Browse Topic: Adults
The aging of the population has been a key issue worldwide, with mobility and fall of the elderly an important problem to be solved. In this paper, we propose an elderly mobility assist system based on the intelligent power-assisted device consisting of an assistive cane and an intelligent companion. It has the functions of standing support after falling, daily support and on-site rest. The assistive cane adopts a two-stage expansion mechanism of crank and slider structure, which forms a stable triangular support after unfolding, so that the patient can stand safely. The intelligent companion platform is driven by drive wheels, equipped with pushrod motors and vacuum suction devices, it can automatically approach the user and form an stable support column when the cane is in the out-of reach range; the control system is designed by combining microcontroller, camera object recognition, wristband remote control, to realize automatic steering and autonomous navigation at differential speed. The overall design satisfies the requirements of safety and strength through mechanical verification and stress analysis. The proposed system can help the elderly people to recover from falls better and enhance their independence and safety in their daily walks.
Researchers have created a groundbreaking prototype for a new kind of leadless pacemaker designed for both children and adults. The innovative micropacemaker would be the first fully leadless system to be placed in the pericardial space surrounding the heart. That would allow the device to be implanted in a minimally invasive way in children and those with congenital heart disease, while also providing a lower-risk leadless pacemaker option for adults.
Pyrotechnic seat belt pretensioners typically remove 8–15 cm of belt slack and help couple an occupant to the seat. Our study investigated pretensioner deployment on forward-leaning, live volunteers. The forward-leaning position was chosen because research indicates that passengers frequently depart from a standard sitting position. Characteristics of the 3D kinematics of forward-leaning volunteers following pretensioner deployment determines if body size is correlated with subject response. Nine adult subjects (three female), ages 18–43 years old, across a wide range of body sizes (50–120 kg) were tested. The age was limited to young, active adults as pyrotechnic pretensioners can deliver a notable force to the trunk. Subjects assumed a forward-leaning position, with 26 cm between C7 and the headrest, in a laboratory setting that replicated the passenger seat of a vehicle. At an unexpected time, the pretensioner was deployed. 3D kinematics were measured through a nine-camera motion capture system with reflective markers on the left and right glabella, tragus, manubrium, C7, lateral proximal head of humerus, olecranon process, patella, and lateral malleolus. For uniformity, all pretensioners were of the same model made by Autoliv and were dual systems (having deployment in the retractor and outbound anchor). The initial velocity of the trunk (first 50 ms) was dependent on the body size, with smaller subjects getting pulled back quicker. Following the first ~160 ms, there was a slight rebound where subjects briefly moved forward, followed by a period of high intersubject variance in movement. By isolating the effects of pyrotechnic pretensioner deployment on live volunteers, this study fills in an important gap in automotive safety research and may help with evaluating computer models or designing future restraint systems with advanced sensor technology where pretensioners deploy prior to significant vehicle deceleration.
One in 10 adults suffer from the debilitating effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Research around a new breathing device developed by pulmonologists at the University of Cincinnati offers promise for improving their lives.
There are about 64 million cases of heart failure worldwide. According to the American Heart Association, 6.2 million adults in the United States have heart failure and that number is estimated to increase to 8 million by 2030. Heart failure is a progressive clinical syndrome characterized by a structural abnormality of the heart, in which the heart is unable to pump sufficient blood to meet the body’s requirements.
Vehicles that start moving from a stationary position can cause fatal traffic accidents involving pedestrians. Ultrasonic sensors installed in the vehicle front are an active technology designed to alert drivers to the presence of stationary objects such as rigid walls in front of their vehicles. However, the ability of such sensors to detect humans has not yet been established. Therefore, this study aims to ascertain whether these sensor systems can successfully detect humans. First, we conducted experiments using four vehicles equipped with ultrasonic sensor systems for vehicle-forward moving-off maneuvers and investigated the detection distances between the vehicles and a pipe (1 m long and having a diameter of 75 mm), child, adult female, or adult male. The detections of human volunteers were evaluated under two different conditions: front-facing and side-facing toward the front of each vehicle. Front-facing is defined as the condition where the human faces the vehicle front, while side-facing is that where the side of the human faces it. For both the front-facing and side-facing conditions, the results indicated that the sensor-detection distances for a child were shorter than those for the pipe, whereas those for adults were less than or approximately equivalent to those for the pipe. These results revealed that ultrasonic sensor systems for vehicle-forward moving-off maneuvers can detect not only stationary objects but also humans, indicating that ultrasonic sensors installed in the vehicle front could possibly reduce the risk of vehicle-forward moving-off accidents involving pedestrians.
