In humans, skin is the largest organ and serves as a barrier between our body and the outside world. Skin protects our internal organs from external pathogens and other contaminants, and melanocytes within the skin protect the body from damage by ultraviolet light. These same pigment cells also determine our skin colour and complexion. Skin wounding triggers a repair response that includes a ro...

In this paper we study External A*, a variant of the internal A* algorithm that employs external memory. The approach applies to implicit, undirected, unweighted state space problem graphs with consistent estimates. The complexity of the External algorithm is almost linear in external sorting time and accumulates to O(sort(|E|) + scan(|V |)) I/Os, where V and E are the set of nodes and edges in...

The human foot is characterized by a pronounced longitudinal arch (LA) that compresses and recoils in response to external load during locomotion, allowing for storage and return of elastic energy within the passive structures of the arch and contributing to metabolic energy savings. Here, we examine the potential for active muscular contribution to the biomechanics of arch deformation and reco...

Electrical stimulation of neuromuscular system has been used in a variety of research and therapeutic applications. Although tri-polar transcutaneous electrical stimulation (TENS) is commonly used to change motoneuron excitabi1ity, but the effect of TENS on synaptic activities through dorsal column stimulation or cutaneous pathways is unknown. So, the aim of this research study was to determine...

Snowball sampling and targeted sampling are widely applied techniques to recruit samples from hidden populations, such as problematic drug users. The disadvantage is that they yield non-probability samples which cannot be generalised to the population. Despite thorough preparatory mapping procedures, selection effects continue to occur. This paper proposes an interpretation frame that allows es...

Multicentre randomised trials are complex projects with many operational uncertainties. The embedding of a formal check upon study progress and viability at a pre-specified time point (sometimes referred to as an 'internal pilot') is becoming increasingly common within multicentre pragmatic randomised trials. However, it is worth considering this practice. We argue that most, if not all, multic...

This single center prospective study is being conducted to evaluate the safety of the cryoablation for patients with pathologically diagnosed painful bone and soft tissue tumors. Enrollment of 10 patients is planned over the 3-year recruitment period. Patients have related local pain after receiving medications or external radiation therapies will be included in this study. Cryoablation will be...