Capacity Building Needs for Manual and Computer Assisted Teaching of Pattern Drafting for Entrepreneurship in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria

This study investigated the capacity building needs for manual and computer assisted teaching of pattern drafting for entrepreneurship in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.The study was conducted and guided by two research questions and two hypotheses.This study adopted an ex-post facto research design.The population for the study consisted of 131 Home Economics lecturers from the Universities,Polytechnic,and Colleges of Education in South East Nigeria.The entire population was studied because of its manageable size,hence there was no sampling.The results of this study showed that the Home Economics lecturers are competent in drafting patterns using manual method.Technical skills required for lecturers of Home Economics to advance from manual to computer-assisted teaching of pattern drafting were identified.They include ability to grade patterns,ability to use software packages,and ability to discuss procedures of pattern drafting among others.Based on the findings,it was recommended among others that computer assisted teaching of pattern drafting should be incorporated and applied by Home Economics lecturers to ensure that students acquire technical skills that will enable them to enter into entrepreneurship.

Total knee arthroplasty using computer assisted navigation in patients with severe valgus deformity of the knee

Background Severe valgus deformity often has bone defect and laxity of the medial ligamentous, and total knee arthroplasty in severe valgus knee is, in most cases, more challenging for surgeons. The usefulness of a computer assisted navigation system in reestablishing the mechanical axis has been well established. Hence, the interest for surgeons is how the navigation system makes the procedure of total knee arthroplasty with severe valgus knee easier. Methods From June 2006 to March 2008 in Department of Joint Surgery, Shanghai Sixth People＇s Hospital, 6 patients （7 knees） with severe valgus knee underwent total knee arthroplasty using the Stryker Navigation system, which is an active wireless and imageless system. All the patients were followed up for 12 to 18 months after surgery. The X-ray radiographs for whole limbs were obtained on all patients to determine preoperative and postoperative alignments. Results A primary, posterior stabilized prosthesis was utilized in all cases. The average preoperative overall mechanical axis of the seven knees was 19.6°±4.6° of valgus （range 16°to 29°）, and the average postoperative mechanical axis was 0.4°±0.7° （range 0.8° varus to 1.4° valgus ）. Conclusions The navigation system is a very effective and useful tool for accurate intraoperative restoration of alignment in the face of significant deformity with valgus knee. To prevent component malposition, we did not reduce the knee before solidification of bone cement but controlled alignment using the navigation system up to implantation of the final component.

Automatic Bone Surface Restoration for Markerless Computer-Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery

An automatic markerless knee tracking and registration algorithm has been proposed in the literature to avoid the marker insertion required by conventional computer-assisted knee surgery,resulting in a shorter and less invasive surgical workflow.However,such an algorithm considers intact femur geometry only.The bone surface modification is inevitable due to intra-operative intervention.The mismatched correspondences will degrade the reliability of registered target pose.To solve this problem,this work proposed a supervised deep neural network to automatically restore the surface of processed bone.The network was trained on a synthetic dataset that consists of real depth captures of a model leg and simulated realistic femur cutting.According to the evaluation on both synthetic data and real-time captures,the registration quality can be effectively improved by surface reconstruction.The improvement in tracking accuracy is only evident over test data,indicating the need for future enhancement of the dataset and network.

COMPUTER ASSISTED INSTRUCTION AND ITS APPLICATION IN ENGLISH LEARNING

This paper briefly describes the development of computer assisted instruction(CAI) abroad and in China, lists the advantages of CAI and deals with its application in English learning. Some suggestions about how to make better use of CAI in ELT are also given.

Model TJ-IV Computer-Assisted Vectorcardiogram Analysis System

During last 16 years we have successfully developed the computer assisted vectorcardiogram analysis systems: model TJ Ⅰ, TJ Ⅱ, and TJ Ⅲ, but some technical problems remained unresolved, such as the recognition accuracy for vectorcardiograms, measurement of the parameters of complicated QRS waves, the ratio of T loop length to width, and the area of spatial vectors etc. A new system, model TJ Ⅳ was designed to resolve these technical problems. The system was equipped with a 586 computer with a CPU of 120 MHz. Special new low noise amplifier was employed and C language was used for programming. Three graph recognition techniques were used to enhance the accuracy of VCG recognition. 32 orthogonal electrocardiograms and vectorcardiograms were displayed and printed, and 566 parameters of vectorcardiograms were calculated. Our results with 150 cases showed that the system had high accuracy of graph recognition, and parameter calculation and the results were essentially consistent with those of manipulative methods. We were led to concluded when compared with TJ Ⅲ system, the new version has higher accuracy of processing and measurement for vectorcardiograms, is able to process more vectorcardiographic parameters, with higher processing speed.

