Real-Time Detection of Freezing Motions in Parkinson's Patients for Adaptive Gait Phase Synchronous Cueing

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide reducing cognitive and motoric abilities of affected persons. Freezing of Gait (FoG) is one of the severe symptoms that is observed in the late stages of the disease and considerably impairs the mobility of the person and raises the risk of falls. Due to the pathology and heterogeneity of the Parkinsonian gait cycle, especially in the case of freezing episodes, the detection of the gait phases with wearables is challenging in Parkinson's disease. This is addressed by introducing a state-automaton-based algorithm for the detection of the foot's motion phases using a shoe-placed inertial sensor. Machine-learning-based methods are investigated to classify the actual motion phase as normal or FoG-affected and to predict the outcome for the next motion phase. For this purpose, spatio-temporal gait and signal parameters are determined from the segmented movement phases. In this context, inertial sensor fusion is applied to the foot's 3D acceleration and rate of turn. Support Vector Machine (SVM) and AdaBoost classifiers have been trained on the data of 16 Parkinson's patients who had shown FoG episodes during a clinical freezing-provoking assessment course. Two clinical experts rated the video-recorded trials and marked episodes with festination, shank trembling, shuffling, or akinesia. Motion phases inside such episodes were labeled as FoG-affected. The classifiers were evaluated using leave-one-patient-out cross-validation. No statistically significant differences could be observed between the different classifiers for FoG detection (p>0.05). An SVM model with 10 features of the actual and two preceding motion phases achieved the highest average performance with 88.5 ± 5.8% sensitivity, 83.3 ± 17.1% specificity, and 92.8 ± 5.9% Area Under the Curve (AUC). The performance of predicting the behavior of the next motion phase was significantly lower compared to the detection classifiers. No statistically significant differences were found between all prediction models. An SVM-predictor with features from the two preceding motion phases had with 81.6 ± 7.7% sensitivity, 70.3 ± 18.4% specificity, and 82.8 ± 7.1% AUC the best average performance. The developed methods enable motion-phase-based FoG detection and prediction and can be utilized for closed-loop systems that provide on-demand gait-phase-synchronous cueing to mitigate FoG symptoms and to prevent complete motoric blockades.BMBF, 16SV8168, Verbundprojekt: Mobilitätsassistent für Parkinsonpatienten - Mobil4Park -; Teilvorhaben: On-Demand Stimulationssystem mit Tele-Medizin-FunktionDFG, 424778381, Behandlung motorischer Netzwerkstörungen mittels NeuromodulationDFG, 414044773, Open Access Publizieren 2021 - 2022 / Technische Universität Berli

Revealing Repton: bringing landscape to life at Sheringham Park

The year 2012 marked 200 years since Humphry Repton (1752–1818) produced his design for Sheringham Park in north Norfolk, bound as one of his Red Books. On paper, Repton is England’s best-known and most influential landscape gardener. On the ground, his work is much harder to identify, focused as it was on light touches that equated more to landscape makeover than the landscape making of his predecessor Lancelot “Capability” Brown. This paper documents and evaluates a project that celebrated this bicentenary through a temporary exhibition within the visitor centre of Sheringham Park, whilst also making reference to the commemoration of his work in other places and on paper. In attempting to reveal Repton at Sheringham, we explore the context of the 1812 commission and the longer landscape history of the site, as well as the different methods of representing Repton on site that are open to site owners and managers

Green-Networks: Integrating Alternative Circulation Systems into Post-industrial Cities

Many post-industrial cities are infused with ready-made spaces for non-vehicular circulation in the form of webs of linear voids that often result from industrial era infrastructure. There have been many successful conversions of individual linear easements into greenways, although attempting to craft continuous green-networks from these residual spaces is often problematic. This paper considers how designers and planners might start to reconcile the aspirations of the green-network as a model and an idea with the actual opportunities on the ground as typically found in post-industrial cities. Central to the discussion is an extension of Robert Searns' greenway generational rubric, whereby the present generation of greenways is described as complete webs to rival the grey infrastructure of the incumbent city fabric. Within this framework, the paper elaborates on a number of themes: (1) how effective green-networks are at influencing urban form; (2) the green-network as a counterbalance to the city; (3) speed versus slowness; (4) issues of intersection and grade separation; (5) the concept of interwoven green/grey space; and (6) the greenway network model versus the standalone circuit. The paper concludes with a call for expanding the greenway nomenclature to reflect the actual diversity of the genre. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Demographic, clinical and antibody characteristics of patients with digital ulcers in systemic sclerosis: data from the DUO Registry

