WorldWideScience

Sample records for living things detrimental to human activity

  1. Our Lives with Electric Things

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schick, Lea

    2017-01-01

    Our lives with electric things are positively charged with meaning. Our bodies pulse with electrical activity. The electric appliances, devices, and technologies around us bring hope and anxiety, possibility and danger. Some have transformed our possibilities for reproducing, nurturing, and susta......Our lives with electric things are positively charged with meaning. Our bodies pulse with electrical activity. The electric appliances, devices, and technologies around us bring hope and anxiety, possibility and danger. Some have transformed our possibilities for reproducing, nurturing......, and sustaining life. Some mediate human sociality across time and space, while others knit ecological and interspecies relationships together. Still others create possibilities for controlling, managing, exploiting, and ending life. Against this backdrop any anthropology of electricity seems to require electric...... things. Can we still imagine the possibility of lives without electric things? Can electric things help us to address the possibilities and limits of life with electricity? Can our lives with electricity ever be disentangled from electric things? What are the unique capacities and material politics...

  2. Invitations to Life's Diversity. Teacher-Friendly Science Activities with Reproducible Handouts in English and Spanish. Grades 3-5. Living Things Science Series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Camp, Carole Ann, Ed.

    This booklet, one of six in the Living Things Science series, presents activities about diversity and classification of living things which address basic "Benchmarks" suggested by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for the Living Environment for grades 3-5. Contents include background information, vocabulary (in…

  3. Parent-child talk about the origins of living things.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tenenbaum, Harriet R; Hohenstein, Jill M

    2016-10-01

    This study examined relations between 124 British children's and their parents' endorsements about the origins of three living things (human, non-human animal, and plant) as reported on questionnaires. In addition to completing questionnaires, half of the sample discussed the origins of entities (n=64) in parent-child dyads before completing the questionnaires. The 7-year-old age group endorsed creationism more than evolution, and the 10-year-old age group endorsed both concepts equally for all three living things. Children's endorsements were correlated with their parents' endorsements for all three living things. Children's endorsement of evolutionary theory was more closely related to parent-child conversational mentions of evolution than to parents' endorsement of evolutionary theory in questionnaires. A similar pattern was found for children's endorsement of creationism. Parent-child conversations did not consistently invoke evolution or creationism even when parents endorsed a particular theory. Findings are interpreted in relation to the pivotal role of joint collaborative conversation in children's appropriation of scientific content. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Primary students' conceptions of living things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Legaspi, Britt Anne

    Elementary school teachers are pressed for time throughout the instructional day to teach all curricular areas as expected by states and districts because of the current focus on reading and mathematics. Thus, foundational science concepts may be overlooked. For example, students' understandings of living and nonliving things may be overlooked by teachers, yet is useful in understanding the nature of living things. In this qualitative study, K-3 grade students were asked to sort objects as either living or nonliving and to give rationales for their choices. It was found that K-3 students readily used physical characteristics, such as having body parts, and physical abilities, such as being able to move, as criteria for living things. Students in grades 1 through 3 were able to articulate their reasons with more adult-like logic based on Jean Piaget' s research on developmental stages.

  5. Wearable Internet of Things - from human activity tracking to clinical integration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumari, Poonam; Lopez-Benitez, Miguel; Gyu Myoung Lee; Tae-Seong Kim; Minhas, Atul S

    2017-07-01

    Wearable devices for human activity tracking have been emerging rapidly. Most of them are capable of sending health statistics to smartphones, smartwatches or smart bands. However, they only provide the data for individual analysis and their data is not integrated into clinical practice. Leveraging on the Internet of Things (IoT), edge and cloud computing technologies, we propose an architecture which is capable of providing cloud based clinical services using human activity data. Such services could supplement the shortage of staff in primary healthcare centers thereby reducing the burden on healthcare service providers. The enormous amount of data created from such services could also be utilized for planning future therapies by studying recovery cycles of existing patients. We provide a prototype based on our architecture and discuss its salient features. We also provide use cases of our system in personalized and home based healthcare services. We propose an International Telecommunication Union based standardization (ITU-T) for our design and discuss future directions in wearable IoT.

  6. Unmasking “Alive:” Children’s Appreciation of a Concept Linking All Living Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leddon, Erin M.; Waxman, Sandra R.; Medin, Douglas L.

    2009-01-01

    Decades of research have documented in school-aged children a persistent difficulty apprehending an overarching biological concept that encompasses animate entities like humans and non-human animals, as well as plants. This has led many researchers to conclude that young children have yet to integrate plants and animate entities into a concept LIVING THING. However, virtually all investigations have used the word “alive” to probe children’s understanding, a term that technically describes all living things, but in practice is often aligned with animate entities only. We show that when “alive” is replaced with less ambiguous probes, children readily demonstrate knowledge of an overarching concept linking plants with humans and non-human animals. This work suggests that children have a burgeoning appreciation of this fundamental biological concept, and that the word “alive” paradoxically masks young children’s appreciation of the concept to which it is meant to refer. PMID:19319203

  7. What things make people with a learning disability happy and satisfied with their lives: an inclusive research project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haigh, Anna; Lee, Darren; Shaw, Carl; Hawthorne, Michelle; Chamberlain, Stephen; Newman, David W; Clarke, Zara; Beail, Nigel

    2013-01-01

    We looked at the research that other people have done about what makes people with a learning disability happy and satisfied with their lives. Researchers call being happy and satisfied with your life 'subjective well-being'. They found out that having things like money and good health does not always mean people are happy. They also found that some people are really happy, even if there are things in their lives they would like to change. None of the people who have done research about 'subjective well-being' have interviewed people with a learning disability about what makes them happy with their lives. We have carried out a study about what makes people with a learning disability happy and satisfied with their lives. This report talks about the research that we did, and what we found out. We interviewed 20 people with a learning disability who said they were very happy and satisfied. We asked them about what things helped them feel like this. The people we spoke to said things like relationships, choice and independence, activities and valuable social roles made them feel satisfied with their lives. They told us about the things that enable them to lead happy lives, and the things that disable them. We also found out about the importance of personal characteristics. These are things like looking on the bright side of life or having ways to manage difficult emotions like sadness or anger. We found out that it is important for people with a learning disability to have good things in their lives, but it is also important to be enabled to access these good things. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  8. Early Understanding of the Concept of Living Things: An Examination of Young Children's Drawings of Plant Life

    Science.gov (United States)

    Villarroel, José Domingo; Infante, Guillermo

    2014-01-01

    This paper looks at the drawings of a sample of 118 children aged between 4 and 7 years old on the topic of plant life and relates the content to their knowledge of the concept of living things. The research project uses two types of tests: a task to analyse the level of understanding of the concept of living things and a free drawing activity.…

  9. Marine living thing processing system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toyoshi, Takanori; Yanagisawa, Takao; Nakamura, Toshio; Ueda, Kiyokatsu; Terada, Takeshi.

    1994-01-01

    Marine living things collected upon cleaning of a seawater intake channel are sent to a solid/liquid separator. Discharged liquids containing separated sludges enter a coagulation/precipitation vessel. Condensed sludges precipitated in the vessel are sent to a dehydrator and converted into dehydrated cakes. On the other hand, supernatants discharged from the coagulation/precipitation vessel are sent to an ultra-filtration vessel and an active carbon vessel and then discharged to the sea area at improved the water quality. Further, the dehydrated cakes comprising condensed sluges are dried by a dryer, burnt in an incinerator and then processed as wastes. On the other hand, solid materials separated by the solid/liquid separator such as shells, are crushed finely by the crusher, then dried by an air stream dryer, baked in a high temperature baking furnace to form quick lime. The quick lime is sent to a digester and modified by hydration into slaked lime and it is shipped as slaked lime products. This can simplify the control for the operation and reduce the running cost. Further, resources of marine living (shells) can be utilized. (I.N.)

  10. The disparity mutagenesis model predicts rescue of living things from catastrophic errors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mitsuru eFurusawa

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available In animals including humans, mutation rates per generation will exceed a perceived threshold, which should result in an excessive genetic load. Despite this, they have survived without extinction. This is a perplexing problem for human genetics, arising at the end of the last century, and to date still does not have a fully satisfactory explanation. Shortly after we proposed the disparity theory of evolution in 1992, the disparity mutagenesis model was proposed, which forms the basis for an explanation for an acceleration of evolution and species survival. This model predicts a significant increase of the mutation threshold values if there is a high enough fidelity difference in replication between the lagging and leading strands. When applied to biological evolution, the model predicts that living things, including humans, might overcome the lethal effect of accumulated deleterious mutations and be able to survive. Artificially-prepared mutator strains of microorganisms, in which an enhanced lagging-strand-biased mutagenesis was introduced, showed unexpectedly high adaptability to severe environments. The implications of the striking behaviors shown by these disparity mutators will be discussed in relation to how living things with high mutation rates can avoid the self-defeating risk of excess mutations.

  11. Hierarchy is Detrimental for Human Cooperation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cronin, Katherine A; Acheson, Daniel J; Hernández, Penélope; Sánchez, Angel

    2015-12-22

    Studies of animal behavior consistently demonstrate that the social environment impacts cooperation, yet the effect of social dynamics has been largely excluded from studies of human cooperation. Here, we introduce a novel approach inspired by nonhuman primate research to address how social hierarchies impact human cooperation. Participants competed to earn hierarchy positions and then could cooperate with another individual in the hierarchy by investing in a common effort. Cooperation was achieved if the combined investments exceeded a threshold, and the higher ranked individual distributed the spoils unless control was contested by the partner. Compared to a condition lacking hierarchy, cooperation declined in the presence of a hierarchy due to a decrease in investment by lower ranked individuals. Furthermore, hierarchy was detrimental to cooperation regardless of whether it was earned or arbitrary. These findings mirror results from nonhuman primates and demonstrate that hierarchies are detrimental to cooperation. However, these results deviate from nonhuman primate findings by demonstrating that human behavior is responsive to changing hierarchical structures and suggests partnership dynamics that may improve cooperation. This work introduces a controlled way to investigate the social influences on human behavior, and demonstrates the evolutionary continuity of human behavior with other primate species.

  12. Hierarchy is Detrimental for Human Cooperation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cronin, Katherine A.; Acheson, Daniel J.; Hernández, Penélope; Sánchez, Angel

    2015-01-01

    Studies of animal behavior consistently demonstrate that the social environment impacts cooperation, yet the effect of social dynamics has been largely excluded from studies of human cooperation. Here, we introduce a novel approach inspired by nonhuman primate research to address how social hierarchies impact human cooperation. Participants competed to earn hierarchy positions and then could cooperate with another individual in the hierarchy by investing in a common effort. Cooperation was achieved if the combined investments exceeded a threshold, and the higher ranked individual distributed the spoils unless control was contested by the partner. Compared to a condition lacking hierarchy, cooperation declined in the presence of a hierarchy due to a decrease in investment by lower ranked individuals. Furthermore, hierarchy was detrimental to cooperation regardless of whether it was earned or arbitrary. These findings mirror results from nonhuman primates and demonstrate that hierarchies are detrimental to cooperation. However, these results deviate from nonhuman primate findings by demonstrating that human behavior is responsive to changing hierarchical structures and suggests partnership dynamics that may improve cooperation. This work introduces a controlled way to investigate the social influences on human behavior, and demonstrates the evolutionary continuity of human behavior with other primate species. PMID:26692287

  13. How Internet of Things Influences Human Behavior Building Social Web of Services via Agent-Based Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Komarov Mikhail

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The paper discovers potential human interactions with growing amount of internet of things (IoT via proposed concept of Social Web of Services (classical social web with smart things - daily life objects connected to the internet. To investigate the impact of IoT on user behaviour patterns we modelled human-thing interactions using agent-based simulation (ABM. We have proved that under certain conditions SmartThings, connected to the IoT, are able to change patterns of Human behaviour. Results of this work predict our way of living in the era of caused by viral effects of IoT application (HCI and M2M connections, and could be used to foster business process management in the IoT era.

  14. Persistence of the Intuitive Conception of Living Things in Adolescence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babai, Reuven; Sekal, Rachel; Stavy, Ruth

    2010-02-01

    This study investigated whether intuitive, naive conceptions of "living things" based on objects' mobility (movement = alive) persist into adolescence and affect 10th graders' accuracy of responses and reaction times during object classification. Most of the 58 students classified the test objects correctly as living/nonliving, yet they demonstrated significantly longer reaction times for classifying plants compared to animals and for classifying dynamic objects compared to static inanimate objects. Findings indicated that, despite prior learning in biology, the intuitive conception of living things persists up to age 15-16 years, affecting related reasoning processes. Consideration of these findings may help educators in their decisions about the nature of examples they use in their classrooms.

  15. Classification deficits in Alzheimer's disease with special reference to living and nonliving things.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montanes, P; Goldblum, M C; Boller, F

    1996-08-01

    The present study was conducted to assess the hypothesis that visual similarity between exemplars within a semantic category may affect differentially the recognition process of living and nonliving things, according to task demands, in patients with semantic memory disorders. Thirty-nine Alzheimer's patients and 39 normal elderly subjects were presented with a task in which they had to classify pictures and words, depicting either living or nonliving things, at two levels of classification: subordinate (e.g., mammals versus birds or tools versus vehicles) and attribute (e.g., wild versus domestic animals or fast versus slow vehicles). Contrary to previous results (Montañes, Goldblum, & Boller, 1995) in a naming task, but as expected, living things were better classified than nonliving ones by both controls and patients. As expected, classifications at the subordinate level also gave rise to better performance than classifications at the attribute level. Although (and somewhat unexpectedly) no advantage of picture over word classification emerged, some effects consistent with the hypothesis that visual similarity affects picture classification emerged, in particular within a subgroup of patients with predominant verbal deficits and the most severe semantic memory disorders. This subgroup obtained a better score on classification of pictures than of words depicting living items (that share many visual features) when classification is at the subordinate level (for which visual similarity is a reliable clue to classification), but met with major difficulties when classifying those pictures at the attribute level (for which shared visual features are not reliable clues to classification). These results emphasize the fact that some "normal" effects specific to items in living and nonliving categories have to be considered among the factors causing selective category-specific deficits in patients, as well as their relevance in achieving tasks which require either

  16. Biology Student Teachers' Cognitive Structure about "Living Thing"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurt, Hakan

    2013-01-01

    The current study aims to determine biology student teachers' cognitive structure on the concept of "living thing" through revealing their conceptual framework. Qualitative research method was applied in this study. The data were collected from 44 biology student teachers. A free word association test was used as a data collection…

  17. Neutron effects on living things

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1964-01-01

    Scientific interest in neutrons and protons - two fundamental particles of the atomic nucleus - has grown in recent years as the technology of peaceful uses of atomic energy has progressed. Such interest also has increased because both protons and neutrons are encountered in outer space. However, only recently has a thorough study of the biological effects of neutrons and protons become possible, as a result of progress in making physical measurements of the radiation dose absorbed in biological systems (of plants and animals, for example). Reports of work in that field were presented in December 1962, when IAEA sponsored at Harwell Laboratory in the United Kingdom the first international symposium on detection dosimetry (measurement) and standardization of neutron radiation sources. The Harwell meeting was followed in October 1963 at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Long Island, New York, by the first scientific meeting sponsored by IAEA in the U. S. Entitled 'Biological Effects of Neutron Irradiations', the Symposium continued the review of problems of measuring radiation absorption in living things and provided in addition for several reports dealing with the effects of radiation on living organisms - plant, animal and human - and with delayed consequences of exposure to radiation, such as: change in life span; tumour incidence; and fertility. Eighteen countries were represented. Although much has been learned about X-ray and gamma-ray effects, comparatively little is known about the biological effects of neutrons, and therefore many of the Symposium papers reviewed the various aspects of neutron experimentation. Similarly, since there is increasing interest in the biological effects of protons, papers were given on that related subject.

  18. How Do Small Things Make a Big Difference? Activities to Teach about Human-Microbe Interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jasti, Chandana; Hug, Barbara; Waters, Jillian L; Whitaker, Rachel J

    2014-11-01

    Recent scientific studies are providing increasing evidence for how microbes living in and on us are essential to our good health. However, many students still think of microbes only as germs that harm us. The classroom activities presented here are designed to shift student thinking on this topic. In these guided inquiry activities, students investigate human-microbe interactions as they work together to interpret and analyze authentic data from published articles and develop scientific models. Through the activities, students learn and apply ecological concepts as they come to see the human body as a fascinatingly complex ecosystem.

  19. Persistence of the Intuitive Conception of Living Things in Adolescence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Babai, Reuven; Sekal, Rachel; Stavy, Ruth

    2010-01-01

    This study investigated whether intuitive, naive conceptions of "living things" based on objects' mobility (movement = alive) persist into adolescence and affect 10th graders' accuracy of responses and reaction times during object classification. Most of the 58 students classified the test objects correctly as living/nonliving, yet they…

  20. Young Chinese Children's Justifications of Plants as Living Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tao, Ying

    2016-01-01

    Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to explore how Chinese preschool children categorize plants into either living or nonliving things. The research was framed within the interpretive paradigm and was designed as a descriptive, cross-sectional study. Participants were children 4 to 6 years of age from 3 kindergartens in Jiangsu…

  1. Science 101: How Do We Distinguish between Living and Nonliving Things?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robertson, Bill

    2016-01-01

    Since nearly every science curriculum in the country contains a section on living and non-living things, Bill Robertson believes that pretty much anyone who has taught the subject has run into difficulties. It seems as if no matter what criteria you use to distinguish between the two you can nearly always find exceptions. This article provides a…

  2. Innovative Agro-Food Technologies to Minimize Consumer Detriment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gianita BLEOJU

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available The paper intends to offer a solution for accelerating the implementation of new biotechnologies designated to prevent consumer detriment. Designing an intervention mechanism along current inefficient chain of consumer feed- back information is a must. Upon different interconnected knowledge area of expertise, both on consumer detriment and biotechnologies for human food safety and security, we propose our approach relying upon relevant experiences on innovational biotechnologies as response to consumer fragilities data from recent validated agro food market research. We target the rising awareness regarding the translation from consumer preferences, to perceived detriment.

  3. The problem with detriment. [Radiation detriment/health detriment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dunster, H.J. (National Radiological Protection Board, Chilton (UK))

    1991-05-01

    The International Commission on Radiological Protection introduced the term detriment as a quantitative expression of 'all the deleterious effects of exposure to radiation'. Detriment due only to effects on health was called 'health detriment'. It is implicit in the definition of radiation detriment, even if limited to health detriment, that it is derived from many components of different characteristics. These components include: attributable death due to cancer, illness and anxiety before that death; illness, therapy and anxiety associated with non-fatal cancer; hereditary disorders in the observable offspring and in later generations; and, at high doses, deterministic effects. The contribution that each of these components makes to the detriment is influenced by both the probability of its occurrence and its severity if it does occur. (author).

  4. Different Living Things. Seychelles Integrated Science. [Teacher and Pupil Booklets.] Unit 5.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brophy, M.; Fryars, M.

    Seychelles Integrated Science (SIS), a 3-year laboratory-based science program for students (ages 11-15) in upper primary grades 7, 8, and 9, was developed from an extensive evaluation and modification of previous P7-P9 materials. This P7 SIS unit is designed to: (1) help students develop an elementary understanding of how living things can be…

  5. Revisiting Preschoolers' Living Things Concept: A Microgenetic Analysis of Conceptual Change in Basic Biology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Opfer, John E.; Siegler, Robert S.

    2004-01-01

    Many preschoolers know that plants and animals share basic biological properties, but this knowledge does not usually lead them to conclude that plants, like animals, are living things. To resolve this seeming paradox, we hypothesized that preschoolers largely base their judgments of life status on a biological property, capacity for teleological…

  6. Learning Things: Material Culture in Art Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blandy, Doug; Bolin, Paul E.

    2018-01-01

    This is the first comprehensive book to connect art education to material culture--an evolving pedagogy about the meaning of "things" in the lives of children, youth, and adults. Written by luminaries in the field, this resource explores a range of objects exemplifying material culture, defined as "the human-formed objects, spaces,…

  7. Ambient Assisted Living Systems in the Context of Human Centric Sensing and IoT Concept

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zaric, Nicola; Pejanovic-Djurisic, Milica; Mihovska, Albena Dimitrova

    2016-01-01

    This paper proposes the concept of Human Centric Sensing in the context of Internet of Things and Ambient Assisted Living. The paper uses a case study to present and analyze the proposed idea, and identifies the main challenges and open issues that require research and policy attention....

  8. Evaluating future detriment from radioactive discharges

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fleishman, A.B.; Clark, M.J.

    1982-01-01

    A quantitative framework for expressing judgements on the relative valuation of both future protection costs and radiation detriment from radioactive discharges is discussed. The framework can be applied to a series of notional effluent control options, illustrating the sensitivity of optimum protection levels to variations in discount rates. Using data on the radiological significance and management of radioactive discharges arising from the nuclear fuel cycle, it was shown that this quantitative optimization method of evaluating future detriment has important implications for the management of radioactive effluents, particularly those containing long-lived nuclides. (U.K.)

  9. On metaphorical designation of humans, animals, plants and things in Serbian and English language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rakić Stanimir

    2004-01-01

    Full Text Available In this paper I examine compound names of plants, animals, human beings and other things in which at least one nominal component designates a part of the body or clothes, or some basic elements of houshold in Serbian and English. The object of my analysis are complex derivatives of the type (adjective noun + suffix in Serbian and componds of the type noun's + noun, noun + noun and adjective + noun in English. I try to show that there is a difference in metaphorical designation of human beings and other living creatures and things by such compound nouns. My thesis is that the metathorical designation of human beings by such compounds is based on the symbolic meaning of some words and expressions while the designation of other things and beings relies on noticed similarity. In Serbian language such designation is provided by comples derivatives praznoglavac 'empty-headed person', tupoglavac 'dullard' debolokoiac 'callos person', golobradac 'young, inexperienced person' žutokljunac 'tledling' (fig, in English chicken liver, beetle brain birdbrain, bonehead, butterfingers, bigwig, blackleg, blue blood bluestocking, eat's paw, deadhead,fat-guts,fathead, goldbrick (kol hardhat, hardhead, greenhorn, redcoat (ist, redneck (sl, thickhead, etc. Polisemous compounds like eat's paw lend support for this thesis because their designation of human beings is based on symbolic meaning of some words or expressions. I hypothesize that the direction and extend of the possible metaphorization of names may be accounted for by the following hierarchy (11 people - animals - plants - meterial things. Such hierarchy is well supported by the observations of Lakoff (1987 and Taylor (1995 about the role of human body in early experience and perception ofthe reality. Different restrictions which may be imposed in the hierarchy (11 should be the matter of further study, some of which have been noted on this paper. The compounds of this type denoting people have

  10. Live/Dead Comparisons of Ostracodes in Temperate Lakes Reveal Evidence of Human Impact and Provides a Tool to Measure the Progress of Remediation Efforts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spergel, J.; Kimball, K. C.; Fitzpatrick, S. A.; Michelson, A. V.; Leonard-Pingel, J.

    2015-12-01

    Lake ecosystems face a multitude of environmental threats including: eutrophication, overfishing, and heavy metal pollution. Tools to identify lakes impacted by human activity and quantify that impact are needed to combat their environmental degradation. One such promising tool has been the comparison between living communities and associated time-averaged death assemblages of mollusks in marine environments. Here we extend the reach of such live/dead comparisons using ostracodes in temperate lakes. We sampled six lakes in Wisconsin for living communities and associated death assemblages of ostracodes: two lakes impacted by human activity, two relatively "pristine" lakes, and two remediated lakes. We took sixteen grab samples of the upper centimeter of sediment in each lake, capturing simultaneously living benthic ostracodes and discarded valves of dead ostracodes. We found that impacted lakes had lower live/dead fidelity in taxonomic composition and rank-order abundance distributions and greater within-lake variation in death assemblages than "pristine" lakes. Additionally, the living communities in the impacted lakes tended to be lower in species richness and have lower evenness than "pristine" lakes. Remediated lakes displayed similar live/dead fidelity in taxonomic composition and rank-abundance distributions to "pristine" lakes and had lower within-lake variation in death assemblages than impacted lakes. Remediated lakes also contained living communities that tended to be richer and more even than impacted lakes. The lower live/dead fidelity of ostracodes in impacted lakes indicate live/dead ostracode comparisons can provide a tool to identify lake ecosystems impacted by humans. The similar results of remediated and "pristine" lakes indicate remediation efforts in these lakes have been successful in alleviating environmental impact detrimental to ostracode communities. This result indicates live/dead comparisons of ostracodes can be a useful tool to monitor

  11. Profile of Students’ Critical Thinking Skill Measured by Science Virtual Test on Living Things and Environmental Sustainability Theme

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maulida, N. I.; Firman, H.; Rusyati, L.

    2017-02-01

    The aims of this study are: (1) to investigate the level of students’ critical thinking skill on living things and environmental sustainability theme for each Inch’ critical thinking elements and overall, (2) to investigate the level of students’ critical thinking skill on living things characteristic, biodiversity, energy resources, ecosystem, environmental pollution, and global warming topics. The research was conducted due to the important of critical thinking measurement to get the current skill description as the basic consideration for further critical thinking skill improvement in lower secondary science. The research method used was descriptive. 331 seventh grade students taken from five lower secondary schools in Cirebon were tested to get the critical thinking skill data by using Science Virtual Test as the instrument. Generally, the mean scores on eight Inch’ critical thinking elements and overall score from descriptive statistic reveals a moderate attainments level. Students’ critical thinking skill on biodiversity, energy resources, ecosystem, environmental pollution, and global warming topics are in moderate level. While students’ critical thinking skill on living things characteristic is identified as high level. Students’ experience in thinking critically during science learning process and the characteristic of the topic are emerged as the reason behind the students’ critical thinking skill level on certain science topic.

  12. Time to Talk: 5 Things to Know about Probiotics

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... X Y Z 5 Things To Know About Probiotics Share: Probiotics are live microorganisms (e.g., bacteria) that are ... microorganisms, you might have a better understanding of probiotics. The body, especially the lower gastrointestinal tract (the ...

  13. Can We Make Definite Categorization of Student Attitudes? A Rough Set Approach to Investigate Students' Implicit Attitudinal Typologies toward Living Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Narli, Serkan; Yorek, Nurettin; Sahin, Mehmet; Usak, Muhammet

    2010-01-01

    This study investigates the possibility of analyzing educational data using the theory of rough sets which is mostly employed in the fields of data analysis and data mining. Data were collected using an open-ended conceptual understanding test of the living things administered to first-year high school students. The responses of randomly selected…

  14. Neutron is a marvelous probe to see the living things as it is alive. Real time and in-situ observation on living polymerization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koizumi, Satoshi

    2011-01-01

    Small-angle neutron scattering was employed in order to perform a real time and in-situ observation on a polymerization-induced self-assembly process in in-vivo or in-vitro systems; precise living anionic polymerization of poly-styrene-b-polyisoprene, pre-irradiation radical polymerization of polystyrene onto a polytetrafluoroethylene film, and microbial or enzymatic polymerization of cellulose. The aim of these studies is to clarify self-organizations of macro-molecular assemblies appeared in open non-equilibrium systems, which are exposed to external energy and mass flows induced by chemical reactions. The open non-equilibrium systems are believed to be important for understanding pattern formations not only in materials processing in industry but also in living things. Small-angle scattering observed for the systems was investigated according to the methods established for condensed matter physics (fractal and computational analyses), bridging with synthetic chemistry and molecular biology. (author)

  15. A Cloud-Based Internet of Things Platform for Ambient Assisted Living

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cubo, Javier; Nieto, Adrián; Pimentel, Ernesto

    2014-01-01

    A common feature of ambient intelligence is that many objects are inter-connected and act in unison, which is also a challenge in the Internet of Things. There has been a shift in research towards integrating both concepts, considering the Internet of Things as representing the future of computing and communications. However, the efficient combination and management of heterogeneous things or devices in the ambient intelligence domain is still a tedious task, and it presents crucial challenges. Therefore, to appropriately manage the inter-connection of diverse devices in these systems requires: (1) specifying and efficiently implementing the devices (e.g., as services); (2) handling and verifying their heterogeneity and composition; and (3) standardizing and managing their data, so as to tackle large numbers of systems together, avoiding standalone applications on local servers. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes a platform to manage the integration and behavior-aware orchestration of heterogeneous devices as services, stored and accessed via the cloud, with the following contributions: (i) we describe a lightweight model to specify the behavior of devices, to determine the order of the sequence of exchanged messages during the composition of devices; (ii) we define a common architecture using a service-oriented standard environment, to integrate heterogeneous devices by means of their interfaces, via a gateway, and to orchestrate them according to their behavior; (iii) we design a framework based on cloud computing technology, connecting the gateway in charge of acquiring the data from the devices with a cloud platform, to remotely access and monitor the data at run-time and react to emergency situations; and (iv) we implement and generate a novel cloud-based IoT platform of behavior-aware devices as services for ambient intelligence systems, validating the whole approach in real scenarios related to a specific ambient assisted living application

  16. A cloud-based Internet of Things platform for ambient assisted living.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cubo, Javier; Nieto, Adrián; Pimentel, Ernesto

    2014-08-04

    A common feature of ambient intelligence is that many objects are inter-connected and act in unison, which is also a challenge in the Internet of Things. There has been a shift in research towards integrating both concepts, considering the Internet of Things as representing the future of computing and communications. However, the efficient combination and management of heterogeneous things or devices in the ambient intelligence domain is still a tedious task, and it presents crucial challenges. Therefore, to appropriately manage the inter-connection of diverse devices in these systems requires: (1) specifying and efficiently implementing the devices (e.g., as services); (2) handling and verifying their heterogeneity and composition; and (3) standardizing and managing their data, so as to tackle large numbers of systems together, avoiding standalone applications on local servers. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes a platform to manage the integration and behavior-aware orchestration of heterogeneous devices as services, stored and accessed via the cloud, with the following contributions: (i) we describe a lightweight model to specify the behavior of devices, to determine the order of the sequence of exchanged messages during the composition of devices; (ii) we define a common architecture using a service-oriented standard environment, to integrate heterogeneous devices by means of their interfaces, via a gateway, and to orchestrate them according to their behavior; (iii) we design a framework based on cloud computing technology, connecting the gateway in charge of acquiring the data from the devices with a cloud platform, to remotely access and monitor the data at run-time and react to emergency situations; and (iv) we implement and generate a novel cloud-based IoT platform of behavior-aware devices as services for ambient intelligence systems, validating the whole approach in real scenarios related to a specific ambient assisted living application.

