GR-100 - Non-Invasive Monitoring of Human Hygiene using Vibration Sensor and Classifiers

Abstract: Personal hygiene is how people take care of their bodies. Maintaining hygiene practice reduces the spread of illness and the risk of medical conditions. With the current pandemic situation, practices like washing hands and taking regular showers have taken major importance among people, especially for senior populations that live alone at home. Having an understanding of the human hygiene habits of our seniors is fundamental to monitoring health conditions.This research work presents the concept and idea of a noninvasive monitoring system for human hygiene using only vibration sensors. The approach is based on a geophone, a digitizer, and a cost-efficient computer board (raspberry pi). We capture the vibration of the water flow while people perform activities in the bathroom (open faucet, flush toilets) and kitchen (open kitchen sink). Results show that our approach can distinguish from these different activities with an accuracy higher than 90%. With this approach, we hope to start a new tendency of monitoring people activities without using cameras or other privacy-invasive methods.Department: Information TechnologySupervisor: Dr. Maria ValeroTopics: IoT/Cloud/Networkin

Research Notes : India : Mutation breeding research in soybean in India

Systematic mutation breeding research in India was started at Ranchi Agricultural College, Kanke, Bihar, India, around 1971 by Haque and his co-workers. Choudhary (1972) studied induced polygenic variability in the R-II generation in the variety of \u27Sepaya Black\u27 of soybean. Choudhary (1972) reported that 10 Kr radiation treatment of gamma rays was effective in shifting the mean values in positive direction for various quantitative characters including seed yield

Reversible Cerebral Vasoconstriction Disorder in a Patient with a Chief Complaint of Headache.

As emergency medicine physicians, we have formulated an approach to managing patients with a chief complaint of headache that starts with considering the story the patient relays in the context of a wide differential. Here we will describe a case that presented to our emergency department in hopes to broaden your differential. Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS), well described in the neurology literature, is characterized by severe headaches that may or may not be accompanied by neurological symptoms and is definitively diagnosed by diffuse constriction of cerebral arteries on cerebral angiogram. Here we present a case of a patient who presented to the emergency department with intermittent severe persistant headaches and was diagnosed with reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome

Single and two-particle energy gaps across the disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transition

The competition between superconductivity and localization raises profound questions in condensed matter physics. In spite of decades of research, the mechanism of the superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) and the nature of the insulator are not understood. We use quantum Monte Carlo simulations that treat, on an equal footing, inhomogeneous amplitude variations and phase fluctuations, a major advance over previous theories. We gain new microscopic insights and make testable predictions for local spectroscopic probes. The energy gap in the density of states survives across the transition, but coherence peaks exist only in the superconductor. A characteristic pseudogap persists above the critical disorder and critical temperature, in contrast to conventional theories. Surprisingly, the insulator has a two-particle gap scale that vanishes at the SIT, despite a robust single-particle gap.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures (plus supplement with 4 pages, 5 figures

Drug–Smectite Clay Amorphous Solid Dispersions Processed by Hot Melt Extrusion

The aim of this study was to investigate suitability of natural and synthetic smectite clay matrices as a drug delivery carrier for the development of amorphous solid dispersions (ASD). Indomethacin (IND) was processed with two different smectite clays, natural-magnesium aluminium and synthetic-lithium magnesium sodium silicates, using Hot Melt Extrusion (HME) to prepare solid dispersions. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Powdered X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to examine the physical form of the drug. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) was used to investigate the drug distribution and Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopic analysis was done to detect any chemical interaction between these two kinds. Both, PXRD and DSC analysis showed that drug-clay solid dispersion contained IND in amorphous form. Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis showed a uniform IND dispersion in the extruded powders. ATR-FTIR data presented possible drug and clay interactions via hydrogen bonding. In-vitro drug dissolution studies revealed a lag time of about two hours in the acidic media and a rapid release of IND at pH 7.4. The work demonstrated that preparation of amorphous solid dispersion using inorganic smectite clay particles can effectively increase the dissolution rate of IND

Microbial regulation of the soil carbon cycle: evidence from gene-enzyme relationships.

