Practical use of the Virtual Cell Based Assay: Simulation of repeated exposure experiments in liver cell lines

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Practical use of the Virtual Cell Based Assay: Simulation of repeated exposure experiments in liver cell lines

AbstractThe Virtual Cell Based Assay (VCBA) was applied to simulate the long-term (repeat dose) toxic effects of chemicals, including substances in cosmetics and personal care products. The presented model is an extension of the original VCBA for simulation of single exposure and is implemented in a KNIME workflow. This work illustrates the steps taken to simulate the repeated dose effects of two reference compounds, caffeine and amiodarone. Using caffeine, in vitro experimental viability data in single exposure from two human liver cell lines, HepG2 and HepaRG, were measured and used to optimize the VCBA, subsequently repeated exposure simulations were run. Amiodarone was then tested and simulations were performed under repeated exposure conditions in HepaRG. The results show that the VCBA can adequately predict repeated exposure experiments in liver cell lines. The refined VCBA model can be used not only to support the design of long term in vitro experiments but also practical applications in risk assessment. Our model is a step towards the development of in silico predictive approaches to replace, refine, and reduce the in vivo repeated dose systemic toxicity studies in the assessment of human safety

A Multi-sensory Environment for the treatment of Dementia Affected Subjects

The paper describes the early outcomes of a multi-sensory room project conducted in an Italian long-term care home to study non-pharmacological therapeutic protocols to stimulate and maintain residual abilities of dementia affected patients. This includes setting, technological solutions, therapeutic protocols and pilot testing. In a nursing home clinical cases and therapeutic practices have been studied before designing the multi-sensory environment enhanced with ambient intelligence technologies. Aim is to obtain an optimal level of stimulation of dementia affected patients through engagement, active participation and intrinsic motivation in a therapeutic (leisure) activity, and favouring the emergence of personal meanings (memories, interpretations, narratives). The outcome of this pilot includes a blended therapeutic model with controlled stimuli, adapted to the patient’s stage of dementia. Therapeutic significance is discussed, as well as design opportunities for future development

Socially Assistive Robotics in the Treatment of Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia

Socially assistive robotics is an emerging field of research focused on assisting people through social interaction. While much attention has been paid in the past to robots that provide assistance to people through physical contact, as well as to robots that entertain through social interaction, more recently attention has been paid on socially assistive robots that mediate communication and social exchange. In the paper the argument is developed describing an exploratory study related to the use of the seal robot Paro for the treatment of dementia. The case is illuminating since it highlights the potential of social robots in supporting non pharmacological therapeutic protocols for the dementia car

Designing a Familiar Technology For Elderly People

Older adults have a difficult relationship with technology mostly because hardware and software design have simply not been designed to suit them. For a large part of the old population, technology is unfamiliar and “alien” and even when elderly people perceive the potentials of technologies, they consider the investment of personal resources needed to use a new artefact too high. The language spoken by technology is unfamiliar to elderly people because it depends on a series of elements that are out of their culture. In the present paper we tried to define a design approach based on familiarity, investigating how to translate technology language into the language familiar to those individuals grown up before the technological revolution

Supporting Older Adults Social Network: the Design of e-Inclusion Communication Services

This paper presents a study aimed at investigating how domestic communication technologies could be designed in order to profitably intervene in the daily life of elderly people to enhance and enrich their social relationships and to prevent the phenomenon of social isolation. Moving from the identification of typical communication patterns among older adults and their social network, we suggest the importance of discerning between the public and private spheres of socialization in relation to the specific target group of elderly people, as a basis for the design of e-inclusion communication services. We discuss the barriers preventing older adults to successfully manage communicative technologies and present the design of two virtual places, the Social Window and the Public Square

Getting Older People Involved in the Process of Ambient Assisted Living Research and Development

This paper proposes an investigation protocol for research and development of Ambient Assisted Living technologies for elderly people, based on effective strategies for motivating users and establishing a long-term relationship that enables them to “enter in the User Centered Design loop”. For a project that aims at the experimentation in the users’ homes, we advocate the building and nourishing of a solid network of users and stakeholders for project support. It is crucial to involve local authorities, associations of elderly people, and social operators as de facto partners of the project, sharing with them the ambitious research and development objectives, and identifying ways of integrating research activities with their existing daily practices. This guarantees continual users’ involvement, which favors interest in the scientific objectives, reduces risks of abandonment, and produces improved information

Involving all Stakeholders into the Design of Innovative Domestic Products and Services: the NETCARITY Experience

Within the first year of the NETCARITY project the actual needs and preferences of older adults with respect to the design of domestic technologies have been studied, with the conduction of focus groups, workshops, questionnaires and interviews, prototype testing and contextual inquiries. The three main areas of interest were the approach used to establish a strong stakeholders’ network that will provide a good basis to implement AAL products and services, the use of scenarios and personas to elicit user requirements and the use of mock-up experiments to let the users’ evaluation feedback and design ideas impact on the iterative design of relevant services and interaction interfaces. The research has been carried out at two pilot-sides: Trento located in Italy and Eindhoven located in the Netherlands. Next step in the project is to perform longitudinal evaluation studies with prototypes installed in real homes to analyse the impact of the developed technology on the routines of daily living. Keywords: User Centred Design, Smart Home technology, older adults, Ambient Assisted Living, scenario based design, personas, mock-up