Non-portable Devices Research Articles

Biofilm on total joint replacement materials can be reduced through electromagnetic induction heating using a portable device

BackgroundPeriprosthetic joint infection is a serious complication following joint replacement. The development of bacterial biofilms bestows antibiotic resistance and restricts treatment via implant retention surgery. Electromagnetic induction heating is a novel technique for antibacterial treatment of metallic surfaces that has demonstrated in-vitro efficacy. Previous studies have always employed stationary, non-portable devices. This study aims to assess the in-vitro efficacy of induction-heating disinfection of metallic surfaces using a new Portable Disinfection System based on Induction Heating.MethodsMature biofilms of three bacterial species: S. epidermidis ATCC 35,984, S. aureus ATCC 25,923, E. coli ATCC 25,922, were grown on 18 × 2 mm cylindrical coupons of Titanium-Aluminium-Vanadium (Ti6Al4V) or Cobalt-chromium-molybdenum (CoCrMo) alloys. Study intervention was induction-heating of the coupon surface up to 70ºC for 210s, performed using the Portable Disinfection System (PDSIH). Temperature was monitored using thermographic imaging. For each bacterial strain and each metallic alloy, experiments and controls were conducted in triplicate. Bacterial load was quantified through scraping and drop plate techniques. Data were evaluated using non-parametric Mann-Whitney U test for 2 group comparison. Statistical significance was fixed at p ≤ 0.05.ResultsAll bacterial strains showed a statistically significant reduction of CFU per surface area in both materials. Bacterial load reduction amounted to 0.507 and 0.602 Log10 CFU/mL for S. aureus on Ti6Al4V and CoCrMo respectively, 5.937 and 3.500 Log10 CFU/mL for E. coli, and 1.222 and 0.372 Log10 CFU/mL for S. epidermidis.ConclusionsElectromagnetic induction heating using PDSIH is efficacious to reduce mature biofilms of S aureus, E coli and S epidermidis growing on metallic surfaces of Ti6Al4V and CoCrMo alloys.

MBBFAuth: Multimodal Behavioral Biometrics Fusion for Continuous Authentication on Non-Portable Devices

MBBFAuth: Multimodal Behavioral Biometrics Fusion for Continuous Authentication on Non-Portable Devices

Study of a Compton backscattering wall defects detection device using the Monte Carlo method

Abstract In view of the shortcomings of traditional wall defect detection methods, such as small detection range, poor accuracy, non-portable device, and so on, a wall defects detection device based on Compton backscattering technology is designed by Monte Carlo method, which is mainly used to detect the size and location information of defects in concrete walls. It mainly consists of two parts, the source container and the detection system: first, through the simulation and analysis of the parameters such as the receiving angle of the backscattered particles and the rear collimating material of the detector, the influence of the fluorescent X-ray peak of the detector collimating material on the backscattered particle counts is eliminated and the detected error is reduced; second, the ring array detector design, compared with single array detector and surface array detector, can facilitate real-time detection of defect orientation, expanding the single scan range and improving the detection efficiency. After simulation and comparative analysis, the relevant optimal parameters are obtained: the object is detected using a Cs-137 γ-ray source with an activity of 6 mCi, and a ring detector consisting of four 0.5-inch cube-shaped CsI scintillator detectors is placed at 150° to receive the backscattered photons. The simulation analysis using the Monte Carlo FLUKA program showed that the maximum depth of wall defect detection is 8 cm, the maximum error fluctuation range of defect depth and thickness is ±1 cm, the overall device weight is <20 kg, and the measurement time is <5 min.

Life-Space Mobility of Subjects With COPD on Long-Term Oxygen Therapy Delivered by Non-Portable Devices.

