Interlimb and Intralimb Synergy Modeling for Lower Limb Assistive Devices: Modeling Methods and Feature Selection.

The concept of gait synergy provides novel human-machine interfaces and has been applied to the control of lower limb assistive devices, such as powered prostheses and exoskeletons. Specifically, on the basis of gait synergy, the assistive device can generate/predict the appropriate reference trajectories precisely for the affected or missing parts from the motions of sound parts of the patients. Optimal modeling for gait synergy methods that involves optimal combinations of features (inputs) is required to achieve synergic trajectories that improve human-machine interaction.

Diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases with a refined Lempel-Ziv complexity.

The investigation into the distinctive difference of gait is of significance for the clinical diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases. However, human gait is affected by many factors like behavior, occupation and so on, and they may confuse the gait differences among Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Huntington's disease. For the purpose of examining distinctive gait differences of neurodegenerative diseases, this study extracts various features from both vertical ground reaction force and time intervals.

Efficacy of β2-adrenergic receptor agonist combined with corticosteroid in the treatment of children with cough variant asthma.

Background: Cough variant asthma (CVA) is one of the most common respiratory diseases in children, which has a serious impact on the quality of life and daily activities of children. For severe CVA, immunomodulatory drugs are needed.

Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of salmeterol combined with budesonide in the treatment of pediatric CVA.

A novel web-based calculator to predict 30-day all-cause in-hospital mortality for 7,202 elderly patients with heart failure in ICUs: a multicenter retrospective cohort study in the United States.

Background And Aims: Heart failure (HF) is a significant cause of in-hospital mortality, especially for the elderly admitted to intensive care units (ICUs). This study aimed to develop a web-based calculator to predict 30-day in-hospital mortality for elderly patients with HF in the ICU and found a relationship between risk factors and the predicted probability of death.

Methods And Results: Data ( = 4450) from the MIMIC-III/IV database were used for model training and internal testing.

The efficacy and neural mechanism of acupuncture therapy in the treatment of visceral hypersensitivity in irritable bowel syndrome.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a complex functional gastrointestinal disorder primarily characterized by chronic abdominal pain, bloating, and altered bowel habits. Chronic abdominal pain caused by visceral Hypersensitivity (VH) is the main reason why patients with IBS seek medication. Significant research effort has been devoted to the efficacy of acupuncture as a non-drug alternative therapy for visceral-hyperalgesia-induced IBS.

Local tumor destruction and liver resection increase overall survival in intermediate/advanced hepatocellular carcinoma patients: evidence from a population-based study.

Background: Liver resection (LR) and local tumor destruction (LTD) are effective treatments, but not commonly recommended for patients with intermediate/advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to explore whether LR/LTD could improve overall survival (OS) of these patients, and to identify the patients who will most likely benefit from LR/LTD.

Methods: Data of patients with intermediate/advanced HCC between 2001 and 2018 were extracted from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database.

Wearable multisource quantitative gait analysis of Parkinson's diseases.

As the motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) are complex and influenced by many factors, it is challenging to quantify gait abnormalities adequately using a single type of signal. Therefore, a wearable multisource gait monitoring system is developed to perform a quantitative analysis of gait abnormalities for improving the effectiveness of the clinical diagnosis. To detect multisource gait data for an accurate evaluation of gait abnormalities, force sensitive sensors, piezoelectric sensors, and inertial measurement units are integrated into the devised device.

Wearable sensors and features for diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases: A systematic review.

Objective: Neurodegenerative diseases affect millions of families around the world, while various wearable sensors and corresponding data analysis can be of great support for clinical diagnosis and health assessment. This systematic review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing research that uses wearable sensors and features for the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted of studies published between 2015 and 2022 in major scientific databases such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopes.

Simultaneous Estimation of the Vertical Stiffness in the Knee and Hip for Healthy Human Subjects during Walking.

The stiffness of lower limb joints is a critical characteristic of walking. To investigate the potential of establishing a simple and universal model to describe the characteristics related to vertical vibration during human walking, vertical stiffness is introduced at the knee and hip. A multi-mass-spring model of the human body is established in the vertical direction.

A new prediction model for overall survival of elderly patients with solitary bone plasmacytoma: A population-based study.

