Biomarkers to detect Alzheimer’s disease (AD) would enable patients to gain access to appropriate services and may facilitate the development of new therapies. Given the large numbers of people affected by AD, there is a need for a low-cost, easy to use method to detect AD patients. Potentially, the electroencephalogram (EEG) can play a valuable role in this, but at present no single EEG biomarker is robust enough for use in practice. This study aims to provide a methodological framework for the development of robust EEG biomarkers to detect AD with a clinically acceptable performance by exploiting the combined strengths of key biomarkers. A large number of existing and novel EEG biomarkers associated with slowing of EEG, reduction in EEG complexity and decrease in EEG connectivity were investigated. Support vector machine and linear discriminate analysis methods were used to find the best combination of the EEG biomarkers to detect AD with significant performance. A total of 325,567 EEG biomarkers were investigated, and a panel of six biomarkers was identified and used to create a diagnostic model with high performance (≥85% for sensitivity and 100% for specificity).
Abstract. This work presents a detailed design of a three-jointed tendon-driven robot finger with a cam/pulleys transmission and joint Variable Stiffness Actuator (VSA). The finger motion configuration is obtained by deriving the cam/pulleys transmission profile as a mathematical solution that is then implemented to achieve contact force isotropy on the phalanges. A VSA is proposed, in which three VSAs are designed to act as a muscle in joint space to provide firm grasping. As a mechatronic approach, a suitable type and number of force sensors and actuators are designed to sense the touch, actuate the finger, and tune the VSAs. The torque of the VSAs is controlled utilizing a designed Multi Input Multi Output (MIMO) fuzzy controll
... Show MorePower-electronic converters are essential elements for the effective interconnection of renewable energy sources to the power grid, as well as to include energy storage units, vehicle charging stations, microgrids, etc. Converter models that provide an accurate representation of their wideband operation and interconnection with other active and passive grid components and systems are necessary for reliable steady state and transient analyses during normal or abnormal grid operating conditions. This paper introduces two Laplace domain-based approaches to model buck and boost DC-DC converters for electromagnetic transient studies. The first approach is an analytical one, where the converter is represented by a two-port admittance model via mo
... Show MoreVehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) are considered an emerging technology in the industrial and educational fields. This technology is essential in the deployment of the intelligent transportation system, which is targeted to improve safety and efficiency of traffic. The implementation of VANETs can be effectively executed by transmitting data among vehicles with the use of multiple hops. However, the intrinsic characteristics of VANETs, such as its dynamic network topology and intermittent connectivity, limit data delivery. One particular challenge of this network is the possibility that the contributing node may only remain in the network for a limited time. Hence, to prevent data loss from that node, the information must reach the destina
... Show MoreThe development of information systems in recent years has contributed to various methods of gathering information to evaluate IS performance. The most common approach used to collect information is called the survey system. This method, however, suffers one major drawback. The decision makers consume considerable time to transform data from survey sheets to analytical programs. As such, this paper proposes a method called ‘survey algorithm based on R programming language’ or SABR, for data transformation from the survey sheets inside R environments by treating the arrangement of data as a relational format. R and Relational data format provide excellent opportunity to manage and analyse the accumulated data. Moreover, a survey syste
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In this investigation, Al2O3 nano material of 50nm particles size were added to the 6061 Al aluminium alloy by using the stir casting technique to fabricate the nanocomposite of 10wt% Al2O3. The experimental results observed that the addition of 10wt% Al2O3 improved the fatigue life and strength of constant and cumulative fatigue. Comparison between the S-N curves behaviour of metal matrix (AA6061) and the nanocomposite 10wt% Al2O3 has been made. The comparison revealed that 12.8% enhancement in fatigue strength at 107cycles due to 10wt% nano reinforcement. Also cumulative fatigue l
... Show MoreMulti-carrier direct sequence code division multiple access (MC-DS-CDMA) has emerged recently as a promising candidate for the next generation broadband mobile networks. Multipath fading channels have a severe effect on the performance of wireless communication systems even those systems that exhibit efficient bandwidth, like orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and MC-DS-CDMA; there is always a need for developments in the realisation of these systems as well as efficient channel estimation and equalisation methods to enable these systems to reach their maximum performance. A novel MC-DS-CDMA transceiver based on the Radon-based OFDM, which was recently proposed as a new technique in the realisation of OFDM systems, will be us
... Show MoreIn this research, annealed nanostructured ZnO catalyst water putrefaction system was built using sun light and different wavelength lasers as stimulating light sources to enhance photocatalytic degradation activity of methylene blue (MB) dye as a model based on interfacial charges transfer. The structural, crystallite size, morphological, particle size, optical properties and degradation ability of annealed nanostructured ZnO were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and UV-VIS Spectrometer, respectively. XRD results demonstrated a pure crystalline hexagonal wurtzite with crystalline size equal to 23 nm. From AFM results, the average particle size was 79.25nm. All MB samples and MB with annealed nanostr
... Show MoreIn this paper, an intelligent tracking control system of both single- and double-axis Piezoelectric Micropositioner stage is designed using Genetic Algorithms (GAs) method for the optimal Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller tuning parameters. The (GA)-based PID control design approach is a methodology to tune a (PID) controller in an optimal control sense with respect to specified objective function. By using the (GA)-based PID control approach, the high-performance trajectory tracking responses of the Piezoelectric Micropositioner stage can be obtained. The (GA) code was built and the simulation results were obtained using MATLAB environment. The Piezoelectric Micropositioner simulation model with th
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