Foot Age Estimation System from Walking Dynamics Based on Fuzzy Logic

Author(s):  
Takahiro Takeda ◽  
◽  
Yoshitada Sakai ◽  
Syoji Kobashi ◽  
Kei Kuramoto ◽  
...  

This paper describes a foot-age estimation system based on fuzzy logic. The foot-age is one of age related indexes, and it shows the degree of aging by the gait condition. The system estimates the foot-age from sole pressure distribution change during walking. The sole pressure distribution is acquired by a mat-type load distribution sensor. Our estimation system extracts four gait features from sole pressure data, and calculates fuzzy degrees for young age,middle age and elderly age groups from these gait features. The footage of the walking person on the sensor is calculated by fuzzy MIN-MAX center of gravity method. In our experiment, we employed 93 male and 132 female volunteers, and the system estimated their foot-ages with low mean absolute error for their true ages. Additionally, we developed a diagnosis system based on estimated foot-age.

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuyu Liang ◽  
Xianmei Wang ◽  
Li Zhang ◽  
Zhiliang Wang

Age estimation is a complex issue of multiclassification or regression. To address the problems of uneven distribution of age database and ignorance of ordinal information, this paper shows a hierarchic age estimation system, comprising age group and specific age estimation. In our system, two novel classifiers, sequence k-nearest neighbor (SKNN) and ranking-KNN, are introduced to predict age group and value, respectively. Notably, ranking-KNN utilizes the ordinal information between samples in estimation process rather than regards samples as separate individuals. Tested on FG-NET database, our system achieves 4.97 evaluated by MAE (mean absolute error) for age estimation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Bonicelli ◽  
Peter Zioupos ◽  
Emily Arnold ◽  
Keith D. Rogers ◽  
Bledar Xhemali ◽  
...  

AbstractForensic anthropology includes, amongst other applications, the positive identification of unknown human skeletal remains. The first step in this process is an assessment of the biological profile, that is: sex, age, stature and ancestry. In forensic contexts, age estimation is one of the main challenges in the process of identification. Recently established admissibility criteria are driving researchers towards standardisation of methodological procedures. Despite these changes, experience still plays a central role in anthropological examinations. In order to avoid this issue, age estimation procedures (i) must be presented to the scientific community and published in peer reviewed journals, (ii) accurately explained in terms of procedure and (iii) present clear information about the accuracy of the estimation and possible error rates. In order to fulfil all these requirements, a number of methods based on physiological processes which result in biochemical changes in various tissue structures at the molecular level, such as modifications in DNA-methylation and telomere shortening, racemization of proteins and stable isotopes analysis, have been developed. The current work proposes a new systematic approach in age estimation based on tracing physicochemical and mechanical degeneration of the rib cortical bone matrix. This study used autopsy material from 113 rib specimens. A set of 33 parameters were measured by standard bio-mechanical (nanoindentation and microindentation), physical (TGA/DSC, XRD and FTIR) and histomorphometry (porosity-ImageJ) methods. Stepwise regressions were used to create equations that would produce the best ‘estimates of age at death’ vs real age of the cadavers. Five equations were produced; in the best of cases an equation counting 7 parameters had an R2 = 0.863 and mean absolute error of 4.64 years. The present method meets all the admissibility criteria previously described. Furthermore, the method is experience-independent and as such can be performed without previous expert knowledge of forensic anthropology and human anatomy.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (14) ◽  
pp. 4785
Author(s):  
Damian Kwasny ◽  
Daria Hemmerling

The speech signal contains a vast spectrum of information about the speaker such as speakers’ gender, age, accent, or health state. In this paper, we explored different approaches to automatic speaker’s gender classification and age estimation system using speech signals. We applied various Deep Neural Network-based embedder architectures such as x-vector and d-vector to age estimation and gender classification tasks. Furthermore, we have applied a transfer learning-based training scheme with pre-training the embedder network for a speaker recognition task using the Vox-Celeb1 dataset and then fine-tuning it for the joint age estimation and gender classification task. The best performing system achieves new state-of-the-art results on the age estimation task using popular TIMIT dataset with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 5.12 years for male and 5.29 years for female speakers and a root-mean square error (RMSE) of 7.24 and 8.12 years for male and female speakers, respectively, and an overall gender recognition accuracy of 99.60%.


