Digital Circuits Research Articles

Digitalization and care relationships of people living alone in old age: acritical analysis of policy documents

Digitalization is transforming social life and relationships. New cultural ideas of care, cooperation and reciprocity are emerging that can create challenges for older people. These are particularly poignant for older people living alone, who use digital devices less frequently and rely on support to manage the increasing number of digital tasks (appointments, bookings, financial matters). This article explores the relationship between digitalization and care relationships among older people living alone using acritical document analysis approach according to Bacchi. This approach makes it possible to look at the understanding behind the terms living alone, care relationships, and digitalization, each in relation to older people and in interaction as well as to render gaps visible. The analysis of laws and social policies as well as of political and civil society orientated documents leads to two key findings: Firstly, an individual responsibility to deal with needs arising from gaining access to and handling of digitalization is expected of older people and their social networks. This is striking as digitalization is presented as ameans of dealing with the large-scale social challenges, such as demographic change and shortage of care staff. Secondly, the analysis shows that legal documents that set out the structure for policies do not focus on digitalization in later life. With older people not being atarget group of policy of digitalization, fewer strategies are put into practice.

Health information and technology engagement for clinical research and healthcare purposes (HITECH) survey of patients with a history of cancer.

e13672 Background: Digital technology offers oncology clinicians and researchers the ability to more closely monitor patients on therapy, including with electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs) and real-time passively collected data (for example: heart rate, oxygen saturation, etc.), via smartphone and wearable devices. In order to realize the potential for these technologies to improve patient experience and outcomes, it is critical that we consider the perspectives of patients to design usable and useful digital monitoring programs. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of cancer patients from a large academic medical institution to study willingness to use digital devices to collect data and to share discrete types of data for the purposes of medical care or research. A survey including baseline characteristics and questions pertaining to digital technology use was sent to participants enrolled in the UCLA Mental Health and Health Technology Research Registry, from November 2023 to January 2024. Participants were included if they were patients at UCLA, age 18 years and older, owned a smartphone and/or wearable device, and self-reported a history of cancer. The primary outcomes of interest were willingness to collect and share digital device data. We report summary statistics for our population. Results: A total of 690 patients participated in our survey. The majority were female (58.5%), 76.7% non-Hispanic white, 8.8% Hispanic, 5.8% Asian, and 2.0% black. Median age was 69 years old. Nearly all participants reported experience using a patient portal (98.9%). Willingness to collect data using a digital device, for the purposes of clinical care was reported by 93.3% of patients. Similarly, 92.0% were willing to use a device to collect health data for research purposes. Sharing patterns were similar regardless of whether data was intended to be for clinical care or research purposes (Table). Conclusions: The overwhelming majority of patients who own a smartphone and/or wearable are willing to collect health data on their digital device for either clinical care or research. There is a preference for sharing more objective clinical information (vitals and physical activity measurements), and less inclination to share subjective information (daily activity, symptoms, and mood). This could be attributable to the greater effort required to input information as well as skepticism of the usefulness of the subjective data. Notably, we must recognize that some patients are not well-represented in this study population. Their perspectives should also be explored to prevent widening of the digital divide. [Table: see text]

Impact of online learning during COVID-19 pandemic on digital device related ocular health

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ocular health related to digital device usage among university students in Lebanon. DesignA cross-sectional design was utilized to examine the association between the pandemic and ocular health. ParticipantsA total of 255 university students in Lebanon participated in the study, selected based on their enrollment during the pandemic. MethodsAn online survey assessed participants' digital device usage, awareness of digital eye strain, and experienced symptoms. The study addressed the relationship between symptom frequency and screen time, especially in their connection to the pandemic and online learning. ResultsPrior to the pandemic, the majority of participants (73.0 %) were unaware of digital eye strain. Following the transition to online learning, nearly half of the participants (47.0 %) reported using digital devices for 12 or more hours. The majority (92.0 %) experienced a substantial increase in daily digital device usage for learning, with an average increase of 3–5 h. Symptoms of digital eye strain, including headache, burning of eyes, blurry vision, sensitivity to light, worsening of vision and dryness of the eyes intensified in both frequency and severity during the pandemic and online learning period. ConclusionsThe study emphasizes the importance of promoting healthy habits and implementing preventive measures to reduce the prevalence of digital eye strain symptoms among university students. Healthcare professionals and public health authorities should educate individuals on strategies to alleviate digital eye strain, considering the persistent reliance on digital devices beyond the pandemic.

