A real-time thermal imaging based, non-contact respiration rate monitoring method was developed. It measured the respiration related skin surface temperature changes under the tip of the nose. Facial tracking was required as head movements caused the face to appear in different locations in the recorded images over time. The algorithm detected the tip of the nose and then, a region just under it was selected. The pixel values in this region in successive images were processed to determine respiration rate. The segmentation method, used as part of the facial tracking, was evaluated on 55,000 thermal images recorded from 14 subjects with different extent of head movements. It separated the face from image background in all images. However, in 11.7% of the images, a section of the neck was also included, but this did not cause an error in determining respiration rate. The method was further evaluated on 15 adults, against two contact respiration rate monitoring methods that tracked thoracic and abdominal movements. The three methods gave close respiration rates in 12 subjects but in 3 subjects, where there were very large head movements, the respiration rates did not match.

No abstract

Synchronous and asynchronous e-learning are two popular e-learning modes that are commonly used in distant learning education. The study investigates how synchronous and asynchronous e-learning affect the academic performance of students. A questionnaire was used to collect data for this study from some students of the National Open University of Nigeria. The findings showed that students' attitude to synchronous and asynchronous e-learning affect their academic performance. The results demonstrated that only 60% of the respondents understand what asynchronous and synchronous e-learning means. Also, only 55% of the respondents believed that asynchronous and synchronous e-learning mode has a positive impact on their academic performance. Moreover, only 52% of the respondents are of the opinion that the curriculum in use at National Open University needs to be updated to increase the impact of the e-learning mode on the learners.

Background: Respiratory rate is a vital physiological measurement used in the immediate assessment of unwell children and adults. Convenient electronic devices exist for the measurement of pulse, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and temperature. Although devices which measure respiratory rate exist, none have entered everyday clinical practice for acute assessment of children and adults. An accurate and practical device which has no physical contact with the patient is important to ensure readings are not affected by distress caused by the assessment method. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a thermal imaging method to monitor the respiratory rate in children and adults. Methods: Facial thermal images of adult volunteers and children undergoing elective polysomnography were included. Respiration was recorded for at least 2 min with the camera positioned 1 m from the subject’s face. Values obtained using the thermal imaging camera were compared with those obtained from contact methods such as the nasal thermistor, respiratory inductance plethysmography, nasal airflow, and end tidal CO₂. Results: A total of 61 subjects, including 41 adults (age range 27–46 years) and 20 children (age range 0.5–18 years) were enrolled. The correlation between the respiratory rate measured using thermal imaging and the contact method was r = 0.94. Sequential refinements to the thermal imaging algorithms resulted in the ability to perform real-time measurements and an improvement of the correlation to r = 0.995. Conclusion: This exploratory study shows that thermal imaging-derived respiratory rates in children and adults correlate closely with the best performing standard method. With further refinements, this method could be implemented in both acute and chronic care in children and adults.

<span>Named Data Networking (NDN) performs its routing and forwarding decisions using name prefixes. This removes some of the issues affecting addresses in our traditional IP architecture such as limitation in address allocation and management, and even NAT translations etcetera. Another positivity of NDN is its ability to use the conventional routing like the link state and distance vector algorithm. In route announcement, NDN node broadcasts its name prefix which consists of the knowledge of the next communicating node. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of mobility management models used in forwarding NDN contents to a next hop. This makes it crucial to select an approach of mobility model that translates the nature of movement of the NDN mobile routers. A detailed analysis of the famous mobility model such as the Random Waypoint mobility and Constant Velocity were computed to determine the mobility rate of the NDN mobile router. Simulation analysis was carried out using ndnSIM 2.1 on Linux Version 16.1. we build and compile with modules and libraries in NS-3.29. The sample of movement of the mobile router is illustrated and our result present the viability of the Constant Velocity model as compared with the Random Way point.</span>

Respiration rate is the average number of times air is inhaled and exhaled per minute. Respiration rate is an important indicator of a person’s health and therefore, it needs to be measured accurately. Existing respiration monitoring systems are generally contact based that means the sensing element needs to be attached to the subject's body. The attached sensor can cause distress in some children, affecting their respiration rate. The device can also become dislodged interrupting the monitoring. This work presents an air flow sensing approach to noncontact respiration rate monitoring. The exhaled air is guided through a small funnel to a chamber that contains a heating element. The heated air leaves the chamber and is then detected by a thermistor that converts the air flow temperature variations to an electrical signal. The signal is amplified, filtered and digitised. Signal processing techniques are used to extract respiration rate from the signal in real time. The device provides respiration rate at distances from 15 to 30 cm from the subject’s face.

Background:Monitoring respiratory rate (RR) is an important task for medical diagnosis that is neglected due to complexities in performing it. Current methods require the sensing device to be attached to the subjects' body thereby constraining or causing them discomfort and thus potentially affecting the breathing rate. We have developed a noncontact method for RR monitoring using a thermal camera.Method:Algorithms to capture images and detect the location of the face in each image were developed. The amount of emitted infrared radiation was then determined and signal processing techniques were then utilised to obtain the respiration rate in real time. A FLIR A40 thermal camera was used in this study. The evaluations were conducted against five existing contact based methods.Results:Tests were conducted on 51 adults (mean age 35.7) and 20 children (mean age 6.4 years). Mean RR (thermal imaging) 14.8 per minute; (chest and abdominal band) 14.8 per minute in adults. The correlation coefficient was 0.88-0.998 in adults and 0.578-0.999 in children depending on the method used. Figure 1 shows a respiration signal for a child obtained during the evaluation. Conclusion:A reliable non-contact method of measuring respiratory rate is needed to improve assessment of acutely unwell children and will potentially enable earlier detection of clinical deterioration. The thermal imaging method is accurate, however further evaluation in children is required.

No abstract