A lack of empirical evidence for the microbial regulation of ecosystem processes, including carbon (C) degradation, hinders our ability to develop a framework to directly incorporate the genetic composition of microbial communities in the enzyme-driven Earth system models. Herein we evaluated the linkage between microbial functional genes and extracellular enzyme activity in soil samples collected across three geographical regions of Australia. We found a strong relationship between different functional genes and their corresponding enzyme activities. This relationship was maintained after considering microbial community structure, total C and soil pH using structural equation modelling. Results showed that the variations in the activity of enzymes involved in C degradation were predicted by the functional gene abundance of the soil microbial community (R2>0.90 in all cases). Our findings provide a strong framework for improved predictions on soil C dynamics that could be achieved by adopting a gene-centric approach incorporating the abundance of functional genes into process models

Big DNA Datasets Analysis under Push down Automata

Consensus is a significant part that supports the identification of unknown information about animals, plants and insects around the globe. It represents a small part of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) known as the DNA segment that carries all the information for investigation and verification. However, excessive datasets are the major challenges to mine the accurate meaning of the experiments. The datasets are increasing exponentially in ever seconds. In the present article, a memory saving consensus finding approach is organized. The principal component analysis (PCA) and independent component (ICA) are used to pre-process the training datasets. A comparison is carried out between these approaches with the Apriori algorithm. Furthermore, the push down automat (PDA) is applied for superior memory utilization. It iteratively frees the memory for storing targeted consensus by removing all the datasets that are not matched with the consensus. Afterward, the Apriori algorithm selects the desired consensus from limited values that are stored by the PDA. Finally, the Gauss-Seidel method is used to verify the consensus mathematically

Vitamin D supplementation and breast cancer prevention : a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

In recent years, the scientific evidence linking vitamin D status or supplementation to breast cancer has grown notably. To investigate the role of vitamin D supplementation on breast cancer incidence, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing vitamin D with placebo or no treatment. We used OVID to search MEDLINE (R), EMBASE and CENTRAL until April 2012. We screened the reference lists of included studies and used the “Related Article” feature in PubMed to identify additional articles. No language restrictions were applied. Two reviewers independently extracted data on methodological quality, participants, intervention, comparison and outcomes. Risk Ratios and 95% Confident Intervals for breast cancer were pooled using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 test. In sensitivity analysis, we assessed the impact of vitamin D dosage and mode of administration on treatment effects. Only two randomized controlled trials fulfilled the pre-set inclusion criteria. The pooled analysis included 5372 postmenopausal women. Overall, Risk Ratios and 95% Confident Intervals were 1.11 and 0.74–1.68. We found no evidence of heterogeneity. Neither vitamin D dosage nor mode of administration significantly affected breast cancer risk. However, treatment efficacy was somewhat greater when vitamin D was administered at the highest dosage and in combination with calcium (Risk Ratio 0.58, 95% Confident Interval 0.23–1.47 and Risk Ratio 0.93, 95% Confident Interval 0.54–1.60, respectively). In conclusions, vitamin D use seems not to be associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer development in postmenopausal women. However, the available evidence is still limited and inadequate to draw firm conclusions. Study protocol code: FARM8L2B5L

Quantitative estimation of tissue blood flow rate

The rate of blood flow through a tissue (F) is a critical parameter for assessing the functional efficiency of a blood vessel network following angiogenesis. This chapter aims to provide the principles behind the estimation of F, how F relates to other commonly used measures of tissue perfusion, and a practical approach for estimating F in laboratory animals, using small readily diffusible and metabolically inert radio-tracers. The methods described require relatively nonspecialized equipment. However, the analytical descriptions apply equally to complementary techniques involving more sophisticated noninvasive imaging. Two techniques are described for the quantitative estimation of F based on measuring the rate of tissue uptake following intravenous administration of radioactive iodo-antipyrine (or other suitable tracer). The Tissue Equilibration Technique is the classical approach and the Indicator Fractionation Technique, which is simpler to perform, is a practical alternative in many cases. The experimental procedures and analytical methods for both techniques are given, as well as guidelines for choosing the most appropriate method

Barriers to implementation of a computerized decision support system for depression: an observational report on lessons learned in "real world" clinical settings

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Despite wide promotion, clinical practice guidelines have had limited effect in changing physician behavior. Effective implementation strategies to date have included: multifaceted interventions involving audit and feedback, local consensus processes, marketing; reminder systems, either manual or computerized; and interactive educational meetings. In addition, there is now growing evidence that contextual factors affecting implementation must be addressed such as organizational support (leadership procedures and resources) for the change and strategies to implement and maintain new systems.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To examine the feasibility and effectiveness of implementation of a computerized decision support system for depression (CDSS-D) in routine public mental health care in Texas, fifteen study clinicians (thirteen physicians and two advanced nurse practitioners) participated across five sites, accruing over 300 outpatient visits on 168 patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Issues regarding computer literacy and hardware/software requirements were identified as initial barriers. Clinicians also reported concerns about negative impact on workflow and the potential need for duplication during the transition from paper to electronic systems of medical record keeping.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The following narrative report based on observations obtained during the initial testing and use of a CDSS-D in clinical settings further emphasizes the importance of taking into account organizational factors when planning implementation of evidence-based guidelines or decision support within a system.</p