Unobtrusive Health Monitoring in Private Spaces: The Smart Home

With the advances in sensor technology, big data, and artificial intelligence, unobtrusive in-home health monitoring has been a research focus for decades. Following up our research on smart vehicles, within the framework of unobtrusive health monitoring in private spaces, this work attempts to provide a guide to current sensor technology for unobtrusive in-home monitoring by a literature review of the state of the art and to answer, in particular, the questions: (1) What types of sensors can be used for unobtrusive in-home health data acquisition? (2) Where should the sensors be placed? (3) What data can be monitored in a smart home? (4) How can the obtained data support the monitoring functions? We conducted a retrospective literature review and summarized the state-of-the-art research on leveraging sensor technology for unobtrusive in-home health monitoring. For structured analysis, we developed a four-category terminology (location, unobtrusive sensor, data, and monitoring functions). We acquired 912 unique articles from four relevant databases (ACM Digital Lib, IEEE Xplore, PubMed, and Scopus) and screened them for relevance, resulting in n=55 papers analyzed in a structured manner using the terminology. The results delivered 25 types of sensors (motion sensor, contact sensor, pressure sensor, electrical current sensor, etc.) that can be deployed within rooms, static facilities, or electric appliances in an ambient way. While behavioral data (e.g., presence (n=38), time spent on activities (n=18)) can be acquired effortlessly, physiological parameters (e.g., heart rate, respiratory rate) are measurable on a limited scale (n=5). Behavioral data contribute to functional monitoring. Emergency monitoring can be built up on behavioral and environmental data. Acquired physiological parameters allow reasonable monitoring of physiological functions to a limited extent. Environmental data and behavioral data also detect safety and security abnormalities. Social interaction monitoring relies mainly on direct monitoring of tools of communication (smartphone; computer). In summary, convincing proof of a clear effect of these monitoring functions on clinical outcome with a large sample size and long-term monitoring is still lacking

Innovative chemotherapeutical treatment options for alveolar and cystic echinococcosis

Echinococcus granulosus and Echinococcus multilocularis are cestode parasites, of which the metacestode (larval) stages cause the diseases cystic echinococcosis (CE) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE), respectively. Albendazole and mebendazole are presently used for chemotherapeutical treatment. However, these benzimidazoles do not appear to be parasiticidal in vivo against AE. In addition, failures in drug treatments as well as the occurrence of side-effects have been reported. New drugs are needed to cure AE and CE, which are considered to be neglected diseases. Strategies currently being implemented to identify novel chemotherapeutical treatment options include (i) conventional primary in vitro testing of broad-spectrum anti-infective drugs, either in parallel with, or followed by, animal experimentation; (ii) studies of drugs which interfere with the proliferation of cancer cells and of Echinococcus metacestodes; (iii) exploitation of the similarities between the parasite and mammalian signalling machineries, with a special focus on targeting specific signalling receptors; (iv) in silico approaches, employing the current Echinococcus genomic database information to search for suitable targets for compounds with known modes of action. In the present article, we review the efforts toward obtaining better anti-parasitic compounds which have been undertaken to improve chemotherapeutical treatment of echinococcosis, and summarize the achievements in the field of host-parasite interactions which may also lead to new immuno-therapeutical option

The Role of Packing, Dispersion, Electrostatics, and Solvation in High‐Affinity Complexes of Cucurbit[ n ]urils with Uncharged Polar Guests

The rationalization of non-covalent binding trends is both of fundamental interest and provides new design concepts for biomimetic molecular systems. Cucurbit[n]urils (CBn) are known for a long time as the strongest synthetic binders for a wide range of (bio)organic compounds in water. However, their host-guest binding mechanism remains ambiguous despite their symmetric and simple macrocyclic structure and the wealth of literature reports. We herein report experimental thermodynamic binding parameters (ΔG, ΔH, TΔS) for CB7 and CB8 with a set of hydroxylated adamantanes, di-, and triamantanes as uncharged, rigid, and spherical/ellipsoidal guests. Binding geometries and binding energy decomposition were obtained from high-level theory computations. This study reveals that neither London dispersion interactions, nor electronic energies or entropic factors are decisive, selectivity-controlling factors for CBn complexes. In contrast, peculiar host-related solvation effects were identified as the major factor for rationalizing the unique behavior and record-affinity characteristics of cucurbit[n]urils