Mobility is human body movement in all its forms, including bed-to-chair transfer, walking, daily tasks, participating in work and social functions, exercising, and using public transport. The mobility of people living with COPD is affected negatively by the disease symptoms. However, limited data are available on the life-space mobility in people with COPD on long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT). This study aimed to explore the life-space mobility in subjects with COPD on LTOT and verify whether life-space mobility is associated with comorbidities and symptoms, activity in daily life, exercise capacity performance, and quality of life. This cross-sectional study enrolled 61 subjects with COPD on LTOT (73.0 ± 8.8 y, FEV1 41.7 ± 16.0% predicted, on LTOT for 2.8 ± 3.3 y). Life-space mobility (Life-Space Assessment), LTOT usage time, comorbidities (Charlson comorbidity index), need for support from a caregiver, exercise capacity (6-min step test), dyspnea (modified Medical Research Council scale), activities of daily living (ADLs, Katz scale), and health-related quality of life (EuroQol 5-Dimension Questionnaire) were assessed. Mobility restriction was identified in 90% of participants. Life-space mobility was negatively associated with the number of comorbidities (rs = -0.31, P = .02), dyspnea symptom (rs = -0.60, P < .001), and positively associated with basic ADLs performance (rs = 0.59, P < .001) and exercise capacity (rs = 0.49, P < .001). Dyspnea and exercise capacity were independent predictors of vital space mobility. Subjects with COPD on LTOT had limited life-space mobility. Interventions to reduce dyspnea and improve exercise capacity should be prioritized to increase this population's domestic and community mobility.

SoundWatch

Smartwatches have the potential to provide glanceable, always-available sound feedback to people who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). We present SoundWatch, a smartwatch-based deep learning application to sense, classify, and provide feedback about sounds occurring in the environment. To design SoundWatch, we first examined four low-resource sound classification models across four device architectures: watch-only, watch+phone, watch+phone+cloud, and watch+cloud. We found that the best model, VGG-lite, performed similar to the state of the art for nonportable devices although requiring substantially less memory (∼1/3 rd ) and that the watch+phone architecture provided the best balance among CPU, memory, network usage, and latency. Based on these results, we built and conducted a lab evaluation of our smartwatch app with eight DHH participants. We found support for our sound classification app but also uncovered concerns with misclassifications, latency, and privacy.

Chinese students’ access, use and perceptions of ICTs in learning mathematics: findings from an investigation of Shanghai secondary schools

Due to rapid social and economic development in China over the last three decades, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become increasingly available in Chinese classrooms and families. However, there is a lack of research regarding Chinese students’ use of ICTs in mathematics learning. In this study, we examined how Chinese students access, use, and perceive ICTs in learning mathematics. To this end, a conceptual framework for ICTs and the role of ICTs in students’ learning of mathematics was established. Using a mixed-methods approach, we collected data from 223 students in four randomly selected secondary schools in Shanghai through a questionnaire survey, followed by classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers. The results revealed that various ICTs are widely accessible in Shanghai classrooms and students overall have a positive view about the role of ICTs in their mathematics learning, especially in problem solving and in learning geometry. When learning mathematics at home, students used handheld technological devices more frequently than non-portable devices. Furthermore, there were significant differences between different students in terms of school performance levels, grade levels, and genders in their use of ICTs in learning mathematics. In particular, students from high-performing schools had more access to various ICTs but used them less frequently than their peers from ordinary schools. Suggestions and implications of the findings are discussed at the end of the paper.

Homecare-Oriented ECG Diagnosis With Large-Scale Deep Neural Network for Continuous Monitoring on Embedded Devices

The accurate electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation is important for several potentially life-threatening cardiac diseases. Recently developed deep learning methods show their ability to distinguish some severe heart diseases. However, since deep neural network requires a high cost on memory consumption and computation, implementation scenarios of these interpretation methods are constrained to nonportable devices. Few commercial portable devices only have heartbeat detection ability, and therefore, only a few simple cardiac diseases can be diagnosed. In this article, to achieve diagnosing a wide range of cardiac diseases and continuous monitoring, a homecare-oriented ECG diagnosis platform is designed based on a large-scale multilabel deep conventional neural network. The accuracy of the proposed neural network model is guaranteed by our constructed large-scale ECG dataset, which is comprised of 206 468 standard 12-lead ECG recordings from 89 488 patients, with respect to 26 types of most common heart rhythms and conduction abnormalities. Meanwhile, targeting lightweight homecare or wearable applications, algorithm-hardware co-optimization is conducted to accelerate the model computation on an embedded platform with field-programmable gate array (FPGA) for continuous monitoring. Channel-level pruning and parameters quantization strategy are employed to optimize the network, and a reconfigurable accelerator hardware architecture is designed to accelerate the convolution computation on FPGA. The final quantified model achieved a promising <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$F_{1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> score of 0.913% and 86.7% exact match ratio, in which parameters and floating-point operations per second (FLOPs) are significantly penalized compared to the original large-scale model. Real-time analysis is performed. Specifically, the average processing time for each ECG record is 2.895 s, and it can be applied to homecare or portable ECG diagnosis devices for continuous monitoring.

