Publications

Breathing pattern has been shown to be different in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients compared to healthy controls during rest and walking. In this study we evaluated respiratory parameters and the breathing variability of COPD patients as a function of their severity. Thoracic bioimpedance was acquired on 66 COPD patients during the performance of the six-minute walk test (6MWT), as well as 5 minutes before and after the test while the patients were seated, i.e. resting and recovery phases. The patients were classified by their level of airflow limitation into moderate and severe groups. We characterized the breathing patterns by evaluating common respiratory parameters using only wearable bioimpedance. Specifically, we computed the median and the coefficient of variation of the parameters during the three phases of the protocol, and evaluated the statistical differences between the two COPD severity groups. We observed significant differences between the COPD severity groups only during the sitting phases, whereas the behavior during the 6MWT was similar. Particularly, we observed an inverse relationship between breathing pattern variability and COPD severity, which may indicate that the most severely diseased patients had a more restricted breathing compared to the moderate patients.

JTD Keywords: 6mwt, activation, breathing pattern, burden, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, exercise, muscles, pressure, pulmonary, signals, variability, volumes, wearables, Bioimpedance, Impedance pneumography

How many copies of a protein can be made before it becomes toxic to the cell?

JTD Keywords: Protein burden, Overexpression, Glycolysis

A fundamental aspect of the rapidly expanding medical care sector, bone repair continues to benefit from emerging technological developments. This text provides researchers and students with a comprehensive review of the materials science and engineering principles behind these developments. The first part reviews the fundamentals of bone repair and regeneration. Further chapters discuss the science and properties of biomaterials used in bone repair, including both metals and biocomposites. Final chapters analyze device considerations such as implant lifetime and failure, and discuss potential applications, as well as the ethical issues that continually confront researchers and clinicians.

JTD Keywords: Social impact of musculoskeletal disease, Economic burden of musculoskeletal disease, Social aspects of dental and maxillofacial conditions, Some clinical challenges of bone repair, Conclusions and future trends, Sources of further information and advice