Path Tracking for a Differential-Drive Robot Applied in the Automatic Disinfection of Hospital Environments

Prehospital Care and Transport in Acute Myocardial Infarction

ObjectiveTo evaluate and compare stressors identified by patients of a coronary intensive care unit with those perceived by patients of a general postoperative intensive care unit.MethodsThis cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted in the coronary intensive care and general postoperative intensive care units of a private hospital. In total, 60 patients participated in the study, 30 in each intensive care unit. The stressor scale was used in the intensive care units to identify the stressors. The mean score of each item of the scale was calculated followed by the total stress score. The differences between groups were considered significant when p < 0.05.ResultsThe mean ages of patients were 55.63 ± 13.58 years in the coronary intensive care unit and 53.60 ± 17.47 years in the general postoperative intensive care unit. For patients in the coronary intensive care unit, the main stressors were “being in pain”, “being unable to fulfill family roles” and “being bored”. For patients in the general postoperative intensive care unit, the main stressors were “being in pain”, “being unable to fulfill family roles” and “not being able to communicate”. The mean total stress scores were 104.20 ± 30.95 in the coronary intensive care unit and 116.66 ± 23.72 (p = 0.085) in the general postoperative intensive care unit. When each stressor was compared separately, significant differences were noted only between three items. “Having nurses constantly doing things around your bed” was more stressful to the patients in the general postoperative intensive care unit than to those in the coronary intensive care unit (p = 0.013). Conversely, “hearing unfamiliar sounds and noises” and “hearing people talk about you” were the most stressful items for the patients in the coronary intensive care unit (p = 0.046 and 0.005, respectively).ConclusionThe perception of major stressors and the total stress score were similar between patients in the coronary intensive care and general postoperative intensive care units.

With the development of the robot field, mobile robot tracking has been applied to various fields, and it has become a hot topic of many scholars. In recent years, a large number of mobile robot tracking methods have been proposed. In this paper, for the traditional Mean-shift tracking method, the problem of the target object cannot be automatically obtained. A tracking method that automatically extracts targets and applies them to mobile robot tracking and controlling is proposed. In this work, The SAD method is first introduced and fused based on the traditional Mean-shift tracking method. Then, the motor that needs to complete the tracking and conducted experiments is modeled and closed-loop controlled in this paper. The results show that the mobile robot tracking control system that is proposed in this paper can complete the automatic recognition tracking and control of the target object.

Robot Operating System (ROS) represents nowadays a defacto standard for the prototyping and development of software for robotics applications. It presents several software abstraction layers to robotic hardware resources allowing software developers to focus more on the software development without having to worry about the low-level hardware programming. However, developing client-side applications requires a full understanding and mastering of ROS and robotics, which is not straightforward for non-ROS users and for beginners. To overcome this limitation, it is necessary to provide an additional software abstraction layer on top of ROS to allow a seamless interaction with ROS. In this paper, we present a novel solution based on Web services to provide new programming abstraction layers to ROS based on SOAP and REST Web services. The contribution of this paper consists in proposing software architecture to expose ROS resources as SOAP and REST Web services. We present a software meta-model for the integration of Web services into ROS and we validate it through a real experimental implementation on a service robot. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that addresses the integration of Web services into ROS, and we believe that it will open new insights towards the emerging concept of Cloud Robotics.