  17. An Internet of Things Based Multi-Level Privacy-Preserving Access Control for Smart Living

    OpenAIRE

    Usama Salama; Lina Yao; Hye-young Paik

    2018-01-01

    The presence of the Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare through the use of mobile medical applications and wearable devices allows patients to capture their healthcare data and enables healthcare professionals to be up-to-date with a patient’s status. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), which is considered as one of the major applications of IoT, is a home environment augmented with embedded ambient sensors to help improve an individual’s quality of life. This domain faces major cha...

  18. Internet of Things novel advances and envisioned applications

    CERN Document Server

    Geetha, M

    2017-01-01

    This book focuses on a combination of theoretical advances in the Internet of Things, cloud computing and its real-life applications to serve society. The book discusses technological innovations, authentication, mobility support and security, group rekeying schemes and a range of concrete applications. The Internet has restructured not only global interrelations, but also an unbelievable number of personal characteristics. Machines are increasingly able to control innumerable autonomous gadgets via the Internet, creating the Internet of Things, which facilitates intelligent communication between humans and things, and among things. The Internet of Things is an active area of current research, and technological advances have been supported by real-life applications to establish their soundness. The material in this book includes concepts, figures, graphs, and tables to guide researchers through the Internet of Things and its applications for society. .

  19. "Trees and Things That Live in Trees": Three Children with Special Needs Experience the Project Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griebling, Susan; Elgas, Peg; Konerman, Rachel

    2015-01-01

    The authors report on research conducted during a project investigation undertaken with preschool children, ages 3-5. The report focuses on three children with special needs and the positive outcomes for each child as they engaged in the project Trees and Things That Live in Trees. Two of the children were diagnosed with developmental delays, and…

  20. Host-detrimental role of Esx-1-mediated inflammasome activation in mycobacterial infection.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fredric Carlsson

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available The Esx-1 (type VII secretion system is a major virulence determinant of pathogenic mycobacteria, including Mycobacterium marinum. However, the molecular events and host-pathogen interactions underlying Esx-1-mediated virulence in vivo remain unclear. Here we address this problem in a non-lethal mouse model of M. marinum infection that allows detailed quantitative analysis of disease progression. M. marinum established local infection in mouse tails, with Esx-1-dependent formation of caseating granulomas similar to those formed in human tuberculosis, and bone deterioration reminiscent of skeletal tuberculosis. Analysis of tails infected with wild type or Esx-1-deficient bacteria showed that Esx-1 enhanced generation of proinflammatory cytokines, including the secreted form of IL-1beta, suggesting that Esx-1 promotes inflammasome activation in vivo. In vitro experiments indicated that Esx-1-dependent inflammasome activation required the host NLRP3 and ASC proteins. Infection of wild type and ASC-deficient mice demonstrated that Esx-1-dependent inflammasome activation exacerbated disease without restricting bacterial growth, indicating a host-detrimental role of this inflammatory pathway in mycobacterial infection. These findings define an immunoregulatory role for Esx-1 in a specific host-pathogen interaction in vivo, and indicate that the Esx-1 secretion system promotes disease and inflammation through its ability to activate the inflammasome.

  1. An Internet of Things platform architecture for supporting ambient assisted living environments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsirmpas, Charalampos; Kouris, Ioannis; Anastasiou, Athanasios; Giokas, Kostas; Iliopoulou, Dimitra; Koutsouris, Dimitris

    2017-01-01

    Internet of Things (IoT) is the logical further development of today's Internet, enabling a huge amount of devices to communicate, compute, sense and act. IoT sensors placed in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) environments, enable the context awareness and allow the support of the elderly in their daily routines, ultimately allowing an independent and safe lifestyle. The vast amount of data that are generated and exchanged between the IoT nodes require innovative context modeling approaches that go beyond currently used models. Current paper presents and evaluates an open interoperable platform architecture in order to utilize the technical characteristics of IoT and handle the large amount of generated data, as a solution to the technical requirements of AAL applications.

  2. Detriment calculations resulting from occupational radiation exposures in Egypt

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abdel-Ghani, A.H.

    2000-01-01

    The application of the nominal probability coefficient to evaluate the detriment after the annual occupational exposures of workers from radiation sources and radioactive material have been calculated for workers in medical practices, industrial applications, atomic energy activities and those involved in exploration and mining of radioactive ores and phosphates. The aim of detriment calculations is to provide a foresight for the future occurrence of stochastic effects among the exposed workers. The calculated detriment can be classified into three classes. The first includes workers in diagnostic radiology and atomic energy activities who received the higher doses and consequently represent the higher detriment. The second class comprises workers in radiotherapy and nuclear medicine whose detriment is for times lesser than that of the first class. The third one concerns workers in industrial applications and in exploration and mining of radioactive ores and phosphates, their detriments ten times lesser than that of the second class. The occupational radiation doses are endorsed by the united nation scientific committee on efects of atomic radiation (UNSCEAR) for the period january 1995 to december 1998

  3. Does physical activity attenuate, or even eliminate, the detrimental association of sitting time with mortality?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ekelund, Ulf; Steene-Johannessen, Jostein; Brown, Wendy J

    2016-01-01

    BACKGROUND: High amounts of sedentary behaviour have been associated with increased risks of several chronic conditions and mortality. However, it is unclear whether physical activity attenuates or even eliminates the detrimental effects of prolonged sitting. We examined the associations of seden......BACKGROUND: High amounts of sedentary behaviour have been associated with increased risks of several chronic conditions and mortality. However, it is unclear whether physical activity attenuates or even eliminates the detrimental effects of prolonged sitting. We examined the associations...... of sedentary behaviour and physical activity with all-cause mortality. METHODS: We did a systematic review, searching six databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase, Web of Science, Sport Discus, and Scopus) from database inception until October, 2015, for prospective cohort studies that had individual level exposure...

  4. The problem with detriment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dunster, H.J.

    1991-01-01

    The International Commission on Radiological Protection introduced the term detriment as a quantitative expression of 'all the deleterious effects of exposure to radiation'. Detriment due only to effects on health was called 'health detriment'. It is implicit in the definition of radiation detriment, even if limited to health detriment, that it is derived from many components of different characteristics. These components include: attributable death due to cancer, illness and anxiety before that death; illness, therapy and anxiety associated with non-fatal cancer; hereditary disorders in the observable offspring and in later generations; and, at high doses, deterministic effects. The contribution that each of these components makes to the detriment is influenced by both the probability of its occurrence and its severity if it does occur. (author)

  5. Seres vivos y artefactos: ¿efectos categoriales producto de la ausencia de color en tareas de denominación de dibujos? (Living things and artifacts: categorial effects in black-and-white picture naming tasks?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María Macarena Martínez-Cuitiño

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Patients with acquired brain injury may have difficulties in processing a unique semantic category. In patients with the most common semantic deficits, living things is the most commonly compromised domain. Nevertheless, the results of assessing healthy participants are contradictory. Most studies with healthy participants reported better performance with the category of living things, whereas other studies have reported better performance with artifacts, depending on the type of material used. Although researchers generally use black-and-white pictures to assess semantic categories, this kind of material omits an essential perceptual attribute in processing living things: colour. This study assessed a group of young healthy participants to determine differences in naming living things and artifacts in a naming task using black-and-white pictures. The stimuli used were matched according to the major lexical-semantic variables: name agreement, visual complexity, lexical frequency, conceptual familiarity, age of acquisition, number of syllables, and number of phonemes. The results show that healthy participants are more accurate and faster at naming when categorizing artifacts and that artifacts have an advantage over the category living things in which colour is a key attribute (animals and fruits/vegetables. This advantage is lost in relation to the category body parts in which colour is not an essential attribute for their recognition.

  6. 1st Workshop on Human Factors and Activity Recognition in Healthcare, Wellness and Assisted Living: Recognise2Interact

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Casale, P.; Houben, S.; Amft, O.D.

    2013-01-01

    Context-aware systems have the potential to revolutionize the way humans interact with information technology. The first workshop on Human Factors and Activity Recognition in Healthcare, Wellness and Assisted Living (Recognise2Interact) aims to enable researchers and practitioners from both,

  7. Things get worse before getting better : outsourcing NPD activities

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Smets, L.P.M.; Oorschot, van K.E.; Langerak, F.

    2011-01-01

    To sustain the pace of new product development (NPD), manufacturers are increasingly outsourcing parts of the NPD process, such as design and engineering. However, by outsourcing design and engineering activities, things often get worse before getting better in terms of cycle time, development

  8. Privacy in the Internet of Things: Threats and Challenges

    OpenAIRE

    Ziegeldorf, Jan Henrik; Morchon, Oscar Garcia; Wehrle, Klaus

    2015-01-01

    The Internet of Things paradigm envisions the pervasive interconnection and cooperation of smart things over the current and future Internet infrastructure. The Internet of Things is, thus, the evolution of the Internet to cover the real-world, enabling many new services that will improve people's everyday lives, spawn new businesses and make buildings, cities and transport smarter. Smart things allow indeed for ubiquitous data collection or tracking, but these useful features are also exampl...

  9. User Location Identification for Cooperative Human-Centric Sensing (HCS) Scenario

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mihovska, Albena Dimitrova

    Human-Centric Sensing (HCS) is a newly emerged concept in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the active and assisted living (AAL) scenario. HCS connectivity, also referred to as “smart connectivity” enables applications that are highly personalized and often time...

  10. Dose. Detriment. Limit assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Breckow, J.

    2015-01-01

    One goal of radiation protection is the limitation of stochastic effects due to radiation exposure. The probability of occurrence of a radiation induced stochastic effect, however, is only one of several other parameters which determine the radiation detriment. Though the ICRP-concept of detriment is a quantitative definition, the kind of detriment weighting includes somewhat subjective elements. In this sense, the detriment-concept of ICRP represents already at the stage of effective dose a kind of assessment. Thus, by comparing radiation protection standards and concepts interconvertible or with those of environment or occupational protection one should be aware of the possibly different principles of detriment assessment.

  11. Is Corruption Detrimental to Trade?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jong, E. de; Udo, E.

    2005-01-01

    Many regard corruption to be detrimental to international trade. Some, however, think that corruption greases commerce in case of low-quality institutions. Others argue that arbitrary corruption is more damaging to trade than predictable corruption. This is the first paper to test these hypotheses

  12. Navigating the Internet of Things

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rassia, Stamatina; Steiner, Henriette

    2017-01-01

    Navigating the Internet of Things is an exploration of interconnected objects, functions, and situations in networks created to ease and manage our daily lives. The Internet of Things represents semi-automated interconnections of different objects in a network based on different information...... technologies. Some examples of this are presented here in order to better understand, explain, and discuss the elements that compose the Internet of Things. In this chapter, we provide a theoretical and practical perspective on both the micro- and macro-scales of ‘things’ (objects), small and large (e.......g. computers or interactive maps), that suggest new topographic relationships and challenge our understanding of users’ involvement with a given technology against the semi-automated workings of these systems. We navigate from a philosophical enquiry into the ‘thingness of things’ dating from the 1950s...

  13. A Pattern Mining Approach to Sensor-based Human Activity Recognition

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gu, Tao; Wang, Liang; Wu, Zhanqing

    2011-01-01

    Recognizing human activities from sensor readings has recently attracted much research interest in pervasive computing due to its potential in many applications such as assistive living and healthcare. This task is particularly challenging because human activities are often performed in not only...

  14. How Do Small Things Make a Big Difference? Activities to Teach about Human–Microbe Interactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    JASTI, CHANDANA; HUG, BARBARA; WATERS, JILLIAN L.; WHITAKER, RACHEL J.

    2014-01-01

    Recent scientific studies are providing increasing evidence for how microbes living in and on us are essential to our good health. However, many students still think of microbes only as germs that harm us. The classroom activities presented here are designed to shift student thinking on this topic. In these guided inquiry activities, students investigate human–microbe interactions as they work together to interpret and analyze authentic data from published articles and develop scientific models. Through the activities, students learn and apply ecological concepts as they come to see the human body as a fascinatingly complex ecosystem. PMID:25520526

  15. CHI SYMBOLISM IN ACHEBE'S THINGS FALL APART: A ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    user

    the chi symbolism as exhibited in his famous work Things Fall. Apart. Things Fall Apart by Achebe gives fictionalized account of Igbo life and times which are close to the reality of our era. Philosophy ... solution which he offers to the problems of daily living in society. .... weighed on the balance of reality, they could stand for.

  16. Human body may produce bacteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salerian, Alen J

    2017-06-01

    "Human body may produce bacteria" proposes that human body may produce bacteria and represent an independent source of infections contrary to the current paradigm of infectious disorders proposed by Louis Pasteur in 1880. The following observations are consistent with this hypothesis: A. Bidirectional transformations of both living and nonliving things have been commonly observed in nature. B. Complex multicellular organisms harbor the necessary properties to produce bacteria (water, nitrogen and oxygen). C. Physical laws suggest any previously observed phenomenon or action will occur again (life began on earth; a non living thing). D. Animal muscle cells may generate energy (fermentation). E. Sterilized food products (i.e. boiled eggs), may produce bacteria and fungus under special conditions and without any exposure to foreign living cells. "Human body may produce bacteria" may challenge the current medical paradigm that views human infectious disorders as the exclusive causative byproducts of invading foreign cells. It may also introduce new avenues to treat infectious disorders. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Too much of a good thing: blocking noradrenergic facilitation in medial prefrontal cortex prevents the detrimental effects of chronic stress on cognition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jett, Julianne D; Morilak, David A

    2013-03-01

    Cognitive impairments associated with dysfunction of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are prominent in stress-related psychiatric disorders. We have shown that enhancing noradrenergic tone acutely in the rat mPFC facilitated extra-dimensional (ED) set-shifting on the attentional set-shifting test (AST), whereas chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) impaired ED. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the acute facilitatory effect of norepinephrine (NE) in mPFC becomes detrimental when activated repeatedly during CUS. Using microdialysis, we showed that the release of NE evoked in mPFC by acute stress was unchanged at the end of CUS treatment. Thus, to then determine if repeated elicitation of this NE activity in mPFC during CUS may have contributed to the ED deficit, we infused a cocktail of α(1)-, β(1)-, and β(2)-adrenergic receptor antagonists into the mPFC prior to each CUS session, then tested animals drug free on the AST. Antagonist treatment prevented the CUS-induced ED deficit, suggesting that NE signaling during CUS compromised mPFC function. We confirmed that this was not attributable to sensitization of adrenergic receptor function following chronic antagonist treatment, by administering an additional microinjection into the mPFC immediately prior to ED testing. Acute antagonist treatment did not reverse the beneficial effects of chronic drug treatment during CUS, nor have any effect on baseline ED performance in chronic vehicle controls. Thus, we conclude that blockade of noradrenergic receptors in mPFC protected against the detrimental cognitive effects of CUS, and that repeated elicitation of noradrenergic facilitatory activity is one mechanism by which chronic stress may promote mPFC cognitive dysfunction.

  18. The Internet of Things for basic nursing care-A scoping review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mieronkoski, Riitta; Azimi, Iman; Rahmani, Amir M; Aantaa, Riku; Terävä, Virpi; Liljeberg, Pasi; Salanterä, Sanna

    2017-04-01

    The novel technology of the Internet of Things (IoT) connects objects to the Internet and its most advanced applications refine obtained data for the user. We propose that Internet of Things technology can be used to promote basic nursing care in the hospital environment by improving the quality of care and patient safety. To introduce the concept of Internet of Things to nursing audience by exploring the state of the art of Internet of Things based technology for basic nursing care in the hospital environment. Scoping review methodology following Arksey & O'Malley's stages from one to five were used to explore the extent, range, and nature of current literature. We searched eight databases using predefined search terms. A total of 5030 retrievals were found which were screened for duplications and relevancy to the study topic. 265 papers were chosen for closer screening of the abstracts and 93 for full text evaluation. 62 papers were selected for the review. The constructs of the papers, the Internet of Things based innovations and the themes of basic nursing care in hospital environment were identified. Most of the papers included in the review were peer-reviewed proceedings of technological conferences or articles published in technological journals. The Internet of Things based innovations were presented in methodology papers or tested in case studies and usability assessments. Innovations were identified in several topics in four basic nursing care activities: comprehensive assessment, periodical clinical reassessment, activities of daily living and care management. Internet of Things technology is providing innovations for the use of basic nursing care although the innovations are emerging and still in early stages. Internet of things is yet vaguely adopted in nursing. The possibilities of the Internet of Things are not yet exploited as well as they could. Nursing science might benefit from deeper involvement in engineering research in the area of health

  19. Human activity understanding for robot-assisted living

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hu, N.

    2016-01-01

    This thesis investigated the problem of understanding human activities, at different levels of granularity and taking into account both the variability in activities and annotator disagreement. To be able to capture the large variations within each of the action classes, we propose a model that uses

  20. An Internet of Things Based Multi-Level Privacy-Preserving Access Control for Smart Living

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Usama Salama

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available The presence of the Internet of Things (IoT in healthcare through the use of mobile medical applications and wearable devices allows patients to capture their healthcare data and enables healthcare professionals to be up-to-date with a patient’s status. Ambient Assisted Living (AAL, which is considered as one of the major applications of IoT, is a home environment augmented with embedded ambient sensors to help improve an individual’s quality of life. This domain faces major challenges in providing safety and security when accessing sensitive health data. This paper presents an access control framework for AAL which considers multi-level access and privacy preservation. We focus on two major points: (1 how to use the data collected from ambient sensors and biometric sensors to perform the high-level task of activity recognition; and (2 how to secure the collected private healthcare data via effective access control. We achieve multi-level access control by extending Public Key Infrastructure (PKI for secure authentication and utilizing Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC for authorization. The proposed access control system regulates access to healthcare data by defining policy attributes over healthcare professional groups and data classes classifications. We provide guidelines to classify the data classes and healthcare professional groups and describe security policies to control access to the data classes.

  1. Tangible Things of American Astronomy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schechner, Sara Jane

    2018-01-01

    As a science that studies celestial objects situated at vast distances from us, astronomy deals with few things that can be touched directly. And yet, astronomy has many tangible things—scientific instruments, observatories, and log books, for example—which link the past to the present. There is little question about maintaining things still valuable for scientific research purposes, but why should we care about documenting and preserving the old and obsolete? One answer is that material things, when closely examined, enhance our knowledge of astronomy’s history in ways that written texts alone cannot do. A second answer is that learning about the past helps us live critically in the present. In brief case studies, this talk will find meaning in objects that are extraordinary or commonplace. These will include a sundial, an almanac, telescopes, clocks, a rotating desk, photographic plates, and fly spankers.

  2. The Internet of Things living in a connected world

    CERN Document Server

    BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT

    2017-01-01

    Over the last few years the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a very hot topic, sparking much excitement and debate across industries. This ebook provides a variety of articles discussing the role, impact, benefits, and issues around the idea of the IoT.

  3. Long-lived radicals produced by γ-irradiation or vital activity in plants, animals, cells, and protein solution: their observation and inhomogeneous decay dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miyazaki, Tetsuo; Morikawa, Akiyuki; Kumagai, Jun; Ikehata, Masateru; Koana, Takao; Kikuchi, Shoshi

    2002-01-01

    Long-lived radicals produced by γ-irradiation or vital activity in plants, animals, cells, and protein (albumin) solution were studied by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. Long-lived radicals produced by vital activity exist in biological systems, such as plants, animals, and cells, in the range of 0.1-20 nmol g -1 . Since vital organs keep the radicals at a constant concentration, the radicals are probably related to life conservation. Long-lived radicals are also produced by γ-irradiation of cells or protein solution. The radicals decay after death of living things or after γ-irradiation. We found that the decay dynamics in all biological systems can be expressed by the same kinetic equation of an inhomogeneous reaction

  4. The physical activity levels among people living with human ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    J.M. Frantz

    2014-02-13

    Feb 13, 2014 ... Furthermore, the presence of obesity, dietary imbalances and sedentary ... activities/exercises in people living with HIV/AIDS while being treated with ..... Smoking in Dyslipidaemia in HIV-Infected Patients with Lipodystrophy.

  5. Evaluation of a Smartphone-based Human Activity Recognition System in a Daily Living Environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lemaire, Edward D; Tundo, Marco D; Baddour, Natalie

    2015-12-11

    An evaluation method that includes continuous activities in a daily-living environment was developed for Wearable Mobility Monitoring Systems (WMMS) that attempt to recognize user activities. Participants performed a pre-determined set of daily living actions within a continuous test circuit that included mobility activities (walking, standing, sitting, lying, ascending/descending stairs), daily living tasks (combing hair, brushing teeth, preparing food, eating, washing dishes), and subtle environment changes (opening doors, using an elevator, walking on inclines, traversing staircase landings, walking outdoors). To evaluate WMMS performance on this circuit, fifteen able-bodied participants completed the tasks while wearing a smartphone at their right front pelvis. The WMMS application used smartphone accelerometer and gyroscope signals to classify activity states. A gold standard comparison data set was created by video-recording each trial and manually logging activity onset times. Gold standard and WMMS data were analyzed offline. Three classification sets were calculated for each circuit: (i) mobility or immobility, ii) sit, stand, lie, or walking, and (iii) sit, stand, lie, walking, climbing stairs, or small standing movement. Sensitivities, specificities, and F-Scores for activity categorization and changes-of-state were calculated. The mobile versus immobile classification set had a sensitivity of 86.30% ± 7.2% and specificity of 98.96% ± 0.6%, while the second prediction set had a sensitivity of 88.35% ± 7.80% and specificity of 98.51% ± 0.62%. For the third classification set, sensitivity was 84.92% ± 6.38% and specificity was 98.17 ± 0.62. F1 scores for the first, second and third classification sets were 86.17 ± 6.3, 80.19 ± 6.36, and 78.42 ± 5.96, respectively. This demonstrates that WMMS performance depends on the evaluation protocol in addition to the algorithms. The demonstrated protocol can be used and tailored for evaluating human activity

  6. LED and Semiconductor Photo-effects on Living Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujiyasu, Hiroshi; Ishigaki, Takemitsu; Fujiyasu, Kentarou; Ujihara, Shirou; Watanabe, Naoharu; Sunayama, Shunji; Ikoma, Shuuji

    We have studied LED irradiation effects on plants and animals in the visible to UV region of light from GaN LEDs. The results are as follows. Blue light considers to be effective for pearl cultivation or for attraction of small fishes living in near the surface of sea such as Pompano or Sardine, white light radiation is effective for cultivation of botanical plankton for shells. Other experiments of UV light irradiation attracting effect on baby sea turtle and the germination UV effect of mushroom, green light weight enhance effect on baby pigs, light vernalization effect of vegitable and Ge far infrared therapic effect on human body are also given.

  7. Internet of Things in Marketing: Opportunities and Security Issues

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abashidze, Irakli; Dąbrowski, Marcin

    2016-12-01

    Internet of Things (IoT) affects different areas of human activities: everyday life of ordinary citizens, work style of marketing teams, factories and even entire cities. Large companies try to implement the technology in their marketing strategy that reshapes not only communication style and product promotion but consumers' expectations, perceptions and requirements towards companies. IoT is expected to become a huge network that will encompass not only smart devices but significantly influence humans' behavior, in this particular case - decision making style in different phases of purchase process. Therefore, the need for comprehensive scientific research is necessary. The issue needs to be reviewed from various points of view, such as opportunities, advantages, disadvantages, legal and technical considerations. The paper is an attempt to review different aspects of using Internet of Things for marketing purposes, identify some of the major problems and present possible ways of solution.

  8. Valuation of the health detriment cost

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lombard, J.

    1986-09-01

    To estimate the efficiency of radiological protection systems we have to compare the cost involved in putting each system into operation (cost of protection) to the collective dose that can thus be avoided. This comparison is facilitated if a man-Sievert monetary value is available. The man-Sievert value can be estimated from various detriments that can be attributed to this unitary exposure: whether there are lethal or non-lethal somatic effects, genetic effects and psycho-social effects. ICRP recommends, in its publication 37, to break down the cost of radiological detriment Y into two parts. The first part, Y1=αS, corresponds to the somatic and genetic effects; the second part, Y2=β ΣN j f(Hj), corresponds to the relevant effects of psycho-social considerations. This breakdown leads to the definition of two man-Sievert value components: α, which reflects somatic and genetic detriments; and β, which reflects the psycho-social effects. Several different methods can be used to determine α and β. Here, we will analyse the following: the a priori evaluation based on the Value of Human Life (VHL) or the costs of repair (for non-lethal effects); the a priori evaluation based on the loss of life expectancy; the evaluation based on what an individual would agree to give up to reduce the risk associated to a man Sievert-dose; the evaluation based on the expenses effectively incurred in the past to reduce the risk associated to a man-Sievert dose

  9. The path to active living: physical activity through community design in Somerville, Massachusetts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burke, Noreen M; Chomitz, Virginia R; Rioles, Nicole A; Winslow, Stephen P; Brukilacchio, Lisa B; Baker, Jessie C

    2009-12-01

    Somerville, Massachusetts, an ethnically diverse, urban community northwest of Boston, presents opportunities and challenges for active living. With a dense street grid, well-maintained sidewalks, neighborhood parks, and existing Community Path, Somerville is very walkable. However, two major surface arteries traverse and bisect neighborhoods, creating pedestrian safety and environmental justice issues. Major goals included promoting increased collaboration and communication among existing active-living efforts; managing the Community Path extension project; encouraging Portuguese-speaking adults to incorporate daily physical activity; leveraging existing urban planning work to establish secure, attractive walking/biking corridors; and embedding active-living messages in everyday life. The Somerville Active Living by Design Partnership (ALbD) successfully created a robust task force that was integrated with citywide active-living efforts, secured resources to increase infrastructure and support for active living, including city-level coordinator positions, and changed decision-making practices that led to incorporation of pedestrian and bicycle transportation priorities into city planning and that influenced the extension of the Community Path. Partnerships must employ sustainability planning early on, utilize skilled facilitative leaders to manage leadership transitions, and engage new partners. Identifying, cultivating, and celebrating champions, especially those with political power, are critical. Working closely with research partners leads to rich data sources for planning and evaluation. Changing the built environment is difficult; working toward smaller wins is realistic and achievable. The synergy of ALbD and other community interventions created a foundation for short-term successes and accelerated political-cultural changes already underway with respect to active living.

  10. BRIEF COMMENT ON THE INTERNET OF THINGS UNDER

    OpenAIRE

    Lóssio, Claudio Joel Brito; Santos, Coriolano Aurélio Almeida Camargo

    2018-01-01

    The current society in which we live is being taken over by a new digital society, where practically all people and machines relationships are on communication via the internet, and this situation gives rise to IoT (Internet of Things). This process is a social transformation that brings society a quo status for a new status, the ad quem, in the digital society. IOT is the acronym of Internet of Things, translating into Portuguese, Internet das Coisas, terminology aimed at all computers, mach...

  11. Which iodinated contrast media is the least cytotoxic to human disc cells?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Kyung-Hyun; Park, Jeong-Yoon; Park, Hyo-Suk; Kuh, Sung-Uk; Chin, Dong-Kyu; Kim, Keun-Su; Cho, Yong-Eun

    2015-05-01

    Iodinated contrast media (CM) is commonly used for various intradiscal injections such as in discography and endoscopic spinal surgery. However, CM has been shown to be toxic to renal tissue due to its ionic strength and osmolarity and as a result of iodine-induced cytotoxicity, which has raised concern over whether there are similar negative effects on disc cells. This in vitro study was designed to identify the least cytotoxic iodinated CM to the human disc cell among four different physiochemical iodinated contrast dyes. In vitro laboratory study. Intervertebral disc tissue was obtained by discectomy from a total of 10 lumbar disc patients undergoing surgery and disc cells were isolated. The human disc cells were grown in 3D alginate bead culture with 0, 0.1, 10, and 100 mg/mL CM solutions (ionic dimer, ionic monomer, non-ionic dimer, and non-ionic monomer) and mannitol as a control for 2 days. The living cells were analyzed with trypan blue staining. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting analysis was performed using Annexin V and propidium iodide (PI) and 3D alginate bead immunostaining to identify live, apoptotic, and necrotic cells. Human disc cell death was time- and dose-dependent in response to CM and more necrosis was observed than apoptosis. In addition, non-ionic dimeric CM (iodixanol) showed the least toxic effect on human disc cells, followed by non-ionic monomeric (iopromide), ionic dimeric (ioxaglate), and ionic monomeric CM (ioxithalamate). Contrast media is cytotoxic to human disc cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. This in vitro study revealed that, among four different CM preparations, non-ionic dimeric CM is the least detrimental to human disc cell viability. Careful attention should be paid to the type of CM chosen for discography and endoscopic spinal surgery. It is also necessary to investigate the detrimental effects of CM on disc cells and disc degeneration in further in vivo studies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights

  12. Engineering secure Internet of Things systems

    CERN Document Server

    Aziz, Benjamin; Crispo, Bruno

    2016-01-01

    This book examines important security considerations for the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is collecting a growing amount of private and sensitive data about our lives, and requires increasing degrees of reliability and trustworthiness in terms of the levels of assurance provided with respect to confidentiality, integrity and availability.

  13. Value orientation and payment for ecosystem services: Perceived detrimental consequences lead to willingness-to-pay for ecosystem services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Obeng, Elizabeth Asantewaa; Aguilar, Francisco Xavier

    2018-01-15

    This research analyzed whether the three distinct value orientations posited under the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) model determine willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a payment for ecosystem services (PES) program. A survey instrument gathered U.S. residents' knowledge and attitudes toward ecosystem services and PES, and elicited WTP for the restoration of a hypothetical degraded forest watershed for improved ecosystem services. Data from over 1000 respondents nationwide were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and ordered logistic regression. Urban respondents were more familiar with the concepts of ecosystem service and PES than rural respondents but familiarity did not yield statistically different WTP estimates. Based on results from the EFA, we posit that latent value orientations might be distinguished as 'detrimental', 'biospheric' and 'beneficial (egoistic)' - as compared to 'altruistic', 'biospheric' and 'egoistic' as suggested in the VBN's general awareness of consequences scale. Awareness of biospheric and detrimental consequences along with ascriptions to personal norms had positive and significant effects on stated WTP. Beneficial (egoistic) value orientation was negatively associated with WTP and carried a negative average WTP per household per year (US$ -30.48) for the proposed PES restoration program as compared with biospheric (US$ 15.53) and detrimental (US$ 3.96) orientations. Besides personal norms, awareness of detrimental consequences to human wellbeing from environmental degradation seems the stronger driver of WTP for the restoration and protection of forest watershed ecosystem services under a PES program. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. Connectedness to Nature and to Humanity: their association and personality correlates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Kibeom; Ashton, Michael C.; Choi, Julie; Zachariassen, Kayla

    2015-01-01

    People differ in the extent to which they identify with humans beyond their ingroup and with non-human living things. We refer to the former as the Connectedness to Humanity (CH) and to the latter as the Connectedness to Nature (CN). In a sample of 324 undergraduate students, CH and CN were operationalized using the Identification with All Humanity Scale (McFarland et al., 2012) and the CN Scale (Mayer and Frantz, 2004), respectively. These variables correlated moderately with each other (r = 0.44) and shared Openness to Experience and Honesty–Humility as their primary personality correlates. CN was found to play an important role in mediating the relationships between the two personality variables and some specific pro-environmental/pro-animal attitudes and ecological behaviors. PMID:26257669

  15. Wearable-Based Human Activity Recognition Using an IoT Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diego Castro

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a novel system based on the Internet of Things (IoT to Human Activity Recognition (HAR by monitoring vital signs remotely. We use machine learning algorithms to determine the activity done within four pre-established categories (lie, sit, walk and jog. Meanwhile, it is able to give feedback during and after the activity is performed, using a remote monitoring component with remote visualization and programmable alarms. This system was successfully implemented with a 95.83% success ratio.

