Discussion of Building Electrical Lighting Energy-saving Design

This paper mainly for the construction of electrical energy-saving lighting design analysis, discussed the importance of building electrical lighting energy-saving design, and specifically describes how electrical energy-saving design, in order to provide reference for the construction of electrical energy-saving design.

Pragmatic oriented data interoperability for smart healthcare information systems

Smart healthcare is a complex domain for systems integration due to human and technical factors and heterogeneous data sources involved. As a part of smart city, it is such a complex area where clinical functions require smartness of multi-systems collaborations for effective communications among departments, and radiology is one of the areas highly relies on intelligent information integration and communication. Therefore, it faces many challenges regarding integration and its interoperability such as information collision, heterogeneous data sources, policy obstacles, and procedure mismanagement. The purpose of this study is to conduct an analysis of data, semantic, and pragmatic interoperability of systems integration in radiology department, and to develop a pragmatic interoperability framework for guiding the integration. We select an on-going project at a local hospital for undertaking our case study. The project is to achieve data sharing and interoperability among Radiology Information Systems (RIS), Electronic Patient Record (EPR), and Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS). Qualitative data collection and analysis methods are used. The data sources consisted of documentation including publications and internal working papers, one year of non-participant observations and 37 interviews with radiologists, clinicians, directors of IT services, referring clinicians, radiographers, receptionists and secretary. We identified four primary phases of data analysis process for the case study: requirements and barriers identification, integration approach, interoperability measurements, and knowledge foundations. Each phase is discussed and supported by qualitative data. Through the analysis we also develop a pragmatic interoperability framework that summaries the empirical findings and proposes recommendations for guiding the integration in the radiology context

A multi-agent system for pervasive healthcare

Wireless technology based pervasive healthcare has been proposed in many applications such as disease management and accident prevention for cost saving and promoting citizen’s wellbeing. However, the emphasis so far is on the artefacts with limited attentions to guiding the development of an effective and efficient solution for pervasive healthcare. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a framework of multi-agent systems design for pervasive healthcare by adopting the concept of pervasive informatics and using the methods of organisational semiotics. The proposed multi-agent system for pervasive healthcare utilises sensory information to support healthcare professionals for providing appropriate care. The key contributions contain theoretical aspect and practical aspect. In theory, this paper articulates the information interactions between the pervasive healthcare environment and stakeholders by using the methods of organisational semiotics; in practice, the proposed framework improves the healthcare quality by providing appropriate medical attentions when and as needed. In this paper, both systems and functional architecture of the multi-agent system are elaborated with the use of wireless technologies such as RFID and wireless sensor networks. The future study will focus on the implementation of the proposed framework

Muscle activity-driven green-oriented random number generation mechanism to secure WBSN wearable device communications

Wireless body sensor networks (WBSNs) mostly consist of low-cost sensor nodes and implanted devices which generally have extremely limited capability of computations and energy capabilities. Hence, traditional security protocols and privacy enhancing technologies are not applicable to the WBSNs since their computations and cryptographic primitives are normally exceedingly complicated. Nowadays, mobile wearable and wireless muscle-computer interfaces have been integrated with the WBSN sensors for various applications such as rehabilitation, sports, entertainment, and healthcare. In this paper, we propose MGRNG, a novel muscle activity-driven green-oriented random number generation mechanism which uses the human muscle activity as green energy resource to generate random numbers (RNs). The RNs can be used to enhance the privacy of wearable device communications and secure WBSNs for rehabilitation purposes. The method was tested on 10 healthy subjects as well as 5 amputee subjects with 105 segments of simultaneously recorded surface electromyography signals from their forearm muscles. The proposed MGRNG requires only one second to generate a 128-bit RN, which is much more efficient when compared to the electrocardiography-based RN generation algorithms. Experimental results show that the RNs generated from human muscle activity signals can pass the entropy test and the NIST random test and thus can be used to secure the WBSN nodes

Impact of exercise training on gut microbiome imbalance in obese individuals: a study based on Mendelian randomization analysis

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between exercise and gut Microbiome and to assess its possible causality.Methods: Using Mendelian randomization (MR) research methods, we collected genetic data from different populations, including genetic variants associated with relative abundance or presence of microbial taxa as instrumental variables. At the same time, we extracted results related to obesity and gut Microbiome from existing relevant studies and used inverse variance weighting (IVW), weighted median, and MR-Egger regression to assess the causal relationship between obesity and gut Microbiome. We plotted forest plots and scatter plots of the association between obesity and gut Microbiome.Results: Gut Microbiome was positively associated with obesity, and four bacterial genera (Akkermansia, RuminococcaceaeUCG011, Holdemania, and Intestinimonas) were associated with obesity according to inverse variance-weighted estimation in at least one MR method. Inverse variance weighted estimation showed that obesity was associated with obesity in Akkermansia (OR = 0.810, 95% CI 0.608–1.079, p = 0.04), RuminococcaceaeUCG011 (OR = 1.238, 95% CI 0. 511–2.999, p = 0.04), Holdemania Intestinimonas (OR = 1.214, 95% CI 1.002–1.470, p = 0.03), and Intestinimonas (OR = 0.747, 95% CI 0.514–1.086, p = 0.01) had a relevant effect. Obesity decreased the abundance of Akkermansia, Intestinimonas microbiome and increased the abundance of RuminococcaceaeUCG011, Holdemania microbiome.Conclusion: The results of this study, conducted using a two-sample Mendelian randomization method, suggest a causal relationship between obesity and intestinal microbiome. Obesity decreased the abundance of Akkermansia, Intestinimonas microbiome and increased the abundance of RuminococcaceaeUCG011, Holdemania microbiome. More randomized controlled trials are necessary to elucidate the protective effects of exercise on gut Microbiome and its unique protective mechanisms

