Distributed Computing and Monitoring Technologies for Older Patients

This book summarizes various approaches for the automatic detection of health threats to older patients at home living alone. The text begins by briefly describing those who would most benefit from healthcare supervision. The book then summarizes possible scenarios for monitoring an older patient at home, deriving the common functional requirements for monitoring technology. Next, the work identifies the state of the art of technological monitoring approaches that are practically applicable to geriatric patients. A survey is presented on a range of such interdisciplinary fields as smart homes, telemonitoring, ambient intelligence, ambient assisted living, gerontechnology, and aging-in-place technology. The book discusses relevant experimental studies, highlighting the application of sensor fusion, signal processing and machine learning techniques. Finally, the text discusses future challenges, offering a number of suggestions for further research directions

Contextualising energy justice in low-income built environment: Towards data-driven policy interventions for addressing distributive injustices in slum rehabilitation housing of the Global South

Around a billion people live in slums today globally, and rehabilitating them to formal housing is a significant challenge. Slum rehabilitation housing is a policy effort to solve this crisis and alleviate urban poverty. However, the question of whether slum rehabilitation programmes are accomplishing more good than harm or whether they are creating a whole host of new problems remains unexplored in the literature. This thesis investigates the effect of slum rehabilitation on household energy demand in Brazil, India and Nigeria through the lens of distributive energy justice. Furthermore, this thesis makes methodological innovation to aid in just policy design by improving the objectivity of including local and contextual knowledge on how poor households live and use energy. Doing so makes novel theoretical and methodological contributions: a theoretical contribution to temporality and spatial energy justice studies on how to offer cross-sectional depictions of energy demand within the slum rehabilitation housing, which was evaluated through structural equation modelling, and a methodological contribution in developing a deep-narrative analysis framework using natural language processing and machine learning-based Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm to capture the grounded narratives of distributive injustices objectively. This research highlighted the significance of contextualisation in planning for energy justice in slum communities and the role of digital tools like natural language processing in objectively integrating grounded narratives in just policy design. The contextualisation was done through zoom-in and zoom-out of the grounded narratives enabled through the multi-method approach. Zooming-out view of distributed injustices in the study areas of Mumbai (India), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Abuja (Nigeria) revealed inefficiencies in the administration of electricity distribution companies, lumped billing periods and lack of people-centric built environment design considerations. Similarly, zooming-in the case studies revealed that the poor design of the slum rehabilitation-built environment influenced the increase in energy intensity in the Mumbai case, leading to energy poverty. Whereas created distinct poverty traps in the Brazilian and Nigerian cases through frequent power cuts, high cost of appliance repair, and poor housing design. Finally, policy implications were drawn as per the policy actors across municipal, state and national levels that suggested leveraging digital tools like the deep-narrative analysis and the heavy penetration of Information and Communication Technology devices in such low-income communities. Such tools can improve accountability in decision-making and improve the representation of the occupants through their narratives of injustices associated with living in such communities. Thus, this thesis uniquely forwarded a data-driven pathway for integrating local collective intelligence in just policy design.Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Gates Cambridge Scholarship under the Grant Number OPP1144

Neuro-WiFi: A Novel Neuronal Connection Underlies the Potential Interventional Target

Neuro-WiFi, as a non-physical connection-related neural network that efficiently links various regions of the brain, facilitates swift transfer of information and fostering communication among neurons. It is a significant advancement in neuroscience, providing valuable understanding of the intricate connections between neurons and opening up possibilities for precise interventions. This unique neural connection entails the transfer of information between remote parts of the brain via a network resembling WiFi signal. Neuro-WiFi has the potential to greatly enhance our understanding of how information is processed and sent in the brain by facilitating fast and accurate communication over long distances. Envision the ability to modify the neuro-WiFi network to enhance cognitive performance or restore impaired neural circuits. Furthermore, this neuronal connection could have substantial ramifications for the development of therapeutic approaches to address neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease or epilepsy. Despite the remaining knowledge gaps around this remarkable phenomenon, through additional investigations, we believe that the mysteries of neuro-WiFi would be extensively uncovered and precise therapies that could profoundly transform our comprehension of brain function and enhance patient outcomes would be provided in the future. &nbsp

"Consciousness". Selected Bibliography 1970 - 2001

This is a bibliography of books and articles on consciousness in philosophy, cognitive science, and neuroscience over the last 30 years. There are three main sections, devoted to monographs, edited collections of papers, and articles. The first two of these sections are each divided into three subsections containing books in each of the main areas of research. The third section is divided into 12 subsections, with 10 subject headings for philosophical articles along with two additional subsections for articles in cognitive science and neuroscience. Of course the division is somewhat arbitrary, but I hope that it makes the bibliography easier to use. This bibliography has first been compiled by Thomas Metzinger and David Chalmers to appear in print in two philosophical anthologies on conscious experience (Metzinger 1995a, b). From 1995 onwards it has been continuously updated by Thomas Metzinger, and now is freely available as a PDF-, RTF-, or HTML-file. This bibliography mainly attempts to cover the Anglo-Saxon and German debates, in a non-annotated, fully formatted way that makes it easy to "cut and paste" from the original file. To a certain degree this bibliography also contains items in other languages than English and German - all submissions in other languages are welcome. Last update of current version: July 13th, 2001

