Among all wearable technologies, inertial measurement units (IMUs) may be used for estimating both heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR) from chest wall movements/orientations. However, the ...influence of sensor placement for cardiorespiratory monitoring has not been investigated yet. At this scope, we collected triaxial accelerometer data from 15 healthy volunteers at different at-rest postures (i.e., sitting, lying, and standing) and during walking. This work aims at: 1) investigating the signals captured in five chest's measurement sites to determine the most informative axis and sensor position at the different postures and to identify the overall best sensor configuration (called general-purpose configuration) independent of the analyzed subject and posture and 2) assessing the performance of the general-purpose configuration in estimating RR and HR against reference values retrieved from a medical-grade wearable device. Finally, the performance of the general-purpose configuration was compared against a posture-dependent configuration, implying the selection of the best axis/sensor placement per each subject and posture. Based on the results, we found that: 1) the sensor positioned at the mitral valve level is the most promising, while the dorsoventral direction is the most informative; 2) considering both at-rest postures and walking, the proposed method allows reaching mean absolute error (MAE) < 1.5 beats/min for HR and always < 4 breaths/min for RR using the general-purpose configuration; and 3) the posture-dependent configuration improved the RR estimation, especially during walking and standing but does not provide any advantages in HR estimation.
Olfactory stimulus acquisition is perfectly synchronized with inhalation, which tunes neuronal ensembles for incoming information. Because olfaction is an ancient sensory system that provided a ...template for brain evolution, we hypothesized that this link persisted, and therefore nasal inhalations may also tune the brain for acquisition of non-olfactory information. To test this, we measured nasal airflow and electroencephalography during various non-olfactory cognitive tasks. We observed that participants spontaneously inhale at non-olfactory cognitive task onset and that such inhalations shift brain functional network architecture. Concentrating on visuospatial perception, we observed that nasal inhalation drove increased task-related brain activity in specific task-related brain regions and resulted in improved performance accuracy in the visuospatial task. Thus, mental processes with no link to olfaction are nevertheless phase-locked with nasal inhalation, consistent with the notion of an olfaction-based template in the evolution of human brain function.
Nonoperative distal radius fracture treatment without manipulation can be coded and billed in a global fee or itemized structure. Little is known regarding the association between these ...coding/billing structures and subsequent clinical care. The MarketScan Research Database (IBM, Armonk, New York) was retrospectively queried for patients with a distal radius fracture diagnosis code from 2003 to 2014. Patients with a Current Procedural Terminology code for surgical treatment or closed treatment with manipulation were excluded. The remaining nonoperatively treated patients were separated based on billing structure. Results were analyzed for provider initiating global fracture care, as well as the likelihood and frequency of follow-up visits related to the injury for each group. A total of 381,561 patients were identified based on inclusion criteria. Global fracture care billing was initiated for 177,153 (46%) patients, whereas itemized billing was performed for 204,408 (54%) patients. Orthopedic surgeons were the most likely provider (69%) to initiate global fracture care after diagnosis of distal radius fracture. Emergency physicians were the second most common specialty (6%). Patients for whom global fracture care was initiated were more likely to not receive any follow-up office visits compared with patients for whom itemized billing was performed (39.2% vs 25.4%). Additionally, patients with global billing had significantly fewer office visits during the 90-day global period (1.3 vs 2.3). This study demonstrates that patients billed via global fracture care have less frequent follow-up and fewer office visits during the 90-day global period than patients billed in itemized fashion. Orthopedics. 2020;43(5);e471-e475..
Leaves of flowering plants are produced from the shoot apical meristem at regular intervals, with the time that elapses between the formation of two successive leaf primordia defining the ...plastochron. We have identified two genetic axes affecting plastochron length in Arabidopsis thaliana. One involves microRNA156 (miR156), which targets a series of SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) genes. In situ hybridization studies and misexpression experiments demonstrate that miR156 is a quantitative, rather than spatial, modulator of SPL expression in leaf primordia and that SPL activity nonautonomously inhibits initiation of new leaves at the shoot apical meristem. The second axis is exemplified by a redundantly acting pair of cytochrome P450 genes, CYP78A5/KLUH and CYP78A7, which are likely orthologs of PLASTOCHRON1 of rice (Oryza sativa). Inactivation of CYP78A5, which is expressed at the periphery of the shoot apical meristem, accelerates the leaf initiation rate, whereas cyp78a5 cyp78a7 double mutants often die as embryos with supernumerary cotyledon primordia. The effects of both miR156-targeted SPL genes and CYP78A5 on organ size are correlated with changes in plastochron length, suggesting a potential compensatory mechanism that links the rate at which leaves are produced to final leaf size.
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