Development of a surrogate bruising detection system to describe potential bruising patterns associated with common childhood falls.

Child abuse is a leading cause of fatality in children aged 0-4 years. An estimated 1,700 children die annually as a result of child abuse of which threequarters (75.7%) of the children were younger than 4 years old1. Infants (younger than 1 year) had the highest rate of fatalities among the group. Many of the serious injuries and fatalities could have potentially been prevented if clinicians and child protective services were able to better distinguish between injuries associated with abuse versus those caused by accidents. Missed cases of child abuse have been shown to be as high as 71% of all admitted cases, where children are presented at hospitals for their injuries and not evaluated as being abused 2. Additionally, when child abuse is legally pursued for criminal charges, a little more than half of the cases move forward to prosecution as opposed to being screened out for reasons including the need for further investigation or insufficient evidence 3. Therefore there is a need to provide clinicians, child protective services and law enforcement personnel with improved knowledge related to the types of injuries that are possible from common household accidents that are often reported to be the underlying cause of injury in child abuse. Bruising is an early sign of abuse, and can be an effective indicator of child abuse. Although not life threatening, bruising injuries or bruising patterns provide a “roadmap” documenting a child’s exposure to impact. Previous research has relied upon the use of instrumented anthropomorphic test devices, or test dummies, to investigate injury risk in common childhood falls and accidents in addition to head injury and bone fracture risk in children 4-7. However, the ability to predict bruising patterns occurring in association with falsely reported events in child abuse does not exist, and could prove extremely useful in the distinction between abusive and accidental injuries. This study required the modification of an existing pediatric test dummy to allow for the prediction of potential bruising locations and bruising patterns in children during common household fall events that are often stated as false scenarios in child abuse. The scope of this project included the development of a “sensing skin” that was adapted to a commercial pediatric test dummy. This modified test dummy was then used in mock laboratory experiments replicating common household injury events while the “sensing skin” measured and recorded levels of impact force and locations of impact on the human surrogate. The data from the “sensing skin” was acquired and compiled in a computerized visual body map image displaying the areas of contact or impact locations. This body map image provided a “roadmap” of the human surrogate’s contact exposure during the specific fall event and defined a compatible impact roadmap–specific event combination. Impact roadmap–event combinations for various common household falls provide an indication of where potential bruising could occur. This knowledge of potential bruising patterns could aid clinicians in distinguishing between abusive and accidental injuries for specific fall types

Safe and Adaptive Social Robots for Children with Autism

Social robots are being considered to be a part of the therapy for children with autism due to the reported efficacy such technology in improving the outcomes. How ever, children diagnosed with autism exhibit challenging behaviors that could cause harm to themselves and to others around them. Throwing, hitting, kicking, and self harming are some examples of the challenging behaviors that were reported to occur among this population. The occurrence of such behaviors during the presence of a social robot could raise some safety concerns. For this reason, this research attempts toidentify the potential for harm due to the diffusion of social robots and investigate means to mitigate them. Considering the advancement in technology and the progress made in many computer science disciplines are making small and adaptable social robots a foreseeable possibility, the studies presented here focus on small robotic form factors.The first study quantities the potential harm to the head due to one of the identi?ed risky scenarios that might occur between a child and a social robot. The results re leaved that the overall harm levels based on the selected severity indices are relatively low compared to their respective thresholds. However, the investigation of harm due to throwing of a small social robot to the head revealed that it could potentially causet issue injuries, sub-concussive or even concussive events in extreme cases. The second two studies are aimed to make small robots safer by optimizing their design. Hence,studies are conducted investigating how robot design can be made safer by investigating different design factors. The study investigated the in?uence of the mass and shape on the linear acceleration of a developed dummy head. The results revealed that the two design factors considered (i.e. mass and shape) affected the resultant response. The second study investigated the in offence three different soft material sonthesa meresponse. The endings showed that the control factors considered are not statistically significant in attenuating the response. Finally, the last two studies attempt to make small robots more adaptable to promote safer interactions. This is carried out by em bedding the recognition of unwanted physical interactions into companion robot with the appropriate timing of responses. The findings of the first study highlight the pos sibility of characterizing children's negative interactions with robotic toys relying on accelerometer sensor. The second study showed that producing a late response to an action (i.e. greater than 1.0 s) could negatively affect the children's comprehension of the intended message. The work presented in this dissertation is multidisciplinary that involves the field of Mechanical Engineering and Information Technology

Aerospace medicine and biology: A cumulative index to a continuing bibliography (supplement 384)

This publication is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in Supplements 372 through 383 of Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography. It includes seven indexes: subject, personal author, corporate source, foreign technology, contract number, report number, and accession number