  16. SIMADL: Simulated Activities of Daily Living Dataset

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Talal Alshammari

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available With the realisation of the Internet of Things (IoT paradigm, the analysis of the Activities of Daily Living (ADLs, in a smart home environment, is becoming an active research domain. The existence of representative datasets is a key requirement to advance the research in smart home design. Such datasets are an integral part of the visualisation of new smart home concepts as well as the validation and evaluation of emerging machine learning models. Machine learning techniques that can learn ADLs from sensor readings are used to classify, predict and detect anomalous patterns. Such techniques require data that represent relevant smart home scenarios, for training, testing and validation. However, the development of such machine learning techniques is limited by the lack of real smart home datasets, due to the excessive cost of building real smart homes. This paper provides two datasets for classification and anomaly detection. The datasets are generated using OpenSHS, (Open Smart Home Simulator, which is a simulation software for dataset generation. OpenSHS records the daily activities of a participant within a virtual environment. Seven participants simulated their ADLs for different contexts, e.g., weekdays, weekends, mornings and evenings. Eighty-four files in total were generated, representing approximately 63 days worth of activities. Forty-two files of classification of ADLs were simulated in the classification dataset and the other forty-two files are for anomaly detection problems in which anomalous patterns were simulated and injected into the anomaly detection dataset.

  17. Solar Energy Education. Humanities: activities and teacher's guide. Field test edition

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1982-01-01

    Activities are outlined to introduce students to information on solar energy while performing ordinary classroom work. In this teaching manual solar energy is integrated with the humanities. The activities include such things as stories, newspapers, writing assignments, and art and musical presentations all filled with energy related terms. An energy glossary is provided. (BCS)

  18. Detriments in medical exposure and occupational exposure

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kumamoto, Yoshikazu [National Inst. of Radiological Sciences, Chiba (Japan)

    1995-10-01

    In order to calculate the detriments of a population which has a different age distribution from that of the general population, the nominal probability coefficients for individual tissues and organs by age and gender were calculated. Using the Mailles`s calculational method, a computer program was made to reconstruct the detriments calculated by Land and Sinclair. The program was used to calculate detriments for the Japanese population by age and gender (DJ). The detriments were summed for each organs and the ratios of the sum to the ICRP results were calculated. The products of DJ with the ratios, namely, the nominal probability coefficients by age and gender, were calculated. The coefficients were applied to 9.0 million males and 7.4 million females diagnosed with X-rays. The detriments were 809 and 858 for males and females, respectively. With the original ICRP coefficients, the detriments for males and females were 1812 and 1412. The difference reflects the fact that the population of patients has a larger number in the older age group. The detriments of the medical doctor group were almost the same between with the present coefficients and with the ICRP coefficients. (author)

  19. Dose. Detriment. Limit assessment; Dosis. Schadensmass. Grenzwertsetzung

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Breckow, J. [Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen, Giessen (Germany). Inst. fuer Medizinische Physik und Strahlenschutz (IMPS)

    2015-07-01

    One goal of radiation protection is the limitation of stochastic effects due to radiation exposure. The probability of occurrence of a radiation induced stochastic effect, however, is only one of several other parameters which determine the radiation detriment. Though the ICRP-concept of detriment is a quantitative definition, the kind of detriment weighting includes somewhat subjective elements. In this sense, the detriment-concept of ICRP represents already at the stage of effective dose a kind of assessment. Thus, by comparing radiation protection standards and concepts interconvertible or with those of environment or occupational protection one should be aware of the possibly different principles of detriment assessment.

  20. Interaction and Humans in Internet of Things

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Turunen, Markku; Sonntag, Daniel; Engelbrecht, Klaus-Peter

    2015-01-01

    Internet of Things is mainly about connected devices embedded in our everyday environment. Typically, ‘interaction’ in the context of IoT means interfaces which allow people to either monitor or configure IoT devices. Some examples include mobile applications and embedded touchscreens for control...

  1. TTEO (Things Talk to Each Other): Programming Smart Spaces Based on IoT Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yun, Jaeseok; Ahn, Il-Yeup; Choi, Sung-Chan; Kim, Jaeho

    2016-04-01

    The Internet of Things allows things in the world to be connected to each other and enables them to automate daily tasks without human intervention, eventually building smart spaces. This article demonstrates a prototype service based on the Internet of Things, TTEO (Things Talk to Each Other). We present the full details on the system architecture and the software platforms for IoT servers and devices, called Mobius and &Cube, respectively, complying with the globally-applicable IoT standards, oneM2M, a unique identification scheme for a huge number of IoT devices, and service scenarios with an intuitive smartphone app. We hope that our approach will help developers and lead users for IoT devices and application services to establish an emerging IoT ecosystem, just like the ecosystem for smartphones and mobile applications.

  2. TTEO (Things Talk to Each Other: Programming Smart Spaces Based on IoT Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jaeseok Yun

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available The Internet of Things allows things in the world to be connected to each other and enables them to automate daily tasks without human intervention, eventually building smart spaces. This article demonstrates a prototype service based on the Internet of Things, TTEO (Things Talk to Each Other. We present the full details on the system architecture and the software platforms for IoT servers and devices, called Mobius and &Cube, respectively, complying with the globally-applicable IoT standards, oneM2M, a unique identification scheme for a huge number of IoT devices, and service scenarios with an intuitive smartphone app. We hope that our approach will help developers and lead users for IoT devices and application services to establish an emerging IoT ecosystem, just like the ecosystem for smartphones and mobile applications.

  3. An Indoor Monitoring System for Ambient Assisted Living Based on Internet of Things Architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marques, Gonçalo; Pitarma, Rui

    2016-01-01

    The study of systems and architectures for ambient assisted living (AAL) is undoubtedly a topic of great relevance given the aging of the world population. The AAL technologies are designed to meet the needs of the aging population in order to maintain their independence as long as possible. As people typically spend more than 90% of their time in indoor environments, indoor air quality (iAQ) is perceived as an imperative variable to be controlled for the inhabitants’ wellbeing and comfort. Advances in networking, sensors, and embedded devices have made it possible to monitor and provide assistance to people in their homes. The continuous technological advancements make it possible to build smart objects with great capabilities for sensing and connecting several possible advancements in ambient assisted living systems architectures. Indoor environments are characterized by several pollutant sources. Most of the monitoring frameworks instantly accessible are exceptionally costly and only permit the gathering of arbitrary examples. iAQ is an indoor air quality system based on an Internet of Things paradigm that incorporates in its construction Arduino, ESP8266, and XBee technologies for processing and data transmission and micro sensors for data acquisition. It also allows access to data collected through web access and through a mobile application in real time, and this data can be accessed by doctors in order to support medical diagnostics. Five smaller scale sensors of natural parameters (air temperature, moistness, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and glow) were utilized. Different sensors can be included to check for particular contamination. The results reveal that the system can give a viable indoor air quality appraisal in order to anticipate technical interventions for improving indoor air quality. Indeed indoor air quality might be distinctively contrasted with what is normal for a quality living environment. PMID:27869682

  4. An Indoor Monitoring System for Ambient Assisted Living Based on Internet of Things Architecture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gonçalo Marques

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The study of systems and architectures for ambient assisted living (AAL is undoubtedly a topic of great relevance given the aging of the world population. The AAL technologies are designed to meet the needs of the aging population in order to maintain their independence as long as possible. As people typically spend more than 90% of their time in indoor environments, indoor air quality (iAQ is perceived as an imperative variable to be controlled for the inhabitants’ wellbeing and comfort. Advances in networking, sensors, and embedded devices have made it possible to monitor and provide assistance to people in their homes. The continuous technological advancements make it possible to build smart objects with great capabilities for sensing and connecting several possible advancements in ambient assisted living systems architectures. Indoor environments are characterized by several pollutant sources. Most of the monitoring frameworks instantly accessible are exceptionally costly and only permit the gathering of arbitrary examples. iAQ is an indoor air quality system based on an Internet of Things paradigm that incorporates in its construction Arduino, ESP8266, and XBee technologies for processing and data transmission and micro sensors for data acquisition. It also allows access to data collected through web access and through a mobile application in real time, and this data can be accessed by doctors in order to support medical diagnostics. Five smaller scale sensors of natural parameters (air temperature, moistness, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and glow were utilized. Different sensors can be included to check for particular contamination. The results reveal that the system can give a viable indoor air quality appraisal in order to anticipate technical interventions for improving indoor air quality. Indeed indoor air quality might be distinctively contrasted with what is normal for a quality living environment.

  5. An Indoor Monitoring System for Ambient Assisted Living Based on Internet of Things Architecture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marques, Gonçalo; Pitarma, Rui

    2016-11-17

    The study of systems and architectures for ambient assisted living (AAL) is undoubtedly a topic of great relevance given the aging of the world population. The AAL technologies are designed to meet the needs of the aging population in order to maintain their independence as long as possible. As people typically spend more than 90% of their time in indoor environments, indoor air quality (iAQ) is perceived as an imperative variable to be controlled for the inhabitants' wellbeing and comfort. Advances in networking, sensors, and embedded devices have made it possible to monitor and provide assistance to people in their homes. The continuous technological advancements make it possible to build smart objects with great capabilities for sensing and connecting several possible advancements in ambient assisted living systems architectures. Indoor environments are characterized by several pollutant sources. Most of the monitoring frameworks instantly accessible are exceptionally costly and only permit the gathering of arbitrary examples. iAQ is an indoor air quality system based on an Internet of Things paradigm that incorporates in its construction Arduino, ESP8266, and XBee technologies for processing and data transmission and micro sensors for data acquisition. It also allows access to data collected through web access and through a mobile application in real time, and this data can be accessed by doctors in order to support medical diagnostics. Five smaller scale sensors of natural parameters (air temperature, moistness, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and glow) were utilized. Different sensors can be included to check for particular contamination. The results reveal that the system can give a viable indoor air quality appraisal in order to anticipate technical interventions for improving indoor air quality. Indeed indoor air quality might be distinctively contrasted with what is normal for a quality living environment.

  6. When things start to think

    CERN Document Server

    Gershenfeld, Neil

    1999-01-01

    This is a book for people who want to know what the future is going to look like and for people who want to know how to create the future. Gershenfeld offers a glimpse at the brave new post-computerized world, where microchips work for us instead of against us. He argues that we waste the potential of the microchip when we confine it to a box on our desk: the real electronic revolution will come when computers have all but disappeared into the walls around us. Imagine a digital book that looks like a traditional book printed on paper and is pleasant to read in bed but has all the mutability of a screen display. How about a personal fabricator that can organize digitized atoms into anything you want, or a musical keyboard that can be woven into a denim jacket? Gershenfeld tells the story of his Things that Think group at MIT's Media Lab, the group of innovative scientists and researchers dedicated to integrating digital technology into the fabric of our lives.

  7. Human Enhancement and the Story of Job.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agar, Nicholas; McDonald, Johnny

    2017-07-01

    This article explores some implications of the concept of transformative change for the debate about human enhancement. A transformative change is understood to be one that significantly alters the value an individual places on his or her experiences or achievements. The clearest examples of transformative change come from science fiction, but the concept can be illuminatingly applied to the enhancement debate. We argue that it helps to expose a threat from too much enhancement to many of the things that make human lives valuable. Among the things threated by enhancement are our relationships with other human beings. The potential to lose these relationships provides a compelling reason for almost all humans to reject too much enhancement.

  8. The nice people who live up in the cold place above you put lots of money into sense things to look into the big deep water and see weird-ass things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pelz, M.; Scherwath, M.; Hoeberechts, M.

    2017-12-01

    There is lots of stuff in the very big water we want to look at. But because our bodies are soft and can't hold air good, we use computer senses to help us look at all the stuff down there instead.It's actually really good thinking because we don't have to get wet and we can use computer senses under the water all the time, even when the air is cold and it sucks to be outside. We can also go really deep which is cool because weird-ass stuff is down there and we would get pressed too small if we tried to go in person. The sense things idea also save us lots of money because we only have to use other people's water cars once a year to make sure our sense things are working all the time and that we can still see stuff right. Our sense things are made of power lines that go out into the big water and come back to our work-house so if we don't want to keep looking at the same thing, we can tell the sense things to do it different from our house using the lines. This is pretty good because we can change our minds a lot and still get good ideas about what is happening in the big deep water where the weird-ass stuff is.Our head-guys give us money for this thing because we think it will let us know if the ground will shake and kill us before it starts shaking. This is kind of important because we can get out of the way and we can take our good stuff with us too if we know early that it will start shaking and making big-ass waves. Head-guys like to make people feel safe and we are good at helping with that, we think.But we made sure our sense thing can be used for more than just being ready to run away if the ground moves (even though this is a good use). There are also lots of weird-ass and weird-front animals in the big water. Some are not good looking at all, but they do cool stuff with their bodies or they are really good for eating and that makes them really interesting so we look at them too.Last but not least, we use our sense things up in the really cold big water

  9. 15 things you need to know about healthy eating.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chavez, C

    1995-01-01

    Good nutrition is essential to good health during all phases of living with HIV. Good nutrition helps the body fight infections, enables HIV-fighting drugs to work properly, and in some cases may ease drug-related side effects. The author suggests fifteen things people should know to get the most out of their daily diet. These include: eat foods from the five basic food groups; increase calorie intake; eat a combination of foods rich in protein, carbohydrates, and moderate amounts of fat; consume small frequent meals; avoid junk foods; drink plenty of liquids; maintain usual body weight; take a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement, but beware of megadosing; take charge when dining out; have regular dental checkups; establish a regular exercise program; and consult a registered dietitian specializing in HIV. Weight loss is of special concern for those living with HIV. The author suggests taking a short walk before eating and exploring the variety of nutritional supplements to increase calorie intake.

  10. Beneficial and Detrimental Effects of UV on Aquatic Organisms: Implications of Spectral Variation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Williamson, C.E.; Neale, P.J.; Grad, G.; Lange, de H.J.; Hargreaves, B.R.

    2001-01-01

    Solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) may have beneficial as well as detrimental effects on living systems. For example, UV-B radiation (280¿320 nm) is generally damaging, while UV-A radiation (320¿400 nm) may cause damage or stimulate beneficial photorepair of UV-B damage. The nature of both direct and

  11. Information sensing and interactive technology of Internet of Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, Zhiliang

    2017-11-01

    With the rapid development of economic, the Internet of Things based on Internet technology is more and more concerned by all circles of society, and the Internet of Things begins to penetrate into various fields of society. The Internet of things is an extension of the Internet, the difference between the Internet and the Internet of Things is that the purpose of things aims to achieve the exchange and exchange of information and data, contract the people and goods through a variety of technologies and equipment from items to items. Information perception and interaction technology are two very important technologies in the development of things, but also is the important technology in the history of the development of network technology. This paper briefly analyzes the characteristics of the original information perception, and the difference between the interactive technology of the Internet of Things and the human-computer interaction technology. On this basis, this paper mainly elaborates from the two aspects of information perception and interactive technology.

  12. How do trees and the small life forms under the ground talk to each other and other outside things: Can they make our world hot (or cool) again?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sihi, D.

    2017-12-01

    Trees use water and a bad stuff in air as food with the help of sun light and store the bad stuff in it's body parts (both the parts above the ground and under the ground). However, trees (both above and under ground parts) also return part of the same bad stuff stored in their food to air as it grows. After death, these trees become part of the dead things under the ground and a large part of the bad stuff can be locked under the ground for quite a long time. But, small life forms living under the ground, eat these dead things and return part of the bad stuff locked in these dead things under the ground to the air. The small life forms living under the ground can also make two other stuff (which are even more bad) while eating these dead things under the ground and return them to the air. All of these bad stuffs returned to the air make the air hot. Different things (like sun light, rain, water in the air and under the ground) could make it easier or harder in either storing or returning each of these bad stuffs by the trees or life forms living under the ground in different ways. We study how trees and the small life forms living under the ground talk to each other and to other things mentioned above, and decide how much of those bad stuffs to store and return. But, we do not know well how each of these things can change one another and how trees and small life forms living under the ground will respond to these changes. So, we are yet to understand how much the air will be hotter (if more bad stuff are returned to the air than stored in trees and under the ground) or cooler (if less bad stuffs are returned to the air than stored in trees and under the ground) in tomorrow's world.

  13. A roadmap for security challenges in the Internet of Things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arbia Riahi Sfar

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Unquestionably, communicating entities (object, or things in the Internet of Things (IoT context are playing an active role in human activities, systems and processes. The high connectivity of intelligent objects and their severe constraints lead to many security challenges, which are not included in the classical formulation of security problems and solutions. The Security Shield for IoT has been identified by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as one of the four projects with a potential impact broader than the Internet itself. To help interested researchers contribute to this research area, an overview of the IoT security roadmap overview is presented in this paper based on a novel cognitive and systemic approach. The role of each component of the approach is explained, we also study its interactions with the other main components, and their impact on the overall. A case study is presented to highlight the components and interactions of the systemic and cognitive approach. Then, security questions about privacy, trust, identification, and access control are discussed. According to the novel taxonomy of the IoT framework, different research challenges are highlighted, important solutions and research activities are revealed, and interesting research directions are proposed. In addition, current standardization activities are surveyed and discussed to the ensure the security of IoT components and applications. Keywords: Internet of Things, Systemic and cognitive approach, Security, Privacy, Trust, Identification, Access control

  14. Detriment due to radiation exposure: concept and assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Inaba, Jiro

    1999-01-01

    The International Commission on Radiological Protection has used a term risk' to denote the probability of a clinically observable deleterious effect such as fatal cancers and severe hereditary effects. In their 1990 recommendations ICRP developed a new term 'detriment' which contains a complex concept combining the probability, severity and time of expression of deleterious effects. Nominal probability coefficients for fatal cancer, one of the most important components of the detriment, are assessed to be 5% and 4% per Sv for the whole population and workers, respectively, for radiation protection. These values were derived from the data on mortality from the Life-Span Study of the atomic-bomb survivors up to 1985 assuming several components consist of dose-response relationship, life-span risk projection model, dose and dose rate effectiveness factor, national population and transfer model and so on. The risk estimates and each of these components include uncertainties which should be clarified for the better understanding and use of the risk estimates. However, it is not likely that near-future data from Life-Span Study will significantly change these uncertainties, which should in no way be interpreted as a denial of the essential importance of fundamental research into the mechanism of cancer induction. In these situation the National Institute of Radiological Sciences have performed a 5-year research project 'Experimental Studies on Detriments of Radiation Exposure'. The project consists of researches on a) Radiation carcinogenesis, b) Effects on embryo and fetus, c) Biological effect of plutonium. The project was successful to provide useful information on these subjects. (author)

  15. Balancing the benefits and detriments among women targeted by the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofvind, Solveig; Román, Marta; Sebuødegård, Sofie; Falk, Ragnhild S

    2016-12-01

    To compute a ratio between the estimated numbers of lives saved from breast cancer death and the number of women diagnosed with a breast cancer that never would have been diagnosed during the woman's lifetime had she not attended screening (epidemiologic over-diagnosis) in the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program. The Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program invites women aged 50-69 to biennial mammographic screening. Results from published studies using individual level data from the programme for estimating breast cancer mortality and epidemiologic over-diagnosis comprised the basis for the ratio. The mortality reduction varied from 36.8% to 43% among screened women, while estimates on epidemiologic over-diagnosis ranged from 7% to 19.6%. We computed the average estimates for both values. The benefit-detriment ratio, number of lives saved, and number of women over-diagnosed were computed for different scenarios of reduction in breast cancer mortality and epidemiologic over-diagnosis. For every 10,000 biennially screened women, followed until age 79, we estimated that 53-61 (average 57) women were saved from breast cancer death, and 45-126 (average 82) were over-diagnosed. The benefit-detriment ratio using average estimates was 1:1.4, indicating that the programme saved about one life per 1-2 women with epidemiologic over-diagnosis. The benefit-detriment ratio estimates of the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program, expressed as lives saved from breast cancer death and epidemiologic over-diagnosis, should be interpreted with care due to substantial uncertainties in the estimates, and the differences in the scale of values of the events compared. © The Author(s) 2016.

  16. Combining users' activity survey and simulators to evaluate human activity recognition systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Azkune, Gorka; Almeida, Aitor; López-de-Ipiña, Diego; Chen, Liming

    2015-04-08

    Evaluating human activity recognition systems usually implies following expensive and time-consuming methodologies, where experiments with humans are run with the consequent ethical and legal issues. We propose a novel evaluation methodology to overcome the enumerated problems, which is based on surveys for users and a synthetic dataset generator tool. Surveys allow capturing how different users perform activities of daily living, while the synthetic dataset generator is used to create properly labelled activity datasets modelled with the information extracted from surveys. Important aspects, such as sensor noise, varying time lapses and user erratic behaviour, can also be simulated using the tool. The proposed methodology is shown to have very important advantages that allow researchers to carry out their work more efficiently. To evaluate the approach, a synthetic dataset generated following the proposed methodology is compared to a real dataset computing the similarity between sensor occurrence frequencies. It is concluded that the similarity between both datasets is more than significant.

  17. Combining Users’ Activity Survey and Simulators to Evaluate Human Activity Recognition Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gorka Azkune

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Evaluating human activity recognition systems usually implies following expensive and time-consuming methodologies, where experiments with humans are run with the consequent ethical and legal issues. We propose a novel evaluation methodology to overcome the enumerated problems, which is based on surveys for users and a synthetic dataset generator tool. Surveys allow capturing how different users perform activities of daily living, while the synthetic dataset generator is used to create properly labelled activity datasets modelled with the information extracted from surveys. Important aspects, such as sensor noise, varying time lapses and user erratic behaviour, can also be simulated using the tool. The proposed methodology is shown to have very important advantages that allow researchers to carry out their work more efficiently. To evaluate the approach, a synthetic dataset generated following the proposed methodology is compared to a real dataset computing the similarity between sensor occurrence frequencies. It is concluded that the similarity between both datasets is more than significant.

  18. Combining Users' Activity Survey and Simulators to Evaluate Human Activity Recognition Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Azkune, Gorka; Almeida, Aitor; López-de-Ipiña, Diego; Chen, Liming

    2015-01-01

    Evaluating human activity recognition systems usually implies following expensive and time-consuming methodologies, where experiments with humans are run with the consequent ethical and legal issues. We propose a novel evaluation methodology to overcome the enumerated problems, which is based on surveys for users and a synthetic dataset generator tool. Surveys allow capturing how different users perform activities of daily living, while the synthetic dataset generator is used to create properly labelled activity datasets modelled with the information extracted from surveys. Important aspects, such as sensor noise, varying time lapses and user erratic behaviour, can also be simulated using the tool. The proposed methodology is shown to have very important advantages that allow researchers to carry out their work more efficiently. To evaluate the approach, a synthetic dataset generated following the proposed methodology is compared to a real dataset computing the similarity between sensor occurrence frequencies. It is concluded that the similarity between both datasets is more than significant. PMID:25856329

  19. Designing with Matter: From Programmable Materials to Processual Things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Agustina Andreoletti

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available This paper explores the potential of active matter, from a practical exploration of the concept to a theoretical discussion based on the material findings. It begins by addressing the ideas of materiality and material performance through the project “Chrysalis Gemini” and then provides an overview of the notion of programmability.To this end, we move to the description and analysis of programming, focusing on its relationship with hardware, software and material. In particular, we address the idea of programmable matter, and we introduce the term processuality. We consider the importance of adaptability, analysing the experience of humans, their interaction with the environment, with artefacts and with material within a design context.In this manner this study seeks to highlight how contextualisation and interconnected processes become relevant as a design argument. This is achieved by presenting the relational potential of processual material and things and their ongoing transformation. 

  20. It Takes Many Things to Be a Father: It Takes Many More Things to Be a Daddy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parr, Jerry

    2008-01-01

    For fathers to become daddies, many things need to happen. Many things conspire against this--work, play, what kind of father you had, what kind of mother you had, peers, fear, the mystery of children through a male's eyes, lack of role models--yet, in spite of this, changes need to happen. This author contends that the same is true in the…

  1. Implementation of the Internet of Things on Public Security

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Kesheng; Li, Xichun

    The development of the Internet of Things will occur within a new ecosystem that will be driven by a number of key players. The public security as one of the key players is going to make real-time communications will be possible not only by humans but also by things at anytime and from anywhere. This research will present the advent of the Internet of Things to create a plethora of innovative applications and services, which will enhance quality of life and reduce inequalities.

  2. Active living in rural Appalachia: Using the rural active living assessment (RALA tools to explore environmental barriers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adam Hege

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available People residing in rural communities are more likely to be physically inactive and subsequently have elevated risks for chronic disease. Recent evidence has shown this could stem from environmental barriers, inadequate programming and policies directed at the promotion of physical activity (PA in rural settings. The objective of this research was to assess active living features in rural towns and townships (n=16 across seven counties in northwestern North Carolina (NC. The study utilized the Town-Wide and Street Segment components of the Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA as well as the 2014 American Community Survey results. The assessments were conducted in the summer of 2016 in the rural Appalachia region of NC. Using the RALA town-wide assessment scoring system (0−100, the range of scores was 18–84, with the mean being 50.06. Three towns had no sidewalks, nine towns had sidewalks on only one side of the main streets, and four had sidewalks on both sides of the main streets. One town was rated as highly walkable, seven towns as moderately walkable, five towns as moderately unwalkable, and three towns as highly unwalkable. The rural Appalachia region of NC offers unique topographic, geographic and environmental barriers to PA. However, our findings indicate many rural towns offer common PA amenities. Future research should utilize qualitative methods and a community-based participatory research approach to more fully understand the challenges with increasing PA in the rural and often isolated Appalachia communities. Keywords: Rural active living assessment (RALA, Health disparities, Physical activity, Rural Appalachia

  3. Morse things : a design inquiry into the gap between things and us

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wakkary, R.L.; Oogjes, D.J.; Hauser, S.; Lin, H.; Cao, C.; Ma, L.; Duel, T.

    2017-01-01

    Applying a thing-centered, material speculation approach we designed the Morse Things to acknowledge and inquire into the gap between things and us. The Morse Things are sets of ceramic bowls and cups networked together to independently communicate through Morse code in an Internet of Things (IoT).

  4. The Internet of Things

    CERN Document Server

    Greengard, Samuel

    2015-01-01

    We turn on the lights in our house from a desk in an office miles away. Our refrigerator alerts us to buy milk on the way home. A package of cookies on the supermarket shelf suggests that we buy it, based on past purchases. The cookies themselves are on the shelf because of a "smart" supply chain. When we get home, the thermostat has already adjusted the temperature so that it's toasty or bracing, whichever we prefer. This is the Internet of Things -- a networked world of connected devices, objects, and people. In this book, Samuel Greengard offers a guided tour through this emerging world and how it will change the way we live and work. Greengard explains that the Internet of Things (IoT) is still in its early stages. Smart phones, cloud computing, RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology, sensors, and miniaturization are converging to make possible a new generation of embedded and immersive technology. Greengard traces the origins of the IoT from the early days of personal computers and the Internet...

  5. Quantifying the Modern City: Emerging Technologies and Big Data for Active Living Research

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Deepti Adlakha

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Opportunities and infrastructure for active living are an important aspect of a community’s design, livability, and health. Features of the built environment influence active living and population levels of physical activity, but objective study of the built environment influence on active living behaviors is challenging. The use of emerging technologies for active living research affords new and promising means to obtain objective data on physical activity behaviors and improve the precision and accuracy of measurements. This is significant for physical activity promotion because precise measurements can enable detailed examinations of where, when, and how physical activity behaviors actually occur, thus enabling more effective targeting of particular behavior settings and environments. The aim of this focused review is to provide an overview of trends in emerging technologies that can profoundly change our ability to understand environmental determinants of active living. It discusses novel technological approaches and big data applications to measure and track human behaviors that may have broad applications across the fields of urban planning, public health, and spatial epidemiology.

  6. Systema Naturae. Classification of living things.

    OpenAIRE

    Alexey Shipunov

    2007-01-01

    Original classification of living organisms containing four kingdoms (Monera, Protista, Vegetabilia and Animalia), 60 phyla and 254 classes, is presented. The classification is based on latest available information.

  7. HMIoT: A New Healthcare Model Based on Internet of Things

    OpenAIRE

    Suraki, Mohsen Yaghoubi; Suraki, Morteza Yaghoubi; SourakiAzad, Leila

    2015-01-01

    In recent century, with developing of equipment, using of the internet and things connected to the internet is growing. Therefore, the need for informing in the process of expanding the scope of its application is very necessary and important. These days, using intelligent and autonomous devices in our daily lives has become commonplace and the Internet is the most important part of the relationship between these tools and even at close distances also. Things connected to the Internet that ar...

  8. Internet of Things Based Combustible Ice Safety Monitoring System Framework

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Enji

    2017-05-01

    As the development of human society, more energy is requires to meet the need of human daily lives. New energies play a significant role in solving the problems of serious environmental pollution and resources exhaustion in the present world. Combustible ice is essentially frozen natural gas, which can literally be lit on fire bringing a whole new meaning to fire and ice with less pollutant. This paper analysed the advantages and risks on the uses of combustible ice. By compare to other kinds of alternative energies, the advantages of the uses of combustible ice were concluded. The combustible ice basic physical characters and safety risks were analysed. The developments troubles and key utilizations of combustible ice were predicted in the end. A real-time safety monitoring system framework based on the internet of things (IOT) was built to be applied in the future mining, which provide a brand new way to monitoring the combustible ice mining safety.

