Effects of hemodialysis therapy on sit-to-walk characteristics in end stage renal disease patients

Patients with end stage renal diseases (ESRD) undergoing hemodialysis (HD) have high morbidity and mortality due to multiple causes; one of which is dramatically higher fall rates than the general population. In spite of the multiple efforts aiming to decrease the high mortality and improve quality of life in ESRD patients, limited success has been achieved. If adequate interventions for fall prevention are to be achieved, the functional and mobility mechanisms consistent with falls in this population must be understood. Human movements such as sit-to-walk (STW) tasks are clinically significant, and analysis of these movements provides a meaningful evaluation of postural and locomotor performance in elderly patients with functional limitations indicative of fall risks. In order to assess the effects of HD therapy on fall risks, 22 sessions of both pre- and post-HD measurements were obtained in six ESRD patients utilizing customized inertial measurement units (IMU). IMU signals were denoised using ensemble empirical mode decomposition and Savistky-Golay filtering methods to detect relevant events for identification of STW phases. The results indicated that patients were slower to get out of the chair (as measured by trunk flexion angular accelerations, time to peak trunk flexion, and overall STW completion time) following the dialysis therapy session. STW is a frequent movement in activities of daily living, and HD therapy may influence the postural and locomotor control of these movements. The analysis of STW movement may assist in not only assessing a patient's physical status, but in identifying HD-related fall risk as well. This preliminary study presents a non-invasive method of kinematic measurement for early detection of increased fall risk in ESRD patients using portable inertial sensors for out-patient monitoring. This can be helpful in understanding the pathogenesis better, and improve awareness in health care providers in targeting interventions to identify individuals at risk for fall

Fall Risk Prediction Using Wearable Wireless Sensors

Wearable wireless sensors and nonlinear dynamics identify postural characteristics relevant to balance control and dynamic stability, revealing predictive risk of falls among older adults

Ciba Protek vs. Vistakon One-Day Acuvue: A comparison of antibiotic reservoir and delivery effects

Since the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of hydrophilic lenses as ocular bandages in 1973, they have become the treatment of choice for many corneal problems, not the least being superficial corneal abrasions. Practitioners are opting for the more readily available disposable soft contact lenses because of the limited number of expensive therapeutically approved bandage soft contact lenses. In this study we set out to determine if there is a significant difference in the antibiotic reservoir and delivery effect of these two groups of soft contact lenses. The eyes in this study were divided into three groups: Protek® group, Acuvue® group and control group. Two drops of Tobramycin 0.3% solution were instilled into each eye followed by subsequent isolation of tear samples using diffusion disks. The relative amount of antibiotic in the tears at certain time intervals was inferred using kill zone ring width (KZRW) measures around the diffusion disks. The data were then analyzed using an ANOVA statistical test. From this analysis we found that while there was a significant difference in KZRW between both Protek® versus control and Acuvue® versus control, there was no significant difference between Protek® versus Acuvue®. This study shows that, when used as an antibiotic reservoir and delivery system, the Ciba Protek® therapeutic contact lens and One-day Acuvue® disposable contact lens behave very similarly

Semi-Automated DIRSIG Scene Modeling from 3D LIDAR and Passive Imaging Sources

The Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Image Generation (DIRSIG) model is an established, first-principles based scene simulation tool that produces synthetic multispectral and hyperspectral images from the visible to long wave infrared (0.4 to 20 microns). Over the last few years, significant enhancements such as spectral polarimetric and active Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) models have also been incorporated into the software, providing an extremely powerful tool for algorithm testing and sensor evaluation. However, the extensive time required to create large-scale scenes has limited DIRSIG’s ability to generate scenes “on demand.” To date, scene generation has been a laborious, time-intensive process, as the terrain model, CAD objects and background maps have to be created and attributed manually. To shorten the time required for this process, we are initiating a research effort that aims to reduce the man-in-the-loop requirements for several aspects of synthetic hyperspectral scene construction. Through a fusion of 3D LIDAR data with passive imagery, we are working to semi-automate several of the required tasks in the DIRSIG scene creation process. Additionally, many of the remaining tasks will also realize a shortened implementation time through this application of multi-modal imagery. This paper reports on the progress made thus far in achieving these objectives

Effects of Hemodialysis Therapy on Sit-to-Walk Characteristics in End Stage Renal Disease Patients

Patients with end stage renal diseases (ESRD) undergoing hemodialysis (HD) have high morbidity and mortality due to multiple causes; one of which is dramatically higher fall rates than the general population. In spite of the multiple efforts aiming to decrease the high mortality and improve quality of life in ESRD patients, limited success has been achieved. If adequate interventions for fall prevention are to be achieved, the functional and mobility mechanisms consistent with falls in this population must be understood. Human movements such as sit-to-walk (STW) tasks are clinically significant, and analysis of these movements provides a meaningful evaluation of postural and locomotor performance in elderly patients with functional limitations indicative of fall risks. In order to assess the effects of HD therapy on fall risks, 22 sessions of both pre- and post-HD measurements were obtained in six ESRD patients utilizing customized inertial measurement units (IMU). IMU signals were denoised using ensemble empirical mode decomposition and Savistky-Golay filtering methods to detect relevant events for identification of STW phases. The results indicated that patients were slower to get out of the chair (as measured by trunk flexion angular accelerations, time to peak trunk flexion, and overall STW completion time) following the dialysis therapy session. STW is a frequent movement in activities of daily living, and HD therapy may influence the postural and locomotor control of these movements. The analysis of STW movement may assist in not only assessing a patient’s physical status, but in identifying HD-related fall risk as well. This preliminary study presents a non-invasive method of kinematic measurement for early detection of increased fall risk in ESRD patients using portable inertial sensors for out-patient monitoring. This can be helpful in understanding the pathogenesis better, and improve awareness in health care providers in targeting interventions to identify individuals at risk for fall

Seed coating with environmentally acceptable polymers as an alternative to fungicide treatment of corn and soybeans

In the United States alone, more than fifty-five million acres of crop land are planted annually with corn seed that has been treated with Captan® (Mercaptan, a powder fungicide). This means that more that 1,230,000 pounds of Captan® are applied to the soil each year