2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 158-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Frankenberg ◽  
Katharina Kupper ◽  
Ruth Wagner ◽  
Stephan Bongard

This paper reviews research on young migrants in Germany. Particular attention is given to the question of how Germany’s history of migration, immigration policies, and public attitude toward migrants influence the transcultural adaptation of children and adolescents from different ethnic backgrounds. We combine past research with the results of new empirical studies in order to shed light on migrants’ psychological and sociocultural adaptation. Studies comparing young migrants and their German peers in terms of psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and mental health outcome suggest higher rates of emotional and behavioral problems among migrants of most age groups. With regard to adolescent populations between the ages of 14 and 17 years, however, the existence of differences between migrants and natives appears to be less clear. Research has also yielded inconsistent findings regarding the time trajectory of transcultural adaptation among adolescents. The coincidence of acculturation and age-related change is discussed as a possible source of these inconsistencies. Further, we provide an overview of risk and protective factors such as conflicting role expectations and ethnic discrimination, which may cause heightened vulnerability to adverse adaptation outcomes in some groups. Large-scale studies have repeatedly shown migrants of all age groups to be less successful within the German school system, indicating poor sociocultural adaptation. Possible explanations, such as the idiosyncrasies of the German school system, are presented. Our own studies contribute to the understanding of young migrants’ adaptation process by showing that it is their orientation to German culture, rather than the acculturation strategy of integration, that leads to the most positive psychological and sociocultural outcomes. The paper concludes by discussing implications for future cross-cultural research on young migrants and by suggesting recommendations for multicultural policies.


Author(s):  
A. E. Chernikova ◽  
Yu. P. Potekhina

Introduction. An osteopathic examination determines the rate, the amplitude and the strength of the main rhythms (cardiac, respiratory and cranial). However, there are relatively few studies in the available literature dedicated to the influence of osteopathic correction (OC) on the characteristics of these rhythms.Goal of research — to study the influence of OC on the rate characteristics of various rhythms of the human body.Materials and methods. 88 adult osteopathic patients aged from 18 to 81 years were examined, among them 30 men and 58 women. All patients received general osteopathic examination. The rate of the cranial rhythm (RCR), respiratory rate (RR) heart rate (HR), the mobility of the nervous processes (MNP) and the connective tissue mobility (CTM) were assessed before and after the OC session.Results. Since age varied greatly in the examined group, a correlation analysis of age-related changes of the assessed rhythms was carried out. Only the CTM correlated with age (r=–0,28; p<0,05) in a statistically significant way. The rank dispersion analysis of Kruskal–Wallis also showed statistically significant difference in this indicator in different age groups (p=0,043). With the increase of years, the CTM decreases gradually. After the OC, the CTM, increased in a statistically significant way (p<0,0001). The RCR varied from 5 to 12 cycles/min in the examined group, which corresponded to the norm. After the OC, the RCR has increased in a statistically significant way (p<0,0001), the MNP has also increased (p<0,0001). The initial heart rate in the subjects varied from 56 to 94 beats/min, and in 15 % it exceeded the norm. After the OC the heart rate corresponded to the norm in all patients. The heart rate and the respiratory rate significantly decreased after the OC (р<0,0001).Conclusion. The described biorhythm changes after the OC session may be indicative of the improvement of the nervous regulation, of the normalization of the autonomic balance, of the improvement of the biomechanical properties of body tissues and of the increase of their mobility. The assessed parameters can be measured quickly without any additional equipment and can be used in order to study the results of the OC.


1970 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-77
Author(s):  
Rukshana Ahmed ◽  
Shamim Ara

Pathological changes in the prostate gland occur commonly with advancing age including inflammation, atrophy, hyperplasia and carcinoma and a change in volume is also evident. Estimation of volume of prostate may be useful in a variety of clinical settings. A cross-sectional descriptive study was designed to see the changes in volume of the prostate with advancing age and done in the Department of Anatomy, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka from August 2006 to June 2007. The study was performed on 70 post-mortem human prostates collected from the unclaimed dead bodies that were under examination in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Dhaka Medical College, Dhaka. The samples were divided into three age groups; group A (10-20 years), group B (21-40 years) and group C (41-70 years). Volume of the sample was measured by using the ellipsoid formula. The mean ± SD volume of prostate was 7.68 ± 3.64 cm3 in group A, 10.61 ± 3.99 cm3 in group B and 15.40 ± 6.31 cm3 in group C. Mean difference in volume between group A and group C, group B and group C were statistically significant (p<0.001). Statistically significant positive correlation was found between age and volume of prostate (r = + 0.579, p < 0.001). Key Words: Prostate; volume; Bangladeshi. DOI: 10.3329/imcj.v4i2.6501Ibrahim Med. Coll. J. 2010; 4(2): 74-77


2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (8) ◽  
pp. 42-50
Author(s):  
A. V. Budkevich ◽  
L. B. Ivanov ◽  
G. R. Novikova ◽  
G. M. Dzhanumova