  9. Towards responsive regulation of the Internet of Things: Australian perspectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Megan Richardson

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available The Internet of Things (IoT is considered to be one of the most significant disruptive technologies of modern times, and promises to impact our lives in many positive ways. At the same time, its interactivity and interconnectivity poses significant challenges to privacy and data protection. Following an exploratory interpretive qualitative case study approach, we interviewed 14 active IoT users plus ten IoT designers/developers in Melbourne, Australia to explore their experiences and concerns about privacy and data protection in a more networked world enabled by the IoT. We conclude with some recommendations for ‘responsive regulation’ of the IoT in the Australian context.

  10. The mental representation of living and nonliving things: differential weighting and interactivity of sensorial and non-sensorial features.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ventura, Paulo; Morais, José; Brito-Mendes, Carlos; Kolinsky, Régine

    2005-02-01

    Warrington and colleagues (Warrington & McCarthy, 1983, 1987; Warrington & Shallice, 1984) claimed that sensorial and functional-associative (FA) features are differentially important in determining the meaning of living things (LT) and nonliving things (NLT). The first aim of the present study was to evaluate this hypothesis through two different access tasks: feature generation (Experiment 1) and cued recall (Experiment 2). The results of both experiments provided consistent empirical support for Warrington and colleagues' assumption. The second aim of the present study was to test a new differential interactivity hypothesis that combines Warrington and colleagueS' assumption with the notion of a higher number of intercorrelations and hence of a stronger connectivity between sensorial and non-sensorial features for LTs than for NLTs. This hypothesis was motivated by previoUs reports of an uncrossed interaction between domain (LTs vs NLTs) and attribute type (sensorial vs FA) in, for example, a feature verification task (Laws, Humber, Ramsey, & McCarthy, 1995): while FA attributes are verified faster than sensorial attributes for NLTs, no difference is observed for LTs. We replicated and generalised this finding using several feature verification tasks on both written words and pictures (Experiment 3), including in conditions aimed at minimising the intervention of priming biases and strategic or mnemonic processes (Experiment 4). The whole set of results suggests that both privileged relations between features and categories, and the differential importance of intercorrelations between features as a function of category, modulate access to semantic features.

  11. Synthetic biology between technoscience and thing knowledge.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gelfert, Axel

    2013-06-01

    Synthetic biology presents a challenge to traditional accounts of biology: Whereas traditional biology emphasizes the evolvability, variability, and heterogeneity of living organisms, synthetic biology envisions a future of homogeneous, humanly engineered biological systems that may be combined in modular fashion. The present paper approaches this challenge from the perspective of the epistemology of technoscience. In particular, it is argued that synthetic-biological artifacts lend themselves to an analysis in terms of what has been called 'thing knowledge'. As such, they should neither be regarded as the simple outcome of applying theoretical knowledge and engineering principles to specific technological problems, nor should they be treated as mere sources of new evidence in the general pursuit of scientific understanding. Instead, synthetic-biological artifacts should be viewed as partly autonomous research objects which, qua their material-biological constitution, embody knowledge about the natural world-knowledge that, in turn, can be accessed via continuous experimental interrogation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) - APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES

    OpenAIRE

    K. Lathika

    2016-01-01

    The internet of things (IoT) as the new influence to the human world and machine world is emerging as a new high tide wave in the development of internet. Internet of things is expected to have massive impact on the customer of electric equipment’s, business which will all be integrated and synchronized and also the fact is these are the early days. Looking at the potential of the wide suitability to all most all the vectors of the core areas like business, industries, manufacturing consumer...

  13. Neural pattern similarity underlies the mnemonic advantages for living words.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, Xiaoqian; Dong, Qi; Chen, Chuansheng; Xue, Gui

    2016-06-01

    It has been consistently shown that words representing living things are better remembered than words representing nonliving things, yet the underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms have not been clearly elucidated. The present study used both univariate and multivariate pattern analyses to examine the hypotheses that living words are better remembered because (1) they draw more attention and/or (2) they share more overlapping semantic features. Subjects were asked to study a list of living and nonliving words during a semantic judgment task. An unexpected recognition test was administered 30 min later. We found that subjects recognized significantly more living words than nonliving words. Results supported the overlapping semantic feature hypothesis by showing that (a) semantic ratings showed greater semantic similarity for living words than for nonliving words, (b) there was also significantly greater neural global pattern similarity (nGPS) for living words than for nonliving words in the posterior portion of left parahippocampus (LpPHG), (c) the nGPS in the LpPHG reflected the rated semantic similarity, and also mediated the memory differences between two semantic categories, and (d) greater univariate activation was found for living words than for nonliving words in the left hippocampus (LHIP), which mediated the better memory performance for living words and might reflect greater semantic context binding. In contrast, although living words were processed faster and elicited a stronger activity in the dorsal attention network, these differences did not mediate the animacy effect in memory. Taken together, our results provide strong support to the overlapping semantic features hypothesis, and emphasize the important role of semantic organization in episodic memory encoding. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  14. The internet of things for personalized health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schreier, Günter

    2014-01-01

    Advances in information and communications technologies (ICT) enable new personalized health care concepts which are often characterized by four "P" terms, i.e. personalized, predictive, preventive and participatory. However, real world implementations of the complete 4P spectrum hardly exist today. The Internet of Things (IoT) has been defined as an extension to the current Internet that enables pervasive communication between the physical and the virtual world. Smart devices and enabling elements like Near Field Communication (NFC) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology already exist and increasingly will be a mainstream element of our lives. This future vision paper attempts to assess if and how the Internet of Things for personalized health (IoT4pH) can help to facilitate the 4P healthcare paradigm and discusses related challenges and opportunities.

  15. The future of humanity. How do we want to live tomorrow?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koenneker, Carsten

    2017-01-01

    This special edition contains the following 13 contributions: 1. anthropogenetics: Our evolution continues (Homo sapiens has always adapted to new living conditions. He will continue to do so.); 2. Transplantation medicine: donor organs from animals (scientists try to breed human organs in pigs, cows and other animals); 3. Germ line therapy: human design through the back door (gene manipulated sperm cells against male infertility would be an ethical breach of the perineum: the modifications would be passed on); 4. Gerontology: the methuselah effect (researchers investigate the processes in cells, thanks to which individual human beings live for more than 100 years); 5. Society: Rich world - poor world (in industrialised countries the population is stagnating, while in developing countries more and more young people are demanding work); 6. Inequality: divided society (tensions exacerbated by flight and migration, endangering social cohesion); 7. Epidemiology: A diagnosis of mankind (global data provide information on the state of health of the earth's population); 8. Geology: a complex matter; 9. Urbanism: the city of tomorrow; 10. Technology: energy revolution for Africa (the continent could fully rely on clean electricity); 11. Transhumanism: Do we want to live forever? 12. Social contacts: Don't google it, Dad. (Sherry Turkle warns of the constant cross-linking); 13. Anthropocene: apocalypse or departure? (We determine the fate of intelligent life). One contribution was separately analyzed for this database. [de

  16. INTERNET OF THINGS IN MARKETING: OPPORTUNITIES AND SECURITY ISSUES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Irakli ABASHIDZE

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Internet of Things (IoT affects different areas of human activities: everyday life of ordinary citizens, work style of mar-keting teams, factories and even entire cities. Large companies try to implement the technology in their marketing strat-egy that reshapes not only communication style and product promotion but consumers’ expectations, perceptions and requirements towards companies. IoT is expected to become a huge network that will encompass not only smart devic-es but significantly influence humans’ behavior, in this particular case – decision making style in different phases of pur-chase process. Therefore, the need for comprehensive scientific research is necessary. The issue needs to be reviewed from various points of view, such as opportunities, advantages, disadvantages, legal and technical considerations. The paper is an attempt to review different aspects of using Internet of Things for marketing purposes, identify some of the major problems and present possible ways of solution.

  17. Nine Things to Know About Stem Cell Treatments

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Search Toggle Nav Nine Things To Know About Stem Cell Treatments Home > Stem Cells and Medicine > Nine Things ... Know About Stem Cell Treatments Many clinics offering stem cell treatments make claims that are not supported by ...

  18. Environmental risk assessment of airborne emission from chinese coal-fired power plants with public health detriment criteria

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    He Huimin; Pan Ziqiang; Zhang Yongxing; Xia Yihua

    1997-01-01

    On the basis of investigation of types of dust removers and their efficiency in Chinese coal-fired power plants, human health detriment of airborne non-radioactive and radioactive emissions from the power plants is assessed with public health detriment assessment method. The results show that the risk is primarily from airborne non-radioactive emission

  19. High Cellular Monocyte Activation in People Living With Human Immunodeficiency Virus on Combination Antiretroviral Therapy and Lifestyle-Matched Controls Is Associated With Greater Inflammation in Cerebrospinal Fluid

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Booiman, Thijs; Wit, Ferdinand W.; Maurer, Irma; de Francesco, Davide; Sabin, Caroline A.; Harskamp, Agnes M.; Prins, Maria; Garagnani, Paolo; Pirazzini, Chiara; Franceschi, Claudio; Fuchs, Dietmar; Gisslén, Magnus; Winston, Alan; Reiss, Peter; Kootstra, Neeltje A.; Schouten, J.; Kooij, K. W.; van Zoest, R. A.; Elsenga, B. C.; Janssen, F. R.; Heidenrijk, M.; Zikkenheiner, W.; van der Valk, M.; Booiman, T.; Harskamp-Holwerda, A. M.; Boeser-Nunnink, B.; Maurer, I.; Mangas Ruiz, M. M.; Girigorie, A. F.; Villaudy, J.; Frankin, E.; Pasternak, A.; Berkhout, B.; van der Kuyl, T.; Portegies, P.; Schmand, B. A.; Geurtsen, G. J.; ter Stege, J. A.; Klein Twennaar, M.; Majoie, C. B. L. M.; Caan, M. W. A.; Su, T.; Weijer, K.; Bisschop, P. H. L. T.; Kalsbeek, A.; Wezel, M.; Visser, I.; Ruhé, H. G.; Franceschi, C.; Garagnani, P.

    2017-01-01

    Increased monocyte activation and intestinal damage have been shown to be predictive for the increased morbidity and mortality observed in treated people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV). A cross-sectional analysis of cellular and soluble markers of monocyte activation, coagulation,

  20. User Requirements for Internet Of Things (IoT) Applications : An Observational study

    OpenAIRE

    Namirimu, Victoria

    2015-01-01

    Context. Internet of Things (IoT) is a new trending phase of technology. IoT refers to communication and connectivity between things such as technological devices, actuators, sensors, and people or processes with unique identifiers. The importance of IoT is to improve the daily living standards of an average user. IoT is made for the people and used by the people for many reasons such as improved health, business innovations, and personal health trackers. Examples of IoT applications and serv...

  1. Hierarchy is Detrimental for Human Cooperation

    OpenAIRE

    Cronin, Katherine A.; Acheson, Daniel J.; Hernández, Penélope; Sánchez, Angel

    2016-01-01

    Studies of animal behavior consistently demonstrate that the social environment impacts cooperation, yet the effect of social dynamics has been largely excluded from studies of human cooperation. Here, we introduce a novel approach inspired by nonhuman primate research to address how social hierarchies impact human cooperation. Participants competed to earn hierarchy positions and then could cooperate with another individual in the hierarchy by investing in a common effort. Cooperation was ac...

  2. The Industrial Internet of Things

    OpenAIRE

    Albano, Michele; Silva, José Bruno; Lino Ferreira, Luis

    2017-01-01

    Demo in 22º Seminário da Rede Temática de Comunicações Móveis (RTCM 2017). 18, Jan, 2017, Session III. Lisboa. The application of the Internet of Things to manufacturing is the driving force of the new industrial revolution (Industrie 4.0). In fact, most activities in the manufacturing industry can benefit from the data collected in the context of the industrial process. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), whose pillars are the usage of IP communication between the devices and making...

  3. The mixed reality of things: emerging challenges for human-information interaction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spicer, Ryan P.; Russell, Stephen M.; Rosenberg, Evan Suma

    2017-05-01

    Virtual and mixed reality technology has advanced tremendously over the past several years. This nascent medium has the potential to transform how people communicate over distance, train for unfamiliar tasks, operate in challenging environments, and how they visualize, interact, and make decisions based on complex data. At the same time, the marketplace has experienced a proliferation of network-connected devices and generalized sensors that are becoming increasingly accessible and ubiquitous. As the "Internet of Things" expands to encompass a predicted 50 billion connected devices by 2020, the volume and complexity of information generated in pervasive and virtualized environments will continue to grow exponentially. The convergence of these trends demands a theoretically grounded research agenda that can address emerging challenges for human-information interaction (HII). Virtual and mixed reality environments can provide controlled settings where HII phenomena can be observed and measured, new theories developed, and novel algorithms and interaction techniques evaluated. In this paper, we describe the intersection of pervasive computing with virtual and mixed reality, identify current research gaps and opportunities to advance the fundamental understanding of HII, and discuss implications for the design and development of cyber-human systems for both military and civilian use.

  4. Smartphone-based human activity recognition

    OpenAIRE

    Reyes Ortiz, Jorge Luis

    2014-01-01

    Cotutela Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya i Università degli Studi di Genova Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is a multidisciplinary research field that aims to gather data regarding people's behavior and their interaction with the environment in order to deliver valuable context-aware information. It has nowadays contributed to develop human-centered areas of study such as Ambient Intelligence and Ambient Assisted Living, which concentrate on the improvement of people's Quality of Lif...

  5. QUALITY CONTROL IN LOGISTICS ACTIVITIES THROUGH INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ANDREI BAUTU

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Modern companies depend on their logistics in order to maintain their purchases-inventory-sales chain to the desired level of performance (i.e. profitability. Many past situations demonstrate that errors, inefficiencies and disruptions in this chain can cause companies to miss opportunities, loose profitability, and even go bankrupt. An important factor to high quality logistics is the quality and availability of information about key processes. Internet of Things (IoT technology allows companies to gather real-time information on processes, people and equipment, and to integrate it in their own informational systems. This paper discusses the use of IoT technology to monitor logistics activities in order to provide support data for performance assessments.

  6. ActivityNet: A Large-Scale Video Benchmark for Human Activity Understanding

    KAUST Repository

    Heilbron, Fabian Caba

    2015-06-02

    In spite of many dataset efforts for human action recognition, current computer vision algorithms are still severely limited in terms of the variability and complexity of the actions that they can recognize. This is in part due to the simplicity of current benchmarks, which mostly focus on simple actions and movements occurring on manually trimmed videos. In this paper we introduce ActivityNet, a new largescale video benchmark for human activity understanding. Our benchmark aims at covering a wide range of complex human activities that are of interest to people in their daily living. In its current version, ActivityNet provides samples from 203 activity classes with an average of 137 untrimmed videos per class and 1.41 activity instances per video, for a total of 849 video hours. We illustrate three scenarios in which ActivityNet can be used to compare algorithms for human activity understanding: untrimmed video classification, trimmed activity classification and activity detection.

  7. ActivityNet: A Large-Scale Video Benchmark for Human Activity Understanding

    KAUST Repository

    Heilbron, Fabian Caba; Castillo, Victor; Ghanem, Bernard; Niebles, Juan Carlos

    2015-01-01

    In spite of many dataset efforts for human action recognition, current computer vision algorithms are still severely limited in terms of the variability and complexity of the actions that they can recognize. This is in part due to the simplicity of current benchmarks, which mostly focus on simple actions and movements occurring on manually trimmed videos. In this paper we introduce ActivityNet, a new largescale video benchmark for human activity understanding. Our benchmark aims at covering a wide range of complex human activities that are of interest to people in their daily living. In its current version, ActivityNet provides samples from 203 activity classes with an average of 137 untrimmed videos per class and 1.41 activity instances per video, for a total of 849 video hours. We illustrate three scenarios in which ActivityNet can be used to compare algorithms for human activity understanding: untrimmed video classification, trimmed activity classification and activity detection.

  8. Power through Things: Following Traces of Collective Intelligence in Internet of Things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monika Mačiulienė

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Purpose – it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the input Internet of Things (IoT has to offer in development of public, business and other societal structures. Therefore, paper seeks to determine the current state of knowledge in the field of IoT terms of wisdom creation and emergence of collective intelligence. First, we discuss concept of collective intelligence, then we define phenomena of IoT and identify areas of its application. Later, the author reviews how intelligent outputs of IoT are defined in scientific literature. These findings of theoretical investigation may shed some light on research field that is promising but still very vague.Design/methodology/approach – this article provides a general overview of IoT concept and its growing relation to collective intelligence. Methods of document analysis and content analysis were applied. Theoretical analysis enabled recognition of IoT phenomena in relation to wisdom creation and emergence of collective intelligence.Findings – general overview of the field revealed that new understanding of collective intelligence surfaces. Often intelligent behavior and decisions emerge from ever increasing cooperation between ‘things’ and humans. The variety of new concepts and authors trying to describe relationship of ‘things’ with each other and humans when creating intelligent outcomes revealed that this field is still in its very infancy and still needs considerable amount of industry and scientific efforts to be understood and executed.Research limitations – although the paper has successfully demonstrated that IoT provides vast amounts of data for people to process and create knowledge this could be considered only as initial phase in studying the field. IoT and its intelligent outcomes need more investigations in terms of real life case studies and industry reviews in order to create valid definitions, models and future guidelines. Practical implications – this

  9. The monetary value of human lives lost due to neglected tropical diseases in Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirigia, Joses Muthuri; Mburugu, Gitonga N

    2017-12-18

    Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are an important cause of death and disability in Africa. This study estimates the monetary value of human lives lost due to NTDs in the continent in 2015. The lost output or human capital approach was used to evaluate the years of life lost due to premature deaths from NTDs among 10 high/upper-middle-income (Group 1), 17 middle-income (Group 2) and 27 low-income (Group 3) countries in Africa. The future losses were discounted to their present values at a 3% discount rate. The model was re-analysed using 5% and 10% discount rates to assess the impact on the estimated total value of human lives lost. The estimated value of 67 860 human lives lost in 2015 due to NTDs was Int$ 5 112 472 607. Out of that, 14.6% was borne by Group 1, 57.7% by Group 2 and 27.7% by Group 3 countries. The mean value of human life lost per NTD death was Int$ 231 278, Int$ 109 771 and Int$ 37 489 for Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 countries, respectively. The estimated value of human lives lost in 2015 due to NTDs was equivalent to 0.1% of the cumulative gross domestic product of the 53 continental African countries. Even though NTDs are not a major cause of death, they impact negatively on the productivity of those affected throughout their life-course. Thus, the case for investing in NTDs control should also be influenced by the value of NTD morbidity, availability of effective donated medicines, human rights arguments, and need to achieve the NTD-related target 3.3 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 (on health) by 2030.

  10. Challenges and Characteristics of Intelligent Autonomy for Internet of Battle Things in Highly Adversarial Environments

    OpenAIRE

    Kott, Alexander

    2018-01-01

    Numerous, artificially intelligent, networked things will populate the battlefield of the future, operating in close collaboration with human warfighters, and fighting as teams in highly adversarial environments. This paper explores the characteristics, capabilities and intelligence required of such a network of intelligent things and humans - Internet of Battle Things (IOBT). It will experience unique challenges that are not yet well addressed by the current generation of AI and machine lear...

  11. Can human rights standards help protect children and youth from the detrimental impact of alcohol beverage marketing and promotional activities?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chapman, Audrey R

    2017-01-01

    The alcohol industry in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region promotes demand for alcohol products actively through a number of channels, including advertising and sponsorship of sports and other events. This paper evaluates whether human rights instruments that Latin American countries have ratified can be used to limit children's exposure to alcohol advertising and promotion. A review was conducted of the text of, and interpretative documents related to, a series of international and regional human rights instruments ratified by most countries in the LAC region that enumerate the right to health. The Convention on the Rights of the Child has the most relevant provisions to protect children and youth from alcohol promotion and advertising. Related interpretive documents by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child affirm that corporations hold duties to respect and protect children's right to health. Human rights norms and law can be used to regulate or eliminate alcohol beverage marketing and promotional activities in the Latin American region. The paper recommends developing a human rights based Framework Convention on Alcohol Control to provide guidance. © 2016 Society for the Study of Addiction.

  12. How to get things done. Period.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freed, D H

    2000-09-01

    In a competitive environment, hospitals are finding it more important than ever to satisfy their patients, support themselves, and improve their performances. However, experience repeatedly confirms that articulating these strategies is much simpler than actually executing them. While a variety of reasons can be offered, the fact is that effective execution--getting things done--is a strategic differential that brings about significant competitive advantage. This article examines a number of proven best practices for overcoming resistance and actually getting things done. Doing so requires more assumption of risk, but it is both personally and organizationally very invigorating and rewarding.

  13. We Are Never Alone: Living with the Human Microbiota

    OpenAIRE

    da Silva, Gabriela Jorge; Domingues, Sara

    2017-01-01

    The human body is inhabited by millions of tiny living organisms, which, all together, are called the human microbiota. Bacteria are microbes found on the skin, in the nose, mouth, and especially in the gut. We acquire these bacteria during birth and the first years of life, and they live with us throughout our lives. The human microbiota is involved in healthy growth, in protecting the body from invaders, in helping digestion, and in regulating moods. Some changes in the microbiota may occur...

  14. Selective impairment of living things and musical instruments on a verbal 'Semantic Knowledge Questionnaire' in a case of apperceptive visual agnosia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masullo, Carlo; Piccininni, Chiara; Quaranta, Davide; Vita, Maria Gabriella; Gaudino, Simona; Gainotti, Guido

    2012-10-01

    Semantic memory was investigated in a patient (MR) affected by a severe apperceptive visual agnosia, due to an ischemic cerebral lesion, bilaterally affecting the infero-mesial parts of the temporo-occipital cortices. The study was made by means of a Semantic Knowledge Questionnaire (Laiacona, Barbarotto, Trivelli, & Capitani, 1993), which takes separately into account four categories of living beings (animals, fruits, vegetables and body parts) and of artefacts (furniture, tools, vehicles and musical instruments), does not require a visual analysis and allows to distinguish errors concerning super-ordinate categorization, perceptual features and functional/encyclopedic knowledge. When the total number of errors obtained on all the categories of living and non-living beings was considered, a non-significant trend toward a higher number of errors in living stimuli was observed. This difference, however, became significant when body parts and musical instruments were excluded from the analysis. Furthermore, the number of errors obtained on the musical instruments was similar to that obtained on the living categories of animals, fruits and vegetables and significantly higher of that obtained in the other artefact categories. This difference was still significant when familiarity, frequency of use and prototypicality of each stimulus entered into a logistic regression analysis. On the other hand, a separate analysis of errors obtained on questions exploring super-ordinate categorization, perceptual features and functional/encyclopedic attributes showed that the differences between living and non-living stimuli and between musical instruments and other artefact categories were mainly due to errors obtained on questions exploring perceptual features. All these data are at variance with the 'domains of knowledge' hypothesis', which assumes that the breakdown of different categories of living and non-living things respects the distinction between biological entities and

  15. Middleware Technologies for Cloud of Things - a survey

    OpenAIRE

    Farahzadia, Amirhossein; Shams, Pooyan; Rezazadeh, Javad; Farahbakhsh, Reza

    2017-01-01

    The next wave of communication and applications rely on the new services provided by Internet of Things which is becoming an important aspect in human and machines future. The IoT services are a key solution for providing smart environments in homes, buildings and cities. In the era of a massive number of connected things and objects with a high grow rate, several challenges have been raised such as management, aggregation and storage for big produced data. In order to tackle some of these is...

  16. Conforming to the rule of law: when person and human being finally mean the same thing in Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lugosi, Charles I

    The Fourteenth Amendment was intended to protect people from discrimination and harm from other people. Racism is not the only thing people need protection from. As a constitutional principle, the Fourteenth Amendment is not confined to its historical origin and purpose, but is available now to protect all human beings, including all unborn human beings. The Supreme Court can define "person" to include all human beings, born and unborn. It simply chooses not to do so. Science, history and tradition establish that unborn humans are, from the time of conception, both persons and human beings, thus strongly supporting an interpretation that the unborn meet the definition of "person" under the Fourteenth Amendment. The legal test used to extend constitutional personhood to corporations, which are artificial "persons" under the law, is more than met by the unborn, demonstrating that the unborn deserve the status of constitutional personhood. There can be no "rule of law" if the Constitution continues to be interpreted to perpetuate a discriminatory legal system of separate and unequal for unborn human beings. Relying on the reasoning of the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court may overrule Roe v. Wade solely on the grounds of equal protection. Such a result would not return the matter of abortion to the states. The Fourteenth Amendment, properly interpreted, would thereafter prohibit abortion in every state.

  17. Ding Dong, You've Got Mail! A Lab Activity for Teaching the Internet of Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frydenberg, Mark

    2017-01-01

    Connecting ordinary devices to the Internet is a defining characteristic of the Internet of Things. In this hands-on lab activity, students will connect a wireless doorbell to the Internet using a Raspberry Pi computer. By modifying and running a program on the Raspberry Pi to send an email or text message notifying a recipient that someone is at…

  18. Doing the Right Thing for Children: Eight Qualities of Leadership

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sykes, Maurice

    2014-01-01

    Maurice Sykes has made advocating for and advancing high-quality early childhood education his life's work. Through mentorships, presentations, and personal example, Maurice challenges and inspires educators to become effective leaders who make a difference in children's lives. He does the same in "Doing the Right Thing for Children: Eight…

  19. Can we make Schools and Universities smarter with the Internet of Things?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriela Kiryakova

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Schools and universities stand up to the challenge the Internet of Things, which has the potential to significantly change teaching and learning. The learning and administrative processes and the relationships between all participants in education may benefit from the Internet of Things since the linked physical devices ensure connectivity of people and ensure their activity. The implementation of the Internet of Things in education, unlike other spheres, has a very important and difficult task. The Internet of Thing has to guarantee the creation of an environment that supports the acquisition of knowledge in a new, natural and effective way, consistent with the new realities and learners’ expectations. The questions of how and in what direction the Internet of Things will lead to changes in educational activities and processes have many answers and need discussions and debates. The objective of the current work is to answer these questions by presenting the concept the Internet of Things and consider its possible applications in education.

  20. Should humans interfere in the lives of elephants?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H.P.P. Lötter

    2005-07-01

    Full Text Available Culling seems to be a cruel method of human interference in the lives of elephants. Culling is generally used to control population numbers of highly developed mammals to protect vegetation and habitat for other species. Many people are against human interference in the lives of elephants. In this article aspects of this highly controversial issue are explored. Three fascinating characteristics of this ethical dilemma are discussed in the introductory part, and then the major arguments raised against human interference in the lives of elephants are evaluated. These arguments are the following: First, that nature should be allowed to run its course and establish its own balance; nature will thus solve the problem of elephant over-population. The second argument raised by animal-rights activists as well as by animal-welfare groups either claim that animals have rights that humans must respect at all times, or that all sentient beings have interests that humans ought to respect, as those beings can experience pleasure or pain. The third argument often associates culling elephants as method for population control with the commercial use and exploitation of wilderness areas. Many people argue that it is unethical to use wildlife as a sustainable resource for fighting poverty. In conclusion it is stated that despite these arguments human

  1. THE DEMAND FOR MORE/PRIVILEGED (THINGS): Leisured Women, Consumption Practices, and Gated Community

    OpenAIRE

    TALU, Nilüfer; TAŞKIN, Burcu

    2016-01-01

    The great body of people struggles for identity construction through the things and practices to live up to a lifestyle. Living in the gated community means bordering the lives from the city life. By means of privileged houses, a gated community functions for the terms as privilege, prestige, safety and hygiene. This study questions consumption practices of women of a gated community in Izmir. While the informants having different education levels, they spend their leisure times in a similar ...

  2. Improved Cholinergic Transmission is Detrimental to Behavioural Plasticity in Honeybees (Apis mellifera

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shao-Wu Zhang

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Unravelling the role of neuromessenger processes in learning and memory has long interested researchers. We investigated the effects of an acetylcholinesterase blocker, Methyl Parathion (MeP, on honeybee learning. We used visual and olfactory tasks to test whether MeP had a detrimental effect on the acquisition of new knowledge when this new knowledge contradicts previously acquired one. Our results indicate that treatment with MeP prior to conditioning was significantly detrimental to the acquisition of incongruous (but not irrelevant or congruous new knowledge due to improved recall. The neurobiological and ecotoxicological consequences of these results are discussed.

  3. Survey of the ICRP 103 detriment-model

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Emami, S.; Buermeyer, J.; Spruck, K.; Breckow, J.

    2016-01-01

    The detriment of ICRP 103 is roughly defined as the product of the (organ specific) risk coefficient and the ''damage'' that may be associated with a (organ specific) cancer or hereditary effect, respectively. This is to indicate a weighted risk according to the radiation sensitivity of the different organs and the severity of damage that may possibly arise. Whereas the risk coefficients refer to radiation exposure parameters, the scale or degree of damage is independent of these parameters. The radiation independent parameters are the lethality, the loss of quality of life and the reduced life expectancy, which are considered as quantities associated with the severity of disease or damage, respectively. These parameters may change gradually, on the one hand possibly due to an increase of cancer becoming a common disease within the population. On the other hand, possibly to a decrease of cancer due to the progress in medical diagnostics and treatments that allow patients to survive or at least maintain a higher life quality standard. The damage and therefore the detriment appears to be mostly affected by the lethality. The lethality is the quotient of mortality to incidence. The investigation of the detriment presented in this paper focuses on the influence of the lethality on the detriment from 1980-2012 in Germany and USA.

  4. Validation of science virtual test to assess 8th grade students' critical thinking on living things and environmental sustainability theme

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rusyati, Lilit; Firman, Harry

    2017-05-01

    This research was motivated by the importance of multiple-choice questions that indicate the elements and sub-elements of critical thinking and implementation of computer-based test. The method used in this research was descriptive research for profiling the validation of science virtual test to measure students' critical thinking in junior high school. The participant is junior high school students of 8th grade (14 years old) while science teacher and expert as the validators. The instrument that used as a tool to capture the necessary data are sheet of an expert judgment, sheet of legibility test, and science virtual test package in multiple choice form with four possible answers. There are four steps to validate science virtual test to measure students' critical thinking on the theme of "Living Things and Environmental Sustainability" in 7th grade Junior High School. These steps are analysis of core competence and basic competence based on curriculum 2013, expert judgment, legibility test and trial test (limited and large trial test). The test item criterion based on trial test are accepted, accepted but need revision, and rejected. The reliability of the test is α = 0.747 that categorized as `high'. It means the test instruments used is reliable and high consistency. The validity of Rxy = 0.63 means that the validity of the instrument was categorized as `high' according to interpretation value of Rxy (correlation).

