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Classification of EEG signals for prediction of epileptic seizures
Get PDFEpilepsy is a common brain disorder that causes patients to face multiple seizures in a single day. Around 65 million people are affected by epilepsy worldwide. Patients with focal epilepsy can be treated with surgery, whereas generalized epileptic seizures can be managed with medications. It has been noted that in more than 30% of cases, these medications fail to control epileptic seizures, resulting in accidents and limiting the patient’s life. Predicting epileptic seizures in such patients prior to the commencement of an oncoming seizure is critical so that the seizure can be treated with preventive medicines before it occurs. Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals of patients recorded to observe brain electrical activity during a seizure can be quite helpful in predicting seizures. Researchers have proposed methods that use machine and/or deep learning techniques to predict epileptic seizures using scalp EEG signals; however, prediction of seizures with increased accuracy is still a challenge. Therefore, we propose a three-step approach. It includes preprocessing of scalp EEG signals with PREP pipeline, which is a more sophisticated alternative to basic notch filtering. This method uses a regression-based technique to further enhance the SNR, with a combination of handcrafted, i.e., statistical features such as temporal mean, variance, and skewness, and automated features using CNN, followed by classification of interictal state and preictal state segments using LSTM to predict seizures. We train and validate our proposed technique on the CHB-MIT scalp EEG dataset and achieve accuracy of 94%, sensitivity of 93.8%, and 91.2% specificity. The proposed technique achieves better sensitivity and specificity than existing methods
When law enforcement interview witnesses and write their statements
Get PDFEyewitness testimony is important to criminal investigations. Research has found that remembering is a process that can be distorted by various factors, such as how witnesses are interviewed. Further, prior research has also found that written statements taken by the investigator are not always accurate. The present study explored for what is believed the first time whether interviewing skills are associated with both how much correct verbal information is provided by witnesses and also the accuracy of written statements, using a sample of 30 interviews conducted by serving professional investigators. We found greater inaccuracies at each of these two phases when interviewers were assessed as being less skilled, when compared to interviews conducted by their more highly rated counterparts. Interviewing skills thus appear important when interviewers attempt to gain accurate information from witnesses, and when they generate accurate written statements. Implications for policies, practice, and for future research, are discussed
The HOW behind the story: a framework for the design of brand narrative
No full textAt the turn of the millenium, non-conventional narratives and hyper-novels emerge, in which the story can unfold in, virtually, infinite possibilities and where the reader becomes an active and interactive participant. Likewise, contemporary brands admit a level of flexibility that allows them to develop and closely accompany a constantly evolving and participatory world. Following the assumption that a brand is a live construction, the objective of this ongoing research is to identify HOW contemporary brands can approach narrative through their logos. The method consists of a qualitative hermeneutical content analysis of dozens of contemporary visual identities. Brought from relevant and prominent literature on narrative, the identified discourse elements were grouped, a code book was created and an organising matrix was created to allow the emergence of six main dimensions of visual identity narrative. With the extended benefit of increasing brand engagement and meaningful brand experiences (possibly defining the audiences’ preferences), by designing the most appropriate visual storytelling, the proposed dimensions can support, to begin with, the process of aligning the brand’s WHY to its WHAT
Cyber threat analysis on online learning and its mitigation techniques amid Covid-19
Get PDFThe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on face-to-face teaching and learning affected the world, leading to physical and psychological health issues, especially for the visually impaired and autistic users, including threats to healthcare, economies, and education sectors. During this challenging period, online learning and educational tools such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Webex gained immense popularity in academic institutions. However, these tools provided vulnerabilities for malicious attackers to exploit these online platforms. That posed a cyber threat to the online educational system to continue and survive under such circumstances. The paper aims to explore and analyze the cyber threats to these online learning platforms to understand the security posture and mitigation techniques. The contribution of this paper is threefold: First, we explore the various attacks on online tools such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Webex and determine how much security and privacy they offer. Secondly, we analyze the encryption capabilities to assess the confidentiality, integrity, and availability level they provide to the users and present the results as a table. Finally, we discussed a common vulnerability framework comprising common threats faced by users and the service provider for the mitigation techniques to improve security
