ECG classification using an optimal temporal convolutional network for remote health monitoring

Increased life expectancy in most countries is a result of continuous improvements at all levels, starting from medicine and public health services, environmental and personal hygiene to the use of the most advanced technologies by healthcare providers. Despite these significant improvements, especially at the technological level in the last few decades, the overall access to healthcare services and medical facilities worldwide is not equally distributed. Indeed, the end beneficiary of these most advanced healthcare services and technologies on a daily basis are mostly residents of big cities, whereas the residents of rural areas, even in developed countries, have major difficulties accessing even basic medical services. This may lead to huge deficiencies in timely medical advice and assistance and may even cause death in some cases. Remote healthcare is considered a serious candidate for facilitating access to health services for all; thus, by using the most advanced technologies, providing at the same time high quality diagnosis and ease of implementation and use. ECG analysis and related cardiac diagnosis techniques are the basic healthcare methods providing rapid insights in potential health issues through simple visualization and interpretation by clinicians or by automatic detection of potential cardiac anomalies. In this paper, we propose a novel machine learning (ML) architecture for the ECG classification regarding five heart diseases based on temporal convolution networks (TCN). The proposed design, which implements a dilated causal one-dimensional convolution on the input heartbeat signals, seems to be outperforming all existing ML methods with an accuracy of 96.12% and an F1 score of 84.13%, using a reduced number of parameters (10.2 K). Such results make the proposed TCN architecture a good candidate for low power consumption hardware platforms, and thus its potential use in low cost embedded devices for remote health monitoring

A Novel Identification Method of Thermal Resistances of Thermoelectric Modules Combining Electrical Characterization Under Constant Temperature and Heat Flow Conditions

The efficiency of a Thermoelectric Module (TEM) is not only influenced by the material properties, but also by the heat losses due to the internal and contact thermal resistances. In the literature, the material properties are mostly discussed, mainly to increase the well-known thermoelectric figure of merit ZT. Nevertheless, when a TEM is considered, the separate characterization of the materials of the p and n elements is not enough to have a suitable TEM electrical model and evaluate more precisely its efficiency. Only a few recent papers deal with thermal resistances and their influence on the TEM efficiency; mostly, the minimization of these resistances is recommended, without giving a way to determine their values. The aim of the present paper is to identify the internal and contact thermal resistances of a TEM by electrical characterization. Depending on the applications, the TEM can be used either under constant temperature gradient or constant heat flow conditions. The proposed identification approach is based on the theoretical electrical modeling of the TEM, in both conditions. It is simple to implement, because it is based only on open circuit test conditions. A single electrical measurement under both conditions (constant-temperature and constant-heat) is needed. Based on the theoretical electrical models, one can identify the internal and thermal resistances

Postupci recikliranja otpadnih gumenih proizvoda za dobijanje elastomernih hibridnih materijala

Preparation of elastomeric materials based on recycled elastomer powder is huge ecological tasc.The goal of this applicative work was to synthesize hybrid materials based on sulfur cured ternary blends of polyisoprene rubber, polybutadiene rubber, and styrene-butadiene rubber filled with carbon black nano-particles and waste rubber powder (REP). Properties and ageing of prepared materials were assessed as a function of REP content. The stress-strain experiments were measured before and after the aging. It was assessed that the tensile strength of obtained materials decreased as the content of recycled rubber increased.Dobijanje sirovina na osnovu otpadnih gumenih proizvoda predstavlja voma značajan ekološki zadatak. Cilj ovog aplikativnog rada je bio da se sintetišu hibridni elastomerni materijali na osnovu sumporom umrežene ter-blende prirodnog kaučuka, polibutadienskog kaučuka i stiren-butadienskog kaučuka, aktivnog nano-punila i mlevene otpadne gume (REP). Određena su mehanička svojstva dobijenih materijala pre i posle starenja u funkciji sadržaja recikliranog gumenog praha. Ustanovljeno je da se prekidna čvrstoća sintetisanih hibridnih materijala smanjuje sa porastom sadržaja recikliranog elastomernog praha

