This study aimed to develop a fast and effective arterial stiffness monitoring system for diabetic patients using the spring constant method and photoplethysmography (PPG). The experimental group comprised 70 patients (4 type 1 diabetes mellitus patients and 66 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients); 23 participants suffered from atherosclerosis. All were subjected to the measurements of both the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) and the spring constants evaluated using the PPG pulse as well as the radial pulse. The control group comprised 70 normal participants (39 men and 31 women) who did not have diabetes mellitus, with an age range of 40-84 years. All control group members were only subjected to the measurement by the spring constant method. For the experimental group, statistical analysis indicated a significantly high correlation between the spring constants computed using PPG and the radial pulse (p <; 0.001, correlation coefficient =0.89). The result also showed a significant negative correlation between the cfPWV and the spring constant of PPG (p <; 0.001, correlation coefficient = -0.72); multivariate analysis similarly indicated a close relationship. In addition, we used Student's t test to examine the difference between the experimental and control groups for the spring constant of PPG. A P value less than 0.05 confirmed that the difference between the two groups was statistically significant. In the receiver operating characteristic curve, area under curve (=0.82) indicates a good discrimination, and a spring constant of PPG below 516 (g/s²) may imply a risk of arterial stiffness for diabetic patients. These findings imply that the spring constant of PPG could effectively identify normal versus abnormal characteristics of elasticity in normal and diabetic participants. As a result of some excellent characteristics in clinical monitoring, the spring constant computed using PPG shows the effectiveness and feasibility in the monitoring system of arterial stiffness.

In this article, we analyze the arterial pulse in the spectral domain. A parameter, the spectral harmonic energy ratio (SHER), is developed to assess the features of the overly decreased spectral energy in the fourth to sixth harmonic for palpitation patients. Compared with normal subjects, the statistical results reveal that the mean value of SHER in the patient group (57.7 ± 27.9) is significantly higher than that of the normal group (39.7 ± 20.9) (P‐value = .0066 < .01). This means that the total energy in the fourth to sixth harmonic of palpitation patients is significantly less than it is in normal subjects. In other words, the spectral distribution of the arterial pulse gradually decreases for normal subjects while it decreases abruptly in higher‐order harmonics (the fourth, fifth and sixth harmonics) for palpitation patients. Hence, SHER is an effective method to distinguish the two groups in the spectral domain. Also, we can thus know that a “gradual decrease” might mean a “balanced” state, whereas an “abrupt decrease” might mean an “unbalanced” state in blood circulation and pulse diagnosis. By SHER, we can determine the ratio of energy distribution in different harmonic bands, and this method gives us a novel viewpoint from which to comprehend and quantify the spectral harmonic distribution of circulation information conveyed by the arterial pulse. These concepts can be further applied to improve the clinical diagnosis not only in Western medicine but also in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Solar energy is certainly an energy source worth exploring and utilizing because of the environmental protection it offers. However, the conversion efficiency of solar energy is still low. If the photovoltaic panel perpendicularly tracks the sun, the solar energy conversion efficiency will be improved. In this article, we propose an innovative method to track the sun using an image sensor. In our method, it is logical to assume the points of the brightest region in the sky image representing the location of the sun. Then, the center of the brightest region is assumed to be the solar-center, and is mathematically calculated using an embedded processor (Raspberry Pi). Finally, the location information on the sun center is sent to the embedded processor to control two servo motors that are capable of moving both horizontally and vertically to track the sun. In comparison with the existing sun tracking methods using image sensors, such as the Hough transform method, our method based on the brightest region in the sky image remains accurate under conditions such as a sunny day and building shelter. The practical sun tracking system using our method was implemented and tested. The results reveal that the system successfully captured the real sun center in most weather conditions, and the servo motor system was able to direct the photovoltaic panel perpendicularly to the sun center. In addition, our system can be easily and practically integrated, and can operate in real-time.

Pixel value ordering (PVO) hiding scheme is a kind of data embedding technique that hides a secret message in the difference of the largest and second largest pixels of a block. After that, the scholars improved PVO scheme by using a threshold to determine whether the block is smooth or complex. Only a smooth block can be used to hide information. The researchers analyzed all the possible thresholds to find the proper one for hiding secret message. However, it is time consuming. Some researchers decomposing the smooth block into four smaller blocks for hiding more messages to increase image quality. However, the complexity of the block is more important than block size. Hence, this study proposes an ameliorated method. The proposed scheme analyzes the variation of the region so as to judge the complexity of the block and applies quantification strategy to quantified the pixel for making sure the pixel is reversible. It adopts an adaptive threshold generation mechanism to find the proper threshold for different images. The results show that the image quality of the proposed scheme is higher than that of the other methods. The proposed scheme can also let the user adjust the hiding rate to achieve higher image quality or hiding capacity.