OBJECTIVES: The Digital Ulcers Outcome (DUO) Registry was designed to describe the clinical and antibody characteristics, disease course and outcomes of patients with digital ulcers associated with systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHODS: The DUO Registry is a European, prospective, multicentre, observational, registry of SSc patients with ongoing digital ulcer disease, irrespective of treatment regimen. Data collected included demographics, SSc duration, SSc subset, internal organ manifestations, autoantibodies, previous and ongoing interventions and complications related to digital ulcers. RESULTS: Up to 19 November 2010 a total of 2439 patients had enrolled into the registry. Most were classified as either limited cutaneous SSc (lcSSc; 52.2%) or diffuse cutaneous SSc (dcSSc; 36.9%). Digital ulcers developed earlier in patients with dcSSc compared with lcSSc. Almost all patients (95.7%) tested positive for antinuclear antibodies, 45.2% for anti-scleroderma-70 and 43.6% for anticentromere antibodies (ACA). The first digital ulcer in the anti-scleroderma-70-positive patient cohort occurred approximately 5 years earlier than the ACA-positive patient group. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides data from a large cohort of SSc patients with a history of digital ulcers. The early occurrence and high frequency of digital ulcer complications are especially seen in patients with dcSSc and/or anti-scleroderma-70 antibodies

Comparison of the effects of TiF4 and NaF solutions at pH 1.2 and 3.5 on enamel erosion in vitro

This study aimed to analyse and compare the protective effect of buffered (pH 3.5) and native (pH 1.2) TiF(4) in comparison with NaF solutions on enamel erosion. Bovine samples were pretreated with 1.50% TiF(4) or 2.02% NaF (both 0.48 M F) solutions, each at a pH of 1.2 and 3.5. The control group received no fluoride pretreatment. Twenty samples per group were eroded with HCl (pH 2.6) for 10 x 60 s. Erosion was either investigated by profilometry (n = 10) or by determination of calcium release into the acid (n = 10). Additionally, the elemental surface composition was quantified by X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy in fluoridated but not eroded samples (6 samples per group). Scanning electron microscopy was performed prior and after erosion (2 samples per group). Cumulative enamel loss (mum) and calcium release (nmol/mm(2)) were analysed by repeated-measures ANOVA. The Ti and F surface composition was analysed by one-way ANOVA separately for each element. Only TiF(4) at pH 1.2 reduced enamel surface loss significantly. Calcium release was significantly reduced by TiF(4) and NaF at pH 1.2, but not by the solutions at pH 3.5. Samples pretreated with TiF(4) at pH 1.2 showed a significant increase in Ti, while NaF increased F concentration significantly. Only TiF(4) at pH 1.2 induced the formation of a glaze-like layer, which was still present after erosion. Enamel erosion can be significantly reduced by TiF(4) at pH 1.2 but not at pH 3.5. TiF(4) at pH 1.2 was more effective in protecting against enamel erosion than NaF

NITRAS - Messumformer zur Online-Messung von Nitratkonzentrationen im Umweltschutz und der Wasserwirtschaft. Teilvorhaben: Analysesystem zur Bestimmung von Ionenkonzentrationen Abschlussbericht

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F02B1515+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung, Berlin (Germany)DEGerman

Smart Planning and Intelligent Cities: A New Cambrian Explosion

We live in the society of knowledge, creativity and innovation: true anti-cyclical factors with respect to the crisis that has overrun the traditional development protocols and that requires powerful processes of creation and spread of knowledge. The true innovation has no boundaries, it has to affect each aspect of institutions and enterprises and operates as a mutagen of society, requiring a paradigm shift. Startups, fablabs, co-workers, makers and smart citizens have given rise to a global urban movement and most cities now have a sizeable colony: a true smart ecosystem for improving social innovation. Between them they are home to hundreds of accelerators and thousands of smart places and co-working spaces, and this ecosystem must be highly interconnected and integrated in a renewed urban metabolism driven by more adequate planning paradigms and tools. The combination of technological innovation and urban planning, however, is not only instrumental and determines changes within the community and its territory too. The “Third Industrial Revolution” and the gradual implementation of e-society have made it possible to delegate an increasing number of physical and intellectual tasks, even very sophisticated, to technology. In fact, the goods and ideas produced are increasingly less tied to a scheduled place and time, in terms of quality and quantity; the workplace is no longer an independent variable and time is no longer rigidly synchronized, especially as far as the intellectual work is concerned. The spreading of sensors, smart devices, electronic networks and urban life apps has created a proper urban cyber-physical space, consisting of the constant interaction between physical components and digital networks, tangible actions and intangible feedback. Smart cities are components of a new urban organism able to rethink the development and to encourage a “creative explosion”, leading smartness-based initiatives as part of a European post-metropolitan vision