PABLO is a virtual reality game where a motion sensor system is used. Few studies have investigated the effects of the PABLO system in stroke rehabilitation. We investigated the effects of ...upper-extremity virtual reality training with the PABLO system in patients with stroke.
Stroke patients were randomly assigned to the virtual reality (n = 19) or standard rehabilitation groups (n = 18). Total of 18 sessions were conducted twice per week. The primary outcome measure was the Fugl–Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity subscale. Secondary outcome measures included the active ranges of motion of the shoulder and elbow, the box and block test, hand grip strength, and the Stroke Impact Scale. Enjoyment of activities and side effects were also recorded.
No difference was observed between two groups in primary outcome. Virtual reality group exhibited greater improvements in the hand dexterity between groups (p = .05). In active motion, virtual reality group showed greater improvement in shoulder flexion between groups (p = .03). Virtual reality group also showed greater improvements in elbow pronation between groups (p = .03). The groups differed in their assessments of how enjoyment the rehabilitation activities were found (p = .01). No significant differences between groups were observed in any other tests.
Interventions based on the PABLO virtual reality system improved upper extremity hand function, shoulder and elbow movements, and elicited a higher degree of enjoyment from study participants, than did traditional treatment.
Trials registration: The study protocol was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov PRS (No.NCT04296032).
•Virtual reality training improves upper extremity motion and dexterity in chronic stroke patients.•Virtual reality system elicited a higher degree of enjoyment from chronic stroke patients.•Sensor-based virtual reality games did not show positive effect on quality of life.
We have developed a manufacturing-friendly spin-orbit torque magnetic random access memory (SOT-MRAM) technology in CMOS compatible 8-inch fab process. The proposed SOT-MRAM process technology ...resolves etching non-uniformity and reduction of high resistivity heavy-metal nanowire resistance issues. Besides, we present device size-dependent switching current threshold in the proposed SOT-MRAM cell structure. To realize the potential of our fabricated SOT-MRAM, wafer-level uniformity, cycling and temperature dependence SOT switching have been comprehensively investigated. Furthermore, the thermal stability factor (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{\Delta } </tex-math></inline-formula>) was calculated from temperature-dependence SOT switching to fulfill the thermal stability criteria, i.e., > 10 years of this emerging SOT-MRAM technology.
Seventeen flavonoids, five of which are flavone C‐diosides, 1–5, were isolated from the BuOH‐ and AcOEt‐soluble fractions of the leaf extract of Machilus konishii. Among 1–5, apigenin ...6‐C‐β‐D‐xylopyranosyl‐2″‐O‐β‐D‐glucopyranoside (2), apigenin 8‐C‐α‐L‐arabinopyranosyl‐2″‐O‐β‐D‐glucopyranoside (4), and apigenin 8‐C‐β‐D‐xylopyranosyl‐2″‐O‐β‐D‐glucopyranoside (5) are new. Both 4 and 5 are present as rotamer pairs. The structures of the new compounds were elucidated on the basis of NMR‐spectroscopic analyses and MS data. In addition, the 1H‐ and 13C‐NMR data of apigenin 6‐C‐α‐L‐arabinopyranosyl‐2″‐O‐β‐D‐glucopyranoside (3) were assigned for the first time. The isolated compounds were assayed against α‐glucosidase (type IV from Bacillus stearothermophilus). Kaempferol 3‐O‐(2‐β‐D‐apiofuranosyl)‐α‐L‐rhamnopyranoside (12) was found to possess the best inhibitory activity with an IC50 value of 29.3 μM.
In the competitive market, process monitoring can ensure the quality of products, but strong nonlinearities, slow dynamics, and uncertainties characterize the complexities of the large-scale chemical ...plant. When the fault occurs, it will not influence the process instantaneously but will react after a few time points. After all the products affected by the faults are inspected, it is too late to fix the process. Conventional approaches neither do nor care about early detection before any disturbance significantly affects the process. To estimate disturbances propagated through the process, a multi-step prediction model is essential. The purpose of early process monitoring is to detect any problem with the currently running process as early as possible. In this paper, a multi-step prediction system is proposed. The system is a dynamic model that can capture the dynamic relationship of past process input variables and future process output variables. It provides a lower dimension and a lower noise-contaminated space for data analysis. Particularly, the past input and output process data can be mapped from the observation space into the latent space to acquire their intrinsic properties. The latent variables preserve the dynamic information for future multi-step prediction so that early warning can be achieved. An industrial example of the PVC dying process is presented to show the multistep predictive ability of the proposed method.
