Early identification of wound infection: understanding wound odour

Malodorous wounds can be distressing for patients and their families, negatively impacting on quality-of-life outcomes. For health professionals malodorous wounds can also cause distress manifesting in feelings of disgust when faced with a wound emitting an unpleasant or repulsive odour. There has been investigation into the management of controlling odour particularly in relation to fungating wounds. However, there is limited research that explores techniques for early identification and recognition of wound odours that may be indicative of infection. Electronic nose technology has received some attention, but to date has not been integrated into either diagnostics of infection in wounds or education of health professionals to prepare them for the realities of clinical practice

Design requirements and challenges for intelligent power wheelchair use in crowds: learning from expert wheelchair users

An intelligent or smart power wheelchair is normally built on a standard power wheelchair with additional modules for perception, navigation or interaction purposes. It adds autonomy to the wheelchair and provides a technical solution to the safety concerns, thus opening the possibility for people who are considered not suitable to use a standard power wheelchair. Although the research in this field has been going on for decades, most of them focus on dealing with static or simple dynamic environments. In addition, the role of the user is sometimes overlooked during the design and development process. In our project, we aim to design a user-centred intelligent wheelchair and extend its application area to one of the most difficult scenarios faced by wheelchair users­, ­­navigating among crowds. As we start the process of designing a smart wheelchair, we present the results of an initial study with expert wheelchair users' to gain insights into their design requirements and challenges when navigating in crowds

Effect of Environmental Factors on How Older Pedestrians Detect an Upcoming Step

The relationships between environmental features and older people’s ability to safely move around a complex pedestrian environment are, as yet, poorly understood. Specifically, the impact of light levels on trip hazard detection during walking has received relatively little attention. This study investigates the effect of illuminance on people’s ability to detect steps of different heights in a laboratory-based controlled environment. Sixteen young and 15 older participants walked along a 13.2 m walkway towards an either ascending or descending step at 200 lux or 4 lux light levels. Trial time, gaze behaviour and distance at which the step was first visually fixated (detection distance) were measured using an eye-tracker. It was found that both the trial time and detection distance of older participants were affected by light level whereas the fixation number and fixation duration of young participants were affected by step-height. Shorter detection distance, greater number of fixations and longer fixation duration were found among older participants as opposed to young participants. The results suggest that the processing efficiency for visual information on an upcoming step is slower among older people than among young people. This implies that the vulnerability of older pedestrians maybe be reduced if better lighting or a simplified visual environment is provided

Robotic milking technologies and renegotiating situated ethical relationships on UK dairy farms

Robotic or automatic milking systems (AMS) are novel technologies that take over the labor of dairy farming and reduce the need for human-animal interactions. Because robotic milking involves the replacement of 'conventional' twice-a-day milking managed by people with a system that supposedly allows cows the freedom to be milked automatically whenever they choose, some claim robotic milking has health and welfare benefits for cows, increases productivity, and has lifestyle advantages for dairy farmers. This paper examines how established ethical relations on dairy farms are unsettled by the intervention of a radically different technology such as AMS. The renegotiation of ethical relationships is thus an important dimension of how the actors involved are re-assembled around a new technology. The paper draws on in-depth research on UK dairy farms comparing those using conventional milking technologies with those using AMS. We explore the situated ethical relations that are negotiated in practice, focusing on the contingent and complex nature of human-animal-technology interactions. We show that ethical relations are situated and emergent, and that as the identities, roles, and subjectivities of humans and animals are unsettled through the intervention of a new technology, the ethical relations also shift. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Nicotine Directly Induces Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Response in Rat Placental Trophoblast Giant Cells

