Viewing versus Experiencing in Adopting Somatosensory Technology for Smart Applications

Emerging somatosensory technology offers unprecedented opportunities for researchers and industrial practitioners to design a touchless smart home system. However, existing touchless smart home systems often fail to attract a satisfying level of acceptance among home owners. The experience users have with the touchless system is key to making somatosensory technology a pervasive computing home application, yet little research has been conducted to assess the influence of direct and indirect experience on user’s behavioral intention to use somatosensory technology. To address this research gap, this paper set up an experimental design to investigate the influence of direct and indirect experience in user technology acceptance. Using an in-house developed touchless system, two experimental studies (i.e., video observation versus product trial) were conducted with sixty-two participants to investigate whether the user experience has an impact on the adoption decision. Our findings indicate that direct experience has an impact on a user’s acceptance of somatosensory technology. We found a significant difference in the relationships between perceived complexity and usage intentions. Perceived complexity was a significant predictor of an individual’s behavioral intention to use the touchless system after video observation, while its relationship to usage intention was insignificant after the user had direct experience with touchless system. Our study reveals an important implication for somatosensory technology marketers, in which product trial (direct experience) engenders more reliable inferences than does exposure to video demonstration (indirect experience). Based on this, companies should devise marketing programme involving direct experience (e.g., product trial and showroom visit) to promote new somatosensory-enabled smart home systems. The results of the study also demonstrate that user experience in research design may influence the results of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) studies. Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/pajais/vol6/iss3/2

High-Entropy Metal–Organic Frameworks for Highly Reversible Sodium Storage

Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) are reported to be efficient sodium storage materials because of the unique advantages of their metal–organic framework structure. However, the issues of low specific capacity and poor reversibility, caused by phase transitions during charge/discharge cycling, have thus far limited the applicability of these materials. Herein, a new approach is presented to substantially improve the electrochemical properties of PBAs by introducing high entropy into the crystal structure. To achieve this, five different metal species are introduced, sharing the same nitrogen-coordinated site, thereby increasing the configurational entropy of the system beyond 1.5R. By careful selection of the elements, high-entropy PBA (HE-PBA) presents a quasi-zero-strain reaction mechanism, resulting in increased cycling stability and rate capability. The key to such improvement lies in the high entropy and associated effects as well as the presence of several active redox centers. The gassing behavior of PBAs is also reported. Evolution of dimeric cyanogen due to oxidation of the cyanide ligands is detected, which can be attributed to the structural degradation of HE-PBA during battery operation. By optimizing the electrochemical window, a Coulombic efficiency of nearly 100% is retained after cycling for more than 3000 cycles

Differences in HIV-Specific T Cell Responses between HIV-Exposed and -Unexposed HIV-Seronegative Individuals

HIV-1-specific T lymphocyte responses in individuals exposed to HIV-1 but who remain persistently seronegative (HESNs) have been reported in some but not all previous studies. This study was designed to resolve unequivocally the question of whether HESNs make HIV-1-specific T cell responses. We performed a blind investigation to measure HIV-1-specific T cell responses in both HIV-1-serodiscordant couples and HIV-1-unexposed seronegative controls (HUSNs). We found low-frequency HIV-1-specific T cells in both HESNs and HUSNs but show that the response rates were higher over time in the former (P = 0.01). Furthermore, the magnitudes of the HIV-1-specific T cell responses were significantly higher among responding HESNs than among HUSNs over time (P = 0.002). In both groups, responses were mediated by CD4 T cells. The responses were mapped to single peptides, which often corresponded to epitopes restricted by multiple HLA-DR types that have previously been detected in HIV-1-infected patients. HIV-1-specific T cell responses in HUSNs and some HESNs likely represent cross-reactivity to self or foreign non-HIV-1 antigens. The significantly greater T cell responses in HESNs, including in two who were homozygous for CCR5Δ32, demonstrates that HIV-1-specific T cell responses can be induced or augmented by exposure to HIV-1 without infection

The Marker State Space (MSS) Method for Classifying Clinical Samples

The development of accurate clinical biomarkers has been challenging in part due to the diversity between patients and diseases. One approach to account for the diversity is to use multiple markers to classify patients, based on the concept that each individual marker contributes information from its respective subclass of patients. Here we present a new strategy for developing biomarker panels that accounts for completely distinct patient subclasses. Marker State Space (MSS) defines "marker states" based on all possible patterns of high and low values among a panel of markers. Each marker state is defined as either a case state or a control state, and a sample is classified as case or control based on the state it occupies. MSS was used to define multi-marker panels that were robust in cross validation and training-set/test-set analyses and that yielded similar classification accuracy to several other classification algorithms. A three-marker panel for discriminating pancreatic cancer patients from control subjects revealed subclasses of patients based on distinct marker states. MSS provides a straightforward approach for modeling highly divergent subclasses of patients, which may be adaptable for diverse applications. © 2013 Fallon et al