Selected determinants of occupational stress and burnout in physiotherapists and IT professionals

IntroductionOccupational stress and burnout have a statistically significant negative impact on learning and work in the professional groups studied, but the exact manner and strength of the impact and the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the aforementioned phenomena are not yet well understood. The main reason for this is the paucity of research, both on the neurobiological basis and on the incidence and impact on the lives of different professional groups. Aim of the study The main objective of the study is to determine the clinical and neurophysiological determinants of occupational stress and burnout, and in particular to investigate whether: - occupational stress and burnout are related to occupational group, - the start of professional work already during studies is a significant differentiating factor, - the nature of work, gender and seniority affect work-related musculoskeletal problems. Materials and methods Two groups were recruited for the study: study group (physiotherapists, n = 50), reference group (IT professionals, n = 50). Five clinimetric scales were used in the study: PSS10, MBI, SWLS, MSQ-SF, NMQ. Results Clinical and neurophysiological determinants of occupational stress and burnout relate to statistically significant effects: occupation, age, length of work, mode of employment, combination of study and work, and multi-work/multi-job. Conclusions Stress and burnout are related to the occupational group, with physiotherapists' occupational group experiencing them with greater severity than the IT occupational group. Starting a career already during studies is an important differentiating factor: it increases the risk of stress and professional burnout. The mode of employment, gender and seniority influence work-related musculoskeletal problems: they are experienced more often by the self-employed, men, older people and those with longer work experience

Intelligent multimedia communication for enhanced medical e-collaboration in back pain treatment

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2004 SAGE PublicationsRemote, multimedia-based, collaboration in back pain treatment is an option which only recently has come to the attention of clinicians and IT providers. The take-up of such applications will inevitably depend on their ability to produce an acceptable level of service over congested and unreliable public networks. However, although the problem of multimedia application-level performance is closely linked to both the user perspective of the experience as well as to the service provided by the underlying network, it is rarely studied from an integrated viewpoint. To alleviate this problem, we propose an intelligent mechanism that integrates user-related requirements with the more technical characterization of quality of service, obtaining a priority order of low-level quality of service parameters, which would ensure that user-centred quality of perception is maintained at an optimum level. We show how our framework is capable of suggesting appropriately tailored transmission protocols, by incorporating user requirements in the remote delivery of e-health solutions

AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs

This report is the latest in a sustained effort throughout 2014 by the Pew Research Center's Internet Project to mark the 25th anniversary of the creation of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (The Web at 25).The report covers experts' views about advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, and their impact on jobs and employment

Conceptual schemes and human (inter)action: disentangling fact and value for a broader vision

This thesis investigates the role of conceptual schemes in shaping how we make sense of experience in human affairs. Conceptual schemes involve values and beliefs, assumptions and presuppositions that originate in past experience and, projected onto new observations, guide what is seen, what is considered salient, and what is overlooked or dismissed. Paradigms (in the sense of exemplars) and loaded concepts play a decisive role in these dynamics, which I explore through cases, each showing how an opposing pair of conceptual schemes leads to contrasting descriptions of what is apparently the same problem. Disagreement in the study and measurement of intelligence rests on contrasting conceptions of success, science, and education. Different characterisations of identity, power, and religion lead to seeing aspects of international relations and terrorism that involve different explanations. Finally, divergent approaches to criminal justice rest on contrasting conceptions of the human being that involve different views of responsibility, motivation, and rehabilitation. All approaches present their positions as matters of fact: intelligence does predict success; identity is defined by antagonism, or not; criminals do lack self-control. However, descriptive statements are often loaded with value. I propose disentangling descriptive and evaluative elements to reveal the specific features that are endorsed, or deprecated, when we use certain expressions. Disentangling increases awareness of what we do when we talk about a phenomenon in a certain manner; it shows what is presupposed and allows the critical examination of elements that have become tacit. Contrast with other conceptual schemes, and focus on difference, shows us where to look for disentangling and opens a venue to unusual ways of seeing. Uncomfortable as it may seem, engaging across different schemes, rather than seeking to transcend them, is thus proposed as a way to expand possibilities for understanding, and action.The Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters and the Swedish Defense University contributed to funding this thesis as well as Christ's College and the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Cambridge, through hardship funds