Vision Objects (France)

En 1993, le récit de témoignage de la collaboratrice du régime pinochétiste Luz Arce est publié au Chili. Cette publication controversée suscite de nombreuses réactions de la part des associations de victimes. Dans cet article, il sera question des formes de médiatisation journalistique du témoignage d’Arce, à travers une étude comparée de différents articles de l’époque.

Traumatic injury frequently leads to an abrupt change in physical and psychological functioning; informal caregivers play a significant role in the recovery process in the hospital and at home. The purpose of this study was to describe the range of stressors and burdens experienced by orthopedic trauma family caregivers in the acute care setting, as well as responses and strategies employed. Qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted in the hospital with 12 family caregivers of severely injured orthopedic trauma patients. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed to identify the range of experiences and common themes. Data were organized into 4 categories: stressors and needs; barriers; resources; and response. Stressors and barriers included the confusion and turmoil of life in the hospital, exposure to tragedy, difficulty obtaining and understanding information, and a sense that the family was not considered an integral part of the care plan. Factors influencing caregiver coping included access to the patient, provider communication, caregiver internal and external resources, and the presence of staff assisting in negotiation of the complex and unfamiliar hospital system. Understanding the caregiver experience enables nursing providers to build trust and offer effective support and guidance; caregiver-centered systems of information from admission to discharge may facilitate adaptation and improved caregiving.

In this chapter a virtual ecosystem environment with basic physical law and energy concept has been proposed, this ecosystem is populated with 3D virtual creatures that are living in this environment in order to forage food. Artificial behaviors are developed in order to control artificial creatures. Initially, we study the behavior of herbivore’s creatures, which feed resources available in their environment. A genetic algorithm with an artificial neural network were implemented together to guarantee some of these behaviors like searching food. Foods are presented in different locations in the virtual ecosystem. The evolutionary process uses the physical properties of the virtual creatures and an external fitness function with several objectives that will conduct to the expected behaviors. The experiment evolving locomoting virtual creatures shows that these virtual creatures try to obtain at least one of the food sources presented in their trajectories. Our best-evolved creatures are able to reach multiple food sources during the simulation time.

A biomechanical cadaveric study of thoracic and lumbar vertebrae with simulated metastases quantifying intravertebral pressures during transpedicular vertebroplasty. To compare intravertebral pressures during percutaneous vertebroplasty in vertebrae with and without simulated lytic metastases. Percutaneous vertebroplasty is designed to provide stability to vertebrae weakened by osteoporosis or metastatic disease. The complication rate is higher when the procedure is used for the treatment of lytic vertebral lesions. The major complications reported are radiculopathy, spinal cord compression, and embolic phenomena. Ten fresh-frozen cadaveric vertebrae were tested intact (7 lumbar, 3 thoracic) and 7 were tested with simulated lytic defects (4 lumbar, 3 thoracic). Defects were created by replacing a core of cancellous bone with soft tumor tissue in the center of the vertebral body. Simplex P (Howmedica Osteonics, Mahwah, NJ) cement was injected into each vertebra through a unipedicular approach at a constant rate of 3 mL per minute. Cement volume, injection force, and intravertebral pressures at the posterior vertebral body wall were recorded. Following the procedure, the vertebrae were sectioned to visualize cement and tumor disbursement. There was no significant difference between the two groups for age, size, trabecular density, and cement volume. Vertebrae with simulated metastases generated an average maximum pressure of 39.66 kPa during cement injection versus 6.83 kPa in intact vertebrae (P < 0.05). Higher pressures were also generated in smaller vertebrae based on a power relationship (r2 = 0.71 intact, r2 = 0.43 tumor). Percutaneous vertebroplasty produces higher intravertebral pressures in vertebrae containing a simulated lytic metastasis than in intact vertebrae. Pressures generated in the tumor specimens are sufficiently elevated to cause embolic phenomena.

Previously we have introduced a neural predictive system for on-line and off-line word recognition (Garcia-Salicetti et al., 1995; 1996; 1997). Words are recognized thanks to a dictionary which is used in a postprocessing stage. We focus on this lexical part of the system and more precisely on the preselection technique that is used to reduce the computational complexity. We define and compare two edit distances and show how the results can be improved through the use of the confusion matrix.