In neonatal and infant care, the contact of skin with mattress and textile covers is particularly critical for preventing soft tissue damage due to their fragile skin. Textile covers can modify biomechanical load transfer by jointly affecting compression and shear at the skin interface. This study quantified body weight-dependent interface pressure and friction for four clinically relevant textiles combined with a foam and an air mattress and integrated both into a unified mechanical risk index. The risk index revealed clear configuration-dependent differences that were not captured by pressure or friction alone. Specifically, the foam mattress, combined with a moisture-absorbent nonwoven cover, which is the current clinical standard, produced the highest risk. In contrast, the air mattress combined with a low-friction textile yielded the lowest risk at lower weights, while the spacer fabric yielded the lowest risk at higher body weights of infants. Low-risk configurations were associated with preserved envelopment and internal shear absorption within compliant three-dimensional textile structures, whereas thin, low-deformability covers promoted elevated combined loading. The findings provide a comparative mechanical framework for evaluating mattress-textile cover combinations within the tested range of body weights and controlled conditions. This framework enables the identification of mechanically optimal configurations and supports improved care for neonates and infants.

Although bras are an essential part of women's clothing, particularly important for comfort during daily activities, there is currently no standardized method to evaluate their support performance. Most studies rely on human subject trials with small groups of young participants and focus primarily on subjective comfort and vertical breast movement. A promising alternative to human subject studies are manikins for standardized testing. However, first manikin prototypes offer limited adjustability to different breast sizes and types of activity. This study introduces a manikin configurable for various walking and running activities to analyze the range of breast movement and assess bra support level under well-defined and controlled conditions. Replaceable breast prostheses enable the simulation of different breast sizes as well as asymmetric conditions. The consistency and repeatability of the measurements were investigated in this study. To demonstrate its practical application, the manikin was used to assess the support provided by a T-shirt, a casual bra, and a sports bra. The sports bra consistently outperformed other garments across all tested parameters, demonstrating a 75 % reduction in the range of breast movement and a 58 % reduction in the lag between body and breast movement compared to the nude measurement, highlighting the system’s ability for bra design evaluation.

Physiological stress can affect well-being and recovery in critically ill neonates and infants, and support surfaces may influence this response through mechanical loading. A segmented air mattress for neonates was developed to enhance envelopment and pressure redistribution, thereby reducing mechanical loading when compared to conventional foam mattresses. In a randomized crossover trial, 23 infants were monitored for 60 min while being exposed to a novel air mattress or a standard foam mattress as a comparator in a randomized order. Vital signs were recorded at 15-minute intervals using standard bedside monitoring. Furthermore, caregivers rated acute comfort and stress responses based on visual analogue scales at three defined time points for each support surface. Clinical handling procedures were found to elicit an immediate stress response in neonates, as reflected by acute increases in physiological parameters such as heart rate. Following repositioning, heart rate returned more rapidly toward baseline levels when infants were placed on the air mattress compared with the conventional foam mattress, indicating a faster recovery to pre-transition physiological states. When considering subjective evaluations, comfort was consistently rated higher, and the acute stress condition was rated lower on the air mattress, particularly at the start of the exposure. These findings indicate that enhanced load adaptability can improve perceived well-being without altering short-term physiological safety. This work highlights the potential of adaptive neonatal support surfaces to improve comfort and contribute to better patient outcomes. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT06425068. Registered 11 April 2024, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT06425068 .