DEFICIT IRRIGATION TECHNIQUE FOR REDUCING WATER USE OF TOMATO UNDER POLYTUNNEL CONDITIONS

The aim of paper was to asses the use of regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) for production of two tomato cultivars (Cedrico and Abellus) in polytunnels in Serbia. RDI plants received 60% of the water that was applied to FI plants and significant saving of water for irrigation and increased in irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE) were achieved. Yield data for Cedrico cultivar showed no differences between RDI and FI, while due to the bigger sensitivity to drought, yield of Abellus was reduced under RDI. In general, fruit quality (soluble solids, titrable acidity) was sustained or improved in both cultivars under RDI. Economic analyses showed that due to the current low prices of water and electricity in Serbia, the profit increase of Cedrico, similarly to the previously trialed cultivar Amati, was not high under RDI comparing to FI. Reduction of yield and consequent profit for Abellus, indicated that for future commercial growing of tomato under RDI should be used drought resistant cultivars

Aktivnost enzima katalaze i sadržaj organskih kiselina kod Hajdučke trave (Achillea millefolium) sa sanirane deponije „Žitkovac“ Rudarsko metalurško hemijskog kombinata „Trepča“

In this comparative study, the activity of enzyme catalase and total content of organic acids were determined in undergroung and above-ground plant parts of medicinal plant Achillea millefolium from tailing pond “Žitkovac” of Mining and Metallurgical Chemical Company „Trepča“ and from uncontaminated area near city of Niš. Catalase activity was measured using the gasometric method and the values obtained for this activity were expressed as ml of O2. The content of organic acids in the plant material was detrmined by modified titration method in the presence of indicator. An increased catalase activity on tailing pond, in comparison with uncontaminated habitat, is a result of stress that is caused by chemical changes in the soil on tailing pond representing good metabolic ways of detoxification, which belongs to the mechanisms of defence and acquiring resistance. An increased content of organic acids in samples on tailing pond is an efficient mechanism reducing the heavy metal uptake, binding them to complexes and allowing the plant growth at high level of contamination.U ovom komparativnom istraživanju određeni su aktivnost enzima katalaze i ukupan sadržaj organskih kiselina u podzemnim i nadzemnim delovima lekovite biljke hajdučka trava (Achillea millefolium) sa sanirane deponije „Žitkovac“ Rudarsko Metalurško Hemijskog Kombinata „Trepča“ i nezagađenog područja okoline Niša. Aktivnost katalaze je izmerena korišćenjem gasometrijske metode i izražena u ml kiseonika. Sadržaj organskih kiselina u bilјnom materijalu određen je modifikovanom metodom titracije u prisustvu indikatora. Uvećanje aktivnosti enzima katalaze kod uzoraka na deponiji u poređenju sa nezagađenim staništem je rezultat stresa uzrokovan hemijskim promenama u zemljištu i predstavlja metabolički vid razgradnje štetnih jedinjenja, odnosno detoksikacije, koja spada u kvalitetne mehanizme sticanja otpornosti, kao odgovor na izmenjene uslove u životnoj sredini. Povećan sadržaj organskih kiselina u uzorcima sa deponije je efikasan mehanizam, koji smanjuje unos teških metala u bilјku vezujući se za njih u komplekse i omogućava rast biljke pri visokom nivou kontaminacije

Sadržaj pigmenata hloroplasta u lekovitoj biljci Teucrium chamaedrys sa sanirane deponije Rudarsko metalurško hemijskog kombinata “Trepča”

In this paper, the contents of chloroplast pigments (chlorophyll a, b, a+b and carotenoids) in the leaves of medicinal plant Teucrium chamaedrys from tailing pond „Žitkovac“ of Mining and Metallurgical Chemical Company „Trepča“ and from uncontaminated area near city of Niš were compared. Chloroplast pigments were determined spectrophotometrically in the acetone extracts of experimental and control samples of plant material. The contents of chlorophyll a, a+b and ratio a/b were higher in leaves of samples from tailing pond in comparison with control samples from uncontaminated habitat near city of Niš. In response to stress conditions caused by pollution and full intensity of sunlight in samples of leaves from tailing pond providing the protection of chlorophyll from photooxidation or ultraviolet radiation damage.U ovom radu upoređen je sadržaj pigmenata hloroplasta (hlorofil a, b, a+b, karotenoidi) iz listova lekovite bilјne vrste podubica - Teucrium chamaedrys sa deponije „Žitkovac“ Rudarsko Metalurško Hemijskog Kombinata „Trepča“ i nezagađenog područja okoline Niša. Pigmenti hloroplasta su određeni spektrofotometrijski u acetonskim ekstraktima eksperimentalnih i kontrolnih uzoraka bilјaka. Sadržaj hlorofila a, a+b i odnos a/b je bio veći kod u uzorcima listova sa deponije u poređenju sa kontrolnim uzorcima sa nezagađenog staništa iz okoline Niša. Kao odgovor na stresne uslove uzrokovane zagađenjem i punim intenzitetom sunčeve svetlosti zabeležen je i povećan sadržaj karotenoida kod uzoraka listova sa deponije, što obezbeđuje zaštitu hlorofila od fotooksidacije odnosno štetnog dejstva ultravioletnog zračenja