  5. Human exposure to aluminium.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Exley, Christopher

    2013-10-01

    Human activities have circumvented the efficient geochemical cycling of aluminium within the lithosphere and therewith opened a door, which was previously only ajar, onto the biotic cycle to instigate and promote the accumulation of aluminium in biota and especially humans. Neither these relatively recent activities nor the entry of aluminium into the living cycle are showing any signs of abating and it is thus now imperative that we understand as fully as possible how humans are exposed to aluminium and the future consequences of a burgeoning exposure and body burden. The aluminium age is upon us and there is now an urgent need to understand how to live safely and effectively with aluminium.

  6. By the sound of it. An ERP investigation of human action sound processing in 7-month-old infants

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elena Geangu

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Recent evidence suggests that human adults perceive human action sounds as a distinct category from human vocalizations, environmental, and mechanical sounds, activating different neural networks (Engel et al., 2009; Lewis et al., 2011. Yet, little is known about the development of such specialization. Using event-related potentials (ERP, this study investigated neural correlates of 7-month-olds’ processing of human action (HA sounds in comparison to human vocalizations (HV, environmental (ENV, and mechanical (MEC sounds. Relative to the other categories, HA sounds led to increased positive amplitudes between 470 and 570 ms post-stimulus onset at left anterior temporal locations, while HV led to increased negative amplitudes at the more posterior temporal locations in both hemispheres. Collectively, human produced sounds (HA + HV led to significantly different response profiles compared to non-living sound sources (ENV + MEC at parietal and frontal locations in both hemispheres. Overall, by 7 months of age human action sounds are being differentially processed in the brain, consistent with a dichotomy for processing living versus non-living things. This provides novel evidence regarding the typical categorical processing of socially relevant sounds.

  7. Water quality degradation effects on freshwater availability: Impacts to human activities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peters, N.E.; Meybeck, Michel

    2000-01-01

    The quality of freshwater at any point on the landscape reflects the combined effects of many processes along water pathways. Human activities on all spatial scales affect both water quality and quantity. Alteration of the landscape and associated vegetation has not only changed the water balance, but typically has altered processes that control water quality. Effects of human activities on a small scale are relevant to an entire drainage basin. Furthermore, local, regional, and global differences in climate and water flow are considerable, causing varying effects of human activities on land and water quality and quantity, depending on location within a watershed, geology, biology, physiographic characteristics, and climate. These natural characteristics also greatly control human activities, which will, in turn, modify (or affect) the natural composition of water. One of the most important issues for effective resource management is recognition of cyclical and cascading effects of human activities on the water quality and quantity along hydrologic pathways. The degradation of water quality in one part of a watershed can have negative effects on users downstream. Everyone lives downstream of the effects of some human activity. An extremely important factor is that substances added to the atmosphere, land, and water generally have relatively long time scales for removal or clean up. The nature of the substance, including its affinity for adhering to soil and its ability to be transformed, affects the mobility and the time scale for removal of the substance. Policy alone will not solve many of the degradation issues, but a combination of policy, education, scientific knowledge, planning, and enforcement of applicable laws can provide mechanisms for slowing the rate of degradation and provide human and environmental protection. Such an integrated approach is needed to effectively manage land and water resources.

  8. Internet of Things for Sensing: A Case Study in the Healthcare System

    OpenAIRE

    Syed Aziz Shah; Aifeng Ren; Dou Fan; Zhiya Zhang; Nan Zhao; Xiaodong Yang; Ming Luo; Weigang Wang; Fangming Hu; Masood Ur Rehman; Osamah S. Badarneh; Qammer Hussain Abbasi

    2018-01-01

    Medical healthcare is one of the fascinating applications using Internet of Things (IoTs). The pervasive smart environment in IoTs has the potential to monitor various human activities by deploying smart devices. In our pilot study, we look at narcolepsy, a disorder in which individuals lose the ability to regulate their sleep-wake cycle. An imbalance in the brain chemical called orexin makes the sleep pattern irregular. This sleep disorder in patients suffering from narcolepsy results in the...

  9. Mixed Methods Research: The "Thing-ness" Problem.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hesse-Biber, Sharlene

    2015-06-01

    Contemporary mixed methods research (MMR) veers away from a "loosely bounded" to a "bounded" concept that has important negative implications for how qualitatively driven mixed methods approaches are positioned in the field of mixed methods and overall innovation in the praxis of MMR. I deploy the concept of reification defined as taking an object/abstraction and treating it as if it were real such that it takes on the quality of "thing-ness," having a concrete independent existence. I argue that the contemporary reification of mixed methods as a "thing" is fueled by three interrelated factors: (a) the growing formalization of mixed methods as design, (b) the unexamined belief in the "synergy" of mixed methods and, (c) the deployment of a "practical pragmatism" as the "philosophical partner" for mixed methods inquiry. © The Author(s) 2015.

  10. Society of things: An alternative vision of Internet of things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gulnara Z. Karimova

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to yield insight into the nature of relations between things within the Internet of things (IoT paradigm and to build the principles that can potentially be used for progressing from IoT into communities of things (CoT. This study engages in rhetorical analysis—a qualitative research technique designed to yield non-quantitative data and to build a strong theoretical foundation for future studies in the field of IoT. It reveals that things can be perceived as beings within the communication networks; IoT can be organized into CoT; and various models of communities can be generated depending on desired outcomes. The findings require empirical implementation of the proposed principles for creating CoT. The direction indicated in this study will help solve a number of technical challenges that IoT faces nowadays, from architecture and communication to privacy and security. Viewing things as beings will encourage a wide-ranging discussion of the applications of social science theories to IoT. This study is a call for building bridges between the social sciences and information technology.

  11. Assessment of public awareness of the detrimental effects of ionizing radiation in Kontagora, Niger State, Nigeria

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Temaugee, S.T.; Daniel, T.A.; Oladejo, K.O.; Daniel, S.

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated the level of public awareness of detrimental effects of ionizing radiation in Nigeria, a case study of Federal College of Education Kontagora Niger State. A total of thirty-five (35) lecturers and seventy-five (75) students were randomly selected from the five schools in the College. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire. Data obtained from the questionnaire was analysed using simple percentages. The result of the study revealed that 10 (28.6%) out of 35 lecturers and 32 (42.7%) out of 75 students of the sampled population were totally unaware of ionization radiation and its health detriments. Moreover, the remaining percentage of both lecturers and students had limited knowledge about ionizing radiation and its detrimental effects to humans. The research also shows that a significant percentage of both lecturers and students claimed that the topic 'Ionizing radiations and their health detriments' is not relevant to their field of academic inclination. Based on the findings of the research, it was therefore recommended that the government, Nigeria Nuclear Regulatory Agency (NNRA), physicists and concerned individuals should enlighten the general public on ionizing radiations, its health detriment and safety measures through seminars and the mass media.

  12. Computational Intelligence in a Human Brain Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viorel Gaftea

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper focuses on the current trends in brain research domain and the current stage of development of research for software and hardware solutions, communication capabilities between: human beings and machines, new technologies, nano-science and Internet of Things (IoT devices. The proposed model for Human Brain assumes main similitude between human intelligence and the chess game thinking process. Tactical & strategic reasoning and the need to follow the rules of the chess game, all are very similar with the activities of the human brain. The main objective for a living being and the chess game player are the same: securing a position, surviving and eliminating the adversaries. The brain resolves these goals, and more, the being movement, actions and speech are sustained by the vital five senses and equilibrium. The chess game strategy helps us understand the human brain better and easier replicate in the proposed ‘Software and Hardware’ SAH Model.

  13. Writing social psychology: fictional things and unpopulated texts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Billig, Michael

    2011-03-01

    This paper presents the author's position on the question how to write social psychology. It reflects the author's long-term interest in rhetoric and his more recent concerns about the writing of social scientists. The author argues that social psychologists tend to produce unpopulated texts, writing about 'fictional things' rather than people. Social psychologists assume that their technical terms are more precise than ordinary language terms. The author contests this assumption. He suggests that when it comes to describing human actions, ordinary language on the whole tends to be more precise. The paper analyses why this should be the case, drawing on ideas from linguistics and Vaihinger's notion of fictions. The author presents examples to show how psychological writers, by using passives and nominals, can omit information about the agents of action and the nature of the actions that they are performing. Although their texts may appear impressively technical, they can, in fact, be highly imprecise. Moreover, social psychologists, by using this nominal style of writing, tend to write about processes as if they were things and then attribute actions to these things. In so doing, they create 'fictional things', which they treat as if they were real things. The author offers six recommendations for writing in simpler, clearer ways. ©2011 The British Psychological Society.

  14. Long-lived hypopituitary Ames dwarf mice are resistant to the detrimental effects of high-fat diet on metabolic function and energy expenditure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hill, Cristal M; Fang, Yimin; Miquet, Johanna G; Sun, Liou Y; Masternak, Michal M; Bartke, Andrzej

    2016-06-01

    Growth hormone (GH) signaling stimulates the production of IGF-1; however, increased GH signaling may induce insulin resistance and can reduce life expectancy in both mice and humans. Interestingly, disruption of GH signaling by reducing plasma GH levels significantly improves health span and extends lifespan in mice, as observed in Ames dwarf mice. In addition, these mice have increased adiposity, yet are more insulin sensitive compared to control mice. Metabolic stressors such as high-fat diet (HFD) promote obesity and may alter longevity through the GH signaling pathway. Therefore, our objective was to investigate the effects of a HFD (metabolic stressor) on genetic mechanisms that regulate metabolism during aging. We show that Ames dwarf mice fed HFD for 12 weeks had an increase in subcutaneous and visceral adiposity as a result of diet-induced obesity, yet are more insulin sensitive and have higher levels of adiponectin compared to control mice fed HFD. Furthermore, energy expenditure was higher in Ames dwarf mice fed HFD than in control mice fed HFD. Additionally, we show that transplant of epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT) from Ames dwarf mice fed HFD into control mice fed HFD improves their insulin sensitivity. We conclude that Ames dwarf mice are resistant to the detrimental metabolic effects of HFD and that visceral adipose tissue of Ames dwarf mice improves insulin sensitivity in control mice fed HFD. © 2016 The Authors. Aging Cell published by the Anatomical Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  15. Igbo Cultural Values and the European Influence: A Way to Redirect ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The world is a mystery and very complex to finish its interpretation. As it continues to exist, numerous things and mysterious things manifest day by day. Human beings are made to live and control other things in the world. In different parts of the world, many cultures and belief systems exist. Because of the natural ...

  16. Social things : design research on social computing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hu, J.; Luen, P.; Rau, P.

    2016-01-01

    In the era of social networking and computing, things and people are more and more interconnected, giving rise to not only new opportunities but also new challenges in designing new products that are networked, and services that are adaptive to their human users and context aware in their physical

  17. Low Delay Video Streaming on the Internet of Things Using Raspberry Pi

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ulf Jennehag

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The Internet of Things is predicted to consist of over 50 billion devices aiming to solve problems in most areas of our digital society. A large part of the data communicated is expected to consist of various multimedia contents, such as live audio and video. This article presents a solution for the communication of high definition video in low-delay scenarios (<200 ms under the constraints of devices with limited hardware resources, such as the Raspberry Pi. We verify that it is possible to enable low delay video streaming between Raspberry Pi devices using a distributed Internet of Things system called the SensibleThings platform. Specifically, our implementation transfers a 6 Mbps H.264 video stream of 1280 × 720 pixels at 25 frames per second between devices with a total delay of 181 ms on the public Internet, of which the overhead of the distributed Internet of Things communication platform only accounts for 18 ms of this delay. We have found that the most significant bottleneck of video transfer on limited Internet of Things devices is the video coding and not the distributed communication platform, since the video coding accounts for 90% of the total delay.

  18. Non-human primates avoid the detrimental effects of prenatal androgen exposure in mixed-sex litters: combined demographic, behavioral, and genetic analyses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bradley, Brenda J; Snowdon, Charles T; McGrew, William C; Lawler, Richard R; Guevara, Elaine E; McIntosh, Annick; O'Connor, Timothy

    2016-12-01

    Producing single versus multiple births has important life history trade-offs, including the potential benefits and risks of sharing a common in utero environment. Sex hormones can diffuse through amniotic fluid and fetal membranes, and females with male littermates risk exposure to high levels of fetal testosterone, which are shown to have masculinizing effects and negative fitness consequences in many mammals. Whereas most primates give birth to single offspring, several New World monkey and strepsirrhine species regularly give birth to small litters. We examined whether neonatal testosterone exposure might be detrimental to females in mixed-sex litters by compiling data from long-term breeding records for seven primate species (Saguinus oedipus; Varecia variegata, Varecia rubra, Microcebus murinis, Mirza coquereli, Cheirogaleus medius, Galago moholi). Litter sex ratios did not differ from the expected 1:2:1 (MM:MF:FF for twins) and 1:2:2:1 (MMM:MMF:MFF:FFF for triplets). Measures of reproductive success, including female survivorship, offspring-survivorship, and inter-birth interval, did not differ between females born in mixed-sex versus all-female litters, indicating that litter-producing non-human primates, unlike humans and rodents, show no signs of detrimental effects from androgen exposure in mixed sex litters. Although we found no evidence for CYP19A1 gene duplications-a hypothesized mechanism for coping with androgen exposure-aromatase protein evolution shows patterns of convergence among litter-producing taxa. That some primates have effectively found a way to circumvent a major cost of multiple births has implications for understanding variation in litter size and life history strategies across mammals. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  19. Human grasping database for activities of daily living with depth, color and kinematic data streams.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saudabayev, Artur; Rysbek, Zhanibek; Khassenova, Raykhan; Varol, Huseyin Atakan

    2018-05-29

    This paper presents a grasping database collected from multiple human subjects for activities of daily living in unstructured environments. The main strength of this database is the use of three different sensing modalities: color images from a head-mounted action camera, distance data from a depth sensor on the dominant arm and upper body kinematic data acquired from an inertial motion capture suit. 3826 grasps were identified in the data collected during 9-hours of experiments. The grasps were grouped according to a hierarchical taxonomy into 35 different grasp types. The database contains information related to each grasp and associated sensor data acquired from the three sensor modalities. We also provide our data annotation software written in Matlab as an open-source tool. The size of the database is 172 GB. We believe this database can be used as a stepping stone to develop big data and machine learning techniques for grasping and manipulation with potential applications in rehabilitation robotics and intelligent automation.

  20. A few philosophical ruminations on the human condition and choosing to live well

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Blake E. Hestir

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available The notion that life is meaningful through choosing to live well has historically received substantive attention in various philosophical circles, notably the ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and more recently several of the existentialists. In some respects, the idea of choosing to live well is a “thematization” of two widely-recognized, independent components of a meaningful life: happiness and authenticity. I develop this notion of choosing to live well by exploring, developing, and relating these conceptions of happiness and authenticity. By appealing to a very basic account of human nature that has found favor among a great number of people, I show how happiness and authenticity complement each other as conditions for the possibility of living meaningfully.

  1. Passive sensor technology interface to assess elder activity in independent living.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexander, Gregory L; Wakefield, Bonnie J; Rantz, Marilyn; Skubic, Marjorie; Aud, Myra A; Erdelez, Sanda; Ghenaimi, Said Al

    2011-01-01

    The effectiveness of clinical information systems to improve nursing and patient outcomes depends on human factors, including system usability, organizational workflow, and user satisfaction. The aim of this study was to examine to what extent residents, family members, and clinicians find a sensor data interface used to monitor elder activity levels usable and useful in an independent living setting. Three independent expert reviewers conducted an initial heuristic evaluation. Subsequently, 20 end users (5 residents, 5 family members, 5 registered nurses, and 5 physicians) participated in the evaluation. During the evaluation, each participant was asked to complete three scenarios taken from three residents. Morae recorder software was used to capture data during the user interactions. The heuristic evaluation resulted in 26 recommendations for interface improvement; these were classified under the headings content, aesthetic appeal, navigation, and architecture, which were derived from heuristic results. Total time for elderly residents to complete scenarios was much greater than for other users. Family members spent more time than clinicians but less time than residents did to complete scenarios. Elder residents and family members had difficulty interpreting clinical data and graphs, experienced information overload, and did not understand terminology. All users found the sensor data interface useful for identifying changing resident activities. Older adult users have special needs that should be addressed when designing clinical interfaces for them, especially information as important as health information. Evaluating human factors during user interactions with clinical information systems should be a requirement before implementation.

  2. High Cellular Monocyte Activation in People Living With Human Immunodeficiency Virus on Combination Antiretroviral Therapy and Lifestyle-Matched Controls Is Associated With Greater Inflammation in Cerebrospinal Fluid

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Booiman, Thijs; Wit, Ferdinand W N M; Maurer, Irma; De Francesco, Davide; Sabin, Caroline A; Harskamp, Agnes M; Prins, Maria; Garagnani, Paolo; Pirazzini, Chiara; Franceschi, Claudio; Fuchs, Dietmar; Gisslén, Magnus; Winston, Alan; Reiss, Peter; Kootstra, Neeltje A; Kalsbeek, A.

    2017-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Increased monocyte activation and intestinal damage have been shown to be predictive for the increased morbidity and mortality observed in treated people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV). METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis of cellular and soluble markers of monocyte

  3. Differences in ability to perform activities of daily living among women with fibromyalgia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    von Bülow, Cecilie; Amris, Kirstine; La Cour, Karen

    2015-01-01

    Objective: To investigate whether the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS), the physical function subscales of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ PF) and the 36-item Short Form (SF-36 PF) can identify subgroups of women with fibromyalgia with clinically relevant differences...... in ability to perform activities of daily living. Design: Cross-sectional study. Subjects: A total of 257 women with fibromyalgia. Methods: Participants were evaluated with the AMPS (measuring activities of daily living motor and activities of daily living process ability), FIQ and SF-36. AMPS independence...

  4. Constructing Media Artifacts in a Social Constructivist Environment to Enhance Students' Environmental Awareness and Activism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karahan, Engin; Roehrig, Gillian

    2015-01-01

    Current science education reforms and policy documents highlight the importance of environmental awareness and perceived need for activism. As "environmental problems are socially constructed in terms of their conceptualized effects on individuals, groups, other living things and systems research based on constructivist principles provides…

  5. The use of total detriment in radiation protection and its potential extension to other hazards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johnson, J.R.; Stansbury, P.S.; Selby, J.M.

    1991-10-01

    Before publication of the 1977 recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), radiation protection standards were based on dose limits to single organs. These dose limits were only loosely linked to the expected effects in the first two generations from gonadal doses and to the risk of fatal cancer from doses to specific organs. In 1977, the ICRP recommended the use of the ''effective dose equivalent (EDE),'' which is a method of summing the doses (weighted with relative risk coefficients) to all organs and tissues, and recommended an annual limit for EDE. Since the 1977 recommendations were published, a ''total risk'' or total detriment approach has been extended to include nonfatal cancers and genetic effects for all subsequent generations, i.e., the total health detriment from low doses of ionizing radiation. This paper discusses the development of this total health detriment from ionizing radiation exposures, and explores potential methods for using it with other hazards (such as exposures to other physical agents, hazardous chemicals, and fatal and nonfatal accidents) in calculating the total detriment to a worker

  6. Complex negotiations: the lived experience of enacting agency after a stroke.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergström, Aileen L; Eriksson, Gunilla; Asaba, Eric; Erikson, Anette; Tham, Kerstin

    2015-01-01

    This qualitative, longitudinal, descriptive study aimed to understand the lived experience of enacting agency, and to describe the phenomenon of agency and the meaning structure of the phenomenon during the year after a stroke. Agency is defined as making things happen in everyday life through one's actions. This study followed six persons (three men and three women, ages 63 to 89), interviewed on four separate occasions. Interview data were analysed using the Empirical Phenomenological Psychological method. The main findings showed that the participants experienced enacting agency in their everyday lives after stroke as negotiating different characteristics over a span of time, a range of difficulty, and in a number of activities, making these negotiations complex. The four characteristics described how the participants made things happen in their everyday lives through managing their disrupted bodies, taking into account their past and envisioning their futures, dealing with the world outside themselves, and negotiating through internal dialogues. This empirical evidence regarding negotiations challenges traditional definitions of agency and a new definition of agency is proposed. Understanding clients' complex negotiations and offering innovative solutions to train in real-life situations may help in the process of enabling occupations after a stroke.

  7. The five times ten things everyone should have had in their hands before they are ten and two years old.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hut, R.; Poot, A.

    2017-12-01

    To train the young ones to become people that make stuff, I present the five times ten things we use a lot that everyone should have used before they are ten and two years old. I will bring at least two times ten of these things and show them live to you! And: I will bring a large paper for you to bring home with those five times ten things on it to put in the hands of your kids!

  8. A Survey of Data Semantization in Internet of Things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Feifei Shi

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available With the development of Internet of Things (IoT, more and more sensors, actuators and mobile devices have been deployed into our daily lives. The result is that tremendous data are produced and it is urgent to dig out hidden information behind these volumous data. However, IoT data generated by multi-modal sensors or devices show great differences in formats, domains and types, which poses challenges for machines to process and understand. Therefore, adding semantics to Internet of Things becomes an overwhelming tendency. This paper provides a systematic review of data semantization in IoT, including its backgrounds, processing flows, prevalent techniques, applications, existing challenges and open issues. It surveys development status of adding semantics to IoT data, mainly referring to sensor data and points out current issues and challenges that are worth further study.

  9. A Survey of Data Semantization in Internet of Things.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Feifei; Li, Qingjuan; Zhu, Tao; Ning, Huansheng

    2018-01-22

    With the development of Internet of Things (IoT), more and more sensors, actuators and mobile devices have been deployed into our daily lives. The result is that tremendous data are produced and it is urgent to dig out hidden information behind these volumous data. However, IoT data generated by multi-modal sensors or devices show great differences in formats, domains and types, which poses challenges for machines to process and understand. Therefore, adding semantics to Internet of Things becomes an overwhelming tendency. This paper provides a systematic review of data semantization in IoT, including its backgrounds, processing flows, prevalent techniques, applications, existing challenges and open issues. It surveys development status of adding semantics to IoT data, mainly referring to sensor data and points out current issues and challenges that are worth further study.

  10. Big things expected from Little's new battery

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Crawford, M.

    1993-01-01

    Spire Corp. of Bedford, Mass., is onto a new technology that its chief executive officer, Roger Little, believes may change people's lives and enhance the performance of many electronic devices. It is a novel battery aimed at things small - medical devices, computer chips and possibly even micro machines. The battery uses a radioisotope as a power source and can achieve energy densities 1,000 times that of conventional batteries. To overcome the problem of radiation damage to the semiconductor material, the battery uses indium phosphide from photovoltaic cells

  11. Drivers and barriers to the Internet of Things

    OpenAIRE

    Page, T

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this research is to investigate the development and implications for applications and future directions of the Internet of Things (IoT). The current understanding of the Internet of Things is explored and discussed to understand, what is currently understood because IoT has been often considered a vague and relatively little understood concept. A range of users were asked to describe their understanding of the IoT and how they use IoT devices. A significant finding showed that alth...

  12. Second harmonic generation microscopy of the living human cornea

    Science.gov (United States)

    Artal, Pablo; Ávila, Francisco; Bueno, Juan

    2018-02-01

    Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) microscopy provides high-resolution structural imaging of the corneal stroma without the need of labelling techniques. This powerful tool has never been applied to living human eyes so far. Here, we present a new compact SHG microscope specifically developed to image the structural organization of the corneal lamellae in living healthy human volunteers. The research prototype incorporates a long-working distance dry objective that allows non-contact three-dimensional SHG imaging of the cornea. Safety assessment and effectiveness of the system were firstly tested in ex-vivo fresh eyes. The maximum average power of the used illumination laser was 20 mW, more than 10 times below the maximum permissible exposure (according to ANSI Z136.1-2000). The instrument was successfully employed to obtain non-contact and non-invasive SHG of the living human eye within well-established light safety limits. This represents the first recording of in vivo SHG images of the human cornea using a compact multiphoton microscope. This might become an important tool in Ophthalmology for early diagnosis and tracking ocular pathologies.

  13. Living or Nonliving?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Legaspi, Britt; Straits, William

    2011-01-01

    Categorizing organisms as living or nonliving things may seem to be intuitive by nature. Yet, it is regulated by scientific criteria. Students come to school with rules already in place. Their categorizing criteria have already been influenced by their personal experiences, also known as observations and inferences. They believe that all things…

  14. Autonomous Cooperation in The Internet of Things

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Durmus, Y.

    2015-01-01

    The Internet of Things (IoT) represents the concept of cognitive networked devices that measure their environment and act on it intelligently. For instance, health sensors monitor vital human signs and inform their owner; smart meters measure the energy consumption and relay the information in real

  15. Group & Intergroup Relations in Living Human Systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1980-06-01

    organizational diagnosis , the group is itself a living human system. A group may be underbounded, overbounded, or optimally bounded. The state of group...very im- portant to understand and to use in order to conduct organizational diagnosis " using group methods. 2 -43 (Alderfer, 1977b). The group...Boundary Relations and Organizational Diagnosis . In H. Meltzer and F.W. Wickert (eds.) Humanizing Organizational Behavior. Springfield, Illinois: Thomas

  16. Human Activity Recognition in AAL Environments Using Random Projections

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robertas Damaševičius

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Automatic human activity recognition systems aim to capture the state of the user and its environment by exploiting heterogeneous sensors attached to the subject’s body and permit continuous monitoring of numerous physiological signals reflecting the state of human actions. Successful identification of human activities can be immensely useful in healthcare applications for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL, for automatic and intelligent activity monitoring systems developed for elderly and disabled people. In this paper, we propose the method for activity recognition and subject identification based on random projections from high-dimensional feature space to low-dimensional projection space, where the classes are separated using the Jaccard distance between probability density functions of projected data. Two HAR domain tasks are considered: activity identification and subject identification. The experimental results using the proposed method with Human Activity Dataset (HAD data are presented.

  17. Human Activity Recognition in AAL Environments Using Random Projections.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Damaševičius, Robertas; Vasiljevas, Mindaugas; Šalkevičius, Justas; Woźniak, Marcin

    2016-01-01

    Automatic human activity recognition systems aim to capture the state of the user and its environment by exploiting heterogeneous sensors attached to the subject's body and permit continuous monitoring of numerous physiological signals reflecting the state of human actions. Successful identification of human activities can be immensely useful in healthcare applications for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), for automatic and intelligent activity monitoring systems developed for elderly and disabled people. In this paper, we propose the method for activity recognition and subject identification based on random projections from high-dimensional feature space to low-dimensional projection space, where the classes are separated using the Jaccard distance between probability density functions of projected data. Two HAR domain tasks are considered: activity identification and subject identification. The experimental results using the proposed method with Human Activity Dataset (HAD) data are presented.

  18. Quantification of the detriment and comparison of health risks. Methodological problems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jammet, H.

    1982-01-01

    Some of the methodological problems involved in the quantitative estimate of the health detriment of different energy sources and in risk comparison are described. First, the question of determining the detriment is discussed from the point of view of the distortions introduced in the quantification when dealing with risks for which the amount of information available varies widely. The main criteria applied to classifying types of detriment are then recalled. Finally, the problems involved in comparisons are outlined: spatial and temporal variations in the types of detriment, operation under normal and accident conditions, and the risks to the public and workers. (author)

  19. Impact of valvular heart disease on activities of daily living of nonagenarians: the Leiden 85-plus study a population based study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Bemmel, Thomas; Delgado, Victoria; Bax, Jeroen J; Gussekloo, Jacobijn; Blauw, Gerard J; Westendorp, Rudi G; Holman, Eduard R

    2010-04-01

    Data on the prevalence of valvular heart disease in very old individuals are scarce and based mostly on in-hospital series. In addition, the potential detrimental effect of valvular heart disease on the activities of daily living is unknown. The present study evaluated the prevalence of significant valvular heart disease and the impact of valvular heart disease on the activities of daily living in community dwelling nonagenarians. Nested within the Leiden 85-plus study, a population based follow-up study of the oldest old, a sample of 81 nonagenarians was recruited. The left ventricular (LV) dimensions, function and the presence and severity of heart valvular disease were evaluated by echocardiography. Significant valvular heart disease included any mitral or aortic stenosis severity, moderate or severe mitral regurgitation, moderate or severe aortic regurgitation and moderate or severe tricuspid regurgitation. Activities of daily living were assessed using the Groningen Activity Restriction Scale (GARS). LV cavity diameters (end-diastolic diameter 47 +/- 8 mm, end-systolic diameter 30 +/- 8 mm) and systolic LV function (LV ejection fraction 66 +/- 13%) were within normal for the majority of the participants. Significant valvular disease was present in 57 (70%) individuals, with mitral regurgitation and aortic regurgitation as the most frequent valve diseases (49% and 28% respectively). The GARS score between individuals with and without significant valvular heart disease was similar (36.2 +/- 9.2 vs. 34.4 +/- 13.2, p = 0.5). Nonagenarian, outpatient individuals have a high prevalence of significant valvular heart disease. However, no relation was observed between the presence of significant valvular heart disease and the ability to perform activities of daily living.

  20. Percussive technology in human evolution: an introduction to a comparative approach in fossil and living primates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de la Torre, Ignacio; Hirata, Satoshi

    2015-11-19

    Percussive technology is part of the behavioural suite of several fossil and living primates. Stone Age ancestors used lithic artefacts in pounding activities, which could have been most important in the earliest stages of stone working. This has relevant evolutionary implications, as other primates such as chimpanzees and some monkeys use stone hammer-and-anvil combinations to crack hard-shelled foodstuffs. Parallels between primate percussive technologies and early archaeological sites need to be further explored in order to assess the emergence of technological behaviour in our evolutionary line, and firmly establish bridges between Primatology and Archaeology. What are the anatomical, cognitive and ecological constraints of percussive technology? How common are percussive activities in the Stone Age and among living primates? What is their functional significance? How similar are archaeological percussive tools and those made by non-human primates? This issue of Phil. Trans. addresses some of these questions by presenting case studies with a wide chronological, geographical and disciplinary coverage. The studies presented here cover studies of Brazilian capuchins, captive chimpanzees and chimpanzees in the wild, research on the use of percussive technology among modern humans and recent hunter-gatherers in Australia, the Near East and Europe, and archaeological examples of this behaviour from a million years ago to the Holocene. In summary, the breadth and depth of research compiled here should make this issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, a landmark step forward towards a better understanding of percussive technology, a unique behaviour shared by some modern and fossil primates. © 2015 The Author(s).

