Current Issue : April - June Volume : 2019 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 5 Articles
--NA--...
Background: The human activity monitoring technology is one of the most important\ntechnologies for ambient assisted living, surveillance-based security, sport and\nfitness activities, healthcare of elderly people. The activity monitoring is performed in\ntwo steps: the acquisition of body signals and the classification of activities being performed.\nThis paper presents a low-cost wearable wireless system specifically designed\nto acquire surface electromyography (sEMG) and accelerometer signals for monitoring\nthe human activity when performing sport and fitness activities, as well as in healthcare\napplications.\nResults: The proposed system consists of several ultralight wireless sensing nodes that\nare able to acquire, process and efficiently transmit the motion-related (biological and\naccelerometer) body signals to one or more base stations through a 2.4 GHz radio link\nusing an ad-hoc communication protocol designed on top of the IEEE 802.15.4 physical\nlayer. A user interface software for viewing, recording, and analysing the data was\nimplemented on a control personal computer that is connected through a USB link to\nthe base stations. To demonstrate the capability of the system of detecting the userâ??s\nactivity, data recorded from a few subjects were used to train and test an automatic\nclassifier for recognizing the type of exercise being performed. The system was tested\non four different exercises performed by three people, the automatic classifier achieved\nan overall accuracy of 85.7% combining the features extracted from acceleration and\nsEMG signals.\nConclusions: A low cost wireless system for the acquisition of sEMG and accelerometer\nsignals has been presented for healthcare and fitness applications. The system\nconsists of wearable sensing nodes that wirelessly transmit the biological and accelerometer\nsignals to one or more base stations. The signals so acquired will be combined\nand processed in order to detect, monitor and recognize human activities....
In resource-limited environments, such as those categorized as underdeveloped countries, telemedicine becomes\nviewed as effective channel for utilizing the scarce medical resources and infrastructures. The aim of this study was to assess\nknowledge and attitude toward telemedicine among cross section of health professionalsâ?? working in three hospitals in North\nWest Ethiopia. Methods. An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 312 health professionals working in\nthree different hospitals of North Gondar Administrative Zone during November 13 to December 10, 2017. Data were collected\nusing structured self-administered questionnaires. Data entry and analysis were done using SPSS version 20. The mean, percentage,\nand standard deviation were calculated to describe the characteristics of respondents. The chi-square test was used as\nappropriate, to evaluate the statistical significance of the differences between the responses of the participants. A P value of < 0.05\nwas considered significant. Result. A total of 312 study subjects were approached and included in the study from November 13 to\nDecember 10, and the response rate was 95.5%. The majority of respondents (195 (65.4%)) were male, and the majority of the\nrespondents (66.1%) were in the age group of 21â??29 years. A large number of respondents (224 (75%)) were bachelorâ??s degree\nholders. Only 37.6% of the respondents had demonstrated good knowledge of telemedicine, of which 74.1% were male, 65.2% of\nthem were in the age group of 20â??29 years, and 63.4% of them had >5 years of work experience. 191 (64.0%) respondents had good\nattitude toward telemedicine. Conclusion. The findings of the study suggest that although the respondentsâ?? knowledge of\ntelemedicine is limited, most of them have good attitude toward telemedicine. This study underlined the need of giving training on\ntelemedicine in order to fill the knowledge gap....
This paper demonstrates the performance of a potential design of a paper substrate-based\nflexible antenna for intrabody telemedicine systems in the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical\nradio (ISM) bands. The antenna was fabricated using 0.54 mm thick flexible photo paper and\n0.03 mm copper strips as radiating elements. Design and performance analyses of the antenna were\nperformed using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave Studio software. The antenna\nperformances were investigated based on the reflection coefficient in normal and bent conditions.\nThe total dimensions of the proposed antenna are 40 Ã? 35 Ã? 0.6 mm3. The antenna operates at\n2.33-2.53 GHz in the normal condition. More than an 8% fractional bandwidth is expressed by\nthe antenna. Computational analysis was performed at different flexible curvatures by bending\nthe antenna. The minimum fractional bandwidth deviation is 5.04% and the maximum is 24.97%.\nMoreover, it was mounted on a homogeneous phantom muscle and a four-layer human tissue\nphantom. Up to a 70% radiation efficiency with a 2 dB gain was achieved by the antenna. Finally,\nthe performance of the antenna with a homogeneous phantom muscle was measured and found\nreliable for wearable telemedicine applications....
Introduction. The rising incidence of mental illness and its impact on individuals, families, and societies is becoming a major\npublic health concern, especially in resource-constrained countries. Consequently, there is an increasing demand formental health\nservices in many middle- and low-income countries (LMIC). Challenges such as inequality in access, lack of staff and hospital\nbeds, and underfunding, often present in the LMIC, might in part be addressed by telemental health services. However, little is\nknown about telemental health in the LMIC. Methods. Asystematic reviewwas performed, drawing on several electronic databases,\nincluding PubMed, PsycINFO,Web of Science, Springer Link, andGoogle Scholar.Original English language studies on the practice\nof telemental health in LMIC, involving patients and published between 1 January 2000 and 16 February 2017, were included.\nResults. Nineteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Most of the articles were recent, which may reflect an increasing focus on\ntelemental health in the LMIC. Eight of these studieswere fromAsia. Eight of the studieswere interventional/randomized controlled\ntrials, and 11 examined general mental health issues. Videoconferencing was the most frequently (6) studied telemental modality.\nOther modalities studied were online decision support systems (3), text messaging and bibliotherapy (1), e-chatting combined\nwith videoconferencing (1), online therapy (2), e-counseling (1), store-and-forward technology (1), telephone follow-up (1), online\ndiscussion groups (1), audiovisual therapy and bibliotherapy (1), and computerized occupational therapy (1). Although many of\nthe studies showed that telemental services had positive outcomes, some studies reported no postintervention improvements.\nConclusion. The review shows a rising trend in telemental activity in the LMIC. There is a greater need for telemental health in\nthe LMIC, but more research is needed on empirical and theoretical aspects of telemental activity in the LMIC and on direct\ncomparisons between telemental activity in the LMIC and the non-LMIC....
Loading....