State of the art of audio- and video based solutions for AAL

Working Group 3. Audio- and Video-based AAL ApplicationsIt is a matter of fact that Europe is facing more and more crucial challenges regarding health and social care due to the demographic change and the current economic context. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has stressed this situation even further, thus highlighting the need for taking action. Active and Assisted Living (AAL) technologies come as a viable approach to help facing these challenges, thanks to the high potential they have in enabling remote care and support. Broadly speaking, AAL can be referred to as the use of innovative and advanced Information and Communication Technologies to create supportive, inclusive and empowering applications and environments that enable older, impaired or frail people to live independently and stay active longer in society. AAL capitalizes on the growing pervasiveness and effectiveness of sensing and computing facilities to supply the persons in need with smart assistance, by responding to their necessities of autonomy, independence, comfort, security and safety. The application scenarios addressed by AAL are complex, due to the inherent heterogeneity of the end-user population, their living arrangements, and their physical conditions or impairment. Despite aiming at diverse goals, AAL systems should share some common characteristics. They are designed to provide support in daily life in an invisible, unobtrusive and user-friendly manner. Moreover, they are conceived to be intelligent, to be able to learn and adapt to the requirements and requests of the assisted people, and to synchronise with their specific needs. Nevertheless, to ensure the uptake of AAL in society, potential users must be willing to use AAL applications and to integrate them in their daily environments and lives. In this respect, video- and audio-based AAL applications have several advantages, in terms of unobtrusiveness and information richness. Indeed, cameras and microphones are far less obtrusive with respect to the hindrance other wearable sensors may cause to one’s activities. In addition, a single camera placed in a room can record most of the activities performed in the room, thus replacing many other non-visual sensors. Currently, video-based applications are effective in recognising and monitoring the activities, the movements, and the overall conditions of the assisted individuals as well as to assess their vital parameters (e.g., heart rate, respiratory rate). Similarly, audio sensors have the potential to become one of the most important modalities for interaction with AAL systems, as they can have a large range of sensing, do not require physical presence at a particular location and are physically intangible. Moreover, relevant information about individuals’ activities and health status can derive from processing audio signals (e.g., speech recordings). Nevertheless, as the other side of the coin, cameras and microphones are often perceived as the most intrusive technologies from the viewpoint of the privacy of the monitored individuals. This is due to the richness of the information these technologies convey and the intimate setting where they may be deployed. Solutions able to ensure privacy preservation by context and by design, as well as to ensure high legal and ethical standards are in high demand. After the review of the current state of play and the discussion in GoodBrother, we may claim that the first solutions in this direction are starting to appear in the literature. A multidisciplinary 4 debate among experts and stakeholders is paving the way towards AAL ensuring ergonomics, usability, acceptance and privacy preservation. The DIANA, PAAL, and VisuAAL projects are examples of this fresh approach. This report provides the reader with a review of the most recent advances in audio- and video-based monitoring technologies for AAL. It has been drafted as a collective effort of WG3 to supply an introduction to AAL, its evolution over time and its main functional and technological underpinnings. In this respect, the report contributes to the field with the outline of a new generation of ethical-aware AAL technologies and a proposal for a novel comprehensive taxonomy of AAL systems and applications. Moreover, the report allows non-technical readers to gather an overview of the main components of an AAL system and how these function and interact with the end-users. The report illustrates the state of the art of the most successful AAL applications and functions based on audio and video data, namely (i) lifelogging and self-monitoring, (ii) remote monitoring of vital signs, (iii) emotional state recognition, (iv) food intake monitoring, activity and behaviour recognition, (v) activity and personal assistance, (vi) gesture recognition, (vii) fall detection and prevention, (viii) mobility assessment and frailty recognition, and (ix) cognitive and motor rehabilitation. For these application scenarios, the report illustrates the state of play in terms of scientific advances, available products and research project. The open challenges are also highlighted. The report ends with an overview of the challenges, the hindrances and the opportunities posed by the uptake in real world settings of AAL technologies. In this respect, the report illustrates the current procedural and technological approaches to cope with acceptability, usability and trust in the AAL technology, by surveying strategies and approaches to co-design, to privacy preservation in video and audio data, to transparency and explainability in data processing, and to data transmission and communication. User acceptance and ethical considerations are also debated. Finally, the potentials coming from the silver economy are overviewed.publishedVersio

