1,720,975 research outputs found
La committenza Barbo nella Casa dei Cavalieri di Rodi
No full textL'articolo analizza la committenza Barbo nella Casa dei Cavalieri di Rodi attraverso l'analisi delle pitture interne ed esterne. L'attribuzione degli affreschi della loggia a Pinturicchio è confermata da ulteriori confronti iconografici e dall'analisi del contesto storico e culturale della Roma tardo quattrocentesca
An advanced algorithm for fetal heart rate estimation from non-invasive low electrode density recordings
No full textNon-invasive fetal electrocardiography is still an open research issue. The recent publication of an annotated dataset on Physionet providing four-channel non-invasive abdominal ECG traces promoted an international challenge on the topic. Starting from that dataset, an algorithm for the identification of the fetal QRS complexes from a reduced number of electrodes and without any a priori information about the electrode positioning has been developed, entering into the top ten best-performing open-source algorithms presented at the challenge. In this paper, an improved version of that algorithm is presented and evaluated exploiting the same challenge metrics. It is mainly based on the subtraction of the maternal QRS complexes in every lead, obtained by synchronized averaging of morphologically similar complexes, the filtering of the maternal P and T waves and the enhancement of the fetal QRS through independent component analysis (ICA) applied on the processed signals before a final fetal QRS detection stage. The RR time series of both the mother and the fetus are analyzed to enhance pseudoperiodicity with the aim of correcting wrong annotations. The algorithm has been designed and extensively evaluated on the open dataset A (N=75), and finally evaluated on datasets B (N=100) and C (N=272) to have the mean scores over data not used during the algorithm development. Compared to the results achieved by the previous version of the algorithm, the current version would mark the 5th and 4th position in the final ranking related to the events 1 and 2, reserved to the open-source challenge entries, taking into account both official and unofficial entrants. On dataset A, the algorithm achieves 0.982 median sensitivity and 0.976 median positive predictivity
Identification of fetal QRS complexes in low density non-invasive biopotential recordings
No full textNon-invasive fetal Electrocardiogram (ECG) is currently a missing diagnostic tool. Despite the technology advancements and the improvements of the signal processing techniques, the possibility of extracting this signal from recordings of biopotentials gathered on the maternal abdomen is still unexploited in the clinical practice. The 2013 Physionet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge proposes to address this specific problem, making available a dateset of annotated abdominal signals, with a reduced number of channels, taken with different instruments and protocols. In this paper a novel algorithm based on template matching for maternal QRS subtraction and fetal ECG detection is presented and evaluated on the available dataset. The algorithm achieves a score of 639.465 and 23.821 on dataset B and of 684.158 and 47.990 on dataset C
A real-time algorithm for tracking of foetal ECG sources obtained by block-on-line BSS techniques
No full textThe foetal ECG (FECG) can be digitally extracted in real-time from non-invasive recordings using Blind Source Separation (BSS) techniques. BSS suffers the permutation ambiguity, scrambling the estimated sources over time and then hampering the FECG visual and automated analysis. In this paper a block-on-line tracking algorithm, including an unsupervised morphological stage able of creating an average FECG beat, is presented. It allows the automatic identification of the FECG sources block-wise even in presence of permutations. The algorithm has been successfully tested on both real and synthetic signals, showing a percentage of correct foetal ECG peaks identification up to 93.44%. Its porting on the OMAP L137 embedded processor, with the OL-JADE FECG extraction algorithm, allowed the assessment of its real-time capabilities
Apparatus, a system and a relating method for local or remote rehabilitation and functional evaluation of the hands
No full textAn apparatus for the local and/or remote rehabilitation and functional evaluation of the right and/or left hand of a user includes: a number of gym tools for the execution of hand exercises, each gym tool including a mechanical part, a sensor for the transformation of measured physical parameters into electrical signals; a user interface, configured to guide the user in the use of the gym tools, and providing feedbacks to the sequence of user actions; a first processing unit, configured to manage the apparatus functions, signal processing, storing and forwarding information on the measured physical parameters to at least one external device; a short-range communication module, configured to allow a real-time closedistance control of the apparatus; a wide-range communication module, configured to allow the connection to at least one long-distance tele-monitoring system
The challenge of collaborative telerehabilitation: conception and evaluation of a telehealth system enhancement for home-therapy follow-up
No full textTelerehabilitation aims to solve problems like equitable access to the rehabilitation and cost reduction by providing rehabilitation services at a distance. The largest part of telerehabilitation systems implement a real-time one-to-one process involving patient and therapist. Even though they can be successfully exploited in conditions such as post-traumatic recovery, in complex scenarios, this simple model should be replaced by a more structured collaborative one envisioning a multidisciplinary team.
This paper presents the design and evaluation of a patient-centric collaborative telerehabilitation framework aimed at supporting a multidisciplinary team in the follow-up of domiciliary patients. The proposed framework follows the experience of a clinical trial that exploited a novel telerehabilitation device not conceived to support collaborative scenarios. Compared with the original system, the proposed extension allows the hierarchical division of the responsibility within the medical team, promoting a collaborative management of the rehabilitation. Proactive and decisional behaviors, as well as consulting practices on shared data within the medical team, are fostered by the system. Semi-structured interviews have been administered to a panel of experts to evaluate the proposed approach. The collected feedback can be exploited to finely tune the system in view of a new clinical trial including new functionalities
A portable real-time monitoring system for kinesitherapic hand rehabilitation exercises
No full textRheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic sclerosis, may seriously reduce the quality of life of the patients. Nowadays, their progress can be controlled only through personalised pharmacological treatments. Kinesitherapy can also help in faster movement recovery, also contrasting the disability worsening. This paper presents a portable low-cost system for the real-time quantitative monitoring and evaluation of hand rehabilitation exercises. The system, based on a MSP430 microcontroller central unit, provides a platform for the analysis of fine characteristics hitherto unavailable of 4 exercises required for the hand rehabilitation in rheumatic patients. The system can be controlled, through a Bluetooth connection, by a graphical user interface running on the physician's PC. The first prototypical systems have been developed for experimental outpatient trials
Neuromodulation on Cerebral Activities
No full textDuring a motor task, a causal relation occurs between the motor command generated in the cortex and the proprioceptive feedbacks that go from the activated muscles through the corticospinal pathway. This causal relation is of interest in neurorehabilitation to improve motor function for people with motor difficulties. Previous neurorehabilitation methods used external stimulation to modify the corticospinal pathway controlling the motor function of the affected body parts. An alternative to these approaches is to reinforce the corticospinal pathway by identifying the cortical motor command naturally generated when a person imagines or attempts a movement, and combine it with peripheral nerve stimulation. The research group of Professor D. Farina has developed a method exploiting Brain–computer Interface technology to detect the cortical motor command and use it to trigger peripheral nerve stimulation in order to reinforce the efficiency of the corticospinal pathway. A detailed description of the method and an interview with Prof. D. Farina is presented in this chapter
A collaborative approach to the telerehabilitation of patients with hand impairments
No full textTelehealth systems represent an ICT solution for delivering health services to the patients from a distance (Patient to Doctor/Doctor to Patient systems, P2D and D2P) or facilitating the consultation between the health professionals (Doctor to Doctor systems, D2D). Whether P2D/D2P systems aim at defining an interaction between the two involved figures crossing the boundaries of the hospital, D2D systems foster a professional interaction between physicians, typically for a second opinion or for a collaborative approach to the treatment. In this paper we present a collaborative extension of a system for telerehabilitation (patent pending), belonging to the P2D category, in order to include also some D2D features. The proposed extension promotes a collaborative scenario involving several actors with different roles and privileges on the system: the patient, the physiotherapist, the physiatrist, a consulting specialist and the administrator. All the involved figures interact through the telehealth system thanks to an expressly designed software infrastructure. The main P2D information How is ensured by the telerehabilitation kit, able to record and send over the internet the statistics on the main performance parameters extracted during the home rehabilitation sessions. Beyond the administrator, the system enables the interactions between the other figures (D2D) in order to propose, validate and comment possible rehabilitation protocol modifications in response to the performance trend of the patient, taking into account the possible effect of different systemic treatments the patient is subjected to. The design of such a collaborative framework descends from an engineering analysis of the experience gained in the context of the ongoing experimental trials about hand rehabilitation of rheumatic patients with the P2D system
An optimized infrastructure for deferred telemonitoring of home rehabilitation in chronic rheumatic patients
No full textThe interest towards telemedicine and its various branches is constantly growing, given the opportunities in terms of costs reduction, efficiency and capillarity in delivering health services. In particular, telerehabilitation aims at improving the quality of life of physically impaired patients, providing the support for home-managed rehabilitation sessions. Moving from an existing outpatient device for the quantitative evaluation of hand rehabilitation exercises, opportunely enhanced to be used in a telemonitoring scenario, in this paper the development of the remaining telerehabilitation infrastructure is presented and evaluated. It includes, beyond the rehabilitation kits, a remote server and a deferred monitoring software application. The kits, entrusted to the patients for rehabilitation in their home, are able to send to the remote server via a GSM/GPRS connection, quantitative measurements of the patients' performance. The physician's monitoring application, retrieving such data and providing an appropriate visualization, allows the evaluation of both the patients' compliance to the rehabilitation protocol and their progresses. The system has been evaluated by a small panel of rheumatologists in order to assess its acceptability in a clinical environment and is currently under test for experimental trials in Italy
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