An Indoor Video Surveillance System with Intelligent Fall Detection Capability

This work presents a novel indoor video surveillance system, capable of detecting the falls of humans. The proposed system can detect and evaluate human posture as well. To evaluate human movements, the background model is developed using the codebook method, and the possible position of moving objects is extracted using the background and shadow eliminations method. Extracting a foreground image produces more noise and damage in this image. Additionally, the noise is eliminated using morphological and size filters and this damaged image is repaired. When the image object of a human is extracted, whether or not the posture has changed is evaluated using the aspect ratio and height of a human body. Meanwhile, the proposed system detects a change of the posture and extracts the histogram of the object projection to represent the appearance. The histogram becomes the input vector of K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) algorithm and is to evaluate the posture of the object. Capable of accurately detecting different postures of a human, the proposed system increases the fall detection accuracy. Importantly, the proposed method detects the posture using the frame ratio and the displacement of height in an image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system can further improve the system performance and the fall down identification accuracy

Retraction and Generalized Extension of Computing with Words

Fuzzy automata, whose input alphabet is a set of numbers or symbols, are a formal model of computing with values. Motivated by Zadeh's paradigm of computing with words rather than numbers, Ying proposed a kind of fuzzy automata, whose input alphabet consists of all fuzzy subsets of a set of symbols, as a formal model of computing with all words. In this paper, we introduce a somewhat general formal model of computing with (some special) words. The new features of the model are that the input alphabet only comprises some (not necessarily all) fuzzy subsets of a set of symbols and the fuzzy transition function can be specified arbitrarily. By employing the methodology of fuzzy control, we establish a retraction principle from computing with words to computing with values for handling crisp inputs and a generalized extension principle from computing with words to computing with all words for handling fuzzy inputs. These principles show that computing with values and computing with all words can be respectively implemented by computing with words. Some algebraic properties of retractions and generalized extensions are addressed as well.Comment: 13 double column pages; 3 figures; to be published in the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy System

Antimicrobial susceptibility and clinical outcomes of Candida parapsilosis bloodstream infections in a tertiary teaching hospital in Northern Taiwan

BackgroundCandida parapsilosis is an emerging non-albicans Candida that is associated with central line-associated infection. C. parapsilosis has higher minimal inhibitory concentration to echinocandin than Candida albicans, and the effects of echinocandin on C. parapsilosis are ambiguous. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate the susceptibility and the correlation between incidence and drug consumption.MethodsThis retrospective study was conducted in a tertiary teaching hospital in northern Taiwan between 2008 and 2012. The Candida species distribution, the correlation between the use of antifungal agents and the incidence of C. parapsilosis bloodstream infection, demographic information, clinical characteristics, mortality rate, and in vitro susceptibility of C. parapsilosis were analyzed.ResultsA total of 77 episodes from 77 patients were included for analysis. The overall 90-day mortality rate was 41.6%. The incidence of C. parapsilosis bloodstream infection showed a moderate positive correlation with the increased defined daily dose of echinocandin. The risk factors associated with mortality included malignancy or a metastatic tumor. Multivariate logistical regression analysis showed that patients with malignancy had higher odds ratios in terms of mortality. The rate of C. parapsilosis resistance to fluconazole was 3%, whereas the susceptibility rate was 95.5%.ConclusionUnderlying comorbidity and malignancy were factors leading to death in patients with C. parapsilosis bloodstream infection. Catheter removal did not influence the mortality rate. The survival rate of patients receiving echinocandin was lower than the group receiving fluconazole. Fluconazole remains the drug of choice to treat C. parapsilosis bloodstream infections

A micromachined flow shear-stress sensor based on thermal transfer principles

Microhot-film shear-stress sensors have been developed by using surface micromachining techniques. The sensor consists of a suspended silicon-nitride diaphragm located on top of a vacuum-sealed cavity. A heating and heat-sensing element, made of polycrystalline silicon material, resides on top of the diaphragm. The underlying vacuum cavity greatly reduces conductive heat loss to the substrate and therefore increases the sensitivity of the sensor. Testing of the sensor has been conducted in a wind tunnel under three operation modes-constant current, constant voltage, and constant temperature. Under the constant-temperature mode, a typical shear-stress sensor exhibits a time constant of 72 μs

A Micromachined Permalloy Magnetic Actuator Array for Micro Robotics Assembly Systems

Arrays of permalloy magnetic actuators have been studied for the use as precision micro robotics assembly systems. The actuator arrays have been tested for lifting and moving silicon and glass chips. The actuator unit consists of a permalloy plate 1 mm x 1 mm X 5µm in size together with polysilicon bending supports. Experimentally, it can lift a 87 µN (or 8.88 mg) force under a magnetic field of approximately 2 x 10^4 A/m. A proposed synchronous driving mode has been observed, and both translation and rotation of a silicon chip has been demonstrated