Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 30 in total

Abstract:
Sort:
  1. Arasteh MA, Shamshirband S, Yee PL
    Technol Health Care, 2018;26(2):279-295.
    PMID: 29309042 DOI: 10.3233/THC-170947
    The most appropriate organizational software is always a real challenge for managers, especially, the IT directors. The illustration of the term "enterprise software selection", is to purchase, create, or order a software that; first, is best adapted to require of the organization; and second, has suitable price and technical support. Specifying selection criteria and ranking them, is the primary prerequisite for this action. This article provides a method to evaluate, rank, and compare the available enterprise software for choosing the apt one. The prior mentioned method is constituted of three-stage processes. First, the method identifies the organizational requires and assesses them. Second, it selects the best method throughout three possibilities; indoor-production, buying software, and ordering special software for the native use. Third, the method evaluates, compares and ranks the alternative software. The third process uses different methods of multi attribute decision making (MADM), and compares the consequent results. Based on different characteristics of the problem; several methods had been tested, namely, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), Elimination and Choice Expressing Reality (ELECTURE), and easy weight method. After all, we propose the most practical method for same problems.
  2. Ali MA, Sundaraj K, Ahmad RB, Ahamed NU, Islam MA, Sundaraj S
    Technol Health Care, 2014;22(4):617-25.
    PMID: 24990168 DOI: 10.3233/THC-140833
    Normally, surface electromyography electrodes are used to evaluate the activity of superficial muscles during various kinds of voluntary contractions of muscle fiber. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of repetitive isometric contractions on the three heads of the triceps brachii muscle during handgrip force exercise.
  3. Bindal P, Bindal U, Lin CW, Kasim NHA, Ramasamy TSAP, Dabbagh A, et al.
    Technol Health Care, 2017 Dec 04;25(6):1041-1051.
    PMID: 28800347 DOI: 10.3233/THC-170922
    Dental stem cells isolated for human dental pulp are an excellent source for regenerative medicine and dentistry. Simulation of clinical scenario is one of the crucial challenges for evaluation of the efficacy of DPSCs in various regenerative therapies. In this study we evaluated the viability of DPSCs after treatment with artificial bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS) as the main component responsible for inducing inflammatory response in majority of the inflammatory conditions in clinical scenario. Although a number of studies have previously treated stem cells with LPS from bacteria, however the accuracy level of the outcome was not established. Here we have analyzed the outcome using adaptive neuro-fuzzy inferences system (ANFIS) to predict the viability of human DPSCs after treatment with bacterial LPS.
  4. Samsudin WS, Sundaraj K, Ahmad A, Salleh H
    Technol Health Care, 2016 Mar 14;24(2):287-94.
    PMID: 26578273 DOI: 10.3233/THC-151103
    An initial assessment method that can classify as well as categorize the severity of paralysis into one of six levels according to the House-Brackmann (HB) system based on facial landmarks motion using an Optical Flow (OF) algorithm is proposed. The desired landmarks were obtained from the video recordings of 5 normal and 3 Bell's Palsy subjects and tracked using the Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi (KLT) method. A new scoring system based on the motion analysis using area measurement is proposed. This scoring system uses the individual scores from the facial exercises and grades the paralysis based on the HB system. The proposed method has obtained promising results and may play a pivotal role towards improved rehabilitation programs for patients.
  5. Ambusam S, Omar B, Joseph L, Meng SP, Padzil FA
    Technol Health Care, 2015;23(5):691-7.
    PMID: 26410131 DOI: 10.3233/THC-151015
    The reliability of a triaxial accelerometer in measuring the head excursion during typing task among occupational typists has not been reported so far.
  6. El-Badawy IM, Singh OP, Omar Z
    Technol Health Care, 2021;29(1):59-72.
    PMID: 32716337 DOI: 10.3233/THC-202198
    BACKGROUND: The quantitative features of a capnogram signal are important clinical metrics in assessing pulmonary function. However, these features should be quantified from the regular (artefact-free) segments of the capnogram waveform.

    OBJECTIVE: This paper presents a machine learning-based approach for the automatic classification of regular and irregular capnogram segments.

    METHODS: Herein, we proposed four time- and two frequency-domain features experimented with the support vector machine classifier through ten-fold cross-validation. MATLAB simulation was conducted on 100 regular and 100 irregular 15 s capnogram segments. Analysis of variance was performed to investigate the significance of the proposed features. Pearson's correlation was utilized to select the relatively most substantial ones, namely variance and the area under normalized magnitude spectrum. Classification performance, using these features, was evaluated against two feature sets in which either time- or frequency-domain features only were employed.