IntroductionPsychophysiological research increasingly recognizes the multidimensional nature of subjective experiences such as fatigue and their relevance for autonomic regulation. However, little is known about how different dimensions of fatigue are associated with changes in core cardio-respiratory variables in clinical populations. This longitudinal study aimed to investigate the associations between three dimensions of fatigue – physical, cognitive, and emotional – and core physiological variables in post-COVID-19 patients. Physiological variables were collected during both daytime and nighttime periods to examine the individual and combined effects of fatigue dimensions.MethodsTo this end, thirty post-COVID-19 patients (male: 11, female: 19, age: 44.1 ± 12.7 years) participated in the study during their 29.6 ± 10.2 days stay in a rehabilitation clinic. Four times a day, they reported their fatigue level using a mobile app. Physiological variables, i.e., electrocardiogram (ECG), respiratory rate, and blood oxygen saturation were recorded continuously via wearable sensors during at least 2 monitoring weeks that were 2 weeks apart. Linear mixed models were used to assess associations between daily averages of each fatigue dimension and physiological variables, adjusted for potential confounders.ResultsThe interaction of multiple fatigue dimensions demonstrated more consistent associations with physiological changes than single dimensions independently. Daily changes in fatigue were associated with fluctuations in physiological variables, particularly during sleep. Specifically, daily changes in resting heart rate (P < .01), sample entropy of RR intervals (P = .04), and LF peak frequency (P = .047), as well as overnight changes in LF/HF ratio (P = .046) and sample entropy of RR intervals (P < .001), showed significant linear associations with changes in the interaction among fatigue dimensions. Patterns suggest a shift toward sympathetic dominance with higher physical fatigue, and a shift toward parasympathetic dominance with increases in both cognitive and emotional fatigue. Additional trends (adjusted P < .10) supported the interpretation that interaction effects between fatigue components play a critical role in autonomic dynamics.DiscussionThis study highlights the importance of investigating fatigue as a multidimensional construct in this patient group, enhancing understanding of its relationship with autonomic regulation and supporting more personalized approaches to monitoring and managing fatigue in post-COVID-19 patients.

In bedridden patients, the constant load between the body and the support surface increases the risk of soft tissue injuries. Understanding body–mattress interactions is the key to developing pressure-reducing support surfaces. Sensors at the material–body interface provide crucial information but may alter interactions by changing local mechanics. To assess such effects, a pressure sensor mat applied on top of support surfaces was compared to point pressure sensors applied on the body surface. We investigated local interface pressure at the occiput and hip on two support surfaces (foam and air-filled mattress), using three newborn weight models (1.3 kg, 2.3 kg, and 3.3 kg) and multiple air pressures (0.2–0.8 kPa). The sensor mat led to altered material–body interactions and underestimated interface pressure. Low air pressures (0.2–0.4 kPa) reduced interface pressure below foam mattress levels. Increasing body weight was associated with higher optimal air pressure, indicating the need for weight-specific air pressure adjustment. Exponential regression identified weight-dependent air pressures that minimize interface pressure. Fitted curve coefficients reflected local anatomical and mechanical differences: The hip showed a higher predicted minimum interface pressure and a narrower air pressure tolerance range than the occiput. These findings demonstrate that anatomical region- and weight-specific air pressure protocols are necessary to minimize interface pressure.

The use of textile science and innovative approaches in the development and manufacturing of multifunctional fabrics for sports bras has continuously grown in the last decades, contributing to female well-being and health. The fabrics used for sports bras must be lightweight and have good heat and moisture management properties. A sports bra must provide appropriate stabilization, as the most important and original functionality, while providing optimal thermal comfort. In this work, we examined basic fabric properties influencing the key functionalities, stabilization, and drying. Besides properties such as mass, thickness, water vapor permeability, air permeability, and relative porosity, thermal comfort (water uptake and drying) and mechanical properties (stabilization and support) were investigated. Multiple-linear regression statistical analysis was conducted to identify the most relevant variables and fabric characteristics for stabilization and drying. In addition, a “five-point” benchmarking and ranking system was established for performance assessment of the investigated knitted fabrics. With the proposed approach, we were able to identify the most suitable fabric from a set of benchmarking materials. This fabric exhibited a quick drying time of 16 minutes, along with high air permeability (312 mm/s), excellent moisture management, and very good dynamic elastic recovery (89%) and support. We successfully identified key fabric properties that define fabric drying and stabilization performance by applying models based on Multiple-linear regression. This provides the basis for the informed selection of fabrics for the systematic development of sports bras.

