HLA-G: expression in human keratinocytes in vitro and in human skin in vivo

Classical, polymorphic major histocompatibility complex class I molecules are expressed on most nucleated cells.They present peptides at the cell surface and, thus, enable the immune system to scan peptides for their antigenicity. The function of the other, nonclassical class I molecules in man is controversial. HLA-G which has been shown by transfection experiments to be expressed at the cell surface, is only transcribed in placental tissue and in the fetal eye.Therefore, a role of HLA-G in the control of rejection of the allogeneic fetus has been discussed. We found that HLA-G expression is induced in keratinocytes by culture in vitro. Three different alternative splicing products of HLA-G can be detected: a full length transcript, an mRNA lacking exon 3 and a transcript devoid of exon 3 and 4. Reverse transcription followed by polymerase chain reaction also revealed the presence of HLA-G mRNA in vivo in biopsies of either diseased or healthy skin

Generic personal assistance architecture for mobile environments

The computing power of mobile computers is comparable to the PCs of some years ago. In addition, PDAs or mobile phones are equipped with a high connectivity and provide a multimodal interface by a high resolution display, vibration feedback and sound functionality. This feature enables the use of mobile phones as personal information manager and personal assistance for business and the everyday life. The progress of personal assistance is supported by the inclusion of external environment information and user related data. By using new interfaces and sensors, an additional and comprehensive understanding of the user's situation can be determined. Hereby a planning of the user's task is supported and a scheduling of the user's activities will be available. This chapter shows an improving approach of the generic architecture for mobile personal situation aware assistance and describes the modules by sample applications and gives an outlook on upcoming challenges of research in activity and assistance models

XyberScout: A Platform for the Efficient Construction of Mobile Location Aware Information Systems

museums or exhibitions are a topic of research. Research prototypes aim to provide the user with powerful means for organizing his visit and for navigation within the event's surroundings. But today, in real-world applications, we mostly find rather simple tools -- mobile guides for fairs, conferences and similar events. In the area of these electronic catalogs, the Fraunhofer IGD Rostock has developed quite successfully a line of such systems. Our experiences with these events have shown that the true challenge of mobile information systems for real-world use is not to provide a large set of features, but to provide an effective and efficient production environment and a suitable and configurable browser application on the mobile platform. We need the integration of the diverse technology fields involved in such applications into a manageable and convenient production tool. With the XyberScout platform, we try to develop such an integrated environment for the efficient creation of such mobile information systems. It aims to provide a suite of technologies for the efficient delivery of mobile information applications that support intelligent and context-aware assistance for real use

Smartwatch und -phone als Therapie- und Monitoringgerät für Diabetes und Adipositas

Volltext: Einleitung: Die Häufigkeit von lebensstilbedingten Risikofaktoren und manifeste Stoffwechsel- und kardiovaskuläre Krankheiten (z.B. Diabetes mellitus) sind massiv ansteigend. Daher müssen verbesserte Behandlungsmodelle und Methoden zum Selfempowerment systematisch beforscht und implementiert werden. Hierbei zeigt sich ein mobiles Assistenzsystem auf Basis von Smartwatch und -phone, das eine permanente Aktivitätserfassung und damit verbundene Feedbackfunktion ermöglicht, als besonders vielversprechend. Ein Modell, das in der Chronikerversorgung von Risikopersonen und Patienten mit Stoffwechsel- und/oder kardiovaskulären Erkrankungen eingesetzt werden kann, wird derzeit betrieben vom Fraunhofer-Institut für Graphische Datenverarbeitung in Kooperation mit der MEDIGREIF Inselklinik Heringsdorf. Methoden: Damit der Chroniker ein situatives Feedback zur objektiv erfassten Bewegung erhalten kann, werden Smartphones und Smartwatches mit integrierten Beschleunigungssensoren genutzt. Smartwatches sind intelligente Uhren, die mit Sensoren, einer integrierten Funkeinheit sowie einem Display und Vibrationsgeber ausgestattet sind. Mittels Analyse und Klassifizierung der Bewegungsmuster von Körper oder den Extremitäten wird auf die Ausführungart und -dauer der Aktivitäten zurückgeschlossen. Die erfassten Daten werden mit Sollvorgaben verglichen und ermöglichen ein direktes, multimediales Feedback. Dieses System, DiaTrace, stellt daher situativ elektronische Motivationselemente und Begleitinformationen zur Verfügung. Ergebnisse: Das System wurde bisher im Rahmen von Feasibility-Studien bei Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Übergewicht, Adipositas und Diabetes eingesetzt und validiert (Schiel R et al. Appetite 2012; 58: 432 – 7; Schiel R et al. Exp Clin Endocrinol Diabetes 2011;119: 565 – 8). Alle Untersuchungen ergaben eine hohe Akzeptanz der Technologie bei Patienten, Angehöringen und Therapeuten, eine hohe Validität sowie die Reduktion entsprechender pathologischer klinischer Ereignisse. Bei Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Übergewicht und Adipostas (n = 124, Alter = 13,5 +-2,8 Jahre, BMI = 31,3 ± 5,2 kg/m(2), BMI-SDS = 2,50 ± 0,5) konnte durch die kontinuierliche Bewegungserfassung beispielsweise nicht nur die im Vergleich zur herkömmlichen Therapie bessere Gewichtsreduktion (7,1 ± 3,0 kg, BMI/BMI-SDS Reduktion p Schlussfolgerungen: Während zusätzlich zu tragende Geräte zur Aktivitätserfassung bereits eine Therapieunterstützung ermöglichen, so bieten unaufdringliche zu tragende Systeme einen erheblichen Mehrwert. Besonders die Smartwatch wird als kontinuierliches und auch im Schlaf zu tragendes, multimediales Interaktionsgerät besonders für die Diabetes- und Adipositasbehandlung Einsatz finden