Minimization of Leakage Currents in Dram 4x4 Using SVL Technique

In recent years, due to development of integrated circuits technology, power is being given comparable weight to area and speed considerations. The power consumed for any given function in any complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuit must be reduced for either of the two different reasons. One is to reduce heat dissipation in order to allow a large density of functions to be incorporated on an Integrated Circuit (IC) chip. Any amount of power dissipation is worthwhile as long as it does not degrade overall circuit performance. The other reason is to save energy in battery operated instruments like in electronic watches where average power is in microwatts. Low power is the major issue not only in portable devices but also in non-portable devices. So, it is apparent that one has to resolve low power design methodologies for the design of high throughput, low power digital systems. By using this SVL technique using DRAM we are going to reduce the leakage currents and also improves the performance of the circuit.

A pilot study for smartphone photography to assess bleb morphology and vasculature post-trabeculectomy.

PurposeThe current grading systems used for bleb morphology assessment in patients post-trabeculectomy are based on standardized slit-lamp photographs and anterior segment imaging devices. The lack of availability of these expensive and non-portable devices in resource-deficient settings is a significant deterrent in their widespread utilization for proper post-operative management. The rapidly evolving utilization of smartphone photography has significantly benefited diagnostics of posterior segment disorders and is now being increasingly utilized for monitoring anterior segment pathologies as well as post-surgical course. In this study, we study a novel use of smartphones for bleb photography for assessing the morphological characteristics as vascularity and microcysts.MethodsIn this pilot, observational study, we compared the trabeculectomy bleb images of five subjects, obtained by iPhone X (dual lens) and iPhone 6S (single lens). We captured two image sets with both smartphones first with a focussed torchlight and then with a built-in flash video light.ResultsThe images resulting from the newer iPhone X were substantially superior than those from iPhone 6S. For the 12-megapixel dual-camera set-up on the iPhone X, the 1 × lens resulted in better images than the 2 × lens with contrast and overall clarity of the area of interest. While the macro-lens attachment had promising results at 1 × zoom, there is no added advantage of the macro-lens attachment as it resulted in considerable loss of image quality at twice the zoom. Using a 20 D lens helped attain higher magnification and better framing as it reduced the focussing distance needed to get sharp images. The images obtained from both smartphones were of higher quality when illuminated from an external source when compared to the native iPhone flash due to even exposure and fewer autofocus artefacts.ConclusionAnalyses of all image sets showed that the current generation in-built camera app on IOS and newer iPhone camera optics resulted in high-quality images of the ocular surface with high magnification without any loss in clarity.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s10792-020-01598-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Sleep and screen exposure across the beginning of life: deciphering the links using big-data analytics.

Evidence for the association between screen time and insufficient sleep is bourgeoning, and recent findings suggest that these associations may be more pronounced in younger compared to older children, and for portable compared to non-portable devices. However, these effects have yet to be investigated within the beginning of life. Importantly, there are no data for the relationship between screen exposure and objectively measured infant sleep. This study examined the moderating role of age for both touchscreens' and television's relationship with sleep, using auto-videosomnography within a big-data sample of infants. The sleep of 1074 infants (46% girls) aged 0-18 months was objectively assessed using computer-vision technology in this cross-sectional study. Sleep was additionally reported by parents in an online survey, as was infant exposure to screens. Age significantly moderated the relationship between daytime touchscreen exposure and sleep with a distinct pattern for younger infants, in which screen exposure was associated with decreased daytime sleep, but with a proposed compensatory increase in nighttime sleep consolidation. Compared to touchscreens, television exposure was less likely to be associated with sleep metrics, and age moderated this relationship only for daytime and 24-hour sleep duration. In young infants, a daytime-nighttime sleep "trade-off" emerged, suggesting that the displacement of daytime sleep by screens may lead to greater accumulation of sleep homeostatic pressure, which in turn facilitates more consolidated nighttime sleep.

