The Muscle Myogram as a Control Signal for Use in Powered Limb Orthosis

Author(s):  
M. Antonelli ◽  
P. Beomonte Zobel ◽  
J. Giacomin

The choice of the command technique to be used in orthotic and prosthetic devices is very critical for the acceptance and, finally, the success of the specific device. Many variables influence this choice: the general characteristics of the signal, the quality of the correlation between signal and specific actions of the user and the algorithm that is derived, the acceptance of the technique, as applied to the specific device, from the user, etc. Among the command techniques, MMG signal seems to be promising to command an assistive device. In this paper a test protocol for studying MMG signal, to investigate the prospective for its use as a command technique of a powered lower limb orthosis capable of raising elderly and disabled people from the sitting position, is proposed. The definition of the test protocol, including the description of the test bed and the sensors application, is presented. Finally, the experimental results are showed and discussed.

Author(s):  
Huaiqiang Zhang ◽  
Qiang Xue ◽  
Shuo Yang ◽  
Tongtong Wang ◽  
Binwei Zhou

Background: Completing the transition from a sitting position to a standing position is a basic skill in people’s daily lives and is crucial for independent living. Lower limb dysfunction will bring many inconveniences into a person’s life and greatly affect their quality of life. Patients with lower limb dysfunction are a specialized group, and nursing problems for this group are becoming increasingly serious. Helping patients with lower limb dysfunction restore their lower limb mobility or assisting them to walk is a social problem necessary to be solved. Objective: : To review the recent sit-to-stand assistive devices based on hip support, classify them systematically and introduce their characteristics, including the mechanisms and the types of patients for which such mechanisms are applicable; to help patients with lower limb dysfunction or doctors (therapists) understand and choose a reasonable sit-to-stand assist device based on hip support. Methods: This paper summarizes literatures and patents about sit-to-stand assistive devices. From the aspects of structural characteristics, drive type and support modes based on the hip and applications situation, the advantages and disadvantages of the typical sit-to-stand assist devices are represented. Results: Current and future development trends on the structural characteristics, drive type and support modes based on the hip and applications situation of sit-to-stand assist devices are discussed to improve the humanization, modularization and applicability of sit-to-stand assist devices. Conclusion: Sit-to-stand assistive devices based on hip support can help patients improve the quality of their life, assist patients carrying out rehabilitation training, and delay the decline of lower limb function. However, the existing sit-to-stand assistive devices based on hip support need further improvement in the aspects of motion mechanism, new technology application and ergonomics design.


This paper provides a solution for the hand impaired people who cannot use the mouse to operate the computer. This is a device which controls the mouse using voice commands using HM 2007 Voice DSP Processor. A specific function is assigned to specific instructions. According to the instructions given, the mouse is controlled wirelessly using RF.Therefore, to make the assistive device for the disabled people is the main aim of this paper. Here, we design amouth-activated mouse applying face detection technique. By using a webcam, the pictures of mouth position can be captured in a computer. We can then control the cursor and click the mouse by moving mouth. Through this equipment, the living quality of disabled people can be improved


Author(s):  
Ling Zheng ◽  
Yan Chen ◽  
Hua Min ◽  
P. Lloyd Hildebrand ◽  
Hao Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Ontologies house various kinds of domain knowledge in formal structures, primarily in the form of concepts and the associative relationships between them. Ontologies have become integral components of many health information processing environments. Hence, quality assurance of the conceptual content of any ontology is critical. Relationships are foundational to the definition of concepts. Missing relationship errors (i.e., unintended omissions of important definitional relationships) can have a deleterious effect on the quality of an ontology. An abstraction network is a structure that overlays an ontology and provides an alternate, summarization view of its contents. One kind of abstraction network is called an area taxonomy, and a variation of it is called a subtaxonomy. A methodology based on these taxonomies for more readily finding missing relationship errors is explored. Methods The area taxonomy and the subtaxonomy are deployed to help reveal concepts that have a high likelihood of exhibiting missing relationship errors. A specific top-level grouping unit found within the area taxonomy and subtaxonomy, when deemed to be anomalous, is used as an indicator that missing relationship errors are likely to be found among certain concepts. Two hypotheses pertaining to the effectiveness of our Quality Assurance approach are studied. Results Our Quality Assurance methodology was applied to the Biological Process hierarchy of the National Cancer Institute thesaurus (NCIt) and SNOMED CT’s Eye/vision finding subhierarchy within its Clinical finding hierarchy. Many missing relationship errors were discovered and confirmed in our analysis. For both test-bed hierarchies, our Quality Assurance methodology yielded a statistically significantly higher number of concepts with missing relationship errors in comparison to a control sample of concepts. Two hypotheses are confirmed by these findings. Conclusions Quality assurance is a critical part of an ontology’s lifecycle, and automated or semi-automated tools for supporting this process are invaluable. We introduced a Quality Assurance methodology targeted at missing relationship errors. Its successful application to the NCIt’s Biological Process hierarchy and SNOMED CT’s Eye/vision finding subhierarchy indicates that it can be a useful addition to the arsenal of tools available to ontology maintenance personnel.