19‐4: Invited Paper: Digital Driving on Silicon Microdisplay for XR

Microdisplay on silicon backplane is a promising architecture for XR systems. While digital circuitry is advantageous on silicon backplane, digital driving display introduces visual artifacts. First, we investigated the mechanism and solution of visual artifacts relevant for XR displays. Next, we proposed a intraframe time warp (ITW) to compensate for visual artifacts from head motion. ITW provide benefits to µOLED displays in XR systems by utilizing the higher frequency of digital driving. Lastly, we studied a 4K resolution digital µOLED displays expecting more than 40% of power saving in driving. The proposed digital driving solution with ITW is advantageous in power consumption and visual performance, however, the development of related technology is crucial to build the system.

Surveillance as Gesture

Surveillance is gestic, in Bertolt Brecht’s sense: it constitutes and is constituted by a set of practices that police and control the social at the level of gestures. In a surveillant Gestus of the everyday, gestures conscribe bodies as subjects of surveillance, from the touchscreen scroll that operates Amazon’s Neighbors social network to the hands-over-head posture imaged by airport body scanners. Gestures, not digital devices, watch—and enforce—the bounds of a “criminal” human.

Digital inclusion and the internet of things: Convenience and the choice‐compulsion continuum

AbstractThe internet of things (IoT) holds forth much promise and peril. IoT promises to increase efficiencies needed to solve wicked problems like climate change. However, IoT may also reinforce existing problems such as social inequalities long associated with the digital divide. Research about the digital divide has evolved greatly over the past few decades and this article examines recent trends in the United States (U.S.) with particular attention on digital inclusivity associated with three digital divide pillars—digital infrastructure, digital devices, and digital literacy. More specifically, recent technological and policy trajectories as they relate to convenience and to a choice versus compulsion continuum (the “three C's”), are interrogated in terms of emergent U.S. IoT policy. The ways in which advanced industrial capitalism is served by the IoT, and its cousin the Industry IoT, provide further food for thought as the world plunges forward with convenient devices that have potential for solving pressing problems such as social inequality and climate change, yet at the same time may exacerbate such problems without thoughtful policy development around all three pillars of digital inclusion.

Cadiax Compact 2 and MODJAW comparative analysis of condylar inclination: Innovative digital approaches in dentistry

Statement of problemArtificial intelligence has been used to enhance the digitalized workflow, especially when undergoing complex oral rehabilitations. However, the reliability of real-time jaw motion registration devices is unclear, and no standard measurement method of the sagittal condylar inclination (SCI) and Bennett angle (BA) has been established. PurposeThe purpose of this clinical study was to compare and evaluate the reliability of the SCI and BA values recorded by using 2 different digital devices. Material and methodsA total of 17 participants, aged between 20 and 30 years (10 women and 7 men) were included in the study. For each participant, the Cadiax Compact 2 and MODJAW tracking devices were used to measure the SCI and BA values at 3 mm and 5 mm of condylar displacement during 3 separate recording sessions. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess the reliability of the recordings. Comparisons between the devices were performed with the Wilcoxson rank-sum test (α=.05). The Bland-Altman plot was used to evaluate the quantitative agreement between the 2 devices. ResultsAll ICC intrarater reliability values for Cadiax and MODJAW were higher than 0.90. Both at 3 and 5 mm, the SCI measurements were higher for MODJAW registrations than for those recorded by Cadiax. The Bland-Altman plot showed that the SCI values were higher for MODJAW than for Cadiax by 5.9 (95% CI 3.9 to 8.2) and that the BA differences between the MODJAW and the Cadiax were not consistent with the measured value. ConclusionsExcellent reliability was found with the MODJAW and Cadiax recordings. The SCI and BA values for MODJAW measurements were higher at 3 mm and 5 mm than those acquired with Cadiax. MODJAW showed higher values than Cadiax, and the discrepancies were more pronounced for 3 mm than for 5 mm of condylar displacement, highlighting the need for precision in measurements at lower ranges of motion.