Sensors that measure alcohol concentration through the skin can provide valid measures of drinking intensity and predict alcohol consequences among young adult drinkers, according to a study in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Wearable transdermal alcohol concentration (TAC) sensors offer a viable and unobtrusive option by passively and continuously measuring perspired ethanol.
Monitoring the progression of multiple sclerosis-related gait issues can be challenging in adults over 50 years old, requiring a clinician to differentiate between problems related to MS and other age-related issues. To address this problem, researchers integrated gait data and machine learning to advance the tools used to monitor and predict disease progression.
With an increase in the elderly and aging population and also in the number of invasive surgeries, wound healing has become a critical focus area in medicine. The complex bodily processes involved in wound healing make it challenging as well as rewarding to identify newer methods and materials for effective wound healing.
A cochlear implant enables people with severe hearing loss to hear again. An audiologist adjusts the device based on the user’s input, but this is not always easy. Think of children who are born deaf or elderly people with dementia. They have more difficulty assessing and communicating how well they hear the sounds, resulting in an implant that is not optimally tuned to their situation.
As vehicles with SAE level 2 of autonomy become more widely deployed, they still rely on the human driver to monitor the driving task and take control during emergencies. It is therefore necessary to examine the Human Factors affecting a driver’s ability to recognize and execute a steering or pedal action in response to a dangerous situation when the autonomous system abruptly requests human intervention. This research used a driving simulator to introduce the concept of level 2 autonomy to a cohort of 60 drivers (male: 48%, female: 52%) of different age groups (teens 16 to 19: 32%, adults: 35 to 54: 37%, seniors 65+: 32%). Participants were surveyed for their perspectives on self-driving vehicles. They were then assessed on a driving simulator that mimicked SAE level 2 of autonomy. Participants’ interaction with the HMI was studied. A real-life scenario was programmed so that a request to intervene was issued when automation reached its boundaries while navigating a two-way curve road (TTC = 2.2 seconds). We found that at the time of the event, only 12% of participants kept their hands on the steering wheel. Only 64% of participants had their foot close to pedals. All participants who reacted within 0.65 seconds were able to avoid the crash. All participants who reacted after 0.9 seconds crashed. As a last construct, we looked at age and gender to understand how different participants behaved while vehicle automation was engaged.
The road freight transport sector is one of the main responsible for the air pollution (as the case of particulate matter) and greenhouse gases emissions worldwide. Different types of fuel technologies have been developed in order to improve efficiency, reduce air pollution impacts, such as the case of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for heavy-duty vehicles. Many studies show the relationship between the effects of short and long-term exposure to particulate matter (PM) and, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), premature deaths worldwide as well as cardiorespiratory diseases in elderly population are related to this pollutant. In this context, this paper aims at evaluating the atmospheric dispersion of PM in a stretch of a highway (Anhanguera-Bandeirantes) in the São Paulo State in Brazil due to the road freight transport considering the use of diesel and LNG in heavy-duty vehicles and the impacts on human health. The software AERMOD designed by U.S. Environmental Protect Agency (EPA) was used for modeling the PM atmospheric dispersion. The methodology suggested by WHO was used to quantify the deaths attributable to air pollution and Monte Carlo simulation was applied to calculate a range of possible deaths. Results from concentrations are showed in terms of PM10 and PM2.5 and the deaths due to lung cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that can be attributed to these pollutants.
In the fields of forensic accident reconstruction and biomechanical engineering, it is often necessary to estimate the length of a specific body segment for an individual, about whom little is known besides overall stature. Since body proportions and body segment lengths vary throughout the population, there will be some error in these estimations. The current study provides estimates for the accuracy of human body segment length predictions based on stature. In this study, four different methods for predicting body segment lengths based on stature were evaluated. Using publicly available adult and child anthropometric datasets, a leave-one-out cross validation analysis was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of each of the four methods in predicting body segment lengths. The results of the leave-one-out analysis showed that different prediction methods produced the best estimates for different body segment length measurements. When using the best method for each body segment, body segment lengths for an individual on average can be predicted within 2.5% of the actual measurement. The 50th percentile best estimates for each body segment length studied are provided for males and females, over a range of child and adult statures. The data presented in this study can be used to provide estimates of error rates of human body segment length predictions.
