The Infona portal uses cookies, i.e. strings of text saved by a browser on the user's device. The portal can access those files and use them to remember the user's data, such as their chosen settings (screen view, interface language, etc.), or their login data. By using the Infona portal the user accepts automatic saving and using this information for portal operation purposes. More information on the subject can be found in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. By closing this window the user confirms that they have read the information on cookie usage, and they accept the privacy policy and the way cookies are used by the portal. You can change the cookie settings in your browser.
In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the use of automatic computer-based systems for the detection of eye diseases such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. However, in practice, retinal image quality is a big concern as automatic systems without consideration of degraded image quality will likely generate unreliable results. In this paper, an automatic...
Infants recovering from general anesthesia are at risk of postoperative apnea (POA), a potentially life threatening event. There is no accurate way to identify which infants will experience POA, and thus all infants with postmenstrual age < 60 weeks are monitored for apnea in hospital postoperatively. Using a comprehensive, automated analysis of the postoperative breathing patterns, we identified...
In this paper, an Autoregulation Unit (ARU) for left ventricular sensorized assist devices (LVAD) has been used with a cardiovascular hybrid simulator mimicking physiological and pathological patient conditions. The functionalities of the ARU have been demonstrating for the successful receiving and visualization of system parameters, sending of commands for LVAD speed changes, and enabling of the...
Hypoglycemia is a common side-effect of insulin therapy for patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and is the major limiting factor to maintain tight glycemic control. The deficiency in glucose counter-regulation may even lead to severe hypoglycaemia. It is always threatening to the well-being of patients with T1DM since more severe hypoglycemia leads to seizures or loss of consciousness and...
We describe for the first time the design, implementation, and testing of a telemetry controlled simultaneous stimulation and recording device (SRD) to deliver chronic intercortical microstimulation (ICMS) to physiologically identified sites in rat somatosensory cortex (SI) and test hypotheses that chronic ICMS strengthens interhemispheric pathways and leads to functional reorganization in the enhanced...
This paper presents a lower body reaction test that utilizes a new portable ultra-sound based motion capture system (MobiFit) combined with a synchronized visual stimulus. This novel system was tested first for criterion validity and agreement against a gold standard laboratory based optical motion capture system (CODA). It was subsequently tested in the field during Gaelic football (GAA) team gym...
This paper proposed a novel method to select the effective Electroencephalography (EEG) channels for the motor imagery tasks based on the inconsistencies from multiple classifiers. The inconsistency criterion for channel selection was designed based on the fluctuation of the classification accuracies among different classifiers when the noisy channels were included. These noisy channels were then...
Wavelet-based statistical parametric mapping (WSPM) is an extension of the classical approach in fMRI activation mapping that combines wavelet processing with voxel-wise statistical testing. We recently showed how WSPM, using graph wavelets tailored to the full gray-matter (GM) structure of each individual's brain, can improve brain activity detection compared to using the classical wavelets that...
A multivariate analysis method, orthogonal partial least squares to latent structures (OPLS), was used to discriminate Alzheimer's disease (AD), early and late mild cognitive impairment (EMCI and LMCI) from cognitively normal control (CN) using MRI and PET measures. FreeSurfer 5.1 generated 271 MRI features including 49 subcortical volumes, 68 cortical volumes, 68 cortical thicknesses, 70 surface...
Small-scale hydraulics is ideal for powered human assistive devices including powered ankle foot orthoses because a large torque can be generated with an actuator that is small and light. A portable hydraulic ankle foot orthosis has been designed and is undergoing preliminary prototyping and engineering bench test evaluation. The device provides 90 Nm of ankle torque and has an operating pressure...
Research shows that older people (aged 65 years and over) suffer many unintentional indoor falls which often lead to severe injuries. As a result of an increasingly aged population in developed countries, a sizable portion of healthcare funding is consumed in the treatment of fall-related injuries and associated long-term care. Detecting falls soon after they occur can be potentially live saving....
Despite modern technological advances, the most widely available prostheses provide little functional recovery beyond basic grasping. Although sophisticated upper extremity prostheses are available, optimal prosthetic interfaces which give patients high-fidelity control of these artificial limbs are limited. We have developed a novel Regenerative Peripheral Nerve Interface (RPNI), which consists of...
Single-trial classification of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) signals for brain-computer interface (BCI) applications has recently gained much attention. This paper reviews research in this area conducted at the PRISM lab (University of Toronto) to date, as well as directions for future work. Thus far, research has included classification of hemodynamic changes induced by the performance of various...
The mirror neuron system (MNS) in humans is thought to enable an individual's understanding of the meaning of actions performed by others and the potential imitation and learning of those actions. In humans, electroencephalographic (EEG) changes in sensorimotor a-band at central electrodes, which desynchronizes both during execution and observation of goal-directed actions (i.e., ц suppression), have...
A novel, tablet-based application (app) has been developed to act as a screening tool for visual impairment in stroke survivors; The Stroke Vision app. The app includes assessments for visual acuity, visual fields and visuospatial neglect, as well as novel tools for the education of patients, carers and staff. The app has been devised by experts in the field to address two important deficiencies;...
Mobile devices have shown promise in visual assessment. Traditional acuity measurement involves retro-illuminated charts or card-based modalities. Mobile platforms bring potential to improve on both portability and objectivity. The present research activity relates to design and validation of a novel tablet-based infant acuity test. Early results in an adult cohort, with various levels of artificially...
We investigated the use of a sorting box to obtain a quantitative assessment of upper limb motor function in children with cerebral palsy. In our study, children with and without cerebral palsy placed and removed geometrical objects of a sorting-box while their wrist position was monitored by a camera-based, motion-tracking system. We analyzed three different smoothness metrics (logarithmic dimensionless...
Improving the intuitiveness of the interaction between human and machine is an important issue for powered lower-limb prosthesis control. In this research, we aimed to evaluate the potential of using surface electromyography (EMG) signals measured from transtibial amputees' residual muscles to directly control the position of prosthetic ankle. In this research, one transtibial amputee subject and...
Neural activity during sharp wave ripples (SWR), short bursts of co-ordinated oscillatory activity in the CA1 region of the rodent hippocampus, is implicated in a variety of memory functions from consolidation to recall. Detection of these events in an algorithmic framework, has thus far relied on simple thresholding techniques with heuristically derived parameters. This study is an investigation...
An opportunity exists for automated clinical decision support, in which raw source data from a conventional physiological monitoring system are continuously streamed to an independent analysis platform. Such a system would enable a wider range of functionality than offered by the source monitoring system. Although vendor solutions for this purpose are emerging, we developed our own system in order...
Set the date range to filter the displayed results. You can set a starting date, ending date or both. You can enter the dates manually or choose them from the calendar.