Ultrasonic guided waves as an indicator for the state-of-charge of Li-ion batteries

Conventional battery management systems rely on cell voltage, current, and temperature to predict the battery state-of-charge and state-of-health, but their accuracy is limited. To overcome this limitation, ultrasonic probing has been proposed as a novel battery monitoring technique. This paper introduces the use of ultrasonic chirp signals for the transfer of ultrasound-based battery monitoring techniques without requiring prior knowledge of the architecture of the cell. To validate this technique, small, lightweight piezoelectric disc transducers that can be easily installed on off-the-shelf battery pouch cells were utilized for large cells with a capacity of 12.5 Ah. Furthermore, the dominant frequency of the response signal to a Hanning-windowed tone burst signal was identified as a quantitative state-of-charge indicator. A predictive model was developed to compare the performance of this indicator with that of previous ultrasound-based state-of-charge prediction methods. The influence of the cell temperature and cycle age on ultrasonic guided wave propagation was also investigated and isolated for analysis

Genetics of intellectual disability in consanguineous families

Autosomal recessive (AR) gene defects are the leading genetic cause of intellectual disability (ID) in countries with frequent parental consanguinity, which account for about 1/7th of the world population. Yet, compared to autosomal dominant de novo mutations, which are the predominant cause of ID in Western countries, the identification of AR-ID genes has lagged behind. Here, we report on whole exome and whole genome sequencing in 404 consanguineous predominantly Iranian families with two or more affected offspring. In 219 of these, we found likely causative variants, involving 77 known and 77 novel AR-ID (candidate) genes, 21 X-linked genes, as well as 9 genes previously implicated in diseases other than ID. This study, the largest of its kind published to date, illustrates that high-throughput DNA sequencing in consanguineous families is a superior strategy for elucidating the thousands of hitherto unknown gene defects underlying AR-ID, and it sheds light on their prevalence

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

Contains fulltext : 172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Success Rate of CPR and the Effective factors

Background: Cardiopulmonary arrest is one of the most important affairs in pediatric emergency room. Medical identification of causes of cardiopulmonary arrest, the success rate and effective factors of resuscitation can lead to development of new methods to protect children from dangerous situations.Methods: This is an observational retrospective and case-series study. All of the children who underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in Children's Medical Center, Tehran, entered this study. Findings: Totally 71 children entered the study (57.7% boys, 42.3% girls). 69.1% of these children were younger than 1 year. Almost half of them didn’t have any history of chronic illness before cardiopulmonary arrest. CPR was successful in 45 (68.4%) children. The most common causes necessitating CPR were respiratory and cardiac problems, seizure, hypothermia and intoxication. Conclusions: Regarding the dominancy of the respiratory causes of cardiopulmonary arrest in children, many of CPR cases will recover by simple procedures like opening the airway and applying ventilation. So, morbidity and mortality can be reduced by educating the families in primary resuscitation car

3D SURFACE GENERATION FROM AERIAL THERMAL IMAGERY

Aerial thermal imagery has been recently applied to quantitative analysis of several scenes. For the mapping purpose based on aerial thermal imagery, high accuracy photogrammetric process is necessary. However, due to low geometric resolution and low contrast of thermal imaging sensors, there are some challenges in precise 3D measurement of objects. In this paper the potential of thermal video in 3D surface generation is evaluated. In the pre-processing step, thermal camera is geometrically calibrated using a calibration grid based on emissivity differences between the background and the targets. Then, Digital Surface Model (DSM) generation from thermal video imagery is performed in four steps. Initially, frames are extracted from video, then tie points are generated by Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) algorithm. Bundle adjustment is then applied and the camera position and orientation parameters are determined. Finally, multi-resolution dense image matching algorithm is used to create 3D point cloud of the scene. Potential of the proposed method is evaluated based on thermal imaging cover an industrial area. The thermal camera has 640×480 Uncooled Focal Plane Array (UFPA) sensor, equipped with a 25 mm lens which mounted in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The obtained results show the comparable accuracy of 3D model generated based on thermal images with respect to DSM generated from visible images, however thermal based DSM is somehow smoother with lower level of texture. Comparing the generated DSM with the 9 measured GCPs in the area shows the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) value is smaller than 5 decimetres in both X and Y directions and 1.6 meters for the Z direction

Comparison of plantar pressure distribution in CAD�CAM and prefabricated foot orthoses in patients with flexible flatfeet

Backgrounds The effect of foot orthoses on plantar pressure distribution has been proven by researchers but there are some controversies about advantages of custom-made foot orthoses to less expensive prefabricated foot orthoses. Methods Nineteen flatfeet adults between 18 and 45 participated in this study. CAD�CAM foot orthoses were made for these patients according to their foot scan. Prefabricated foot orthoses were prepared according to their foot size. Plantar pressure, force and contact area were measured using pedar®-x in-shoe system wearing shoe alone, wearing CAD�CAM foot orthoses and wearing prefabricated foot orthoses. Repeated measures ANOVA model with post-hoc, Bonferroni comparison were used to test differences. Results CAD�CAM and prefabricated foot orthoses both decreased pressure and force under 2nd, 3�5 metatarsal and heel regions comparing to shoe alone condition. CAD�CAM foot orthosis increased pressure under lateral toe region in comparison to shoe alone and prefabricated foot orthosis. Both foot orthoses increased pressure and contact area in medial midfoot region comparing to shoe alone condition. Increased forces were seen at hallux and lateral toes by prefabricated foot orthoses in comparison with CAD�CAM foot orthoses and control condition, respectively. Conclusion According to the results, both foot orthoses could decrease the pressure under heel and metatarsal area. It seems that the special design of CAD�CAM foot orthoses could not make great differences in plantar pressure distribution in this sample. Further research is required to determine whether these results are associated with different scan systems or design software. © 2017 Elsevier Lt

Comparison of plantar pressure distribution in CAD�CAM and prefabricated foot orthoses in patients with flexible flatfeet

Backgrounds The effect of foot orthoses on plantar pressure distribution has been proven by researchers but there are some controversies about advantages of custom-made foot orthoses to less expensive prefabricated foot orthoses. Methods Nineteen flatfeet adults between 18 and 45 participated in this study. CAD�CAM foot orthoses were made for these patients according to their foot scan. Prefabricated foot orthoses were prepared according to their foot size. Plantar pressure, force and contact area were measured using pedar®-x in-shoe system wearing shoe alone, wearing CAD�CAM foot orthoses and wearing prefabricated foot orthoses. Repeated measures ANOVA model with post-hoc, Bonferroni comparison were used to test differences. Results CAD�CAM and prefabricated foot orthoses both decreased pressure and force under 2nd, 3�5 metatarsal and heel regions comparing to shoe alone condition. CAD�CAM foot orthosis increased pressure under lateral toe region in comparison to shoe alone and prefabricated foot orthosis. Both foot orthoses increased pressure and contact area in medial midfoot region comparing to shoe alone condition. Increased forces were seen at hallux and lateral toes by prefabricated foot orthoses in comparison with CAD�CAM foot orthoses and control condition, respectively. Conclusion According to the results, both foot orthoses could decrease the pressure under heel and metatarsal area. It seems that the special design of CAD�CAM foot orthoses could not make great differences in plantar pressure distribution in this sample. Further research is required to determine whether these results are associated with different scan systems or design software. © 2017 Elsevier Lt