Closing the Loop for Patients with Chronic Diseases - from Problems to a Solution Architecture

There is growing evidence that mobile health (mHealth) applications can assist patients with chronic conditions. However, most mHealth apps are isolated from healthcare professional (HCP) workflows and IT infrastructure. The resulting fragmentation of digital support in healthcare calls for integrating architectures. They would benefit patients, HCPs, product managers, and software developers. Our analysis of existing architectures has revealed valuable architectural elements, but none of the analyzed architectures provided sufficient integration for the chronically ill. Therefore, we propose an architecture for integrated mHealth solutions. We followed a design science research approach and performed all activities of the DSRM Process Model. By forming a closed control loop and engaging HCPs, the architecture is designed to improve patient adherence to treatment, health literacy, and recall of recommendations and information. The resulting Closing-the-Loop Architecture (LoopArt) deploys three software agents: a Health Literacy Agent, an Adherence Agent, and a Conversational Agent. For demonstration purposes, the Health Literacy Agent was implemented for obese patients as an integrated system consisting of a mHealth app and a collaboration tool as part of the electronic medical record (EMR)

Chemical reactivity and long-range transport potential of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – a review

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are of considerable concern due to their well-recognised toxicity and especially due to the carcinogenic hazard which they present. PAHs are semi-volatile and therefore partition between vapour and condensed phases in the atmosphere and both the vapour and particulate forms undergo chemical reactions. This article briefly reviews the current understanding of vapour-particle partitioning of PAHs and the PAH deposition processes, and in greater detail, their chemical reactions. PAHs are reactive towards a number of atmospheric oxidants, most notably the hydroxyl radical, ozone, the nitrate radical (NO3) and nitrogen dioxide. Rate coefficient data are reviewed for reactions of lower molecular weight PAH vapour with these species as well as for heterogeneous reactions of higher molecular weight compounds. Whereas the data for reactions of the 2-3-ring PAH vapour are quite extensive and generally consistent, such data are mostly lacking for the 4-ring PAHs and the heterogeneous rate data (5 and more rings), which are dependent on the substrate type and reaction conditions, are less comprehensive. The atmospheric reactions of PAH lead to the formation of oxy and nitro derivatives, reviewed here, too. Finally, the capacity of PAHs for long range transport and the results of numerical model studies are described. Research needs are identified

Thin-disk laser – Power scaling to the kW regime in fundamental mode operation

A significant reduction of the influence of the thermal lens in thin-disk lasers in high power laser operation mode could be achieved, using dynamically stable resonators. For designing the resonator, investigations of thermally induced phase distortions of thin-disks as well as numerical simulations of the field distribution in the resonator were performed. This characterization was combined with thermo-mechanical computations. On the basis of these studies, about 500 W output power with an averaged M2 = 1.55 could be demonstrated, using one disk. Almost 1 kW output power with good beam quality could be extracted, using two disks. For the purpose of further power scaling in nearly fundamental mode operation, experiments using more than two disks are in preparation

Mode Dynamics and Thermal Lens Effects of Thin Disk Lasers

In principle, the thin disk laser concept opens the possibility to demonstrate high power, high efficiency and good beam quality, simultaneously. For this purpose a very homogeneous pump power distribution on the disk is necessary as well as very low phase distortions of the disk itself. Spatial mode structure and thermal lensing effects in an Yb:YAG thin disk laser have been investigated as function of the pump power in linear and folded resonators. Whereas thermal lensing is shown to be very weak due to the thin disk geometry, a strong correlation of the laser mode with respect to the power density distribution of the pump radiation is exhibited. The experimental results are compared with numerical simulations of the field distribution within the resonator as well as in the far field demonstrating the excellent homogeneity of the disk as laser active medium. The results will be used for scaling the fundamental mode power into the multi-kW-regime