An explorative qualitative study to determine the footwear needs of workers in standing environments

Background: Many work places require standing for prolonged periods of time and are potentially damaging to health, with links to musculoskeletal disorders and acute trauma from workplace accidents. Footwear provides the only interaction between the body and the ground and therefore a potential means to impact musculoskeletal disorders. However, there is very limited research into the necessary design and development of footwear based on both the physical environmental constraints and the personal preference of the workers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore workers needs for footwear in the ‘standing’ workplace in relation to MSD, symptoms, comfort and design. Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants from demanding work environments that require standing for high proportions of the working day. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the results and gain an exploratory understanding into the footwear needs of these workers. Results: Interviews revealed the environmental demands and a very high percentage of musculoskeletal disorders, including day to day discomfort and chronic problems. It was identified that when designing work footwear for standing environments, the functionality of the shoe for the environment must be addressed, the sensations and symptoms of the workers taken into account to encourage adherence and the decision influencers should be met to encourage initial footwear choice. Meeting all these criteria could encourage the use of footwear with the correct safety features and comfort. Development of the correct footwear and increased education regarding foot health and footwear choice could help to reduce or improve the effect of the high number of musculoskeletal disorders repeatedly recorded in jobs that require prolonged periods of standing. Conclusion: This study provides a unique insight into the footwear needs of some workers in environments that require prolonged standing. This user based enquiry has provided information which is important to workplace footwear design

Y-box protein-1/p18 fragment identifies malignancies in patients with chronic liver disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Immunohistochemical detection of cold shock proteins is predictive for deleterious outcome in various malignant diseases. We recently described active secretion of a family member, denoted Y-box (YB) protein-1. We tested the clinical and diagnostic value of YB-1 protein fragment p18 (YB-1/p18) detection in blood for malignant diseases.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used a novel monoclonal anti-YB-1 antibody to detect YB-1/p18 by immunoblotting in plasma samples of healthy volunteers (n = 33), patients with non-cancerous, mostly inflammatory diseases (n = 60), hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC; n = 25) and advanced solid tumors (n = 20). YB-1/p18 was then tested in 111 patients with chronic liver diseases, alongside established tumor markers and various diagnostic measures, during evaluation for potential liver transplantation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a novel immunoblot to detect the 18 kD fragment of secreted YB-1 in human plasma (YB-1/p18) that contains the cold-shock domains (CSD) 1-3 of the full-length protein. YB-1/p18 was detected in 11/25 HCC and 16/20 advanced carcinomas compared to 0/33 healthy volunteers and 10/60 patients with non-cancerous diseases. In 111 patients with chronic liver disease, YB-1/p18 was detected in 20 samples. Its occurrence was not associated with advanced Child stages of liver cirrhosis or liver function. In this cohort, YB-1/p18 was not a good marker for HCC, but proved most powerful in detecting malignancies other than HCC (60% positive) with a lower rate of false-positive results compared to established tumor markers. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) was most sensitive in detecting HCC, but simultaneous assessment of AFP, CA19-9 and YB-1/p18 improved overall identification of HCC patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Plasma YB-1/p18 can identify patients with malignancies, independent of acute inflammation, renal impairment or liver dysfunction. The detection of YB-1/p18 in human plasma may have potential as a tumor marker for screening of high-risk populations, e.g. before organ transplantation, and should therefore be evaluated in larger prospective studies.</p

Discovery of serum biomarkers for pancreatic adenocarcinoma using proteomic analysis

Background and aims:The serum/plasma proteome was explored for biomarkers to improve the diagnostic ability of CA19-9 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PC).Methods:A Training Set of serum samples from 20 resectable and 18 stage IV PC patients, 54 disease controls (DCs) and 68 healthy volunteers (HVs) were analysed by surface-enhanced laser desorption and ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SELDI-TOF MS). The resulting protein panel was validated on 40 resectable PC, 21 DC and 19 HV plasma samples (Validation-1 Set) and further by ELISA on 33 resectable PC, 28 DC and 18 HV serum samples (Validation-2 Set). Diagnostic panels were derived using binary logistic regression incorporating internal cross-validation followed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.Results:A seven-protein panel from the training set PC vs DC and from PC vs HV samples gave the ROC area under the curve (AUC) of 0.90 and 0.90 compared with 0.87 and 0.91 for CA19-9. The AUC was greater (0.97 and 0.99, P0.05) when CA19-9 was added to the panels and confirmed on the validation-1 samples. A simplified panel of apolipoprotein C-I (ApoC-I), apolipoprotein A-II (ApoA-II) and CA19-9 was tested on the validation-2 set by ELISA, in which the ROC AUC was greater than that of CA19-9 alone for PC vs DC (0.90 vs 0.84) and for PC vs HV (0.96 vs 0.90).Conclusions:A simplified diagnostic panel of CA19-9, ApoC-I and ApoA-II improves the diagnostic ability of CA19-9 alone and may have clinical utility