor improves sticking of paper.

This paper is based on the experiences from a project, the purpose of which was to support people with mild to moderate developmental disabilities in using the Internet. During the first year of the project, we studied how a web site should be designed so that people in the target group could understand and make use of it. The goal was to develop guidelines that cognitively supported the user [2]. Since each user is unique, it is also desirable to let him or her control the design to as great an extent as possible. In another study within the framework of the project, we examined how people with mild to moderate developmental disabilities managed to navigate the Internet. Seven test subjects were asked to move between different web sites using Microsoft Internet Explorer’s tools. Observations were made of how they managed to move forward, back, up, down and to open or close a web site. Their ability to carry out a search or type in a URL address was also observed. The results from this study demonstrated that the test persons managed to navigate without much difficulty [3]. Problems arose, however, when navigation required the subjects to process text. The study indicated that there were two cog

In bloody conflicts and wars, a lot of values are stepped down aside, step down with the ability of people to affect the course of the events, in light of the different sources of information, and employment of inaccurate information to serve the goal of each of the conflicting parties. And the right to life turns to be subjected to coincidences, without having the right to veto or the ability to influence the course of the war or the conflict. The paper sheds light on what is happening in Syria and Iraq as a case study to highlight the bias in the presentation of the results of the conflict there, in the two cases in terms of casualties, and varying data for the same event, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and with a tendency to view the results to serve the goals that each team seeks to achieve, and the disparity between the event and another based on the number of those who lost their lives, with less attention when the number is small. Information about those who lose their lives or are injured due to the varying range of reasons remain unveiled, this information does not appear in many cases even after the end of the period of war or conflict. When it comes to talk about the basics of human rights, to maintain the lives of individuals, it might be ridiculous to talk about typical statistical methods, whether the confronting parties tend to be loyal to professional ethics or divert the events to serve their goals, whether they are bias or not. The issue is affected by the tendency to hide the realities, and the inability to reach the truth on the ground. Consequences of wars and conflicts directly affect the various humanitarian, economic and social levels of life, it is important to study these effects and impacts in order to take decisions and policies that aim to address these impacts and consequences, and to return life to normal track. When we study the statistics of the mortality in conflicts, there are many questions about the accuracy of the estimated numbers, we can obviously see the large differences in the estimates from the different sources, as indicated by Freiberger [2]. So, this type of statistics reasonably can be analyzed under the Big Data and administrative records topics in addition to typical statistical theory using survey sampling. In this field we can discuss many issues such as: the terms and definitions which is important to classify the units , they should be unified and clear, also we can discuss the quality of data, which is difficult to be evaluated in this case, arising the question what is the precision of collected data? Estimation the bias and undercoverage of the target population is hard to obtain too, because there is no standard statistical methods in data collection process. Many of these issues were deeply discussed by Wasserstien [4] under the Big Data topic. We should know that for statistician in this case the evaluation of the different sources is not easy task, in each source we will treat with different methodology and different classification, so, it is difficult to make consistency or integrity among all the estimates. Statisticians sometimes make many ideal assumptions to do some types of modelling or estimation, but in our case

Over nearly 10 years the Innovative Research Workshop and Exhibition held annually in early December at the EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre in Bretigny-sur-Orge, France, has brought together researchers and practitioners from air traffic management and related areas. The workshop focused specifically on innovative research and has continuously attracted inspiring new ideas, studies and concepts. The 2010 edition of the INO Workshop was a notable event (not least because snow kept the attendants locked into the centre one evening) and we have decided to dedicate a special edition of the Journal of Aerospace Operations to it. We have selected what we believe are the most interesting and innovative amongst the papers submitted for presentation at the conference and invited the authors to prepare an extended version of their original manuscript. There are seven articles in this edition which we are sure the reader will find stimulating and rewarding. “A quantitative exploration of flight prioritisation principles, using new delay costs” by Andrew Cook and Graham Tanner proposes a systematic approach to assessing the cost of delays for airlines and how these findings should be applied to flight prioritisation procedures instead of the simple application of delay minutes for optimisation purposes. “Analysis of the ecological and economic impact of a Single European Sky by simulating Freeflight trajectories with Lido/Flight” by Andreas Henn, Urban Weishaar and Philipp Bock proposes a method for quantifying the fuel saving potential of user preferred trajectories as compared to the present trajectories in the European airspace. The application of the flight planning software presently used by Lufthansa and several other airlines to a historic data set shows a fuel saving potential of more than 3% which translates to economic and ecological benefits alike. “4D trajectory management using Contract of Objectives” by Sandrine Guibert and Laurent Guichard describes a series of experiments carried out in order to assess the benefits and usability of the

