ABSTRACT
Monitoring the posture of older persons using portable sensors while they carry out daily activities can facilitate the process of generating indicators with which to evaluate their health and quality of life. The majority of current research into such sensors focuses primarily on their functionality and accuracy, and minimal effort is dedicated to understanding the experience of older persons who interact with the devices. This study proposes a wearable device to identify the bodily postures of older persons, while also looking into the perceptions of the users. For the purposes of this study, thirty independent and semi-independent older persons undertook eight different types of physical activity, including: walking, raising arms, lowering arms, leaning forward, sitting, sitting upright, transitioning from standing to sitting, and transitioning from sitting to standing. The data was classified offline, achieving an accuracy of 93.5%, while overall device user perception was positive. Participants rated the usability of the device, in addition to their overall user experience, highly.
Subject(s)
Activities of Daily Living , Monitoring, Ambulatory/instrumentation , Posture/physiology , Wearable Electronic Devices , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Female , Homes for the Aged , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Monitoring, Ambulatory/methods , Nursing HomesABSTRACT
La inmadurez pulmonar es una causa importante de morbi-mortalidad neonatal, asociada a prematurez. Los métodos de diagnóstico de madurez pulmonar intraútero más confiables, como la dosificación de lecitina/esfingomielina y fosfatidilglicerol presenta aún dificultades en su técnica, como es el tiempo y la complejidad tecnológica requerida. Por estos antecedentes, el buscar una alternativa para valorar la madurez pulmonar intraútero, mediante el contaje de cuerpos lamelares, resulta fundamental si este método resulta barato y de manera rápida. Los cuerpos lamelares son corpúsculos de surfactante producidos por los neumocitos tipo II, que al salir por exocitosis de la célula, se los puede encontrar en el líquido amniótico. Su tamaño de 2 a 20 fl (1 a 5 um) es similar al de las plaquetas, hecho que permite realizar su contaje utilizando los contadores hematológicos automáticos, cuyo principio de funcionamiento es la impedancia volumétrica, de modo que el contaje de cuerpos lamelares se lo realiza como si se tratase de plaquetas. La cantidad de cuerpos lamelares en líquido amniótico es directamente proporcional al grado de madurez pulmonar, así a mayor número de cuerpos lamelares, mayor madurez pulmonar.
