scholarly journals RoboEye, an Efficient, Reliable and Safe Semi-Autonomous Gaze Driven Wheelchair for Domestic Use

Technologies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Luca Maule ◽  
Alessandro Luchetti ◽  
Matteo Zanetti ◽  
Paolo Tomasin ◽  
Marco Pertile ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Robotics ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Continuous Control ◽  
Eye Tracker ◽  
Motor Disability ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Severe Motor ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Domestic Use ◽  
User Friendly

Any severe motor disability is a condition that limits the ability to interact with the environment, even the domestic one, caused by the loss of control over one’s mobility. This work presents RoboEYE, a power wheelchair designed to allow users to move easily and autonomously within their homes. To achieve this goal, an innovative, cost-effective and user-friendly control system was designed, in which a non-invasive eye tracker, a monitor, and a 3D camera represent some of the core elements. RoboEYE integrates functionalities from the mobile robotics field into a standard power wheelchair, with the main advantage of providing the user with two driving options and comfortable navigation. The most intuitive and direct modality foresees the continuous control of frontal and angular wheelchair velocities by gazing at different areas of the monitor. The second, semi-autonomous modality allows navigation toward a selected point in the environment by just pointing and activating the wished destination while the system autonomously plans and follows the trajectory that brings the wheelchair to that point. The purpose of this work was to develop the control structure and driving interface designs of the aforementioned driving modalities taking into account also uncertainties in gaze detection and other sources of uncertainty related to the components to ensure user safety. Furthermore, the driving modalities, in particular the semi-autonomous one, were modeled and qualified through numerical simulations and experimental verification by testing volunteers, who are regular users of standard electric wheelchairs, to verify the efficiency, reliability and safety of the proposed system for domestic use. RoboEYE resulted suitable for environments with narrow passages wider than 1 m, which is comparable with a standard domestic door and due to its properties with large commercialization potential.

A Review of 21 iPad Applications for Augmentative and Alternative Communication Purposes

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Alliano ◽  
Kimberly Herriger ◽  
Anthony D. Koutsoftas ◽  
Theresa E. Bartolotta
Keyword(s):  
Augmentative And Alternative Communication ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Alternative Communication ◽  
Text To Speech ◽  
Reference Guide ◽  
Expressive Communication ◽  
Communication Needs ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Ipad Applications

Abstract Using the iPad tablet for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) purposes can facilitate many communicative needs, is cost-effective, and is socially acceptable. Many individuals with communication difficulties can use iPad applications (apps) to augment communication, provide an alternative form of communication, or target receptive and expressive language goals. In this paper, we will review a collection of iPad apps that can be used to address a variety of receptive and expressive communication needs. Based on recommendations from Gosnell, Costello, and Shane (2011), we describe the features of 21 apps that can serve as a reference guide for speech-language pathologists. We systematically identified 21 apps that use symbols only, symbols and text-to-speech, and text-to-speech only. We provide descriptions of the purpose of each app, along with the following feature descriptions: speech settings, representation, display, feedback features, rate enhancement, access, motor competencies, and cost. In this review, we describe these apps and how individuals with complex communication needs can use them for a variety of communication purposes and to target a variety of treatment goals. We present information in a user-friendly table format that clinicians can use as a reference guide.

A novel use of contrast-enhanced ultrasound in uterine artery embolization

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Jemianne Bautista Jia ◽  
Eric Mastrolonardo ◽  
Mateen Soleman ◽  
Ilya Lekht
Keyword(s):  
Uterine Artery Embolization ◽  
Uterine Artery ◽  
Imaging Modality ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound ◽  
Artery Embolization ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Contrast Enhanced

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a cost-effective, quick, and non-invasive imaging modality that has yet to be incorporated in uterine artery embolization (UAE). We present two cases that demonstrate the utility of CEUS in UAE for the identification of uterine-ovarian collaterals which otherwise can result in ineffective fibroid treatment and non-target embolization.

SIGN IN Welcome!Log into your account your username your password Forgot your password Privacy policy PASSWORD RECOVERY Recover your password your email Struktol Home New fast measuring method for process optimization of sucrose crystallization New fast measuring method for process optimization of sucrose crystallization

2020 ◽  
pp. 49-52
Author(s):  
Trine Aabo Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Image Analysis ◽  
Process Optimization ◽  
Crystal Size ◽  
Measuring Method ◽  
Sieve Analysis ◽  
Image Analysis System ◽  
Line System ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Analysis System ◽  
User Friendly

A new fast measuring method for process optimization of sucrose crystallization using image analysis based on high quality images and algorithms is introduced. With the mobile, non-invasive at-line system all steps of the sucrose crystallization can be measured to determine the crystal size distribution. The image analysis system is easy to operate and is as well an efficient laboratory solution with user-friendly and customized software. In comparison to sieve analysis, image analyses performed with the ParticleTech Solution have been proven to be reliable.

