scholarly journals Intraoral Swallow Pressure Profiles-General Features and Aids to Categorization

Author(s):  
Vincent Casey ◽  
Alison Perry ◽  
Richard Conway

Abstract Purpose: The primary goal of this study was to establish a normative data set representing intraoral time series swallow pressure profiles for healthy adults using a novel wearable intraoral pressure sensing system, OroPress, developed to help with dysphagia (swallow disorder) clinical screening. Methods: Swallow intraoral pressure-time profiles for 35 healthy adults (17 male, 18 female) swallowing water (3 × 5cm3 ; 3 × 10cm3 ) and custard (3 × 5cm3 ) boluses (N = 9 × 35 = 315) were recorded using OroPress. Results: General swallow profile traits are identified to characterise an effective, efficient swallow. A profile-specific swallow envelope function is devised which in combination with profile metrics, provides a simple means of categorizing swallows as effective or impaired. Conclusion: The swallow profile data trace with superimposed and colour coded peaks, envelope function and related swallow metrics provides a simple human readable graphic to aid the real-time instrumented identification of subjects warranting more in-depth clinical assessment. It may also prove useful in the selection of training set profiles for machine learning and other analysis tools which could improve the discriminatory capabilities of intraoral pressure measurement in dysphagia diagnostics.

Author(s):  
Farrokh Zarifi-Rad ◽  
Hamid Vajihollahi ◽  
James O’Brien

Scale models give engineers an excellent understanding of the aerodynamic behavior behind their design; nevertheless, scale models are time consuming and expensive. Therefore computer simulations such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are an excellent alternative to scale models. One must ask the question, how close are the CFD results to the actual fluid behavior of the scale model? In order to answer this question the engineering team investigated the performance of a large industrial Gas Turbine (GT) exhaust diffuser scale model with performance predicted by commercially available CFD software. The experimental results were obtained from a 1:12 scale model of a GT exhaust diffuser with a fixed row of blades to simulate the swirl generated by the last row of turbine blades five blade configurations. This work is to validate the effect of the turbulent inlet conditions on an axial diffuser, both on the experimental front and on the numerical analysis approach. The object of this work is to bring forward a better understanding of velocity and static pressure profiles along the gas turbine diffusers and to provide an accurate experimental data set to validate the CFD prediction. For the CFD aspect, ANSYS CFX software was chosen as the solver. Two different types of mesh (hexagonal and tetrahedral) will be compared to the experimental results. It is understood that hexagonal (HEX) meshes are more time consuming and more computationally demanding, they are less prone to mesh sensitivity and have the tendancy to converge at a faster rate than the tetrahedral (TET) mesh. It was found that the HEX mesh was able to generate more consistent results and had less error than TET mesh.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsien-Tsai Wu ◽  
Men-Tzung Lo ◽  
Guan-Hong Chen ◽  
Cheuk-Kwan Sun ◽  
Jian-Jung Chen

Although previous studies have shown the successful use of pressure-induced reactive hyperemia as a tool for the assessment of endothelial function, its sensitivity remains questionable. This study aims to investigate the feasibility and sensitivity of a novel multiscale entropy index (MEI) in detecting subtle vascular abnormalities in healthy and diabetic subjects. Basic anthropometric and hemodynamic parameters, serum lipid profiles, and glycosylated hemoglobin levels were recorded. Arterial pulse wave signals were acquired from the wrist with an air pressure sensing system (APSS), followed by MEI and dilatation index (DI) analyses. MEI succeeded in detecting significant differences among the four groups of subjects: healthy young individuals, healthy middle-aged or elderly individuals, well-controlled diabetic individuals, and poorly controlled diabetic individuals. A reduction in multiscale entropy reflected age- and diabetes-related vascular changes and may serve as a more sensitive indicator of subtle vascular abnormalities compared with DI in the setting of diabetes.


2018 ◽  
Vol 143 (5) ◽  
pp. 587-592 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter J. Slootweg ◽  
Edward W. Odell ◽  
Daniel Baumhoer ◽  
Roman Carlos ◽  
Keith D. Hunter ◽  
...  

