Context:Among persons diagnosed as having diabetes mellitus, the prevalence of foot ulcers is 4%to 10%, the annual population-based incidence is 1.0%to 4.1 %, and the lifetime incidence may be as high as 25%. These ulcers frequently b ecome infected, cause great morbidity, engender considerable financial costs, an d are the usual first step to lower extremity amputation. Objective:To systemat ically review the evidence on the efficacy of methods advocated for preventing d iabetic foot ulcers in the primary care setting. Data Sources, Study Selection, and Data Extraction:The EBSCO, MEDLINE, and the National Guideline Clearinghous e databases were searched for articles published between January 1980 and April 2004 using database-specific keywords. Bibliographies of retrieved articles wer e also searched, along with the Cochrane Library and relevant Web sites. We revi ewed the retrieved literature for pertinent information, paying particular atten tion to prospective cohort studies and randomized clinical trials. Data Synthesi s:Prevention of diabetic foot ulcers begins with screening for loss of protecti ve sensation, which is best accomplished in the primary care setting with a brie f history and the Semmes-Weinstein monofilament. Specialist clinics may quantif y neuropathy with biothesiometry, measure plantar foot pressure, and assess lowe r extremity vascular status with Doppler ultrasound and ankle-brachial blood pr essure indices. These measurements, in conjunction with other findings from the history and physical examination, enable clinicians to stratify patients based o n risk and to determine the type of intervention. Educating patients about prope r foot care and periodic foot examinations are effective interventions to preven t ulceration. Other possibly effective clinical interventions include optimizing glycemic control, smoking cessation, intensive podiatric care, debridement of c alluses, and certain types of prophylactic foot surgery. The value of various ty pes of prescription footwear for ulcer prevention is not clear. Conclusions:Sub stantial evidence supports screening all patients with diabetes to identify thos e at risk for foot ulceration. These patients might benefit from certain prophyl actic interventions, including patient education, prescription footwear, intensi ve podiatric care, and evaluation for surgical interventions.

Preventing foot ulcers in patients with diabetes

Lubricating oil conditioning sensors for online machine health monitoring – A review

https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1064&context=engtech_fac_pubs

Mechanical Wear Debris Feature, Detection, and Diagnosis: A Review

A review on lubricant condition monitoring information analysis for maintenance decision support

Fall detection for elderly and patient is a very important service that has the potential of increasing autonomy of elders while minimizing the risks of living alone. It has been an active research topic due to the fact that health care industry has a big demand for products and technology of fall detection systems. Owing to the recent rapid advancement in sensing and wireless communication technologies, fall detection systems have become possible. They allow detecting fall events for the elderly, monitoring them, and consequently providing necessary help whenever needed. This paper describes the ongoing work of detecting falls in independent living senior apartments using force sensors and three-axis accelerometers concealed under intelligent tiles. The force sensors permit detecting elders’ falls, locating, tracking, and recognizing human activities (walking, standing, sitting, lying down, falling, and the transitions between them). However, the detection accuracy on real data contains false alarms coming from falling and lying postures. To solve this issue, we propose the fusion between the force sensor measurements and the accelerometer sensor decisions. As a consequence, the system accuracy is satisfactory, and the results show that the proposed methods are efficient, and they can be easily used in a real elder tracking and fall detection system.

Elder Tracking and Fall Detection System Using Smart Tiles

Detection of small metallic wear debris is critical to identify abnormal wear conditions for prognosis of pending machinery failure. In this paper we applied an inductance–capacitance (LC) resonance method to an inductive pulse debris sensor to increase the sensitivity. By adding an external capacitor to the sensing coil of the sensor, a parallel LC resonance circuit is formed that has a unique resonant frequency. At an excitation frequency close to the resonant frequency, impedance change (and thus change in voltage output) of the LC circuit caused by the passage of a debris particle is amplified due to sharp change in impedance at the resonant peak; thus signal-to-noise ratio and sensitivity are significantly improved. Using an optimized measurement circuit, iron particles ranging from 32 to 96 µm and copper particles ranging from 75 to 172 µm were tested. Results showed that the parallel LC resonance method is capable of detecting a 20 µm iron particle and a 55 µm copper particle while detection limits for the non-resonance method are 45 and 125 µm, respectively. In contrast to the non-resonant method, the sensitivity of the resonance method has been significantly improved.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0957-0233/24/7/075106/pdf

Improving Sensitivity of an Inductive Pulse Sensor for Detection of Metallic Wear Debris in Lubricants Using Parallel LC Resonance Method

A 3×3 wear debris sensor array for real time lubricant oil conditioning monitoring using synchronized sampling

With a long time goal of detecting signs of potential machine failure, we demonstrate a proof-of-principle multiplexed, multichannel, inductive pulse sensor based on resonant frequency division multiplexing for high throughput detection of micro-scale metallic debris in lubricants. In the four-channel sensor, each sensing coil is connected to a specific external capacitance to form a parallel LC circuit that has a unique resonant frequency. Only one combined sinusoidal excitation signal consisting of four frequencies components that are close to the 4 sensing channels’ resonant frequencies was applied to the sensor, and only one combined voltage response was measured. Because each sensing channel exhibited a peak amplitude at its resonant frequency, the signals for each individual channel were recovered from the combined response by taking the spectrum components at each resonant frequency with an improved signal-to-noise ratio. Inductance change for each channel was then calculated from signals of individual channels. Testing results show that the use of resonant frequency division multiplexing allows simultaneous detection of debris in lubricants using only one set of detection electronics; for the four-channel sensor, there is a 300 % increase in throughput. The resonant frequency division multiplexing concept can be potentially applied to a multichannel oil debris sensor with a large number of sensing channels to achieve a very high throughput, which is necessary for online health monitoring of rotating and reciprocal mechanical components.

High Throughput Wear Debris Detection in Lubricants Using a Resonance Frequency Division Multiplexed Sensor

Detecting wear debris and measuring the increasing number of wear debris in lubrication oil can indicate abnormal machine wear well ahead of machine failure, and thus are indispensable for online machine health monitoring. A portable wear debris sensor with ferrite cores for online monitoring is presented. The sensor detects wear debris by measuring the inductance change of two planar coils wound around a pair of ferrite cores that make the magnetic flux denser and more uniform in the sensing channel, thereby improving the sensitivity of the sensor. Static testing results showed this wear debris sensor is capable of detecting 11 µm and 50 µm ferrous debris in 1 mm and 7 mm diameter fluidic pipes, respectively; such a high sensitivity has not been achieved before. Furthermore, a synchronized sampling method was also applied to reduce the data size and realize real-time data processing. Dynamic testing results demonstrated that the sensor is capable of detecting wear debris in real time with a high throughput of 750 ml min−1; the measured debris concentration is in good agreement with the actual concentration.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6501/aa6adb/pdf

Xiaoliang Zhu

Papers

Lubricating oil conditioning sensors for online machine health monitoring – A review

Improving Sensitivity of an Inductive Pulse Sensor for Detection of Metallic Wear Debris in Lubricants Using Parallel LC Resonance Method

A 3×3 wear debris sensor array for real time lubricant oil conditioning monitoring using synchronized sampling

High Throughput Wear Debris Detection in Lubricants Using a Resonance Frequency Division Multiplexed Sensor

A high sensitivity wear debris sensor using ferrite cores for online oil condition monitoring