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Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a hand disease caused by the pressing of the median nerve present in the palmar side of the wrist. It causes severe pain in the wrist, triggering disturbance during sleep. Different products like splints, braces and gloves are available in the market to alleviate this disease but there was still a need to improve the wearability, comfort and cost of the product. This study was about designing a comfortable and cost-effective wearable system for mild-to-moderate CTS. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) therapy has been used to reduce the pain in the wrist.

After simulation by using Proteus software (which allowed the researchers to draw and simulate electrical circuits using ISIS, ARES and PCB design tools virtually), the circuit with optimum frequency, i.e. 33 Hz was selected, and the circuit was developed on a printed circuit board (PCB). The developed circuit was integrated successfully into the half glove structure.

The developed product had good thermophysiological comfort and hand properties as compared to the commercially available product of the same kind. In vivo testing (It involves the testing with living subjects like animals, plants or human beings) was performed which resulted in 85% confirmed viability of the product against CTS. A glove with an integrated circuit was developed successfully to accommodate various sizes without any sex specifications in a cost-effective way to mitigate the issue of CTS.

Industrial workers, individuals frequently using their hands or those diagnosed with CTS may wish to use this product as therapy. The attention could not be paid to the aesthetic or visual appeal of the developed product.

A very comfortable glove with integrated TENS electrodes was developed successfully to accommodate various sizes without any sex specifications in a cost-effective way to mitigate the issues of CTS.

In 2022, the Baltimore professional development school (PDS) partner schools, John Ruhruh Elementary/Middle School (JREMS) and Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU) received funds through a Maryland Educational Emergency Revitalization (MEER) grant to determine (a) to what extent additional resources and professional development would increase JREMS teachers’ efficacy in technology integration and (b) to what extent NDMU professional development in the form of workshops and self-paced computer science modules would result in greater use of technology in the JREMS K-8 classrooms. Results indicated a statistically significant improvement in both teacher comfort with technology and integrated use of technology in instruction.

Survey data were collected on teacher-stated comfort with technology before and after grant implementation. Teachers’ use of technology was also measured by unannounced classroom visits by administration before and after the grant implementation and through artifacts teachers submitted during NDMU professional development modules.

Results showing significant increases in self-efficacy with technology along with teacher integration of technology exemplify the benefits of a PDS partnership.

This initiative was original in its approach to teacher development by replacing required teacher professional development with an invitation to participate and an incentive for participation (a personal MacBook) that met the stated needs of teachers. Teacher motivation was strong because teammates in a strong PDS partnership provided the necessary supports to induce changes in teacher self-efficacy.

This paper aims to concentrate on recent innovations in flexible wearable sensor technology tailored for monitoring vital signals within the contexts of wearable sensors and systems developed specifically for monitoring health and fitness metrics.

In recent decades, wearable sensors for monitoring vital signals in sports and health have advanced greatly. Vital signals include electrocardiogram, electroencephalogram, electromyography, inertial data, body motions, cardiac rate and bodily fluids like blood and sweating, making them a good choice for sensing devices.

This report reviewed reputable journal articles on wearable sensors for vital signal monitoring, focusing on multimode and integrated multi-dimensional capabilities like structure, accuracy and nature of the devices, which may offer a more versatile and comprehensive solution.

The paper provides essential information on the present obstacles and challenges in this domain and provide a glimpse into the future directions of wearable sensors for the detection of these crucial signals. Importantly, it is evident that the integration of modern fabricating techniques, stretchable electronic devices, the Internet of Things and the application of artificial intelligence algorithms has significantly improved the capacity to efficiently monitor and leverage these signals for human health monitoring, including disease prediction.

Wireless sensor networks (WSN), as a solution for buried water pipe monitoring, face a new set of challenges compared to traditional application for above-ground infrastructure monitoring. One of the main challenges for underground WSN deployment is the limited range (less than 3 m) at which reliable wireless underground communication can be achieved using radio signal propagation through the soil. To overcome this challenge, the purpose of this paper is to investigate a new approach for wireless underground communication using acoustic signal propagation along a buried water pipe.

