How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

Advanced Location-Based Technologies and Services

Since the publication of the first edition in 2004, advances in mobile devices, positioning sensors, WiFi fingerprinting, and wireless communications, among others, have paved the way for developing new and advanced location-based services (LBSs). This second edition provides up-to-date information on LBSs, including WiFi fingerprinting, mobile computing, geospatial clouds, geospatial data mining, location privacy, and location-based social networking. It also includes new chapters on application areas such as LBSs for public health, indoor navigation, and advertising. In addition, the chapter on remote sensing has been revised to address advancements

Development of a Wheelchair Seat Cushion with Site-Specific Temperature Control for Pressure Ulcer Prevention

Pressure ulcers are prevalent and costly, particularly for individuals with impaired mobility and sensation. They are primarily caused by high pressure near bony prominences. Multiple other factors include shear force, friction, temperature, and moisture. Recent research at the University of Pittsburgh was conducted on local cooling effects with respect to skin blood flow. A reduction of skin temperature to 25°C provided a significant benefit to local tissue in healthy controls and subjects with spinal cord injuries. This concurs with prior animal studies which demonstrated reductions in breakdown at lower interface temperatures. Pressure ulcers have been historically managed by providing support surfaces, such as wheelchair seat cushions, to redistribute pressure at the body interface. Few practical interventions exist to control temperature at this interface; most employ passive cooling methods, which are limited by their inability to modulate applied cooling in response to changes in microenvironment. This study's goal was to develop tightly controlled, local cooling elements for integration into a pressure-redistributing support surface. A holistic view of temperature control methods in an iterative design process was taken. Features, benchmarks, and design specifications were generated using available information from the literature. Idea generation and subsequent evaluation led to the modification of a multi-cell air cushion capable of controlling temperature in specific high risk areas. Proof of concept experiments were conducted with respect to interface cooling to a target temperature, redistribution of pressure, and heat and water vapor transmission. The design delivered local cooling over hour-long trials on able-bodied test subjects. No significant difference in skin temperature (p>0.16) was found after 15 minutes of cooling from our target temperature (25°C). The modified cushion showed similar (p=0.79) peak pressure index values when compared to the same cushion design without the cooling elements. A thermodynamic rigid cushion loading indenter mimicked the environmental conditions of the body on our prototype for 3-hour duration tests. Significantly lower temperatures were observed after 1 hour of cooling (p<0.003). No effect was noted for relative humidity. These experiments successfully demonstrated plausible, integrated cooling elements in a multi-cell air cushion for the delivery of local cooling for pressure ulcer prevention

2015 - The Twentieth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars

The full program book from the Twentieth Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 16, 2015. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/sssprograms/1014/thumbnail.jp

Mechatronic Systems

Mechatronics, the synergistic blend of mechanics, electronics, and computer science, has evolved over the past twenty five years, leading to a novel stage of engineering design. By integrating the best design practices with the most advanced technologies, mechatronics aims at realizing high-quality products, guaranteeing at the same time a substantial reduction of time and costs of manufacturing. Mechatronic systems are manifold and range from machine components, motion generators, and power producing machines to more complex devices, such as robotic systems and transportation vehicles. With its twenty chapters, which collect contributions from many researchers worldwide, this book provides an excellent survey of recent work in the field of mechatronics with applications in various fields, like robotics, medical and assistive technology, human-machine interaction, unmanned vehicles, manufacturing, and education. We would like to thank all the authors who have invested a great deal of time to write such interesting chapters, which we are sure will be valuable to the readers. Chapters 1 to 6 deal with applications of mechatronics for the development of robotic systems. Medical and assistive technologies and human-machine interaction systems are the topic of chapters 7 to 13.Chapters 14 and 15 concern mechatronic systems for autonomous vehicles. Chapters 16-19 deal with mechatronics in manufacturing contexts. Chapter 20 concludes the book, describing a method for the installation of mechatronics education in schools

2015 Oklahoma Research Day Full Program

This document contains all abstracts from the 2015 Oklahoma Research Day held at Northeastern State University

Project BeARCAT : Baselining, Automation and Response for CAV Testbed Cyber Security : Connected Vehicle & Infrastructure Security Assessment

Connected, software-based systems are a driver in advancing the technology of transportation systems. Advanced automated and autonomous vehicles, together with electrification, will help reduce congestion, accidents and emissions. Meanwhile, vehicle manufacturers see advanced technology as enhancing their products in a competitive market. However, as many decades of using home and enterprise computer systems have shown, connectivity allows a system to become a target for criminal intentions. Cyber-based threats to any system are a problem; in transportation, there is the added safety implication of dealing with moving vehicles and the passengers within

2013 Oklahoma Research Day Full Program

This document contains all abstracts from the 2013 Oklahoma Research Day held at the University of Central Oklahoma

Segurança de informação para serviços de apoio social

Over the years, more people want their information available digitally, since it is more convenient, economical and faster to access than the physical format. However, there may be consequences in taking this action. How do we prevent certain people from gaining access to more sensitive data, or how do we ensure that there is no unauthorized manipulation of certain information? When developing a program that deals with private data transmissions, these are one of the many concerns of any programmer and should be well thought out and resolved. In this document we will analyze one possible solution for one of the most important components of any platform, the logging/auditing and respective access control, where one presents a technology that is not yet widely present outside its main area of application. The goal is to make it clear that it is feasible to use a technology that has been created for a specific purpose and to apply it in totally different scenarios. The platform that will be used as a basis for applying these ideas and concepts will be an application whose purpose is to assist its users and allowing them to communicate quickly and directly between them and their respective caregivers and that also will handle electronic health records.Cada vez mais, as pessoas querem a sua informação disponível digitalmente, visto que é mais cómodo, económico e rápido aceder do que o formato físico. No entanto, podem existir consequências ao adoptar esta medida. Como prevenimos que certas pessoas não consigam aceder a dados mais sensíveis ou como conseguimos garantir que não houve manipulações não autorizadas sobre certa informação? Ao desenvolver um programa que lida com transmissões de dados privados, estas são umas das várias preocupações de qualquer programador e devem ser bem pensadas e resolvidas. Neste documento iremos analisar uma solução possível para um dos mais importantes componentes de qualquer plataforma, o logging/auditoria e respectivo controlo de acesso, que apresenta uma tecnologia que ainda não se encontra muito presente fora da sua principal área de aplicação. O objetivo é que se dê a entender que é possível usar como base uma tecnologia que foi criada para um propósito específico e aplicá-la em cenários totalmente diferentes. A plataforma que será usada como base para aplicar estas ideias e conceitos será uma aplicação cujo propósito é prestar auxílio aos seus utilizadores e permitir a comunicação rápida e direta entre estes e os seus respetivos cuidadores e que também lidará com registos de saúde electrónicos.Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e Telemátic

2019 Oklahoma Research Day Full Program

Oklahoma Research Day 2019 - SWOSU Celebrating 20 years of Undergraduate Research Successes