The analysis of infant cry vocalizations has been the focus of a number of efforts over the past thirty years. Since the infant cry is one of the only means that an infant has for communicating with its care-giving environment, it is thought that information regarding the state of an infant, such as hunger or pain, can be determined from an infant's cry. To date, research groups have determined that adult listeners can differentiate between different types of cries auditorily, and at least one group has attempted to automate this classification process. This paper presents the results of another attempt at automating the discrimination process, this time using artificial neural networks (ANNs). The input data consists of successive frames of one of two parametric representations generated from the first second of a cry following the application of either an anger, fear, or pain stimulus. From tests conducted to date, it is determined that ANNs are a useful tool for cry classification and merit further study in this domain.

A vital sign monitoring system was developed for the Patient Data Management System (PDMS) of the Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at the Montreal Children's Hospital. Fourteen bedside monitors were linked via a local area network (LAN) to a personal computer acting as a medical, nursing and administrative decision support tool. This paper discusses the implementation of the Expert Monitoring System (EMS) module of the PDMS and some evaluation results for the expert system.>

The extraction and analysis of the fundamental frequency (F/sub 0/) of infant vocalizations has been the focus of a number of efforts over the past thirty years. It is thought that this parameter is an important information channel from which information regarding the state of an infant can be determined. To date, research groups working to extract the vocal fundamental frequency of infant cries have been limited in the resolution and granularity of the F/sub 0/ extraction methods used for adult speech, which, typically, are not well suited for infant cries. In general, the fundamental frequency range of adult speech is limited to values below 600 Hz, whereas for infant cries, F/sub 0/ can have a range of several hundred hertz, and be subject to rapid changes in certain cases. This paper presents a new method for accurately determining the F/sub 0/ of infant cries, which is applicable to other vocalizations as well. The method presented uses the crosscorrelation of adjacent speech segments to generate a three-dimensional plot called a crosscorrelogram. From this plot, the fundamental frequency of an infant cry can easily be extracted, regardless of the value of F/sub 0/.>

A new bedside data entry system is being developed for the patient data management system at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Montreal Children's Hospital. Part of this development is the addition of a nursing workload manager (NWM) to help plan and document the nurses' workload. The NWM has four main functions: generate nursing care plans, automate workload measurement scoring, schedule nursing activities, and set up fluid balance charts by integrating with a fluid balance module. The design and operation of the NWM are presented. The implementation of the nursing care plan generation and workload measurement scoring is detailed along with the results of a user evaluation session. The application was developed using IBM's OS/2 Presentation Manager window environment.>

A patient data management system (PDMS) is being developed for use in intensive care units of the Montreal Children's Hospital. The PDMS has a diversity of applications that handle various types of data. The numerous functionalities and management of different data types present the following design requirements: abstract definition of data types; unified view of data during the development phase; distinct levels of data management; and minimum coupling of the system's modules and higher degree of system flexibility. The authors outline the current database design and some aspects of its implementation using OS/2 Extended Edition. The multilevel data storage management is expected to solve the problem of storing the large volume of data and preserving the real-time response of the system.>

A patient data management system (PDMS) developed for use in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Montreal Children's Hospital is described. The PDMS acquires real-time patient data from a network of physiological bedside monitors, and facilitates the review and interpretation of this data by presenting it as graphical trends, charts, and plots on a color video display. The data management structure integrates varied data types and provides database support for different applications, while preserving the real-time acquisition of network data. This structure is based primarily on OS/2 Extended Edition relational database. The relational database design is expected to solve the query shortcomings of the previous data management structure, as well as offer support for security and concurrency.>

The development of a patient data management system (PDMS) and its voice data-entry unit is outlined. The PDMS is based on an IBM PS/2 interfaced to a local area network for the acquisition of real-time patient data. The voice data-entry unit is based on a speech recognition unit plugged into a slave IBM AT system which communicates with the PDMS computer and software by means of a serial link. An outline of the features of the speech board is presented, and its user interface and its interface with the current PDMS hardware and software discussed. A prototype version of the voice data-entry unit is being tested with the PDMS for the entry of fluid balance data at the patient bedside. By providing a more natural means of manually entering data, the use of speech recognition and generation in intensive care units looks promising.>

A real-time trend analysis module design which is currently being developed for the patient data management system (PDMS) at the pediatric intensive care unit of the Montreal Children's Hospital is discussed. The PDMS is based on a personal computer acquiring, in real time, patient data from a local area network of 14 bedside monitors, and displaying their trends graphically, among other tasks. The system is based on an IBM model 50 running under the OS/2 multitasking operating system and uses the 8514/A high resolution color video display. This work presents the design and implementation of the module based on two different supervised neural networks using the general delta rule learning mechanisms. The integration of such a module with a diagnosis expert system is also discussed.>

A patient data management system (PDMS) for use in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Montreal Children's Hospital is described. The PDMS acquires real-time patient data from a network of physiological bedside monitors and facilitates the review and interpretation of this data by presenting it as graphical trends, charts, and plots on a color video display. A patient data simulator was developed for the purpose of complete testing of the PDMS. The simulator also allows for training the medical staff independently of hospital facilities and at a remote location from the ICU. This work outlines the design and functionality of the simulator and focuses on its implementation using OS/2's presentation manager window environment. Some experimental results and performance evaluations are presented, along with areas of future development and use.>

The authors introduce a classification of sequencing problems according to the presence of nondeterminism, whether due to the structure of the problem itself (internal) or to online events (external). They develop a theory, in the context of timed Petri nets, of how repetition can be described and predicted. They conclude with a description of a PROLOG-based decision-support system which manages this nondeterminism by exploring the consequences of alternate orderings of workcell operations, and ultimately constructs the time-optimal sequence. The analysis and optimization are illustrated with an example.>

Robot tasks have come to demand flexible sensory-based "intelligent" behavior. The single robot has given way to multiple robots cooperating in three-dimensional dynamic environments which allow them to accomplish complex and intricate tasks. Because of the complex nature of the tasks performed, centralized control is no longer practical; workcells have become centers of distributed computing. This motivates the need for an interprocess communication (IPC) facility which would integrate the individual elements both within and between workcells. A survey of IPC is presented in the context of distributed robotics. To make the survey more meaningful, it is introduced by some remarks about general approaches to communication within a distributed computing environment. A discussion of the main IPC design issues for distributed robotics is included.