Methodology for the assessment of physical activity using mobile acceleration sensors

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt die Methodik zur mobilen Erfassung körperlicher Aktivität mittels Beschleunigungssensoren. Hierbei wird ein neues Verfahren eingesetzt, welches die Orientierung des Sensorsystems identifiziert und die gemessenen Beschleunigungsdaten in ein neues, geeignetes Bezugssystem transformiert. Zur Bestimmung der Ausrichtung des Messsystems werden spezifische Bewegungsinformationen einer Aktivität genutzt, die eine vollständige Bestimmung der Orientierung erlauben.This work describes the methodology for the measurement of physical activity by only one mobile acceleration sensor and processing unit to wear at the body. Hereby, a suitable reference system is generated through the identification of the horizontal and vertical orientation of the sensor system. The bearing information is extracted by the movement pattern of certain physical activities. The usage of a normalized reference frame reduces the need of a large training set and enables the identification of relevant features. This improves the accuracy of physical activity recognition

Perspectives on Social Robots: From the Historic Background to an Experts' View on Future Developments

Social robots are robots interacting with humans not only in collaborative settings, but also in personal settings like domestic services and healthcare. Some social robots simulate feelings (companions) while others just help lifting (assistants). However, they often incite both fascination and fear: what abilities should social robots have and what should remain exclusive to humans? We provide a historical background on the development of robots and related machines (1), discuss examples of social robots (2) and present an expert study on their desired future abilities and applications (3) conducted within the Forum of the European Active and Assisted Living Programme (AAL). The findings indicate that most technologies required for the social robots' emotion sensing are considered ready. For care robots, the experts approve health-related tasks like drawing blood while they prefer humans to do nursing tasks like washing. On a larger societal scale, the acceptance of social robots increases highly significantly with familiarity, making health robots and even military drones more acceptable than sex robots or child companion robots for childless couples. Accordingly, the acceptance of social robots seems to decrease with the level of face-to-face emotions involved

Deep Learning Based Fall Detection Algorithms for Embedded Systems, Smartwatches, and IoT Devices Using Accelerometers

A fall of an elderly person often leads to serious injuries or even death. Many falls occur in the home environment and remain unrecognized. Therefore, a reliable fall detection is absolutely necessary for a fast help. Wrist-worn accelerometer based fall detection systems are developed, but the accuracy and precision are not standardized, comparable, or sometimes even known. In this work, we present an overview about existing public databases with sensor based fall datasets and harmonize existing wrist-worn datasets for a broader and robust evaluation. Furthermore, we are analyzing the current possible recognition rate of fall detection using deep learning algorithms for mobile and embedded systems. The presented results and databases can be used for further research and optimizations in order to increase the recognition rate to enhance the independent life of the elderly. Furthermore, we give an outlook for a convenient application and wrist device