The fourth APE – Academic Publishing in Europe – Conference in the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, was about ‘the impact of publishing’. The APE 2009 spectrum varied from usage and users, peer reviewing and quality assurance, branding, funding and investing, business models, new types of information, enabling technologies, search engines, to research excellence, dissemination, access and sharing of knowledge. In this issue we present the APE 2009 Short Conference Report, written by Svenja Hagenhoff and Chris Armbruster, and we publish a relevant selection of papers from this conference. As there was simply too much material, we did not attempt to publish full proceedings this time. Most presentations can be found under ‘APE Literature’ on the APE 2009 website: www.ape2009.eu. APE Conferences encourage the debate about the future of scientific publications, information dissemination and access to scientific results. They offer an independent forum for ‘open minds’ with a free exchange of opinions and experiences between all stakeholders. Participants were: academic, educational, scientific, technological, medical, legal and professional publishers, university presses, scientists, authors, editors, librarians, teachers, learned and professional societies and associations, funding agencies, politicians and policy makers, subscription agencies and booksellers, recruiting agencies and technology providers. Academic Publishing and library activity face significant technical, financial and political challenges in the coming years. This may have major consequences for scholarly communication. Europe is the largest producer of scientific research and scholarly knowledge with a very strong publishing and library culture, with different scientific and professional cultures and a multitude of languages, but the acceptance, requirements and expectations are changing rapidly. Although the supportive role of academic organisations, societies and the private sector is subject to an intensive debate, there is a lot of uncertainty about current challenges and possibilities of the scholarly communication system, like new business models, the role of established players, funding schemes, quality and integrity of information, intellectual property, or life cycle and preservation of digital objects. Those issues are often discussed fiercely and emotionally, and there seems to be little interaction and knowledge exchange between the different players of the scholarly communication system, like librarians, publishing houses, university presses, scientists, funders and policy makers.

The authors of Muscle Imbalances – Fact or Fiction, have correctly identified the complexities of quantifying muscle imbalances as related to predisposition to injury. It seems intuitive that significant muscle imbalance would predispose one to injury during high performance sport or strenuous activities common with laborers in industrial settings. However, scientific evidence in support of this impression requires prospective research paradigms involving pre-injury screening of large numbers of uninjured subjects. One good analogy is the clinical assumption that stretching and muscle extensibility reduces sports injury risk. Thacker et al. [1] conducted a systemic review and meta-analysis of the literature in an attempt to find evidence that stretching prevents or reduces injuries in sports. The authors found that stretching is not significantly associated with a reduction in injury risk, and concluded that the evidence for or against stretching is equivocal. The authors have also correctly pointed out that single-factor-related analysis (e.g., uniplanar strength ratios) of muscle function reflects an insufficient approach to identifying a higher risk of overuse or traumatic injury or re-injury. However, I continue to contend that open chain analysis of single muscle group performance is the best way to identify preor postinjury deficits in torque, power, and work, that can be overlooked with more functional closed chain analysis. For example, Kowalk et al. [2] evaluated bilateral joint angles, moments, powers, and work in uninjured and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) deficient subjects during stair climbing preand 6 months post-operatively. Post-operative deficits were found for peak moment, power, and work in the injured knee, yet these reductions were compensated by increases in excursion, moment, and power in the contralateral ankle. Ernst et al. [3] conducted a video analysis of ACL reconstructed and matched uninjured subjects during vertical jump, lateral step-up, and hop activities. They found that the ACL-injured side had lower knee extension moments compared to the uninjured side and matched subjects. However, no differences in hip+knee+ankle summated moments were found, and the injured side hip was found to have compensated for the knee moment deficits. These studies provide evidence that while closed chain functional analysis is important, it alone is insufficient in identifying single muscle group deficits that can be masked with proximal or distal joint, or contralateral extremity compensations. I agree with the authors that a detailed analysis of muscle function that includes passive and active characteristics of muscle lengthening (flexibility, stiffness) and sensorimotor function parameters (e.g., stabilometry, proprioceptive aspects, reflex and electromyographic activity) would more comprehensively assess injury risk. However, this comprehensive analysis of muscle function is impractical for screening large num