State of the Art of Audio- and Video-Based Solutions for AAL

It is a matter of fact that Europe is facing more and more crucial challenges regarding health and social care due to the demographic change and the current economic context. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has stressed this situation even further, thus highlighting the need for taking action. Active and Assisted Living technologies come as a viable approach to help facing these challenges, thanks to the high potential they have in enabling remote care and support. Broadly speaking, AAL can be referred to as the use of innovative and advanced Information and Communication Technologies to create supportive, inclusive and empowering applications and environments that enable older, impaired or frail people to live independently and stay active longer in society. AAL capitalizes on the growing pervasiveness and effectiveness of sensing and computing facilities to supply the persons in need with smart assistance, by responding to their necessities of autonomy, independence, comfort, security and safety. The application scenarios addressed by AAL are complex, due to the inherent heterogeneity of the end-user population, their living arrangements, and their physical conditions or impairment. Despite aiming at diverse goals, AAL systems should share some common characteristics. They are designed to provide support in daily life in an invisible, unobtrusive and user-friendly manner. Moreover, they are conceived to be intelligent, to be able to learn and adapt to the requirements and requests of the assisted people, and to synchronise with their specific needs. Nevertheless, to ensure the uptake of AAL in society, potential users must be willing to use AAL applications and to integrate them in their daily environments and lives. In this respect, video- and audio-based AAL applications have several advantages, in terms of unobtrusiveness and information richness. Indeed, cameras and microphones are far less obtrusive with respect to the hindrance other wearable sensors may cause to one’s activities. In addition, a single camera placed in a room can record most of the activities performed in the room, thus replacing many other non-visual sensors. Currently, video-based applications are effective in recognising and monitoring the activities, the movements, and the overall conditions of the assisted individuals as well as to assess their vital parameters. Similarly, audio sensors have the potential to become one of the most important modalities for interaction with AAL systems, as they can have a large range of sensing, do not require physical presence at a particular location and are physically intangible. Moreover, relevant information about individuals’ activities and health status can derive from processing audio signals. Nevertheless, as the other side of the coin, cameras and microphones are often perceived as the most intrusive technologies from the viewpoint of the privacy of the monitored individuals. This is due to the richness of the information these technologies convey and the intimate setting where they may be deployed. Solutions able to ensure privacy preservation by context and by design, as well as to ensure high legal and ethical standards are in high demand. After the review of the current state of play and the discussion in GoodBrother, we may claim that the first solutions in this direction are starting to appear in the literature. A multidisciplinary debate among experts and stakeholders is paving the way towards AAL ensuring ergonomics, usability, acceptance and privacy preservation. The DIANA, PAAL, and VisuAAL projects are examples of this fresh approach. This report provides the reader with a review of the most recent advances in audio- and video-based monitoring technologies for AAL. It has been drafted as a collective effort of WG3 to supply an introduction to AAL, its evolution over time and its main functional and technological underpinnings. In this respect, the report contributes to the field with the outline of a new generation of ethical-aware AAL technologies and a proposal for a novel comprehensive taxonomy of AAL systems and applications. Moreover, the report allows non-technical readers to gather an overview of the main components of an AAL system and how these function and interact with the end-users. The report illustrates the state of the art of the most successful AAL applications and functions based on audio and video data, namely lifelogging and self-monitoring, remote monitoring of vital signs, emotional state recognition, food intake monitoring, activity and behaviour recognition, activity and personal assistance, gesture recognition, fall detection and prevention, mobility assessment and frailty recognition, and cognitive and motor rehabilitation. For these application scenarios, the report illustrates the state of play in terms of scientific advances, available products and research project. The open challenges are also highlighted. The report ends with an overview of the challenges, the hindrances and the opportunities posed by the uptake in real world settings of AAL technologies. In this respect, the report illustrates the current procedural and technological approaches to cope with acceptability, usability and trust in the AAL technology, by surveying strategies and approaches to co-design, to privacy preservation in video and audio data, to transparency and explainability in data processing, and to data transmission and communication. User acceptance and ethical considerations are also debated. Finally, the potentials coming from the silver economy are overviewed

