The NIRS Cap: Key Part of Emerging Wearable Brain-Device Interfaces

Nowadays, near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) fills a niche in medical imaging due to various reasons including non‐invasiveness and portability. The special characteristics of NIRS imaging make it suitable to handle topics that were only approachable using electroencephalography (EEG) such as imaging infants and children; or studying the human brain activity during actions, like walking and drawing that require a certain amount of freedom that non‐portable devices such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) cannot permit. This chapter discusses the unique advantages of NIRS as a functional imaging method and the main obstacles that still prevent this technology from becoming a prominent medical imaging tool. In particular, in this chapter we focus on the design of the brain‐device interface: the NIRS cap and its important role in the imaging process

Towards an aspect-oriented software development model with quality measurements

An effective software development approach must harmonize the need to build the functional behavior of a system with the need to clearly model the associated nonfunctional requirements that affect parts of the system or the system as a whole. Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD) aims at providing a systematic support for the identification, separation, representation (through proper modeling and documentation), and composition of crosscutting requirements (both functional and nonfunctional) as well as mechanisms that can make them traceable throughout the software development. In this work, we discuss a sequence of systematic activities towards an early consideration of specifying and separating crosscutting requirements. This approach would make it possible to identify and resolve conflicts between the crosscutting requirements earlier in the development cycle and to promote traceability of broadly scoped requirements throughout system development, maintenance and evolution. In addition, we propose sets of quality measurements to be associated with the AOSD activities in order to assist stakeholders with quantitative evidences on the quality of the modeling decisions throughout the development process, and of the final product

Formal and quantitative approach to non-functional requirements modeling and assessment in software engineering

In the software market place, in which functionally equivalent products compete for the same customer, Non Functional Requirements (NFRs) become more important in distinguishing between the competing products. However, in practice, NFRs receive little attention relative to Functional Requirements (FRs). This is mainly because of the nature of these requirements which poses a challenge when taking the choice of treating them earlier in the software development. NFRs are subjective, relative and they become scattered among multiple modules when they are mapped from the requirements domain to the solution space. Furthermore, NFRs can often interact, in the sense that attempts to achieve one NFR can help or hinder the achievement of other NFRs at particular software functionality. Such an interaction creates an extensive network of interdependencies and tradeoffs among NFRs which is not easy to trace or estimate. This thesis contributes towards achieving the goal of managing the attainable scope and the changes of NFRs. The thesis proposes and empirically evaluates a formal and quantitative approach to modeling and assessing NFRs. Central to such an approach is the implementation of the proposed NFRs Ontology for capturing and structuring the knowledge on the software requirements (FRs and NFRs), their refinements, and their interdependencies. In this thesis, we also propose a change management mechanism for tracing the impact of NFRs on the other constructs in the ontology and vice-versa. We provide a traceability mechanism using Datalog expressions to implement queries on the relational model-based representation for the ontology. An alternative implementation view using XML and XQuery is provided as well. In addition, we propose a novel approach for the early requirements-based effort estimation, based on NFRs Ontology. The effort estimation approach complementarily uses one standard functional size measurement model, namely COSMIC, and a linear regression techniqu

The NIRS Cap: Key Part of Emerging Wearable Brain-Device Interfaces

ABSTRACT: Nowadays, near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) fills a niche in medical imaging due to various reasons including non‐invasiveness and portability. The special characteristics of NIRS imaging make it suitable to handle topics that were only approachable using electroencephalography (EEG) such as imaging infants and children; or studying the human brain activity during actions, like walking and drawing that require a certain amount of freedom that non‐portable devices such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) cannot permit. This chapter discusses the unique advantages of NIRS as a functional imaging method and the main obstacles that still prevent this technology from becoming a prominent medical imaging tool. In particular, in this chapter we focus on the design of the brain‐device interface: the NIRS cap and its important role in the imaging process

Managing Requirement Volatility in an Ontology-Driven Clinical LIMS Using Category Theory. International Journal of Telemedicine and Applications

Requirement volatility is an issue in software engineering in general, and in Web-based clinical applications in particular, which often originates from an incomplete knowledge of the domain of interest. With advances in the health science, many features and functionalities need to be added to, or removed from, existing software applications in the biomedical domain. At the same time, the increasing complexity of biomedical systems makes them more difficult to understand, and consequently it is more difficult to define their requirements, which contributes considerably to their volatility. In this paper, we present a novel agent-based approach for analyzing and managing volatile and dynamic requirements in an ontology-driven laboratory information management system (LIMS) designed for Web-based case reporting in medical mycology. The proposed framework is empowered with ontologies and formalized using category theory to provide a deep and common understanding of the functional and nonfunctional requirement hierarchies and their interrelations, and to trace the effects of a change on the conceptual framework.Comment: 36 Pages, 16 Figure

An Efficient and Decentralized Blockchain-based Commercial Alternative (Full Version)

