Needs Elicitation for Novel Pervasive Healthcare Technology

It is widely accepted that engaging with end-users to elicit their needs is beneficial when designing a new artefact. This can be particularly challenging, however, when end-users are limited in their ability to provide input. When there is broad variation in users' needs, a further challenge is to include the large number of users required to represent the entire population. Failure to do so may lead to a solution that is over specialised to fit the needs of only a small subset of users. Both challenges are common in healthcare applications in which the end-user is also care recipient (or patient). What if instead of trying to engage vastly many users in design activities, we could hear the voice of the patient by tapping into existing channels within the health care service system? Many interactions between healthcare providers and patients involve knowledge transfer. Observing these could inform designers about patients’ support needs and healthcare providers’ information needs. Healthcare professionals offer a wealth of knowledge based on a clinical understanding of the condition as well as experience listening to patients' problems. Especially where patients are in denial about their condition, their healthcare providers might offer more detailed information than the patient themselves regarding their needs. Since each patient knows only their own experience, whereas healthcare professionals encounter numerous patients, their perspective is more robust against inter-patient variation, and they are able to comment on trends, scale or proportions .We therefore explore how users' needs can be elicited by observing activities in which information is already being shared and discussed in the care process, and from the extensive knowledge of healthcare professionals. This is particularly relevant for pervasive healthcare technology, in which established methods for engaging users to elicit their needs can be difficult or even impossible to apply. In this paper we document our needs elicitation process in a relevant example as a method story, and present our findings and reflections on this as the key contribution of this work

A Photovoltaic Module Diagnostic Setup for Lock-in Electroluminescence Imaging

Electroluminescence (EL) imaging and infrared (IRT) thermography techniques have become indispensable tools in recent years for health diagnostic of photovoltaic modules in solar industry application. We propose a diagnostic setup, which performs lock-in EL for accurate analysis of different types of faults occurring in a solar module. The setup is built around a high-speed SWIR camera, which can acquire images at very short integration time (1μs) and high frame rate (301 fps). In addition, a state-of-the-art imaging chamber allows for introducing controlled levels of ambient light noise for developing new light noise removal methods, rotation of panel frame in 3 axes plane for developing perspective distortion correction techniques. The paper also gives an insight of different system and communication delays that affects the performance of overall EL lock-in imaging system integration. The purpose of the diagnostic setup is to support research in PV failure quantification through EL imaging, which can also be useful for aerial drone imaging of PV plants.</p

Development of outdoor luminescence imaging for drone-based PV array inspection

This work has the goal to perform outdoor defect detection imaging that will be used in a fast, accurate and automatic drone-based survey system for PV power plants. The imaging development focuses on techniques that do not require electrical contact, permitting automatic drone inspections to be perform quicker and with less manpower. The final inspection method will combine several techniques such as, infrared (IR), electroluminescence (EL), photoluminescence (PL), and visual imaging. Solar plant inspection in the future can be restricted only by imaging speed requirements, allowing an entire new perspective in large-scale PV inspection

Outdoor Electroluminescence Acquisition Using a Movable Testbed

The experimentation with a movable outdoor electroluminescence (EL) testbed is performed in this work. For EL inspections of PV power plants, the fastest scenario will include the use of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) performing image acquisition in continuous motion. With this motivation, we investigate the EL image quality of an acquisition in motion and the extent of image processing required to correct scene displacement. The results show processed EL images with a high level of information even when acquired at 1 m/s camera speed and at frame rate of 120 fps.</p

Proteomic Characterization of Cellular and Molecular Processes that Enable the Nanoarchaeum equitans-Ignicoccus hospitalis Relationship

Nanoarchaeum equitans, the only cultured representative of the Nanoarchaeota, is dependent on direct physical contact with its host, the hyperthermophile Ignicoccus hospitalis. The molecular mechanisms that enable this relationship are unknown. Using whole-cell proteomics, differences in the relative abundance of >75% of predicted protein-coding genes from both Archaea were measured to identify the specific response of I. hospitalis to the presence of N. equitans on its surface. A purified N. equitans sample was also analyzed for evidence of interspecies protein transfer. The depth of cellular proteome coverage achieved here is amongst the highest reported for any organism. Based on changes in the proteome under the specific conditions of this study, I. hospitalis reacts to N. equitans by curtailing genetic information processing (replication, transcription) in lieu of intensifying its energetic, protein processing and cellular membrane functions. We found no evidence of significant Ignicoccus biosynthetic enzymes being transported to N. equitans. These results suggest that, under laboratory conditions, N. equitans diverts some of its host's metabolism and cell cycle control to compensate for its own metabolic shortcomings, thus appearing to be entirely dependent on small, transferable metabolites and energetic precursors from I. hospitalis