A data set has been developed for the reporting of excisional biopsies and resection specimens for malignant odontogenic tumors by members of an expert panel working on behalf of the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting, an international organization established to unify and standardize reporting of cancers. Odontogenic tumors are rare, which limits evidence-based support for designing a scientifically sound data set for reporting them. Thus, the selection of reportable elements within the data set and considering them as either core or noncore is principally based on evidence from malignancies affecting other organ systems, limited case series, expert opinions, and/or anecdotal reports. Nevertheless, this data set serves as the initial step toward standardized reporting on malignant odontogenic tumors that should evolve over time as more evidence becomes available and functions as a prompt for further research to provide such evidence.


Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 2261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karlos Ishac ◽  
Kenji Suzuki

The LifeChair is a smart cushion that provides vibrotactile feedback by actively sensing and classifying sitting postures to encourage upright posture and reduce slouching. The key component of the LifeChair is our novel conductive fabric pressure sensing array. Fabric sensors have been explored in the past, but a full sensing solution for embedded real world use has not been proposed. We have designed our system with commercial use in mind, and as a result, it has a high focus on manufacturability, cost-effectiveness and adaptiveness. We demonstrate the performance of our fabric sensing system by installing it into the LifeChair and comparing its posture detection accuracy with our previous study that implemented a conventional flexible printed PCB-sensing system. In this study, it is shown that the LifeChair can detect all 11 postures across 20 participants with an improved average accuracy of 98.1%, and it demonstrates significantly lower variance when interfacing with different users. We also conduct a performance study with 10 participants to evaluate the effectiveness of the LifeChair device in improving upright posture and reducing slouching. Our performance study demonstrates that the LifeChair is effective in encouraging users to sit upright with an increase of 68.1% in time spent seated upright when vibrotactile feedback is activated.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 530
Author(s):  
Amr Hassan Yassin ◽  
Hany Hamdy Hussien

Due to the exponential growth of E-Business and computing capabilities over the web for a pay-for-use groundwork, the risk factors regarding security issues also increase rapidly. As the usage increases, it becomes very difficult to identify malicious attacks since the attack patterns change. Therefore, host machines in the network must continually be monitored for intrusions since they are the final endpoint of any network. The purpose of this work is to introduce a generalized neural network model that has the ability to detect network intrusions. Two recent heuristic algorithms inspired by the behavior of natural phenomena, namely, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) and gravitational search (GSA) algorithms are introduced. These algorithms are combined together to train a feed forward neural network (FNN) for the purpose of utilizing the effectiveness of these algorithms to reduce the problems of getting stuck in local minima and the time-consuming convergence rate. Dimension reduction focuses on using information obtained from NSL-KDD Cup 99 data set for the selection of some features to discover the type of attacks. Detecting the network attacks and the performance of the proposed model are evaluated under different patterns of network data.


Genetika ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 545-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjana Jankulovska ◽  
Sonja Ivanovska ◽  
Ana Marjanovic-Jeromela ◽  
Snjezana Bolaric ◽  
Ljupcho Jankuloski ◽  
...  

In this study, the use of different multivariate approaches to classify rapeseed genotypes based on quantitative traits has been presented. Tree regression analysis, PCA analysis and two-way cluster analysis were applied in order todescribe and understand the extent of genetic variability in spring rapeseed genotype by trait data. The traits which highly influenced seed and oil yield in rapeseed were successfully identified by the tree regression analysis. Principal predictor for both response variables was number of pods per plant (NP). NP and 1000 seed weight could help in the selection of high yielding genotypes. High values for both traits and oil content could lead to high oil yielding genotypes. These traits may serve as indirect selection criteria and can lead to improvement of seed and oil yield in rapeseed. Quantitative traits that explained most of the variability in the studied germplasm were classified using principal component analysis. In this data set, five PCs were identified, out of which the first three PCs explained 63% of the total variance. It helped in facilitating the choice of variables based on which the genotypes? clustering could be performed. The two-way cluster analysissimultaneously clustered genotypes and quantitative traits. The final number of clusters was determined using bootstrapping technique. This approach provided clear overview on the variability of the analyzed genotypes. The genotypes that have similar performance regarding the traits included in this study can be easily detected on the heatmap. Genotypes grouped in the clusters 1 and 8 had high values for seed and oil yield, and relatively short vegetative growth duration period and those in cluster 9, combined moderate to low values for vegetative growth duration and moderate to high seed and oil yield. These genotypes should be further exploited and implemented in the rapeseed breeding program. The combined application of these multivariate methods can assist in deciding how, and based on which traits to select the genotypes, especially in early generations, at the beginning of a breeding program.