Nicotine exposure during pregnancy leads to placental insufficiency impairing both fetal and neonatal development. Previous studies from our laboratory have demonstrated that in rats,nicotine augmented endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in association with placental insufficiency, however, the underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Therefore, we sought to investigate the possible direct effect of nicotine on ER stress in Rcho-1 rat placental trophoblastgiant (TG) cells during differentiation. Protein and/or mRNA expression of markers involved in ER stress (e.g., phosphorylated PERK, eIF2α, CHOP, BiP/GRP78) and trophoblast giant cell differentiation and function (e.g., Pl-1, Pgf, Hsd11b1, and Hsd11b2) were quantified via Western blot or Real-Time PCR. Nicotine treatment led to dose-dependent increases in the phosphorylation of PERK[Thr981] and eIF2α[Ser51], whereas pre-treatment with a nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) antagonist (mecamylamine hydrochloride) blocked the induction of PERK phosphorylation, verifying the direct involvement of nicotine and nAChR binding. We next investigated select target genes known to play essential roles in placental TG cell differentiation and function (Pl-1, Pgf, Hsd11b1, and Hsd11b2), and found that nicotine significantly augmented the mRNA levels of Hsd11b1 in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, using Tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), a safe bile acid known to improve protein chaperoning and folding, we were able to prevent nicotine-induced increases in both PERK phosphorylation and Hsd11b1 mRNA levels, revealing a potential novel therapeutic approach to reverse the deleterious effects of nicotine exposure in pregnancy. Collectively, these results implicate that nicotine, acting through its receptor, can directly augment ER stress and impair placental function

What difference does tech make? Conceptualizations of Disability and Assistive Technology among Kenyan Youth: Conceptualizations of Disability and AT

Most research which investigates stigma towards with people with disabilities and the use of Assistive Technology (AT) are based in the Global North and focus on the experiences of people with disabilities and the consequences that stigma has on choices surrounding AT. However, stigma is a societal construct rooted in the attitude and beliefs that people without disabilities hold on disability and AT. Furthermore, the portrayal of people with disabilities and AT is dependent on the social context. In this paper, we examine how young Kenyans without disabilities view people with disabilities and AT users. Findings show that while the portrayal of disability is often shaped by negative emotion, participants felt that many of the barriers affecting people with disabilities were created by society. Perceptions of AT differed-devices were not only seen as a mark of disability but also as a sign of access to resources. Therefore, what we see is an emergent picture where social barriers can be reinforced by poverty, and where poverty reinforces social barriers faced by people with disabilities. We conclude that access to appropriate technology alongside societal interventions tackling incorrect beliefs about disability can help to overcome the stigma faced by people with disabilities

Maternal Nicotine Exposure Leads to Augmented Expression of the Antioxidant Adipose Tissue Triglyceride Lipase Long-Term in the White Adipose of Female Rat Offspring.

Globally, approximately 10-25% of women smoke during pregnancy. Since nicotine is highly addictive, women may use nicotine containing products like nicotine replacement therapies for smoking cessation, but the long-term consequences of early life exposure to nicotine remain poorly defined. Our laboratory has previously demonstrated that maternal nicotine exposed (MNE) rat offspring exhibit hypertriglyceridemia due to increased hepatic de novo lipogenesis. Hypertriglyceridemia may also be attributed to impaired white adipose tissue (WAT) lipid storage; however, the effects of MNE on WAT are not completely understood. We hypothesize that nicotine-induced alterations in adipose function (e.g. lipid storage) underlie dyslipidemia in MNE adults. Female 6 month old rats exposed to nicotine during gestation and lactation exhibited significantly decreased visceral adipocyte cell area by 40%, attributed, in part, to a 3-fold increase in adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) protein expression compared to vehicle. Given ATGL has antioxidant properties and in utero nicotine exposure promotes oxidative stress in various tissues, we next investigated if there was evidence of increased oxidative stress in MNE WAT. At both 3 weeks and 6 months, MNE offspring expressed 37-48% higher protein levels of SOD1 and SOD2 in WAT. Since oxidative stress can induce inflammation, we examined the inflammatory profile of WAT and found increased expression of cytokines (IL-1β, TNFα, and IL-6) by 44-61% at 6 months. Collectively, this suggests that the expression of WAT ATGL may be induced to counter MNE-induced oxidative stress and inflammation. However, higher levels of ATGL would further promote lipolysis in WAT, culminating in impaired lipid storage and long-term dyslipidemia