    RESULTS: Results showed a classification accuracy of 86.5%, which outperformed the other cases by an average of 5.5%. The achieved specificity, sensitivity, and precision were 84%, 89% and 86.51%, respectively. The average execution time for feature extraction and classification per segment is only 36 ms.

    CONCLUSION: The proposed approach can be integrated with capnography devices for real-time capnogram-based respiratory assessment. However, further research is recommended to enhance the classification performance.

  7. Zhang MWB, Ho RCM, Ng CG
    Technol Health Care, 2017 Dec 04;25(6):1173-1176.
    PMID: 28946598 DOI: 10.3233/THC-170868
    In psychiatry, mindfulness based intervention has been increasingly popular as a means of psychosocial intervention over the last decade. With the alvanche of technological advances, there has been a myriad of mindfulness based applications. Recent reviews have highlighted how these applications are lacking in functionalities and without demonstrated efficacy. Other reviews have emphasized that there is a need to take into consideration the design of an application, due to placebo effects. It is the aim of this technical note to illustrate how the 5-Minutes Mindfulness application, which is an application designed to provide mindfulness exercises to relieve distress and suffering amongst palliative patients, have been conceptualized. The conceptualized application builds on previous evidence of the efficacy of 5-Minutes Mindfulness demonstrated by pilot and randomized trials. In terms of design, the currently conceptualized application has been designed such that placebo effects could be controlled for.
  8. Pakniyat N, Babini MH, Kulish VV, Namazi H
    Technol Health Care, 2021 Aug 13.
    PMID: 34397441 DOI: 10.3233/THC-213136
    BACKGROUND: Analysis of the heart activity is one of the important areas of research in biomedical science and engineering. For this purpose, scientists analyze the activity of the heart in various conditions. Since the brain controls the heart's activity, a relationship should exist among their activities.

    OBJECTIVE: In this research, for the first time the coupling between heart and brain activities was analyzed by information-based analysis.

    METHODS: Considering Shannon entropy as the indicator of the information of a system, we recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) signals of 13 participants (7 M, 6 F, 18-22 years old) in different external stimulations (using pineapple, banana, vanilla, and lemon flavors as olfactory stimuli) and evaluated how the information of EEG signals and R-R time series (as heart rate variability (HRV)) are linked.

    RESULTS: The results indicate that the changes in the information of the R-R time series and EEG signals are strongly correlated (ρ=-0.9566).

    CONCLUSION: We conclude that heart and brain activities are related.

  9. Kamal SM, Dawi NBM, Sim S, Tee R, Nathan V, Aghasian E, et al.
    Technol Health Care, 2020;28(6):675-684.
    PMID: 32200366 DOI: 10.3233/THC-192034
    BACKGROUND: Walking is one of the important actions of the human body. For this purpose, the human brain communicates with leg muscles through the nervous system. Based on the walking path, leg muscles act differently. Therefore, there should be a relation between the activity of leg muscles and the path of movement.

    OBJECTIVE: In order to address this issue, we analyzed how leg muscle activity is related to the variations of the path of movement.

    METHOD: Since the electromyography (EMG) signal is a feature of muscle activity and the movement path has complex structures, we used entropy analysis in order to link their structures. The Shannon entropy of EMG signal and walking path are computed to relate their information content.

    RESULTS: Based on the obtained results, walking on a path with greater information content causes greater information content in the EMG signal which is supported by statistical analysis results. This allowed us to analyze the relation between muscle activity and walking path.

    CONCLUSION: The method of analysis employed in this research can be applied to investigate the relation between brain or heart reactions and walking path.

  10. Kamal SM, Sim S, Tee R, Nathan V, Aghasian E, Namazi H
    Technol Health Care, 2020;28(4):381-390.
    PMID: 31796717 DOI: 10.3233/THC-191965
    BACKGROUND: The human brain controls all actions of the body. Walking is one of the most important actions that deals with the movement of the body. In fact, the brain controls and regulates human walking based on different conditions. One of the conditions that affects human walking is the complexity of path of movement. Therefore, the brain activity should change when a person walks on a path with different complexities.

    OBJECTIVE: In this research we benefit from fractal analysis to study the effect of complexity of path of movement on the complexity of human brain reaction.

    METHODS: For this purpose we calculate the fractal dimension of the electroencephalography (EEG) signal when subjects walk on different paths with different fractal dimensions (complexity).

    RESULTS: The results of the analysis show that the complexity of brain activity increases with the increment of complexity of path of movement.

    CONCLUSION: The method of analysis employed in this research can also be employed to analyse the reaction of the human heart and respiration when subjects move on paths with different complexities.

  11. Soundirarajan M, Pakniyat N, Sim S, Nathan V, Namazi H
    Technol Health Care, 2021;29(1):99-109.
    PMID: 32568131 DOI: 10.3233/THC-192085
    BACKGROUND: Human facial muscles react differently to different visual stimuli. It is known that the human brain controls and regulates the activity of the muscles.

    OBJECTIVE: In this research, for the first time, we investigate how facial muscle reaction is related to the reaction of the human brain.

    METHODS: Since both electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography (EEG) signals, as the features of muscle and brain activities, contain information, we benefited from the information theory and computed the Shannon entropy of EMG and EEG signals when subjects were exposed to different static visual stimuli with different Shannon entropies (information content).

    RESULTS: Based on the obtained results, the variations of the information content of the EMG signal are related to the variations of the information content of the EEG signal and the visual stimuli. Statistical analysis also supported the results indicating that the visual stimuli with greater information content have a greater effect on the variation of the information content of both EEG and EMG signals.

    CONCLUSION: This investigation can be further continued to analyze the relationship between facial muscle and brain reactions in case of other types of stimuli.

  12. Pakniyat N, Namazi H
    Technol Health Care, 2021 Sep 17.
    PMID: 34542048 DOI: 10.3233/THC-213052
    BACKGROUND: The analysis of brain activity in different conditions is an important research area in neuroscience.

    OBJECTIVE: This paper analyzed the correlation between the brain and skin activities in rest and stimulations by information-based analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) and galvanic skin resistance (GSR) signals.

    METHODS: We recorded EEG and GSR signals of eleven subjects during rest and auditory stimulations using three pieces of music that were differentiated based on their complexity. Then, we calculated the Shannon entropy of these signals to quantify their information contents.

    RESULTS: The results showed that music with greater complexity has a more significant effect on altering the information contents of EEG and GSR signals. We also found a strong correlation (r= 0.9682) among the variations of the information contents of EEG and GSR signals. Therefore, the activities of the skin and brain are correlated in different conditions.

    CONCLUSION: This analysis technique can be utilized to evaluate the correlation among the activities of various organs versus brain activity in different conditions.

  13. Ahamed MRA, Babini MH, Namazi H
    Technol Health Care, 2020 Mar 13.
    PMID: 32200368 DOI: 10.3233/THC-192105
    BACKGROUND: The human voice is the main feature of human communication. It is known that the brain controls the human voice. Therefore, there should be a relation between the characteristics of voice and brain activity.

    OBJECTIVE: In this research, electroencephalography (EEG) as the feature of brain activity and voice signals were simultaneously analyzed.

    METHOD: For this purpose, we changed the activity of the human brain by applying different odours and simultaneously recorded their voices and EEG signals while they read a text. For the analysis, we used the fractal theory that deals with the complexity of objects. The fractal dimension of EEG signal versus voice signal in different levels of brain activity were computed and analyzed.

    RESULTS: The results indicate that the activity of human voice is related to brain activity, where the variations of the complexity of EEG signal are linked to the variations of the complexity of voice signal. In addition, the EEG and voice signal complexities are related to the molecular complexity of applied odours.

    CONCLUSION: The employed method of analysis in this research can be widely applied to other physiological signals in order to relate the activities of different organs of human such as the heart to the activity of his brain.

  14. Kamal SM, Dawi NM, Namazi H
    Technol Health Care, 2021;29(6):1109-1118.
    PMID: 33749623 DOI: 10.3233/THC-202744
    BACKGROUND: Walking like many other actions of a human is controlled by the brain through the nervous system. In fact, if a problem occurs in our brain, we cannot walk correctly. Therefore, the analysis of the coupling of brain activity and walking is very important especially in rehabilitation science. The complexity of movement paths is one of the factors that affect human walking. For instance, if we walk on a path that is more complex, our brain activity increases to adjust our movements.

    OBJECTIVE: This study for the first time analyzed the coupling of walking paths and brain reaction from the information point of view.

    METHODS: We analyzed the Shannon entropy for electroencephalography (EEG) signals versus the walking paths in order to relate their information contents.