5.37 ASSOCIATIONS OF SCREEN TIME AND DEPRESSION IN CHILDREN IN A US NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE

The relationship between screen time and mood in children is less well-known compared with its relationship to obesity and sleep. The study aimed to compare the associations of screen time using portable versus nonportable devices with depression in children.

A User-centered Smartphone Application for Wireless EEG and its Role in Epilepsy

Electroencephalography is well-known for its importance in the diagnosis and treatment of mental and neurological disorders and abnormalities, being especially noted in critically ill patients who suffer a variety of cerebral injuries and altered states of consciousness. However, there is an important lack of adapted equipment and applications designed to suit the clinical and research needs. Hence, patients, physicians and researchers suffer, in most cases, from a restricted mobility due to non-portable devices and wires which keep them attached to the bed, leading to an uncomfortable patient experience or difficulties during the recording. In addition, nowadays, both physicians and researchers need to access the recordings and patient information from different places such as different units or hospitals. To solve this problem, this paper presents the design and evaluation of the high-fidelity prototype of a wireless EEG smartphone application based on a user-centred design, including expert panel guidance, paper and high-fidelity prototyping and usability testing, which confirm the accuracy of the defined context of use and the validity of the prototyped application to suit the clinical and research needs. In fact, since the EEG is the most efficient and specific way to define the epileptogenic cortex, we will focus on the possible use of the presented App in epilepsy diagnosis, which is one of the main targets in the field.

Associations between screen time and sleep duration are primarily driven by portable electronic devices: evidence from a population-based study of U.S. children ages 0–17

Study objectivesExcessive screen time in child and adolescent populations is associated with short sleep duration, but the unique effects of portable vs. non-portable electronic devices has received little attention. Moreover, it is unknown whether the effects of these devices change across childhood. To address these gaps, the current study compared the association of portable vs. non-portable electronic devices with sleep duration throughout childhood. MethodsData were from a 2016 national survey of the caregivers of 43,755 children and adolescents ages 0–17 administered by the U.S. Census Bureau. ResultsChildren and adolescents who spent more time on screens slept fewer hours and were more likely to get insufficient sleep. In multivariate regressions including time spent on TV and video game consoles and portable electronic devices, associations with sleep duration were primarily due to portable electronic devices. These results remained when demographic variables, diagnoses of anxiety or depression, physical activity, and BMI were included in the model. Moreover, time spent using both portable and non-portable devices was important for sleep duration in children under age 10, but the importance of non-portable devices diminished in children over 10. ConclusionsSpending multiple hours a day on electronic devices is associated with shorter sleep duration across all ages. However, portable electronic devices have a stronger association with sleep duration than non-portable electronic screens, with non-portable devices less relevant for sleep duration in children over age 10. The findings suggest that future interventions should uniquely target portable electronic devices while also accounting for the age group of children targeted.

CMOS based capacitance to digital converter circuit for MEMS sensor

Most of the MEMS cantilever based system required costly instruments for characterization, processing and also has large experimental setups which led to non-portable device. So there is a need of low cost, highly sensitive, high speed and portable digital system. The proposed Capacitance to Digital Converter (CDC) interfacing circuit converts capacitance to digital domain which can be easily processed. Recent demand microcantilever deflection is part per trillion ranges which change the capacitance in 1-10 femto farad (fF) range. The entire CDC circuit is designed using CMOS 250nm technology. Design of CDC circuit consists of a D-latch and two oscillators, namely Sensor controlled oscillator (SCO) and digitally controlled oscillator (DCO). The D-latch is designed using transmission gate based MUX for power optimization. A CDC design of 7-stage, 9-stage and 11-stage tested for 1-18 fF and simulated using mentor graphics Eldo tool with parasitic. Since the proposed design does not use resistance component, the total power dissipation is reduced to 2.3621 mW for CDC designed using 9-stage SCO and DCO.

Low-cost movement analysis in children with specific learning disorders: A two-case report

In child rehabilitation, there is a need for assessment tools able to detect even small deficits and subtle changes in order toplan and verify the rehabilitative programme. However, as current methods are mainly based on optoelectronic expensiveand non-portable devices, they tend to lack practicality and/or reliability and good validation. We present two cases ofchildren with a specific learning disorder involving writing skills; both received treatment to improve their motor andvisuomotor skills involved in the act of writing. In addition to neuropsychological testing, the assessment included a new noninvasive method, based on quantitative videoanalysis of arm movement during a maze task; moreover, parent and teacherwere interviewed. The low-cost method seems promising, but it seems to measure something different from the perceptionof teachers and parents and from commonly used neuropsychological tests.Keywords: Rehabilitation, child, visuomotor skills, neuropsychological tests.