Patient Specific Systems for Computer Assisted Robotic Surgery Simulation, Planning, and Navigation

The evolving scenario of surgery: starting from modern surgery, to the birth of medical imaging and the introduction of minimally invasive techniques, has seen in these last years the advent of surgical robotics. These systems, making possible to get through the difficulties of endoscopic surgery, allow an improved surgical performance and a better quality of the intervention. Information technology contributed to this evolution since the beginning of the digital revolution: providing innovative medical imaging devices and computer assisted surgical systems. Afterwards, the progresses in computer graphics brought innovative visualization modalities for medical datasets, and later the birth virtual reality has paved the way for virtual surgery. Although many surgical simulators already exist, there are no patient specific solutions. This thesis presents the development of patient specific software systems for preoperative planning, simulation and intraoperative assistance, designed for robotic surgery: in particular for bimanual robots that are becoming the future of single port interventions. The first software application is a virtual reality simulator for this kind of surgical robots. The system has been designed to validate the initial port placement and the operative workspace for the potential application of this surgical device. Given a bimanual robot with its own geometry and kinematics, and a patient specific 3D virtual anatomy, the surgical simulator allows the surgeon to choose the optimal positioning of the robot and the access port in the abdominal wall. Additionally, it makes possible to evaluate in a virtual environment if a dexterous movability of the robot is achievable, avoiding unwanted collisions with the surrounding anatomy to prevent potential damages in the real surgical procedure. Even if the software has been designed for a specific bimanual surgical robot, it supports any open kinematic chain structure: as far as it can be described in our custom format. The robot capabilities to accomplish specific tasks can be virtually tested using the deformable models: interacting directly with the target virtual organs, trying to avoid unwanted collisions with the surrounding anatomy not involved in the intervention. Moreover, the surgical simulator has been enhanced with algorithms and data structures to integrate biomechanical parameters into virtual deformable models (based on mass-spring-damper network) of target solid organs, in order to properly reproduce the physical behaviour of the patient anatomy during the interactions. The main biomechanical parameters (Young's modulus and density) have been integrated, allowing the automatic tuning of some model network elements, such as: the node mass and the spring stiffness. The spring damping coefficient has been modeled using the Rayleigh approach. Furthermore, the developed method automatically detect the external layer, allowing the usage of both the surface and internal Young's moduli, in order to model the main parts of dense organs: the stroma and the parenchyma. Finally the model can be manually tuned to represent lesion with specific biomechanical properties. Additionally, some software modules of the simulator have been properly extended to be integrated in a patient specific computer guidance system for intraoperative navigation and assistance in robotic single port interventions. This application provides guidance functionalities working in three different modalities: passive as a surgical navigator, assistive as a guide for the single port placement and active as a tutor preventing unwanted collision during the intervention. The simulation system has beed tested by five surgeons: simulating the robot access port placemen, and evaluating the robot movability and workspace inside the patient abdomen. The tested functionalities, rated by expert surgeons, have shown good quality and performance of the simulation. Moreover, the integration of biomechanical parameters into deformable models has beed tested with various material samples. The results have shown a good visual realism ensuring the performance required by an interactive simulation. Finally, the intraoperative navigator has been tested performing a cholecystectomy on a synthetic patient mannequin, in order to evaluate: the intraoperative navigation accuracy, the network communications latency and the overall usability of the system. The tests performed demonstrated the effectiveness and the usability of the software systems developed: encouraging the introduction of the proposed solution in the clinical practice, and the implementation of further improvements. Surgical robotics will be enhanced by an advanced integration of medical images into software systems: allowing the detailed planning of surgical interventions by means of virtual surgery simulation based on patient specific biomechanical parameters. Furthermore, the advanced functionalities offered by these systems, enable surgical robots to improve the intraoperative surgical assistance: benefitting of the knowledge of the virtual patient anatomy

