Topic Review
SARS-CoV-2 and Other Respiratory Viruses in Olfactory Pathophysiology
Acute respiratory viruses (ARVs) are the leading cause of diseases in humans worldwide. High-risk individuals, including children and the elderly, could potentially develop severe illnesses that could result in hospitalization or death in the worst case. The most common ARVs are the Human respiratory syncytial virus, Human Metapneumovirus, Human Parainfluenza Virus, rhinovirus, coronaviruses (including SARS and MERS CoV), adenoviruses, Human Bocavirus, enterovirus (-D68 and 71), and influenza viruses. The olfactory deficits due to ARV infection are a common symptom among patients. 
  • 117
  • 18 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Serious Games in Higher Education in Education 4.0
The digital transformation associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution is having an impact on the way we teach. Under the term Education 4.0, new teaching methods, new technologies, as well as a student-centered approach, are expected to be used in teaching. One established method of teaching is the use of Serious Games, as it has various positive effects in terms of motivation and engagement. 
  • 212
  • 18 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Retrieval-Augmented Generation with Large Language Models in Nephrology
The integration of large language models (LLMs) into healthcare, particularly in nephrology, represents a significant advancement in applying advanced technology to patient care, medical research, and education. These advanced models have progressed from simple text processors to tools capable of deep language understanding, offering innovative ways to handle health-related data, thus improving medical practice efficiency and effectiveness. A significant challenge in medical applications of LLMs is their imperfect accuracy and/or tendency to produce hallucinations—outputs that are factually incorrect or irrelevant. This issue is particularly critical in healthcare, where precision is essential, as inaccuracies can undermine the reliability of these models in crucial decision-making processes. To overcome these challenges, various strategies have been developed. One such strategy is prompt engineering, like the chain-of-thought approach, which directs LLMs towards more accurate responses by breaking down the problem into intermediate steps or reasoning sequences. Another one is the retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) strategy, which helps address hallucinations by integrating external data, enhancing output accuracy and relevance. Hence, RAG is favored for tasks requiring up-to-date, comprehensive information, such as in clinical decision making or educational applications. 
  • 218
  • 18 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Machine Learning, Mechatronics, and Stretch Forming
The complexity of machine learning, mechatronics, and stretching forming is well known. Combining them was, is, and will be a necessity as they are closely interconnected disciplines within the field of manufacturing. It is a fact that in any industry, high productivity is achieved with the use of automated manufacturing processes. Intensive work was conducted throughout the year, and extraordinary techniques, equipment, and processes were upgraded or developed. Nevertheless, there are still issues that require optimal solutions.
  • 226
  • 18 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Assisted Robots in Therapies for Children
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits that affect their social relationships, communication, and flexibility in reasoning. There are different types of treatment (pharmacological, educational, psychological, and rehabilitative). Currently, one way to address this problem is by using robotic systems to address the abilities that are altered in these children.
  • 169
  • 18 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Treatment Strategies for Anti-VEGF Resistance in neovascular AMD
Despite extensive use of intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) biologics for over a decade, neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) or choroidal neovascularization (CNV) continues to be a major cause of irreversible vision loss in developed countries. Many nAMD patients demonstrate persistent disease activity or experience declining responses over time despite anti-VEGF treatment. The underlying mechanisms of anti-VEGF resistance are poorly understood, and no effective treatment strategies are available to date. Emerging strong evidence from animal models and clinical studies supports the roles of neovascular remodeling and arteriolar CNV formation in anti-VEGF resistance. Cholesterol dysregulation, inflammation, and ensuing macrophage activation are critically involved in arteriolar CNV formation and anti-VEGF resistance. Combination therapy by neutralizing VEGF and enhancing cholesterol removal from macrophages is a promising strategy to combat anti-VEGF resistance in CNV.
  • 107
  • 18 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Overcoming Antimicrobial Resistance in Endophthalmitis
Endophthalmitis is a rare but vision-threatening infection characterized by marked inflammation of intraocular fluids and tissues, uncommonly seen following surgery and intravitreal injection. Antimicrobials are used worldwide in the prophylaxis and treatment of bacterial and fungal infections of the eye and are standard treatment in the preoperative and postoperative care of surgical patients. However, antimicrobials are reported to be overprescribed in many parts of the world, which contributes to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR complicates the prophylaxis and treatment of endophthalmitis. 
  • 127
  • 18 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Line Feature, Vanishing Points and Manhattan World Analysis
In conventional point-line visual inertial odometry systems under indoor environment, consideration of spatial position recovery and line feature classification can improve localization accuracy. A monocular visual inertial odometry based on structured and unstructured line features of vanishing points is proposed. First, degeneracy phenomenon caused by special geometric relationship between epipoles and line features is analyzed in process of triangulation, and a degeneracy detection strategy is designed to determine the location of the epipoles. Then, considering the property that vanishing point and epipole coincide at infinity, vanishing point feature is introduced to solve the degeneracy and direction vector optimization problem of line features. Finally, threshold constraints are used to categorize straight lines into structural and non-structural features under the Manhattan world assumption, and the vanishing point measurement model is added to the sliding window for joint optimization. Comparative tests on the EuRoC and TUM-VI public datasets validated the effectiveness of the proposed method.
  • 149
  • 18 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Self-Supervised Learning (SSL) in Deep Learning Contexts
Self-supervised learning (SSL) is a potential deep learning (DL) technique that uses massive volumes of unlabeled data to train neural networks. SSL techniques have evolved in response to the poor classification performance of conventional and even modern machine learning (ML) and DL models of enormous unlabeled data produced periodically in different disciplines. However, the literature does not fully address SSL’s practicalities and workabilities necessary for industrial engineering and medicine. Accordingly, this thorough review is administered to identify these prominent possibilities for prediction, focusing on industrial and medical fields. This extensive survey, with its pivotal outcomes, could support industrial engineers and medical personnel in efficiently predicting machinery faults and patients’ ailments without referring to traditional numerical models that require massive computational budgets, time, storage, and effort for data annotation. 
  • 273
  • 18 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Extracellular Vesicles for Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer
Standard non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) treatment involves surgery, recently combined with chemotherapy or immunotherapy in cases of advanced tumors. EVs, including exosomes, are integral to carcinogenesis, and are found in NMSC releasing mediators impacting tumor progression. Nevertheless, the precise intercellular signaling role of NMSC-derived EVs remains unclear. 
  • 116
  • 18 Mar 2024
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