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Through active sense, intelligent analysis and feedback control, Internet of Things enforces the identification, monitoring and management of objects, which is successfully applied in many areas. However, there exists some issues in the development, such as decentralization, disorder, lack of system programming, duplicate construction, etc. We review the history of Internet of Things, analyze its technology architecture and related work. Then, the framework of IRC4IOT(Intelligent Resource Center for Internet of Things)is proposed to provide fundamental support for enabling the resources sharing, improving the resources utilization, and solving redundant construction through the convergence, integration, analysis and rebuilding of resources. The key technologies of how to join sensor devices into resource center and how to integrate and manage the resources are discussed. Finally, the cases in agriculture Internet of Things demonstrate the effect of the proposed framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to facilitate on demand resource sharing and cross-organizational collaboration in E-Government systems, the paper proposes a cloud-service based framework (EGovCloud), which utilizes the virtual resource repository to realize resource physically distributed storage and logically centralized management. E-Government metadata specifications are constructed as a unified semantic infrastructure and therefore support cross-organizational heterogeneous resource sharing and management. We explore the architecture of EGovCloud and the key technologies involved, and demonstrate the applications in constructing E-Government systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-management is essential for patients who require regular hemodialysis treatment. This study aimed to explore the relationships between social support, sense of coherence (SOC), and self-management in hemodialysis patients and to examine whether SOC plays a mediating role. In a cross-sectional study, 402 hemodialysis patients from four tertiary hospitals were recruited. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Social support, SOC, and self-management were significantly correlated with each other. The proposed model provided a good fit to the data. Social support had a direct effect on self-management and SOC, partially mediated the effect of social support on self-management (β = 0.248, p = 0.001). Social support and SOC explained 69% of the variance in self-management. Our findings indicate that health care providers can enhance social support with an emphasis on strengthening SOC strategies to better improve self-management in hemodialysis patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross-sectional study assessed the overall symptom burden, including the prevalence, frequency, severity, and distress of symptoms among hemodialysis patients, and explored the relationship between demographic characteristics, clinical variables, self-management, sense of coherence, social support, and symptom burden in these patients. Herein, a regression analysis was performed to determine associations with symptom burden. The mean score of symptom burden among the participants (n = 382) was 74.12, with an average number of 12 symptoms. The analysis revealed that self-management, sense of coherence, and social support were negatively associated with the overall symptom burden. The multiple regression model showed that 48.6% of the variance in symptom burden was explained by meaningfulness, emotional management, daily urine output, subjective support, gender, and manageability. These findings contribute to the knowledge of symptom burden among hemodialysis patients and some new predictors (self-management, sense of coherence, and social support) of their symptom burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We evaluated discrepancy of calcium detection between gray scale intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and virtual histology (VH)–IVUS and the association between coronary calcium and plaque composition. Methods: Study population consisted of 162 consecutive patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention with VH–IVUS study. Subjects were divided into 3 groups based on gray scale IVUS findings; No calcification group (n=50), spotty group (n=56) who had a lesion containing only small calcium deposits within an arc <90° and diffuse group (n=56) who had a diffuse calcified lesion with an arc ≥90° in ≥1 cross-sectional image of the lesion. Results: No calcification group was younger than spotty and diffuse groups (54.4±13.0years vs. 61.1±10.7years and 64.2±9.9years, p=0.011 and p<0.001, respectively). No calcification group had some degree of dense calcium (5. 7±6.9mm3) by VH–IVUS analysis. Furthermore, calcified volume by VH–IVUS in no calcification group was similar to those in spotty group (5.7±6.9mm3 vs. 5.4±4.4mm3). Dense calcium volume was correlated directly with plaque volume (r=0.65, p<0.001), fibrous volume (r=0.54, p<0.001), fibro-fatty volume (r=0.29, p<0.001) and lipid core volume (r=0.77, p<0.001). In multiple regression analysis, lipid core volume (β=0.287, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.187–0.388, p<0.001) was an independent predictor of dense calcium volume. Conclusions: This study showed that coronary calcium can be present even if invisible in gray scale IVUS and associated with lipid core volume, which is a characteristic of plaque vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: It is still controversial whether carotid plaque is associated with cardiovascular events in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). The aim of the present study is to evaluate the impact of carotid plaque on long term clinical outcomes especially in patients with CAD. Methods: The study population consisted of 1390 consecutive patients with angiographically proven CAD. All subjects underwent carotid scanning 1day before or after coronary angiogram and were followed up for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE; death, myocardial infarction, stroke, revascularization, restenosis and hospitalization for heart failure) during a mean of 54.2±23.9months. Results: Patients with carotid plaque (n=433) were older, had higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and acute coronary syndrome (34.2% vs. 24.6%, p<0.001) than those without carotid plaque (n=957). On univariate analysis, the presence of carotid plaque was a predictor of cardiac death, hard MACE (death, myocardial infarction and stroke) and total MACE, whereas carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) was a predictor of total MACE. Multivariate analysis revealed that carotid plaque was associated with cardiac death (HR 6.99, 95% CI 1.88–25.95, p=0.004), hard MACE (HR 1.89, 95% CI 1.18–3.04, p=0.008) and total MACE (HR 1.47, 95% CI 1.13–1.90, p=0.004), whereas CIMT was associated only with total MACE (HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.06–1.81, p=0.017). Conclusions: Carotid plaque is a strong predictor of future cardiac death and MACE in patients with CAD. This study suggests that carotid plaque has additional value for secondary prevention and more important prognostic factor than CIMT in patients with CAD. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In the present study, the possibility of using leaky Rayleigh waves as a nondestructive tool for the evaluation of CVD diamond coating layer is explored experimentally. For this purpose, a set of CVD diamond coated specimens are prepared and the leaky Rayleigh waves are measured in an immersion, pulse-echo setup. For the proper analysis of the acquired signals we propose a novel signal analysis approach, namely the “time trace angular scan (TTAS)” image. Then, the proposed approach together with the backward radiation profiles are applied for the analysis of signals acquired in the initial experiments. The TTAS image shows the entire information on both time-of-arrival and angle of incidence of the signals for the proper “time-angle windowing.” Then, the backward radiation profile of the windowed signals provides adequate parameters from which nondestructive evaluation of the coated specimens is carried out. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]