Since 2017, the German Society for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology e.V. (GMDS) offers the submission of full papers to the annual meetings, optional in Studies in Health Technologies and Informatics (Stud HIT) or in GMS Medical Informatics, Biometrics, and Epidemiology (MIBE). GMDS’ aim is to increase the attractiveness of the conference and paper submission process in particular for young scientists and to increase the visibility of the conference. A standardized peer review process was established. Since 2017, a 25–35% of the contributions have been submitted as full papers. A total of 177 papers were published in Stud HTI. With an unofficial journal impact factor of 1.088 (2019) and 0.540 (2020), the papers were cited with a frequency similarly to national medical journals or full paper contributions of International medical informatics conferences.

Zero energy technologies and sustainable energy production are the two major concerns of present day researches. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are bioreactors that extract chemical energy stored in organic compounds, into electric potential, through bio-degradation. The core reason for the high strength of effluent generated from slaughterhouses is animal blood. The current study evaluates the potential of MFC technology to reduce the pollution strength of cattle blood in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD). The current study was piloted in three stages using lab scale two chambered MFC: The first stage was to determine the best oxidising agent as compared to natural aeration from three accessible options, KMnO4, diffused aeration and tape grass aquatic plant. KMnO4 was found to be the superlative with a 30% reduction in COD in 100 hrs batch reactor and a maximum power of 0.97 mW using 125 mL livestock blood. The second stage of the study optimised the concentration of KMnO4. At 500 mg/L KMnO4 concentration, 50% COD removal efficiency was acquired in a batch reactor of 60 hrs with an average energy output of 1.3 mW. In the final stage on the addition of coconut shell activated carbon with an Anolyte at a rate of 40 mL/125 mL of substrate COD removal efficiency increased to 74.9%.

Background: Motor complications are a consequence of the chronic dopaminergic treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and include levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LIDs) and motor fluctuations (MF). Currently, evidence is on lacking whether patients with GBA-associated PD differ in their risk of developing motor complications compared to the general PD population. Objective: To evaluate the association of GBA carrier status with the development of LIDS and MFs from early PD. Methods: Motor complications were recorded prospectively in 884 patients with PD from four longitudinal cohorts using part IV of the UPDRS or MDS-UPDRS. Subjects were followed for up to 11 years and the associations of GBA mutations with the development of motor complications were assessed using parametric accelerated failure time models. Results: In 439 patients from Europe, GBA mutations were detected in 53 (12.1%) patients and a total of 168 cases of LIDs and 258 cases of MF were observed. GBA carrier status was not associated with the time to develop LIDs (HR 0.78, 95%CI 0.47 to 1.26, p = 0.30) or MF (HR 1.19, 95%CI 0.84 to 1.70, p = 0.33). In the American cohorts, GBA mutations were detected in 36 (8.1%) patients and GBA carrier status was also not associated with the progression to LIDs (HR 1.08, 95%CI 0.55 to 2.14, p = 0.82) or MF (HR 1.22, 95%CI 0.74 to 2.04, p = 0.43). Conclusion: This study does not provide evidence that GBA-carrier status is associated with a higher risk of developing motor complications. Publication of studies with null results is vital to develop an accurate summary of the clinical features that impact patients with GBA-associated PD. publishedVersion

The current base of knowledge around Parkinson’s disease has been assembled in partnership with a cohort of participants that does not resemble the diversity of people with the disease. This poor representation in research results in an incomplete picture of the disease and disparities in care. The Michael J. Fox Foundation has defined four major areas of action: 1) identifying barriers and solutions to research participation; 2) funding inclusive research with greater participant diversity; 3) building a clinician/researcher workforce committed to health equity; and 4) supporting a more holistic understanding of PD. While factors driving disparities, including broader societal challenges, are complex, it is imperative that the PD research, care, and patient communities move in a decisive and coordinated fashion to identify and implement strategies that advance treatments for everyone with PD and eliminate care inequities.