Military pilots are exposed to severe physiological challenges during their missions that may affect cognitive and physical performance. Therefore, continuous monitoring potentially provides critical insights about the impact of extreme condition exposure on the fitness for duty of military pilots. We applied a textile-based monitoring system during training sessions with pilot aspirants to investigate the impact of hypobaric hypoxia and high G-force exposures on the signal quality obtained for a 1-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) and chest excursions. The physiological variables considered were heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory frequency and respiratory amplitude. In general, 92% and 82% of the recorded ECG time segments during hypoxia and G-force exposure were classified as plausible for further analysis. For respiratory data, 72% and 76% were classified as accurate for further data analysis and interpretation. Detailed information about signal quality was found to be critical for the assessment of physiological variables recorded in extreme conditions. Furthermore, the combination of various physiological signals allows for a more holistic interpretation of body responses, evaluating body tolerances, and detecting possible physical and cognitive impairments early. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study did not receive any funding. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The Institutional Review Board of the Swiss Aeromedical Center approved the conduct of routine training and qualification modules that are part of pilot education, including the concomitant monitoring of vital signs. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Data cannot be shared publicly because the written consent for further use of data in encrypted form is not available for all the study participants. Data are available from the Institutional Data Access (contact via simon.annaheim{at}empa.ch) for researchers who meet the criteria for access to confidential data.

When developing fabrics for applications in which evaporative cooling and drying play an important role, e.g., sports or occupational applications, the drying performance of fabrics is commonly determined using fast and easy-to-perform benchmark methods. The measurement conditions in these methods, however, differ significantly from the drying conditions on the human body surface, where drying is obstructed on one side of the fabric through contact with the skin and at the same time enhanced due to contact with the heated surface (skin). The aims of this study were to understand and quantify the fabric drying process at the skin interface considering these real-use effects based on tests applying two-sided drying, one-sided drying, one-sided drying on a heated surface, and one-sided drying on a heated surface in the stretched state, and to relate these to existing standard methods. The findings showed that contact with a solid heated surface such as the skin and the stretched state of the fabric both make a significant contribution (p < 0.05) to the drying rate compared to two-sided drying in standard climatic conditions. The corresponding drying rates observed for a range of typical fabrics used in leisure and sports as a first layer next to the skin were found to be 1.6 (±0.2), 1.1 (±0.2), 7.9 (±2.1), and 10.6 (±0.8) g/m2 min for two-sided drying, one-sided drying, one-sided drying on a heated surface, and one-sided drying on a heated surface in the stretched state, respectively. These findings are of great importance for human thermal modelling, including clothing models, where the drying process significantly contributes to the heat and mass transfer in the skin–clothing–environment system.

Background:Motor function is a sensitive indicator of cognitive aging but the unique contributions of different motor domains are unclear when assessed together. Methods:We evaluated 98 community-dwelling older adults (median age: 74). From a neuropsychological battery, a primary Global Cognitive Composite score (GCCS) and three secondary domain scores were derived using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Motor predictors included the Nine-Hole Peg Test (NHPT), grip strength, Apraxia Screen of TULIA (AST), SPPB sub-tests (5-chair-rises time (5CRT), 4 m-walk time (4MWT), balance), and inertial measurement unit (IMU)-based gait parameters. Stepwise regression controlling for age and sex identified robust predictors of the GCCS. Results:The final model identified several significant, independent motor predictors of the GCCS. Poorer hand dexterity (NHPT; β = -0.29, p < 0.01), slower 5CRT (β = -0.28, p < 0.01), and slower 4MWT (β = -0.17, p = 0.03) were associated with worse cognitive performance, while greater minimum toe clearance was associated with better performance (β = 0.19, p = 0.01). In contrast, grip strength, balance, usual gait speed, and measures of gait variability were not retained. The model explained 50.3% of the variance (Adjusted R2) in global cognitive performance. Conclusion:Hand dexterity (NHPT) and specific functional mobility tasks (5CRT, 4MWT) are robust, independent predictors of cognition in older adults. Grip strength, balance, usual gait speed, and gait variability offer limited additional value when assessed together. The NHPT and timed SPPB components are accessible, pragmatic tools for motor-cognitive research and screening.