Automatic Cell Placement for Josephson Transmission Lines in a Cell-Based Layout Design Environment for RSFQ Circuits

Abstract This study proposes a method for automatically tiling appropriate Josephson transmission line (JTL) cells for a given set of paths. Digital RSFQ circuits have been commonly designed in a cell-based design environment. The RSFQ cell library contains pre-designed fragments of JTLs as cells. Appropriate JTL cells are selected and tiled. This method formulates the problem as an instance of integer linear programming (ILP). Subsequently, instances are solved using a solver program. The method generates the tiling of cells according to the solver result. The number of Josephson junctions for JTLs, delay of paths, or weighted sum of such parameters is represented as a linear function and can be optimized. The proposed method performed JTL cell-tiling for several circuits, including a full adder. The runtime was within one second.

Cardiac MRI Oversampling in Heart Digital Twins Improves Preprocedure Ventricular Tachycardia Identification in Postinfarction Patients.

Ventricular tachycardia (VT), which can lead to sudden cardiac death, occurs frequently in patients after myocardial infarction. Radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFA) is a modestly effective treatment of VT, but it has limitations and risks. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR)-based heart digital twins have emerged as a useful tool for identifying VT circuits for RFA treatment planning. However, the CMR resolution used to reconstruct these digital twins may impact VT circuit predictions, leading to incorrect RFA treatment planning. This study sought to predict RFA targets in the arrhythmogenic substrate using heart digital twins reconstructed from both clinical and high-resolution 2-dimensional CMR datasets and compare the predictions. High-resolution (1.35× 1.35× 3mm), or oversampled resolution (Ov-Res), short-axis late gadolinium-enhanced CMR was acquired by combining 2 subsequent clinical resolution (Clin-Res) (1.35× 1.35× 6mm) short-axis late gadolinium-enhanced CMR scans from 6 post-myocardial infarction patients undergoing VT ablation and used to reconstruct a total of 3 digital twins (1 Ov-Res, 2 Clin-Res) for each patient. Rapid pacing was used to assess VT circuits and identify the optimal ablation targets in each digital twin. VT circuits predicted by the digital twins were compared with intraprocedural electroanatomic mapping data and used to identify emergent VT. The Ov-Res digital twins reduced partial volume effects and better predicted unique VT circuits compared with the Clin-Res digital twins (66.6% vs 54.5%; P< 0.01). Only the Ov-Res digital twin successfully identified emergent VT after a failed initial ablation. Digital twin infarct geometry and VT circuit predictions depend on the magnetic resonance resolution. Ov-Res digital twins better predict VT circuits and emergent VT, which may improve RFA outcomes.

P‐249: Late‐News Poster: A Low Power Digital Logic Structure for High Resolution and High Frame Rate OLEDoS Micro Displays

This paper proposes a digital logic circuit in the source driver for OLEDoS micro display which uses a novel data signal tree structure with clock gating logic to reduce power consumption. The proposed structure for 4096×4096 (4K) 144 Hz micro displays was verified using a CMOS 110 nm process. The power consumption was reduced by 69.6 % compared to the conventional data signal tree structure, enabling a low‐power design.