Vers les architectures et systèmes de calcul guidés par l'énergie

Mankind is witnessing what is often seen as the fourth industrial revolution or so called “Intelligence Revolution”, currently driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data (BD) and IoT (Internet of Things) technologies. These technologies, mainly based on the massive data processing in data centers in a centralized way, start to show their limits especially in the applications needing rapid decision and low latencies as well as characterized with limited power budgets and tight energy constraints. Therefore, progressive decentralization of the current computing paradigm towards the ends of this complex centralized infrastructure in the layers often called fog and edge, or even in near-sensor layers is currently observed. The way the systems are designed is also evolving at all levels (system, architecture, circuit) and must take into account the environmental factors such as cost, sustainability and supply in energy. The two keywords Computing and Energy harvesting resulting from the previous context in a broader sense are the two orientations which have led all my research activities until now and allow me to orient my future works toward architectures and systems driven by energy or intermittent computing systems.Dans la période actuelle considérée comme la quatrième révolution industrielle, les technologies telles que l’IA, les Big Data et l’IoT sont omniprésentes dans de nombreux domaines. Ces technologies, essentiellement basées sur une exploitation de données de masse traitées de manière centralisée dans les centres de calcul, commencent à montrer leurs limites notamment dans les applications exigeant une prise de décision rapide ainsi qu’ une consommation énergétique limitée, efficace et durable. Par conséquent, une décentralisation progressive de ce paradigme de calcul centralisé vers les couches nommées fog ou edge, et au plus proche des capteurs et systèmes d’acquisition est actuellement observée. Ce changement de paradigme a également pour conséquence de faire évoluer les approches de conception de tels systèmes au niveau architectural tout en prenant en compte leur impact environnemental et durabilité énergétique. Les deux mots clé Calcul et Récupération d’énergie qui ressortent au sens large des termes de ce contexte sont également les deux principales orientations qui ont guidé les activités de recherche que j’ai menées jusqu’à présent et qui permettent d’orienter mes travaux futurs vers les circuits et systèmes de calcul guidés par l’énergie

Self-organizing embedded reconfigurable system architecture

A?n de répondre à une complexité croissante des systèmes de calcul, due notamment aux progrès rapides et permanents des technologies de l’information, de nouveaux paradigmes et solutions architecturales basées sur des structures auto-adaptatives, auto-organisées sont à élaborer. Ces dernières doivent permettre d’une part la mise à disposition d’une puissance de calcul suf?sante répondant à des contraintes de temps sévères (traitement temps réel). D’autre part, de disposer d’une grande ?exibilité et adaptabilité dans le but de répondre aux évolutions des traitements ou des défaillances non prévues caractérisant un contexte d’environnement évolutif de fonctionnement du système. C’est dans ce cadre que s’insèrent les travaux de recherche présentés dans cette thèse qui consistent à développer une architecture auto-organisée de type Recon?gurable MPSoC (Multi processor System on Chip) à base de technologie FPGA.The growing complexity of computing systems, mostly due to the rapid progress in Information Technology (IT) in the last decade, imposes on system designers to orient their traditional design concepts towards the new ones based on self-organizing and self-adaptive architectural solutions. On the one hand, these new architectural solutions should provide a system with a suf?cient computing power, and on the other hand, a great ?exibility and adaptivity in order to cope with all non-deterministic changes and events that may occur in the environnement in which it evolves. Within this framework, a recon?gurable MPSoC self-organizing architecture on the FPGA recon?gurable technology is studied and developped during this PhD