O-GlcNAc Modification of NFκB p65 Inhibits TNF-α-Induced Inflammatory Mediator Expression in Rat Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells

BACKGROUND: We have shown that glucosamine (GlcN) or O-(2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranosylidene)amino-N-phenylcarbamate (PUGNAc) treatment augments O-linked-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) protein modification and attenuates inflammatory mediator expression, leukocyte infiltration and neointima formation in balloon injured rat carotid arteries and have identified the arterial smooth muscle cell (SMC) as the target cell in the injury response. NFκB signaling has been shown to mediate the expression of inflammatory genes and neointima formation in injured arteries. Phosphorylation of the p65 subunit of NFκB is required for the transcriptional activation of NFκB. This study tested the hypothesis that GlcN or PUGNAc treatment protects vascular SMCs against tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α induced inflammatory stress by enhancing O-GlcNAcylation and inhibiting TNF-α induced phosphorylation of NFκB p65, thus inhibiting NFκB signaling. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Quiescent rat aortic SMCs were pretreated with GlcN (5 mM), PUGNAc (10(-4) M) or vehicle and then stimulated with TNF-α (10 ng/ml). Both treatments inhibited TNF-α-induced expression of chemokines [cytokine-induced neutrophil chemoattractant (CINC)-2β and monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1] and adhesion molecules [vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 and P-Selectin]. Both treatments inhibited TNF-α induced NFκB p65 activation and promoter activity, increased NFκB p65 O-GlcNAcylation and inhibited NFκB p65 phosphorylation at Serine 536, thus promoting IκBα binding to NFκB p65. CONCLUSIONS: There is a reciprocal relationship between O-GlcNAcylation and phosphorylation of NFκB p65, such that increased NFκB p65 O-GlcNAc modification inhibits TNF-α-Induced expression of inflammatory mediators through inhibition of NFκB p65 signaling. These findings provide a mechanistic basis for our previous observations that GlcN and PUGNAc treatments inhibit inflammation and remodeling induced by acute endoluminal arterial injury

Measurement of the Rates of Synthesis of Three Components of Ribosomes of Mycobacterium fortuitum: A Theoretical Approach to qRT-PCR Experimentation

BACKGROUND: Except for the ribosomal protein L12 (rplL), ribosomal proteins are present as one copy per ribosome; L12 (rplL) is unusual because it is present as four copies per ribosome. Thus, the strategies used by Mycobacterium fortuitum to regulate ribosomal protein synthesis were investigated, including evaluations of the rates of chain elongations of 16S rRNA, rplL and ribosomal protein S12 (rpsL). METHODOLOGY: RNA was isolated from cell cultures and cDNA was prepared. The numbers of cDNA copies of 16S rRNA, precursor-16S rRNA and transcripts of rpsL and rplL were quantified by qRT-PCR and then related to the rates of 16S rRNA, rpsL and rplL chain elongations by means of a mathematical framework for coupled transcription/translation. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The rates of synthesis of 16S rRNA, rpsL and rplL respectively were found to be approximately 50 x 10(3) nucleotides h(-1), 1.6 x 10(3) amino acid residues h(-1) and 3.4 x 10(3) amino acid residues h(-1). The number of transcripts of rplL was approximately twice that of rpsL. These data account for the presence of one copy of rpsL and four copies of rplL per ribosome, and reveal that the rate of M. fortuitum ribosome synthesis was closer to that of M. tuberculosis than to E. coli. Except for rplJ, the elongation rate obtained for rpsL was inferred to be appropriate for all other proteins present as one copy per ribosome. SIGNIFICANCE: The results obtained provide the basis for a comprehensive view of the kinetics of ribosome synthesis, and of the ways that bacterial cells utilize genes encoding ribosomal proteins. The methodology also applies to proteins involved in transcription, energy generation and to bacterial proteins in general. The method proposed for measuring the fidelity of cDNA preparations is intrinsically much more sensitive than procedures that measure the integrity of 16S rRNA