DESIGN AND APPLICATION OF WIRELESS PASSIVE MAGNETOELASTIC RESONANCE AND MAGNETOHARMONIC FORCE SENSORS

The objective of the work described in this dissertation is the development of new wireless passive force monitoring platforms for applications in the medical field, specifically monitoring lower limb prosthetics. The developed sensors consist of stress sensitive, magnetically soft amorphous metallic glass materials. The first technology is based on magnetoelastic resonance. Specifically, when exposed to an AC excitation field along with a constant DC bias field, the magnetoelastic material mechanically vibrates, and may reaches resonance if the field frequency matches the mechanical resonant frequency of the material. The presented work illustrates that an applied loading pins portions of the strip, effectively decreasing the strip length, which results in an increase in the frequency of the resonance. The developed technology is deployed in a prototype lower limb prosthetic sleeve for monitoring forces experienced by the distal end of the residuum. This work also reports on the development of a magnetoharmonic force sensor comprised of the same material. According to the Villari effect, an applied loading to the material results in a change in the permeability of the magnetic sensor which is visualized as an increase in the higher-order harmonic fields of the material. Specifically, by applying a constant low frequency AC field and sweeping the applied DC biasing field, the higher-order harmonic components of the magnetic response can be visualized. This sensor technology was also instrumented onto a lower limb prosthetic for proof of deployment; however, the magnetoharmonic sensor illustrated complications with sensor positioning and a necessity to tailor the interface mechanics between the sensing material and the surface being monitored. The novelty of these two technologies is in their wireless passive nature which allows for long term monitoring over the life time of a given device. Additionally, the developed technologies are low cost. Recommendations for future works include improving the system for real-time monitoring, useful for data collection outside of a clinical setting

Interactive experience of memory disorders

Treball Final de Grau en Disseny i Desenvolupament de Videojocs. Codi: VJ1241. Curs acadèmic: 2016-2017.Actually, there are a lot of games genres and some of them are not necessarily aiming to be played by gamers, but whoever who wants to have an experience or spend a nice time. So, there are games whose objective is to tell something to the player or make people aware of a certain concept or situation. The game developed for this project is Keep Mind, which is an interactive experience in which the player will control a character with some memory disorders. The player must explore the environment to know about the house, who the character is and also know some information about themselves. The audience target is people with an age above 15 because the game contains topics about a few family problems because of the memory disorder of the principal character, and the storytelling could be complicated for those young players, due that the game is mainly narrative. In the game, while the player walks around the house, it is possible to interact with some objects with the aim of know about the story as the will experience some mental problems, like blackouts[1 . After that, the player should find out what happened in those gaps to continue the line of the story. Keep Mind is made with Unity 3D, and the game is developed to be played on PC because nowadays most of the people have one and also it is a very common platform to play games

Examination of the Dominant and the Alternative Paradigms in Curriculum Evaluation

Curriculum and Instructio

Design, fabrication, and implementation of a wireless, passive implantable pressure sensor based on magnetic higher-order harmonic fields

A passive and wireless sensor was developed for monitoring pressure in vivo. Structurally, the pressure sensor, referred to as the magneto-harmonic pressure sensor, is an airtight chamber sealed with an elastic pressure membrane. A strip of magnetically-soft material is attached to the bottom of the chamber and a permanent magnet strip is embedded inside the membrane. Under the excitation of an externally applied AC magnetic field, the magnetically-soft strip produces a higher-order magnetic signature that can be remotely detected with an external receiving coil. As ambient pressure varies, the pressure membrane deflects, altering the separation distance between the magnetically-soft strip and the permanent magnet. This shifts the higher-order harmonic signal, allowing for detection of pressure change as a function of harmonic shifting. The wireless, passive nature of this sensor technology allows for continuous long-term pressure monitoring, particularly useful for biomedical applications such as monitoring pressure in aneurysm sac and sphincter of Oddi. In addition to demonstrating its pressure sensing capability, an animal model was used to investigate the efficacy and feasibility of the pressure sensor in a biological environment

Using visual art and collaborative reflection to explore medical attitudes toward vulnerable persons

Background: Vulnerable persons often face stigma-related barriers while seeking health care. Innovative education and professional development methods are needed to help change this.Method: We describe an interdisciplinary group workshop designed around a discomfiting oil portrait, intended to trigger provocative conversations among health care students and practitioners, and we present our mixed methods analysis of participant reflections.Results: After the workshop, participants were significantly more likely to endorse the statements that the observation and interpretive skills involved in viewing visual art are relevant to patient care and that visual art should be used in medical education to improve students’ observational skills, narrative skills, and empathy with their patients.  Subsequent to the workshop, significantly more participants agreed that art interpretation should be required curriculum for health care students. Qualitative comments from two groups from two different education and professional contexts were examined for themes; conversations focused on issues of power, body image/self-esteem, and lessons for clinical practice.   Conclusions: We argue that difficult conversations about affective responses to vulnerable persons are possible in a collaborative context using well-chosen works of visual art that can stand in for a patient