Modification Of Impact Testing Tools For Research Of Aluminum Alloys Energy Absorption Profile

One of the most popular materials used in industry is aluminum and its alloys. The aluminum manufacturing process is likely to undergo a welding process. Aluminum can be welded by gas or arc welding, but arc welding is more satisfactory. The welding process on aluminum alloys has the potential to present a situation similar to Age hardening. This research was conducted to dig deeper into the impact of welding on the second phase strengthening mechanism in several series of aluminum alloys using impact test equipment with the addition of a modified digital instrumentation device. Modifications were made to the GOTECH impact test equipment model Charpy impact test 0027 by changing the pendulum and adding a plate to the holder to conform to the ASTM E23-02a standard and adding digital instrumentation tools, including load cells, amplifiers, data acquisition, and power supply. The specimens used were aluminum 5052 and 6061 with variations of base metal and TIG welded V 60°. The results of the modified impact test equipment can display a graph of the impact energy absorption of each specimen. Comparison between the manual calculation of absorbed impact energy and digital calculation of 5052 base metal aluminum specimens has an average deviation of 11,716 J, 5052 welded specimens have an average deviation of 1.341 J, 6061 base metal specimens have an average deviation of 0.729 J, and 6061 welded specimens has a mean of 0.845 J.

Effect of cellulose nanocrystals on performance of PVA fiber-reinforced geopolymer composites: Reaction kinetics, bending behavior, and toughening mechanisms

Geopolymer composites are an attractive alternative to those based on ordinary Portland cement, owing to their lower carbon footprint and higher mechanical performance. However, brittleness is one of the major barriers limiting their use in construction applications. In this work, cellulose nanocrystal (CNC), a cost-effective and eco-friendly nanoparticle, was exploited in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-reinforced metakaolin-based geopolymer composite to further increase its mechanical performance. To this end, PVA-reinforced geopolymer composites were prepared by varying the CNC concentration from 0 wt% to 0.15 wt%. Three-point bending and fracture testing, combined with digital image correlation (DIC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), were performed to evaluate the bending and fracture behavior of samples containing CNC and reveal various toughening mechanisms. Composites with 0.15 wt% CNC recorded an increase of 190% in flexural strength and a 325 time of increase in fracture energy, compared to the control geopolymer (i.e. without PVA fibers and CNC). Isothermal calorimetry, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction (XRD) were also utilized to characterize the heat flow, chemical bonds, and crystalline phases of the samples. These analyses revealed that CNC incorporation increased the amount of formed geopolymer gel with no significant changes in the crystalline structure and chemical bonding. In addition, stronger interfacial bonding between the PVA-geopolymer matrix was achieved, resulting in substantial improvements in flexural strength and fracture energy.

CMOS operational amplifier design for industrial and biopotential applications: Comprehensive review and circuit implementation

This paper provides a detailed exploration of CMOS operational amplifiers (Op-Amps) aimed at enhancing understanding of their development, design, and application. To achieve this, a comprehensive examination of the common characteristics, parameters, and bibliographic reviews of Op-Amps, distinguishing among various chosen operational amplifiers. A comprehensive bibliographic review of the operational amplifier's keywords between 2008 and 2018 has also been conducted. A bibliometric analysis of 4997 documents from the Web of Science (WOS) Collection is conducted using VOSviewer software. Furthermore, an analysis and comparison of these Op-Amps across functional aspects relevant to industrial and biomedical applications, emphasising the salient characteristics of each technique. After the survey, a novel Op-Amp design is proposed, incorporating a differential amplifier at the first stage, along with a compensating capacitor and a high gain stage. The biasing circuitry is replaced with an active load resistor (MOS transistor), simplifying layout design, and reducing the amplifier's area and power consumption compared to traditional two-stage designs. The power source for this design is 3.3 V. This designed operational amplifier achieved a gain of 62.9449 dB, a high CMRR of 92.8079 dB, and a unity gain bandwidth of 33 MHz, and the optimised layout area is 0.001476 μm2. The proposed circuit was designed and simulated utilising the Cadence Virtuoso 180 nm CMOS process. The simulation results show that the desired criteria have been met. Additionally, the challenges and future possibilities in analog circuits, laying the groundwork for research in both analogue and digital circuits to tackle complex real-world issues have been addressed.

