Gladiola Andruseac

Automatic analysis of the fetal heart rate variability and uterine contractions

The aim of this study is the identification of the dynamic relationship between intrapartum fetal heart rate (FHR) variability and uterine pressure (UP) for normal and hypoxic fetuses. A new method for automatic analysis and identification of uterine contractions is developed and tested on 552 recordings. Using contractions, the fetal heart rate variations are established: accelerations and decelerations (early, late and prolonged). These allow a classification of the recordings analyzed into two categories: normal and pathological. The results are compared to documented fetal outcome results quantified by means of low pH and Apgar values. The developed method provides a series of quantitative measurements for the uterine contractions signal (total number of contractions, total contraction time, total percentage of contraction time, average values for contraction length, peak to peak values, area under curve). Based on these measurements we determine the Spearman correlation coefficients and the scatter matrix between the FHR and UP signals and the fetal outcome parameters: pH and Apgar scores. The correlation result show a strong relationship between decelerations presented on the FHR signal, increasing number of contractions and the low pH and Apgar values.

TELEMON — A Complex System for Real Time Telemonitoring of Chronic Patients and Elderly People

This paper presents a project that has as main goal researches, design and implementation of an electronicinformatics- telecom and scalable system, that allows the automatic, complex and real time telemonitoring, everywhere and every time (at home, in hospitals, at work, etc.), using several communication paths, of (mobile) persons with chronic illnesses, of elderly people, of those having high medical risk and of those with neuro-locomotor disabilities. The monitored features are electrophysiological (vital) signs, signals for domotics (home surveillance, access control in a certain area), and the systems also performs automatic image analysis of the movements of the subjects.

Telemonitoring of Vital Signs – An Effective Tool for Ambient Assisted Living

Telemedicine and e-health solutions provide (chronic) patients and elderly people services that enhance their quality of life. Advances in wireless sensor network technology and the overall miniaturization of their associated hardware low-power integrated circuits have enabled the design of low-cost, miniature and precise physiological sensor modules. These modules are capable of measuring, processing, communicating one or more physiological parameters, and can be integrated into a wireless personal area network (WPAN). This paper is dedicated to the most complex Romanian telemedical pilot project, TELEMON, that implemented a system for automatic and complex telemonitoring, everywhere and every time, in real time, of the vital signs of persons with chronic illnesses, of elderly people, of those having high medical risk and of those living in isolated regions. The main objective of this pilot project is to enable personalized medical teleservices delivery, and to act as a basis for a public service for telemedical procedures in Romania and abroad.

eLearning Platform for Rehabilitation of the Romanian Patients with Neurological Diseases

This paper present an eLearning platform for rehabilitating patients with neurological diseases (dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, learning disorders), in order to re-integrate them into the educational and socio-professional environment. Dyslexia is a common reading and language disorder. It is not linked to any kind of deficit in general intelligence, educational opportunity, or motivational factors. It affects 5% to 10% of alphabetic language speakers and one in 10 children is dyslexic. Most of dyslexic children and adults have low academic results as compared to the high IQ results. This happens because they cannot learn a new lesson the traditional way, but the teacher must use some complementary techniques of teaching, such as: small steps/unities learning, over-learning and multisensory presentation of the new information (through hearing, seeing and pronouncing).

A wireless ECG acquisition device for remote monitoring of heart rate and arrhythmia detection

Today, health information technology is the area of IT involving the design and development of telemedicine solutions, providing to patients medical services that enhance their quality of life. Technological advances in integrated circuits and wireless communications have led to the design and fabrication of low-cost, low-power, miniature, and intelligent physiological data acquisition devices. The paper describes the design and implementation of a portable device used to acquire and wirelessly transmit the electrocardiographic signal (ECG), collected from a patient, to a Personal Computer (PC). The developed device is based on the multichannel high-resolution medical analog front-end ADS1298, connected to a wireless development tool eZ430-RF2500, both from Texas Instruments. On the PC is running an application that receives the ECG data from wireless device, process the signal in order to compute the heart rate, and run a simple arrhythmia detector. A prototype of the wireless device has already been designed, implemented, and partially tested.

Diagnosis and directions for research and innovation in Romania

The research and innovation plays an important role in the 2020 European Strategy and by the Horizon 2020 program the allocation of funds for these areas has reached an unprecedented level. These developments bind the E.U. countries to perform in research and innovation. The performance in research and innovation requires the creation of efficient and effective research & innovation methods capable to support the economy and to generate new jobs. This perspective changes the dynamics of the scientific production, just as the individual, organizational expectations and the expectations of the society in general, concerning the research and innovation activity. Based upon a system of indicators grouped into eight dimensions of innovation, the article analyzes the existing situation in Romania, concerning the research and innovation activity in the period 2008–2015 and the future strategic targets for the period 2017–2020.

The economic impact and the dynamics of the innovative process in Romania compared to the European Union

The economic impact of the innovative process has been extensively studied by numerous researchers and specialists because innovation is a fundamental element of the economic and social progress and it is the tool to address todays global challenges in multiple fields, and at the level of organizations is one of the key factors that ensure the increase of their productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. In Romania, the innovative process is declining or experiences an oscillating development, and compared to the European Union member states; there is a large discrepancy in a number of indicators. In order to have a clearer picture of the innovative process in Romania compared to the European Union, in this paper we have analyzed the data provided by the European Commission grouped in a series of indicators that reflect the economic impact and the dynamics of the innovative process in the period 2008–2015 to be found in the European Innovation Scoreboard for the year 2016.

Remote control of a robotic platform based on hand gesture recognition

Computer vision based detection can be used to identify hand gestures and movement and use these commands in order to implement a control system for a robotic platform. This paper presents the technical implementation of a hand movement and gesture detection system based on two VGA USB cameras and the control of a customizable robotic platform using the commands transmitted from a computer after image processing. Hand gestures are identified using an adaptive binarization method based on histogram analysis and hand contour with peak value detection for identifying the fingertips.

A remote-controlled mobile platform for identifying indoor human in risk situations

In the last three decades many research teams have been doing advanced researches to develop accurate positioning and telemonitoring technologies. We developed an experimental model, a very light and ergonomic mobile platform, to identify cases with high human risk factor inside buildings. For positioning we designed an advanced INS/ GPS integrated indoor navigation system miniaturized inertial tridimensional measurement unit. This platform will be equipped with sensors to detect smoke, fire, toxic gases in the atmosphere and allows building area mapping using both video and audio recordings and will allow identifying indoor human in risk situations.

Managerial strategies to improve the activity of the “Elena Doamna” Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinical Hospital Iasi

This paper analyzes and proposes a number of managerial strategies to improve the hospital activity of the “Elena Doamna” Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinical Hospital Iaşi as follows: Patients hospitalization with appointment and conducted analysis, Discharge of patient at 1–2 days after birth, Establishing of a stem cell bank, Transforming of rooming-in reserves, Establishing of a call center for pregnant, Establishing of a dermatology private consulting room and Opening of a private pharmacies in the hospital. These methods and managerial strategies, aimed to increase the quality and variety of health services provided by the hospital, increases the visibility and facilities of the hospital, which will lead to improve the financial situation.