The screen advertising production industry: SIC codes and screen industries mapping
Get PDFThe screen advertising production sector as a distinctive sector of film and television production supplying content to the advertising industry. Due to different employment practices, legal and production processes, it has a distinctively different set of issues to theatrical and high end drama. An analysis of a number of case studies of this sector using company accounts and SIC codes, however, shows that it has been rendered invisible in Government commissioned reports. That could be corrected through partnership work between the sector’s trade association the Advertising Producers’ Association. Recognition of the sector’s integration within the UK independent film and television production sector would increase knowledge and understanding of the sector as a whole. This article recommends a theoretical model of horizontal integration of vertical value chains to progress new research in the area and identifies some of the consequences for existing scholarship
Climate neutrality not just carbon neutrality: how the AIA is working are working to find out more about the non-CO2 effects of aviation
Get PDFThe aviation industry is increasingly under pressure from passengers, environmental groups, governments and policy makers to reduce its climate impact and become a more sustainable industry. The main focus has been on developing new aircraft and propulsion technology to reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions or at least become carbon neutral. However, aviation’s climate impact extends beyond carbon emissions. On clear days, aircraft flying in cold and humid conditions can be seen forming condensation trails, or contrails. In many cases these contrails disappear within a matter of minutes. However, if aircraft are flying in atmosphere where the relative humidity with respect to ice is greater than 100% (ice-supersaturated), contrails can persist for hours and may evolve into cirrus clouds. Like clouds, contrails reflect incoming solar energy back out to space creating a cooling effect, but they also absorb surface radiated energy creating a warming effect. The net effect is usually a warming of the atmosphere. In fact, one recent study suggested that between 1940 and 2018, the net global warming impact of contrails, measured in terms of radiative forcing, may have been as much as three-quarters of that of the total net radiative forcing generated by aviation (Lee et al. 2021) Therefore, although future aircraft operations may become carbon-neutral, they may not be climate-neutral if contrails are generated
In recent months, engineers, scientists and industry partners working on the Aviation Impact Accelerator project (AIA) have been trying to estimate the climate impact of contrails now and in the future. But the science of contrails is relatively less well understood and their climate impact is highly uncertain
Sustainable wastewater management and energy production from sludge incineration process in industrial wastewater treatment plants
Get PDFOne major issue in industrial wastewater treatment plants is sludge handling and management with associated significant costs. Furthermore, the accumulated sludge handling such as the American Petroleum Institute (API) process can lead to environmental issues and health challenges such as cancer for workers in the site. This study applies combustion methods to analyse nexus of sludge incineration process and energy production potentials for this solid waste as a by-product of wastewater purification process. The methodology is demonstrated by its application to a real-world case study of petroleum refinery wastewater treatment in Iran. For this purpose, sludge samples were taken from the accumulation site and tested by calorimetry bomb, PARR 1266, Preiser Scientific, USA. In this study, 15 samples were evaluated from different points of the sludge in the case study. Measurements show that the average heat value is equal to 3,100 kcal/kg. The experimental results show that increasing water content in the sludge can lead to decreasing the net heat value. On the other hand, increasing Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) in wastewater can result in increasing the harvested energy. In total, the sludge accumulation in the plant over the eight past years is around 4,000 tonnes which is equivalent to the thermal value of 12,400 GCal of potential energy that will be otherwise leads to environmental and health problems if not released through incineration process. This can highlight the significance of wastewater-energy-pollution nexus in sludge management of petroleum refineries by converting a threat to an opportunity
Automatic Heart Rate Detection during Sleep Using Tracheal Audio Recordings from Wireless Acoustic Sensor
Get PDFBackground: Heart rate is an essential diagnostic parameter indicating a patient’s condition.
The assessment of heart rate is also a crucial parameter in the diagnostics of various sleep disorders, including sleep apnoea, as well as sleep/wake pattern analysis. It is usually measured using an electrocardiograph (ECG)—a device monitoring the electrical activity of the heart using several electrodes attached to a patient’s upper body—or photoplethysmography (PPG). Methods: The following paper investigates an alternative method for heart rate detection and monitoring that operates on tracheal
audio recordings. Datasets for this research were obtained from six participants along with ECG Holter (for validation), as well as from fifty participants undergoing a full night polysomnography testing, during which both heart rate measurements and audio recordings were acquired. Results:
The presented method implements a digital filtering and peak detection algorithm applied to audio recordings obtained with a wireless sensor using a contact microphone attached in the suprasternal notch. The system was validated using ECG Holter data, achieving over 92% accuracy.
Furthermore, the proposed algorithm was evaluated against whole-night polysomnography-derived HR using Bland-Altman’s plots and Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient, reaching the average of 0.82 (0.93 maximum) with 0 BPM error tolerance and 0.89 (0.97 maximum) at ±3 BPM.
Conclusions: The results prove that the proposed system serves the purpose of a precise heart rate monitoring tool that can conveniently assess HR during sleep as a part of a home-based sleep disorder diagnostics process
Helpful post‐diagnostic services for young onset dementia: findings and recommendations from the Angela project
Get PDFThere is a significant lack of evidence regarding optimum models for service provision in young onset dementia (YOD). Our study aim was to gather detailed information about services experienced as helpful by those with YOD and family carers. The objective was to identify the core features of these services to inform service design, delivery and improvements. A qualitative approach based on appreciative inquiry was used, posing open-ended questions about services experienced as helpful, as part of a national UK survey of people with YOD and carers. We used inductive thematic analysis to analyse the free-text responses. The resulting template was used as a basis for analysis of in-depth follow-up interviews, conducted to acquire greater in-depth understanding. Two hundred and thirty-three survey respondents provided 856 examples of helpful support. Twenty-four follow-up interviews were conducted (two with dyads, so 26 participants in total: 8 with people with YOD, 14 with carers, 2 with dyads). Twelve themes capturing the features of helpful services were clustered into three super-ordinate themes. ‘Person-centredness’ reflects micro levels of person–professional interaction (positive attitude, flexibility, collaborative, user-friendly materials, and in-person). ‘Functional consistency’ captures the meso level, demonstrating that services were helpful when organised consistently with needs (age-appropriate, holistic, responsive, and accessible). ‘Organisational coherence’, at the macro level, emphasises the need for service integration, specialist services and service continuity. Key conclusions are that the needs for flexibility and a collaborative stance may be particularly important for those under 65 years with dementia, who have full lives and are used to being in control; to be age-appropriate, helpful services need to provide activities and opportunities suitable for active middle-aged people; and to be holistic, services need to provide for needs associated with rare dementias and be family-centred. Specialist services need to be commissioned and arrangements need to be stable over time to enable continuity.
What is known about this topic?
People with young onset dementia have distinctive needs.
Most dementia services are ‘all-age’ and do not provide well for people with young onset.
There is little UK research evidence on what sort of services are helpful.
What this paper adds?
People with young onset dementia:
find person-centred interaction helpful: when staff have a positive attitude, are collaborative and flexible, and provide in-person support and user-friendly information.
find services helpful when they take younger age into account, consider the whole family, are accessible and respond proactively to changing needs.
find service systems helpful when there is specialist young onset dementia provision, continuity over time and integration across services
Let the people speak – The Community Programmes Unit 1972–2002
Get PDFFifty years ago, the controller of BBC 2, (now Sir) David Attenborough supported an initiative to expand the range of voices and opinions on the BBC through a specialist Community Programmes Unit (CPU). The Unit formed in 1972, a time when the function of broadcasting was subjected to intense public scrutiny in the run-up to the delayed Annan Committee, which finally reported in 1977. Using archival sources, this article builds on the limited literature on the CPU to provide a fuller account of the content it created, the contexts it used and the challenges it faced in its 30-year duration