Spine degeneration can lower injury tolerance and influence injury outcomes in vehicle crashes. To date, limited information exists on the effect of age and sex on thoracic spine 3-dimensional geometry. The purpose of this study is to quantify thoracic spinal column and canal geometry using selected geometrical measurement from a large sample of CT scans. More than 33,488 scans were obtained from the International Center for Automotive Medicine database at the University of Michigan under Institutional Review Board approval (HUM00041441). The sample consisted of CT scans obtained from 31,537 adult and 1,951 pediatric patients between the ages of 0 to 99 years old. Each scan was processed semi-automatically using custom algorithms written in MATLAB (The Math Works, Natick, MA). Five geometrical measurements were collected including: 1) maximum spinal curvature depth (D), 2) T1-to-T12 vertical height (H), 3) Kyphosis Index (KI), 4) kyphosis angle, and 5) spinal canal radius. The data were analyzed by sex and age. Maximum spinal curvature depth occurred at T6, irrespective of age and sex. It continuously increased with age. Spinal curvature depth was generally larger in females than males in particular in children and in the 75+ age group. Results from this research are among the first to quantify the effect of diverse factors, such as age and sex, on detailed thoracic spine anatomy using a large and continuous sample of pediatric and adult CT scans. The results can be used to help understand the occurrence of severe injury in low severity crashes.
Thoracic injuries are frequently observed in motor vehicle crashes, and rib fractures are the most common of those injuries. Thoracic response targets have previously been developed from data obtained from post-mortem human subject (PMHS) tests in frontal loading conditions, most commonly of mid-size males. Traditional scaling methods are employed to identify differences in thoracic response for various demographic groups, but it is often unknown if these applications are appropriate, especially considering the limited number of tested PMHS from which those scaling factors originate. Therefore, the objective of this study was to establish a new scaling approach for generating age-, sex-, and body size-dependent thoracic responses utilizing structural properties of human ribs from direct testing of various demographics. One-hundred forty-seven human ribs (140 adult; 7 pediatric) from 132 individuals (76 male; 52 female; 4 pediatric) ranging in age from 6 to 99 years were included in this study. Ribs were tested at 2 m/s to failure in a frontal impact scenario. Force and displacement for individual ribs were used to develop new scaling factors, with a traditional mid-size biomechanical target as a baseline response. This novel use of a large, varied dataset of dynamic whole rib responses offers vast possibilities to utilize existing biomechanical data in creative ways to reduce thoracic injuries in diverse vehicle occupants.
The Elderly Female Dummy (EFD) is an omni-directional ATD developed to represent a vulnerable population. The EFD it is able to be 3D printed and quickly altered to meet design requirements. A recent side impact sled test series suggested that small, elderly females may be at risk of thoracic injuries in side impact crashes due to combined loading from the belt pre-tensioner and side airbag. The EFD was altered to add four IR-TRACCs to the thoracic region to allow both x-axis and y-axis displacement to be evaluated in a similar test. While the IR-TRACCs did record the displacement due to combined loading, the rate of displacement and timing of the peak displacements did not match external chestband outputs. The next step for the EFD is to revise the locations of IRTRACCs in the thorax and begin component testing in lateral and frontal directions to improve thoracic biofidelity.