As the use of wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) data for modeling purposes continues to rise, there is a pressing need for signal quality assessment (SQA) algorithms capable of identifying segments of signal from which reliable data can be obtained. Manually annotated ECG data, obtained through expert visual inspection, is often used as reference in the development of ECG SQA algorithms. In this approach, the quality of a signal segment is assessed based on the level of noise present. Yet, the data extracted from noise-corrupted ECG signal segments might still be of sufficient accuracy depending on the target application. The current work proposes a paradigm shift by presenting a SQA algorithm that performs template matching and physiological feasibility checks to determine the quality of ECG signals acquired by textile-based wearable systems. Signal segments were classified into four different quality classes based on the estimated accuracy of RR intervals extracted from the signal segments of each class. Our findings show that the proposed SQA algorithm is effective in identifying ECG signal segments from which accurate RR intervals can be derived, and that the proportion of the data across the different classes is sensitive to different factors known to have an effect on signal quality.

Introduction The effect of breast support on running biomechanics (Milligan, 2013) and breast pain on upper-extremity kinematics during running (White et al., 2015) is investigated by different research groups. They mostly found a higher implication for females with large breasts and showed that the use of sports bras is generally beneficial compared to regular bras. A well-fitted supportive sports bra can increase an athlete's performance (Fong & Powell, 2022) and reduce the risk of injuries. The support properties of bras are conventionally evaluated by human trials. This is expensive and challenging when comparing the results of different studies. Methods Empa developed a manikin to investigate the load impact on the body (Wettenschwiler et al., 2017). This manikin was reshaped to a female upper body model equipped with breast prostheses for the realistic simulation of defined running conditions. A Polhemus motion tracking system was used to assess the relative movement of the manikin shell and the nipples during two simulated running conditions (8 km/h). A set of 16 sports bras was tested on the manikin regarding the reduction of relative movement of the nipples during running. In a first validation study, 6 of them were tested by human subjects during jogging (8 km/h) in 3 participants. The subjective support assessment was compared to the manikin data. Results A comparison of manikin measurement data (reduction in relative movement at 8 km/h) and subject data showed an excellent correlation (R2 > 0.95) for the subjective support assessment. The sports bra developed in this project reached high marks regarding support, thermal comfort, and fit. Discussion/Conclusion Preliminary data indicates that the female manikin is able to provide objective data about breast movement in line with the perceived support of sports bras. In combination with additional methods such as sensory and thermal comfort assessment, this new methodology provides a scientific basis for developing improved sports bras meeting specific requirements for various sports. References Fong, H. B., & Powell, D. W. (2022). Greater breast support is associated with reduced oxygen consumption and greater running economy during a rreadmill running task. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 4, Article 902276. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.902276 Milligan, A. K. (2013). The effect of breast support on running biomechanics [Doctoral Dissertation, University of Portsmouth]. Wettenschwiler, P. D., Annaheim, S., Lorenzetti, S., Ferguson, S. J., Stämpfli, R., Psikuta, A., & Rossi, R. M. (2017). Validation of an instrumented dummy to assess mechanical aspects of discomfort during load carriage. PLOS ONE, 12(6), Article e0180069. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0180069 White, J., Mills, C., Ball, N., & Scurr, J. (2015). The effect of breast support and breast pain on upper-extremity kinematics during running: Implications for females with large breasts. Journal of Sports Sciences, 33(19), 2043-2050. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2015.1026378