Review of Various Tasks Performed in the Preprocessing Phase of a Diabetic Retinopathy Diagnosis System

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 397-426
Author(s):  
Muhammad Nadeem Ashraf ◽  
Muhammad Hussain ◽  
Zulfiqar Habib
Keyword(s):  
Diabetic Retinopathy ◽  
Blood Vessels ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Spherical Shape ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Lesion Detection ◽  
Diabetic Patients ◽  
Cad System ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Optic Discs

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a major cause of blindness in diabetic patients. The increasing population of diabetic patients and difficulty to diagnose it at an early stage are limiting the screening capabilities of manual diagnosis by ophthalmologists. Color fundus images are widely used to detect DR lesions due to their comfortable, cost-effective and non-invasive acquisition procedure. Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) of DR based on these images can assist ophthalmologists and help in saving many sight years of diabetic patients. In a CAD system, preprocessing is a crucial phase, which significantly affects its performance. Commonly used preprocessing operations are the enhancement of poor contrast, balancing the illumination imbalance due to the spherical shape of a retina, noise reduction, image resizing to support multi-resolution, color normalization, extraction of a field of view (FOV), etc. Also, the presence of blood vessels and optic discs makes the lesion detection more challenging because these two artifacts exhibit specific attributes, which are similar to those of DR lesions. Preprocessing operations can be broadly divided into three categories: 1) fixing the native defects, 2) segmentation of blood vessels, and 3) localization and segmentation of optic discs. This paper presents a review of the state-of-the-art preprocessing techniques related to three categories of operations, highlighting their significant aspects and limitations. The survey is concluded with the most effective preprocessing methods, which have been shown to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the CAD systems.

scholarly journals Electrochemical Biosensors for Cytokine Profiling: Recent Advancements and Possibilities in the Near Future

Biosensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Nirmita Dutta ◽  
Peter B. Lillehoj ◽  
Pedro Estrela ◽  
Gorachand Dutta
Keyword(s):  
Immune System ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Anomalous Behavior ◽  
Quantitative Detection ◽  
Electrochemical Biosensors ◽  
Aberrant Expression ◽  
Detection Techniques ◽  
Short Period ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Cytokine Profiling

Cytokines are soluble proteins secreted by immune cells that act as molecular messengers relaying instructions and mediating various functions performed by the cellular counterparts of the immune system, by means of a synchronized cascade of signaling pathways. Aberrant expression of cytokines can be indicative of anomalous behavior of the immunoregulatory system, as seen in various illnesses and conditions, such as cancer, autoimmunity, neurodegeneration and other physiological disorders. Cancer and autoimmune diseases are particularly adept at developing mechanisms to escape and modulate the immune system checkpoints, reflected by an altered cytokine profile. Cytokine profiling can provide valuable information for diagnosing such diseases and monitoring their progression, as well as assessing the efficacy of immunotherapeutic regiments. Toward this goal, there has been immense interest in the development of ultrasensitive quantitative detection techniques for cytokines, which involves technologies from various scientific disciplines, such as immunology, electrochemistry, photometry, nanotechnology and electronics. This review focusses on one aspect of this collective effort: electrochemical biosensors. Among the various types of biosensors available, electrochemical biosensors are one of the most reliable, user-friendly, easy to manufacture, cost-effective and versatile technologies that can yield results within a short period of time, making it extremely promising for routine clinical testing.

scholarly journals Prostate Cancer Liquid Biopsy Biomarkers’ Clinical Utility in Diagnosis and Prognosis

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 3373
Author(s):  
Milena Matuszczak ◽  
Jack A. Schalken ◽  
Maciej Salagierski
Keyword(s):  
Prostate Cancer ◽  
Liquid Biopsy ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Prostate Gland ◽  
Specific Antigen ◽  
Transrectal Ultrasound ◽  
Digital Rectal Examination ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Diagnosis And Prognosis