  1. Snake, rattle, and roll: Investigating the snakes that live in the Bosque along the Middle Rio Grande

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heather Bateman; Alice Chung-MacCoubrey; Deborah Finch

    2010-01-01

    After an area has been changed by human or natural disturbances, forest managers often engage in restoration activities. In the Bosque, fire is both a human and a natural disturbance. This is because most fires in the Bosque are started by humans. Restoration activities are things that forest managers do to the land to help an area resemble how it functioned in the...

  2. Reconstruction of living bilayer human skin equivalent utilizing human fibrin as a scaffold.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazlyzam, A L; Aminuddin, B S; Fuzina, N H; Norhayati, M M; Fauziah, O; Isa, M R; Saim, L; Ruszymah, B H I

    2007-05-01

    Our aim of this study was to develop a new methodology for constructing a bilayer human skin equivalent to create a more clinical compliance skin graft composite for the treatment of various skin defects. We utilized human plasma derived fibrin as the scaffold for the development of a living bilayer human skin equivalent: fibrin-fibroblast and fibrin-keratinocyte (B-FF/FK SE). Skin cells from six consented patients were culture-expanded to passage 1. For B-FF/FK SE formation, human fibroblasts were embedded in human fibrin matrix and subsequently another layer of human keratinocytes in human fibrin matrix was stacked on top. The B-FF/FK SE was then transplanted to athymic mice model for 4 weeks to evaluate its regeneration and clinical performance. The in vivo B-FF/FK SE has similar properties as native human skin by histological analysis and expression of basal Keratin 14 gene in the epidermal layer and Collagen type I gene in the dermal layer. Electron microscopy analysis of in vivo B-FF/FK SE showed well-formed and continuous epidermal-dermal junction. We have successfully developed a technique to engineer living bilayer human skin equivalent using human fibrin matrix. The utilization of culture-expanded human skin cells and fibrin matrix from human blood will allow a fully autologous human skin equivalent construction.

  3. A New Nanobody-Based Biosensor to Study Endogenous PARP1 In Vitro and in Live Human Cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nüske, Stefan; Scholz, Armin M.; Bogner, Jacqueline; Ruf, Benjamin; Zolghadr, Kourosh; Drexler, Sophie E.; Drexler, Guido A.; Girst, Stefanie; Greubel, Christoph; Reindl, Judith; Siebenwirth, Christian; Romer, Tina; Friedl, Anna A.; Rothbauer, Ulrich

    2016-01-01

    Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) is a key player in DNA repair, genomic stability and cell survival and it emerges as a highly relevant target for cancer therapies. To deepen our understanding of PARP biology and mechanisms of action of PARP1-targeting anti-cancer compounds, we generated a novel PARP1-affinity reagent, active both in vitro and in live cells. This PARP1-biosensor is based on a PARP1-specific single-domain antibody fragment (~ 15 kDa), termed nanobody, which recognizes the N-terminus of human PARP1 with nanomolar affinity. In proteomic approaches, immobilized PARP1 nanobody facilitates quantitative immunoprecipitation of functional, endogenous PARP1 from cellular lysates. For cellular studies, we engineered an intracellularly functional PARP1 chromobody by combining the nanobody coding sequence with a fluorescent protein sequence. By following the chromobody signal, we were for the first time able to monitor the recruitment of endogenous PARP1 to DNA damage sites in live cells. Moreover, tracing of the sub-nuclear translocation of the chromobody signal upon treatment of human cells with chemical substances enables real-time profiling of active compounds in high content imaging. Due to its ability to perform as a biosensor at the endogenous level of the PARP1 enzyme, the novel PARP1 nanobody is a unique and versatile tool for basic and applied studies of PARP1 biology and DNA repair. PMID:26950694

  4. A New Nanobody-Based Biosensor to Study Endogenous PARP1 In Vitro and in Live Human Cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Buchfellner

    Full Text Available Poly(ADP-ribose polymerase 1 (PARP1 is a key player in DNA repair, genomic stability and cell survival and it emerges as a highly relevant target for cancer therapies. To deepen our understanding of PARP biology and mechanisms of action of PARP1-targeting anti-cancer compounds, we generated a novel PARP1-affinity reagent, active both in vitro and in live cells. This PARP1-biosensor is based on a PARP1-specific single-domain antibody fragment (~ 15 kDa, termed nanobody, which recognizes the N-terminus of human PARP1 with nanomolar affinity. In proteomic approaches, immobilized PARP1 nanobody facilitates quantitative immunoprecipitation of functional, endogenous PARP1 from cellular lysates. For cellular studies, we engineered an intracellularly functional PARP1 chromobody by combining the nanobody coding sequence with a fluorescent protein sequence. By following the chromobody signal, we were for the first time able to monitor the recruitment of endogenous PARP1 to DNA damage sites in live cells. Moreover, tracing of the sub-nuclear translocation of the chromobody signal upon treatment of human cells with chemical substances enables real-time profiling of active compounds in high content imaging. Due to its ability to perform as a biosensor at the endogenous level of the PARP1 enzyme, the novel PARP1 nanobody is a unique and versatile tool for basic and applied studies of PARP1 biology and DNA repair.

  5. A New Nanobody-Based Biosensor to Study Endogenous PARP1 In Vitro and in Live Human Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchfellner, Andrea; Yurlova, Larisa; Nüske, Stefan; Scholz, Armin M; Bogner, Jacqueline; Ruf, Benjamin; Zolghadr, Kourosh; Drexler, Sophie E; Drexler, Guido A; Girst, Stefanie; Greubel, Christoph; Reindl, Judith; Siebenwirth, Christian; Romer, Tina; Friedl, Anna A; Rothbauer, Ulrich

    2016-01-01

    Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) is a key player in DNA repair, genomic stability and cell survival and it emerges as a highly relevant target for cancer therapies. To deepen our understanding of PARP biology and mechanisms of action of PARP1-targeting anti-cancer compounds, we generated a novel PARP1-affinity reagent, active both in vitro and in live cells. This PARP1-biosensor is based on a PARP1-specific single-domain antibody fragment (~ 15 kDa), termed nanobody, which recognizes the N-terminus of human PARP1 with nanomolar affinity. In proteomic approaches, immobilized PARP1 nanobody facilitates quantitative immunoprecipitation of functional, endogenous PARP1 from cellular lysates. For cellular studies, we engineered an intracellularly functional PARP1 chromobody by combining the nanobody coding sequence with a fluorescent protein sequence. By following the chromobody signal, we were for the first time able to monitor the recruitment of endogenous PARP1 to DNA damage sites in live cells. Moreover, tracing of the sub-nuclear translocation of the chromobody signal upon treatment of human cells with chemical substances enables real-time profiling of active compounds in high content imaging. Due to its ability to perform as a biosensor at the endogenous level of the PARP1 enzyme, the novel PARP1 nanobody is a unique and versatile tool for basic and applied studies of PARP1 biology and DNA repair.

  6. Disuse exaggerates the detrimental effects of alcohol on cortical bone

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hefferan, Theresa E.; Kennedy, Angela M.; Evans, Glenda L.; Turner, Russell T.

    2003-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Alcohol abuse is associated with an increased risk for osteoporosis. However, comorbidity factors may play an important role in the pathogenesis of alcohol-related bone fractures. Suboptimal mechanical loading of the skeleton, an established risk factor for bone loss, may occur in some alcohol abusers due to reduced physical activity, muscle atrophy, or both. The effect of alcohol consumption and reduced physical activity on bone metabolism has not been well studied. The purpose of this study was to determine whether mechanical disuse alters bone metabolism in a rat model for chronic alcohol abuse. METHODS: Alcohol was administered in the diet (35% caloric intake) of 6-month-old male rats for 4 weeks. Rats were hindlimb-unloaded the final 2 weeks of the experiment to prevent dynamic weight bearing. Afterward, cortical bone histomorphometry was evaluated at the tibia-fibula synostosis. RESULTS: At the periosteal surface of the tibial diaphysis, alcohol and hindlimb unloading independently decreased the mineralizing perimeter, mineral apposition rate, and bone formation rate. In addition, alcohol, but not hindlimb unloading, increased endocortical bone resorption. The respective detrimental effects of alcohol and hindlimb unloading to inhibit bone formation were additive; there was no interaction between the two variables. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced weight bearing accentuates the detrimental effects of alcohol on cortical bone in adult male rats by further inhibiting bone formation. This finding suggests that reduced physical activity may be a comorbidity factor for osteoporosis in alcohol abusers.

  7. Living systematic reviews: 2. Combining human and machine effort.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, James; Noel-Storr, Anna; Marshall, Iain; Wallace, Byron; McDonald, Steven; Mavergames, Chris; Glasziou, Paul; Shemilt, Ian; Synnot, Anneliese; Turner, Tari; Elliott, Julian

    2017-11-01

    New approaches to evidence synthesis, which use human effort and machine automation in mutually reinforcing ways, can enhance the feasibility and sustainability of living systematic reviews. Human effort is a scarce and valuable resource, required when automation is impossible or undesirable, and includes contributions from online communities ("crowds") as well as more conventional contributions from review authors and information specialists. Automation can assist with some systematic review tasks, including searching, eligibility assessment, identification and retrieval of full-text reports, extraction of data, and risk of bias assessment. Workflows can be developed in which human effort and machine automation can each enable the other to operate in more effective and efficient ways, offering substantial enhancement to the productivity of systematic reviews. This paper describes and discusses the potential-and limitations-of new ways of undertaking specific tasks in living systematic reviews, identifying areas where these human/machine "technologies" are already in use, and where further research and development is needed. While the context is living systematic reviews, many of these enabling technologies apply equally to standard approaches to systematic reviewing. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Young children’s environmental judgement and its relationship with their understanding of the concept of living things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Villarroel José Domingo

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Do young children think that plants deserve morally-based respect or, on the contrary, do they feel that respect for plant life is nothing more than another behavioural norm similar to, for instance, one that states that you should not pick your nose in public? This study examines how dilemmas involving environmental, moral and socio-conventional situations are comprehended in early childhood so as to investigate the issue of whether young children attach a significant degree of severity to transgressions against plant life in comparison with disregarding socially accepted rules. Additionally, young children’s judgements are put into perspective alongside their understanding of the concept of living things in order to shed light on the role that grasping essential biological notions might play in the emergence of young children’s assessments of actions that pose a threat to the environment. The sample of the study consists of 328 children (162 girls and 166 boys who attend Early Years Education or Primary Education and the data examined comes from the individual interviews conducted with the children. The results are discussed in connection with the current understanding of the source of ethical judgements which emphasises the importance that emotions seem to play in the construction of moral thinking.

  9. Living science: Science as an activity of living beings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacLennan, Bruce J

    2015-12-01

    The philosophy of science should accommodate itself to the facts of human existence, using all aspects of human experience to adapt more effectively, as individuals, species, and global ecosystem. This has several implications: (1) Our nature as sentient beings interacting with other sentient beings requires the use of phenomenological methods to investigate consciousness. (2) Our embodied, situated, purposeful physical interactions with the world are the foundation of scientific understanding. (3) Aristotle's four causes are essential for understanding living systems and, in particular, the final cause aids understanding the role of humankind, and especially science, in the global ecosystem. (4) In order to fulfill this role well, scientists need to employ the full panoply of human faculties. These include the consciousness faculties (thinking, sensation, feeling, intuition), and therefore, as advocated by many famous scientists, we should cultivate our aesthetic sense, emotions, imagination, and intuition. Our unconscious faculties include archetypal structures common to all humans, which can guide scientific discovery. By striving to engage the whole of human nature, science will fulfill better its function for humans and the global ecosystem. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  10. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) consumption in the Ts65Dn model of Down syndrome fails to improve behavioral deficits and is detrimental to skeletal phenotypes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stringer, Megan; Abeysekera, Irushi; Thomas, Jared; LaCombe, Jonathan; Stancombe, Kailey; Stewart, Robert J; Dria, Karl J; Wallace, Joseph M; Goodlett, Charles R; Roper, Randall J

    2017-08-01

    Down syndrome (DS) is caused by three copies of human chromosome 21 (Hsa21) and results in phenotypes including intellectual disability and skeletal deficits. Ts65Dn mice have three copies of ~50% of the genes homologous to Hsa21 and display phenotypes associated with DS, including cognitive deficits and skeletal abnormalities. DYRK1A is found in three copies in humans with Trisomy 21 and in Ts65Dn mice, and is involved in a number of critical pathways including neurological development and osteoclastogenesis. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), the main polyphenol in green tea, inhibits Dyrk1a activity. We have previously shown that EGCG treatment (~10mg/kg/day) improves skeletal abnormalities in Ts65Dn mice, yet the same dose, as well as ~20mg/kg/day did not rescue deficits in the Morris water maze spatial learning task (MWM), novel object recognition (NOR) or balance beam task (BB). In contrast, a recent study reported that an EGCG-containing supplement with a dose of 2-3mg per day (~40-60mg/kg/day) improved hippocampal-dependent task deficits in Ts65Dn mice. The current study investigated if an EGCG dosage similar to that study would yield similar improvements in either cognitive or skeletal deficits. Ts65Dn mice and euploid littermates were given EGCG [0.4mg/mL] or a water control, with treatments yielding average daily intakes of ~50mg/kg/day EGCG, and tested on the multivariate concentric square field (MCSF)-which assesses activity, exploratory behavior, risk assessment, risk taking, and shelter seeking-and NOR, BB, and MWM. EGCG treatment failed to improve cognitive deficits; EGCG also produced several detrimental effects on skeleton in both genotypes. In a refined HPLC-based assay, its first application in Ts65Dn mice, EGCG treatment significantly reduced kinase activity in femora but not in the cerebral cortex, cerebellum, or hippocampus. Counter to expectation, 9-week-old Ts65Dn mice exhibited a decrease in Dyrk1a protein levels in Western blot analysis

  11. Differences in ability to perform activities of daily living among women with fibromyalgia: A cross-sectional study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Bülow, Cecilie; Amris, Kirstine; la Cour, Karen; Danneskiold-Samsøe, Bente; Ejlersen, Eva Wæhrens

    2015-11-01

    To investigate whether the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS), the physical function subscales of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ PF) and the 36-item Short Form (SF-36 PF) can identify subgroups of women with fibromyalgia with clinically relevant differences in ability to perform activities of daily living. Cross-sectional study. A total of 257 women with fibromyalgia. Participants were evaluated with the AMPS (measuring activities of daily living motor and activities of daily living process ability), FIQ and SF-36. AMPS independence cut-offs were used to divide the participants into 4 subgroups. Clinically relevant differences between subgroups were investigated based on the AMPS, FIQ PF and SF-36 PF. Participants in the 4 AMPS-derived subgroups demon-strated clinically relevant differences in observed activities of daily living motor and process ability. Neither the FIQ PF nor the SF-36 PF could differentiate between subgroups with clinically relevant differences in AMPS activities of daily living process ability. Activities of daily living process skills reflect underlying organizational and adaptive capacities of the individual and are relevant targets for interventions aiming at improving activities of daily living ability. Since self-report instruments do not capture differences in activities of daily living process ability, clinicians should include observations-based assessment of activities of daily living ability in order to individualize interventions offered.

  12. Active living by design sustainability strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kraft, M Katherine; Lee, Joanne J; Brennan, Laura K

    2012-11-01

    Despite substantial increases in improving the translation of health promotion research into practice, community initiatives still struggle with maintaining changes once grant funding has ended. Researchers, funders, and community practitioners are interested in practices that maintain and sustain their efforts. This qualitative study conducted a content analysis of evaluation findings from Active Living by Design (ALbD) to identify activities that community coalitions implemented to maintain their initiative and secure ongoing influence in communities. Investigators analyzed data from interviews, focus groups, and the Progress Reporting System to identify sustainability approaches clustering into five areas: partnership expansion, sustainable funding, permanent advisory committees, policy change, and institution/organization change. Partnership expansion occurred across sectors and disciplines and into broader geographic areas. Additional funding extended beyond grants to earned income streams and dedicated tax revenues. Permanent advisory committees were established to inform decision makers about a range of active living impacts. Policy changes in zoning and comprehensive plans ensured maintenance of health-promoting built environments. Sustainability through institution/organization changes led to allocation of dedicated staff and incorporation of active living values into agency missions. Active Living by Design partnerships defined and messaged their projects to align with policymakers' interests and broad partnership audiences. They found innovative supporters and adapted their original vision to include quality of life, nonmotorized transport, and other complementary efforts that expanded their reach and influence. These sustainability strategies altered awareness within communities, changed community decision-making processes, and created policy changes that have the potential to maintain environments that promote physical activity for years to come

  13. Determination of doses to different organs and prediction of health detriment, after hypothetical accident in mtr reactor core

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Amin, E A; Abd El-Ghani, A H [National Center of Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control Atomic Energy Authority, Cairo (Egypt)

    1997-12-31

    As a result of pypothetical accidents with release of high amount of fission products, the doses to different organs consequent upon inhalation of radioactive fission products are calculated. The processes are modeled using the ORIGIN and TIRION-4 codes: source term, containment and activity enclosure, time dependent activity behaviour in the building, and radiation exposure in the reactor building. Prediction of health detriments were calculated using ICRP-60 nominal probability coefficients and organ doses determined for bone, lung, and thyroid gland, after whole body exposure from internal inhalation and external emmersion. 11 tabs.

  14. Research on Data Mining of the Internet of Things Based on Cloud Computing Platform

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Wenqing

    2018-02-01

    Based on the development of society and the progress of information technology, China’s information industry has made great progress and has gradually become an important pillar of national economic development. In this context, the gradual integration of information technology had promoted the construction of the Internet of Things system, so as to promote the human life developed in the direction of modernization intelligently. At present, in the process of forming the development of the Internet of Things the first need to fully tap the data, which thus provide users with better service, for the development of large-scale development of the Internet. This paper analyzes the meaning of Internet of things, and discusses the characteristics of Internet of things and data mining, hoping to promote the improvement on the Internet of Things system in China, and thus promote the realization of higher efficiency.

  15. Community Living Skills Guide: Additional Activities for Nutrition, Cooking, Homemaking, and Family Living.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nickovich, Marti; Kreps, Alice Roelofs

    These activities are intended to supplement materials for three courses available in the Community Living Skills Guide for the College for Living series: Cooking/Food Preparation (CE 024 475), Homemaking and Family Living (CE 024 477), and Nutrition (CE 024 484). These courses for developmentally disabled adults are intended to supplement…

  16. 11 Things to Know about Cerebral Palsy

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Button Past Emails 11 Things to Know about Cerebral Palsy Language: English (US) Español (Spanish) Recommend on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disability in ...

  17. Live cell imaging of in vitro human trophoblast syncytialization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Rui; Dang, Yan-Li; Zheng, Ru; Li, Yue; Li, Weiwei; Lu, Xiaoyin; Wang, Li-Juan; Zhu, Cheng; Lin, Hai-Yan; Wang, Hongmei

    2014-06-01

    Human trophoblast syncytialization, a process of cell-cell fusion, is one of the most important yet least understood events during placental development. Investigating the fusion process in a placenta in vivo is very challenging given the complexity of this process. Application of primary cultured cytotrophoblast cells isolated from term placentas and BeWo cells derived from human choriocarcinoma formulates a biphasic strategy to achieve the mechanism of trophoblast cell fusion, as the former can spontaneously fuse to form the multinucleated syncytium and the latter is capable of fusing under the treatment of forskolin (FSK). Live-cell imaging is a powerful tool that is widely used to investigate many physiological or pathological processes in various animal models or humans; however, to our knowledge, the mechanism of trophoblast cell fusion has not been reported using a live- cell imaging manner. In this study, a live-cell imaging system was used to delineate the fusion process of primary term cytotrophoblast cells and BeWo cells. By using live staining with Hoechst 33342 or cytoplasmic dyes or by stably transfecting enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and DsRed2-Nuc reporter plasmids, we observed finger-like protrusions on the cell membranes of fusion partners before fusion and the exchange of cytoplasmic contents during fusion. In summary, this study provides the first video recording of the process of trophoblast syncytialization. Furthermore, the various live-cell imaging systems used in this study will help to yield molecular insights into the syncytialization process during placental development. © 2014 by the Society for the Study of Reproduction, Inc.

  18. Sedentary and Physical Activity Habits of Obese Adolescents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Starkoff, Brooke E.; Petosa, Rick L.; Balk, Elizabeth K.; Eneli, Ihuoma U.; Bonny, Andrea E.; Hoffman, Robert P.; Devor, Steven T.

    2014-01-01

    Background: The independent association between sedentary behavior (SB) and physical activity (PA) is such that, regardless of accumulated PA, high amounts of SB are detrimental to health, even in adolescents. Purpose: Our aim was to profile activity patterns in free-living environments and to measure levels of SB and light (LT) and moderate (MOD)…

  19. The format of things

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jørnø, Rasmus Leth

    this conception is identified as “the Format of Things.” The format is embedded in our everyday thinking. In relation to design,it is found in the name taken by the design community, that is human-computer interaction (HCI), and it is mirrored in the desktop metaphor, wherein information is conceived...... available. It consists of philosophical considerations on matters of relevance for the design of interfaces. It takes the position that the graphical user interfaces of computers (the Desktop Metaphor or Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers [‘WIMP’]) that ordinarily come to mind for most people are cognates......The development of novel interfaces is one of the most important current design challenges for the intellectual, cultural and cognitive evolution of human imagination and knowledge work. Unfortunately, the thinking surrounding this design challenge is heavily mired in conceptions that harbor...

  20. An enhanced hierarchical control strategy for the Internet of Things-based home scale microgrid

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Guan, Yajuan; Quintero, Juan Carlos Vasquez; Guerrero, Josep M.

    2017-01-01

    As the intelligent control and detection technology improving, more and more smart devices/sensors can be used to increase the living standard. In order to integrate the Internet of Things (IoT) with microgrid (MG), an enhanced hierarchical control strategy for IoT-based home scale MG is proposed...

  1. Restless roosts: Light pollution affects behavior, sleep, and physiology in a free-living songbird.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ouyang, Jenny Q; de Jong, Maaike; van Grunsven, Roy H A; Matson, Kevin D; Haussmann, Mark F; Meerlo, Peter; Visser, Marcel E; Spoelstra, Kamiel

    2017-11-01

    The natural nighttime environment is increasingly polluted by artificial light. Several studies have linked artificial light at night to negative impacts on human health. In free-living animals, light pollution is associated with changes in circadian, reproductive, and social behavior, but whether these animals also suffer from physiologic costs remains unknown. To fill this gap, we made use of a unique network of field sites which are either completely unlit (control), or are artificially illuminated with white, green, or red light. We monitored nighttime activity of adult great tits, Parus major, and related this activity to within-individual changes in physiologic indices. Because altered nighttime activity as a result of light pollution may affect health and well-being, we measured oxalic acid concentrations as a biomarker for sleep restriction, acute phase protein concentrations and malaria infection as indices of immune function, and telomere lengths as an overall measure of metabolic costs. Compared to other treatments, individuals roosting in the white light were much more active at night. In these individuals, oxalic acid decreased over the course of the study. We also found that individuals roosting in the white light treatment had a higher probability of malaria infection. Our results indicate that white light at night increases nighttime activity levels and sleep debt and affects disease dynamics in a free-living songbird. Our study offers the first evidence of detrimental effects of light pollution on the health of free-ranging wild animals. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  2. Internet Of Things And Analytics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harshini G

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available The Internet of Things IoT helps to encompass many aspects of life from connecting homes and cities to connecting cars and roads roads to devices that helps in examining individuals behavior and then the data collected is used.IoT is to make lives better secure and enjoyable. IoT solutions will promote cleaner environment improve peoples health with preventative care mechanisms and the constant supervision of elderly family members. It provides a platform for communication between objects where objects can organize and manage themselves. In this paper an attempt is made to understand how analytics can be applied to IoT data. Various statistical and data mining techniques will help to derive knowledge out of huge data collected by the IoT devices.

  3. The physics of everyday things the extraordinary science behind an ordinary day

    CERN Document Server

    Kakalios, James

    2017-01-01

    Physics professor, bestselling author, and dynamic storyteller James Kakalios reveals the mind-bending science behind the seemingly basic things that keep our daily lives running, from our smart phones and digital “clouds” to x-ray machines and hybrid vehicles. Most of us are clueless when it comes to the physics that makes our modern world so convenient. What’s the simple science behind motion sensors, touch screens, and toasters? How do we glide through tolls using an E-Z Pass, or find our way to new places using GPS? In The Physics of Everyday Things, James Kakalios takes us on an amazing journey into the subatomic marvels that underlie so much of what we use and take for granted. Breaking down the world of things into a single day, Kakalios engages our curiosity about how our refrigerators keep food cool, how a plane manages to remain airborne, and how our wrist fitness monitors keep track of our steps. Each explanation is coupled with a story revealing the interplay of the astonishing invisibl...

  4. Visual Thing Recognition with Binary Scale-Invariant Feature Transform and Support Vector Machine Classifiers Using Color Information

    OpenAIRE

    Wei-Jong Yang; Wei-Hau Du; Pau-Choo Chang; Jar-Ferr Yang; Pi-Hsia Hung

    2017-01-01

    The demands of smart visual thing recognition in various devices have been increased rapidly for daily smart production, living and learning systems in recent years. This paper proposed a visual thing recognition system, which combines binary scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT), bag of words model (BoW), and support vector machine (SVM) by using color information. Since the traditional SIFT features and SVM classifiers only use the gray information, color information is still an importan...

  5. Secure Bootstrapping and Rebootstrapping for Resource-Constrained Thing in Internet of Things

    OpenAIRE

    Jung, Seung Wook; Jung, Souhwan

    2015-01-01

    In Internet of Things, secure key establishment and building trust relationship between the thing and the home gateway (or the controller) in home network or Body Area Network are extremely important. Without the guarantee of establishment of key and trust relationship, the traffic over the Internet of Things network cannot be presumed secure. Also, when the home gateway, which knows the shared secret key, is out of order and the new gateway should be installed, the secure key establishment a...

  6. Detrimental effects of sanctions on human altruism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fehr, Ernst; Rockenbach, Bettina

    2003-03-13

    The existence of cooperation and social order among genetically unrelated individuals is a fundamental problem in the behavioural sciences. The prevailing approaches in biology and economics view cooperation exclusively as self-interested behaviour--unrelated individuals cooperate only if they face economic rewards or sanctions rendering cooperation a self-interested choice. Whether economic incentives are perceived as just or legitimate does not matter in these theories. Fairness-based altruism is, however, a powerful source of human cooperation. Here we show experimentally that the prevailing self-interest approach has serious shortcomings because it overlooks negative effects of sanctions on human altruism. Sanctions revealing selfish or greedy intentions destroy altruistic cooperation almost completely, whereas sanctions perceived as fair leave altruism intact. These findings challenge proximate and ultimate theories of human cooperation that neglect the distinction between fair and unfair sanctions, and they are probably relevant in all domains in which voluntary compliance matters--in relations between spouses, in the education of children, in business relations and organizations as well as in markets.

  7. Report on achievements in fiscal 1999. System technology to create human life compatible living environment; 1999 nendo ningen kodo tekigogata seikatsu kankyo soshutsu system gijutsu seika hokokusho

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2000-03-01

    The present research and development is intended to develop the following technology: a system technology to measure, understand and accumulate human activities, analyze objectively the compatibility of human being with products and environments, and support to have the products and working environments comply with activity characteristics of individual persons (a system technology to create human life compatible living environment). Human activities are developed in various scenes, and it is not easy to structure technologies to measure, understand and support the activities common to all of the scenes. Therefore, development will be made on the technologies for measuring, understanding and supporting the activities in the human activity scenes. Development of the manipulative activity complying technology deals with human activities in the scenes to operate devices by which the activities are changed by situation identification and skills in addition to activity characteristics of individual persons. Furthermore, as a scene in which attention to the activity characteristics of individual persons, skills, and external situation is a problem, the automobile driving activities are taken up for discussion, as well as the object building work activities as a scene in which difference in skills of individuals is a problem. (NEDO)

  8. Children's thing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martín Kohan

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The present article analyzes the novel called Una muchacha muy bella (2013 by the Argentinian Julián López. It is considered a childhood novel about the former dictatorship in Argentina. Nevertheless, it shows differences with other texts (as much films as literary texts produced up to the present. The article analyzes the protagonist, a child son of an activist woman during the dictatorship. It examines the construction of the character and its relation with the facts that are connected with the historical moment of the text. Those things the child knows are constructed on the vague limits between the things he knows about his mother situation and those things he does not know. There is also a link of sense with a dictatorship that acts in a clandestine way, hiding several facts and showing other facts. It is made a comparison between the place that took society during the dictatorship: a society that could not know everything, but it had to know at least something.

  9. Imaging Proteolysis by Living Human Breast Cancer Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mansoureh Sameni

    2000-01-01

    Full Text Available Malignant progression is accompanied by degradation of extracellular matrix proteins. Here we describe a novel confocal assay in which we can observe proteolysis by living human breast cancer cells (BT20 and BT549 through the use of quenchedfluorescent protein substrates. Degradation thus was imaged, by confocal optical sectioning, as an accumulation of fluorescent products. With the BT20 cells, fluorescence was localized to pericellular focal areas that coincide with pits in the underlying matrix. In contrast, fluorescence was localized to intracellular vesicles in the BT549 cells, vesicles that also label for lysosomal markers. Neither intracellular nor pericellular fluorescence was observed in the BT549 cells in the presence of cytochalasin B, suggesting that degradation occurred intracellularly and was dependent on endocytic uptake of substrate. In the presence of a cathepsin 13-selective cysteine protease inhibitor, intracellular fluorescence was decreased ~90% and pericellular fluorescence decreased 67% to 96%, depending on the protein substrate. Matrix metallo protease inhibitors reduced pericellular fluorescence ~50%, i.e., comparably to a serine and a broad spectrum cysteine protease inhibitor. Our results suggest that: 1 a proteolytic cascade participates in pericellular digestion of matrix proteins by living human breast cancer cells, and 2 the cysteine protease cathepsin B participates in both pericellular and intracellular digestion of matrix proteins by living human breast cancer cells.

  10. A STUDY ON INTERNET OF THINGS APPLICATIONS AND RELATED ISSUES

    OpenAIRE

    Sandeep Kumar; Hemlata Dalmia

    2017-01-01

    Day by day Internet of Things (IoT) has gained a great attention from research community because of the importance of IoT technology in human life. IoT is a smart system which consists of different type of sensors and real world application connected with each other through internet via wired or wireless network structure. The IoT makes the world smart in every aspects means IoT gives the information regarding the surrounding condition of things with the help of technology i.e. smart home, sm...

