Design and implementation of a quadruped amphibious robot using duck feet

Roaming complexity in terrains and unexpected environments pose significant difficulties in robotic exploration of an area. In a broader sense, robots have to face two common tasks during exploration, namely, walking on the drylands and swimming through the water. This research aims to design and develop an amphibious robot, which incorporates a webbed duck feet design to walk on different terrains, swim in the water, and tackle obstructions on its way. The designed robot is compact, easy to use, and also has the abilities to work autonomously. Such a mechanism is implemented by designing a novel robotic webbed foot consisting of two hinged plates. Because of the design, the webbed feet are able to open and close with the help of water pressure. Klann linkages have been used to convert rotational motion to walking and swimming for the animal's gait. Because of its amphibian nature, the designed robot can be used for exploring tight caves, closed spaces, and moving on uneven challenging terrains such as sand, mud, or water. It is envisaged that the proposed design will be appreciated in the industry to design amphibious robots in the near future. - 2019 by the authors.Faculty of Robotics and Advanced Computing, Qatar Armed Forces-Academic Bridge Program, Qatar Foundation, 24404 Doha, Qatar Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science, Swinburne University of Technology, 93350 Sarawak, Malaysia Faculty of Computer Engineering Signal and Image Processing Qatar University, 24404 Doha, Qatar Correspondence: [email protected]

Impact of minimally invasive glaucoma surgery on the ocular surface and quality of life in patients with glaucoma

Background: Minimally invasive glaucoma procedures are emerging as clinically effective and safe glaucoma management approaches; however, evidence regarding quality-of-life outcomes is limited. / Objectives: To explore the impact of minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) combined with phacoemulsification on patient-reported outcomes and clinical parameters related to ocular surface disease in people with glaucoma. / Design: Retrospective observational study. / Methods: Fifty-seven consecutive patients were examined prior to undergoing iStent combined with phacoemulsification with or without adjunctive endocyclophotocoagulation and at 4-month follow-up. / Results: At follow-up, on average patients returned statistically significantly improved scores on glaucoma-specific (GQL-15, p < 0.001; GSS, p < 0.001), general health (EQ-5D, p = 0.02) and ocular surface PROMs (OSDI, p = 0.001). Patients were using fewer eye drops on average after MIGS compared with before surgery (1.1 ± 0.9 versus 1.8 ± 0.8; p < 0.001). Undergoing MIGS was associated with improved tear film break-up time (p < 0.001) and reduced corneal fluorescein staining (p < 0.001). / Conclusion: This retrospective audit shows quality of life and clinical parameters related to the ocular surface are improved following MIGS combined with phacoemulsification in patients previously treated with anti-glaucoma therapy

The use of biomedicine, complementary and alternative medicine, and ethnomedicine for the treatment of epilepsy among people of South Asian origin in the UK

Studies have shown that a significant proportion of people with epilepsy use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). CAM use is known to vary between different ethnic groups and cultural contexts; however, little attention has been devoted to inter-ethnic differences within the UK population. We studied the use of biomedicine, complementary and alternative medicine, and ethnomedicine in a sample of people with epilepsy of South Asian origin living in the north of England. Interviews were conducted with 30 people of South Asian origin and 16 carers drawn from a sampling frame of patients over 18 years old with epilepsy, compiled from epilepsy registers and hospital databases. All interviews were tape-recorded, translated if required and transcribed. A framework approach was adopted to analyse the data. All those interviewed were taking conventional anti-epileptic drugs. Most had also sought help from traditional South Asian practitioners, but only two people had tried conventional CAM. Decisions to consult a traditional healer were taken by families rather than by individuals with epilepsy. Those who made the decision to consult a traditional healer were usually older family members and their motivations and perceptions of safety and efficacy often differed from those of the recipients of the treatment. No-one had discussed the use of traditional therapies with their doctor. The patterns observed in the UK mirrored those reported among people with epilepsy in India and Pakistan. The health care-seeking behaviour of study participants, although mainly confined within the ethnomedicine sector, shared much in common with that of people who use global CAM. The appeal of traditional therapies lay in their religious and moral legitimacy within the South Asian community, especially to the older generation who were disproportionately influential in the determination of treatment choices. As a second generation made up of people of Pakistani origin born in the UK reach the age when they are the influential decision makers in their families, resort to traditional therapies may decline. People had long experience of navigating plural systems of health care and avoided potential conflict by maintaining strict separation between different sectors. Health care practitioners need to approach these issues with sensitivity and to regard traditional healers as potential allies, rather than competitors or quacks

Immunization knowledge and practice among Malaysian parents: a questionnaire development and pilot-testing

BACKGROUND: Parents are the main decision makers for their children vaccinations. This fact makes parents’ immunization knowledge and practices as predictor factors for immunization uptake and timeliness. The aim of this pilot study was to develop a reliable and valid instrument in Malaysian language to measure immunization knowledge and practice (KP) of Malaysian parents. METHODS: A cross-sectional prospective pilot survey was conducted among 88 Malaysian parents who attended public health facilities that provide vaccinations. Translated immunization KP questionnaires (Bahasa Melayu version) were used. Descriptive statistics were applied, face and content validity were assessed, and internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and construct validity were determined. RESULTS: The mean ± standard deviation (SD) of the knowledge scores was 7.36 ± 2.29 and for practice scores was 7.13 ± 2.20. Good internal consistency was found for knowledge and practice items (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.757 and 0.743 respectively); the test-retest reliability value was 0.740 (p = 0.014). A panel of three specialist pharmacists who are experts in this field judged the face and content validity of the final questionnaire. Parents with up-to-date immunized children had significantly better knowledge and practice scores than parents who did not (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001 respectively), suggesting a good construct validity. A significant difference was found in knowledge and practice scores among parents’ age (p = 0.006 and p = 0.029 respectively) and place of living (p = 0.037 and p = 0.043). The parents’ knowledge level was positively associated with their practice toward immunization (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient 0.310, p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: The pilot study concluded that the Bahasa Melayu version of the immunization KP questionnaire has good reliability and validity for measuring the knowledge and practices of Malaysian parents and therefore this version can be used in future research

