Development of workflow task analysis during cerebral diagnostic angiographies: Time-based comparison of junior and senior tasks

International audienceOBJECTIVE: Assessing neuroradiologists' skills in the operating room (OR) is difficult and often subjective. This study used a workflow time-based task analysis approach while performing cerebral angiography. METHODS: Eight angiographies performed by a senior neuroradiologist and eight performed by a junior neuroradiologist were compared. Dedicated software with specific terminology was used to record the tasks. Procedures were subdivided into phases, each comprising multiple tasks. Each task was defined as a triplet, associating an action, an instrument and an anatomical structure. The duration of each task was the metric. Total duration of the procedure, task duration and the number of times a task was repeated were identified. The focus was on tasks using fluoroscopy and for moving the X-ray table/tube. RESULTS: The total duration of tasks to complete the entire procedure was longer for the junior operators than for the seniors (P=0.012). The mean duration per task during the navigation phase was 86s for the juniors and 43s for the seniors (P=0.002). The total and mean durations of tasks involving the use of fluoroscopy were also longer for the juniors (P=0.002 and P=0.033, respectively). For tasks involving the table/tube, the total and mean durations were again longer for the juniors (P=0.019 and P=0.082, respectively). CONCLUSION: This approach allows reliable skill assessment in the radiology OR and comparison of junior and senior competencies during cerebral diagnostic angiography. This new tool can improve the quality and safety of procedures, and facilitate the learning process for neuroradiologists

Articulated Clinician Detection Using 3D Pictorial Structures on RGB-D Data

Reliable human pose estimation (HPE) is essential to many clinical applications, such as surgical workflow analysis, radiation safety monitoring and human-robot cooperation. Proposed methods for the operating room (OR) rely either on foreground estimation using a multi-camera system, which is a challenge in real ORs due to color similarities and frequent illumination changes, or on wearable sensors or markers, which are invasive and therefore difficult to introduce in the room. Instead, we propose a novel approach based on Pictorial Structures (PS) and on RGB-D data, which can be easily deployed in real ORs. We extend the PS framework in two ways. First, we build robust and discriminative part detectors using both color and depth images. We also present a novel descriptor for depth images, called histogram of depth differences (HDD). Second, we extend PS to 3D by proposing 3D pairwise constraints and a new method that makes exact inference tractable. Our approach is evaluated for pose estimation and clinician detection on a challenging RGB-D dataset recorded in a busy operating room during live surgeries. We conduct series of experiments to study the different part detectors in conjunction with the various 2D or 3D pairwise constraints. Our comparisons demonstrate that 3D PS with RGB-D part detectors significantly improves the results in a visually challenging operating environment.Comment: The supplementary video is available at https://youtu.be/iabbGSqRSg

Sonic fingerprints: on the situated use of voice in performative interventions by Donna Kukama, Lerato Shadi and Mbali Khoza

This article focuses on sonic elements in performative interventions by three South African artists: Donna Kukama’s, Chapter F: The Free School for Art and All \u27Fings Necessary (Until Fees fall) (2016), Lerato Shadi’s Matsogo (2013) and Mbali Khoza’s What difference does it make who is speaking? (2014). By observing the details of each artist’s use of voice and its ‘situatedness’ (Goniwe; Mohotowa Thaluki), I have positioned the works within the discipline of sound studies. Beyond the sites chosen for the interventions, their ‘situatedness’ refers to the cultural aspects informing them, including language specificity and the diachronical re-actualitsations of struggle-songs, traditional tales and newspaper journalism. The locations are a hole or negative space in the pavement on Johannesburg’s Beyers Naudé Square, a discarded newspaper page showing the foreign index, and Makhanda Eastern Star Museum. I refer here to sound, time and matter as ‘fingerprint’ (Cassin; Dolar), arguing for each one\u27s right to be heard according to his/her personal means of expression, and that ‘accentedness’ (Coetzee) and situatedness should not lead to the assumption of the existence of an impenetrable ‘epistemic barrier’ (Maharaj). The triad combining use of language (individuated speech), bodily voice, and the time-factor involved allows for a sonic fingerprint to evolve

