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In recent years, the development of fire detectors has attracted the attention of researchers for the purpose of protecting human lives and properties from catastrophic fire disasters. However, monitoring fires is challenging due to several unique characteristics of fire sensor signals, such as the existence of temporal dependency and diverse signal patterns for different fire types, including flaming, heating, and smoldering fires. In this study, we propose a new approach for fire detection based on machine learning and optimization techniques, to monitor various types of fire by utilizing information obtained via multichannel fire sensor signals. The contribution of this study is to improve an existing fire detector by developing a new fire monitoring framework to identify fire based on support vector machine with dynamic time warping kernel function (SVM-DTWK), which considers the temporal dynamics existing in the sensor signals of different fire types. In addition, multichannel sensor signals are further considered by the SVM-DTWK with a multi-modeling framework that constructs multiple classifiers for each sensor type and effectively utilizes sensor information that is critical for the detection of fires without prior knowledge of the fire type. Using real-life fire data, the proposed approach is compared with existing fire monitoring methods and achieves superior performance in terms of both fire detection time and false alarm rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study aims to develop a multidimensional frailty assessment tool including physical, psychological, and social frailty and to examine its psychometric property in a clinical setting. Methods: Through a literature review and gathered expert perspectives, the Korean Frailty Scale (KFS, 0–6 points) was developed with six questions about weight loss, self-assessment of health status, energy loss, fatigue, social network, and support. The psychometric property was then validated in community-dwelling older adults using the Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Survey (2016–2019). Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analyses determined optimal cutoff scores for frail, pre-frail, and robust. The predictive validity for mortality, hospitalization, fall events, and disability, such as declines in activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) was assessed after adjusting for age, sex, education level, household income, body-mass index, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity, marital status, current employment, and residence. Results: The 2,923 participants (mean age: 76.0°3.9 years, female: 52.2%) were categorized into frail (≥3 points, 21.1%), pre-frail (1–2 points, 50.2%) and robust (0 points, 28.7%) groups. Sensitivity (88.3%), specificity (91.6%), and the area under the ROC curve (0.730) for the frail group were sufficient to be accepted as a new frailty scale. The frail group had increased risk of falling (relative risk [RR]: 1.810, 95% confidence interval: 1.354–2.420), mortality (hazard ratio, 6.596, 1.802–24.137), and IADL decline (RR, 1.638, 1.231–2.178). Conclusion: The KFS is a new multidimensional frailty scale for clinical geriatric assessment that was confirmed as effective for predicting adverse health outcomes in Korean community-dwelling older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The concept of frailty has been suggested to comprise physical, mental, and social phenotypes. However, there is no general consensus about the appropriate components for assessing frailty. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to reach consensus on components of frailty assessment using the Delphi process. Methods: To achieve consensus on the definition of frailty, a modified Delphi method was used. Geriatric and gerontologic experts were selected from various fields. The detailed components of frailty were composed of data from the Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study. Establishing consensus and collecting opinions from experts were conducted using a modified Delphi method. Results: Overall, nine domains with 14 components of frailty assessment were accepted. There was consensus on the necessity of a broad phenotype including physical, mental, and social frailty. Conclusions: Consensus on the components of a frailty assessment in a clinical setting is achieved through the Delphi process to establish a new tool of frailty assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key summary points: Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effects of both smoking and alcohol intake on frailty in Korean community-dwelling older adults considering other health-related behaviors and socioeconomic status. Findings: Frailty prevalence differed according to smoking status and alcohol intake. The increased frailty risk in the smoking and non-alcohol-intake group compared with the non-smoking and alcohol-intake group may be due to the "alcohol paradox". Message: Comprehensive approach should be applied to understanding frailty in older adults that considers both smoking status and alcohol intake. Purpose: Smoking and alcohol intake are major causes of negative health outcomes and may be co-inherited traits. However, little is known about the association of frailty with smoking and alcohol intake in older adults. Methods: Community-dwelling older men (N = 1426) aged 70–84 years were divided into four groups: 1) non-smoking (< 100 cigarettes in life-time) and non-alcohol intake (< one time/month); 2) smoking (≥ 100 cigarettes) and alcohol intake (≥ one time/month); 3) non-smoking with alcohol intake; and 4) smoking and no alcohol intake. Frailty was assessed with a modified version of the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) frailty index, the Korean version of the Fatigue, Resistance, Ambulation, Illness, and Loss of Weight (KFRAIL) index, the Korean Frailty Index (KFI), and