Objective: Pressure ulcers (PUs) severely impact health outcomes in neonatal intensive care, with up to 28% prevalence and doubled mortality rates. Due to their only partially developed stratum corneum, neonates are highly susceptible to PUs because of a lack of adequate support surfaces. The occipital region of the head and hip are the main risk areas due to immobility and newborn body proportions. The main goal of the study was to investigate the impact of reduction in local pressure in these body areas by two air mattress designs and different filling states. Method: Two innovative air-filled mattress prototypes (prototype 1 and prototype 2), consisting of three different segments (head, trunk and feet regions), were developed to reduce local interface pressures by optimising pressure distribution, and were assessed with three air pressure filling states (0.2kPa, 0.4kPa and 0.6kPa). A baby doll was used to investigate pressure distribution and local pressure impact. It measured 51cm and the weight was modified to be 1.3kg, 2.3kg and 3.3kg, representing premature to term newborn weights, respectively. A specialised foam mattress and an unsupported surface were considered as controls. Results: The interface pressures at the hip region for newborn models could be reduced by up to 41% with mattress prototype 1 and 49% with prototype 2 when filled with 0.2kPa air pressure. It was found that the size and the pressure inside air segments was crucial for interface pressure. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated that air mattresses achieved lower interface pressures compared to conventional support surfaces, and that the benefit of the air mattresses depended on their filling status. The importance of using innovative, segmented designs that were tailored to meet the specific needs of highly vulnerable paediatric patients was demonstrated.

Introduction Fabrics used for manufacturing sports bras have to be lightweight, breathable, have fast drying behaviour, and moisture management properties (Uttam, 2013). Therefore, thermo-physiological comfort is an important quality criterion for sports bras (Carneiro et al., 2017). In addition, sports bras have to provide support to stabilize breasts during various physical activities (Ancutiene et al., 2017). These requirements lead to challenges in finding the best sports bra fabric, as bra support (Norris et al., 2021) and thermo-physiological comfort require contrasting fabric properties (Carneiro et al., 2017). This work aims to compare drying characteristics of different sports bras types (compression, encapsulation and combination) and fabrics used. A newly developed methodology to investigate the drying behaviour of sports bras in the lab has been taken for their examination. Methods The measurement set-up was built up in a climatic chamber (at 23°C and 50% RH). It consists of the upper body part of a female manikin, the air channel with fans and a balance to measure the weight change of the sports bra over time (indicative of the amount of moisture evaporated). The Infrared (IR) camera was used to record local surface temperature. Based on these measurements, the local and general drying performance of the sports bras were assessed based on dry fabric weight, moisture uptake, moisture absorption, drying time and drying rate. Results The results show that type of sports bra and material composition can have influence on better drying performance studied. The range of drying time for the different sport bra types was observed between 13 and 66 min for compression bras, 25 and 42 min for encapsulation bras, and between 35 and 43 min for combination bras. The moisture uptake was detected in a range between 6% and 15% for compression bras, 13% and 15% only for encapsulation bras, while between 7% and 19% for combination bras. Discussion/Conclusion We were able to show that there is a significant difference in drying performance between sports bras. In combination with additional data about sensorial comfort and breast support, these findings provide a scientific basis for developing sports bras meeting specific requirements for various sports. References Ancutiene, K., Koldinska, M., & Havelka, A. (2017). Investigation of tensile resilience properties of stretch denim fabrics. Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile Research, 42, 175-182. Carneiro, L. P., Miranda, T. M. R., & Catarino, A. A. (2017). Comparative thermophysiological study in sport bras for running. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 254(7), Article 072006. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/254/7/072006 Norris, M., Blackmore, T., Horler, B., & Wakefield-Scurr, J. (2021). How the characteristics of sports bras affect their performance. Ergonomics, 64(3), 410-425. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140139.2020.1829090 Uttam, D. (2013) Active sportswear fabrics. International Journal of IT, Engineering and Applied Sciences Research, 2(1), 34-40.

IntroductionCasting is an essential treatment for neuro-orthopedic conditions in children with cognitive, sensory, and communicational disabilities. However, a main side-effect is the development of pressure injuries resulting in additional (wound) therapies and prolongation of the hospital stay. The primary aim of our study was to investigate the potential of objective pressure measurements in casts to assess the risk for pressure injury development.MethodsFive pediatric healthy participants were included in this study. We measured the global and the local compression force at body sites prone to pressure injury development for different body positions and the transfer in-between in a cast equipped with pressure sensors. These conditions resulted in partial or full body weight loading.Results and discussionThe global maximum compression force was affected significantly by body postures with partial and full loading of the cast and during transfer. The local compression force significantly correlated with the global compression force at the heel and instep area. In conclusion, the integration of sensing technologies into casts bears a high potential for early recognition of critical conditions inside the cast and inducing preventive measures in the at-risk population.

