Prevalence and spatial concordance of visual field deterioration in fellow eyes of glaucoma patients.

PurposeTo examine the prevalence of visual field deterioration in contralateral eyes of patients with worsening open-angle glaucoma and to evaluate the spatial concordance of visual field deterioration between both eyes.MethodsOne hundred sixteen open-angle glaucoma patients who underwent 8 or more visual field examinations over ≥ 6 years of follow-up were included. The rates of the fast and slow components of visual field decay for each of 52 visual field test locations were calculated with point-wise exponential regression analysis. The spatial concordance of visual field deterioration in contralateral eyes was evaluated with a concordance ratio (calculated as the number of overlapping locations divided by the total number of deteriorating locations) and by comparing the rate of decay in corresponding modified glaucoma hemifield test clusters.ResultsThe average visual field mean deviation (± standard deviation [SD]) was -8.5 (± 6.4) dB and the mean (± SD) follow-up time was 9.0 (± 1.6) years. Sixty-three patients had mild damage, 23 had moderate damage, and 30 had severe damage. The mean concordance ratio (± SD) was 0.46 (± 0.32) for the mild group, 0.33 (± 0.27) for the moderate group, and 0.35 (± 0.21) for the severe group. Thirty-one patients (27%) had deterioration in concordant locations (p < 0.05). Visual field deterioration was greater in the superior hemifield than the inferior hemifield (p < 0.05) when evaluated with both the concordance ratio and modified glaucoma hemifield test cluster analysis methods.ConclusionsThere is only fair spatial concordance with regard to visual field deterioration between the both eyes of an individual. We conclude that testing algorithms taking advantage of inter-eye spatial concordance would not be particularly advantageous in the early detection of glaucomatous deterioration

Distribution of Korean Family Names

The family name distribution in Korea is investigated in comparison with previous studies in other countries. In Korea, both the family name and its birthplace, where the ancestor of the family originated, are commonly used to distinguish one family name from the others. The family name distributions with and without the information of the regional origins are analyzed by using different data sets of various sizes, and compared with previous studies performed in other countries. The growth rate of the family is empirically obtained. Contrary to commonly used assumptions, the growth rate is found to be higher for the smaller family.Comment: 13 pages in one column forma

A Wireless Power Transfer Based Implantable ECG Monitoring Device

Implantable medical devices (IMDs) enable patients to monitor their health anytime and receive treatment anywhere. However, due to the limited capacity of a battery, their functionalities are restricted, and the devices may not achieve their intended potential fully. The most promising way to solve this limited capacity problem is wireless power transfer (WPT) technology. In this study, a WPT based implantable electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring device that continuously records ECG data has been proposed, and its effectiveness is verified through an animal experiment using a rat model. Our proposed device is designed to be of size 24 x 27 x 8 mm, and it is small enough to be implanted in the rat. The device transmits data continuously using a low power Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication technology. To charge the battery wirelessly, transmitting (Tx) and receiving (Rx) antennas were designed and fabricated. The animal experiment results clearly showed that our WPT system enables the device to monitor the ECG of a heart in various conditions continuously, while transmitting all ECG data in real-time.11Ysciescopu

Oscillation Damping Control of Pendulum-like Manipulation Platform using Moving Masses

This paper presents an approach to damp out the oscillatory motion of the pendulum-like hanging platform on which a robotic manipulator is mounted. To this end, moving masses were installed on top of the platform. In this paper, asymptotic stability of the platform (which implies oscillation damping) is achieved by designing reference acceleration of the moving masses properly. A main feature of this work is that we can achieve asymptotic stability of not only the platform, but also the moving masses, which may be challenging due to the under-actuation nature. The proposed scheme is validated by the simulation studies.Comment: IFAC Symposium on Robot Control (SYROCO) 201

Velocity blow-up in C1∩H2C^1\cap H^2 for the 2D Euler equations

We give a vorticity-dynamical proof of $C^1\cap H^2$-illposedness of the 2D Euler equations. Our construction shows that the unique Yudovich solution escapes both $C^1$ and $H^2$ instantaneously

Passive Compliance Control of Aerial Manipulators

This paper presents a passive compliance control for aerial manipulators to achieve stable environmental interactions. The main challenge is the absence of actuation along body-planar directions of the aerial vehicle which might be required during the interaction to preserve passivity. The controller proposed in this paper guarantees passivity of the manipulator through a proper choice of end-effector coordinates, and that of vehicle fuselage is guaranteed by exploiting time domain passivity technique. Simulation studies validate the proposed approach.Comment: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 201

Proprioceptive Sensor-Based Simultaneous Multi-Contact Point Localization and Force Identification for Robotic Arms

In this paper, we propose an algorithm that estimates contact point and force simultaneously. We consider a collaborative robot equipped with proprioceptive sensors, in particular, joint torque sensors (JTSs) and a base force/torque (F/T) sensor. The proposed method has the following advantages. First, fast computation is achieved by proper preprocessing of robot meshes. Second, multi-contact can be identified with the aid of the base F/T sensor, while this is challenging when the robot is equipped with only JTSs. The proposed method is a modification of the standard particle filter to cope with mesh preprocessing and with available sensor data. In simulation validation, for a 7 degree-of-freedom robot, the algorithm runs at 2200Hz with 99.96% success rate for the single-contact case. In terms of the run-time, the proposed method was >=3.5X faster compared to the existing methods. Dual and triple contacts are also reported in the manuscript.Comment: 2023 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA

New-type of Multi-purpose Standard Radon Chamber in South Korea

Radon is an inert and a radioactive gas which is colorless, tasteless and odorless. As the radon decay proceeds, and if DNA damage continues beyond repair capacity of cells in the human body, it can cause severe health problems such as lung cancer in the long-term. There is a tendency that those countries where legal restriction on radon is strict, various studies related to radon are under way. In South Korea, radon has been regulated under recommendation level. Even though there are about 3 standard radon chambers in Korea, they have not been in an active use because of lack of demand. Also, most of them are specialized in calibration of radon detectors only. Recently, Korean government started giving some attention to radon issue and supporting radon research fields. Thus, this study was carried out to develop a new type of radon chamber for multi-purpose such as 1) radon emission rate from natural and artificial radon sources; 2) calibration of radon detectors; 3) evaluation of radon mitigation efficiency. Keywords: Radon, Radon Chamber, Indoor Air Quality, Chamber Desig