This paper illustrates the building procedure of a firm-level panel dataset that merges several sources of information concerning the various activities of business firms. The aim of this work is to achieve a detailed dataset able to shed light on firm demographics, in terms of survival, entry and exit processes, distinguishing between “voluntary" and “involuntary" exits. Moreover, the derived dataset allows to monitor the innovation activities of the firms and also to capture complementarities between two instruments of intellectual property rights (IPRs), namely granted patents and registered trademarks. We assess the validity of the proposed procedures resorting to the virtual universe of Italian limited liability companies as provided by Bureau van Dijk (BvD). The dataset covers more than 1 million companies operating in both manufacturing and service sectors and contain financial and economic information, as well as, among the others, the ownership structure and administrative procedures undergone by the firms, which may lead to firm exit. The main purpose of the paper is to provide a unified set of procedures to help the researcher dealing with the vast amount of information available on corporate firms and of ever increasing size. This will also facilitate the replication of empirical analyses, across researchers working on dataset with similar characteristics, although from different countries or data providers.

Medical emergencies involving children are rare events. The experience of emergency physicians is therefore low and the results are correspondingly poor. Assistance services to help in emergencies are regularly requested. The use case is thus very complicated, a complex system consisting of multiple devices is necessary to provide the most efficient and effective service. This short paper presents prototypically tested ideas on how such a ubiquitous approach can be designed and how communication between devices can be simplified and ensured.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought telehealth into the limelight. Telehealth is not a new word but since the pandemic, for many day-to-day users of the healthcare system, this term has become a household term. For IT enthusiasts, it is refreshing to see the uptake in telehealth. In most cases the uptake in telehealth came from the forced necessity of minimizing the spread of the virus. The positive outcomes have taken healthcare by surprise. It is not surprising then to see healthcare service providers transitioning to telehealth at an exponential rate. However, the upcoming COVID-19 normal state will demand more than the transitioning of ‘brick and mortar' clinical practices to video or tele consult, making telehealth a natural predecessor of virtual care. This is a position paper presenting the current state of telehealth by outlining its benefits, limitations, looking beyond telehealth to address some of the recurring healthcare pain points and potential solutions to move towards patient-centered care via the adoption of virtual care. © 2021 The authors and IOS Press.

In the last decade, the research literature has reached an enormous volume with an unprecedented current annual increase of 1.5 million new publications. As research gets ever more global and new countries and institutions, either from academia or corporate environments, start to contribute, it is important to monitor this complex phenomenon and understand its dynamics and equilibria.\ud \ud We present a study on a conference proceedings dataset extracted from Springer Nature SciGraph that illustrates insightful geographical trends and highlights the unbalanced growth of competitive research institutions worldwide in the 1996–2016 period. The main contribution of this work is fourfold. In the first instance, we found that the distributions of institutions and publications among countries follow a power law, consistently with previous literature, i.e., very few countries keep producing most of the papers accepted by high-tier conferences. Secondly, we show how the turnover rate of country rankings is extremely low and steadily declines over time, suggesting an alarmingly static landscape in which new entries struggle to emerge. We also performed an analysis of the venue locations and their effect on the distribution of countries involved in the publications, underlining the central role of Europe and China as knowledge hubs. Finally, we evidence the presence of an increasing gap between the number of institutions initiating and overseeing research endeavours (i.e. first and last authors’ affiliations) and the total number of institutions participating in research.\ud \ud The paper also discusses our experience in working with authors’ affiliations: an utterly simple matter at first glance, that is instead revealed to be a complex research and technical challenge.

Tumor tracking is performed during patient set-up and monitoring of respiratory motion in radiotherapy. In the clinical setting, there are several types of equipment for this set-up such as the Electronic Portal imaging Device (EPID) and Cone Beam CT (CBCT). Technically, an optical positioning system tracks the difference between the infra ball reflected from body and machine isocenter. Our objective is to compare the clinical positioning error of patient setup between Cone Beam CT (CBCT) with the Optical Positioning System (OPS), and to evaluate the traditional positioning systems and OPS based on our proposed approach of patient positioning. In our experiments, a phantom was used, and we measured its setup errors in three directions. Specifically, the deviations in the left-to-right (LR), anterior-to-posterior (AP) and inferior-to-superior (IS) directions were measured by vernier caliper on a graph paper using the Varian Linear accelerator. Then, we verified the accuracy of OPS based on this experimental study. In order to verify the accuracy of phantom experiment, 40 patients were selected in our radiotherapy experiment. To illustrate the precise of optical positioning system, we designed clinical trials using EPID. From our radiotherapy procedure, we can conclude that OPS has higher precise than conventional positioning methods, and is a comparatively fast and efficient positioning method with respect to the CBCT guidance system.