Sleep apnea (SA) is a prevalent disorder characterized by recurrent events of nocturnal apnea. Polysomnography (PSG) represents the gold standard for SA diagnosis. This laboratory-based procedure is complex and costly, and less cumbersome wearable devices have been proposed for SA detection and monitoring. A novel textile multi-sensor monitoring belt recording electrocardiogram (ECG) and breathing frequency (BF) measured by thorax excursion was developed and tested in a sleep laboratory for validation purposes. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of ECG-derived heart rate variability and BF-derived breathing rate variability and their combination for the detection of sleep apnea in a population of patients with a suspicion of SA. Fifty-one patients with a suspicion of SA were recruited in the sleep laboratory of the Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen. Patients were equipped with the monitoring belt and underwent a single overnight laboratory-based PSG. In addition, some patients further tested the monitoring belt at home. The ECG and BF signals from the belt were compared to PSG signals using the Bland-Altman methodology. Heart rate and breathing rate variability analyses were performed. Features derived from these analyses were used to build a support vector machine (SVM) classifier for the prediction of SA severity. Model performance was assessed using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves. Patients included 35 males and 16 females with a median age of 49 years (range: 21 to 65) and a median apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 33 (IQR: 16 to 58). Belt-derived data provided ECG and BF signals with a low bias and in good agreement with PSG-derived signals. The combined ECG and BF signals improved the classification accuracy for SA (area under the ROC curve: 0.98; sensitivity and specificity greater than 90%) compared to single parameter classification based on either ECG or BF alone. This novel wearable device combining ECG and BF provided accurate signals in good agreement with the gold standard PSG. Due to its unobtrusive nature, it is potentially interesting for multi-night assessments and home-based patient follow-up.

Introduction Patients with advanced cancer frequently suffer from chronic, severe disabling pain. Opioids such as morphine and fentanyl are commonly used to manage this pain. Transdermal drug delivery systems are important technologies for administering drugs in a non-invasive, continuous and controlled manner. Due to the narrow therapeutic range of fentanyl, individualised dosing is essential to avoid underdosing or overdosing. Standard clinical calculation tools for opioid rotation however do not include important patient characteristics that account for interindividual variability of opioid pharmacology.Methods and analysis We developed a clinical protocol to optimise individual fentanyl dosing in patients with advanced cancer switching from oral or intravenous opioids to transdermal fentanyl by using a physics-based digital twin (DT) that is fed by important clinical and physiological parameters. Individual tailoring of transdermal fentanyl therapy is an approach with the potential for personalised and effective care with an improved benefit-risk ratio. However, clinical validation of physics-based digital twins (PBDT) dosing is crucial to proving clinical benefit.Therapeutic drug monitoring will allow to validate the accuracy of PBDT predictions. Additional monitoring for breathing dynamics, sequential pain levels and fentanyl-related adverse events will contribute to evaluating the performance of PBDT-based dosing of transdermal fentanyl. The primary objective of the study is to develop an experimental protocol to validate DT-guided fentanyl dosing in patients with advanced cancer. This clinical study will bring individualised opioid dosing closer to clinical practice.Ethics and dissemination Study documents have been approved by the responsible Ethics Committee and study initiation is planned for late summer 2024. Data will be shared with the scientific community no more than 1 year following completion of the study and data assembly.