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer in men worldwide. The current gold standard for diagnosing PCa relies on a transrectal ultrasound-guided systematic core needle biopsy indicated after detection changes in a digital rectal examination (DRE) and elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level in the blood serum. PSA is a marker produced by prostate cells, not just cancer cells. Therefore, an elevated PSA level may be associated with other symptoms such as benign prostatic hyperplasia or inflammation of the prostate gland. Due to this marker’s low specificity, a common problem is overdiagnosis, which leads to unnecessary biopsies and overtreatment. This is associated with various treatment complications (such as bleeding or infection) and generates unnecessary costs. Therefore, there is no doubt that the improvement of the current procedure by applying effective, sensitive and specific markers is an urgent need. Several non-invasive, cost-effective, high-accuracy liquid biopsy diagnostic biomarkers such as Progensa PCA3, MyProstateScore ExoDx, SelectMDx, PHI, 4K, Stockholm3 and ConfirmMDx have been developed in recent years. This article compares current knowledge about them and their potential application in clinical practice.

scholarly journals Proteins and microRNAs are differentially expressed in tear fluid from patients with Alzheimer’s disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Kenny ◽  
Eva M. Jiménez-Mateos ◽  
María Ascensión Zea-Sevilla ◽  
Alberto Rábano ◽  
Pablo Gili-Manzanaro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Unmet Need ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Specific Protein ◽  
Tear Fluid ◽  
Initiation Factor ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Potential Biomarker

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by a progressive loss of neurons and cognitive functions. Therefore, early diagnosis of AD is critical. The development of practical and non-invasive diagnostic tests for AD remains, however, an unmet need. In the present proof-of-concept study we investigated tear fluid as a novel source of disease-specific protein and microRNA-based biomarkers for AD development using samples from patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD. Tear protein content was evaluated via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and microRNA content was profiled using a genome-wide high-throughput PCR-based platform. These complementary approaches identified enrichment of specific proteins and microRNAs in tear fluid of AD patients. In particular, we identified elongation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) as a unique protein present only in AD samples. Total microRNA abundance was found to be higher in tears from AD patients. Among individual microRNAs, microRNA-200b-5p was identified as a potential biomarker for AD with elevated levels present in AD tear fluid samples compared to controls. Our study suggests that tears may be a useful novel source of biomarkers for AD and that the identification and verification of biomarkers within tears may allow for the development of a non-invasive and cost-effective diagnostic test for AD.

scholarly journals Boat Pressure Washing Wastewater Treatment with Calcium Oxide and/or Ferric Chloride

2012 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Višnja Oreščanin ◽  
Robert Kollar ◽  
Karlo Nađ ◽  
Ivanka Mikelić ◽  
Nenad Mikulić
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Calcium Oxide ◽  
Ferric Chloride ◽  
Combined Treatment ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Chemical Precipitation ◽  
Total Dissolved Solids ◽  
Washing Wastewater ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Final Effluent

Boat Pressure Washing Wastewater Treatment with Calcium Oxide and/or Ferric ChlorideThe aim of this study was to investigate the efficiency of (1) chemical precipitation by calcium oxide, (2) coagulation/flocculation by ferric chloride (FC), and (3) the combination these two methods in reducing the toxicity of wastewater generated by boat pressure washing. All three methods gave satisfactory results in the removal of colour, turbidity, Cr, Fe, Cu, Zn, and Pb. The concentrations of heavy metals were lowered below national limits with 1 g of CaO, 2.54 mg of Fe3+ in the form of FeCl3x6H2O, and the combination of 0.25 g of CaO and 5.08 mg of Fe3+ per 50 mL of wastewater. Both CaO (1.50 g per 50 mL of wastewater) and FC proved efficient, but their combination yielded a significantly better performance: 99.41 %, 100.00 %, 97.87 %, 99.09 %, 99.90 %, 99.46 % and 98.33 % for colour, turbidity, Cr, Fe, Cu, Zn, and Pb respectively. For colour, Cr, Cu, Zn, and Pb removal efficiencies increased in the following order: FC<CaO<CaO+FC, while this order for turbidity and Fe was as follows: CaO<FC<CaO+FC. As expected, all three methods increased the concentration of total dissolved solids in the final effluent. Our results suggest that the combined treatment of marina wastewaters with calcium oxide followed by ferric chloride is efficient, cost-effective, and user-friendly.

A Cost effective and user friendly approach for mini-DSTs design

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clara Bertolini ◽  
Giuseppe Tripaldi ◽  
Elena Manassero ◽  
Enzo Beretta ◽  
Dario Viberti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effective ◽  
User Friendly
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