Interaction of Copper-Based Nanoparticles to Soil, Terrestrial, and Aquatic Systems: Critical Review of the State of the Science and Future Perspectives

In the past two decades, increased production and usage of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) has inevitably increased their discharge into the different compartments of the environment, which ultimately paved the way for their uptake and accumulation in various trophic levels of the food chain. Due to these issues, several questions have been raised on the usage of NPs in everyday life and has become a matter of public health concern. Among the metallic NPs, Cu-based NPs have gained popularity due to their cost-effectiveness and multifarious promising uses. Several studies in the past represented the phytotoxicity of Cu-based NPs on plants. However, comprehensive knowledge is still lacking. Additionally, the impact of Cu-based NPs on soil organisms such as agriculturally important microbes, fungi, mycorrhiza, nematode, and earthworms are poorly studied. This review article critically analyses the literature data to achieve a more comprehensive knowledge on the toxicological profile of Cu-based NPs and increase our understanding of the effects of Cu-based NPs on aquatic and terrestrial plants as well as on soil microbial communities. The underlying mechanism of biotransformation of Cu-based NPs and the process of their penetration into plants has also been discussed herein. Overall, this review could provide valuable information to design rules and regulations for the safe disposal of Cu-based NPs into a sustainable environment

Integrating Mobile Devices with Cohort Analysis into Personalised Weather-Based Healthcare

Mobile healthcare applications can empower users to self-monitor their health conditions without the need to visit any medical centre. However, the lack of attention on engagement aspects of mobile healthcare applications often result in users choosing to uninstall the application after the first usage experience. This results in failure of effective prolonged personalised healthcare, especially for users with chronic disease related to weather conditions such as asthma and eczema which require long-term monitoring and self-care. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the pattern of application user engagement with a weather-based mobile healthcare application through cohort retention analysis. Enhancement features for improving the engagement of personalised healthcare can provide meaningful insight. The proposed application allows the patient to conduct disease control tests to check the severity of their condition on a daily basis. To measure the application engagement, we distribute the mobile application designed for primary testing over a period of ten days. Based on the primary testing, data related to retention rate and the number of control test reported were collected via Firebase Analytic to determine the application engagement. Subsequently, we apply cohort analysis using a machine learning clustering technique implemented in Python to identify the pattern of the engagement by application users. Finally, useful insights were analysed and implemented as enhancement features within the application for improving the personalised weather-based mobile healthcare. The findings in this paper can assist machine learning facilitators design effective use policies for weather-based mobile healthcare with fundamental knowledge enhanced with personalisation and user engagement

A Systematic Review of Healthcare Applications for Smartphones

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Advanced mobile communications and portable computation are now combined in handheld devices called “smartphones”, which are also capable of running third-party software. The number of smartphone users is growing rapidly, including among healthcare professionals. The purpose of this study was to classify smartphone-based healthcare technologies as discussed in academic literature according to their functionalities, and summarize articles in each category.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In April 2011, MEDLINE was searched to identify articles that discussed the design, development, evaluation, or use of smartphone-based software for healthcare professionals, medical or nursing students, or patients. A total of 55 articles discussing 83 applications were selected for this study from 2,894 articles initially obtained from the MEDLINE searches.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 83 applications were documented: 57 applications for healthcare professionals focusing on disease diagnosis (21), drug reference (6), medical calculators (8), literature search (6), clinical communication (3), Hospital Information System (HIS) client applications (4), medical training (2) and general healthcare applications (7); 11 applications for medical or nursing students focusing on medical education; and 15 applications for patients focusing on disease management with chronic illness (6), ENT-related (4), fall-related (3), and two other conditions (2). The disease diagnosis, drug reference, and medical calculator applications were reported as most useful by healthcare professionals and medical or nursing students.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Many medical applications for smartphones have been developed and widely used by health professionals and patients. The use of smartphones is getting more attention in healthcare day by day. Medical applications make smartphones useful tools in the practice of evidence-based medicine at the point of care, in addition to their use in mobile clinical communication. Also, smartphones can play a very important role in patient education, disease self-management, and remote monitoring of patients.</p