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The new generation of wearable personal eHealth systems has to be affordable, user-friendly, \"invisible\", autonomous in terms of power consumption and able to assist individuals in their own health management. Major challenges are ahead such as further research and development, user acceptance and trust, cost-effectiveness and business models. Intelligent Biomedical Clothing and biomedical sensors are becoming major driving forces for cutting-edge developments. The synergy and close collaboration of all involved disciplines and sectors is of paramount importance. This book consists of papers describing developments and trends all over the world in the areas of smart wearable monitoring and diagnostic systems, smart treatment systems, biomedical clothing and smart fibres and fabrics. It covers also non-research aspects such as citizens and patients needs, interoperability, risk management and market perspectives. The chapters are preceded by a short executive summary which highlights the main issues, findings and conclusions for the convenience of the reader. The participation of the major actors involved in research, development, decision making and business should make this book unique and a pioneer in the field.

Although the neural systems supporting single word reading are well studied, there are limited direct comparisons between typical and dyslexic readers of the neural correlates of reading fluency. Reading fluency deficits are a persistent behavioral marker of dyslexia into adulthood. The current study identified the neural correlates of fluent reading in typical and dyslexic adult readers, using sentences presented in a word-by-word format in which single words were presented sequentially at fixed rates. Sentences were presented at slow, medium, and fast rates, and participants were asked to decide whether each sentence did or did not make sense semantically. As presentation rates increased, participants became less accurate and slower at making judgments, with comprehension accuracy decreasing disproportionately for dyslexic readers. In-scanner performance on the sentence task correlated significantly with standardized clinical measures of both reading fluency and phonological awareness. Both typical readers and readers with dyslexia exhibited widespread, bilateral increases in activation that corresponded to increases in presentation rate. Typical readers exhibited significantly larger gains in activation as a function of faster presentation rates than readers with dyslexia in several areas, including left prefrontal and left superior temporal regions associated with semantic retrieval and semantic and phonological representations. Group differences were more extensive when behavioral differences between conditions were equated across groups. These findings suggest a brain basis for impaired reading fluency in dyslexia, specifically a failure of brain regions involved in semantic retrieval and semantic and phonological representations to become fully engaged for comprehension at rapid reading rates.

To the Editor: In their analysis of ischemic heart disease in a Nordic cohort of survivors of breast cancer, Darby et al. (March 14 issue) 1 observe a significant excess relative risk associated with radiotherapy, which is concordant with the risks seen in other radiotherapy-treated groups 2 , 3 (Table 1). This finding suggests that the mean dose to the heart is the most relevant metric for predicting radiation-associated ischemic heart disease. The findings about the radiation risks also agree with those of a recent meta-analysis 4 of low-to-moderate radiation exposure (Table 1), implying little sparing effect of low doses and protracted radiation exposures. . . .

Purpose: Child language acquisition is marked by an optional infinitive period (ages 2-4 years) during which children use nonfinite (infinitival) verb forms and finite verb forms interchangeably in grammatical contexts that require finite forms. In English, children's errors include omissions of past tense /--ed/ and 3rd-person singular /--s/. This language acquisition period typically ends by the age of 4 years, but it persists in children with language impairments. It is unknown if adults still process optional infinitives differently than other kinds of morphosyntax errors. Method: We compared behavior and functional brain activation during grammaticality judgments across sentences with developmental optional infinitive tense/agreement errors (\"Yesterday I play the song\"), nondevelopmental agreement errors (\"He am tall\") that do not occur in typical child language acquisition, and grammatically correct sentences. Results: Adults (N = 25) were significantly slower and less accurate in judging sentences with developmental errors relative to other sentences. Sentences with developmental errors yielded greater activation in bilateral inferior frontal gyri relative to nondevelopmental error sentences in both auditory and visual modalities. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the heightened computational demands for finiteness extend well beyond early childhood and continue to exert their influence on grammatical mental and brain function in adulthood.

We have previously demonstrated high pathologic response rates after neoadjuvant concurrent chemoradiation in patients with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). We now report disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in the context of pathologic response. 105 LABC patients (White 46%, Non-White 54%) were treated with paclitaxel (30 mg/m² intravenously twice a week) for 10-12 weeks. Daily radiotherapy was delivered to breast, axillary, and supraclavicular lymph nodes during weeks 2-7 of paclitaxel treatment, at 1.8 Gy per fraction to a total dose of 45 Gy with a tumor boost of 14 Gy at 2 Gy/fraction. Pathological complete response (pCR) was defined as the absence of invasive cancer in breast and lymph nodes and pathological partial response (pPR) as the persistence of <10 microscopic foci of invasive carcinoma in breast or lymph nodes. Pathologic response (pCR and pPR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiation was achieved in 36/105 patients (34%) and was associated with significantly better DFS and OS. Pathological responders had a lower risk of recurrence or death (HR = 0.35, P = 0.01) and a longer OS (HR = 4.27, P = 0.01) compared with non-responders. Median DFS and OS were 57 and 84 months for non-responders, respectively, and have not yet been reached for responders. Importantly, pathologic response was achieved in 54% of patients with HR negative tumors (26/48). In conclusion, pathologic response to concurrent paclitaxel-radiation translated into superior DFS and OS. Half of the patients with HR negative tumors achieved a pathologic response.

This work investigates melting and solidification processes of four different Phase Change Materials (PCM) used as latent heat thermal storage system. The experimental rig was consisted of an insulated tank, filled with the under investigation PCM, a staggered heat exchanger to supply or extract heat from the PCM cavity and a water pump to circulate Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF). Both charging (melting) and discharging (solidification) processes were conducted for two different HTF flow rates. The main scope of this work was to develop a first approach and to investigate the behaviour of PCM under various load conditions (different HTF flow rates). Results show that different HTF flow rates affect melting and solidification time periods; in both processes time was reduced while HTF flow rate was increased but in differentways due to the transition from conduction to convection heat transfer mechanisms.

Germline variants can be used to study breast cancer susceptibility as well as the variable response to both drug and radiation therapy used in the treatment of breast cancer. In addition to germline high-penetrance mutations important in familial and hereditary breast cancer, a substantial component of breast cancer risk can be attributed to the combined effect of many low-risk germline polymorphisms involved in relevant pathways like those of DNA repair, adhesion, carcinogen and estrogen metabolism. Additionally, the identification of sequence variants in genes involved in response to chemotherapy and radiation treatment, has created the opportunity to apply genomics to individualized treatment. The continued insight into the molecular pathways involved in drug and radiation response has enabled progress in tailoring therapies in such a way as to both maximize efficacy and minimize toxicity. Polymorphisms in genes encoding drug-metabolizing enzymes, drug transporters and drug targets can be used to predict toxicity and response to pharmacologic agents used in breast cancer treatment. Similarly, germline variants in genes involved in DNA repair, radiation-induced fibrosis and reactive oxygen species may be used to predict response to radiation therapy. As a result, pharmacogenomics is rapidly evolving to affect the entire spectrum of breast cancer management, influencing both prevention and treatment choices.

Introduction Prior fMRI studies utilizing sparse imaging have primarily used a finite impulse response model for statistical analysis, effectively treating each experimental trial as independent. Furthermore, many of these studies use an inter-stimulus interval (ISI) less than 10s. [...]it is very likely that the observed BOLD response following an event will be influenced by the BOLD responses to at least the prior event.