Vibration faults simulation system (VFSS): A lab equipment to aid teaching of mechatronics courses

VFSS is an example of a mechatronics system which involves data acquisition and analysis using LabVIEW-based virtual instrument technology. This system can serve as teaching equipment for mechatronics students in the area of data acquisition, sensors and actuators, signal processing and vibration monitoring to aid students' understanding on these subjects. Since vibration fault signals and their causes are important for fault detection and diagnosis, a vibration faults simulation system is developed to gain good understanding of such signals. To achieve this a vibration faults simulation rig (VFSR) is designed and developed to simulate and study most common vibration fault signatures encountered in rotating machines. A LabVIEW-based data acquisition system is used to acquire and analyze the fault signals. The complete system has been developed and tested and the fault signals were compared with normal signals so as to ascertain the condition of the machine under investigation. VFSS has been successfully used to demonstrate some vital concepts in the teaching of DSP, sensor and actuators and mechanical vibration since data are acquired from the physical system and are analyzed to derive information on the system under investigation. This approach further allows students to gain insight into effects of noise on measurements and how such effects can be combated

A LabVIEW based data acquisition system for vibration monitoring and analysis

LabVIEW (Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench) is gaining popularity as a graphical programming language, especially for data acquisition and measurement. This is due to the vast array of data acquisition cards and measurement systems which can be supported by LabVIEW as well as the relative ease with which advanced software can be programmed. One area of application of LabVIEW is the monitoring and analysis of vibration signals. The analysis and monitoring of the signal are of concern for fault detection and predictive maintenance. This paper describes LabVIEW based data acquisition and analysis developed specifically for vibration monitoring and used with vibration fault simulation systems (VFSS). On-line displays of time and frequency domains of the vibration signal provide a user-friendly data acquisition interface

Machine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis using spectral analysis techniques

There is need to continuously monitor the conditions of complex, expensive and process-critical machinery in order to detect its incipient breakdown as well as to ensure its high performance and operating safety. Depending on the application, several techniques are available for monitoring the condition of a machine. Vibration monitoring of rotating machinery is considered in this paper so as develop a selfdiagnosis tool for monitoring machines’ conditions. To achieve this a vibration fault simulation rig (VFSR) is designed and constructed so as to simulate and analyze some of the most common vibration signals encountered in rotating machinery. Vibration data are collected from the piezoelectric accelerometers placed at locations that provide rigid vibration transmission to them. Both normal and fault signals are analyzed using the singular value decomposition (SVD) algorithm so as to compute the parameters of the auto regressive moving average (ARMA) models. Machine condition monitoring is then based on the AR or ARMA spectra so as to overcome some of the limitations of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) techniques. Furthermore the estimated AR model parameters and the distribution of the singular values can be used in conjunction with the spectral peaks in making comparison between healthy and faulty conditions. Different fault conditions have been successfully simulated and analyzed using the VFSR in this paper. Results of analysis clearly indicate that this method of analysis can be further developed and used for self-diagnosis, predictive maintenance and intelligent-based monitoring

Active vibration control of a beam with piezoelectric patches: real-time implementation with xPC target

Active control of a vibrating beam using smart materials such as piezoelectric materials is examined in this paper. A model based on Euler-Bernoulli beam equation has been developed and then extended with bonded three piezoelectric patches which act as sensor, actuator and exciter. The sensor and actuator are collocated to achieve a minimum phase. The aim of this research work is to control the first three resonant modes. To achieve this, a compensated inverse PID controller is developed and tuned to damp these modes using MATLAB. The designed controller for damping each mode is then combined in parallel to damp any of the three modes. Finally, the simulation results are verified experimentally and the real-time implementation is carried out with xPC target toolbox in MATLAB

Compensated inverse PID controller for active vibration control with piezoelectric patches: modeling, simulation and implementation

Active vibration control of the first three modes of a vibrating cantilever beam using collocated piezoelectric sensor and actuator is examined in this paper. To achieve this, a model based on Euler-Bernoulli beam equation is adopted and extended to the case of three bonded piezoelectric patches that act as sensor, actuator and exciter respectively. A compensated inverse PID controller has been designed and developed to damp first three modes of vibration. Controllers have been designed for each mode and these are later combined in parallel to damp any of the three modes. Individual controller gives better reduction in sensor output for the second and third modes while the combined controller performs better for the first mode. Simulation studies are carried out using MATLAB. These results are compared and verified experimentally and the real-time implementation is carried out with xPC-target toolbox in MATLA

Providers' assessment of a novel interactive health information technology in a pediatric intensive care unit

Objective: To explore perceptions of critical care providers about a novel collaborative inpatient health information technology (HIT) in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) setting. Methods: This cross-sectional, concurrent mixed methods study was conducted in the PICU of a large midwestern children's hospital. The technology, the Large Customizable Interactive Monitor (LCIM), is a flat panel touch screen monitor that displays validated patient information from the electronic health record. It does not require a password to login and is available in each patient's room for viewing and interactive use by physicians, nurses, and families. Quantitative data were collected via self-administered, standardized surveys, and qualitative data via in-person, semistructured interviews between January and April 2015. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inductive thematic analysis. Results: The qualitative analysis showed positive impacts of the LCIM on providers' workflow, team interactions, and interactions with families. Providers reported concerns regarding perceived patient information overload and associated anxiety and burden for families. Sixty percent of providers thought that LCIM was useful for their jobs at different levels, and almost 70% of providers reported that LCIM improved information sharing and communication with families. The average overall satisfaction score was 3.4 on a 0 to 6 scale, between "a moderate amount" and "pretty much." Discussion and Conclusion: This study provides new insight into collaborative HIT in the inpatient pediatric setting and demonstrates that using such technology has the potential to improve providers' experiences with families and just-in-time access to EHR information in a format more easily shared with families