An acoustic communication system was developed based on the requirements of low cost (tens of pounds at most), low power supply capacity (in the order of 1 W-h) and miniature (centimetre scale) size for a wireless communication node. The developed system was further tested along a buried steel pipe in poorly graded SAND and a buried medium density polyethylene (MDPE) pipe in well graded SAND.

With predicted acoustic attenuation of 1.3 dB/m and 2.1 dB/m along the buried steel and MDPE pipes, respectively, reliable acoustic communication is possible up to 17 m for the buried steel pipe and 11 m for the buried MDPE pipe.

Although an important first step, more research is needed to validate the acoustic communication system along a wider water distribution pipe network.

This paper shows the possibility of achieving reliable wireless underground communication along a buried water pipe (especially non-metallic material ones) using low-frequency acoustic propagation along the pipe wall.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a prototype of a wearable medical device in the form of a bandage with a real-time data monitoring platform, which can be used domestically for diabetic patients to identify the possibility of foot ulceration at the early stage.

The prototype can measure blood volumetric change and temperature variation in the forefoot area simultaneously. The waveform extracted using a pulsatile-blood-flow signal was used to assess blood perfusion-related information, and hence, predict ischemic ulcers. The temperature difference between ulcerated and the reference was used to predict neuropathic ulcers. The medical device can be used as a bandage during the application wherein the sensory module is placed inside the hollow pocket of the bandage. A platform was developed through a mobile application where doctors can extract real-time information, and hence, determine the possibility of ulceration.

The height of the peaks in the pulsatile-blood-flow signal measured from the subject with foot ischemic ulcers is significantly less than that of the subject without ischemic ulcers. In the presence of ischemic ulcers, the captured waveform flattens. Therefore, the blood perfusion from arteries to the tissue of the forefoot is considerably low for the subject with ischemic ulcers. According to the temperature difference data measured over 25 consecutive days, the temperature difference of the subject with neuropathic ulcers occasionally exceeded the 4 °F range but mostly had higher values closer to the 4 °F range. However, the temperature difference of the subject who had no complications of neuropathic ulcers did not exceed the 4 °F range, and the majority of the measurements occupy a narrow range from −2°F to 2 °F.

The proposed prototype of wearable medical apparatus can monitor both temperature variation and pulsatile-blood-flow signal on the forefoot simultaneously and thereby predict both ischemic and neuropathic diabetes using a single device. Most importantly, the wearable medical device can be used domestically without clinical assistance with a real-time data monitoring platform to predict the possibility of ulceration and the course of action thereof.

This paper aims to investigate the bonding of the photonic integrated circuit (PIC) chip with the heat sink using the AlNi self-propagating soldering method.

Compared to industrial optical modules, optical modules for aerospace applications require better reliability and stability, which is hard to achieve via the dispensing adhesive process that is used for traditional industrial optical modules. In this paper, 25 µm SAC305 solder foils and the AlNi nanofoil heat source were used to bond the back of the PIC chip with the heat sink. The temperature field and temperature history were analyzed by the finite element analysis (FEA) method. The junction-to-case thermal resistance is 0.0353°C/W and reduced by 85% compared with the UV hybrid epoxy joint.

The self-propagating reaction ends within 2.82 ms. The maximum temperature in the PIC operating area during the process is 368.5°C. The maximum heating and cooling rates of the solder were 1.39 × 107°C/s and −5.15 × 106°C/s, respectively. The microstructure of SAC305 under self-propagating reaction heating is more refined than the microstructure of SAC305 under reflow. The porosity of the heat sink-SAC305-PIC chip self-propagating joint is only 4.7%. Several metastable phases appear as AuSn3.4 and AgSn3.

A new bonding technology was used to form the bonding between the PIC chip with the heat sink for the aerospace optical module. The reliability and thermal resistance of the joint are better than that of the UV hybrid epoxy joint.

Microribbon with meander type based on giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) effect has become a research hot spot due to their higher sensitivity and spatial resolution. The purpose of this paper is to further optimize the line spacing to improve the performance of meanders for sensor application.

The model of GMI effect of microribbon with meander type is established. The effect of line spacing (Ls) on GMI behavior in meanders is analyzed systematically.