Cascadable-Controllable Self-Assembly DNA Tiles for Large-Scale DNA Logic Circuits.

In the last few decades, DNA-based self-assembly tiles has become a hot field in research due to its special applications and advantages. The regularity and strong design methods comprise other DNA-based digital circuit design methods. In addition to the obvious advantages of this method, there are challenges in performing computations based on self-assembly tiles, which have hindered the development and construction of large computing circuits with this method. The first challenge is the creation of crystals from DNA molecules in the output, which has led to the impossibility of cascading. The second challenge of this method is the uncontrollability of the reactions of the tiles, which increases the percentage of computing errors. In this article, these two challenges have been solved by changing the structure of leading tiles so that without the activator strand, tiles remain inactive and cannot be connected to other tiles. Also, when the tiles are activated, single-strand DNA will be released after connecting to other tiles, which will be used as the output of the circuit. This output gives the possibility of cascading to self-assembly designed circuits. The method introduced in this article can be a beginning for the re-development of DNA-based circuit design with the self-assembly tile method.

Efficient in Vivo Neural Signal Compression Using an Autoencoder-Based Neural Network.

Conventional in vivo neural signal processing involves extracting spiking activity within the recorded signals from an ensemble of neurons and transmitting only spike counts over an adequate interval. However, for brain-computer interface (BCI) applications utilizing continuous local field potentials (LFPs) for cognitive decoding, the volume of neural data to be transmitted to a computer imposes relatively high data rate requirements. This is particularly true for BCIs employing high-density intracortical recordings with hundreds or thousands of electrodes. This article introduces the first autoencoder-based compression digital circuit for the efficient transmission of LFP neural signals. Various algorithmic and architectural-level optimizations are implemented to significantly reduce the computational complexity and memory requirements of the designed in vivo compression circuit. This circuit employs an autoencoder-based neural network, providing a robust signal reconstruction. The application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) of the in vivo compression logic occupies the smallest silicon area and consumes the lowest power among the reported state-of-the-art compression ASICs. Additionally, it offers a higher compression rate and a superior signal-to-noise and distortion ratio.

N-of-1 health optimization: Digital monitoring of biomarker dynamics to gamify adherence to metabolic switching.

The digital health field is experiencing substantial growth due to its potential for sustained and longitudinal deployment. In turn, this may drive improved monitoring and intervention as catalysts for behavioral change compared to traditional point-of-care practices. In particular, the increase in incidence of population health challenges such as diabetes, heart disease, fatty liver disease, and other disorders coupled with rising healthcare costs have emphasized the importance of exploring technical, economics, and implementation considerations, among others in the decentralization of health and healthcare innovations. Both healthy individuals and patients stand to benefit from continued technical advances and studies in these domains. To address these points, this study reports a N-of-1 study comprised of sustained regimens of intermittent fasting, fitness (strength and cardiovascular training), and high protein, low carbohydrate diet and parallel monitoring. These regimens were paired with serial blood ketone, blood glucose (wearable and finger stick) and blood pressure readings, as well as body weight measurements using a collection of devices. Collectively this suite of platforms and approaches were used to monitor metabolic switching from glucose to ketones as energy sources-a process associated with potential cardio- and neuroprotective functions. In addition to longitudinal biomarker dynamics, this work discusses user perspectives on the potential role of harnessing digital devices to these dynamics as potential gamification factors, as well as considerations for the role of biomarker monitoring in health regimen development, user stratification, and potentially informing downstream population-scale studies to address metabolic disease, healthy aging and longevity, among other indications.

