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Proposed Protocol (proposed + protocol)
Selected AbstractsA Proposed Protocol for Third Stage ManagementBIRTH, Issue 1 2010Judy S. Cohain CNM, MS private practice No abstract is available for this article. [source] Application of post-surgical stimulated thyroglobulin for radioiodine remnant ablation selection in low-risk papillary thyroid carcinoma,,HEAD & NECK: JOURNAL FOR THE SCIENCES & SPECIALTIES OF THE HEAD AND NECK, Issue 6 2010Alon Vaisman HBSc Abstract Background We present our ongoing experience in the use of postsurgical stimulated serum thyroglobulin (Stim-Tg) to assist in radioiodine remnant ablation (RRA) decision-making. Methods Patients with low-risk well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma (WDTC) with undetectable anti-Tg antibodies were prospectively followed after total thyroidectomy and therapeutic central compartment neck dissection, when indicated.Stim-Tg was performed 3 months postoperatively and used to base RRA selection. Results Of 104 patients, 59 patients (56.7%) had an undetectable Stim-Tg after thyroidectomy, 35 (33.7%) had Stim-Tg values of 1,5 ,g/L, and 10 (9.6%) had Stim-Tg values >5 ,g/L. RRA was administered to 1 patient (1.7%) with undetectable Stim-Tg, 6 patients (17.1%) with Stim-Tg1,5 ,g/L, and 9 patients (90%) with Stim-Tg >5 ,g/L, for a total of 16 patients (15.4%) receiving RRA. When compared to current RRA selection guidelines, the proposed protocol achieved a significantly lower RRA administration rate. Conclusion Stim-Tg measurement performed several months after total thyroidectomy is a useful objective parameter in assisting RRA decision-making for patients with low-risk WDTC. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2010 [source] A standardized, comprehensive magnetic resonance imaging protocol for rapid and precise quantification of HIV-1-associated lipodystrophyHIV MEDICINE, Issue 7 2007M Bickel Objectives Although multiple methods have been proposed, there is no current gold standard for assessing HIV-1-associated lipodystrophy. Methods HIV-1-infected participants were randomly enrolled and surveyed about changes in the abdomen, thigh, cheek and neck areas. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences of these sites were obtained. Participants were grouped according to survey results, and the MRI measurements were compared between groups. Results One hundred participants were included in the study, of whom 79% reported any body fat changes. Persons reporting increased abdominal girth had higher visceral ([mean±standard deviation] 142±75 vs. 59±48 cm2; P<0.0001) and total abdominal adipose tissue than those reporting no change (344±119 vs. 201±95 cm2; P<0.0001). The amount of localized fat was less for persons reporting sunken cheeks and reduced diameter of the legs compared with those who noted no changes (5.9±3.6 vs. 9.3±3.8 cm2; P<0.0001, and 35±28 vs. 112±56 cm2; P<0.0001). Participants reporting increased neck girth had a thicker fat layer in the dorsocervical region compared with those reporting no change (4.0±1.8 vs. 2.3±1.4 cm; P<0.0002). Conclusions MRI is a precise method for rapidly surveying body regions affected by HIV-1-associated lipodystrophy. Our proposed protocol provides a rapid, comprehensive survey of these areas, without the need to combine multiple modalities or to expose subjects to radiation. [source] A novel approach to the intraoperative assessment of the uncinate margin of the pancreaticoduodenectomy specimenHPB, Issue 2 2007MAHMOUD A. KHALIFA Abstract Background. Currently, there is no consensus regarding the pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) margins examined intraoperatively or the technical protocol for frozen section examination. The aim of this work was to summarize our experience regarding the intraoperative examination of the uncinate margin and to compare it with the published literature. Materials and methods. Our local protocol for the intraoperative assessment of the uncinate margin of the PD specimen is described in this article. A PubMed® search limited to English language publications using terms along the theme of pancreaticoduodenectomy and margin was performed. Retrieved articles were categorized according to whether they discussed frozen section margin examination. Results. Ten articles published between 1981 and 2005 were retrieved which discussed the intraoperative examination of PD specimens. Of the 10 articles, 5 discussed the intraoperative consultation for diagnostic purposes only, 2 discussed the consultation for both diagnostic purposes and assessment of margins, and 3 discussed intraoperative assessment of margins only. Of the total of five articles that discussed the intraoperative assessment of margins, none detailed the technical protocol for examining the uncinate margin. Discussion. Our proposed protocol for the intraoperative assessment of the uncinate margin of PD specimens allows for its accurate evaluation and has not been described previously in the English literature. [source] Reliable and efficient multicast protocol for mobile IP networksINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, Issue 7 2008Sang-Jo Yoo Abstract To provide a multicasting service, several multicast protocols for mobile hosts (MHs) have been proposed. However, all of these protocols have faults, such as non-optimal delivery routes and data loss when hosts move to another network, resulting in insecure multicast data transmissions. Thus, this paper presents a new reliable and efficient multicast routing protocol for mobile IP networks. The proposed protocol provides a reliable multicast transmission by compensating