Multimodality and ambient intelligence

In this report we discuss multimodal interface technology. We present examples of multimodal interfaces and show problems and opportunities. Fusion of modalities is discussed and some roadmap discussions on research in Multimodality are summarized. This report also discusses future developments where rather than communicating with a single computer, users communicate with their environment using multimodal interactions and where the environmental interface has perceptual competence that includes being able to interpret what is going on in the environment. We contribute roles to virtual humans in order to allow daily users of future computing environments to establish relationships with the environments, or more in particular, these virtual humans

Design, development and deployment of a hand/wrist exoskeleton for home-based rehabilitation after stroke - SCRIPT project

YesChanges in world-wide population trends have provided new demands for new technologies in areas such as care and rehabilitation. Recent developments in the the field of robotics for neurorehabilitation have shown a range of evidence regarding usefulness of these technologies as a tool to augment traditional physiotherapy. Part of the appeal for these technologies is the possibility to place a rehabilitative tool in one’s home, providing a chance for more frequent and accessible technologies for empowering individuals to be in charge of their therapy. Objective: this manuscript introduces the Supervised Care and Rehabilitation Involving Personal Tele-robotics (SCRIPT) project. The main goal is to demonstrate design and development steps involved in a complex intervention, while examining feasibility of using an instrumented orthotic device for home-based rehabilitation after stroke. Methods: the project uses a user-centred design methodology to develop a hand/wrist rehabilitation device for home-based therapy after stroke. The patient benefits from a dedicated user interface that allows them to receive feedback on exercise as well as communicating with the health-care professional. The health-care professional is able to use a dedicated interface to send/receive communications and remote-manage patient’s exercise routine using provided performance benchmarks. Patients were involved in a feasibility study (n=23) and were instructed to use the device and its interactive games for 180 min per week, around 30 min per day, for a period of 6 weeks, with a 2-months follow up. At the time of this study, only 12 of these patients have finished their 6 weeks trial plus 2 months follow up evaluation. Results: with the “use feasibility” as objective, our results indicate 2 patients dropping out due to technical difficulty or lack of personal interests to continue. Our frequency of use results indicate that on average, patients used the SCRIPT1 device around 14 min of self-administered therapy a day. The group average for the system usability scale was around 69% supporting system usability. Conclusions: based on the preliminary results, it is evident that stroke patients were able to use the system in their homes. An average of 14 min a day engagement mediated via three interactive games is promising, given the chronic stage of stroke. During the 2nd year of the project, 6 additional games with more functional relevance in their interaction have been designed to allow for a more variant context for interaction with the system, thus hoping to positively influence the exercise duration. The system usability was tested and provided supporting evidence for this parameter. Additional improvements to the system are planned based on formative feedback throughout the project and during the evaluations. These include a new orthosis that allows a more active control of the amount of assistance and resistance provided, thus aiming to provide a more challenging interaction.This work has been partially funded under Grant FP7-ICT-288698(SCRIPT) of the European Community Seventh Framework Programme

Avaliação preliminar de variedades de polinização aberta de milho em Santa Catarina nas safras 2009/10 e 2010/11.

Introdução; Material e Métodos; Resultados e Discussão; Conclusão; Referências bibliográficas; Tabelas

Grafted block complex coacervate core micelles and their effect on protein adsorption on silica and polystyrene

We have studied the formation and the stability of grafted block complex coacervate core micelles (C3Ms) in solution and the influence of grafted block C3M coatings on the adsorption of the proteins β-lactoglobulin, bovine serum albumin, and lysozyme. The C3Ms consist of a grafted block copolymer PAA21-b-PAPEO14 (poly(acrylic acid)-b-poly(acrylate methoxy poly(ethylene oxide)), with a negatively charged PAA block and a neutral PAPEO block and a positively charged homopolymer P2MVPI (poly(N-methyl 2-vinyl pyridinium iodide). In solution, these C3Ms partly disintegrate at salt concentrations between 50 and 100 mM NaCl. Adsorption of C3Ms and proteins has been studied with fixed-angle optical reflectometry, at salt concentrations ranging from 1 to 100 mM NaCl. In comparison with the adsorption of PAA21-b-PAPEO14 alone adsorption of C3Ms significantly increases the amount of PAA21-b-PAPEO14 on the surface. This results in a higher surface density of PEO chains. The stability of the C3M coatings and their influence on protein adsorption are determined by the composition and the stability of the C3Ms in solution. A C3M-PAPEO14/P2MVPI43 coating strongly suppresses the adsorption of all proteins on silica and polystyrene. The reduction of protein adsorption is the highest at 100 mM NaCl (>90%). The adsorbed C3M-PAPEO14/P2MVPI43 layer is partly removed from the surface upon exposure to an excess of β-lactoglobulin solution, due to formation of soluble aggregates consisting of β-lactoglobulin and P2MVPI43. In contrast, C3M-PAPEO14/P2MVPI228 which has a fivefold longer cationic block enhances adsorption of the negatively charged proteins on both surfaces at salt concentrations above 1 mM NaCl. A single PAA21-b-PAPEO14 layer causes only a moderate reduction of protein adsorption

