Smartphone and Portable Media Device: A Novel Pathway toward the Diagnostic Characterization of Human Movement

The application of wearable and wireless systems offers the capacity to ameliorate considerable strain on medical resources. In particular the smartphone and portable media device for quantifying human movement characteristics offers the opportunity to evaluate patients in a homebound environment remote from clinical resources and post-processing. Trial data can be easily transmitted as an email attachment with wireless connectivity to the Internet. The utility of the smartphone and portable media device has been demonstrated for quantifying gait, tendon reflex response, movement disorder, and rehabilitation exercise. Further evolution and potential has been demonstrated through the integration of machine learning to provide classification accuracy for differentiating between disparate human movement scenarios. The role of the smartphone and portable media device for quantifying human movement characteristics is further elucidated

An Evolutionary Perspective for Network Centric Therapy through Wearable and Wireless Systems for Reflex, Gait, and Movement Disorder Assessment with Machine Learning

Wearable and wireless systems have progressively evolved to achieve the capabilities of Network Centric Therapy. Network Centric Therapy comprises the application of wearable and wireless inertial sensors for the quantification of human movement, such as reflex response, gait, and movement disorders, with machine learning classification representing advanced diagnostics. With wireless access to a functional Cloud computing environment Network Centric Therapy enables subjects to be evaluated at any location of choice with Internet connectivity and expert medical post-processing resources situated anywhere in the world. The evolutionary origins leading to the presence of Network Centric Therapy are detailed. With the historical perspective and state of the art presented, future concepts are addressed

The Merits of Artificial Proprioception, with Applications in Biofeedback Gait Rehabilitation Concepts and Movement Disorder Characterization

Non

Advances for prosthetic technology: from historical perspective to current status to future application

This book focuses on the advances in transtibial prosthetic technology and targets research in the evolution of the powered prosthesis such as the BiOM, which was derived from considerable research and development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The concept of the book spans the historical evolution of prosthetic applications from passive to new and futuristic robotic prosthetic technologies.  The author describes the reasons for amputation, surgical procedures, and an historical perspective of the prosthesis for the lower limb. He also addresses the phases and sub-phases of gait and compensatory mechanisms arising for a transtibial prosthesis and links the compensatory mechanisms to long-term morbidities.  The general technologies for gait analysis central to prosthetic design and the inherent biomechanics foundations for analysis are also explored.  The book reports on recent-past to current-term applications with passive elastic prostheses.  The core of the book deals with futuristic robotic prostheses including their function and major subsystems, such as actuator technology, state machine control, and machine learning applications.  Finally, the envisioned future trends in the prosthetic technology space are presented

Dual Enrollment: Breaking the Mold for College Readiness and Persistence in an Urban Charter School

In the later part of the twentieth century, the continued growth in high school and college dropout rates led to the development of educational reform measures that would address an education model that was seen as applicable to a disproportionate percentage of the nation’s students, thereby leaving the majority of schools and their students to struggle (Simmons, 2008). Efforts to increase matriculation between secondary and postsecondary institutions must be connected at all levels of education, which is critical to educational reform—worldwide (Zhou, 2008). Due to its ability to increase the rigor of high school curriculum, an increasingly favored measure of educational reform is the opportunity to allow high school students to enroll in college courses—dual enrollment (Bradley, 2007). The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the academic experiences of a marginalized population of students that were participants in a dual enrollment program in order to identify the precollegiate experiences that may have influenced their college readiness and persistence.To gauge the perspective of program participants, a qualitativecase study was employed usingphenomenological theory. Participants shared their academic experiences through an open-ended survey, focus group sessions, and interviews. The results demonstrated the ways dual enrollment may affect the college readiness and persistence of marginalized students by not only encouraging them to participate in dual enrollment programs but also by giving program participants full access to the college experience while enrolled in high school, including use of college resources, access to additional courses, and inclusion of currently enrolled college undergraduates in classes with dual enrollment students. In addition, dual enrollment assists participants thought to be “at-risk” by helping them understand their academic preferences pertaining to collegiate educational development, making them more confident in their college-selection efforts, and also motivating their integration in both the academic and social aspects of college life. Considering that all of the participants in this study were accepted into four-year institutions and over 95% of them are still actively enrolled in college, this study demonstrates that dual enrollment programs also assist marginalized students in their college readiness and persistence, just as previous research demonstrates it has for White and “advanced” students. With the support of dual enrollment programs, many marginalized and at-risk students, who in the past would have not considered reaching beyond their gazes, can be afforded greater opportunities

Opt-out design for an observational toxicology study involving intoxicated patients at a dance music event

At electronic dance music events in Belgium in 2013 to 2015, seemingly intoxicated patients were included without their informed consent in an observational toxicology study when the attending physicians determined that they needed treatment with an intravenous line. All included patients received an information letter inviting them to contact the principal investigator (PI) to obtain more information about the study and/or to inform the PI that they wanted to be excluded from it. Overall, 238 patients were included in the study. Nine participants (4%) responded to the information letter, either on their own or through their parent; none of them asked to be excluded from the study. All respondents expressed their gratitude for the information they received. The opt-out study design seemed to be acceptable to the patient-participants, and it provided a fuller picture of the drug-related medical incidents at such music events than what could likely be achieved through a study that includes only people who explicitly choose to participate. These findings may help institutional review boards when evaluating study designs involving recreational drug use, especially at electronic dance music events. Nevertheless, we warn against extrapolation to other settings where informed consent is difficult to obtain