  11. Radiation hormesis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hattori, Sadao; Nemoto, Kazuyasu; Ishida, Kenzi; Misonoo, Jun; Suganuma, Hirotoshi; Ishi, Keiichirou; Yamaoka, Kiyonori

    1990-01-01

    Greater attention has recently been drawn to the hormesis effect of radiations on living things. An agent is said to show hormesis when it gives a favorable physiological stimulation to living things and activated their biological functions if used in slight amounts, though it has an adverse effect on them if used in large amount. Recently many reports have been published which insist that radiations in a certain low dose range can have favorable biological effects, such as stimulation and activation, on living things including humans, animals and plants. Thus hormesis can be seen very widely in the biological field. The report first describes recent trends in research in this field, including the background behind the proposal of the radiation hormesis hypothesis, and major studies presented at the Oakland and Frankfurt Conferences. Then it outlines major research efforts that have been made at Denryoku Chuo Kenkyusho in Japan, focusing on animal tests (superoxidedismutase activity, thymidinekinase activity, etc.), immunological surveys, and plant tests. Discussion is also made concerning important issues and study subjects to be covered in future research. (N.K.)

  12. 'Holding on to life': An ethnographic study of living well at home in old age.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bjornsdottir, Kristin

    2018-04-01

    In recent years, much attention has been paid to how older people living at home can remain independent and manage their illness themselves, while less attention has been given to those who have become frail and need assistance with challenges of everyday life. In this article, I drew on Latimer's formulation of care for frail older people as relational and world-making and on Foucault's work related to the care of the self in developing an understanding of how frail older persons manage to live well at home in the final years of their lives. I use data from an ethnographic study of home care nursing in the homes of 15 frail older people to develop an understanding of how their care at home can be developed. The participants were holding on to life, which reflected their vitality and vulnerability as well as agency in continuing to explore ways to preserve and build their world at home. With declining ability and stamina relations with material things, relatives and official care workers become of central importance in holding on to life. Home care services can be thought of as part of life, as world-forming, where workers contribute to daily activities that support living well at home. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. Neuronal medium that supports basic synaptic functions and activity of human neurons in vitro

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bardy, C.; Hurk, M. van den; Eames, T.; Marchand, C.; Hernandez, R.V.; Kellogg, M.; Gorris, M.A.J.; Galet, B.; Palomares, V.; Brown, J.; Bang, A.G.; Mertens, J.; Bohnke, L.; Boyer, L.; Simon, S.; Gage, F.H.

    2015-01-01

    Human cell reprogramming technologies offer access to live human neurons from patients and provide a new alternative for modeling neurological disorders in vitro. Neural electrical activity is the essence of nervous system function in vivo. Therefore, we examined neuronal activity in media widely

  14. Exercise following a short immobilization period is detrimental to tendon properties and joint mechanics in a rat rotator cuff injury model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peltz, Cathryn D; Sarver, Joseph J; Dourte, Leann M; Würgler-Hauri, Carola C; Williams, Gerald R; Soslowsky, Louis J

    2010-07-01

    Rotator cuff tears are a common clinical problem that can result in pain and disability. Previous studies in a rat model showed enhanced tendon to bone healing with postoperative immobilization. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of postimmobilization activity level on insertion site properties and joint mechanics in a rat model. Our hypothesis was that exercise following a short period of immobilization will cause detrimental changes in insertion site properties compared to cage activity following the same period of immobilization, but that passive shoulder mechanics will not be affected. We detached and repaired the supraspinatus tendon of 22 Sprague-Dawley rats, and the injured shoulder was immobilized postoperatively for 2 weeks. Following immobilization, rats were prescribed cage activity or exercise for 12 weeks. Passive shoulder mechanics were determined, and following euthanasia, tendon cross-sectional area and mechanical properties were measured. Exercise following immobilization resulted in significant decreases compared to cage activity in range of motion, tendon stiffness, modulus, percent relaxation, and several parameters from both a structurally based elastic model and a quasi-linear viscoelastic model. Therefore, we conclude that after a short period of immobilization, increased activity is detrimental to both tendon mechanical properties and shoulder joint mechanics, presumably due to increased scar production. (c) 2010 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc

  15. Compact DD generator-based neutron activation analysis (NAA) system to determine fluorine in human bone in vivo: a feasibility study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mostafaei, Farshad; Blake, Scott P; Liu, Yingzi; Sowers, Daniel A; Nie, Linda H

    2015-10-01

    The subject of whether fluorine (F) is detrimental to human health has been controversial for many years. Much of the discussion focuses on the known benefits and detriments to dental care and problems that F causes in bone structure at high doses. It is therefore advantageous to have the means to monitor F concentrations in the human body as a method to directly assess exposure. F accumulates in the skeleton making bone a useful biomarker to assess long term cumulative exposure to F. This study presents work in the development of a non-invasive method for the monitoring of F in human bone. The work was based on the technique of in vivo neutron activation analysis (IVNAA). A compact deuterium-deuterium (DD) generator was used to produce neutrons. A moderator/reflector/shielding assembly was designed and built for human hand irradiation. The gamma rays emitted through the (19)F(n,γ)(20)F reaction were measured using a HPGe detector. This study was undertaken to (i) find the feasibility of using DD system to determine F in human bone, (ii) estimate the F minimum detection limit (MDL), and (iii) optimize the system using the Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) code in order to improve the MDL of the system. The F MDL was found to be 0.54 g experimentally with a neutron flux of 7   ×   10(8) n s(-1) and an optimized irradiation, decay, and measurement time scheme. The numbers of F counts from the experiment were found to be close to the (MCNPX) simulation results with the same irradiation and detection parameters. The equivalent dose to the irradiated hand and the effective dose to the whole body were found to be 0.9 mSv and 0.33 μSv, respectively. Based on these results, it is feasible to develop a compact DD generator based IVNAA system to measure bone F in a population with moderate to high F exposure.

  16. Compact DD generator-based neutron activation analysis (NAA) system to determine fluorine in human bone in vivo: a feasibility study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mostafaei, Farshad; Blake, Scott P; Liu, Yingzi; Sowers, Daniel A; Nie, Linda H

    2015-01-01

    The subject of whether fluorine (F) is detrimental to human health has been controversial for many years. Much of the discussion focuses on the known benefits and detriments to dental care and problems that F causes in bone structure at high doses. It is therefore advantageous to have the means to monitor F concentrations in the human body as a method to directly assess exposure. F accumulates in the skeleton making bone a useful biomarker to assess long term cumulative exposure to F. This study presents work in the development of a non-invasive method for the monitoring of F in human bone. The work was based on the technique of in vivo neutron activation analysis (IVNAA). A compact deuterium-deuterium (DD) generator was used to produce neutrons. A moderator/reflector/shielding assembly was designed and built for human hand irradiation. The gamma rays emitted through the "1"9F(n,γ)"2"0F reaction were measured using a HPGe detector. This study was undertaken to (i) find the feasibility of using DD system to determine F in human bone, (ii) estimate the F minimum detection limit (MDL), and (iii) optimize the system using the Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended (MCNPX) code in order to improve the MDL of the system. The F MDL was found to be 0.54 g experimentally with a neutron flux of 7   ×   10"8 n s"−"1 and an optimized irradiation, decay, and measurement time scheme. The numbers of F counts from the experiment were found to be close to the (MCNPX) simulation results with the same irradiation and detection parameters. The equivalent dose to the irradiated hand and the effective dose to the whole body were found to be 0.9 mSv and 0.33 μSv, respectively. Based on these results, it is feasible to develop a compact DD generator based IVNAA system to measure bone F in a population with moderate to high F exposure. (paper)

  17. Eurocentrism and Artistic Creation in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This article goes beyond the plot of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart to codify the inspiration and moving spirit behind the novel. Eurocentrism is a philosophical and cultural construct that perceives Europe as the centre of civilization and the future of humanity. The racism that Eurocentrism engendered accorded an ...

  18. Representing and Reasoning with the Internet of Things: a Modular Rule-Based Model for Ensembles of Context-Aware Smart Things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. W. Loke

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available Context-aware smart things are capable of computational behaviour based on sensing the physical world, inferring context from the sensed data, and acting on the sensed context. A collection of such things can form what we call a thing-ensemble, when they have the ability to communicate with one another (over a short range network such as Bluetooth, or the Internet, i.e. the Internet of Things (IoT concept, sense each other, and when each of them might play certain roles with respect to each other. Each smart thing in a thing-ensemble might have its own context-aware behaviours which when integrated with other smart things yield behaviours that are not straightforward to reason with. We present Sigma, a language of operators, inspired from modular logic programming, for specifying and reasoning with combined behaviours among smart things in a thing-ensemble. We show numerous examples of the use of Sigma for describing a range of behaviours over a diverse range of thing-ensembles, from sensor networks to smart digital frames, demonstrating the versatility of our approach. We contend that our operator approach abstracts away low-level communication and protocol details, and allows systems of context-aware things to be designed and built in a compositional and incremental manner.

  19. The Internet of things connecting objects

    CERN Document Server

    Chaouchi, Hakima

    2013-01-01

    Internet of Things: Connecting Objects… puts forward the technologies and the networking architectures which make it possible to support the Internet of Things. Amongst these technologies, RFID, sensor and PLC technologies are described and a clear view on how they enable the Internet of Things is given. This book also provides a good overview of the main issues facing the Internet of Things such as the issues of privacy and security, application and usage, and standardization.

  20. 'It's a regional thing': financial impact of renal transplantation on live donors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGrath, Pam; Holewa, Hamish

    2012-01-01

    There has been no research exploring the financial impact on the live renal donor in terms of testing, hospitalisation and surgery for kidney removal (known as nephrectomy). The only mention of financial issues in relation to live renal transplantation is the recipients' concerns in relation to monetary payment for the gift of a kidney and the recipients' desire to pay for the costs associated with the nephrectomy. The discussion in this article posits a new direction in live renal donor research; that of understanding the financial impact of live renal donation on the donor to inform health policy and supportive care service delivery. The findings have specific relevance for live renal donors living in rural and remote locations of Australia. The findings are presented from the first interview (time 1: T1) of a set of four times (time 1 to time 4: T1-T4) from a longitudinal study that explored the experience of live renal donors who were undergoing kidney removal (nephrectomy) at the Renal Transplantation Unit at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. A qualitative methodological approach was used that involved semi-structured interviews with prospective living kidney donors (n=20). The resulting data were analysed using the qualitative research methods of coding and thematic analysis. The findings indicate that live renal donors in non-metropolitan areas report significant financial concerns in relation to testing, hospitalisation and surgery for nephrectomy. These include the fact that bulk billing (no cost to the patient for practitioner's service) is not always available, that individuals have to pay up-front and that free testing at local public hospitals is not available in some areas. In addition, non-metropolitan donors have to fund the extra cost of travel and accommodation when relocating for the nephrectomy to the specialist metropolitan hospital. Live renal transplantation is an important new direction in medical care that has excellent

  1. Designing the social Internet of Things

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Soro, Alessandro; Brereton, Margot; Roe, Paul

    2017-01-01

    What role do people have in the Internet of Things? Compared to the impressive body of research that is currently tackling the technical issues of the Internet of Things, social aspects of agency, engagement, participation, and ethics, are receiving less attention. The goal of this 'Designing...... the Social Internet of Things' workshop is to contribute by shedding light on these aspects. We invite prospective participants to take a humanistic standpoint, explore people's relations with 'things' first, and then build on such relations so as to support socially relevant goals of engagement, relatedness...

  2. Novel Active Learning Experiences for Students to Identify Barriers to Independent Living for People with Disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McArthur, Polly; Burch, Lillian; Moore, Katherine; Hodges, Mary Sue

    2016-07-01

    This article describes interactive learning about independent living for people with disabilities and features the partnership of the College of Nursing and a Center for Independent Living (CIL). Using qualitative descriptive approach, students' written reflections were analyzed. Through "Xtreme Challenge," 82 undergraduate nursing students participated in aspects of independent living as well as identifying barriers. Students were engaged and learned to consider the person before the disability. Moreover, students valued the activity leaders' openness, which facilitated understanding the point of view of a person with disability. The value of partnership was evident as it allowed students to participate in active learning, which led to growth in the affective domain. Students became aware of potential education resources through the CIL. This article will guide educators in designing experiences that teach nursing care at the individual, family, and community level for people living with disabilities. © 2015 Association of Rehabilitation Nurses.

  3. Q&A: Grace Anne Koppel, Living Well with COPD

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... their own lives back is the most rewarding thing we have ever done. Read More "The Challenge of COPD" Articles Q&A: Grace Anne Koppel, Living Well with COPD / What is COPD? / What Causes COPD? / Getting Tested / Am I at Risk? / COPD Quiz Fall ...

  4. Validation and comparison of two methods to assess human energy expenditure during free-living activities.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Panagiota Anastasopoulou

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: The measurement of activity energy expenditure (AEE via accelerometry is the most commonly used objective method for assessing human daily physical activity and has gained increasing importance in the medical, sports and psychological science research in recent years. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine which of the following procedures is more accurate to determine the energy cost during the most common everyday life activities; a single regression or an activity based approach. For this we used a device that utilizes single regression models (GT3X, ActiGraph Manufacturing Technology Inc., FL., USA and a device using activity-dependent calculation models (move II, movisens GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Nineteen adults (11 male, 8 female; 30.4±9.0 years wore the activity monitors attached to the waist and a portable indirect calorimeter (IC as reference measure for AEE while performing several typical daily activities. The accuracy of the two devices for estimating AEE was assessed as the mean differences between their output and the reference and evaluated using Bland-Altman analysis. RESULTS: The GT3X overestimated the AEE of walking (GT3X minus reference, 1.26 kcal/min, walking fast (1.72 kcal/min, walking up-/downhill (1.45 kcal/min and walking upstairs (1.92 kcal/min and underestimated the AEE of jogging (-1.30 kcal/min and walking upstairs (-2.46 kcal/min. The errors for move II were smaller than those for GT3X for all activities. The move II overestimated AEE of walking (move II minus reference, 0.21 kcal/min, walking up-/downhill (0.06 kcal/min and stair walking (upstairs: 0.13 kcal/min; downstairs: 0.29 kcal/min and underestimated AEE of walking fast (-0.11 kcal/min and jogging (-0.93 kcal/min. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that the activity monitor using activity-dependent calculation models is more appropriate for predicting AEE in daily life than the activity monitor using a single

  5. Stair climbing is more detrimental to the cement in hip replacement than walking

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stolk, J.; Verdonschot, N.J.J.; Huiskes, H.W.J.

    2002-01-01

    Stair climbing may be detrimental to cemented total hip arthroplasties, because it subjects the reconstruction to high torsional loads. The current study investigated how stair climbing contributes to damage accumulation in the cement around a femoral stem compared with walking, taking into account

  6. Towards Internet of Things: Survey and Future Vision

    OpenAIRE

    Omar Said; Mehedi Masud

    2013-01-01

    Internet of things is a promising research due to its importance in many commerce, industry, and education applications. Recently, new applications and research challenges in numerous areas of Internet of things are fired. In this paper, we discuss the history of Internet of things, different proposed architectures of Internet of things, research challenges and open problems related to the Internet of things. We also introduce the concept of Internet of things database and discuss about the f...

  7. Adolescent Occultism and the Philosophy of Things in Three Novels

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Samuel Finegan

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Shirley Jackson’s 1962 We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Iain Banks’s 1984 The Wasp Factory and Sonya Hartnett’s 2009 Butterfly are novels separated not only by decades, but by distance being produced in the United States, Scotland and Australia respectively. Despite this, each of these texts depicts a young adult in a mimetically recognisable world struggling to reconcile their intuitive occultism with that world. The mediation of magic through assemblages of charged objects creates a philosophy of things – modelling in intuitive and narrative terms the essence and nature of objects familiar from the philosophies of Martin Heidegger and Walter Benjamin. As such, the supernaturalism of Iain Banks, Shirley Jackson and Sonya Hartnett’s narratives implicates their readers – breaking the boundaries of fiction to comment on the material world itself, not through analogy or metaphor but through direct modelling of the potential power and worth of things.

  8. XML Interfaces to the Internet of Things

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    S. Pemberton (Steven); C Foster

    2015-01-01

    htmlabstractThe internet of things is predicated on tiny, cheap, lower power computers being embedded in devices everywhere. However such tiny devices by definition have very little memory and computing power available to support user interfaces or extended servers, and so the user interface

  9. Technology analysis for internet of things using big data learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Senthilkumar, K.; Ellappan, Vijayan; Ajay

    2017-11-01

    We implemented a n efficient smart home automation system through the Internet of Things (IoT) including different type of sensors, this whole module will helps to the human beings to understand and provide the information about their home security system we are also going to apply Big Data Analysis to analyze the data that we are getting from different type of sensors in this module. We are using some sensors in our module to sense some type of things or object that makes our home standard and also introducing the face recognition system with an efficient algorithm into the module to make it more impressive and provide standardization in advance era.

  10. Imaging proteolytic activity in live cells and animal models.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stefanie Galbán

    Full Text Available In addition to their degradative role in protein turnover, proteases play a key role as positive or negative regulators of signal transduction pathways and therefore their dysregulation contributes to many disease states. Regulatory roles of proteases include their hormone-like role in triggering G protein-coupled signaling (Protease-Activated-Receptors; their role in shedding of ligands such as EGF, Notch and Fas; and their role in signaling events that lead to apoptotic cell death. Dysregulated activation of apoptosis by the caspase family of proteases has been linked to diseases such as cancer, autoimmunity and inflammation. In an effort to better understand the role of proteases in health and disease, a luciferase biosensor is described which can quantitatively report proteolytic activity in live cells and mouse models. The biosensor, hereafter referred to as GloSensor Caspase 3/7 has a robust signal to noise (50-100 fold and dynamic range such that it can be used to screen for pharmacologically active compounds in high throughput campaigns as well as to study cell signaling in rare cell populations such as isolated cancer stem cells. The biosensor can also be used in the context of genetically engineered mouse models of human disease wherein conditional expression using the Cre/loxP technology can be implemented to investigate the role of a specific protease in living subjects. While the regulation of apoptosis by caspase's was used as an example in these studies, biosensors to study additional proteases involved in the regulation of normal and pathological cellular processes can be designed using the concepts presented herein.

  11. Nature, Education and Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rømer, Thomas Aastrup

    2013-01-01

    In this essay it is argued that the educational philosophy of John Dewey gains in depth and importance by being related to his philosophy of nature, his metaphysics. The result is that any experiental process is situated inside an event, an existence, a thing, and I try to interpret this "thing" as schools or major cultural events such…

  12. Vitamins D3 and K2 may partially counterbalance the detrimental effects of pentosidine in ex vivo human osteoblasts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanguineti, R; Monacelli, F; Parodi, A; Furfaro, A L; Borghi, R; Pacini, D; Pronzato, M A; Odetti, P; Molfetta, L; Traverso, N

    2016-01-01

    Osteoporosis is a metabolic multifaceted disorder, characterized by insufficient bone strength. It has been recently shown that advanced glycation end products (AGEs) play a role in senile osteoporosis, through bone cell impairment and altered biomechanical properties. Pentosidine (PENT), a wellcharacterized AGE, is also considered a biomarker of bone fracture. Adequate responses to various hormones, such as 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D 3 , are prerequisites for optimal osteoblasts functioning. Vitamin K 2 is known to enhance in vitro and in vitro vitamin D-induced bone formation. The aim of the study was to assess the effects of Vitamins D 3 and K 2 and PENT on in vitro osteoblast activity, to convey a possible translational clinical message. Ex vivo human osteoblasts cultured, for 3 weeks, with vitamin D 3 and vitamin K 2 were exposed to PENT, a well-known advanced glycoxidation end product for the last 72 hours. Experiments with PENT alone were also carried out. Gene expression of specific markers of bone osteoblast maturation [alkaline phosphatase, ALP; collagen I, COL Iα1; and osteocalcin (bone-Gla-protein) BGP] was measured, together with the receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand/osteoproteregin (RANKL/OPG) ratio to assess bone remodeling. Expression of RAGE, a well-characterized receptor of AGEs, was also assessed. PENT+vitamins slightly inhibited ALP secretion while not affecting gene expression, indicating hampered osteoblast functional activity. PENT+vitamins up-regulated collagen gene expression, while protein secretion was unchanged. Intracellular collagen levels were partially decreased, and a significant reduction in BGP gene expression and intracellular protein concentration were both reported after PENT exposure. The RANKL/OPG ratio was increased, favouring bone reabsorption. RAGE gene expression significantly decreased. These results were confirmed by a lower mineralization rate. We provided in vitro evidence that glycoxidation might

  13. The Meaning of Everyday Meals in Living Units for Older People

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bundgaard, Karen Marie

    2005-01-01

    Even when frail older people become unable to live on their own and manage everyday activities, they can still experience a variety of meanings within meal-related activities that contribute to quality of life. This article reports research findings that focused on the meal, from preparation......, adjacent to which is a shared dining room and kitchen. If the residents choose to, and are capable, they are involved in everyday activities of the unit and eat together with staff. This way of organising meals seems to influence most of the everyday life in the unit by shaping a homely place. It also...... enables a living community that acts in and enlivens everyday existence. Meals themselves also make it possible to be somebody and be yourself in ordinary life and to make a place for valued occupations, things that give substance to everyday life. In sum, the study found that as an occupation, meals give...

  14. As good as the real thing? Performance differences for live versus recorded stimuli in an everyday listening task

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kirkwood, Brent Christopher

    2005-01-01

    an acoustic head and torso simulator, and 3) diotic presentation of monaurally recorded stimuli. Live presentation of stimuli has already been used by C. Carello, et al. [Psychological Science 9, 211-214 (1998)] to demonstrate that humans can hear reasonably well the length of wooden dowels dropped onto hard...

  15. Things may not be as expected: Surprising findings when updating ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    2015-05-14

    May 14, 2015 ... Things may not be as expected: Surprising findings when updating .... (done at the end of three months after the first review month) ..... Allen G. Getting beyond form filling: The role of institutional governance in human research ...

  16. Measurement of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in living brain by positron emission tomography (PET)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Irie, Toshiaki [National Inst. of Radiological Sciences, Chiba (Japan)

    1999-07-01

    Central cholinergic neuronal system has been known to be related to learning and memory, and its deficit is found in the brain of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other degenerative disorders. Postmortem studies have shown that acetylcholinesterase (AChE), one of biochemical markers of central cholinergic nerve system, is consistently reduced in the cerebral cortex of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Non-invasive mapping and/or measuring AChE activity in the living brain by positron emission tomography (PET) would be a useful tool for assessment of cholinergic dysfunction in AD and other disorders, and provide a direct method for validation of therapeutic efficacy of drugs, AChE inhibitors. We have challenged to measure AChE activity using tracers of substrate type, radiolabelled acetylcholine analogs, which are lipophilic enough to go across blood brain barrier and are metabolically trapped by AChE in the brain. The analogs designed, N-methylpiperidyl esters, were evaluated in terms of their metabolic rate and specificity against AChE. Studies examining the response to AChE activity showed metabolic accumulation of some analogs responded well to changes in cortical AChE activity in an animal model of AD. The study was further applied to living human by PET using [{sup 11}C]N-methylpiperidyl-4-acetate (MP4A), which was chosen on the basis of its reactivity and specificity suitable for the human cortical AChE. Regional cerebral metabolic rate of MP4A reflecting AChE activity was quantitatively determined using three compartment model analysis of dynamic PET data and the arterial input function obtained by TLC-radioluminography or plasma samples. The kinetic analyses showed that AChE activities estimated were well agree with those of postmortem examination in cerebral cortices and thalamus in healthy subjects, and that there was significant reduction of cortical AChE activity in patients with AD. The results suggest feasibility of the present method for

  17. Journal of Agriculture and Social Research (JASR) Vol. 8, No. 2, 2008

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    human economic activities and the impact on ecosystem in Rivers State. .... and pesticides used by farmers are washed into rivers, streams and ocean, ... In Rivers State, the situation is becoming more dangerous to living things since many.

  18. Soy protein is beneficial but high-fat diet and voluntary running are detrimental to bone structure in mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Lin; Graef, George L; Nielsen, Forrest H; Johnson, LuAnn K; Cao, Jay

    2015-06-01

    Physical activity and soy protein isolate (SPI) augmentation have been reported to be beneficial for bone health. We hypothesized that combining voluntary running and SPI intake would alleviate detrimental changes in bone induced by a high-fat diet. A 2 × 2 × 2 experiment was designed with diets containing 16% or 45% of energy as corn oil and 20% SPI or casein fed to sedentary or running male C57BL/6 mice for 14 weeks. Distal femurs were assessed for microstructural changes. The high-fat diet significantly decreased trabecular number (Tb.N) and bone mineral density (BMD) and increased trabecular separation (Tb.Sp). Soy protein instead of casein, regardless of fat content, in the diet significantly increased bone volume fraction, Tb.N, connectivity density, and BMD and decreased Tb.Sp. Voluntary running, regardless of fat content, significantly decreased bone volume fraction, Tb.N, connectivity density, and BMD and increased Tb.Sp. The high-fat diet significantly decreased osteocalcin and increased tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b (TRAP 5b) concentrations in plasma. Plasma concentrations of osteocalcin were increased by both SPI and running. Running alleviated the increase in TRAP 5b induced by the high-fat diet. These findings demonstrate that a high-fat diet is deleterious, and SPI is beneficial to trabecular bone properties. The deleterious effect of voluntary running on trabecular structural characteristics indicates that there may be a maximal threshold of running beyond which beneficial effects cease and detrimental effects occur. Increases in plasma osteocalcin and decreases in plasma TRAP 5b in running mice suggest that a compensatory response occurs to counteract the detrimental effects of excessive running. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  19. SPIDER-1: software for evaluating the detriment associated with radiation exposure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stokell, P.J.; Robb, J.D.; Crick, M.J.; Muirhead, C.R.

    1993-11-01

    Data on the health effects associated with radiation exposure have increased substantially over the last few years. In Publication 60, ICRP has applied these data to examine the concept of radiation detriment, and has discussed a wide range of relevant attributes. As a result, the expression and quantification of detriment has become much more complex than that described in Publication 26. This report introduces a PC-based system, SPIDER-1, that has been developed to help investigate the application of measures of radiation detriment when considering the significance of radiation exposure. It is based on a commercial spreadsheet package, Quattro Pro, and allows the user to investigate an extensive set of scenarios: exposure to individuals of given age and sex, or populations of any age and sex distribution; acute and chronic dose profiles; probability of effect and loss of life expectancy; the risk of fatal, non-fatal cancer, and hereditary effects; aggregated detriment. The health effects models used in SPIDER-1 are those developed at NRPB for a UK population. (Author)

  20. Kinase Activity Studied in Living Cells Using an Immunoassay

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bavec, Aljos?a

    2014-01-01

    This laboratory exercise demonstrates the use of an immunoassay for studying kinase enzyme activity in living cells. The advantage over the classical method, in which students have to isolate the enzyme from cell material and measure its activity in vitro, is that enzyme activity is modulated and measured in living cells, providing a more…

  1. Human uniqueness on the brink of a new axial age: From separation to reintegration of humans and nature

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cornel W. du Toit

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Karl Jaspers’ Axial Age concept is used to depict the way humans interact with their environment. The first Axial Age (800-200 BC can be typified among others as the age in which humans started to objectify nature. Nature was dispossessed of spirits, gods and vital forces that humans previously feared and used as explanation for the origin of things. Secularised and objectified nature became a source of wealth for humans to use and abuse as they like. This has peaked in the post-industrial era which also introduced the Second Axial Age in which we presently live. The Second Axial Age can be typified by a new approach to nature mediated among others by insights from the side of the natural sciences, especially developments in cosmology, our understanding of the quantum world and new insights into the nature of consciousness. Another development in the Second Axial Age is the emergence of the nonhuman turn, new materialism, panpsychism, the notion of the post-human and theological concepts like the ‘entangled God’. These developments are discussed with reference to leading thinkers. The nonhuman turn is welcomed as it introduces respect for nature which may contribute to the survival of our planet.

  2. Film Scenes in Interdisciplinary Education: Teaching the Internet of Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hwang, Young-mee; Kim, Kwang-sun; Im, Tami

    2017-01-01

    The Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining importance in education owing to its rapid development. This study addresses the importance of interdisciplinary education between technology and the humanities. The use of films as a teaching resource is suitable for interdisciplinary education because films represent creative forecasts and predictions on…

  3. Intranasal vaccination promotes detrimental Th17-mediated immunity against influenza infection.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asher Maroof

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Influenza disease is a global health issue that causes significant morbidity and mortality through seasonal epidemics. Currently, inactivated influenza virus vaccines given intramuscularly or live attenuated influenza virus vaccines administered intranasally are the only approved options for vaccination against influenza virus in humans. We evaluated the efficacy of a synthetic toll-like receptor 4 agonist CRX-601 as an adjuvant for enhancing vaccine-induced protection against influenza infection. Intranasal administration of CRX-601 adjuvant combined with detergent split-influenza antigen (A/Uruguay/716/2007 (H3N2 generated strong local and systemic immunity against co-administered influenza antigens while exhibiting high efficacy against two heterotypic influenza challenges. Intranasal vaccination with CRX-601 adjuvanted vaccines promoted antigen-specific IgG and IgA antibody responses and the generation of polyfunctional antigen-specific Th17 cells (CD4(+IL-17A(+TNFα(+. Following challenge with influenza virus, vaccinated mice transiently exhibited increased weight loss and morbidity during early stages of disease but eventually controlled infection. This disease exacerbation following influenza infection in vaccinated mice was dependent on both the route of vaccination and the addition of the adjuvant. Neutralization of IL-17A confirmed a detrimental role for this cytokine during influenza infection. The expansion of vaccine-primed Th17 cells during influenza infection was also accompanied by an augmented lung neutrophilic response, which was partially responsible for mediating the increased morbidity. This discovery is of significance in the field of vaccinology, as it highlights the importance of both route of vaccination and adjuvant selection in vaccine development.

  4. QUALITY CONTROL IN LOGISTICS ACTIVITIES THROUGH INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY

    OpenAIRE

    ANDREI BAUTU; Elena B AUTU

    2016-01-01

    Modern companies depend on their logistics in order to maintain their purchases-inventory-sales chain to the desired level of performance (i.e. profitability). Many past situations demonstrate that errors, inefficiencies and disruptions in this chain can cause companies to miss opportunities, loose profitability, and even go bankrupt. An important factor to high quality logistics is the quality and availability of information about key processes. Internet of Things (IoT) technology allows com...

