ultrasonographic-evaluation-of-breast-cancer-related-lymphedema

Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Breast Cancer-related Lymphedema

Lymphedema is one of the most common complications after breast cancer surgery. There are many diagnostic tools for lymphedema, but no standard method yet ...

Chungnam National University Hospital (CNUH)

Traffic oscillations are typical features of congested traffic flow that are characterized by recurring decelerations followed by accelerations (stop-and-go driving). The negative environmental impacts of these oscillations are widely accepted, but their impact on traffic safety has been debated. This paper describes the impact of freeway traffic oscillations on traffic safety. This study employs a matched case-control design using high-resolution traffic and crash data from a freeway segment. Traffic conditions prior to each crash were taken as cases, while traffic conditions during the same periods on days without crashes were taken as controls. These were also matched by presence of congestion, geometry and weather. A total of 82 cases and about 80,000 candidate controls were extracted from more than three years of data from 2004 to 2007. Conditional logistic regression models were developed based on the case-control samples. To verify consistency in the results, 20 different sets of controls were randomly extracted from the candidate pool for varying control-case ratios. The results reveal that the standard deviation of speed (thus, oscillations) is a significant variable, with an average odds ratio of about 1.08. This implies that the likelihood of a (rear-end) crash increases by about 8% with an additional unit increase in the standard deviation of speed. The average traffic states prior to crashes were less significant than the speed variations in congestion.

Impact of traffic oscillations on freeway crash occurrences.

Metropolitan greenhouse gas and air emissions inventories can better account for the variability in vehicle movement, fleet composition, and infrastructure that exists within and between regions, to develop more accurate information for environmental goals. With emerging access to high quality data, new methods are needed for informing transportation emissions assessment practitioners of the relevant vehicle and infrastructure characteristics that should be prioritized in modeling to improve the accuracy of inventories. The sensitivity of light and heavy-duty vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) and conventional air pollutant (CAP) emissions to speed, weight, age, and roadway gradient are examined with second-by-second velocity profiles on freeway and arterial roads under free-flow and congestion scenarios. By creating upper and lower bounds for each factor, the potential variability which could exist in transportation emissions assessments is estimated. When comparing the effects of changes in these characteristics across U.S. cities against average characteristics of the U.S. fleet and infrastructure, significant variability in emissions is found to exist. GHGs from light-duty vehicles could vary by -2%-11% and CAP by -47%-228% when compared to the baseline. For heavy-duty vehicles, the variability is -21%-55% and -32%-174%, respectively. The results show that cities should more aggressively pursue the integration of emerging big data into regional transportation emissions modeling, and the integration of these data is likely to impact GHG and CAP inventories and how aggressively policies should be implemented to meet reductions. A web-tool is developed to aide cities in improving emissions uncertainty.

Improving the accuracy of vehicle emissions profiles for urban transportation greenhouse gas and air pollution inventories.

Although orthotic modification using the inverted technique is available for the treatment of flatfoot, empirical evidence for the biomechanical effects of inverted-angle foot orthoses (FOs) is lacking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of different FO inversion angles on plantar pressure during gait in children with flatfoot. Twenty-one children with flexible flatfeet (mean age 9.9 years) were enrolled in this study. The plantar pressures were measured for the rearfoot; medial and lateral midfoot; and medial, central, and lateral forefoot as participants walked on a treadmill while wearing shoes only and shoes with the following 3 orthotic conditions: (i) orthosis with no inverted angle, (ii) orthosis with a 15° inverted angle, and (iii) orthosis with a 30° inverted angle. A one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the Bonferroni-adjusted post-hoc test was used to compare the mean values of each orthotic condition. Compared with the shoe only condition, the peak pressure decreased significantly under the medial forefoot and rearfoot with all FOs (p <0.05). However, no significant differences in the peak pressure under the medial forefoot and rearfoot were observed between the FOs. The peak pressure under the medial midfoot increased significantly with all FOs, and a maximal increase in the peak pressure was obtained with a 30° inverted angle orthosis. Furthermore, the contact area under the medial midfoot and rearfoot increased significantly with all FOs, compared with the shoe only condition (p <0.05). Again, no significant differences were observed between the FOs. For plantar pressure redistribution, a FO with a low inverted angle could be effective, accommodative, and convenient for children with flatfoot.

Soyoung Ahn

Department of Rehabilitation Medicine

Chungnam National University Hospital (CNUH)

Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Breast Cancer-related Lymphedema