A Novel Mobile Wireless Sensing System for Real- time Monitoring of Posture and Spine Stress

Abstract-Poor posture or extra stress on the spine has been shown to lead to a variety of spinal disorders including chronic back pain, and to incur numerous health costs to society. For this reason, workplace ergonomics is rapidly becoming indispensable in all major corporations. Making the individual continuously aware of poor posture may reduce out-of-posture tendencies and encourage healthy spinal habits. We have developed a novel wireless mobile sensing system which monitors spine stress in real-time by detecting poor back posture and strain on the back due to prolonged sitting or standing. The system provides a new method of measuring spine stress at both the back and the feet by integrating posture sensors with strain sensors. Posture and strain data is collected by means of a posture sensor at the neck and weight sensors at the feet. Data is transmitted wirelessly to a central processing station and real-time feedback is provided to the user's mobile device when sustained bad posture is detected. Moreover, the position of the patient (sitting, standing, or walking) can be determined by analysis of the weight sensor data and is visualized in real-time, along with back posture, at the central station by means of a graphical animation. Finally, data from all sensors is stored in a database to enable post processing and data analysis, and a summary report of daily posture and physical activity is sent to the user's email. The use of centralized processing allows for high performance data analysis and storage at the central station which enables tracking of the individual's progress. We demonstrate effectiveness of our system in simultaneously monitoring posture and position by testing in numerous situations

Mouse Models That Enhanced Our Understanding of Adult T Cell Leukemia

Adult T cell Leukemia (ATL) is an aggressive lymphoproliferative malignancy secondary to infection by the human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I) and is associated with a dismal prognosis. ATL leukemogenesis remains enigmatic. In the era of precision medicine in oncology, mouse models offer one of the most efficient in vivo tools for the understanding of the disease biology and developing novel targeted therapies. This review provides an up-to-date and comprehensive account of mouse models developed in the context of ATL and HTLV-I infection. Murine ATL models include transgenic animals for the viral proteins Tax and HBZ, knock-outs for key cellular regulators, xenografts and humanized immune-deficient mice. The first two groups provide a key understanding of the role of viral and host genes in the development of ATL, as well as their relationship with the immunopathogenic processes. The third group represents a valuable platform to test new targeted therapies against ATL

Study of the rheological behavior of polypropylene/polyethylene extruded mixture using an instrumented die Determination of the optimum coupling agent content for composites based on hemp and high density polyethylene AIP Conference

International audienc

Recent Achievements on Functionalization within closo‐Decahydrodecaborate [B 10 H 10 ] 2− Clusters

International audienc

Study of the rheological behavior of polypropylene/polyethylene extruded mixture using an instrumented die Determination of the optimum coupling agent content for composites based on hemp and high density polyethylene AIP Conference

International audienc

End-to-end listening agent for audiovisual emotional and naturalistic interactions

In this work, we established the foundations of a framework with the goal to build an end-to-end naturalistic expressive listening agent. The project was split into modules for recognition of the user’s paralinguistic and nonverbal expressions, prediction of the agent’s reactions, synthesis of the agent’s expressions and data recordings of nonverbal conversation expressions. First, a multimodal multitask deep learning-based emotion classification system was built along with a rule-based visual expression detection system. Then several sequence prediction systems for nonverbal expressions were implemented and compared. Also, an audiovisual concatenation-based synthesis system was implemented. Finally, a naturalistic, dyadic emotional conversation database was collected. We report here the work made for each of these modules and our planned future improvements

Data from: Outcomes of systolic heart failure patients presenting with sepsis to the emergency department of a tertiary hospital: a retrospective chart review study from Lebanon

Objectives: Congestive heart failure (CHF) patients may be at a higher risk of mortality from sepsis than patients without CHF due to insufficient cardiovascular reserves during systemic infections. . The aim of this study is to compare sepsis-related mortality between CHF and non-CHF patients in patients presenting to a tertiary medical center. Design: A single centre, retrospective, cohort study. Setting: Conducted in an academic ED between January 2010 and January 2015. Patients’ charts were queried via the hospital’s electronic system. Patients with a diagnosis of sepsis were included. Descriptive analysis was performed on the demographics, characteristics, and outcomes of septic patients of the study population. Participants: A total of 174 patients, of which 87 (50%) were CHF patients. Primary and secondary outcomes: The primary outcome of the study was in-hospital mortality. Secondary outcomes included intensive care unit (ICU), and hospital lengths of stay, and differences in interventions between the two groups. Results: CHF patients had a higher in-hospital mortality (57.5% vs 34.5%). Septic CHF patients had higher odds of death as compared to the control population (OR, 2.45; 95% CI, 1.22-4.88). Secondary analyses showed that CHF patients had lower instances of bacteremia upon presentation to the ED (31.8% vs 46.4%). They had less IV fluid requirements in first 24 hours (2.75 ± 2.28 L vs 3.67 ± 2.82 L, p-value=0.038), had a higher rate of intubation in the ED (24.2% vs 10.6%, p-value=0.025) and required more dobutamine in the first 24 hours (16.1% vs 1.1%, p-value<0.001). Emergency department length of stay was found to be lower in CHF patients (15.12 ± 24.45 hours vs 18.17 ± 26.13 hours, p-value=0.418) and they were more likely to be admitted to the ICU (59.8% vs 48.8%, p-value=0.149). Conclusion: Septic patients with CHF experienced an increased hospital mortality compared to patients without CHF

Data_heart_failure

Raw data of the systolic heart failure and sepsi