Background: Comprehensive studies on the prognosis of solitary bone plasmacytoma (SPB) are lacking, especially in elderly patients with SPB. This study aims to establish a novel nomogram and risk stratification system to predict the overall survival (OS) of elderly patients with SPB.

Methods: The data of elderly patients with SPB from 2000 to 2017 were identified in the SEER database.

Gait Synergy Analysis and Modeling on Amputees and Stroke Patients for Lower Limb Assistive Devices.

The concept of synergy has drawn attention and been applied to lower limb assistive devices such as exoskeletons and prostheses for improving human-machine interaction. A better understanding of the influence of gait kinematics on synergies and a better synergy-modeling method are important for device design and improvement. To this end, gait data from healthy, amputee, and stroke subjects were collected.

A Visualized Dynamic Prediction Model for Overall Survival in Elderly Patients With Pancreatic Cancer for Smart Medical Services.

Background: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a highly malignant tumor of the digestive system. The number of elderly patients with PC is increasing, and older age is related to a worse prognosis. Accurate prognostication is crucial in treatment decisions made for people diagnosed with PC.

Therapeutic effects of acupuncture in rheumatoid arthritis are associated with centromere protein F expression.

Objective: The objective of this study is to study the critical role of CENPF in regulation of rheumatoid arthritis with acupuncture treatment.

Methods: PCA was used to analyze the different expression genes between AP treatment group and control group. Volcano plot and random forest model were used to analyze the decreased and increased expression genes.

Deflection estimation of industrial robots with flexible joints.

The application of industrial robots in manufacturing industries has received considerable concerns due to the high flexibility, multifunctionality, and cost-efficiency. It is well known that the robot positioning accuracy is susceptible to the load and motion of robots owing to the insufficient stiffness of robots. Therefore, the machining accuracy improvement has been a research focus in the robotic manufacturing industries in the last decade.

Evaluation of efficiency and safety of combined montelukast sodium and budesonide in children with cough variant asthma: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Cough variant asthma (CVA) is classified as a distinct form of asthma. As the primary or only symptom, cough is the leading cause for the most prevalent chronic cough among kids. The American College of Clinical Pharmacy, British Thoracic Society, and Chinese guidelines established for diagnosing and treating chronic cough in kids recommend inhaled corticosteroids, combined with leukotriene receptor antagonists when necessary.

Efficacy of continuous positive airway pressure in neonates with respiratory distress syndrome: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) is a condition caused by a deficiency in pulmonary surfactant. Many interventions, including pulmonary surfactant, non-invasive respiratory support, and other supportive treatments have been used to prevent RDS. However, recent studies have focused on the continuous positive airway pressure as a significant potential agent for preventing RDS.

Self-Powered Smart Insole for Monitoring Human Gait Signals.

With the rapid development of low-power consumption wireless sensors and wearable electronics, harvesting energy from human motion to enable self-powered sensing is becoming desirable. Herein, a pair of smart insoles integrated with piezoelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanogenerators (NGs) are fabricated to simultaneously harvest energy from human motion and monitor human gait signals. Multi-target magnetron sputtering technology is applied to form the aluminum electrode layers on the surface of the PVDF film and the self-powered insoles are fabricated through advanced 3D seamless flat-bed knitting technology.

Development of a multistage compliant mechanism with new boundary constraint.

This paper presents a piezo-actuated compliant mechanism with a new boundary constraint to provide concurrent large workspace and high dynamic frequency for precision positioning or other flexible manipulation applications. A two-stage rhombus-type displacement amplifier with the "sliding-sliding" boundary constraint is presented to maximize the dynamic frequency while retaining a large output displacement. The vibration mode is also improved by the designed boundary constraint.

Evaluation strategy of regenerative braking energy for supercapacitor vehicle.

In order to improve the efficiency of energy conversion and increase the driving range of electric vehicles, the regenerative energy captured during braking process is stored in the energy storage devices and then will be re-used. Due to the high power density of supercapacitors, they are employed to withstand high current in the short time and essentially capture more regenerative energy. The measuring methods for regenerative energy should be investigated to estimate the energy conversion efficiency and performance of electric vehicles.