During hospitalization, cardiac patients encounter three highly unique environments--the Emergency Room (ER), Coronary Care Unit (CCU), and Progressive Coronary Care Unit (PCCU). It appears that patients are defining these environments and drawing a meaning that is different from that of nurses. No systematic empirical evidence exists to document how cardiac patients define each of these units. The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent patients share a common definition of the ER, CCU, and PCCU. The study was conducted in three stages. Stage I identified categories and groups of statements that emerged when patients were admitted to the hospital with chest pain. In Stage II, the categories and statements on definition of the situation, developed by further analysis of the fieldwork data, were used to construct a questionnaire. A pilot study confirmed commonalities in patients' definition of the situation within the ER, CCU, and PCCU. In Stage III, a revised questionnaire was used to study fifty cardiac patients' definition of the situation between and across units. An ANOVA-Repeated Measures Design tested the hypotheses generated in Stage II. Scheffe Post Hoc Test determined the significant differences between units. The results showed that patients perceived more fear in the ER than in CCU or PCCU, and more fear in CCU than PCCU. Patients perceived more distress in the ER than in CCU or PCCU; no significant difference was seen in perceived distress between CCU and PCCU. Patients perceived less help and less support from the staff in the ER than in CCU or PCCU. No significant difference was noted in perceived help and support between CCU and PCCU. Findings support the theoretical position that commonalities exist in cardiac patients' definitions of the situation in the ER, CCU, and PCCU, that are similar within units and vary across units. Recommendations for nursing practice, nursing education, and nursing research were discussed.

The Mobile Coronary Care Unit and The Intermediate Coronary Care Unit in The Total Systems Approach to Coronary Care

ABSTRACTObjective:To identify the need of family members of patients hospitalized in a coronary intensive care unit and their degree of satisfaction with the care provided.Methods:An observational and cross-sectional study including family members of patients hospitalized in the coronary intensive care unit for acute coronary syndrome in Killip I or II. After the second visit of the same family member to the patient in the unit, a 43-item inventory of needs and stressors of family members was applied. Family members assessed each need for its importance and satisfaction using a four-point Likert scale. The scores in each dimension of importance and satisfaction were compared using the Wilcoxon test, considering a value of p<0.05 as significant.Results:One hundred family members were interviewed. The most important needs were related to assurance and information. Family members had satisfaction scores corresponding to be very satisfied or totally satisfied, but with lower scores when compared to the needs scores (p<0.01).Conclusion:The most important needs of family members of patients hospitalized in the coronary intensive care unit were related to assurance and information. Multiprofessional interventions involving better communication of patient information to family members should be incorporated into the coronary intensive care unit.

Introduction: The relationship between heart failure and malnutrition is significant. The most commonly used nutritional indices are theprognostic nutritional index, controlling nutritional status, and albumin–bilirubin grade. We aimed to investigate the clinical impact of nutritional status in elderly acute decompensated heart failure patients and the relationship between the prognostic nutritional index, controlling nutritional status, and albumin–bilirubin grade nutritional indices to detect 12-month and 3-month rehospitalization rates, mortality, and length of stay in the Coronary Intensive Care Unit. Our study is the first to evaluate the controlling nutritional status and albumin–bilirubin grade in our study cohort in Turkey. Materials and Methods: The medical records of 1162 patients hospitalized in the Coronary Intensive Care Unit were evaluated retrospectively. A total of 123 patients were included. Results: We found a statistically significant difference between the prognostic nutritional index, albumin–bilirubin grade and controlling nutritional status scores and mortality. However, the most statistically significant relationship was found in the prognostic nutritional index score. We found that as the nutritional scores worsened, the length of hospital stay was prolonged. The albumin–bilirubin grade score in the short term and controlling nutritional status score in the long term were not statistically significant to show rehospitalization. Conclusion: Prognostic nutritional index is an independent predictor of mortality, short- and long-term rehospitalizations, and length of stay in elderly patients with acute decompensated heartfailure. Its predictive power was better than the albumin–bilirubin grade and controlling nutritional status scores evaluated in our study. Keywords: Heart Failure; Malnutrition; Aged; Coronary Care Unit; Nutritional Status.

Roots of Iraq's maternal and child health crisis run deep

This paper presents the research and construction of a motion tracing control system for omnidirectional mobile robots based on reinforcement learning techniques in automatic control. The process of controlling a mobile robot in a flat environment with definite and unknown obstacles, taking into account the nonlinear factor of interference. Research and application of programming tools are operating systems for mobile robots (Robot Operating System - ROS). From updated information on maps, operating environment, robot control position, and obstacle identification (SLAM) to calculate the movement trajectory of a three-wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot. The positioning system calculates the orbital tracking for the robot based on the Q-learning algorithm. The results of simulation research in the Gazebo environment and running tests on real Turtlebot mobile robots have shown the practical effectiveness of the research problem of tracking motion tracking and intelligent navigation for mobile robots.

