Design and analysis of a new brake-by-wire system using machine learning

One of the main aims of the recent research on brake-by-wire systems is to decrease mechanical components. In this paper, we propose replacing the brake pedal with a driving wheel that is fully covered by pressure braking batch sensors. The new mechanism for braking translates pressure exerted through the driver’s hands on the driving wheel to a corresponding electrical signal. A proposed design for the pressure braking batch (PBB) is made out of a mesh of conducting threads separated by a resistive sheet. To the best of our knowledge, this idea has not been raised before in other research papers. Different people have different muscle strengths and so the problem of identifying the intention of the user when pressing the PBB is tackled. For this aim, a new dataset of its kind is created by several volunteers. From each volunteer, age, gender, body mass index (BMI), and maximum pressure exerted on the driving wheel are collected. Using Weka software, the detection accuracy is calculated for a new volunteer to know the intention of his/her pressure on PBB. Among the three algorithms tried, the regression tree gives the best results in predicting the class of the pressure exerted by the volunteers

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely