Normalized pulse volume (NPV) derived from the ear has the potential to be a practical index for monitoring daily life stress. However, ear NPV has not yet been validated. Therefore, we compared NPV derived from an index finger using transmission photoplethysmography as a reference, with NPV derived from a middle finger and four sites of the ear using reflection photoplethysmography during base...

flexible ac transmission systems (facts) controllers with its ability to directly control the power flow can offer great opportunities in modern power system, allowing better and safer operation of transmission network. in this paper, in order to find type, size and location of facts devices in a power system a dedicated improved particle swarm optimization (dipso) algorithm is developed for de...

AIM To assess magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and faecal calprotectin to detect endoscopic postoperative recurrence in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). METHODS From two tertiary centers, all patients with CD who underwent ileocolonic resection were consecutively and prospectively included. All the patients underwent MRI and endoscopy within the first year after surgery or after the restor...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the value of conventional ultrasound and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in determining the severity of active Crohn's disease. METHODS Thirty-seven patients who were considered to be in active period of Crohn's disease were included. Conventional ultrasound was employed to measure the thicknesses of interior, exterior and the whole bowel walls. Qualitative and quant...

BACKGROUND Hematuria can be symptomatic of urothelial carcinoma (UC) and ruling out patients with benign causes during primary evaluation is challenging. Patients with hematuria undergoing urological work-ups place significant clinical and financial burdens on healthcare systems. Current clinical evaluation involves processes that individually lack the sensitivity for accurate determination of ...

Estimating forest variables, such as photosynthetic light use efficiency, from satellite reflectance data requires understanding the contribution of photosynthetic vegetation (PV) and nonphotosynthetic vegetation (NPV). The fractions of PV and NPV present in vegetation reflectance data are typically controlled by the canopy structure and the respective viewing angle. The persistent but highly v...

Abstract: This paper provides an investment decisionmaking criterion under uncertainty using real options methodology to evaluate if an investment should be made immediately, cautiously, deferred (wait-and-watch), or foregone. We develop a decision-making index d, which is equal to the expectation of net present value (NPV) normalized by its standard deviation. Under a lognormal assumption of t...

BACKGROUND Because venous ultrasound (US) fails to fully image the calf veins, there is the potential for US gold standard studies to classify patients with calf deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in the nondiseased category, causing bias in test index calculations. A false increase in negative predictive value (NPV) is especially likely because calf DVT false-negative tests will be counted in the nu...

BACKGROUND Magnetic resonance index of activity (MaRIA) and Clermont score are currently the two main MRI indices that have been validated compared to endoscopy in Crohn's disease (CD). AIMS To compare the accuracy of MaRIA and Clermont score in assessing CD mucosal healing. METHODS Fourty-four CD patients underwent prospectively and consecutively MRI and colonoscopy. RESULTS Considering ...