Program and Proceedings: The Nebraska Academy of Sciences 1880-2012

PROGRAM FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012 REGISTRATION FOR ACADEMY, Lobby of Lecture wing, Olin Hall Aeronautics and Space Science, Session A, Olin 249 Aeronautics and Space Science, Session B, Olin 224 Collegiate Academy, Biology Session A, Olin B Chemistry and Physics, Section A, Chemistry, Olin A Applied Science and Technology, Olin 325 Biological and Medical Sciences, Session A, Olin 112 Biological and Medical Sciences, Session B, Smith Callen Conference Center Junior Academy, Judges Check-In, Olin 219 Junior Academy, Senior High REGISTRATION, Olin Hall Lobby Chemistry and Physics, Section B, Physics, Planetarium Collegiate Academy, Chemistry and Physics, Session A, Olin 324 Junior Academy, Senior High Competition, Olin 124, Olin 131 Aeronautics and Space Science, Poster Session, Olin 249 NWU Health and Sciences Graduate School Fair, Olin and Smith Curtiss Halls Aeronautics and Space Science, Poster Session, Olin 249 MAIBEN MEMORIAL LECTURE, OLIN B Buffalo Bruce McIntosh, Research Ecologist with Western Nebraska Resources Council, The Status of Nebraska\u27s Native Aspen LUNCH, PATIO ROOM, STORY STUDENT CENTER (pay and carry tray through cafeteria line, or pay at NAS registration desk) Aeronautics Group, Conestoga Room Anthropology, Olin 111 Biological and Medical Sciences, Session C, Olin 112 Biological and Medical Sciences, Session D, Smith Callen Conference Center Chemistry and Physics, Section A, Chemistry, Olin A Chemistry and Physics, Section B, Physics, Planetarium Collegiate Academy, Biology Session A, Olin B Collegiate Academy, Biology Session B, Olin 249 Collegiate Academy, Chemistry and Physics, Session B, Olin 324 Earth Science, Olin 224 History/Philosophy of Science, Olin 325 Junior Academy, Judges Check-In, Olin 219 Junior Academy, Junior High REGISTRATION, Olin Hall Lobby Junior Academy, Senior High Competition, (Final), Olin 110 Teaching of Science and Math, Olin 325 Junior Academy, Junior High Competition, Olin 124, Olin 131 NJAS Board/Teacher Meeting, Olin 219 BUSINESS MEETING, OLIN B AWARDS RECEPTION for NJAS, Scholarships, Members, Spouses, and Guests First United Methodist Church, 2723 N 50th Street, Lincoln, N

Cybersecurity and the Digital Health: An Investigation on the State of the Art and the Position of the Actors

Cybercrime is increasingly exposing the health domain to growing risk. The push towards a strong connection of citizens to health services, through digitalization, has undisputed advantages. Digital health allows remote care, the use of medical devices with a high mechatronic and IT content with strong automation, and a large interconnection of hospital networks with an increasingly effective exchange of data. However, all this requires a great cybersecurity commitment—a commitment that must start with scholars in research and then reach the stakeholders. New devices and technological solutions are increasingly breaking into healthcare, and are able to change the processes of interaction in the health domain. This requires cybersecurity to become a vital part of patient safety through changes in human behaviour, technology, and processes, as part of a complete solution. All professionals involved in cybersecurity in the health domain were invited to contribute with their experiences. This book contains contributions from various experts and different fields. Aspects of cybersecurity in healthcare relating to technological advance and emerging risks were addressed. The new boundaries of this field and the impact of COVID-19 on some sectors, such as mhealth, have also been addressed. We dedicate the book to all those with different roles involved in cybersecurity in the health domain

Applying safe flooring in housing environments related to the independent elderly : evaluating suitability flooring technology to absorb impact in the event of a fall

