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Background and study aims Endoscopic ultrasound-guided through-the-needle biopsy (TTNB) of pancreatic cystic lesions (PCLs) is associated with a non-negligible risk for adverse events (AEs). We aimed to identify the hierarchic interaction among independent predictors for TTNB-related AEs and to generate a prognostic model using recursive partitioning analysis (RPA). Patients and methods Multicenter retrospective analysis of 506 patients with PCLs who underwent TTNB. RPA of predictors for AEs was performed and the model was validated by means of bootstrap resampling. Results Mean cysts size was 36.7mm. Most common diagnoses were intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN, 45%), serous cystadenoma (18.8%), and mucinous cystadenoma (12.8%). Fifty-eight (11.5%) AEs were observed. At multivariate analysis, age (odds ratio [OR] 1.32, 1.09-2.14; p=0.05), number of TTNB passes (OR from 2.17, 1.32-4.34 to OR 3.16, 2.03-6.34 with the increase of the number of passes), complete aspiration of the cyst (OR 0.56, 0.31-0.95; p=0.02), and diagnosis of IPMN (OR 4.16, 2.27-7.69; p

Additional file 2. General information.

Additional file 1. Medical devices in Africa: ethical aspects and universality of norms.

It is important for practitioners to conceptualize and tailor a prototype in tune with the users' expectations in the early stages of the design life cycle so the modifications of the product design in advanced phases are kept to a minimum. According to user preference studies, the aesthetic and the usability of a system play an important role in the user appraisal and selection of a product. However, user preferences are just a part of the equation. The fact that a user prefers one product over the other does not mean that he or she would necessarily buy it. To understand the factors affecting the user's assessment of a product before the actual use of the product and the user's intention to purchase the product we conducted a study, reported in this article. Our study, a modification of a well-known protocol, considers the users' preferences of six simulated smartphones each with different combination of attributes. A sample consisting of 365 participants was involved in our analysis. Our results confirm that the main basis for the users' pre-use preferences is the aesthetics of the product, whereas our results suggest that the main basis for the user's intention to purchase are the expected usability of the product. Moreover, our analysis reveals that the personal characteristics of the users have different effects on both the users' preferences and their intention to purchase a product. These results suggest that the designers should carefully balance the aesthetics and usability features of a prototype in tune with the users expectations. If the conceptualization of a product is done properly the redesign cycles after the usability testing can be reduced and speed up the process for releasing the product on the market.

This paper reports the clinical findings, histopathology, and clinical outcome of a rare case of aponeurotic fibromatosis in a dog. The dog was treated with 4 courses of electrochemotherapy using the drugs cisplatin and bleomycin. There was complete remission and the dog was still disease-free after 18 months.

Constant pregnancy monitoring is a promising alternative to reduce the number of stillbirths and preterm delivery due to false alarms. Tele-monitoring systems can provide regular, accurate and timely monitoring to re-duce risks, costs and the time the mothers-to-be spend at hospitals. A smart garment integrated with sensors and a flexible printed circuit board for ambula-tory pregnancy monitoring is proposed. A study was conducted to gather user requirements to ensure comfort during long registrations of Fetal Heart Rate (FHR) and Electrohysterogram (EHG). Based on those requirements, several garment alternatives for the monitoring system are proposed and evaluated.

In this paper, we propose a framework for decision modeling of users in smart home design. Individual’s preferences that derived from both of his/her "Current Lifestyle" and "Future Lifestyle" are considered as the main factors that influence the final decision, Such that the compatibility of the choice alter-natives with these preferences sets up the final decision for the individual. We tested this framework with a virtual experiment. The experiment was conducted among 250 respondents, who were asked to explore a smart home in a virtual environment and then to make a decision among design alternatives for different parts of a smart home. Choices and the underlying effective factors were evaluated by MultiNomial Logit model. The outcomes adequately ascer-tained the proposed framework. Understanding of the effective factors on the user’s design decisions for a smart home helps designers to incorporate design alternatives with users’ demands in the real world.

Assistive technology can play an important role in supporting people with dementia and their caregivers. For this study a smartphone interface with new functionalities is evaluated in context. This evaluation aimed at how elderly affected by dementia and their caregivers used it and how they experienced using such a device.In this study ten couples participated, in which both received a smartphone. They were free to use the phone over a period of three weeks as they desired. During this period objective and subjective data was logged. After this period, the smartphones were discussed with the users.The results showed everybody tried actively to use the phone but only few maintained using it. The main difficulties occurred with the smartphone itself, forgetting to take it along and/or with charging the battery. Most functionality seemed to be desired by the participants, also by those that could not properly use them via the smartphone. This suggests a need for the improvement of the design of assistive technology for this particular group.

The world population is ageing rapidly, during which technology innovation has become increasingly advanced. Ageing adults are expected to meet the demands of new technologies which offer potential to support independence and social participation. To facilitate this developers and designers need to better design technology around the opportunities, capacities and learning strategies of older adults. The Gerontechnology Matrix, which is based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, provides a framework to guide researchers, designers and engineers in their effort to seek solutions which support older adults to age graciously. The Gerontechnology Matrix comprises the following live domains: Housing & Daily activities, Communication & Governance, Health & Self-esteem, Mobility & Transportation and Work & Leisure. All live domains will at some point provide challenges to the everyday life of ageing adults. Technology interventions, to reach the goals set in these live domains, might be designed for enhancement and satisfaction, prevention and engagement, compensation and assistance or for care and organization. This paper will be organized as a round table to discuss the pros and cons of the Gerontechnology Matrix with the participants.

In this paper we describe the criteria adopted for the creation of a corpus of spoken language produced by six-to-eleven-year-old children in different communicative situations, the methodology used for the collection of the data, the transcription, coding and lemmatization phases. This work is to be included among the activities carried out within the framework of the “Corpus di Linguaggio Infantile” (CLI), a special project of the Italian National Research Council (CNR).