Usability and performance measure of a consumer-grade brain computer interface system for environmental control by neurological patients

With the increasing incidence and prevalence of chronic brain injury patients and the current financial constraints in healthcare budgets, there is a need for a more intelligent way to realise the current practice of neuro-rehabilitation service provision. Brain-computer Interface (BCI) systems have the potential to address this issue to a certain extent only if carefully designed research can demonstrate that these systems are accurate, safe, cost-effective, are able to increase patient/carer satisfaction and enhance their quality of life. Therefore, one of the objectives of the proposed study was to examine whether participants (patients with brain injury and a sample of reference population) were able to use a low cost BCI system (Emotiv EPOC) to interact with a computer and to communicate via spelling words. Patients participated in the study did not have prior experience in using BCI headsets so as to measure the user experience in the first-exposure to BCI training. To measure emotional arousal of participants we used an ElectroDermal Activity Sensor (Qsensor by Affectiva). For the signal processing and feature extraction of imagery controls the Cognitive Suite of Emotiv's Control Panel was used. Our study reports the key findings based on data obtained from a group of patients and a sample reference population and presents the implications for the design and development of a BCI system for communication and control. The study also evaluates the performance of the system when used practically in context of an acute clinical environment

Effect of Casting and Mould Cooling Temperatures on the Warping Phenomenon of Aluminium at High Pressure Die- Casting

Abstract. The effect of molten aluminium pouring temperature and hot oiltemperature for mould heating and cooling on the warping phenomenon ofthick-thin section aluminium high-pressure die-casting process was investigatedon a four cavities hard disk drive mould. Nine combinations of moltenaluminium A380 pouring temperature of 660ºC, 690ºC and 720ºC and hot oiltemperature of 150ºC, 200ºC and 250ºC were being studied. Magmasoftsimulation software was used to simulate the molten aluminium flow in themould and distortion to understand the die-casting cooling pattern in responseto different molten aluminium temperature and mould cooling parameterssettings. Actual casting was carried out to produce the parts according tosimulation settings. Warping data was collected and analysed using Minitab 17.It was found that each mould cavity had different cooling pattern resulting indifferent warping magnitude. Pouring temperature at 660ºC and 720ºC both hadhigher warping distortion then 690ºC. Hot oil temperature at 150ºC had higherwarping distortion than 200ºC and 250ºC. The lowest warping distortion wasestablish at molten aluminium pouring and hot oil temperature of 690ºC and200ºC respectively

Characterizing anomalies in distributed strain measurements of cast-in-situ bored piles

This paper describes the method of identifying typical defects of bored cast-in-situ piles when instrumenting using Distributed Optical Fiber Strain Sensing (DOFSS). The DOFSS technology is based on Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analyses (BOTDA), which has the advantage of recording continuous strain profile as opposed to the conventional discrete based sensors such as Vibrating Wire strain gauges. In pile instrumentation particularly, obtaining distributed strain profile is important when analysing the load-transfer and shaft friction of a pile, as well as detecting any anomalies in the strain regime. Features such as defective pile shaft necking, discontinuity of concrete, intrusion of foreign matter and improper toe formation due to contamination of concrete at base with soil particles, among others, may cause the pile to fail. In this study, a new technique of detecting such defects is proposed using DOFSS technology which can potentially supplement the existing non-destructive test (NDT) methods. Discussion on the performance of instrumented piles by means of maintained load test are also presented

Incremental elasticity for array databases

Relational databases benefit significantly from elasticity, whereby they execute on a set of changing hardware resources provisioned to match their storage and processing requirements. Such flexibility is especially attractive for scientific databases because their users often have a no-overwrite storage model, in which they delete data only when their available space is exhausted. This results in a database that is regularly growing and expanding its hardware proportionally. Also, scientific databases frequently store their data as multidimensional arrays optimized for spatial querying. This brings about several novel challenges in clustered, skew-aware data placement on an elastic shared-nothing database. In this work, we design and implement elasticity for an array database. We address this challenge on two fronts: determining when to expand a database cluster and how to partition the data within it. In both steps we propose incremental approaches, affecting a minimum set of data and nodes, while maintaining high performance. We introduce an algorithm for gradually augmenting an array database's hardware using a closed-loop control system. After the cluster adds nodes, we optimize data placement for n-dimensional arrays. Many of our elastic partitioners incrementally reorganize an array, redistributing data only to new nodes. By combining these two tools, the scientific database efficiently and seamlessly manages its monotonically increasing hardware resources.Intel Corporation (Science and Technology Center for Big Data

