A flexible pressure sensor with high performances is one of the promising candidates for achieving electronic skins (E‐skin) related to various applications such as wearable devices, health ...monitoring systems, and artificial robot arms. The sensitive response for external mechanical stimulation is fundamentally required to develop the E‐skin which imitates the function of human skin. The performance of capacitive pressure sensors can be improved using morphologies and structures occurring in nature. In this work, highly sensitive capacitive pressure sensors based on a porous structure of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) thin film, inspired on the natural multilayered porous structures seen in mushrooms, diatoms, and spongia offilinalis, have been developed and evaluated. A bioinspired porous dielectric layer is used, resulting in high‐performance pressure sensors with high sensitivity (0.63 kPa−1), high stability over 10 000 cycles, fast response and relaxation times, and extremely low‐pressure detection of 2.42 Pa. Additionally, the resulting pressure sensors are demonstrated to fabricate multipixel arrays, thus achieving successful real‐time tactile sensing of various touch shapes. The developed high‐performance flexible pressure sensors may open new opportunities for innovative applications in advanced human‐machine interface systems, robotic sensory systems, and various wearable health monitoring devices.
A highly sensitive bioinspired porous structured pressure sensor is demonstrated that can detect extremely light weight objects such as an ant. The porous structured pressure sensor is pixelated into a 15 × 15 array and based on the fast response time of the pressure sensor, real‐time tactile mapping is demonstrated under various pressures.
The electrocardiogram (ECG) waveform conveys information regarding the electrical property of the heart. The patterns vary depending on the individual heart characteristics. ECG features can be ...potentially used for biometric recognition. This study presents a new method using the entire ECG waveform pattern for matching and demonstrates that the approach can potentially be employed for individual biometric identification. Multi-cycle ECG signals were assessed using an ECG measuring circuit, and three electrodes can be patched on the wrists or fingers for considering various measurements. For biometric identification, our-fold cross validation was used in the experiments for assessing how the results of a statistical analysis will generalize to an independent data set. Four different pattern matching algorithms, i.e., cosine similarity, cross correlation, city block distance, and Euclidean distances, were tested to compare the individual identification performances with a single channel of ECG signal (3-wire ECG). To evaluate the pattern matching for biometric identification, the ECG recordings for each subject were partitioned into training and test set. The suggested method obtained a maximum performance of 89.9% accuracy with two heartbeats of ECG signals measured on the wrist and 93.3% accuracy with three heartbeats for 55 subjects. The performance rate with ECG signals measured on the fingers improved up to 99.3% with two heartbeats and 100% with three heartbeats of signals for 20 subjects.
•Muscle tissue modeling for electric stimulation.•Recognition of subject intention by muscle activation.•Detection of muscle activation using multi-electrode sensing and electrical ...stimulation.•Detection and assessment of isometric and isotonic muscle actions at forearms.
The need to assess muscle activation and intention recognition in the design of prosthetic or exoskeleton robots has recently increased in rehabilitation medical research. Assessment of the muscle activation has an important role in the control of wearable devices. Such application requires estimating a patient's intention through the detection of their muscle activation. Previously developed techniques, namely, bioelectrical impedance analysis, electrical impedance myography, electrical impedance tomography, and a surface electromyogram, have been used in the detection of muscle activation. However, these techniques tend to have difficulty in assessing the muscle activation. A biopsy needle can be used to sense the muscle activation in an invasive manner. We propose a new method for detecting the muscle activation using multi-electrode sensing with electrical stimulation, but without a biopsy needle. Electrical stimulation is applied to the skin of a subjects forearm. The signals reflected from their muscles are then measured using multiple electrodes placed on the skin. The forearm skin and its muscles can be modeled as muscle tissue circuits depending on the signal frequency. We verified the proposed method experimentally through isometric muscle contraction, isotonic muscle action, and a frequency response test using various frequencies of the electric stimulation signals. Experiments with eight healthy subjects showed promising results in the detection of muscle activation, which can be applied to prosthetic or exoskeleton robots.
Highly stretchable fiber strain sensors are one of the most important components for various applications in wearable electronics, electronic textiles, and biomedical electronics. Herein, we present ...a facile approach for fabricating highly stretchable and sensitive fiber strain sensors by embedding Ag nanoparticles into a stretchable fiber with a multifilament structure. The multifilament structure and Ag-rich shells of the fiber strain sensor enable the sensor to simultaneously achieve both a high sensitivity and largely wide sensing range despite its simple fabrication process and components. The fiber strain sensor simultaneously exhibits ultrahigh gauge factors (∼9.3 × 105 and ∼659 in the first stretching and subsequent stretching, respectively), a very broad strain-sensing range (450 and 200% for the first and subsequent stretching, respectively), and high durability for more than 10 000 stretching cycles. The fiber strain sensors can also be readily integrated into a glove to control a hand robot and effectively applied to monitor the large volume expansion of a balloon and a pig bladder for an artificial bladder system, thereby demonstrating the potential of the fiber strain sensors as candidates for electronic textiles, wearable electronics, and biomedical engineering.