Since the path planned by the traditional A * algorithm consists of a series of discrete spatial points and does not contain time and control quantities, it cannot be directly used for trajectory tracking of mobile robots. To address this problem, this paper uses the Minimum Snap method to transform the traditional path planning algorithm and the planned path into a continuous smooth trajectory containing both time, velocity and acceleration information. The trajectory is optimized by introducing the trajectory shape constraint and velocity and acceleration constraint, so as to generate a global trajectory suitable for the path tracking of mobile robots, while the generated trajectory differs too much from the original path shape and the robot motion trajectory is not smooth due to the robot's own physical constraints are not considered. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation experiments, and the method is applied to a robot autonomous navigation system under ROS (Robot Operating System) to confirm the practicality and reliability of the method.

Problems in evaluating coronary care units: Their responsibilities and their relation to the community

Artificial intelligence and automation technology that can satisfy the ever-increasing demand for technology in industrial, commercial, medical, military and civil fields has introduced new opportunities for robotics research in past decades. In particular, the mobile robot laser navigation has always been the focus and problems in fields covering a wide spectrum of disciplines. The object of this study was to explore the mapping of mobile robot based on Hector-SLAM algorithm and the simulation experiment of the global path planning in static environments. A tracked mobile robot is designed for navigation test platform, which is mainly composed of two dimensional laser radar called Neato XV-11 laser, mobile robot chassis, PC terminal and an Android phone. The motion control commands of robot platform are published by smart phone and executed via Python code in Raspberry Pi board. After algorithm procedure for Hector SLAM are represented in depth, the map building in this way is completed on Robot Operating System (ROS) where RVIZ is run to carry out cartographic visualization. On the other hand, a new ant colony algorithm(ACO), which introduces pheromone orientation, is proposed for the issue about robot shortest path planning in static environment. The results of mapping obtained on ROS show a satisfactory level of indoor environment, which reveals the feasibility of our approach in laser navigation. Furthermore, it is proved from the simulation experiments of modified ACO algorithm that the new algorithm not only can obtain the same optimal path, but also has faster convergence speed and smaller error peak in complex static environments.

A lot of research has recently been performed on mobile robots because of their value in human life. In various applications and areas, robotics are used. Maintaining the robot's protection and accessibility is important. If the robot doesn't always enable self-recovery, it will not be able to attain its target. This paper studies a tracked mobile robot control and path planning using the dijkstra's algorithm. Robot Operating System (ROS) is the software prototyping platform. The robot's basic mission and its control mechanism is explained. The analysis is carried out using three ultrasonic sensors requiring a low-effort framework enabling exploration in the robot route zone. In a simulated environment, the presented method was verified and the results showed successful path planning with obstacles avoidance.

The effects of thyroid hormone on patients hospitalized in coronary intensive care units are still controversial. We retrospectively examined thyroid hormone levels and their impact on cardiovascular morbidity in patients admitted to coronary intensive care units. A total of 208 (Female/Male; 46.6%/53.4%) patients without any history of thyroid disease were enrolled and screened. Patients with specific heart disease and existing thyroid hormone parameters were included in the study. Low triiodothyronine syndrome is characterized by reduced serum total or free T3 (fT3) concentrations in normal free T4 (fT4) and TSH levels. The common diagnosis of the patients in the coronary care unit is acute coronary syndrome (n = 59, 28.2 %) and heart failure (n = 46, 23.3%). Patients were divided into two groups according to left ventricular ejection fraction percentages (LVEF ≤39% vs LVEF ≥40%). Plasma fT3 levels were significantly correlated with low LVEF (≤39%) (p =0.002). fT3 (r = -0.183, p =0.013) and hospitalization etiology (r = -0.161, p =0.023) were also the most critical parameters affecting the length of hospitalization. Low fT3 was associated with reduced ejection fraction and prolonged hospitalization, which may lead to potential morbidities in HF patients and may be useful in risk stratification and treatment strategies.