1991 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 232-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. Bar

Reduction of pressures generated in the tissues overlying the ischial tuberosities is an important measure for predicting a cushion's effectiveness. In particular, the pressure-time relationship is significant in the prevention of pressure sores. In this study a dynamic pressure monitoring system was used to obtain pressure-time profiles for 25 spinal cord injured subjects. Each subject tested three types of cushion (Foam, Gel (Aberdeen) and Roho) for periods of two hours each during which routine activities were performed. Results obtained were broadly comparable with previous studies. Average pressures were: Foam 87.6mmHg (11.6kPa); Gel 68.6mmHg (9kPa) and Roho 54.6mmHg (6.7kPa). Pressure-time histograms are presented for three subjects for each cushion. These show inter-subject variability on the same cushion as well as intra-subject variability on different cushions. Therefore individual patient assessment is important in providing the most appropriate cushion. Dynamic pressure monitoring allows the pattern of pressure variation to be determined and hence the potential effectiveness of the cushion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanghui Liang ◽  
Jianmin Pang ◽  
Zheng Shan ◽  
Runqing Yang ◽  
Yihang Chen

To address emerging security threats, various malware detection methods have been proposed every year. Therefore, a small but representative set of malware samples are usually needed for detection model, especially for machine-learning-based malware detection models. However, current manual selection of representative samples from large unknown file collection is labor intensive and not scalable. In this paper, we firstly propose a framework that can automatically generate a small data set for malware detection. With this framework, we extract behavior features from a large initial data set and then use a hierarchical clustering technique to identify different types of malware. An improved genetic algorithm based on roulette wheel sampling is implemented to generate final test data set. The final data set is only one-eighteenth the volume of the initial data set, and evaluations show that the data set selected by the proposed framework is much smaller than the original one but does not lose nearly any semantics.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 546-556
Author(s):  
William E. Bradley ◽  
Jens T. Andersen

During the past two decades, improvements in technology and changes in conceptualization have contributed to greater objectivity in the assessment of micturition reflex disturbances.1,2 These changes have been applied principally to analysis of adult dysfunction and have recently been implemented in evaluation of neuromuscular dysfunction of the urinary bladder in infancy and childhood. These newer methods include gas cystometry,3 integrated sphincter electromyography (EMG),4 measurement of reflex-evoked potentials in micturition reflex pathways,5 and electroencephalography (EEG).6 Complementary urodynamic methods include uroflowmetry,7 measurement of urethral pressure profiles,8,9 and observation of pressure-flow relationships during voiding.10 These studies, when appropriately selected and individualized to the patient as a result of the history and examination, provide valuable information. They delineate the site and nature of the impairment of the nervous mechanisms used in the neural and muscular infrastructure in micturition during infancy and childhood. Finally, they provide a rational basis for selection of pharmacologic agents11 and surgical techniques12 to restore urinary continence. Gas cystometry technique Gas cystometry has replaced water cystometry in the evaluation of patients for detrusor reflex instability. The patients are catheterized, and the bladder is inflated with carbon dioxide at room temperature at a constant flow rate of up to a maximum of 200 ml/min. Intravesical pressure is recorded by an isovolumetric strain gauge and transducer amplifier calibrated in centimeters of water.4 Because of the high perfusion rate and brief test interval, additional testing for reflex instability is facilitated. These additional procedures include (1) change in posture from supine to upright, (2) determination of response to subcutaneous injection of bethanechol, and (3) sleep cystometry.


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