According to the authors, rationing the age-related EEG parameters in children should be based on personal psychical characteristics. A comparative analysis of personal psychical characteristics and electroencephalographic data was carried out in 300 apparently healthy children aged 3-15 years. According to this principle, two subgroups of conditionally healthy children in each age group were singled out: 1) with an immature attention function and 2) with an increased anxious background that do not reach the pathological level. Registration and analysis of EEG was performed by the Neurokariograf computer complex (MBN, Moscow) using mathematical processing methods.The EEG interpretation was based on the principle of assessing the functional state of a child's brain using a three-component model according to: 1) wakefulness level and its dissociation, 2) severity of signs of the EEG neurotic pattern, 3) directionality of formation of traits of the system-functional brain organization (severity of signs functional hypofrontality).lt was found the presence of EEG signs was indicative of a lower level of wakefulness in children with an immature function of attention in all age groups, compared with the indicators of the average population of group and children with an increased background of anxiety. Children with an increased background of anxiety have a tendency to prevalence and excessive spatial synchronization of the alpha rhythm. ln healthy children, the fact of a decrease in wakefulness and the presence of signs of anxiety in the clinic and in EEG patterns indicates individual personalities and should not be considered as pathology.


Author(s):  
Khuan Seow ◽  
Nadia Caidi

Canada has an aging population with the fastest growing age groups (80 and 45-64 years old) vulnerable to age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. Caregiving responsibilities often fall to the family members of the afflicted without much attention and consideration being placed on the information needs of these caregivers. We call for a better understanding of these caregivers' information needs and uses by social policy makers as well as information providers.La population du Canada a tendance à vieillir considérablement, avec la hausse la plus rapide dans les groupes d’âge (80 et 45 à 64 ans). Les personnes âges sont très vulnérables à toute sorte de maladies, telles que la maladie d’Alzheimer. La responsabilité revient souvent aux membres de la famille qui doivent prendre soin des personnes atteintes de cette maladie. Or, nous ne connaissons que peu de chose sur les besoins en information des personnes qui prennent soin de ces malades de l’Alzheimer : qui sont-ils ? Quelles sont leurs sources... 


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Foyzul Rahman ◽  
Sabrina Javed ◽  
Ian Apperly ◽  
Peter Hansen ◽  
Carol Holland ◽  
...  

Age-related decline in Theory of Mind (ToM) may be due to waning executive control, which is necessary for resolving conflict when reasoning about others’ mental states. We assessed how older (OA; n=50) versus younger adults (YA; n=50) were affected by three theoretically relevant sources of conflict within ToM: competing Self-Other perspectives; competing cued locations and outcome knowledge. We examined which best accounted for age-related difficulty with ToM. Our data show unexpected similarity between age groups when representing a belief incongruent with one’s own. Individual differences in attention and motor response speed best explained the degree of conflict experienced through conflicting Self-Other perspectives. However, OAs were disproportionately affected by managing conflict between cued locations. Age and spatial working memory were most relevant for predicting the magnitude of conflict elicited by conflicting cued locations. We suggest that previous studies may have underestimated OA’s ToM proficiency by including unnecessary conflict in ToM tasks.


Author(s):  
L. Yu. Orekhova ◽  
A. A. Petrov ◽  
E. S. Loboda ◽  
I. V. Berezkina ◽  
K. V. Shadrina

Relevance. The study of age-related features of microcirculation in periodontal tissues, using non-invasive functional research methods, allows us to develop the optimal range of therapeutic measures, as well as form a “personalized therapeutic case”.Purpose. Study of the functional state of the microvasculature in the tissues of the parodont in individuals of various age groups.Materials and methods. A standard dental examination of 80 patients was carried out, the sample of participants was ranked in 4 groups by age: 1 group – 12 years old, 2 group – 15 years old, 3 group – from 16 to 18 years old, 4 group – from 22 to 24 years old. Hygiene and periodontal indices were determined for all patients, such as papillarymarginal-alveolar (PMA) in the Parma modification, the Mulleman bleeding index in the Cowell modification (SBI), and the simplified Green Vermillion index of oral hygiene (OHI–s), caries intensity indicators for a permanent bite (CPI), as well as ultrasound dopplerography of periodontal tissues using the apparatus "Minimax-Doppler-K".Results. When studying microcirculation in periodontal tissues, distinctive characteristics of linear (Vas) and volumetric (Qas) blood flow rates, as well as indicators of pulsation indices (PI) and peripheral resistance (RI) in people of different age groups were recorded.Conclusions. This study confirms the presence of various hemodynamic indicators of periodontal tissues in the studied groups, which is due to structural features of the circulatory system in age periods.


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