Search results for " Functional"
showing 10 items of 1811 documents
Acquatina Lagoon: a model ecosystem to study community patterns
2013
Acquatina is a small lagoon ecosystem (0.45 km2) located on the Adriatic coast only 5 km north of Lecce (Italy). The lagoon has a freshwater input in the northern part and a connection with the sea at the south edge, being characterised by a latitudinal gradient of salinity and an internal patchiness of habitats. Here, we have used the lagoons as a model to study the influence of these sources of variation on the spatial distribution of macrobenthis and fish fauna, using both taxonomic and on taxonomic descriptors. Results showed a non random distribution of both species and functional traits of macroinvertebrate and fish fauna within the lagoon, despite the relatively small surface area. S…
Adaptive Bias Field Correction: Application on Abdominal MR Images
2017
Segmentation of medical images is one of the most important phases for disease diagnosis. Accuracy, robustness and stability of the results obtained by image segmentation is a major concern. Many segmentation methods rely on absolute values of intensity level, which are affected by a bias term due to in-homogeneous field in magnetic resonance images. The main objective of this paper is two folded: (1) To show efficiency of an energy minimization based approach, which uses intrinsic component optimization, on abdominal magnetic resonance images. (2) To propose an adaptive method to stop the optimization automatically. The proposed method can control the value of the energy functional and sto…
The role of the results of functional tests and psychological factors on prediction of injuries in adolescent female football players
2021
Football is a popular sport among adolescent females. Given the rate of injuries in female footballers, identifying factors that can predict injuries are important. These injuries are often caused by complex reasons. The aim of this study was to investigate if the combination of demographic (age, number of training and match play hours/week), psychosocial (perceived stress, adaptive coping strategies) and physiological factors (functional performance) can predict a traumatic injury in adolescent female footballers. A cohort consisting of 419 female football players aged 13–16 years was established. Baseline questionnaires covered potential risk factors for sport injuries, and measurem…
Microscopic Insights into the Fluorite/Water Interfaces from Vibrational Sum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy
2016
Water/mineral interfaces are central to a wide range of environmental and technological processes. In this report we provide a quantitative, molecular-level understanding of the CaF2/water interface using Density Functional Theory-based molecular dynamics simulations. In particular through the comparison of calculated Vibrational Sum Frequency Generation spectra to the experimental ones, we give a structural characterisation of the interface at different pH. At low pH, the surface is positively charged, causing a substantial degree of water ordering. Our results suggest that the surface charge originates from the dissolution of fluoride ions of the topmost layer, rather than from proton ads…
Outcomes for adults with anorexia nervosa who do not respond early to outpatient treatment
2021
Objective: To better understand those patients with anorexia nervosa who do not show early response to treatment and are likely to have poorer outcome. Method: From an existing data set of 187 patients with anorexia nervosa across 22 eating disorder outpatient services in the United Kingdom, participants who had started treatment and had at least one body mass index (BMI) observation in the first 6 weeks of treatment were eligible for these secondary analyses (N = 65), a latent class analysis of BMI change over the first 6 weeks of treatment. Fifty-six patients showed no early change in BMI. We used logistic regression to examine predictors of good outcome in the 40 participants who had 12-…
Reliability and validity of the Finnish version of the Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS)
2017
The present study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Finnish version of the Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) among foot and ankle patients.The LEFS was translated and cross-culturally adapted to Finnish. We assessed the test-retest reliability, internal consistency, floor-ceiling effect, construct validity and criterion validity in patients who underwent surgery due to musculoskeletal pathology of the foot and ankle (N = 166).The test-retest reliability was high (ICC = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.91-0.95). The standard error of measurement was 4.1 points. The Finnish LEFS showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.96). A slight ceiling effect occurred as 17% achieved the …
Oral cromolyn sodium in comparison with elimination diet in the irritable bowel syndrome, diarrheic type. Multicenter study of 428 patients.
1995
In a significant number of patients affected by the irritable bowel syndrome, an adverse reaction to food is proposed to be a causative factor. A diet that eliminates the offending foods is the obvious treatment for such adverse reactions. Compliance with a dietetic regimen is often poor and sometimes not completely free from risks.Since the diarrheic type of irritable bowel syndrome seems mainly affected by food intolerance, and previous observations suggested that oral cromolyn sodium is effective in such patients, a multicenter therapeutic trial in the diarrheic type of irritable bowel syndrome was carried out in 346 of 409 patients with this disease, to evaluate the effects of oral crom…
Diagnostic Accuracy of Fecal Calprotectin Assay in Distinguishing Organic Causes of Chronic Diarrhea from Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Prospective Stu…
2003
AbstractBackground: Fecal calprotectin (FC) has been proposed as a marker of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but few studies have evaluated its usefulness in patients with chronic diarrhea of various causes. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of a FC assay in identifying “organic” causes of chronic diarrhea in consecutive adults and children.Methods: We consecutively enrolled 70 adult patients (30 males, 40 females; median age, 35 years) and 50 children (20 males, 30 females; median age, 3.5 years) with chronic diarrhea of unknown origin. All patients underwent a complete work-up to identify the causes of chronic diarrhea. FC was measured by ELISA.Results: In adult patients, FC showed 6…
Quality, functional and sensory evaluation of pasta fortified with extracts from Opuntia ficus-indica cladodes
2019
Background The stems of Opuntia ficus-indica, known as cladodes, are a rich source of soluble fibers, which makes them an important candidate for the production of functional foods. Tagliatelle of durum wheat fortified with Opuntia cladode extract (OCE) at different levels of addition (10-30%, v/w) was prepared on a laboratory scale and quality characteristics and sensory acceptability were assessed. Results The main quality parameters (optimal cooking time, swelling index, cooking loss, dry matter) and sensory analysis on a nine-point hedonic scale were comparable with those of the control pasta sample (no added OCE) when durum wheat was supplemented with OCE at up to 20% (v/w). An in vitr…
Functional evaluation of patients with anterior cruciate ligament injury. A transversal analytical study.
2018
Abstract Objective To evaluate, by means of biomechanical analysis, functional alterations of gait and balance of patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Material and methods Transversal analytical study on 64 people, 27 health subjects and 37 patients with ACL injury. Biomechanical analysis of gait in all individuals was performed by means of four tests: (1) kinematic test, to characterize gait pattern; (2) kinetic test, to characterize forces against the floor, duration of treads, symmetry of both legs, and the reproducibility of the gait; (3) pivot-shift test, to analyze the rotational stability of the knee on the sagittal axis; and (4) equilibrium test. Results Alteration…