Fabrication strategies that pursue “simplicity” for the production process and “functionality” for a device, in general, are mutually exclusive. Therefore, strategies that are less expensive, less ...equipment‐intensive, and consequently, more accessible to researchers for the realization of omnipresent electronics are required. Here, this study presents a conceptually different approach that utilizes the inartificial design of the surface roughness of paper to realize a capacitive pressure sensor with high performance compared with sensors produced using costly microfabrication processes. This study utilizes a writing activity with a pencil and paper, which enables the construction of a fundamental capacitor that can be used as a flexible capacitive pressure sensor with high pressure sensitivity and short response time and that it can be inexpensively fabricated over large areas. Furthermore, the paper‐based pressure sensors are integrated into a fully functional 3D touch‐pad device, which is a step toward the realization of omnipresent electronics.
High‐performance paper‐based pressure sensors are developed through inartificial design of the surface curl and roughness of paper and graphite. The proposed approach involves writing on paper with a pencil, and the sensors can be inexpensively fabricated over a large area. The paper‐based pressure sensors are integrated into a fully functional 3D touch‐pad device, which is a step toward the realization of advanced paper electronics.
A job analysis of care helpers Shin, Su Jin; Choi, Kyung-Sook; Jeong, Seungeun ...
Journal of educational evaluation for health professions,
01/2012, Letnik:
9
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The aim of this study was to examine the roles of care helpers through job analysis. To do this, this study used the Developing A Curriculum Method (DACUM) to classify job content and a ...multi-dimensional study design was applied to identify roles and create a job description by looking into the appropriateness, significance, frequency, and difficulty of job content as identified through workshops and cross-sectional surveys conducted for appropriateness verification. A total of 418 care helpers working in nursing facilities and community senior service facilities across the country were surveyed. The collected data were analyzed using PASW 18.0 software. Six duties and 18 tasks were identified based on the job model. Most tasks were found to be "important task", scoring 4.0 points or above. Physical care duties, elimination care, position changing and movement assistance, feeding assistance, and safety care were identified as high frequency tasks. The most difficult tasks were emergency prevention, early detection, and speedy reporting. A summary of the job of care helpers is providing physical, emotional, housekeeping, and daily activity assistance to elderly patients with problems in independently undertaking daily activities due to physical or mental causes in long-term care facilities or at the client's home. The results of this study suggest a task-focused examination, optimizing the content of the current standard teaching materials authorized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare while supplementing some content which was identified as task elements but not included in the current teaching materials and fully reflecting the actual frequency and difficulty of tasks.
Home-based chemotherapy is widely used and offers advantages in terms of patient-centeredness, hospital capacity, and cost-effectiveness. However, in practice, patients experience difficulties with ...self-management and handling the elastomeric infuser. In this study, we aimed to explore the experiences of patients undergoing home-based chemotherapy based on patients’ and nurses’ perspectives. Additionally, we aimed to identify patients’ unmet needs.
A qualitative descriptive study was conducted in a tertiary hospital in South Korea. Ten patients undergoing home-based chemotherapy and ten nurses with experience in home-based chemotherapy participated. Data were collected by using semi-structured individual interviews and analyzed by using inductive content analysis.
Four main categories were identified based on the interviews: (1) ambivalence regarding comfort vs. enduring the discomfort, (2) acceptance of the discomfort as a part of them, (3) the need for more precise, numerical measurements, and (4) the realization that they need similar hands-on care at home as in a hospital.
Although patients were satisfied with home-based chemotherapy, they were enduring the difficulties they experienced at home alone. Nurses should make an effort to identify patient needs and devise tailored nursing interventions to improve their safety.
In article number 1700368, Taeyoon Lee, and Wooyoung Shim, and co‐workers propose a fundamentally simple method of fabricating capacitor arrays, that can outperform their costly counterparts, ...manufactured via microfabrication. The capacitor array, made by ubiquitous activity from our daily lives, namely, writing on a paper with a pencil, is used as a pressure sensor, which is further integrated into a fully functional touch device as a principle demonstration of the concept of omnipresent electronics.
S. Kang et al. report a flexible and highly sensitive pressure sensor developed using a highly deformable dielectric layer inspired by natural porous structures in article number 1600356. This sensor ...exhibits an outstanding sensitivity, fast response, and high stability. It is successfully integrated into an array and applied to fabricate a real‐time tactile sensing platform.
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