the Study of Osteoporotic Fracture (SOF) frailty index. Frailty risks were estimated with multiple logistic regression models after adjusting for age, income, education, residence, marital status, hospitalization, physical activity, comorbidities, and levels of vitamin B12, aspartate aminotransferase, and gamma-glutamyl transferase. Results: Frailty differed according to smoking and alcohol status. Frailty in the smoking and non-alcohol-intake group was significantly higher according to the CHS frailty index (Odds ratio = 1.592; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.032–2.455), KFRAIL (CI 1.613, 1.037–2.509), and KFI (CI 1.869, 1.115–3.131) compared with the non-smoking and alcohol-intake group. However, there was no increased frailty risk in the other study groups. Conclusion: Frailty prevalence differed depending on smoking status and alcohol intake in older Korean men. Therefore, we should adopt a comprehensive approach to understanding frailty in older adults that considers both smoking and alcohol intake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The early detection of dysphagia, a common clinical issue among older adults, is important. However, healthcare professionals sometimes experience difficulties in applying the current screening tools to older adults. Therefore, we developed the Easy Dysphagia Symptom Questionnaire (EDSQ), a simplified tool for the older adults, and investigated its reliability and validity.Methods: The 12-item "yes/no" EDSQ assesses dysphagia symptoms, with a total score being the sum of all "yes" responses. Each item was determined by consensus of three physiatrists after reviewing the previous dysphagia questionnaires. Participants were aged 65 years or older who either complained of or were suspected by a physician of facing swallowing disturbance. They completed the EDSQ, modified water swallow test (MWST), and videofluoroscopic swallowing study. The EDSQ's internal consistency was assessed. Correlations between the EDSQ total score and the MWST, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's National Outcome Measurement System (ASHA NOMS) swallowing scale, and videofluoroscopic dysphagia scale (VDS) were analyzed.Results: The sample comprised 51 participants (29 male, 56.9%; mean age 76.7 ± 6.6 years). Mean EDSQ total score was 4.33 ± 3.03 (range 0-12). Regarding the EDSQ's reliability, the Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.785. The EDSQ total score correlated with the MWST (r = − 0.468, p = 0.001), ASHA NOMS swallowing scale (r = − 0.635, p < 0.001), and VDS (r = 0.449, p = 0.001). The receiver-operating characteristic analysis revealed an optimal cut-off score of ≥ 5, with a sensitivity of 90.9% and a specificity of 67.5%.Conclusions: The EDSQ showed acceptable reliability and validity, indicating its applicability to older adults as a simple screening tool for safe swallowing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction and hypothesis: The aim of this study was to compare the lower urinary tract symptom changes and surgical outcome between the tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) procedure with and without concomitant stage II pelvic organ prolapse (cystocele) repair in a randomized clinical trial setting. Methods: Patients with urodynamically proven stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and asymptomatic stage II cystocele were randomly and equally allocated to either a TVT and concomitant cystocele repair group or TVT only group. SUI was corrected with TVT in all cases. The cystocele repair procedure was performed with Gynemesh®. Lower urinary tract symptoms and surgical outcome were assessed at postoperative year 1. Lower urinary tract symptoms were assessed with the American Urological Association Symptom Score (AUASS) questionnaire, uroflowmetry, and postvoid residual (PVR). Results: The cure rate of TVT only and the concomitant repair group was 87 and 91 %, respectively ( p > 0.05). Cystocele was cured in all patients in the concomitant repair group. After the operation, the total AUASS were 6.4 and 8.4 in the TVT only group and concomitant repair group, respectively, with no statistical difference. There was no difference in the change in peak flow rate (Q) and PVR between the two groups. The prevalence of postoperative mixed incontinence was not different between the two groups. Conclusions: In patients with stage II cystocele and SUI, there was no difference in the surgical outcome and lower urinary tract symptoms between the TVT sling only group and concomitant repair group. Cystocele repair can be safely omitted in patients with stage II cystocele. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of Industry 4.0, the complexity of semiconductor production is growing very fast, raising the possibility of unnoticed defective wafers and subsequent wasteful use of resources. One of the key advantages of Industry 4.0 is the accessibility to big data, which can be obtained from a number of sensors, including multiple sensor data and extensive data repositories. Recently, engineers have developed data fusion strategies for virtual metrology (VM) prediction models to effectively handle data from multiple sources. This research explores a novel approach for data-driven VM prediction model for multi-source data, namely multi-source ensemble method with random source selection. By utilizing the bagging principle for multi-source data and tree-based prediction paradigms, the proposed approach randomly selects subsets of data sources to construct each tree learner, thus reducing interdependence among the trees and minimizing the risk of overfitting, which can be a challenge faced by existing tree-based prediction models. To validate and illustrate the practical applicability of our proposed method, we use real-world data from the plasma etching process, aiming to provide potential benefits and effectiveness of our methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]