Comparison of theory and experiment indicates that decreasing the line spacing increases the negative mutual inductance and a consequent increase in the GMI effect. The maximum value of the GMI ratio increases from 69% to 91.8% (simulation results) and 16.9% to 51.4% (experimental results) when the line spacing is reduced from 400 to 50 µm. The contribution of line spacing versus line width to the GMI ratio of microribbon with meander type was contrasted. This behavior of the GMI ratio is dominated by the overall negative contribution of the mutual inductance.

This paper explores the effect of line spacing on the GMI ratio of meander type by comparing the simulation results with the experimental results. The superior line spacing is found in the identical sensing area. The findings will contribute to the design of high-performance micropatterned ribbon with meander-type GMI sensors and the establishment of a ribbon-based magnetic-sensitive biosensing system.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a blockchain-based data capture and transmission system that will collect real-time power consumption data from a household electrical appliance and transfer it securely to a local server for energy analytics such as forecasting.

The data capture system is composed of two current transformer (CT) sensors connected to two different electrical appliances. The CT sensors send the power readings to two Arduino microcontrollers which in turn connect to a Raspberry-Pi for aggregating the data. Blockchain is then enabled onto the Raspberry-Pi through a Java API so that the data are transmitted securely to a server. The server provides real-time visualization of the data as well as prediction using the multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and long short term memory (LSTM) algorithms.

The results for the blockchain analysis demonstrate that when the data readings are transmitted in smaller blocks, the security is much greater as compared with blocks of larger size. To assess the accuracy of the prediction algorithms data were collected for a 20 min interval to train the model and the algorithms were evaluated using the sliding window approach. The mean average percentage error (MAPE) was used to assess the accuracy of the algorithms and a MAPE of 1.62% and 1.99% was obtained for the LSTM and MLP algorithms, respectively.

A detailed performance analysis of the blockchain-based transmission model using time complexity, throughput and latency as well as energy forecasting has been performed.

In the current era of Industry 4.0, the manufacturing industries are striving toward mass production with mass customization by considering human–robot collaboration. This study aims to propose the reconfiguration of assembly systems by incorporating multiple humans with robots using a human–robot task allocation (HRTA) to enhance productivity.

A human–robot task scheduling approach has been developed by considering task suitability, resource availability and resource selection through multicriteria optimization using the Linear Regression with Optimal Point and Minimum Distance Calculation algorithm. Using line-balancing techniques, the approach estimates the optimum number of resources required for assembly tasks operating by minimum idle time.

The task allocation schedule for a case study involving a punching press was solved using human–robot collaboration, and the approach incorporated the optimum number of appropriate resources to handle different types of proportion of resources.

This proposed work integrates the task allocation by human–robot collaboration and decrease the idle time of resource by integrating optimum number of resources.

This study aims to investigate the possible defects and their root causes in a soft-termination multilayered ceramic capacitor (MLCC) when subjected to a thermal reflow process.

Specimens of the capacitor assembly were subjected to JEDEC level 1 preconditioning (85 °C/85%RH/168 h) with 5× reflow at 270°C peak temperature. Then, they were inspected using a 2 µm scanning electron microscope to investigate the evidence of defects. The reliability test was also numerically simulated and analyzed using the extended finite element method implemented in ABAQUS.

Excellent agreements were observed between the SEM inspections and the simulation results. The findings showed evidence of discontinuities along the Cu and the Cu-epoxy layers and interfacial delamination crack at the Cu/Cu-epoxy interface. The possible root causes are thermal mismatch between the Cu and Cu-epoxy layers, moisture contamination and weak Cu/Cu-epoxy interface. The maximum crack length observed in the experimentally reflowed capacitor was measured as 75 µm, a 2.59% difference compared to the numerical prediction of 77.2 µm.

This work's contribution is expected to reduce the additional manufacturing cost and lead time in investigating reliability issues in MLCCs.

Despite the significant number of works on the reliability assessment of surface mount capacitors, work on crack growth in soft-termination MLCC is limited. Also, the combined experimental and numerical investigation of reflow-induced reliability issues in soft-termination MLCC is limited. These cited gaps are the novelties of this study.