Monitoring Fetal Heart Rate during Pregnancy: Contributions from Advanced Signal Processing and Wearable Technology

Monitoring procedures are the basis to evaluate the clinical state of patients and to assess changes in their conditions, thus providing necessary interventions in time. Both these two objectives can be achieved by integrating technological development with methodological tools, thus allowing accurate classification and extraction of useful diagnostic information. The paper is focused on monitoring procedures applied to fetal heart rate variability (FHRV) signals, collected during pregnancy, in order to assess fetal well-being. The use of linear time and frequency techniques as well as the computation of non linear indices can contribute to enhancing the diagnostic power and reliability of fetal monitoring. The paper shows how advanced signal processing approaches can contribute to developing new diagnostic and classification indices. Their usefulness is evaluated by comparing two selected populations: normal fetuses and intra uterine growth restricted (IUGR) fetuses. Results show that the computation of different indices on FHRV signals, either linear and nonlinear, gives helpful indications to describe pathophysiological mechanisms involved in the cardiovascular and neural system controlling the fetal heart. As a further contribution, the paper briefly describes how the introduction of wearable systems for fetal ECG recording could provide new technological solutions improving the quality and usability of prenatal monitoring. © 2014 Maria G. Signorini et al

SASICE: Safety and sustainability in civil engineering

The performance of the built environment and the construction sector are of major importance in Europe’s long term goals of sustainable development in a changing climate. At the same time, the quality of life of all European citizens needs to be improved and the safety of the built environment with respect to man-made and natural hazards, such as flooding and earthquakes, needs to be ensured. Education has a central role to play in the transformation of a construction sector required to meet increasing demands with regard to safety and sustainability. In this work, the SASICE project is presented. The aim of this project is to promote the integration of safety and sustainability in civil engineering education. The project is organised in the context of the Lifelong Learning Programme, funded by the European Community. The coordinator organisation is the University of Bologna. Nine partner universities from different countries are involved in this transnational project. The universities participating to the project constitute a network of high level competences in the civil engineering area, with several opportunities to improve lifelong learning adopting different media: joint curricula, teaching modules and professor and student exchanges. As a response to the challenge regarding new educational methods in sustainable engineering, teaching modules are developed in 4 thematic areas: (1) Safety in construction, (2) Risk induced by Natural Hazards Assessment, (3) Sustainability in construction, and (4) Sustainability at the territorial level. The development of the teaching modules is based on an extensive analysis of the need for highly qualified education on Safety and Sustainability involving all relevant stakeholders (European and national authorities, companies, research institutes, professional organizations, and universities).The main target is enabling students to introduce these advanced topics in their study plans and curricula and reach, at the end of their studies, a specific skill and expertise in safety and sustainability in Civil Engineering. With our natural resources fading away and our infrastructure in dire need of repair, new trends and challenges in civil engineering education in the concept of “Sustainable Development” are needed to be adressed.<br/

Simplified methodologies for assessing the out-of-plane two-way bending seismic response of unreinforced brick masonry walls: lessons from recent experimental studies

This paper describes a simplified methodology for the assessment of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls under out-of-plane two-way bending seismic action. The methodology involves a force-based check derived from the principle of virtual work. This check is proposed based on experimental observations of significant cracking resistance associated with two-way spanning URM walls, indicating methodologies considering such walls to be pre-cracked or to be non-laterally supported as overly conservative. The methodology incorporates several findings and developments from recent experimental campaigns: ranging from novel characterization tests on masonry couplets to incremental dynamic tests on full-scale buildings. Such incorporations include new formulation to calculate the torsional shear strength of a bed joint and accounting for possible changes in the boundary conditions of an OOP wall during dynamic loading. Testing standards as well as recommendations in several international guidelines for masonry structures addressing the input properties required to implement the proposed methodology are enlisted and reviewed. The methodology requires the definition of the period of vibration of the assessed URM walls, to calculate which plate theory based formulation is provided. Open research questions and potential avenues for further development of the methodology are ultimately highlighted

Effects of vertical ground motions on the dynamic response of URM structures: Comparative shake-table tests

This paper discusses the results of an experimental study aimed at evaluating the influence of the vertical ground motion component on the seismic performance of unreinforced brick-masonry buildings. The research was motivated by post-earthquake observations of significant structural damage in the vicinity of the fault, where horizontal and vertical ground motions are often strong and synchronized. Vertical accelerations can fluctuate gravity loads, which control the in-plane lateral load capacity of masonry piers and affect the out-of-plane overturning stability of thin walls. Such phenomena seem not to be sufficiently explained in existing literature, while experimental evidence is undoubtedly missing. Here, the damage potential of vertical accelerations was investigated through a series of multidirectional shake-table tests on full-scale structures under simulated near-source ground motions of increasing intensity. The experiments comprised three nominally identical building specimens subjected to the principal horizontal component alone, the horizontal component combined with the vertical one, and the full three-component ground motion. The buildings included structural/nonstructural elements (e.g., gables, chimneys, and parapets) sensitive to gravity load variations due to their low axial loads. Two different sets of three-component earthquake records were employed to assess the effects of both tectonic and induced seismicity scenarios. Overall, the vertical earthquake motion did not cause appreciable differences in the behavior of the buildings. Any influence on the strength and peak response of structural/nonstructural walls was marginal and non-systematic. Data and observations from these experiments add substantially to our understanding of the vertical acceleration effects on masonry structures