Altering Chemosensitivity by Modulating Translation Elongation

BACKGROUND: The process of translation occurs at a nexus point downstream of a number of signal pathways and developmental processes. Modeling activation of the PTEN/AKT/mTOR pathway in the Emu-Myc mouse is a valuable tool to study tumor genotype/chemosensitivity relationships in vivo. In this model, blocking translation initiation with silvestrol, an inhibitor of the ribosome recruitment step has been showed to modulate the sensitivity of the tumors to the effect of standard chemotherapy. However, inhibitors of translation elongation have been tested as potential anti-cancer therapeutic agents in vitro, but have not been extensively tested in genetically well-defined mouse tumor models or for potential synergy with standard of care agents. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we chose four structurally different chemical inhibitors of translation elongation: homoharringtonine, bruceantin, didemnin B and cycloheximide, and tested their ability to alter the chemoresistance of Emu-myc lymphomas harbouring lesions in Pten, Tsc2, Bcl-2, or eIF4E. We show that in some genetic settings, translation elongation inhibitors are able to synergize with doxorubicin by reinstating an apoptotic program in tumor cells. We attribute this effect to a reduction in levels of pro-oncogenic or pro-survival proteins having short half-lives, like Mcl-1, cyclin D1 or c-Myc. Using lymphomas cells grown ex vivo we reproduced the synergy observed in mice between chemotherapy and elongation inhibition and show that this is reversed by blocking protein degradation with a proteasome inhibitor. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results indicate that depleting short-lived pro-survival factors by inhibiting their synthesis could achieve a therapeutic response in tumors harboring PTEN/AKT/mTOR pathway mutations

Grafted ionomer complexes and their effect on protein adsorption on silica and polysulfone surfaces

We have studied the formation and the stability of ionomer complexes from grafted copolymers (GICs) in solution and the influence of GIC coatings on the adsorption of the proteins β-lactoglobulin (β-lac), bovine serum albumin (BSA), and lysozyme (Lsz) on silica and polysulfone. The GICs consist of the grafted copolymer PAA28-co-PAPEO22 {poly(acrylic acid)-co-poly[acrylate methoxy poly(ethylene oxide)]} with negatively charged AA and neutral APEO groups, and the positively charged homopolymers: P2MVPI43 [poly(N-methyl 2-vinyl pyridinium iodide)] and PAH∙HCl160 [poly(allylamine hydrochloride)]. In solution, these aggregates are characterized by means of dynamic and static light scattering. They appear to be assemblies with hydrodynamic radii of 8 nm (GIC-PAPEO22/P2MVPI43) and 22 nm (GIC-PAPEO22/PAH∙HCl160), respectively. The GICs partly disintegrate in solution at salt concentrations above 10 mM NaCl. Adsorption of GICs and proteins has been studied with fixed angle optical reflectometry at salt concentrations ranging from 1 to 50 mM NaCl. Adsorption of GICs results in high density PEO side chains on the surface. Higher densities were obtained for GICs consisting of PAH∙HCl160 (1.6 ÷ 1.9 chains/nm2) than of P2MVPI43 (0.6 ÷ 1.5 chains/nm2). Both GIC coatings strongly suppress adsorption of all proteins on silica (>90%); however, reduction of protein adsorption on polysulfone depends on the composition of the coating and the type of protein. We observed a moderate reduction of β-lac and Lsz adsorption (>60%). Adsorption of BSA on the GIC-PAPEO22/P2MVPI43 coating is moderately reduced, but on the GIC-PAPEO22/PAH∙HCl160 coating it is enhanced

Reduced costs with bisoprolol treatment for heart failure - An economic analysis of the second Cardiac Insufficiency Bisoprolol Study (CIBIS-II)

Background Beta-blockers, used as an adjunctive to diuretics, digoxin and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, improve survival in chronic heart failure. We report a prospectively planned economic analysis of the cost of adjunctive beta-blocker therapy in the second Cardiac Insufficiency BIsoprolol Study (CIBIS II). Methods Resource utilization data (drug therapy, number of hospital admissions, length of hospital stay, ward type) were collected prospectively in all patients in CIBIS . These data were used to determine the additional direct costs incurred, and savings made, with bisoprolol therapy. As well as the cost of the drug, additional costs related to bisoprolol therapy were added to cover the supervision of treatment initiation and titration (four outpatient clinic/office visits). Per them (hospital bed day) costings were carried out for France, Germany and the U.K. Diagnosis related group costings were performed for France and the U.K. Our analyses took the perspective of a third party payer in France and Germany and the National Health Service in the U.K. Results Overall, fewer patients were hospitalized in the bisoprolol group, there were fewer hospital admissions perpatient hospitalized, fewer hospital admissions overall, fewer days spent in hospital and fewer days spent in the most expensive type of ward. As a consequence the cost of care in the bisoprolol group was 5-10% less in all three countries, in the per them analysis, even taking into account the cost of bisoprolol and the extra initiation/up-titration visits. The cost per patient treated in the placebo and bisoprolol groups was FF35 009 vs FF31 762 in France, DM11 563 vs DM10 784 in Germany and pound 4987 vs pound 4722 in the U.K. The diagnosis related group analysis gave similar results. Interpretation Not only did bisoprolol increase survival and reduce hospital admissions in CIBIS II, it also cut the cost of care in so doing. This `win-win' situation of positive health benefits associated with cost savings is Favourable from the point of view of both the patient and health care systems. These findings add further support for the use of beta-blockers in chronic heart failure

Designing Focused and Efficient Annotation Tools

The creation of large, richly annotated, multimodal corpora of human interactions is an expensive and time consuming task. Support from annotation tools that make the annotation process more efficient is required, especially if the annotation effort involves really large amounts of data. Therefore we investigated how different properties of specific annotation tasks can have an impact on the design of a tool focused on that general class of tasks. In this paper we present our view on the considerations that should drive the design of new tools geared to specific tasks. The main dimensions that we consider are: observation vs interpretation, explicit and implicit input layers, segmentation, feedback, constraints, relations and the content of the annotation elements