Augmented Reality for Real-Time Detection and Interpretation of Colorimetric Signals Generated by Paper-Based Biosensors.

Colorimetric tests are becoming increasingly popular in point-of-need analyses due to the possibility of detecting the signal with the naked eye, which eliminates the utilization of bulky and costly instruments only available in laboratories. However, colorimetric tests may be interpreted incorrectly by nonspecialists due to disparities in color perception or a lack of training. Here we solve this issue with a method that not only detects colorimetric signals but also interprets them so that the test outcome is understandable for anyone. It consists of an augmented reality (AR) app that uses a camera to detect the colored signals generated by a nanoparticle-based immunoassay, and that yields a warning symbol or message when the concentration of analyte is higher than a certain threshold. The proposed method detected the model analyte mouse IgG with a limit of detection of 0.3 μg mL-1, which was comparable to the limit of detection afforded by classical densitometry performed with a nonportable device. When adapted to the detection of E. coli, the app always yielded a "hazard" warning symbol when the concentration of E. coli in the sample was above the infective dose (106 cfu mL-1 or higher). The proposed method could help nonspecialists make a decision about drinking from a potentially contaminated water source by yielding an unambiguous message that is easily understood by anyone. The widespread availability of smartphones along with the inexpensive paper test that requires no enzymes to generate the signal makes the proposed assay promising for analyses in remote locations and developing countries.

SonicCare: A new low-cost and portable device for medical tele-ultrasonography on underserved areas

Medical ultrasound has proven to be superior to other imaging modalities while scanning underserved areas. Compared to the alternatives, it is fast, safe, portable, and inexpensive. The objective of the present work is to assess the performance of a newly designed, portable, low cost and network-ready ultrasonic imaging device which can be taken to rural and underserved locations for medical diagnostic and screening: SonicCare. First, a brief description of its advantages and a comparison against two commercial ultrasonography devices while scanning a tissue mimicking phantom is presented and discussed. For experimental quality assurance, the dead zone, spatial measurement calibration, spatial resolution, functional resolution and dynamic range were tested while scanning an ATS 539 multipurpose rubber based phantom. Also, clinical image quality tests were performed on two local and one rural health services facilities. Measured dimensions and image based screening on liver, gallbladder and kidney were performed. To assess the correlation between devices' measurements, the Bland-Altman method was used. The experimental quality assurance tests revealed a mean measurement error of 4.7% and a coefficient of variability of 5% while the clinical imaging test revealed that the cross-correlation precision against a clinical non-portable device was ±8.5 mm.

Flu Campaign Receives Excellence Award: Underscores Importance of Educating Pregnant Women about Flu Vaccination

Excessive screen time in child and adolescent populations is associated with short sleep duration, but the unique effects of portable vs. non-portable electronic devices has received little attention. Moreover, it is unknown whether the effects of these devices change across childhood. To address these gaps, the current study compared the association of portable vs. non-portable electronic devices with sleep duration throughout childhood.Data were from a 2016 national survey of the caregivers of 43,755 children and adolescents ages 0–17 administered by the U.S. Census Bureau.Children and adolescents who spent more time on screens slept fewer hours and were more likely to get insufficient sleep. In multivariate regressions including time spent on TV and video game consoles and portable electronic devices, associations with sleep duration were primarily due to portable electronic devices. These results remained when demographic variables, diagnoses of anxiety or depression, physical activity, and BMI were included in the model. Moreover, time spent using both portable and non-portable devices was important for sleep duration in children under age 10, but the importance of non-portable devices diminished in children over 10.Spending multiple hours a day on electronic devices is associated with shorter sleep duration across all ages. However, portable electronic devices have a stronger association with sleep duration than non-portable electronic screens, with non-portable devices less relevant for sleep duration in children over age 10. The findings suggest that future interventions should uniquely target portable electronic devices while also accounting for the age group of children targeted.