Abstract
We demonstrate a novel avalanche photodiode (APD) design which fundamentally relaxes the trade-off between responsivity and saturation-current performance at receiver end in coherent system. ...Our triple In
0.52
Al
0.48
As based multiplication (M-) layers with a stepped electric (E-) field inside has more pronounced avalanche process with significantly less effective critical-field than the dual M-layer. Reduced E-field in active M-layers ensures stronger E-field allocation to the thick absorption-layer with a smaller breakdown voltage (V
br
) resulting in less serious space-charge screening effect, less device heating at high output photocurrent. Compared to the dual M-layer reference sample, the demonstrated APD exhibits lower punch-through (− 9 vs. − 24 V)/breakdown voltages (− 43 vs. − 51 V), higher responsivity (19.6 vs. 13.5 A/W), higher maximum gain (230 vs. 130), and higher 1-dB saturation-current (> 5.6 vs. 2.5 mA) under 0.95 V
br
operation. Extremely high saturation-current (> 14.6 mA), high responsivity (7.3 A/W), and decent O-E bandwidth (1.4 GHz) can be simultaneously achieved using the demonstrated APD with a 200 µm active window diameter. In coherent FMCW LiDAR test bed, this novel APD exhibits a larger signal-to-noise ratio and high-quality 3-D images than the reference dual M-layer and high-performance commercial p-i-n PD modules, while requiring significantly less optical local-oscillator (LO) power (0.5 vs 4 mW).
Atherosclerosis and vascular inflammatory response have been considered as risk factors for non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) vascular infection. The study aims to assess the risk of vascular infection ...by measuring atherosclerosis severity, NTS vascular infection (NTSVI) score, and serum levels of inflammatory markers in people with NTS bacteremia.
A prospective observational study was conducted in two medical centers and two regional hospitals. Adults aged ≥50 years with NTS bacteremia who underwent computed tomography (CT) scan for revealing vascular infections were enrolled. The degree of atherosclerosis was scaled by a calcium score determined by a CT scan. Serum concentrations of inflammatory biomarkers were determined in the patients enrolled in a medical center.
Fourteen (20.3%) of 69 patients with NTS bacteremia had vascular infections. Calcium scores over the thoracic (12,540 vs. 3,261, P = 0.0005) and abdominal (9755 vs. 3,461, P = 0.0006) aorta of those with vascular infections were higher than those without vascular infection. All vascular infections were present in the high-risk group (NTSVI score ≥1), yielding a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 30.9%. Among 17 low-risk patients (NTSVI score <1), none had vascular infections, resulting in a negative predictive value of 100%. Higher plasma concentrations of IL-1β were detected in the cases of vascular infection than those in the control group (23.6 vs. 1.06 pg/mL, P = 0.001).
Atherosclerosis of the aorta which is associated with a positive NTSVI score can predict the occurrence of vascular infections and serum IL-1β could be a biomarker for vascular infection in patients with NTS bacteremia.
We carry out an In 0.53 Ga 0.47 As/In 0.52 Al 0.48 As single photon avalanche diode which exhibits a single photon detection efficiency exceeding 60% at 1310 nm and neat temporal characteristic of 65 ...ps. A novel concept of dual multiplication layer is incorporated to avoid the tradeoff between dark count rate, afterpulsing and timing jitter, paving the possibility to improve the overall performance of a single photon detector. Based on this elevated device structure, we further optimize the detection efficiency and timing jitter by employing a delicate mesa structure to better confine the electric field distribution within the central multiplication region. For our detector operated under gated mode, a shorten gate width together with an increase of excess bias percentage leads to a significant improvement in the detection performance. We eventually achieve a single photon detection efficiency of 61.4% without the involvement of afterpulsing at the gating frequency of 10 kHz for 200 K.
In this work, we demonstrate a novel In 0.52 Al 0.48 As based top-illuminated avalanche photodiode (APD), designed to circumvent the problem of serious bandwidth degradation under high gain (>100) ...and high power operation and significantly enhance the dynamic range in the established frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) lidar system. In our APD design, the carriers transiting through the dual multiplication (M-)layers are subjected to a stepped-up electric field profile, so they can be energized by the first step and propagate to the second step to trigger the avalanche processes. Such a cascade avalanche process leads to an ultra-high gain bandwidth product (460 GHz) with a 1 A/W responsivity at unit gain. Compared to the high-performance and commercial p-i-n PD and photo-receiver (PD + trans-impedance amplifier (TIA)) installed in the same lidar test bed, our demonstrated APD receiver (without TIA) has a larger S/N ratio under high operation gain (33 A/W) with less optical local-oscillator (LO) power required (0.25 vs. 0.5 mW), while exhibiting a wider dynamic range in each pixel. These advantages in turn lead to the construction of a better quality of 3-D lidar image by using the demonstrated APD.
Cryptococcal infections are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in tropical Australia. This retrospective audit was conducted to characterise the aetiology, temporospatial epidemiology, and ...clinical course of 49 cryptococcal infections in Far North Queensland between 1 January 1999 and 31 December 2019. Cryptococcus gattii was identified in 15/32 (47%) in whom it was possible to speciate the organism. Among these 15 patients, 13 (87%) had a rural residential address, 10 (67%) were Indigenous Australians and 11 (73%) presented during the May-November dry season. When compared to the 17 patients with Cryptococcus neoformans infection, patients with C. gattii were less likely to be immunocompromised (0/15 versus 8/17 (47%), p = 0.003). Neurosurgery was necessary in 5/15 C. gattii cases and 3/17 (18%) C. neoformans cases (p = 0.42). Outcomes were generally good with 42/49 (86%) cases-and 14/15 (93%) with C. gattii infection-surviving to hospital discharge. These positive outcomes are likely to be explained by the development of standardised treatment guidelines during the study period, low rates of comorbidity in the patients with C. gattii infection and access to liposomal amphotericin and neurosurgical support in the well-resourced Australian healthcare system.
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