We have developed a new wireless breathing-training support system for kinesitherapy. The system consists of an optical sensor, an accelerometer, a microcontroller, a Bluetooth module and a laptop computer. The optical sensor, which is attached to the patient's chest, measures chest circumference. The low frequency components of circumference are mainly generated by breathing. The optical sensor outputs the circumference as serial digital data. The accelerometer measures the dynamic acceleration force produced by exercise, such as walking. The microcontroller sequentially samples this force. The acceleration force and chest circumference are sent sequentially via Bluetooth to a physical therapist's laptop computer, which receives and stores the data. The computer simultaneously displays these data so that the physical therapist can monitor the patient's breathing and acceleration waveforms and give instructions to the patient in real time during exercise. Moreover, the system enables a quantitative training evaluation and calculation the volume of air inspired and expired by the lungs.

In this paper, unsteady flow and aerodynamic noise are numerically investigated for a half-open type propeller fan used for outdoor air conditioner components. The flow field is calculated by Front Flow/Blue, which is based on Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The Standard Smagorinsky Model (SSM) and Dynamic Smagorinsky Model (DSM) were used as sub-grid scale models. Aerodynamic noise was calculated by Curle’s equation based on the pressure fluctuation on the blade surface computed by LES. The computed static pressure rise of the fan showed reasonable agreement with the measured equivalent. The time-averaged distributions of the three velocity components downstream of the blades were also compared with those measured by hotwire anemometry, which showed satisfactory agreement between the computed and measured velocity profiles. But the tip vortex passage which was detached from the blade surface predicted by LES was not stable as measured by the experiment. Finally, the predicted far-field sound spectrum agrees reasonably well with measurements in a frequency range of 100 to 1000 Hz although the sound pressure level was underpredicted in the lower frequency range.

A clinical lesion study and intraoperative epidural recordings were made to test the origin and clinical significance of the spinal N13 and P13 of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) that follow median nerve stimulation. Intraoperatively, the respective peak latencies of spinal P13 and N13 coincided with those of the N1 component of the dorsal cord potential and its phase reversed positivity. On both the ventral and dorsal sides of the cervical epidural space, maximal amplitude was at the C5 vertebral level to which nerve input from the C6 dermatome is the main contributor. The modality of sensory impairment in the hand dermatome was examined in selected patients with cervical lesions, who showed such normal conventional SEP components as Erb N9, far-field P9, P11, P14, N18 and cortical N20, with or without loss of spinal N13. Statistically, the loss of spinal N13 was associated with decrease of pain sensation in the C6 dermatome. This was interpreted as being due to damage to the central grey matter of the cord, including the dorsal horn. Our results suggest the spinal N13 and P13 originate from the same source in the C6 spinal cord segment and that they are good indicators for the detection of centromedullary cervical cord damage.

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