    RESULTS: According to the results, walking on a path that contains more information causes more information in EEG signals. A strong correlation (p= 0.9999) was observed between the information contents of EEG signals and walking paths. Our method of analysis can also be used to investigate the relation among other physiological signals of a human and walking paths, which has great benefits in rehabilitation science.

  15. Soundirarajan M, Kuca K, Krejcar O, Namazi H
    Technol Health Care, 2021 Nov 19.
    PMID: 34842201 DOI: 10.3233/THC-213528
    BACKGROUND: Analysis of the reactions of different organs to external stimuli is an important area of research in physiological science.

    OBJECTIVE: In this paper, we investigated the correlation between the brain and facial muscle activities by information-based analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals and electromyogram (EMG) signals using Shannon entropy.

    METHOD: The EEG and EMG signals of thirteen subjects were recorded during rest and auditory stimulations using relaxing, pop, and rock music. Accordingly, we calculated the Shannon entropy of these signals.

    RESULTS: The results showed that rock music has a greater effect on the information of EEG and EMG signals than pop music, which itself has a greater effect than relaxing music. Furthermore, a strong correlation (r= 0.9980) was found between the variations of the information of EEG and EMG signals.

    CONCLUSION: The activities of the facial muscle and brain are correlated in different conditions. This technique can be utilized to investigate the correlation between the activities of different organs versus brain activity in different situations.

  16. Kamal SM, Babini MH, Tee R, Krejcar O, Namazi H
    Technol Health Care, 2023;31(1):205-215.
    PMID: 35848002 DOI: 10.3233/THC-220191
    BACKGROND: One of the important areas of heart research is to analyze heart rate variability during (HRV) walking.

    OBJECTIVE: In this research, we investigated the correction between heart activation and the variations of walking paths.

    METHOD: We employed Shannon entropy to analyze how the information content of walking paths affects the information content of HRV. Eight healthy students walked on three designed walking paths with different information contents while we recorded their ECG signals. We computed and analyzed the Shannon entropy of the R-R interval time series (as an indicator of HRV) versus the Shannon entropy of different walking paths and accordingly evaluated their relation.

    RESULTS: According to the obtained results, walking on the path that contains more information leads to less information in the R-R time series.

    CONCLUSION: The analysis method employed in this research can be extended to analyze the relation between other physiological signals (such as brain or muscle reactions) and the walking path.

  17. Zeeshan T, Qamar Z, Abdul NS, Soman C, Bamousa B, Marrapodi MM, et al.
    Technol Health Care, 2024 Jan 23.
    PMID: 38339947 DOI: 10.3233/THC-231814
    BACKGROUND: Commercially available oral rinses contain active ingredients with concentration that is claimed by manufacturers to be effective as antiplaque agent. To date there has been no mention of the effect of oral rinse on the adherence of early plaque colonizers in plaque formation and the concentration to be used before/after meals.

    OBJECTIVE: The chief aim of the study was to evaluate microbial retention on the salivary pellicle on treatment with oral rinses (CHX & EO)/PS (mimicking after meals use of mouth wash/PS).

    METHODS: Noordini's Artifical Mouth model was used for developing the single species biofilm with early microbial colonizers of oral biofilm (A. viscosus, Strep. mitis and Strep. sanguinis respectively). The microbial retention on use of oral rinses comprising of CHX and EO as an active ingredients respectively was compared with Curcumin PS. For evaluating the microbial retention, the pellicle with microbial inoculation was developed on the glass beads in the mouth model. Subsequently the respective single specie biofilm was exposed to the mouth wash and PS after inoculation. It mimicked as use of mouth wash/PS after meals. The bacterial count in the dental biofilm was evaluated on serial dilution (CFU/ml). Sterile deionized water was used as a negative control. For qualitative analysis, Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to evaluate the microbial count.

    RESULTS: From the data it was observed that for the treatment of single species experimental biofilm with commercially available mouth rinses (CHX & EO) and PS (curcumin), there was significant retention for S.mitis, S.sanguinis and A.viscosus. There was no significant difference observed between PS and CHX treated single species biofilm. Whereas a significant difference was observed between EO treated biofilms and CHX/PS treated biofilms (p⩽ 0.05).

    CONCLUSION: It can be concluded from the results that curcumin PS and CHX should not be used after meals whereas EO containing mouth rinse can be used to maintain the oral mocroflora.

  18. Ahmad HAB, El-Badawy IM, Singh OP, Hisham RB, Malarvili MB
    Technol Health Care, 2018;26(4):573-579.
    PMID: 29758955 DOI: 10.3233/THC-171067
    BACKGROUND: Fetal heart rate (FHR) monitoring device is highly demanded to assess the fetus health condition in home environments. Conventional standard devices such as ultrasonography and cardiotocography are expensive, bulky and uncomfortable and consequently not suitable for long-term monitoring. Herein, we report a device that can be used to measure fetal heart rate in clinical and home environments.

    METHODS: The proposed device measures and displays the FHR on a screen liquid crystal display (LCD). The device consists of hardware that comprises condenser microphone sensor, signal conditioning, microcontroller and LCD, and software that involves the algorithm used for processing the conditioned fetal heart signal prior to FHR display. The device's performance is validated based on analysis of variance (ANOVA) test.

    RESULTS: FHR data was recorded from 22 pregnant women during the 17th to 37th week of gestation using the developed device and two standard devices; AngelSounds and Electronic Stethoscope. The results show that F-value (1.5) is less than F𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑡, (3.1) and p-value (p> 0.05). Accordingly, there is no significant difference between the mean readings of the developed and existing devices. Hence, the developed device can be used for monitoring FHR in clinical and home environments.

  19. Singh OP, Ahmed IB, Malarvili MB
    Technol Health Care, 2018;26(5):785-794.
    PMID: 30124456 DOI: 10.3233/THC-181288
    BACKGROUND: Assessment of asthma outside of the hospital using a patient independent device is highly in demand due to the limitation of existing devices, which are manual and unreliable if patients are not cooperative.

    OBJECTIVE: The study aims to verify the use of newly developed human respiration, carbon dioxide (CO2) measurement device for the management of asthma outside of the hospital.

    METHOD: The data were collected from 60 subjects aged between 18-35 years via convenience sampling method reported in UTM Health Center using the device. Furthermore, the data were normalized and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, and area (Az) under receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC).

    RESULT: Findings revealed that the normalized mean values of end-tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO2), Hjorth Activity (HA), and respiratory rate (RR) were lower in asthmatic compared with healthy subjects with minimum deviation from the mean. In addition, each parameter was found to significantly differ statistically for asthma and non-asthma with p< 0.05. Furthermore, the Az shows the strong association for the screening of asthma and non-asthma with an average of 0.71 (95% CI: 0.57-0.83), 0.77 (95% CI: 0.64-0.90), and 0.83 (95% CI: 0.73-0.94) for RR, EtCO2, and HA, respectively.

    CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that the newly developed handheld human respiration CO2 measurement device may possibly be used as an effort-independent asthma management method outside of the hospital.
  20. Chia KP, Li OK, Yuong TS, Singh OP, Faudzi AABM, Sornambikai S, et al.
    Technol Health Care, 2021;29(4):829-836.
    PMID: 33492252 DOI: 10.3233/THC-202414
    BACKGROUND: Force Monitoring Devices (FMDs) reported in the literature to monitor applied force during Joint Mobilization Technique (JMT) possess complex design/bulky which alters the execution of treatment, has poor accuracy and is unable to feel the resistance provided by soft tissues limits its usage in the clinical settings.

    OBJECTIVES: This study aims to develop a highly accurate, portable FMD and to demonstrate real-time monitoring of force applied by health professionals during JMT without altering its execution.

    METHODS: The FMD was constructed using the FlexiForce sensor, potential divider, ATmega 328 microcontroller, custom-written software, and liquid crystal display. The calibration, accuracy, and cyclic repeatability of the FMD were tested from 0 to 90 N applied load with a gold standard universal testing machine. For practical demonstration, the FMD was tested for monitoring applied force by a physiotherapist while performing Maitland's grade I to IV over the 6th cervical vertebra among 30 healthy subjects.

    RESULTS: The obtained Bland-Altman plot limits agreement for accuracy, and cyclic repeatability was -1.57 N to 1.22 N, and -1.26 N to 1.26 N, respectively with standard deviation and standard error of the mean values of 3.77% and 0.73% and 2.15% and 0.23%, respectively. The test-retest reliability of the FMD tested by the same researcher at an interval of one week showed an excellent intra-class correlation coefficient of r= 1.00. The obtained force readings for grade I to IV among 30 subjects ranged from 10.33 N to 45.24 N.

    CONCLUSIONS: Appreciable performance of the developed FMD suggested that it may be useful to monitor force applied by clinicians during JMT among neck pain subjects and is a useful educational tool for academicians to teach mobilization skills.

Related Terms
Filters
Contact Us

Please provide feedback to Administrator (afdal@afpm.org.my)

External Links