[Un]performing voice: Simnikiwe Buhlungu/Euridice Zaituna Kala

Two unspectacular interventions, performed in central Johannesburg by Simnikiwe Buhlungu and Euridice Zaituna Kala, evidence the performativity of voice in public space. Addressing the unheard in contemporary society, they operate a shift in the way language is put to use (Cassin 2018). In paradoxical reciprocity, the action of [un]hearing comes to signify a fine-tuned form of informed and involved listening capable of bringing to the fore that which ordinarily goes by unheard or remains stifled. An “accented” way of speaking for example is inflected, shows situatedness, indicates individuated thought patterns (Coetzee 2013). This form of speech carries the legacy of historical exchange between languages and the power relations involved. It bears recognition of the multiple languages involved in the totality of any act of speech. Given current global concerns, it seems indispensable to caution that language identity cuts two ways: it is simultaneously a marker of belonging and a means of singling out those who do not belong. Side-stepping identity-politics, protesting discriminations based on language proficiency, the two interventions suggest self-transforming labour where the reader or listener may potentially perform an activist interruption of the [un]heard

Towards novel difluorinated sugar mimetrics; syntheses and conformational analyses of highly-functionalised difluorinated cyclooctenones

Highly-functionalised difluorinated cyclooctenones were synthesised from trifluoroethanol using either metallated difluoroenol acetal or carbamate chemistry, followed by a [2,3]-Wittig rearrangement or aldol reaction. Efficient RCM reactions afforded the title compounds which showed rather restricted fluxional behaviour by VT 19F NMR. Topological characterisation by molecular modelling and NOESY/ROESY experiments offered a number of challenges, but allowed the identification of two favoured boat-chair conformers which interconverted by pseudorotation with relatively large activation barriers

Àsìkò : On the Future of Artistic and Curatorial Pedagogies in Africa

Àsìkò s’empare du mot qui signifie « temps » en yoruba pour désigner un ensemble de pratiques artistiques et curatoriales en perpétuelle évolution. Inscrites dans la durée, ces pratiques captent le passage du temps et respirent une forme d’aller-retour avec leur milieu : le local est vécu en interconnexion avec une conscience élargie du monde de l’art contemporain, avec les aléas politiques globaux et avec l’histoire d’un continent. Àsìkò est un programme de workshops annuels tenus dans plusi..

Metabolism within the tumor microenvironment and its implication on cancer progression: an ongoing therapeutic target

Since reprogramming energy metabolism is considered a new hallmark of cancer, tumor metabolism is again in the spotlight of cancer research. Many studies have been carried out and many possible therapies have been developed in the last years. However, tumor cells are not alone. A series of extracellular components and stromal cells, such as endothelial cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts, tumor-associated macrophages and tumor-infiltrating T cells, surround tumor cells in the so-called tumor microenvironment. Metabolic features of these cells are being studied in deep in order to find relationships between metabolism within the tumor microenvironment and tumor progression. Moreover, it cannot be forgotten that tumor growth is able to modulate host metabolism and homeostasis, so that tumor microenvironment is not the whole story. Importantly, the metabolic switch in cancer is just a consequence of the flexibility and adaptability of metabolism and should not be surprising. Treatments of cancer patients with combined therapies including anti-tumor agents with those targeting stromal cell metabolism, anti-angiogenic drugs and/or immunotherapy are being developed as promising therapeutics.Mª Carmen Ocaña is recipient of a predoctoral FPU grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. Supported by grants BIO2014-56092-R (MINECO and FEDER), P12-CTS-1507 (Andalusian Government and FEDER) and funds from group BIO-267 (Andalusian Government). The "CIBER de Enfermedades Raras" is an initiative from the ISCIII (Spain). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript