Background: Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is associated with ventilation defects and heterogeneous impairment of pulmonary function. Spirometry may underestimate PCD severity and complexity. This study aimed to evaluate spirometry, lung clearance index (LCI), and impulse oscillometry (IOS) in children with PCD and healthy controls, and compare them in terms of early detection of lung disease. Methods: In this cross-sectional, prospective study, participants included children aged 6-18 years with PCD and healthy age-matched controls. Lung function tests using LCI, IOS, and spirometry were conducted on the same day for all participants. Results: Thirty-two children with PCD (median age 13.19 years) and 44 age-matched healthy controls (median age 12.32 years) were studied. PCD was associated with lower FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC, R5, R10, R15, R20, X5, Fres, and LCI 2.5% mean values (p<0.05). Abnormal LCI 2.5% was found in 46.5% of patients with predicted FEV1 > 80%. Significant inverse correlations were observed between LCI 2.5%, FEV1, FVC, and Fres in PCD patients (p<0.001, r:-0.635; p=0.002, r:-0.517; p=0.006, r:-0.479; respectively. Conclusion: This is the first study to compare LCI, IOS, and spirometry in children with PCD. The study has shown that there are significant differences in spirometry, LCI, and IOS values between children with PCD and healthy controls. LCI can detect airway anomalies earlier than spirometry in PCD patients. IOS and LCI are valuable respiratory function tests that can be used in PCD follow-up.

Boesenbergia kalakadensis (Zingiberaceae), a new species from Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR), Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu, India is described and illustrated. Boesenbergia kalakadensis is closely allied to B. rotunda (L.) Mansf., and B. tiliifolia (Baker) Kuntze, but differs from them in its rhizome; leaves; inflorescence; length of flowers; glabrous nature of bract and bracteoles; length of calyx and corolla tube; size and shape of the corolla lobes; size, colour and margins of lateral staminodes; broader, orbicular, flat labellum; sessile, glandular hairy, crested anther; and length of style. A key to species of Boesenbergia in Peninsular India is provided.

Objectives: Although mirror exposure improves treatment outcomes in women with eating disorders, it remains uncertain how the cognitive, emotional, and physiological reactions evoked by this technique differ between women with anorexia nervosa and women with bulimia nervosa. Moreover, it is unclear whether vocal arousal is a psychophysiological correlate of these reactions and how the specific emotions elicited by looking at one’s body change during mirror exposure. Methods: Thus, a total of N = 136 women ( n = 39 with anorexia nervosa, n = 24 with bulimia nervosa, and n = 73 healthy controls) first underwent a non-activating baseline, followed by a mirror exposure condition with the task to freely describe aloud arising thoughts and feelings towards their body. Self-reported arousal, emotional valence, and specific emotions were assessed before, in the middle of, and after each condition. Furthermore, we analyzed fundamental frequency ( f0 mean) as a marker of vocally encoded emotional arousal. Results: Women with both forms of eating disorder showed stronger increases in self-reported arousal and equally high levels of f0 mean in contrast to women without eating disorders. Fear increased in all women, while guilt, hostility, and sadness only increased in women with eating disorders. Conclusion: In sum, findings suggest heightened emotional activation and vocal arousal evoked by mirror exposure, particularly in women with eating disorders. In mirror exposure therapy, addressing varied body-related emotions alongside fear might enhance therapeutic success.

A document by Dennis Machaku. Click on the document to view its contents.

This paper investigates the formation composition and keeping problem for multi-quadrotor systems under time-varying communication delays. First, a distributed model predictive control (MPC) approach is employed to transform the formation composition and keeping of multi-quadrotor systems into an online rolling optimization issue, accompanied by the event-triggered mechanism to reduce solution frequency and communication load. Second, to address the asynchrony and time-varying communication delays introduced by event-triggered distributed MPC, a set of constraints is designed to restrict deviations between the current predictive state and previously broadcasted states. Consequently, based on the previously predicted states of neighbors, the cooperation of the multi-quadrotor systems is achieved under asynchronous communication and time-varying delays. This approach guarantees robust asymptotic stability and satisfactory formation performance for multi-quadrotor systems under various delay scenarios. Finally, the numerical and software-in-the-loop (SIL) simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm of multi-quadrotors under communication delays.

Facile mass transport channel and accessible active sites is crucial for binder-free air electrode catalysts in rechargeable flexible zinc-air battery (ZAB). Herein, a ZnS/NH3 dual-assisted pyrolysis strategy is proposed to prepare N/S-doped hierarchical porous bamboo carbon cloth (HP-NS-BCC) as binder-free air electrode catalyst for ZAB. BCC fabric with abundant micropores is firstly used as flexible carbon support to facilitate the heteroatom-doping and construct the hierarchical porous structure. ZnS nanospheres and NH3 activization together facilitate the electronic modulation of carbon matrix by N/S-doping and optimize the macro/meso/micropores structure of carbon fibers. Benefiting from the highly-exposed N/S-induced sites with enhanced intrinsic activity, the optimized mass transport of biocarbon fibers, as well as the ultra-large specific surface area of 2436.1 m2 g-1, the resultant HP-NS-BCC catalyst exhibits improved kinetics for oxygen reduction/evolution reaction. When applied to rechargeable aqueous ZABs, it achieves a high open-circuit voltage of 1.516 V and a significant peak power density of 249.1 mW cm−2. As binder-free air electrode catalyst, the flexible ZAB also displays stable cycling over 500 cycles with a minimal voltage gap of 0.42 V, showcasing promising applications in flexible electronic devices.

Introduction:Felty syndrome, also known as Chauffard-Still-Felty syndrome, was first described by Augustus Felty. It is a rare condition diagnosed in patients with longstanding seropositive rheumatoid arthritis (RA) characterized by an enlarged spleen and neutropenia (1). Neutropenia, defined as absolute neutrophil count <1500/mm, is Felty syndrome’s hallmark feature. In RA, the patient usually presents initially with arthritis, and the felty syndrome commonly develops after many years. However, in highly uncommon instances, felty syndrome can manifest before or without any signs of arthritis. Only a few case reports have been published highlighting this unusual presentation of the Felty syndrome (Table 2). We present a similar case of a young female who initially presented with felty syndrome without arthritis. This case report emphasizes the clinical and diagnostic approach to rule out alternate causes of neutropenia with splenomegaly and timely recognition of the atypical presentation of Felty syndrome.

Introduction: Infective endocarditis is associated with many complications; these include cardiac, metastatic, neurologic, renal, musculoskeletal, and pulmonary complications. Renal complications of IE include glomerulonephritis, renal infarction or abscess following septic embolization, and drug-induced acute interstitial nephritis.( 1) Acute renal failure, defined as a serum creatinine of ≥2 mg/dL (177 mmol/L), has been described in up to one-third of patients with infective endocarditis. Infective endocarditis can rarely be complicated by RPGN, and this poses diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. There are only a few case reports of infective endocarditis associated with RPGN in the literature. In a study of 595 IE-related RPGN, the prevalence of Infective endocarditis-related RPGN was found to be 3.4%. ( 2). These studies have also found that it was difficult to differentiate these cases from other differentials, like vasculitis. In a retrospective review of 24 cases of infective endocarditis associated with RPGN, all patients presented with fever and multi-system organ involvement. The involved organs include the heart, kidney, lung, skin, joint, spleen, lung, nervous system, and eye. (2) All of these patients presented with rapid deterioration of renal function within 1 week to several months, along with glomerular hematuria and proteinuria. The mean peak serum creatinine was 6.7 mg/dl (range 3.0–16.1 mg/dl). The most commonly involved valves are the aortic and mitral valves. All of these patients were treated with intravenous antibiotics, and some of them required surgical and immune suppressive therapies. Here we present the case of a 34-year-old known CRVHD patient for whom a prosthetic mitral valve replacement was done 14 years ago for severe mitral stenosis. The patient presented with flank pain, a decrease in urine amount, and a raised creatinine of 3 days duration. Initial workup with Tran’s thoracic echocardiography missed valvular vegetation. She was about to be started on immune suppressive therapy until repeat echocardiography revealed a 3cm by 3cm aortic and mitral valve vegetation. She was treated with intravenous antibiotics alone and diuretics, and she didn’t require immune suppressive therapy. She was discharged with improvement, and follow-up trans-thoracic echocardiography revealed resolution of the vegetation.Case presentationA 34-year-old female patient who was on follow-up for chronic rheumatic valvular heart disease, for whom a prosthetic mitral valve replacement was done 13 years ago for severe mitral stenosis, came to our hospital OPD with the complaint of flank pain of three days duration. The pain was dull and aching in type and involved both her flank areas. Associated with this, she also had reddish discoloration of the urine, a decrease in urine volume, and lower extremity swelling of the same duration. On further inquiry, she admitted that she had a low-grade intermittent fever, loss of appetite, and easy fatigability, which started during this illness period. She was taking anticoagulation and antibiotic prophylaxis. Other than the symptoms mentioned above, she had no orthopnea, PND, chest pain, or chronic medical illnesses like HIV, diabetes mellitus, or hypertension. On physical examination, she was afebrile; her blood pressure was systolic 110 mmHg and diastolic 80 mmHg; her pulse rate was 78 beats per minute; and her respiratory rate was 18 breaths per minute. Cardiovascular examination revealed a flat JVP and a Grade IV holosystolic murmur that is best heard at the apex. Further examination of the genito-urinary system showed bilateral flank tenderness, and musco-skeleton examination showed grade II pitting edema involving both extremities. We investigated her with a complete blood count, which showed a WBC of 25,000, a neutrophil percentage of 91%, and hemoglobin and platelet counts that were within normal. She had an elevated acute phase reactant (ESR: 68 mm/hr). Her serum creatinine was 8.5 mg/dl; her baseline serum creatinine was normal 2 weeks prior to our hospital visit. (Diagram 1, trend of serum creatinine). Urine analysis showed proteinuria and many red blood cells, and the 24-hour urine protein determination was 244 mg. Serology tests like ANA, hepatitis B surface antigen, hepatitis C antibody, and HIV tests were all negative. She was further investigated with a chest X-ray, which was normal, and an ECG showed features of atrial fibrillation with a fast ventricular response of 165 beats per minute (Figure 1). With the initial suspicion of Infective endocarditis, we investigated her with a blood culture and echocardiography. Blood culture had no microorganism growth. Initial transthoracic echocardiography was normal. Repeated transthoracic echocardiography revealed 3cm by 3 cm of vegetation on the aortic and prosthetic mitral valves, severe aortic stenosis, moderate aortic regurgitation, moderate mitral stenosis, severe tricuspid regurgitation, and mild pulmonary hypertension. Mild biventricular systolic dysfunction with an ejection fraction of 45% She was admitted to our hospital, and a diagnosis of rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis was made, and we planned to give her methylprednisolone pulse therapy. However, the repeated echocardiography showed vegetation over both the native valve (aortic) and the prosthetic valve (mitral valve), as described above. Later, a diagnosis of native and prosthetic Infective endocarditis complicated by rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis was made, and the plan to give pulse therapy was cancelled. For this diagnosis, we treated our patient with intravenous antibiotics and diuretic therapy. After two weeks of these treatments, flank pain and lower extremity edema subsided. Serum creatinine recovered, and the patient was discharged with improvement. She was seen on follow-up, and she was in good condition. The follow up trans-thoracic echocardiography showed aortic vegetation, which has decreased in size; otherwise, prosthetic mitral valve vegetation was not seen (Figure 2), and the follow-up serum creatinine was normal.Discussion Infective endocarditis is an infection of the endocardial surface of the heart, and it can be an infection of one or more heart valves or of the intra-cardiac devices. It is a rare disease with an estimated yearly incidence of 3–10 cases per 10,000 people (3). The term native valve endocarditis refers to a cardiac infection that involves the leaflets of the valves, the endocardial surface, chordae tendinae, congenital defects, and anastomosis sites. Prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) is a microbial infection of parts of a prosthetic valve or reconstructed native heart valve. (4). Patients with infective endocarditis (IE) can develop several forms of kidney disease. These include bacterial infection-related immune complex-mediated glomerulonephritis (GN), renal infarction from septic emboli, and renal cortical necrosis. Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN) is a clinical syndrome manifested by features of glomerular disease in the urinalysis and by progressive loss of kidney function over a comparatively short period of time (days, weeks, or a few months). The treatment we give to patients with Infective endocarditis can also lead to kidney injury. ( 5,6,7) Diagnoses of Infective endocarditis as a cause of RPGN have therapeutic implications. Most patients with RPGN need immune suppressive therapy. However, patients whose RPGN is caused by Infective endocarditis may be successfully treated with antibiotics alone and may not need immune suppressive therapy. Our patient has clinical and laboratory features suggestive of RPGN, and we planned to give immune suppressive therapy. It is not uncommon for trans-thoracic echocardiography to miss valvular vegetation. The initial echocardiography didn’t show valvular vegetation, but the repeated one showed three small-sized aortic and prosthetic mitral valve vegetations. Our patient fulfills diagnostic clinical criteria for both native and prosthetic valve infective endocarditis (8), and a diagnosis of native and prosthetic valve infective endocarditis complicated with RPGN was made. Infective endocarditis involving multiple valves has rarely been described, and there are only a few case reports of simultaneous native and prosthetic valve endocarditis. (9) Multi-valvular and simultaneous native (aortic) and prosthetic (mitral) valve involvement is what makes our patient’s presentation unique. Studies have shown that patients with Infective endocarditis-associated RPGN can be treated with intravenous antibiotics, and some of these patients may need immune suppressive therapy, particularly when kidney function does not improve after antibiotic therapy. (2) We treated our patient with intravenous antibiotics, and she showed clinical improvement, and serum creatinine showed recovery over 2 weeks. Our patient would have been subjected to immune suppressive therapy if the diagnosis of infective endocarditis had been missed.Conclusion Native and prosthetic valves Infective endocarditis may be rarely complicated by rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis. The diagnosis of Infective endocarditis may be missed, especially if the vegetation is small, as observed in our patient. Detection of infective endocarditis as a cause of RPGN may eliminate the need for immune suppressive therapy, as observed in our patient. Our case illustrates that not all RPGN require immunosuppressive therapy. So, it is important to have a high index of suspicion of infective endocarditis as a cause of RPGN in appropriate clinical conditions. Author contribution: Yitagesu Getachew: Conceptualization, Investigation, Validation, Writing – review & editing. Zerubabel Getahun: Investigation Writing – original draft. Getachew Wondafrash: Conceptualization, Supervision Validation, Zemenay Asmare: Formal analysis Writing – original draft. Gashaw Solela: Supervision, Writing – review & editing. Beka Aberra: Supervision Validation. Merga Daba: Writing – original draft ,Writing – review & editing.Data Availability Statement The data that support the findings of this case report are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.Ethical ApprovalThe authors’ institution does not require ethical approval for publication of single case report.Consent for PublicationThe patient’s family provided written informed consent for the publication of details including, history, physical findings, laboratory reports, and imaging.FundingNo funding was used in this case report.DisclosureWe authors have no conflict of interest.

With the rapid growth of internet of thing (IoT) wireless devices, cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) has emerged as a promising solution to leverage the spatial diversity of multiple IoT sensing nodes (SNs) for spectrum availability. However, the cooperative paradigm also incurs increased cooperative costs between each SN and the fusion center (FC), leading to decreased cooperative efficiency and achievable throughput, especially in large-scale cognitive IoTs (CIoTs). To address these challenges, we present a sequential detection with feedback information (SD-FI) approach in this paper. To achieve this objective, we propose a two-way CSS model that formulates an optimization problem of Bayes cost in a quickest detection framework with feedback. To solve this optimization problem, we derive the structure of the optimal local decision rule from the local decision function and determine the optimal detection threshold in conjunction with the cost function. Following the optimal threshold pair, we implement the optimal SD-FI and theoretically demonstrate the uniqueness of the optimal threshold and optimal sensing time. Simulation results demonstrate superiority of our proposed approach in terms of cooperative performance (i.e., detection performance and Bayes cost) and sample size. Notably, even with limited sensing time, our proposed SD-FI exhibits high throughput, highlighting its effectiveness in enhancing spectrum availability and utilization in cognitive IoTs.

Introduction: Migraine is one of the most common complaints and is debilitating as it affects the quality of life. Triptans are considered effective and are frequently prescribed by primary physicians and neurologists. Renal infarction is rare side effect of triptans that can be misdiagnosed if not considered in patients using them (2,3). Clinical presentation of renal infarction can be misleading in some cases. We present a case of middle-aged lady, who was diagnosed with renal infarction after long-standing use of Zolmitriptan. Although, renal infarction is a rare side effect after triptans use, but it should be considered in patients who use these medications regularly.

One of the crucial and major issues in engineering, particularly in signal processing, is signal reconstruction. Frames are flexible tools that helps to reconstruct signals/vectors in a stable way. Frame theory was introduced for Hilbert spaces by Duffin et al. in 1952. If it happens that we only have the intensity measurements or the phaseless measurements of the lost signal then reconstructing the original signal becomes difficult. In such cases, phase retrieval sequences play essential roles to reconstruct or regain the signal from its intensity measurements or phaseless measurements. In 2006, Balan et al. introduced phase retrievable frames for Hilbert spaces. Phase retrieval has received significant attention in various fields, including image processing and signal reconstruction. Similar to phase retrieval, norm retrieval sequences help to regain the norm of the original signal. In 2015 Bahmanpour et al. introduced norm retrieval sequences for Hilbert spaces. We provide a thorough overview of phase retrieval and norm retrieval by vectors and subspaces in separable Hilbert space. We also highlight and discuss the recent developments in phase retrieval and norm retrieval of partially lost signals.

This paper proves the existence of nontrivial solution for two classes of quasilinear systems of the type { − ∆ Φ 1 u = F u ( x , u , v )+ λ R u ( x , u , v ) in Ω − ∆ Φ 2 v = − F v ( x , u , v ) − λ R v ( x , u , v ) in Ω u = v = 0 on ∂ Ω where λ>0 is a parameter, Ω is a bounded domain in R N ( N≥2) with smooth boundary ∂Ω. The first class we drop the ∆ 2 -condition of the functions Φ ̵̃ i ( i=1 ,2) and assume that F has a double criticality. For this class, we use a linking theorem without the Palais-Smale condition for locally Lipschitz functionals combined with a concentration–compactness lemma for nonreflexive Orlicz-Sobolev space. The second class, we relax the ∆ 2 -condition of the functions Φ i ( i=1 ,2). For this class, we consider F=0 and λ=1 and obtain the proof based on a saddle-point theorem of Rabinowitz without the Palais-Smale condition for functionals Fréchet differentiable combined with some properties of the weak ∗ topology.

Building on the successful synergy between biology and systems & network theories, Systems Biology and Systems Medicine have been instrumental to address complexity in the study of life sciences. Along this line, Systems Pharmacology is the obvious next step. In this review we focus on physical stimuli, whose analysis in pharmacology is generally neglected, despite their ability, once transduced, to show medicinal properties. To cope with this missed opportunity, our ambition is threefold: (i) highlight how different (mechanic, optic, magnetic, electric) physical stimuli impinge on inflammation; (ii) disseminate knowledge on cutting-edge network approaches as effective tools to exploit the intricacy and develop the potential of anti-inflammatory physical therapies within the systems pharmacology framework, to ultimately (iii) adding physical stimuli to the routine mindset of pharmacologists. We expect this review to raise more questions than it gives answers, thus igniting research in an area whose application gap urgently needs fulfillment.

Synthetic biology is contributing to the advancement of the global net-negative carbon economy, with emphasis on formate as a member of the one-carbon substrate garnering substantial attention. In this study, we employed base editing tools to facilitate adaptive evolution, achieving a formate tolerance of Yarrowia lipolytica to 1 M within two months. This effort resulted in two mutant strains, designated as M25-70 and M25-14, both exhibiting significantly enhanced formate utilization capabilities. Transcriptomic analysis revealed the up-regulation of nine endogenous genes encoding formate dehydrogenases when cultivated utilizing formate as the sole carbon source. Furthermore, we uncovered the pivotal role of the glyoxylate and threonine-based serine pathway in enhancing glycine supply to promote formate assimilation. The full potential of Yarrowia lipolytica to tolerate and utilize formate establishing the foundation for pyruvate carboxylase-based carbon sequestration pathways. Importantly, this study highlights the existence of a natural formate metabolic pathway in Yarrowia lipolytica.

Objectives. To estimate postpartum depression at two months (PPD) prevalence and its related risk factors. Design. Multicentre prospective cohort study. Setting. France. Population or sample. Representative sample of 7,133 women participating to the French National Perinatal Survey (ENP) over one week in March 2021. Methods. Data on maternal characteristics, course of pregnancy/delivery, and child’s health were collected from face-to-face interviews in maternity wards and/or medical records, and a self-questionnaire (including the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)) at two months postpartum. Women with an EPDS score >=13 were considered to have PPD. Poisson regression models with robust variance were used to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) for PPD. Main Outcome Measures. PPD Results. PPD prevalence at two months was 16.7% (95%CI[15.7-17.7]). Factors significantly associated with PPD were: i/ age<=29 or >=40 years (maximum aPR=1.41 95%CI[1.12-1.77] obtained for 15-24 year-olds vs 35-39 year-olds), ii/ being born in North Africa (1.29[1.02-1.64] vs France), iii/ having a lower level of health literacy (1.23[1.14-1.35]), iv/ having a history of psychological (1.45[1.24-1.69]) or psychiatric (1.52[1.23-1.88]) care since adolescence (vs none), v/ receiving little/no support or good support during pregnancy (1.80[1.52-2.14] and 1.31[1.15-1.48] vs. receiving very good support), vi/ reporting feelings of sadness (1.92[1.65-2.25]), anhedonia (1.69[1.36-2.11]) or both (2.61[2.26-3.01]) during pregnancy (vs none of these feelings), vii/ having had an instrumental vaginal delivery (1.18[1.01-1.38] vs spontaneous vaginal delivery). Conclusions. Our findings on PPD (prevalence and risk factors) could guide policies on early identification and preventive support for women in the perinatal period.