the data loss from the previous mobile agent when a MH moves to another network. In addition, an additional function allows for direct connection to the multicast tree according to the status of agents, thereby providing a more efficient and optimal multicast path. The performance of the proposed protocol is confirmed based on simulations under various conditions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Carrier-sense-assisted adaptive learning MAC protocols for distributed wireless LANsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, Issue 7 2005P. Nicopolitidis Abstract A Carrier-sense-assisted adaptive learning MAC protocol for wireless LANs, capable of operating efficiently in bursty traffic wireless networks with unreliable channel feedback, is introduced. According to the proposed protocol, the mobile station that is granted permission to transmit is selected by means of learning automata. At each station, the learning automaton takes into account the network feedback information in order to update the choice probability of each mobile station. The proposed protocol utilizes carrier sensing in order to reduce the collisions that are caused by different decisions at the various mobile stations due to the unreliable channel feedback. Simulation results show satisfactory performance of the proposed protocol compared to similar MAC protocols. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Adaptive protocols for optical LANs with bursty and correlated trafficINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, Issue 2-3 2002G. I. Papadimitriou Abstract Traffic in gigabit LANs is highly bursty. Furthermore, the destinations of packets transmitted by the same station are highly correlated. An adaptive protocol for WDM passive star networks, which is capable of operating efficiently under bursty and correlated traffic, is introduced. According to the proposed protocol, the stations which are granted permission to transmit at each time slot are selected by taking into account the network feedback information. Although the traffic parameters are unknown and time-variable, the bandwidth of each wavelength is allocated to the stations according to their needs. In this way, the number of idle slots is reduced, resulting in a significant improvement in the network throughput. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] An efficient dynamic group key agreement protocol for imbalanced wireless networksINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NETWORK MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2010Yun-Hsin Chuang Owing to the popularity of wireless networks, the group key agreement (GKA) design is critical for providing secure group communications over an insecure wireless channel. In 2005, Nam et al. proposed a GKA protocol for imbalanced wireless networks in which an imbalanced wireless network consists of many mobile nodes with limited computing capability and a powerful node with less restriction. In 2007, Tseng showed that Nam et al.'s protocol is not a contributory GKA, while he also proposed a new GKA protocol. However, neither GKA protocol is concerned with dynamic member joining/leaving. This is an important functionality of GKA, especially for a wireless network environment. In this paper, we propose a dynamic group key agreement protocol for imbalanced wireless networks, and show that it requires less computation cost for dynamic member joining/leaving as compared to the previously proposed protocols. We also show that the proposed protocol is provably secure against passive attacks under the decision Diffie,Hellman problem and the hash function assumptions. Furthermore, by the pre-shared two-party key between a mobile node and the powerful node in the existing imbalanced wireless networks, we propose a generalized GKA protocol that requires only several hash functions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Design of multichannel MAC protocols for wireless ad hoc networksINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NETWORK MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2009Shou-Chih Lo Medium access control (MAC) protocols coordinate channel access between wireless stations, and they significantly affect the network throughput of wireless ad hoc networks. MAC protocols that are based on a multichannel model can increase the throughput by enabling more simultaneous transmission pairs in the network. In this paper, we comprehensively compare different design methods for multichannel MAC protocols. We classify existing protocols into different categories according to the channel negotiation strategies they employ. The common problems that may be encountered in multichannel design are discussed. We then propose a hybrid protocol that combines the advantages of the two methods of a common control channel and a common control period. The simulation results show that our proposed protocol can significantly outperform two representative protocols. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Consensus problem of high-order multi-agent systems with external disturbances: An H, analysis approachINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ROBUST AND NONLINEAR CONTROL, Issue 14 2010Yang Liu Abstract This paper is devoted to the output consensus problem of directed networks of multiple high-order agents with external disturbances, and proposes a distributed protocol using the neighbors' measured outputs. By defining an appropriate controlled output and conducting a model transformation in two steps, consensus performance analysis of the multi-agent system under the proposed protocol is transformed into a normal H, problem. Then using H, theory of linear systems, conditions are derived to ensure the consensus performance with a prescribed H, index for networks with fixed and switching topologies, respectively. A numerical example of the formation control application is included to validate the theoretical results. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Meta-analysis using individual patient data from randomised trials to assess the effectiveness of laparoscopic uterosacral nerve ablation in the treatment of chronic pelvic pain: a proposed protocolBJOG : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS & GYNAECOLOGY, Issue 12 2007T Xiong Background, Currently, there are a number of clinical trials, but no international collaboration for collating research on effectiveness of laparoscopic uterosacral nerve ablation (LUNA) for alleviating chronic pelvic pain. Objective, Meta-analysis was used by collecting individual patient data (IPD) from the existing trials, to provide a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of LUNA that will be generalisable in various clinical contexts. Methods, IPD will be sought and collected from all relevant (both already finished and continuing) randomised trials identified through previous systematic reviews. After obtaining raw data and cleaning the database, analysis will be of all patients ever randomised based on the intention-to-treat principle using endpoints measured at 12 months following randomisation. Proposal, We will update searches, contact all authors, obtain data in whatever form it can be provided, build a single database, produce results for individual studies, have them verified by original authors, explore of any heterogeneity and reasons behind it and finally pool all raw data in to a meta-analysis using appropriate statistical methods. The project will test the effectiveness of LUNA for women with chronic pelvic pain. It will also motivate collaborating primary investigators to undertake new primary studies to corroborate or improve upon the conclusions derived from the retrospective analysis. [source] 2161: Development of a next-generation sequencing platform for retinal dystrophies, with LCA and RP as proof of conceptACTA OPHTHALMOLOGICA, Issue 2010F COPPIETERS Purpose Retinal dystrophies represent an emerging group of hereditary disorders that lead to degeneration of the photoreceptors and/or the retinal pigment epithelium, resulting in irreversible blindness. They are genetically complex, with over 200 disease loci identified so far. Current genetic screening consists of microarray analysis (Asper Ophthalmics) for the most recurrent mutations, and subsequent Sanger sequencing. However, the high cost and low throughput of the latter technology limits testing to only the most recurrent genes. This project aims to develop a high throughput and cost-effective platform for screening of all known disease genes for Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP), using the next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. Methods A NGS panel will be developed for all 16 and 47 known LCA and RP genes, respectively, including coding and untranslated regions, regulatory regions and microRNA binding sites. The protocol will consist of the following steps: 1) high throughput primerdesign and qPCR, 2) ligation, 3) shearing and 4) sequencing on the Illumina Genome Analyser IIx (GAIIx). This innovative protocol overcomes the need for short amplicons in order to render short-read sequences by the GAIIx. This sequencing instrument was chosen because of its high capacity, low cost per base and the absence of interpretation problems at homopolymeric regions. Analysis of the variants will be performed using in-house developed and commercial software, which ranks all variants according to their pathogenic potential. Conclusion Using the proposed protocol, comprehensive screening for all known disease genes for LCA and RP will be available for the first time. [source] Simulation of resource synchronization in a dynamic real-time distributed computing environmentCONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 14 2004Chen Zhang Abstract Today, more and more distributed computer applications are being modeled and constructed using real-time principles and concepts. In 1989, the Object Management Group (OMG) formed a Real-Time Special Interest Group (RT SIG) with the goal of extending the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard to include real-time specifications. This group's most recent efforts have focused on the requirements of dynamic distributed real-time systems. One open problem in this area is resource access synchronization for tasks employing dynamic priority scheduling. This paper presents two resource synchronization protocols that the authors have developed which meet the requirements of dynamic distributed real-time systems as specified by Dynamic Scheduling Real-Time CORBA (DSRT CORBA). The proposed protocols can be applied to both Earliest Deadline First (EDF) and Least Laxity First (LLF) dynamic scheduling algorithms, allow distributed nested critical sections, and avoid unnecessary runtime overhead. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed protocols, we analyzed each protocol's schedulability. Since the schedulability of the system is affected by numerous system configuration parameters, we have designed simulation experiments to isolate and illustrate the impact of each individual system parameter. Simulation experiments show the proposed protocols have better performance than one would realize by applying a schema that utilizes dynamic priority ceiling update. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||