While online interactions and exchanges have grown exponentially over the past decade, most commercial infrastructures still operate through centralized protocols, and their success essentially depends on trust between different economic actors. Digital advances such as blockchain technology has led to a massive wave of \textit{Decentralized Ledger Technology} (\textit{DLT}) initiatives, protocols and solutions. This advance makes it possible to implement trustless systems in the real world, which, combined with appropriate economic and participatory incentives, would foster the proper functioning and drive the adoption of a decentralized platform among different actors. This paper describes an alternative to current commercial structures and networks by introducing \textit{Lyzis Labs}, which is is an incentive-driven and democratic protocol designed to support a decentralized online marketplace, based on blockchain technology. The proposal, \textit{Lyzis Marketplace}, allows to connect two or more people in a decentralized and secure way without having to rely on a \textit{Trusted Third Party} (\textit{TTP}) in order to perform physical asset exchanges while mainly providing transparent and fully protected data storage. This approach can potentially lead to the creation of a permissionless, efficient, secure and transparent business environment where each user can gain purchasing and decision-making power by supporting the collective welfare while following their personal interests during their various interactions on the network.Comment: 62 pages, 9 figures, 19 table

Development and validation of a stability-indicating analytical method for simultaneous determination of drugs employed in canine leishmaniasis treatment

We developed and validated a stability-indicating method for the simultaneous determination of allopurinol and ketoconazole in the pharmaceutical form of capsules. A Dionex® liquid chromatograph equipped with a diode array detector (DAD) and InertSustain® C18 column (4.6 x 100 mm x 3 μm) was used and InertSustain® C18 column (4.6 x 100 mm x 3 μm). The chromatographic separation occurred in the isocratic mode with a flow rate of 0.45 mL min-1 and mobile phase composed of acetonitrile: water (52:48 v/v) with pH adjusted to 3.0. The wavelengths used were 250 nm for allopurinol and 225 nm for ketoconazole. The method was validated by evaluating the parameters of linearity, limits of detection and quantification, precision, accuracy, robustness, and selectivity. The method presented linearity. It was precise, with coefficients of variation lower than 2.0%, and accurate, with recovery close to 100.00%. Robustness was indicated by the Plackett-Burman model, and the method was not significantly influenced by any of the variations. The selectivity was proven by the peak purities close to 1000 in both the presence of excipients and drug degradation products. Therefore the proposed method is simple and fast, with separation for both drugs less than four minutes

Development and validation of UV spectrophotometric method for determination of levofloxacin in pharmaceutical dosage forms

The objective of this research was to develop and validate an alternative analytical method for quantitative determination of levofloxacin in tablets and injection preparations. The calibration curves were linear over a concentration range from 3.0 to 8.0 μg mL-1. The relative standard deviation was below 1.0% for both formulations and average recovery was 101.42 ± 0.45% and 100.34 ± 0.85% for tablets and injection formulations, respectively. The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 0.08 and 0.25 μg mL-1, respectively. It was concluded that the developed method is suitable for the quality control of levofloxacin in pharmaceuticals formulations.Fundação de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento de Ensino, Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul (FAPEMS)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES

Safeguarding Physical Sneaker Sale Through a Decentralized Medium

Sneakers were designated as the most counterfeited fashion item online, with three times more risk in a trade than any other fashion purchase. As the market expands, the current sneaker scene displays several vulnerabilities and trust flaws, mostly related to the legitimacy of assets or actors. In this paper, we investigate various blockchain-based mechanisms to address these large-scale trust issues. We argue that (i) pre-certified and tracked assets through the use of non-fungible tokens can ensure the genuine nature of an asset and authenticate its owner more effectively during peer-to-peer trading across a marketplace; (ii) a game-theoretic-based system with economic incentives for participating users can greatly reduce the rate of online fraud and address missed delivery deadlines; (iii) a decentralized dispute resolution system biased in favour of an honest party can solve potential conflicts more reliably

Quantitative determination of ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin in pharmaceutical preparations by high performance liquid chromatography

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi desenvolver e validar um método analítico para a determinação quantitativa do ciprofloxacino (CIP) e do norfloxacino (NOR) em preparações farmacêuticas. Um método cromatográfico simples e rápido foi desenvolvido e validado para a determinação quantitativa de dois antibióticos fluoroquinolônicos em comprimidos e injetáveis. As quinolonas foram analisadas empregando-se uma coluna RP-18, LiChrospher® 100 (125 x 4 mm, 5µm) e fase móvel constituída por água:acetonitrila:trietilamina (80:20:0.3 v/v/v). O pH da mistura final foi ajustado a 3,3 com ácido fosfórico. A vazão da fase móvel foi de 1,0 mL/min e a detecção em UV a 279 nm. As análises foram realizadas à temperatura ambiente (24±2 ºC). O CIP e o NOR eluíram em menos de 5 min. As curvas de calibração foram lineares (r >; 0.9999) na faixa de concentração entre 4,0 e 24,0 µg/mL. O desvio padrão relativo (RSD) foi ; 0.9999) over a concentration range from 4.0 to 24.0 µg/mL. The relative standard deviation (RSD) was < 1.0% and the mean recovery was 101.85%