Author(s):  
K. T. Tokuyasu

During the past investigations of immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in ultrathin frozen sections, we found that the degree of negative staining required to delineate u1trastructural details was often too dense for the recognition of ferritin particles. The quality of positive staining of ultrathin frozen sections, on the other hand, has generally been far inferior to that attainable in conventional plastic embedded sections, particularly in the definition of membranes. As we discussed before, a main cause of this difficulty seemed to be the vulnerability of frozen sections to the damaging effects of air-water surface tension at the time of drying of the sections.Indeed, we found that the quality of positive staining is greatly improved when positively stained frozen sections are protected against the effects of surface tension by embedding them in thin layers of mechanically stable materials at the time of drying (unpublished).


2020 ◽  
pp. 89-96
Author(s):  
Sergei S. Kapitonov ◽  
Alexei S. Vinokurov ◽  
Sergei V. Prytkov ◽  
Sergei Yu. Grigorovich ◽  
Anastasia V. Kapitonova ◽  
...  

The article describes the results of comprehensive study aiming at increase of quality of LED luminaires and definition of the nature of changes in their correlated colour temperature (CCT) in the course of operation. Dependences of CCT of LED luminaires with remote and close location of phosphor for 10 thousand hours of operation in different electric modes were obtained; the results of comparison between the initial and final radiation spectra of the luminaires are presented; using mathematical statistics methods, variation of luminaire CCT over the service period claimed by the manufacturer is forecast; the least favourable electric operation modes with the highest CCT variation observed are defined. The obtained results have confirmed availability of the problem of variation of CCT of LED luminaires during their operation. Possible way of its resolution is application of more qualitative and therefore expensive LEDs with close proximity of phosphor or LEDs with remote phosphor. The article may be interesting both for manufacturers and consumers of LED light sources and lighting devices using them.


Author(s):  
Mark Oprenko

The definition of the multimorbidity concept reveals insufficient specificity of the comorbidity and multimorbidity definitions and, as a result, confusion in the use of these terms. Most authors are unanimous that the “core” of multimorbidity is presence of more than one disease in a patient. These coexisting diseases can be pathogenetically interconnected and non-interconnected. Regardless, the degree of multimorbidity always affects prognosis and quality of life.


Author(s):  
D. N. Kalacheva

Herein, the main features and rules of using guaranteed values when analyzing the quality of rocket - space equipment products are considered. The definition of the guaranteed value and the form of its presentation is given. It is indicated that guaranteed value is distributed and is characterized by the frequency distribution law. The main methods of representation and conversion of guaranteed values are statistical. Examples of determining the basic characteristics of guaranteed values are given.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-475
Author(s):  
T. Turtiainen

Radon is one of the contaminants that sometimes impair the water quality of wells, especially those drilled in bedrock. Domestic radon removal units based on aeration have been commercially available for more than ten years. In order to determine how effectively these units remove radon a new test protocol applying frequent sampling while letting 100 litres of water flow, was developed. This way, removal efficiencies can be more accurately calculated and possible malfunctions detected. Seven models of domestic aerators designed for removing radon from household water were tested. The aerators were based on diffused bubble aeration, spray aeration or jet aeration. The average removal efficiencies for 100 litres with a medium flow rate were 86–100% except for a unit that circulated the aerated water back to the well that had removal efficiency of 80% at the maximum. By conducting a questionnaire study usual problems related to the aeration units were localized and recommendations on maintenance and installation are given accordingly.


1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (9) ◽  
pp. 101-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnès Saget ◽  
Ghassan Chebbo ◽  
Jean-Luc Bertrand-Krajewski

The first flush phenomenon of urban wet weather discharges is presently a controversial subject. Scientists do not agree with its reality, nor with its influences on the size of treatment works. Those disagreements mainly result from the unclear definition of the phenomenon. The objective of this article is first to provide a simple and clear definition of the first flush and then to apply it to real data and to obtain results about its appearance frequency. The data originate from the French database based on the quality of urban wet weather discharges. We use 80 events from 7 separately sewered basins, and 117 events from 7 combined sewered basins. The main result is that the first flush phenomenon is very scarce, anyway too scarce to be used to elaborate a treatment strategy against pollution generated by urban wet weather discharges.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document