Less is known about the interaction of viruses with their prokaryotic host in the gut of wild animal. Here we used fecal DNA metagenomic data (n = 24) from black-necked cranes during the wintering period for virus characterization. The results were found to be consistent with the trend of bacterial community changes, and the black-necked crane gut viruses community structure was conservative during the wintering period. A total of 280 vOTUs (6 complete, 3 HQ, 2 MQ and 269 LQ) were obtained and life history predictions identified 207 virulent viruses. 269 LQ vOTUs contained at least 10 viral genes, hence several of these viruses may be too distinct from viral species in the CheckV database to properly estimate their completeness. Meanwhile, gene-sharing network analysis revealed that the gut viruses of black-necked crane formed 32 unique viral clusters (VCs). Virus taxonomic assignment has revealed that Azeredovirinae is the most abundant family during the wintering period of black-necked cranes. Furthermore. Black-necked crane gut viruses have a complex relationship with their prokaryotic hosts, and virus-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) enhance the potential of infecting bacteria for chitin degradation, methionine and tetrahydrofolate (THF) metabolism. These results imply the presence of a large number of novel viruses in the intestinal tract of black-necked cranes, which may further affect birds by regulating prokaryotic bacterial metabolism including lyse prokaryotic host cells and encodes AMGs related to the degradation of complex carbohydrates and amino acid metabolism.

Abstract Background: Research facilitation (RF) positions are a developing workforce in health services. The aim of this review was to explore literature on the role and impact of these positions. Methods: A scoping review was conducted using three inclusion criteria. 1. Population: Articles about RF positions; 2. Concept: Articles that describe the roles and duties of RF positions, and/or report how their impact is evaluated; 3. Context: RF positions employed by, or have a significant role within, health services. Medline, EMBASE and CINAHL electronic databases were searched in June 2022 for records from 2000-present. Full text articles published in English were included. Data were extracted regarding the structure, responsibilities, and evaluation of RF positions. Results : Eighteen articles were included, representing 86 RF positions. Most positions were orientated to support nursing or allied health research. Position titles and structure varied widely. Whilst key responsibilities were highly heterogeneous, almost all included providing direct support to health service staff to engage in research, and many included facilitating research education. A range of measures were used to evaluate RF positions, with traditional academic outputs such as publications and grants most frequent. Quantitative evidence of the impact of RF positions was weak, though positive. Qualitative evaluations revealed the important role of RF positions in research capacity and evidence-based practice. Conclusion: RF positions provided a wide variety of supports to clinicians and health services. While there is some positive evidence of the value of RF positions, further research is needed on their structure and outcomes.

Steering a nonlinear system from one state to a desired one is a common task in control. While a nominal trajectory can be obtained rather systematically using a model, for example via numerical optimization, heuristics, or reinforcement learning, the design of a computationally fast and reliable feedback control law that guarantees robust asymptotic stability of the found trajectory can be much more involved. An approach that does not require high online computational power and is well-accepted in the industry is gain-scheduling. The results presented here pertain to the stability guarantees and the region of attraction of gain scheduled control laws, based on subsequent linearizations along the reference trajectory. The approach bounds the uncertainty arising from the linearization process, builds polytopic sets of linear time varying systems covering the nonlinear dynamics along the trajectory, and exploits sufficient conditions for robust stability to attempt the derivation of the desired gain-scheduled controller, via the solution of Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs). A result to estimate an ellipsoidal region of attraction is provided too. Moreover, arbitrary scheduling strategies between the control gains are considered in the analysis, and the method can be used also to check/assess the stability properties obtained with an existing gain-scheduled law. The approach is demonstrated experimentally on a small quadcopter as well as in simulation to design a scheduled controller for a chemical reactor model and to validate an existing control law for a gantry crane model.