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is considered to be a prodromal phase of prevalent Alzheimer's dementia (AD) as 50% of persons confirmed to have aMCI develop AD in the following 3-5 years. In case aMCI is detected, a further examination should follow, but ti turns out the standard detection is not so straight forward. Besides numerous blood and CSF-based biomarkers, expensive neuroimaging techniques and batteries of cognitive tests, there are noninvasive and much more afordable strategies based on electrophysiology that might allow for early screening of asymptomatic aging citizens. It is confirmed that in MCI the complexity of EEG is lower than in persons who are aging in a healthy manner. We re-analyzed existing electroencephalogram (EEG) database of 84 persons above the age of 65 who were asymptomatic. The time series extracted from EEG recorded with portable EEG cap with dry electrodes were used for fractal analysis (Higuchi fractal dimension). Those results were compared to literature findings for healthy older persons. Our results indicate that focusing on several parietal electrodes for portable EEG recordings low-computational cost fractal analysis could contribute to development of scalable solutions for early screening of dementia risks out of clinics. The combination of real-time EEG analysis and Internet of Things (IoT) can be effective for pre-clinical triage. This approach would allow for much more accurate detection, enabling timely treatment and even slow-down of progression of disease, resulting in higher quality of life for the person.

Thermal discomfort due to accumulated sweat increasing head skin wettedness may contribute to low wearing rates of bicycle helmets. Using curated data on human head sweating and helmet thermal properties, a modelling framework for the thermal comfort assessment of bicycle helmet use is proposed. Local sweat rates (LSR) at the head were predicted as the ratio to the gross sweat rate (GSR) of the whole body or by sudomotor sensitivity (SUD), the change in LSR per change in body core temperature (Delta tre). Combining those local models with Delta tre and GSR output from thermoregulation models, we simulated head sweating depending on the characteristics of the thermal environment, clothing, activity, and exposure duration. Local thermal comfort thresholds for head skin wettedness were derived in relation to thermal properties of bicycle helmets. The modelling framework was supplemented by regression equations predicting the wind-related reductions in thermal insulation and evapo-rative resistance of the headgear and boundary air layer, respectively. Comparing the predictions of local models coupled with different thermoregulation models to LSR measured at the frontal, lateral and medial head under bicycle helmet use revealed a large spread in LSR predictions predominantly determined by the local models and the considered head region. SUD tended to overestimate frontal LSR but performed better for lateral and medial head regions, whereas predictions by LSR/GSR ratios were lower and agreed better with measured frontal LSR. However, even for the best models root mean squared prediction errors exceeded experimental SD by 18-30%. From the high correlation (R > 0.9) of skin wettedness comfort thresholds with local sweating sensitivity re-ported for different body regions, we derived a threshold value of 0.37 for head skin wettedness. We illustrate the application of the modelling framework using a commuter-cycling scenario, and discuss its potential as well as the needs for further research.

Over the past few decades, several models of heat and mass transfer have been based on the assumption of the homogeneous thickness (or absence) of the enclosed air layer contradicting the real-life scenario of the skin -clothing-environment system. To address this research gap, in this study, the comprehensive model for heat and mass transfer was developed which considers thermal phenomena such as evaporation, condensation, and the effect of liquid moisture on the thermal insulation of fabrics (wet conduction) along with sensible heat transfer mechanisms and effects of spatial heterogeneity of air layers. The coupling between heat and mass transfer in the modelling approach resulted in an accurate evaluation of the mass of evaporated liquid moisture and condensed water vapour in a skin-clothing-environment system. The developed model is systematically validated with an increasing level of spatial complexity using homogeneous and heterogeneous air layers with single-layer and multi-layer clothing ensembles. The model is validated for 21 different experimental cases covering various parameters that affect mass transfer such as enclosed air gap thickness (clothing fit), evapo-rative resistance (permeable, semi-permeable, and impermeable to water vapour), ambient temperature (-10 degrees C to 34 degrees C), and relative humidity (80% to 18.5%). Finally, the relevance of the model for product development is demonstrated by a case study about smart skiwear. The presented study provides detailed insights into individual heat and mass transfer mechanisms in the skin-clothing-environment system, which is very useful to develop an in-depth understanding about local heat transfer mechanisms and for designing and development of functional and protective clothing.

The aim of this work is to give the readers a review (perspective) of prior work on this kind of complexity-based detection from resting-state EEG and present our preliminary cross-section analysis results on how EEG complexity of supposedly healthy senior persons can serve as an early warning to clinicians. Together with the use of wearables for health, this approach to early detection can be done out of clinical setting improving the chances of increasing the quality of life in seniors.