There has been recent progress over the past 10 years in research comparing 6-year-old thoracic and abdominal response of pediatric volunteers, pediatric post mortem human subjects (PMHS), animal surrogates, and 6-year-old ATDs. Although progress has been made to guide scaling laws of adult to pediatric thorax and abdomen data for use in ATD design and development of finite element models, further effort is needed, particularly with respect to lateral impacts. The objective of the current study was to use the impact response data of age equivalent swine from Yaek et al. (2018) to assess the validity of scaling laws used to develop lateral impact response corridors from adult porcine surrogate equivalents (PSE) to the 3-year-old, 6-year-old, and 10-year-old for the thorax and abdominal body regions. Lateral impact response corridors were created from 50th adult male PSE pendulum lateral impact T1, T14, and L6 accelerations and pendulum impact force time histories for the thorax and abdomen testing performed. The ISO 9790 scaling technique using length, mass, and elastic modulus scale factor formulas were used in conjunction with measured swine parameters to calculate scale factors for the PSE. In addition to calculation of pertinent test scale factors, response ratios for the pendulum impact tests were calculated. The scaling factors and response ratios determined for the porcine surrogates were compared to the already established ISO human lateral pendulum impact response ratios to determine whether a consistent pattern over the age levels described for the two sets of data (human and swine) exists. The actual lateral impact pendulum data, for both thoracic and abdominal regions, increases in magnitude and time duration from the 3-year-old PSE up to the 50th male PSE. This increase in magnitude and time duration is comparable to the human response corridors developed based on an impulse-momentum analysis and the elastic bending modulus derived from human skull bone. This pattern in the human impact response corridors was observed in the response ratio values and the swine response data. Based on the current study’s findings, when utilizing the elastic modulus of human skull bone presented previously in research, thoracic and abdominal lateral pendulum impact response of PSE follows the general scaling laws, based on the impulse-momentum spring-mass model. The thoracic and abdominal lateral pendulum force impact response of PSE also follows the human scaled impact response corridors for lateral pendulum impact testing presented in previous research. The overall findings of the current study confirm, through actual swine testing of appropriate weight porcine surrogates, that scaling laws are applicable from the midsized-male adult down to the 3-year-old age level using human skull elastic modulus values established in previous research.
Ultrasonic parking sensors are an active technology designed to alert drivers to the presence of objects behind their vehicle but not the presence of a human. The purpose of this study was therefore to ascertain if these sensor systems can successfully detect a human subject. We accordingly conducted experiments using four vehicles equipped with both rear-facing center and corner ultrasonic parking sensor systems to determine the detection distance between the vehicle and a 1-m tall, 75-mm diameter pipe, a child, an adult woman, and an adult man. The detection of human subjects was evaluated under front-facing and side-facing conditions behind each vehicle. The results indicate that for a front-facing and side-facing child, the center sensor detection distances were 50-84% and 32-64%, respectively, shorter than that of the pipe. For front-facing and side-facing adults, the center sensor detection distances were just less than or roughly equivalent to that of the pipe at 89-102% and 78-97%, respectively. A similar trend was seen for the corner sensors. Notably, under the side-facing condition, the sensor detection distances were slightly shorter for all subjects than under the front-facing condition. These results reveal that ultrasonic parking sensor systems can not only detect objects but also humans, indicating that ultrasonic sensors are an available countermeasure to prevent backover accidents involving pedestrians. To address the shorter detection distance of children, a combination of ultrasonic parking sensors with other systems, such as backup cameras, may be more effective for avoiding backover collisions.
Crash safety researchers have an increased concern regarding the decreased thoracic deflection and the contributing injury causation factors among the elderly population. Sternum fractures are categorized as moderate severity injuries, but can have long term effects depending on the fragility and frailty of the occupant. Current research has provided detail on rib morphology, but very little information on sternum morphology, sternum fracture locations, and mechanisms of injury. The objective of this study is two-fold (1) quantify sternum morphology and (2) document sternum fracture locations using computed tomography (CT) scans and crash data. Thoracic CT scans from the University of Michigan Hospital database were used to measure thoracic depth, manubriosternal joint, sternum thickness and bone density. The sternum fracture locations and descriptions were extracted from 63 International Center for Automotive Medicine (ICAM) crash cases, of which 22 cases had corresponding CT scans. The University of Michigan Internal Review Board (HUM00043599 and HUM00041441) approved the use of crash cases and CT scan data. The sternum morphomics data showed the thoracic depth increased, except for the 60-74-year-old age group. The average sternum thickness was greater in the older age groups. The sternum bone density decreased from youngest to oldest age groups. The angle between the manubrium and the sternum body decreased by 5.6° between the youngest and oldest age groups. The frequency of sternum fractures increased after age 45. Fractures were most frequent in the sternum body. The seat belt webbing was coded as the source of 54% of the sternum fractures.
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