Reinstatement of contextual conditioned anxiety in virtual reality and the effects of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation in humans

Since exposure therapy for anxiety disorders incorporates extinction of contextual anxiety, relapses may be due to reinstatement processes. Animal research demonstrated more stable extinction memory and less anxiety relapse due to vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). We report a valid human three-day context conditioning, extinction and return of anxiety protocol, which we used to examine efects of transcutaneous VNS (tVNS). Seventy-fve healthy participants received electric stimuli (unconditioned stimuli, US) during acquisition (Day1) when guided through one virtual ofce (anxiety context, CTX+) but never in another (safety context, CTX−). During extinction (Day2), participants received tVNS, sham, or no stimulation and revisited both contexts without US delivery. On Day3, participants received three USs for reinstatement followed by a test phase. Successful acquisition, i.e. startle potentiation, lower valence, higher arousal, anxiety and contingency ratings in CTX+ versus CTX−, the disappearance of these efects during extinction, and successful reinstatement indicate validity of this paradigm. Interestingly, we found generalized reinstatement in startle responses and diferential reinstatement in valence ratings. Altogether, our protocol serves as valid conditioning paradigm. Reinstatement efects indicate diferent anxiety networks underlying physiological versus verbal responses. However, tVNS did neither afect extinction nor reinstatement, which asks for validation and improvement of the stimulation protocol

Animal sound activity detection using multi-class support vector machines

On March 11th 2011, the whole world was taken aback by another tragic experience of Tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.8 earthquake in Japan. Just few days after that, on March 25th 2011, another earthquake of magnitude 6.8 hit Myanmar deaths and destructions. Despite the loss incurred on properties and human being, available data show that relatively few numbers of animals died during most natural disasters. Prior to the occurrence of these disasters, available reports shows that animals do migrate to higher level or leave the areas en masse ahead of the event. Other related account show that animal sometimes behaves in unusual ways prior to the occurrence of these natural disasters. These overwhelming evidences point to the fact that animals might have the ability to sense impending natural disaster precursor signals ahead of time. This paper discusses the preliminary results obtained from the use of support vector machine (SVM) and Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) in the development of animal sound activity detection (ASAD) which is an integral part in the development of earthquake and natural disaster prediction using unusual animal behavior. The use of MFCC has been proposed for the features extraction stage while SVM has been proposed for classification of the extracted features. Preliminary results obtained shows that the MFCC and SVM can be used for features extraction and features classification respectively

Provider Use of a Novel EHR display in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Large Customizable Interactive Monitor (LCIM)

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore providers' perspectives on the use of a novel technology, "Large Customizable Interactive Monitor" (LCIM), a novel application of the electronic health record system implemented in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. METHODS: We employed a qualitative approach to collect and analyze data from pediatric intensive care physicians, pediatric nurse practitioners, and acute care specialists. Using semi-structured interviews, we collected data from January to April, 2015. The research team analyzed the transcripts using an iterative coding method to identify common themes. RESULTS: Study results highlight contextual data on providers' use routines of the LCIM. Findings from thirty six interviews were classified into three groups: 1) providers' familiarity with the LCIM; 2) providers' use routines (i.e. when and how they use it); and 3) reasons why they use or do not use it. CONCLUSION: It is important to conduct baseline studies of the use of novel technologies. The importance of training and orientation affects the adoption and use patterns of this new technology. This study is notable for being the first to investigate a LCIM system, a next generation system implemented in the pediatric critical care setting. Our study revealed this next generation HIT might have great potential for family-centered rounds, team education during rounds, and family education/engagement in their child's health in the patient room. This study also highlights the effect of training and orientation on the adoption patterns of new technology

Cost-effectiveness of sorafenib for treatment of radioactive iodine (rai)-refractory locally advanced/metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer (dtc) in Turkey

WOS: 000354498503198OBJECTIVES: Sorafenib is the first product approved for treatment of RAI refractory locally advanced/metastatic DTC patients. This study was conducted in order to analyze cost-effectiveness of sorafenib for treatment of patients with RAI refractory locally advanced/metastatic DTC in Turkey. METHODS: A cohort partition model assigning patients to one of three health states according to the proportion of patients who are progression-free, progressed, or dead in each 28-days cycle was adapted to Turkish setting. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICER) were calculated per quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and life-years (LYs) gained. Turkish payer’s perspective was taken and time-horizon was set as patient’s lifetime (maximum 30 years). Sorafenib was compared to the best supportive care (BSC) within the model since there are no agents for treatment of patients on this stage of the disease. Essential clinical inputs were derived from DECISION trial and local resource-utilization data were based on expert opinions through an expert panel. Sensitivity of the results was evaluated in terms of key inputs by deterministic oneway and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. All costs were calculated in Turkish Liras (TL) and converted to USD using TL/USD currency rate as 2.2 (mid-2014). RESULTS: Total cost of sorafenib-treated patients is 24,384 USD higher compared to BSC. Besides, sorafenib is associated with increments of 1.29 LYs and 0.80 QALYs compared to BSC. The ICER of sorafenib per LYs and QALYs gained compared to BSC were determined as 18,851 USD and 30,485 USD respectively. One-way sensitivity analysis demonstrated that results are not sensitive to the changes in model inputs and pharmacoeconomic analysis results were validated by probabilistic sensitivity analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Sorafenib is cost-effective for treatment of patients with RAI refractory locally advanced/metastatic DTC compared to BSC with an ICER value below the willingness-to-pay threshold (3-times GDP per capita ─ 32,346 USD) for Turkey