Insulin overlapping in whole blood FTIR spectroscopy in blood glucose measurements

For the last decade, several studies on mid-IR spectroscopy for blood glucose quantification have not considered the compounds involved in the glucose regulation mechanism, in which insulin plays an important role. This work shows how insulin overlaps in the same mid-IR region in which glucose is quantified. This optical absorption interference is an important factor to be considered for this type of studies, in the scope of whole blood modeling for spectroscopy applications and the possible use of computer based metrics. Keywords: Biomedical Optics, Glucose quantification, Whole blood, Insulin, FTIR Spectroscop

Characteristics of a Persuasive Educational System: A Systematic Literature Review

The need to compete for users’ attention and provide them with the best user experience has increased the use of persuasion strategies in modern systems. Currently, Persuasive Systems (PSs) promote healthy behavior for well-being, energy consumption, and learning. Although the educational domain has limited investigation compared to other areas, PSs in education have been shown to be effective in motivating students. This paper summarizes the existing evidence on Persuasive Educational Systems (PESs), emphasizing research on the current design methods, evaluation methods, and characteristics. We follow Kitchenham’s method to perform a systematic literature review about PESs published between 2014 and 2020, with 19 relevant studies selected. We highlight some results from the analysis of selected papers such as persuasion strategies, use of a personalized persuasion technique, study of students’ susceptibility to strategies, integration of gamification mechanisms, and proposed tools to design PES. Moreover, we discuss interesting facts such as the common practice of using more than one tool to design PES, aspects of interaction, persuasion, learning, and the challenges in evaluating persuasive impact. Finally, as the main contribution of the paper we identify the seven necessary characteristics to build a persuasive educational system

Study on MID-IR Spectroscopy on Whole Blood Samples for Human Glucose Quanitification Applications

The importance of a systematic glucose monitoring in order to keep a steady control for diabetic patients has been established. Several medical studies accept the necessity of exploring alternatives for the traditional digital glucometer, given the pain and discomfort related to the application of this technique, which can lead to a compromised control of the disease. Several efforts based on the application of IR spectroscopy have been done with favorable, yet not conclusive results. Therefore it’s necessary to apply a comprehensive and interdisciplinary study based on the biochemical and optical properties of the glucose in the human body in order to understand the interaction between this substance, its surroundings, and IR light. This study proposes a comprehensive approach of the glucose and IR light interaction, considering and combining important biochemical, physiological and optical properties such as the effect of glucose regulation compounds and data mining based chemometrics techniques. The results of this work would help to define the right parameters, aiming to obtain an optical glucose quantification or classification system, as well as the protocol for the purpose

Nyquist-Shannon theorem application for Savitzky-Golay smoothing window size parameter determination in bio-optical signals

The amount of data generated in the laboratory increases constantly, where a common problem needed to be addressed during the data preparation stage is related to noise. The Savitzky-Golay method has been established as the common smoothing technique, where the process is based on two parameters: polynomial order and window size, which are commonly empirically determined. This work shows how the application of the Nyquist theorem allows to calculate the window size parameter of the Savitzky-Golay smoothing method, in order to process bio-optical signals. Like in the case of mid-IR glucose absorption and cervical spine X-ray images, from which a derivative based analysis allows to either confirm or determine regions of interest for further study

Escala 1:750.000

Fil: Secretaría de Industria, Comercio y Minería. Subsecretaría de Minería. Servicio Geológico Minero Argentino. Instituto de Geología y Recursos Minerales; Argentina