A wireless, passive sensor for quantifying packaged food quality

This paper describes the fabrication of a wireless, passive sensor based on aninductive-capacitive resonant circuit, and its application for in situ monitoring of thequality of dry, packaged food such as cereals, and fried and baked snacks. The sensor ismade of a planar inductor and capacitor printed on a paper substrate. To monitor foodquality, the sensor is embedded inside the food package by adhering it to the package’sinner wall; its response is remotely detected through a coil connected to a sensor reader. Asfood quality degrades due to increasing humidity inside the package, the paper substrateabsorbs water vapor, changing the capacitor’s capacitance and the sensor’s resonantfrequency. Therefore, the taste quality of the packaged food can be indirectly determined bymeasuring the change in the sensor’s resonant frequency. The novelty of this sensortechnology is its wireless and passive nature, which allows in situ determination of foodquality. In addition, the simple fabrication process and inexpensive sensor material ensure alow sensor cost, thus making this technology economically viable

Implantable biosensors for real-time strain and pressure monitoring

Implantable biosensors were developed for real-time monitoring of pressure and strain in the human body. The sensors, which are wireless and passive, consisted of a soft magnetic material and a permanent magnet. When exposed to a low frequency AC magnetic field, the soft magnetic material generated secondary magnetic fields that also included the higher-order harmonic modes. Parameters of interest were determined by measuring the changes in the pattern of these higher-order harmonic fields, which was achieved by changing the intensity of a DC magnetic field generated by a permanent magnet. The DC magnetic field, or the biasing field, was altered by changing the separation distance between the soft magnetic material and the permanent magnet. For pressure monitoring, the permanent magnet was placed on the membrane of an airtight chamber. Changes in the ambient pressure deflected the membrane, altering the separation distance between the two magnetic elements and thus the higher-order harmonic fields. Similarly, the soft magnetic material and the permanent magnet were separated by a flexible substrate in the stress/strain sensor. Compressive and tensile forces flexed the substrate, changing the separation distance between the two elements and the higher-order harmonic fields. In the current study, both stress/strain and pressure sensors were fabricated and characterized. Good stability, linearity and repeatability of the sensors were demonstrated. This passive and wireless sensor technology may be useful for long term detection of physical quantities within the human body as a part of treatment assessment, disease diagnosis, or detection of biomedical implant failures

Learn2Escape: una experiencia interactiva de aprendizaje

En este artículo se presenta Learn2Escape, una aplicación en forma de videojuego de entretenimiento educativo que simula una sala de escape, donde los jugadores deberán resolver un conjunto de puzles con el objetivo final de ganar el juego. La aplicación está diseñada para que se desarrolle en una sesión docente, donde los jugadores tendrán que resolver un conjunto de ejercicios propuestos por el profesor, para obtener pistas y objetos imprescindibles para poder completar el juego. La hipótesis de partida es que los alumnos estarán más predispuestos a estudiar los contenidos de la asignatura, con el objetivo de poder resolver los ejercicios propuestos durante el juego. La aplicación se ha diseñado para dispositivos móviles y hace uso de realidad aumentada para hacer más atractivo su uso. La aplicación se ha probado en una clase real con estudiantes universitarios. La principal conclusión que se obtiene es que los estudiantes muestras interés en la aplicación y consideran que con este tipo de actividad la clase se hace más amena.This paper presents Learn2Escape, an educational entertainment video game that simulates an escape room where players must solve a set of puzzles with the ultimate goal of winning the game. The application has been designed to be played in a teaching class, where players will have to solve a set of exercises proposed by the teacher to obtain clues and essential objects to complete the game. The starting hypothesis is that the players (students in this case) will be more predisposed to study the contents of the subject in order to be able to solve the exercises proposed during the game. The application has been designed for mobile devices and makes use of augmented reality to make its use more attractive

Natural history of spontaneous aortic intramural hematoma progression: Six years follow-up with cardiovascular magnetic resonance

We described a 6 years follow-up of a spontaneous aortic intramural hematoma (IMH) with cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) examination. Since multiple factors may play roles in the natural history of IMH, the patient experienced the course of progression, which included hematoma absorption, ulcer-like lesion, aneurysm and limited dissection. The initial and follow-up CMR examination included 3D CE MRA and non-enhanced "bright blood" pulse sequence. The inherent advantage of outstanding contrast with plain scan, which shorten the scan time and avoid potential risk of contrast agent, might make the fast gradient echo sequence as an alternative method when following stable IMH