Evaluating Filtering Facepiece Respirator Wearing-Comfort of Lebanese Red Cross Healthcare Providers.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased the usage of various types of face masks. In addition, it triggered the rapid manufacture of new production lines of masks to cope with the unprecedented demand to overcome worldwide shortages. Such masks, which were previously used mostly by the health care personnel, became a daily necessity to the greater mainstream population.

Case study into the successful emergency production and certification of a filtering facepiece respirator for Belgian hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic presented European hospitals with chronic shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as surgical masks and respirator masks. Demand outstripped the production capacity of certified European manufacturers of these devices. Hospitals perceived emergency local manufacturing of PPE as an approach to reduce dependence on foreign supply.

Vibrotactile feedback for correcting aerodynamic position of a cyclist.

Guidance to maintain an optimal aerodynamic position is currently unavailable during cycling. This study used real-time vibrotactile feedback to guide cyclists to a reference position with minimal projected frontal area as an indicator of aerodynamic drag, by optimizing torso, shoulder, head and elbow position without compromising comfort when sitting still on the bike. The difference in recapturing the aerodynamic reference position during cycling after predefined deviations from the reference position at different intensities was analysed for 14 participants between three interventions, consisting of 1) vibrotactile feedback with a margin of error of 1.

Vibrotactile Feedback During Physical Exercise: Perception of Vibrotactile Cues in Cycling.

The aim of this study was to investigate the perception of vibrotactile signals during physical exercise by comparing differences in recognition between stationary and cycling positions. The impact of physical exercise on the ability to perceive vibrotactile cues is unknown, whereas the recognition in stationary position has been shown previously. Vibrating elements were positioned at 3 locations on the thighs and spine of 9 athletes to apply various vibrotactile cues.

Awake F-FDG PET Imaging of Memantine-Induced Brain Activation and Test-Retest in Freely Running Mice.

PET scans of the mouse brain are usually performed with anesthesia to immobilize the animal. However, it is desirable to avoid the confounding factor of anesthesia in mouse-brain response. We developed and validated brain PET imaging of awake, freely moving mice.

Ergonomic design of an EEG headset using 3D anthropometry.

Although EEG experiments over the past decades have shown numerous applications for brain-computer interfacing (BCI), there is a need for user-friendly BCI devices that can be used in real-world situations. 3D anthropometry and statistical shape modeling have been shown to improve the fit of devices such as helmets and respirators, and thus they might also be suitable to design BCI headgear that better fits the size and shape variation of the human head. In this paper, a new design method for BCI devices is proposed and evaluated.