The purpose of the present work is to present some aspects of the Assistive Technology Assessment (ATA) process model compatible with the Position Paper 2012 by AAATE/EASTIN. Three aspects of the ATA process will be discussed in light of three topics of the Position Paper 2012: (i) The dimensions and the measures of the User eXperience (UX) evaluation modelled in the ATA process as a way to verify the efficient and the evidence-based practices of an AT service delivery centre; (ii) The relevance of the presence of the psychologist in the multidisciplinary team of an AT service delivery centre as necessary for a complete person-centred assistive solution empowering users to make their own choices; (iii) The new profession of the psychotechnologist, who explores user's needs by seeking a proper assistive solution, leading the multidisciplinary team to observe critical issues and problems. Through the foundation of the Position Paper 2012, the 1995 HEART study, the Matching Person and Technology model, the ICF framework, and the pillarsof the ATAprocess, thispaper sets fortha concept and approach that emphasise the personal factors of the individual consumer and UX as key to positively impacting a successful outcome and AT solution. 1. Background and purpose The model of the Assistive Technology Assess- ment (ATA) process was developed by Federici and Scherer (1) with the contribution of 55 scholars from five continents. It models the functioning process of centres for assistive technology (AT) evaluation and provision independentlyfrom the model of local or na- tional service delivery systems. The aim is to suggest practical guidelines for a quality control of effective processes of matching individual users with the most appropriate technology. The ATA process borrows a user-driven working methodology from the Matching Person and Technology (MPT) model of Scherer (3,4).

Whilst common sense knowledge has been well researched in terms of intelligence and in particular artificial intelligence, specific, factual knowledge also plays a critical part in practice. When it comes to testing for intelligence, testing for factual knowledge is, in every-day life, frequently used as a front line tool. This paper presents new results which were the outcome of a series of practical Turing tests held on 23rd June 2012 at Bletchley Park, England. The focus of this paper is on the employment of specific knowledge testing by interrogators. Of interest are prejudiced assumptions made by interrogators as to what they believe should be widely known and subsequently the conclusions drawn if an entity does or does not appear to know a particular fact known to the interrogator. The paper is not at all about the performance of machines or hidden humans but rather the strategies based on assumptions of Turing test interrogators. Full, unedited transcripts from the tests are shown for the reader as working examples. As a result, it might be possible to draw critical conclusions with regard to the nature of human concepts of intelligence, in terms of the role played by specific, factual knowledge in our understanding of intelligence, whether this is exhibited by a human or a machine. This is specifically intended as a position paper, firstly by claiming that practicalising Turing's test is a useful exercise throwing light on how we humans think, and secondly, by taking a potentially controversial stance, because some interrogators adopt a solipsist questioning style of hidden entities with a view that it is a thinking intelligent human if it thinks like them and knows what they know. The paper is aimed at opening discussion with regard to the different aspects considered.

The design of public assistive technology (AT) service delivery systems in Europe varies according to each country's culture, disability policy, socio-economic context, health care system organization and history. Though it is recognized by the AT community that it is impossible and not useful to develop a "perfect" or "standard" model for AT service delivery, a way to reduce the fragmentation and increase the collaboration among AT providers has been recently highlighted by the AAATE Position Paper on Service Delivery Systems in Europe. In particular, this document emphasizes the importance for AT providers to share their practices of service delivery in order to "understand to which extent good practices could be exported from one country to another"; and implement common strategies for the evaluation of the quality of the service delivery. In keeping with these recommendations, the present paper illustrates an interdisciplinary AT assessment model targeting children with multiple disabilities which is grounded on the experience of the Centre for Assistive Technology (CAT) operating in the municipality of Bologna, Italy. In addition, a proposal for a conceptual framework for evaluating the quality of service delivery is developed.