An In-Vitro Comparison of Mixed Reality Navigation to Traditional Freehand and Patient Specific Instrumentation Techniques for Glenoid Guide Pin Insertion during Shoulder Arthroplasty

BackgroundAccurate insertion of the glenoid guide pin in shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) is important for obtaining optimized glenoid component position and orientation. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the accuracy of three glenoid guide pin insertion techniques: 1) traditional software planning using freehand guide pin insertion (freehand), 2) guide pin insertion utilizing patient-specific instrumentation (PSI), and 3) using a mixed reality navigation (MR-NAV) system. MethodsTwenty (20) computer tomography (CT) scans were obtained from patients exhibiting glenoid erosion patterns according to the Walch and Favard classifications. Cases were planned using validated three-dimensional (3D) preoperative planning software. The CT data was then used to 3D print triplicate plastic models of each glenoid to evaluate the three guide pin insertion techniques. The first technique employed traditional software planning with freehand guide pin insertion. The second method used preoperatively planned PSI guides, while the third utilized a MR-NAV system, which provided real-time holographic guidance during guide pin insertion. Once all guide pins had been inserted into the models, an independent optical tracking system and custom digitization device was used to quantify the position and orientation of each guide pin relative to the glenoid. The outcomes for this study included the absolute mean error in guide pin inclination, version, and entry point relative to the preoperative plan. The absolute Total Global Error was also assessed, which was defined as the sum of the absolute guide pin orientation and position error relative to the preoperative plan. ResultsNo statistically significant differences between MR-NAV and PSI were found for the inclination error (2±1° versus 2±1°; P=0.056), version error (1±1° versus 1±1°; P=1.000), and Total Global Error (5±1 [mm+deg] versus 5±1 [mm+deg], P=1.000), respectively. The freehand technique produced significantly greater error than MR-NAV and PSI for inclination (5±3°, P≤0.017), version (4±3°, P≤0.032) and Total Global Error (8±3 [mm+deg], P<0.001). No statistically significant differences in the entry point error were observed between all guide pin insertion methods (P≥0.058). DiscussionThese results demonstrate that the precision and accuracy of MR-NAV is comparable to PSI and superior to a freehand technique for glenoid guide pin insertion in-vitro. Further study is needed to compare the accuracy of these techniques intra-operatively, in addition to assessing a potential learning curve between surgeons of varying experience with the MR-NAV system.

Accuracy of digital measurement for quantitative and qualitative indicators of wound healing and repair: a systematic review protocol

IntroductionChronic wound care remains a critical public health challenge in terms of prevalence, quality of life and healthcare costs on a global scale. Currently used methods to assess the size...

Controllable Manipulation of Semifluxon States in Phase-Shifted Josephson Junctions.

The utilization of Josephson vortices as information carriers in superconducting digital electronics is hindered by the lack of reliable displacement and localization mechanisms. In this Letter, we experimentally investigate planar Nb junctions with an intrinsic phase shift and nonreciprocity induced by trapped Abrikosov vortices. We demonstrate that the entrance of a single Josephson vortex into such junctions triggers the switching between metastable ±π semifluxon states. We showcase controllable manipulation between these states using short current pulses and achieve a nondestructive readout by a nearby junction. Our observations pave the way toward ultrafast and energy-efficient digital Josephson electronics.

Probability Driven Double-Edge Triggered Multibit Flip Flop and Clock Gating Integration

Abstract: The project delves into the using of Double Edge-Triggered Multi-Bit Flip-Flops (DETMBFFs) alongside Data Driven Clock Gating (DDCG) techniques to bolster power efficiency in digital circuit designs. DETMBFFs enable the data Capture on Both Up and Down Swings of a clock, optimizing throughput while conserving power. By grouping multiple flip-flops and employing a shared clock driver, DETMBFFs minimize redundant clock signals and reduce energy usage. The integration of DDCG selectively disables clock signals based on data activity, further enhancing power efficiency. A novel algorithm, grounded in the ratio of the data to clock toggling and probability-driven grouping of flip-flops within DETMBFFs, is developed to optimize power consumption. Through implementation using Xilinx software tool, the combined approach achieves remarkable power savings ranging from 17% to 23%. This creative approach not only enhances power efficiency but also maintains design integrity,making it a compelling solution for low-power design challenges in digital systems.