Maintaining the Integrity Over Wear Time of a Hydrocolloid-based Ostomy Adhesive Whilst Maintaining Skin Barrier Function

In this extensive body of work, a thorough exploration delves into hydrocolloid based adhesives, with a focus on addressing challenges faced by stoma patients, particularly the susceptibility of ostomy adhesives to breakdown upon exposure to liquids. Stoma patients, compelled to wear pouching systems continuously, encounter issues like the compromise of skin barrier integrity, leading to medical adhesive-related skin injuries. The primary objective of this thesis is to reinforce the structural integrity of ostomy adhesives while preserving the skin barrier during pouching system use, an aspect often overlooked in current literature due to the hydrophilic nature of hydrocolloid based adhesives. The study introduces novel aims, examining the potential link between handedness and the preferred direction of adhesive removal, and its impact on peristomal skin complications as well as a novel skin capacitive imagery stitching technique. Another goal involves developing hierarchical structures on adhesive surfaces to enhance integrity, initial tack, and minimize skin contact for optimal skin health. The introduction provides a detailed breakdown of hydrocolloid-based ostomy adhesives, stoma anatomy, and the purpose of pouching systems. A comprehensive literature review, utilizing the PICO approach, encompasses stoma anatomy, physiology, indications for stoma surgery, and methods for assessing skin health. The review explores various methodologies to improve the durability of hydrocolloid-based adhesives, incorporating hydrodynamics, crosslinking, and layering systems. The potential influence of handedness on adhesive removal techniques is examined, considering its impact on peristomal skin complications. Results reveal the consistent performance of Welland Medical Ltd.'s hydrocolloid based adhesive but highlight the need for improved integrity over wear time. Strategies include modifying sodium-carboxymethylcellulose degree of substitution and increasing pectin degree of esterification, resulting in enhanced fluid handling capabilities and reduced susceptibility to degradation. Residual testing indicates that residual particles on the skin can impair the barrier function, remedied by a silicone-based adhesive remover. Surveys show that a patient's dominant hand and following the skin's natural langer lines during adhesive removal may minimize skin trauma. The results also show that structured surface profiles on hydrocolloid-based adhesive surfaces impact the skin's functional barrier recovery time. The research goal of this project and its objectives have been reached, the approaches have been explained clearly and implementations have been assessed using experimental findings. This project's findings contribute to advancements in ostomy care by enhancing adhesive performance, understanding patient behaviour, and improving the overall user experience. It also facilitates the efficient detachment of the adhesive from the skin surface

Haptics: Science, Technology, Applications

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications, EuroHaptics 2020, held in Leiden, The Netherlands, in September 2020. The 60 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 111 submissions. The were organized in topical sections on haptic science, haptic technology, and haptic applications. This year's focus is on accessibility

Non-invasive vascular assessment using photoplethysmography

Photoplethysmography (PPG) has become widely accepted as a valuable clinical tool for performing non-invasive biomedical monitoring. The dominant clinical application of PPG has been pulse oximetry, which uses spectral analysis of the peripheral blood supply to establish haemoglobin saturation. PPG has also found success in screening for venous dysfunction, though to a limited degree. Arterial Disease (AD) is a condition where blood flow in the arteries of the body is reduced,a condition known as ischaernia. Ischaernia can result in pain in the affected areas, such as chest pain for an ischearnic heart, but does not always produce symptoms. The most common form of AD is arteriosclerosis, which affects around 5% of the population over 50 years old. Arteriosclerosis, more commonly known as 'hardening of the arteries' is a condition that results in a gradual thickening, hardening and loss of elasticity in the walls of the arteries, reducing overall blood flow. This thesis investigates the possibility of employing PPG to perform vascular assessment, specifically arterial assessment, in two ways. PPG based perfusion monitoring may allow identification of ischaernia in the periphery. To further investigate this premise, prospective experimental trials are performed, firstly to assess the viability of PPG based perfusion monitoring and culminating in the development of a more objective method for determining ABPI using PPG based vascular assessment. A complex interaction between the heart and the connective vasculature, detected at the measuring site, generates the PPG signal. The haemodynamic properties of the vasculature will affect the shape of the PPG waveform, characterising the PPG signal with the properties of the intermediary vasculature. This thesis investigates the feasibility of deriving quantitative vascular parameters from the PPG signal. A quantitative approach allows direct identification of pathology, simplifying vascular assessment. Both forward and inverse models are developed in order to investigate this topic. Application of the models in prospective experimental trials with both normal subjects and subjects suffering PVD have shown encouraging results. It is concluded that the PPG signal contains information on the connective vasculature of the subject. PPG may be used to perform vascular assessment using either perfusion based techniques, where the magnitude of the PPG signal is of interest, or by directly assessing the connective vasculature using PPG, where the shape of the PPG signal is of interest. it is argued that PPG perfusion based techniques for performing the ABPI diagnosis protocol can offer greater sensitivity to the onset of PAD, compared to more conventional methods. It is speculated that the PPG based ABPI diagnosis protocol could provide enhanced PAD diagnosis, detecting the onset of the disease and allowing a treatmenpt lan to be formed soonert han was possible previously. The determination of quantitative vascular parameters using PPG shape could allow direct vascular diagnosis, reducing subjectivity due to interpretation. The prospective trials investigating PPG shape analysis concentrated on PVD diagnosis, but it is speculated that quantitative PPG shaped based vascular assessment could be a powerful tool in the diagnosis of many vascular based pathological conditions