Robotic probe positioning system for structural health monitoring

Structural health Monitoring (SHM) is a very critical component for sustainable civil and mechanical structures in modern urban settings. The sky-scrappers and huge bridges in modern metropolis today are essential aspects of the prosperity and development of a country but at the same time they present a great challenge in terms of maintaining and sustaining the structures in a good health. Due to the complex designs of these structures, it is typically very dangerous to do SHM tasks through human personnel. Deployment of a monitoring team with various forms of equipment and scaffolding accompanied with their hoisting machines becomes extremely exorbitant for the maintenance and planning of the structures causing unnecessary cost-spill on other areas of the available budget. In this paper, a robotic system is presented that can perform a coarse level of scan of a tall building using drones and the probe deployment robots (PDR). The drones provide a rough estimate of the location of possible defect or abnormality and PDR inspects the anomaly more closely. In addition, the coarse information about a possible defect can also help in deploying other means of inspection in a much lower cost since the whole structure needs not to be inspected. 2017 IEEE.Scopu

The role of EEG and EMG combined virtual reality gaming system in facial palsy rehabilitation - A case report

Background The recovery rates for facial palsy are usually excellent; however, regularly patients present with problems with their fine facial movements that affect their emotional expressions. Objective To discover the viability and ease of using an Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Electromyography (EMG) combined Virtual Reality (VR) gaming system – the ‘Oculus Rift’ device in the evaluation and rehabilitation of facial palsy. Design Single case study. Patient information A young 23-year-old female with facial palsy. Clinical findings Most of the patient's facial features were re-established within the recovery time frame, except for her right forehead and eyebrow movements. Intervention A 10 day exercise program (Day 2–11) with an immersive virtual reality device, which randomly shoots virtually animated white balls in an unpredictable and testing pattern. Outcome measures EEG and EMG patterns corresponding to the facial upper quadrant were taken at baseline, post-intervention, and at follow up. Results EMG and EEG investigation revealed a progressive improvement in the muscle activation in response to the impulsive and unpredictable activities in the virtual environment provided through the immersive VR device. Conclusion The case report found a positive relationship between VR, facial upper quadrant EMG activation and EEG pattern changes following the interventionScopu

H∞ Deconvolution of Ultrasonic Non Destructive Testing Signals for Defect Identification

Pulse-echo reflection techniques are used for ultrasonic flaw detection in most commercial instruments [1,2]. The ultrasonic wave, generated by a piezoelectric transducer coupled to the test specimen, propagates through the material and part of its energy is reflected when it encounters a non-homogeneity or discontinuity in its path, while the remainder is reflected by the back surface of the test specimen. The flaw echo contains information regarding the material discontinuity that the ultrasonic wave has encountered in its path.</p

ANFIS-Net for automatic detection of COVID-19

Among the most leading causes of mortality across the globe are infectious diseases which have cost tremendous lives with the latest being coronavirus (COVID-19) that has become the most recent challenging issue. The extreme nature of this infectious virus and its ability to spread without control has made it mandatory to find an efficient auto-diagnosis system to assist the people who work in touch with the patients. As fuzzy logic is considered a powerful technique for modeling vagueness in medical practice, an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) was proposed in this paper as a key rule for automatic COVID-19 detection from chest X-ray images based on the characteristics derived by texture analysis using gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) technique. Unlike the proposed method, especially deep learning-based approaches, the proposed ANFIS-based method can work on small datasets. The results were promising performance accuracy, and compared with the other state-of-the-art techniques, the proposed method gives the same performance as the deep learning with complex architectures using many backbone.This publication was made by NPRP Grant NPRP12S-0312-190332 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.Scopu

Using casual reasoning for anomaly detection among ECG live data streams in ubiquitous healthcare monitoring systems

Anomalies in cardiac functionality can be fatal. Early detection of these anomalies, and in many cases their precursors, can save lives. The probability of the occurrence of these anomalies is extremely among people with a pre-diagnosed heart condition. In this research, we discovered that much remote Electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring systems do not convey “enough” information to the diagnosing doctor or the nominated caregiver. A few examples of this information can be the type of cardiac abnormality, the exact waveform of the ECG signal, time and frequency of the occurrence of the anomaly, machine-understandable part so that medical SCADA be alerted about the case, and immediate preventative urgent steps correlated to that emergency. It is also important to delivery surrounding context to the Health Information System so that the medical expert make his/her diagnosis with ample support data. The most important component in this communication is the security of contents from cybercrimes. We propose a cost-efficient and non-invasive health monitoring system that is secure and quickly deployable. The presented system embeds an intelligent wearable data acquisition system with unique identification algorithms requiring very little computational time and simple threshold-based classification.Scopu