Radu Dobrescu

Embedded Wireless Homecare Monitoring System

In this paper is described an embedded system for healthcare applications, actually a monitoring device for patients requiring continuous tele-monitoring treatments. The hardware architecture of the system, based on wireless communication, is discussed and implementation details are presented. We will also be presenting experimental results proving the usefulness of embedded homecare systems in providing patients with their health status monitoring.

Stress detection using wearable physiological and sociometric sensors

Stress remains a significant social problem for individuals in modern societies. This paper presents a machine learning approach for the automatic detection of stress of people in a social situation by combining two sensor systems that capture physiological and social responses. We compare the performance using different classifiers including support vector machine, AdaBoost, and [Formula: see text]-nearest neighbor. Our experimental results show that by combining the measurements from both sensor systems, we could accurately discriminate between stressful and neutral situations during a controlled Trier social stress test (TSST). Moreover, this paper assesses the discriminative ability of each sensor modality individually and considers their suitability for real-time stress detection. Finally, we present an study of the most discriminative features for stress detection.

Morphometrical differences between resectable and non-resectable pancreatic cancer: a fractal analysis.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive cancer with a rising incidence and poor prognosis despite active surgical treatment. Candidates for surgical resection should be carefully selected. In order to avoid unnecessary laparotomy it is useful to identify reliable factors that may predict resectability. Nuclear morphometry and fractal dimension of pancreatic nuclear features could provide important preoperative information in assessing pancreas resectability. METHODOLOGY Sixty-one patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer were enrolled in this retrospective study between 2003 and 2005. Patients were divided into two groups: one resectable cancer group and one with non-resectable pancreatic cancer. Morphometric parameters measured were: nuclear area, length of minor axis and length of major axis. Nuclear shape and chromatin distribution of the pancreatic tumor cells were both estimated using fractal dimension. RESULTS Morphometric measurements have shown significant differences between the nuclear area of the resectable group and the non-resectable group (61.9 ± 19.8µm vs. 42.2 ± 15.6µm). Fractal dimension of the nuclear outlines and chromatin distribution was found to have a higher value in the non-resectable group (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Objective measurements should be performed to improve risk assessment and therapeutic decisions in pancreatic cancer. Nuclear morphometry of the pancreatic nuclear features can provide important pre-operative information in resectability assessment. The fractal dimension of the nuclear shape and chromatin distribution may be considered a new promising adjunctive tool for conventional pathological analysis.

Cognitive radio as solution for ground-aerial surveillance through WSN and UAV infrastructure

Intelligent collaborative environments, where heterogenous entities operate together in achieving common mission objectives have been increasingly adopted for monitoring and surveillance of interest areas and physical infrastructures. They can be assembled from multiple existing technologies ranging from wireless sensor networks (WSN), terrestrial remote operated vehicles (ROV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). In this context, we first introduce a multi-level system framework for multi-sensory robotic surveillance of critical infrastructure protection through communication, data acquisition and processing - MUROS. Leveraging a cognitive radio (CR) scheme is discussed as key point of the paper, arguing that by exploiting in an opportunistic fashion the time, frequency and spatial stream of the wireless environment, increased communication reliability can be achieved with positive impact on the availability and service level at each hierarchical level. The application of CR, given the heterogeneous nature of the application across multiple radio interfaces and protocols, stand outs as a novel and feasible research direction. We argument the advantages of this scheme within the constraints of a working scenario and define a simulation-based approach in order to validate our solution.

Smart sensor network for continuous monitoring at home of elderly population with chronic diseases

The current paper proposes a smart sensor network based on femtocells to monitor patients with chronic diseases at their home. The main purpose of this network is to help elderly population with chronic diseases to spend less time in specialized institutions and reduce the costs significantly as certified employees will not be necessary.

From bridge to control hub — The power Smart Grid evolution

Smart Grids vision is about a bold program of research, development and demonstration that charts a course towards an electricity supply network that meets the needs of Europes future. The Smart Grid will include automation software and intelligent electronic hardware systems that control the transmission and distribution power grids. For developing distribution management and functionality of electricity market one essential objective is to make the customer active for efficient use of energy. The evolution from grid to Smart Grid is based on different functions and on the complexity of the nodes starting from interconnection between local control and central control and arriving to the Smart Grid control hub with a great level of independence and a complex functionality. The Smart Grid of the future will act much more like an interactive web, or “energy Internet,” with two-way communication, multi-directional power flow, distributed intelligence including close-loop control, stability and balance performed on site and optimization at its core. The paper presents the authors view about Smart Grid state of the art and point out the stage in standardization and practice. The contribution is on defining the functions performed by each development stage of equipment: bridge, gateway, node and control hub, the control hub architecture and the demonstrator for the gateway and protocol converter.

Characterization of Tumor Angiogenesis Using Fractal Measures

Tumors vascular networks are different from normal vascular networks, but the mechanisms underlying these differences are not known. Underlying these mechanisms may be key to improving the efficacy of the treatment of tumor. We studied possibility to apply two types of fractal measure: fractal dimension and succolarity for characterizing medical images. We find that fractal dimension value to the normal vasculature is smaller than the results for the tumor vasculature. Moreover, for applying succolarity the results do not vary considerable with the direction in normal vasculature, while for tumor vasculature the curves differs significantly. In conclusion, the results obtained show that the fractal measure is an important tool for analyzing medical images.

Using fractal dimension for cancer diagnosis

The paper presents an algorithm able to compute and to display the graphic of the distribution of fractal dimensions obtained from microscopic images of malignant tumors in various stages of evolution. Some considerations on the medical interpretation of these histograms are offered too.

Sliding Box Method for Automated Detection of the Optic Disc and Macula in Retinal Images

In this paper we propose two simple and efficient algorithms for automated detection and localization of optic disc and macula with high accuracy. In the learning phase a set of statistical and fractal features were tested on 40 images from STARE database. The selected features combine spatial and spectral properties of the retinal images and are based on minimum or maximum criteria. In the first step of the algorithm, a sliding box method is used for primary detection of optic disc and macula. For the second phase, a non overlapping box method is proposed for accurate localization of the center of the optic disc. The features are different for the two phases and also for the two cases optic disc and macula. The algorithms were tested on a set of 100 retinal images from the same database. By accurate determination position of the optic disc and macula, the results confirm the efficiency of the proposed method.

Impact of Information Technology on the Quality of Health Services

The chapter offers a report on the impact of health information technology on quality of services, work efficiency and related costs of healthcare. The major benefits on quality of health services are considered to be the increased adequacy to standard based care procedures, improved surveillance and decreased medication errors. The key solution to improve the quality of the health services is considered to be the implementation of the Service-oriented Interoperability Paradigm for specifying and standardizing medical services. The chapter demonstrates that Health Level Seven (HL7) specification fits in the context of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) that support enterprise distributed processing. The dynamic model of SOA Interoperability Paradigm and its compatibility with the Reference Model for Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP) are then analyzed, in order to ensure interoperability between applications based on the HL7 Version 3 Standard. Finally the architecture of a system that implements the principles of the HSSP/HL7 SOA methodology and its specific objectives are presented.