An Activity Classifier based on Heart Rate and Accelerometer Data Fusion

The European project ProeTEX realized a novel set of prototypes based on smart garments that integrate sensors for the real-time monitoring of physiological, activity-related and environmental parameters of the emergency operators during their interventions. The availability of these parameters and the emergency scenario suggest the implementation of novel classification methods aimed at detecting dangerous status of the rescuer automatically, and based not only on the classical activityrelated signals, rather on a combination of these data with the physiological status of the subject. Here we propose a heart rate and accelerometer data fusion algorithm for the activity classification of rescuers in the emergency context

Automated optimal design of wells for electromagnetic cell stimulation

In the paper, a device for in vitro electromagnetic stimulation of cells at low frequency (75 Hz) is considered. In particular, shape and position of a well-plate are identified in order to obtain a homogeneous stimulation and to maximize the space allotted to cell culture. To this end, the BiMO and micro-BiMO optimization algorithms, which have shown good performances in multi-objective optimization of electromagnetic devices, are applied

A Machine Learning Approach to Monitor the Emergence of Late Intrauterine Growth Restriction

Late intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is a fetal pathological condition characterized by chronic hypoxia secondary to placental insufficiency, resulting in an abnormal rate of fetal growth. This pathology has been associated with increased fetal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. In standard clinical practice, late IUGR diagnosis can only be suspected in the third trimester and ultimately confirmed at birth. This study presents a radial basis function support vector machine (RBF-SVM) classification based on quantitative features extracted from fetal heart rate (FHR) signals acquired using routine cardiotocography (CTG) in a population of 160 healthy and 102 late IUGR fetuses. First, the individual performance of each time, frequency, and nonlinear feature was tested. To improve the unsatisfactory results of univariate analysis we firstly adopted a Recursive Feature Elimination approach to select the best subset of FHR-based parameters contributing to the discrimination of healthy vs. late IUGR fetuses. A fine tuning of the RBF-SVM model parameters resulted in a satisfactory classification performance in the training set (accuracy 0.93, sensitivity 0.93, specificity 0.84). Comparable results were obtained when applying the model on a totally independent testing set. This investigation supports the use of a multivariate approach for the in utero identification of late IUGR condition based on quantitative FHR features encompassing different domains. The proposed model allows describing the relationships among features beyond the traditional linear approaches, thus improving the classification performance. This framework has the potential to be proposed as a screening tool for the identification of late IUGR fetuses

Modelling and analysis of South Indian temple structures under earthquake loading

The gopuram (multi-tiered entrance gateway) and the mandapam (pillared multi-purpose hall) are two representative structural forms of South Indian temples. Modelling and seismic analysis of a typical 9-tier gopuram and, 4- and 16-pillared mandapam of the 16th century AD Ekambareswar Temple in Kancheepuram, South India, are discussed. The seismic input is based on a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis of the archaeological site. Two modelling strategies, namely lumped plasticity and distributed plasticity modelling, and three analysis approaches, namely linear dynamic, non-linear, static and dynamic analyses were adopted for the seismic assessment of the gopuram. Unlike slender masonry towers, the vulnerable part of the gopuram could be at the upper levels, which is attributable to higher mode effects, and reduction in cross section and axial stresses. Finite element and limit analysis approaches were adopted for the assessment of the mandapam. Potential collapse mechanisms were identified, and the governing collapse of lateral load, calculated based on limit theory, was compared with the seismic demand as a safety check. Simple relations, as a means of rapid preliminary seismic assessment, are proposed for the mandapam

Natural stone masonry characterization for the shaking-table test of a scaled building specimen

This paper discusses the material characterization tests on stone masonry specimens, and the in-plane cyclic shear-compression tests on four half-scale unreinforced stone masonry piers, which complement a shaking-table test on a half-scale building aggregate prototype. Material characterization tests allowed defining a mortar composition suitable for satisfying the similitude relationships associated with the half-scale tests. Vertical and diagonal compression tests provided a complete description of the mechanical properties of masonry assemblies, while in-plane cyclic shear-compression tests allow determining the hysteretic behavior of masonry piers with different aspect ratios and axial compression levels. Strength and displacement capacities corresponding to the observed damage mechanisms and failure modes were also identified and associated with the specimens geometric and loading conditions. These activities are part of an experimental and numerical research project jointly carried by the University of Pavia, Italy, and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland, which aims at assessing the seismic vulnerability of natural stone masonry building aggregates of the historical center of Basel, Switzerland