Aplicat embargament des de la data de defensa fins el dia 3/6/2022This research has been developed with the intention of investigating a different generation of pavements. Most of the current pavements have the same basic standard characteristics and this ensures that living conditions are comfortable, safe, and pleasant for the majority of citizens. But a small group of pavements is designed with a specific purpose: to reduce injuries related to people's falls to the ground; They are called CF (compliant flooring in English). A detailed study of CF flooring systems is warranted to assess their usability for vulnerable groups such as the elderly. This study is structured in six chapters. The first chapter has dealt mainly with bibliographic studies and statistical data consulted on official and international websites. This section evaluates the importance of the increase in the elderly population, life expectancy, and threats to the safety and health of the elderly, especially, and their secondary effects. The scope of the research has been carried out internationally, in Europe and within Spain, and finally, specifically for Catalonia. The second chapter presents a brief overview of the interior flooring, specifically considering its comfort and safety during use. The importance and direct relationship between the sole of the foot and the gait mechanism with respect to the type of pavement have been verified. Many factors that influence this have been investigated, such as the physics and biomechanics of the body when walking, the kinematics of falls, and the dynamics of impact. In addition, a general description of the behavior of materials for use in pavements has been made to better understand the behavior of CF systems. In addition, the most suitable strategies to cope with falls and reduce injuries are discussed. Examining other products with appreciable energy-absorbing and shock-reducing capabilities has been helpful in the proposed pre-designs, all of which have been made based on numerical analysis and related standards. The third chapter is already dedicated to the study of technology and research on the most suitable CF systems; studies from academic, commercial, and architecture departments, in general, are included. In this section, some standard tests related to the various selected materials are developed and several examples of similar products are studied. The fourth chapter includes field research (on-site) and analysis of case studies. Several notable flooring companies around the world were contacted by mail, specifically examining those products whose manufacturers claimed to be shock absorbers. This part of the investigation was slowed down by the delay in shipments. Once they arrived, a real environment was sought where they could obtain the opinion of the elderly and the personnel assigned to their care. All the practice tests were carried out in a residence for the elderly in Barcelona for about two months, focusing on the study of the current pavements of the center and the current derived problems related to users.This entire process was completed by interviewing users and caregivers with predefined questionnaires. It should be noted that this allowed us to contrast the quantitative characteristics of the study in combination with the elements of qualitative research. Chapter Five deals with the results, discussions, suggestions for installation and improvement of pavement safety in risk areas. Simulations were also carried out on a possible base structure of the pavements with the finite element method (FEM). Chapter six presents guidelines for future developments. The author further investigated the materials and their structure and is presented them as a basis for future technical developments.The author considers that, with more detailed studies, it would be possible to use as CF system other materials, either natural or recycled based on agricultural products, which would increase the diversity of the CF system offer and promote more sustainable architectureEsta investigación se ha desarrollado con la intención de investigar una generación diferente de pavimentos. La mayoría de los actuales pavimentos tienen las mismas características básicas estándar y ello garantiza que las condiciones de vida sean cómodas, seguras y agradables para la mayoría de los ciudadanos. Pero un grupo reducido de pavimentos está diseñado con un propósito específico: reducir las lesiones relacionadas con las caídas al suelo de las personas; son los denominados CF (compliant flooring en inglés). Un estudio detallado de los sistemas de pavimentos CF está justificado para evaluar su posibilidad de uso para grupos vulnerables como los ancianos. Este estudio se estructura en seis capítulos. En el primer capítulo se han abordado principalmente los estudios bibliográficos y datos estadísticos consultados en sitios web oficiales e internacionales. En esta sección se evalúa la importancia del aumento de la población anciana. El ámbito de la investigación se ha realizado a nivel internacional, en Europa y dentro de España, y finalmente, específicamente para Cataluña. El segundo capítulo se presenta una breve panorámica del pavimento interior. Se ha constatado la importancia y relación directa entre la planta del pie y el mecanismo de andar con respecto al tipo de pavimento. Se han investigado muchos factores que influyen en ello. Además, se ha realizado una descripción general del comportamiento de los materiales al uso en pavimentos para comprender mejor el comportamiento de los sistemas de CF. Además, se discuten las estrategias más idóneas para hacer frente a las caídas y reducir las lesiones. Examinar otros productos con apreciables capacidades de amortiguación de energía y reducción de impactos ha sido de gran ayuda en los prediseños propuestos, todos los cuales se han realizado sobre la base de análisis numérico y los estándares relacionados. El tercer capítulo está dedicado ya al estudio de la tecnología y la investigación sobre los sistemas de C más idóneos; se incluyen estudios procedentes de departamentos académicos, comerciales y de arquitectura en general. En esta sección se desarrollan algunas pruebas estándar relacionadas con los diversos materiales seleccionados y se estudian varios ejemplos de productos similares. El cuarto capítulo incluye investigación de campo (in situ) y análisis de estudios de casos. Se contactó por correo con varias empresas notables de pavimentos en todo el mundo, y se examinaron específicamente aquellos productos cuyos fabricantes afirmaban ser amortiguadores. Esta parte de la investigación se vio ralentizada por la demora en los envíos. Una vez llegados se buscó un ámbito real donde poder recabar la opinión de las personas mayores y del personal adscrito a su cuidado. Todas las pruebas prácticas se realizaron en una residencia de ancianos de Barcelona durante unos dos meses, centrándose en el estudio de los actuales pavimentos del centro y los problemas actuales derivados relacionados con los usuarios. Todo este proceso se completó mediante entrevistas a usuarios y cuidadores con cuestionarios predefinidos. El Capítulo Cinco se refiere a los resultados, discusiones, sugerencias para la instalación y mejora de la seguridad del pavimento en áreas de riesgo. También se realizaron simulaciones sobre una posible estructura base de los pavimentos con el método elemento finito (FEM). El capítulo seis presenta directrices para desarrollos futuros. El autor investigó más a fondo sobre los materiales y su estructura, y se presenta como una base para desarrollos técnicos futuros. El autor considera que, con estudios más detallados, sería posible utilizar como CF otros materiales, bien naturales o reciclados a base de productos agrícolas, lo cual aumentaría la diversidad de la oferta de CF y fomentaría la arquitectura más sostenible.Postprint (published version