Fertility and digital technology: narratives of using smartphone app ‘Natural Cycles’ while trying to conceive

Fertility awareness apps, which help to identify the ‘fertile window’ when conception is most likely, have been hailed as ‘revolutionising’ women’s reproductive health. Despite rapidly growing popularity, little research has explored how people use these apps when trying to conceive and what these apps mean to them. We draw on in‐depth, qualitative interviews, adopting a critical digital health studies lens (a sub‐field of science and technology studies), to explore the experiences of cisgender women and partners with one such app, Natural Cycles, in the context of their daily lives. We found that many women valued the technology as a ‘natural’, inobtrusive alternative to biomedical intervention, and a means of controlling and knowing their bodies, amid a dearth of fertility‐related education and care. Yet this technology also intervened materially and affectively into the spaces of their lives and relationships and privileged disembodied metrics (temperature) over embodied knowledge. Meanwhile, app language, advertising and cost have contributed to characterising ‘typical’ users as white, heterosexual, affluent, cisgender women without disabilities. In the context of neoliberal shifts towards bodily self‐tracking, technologies appealing as novel, liberating and ‘natural’ to individuals who can access them may nevertheless reproduce highly gendered reproductive responsibilities, anxieties and broader health and social inequalities.     

数字信号处理技术在医学物理实验中的应用

信息社会的发展,在很大程度上取决于信息与信号处理技术的先进性.数字信号处理技术的出现改变了信息与信号处理技术的整个面貌,测量仪器技术与计算机技术深层次的结合正引起测试仪器领域里一场新的革命,一种全新的仪器结构概念导致了新一代仪器--虚拟仪器的出现,它是现代计算机技术、通信技术里测量技术相结合的产物,是传统仪器观念的一次巨大变革.它的出现使得人类的测试技术进入了一个新的发展纪元.本文介绍了用"弱电与非电信号处理系统"这一虚拟仪器进行生物非电信号的采集和分析的应用过程.     

Design and application research of nucleotide sequence analysis system software

INTRODUCTION　　From integrallevel and celllevel,the research of organism and diseasediagnosishave already entered molecular level.Molecular biology is the science to researchstructure and function of organism macromolecule.Based on differentgene code se-…     

CORDIC算法在B超数字扫描变换器中的应用

数字扫描变换器在B型超声诊断仪的应用，能使现代实时B型超声诊断仪实现一些新的诸如图像冻结、多帧贮存、数据测量计算和TV显示等功能。在设计B型超声诊断仪中数字扫描变化器的过程中，直角坐标到极坐标变换是一个关键的技术，本研究论述了应用在数字扫描变化器中的一种新的算法——CORDIC算法，对该算法的原理进行了简介，将CORDIC算法应用到直角——极坐标变换中，并进行了算法修正和公式计算。根据其具体的应用对该算法进行了优化，并给出了算法的硬件实现结构。最后，对算法进行了软件仿真，并给出了结果分析。     

颅底富血供肿瘤术前超选择性颈外动脉插管栓塞9例报告

目的：探讨超选择性颈外动脉插管栓塞术在颅底富血供肿瘤手术治疗中的作用。方法：对９例颅底富血供肿瘤患者术前先作双侧颈内、颈外及椎动脉造影后再行栓塞治疗。结果：９例栓塞后,肿瘤供血网显影消失,术中出血量明显减少,术后病理检查,镜下均见瘤体微血管及血窦内充满大量明胶海绵。结论：超选择性颈外动脉插管造影,在明确肿瘤血供类型后辅以术前栓塞治疗,既可缩小瘤体又能减少术中出血,是肿瘤围手术期处理的重要手段之一。     

Hypofluorescent spots in indocyanine green angiography of peau d‘orange and fundus

Purpose. Hypofluorescent spots were seen inindocyanine green (ICG) angiography of peau dorangefundus in eyes with angioid streaks. Origin of the hypofluorescentspots were examined with attention to their correlationwith a peau dorange appearance of the central fundususing a computer-assisted image comparison system. Methods. ICG angiography was performed in 5 patientshaving peau dorange appearance of fundus using ascanning laser ophthalmoscope (SLO) and a digitalvideo-fundus camera. The same central fundus areas corresponding to hypofluorescent spots in an ICGangiogram were then digitally identified in afluorescein angiogram and in a red-free picture in all10 eyes of the 5 patients. Monochromatic lightobservation was also performed with a dark fieldobservation using a SLO to see subretinal orintrachoroidal pigment clumping. Results. In no patient, the areas identified withhypofluorescent spots did show relevant changes ina fluorescein angiogram or a red-free picture. SLOexamination revealed not perfusion defect at the sameareas. The dark field observation showed no pigmentclumping at the peripapillary and papillomacularbundle regions where hypofluorescent spots were seen.Conclusions: Hypofluorescent spots seen in ICGangiograms did not show exact consistency with peau dorange changes in their location and shape. Perfusion defects or blocking by pigments were not acause of hypofluorescent spots. The scatteredhypofluorescent spots were considered to be relevantwith irregular affinity of the fundus to ICG dye.     

Facial haemangioma,agenesis of the internal carotid artery and dysplasia of cerebral cortex: case report

We describe a girl with a facial haemangioma, associated with other vascular anomalies: agenesis of the internal carotid artery, cerebral cortical dysplasia and hypoplasia of the cerebral hemisphere on the same side of the angioma. We studied the patient by conventional arteriography, T1- and T2-weighted MRI and magnetic resonance angiography.     

Survey on the use of pulmonary scintigraphy, spiral CT and conventional pulmonary angiography for suspected pulmonary embolism in the British Isles

AIM: To determine current clinical practice in the radiological diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism and assess the use of spiral volumetric computed tomography. METHOD: A survey of 327 acute hospitals including cardiothoracic and orthopaedic tertiary referral centres was undertaken to assess current utilization of lung scintigraphy, spiral computed tomography and pulmonary angiography in the investigation of suspected pulmonary embolism. Responses were received from 215/327 (66%) centres. RESULTS: Lung scintigraphy was provided by 208 hospitals (144 on-site and 64 off-site). Spiral CT services were provided by 111 (52%) hospitals (on- or off-site), 142 (66%) units had access to angiographic facilities. Sixty-three centres out of 215 (29%) offered both on-site lung scintigraphy and spiral CT while only 41/215 (19%) hospitals were able to undertake all three tests on-site. On average, 501 perfusion (Q) or ventilation-perfusion (V/Q) scintigrams were performed per hospital per year with 26 spiral CT studies and just 4.6 pulmonary angiograms. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that lung scintigraphy is frequently the only imaging test in patients other than chest radiography, despite the large number of indeterminate results reported in most series.