RITA: Boost Autonomous Driving Simulators with Realistic Interactive Traffic Flow

High-quality traffic flow generation is the core module in building simulators for autonomous driving. However, the majority of available simulators are incapable of replicating traffic patterns that accurately reflect the various features of real-world data while also simulating human-like reactive responses to the tested autopilot driving strategies. Taking one step forward to addressing such a problem, we propose Realistic Interactive TrAffic flow (RITA) as an integrated component of existing driving simulators to provide high-quality traffic flow for the evaluation and optimization of the tested driving strategies. RITA is developed with consideration of three key features, i.e., fidelity, diversity, and controllability, and consists of two core modules called RITABackend and RITAKit. RITABackend is built to support vehicle-wise control and provide traffic generation models from real-world datasets, while RITAKit is developed with easy-to-use interfaces for controllable traffic generation via RITABackend. We demonstrate RITA's capacity to create diversified and high-fidelity traffic simulations in several highly interactive highway scenarios. The experimental findings demonstrate that our produced RITA traffic flows exhibit all three key features, hence enhancing the completeness of driving strategy evaluation. Moreover, we showcase the possibility for further improvement of baseline strategies through online fine-tuning with RITA traffic flows.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 3 table

Nitrogen-Doped Nanoporous Carbon Membranes with Co/CoP Janus-Type Nanocrystals as Hydrogen Evolution Electrode in Both Acidic and Alkaline Environments

Self-supported electrocatalysts being generated and employed directly as electrodes for energy conversion has been intensively pursued in the fields of materials chemistry and energy. Herein, we report a synthetic strategy to prepare freestanding hierarchically structured, nitrogen-doped nanoporous graphitic carbon membranes functionalized with Janus-type Co/CoP nanocrystals (termed as HNDCM-Co/CoP), which were successfully applied as a highly efficient, binder-free electrode in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Benefited from multiple structural merits, such as a high degree of graphitization, three-dimensionally interconnected micro/meso/macropores, uniform nitrogen doping, well-dispersed Co/CoP nanocrystals, as well as the confinement effect of the thin carbon layer on the nanocrystals, HNDCM-Co/CoP exhibited superior electrocatalytic activity and long-term operation stability for HER under both acidic and alkaline conditions. As a proof-of-concept of practical usage, a 5.6 cm x 4 cm x 60 μm macroscopic piece of HNDCM-Co/CoP was prepared in our laboratory. Driven by a solar cell, electroreduction of water in alkaline conditions (pH 14) was performed, and H2 was produced at a rate of 16 mL/min, demonstrating its potential as real-life energy conversion systems

Nitrogen-doped Nanoporous Carbon Membranes Functionalized with Co/CoP Janus-type nanocrystals as Hydrogen Evolution Electrode in Both Acid and Alkaline Environment

Self-supported electrocatalysts being generated and employed directly as electrode for energy conversion has been intensively pursued in the fields of materials chemistry and energy. Herein, we report a synthetic strategy to prepare freestanding hierarchically structured, nitrogen-doped nanoporous graphitic carbon membranes functionalized with Janus-type Co/CoP nanocrystals (termed as HNDCM-Co/CoP), which were successfully applied as a highly-efficient, binder-free electrode in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Benefited from multiple structural merits, such as high degree of graphitization, three-dimensionally interconnected micro-/meso-/macropores, uniform nitrogen-doping, well-dispersed Co/CoP nanocrystals as well as the confinement effect of the thin carbon layer on the nanocrystals, HNDCM-Co/CoP exhibited superior electrocatalytic activity and long-term operation stability for HER under both acid and alkaline conditions. As a proof-of-concept of practical usage, a macroscopic piece of HNDCM-Co/CoP of 5.6 cm x 4 cm x 60 um in size was prepared in our laboratory. Driven by a solar cell, electroreduction of water in alkaline condition (pH 14) was performed, and H2 has been produced at a rate of 16 ml/min, demonstrating its potential as real-life energy conversion systems.Comment: 31 pages, 15 page

Towards Evaluating Pitch-Related Phonation Function in Speech Communication Using High-Density Surface Electromyography

Pitch, as a sensation of the sound frequency, is a crucial attribute toward constructing a natural voice for communication. Producing intelligible sounds with normal pitches depend on substantive interdependencies among facial and neck muscles. Clarifying the interrelations between the pitches and the corresponding muscular activities would be helpful for evaluating the pitch-related phonating functions, which would play a significant role both in training pronunciation and in assessing dysphonia. In this study, the speech signals and the high-density surface electromyography (HD sEMG) signals were synchronously acquired when phonating [a:], [i:], and [ә:] vowels with increasing pitches, respectively. The HD sEMG energy maps were constructed based on the root mean square values to visualize spatiotemporal characteristics of facial and neck muscle activities. Normalized median frequency (nMF) and root-mean square (nRMS) were correspondingly extracted from the speech and sEMG recordings to quantitatively investigate the correlations between sound frequencies and myoelectric characteristics. The results showed that the frame-wise energy maps built from sEMG recordings presented that the muscle contraction strength increased monotonously across pitch-rising, with left-right symmetrical distribution for the face/neck. Furthermore, the nRMS increased at a similar rate to the nMF when there were rising pitches, and the two parameters had a significant correlation across different vowel tasks [(a:) (0.88 ± 0.04), (i:) (0.89 ± 0.04), and (ә:) (0.87 ± 0.05)]. These findings suggested the possibility of utilizing muscle contraction patterns as a reference for evaluating pitch-related phonation functions. The proposed method could open a new window for developing a clinical approach for assessing the muscular functions of dysphonia