Cloud enabled fractal based ECG compression in wireless body sensor networks

E-health applications deal with a huge amount of biological signals such as ECG generated by body sensor networks (BSN). Moreover, many healthcare organizations require access to these records. Therefore, cloud is widely used in healthcare systems to serve as a central service repository. To minimize the traffic going to and coming from cloud ECG compression is one of the proposed solutions to overcome this problem. In this paper, a new fractal based ECG lossy compression technique is proposed. It is found that the ECG signal self-similarity characteristic can be used efficiently to achieve high compression ratios. The proposed technique is based on modifying the popular fractal model to be used in compression in conjunction with the iterated function system. The ECG signal is divided into equal blocks called range blocks. Subsequently, another down-sampled copy of the ECG signal is created which is called domain. For each range block the most similar block in the domain is found. As a result, fractal coefficients (i.e. parameters defining fractal compression model) are calculated and stored inside the compressed file for each ECG signal range block. In order to make our technique cloud friendly, the decompression operation is designed in such a way that allows the user to retrieve part of the file (i.e. ECG segment) without decompressing the whole file. Therefore, the clients do not need to download the full compressed file before they can view the result. The proposed algorithm has been implemented and compared with other existing lossy ECG compression techniques. It is found that the proposed technique can achieve a higher compression ratio of 40 with lower Percentage Residual Difference (PRD) Value less than 1%.     

Body weight management effect of burdock (Arctium lappa L.) root is associated with the activation of AMP-activated protein kinase in human HepG2 cells

Burdock (Arcticum lappa L.) root is used in folk medicine and also as a vegetable in Asian countries. In the present study, burdock root treatment significantly reduced body weight in rats. To evaluate the bioactive compounds, we successively extracted the burdock root with ethanol (AL-1), and fractionated it with n-hexane (AL-2), ethyl acetate (AL-3), n-butanol (AL-4), and water (AL-5). Among these fractions, AL-2 contained components with the most effective hypolipidemic potential in human hepatoma HepG2 cells. AL-2 decreased the expression of fatty acid synthase (FASN) and inhibited the activity of acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (ACC) by stimulating AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) through the LKB1 pathway. Three active compounds were identified from the AL-2, namely α-linolenic acid, methyl α-linolenate, and methyl oleate. These results suggest that burdock root is expected to be useful for body weight management.     

薄壁包装盒底注塑模具设计

薄壁塑件的应用主要是节约材料,其模具设计与通常成型模具有着不同要求.包装盒壁厚仅有1.0mm,就盒底模具设计中结构设计、浇注、冷却、排气和脱模等部分进行了分析,并将设计方案作了详细的阐述.模具经过实践证明:结构合理,产品无变形等缺陷,受到用户的认同.     

Effects of an electric blanket on sleep stages and body temperature in young men

The aim of this study was to investigate any effects of electric blanket on sleep stages and body temperature. Nine male subjects slept under two conditions: using the electric blanket (HB); and not using the electric blanket (C). The ambient condition was controlled at 3°C relative humidity 50?–?80%. Electroencephalography, electrooculography (EOG) and electromyography, rectal temperature, skin temperature and microclimate temperature and humidity were recorded continuously through the night. Body weight was measured before and after sleep. The amount of stage 1 and number of stage 1 and rapid eye movement sleep decreased in HB compared to C. No significant difference was observed in other sleep stages. Rectal temperature was higher in HB compared to C. The thigh, leg and foot skin temperature was higher in HB than C. The microclimate temperature of the foot area was higher in HB compared to C. No significant difference was observed in whole body sweat loss between the conditions. These results suggest that use of an electric blanket under low ambient temperature may decrease cold stress to support sleep stability and thermoregulation during sleep.     

Nrityabodha: Towards understanding Indian classical dance using a deep learning approach

Indian classical dance has existed since over 5000 years and is widely practised and performed all over the world. However, the semantic meaning of the dance gestures and body postures as well as the intricate steps accompanied by music and recital of poems is only understood fully by the connoisseur. The common masses who watch a concert rarely appreciate or understand the ideas conveyed by the dancer. Can machine learning algorithms aid a novice to understand the semantic intricacies being expertly conveyed by the dancer? In this work, we aim to address this highly challenging problem and propose deep learning based algorithms to identify body postures and hand gestures in order to comprehend the intended meaning of the dance performance. Specifically, we propose a convolutional neural network and validate its performance on standard datasets for poses and hand gestures as well as on constrained and real-world datasets of classical dance. We use transfer learning to show that the pre-trained deep networks can reduce the time taken during training and also improve accuracy. Interestingly, we show with experiments performed using Kinect in constrained laboratory settings and data from Youtube that it is possible to identify body poses and hand gestures of the performer to understand the semantic meaning of the enacted dance piece.     