Proposing an International Standard Accident Number for Interconnecting Information and Communication Technology Systems of the Rescue Chain

Background  The rapid dissemination of smart devices within the internet of things (IoT) is developing toward automatic emergency alerts which are transmitted from machine to machine without human interaction. However, apart from individual projects concentrating on single types of accidents, there is no general methodology of connecting the standalone information and communication technology (ICT) systems involved in an accident: systems for alerting (e.g., smart home/car/wearable), systems in the responding stage (e.g., ambulance), and in the curing stage (e.g., hospital). Objectives  We define the International Standard Accident Number (ISAN) as a unique token for interconnecting these ICT systems and to provide embedded data describing the circumstances of an accident (time, position, and identifier of the alerting system). Materials and methods  Based on the characteristics of processes and ICT systems in emergency care, we derive technological, syntactic, and semantic requirements for the ISAN, and we analyze existing standards to be incorporated in the ISAN specification. Results  We choose a set of formats for describing the embedded data and give rules for their combination to generate an ISAN. It is a compact alphanumeric representation that is generated easily by the alerting system. We demonstrate generation, conversion, analysis, and visualization via representational state transfer (REST) services. Although ISAN targets machine-to-machine communication, we give examples of graphical user interfaces. Conclusion  Created either locally by the alerting IoT system or remotely using our RESTful service, the ISAN is a simple and flexible token that enables technological, syntactic, and semantic interoperability between all ICT systems in emergency care

Automatic Information Exchange in the Early Rescue Chain Using the International Standard Accident Number (ISAN)

Thus far, emergency calls are answered by human operators who interview the calling person in order to obtain all relevant information. In the near future-based on the Internet of (Medical) Things (IoT, IoMT)-accidents, emergencies, or adverse health events will be reported automatically by smart homes, smart vehicles, or smart wearables, without any human in the loop. Several parties are involved in this communication: the alerting system, the rescue service (responding system), and the emergency department in the hospital (curing system). In many countries, these parties use isolated information and communication technology (ICT) systems. Previously, the International Standard Accident Number (ISAN) has been proposed to securely link the data in these systems. In this work, we propose an ISAN-based communication platform that allows semantically interoperable information exchange. Our aims are threefold: (i) to enable data exchange between the isolated systems, (ii) to avoid data misinterpretation, and (iii) to integrate additional data sources. The suggested platform is composed of an alerting, responding, and curing system manager, a workflow manager, and a communication manager. First, the ICT systems of all parties in the early rescue chain register with their according system manager, which tracks the keep-alive. In case of emergency, the alerting system sends an ISAN to the platform. The responsible rescue services and hospitals are determined and interconnected for platform-based communication. Next to the conceptual design of the platform, we evaluate a proof-of-concept implementation according to (1) the registration, (2) channel establishment, (3) data encryption, (4) event alert, and (5) information exchange. Our concept meets the requirements for scalability, error handling, and information security. In the future, it will be used to implement a virtual accident registry

Enhanced Formation of Nanometric Titanium Cones by Incorporation of Titanium, Tungsten and/or Iron in a Helium Ion Beam

Surface patterning of bio-compatible titanium (Ti) shows a growing interest in the medical field. The engineering of material surfaces can achieve bactericidal properties and osteointegration improvements in order to develop medical implants. Spikes-like surface morphologies have already demonstrated the development of promising bactericidal properties. A barely new method to produce nanometric-sized cones on titanium consists of helium (He) ion irradiation using low energies ( 100 eV) and temperatures comprised between 0.25 T/T 0.5 (with T being the melting temperature of the material). Ti, iron (Fe) and/or tungsten (W) were incorporated in a He beam, and their amounts were quantified using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The He ion energy was varied from 70 and 120 eV, the surface temperatures from 571 to 651 K for fluences approximately equal to 1024 m−2. After irradiation, the surface morphology was characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Focused Ion Beam (FIB). This study demonstrated the capability for irradiated Ti surfaces to form cones with tunable density, aspect ratio, and heights with the incorporation of Ti, Fe and/or W in a He ion. Additionally, the growth rate of the cones was enhanced by about 30 times in comparison to pure He irradiation as a function of the chosen materials introduced in the He beam