A REVIEW ON ARTERY WALL SEGMENTATION TECHNIQUES AND INTIMA-MEDIA THICKNESS MEASUREMENT FOR CAROTID ULTRASOUND IMAGES

Stroke and heart attack,which could be led by a kind of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease named as atherosclerosis,would seriously cause human morbidity and mortality.It is important for the early stage diagnosis and monitoring medical intervention of the atherosclerosis.Carotid stenosis is a classical atherosclerotic lesion with vessel wall narrowing down and accumulating plaques burden.The carotid artery of intima-media thickness(IMT)is a key indicator to the disease.With the development of computer assisted diagnosis technology,the imaging techniques,segmentation algorithms,measurement methods,and evaluation tools have made considerable progress.Ultrasound imaging,being real-time,economic,reliable,and safe,now seems to become a standard in vascular assessment methodology especially for the measurement of IMT.This review firstly attempts to discuss the clinical relevance of measurements in clinical practice at first,and then followed by the challenges that one has to face when approaching the segmentation of ultrasound images.Secondly,the commonly used methods for the IMT segmentation and measurement are presented.Thirdly,discussion and evaluation of different segmentation techniques are performed.An overview of summary and future perspectives is given finally.

Teaching Chinese sign language with a smartphone

Background There is a large group of deaf-mutes worldwide, and sign language is a major communication tool in this community. It is necessary for deaf-mutes to be able to communicate with others who are capable of hearing, and hearing people also need to understand sign language, which produces a great demand for sign language tuition. Even though there have already been a large number of books written about sign language, it is inefficient to learn sign language through reading alone, and the same can be said on watching videos. To solve this problem, we developed a smartphone-based interactive Chinese sign language teaching system that facilitates sign language learning. Methods The system provides a learner with some learning modes and captures the learner's actions using the front camera of the smartphone. At present, the system provides a vocabulary set with 1000 frequently used words, and the learner can evaluate his/her sign action by subjective or objective comparison. In the mode of word recognition, the users can play any word within the vocabulary, and the system will return the top three retrieved candidates;thus, it can remind the learners what the sign is. Results This system provides interactive learning to enable a user to efficiently learn sign language. The system adopts an algorithm based on point cloud recognition to evaluate a user's sign and costs about 700ms of inference time for each sample, which meets the real-time requirements. Conclusion This interactive learning system decreases the communication barriers between deaf-mutes and hearing people.

Surgical guidance system and computer navigation for simultaneous femoral osteotomy and total.knee arthroplasty for treatment of osteoarthritis associated with severe extra-articular deformity

Total knee arthroplasty （TKA） is an effective treatment for severe knee arthritis. However, TKA is more challenging when that arthritis is associated with femoral deformity that has resulted in irregularity of the canal and variation in anatomic landmarks. In such cases, it is difficult to restore the mechanical alignment of the lower limb using intramedullary instruments.

Age Estimation Using Single-Rooted Teeth of Indian Residents by Modified Kvaal’s Method:A Pilot Study

Background:This study aimed to create an age estimation formula with high sensitivity and specificity using the modified Kvaal’s dental radiographic method.The parameters for age estimation were assessed by measuring the length and width of tooth,root,and pulp with the help of a stereomicroscope and digital image analysis.Materials and Methods:Only single-rooted noncarious teeth were included.A total of 203 samples of teeth,with an age ranging from 15 to 85 years,were collected,of which only 123 samples were included in the study.Images of vertically sectioned teeth specimens were captured under a stereomicroscope(version SZ-790,×10 mm eyepiece),and parameters were measured using Adobe Photoshop.Results:Karl Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to correlate age with the dental parameters,and step-wise regression analysis was used to derive the age estimation formula.A significant correlation of age with pulp length and root and pulp width having P<0.001 was observed,and an age estimation formula with a standard estimation error of 14 could be derived.Conclusion:Kvaal’s parameter in extracted single-rooted tooth showed a better reliability and reproducibility in age estimation.Further studies with a larger sample size and tooth-specific formula using principal component analysis should be considered to validate the accuracy of the present result.

Advantages of using an image-guided system for transnasal endoscopic surgery

Objective To evaluate the advantages of image guided system in transnasal endoscopic surgery Methods Transnasal endoscopic surgery was performed with the aid of an image guided system in 28 patients, supported with histopathologic diagnoses of chronic sinusitis with/without nasal polyps (10 cases), juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma (4 cases), pituitary adenoma (6 cases), ethmoidal ossifying fibroma (3 cases), nasopharyngeal mixed tumor (2 cases), nasal leiomyoma (1 case), fungal sinusitis (1 case) and inverted nasal papilloma (1 case) Results For all the patients, the time periods from initialization to surgery ranged from 15 to 30 minutes (a mean of 26 minutes) The calibration coefficient ranged from 1 3 to 2 0 Accuracy of localization fell within 1 mm Compared with traditional endoscopic surgery, operation times were not noticeably different No complications occurred Conclusions The image guided system was able to identify borders and critical anatomical structures in real time, especially of those with distorted anatomical markers It provided a powerful means for a safer and less invasive endoscopic sinus surgery