Reproducibility of body temperature response to standardized test conditions when assessing clothing

Abstract

The traditional use of core temperature to assess the thermal effects of clothing has recently been questioned. The purpose of this study was to assess the reproducibility of body temperature in five subjects (mean age, 226 ± 1-5 yrs) wearing either athletic clothing or a chemical protective overgarment while exercising at 20°C and at 40°C. The exercise was preceded by a 1 h adaptation period in a controlled environmental chamber. Results indicated that mean group change in rectal temperature (δT_r ) appeared to be reproducible for both garment ensembles at 20°C but not at 40°C. For mean change in oesophageal temperature ( δT_oes ) at 20°C, reproducibility was obtained for the overgarment but not for the athletic garment; at 40°C, mean δT_oes appeared to be reproducible with both garments. However, when individual responses were examined, there was little reproducibility for either δT_r or δT_oes . In addition, these measurements failed to show differences in the types of clothing worn. It was concluded that the use of core temperature to assess heat stress imposed by wearing clothing during exercise may lead to erroneous conclusions.     

Social networks’ unnoticed influence on body image in Spanish university students

The influence of advertising on social networks and its effect on young people’s self-image has been studied. This study first explored the frequency of published videos reposted on social networks using different Application Programming Interfaces as search engines. The study also implemented self-valuation surveys assessed by experts and distributed among mental health professionals who assessed the influence of these social networks. Finally, the survey was designed regarding social networks and body assessment and distributed among Córdoba university students (N = 328). The majority of health professionals concluded that there is an elevated influence of social networks on eating disorders, assessing advertising as a risk factor with a value of 4.60 out of 5. Young people’s perceptions of their body image indicate that women’s degree of satisfaction is highly correlated with the frequency of their connections to social networks, with the body image those women present and with the effect of advertising. Conversely, this high correlation and influence does not exist in men.     

Epidemiology of moderate-to-severe injury patterns observed in rollover crashes

BackgroundPrevious epidemiological studies have highlighted the high risk of injury to the head, thorax, and cervical spine in rollover crashes. However, such results provide limited information on whole-body injury distribution and multiple region injury patterns necessary for the improvement and prioritization of rollover-focused injury countermeasures.MethodsSampled cases representing approximately 133,000 U.S. adult occupants involved in rollover crashes (between 1995 and 2013) sustaining moderate-to-severe injuries were selected from the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data System database. A retrospective cohort study, based on a survey of population-based data, was used to identify relevant whole body injury patterns.ResultsAmong belted occupants injured in rollover crashes, 79.2% sustained injuries to only one body region. The three most frequently injured (AIS2+) body regions were head (42.1%), upper extremity (28.0%), and thorax (27.1%). The most frequent multi-region injury pattern involved the head and upper extremity, but this pattern only accounted for 2.3% of all of occupants with moderate or worse injuries.ConclusionsThe results indicated that for rollover-dominated crashes, the frequently observed injury patterns involved isolated body regions. In contrast, multi-region injury patterns are more frequently observed in rollovers with significant planar impacts. Identification of region-specific injury patterns in pure rollover crashes is essential for clarifying injury mitigation targets and developing whole-body injury metrics specifically applicable to rollovers.     

基于Android操作系统的实时系统监控研究Research for real-time system monitor based on Android system 石鑫, 夏青

针对大多数监控系统对实时性,稳定性,可操作性等要求,在Android嵌入式操作系统中,集成传感网模块,设计普通、紧急监控模块,剖析Android内核调度器工作原理等方法,提出了一种新的嵌入式实时监控系统。以体域网系统监控为平台进行测试,结果表明,该方案满足对网络监控实时性,可靠性的要求,方法具有良好的扩展性,利于向智能家居、物联网等领域中推广。     

基于数据挖掘的焊接方法提取

在白车身工艺规划过程中,积累了大量车身焊接工艺数据。为了提取这些知识采用数据挖掘方法发现其中所需的工艺规则。首先采用粗糙集对工艺属性进行约简,删除对工艺决策没有影响的属性;然后采用关联规则挖掘对焊接方法有影响的工艺规则;最后用实例验证了该方法的有效性。