A hybrid systematic narrative review of instruments measuring home-based care nurses\u27 competency

Aim: The aim of the study was to identify and synthesize the contents and the psychometric properties of the existing instruments measuring home-based care (HBC) nurses\u27 competencies. Design: A hybrid systematic narrative review was performed. Review Methods: The eligible studies were reviewed to identify the competencies measured by the instruments for HBC nurses. The psychometric properties of instruments in development and psychometric testing design studies were also examined. The methodological quality of the studies was evaluated using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument and COSMIN checklist accordingly. Data Sources: Relevant studies were searched on CINAHL, MEDLINE (via PubMed), EMBASE, PsychINFO and Scopus from 2000 to 2022. The search was limited to full-text items in the English language. Results: A total of 23 studies reporting 24 instruments were included. 12 instruments were adopted or modified by the studies while the other 12 were developed and psychometrically tested by the studies. None of the instruments encompassed all of the 10 home-based nursing care competencies identified in an earlier study. The two most frequently measured competencies were the management of health conditions, and critical thinking and problem-solving skills, while the two least measured competencies were quality and safety, and technological literacy. The content and structural validity of most instruments were inadequate since the adopted instruments were not initially designed or tested among HBC nurses. Conclusion: This review provides a consolidation of existing instruments that were used to assess HBC nurses\u27 competencies. The instruments were generally not comprehensive, and the content and structural validity were limited. Nonetheless, the domains, items and approaches to instrument development could be adopted to develop and test a comprehensive competency instrument for home-based nursing care practice in the future. Impact: This review consolidated instruments used to measure home-based care nurses\u27 competency. The instruments were often designed for ward-based care nurses hence a comprehensive and validated home-based nursing care competency instrument is needed. Nurses, researchers and nursing leaders could consider the competency instruments identified in this review to measure nurses\u27 competencies, while a home-based nursing care competency scale is being developed. Patient or Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution was required in this review

Double di ffential fragmentation cross sections measurements of 95 MeV/u 12C on thin targets for hadrontherapy

During therapeutic treatment with heavy ions like carbon, the beam undergoes nuclear fragmentation and secondary light charged particles, in particular protons and alpha particles, are produced. To estimate the dose deposited into the tumors and the surrounding healthy tissues, an accurate prediction on the fluences of these secondary fragments is necessary. Nowadays, a very limited set of double di ffential carbon fragmentation cross sections are being measured in the energy range used in hadrontherapy (40 to 400 MeV/u). Therefore, new measurements are performed to determine the double di ffential cross section of carbon on di erent thin targets. This work describes the experimental results of an experiment performed on May 2011 at GANIL. The double di ffential cross sections and the angular distributions of secondary fragments produced in the 12C fragmentation at 95 MeV/u on thin targets (C, CH2, Al, Al2O3, Ti and PMMA) have been measured. The experimental setup will be precisely described, the systematic error study will be explained and all the experimental data will be presented.Comment: Submitted to PR

Analysis of laser absorption on a rough metal surface

We have developed a simple model to estimate the cumulative absorption coefficient of an ultraviolet laser pulse impinging on a pure metal, including the effects of surface roughness whose scale is much larger than the laser wavelength λ. The multiple reflections from the rough surface may increase the absorption coefficient over a pristine, flat surface by an order of magnitude. Thus, as much as 16% (at room temperature) of the power of a 248 nm KrF excimer laser pulse may be absorbed by an aluminum target. A comparison with experimental data is given. © 1997 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71289/2/APPLAB-70-6-696-1.pd