NASA SBIR abstracts of 1991 phase 1 projects

The objectives of 301 projects placed under contract by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are described. These projects were selected competitively from among proposals submitted to NASA in response to the 1991 SBIR Program Solicitation. The basic document consists of edited, non-proprietary abstracts of the winning proposals submitted by small businesses. The abstracts are presented under the 15 technical topics within which Phase 1 proposals were solicited. Each project was assigned a sequential identifying number from 001 to 301, in order of its appearance in the body of the report. Appendixes to provide additional information about the SBIR program and permit cross-reference of the 1991 Phase 1 projects by company name, location by state, principal investigator, NASA Field Center responsible for management of each project, and NASA contract number are included

Ubiquitous haptic feedback in human-computer interaction through electrical muscle stimulation

[no abstract

The effect of work related mechanical stress on the peripheral temperature of the hand

The evolution and developments in modern industry have resulted a wide range of occupational activities, some of which can lead to industrial injuries. Due to the activities of occupational medicine, much progress has been made in transforming the way that operatives perform their tasks. However there are still many occupations where manual tasks have become more repetitive, contributing to the development of conditions that affect the upper limbs. Repetitive Strain Injury is one classification of those conditions which is related to overuse of repetitive movement. Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome is a subtype of this classification directly related to the operation of instruments and machinery which involves vibration. These conditions affect a large number of individuals, and are costly in terms of work absence, loss of income and compensation. While such conditions can be difficult to avoid, they can be monitored and controlled, with prevention usually the least expensive solution. In medico-legal situations it may be difficult to determine the location or the degree of injury, and therefore determining the relevant compensation due is complicated by the absence of objective and quantifiable methods. This research is an investigation into the development of an objective, quantitative and reproducible diagnostic procedure for work related upper limb disorders. A set of objective mechanical provocation tests for the hands have been developed that are associated with vascular challenge. Infrared thermal imaging was used to monitor the temperature changes using a well defined capture protocol. Normal reference values have been measured and a computational tool used to facilitate the process and standardise image processing. These objective tests have demonstrated good discrimination between groups of healthy controls and subjects with work related injuries but not individuals, p<0.05, and are reproducible. A maximum value for thermal symmetry of 0.5±0.3ºC for the whole upper limbs has been established for use as a reference. The tests can be used to monitor occupations at risk, aiming to reduce the impact of these conditions, reducing work related injury costs, and providing early detection. In a medico-legal setting this can also provide important objective information in proof of injury and ultimately in objectively establishing whether or not there is a case for compensation

Haptics: Science, Technology, Applications

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications, EuroHaptics 2020, held in Leiden, The Netherlands, in September 2020. The 60 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 111 submissions. The were organized in topical sections on haptic science, haptic technology, and haptic applications. This year's focus is on accessibility

A computational approach to gestural interactions of the upper limb on planar surfaces

There are many compelling reasons for proposing new gestural interactions: one might want to use a novel sensor that affords access to data that couldn’t be previously captured, or transpose a well-known task into a different unexplored scenario. After an initial design phase, the creation, optimisation or understanding of new interactions remains, however, a challenge. Models have been used to foresee interaction properties: Fitts’ law, for example, accurately predicts movement time in pointing and steering tasks. But what happens when no existing models apply? The core assertion to this work is that a computational approach provides frameworks and associated tools that are needed to model such interactions. This is supported through three research projects, in which discriminative models are used to enable interactions, optimisation is included as an integral part of their design and reinforcement learning is used to explore motions users produce in such interactions

Searching for Sounds: Instrumental Agency and Modularity in Electroacoustic Improvisation

In their radical departure from conventional instrumental technique and standardized instruments themselves, the practices of electroacoustic improvisation present a particular challenge to prevalent Western concepts of musical instruments. These concepts—which generally treat instruments as fixed objects—are ill-equipped to account for the ways in which electroacoustic improvisers foreground the agency of their instruments and abandon the quest for “mastery” typical especially of classical attitudes. Additionally, electroacoustic improvisers often approach instruments not as singular, self-contained, and static in their materiality, but rather as modular instrumentaria capable of myriad states and ever in flux, similarly problematizing conventional conceptions that view the physical constitutions of instruments as static and circumscribed. After considering common concepts of musical instruments, presenting apparent failures of these concepts, and arguing for the necessity of a new organology, I introduce the practices of electroacoustic improvisation, situating their emergence in Group Ongaku (formed in Tokyo in 1958) and AMM (formed in London in 1965). Drawing from the writings and interviews of the musicians of these groups, I suggest several significant attributes of electroacoustic improvisation, including the formative influence of electronics, the incorporation of free improvisation, the tendency toward a composite group sound and away from featured soloists, and especially the ways in which electroacoustic improvisers cultivate instrumental agency and modularity. After tracing connections between the development of these practices and their flourishing in the work of subsequent generations of improvisers in Berlin, Boston, London, Tokyo, Vienna, and elsewhere, I examine how these practices reveal themselves in performances by contemporary electroacoustic improvisers, paying particular attention to the dynamic relationships performers exhibit with their instrumentaria. At the heart of this study are in-depth analyses of three performances: first, a performance by the longtime duo of Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M; next, a first-time collaboration between Olivia Block and Maria Chavez; and finally, a performance by AMM celebrating their fiftieth anniversary. In presenting these analyses, I attempt to focus attention on a significant movement in contemporary creative musical practices and suggest ways in which these practices may be understood. I furthermore propose concepts of musical instruments suitable for addressing the ways in which these musicians use them but that can also be applied to uses of instruments in diverse situations. I argue that, although electroacoustic improvisers foreground instrumental agency and modularity, these aspects always already exist in myriad contexts