  5. Sense Things in the Big Deep Water Bring the Big Deep Water to Computers so People can understand the Deep Water all the Time without getting wet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pelz, M.; Heesemann, M.; Scherwath, M.; Owens, D.; Hoeberechts, M.; Moran, K.

    2015-12-01

    Senses help us learn stuff about the world. We put sense things in, over, and under the water to help people understand water, ice, rocks, life and changes over time out there in the big water. Sense things are like our eyes and ears. We can use them to look up and down, right and left all of the time. We can also use them on top of or near the water to see wind and waves. As the water gets deep, we can use our sense things to see many a layer of different water that make up the big water. On the big water we watch ice grow and then go away again. We think our sense things will help us know if this is different from normal, because it could be bad for people soon if it is not normal. Our sense things let us hear big water animals talking low (but sometimes high). We can also see animals that live at the bottom of the big water and we take lots of pictures of them. Lots of the animals we see are soft and small or hard and small, but sometimes the really big ones are seen too. We also use our sense things on the bottom and sometimes feel the ground shaking. Sometimes, we get little pockets of bad smelling air going up, too. In other areas of the bottom, we feel hot hot water coming out of the rock making new rocks and we watch some animals even make houses and food out of the hot hot water that turns to rock as it cools. To take care of the sense things we use and control water cars and smaller water cars that can dive deep in the water away from the bigger water car. We like to put new things in the water and take things out of the water that need to be fixed at least once a year. Sense things are very cool because you can use the sense things with your computer too. We share everything for free on our computers, which your computer talks to and gets pictures and sounds for you. Sharing the facts from the sense things is the best part about having the sense things because we can get many new ideas about understanding the big water from anyone with a computer!

  6. Energetic Assessment of the Nonexercise Activities under Free-Living Conditions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shijie Sun

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Nonexercise activities (NAs are common types of physical activity in daily life and critical component in energy expenditure. However, energetic assessment of NA, particularly in free-living subjects, is a technical challenge. In this study, mechanical modeling and portable device were used to evaluate five common types of NA in daily life: sit to stand, lie to sit, bowing while standing, squat, and right leg over left. A human indirect calorimeter was used to measure the activity energy expenditure of NA. Mechanical work and mechanical efficiency of NA were calculated for mechanical modeling. Thirty-two male subjects were recruited for the study (20 subjects for the development of models and 12 subjects for evaluation of models. The average (mean ± SD mechanical work of 5 NAs was 2.31 ± 0.50, 2.88 ± 0.57, 1.75 ± 0.55, 3.96 ± 1.25, and 1.25 ± 0.51 J/kg·m, respectively. The mean mechanical efficiencies of those activities were 22.0 ± 3.3%, 26.5 ± 5.1%, 19.8 ± 3.7%, 24.0 ± 5.5%, and 26.3 ± 5.5%. The activity energy expenditure estimated by the models was not significantly different from the measurements by the calorimeter (p>0.05 with accuracies of 102.2 ± 20.7%, 103.7 ± 25.8%, 105.6 ± 14.6%, 101.1 ± 28.0%, and 95.8 ± 20.7%, respectively, for those activities. These findings suggest that the mechanical models combined with a portable device can provide an alternative method for the energetic analysis of nonexercise activities under free-living condition.

  7. Energetic Assessment of the Nonexercise Activities under Free-Living Conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Shijie; Tang, Qiang; Quan, Haiying; Lu, Qi; Sun, Ming; Zhang, Kuan

    2016-01-01

    Nonexercise activities (NAs) are common types of physical activity in daily life and critical component in energy expenditure. However, energetic assessment of NA, particularly in free-living subjects, is a technical challenge. In this study, mechanical modeling and portable device were used to evaluate five common types of NA in daily life: sit to stand, lie to sit, bowing while standing, squat, and right leg over left. A human indirect calorimeter was used to measure the activity energy expenditure of NA. Mechanical work and mechanical efficiency of NA were calculated for mechanical modeling. Thirty-two male subjects were recruited for the study (20 subjects for the development of models and 12 subjects for evaluation of models). The average (mean ± SD) mechanical work of 5 NAs was 2.31 ± 0.50, 2.88 ± 0.57, 1.75 ± 0.55, 3.96 ± 1.25, and 1.25 ± 0.51 J/kg·m, respectively. The mean mechanical efficiencies of those activities were 22.0 ± 3.3%, 26.5 ± 5.1%, 19.8 ± 3.7%, 24.0 ± 5.5%, and 26.3 ± 5.5%. The activity energy expenditure estimated by the models was not significantly different from the measurements by the calorimeter (p > 0.05) with accuracies of 102.2 ± 20.7%, 103.7 ± 25.8%, 105.6 ± 14.6%, 101.1 ± 28.0%, and 95.8 ± 20.7%, respectively, for those activities. These findings suggest that the mechanical models combined with a portable device can provide an alternative method for the energetic analysis of nonexercise activities under free-living condition.

  8. Additive Manufacturing of Catalytically Active Living Materials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saha, Abhijit; Johnston, Trevor G; Shafranek, Ryan T; Goodman, Cassandra J; Zalatan, Jesse G; Storti, Duane W; Ganter, Mark A; Nelson, Alshakim

    2018-04-25

    Living materials, which are composites of living cells residing in a polymeric matrix, are designed to utilize the innate functionalities of the cells to address a broad range of applications such as fermentation and biosensing. Herein, we demonstrate the additive manufacturing of catalytically active living materials (AMCALM) for continuous fermentation. A multi-stimuli-responsive yeast-laden hydrogel ink, based on F127-dimethacrylate, was developed and printed using a direct-write 3D printer. The reversible stimuli-responsive behaviors of the polymer hydrogel inks to temperature and pressure are critical, as they enabled the facile incorporation of yeast cells and subsequent fabrication of 3D lattice constructs. Subsequent photo-cross-linking of the printed polymer hydrogel afforded a robust elastic material. These yeast-laden living materials were metabolically active in the fermentation of glucose into ethanol for 2 weeks in a continuous batch process without significant reduction in efficiency (∼90% yield of ethanol). This cell immobilization platform may potentially be applicable toward other genetically modified yeast strains to produce other high-value chemicals in a continuous biofermentation process.

  9. The Comonotonic Sure-Thing Principle

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wakker, P.P.; Chew, S.H.

    1996-01-01

    This article identifies the common characterizing condition, the comonotonic sure-thing principle, that underlies the rank-dependent direction in non-expected utility. This condition restricts Savage's sure-thing principle to comonotonic acts, and is characterized in full generality by means of a

  10. Single Thing Sign On Identity Management for Internet of Things

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zdravkova, Vanya; Mihaylov, Mihail Rumenov; Mihovska, Albena Dimitrova

    2016-01-01

    —Within the context of heterogeneous Internet of Things (IoT) network driven by Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications there is a need for a proper user identification and Identity Management (IdM) mechanisms which to involve all of the objects in the IoT. The paper addresses user identification...... by proposing Single Thing Sign On (STSO) IdM architecture for IoT, where the end-user is in the middle of a user-centered services ecosystem. The proposed scheme enables user recognition and services access only by identification of one of the “things” related to the user such as personal computing devices...

  11. Internet of Things: Architectures, Protocols, and Applications

    OpenAIRE

    Sethi, Pallavi; Sarangi, Smruti R.

    2017-01-01

    The Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as a paradigm in which objects equipped with sensors, actuators, and processors communicate with each other to serve a meaningful purpose. In this paper, we survey state-of-the-art methods, protocols, and applications in this new emerging area. This survey paper proposes a novel taxonomy for IoT technologies, highlights some of the most important technologies, and profiles some applications that have the potential to make a striking difference in human ...

  12. Learning Internet of Things

    CERN Document Server

    Waher, Peter

    2015-01-01

    If you're a developer or electronics engineer who is curious about Internet of Things, then this is the book for you. With only a rudimentary understanding of electronics, Raspberry Pi, or similar credit-card sized computers, and some programming experience using managed code such as C# or Java, you will be taught to develop state-of-the-art solutions for Internet of Things in an instant.

  13. The Elderly’s Independent Living in Smart Homes: A Characterization of Activities and Sensing Infrastructure Survey to Facilitate Services Development

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ni, Qin; García Hernando, Ana Belén; de la Cruz, Iván Pau

    2015-01-01

    Human activity detection within smart homes is one of the basis of unobtrusive wellness monitoring of a rapidly aging population in developed countries. Most works in this area use the concept of “activity” as the building block with which to construct applications such as healthcare monitoring or ambient assisted living. The process of identifying a specific activity encompasses the selection of the appropriate set of sensors, the correct preprocessing of their provided raw data and the learning/reasoning using this information. If the selection of the sensors and the data processing methods are wrongly performed, the whole activity detection process may fail, leading to the consequent failure of the whole application. Related to this, the main contributions of this review are the following: first, we propose a classification of the main activities considered in smart home scenarios which are targeted to older people’s independent living, as well as their characterization and formalized context representation; second, we perform a classification of sensors and data processing methods that are suitable for the detection of the aforementioned activities. Our aim is to help researchers and developers in these lower-level technical aspects that are nevertheless fundamental for the success of the complete application. PMID:26007717

  14. The Elderly’s Independent Living in Smart Homes: A Characterization of Activities and Sensing Infrastructure Survey to Facilitate Services Development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qin Ni

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available Human activity detection within smart homes is one of the basis of unobtrusive wellness monitoring of a rapidly aging population in developed countries. Most works in this area use the concept of “activity” as the building block with which to construct applications such as healthcare monitoring or ambient assisted living. The process of identifying a specific activity encompasses the selection of the appropriate set of sensors, the correct preprocessing of their provided raw data and the learning/reasoning using this information. If the selection of the sensors and the data processing methods are wrongly performed, the whole activity detection process may fail, leading to the consequent failure of the whole application. Related to this, the main contributions of this review are the following: first, we propose a classification of the main activities considered in smart home scenarios which are targeted to older people’s independent living, as well as their characterization and formalized context representation; second, we perform a classification of sensors and data processing methods that are suitable for the detection of the aforementioned activities. Our aim is to help researchers and developers in these lower-level technical aspects that are nevertheless fundamental for the success of the complete application.

  15. The eMouveRecherche application competes with research devices to evaluate energy expenditure, physical activity and still time in free-living conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guidoux, Romain; Duclos, Martine; Fleury, Gérard; Lacomme, Philippe; Lamaudière, Nicolas; Saboul, Damien; Ren, Libo; Rousset, Sylvie

    2017-05-01

    The proliferation of smartphones is creating new opportunities to monitor and interact with human subjects in free-living conditions since smartphones are familiar to large segments of the population and facilitate data collection, transmission and analysis. From accelerometry data collected by smartphones, the present work aims to estimate time spent in different activity categories and the energy expenditure in free-living conditions. Our research encompasses the definition of an energy-saving function (Pred EE ) considering four physical categories of activities (still, light, moderate and vigorous), their duration and metabolic cost (MET). To create an efficient discrimination function, the method consists of classifying accelerometry-transformed signals into categories and of associating each category with corresponding Metabolic Equivalent Tasks. The performance of the Pred EE function was compared with two previously published functions (f(η,d)aedes,f(η,d)nrjsi), and with two dedicated sensors (Armband® and Actiheart®) in free-living conditions over a 12-h monitoring period using 30 volunteers. Compared to the two previous functions, Pred EE was the only one able to provide estimations of time spent in each activity category. In relative value, all the activity categories were evaluated similarly to those given by Armband®. Compared to Actiheart®, the function underestimated still activities by 10.1% and overestimated light- and moderate-intensity activities by 7.9% and 4.2%, respectively. The total energy expenditure error produced by Pred EE compared to Armband® was lower than those given by the two previous functions (5.7% vs. 14.1% and 17.0%). Pred EE provides the user with an accurate physical activity feedback which should help self-monitoring in free-living conditions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. How Live Performance Moves the Human Heart.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haruka Shoda

    Full Text Available We investigated how the audience member's physiological reactions differ as a function of listening context (i.e., live versus recorded music contexts. Thirty-seven audience members were assigned to one of seven pianists' performances and listened to his/her live performances of six pieces (fast and slow pieces by Bach, Schumann, and Debussy. Approximately 10 weeks after the live performance, each of the audience members returned to the same room and listened to the recorded performances of the same pianists' via speakers. We recorded the audience members' electrocardiograms in listening to the performances in both conditions, and analyzed their heart rates and the spectral features of the heart-rate variability (i.e., HF/TF, LF/HF. Results showed that the audience's heart rate was higher for the faster than the slower piece only in the live condition. As compared with the recorded condition, the audience's sympathovagal balance (LF/HF was less while their vagal nervous system (HF/TF was activated more in the live condition, which appears to suggest that sharing the ongoing musical moments with the pianist reduces the audience's physiological stress. The results are discussed in terms of the audience's superior attention and temporal entrainment to live performance.

  17. Engineering Cooperative Smart Things based on Embodied Cognition

    OpenAIRE

    Nascimento, Nathalia Moraes do; de Lucena, Carlos Jose Pereira

    2018-01-01

    The goal of the Internet of Things (IoT) is to transform any thing around us, such as a trash can or a street light, into a smart thing. A smart thing has the ability of sensing, processing, communicating and/or actuating. In order to achieve the goal of a smart IoT application, such as minimizing waste transportation costs or reducing energy consumption, the smart things in the application scenario must cooperate with each other without a centralized control. Inspired by known approaches to ...

  18. Role of Colonial Subjects in Making Themselves Inferior in Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadeghi, Zahra

    2014-01-01

    Chinua Achebe in his novel "Things Fall Apart" gives us a unique picture of life in Africa before the arrival of Christianity and colonization and the era afterwards. He shows how African people lost their traditional culture and values, replacing them with foreign beliefs. In this article, the way black people lived before the arrival…

  19. Prisoners as Living Donors: A Vulnerabilities Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ross, Lainie Friedman; Thistlethwaite, J Richard

    2018-01-01

    Although national guidelines exist for evaluating the eligibility of potential living donors and for procuring their informed consent, no special protections or considerations exist for potential living donors who are incarcerated. Human research subject protections in the United States are codified in the Federal Regulations, 45 CFR 46, and special protections are given to prisoners. Living donor transplantation has parallels with human subject research in that both activities are performed with the primary goal of benefiting third parties. In this article, we describe what special considerations should be provided to prisoners as potential living donors using a vulnerabilities approach adapted from the human research subject protection literature.

  20. Turning Internet of Things(IoT) into Internet of Vulnerabilities (IoV) : IoT Botnets

    OpenAIRE

    Angrishi, Kishore

    2017-01-01

    Internet of Things (IoT) is the next big evolutionary step in the world of internet. The main intention behind the IoT is to enable safer living and risk mitigation on different levels of life. With the advent of IoT botnets, the view towards IoT devices has changed from enabler of enhanced living into Internet of vulnerabilities for cyber criminals. IoT botnets has exposed two different glaring issues, 1) A large number of IoT devices are accessible over public Internet. 2) Security (if cons...

  1. Hearing Voices and Seeing Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Facts for Families Guide Facts for Families - Vietnamese Hearing Voices and Seeing Things No. 102; Updated October ... delusions (a fixed, false, and often bizarre belief). Hearing voices or seeing things that are not there ...

  2. Killing in More-than-human Spaces: Pasteurisation, Fungi, and the Metabolic Lives of Wine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brice, Jeremy

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available What place might killing occupy in a more-than-human world, where human life is always-already entangled among nonhumans? In this article I attempt to unsettle the assumption that only individual organisms can be killed, and to render other sites and spaces of killing visible. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among winemakers in South Australia I examine pasteurisation, a killing practice that acts not on organisms but on the fluids within which they live. Examining the pasteurisation of wine damaged by the fungus Botrytis cinerea, I argue that this practice shifts the locus of killing from botrytis’ body to metabolic life processes which embrace extracellular enzymes diffused throughout the wine. I suggest that pasteurisation thus displaces killing into spaces, such as wine-in-the-making, within which many metabolic lives coexist and interpenetrate. Pasteurisation therefore renders killing an intervention into the metabolic relationships that tie together numerous species of microbes living within wine. In acting on wine as a whole it kills rather indiscriminately, simultaneously terminating multiple lives that relate to humans in different ways. Pasteurisation therefore both protects and spoils wine, reconfiguring multiple human-nonhuman relationships in conflicting and sometimes economically costly ways. In so doing, it illustrates that in a more-than-human world killing becomes difficult to confine to a single unwanted organism or species. Killing instead becomes disturbingly mobile and communicable, prone to rebound upon the valued human lives of those who kill in unsettling and potentially harmful ways.

  3. Octanoate in Human Albumin Preparations Is Detrimental to Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Culture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Way-Wua Wong

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Cell therapies hold great promise as the next major advance in medical treatment. To enable safe, effective ex vivo culture whilst maintaining cell phenotype, growth media constituents must be carefully controlled. We have used a chemically defined mesenchymal stromal cell culture medium to investigate the influence of different preparations of human serum albumin. We examined two aspects of cell culture, growth rate as measured by population doubling time and colony forming ability which is a representative measure of the stemness of the cell population. Albumin preparations showed comparative differences in both of these criteria. Analysis of the albumin bound fatty acids also showed differences depending on the manufacturing procedure used. We demonstrated that octanoate, an additive used to stabilize albumin during pasteurization, slows growth and lowers colony forming ability during ex vivo culture. Further to this we also found the level of Na+/K+ ATPase, a membrane bound cation pump inhibited by octanoate, is increased in cells exposed to this compound. We conclude that the inclusion of human serum albumin in ex vivo growth media requires careful consideration of not only the source of albumin, but also the associated molecular cargo, for optimal cell growth and behavior.

  4. Data analysis and integration of environmental sensors to meet human needs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santamaria, Amilcare Francesco; De Rango, Floriano; Barletta, Domenico; Falbo, Domenico; Imbrogno, Alessandro

    2014-05-01

    Nowadays one of the main task of technology is to make people's life simpler and easier. Ambient intelligence is an emerging discipline that brings intelligence to environments making them sensitive to us. This discipline has developed following the spread of sensors devices, sensor networks, pervasive computing and artificial intelligence. In this work, we attempt to enhance the Internet Of Things (loT) with intelligence and environments exploring various interactions between humans' beings and the environment they live in. In particular, the core of the system is composed of an automation system, which is made up with a domotic control unit and several sensors installed in the environment. The task of the sensors is to collect information from the environment and to send them to the control unit. Once the information is collected, the core combines them in order to infer the most accurate human needs. The knowledge of human needs and the current environment status compose the inputs of the intelligence block whose main goal is to find the right automations to satisfy human needs in a real time way. The system also provides a Speech Recognition service which allow users to interact with the system by their voice so human speech can be considered as additional input for smart automatisms.

  5. An Agent Architecture to Enable Self-healing and Context-aware Web of Things Applications

    OpenAIRE

    Angarita , Rafael; Manouvrier , Maude; Rukoz , Marta

    2016-01-01

    International audience; The Internet of Things paradigm promises to connect billions of objects in an Internet-like structure. Applications composed from connected objects in the Internet of Things are expected to have a huge impact in the transportation and logistics, healthcare, smart environments, and personal and social domains. The world of things is much more complex, dynamic, mobile, and failure prone than the world of computers, with contexts changing rapidly and in unpredictable ways...

  6. Radiation induced cancer risk, detriment and radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sinclair, W.K.

    1992-01-01

    Recommendations on radiation protection limits for workers and for the public depend mainly on the total health detriment estimated to be the result of low dose ionizing radiation exposure. This detriment includes the probability of a fatal cancer, an allowance for the morbidity due to non-fatal cancer and the probability of severe hereditary effects in succeeding generations. In a population of all ages, special effects on the fetus particularly the risk of mental retardation at defined gestational ages, should also be included. Among these components of detriment after low doses, the risk of fatal cancer is the largest and most important. The estimates of fatal cancer risk used by ICRP in the 1990 recommendations were derived almost exclusively from the study of the Japanese survivors of the atomic bombs of 1945. How good are these estimates? Uncertainties associated with them, apart from those due to limitations in epidemiological observation and dosimetry, are principally those due to projection forward in time and extrapolation from high dose and dose rate to low dose and dose rate, each of which could after the estimate by a factor of 2 or so. Recent estimates of risk of cancer derived directly from low dose studies are specific only within very broad ranges of risk. Nevertheless, such studies are important as confirmation or otherwise of the estimates derived from the atomic bomb survivors. Recent U.S. British and Russian studies are examined in this light. (author)

  7. Unconventional Consumption Methods and Enjoying Things Consumed: Recapturing the "First-Time" Experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Brien, Ed; Smith, Robert W

    2018-06-01

    People commonly lament the inability to re-experience familiar things as they were first experienced. Four experiments suggest that consuming familiar things in new ways can disrupt adaptation and revitalize enjoyment. Participants better enjoyed the same familiar food (Experiment 1), drink (Experiment 2), and video (Experiments 3a-3b) simply when re-experiencing the entity via unusual means (e.g., eating popcorn using chopsticks vs. hands). This occurs because unconventional methods invite an immersive "first-time" perspective on the consumption object: boosts in enjoyment were mediated by revitalized immersion into the consumption experience and were moderated by time such that they were strongest when using unconventional methods for the first time (Experiments 1-2); likewise, unconventional methods that actively disrupted immersion did not elicit the boost, despite being novel (Experiments 3a-3b). Before abandoning once-enjoyable entities, knowing to consume old things in new ways (vs. attaining new things altogether) might temporarily restore enjoyment and postpone wasteful replacement.

  8. Integrated Assessment of Ecosystem Effects of Atmospheric Deposition

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ecosystems obtain a portion of their nutrients from the atmosphere. Following the Industrial Revolution, however, human activities have accelerated biogeochemical cycles, greatly enhancing the transport of substances among the atmosphere, water, soil, and living things. The atmos...

  9. IV: When Things Get Hard

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenfeld, Malke; Mahoney, Meg Robson; Jordan, Kim; Jackson, Spoon; Gabel, Bonnie; Adams, Holly; Plemons, Anna

    2014-01-01

    It is definitely easier to write about work when things are going well, but it is even more important to write about what happens when things get challenging. The act of writing about the challenging times can be challenging in itself but can also provide invaluable insights into the process of teaching: important for the writer and just as…

  10. The Twitter-thing (exhibition)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Birkbak, Andreas; Bornakke, Tobias; Papazu, Irina Maria Clara Hansen

    of multiple and constantly transforming issue-oriented publics? What kinds of issues come to the fore, how long does this last, and who associate themselves with them? The aim of the Twitter-thing is to trace the cuts issues make in a parliament. Each time a parliamentarian use a hashtag in a tweet, a link...... they are not necessarily aware of themselves as publics. At the same time, it is possible to self-select membership of these publics by using a specific hashtag. This raises the question of what feedback loops are at work between visualizations and those being visualized. How might a tool like the Twitter-thing change...... (parliamentary) politics? More generally, the tool prompts us to think about the fate of issues in institutionalized democracy. The Twitter-thing invites users to explore these questions by making the network available in an interactive format that makes it possible to zoom, search for particular politicians...

  11. Valuing the radiation detriment of occupational exposure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Robb, J.D.; Crick, M.J.

    1989-01-01

    The implications of changes in the radiation risk estimates on the valuation of radiation detriment for use in cost-benefit analysis are being considered at the National Radiological Protection Board. This paper discusses the pertinent factors that are currently being considered for further investigation. An example of relevance to occupational exposure is detailed. (author)

  12. Definition of Technological Solutions Based on the Internet of Things and Smart Cities Paradigms for Active and Healthy Ageing through Cocreation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alejandro Martín Medrano-Gil

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Existing initiatives to improve physical, mental, and social condition of senior citizens, which in Europe fall under the name of Active and Healthy Ageing, are including technological paradigms as main driver for innovation uptake. Among these paradigms, Smart Cities and the Internet of Things are of utmost importance. However, these initiatives may benefit from unified visions, efforts, and frameworks when it comes to defining technological solutions that take the most of both paradigms. We have defined an iterative approach, which combines user centred design techniques, technological development approaches, and a multifaceted adaptation process, to define a solution for Active and Healthy Ageing that makes use of the two paradigms. The solution is being defined in the context of two research and innovation projects, City4Age and ACTIVAGE, during which a solution is going to be defined and evaluated in the city of Madrid. Results show how Smart Cities and Internet of Things contribute to the solution, from a user (user needs and use cases and a service delivery (technologies, architecture, and suppliers perspective. In conclusion, we find the cocreation framework extremely useful for the Active and Health Ageing domain, and the proposed implementation of it is functioning, although there is room for improvement.

  13. Representing and Reasoning with the Internet of Things: a Modular Rule-Based Model for Ensembles of Context-Aware Smart Things

    OpenAIRE

    S. W. Loke

    2016-01-01

    Context-aware smart things are capable of computational behaviour based on sensing the physical world, inferring context from the sensed data, and acting on the sensed context. A collection of such things can form what we call a thing-ensemble, when they have the ability to communicate with one another (over a short range network such as Bluetooth, or the Internet, i.e. the Internet of Things (IoT) concept), sense each other, and when each of them might play certain roles with respect to each...

  14. Positioning internet of things application, and associated human behavioural changes in a developing context

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Coetzee, L

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Internet of Things (IoT) is an evolutionary development with the potential to greatly influence and impact society, economy and environment. Through IoT, all devices become Internet connected. These connected devices are controlled by largescale...

  15. Analysis of Gait Pattern to Recognize the Human Activities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jay Prakash Gupta

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Human activity recognition based on the computer vision is the process of labelling image sequences with action labels. Accurate systems for this problem are applied in areas such as visual surveillance, human computer interaction and video retrieval. The challenges are due to variations in motion, recording settings and gait differences. Here we propose an approach to recognize the human activities through gait. Activity recognition through Gait is the process of identifying an activity by the manner in which they walk. The identification of human activities in a video, such as a person is walking, running, jumping, jogging etc are important activities in video surveillance. We contribute the use of Model based approach for activity recognition with the help of movement of legs only. Experimental results suggest that our method are able to recognize the human activities with a good accuracy rate and robust to shadows present in the videos.

  16. Living Systems Energy Module

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1995-09-26

    The Living Systems Energy Module, renamed Voyage from the Sun, is a twenty-lesson curriculum designed to introduce students to the major ways in which energy is important in living systems. Voyage from the Sun tells the story of energy, describing its solar origins, how it is incorporated into living terrestrial systems through photosynthesis, how it flows from plants to herbivorous animals, and from herbivores to carnivores. A significant part of the unit is devoted to examining how humans use energy, and how human impact on natural habitats affects ecosystems. As students proceed through the unit, they read chapters of Voyage from the Sun, a comic book that describes the flow of energy in story form (Appendix A). During the course of the unit, an ``Energy Pyramid`` is erected in the classroom. This three-dimensional structure serves as a classroom exhibit, reminding students daily of the importance of energy and of the fragile nature of our living planet. Interactive activities teach students about adaptations that allow plants and animals to acquire, to use and to conserve energy. A complete list of curricular materials and copies of all activity sheets appear in Appendix B.

  17. Analysis of the new health management based on health internet of things and cloud computing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Shaogang

    2018-05-01

    With the development and application of Internet of things and cloud technology in the medical field, it provides a higher level of exploration space for human health management. By analyzing the Internet of things technology and cloud technology, this paper studies a new form of health management system which conforms to the current social and technical level, and explores its system architecture, system characteristics and application. The new health management platform for networking and cloud can achieve the real-time monitoring and prediction of human health through a variety of sensors and wireless networks based on information and can be transmitted to the monitoring system, and then through the software analysis model, and gives the targeted prevention and treatment measures, to achieve real-time, intelligent health management.

  18. Things Come Together with "Things Fall Apart."

    Science.gov (United States)

    Puhr, Kathleen M.

    1987-01-01

    Recommends using C. Achebe's English language novel, "Things Fall Apart," in a unit on tragedy. Provides plot summary and topics for discussion of cultural values and socialization. Notes that besides illustrating character traits, themes and plot structure of the tragic genre, the novel provides an opportunity for learning Nigerian…

  19. E-cigarettes also contain detrimental chemicals

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tøttenborg, Sandra Søgaard; Holm, Astrid Ledgaard; Wibholm, Niels Christoffer

    2014-01-01

    This article reviews studies dealing with the content of electronic (e-) cigarettes. Based on measurements of the e-juice, the inhaled and the exhaled vapour, it is sound to assume that smoking e-cigarettes might have much less detrimental health effects than smoking conventional cigarettes....... However, propylene glycol and glycerine are abundant in e-cigarettes and although they are generally perceived as relatively harmless, the long-term effects of heavy exposure to these substances are unknown....

  20. Study on GIS Visualization in Evaluation of the Human Living Environment in Shenyang-Dalian Urban Agglomeration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kang Hou

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Analysis of human living environmental quality of Shenyang-Dalian urban agglomerations has important theoretical and practical significance in rapid development region. A lot of investigations have been carried for Shenyang-Dalian urban agglomerations, including 38 counties. Based on the carrying capacity of resources, natural and socioeconomic environmental factors and regional changes of human living environmental evaluation are analyzed with the application of geographic information systems (GIS software. By using principal component analysis (PCA model and natural breaks classification (NBC method, the evaluation results are divided into five categories. The results show that the human living environmental evaluation (HLEE indexes of Dalian, Shenyang, and Liaoyang are higher than other counties. Among these counties, the human living environmental evaluation (HLEE indexes of coastal counties are significantly higher than inland counties. The range of the human living environmental evaluation index in most of the study area is at III, IV, and V levels, accounting for 80.01%. Based on these results, it could illustrate the human living environment is in relatively suitable condition in Shenyang-Dalian urban agglomeration.

  1. Panel summary of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and Internet of Things (IoT) opportunities with information fusion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blasch, Erik; Kadar, Ivan; Grewe, Lynne L.; Brooks, Richard; Yu, Wei; Kwasinski, Andres; Thomopoulos, Stelios; Salerno, John; Qi, Hairong

    2017-05-01

    During the 2016 SPIE DSS conference, nine panelists were invited to highlight the trends and opportunities in cyber-physical systems (CPS) and Internet of Things (IoT) with information fusion. The world will be ubiquitously outfitted with many sensors to support our daily living thorough the Internet of Things (IoT), manage infrastructure developments with cyber-physical systems (CPS), as well as provide communication through networked information fusion technology over the internet (NIFTI). This paper summarizes the panel discussions on opportunities of information fusion to the growing trends in CPS and IoT. The summary includes the concepts and areas where information supports these CPS/IoT which includes situation awareness, transportation, and smart grids.

  2. Introduction to Classification of Living Things.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stettler, Donald

    This monograph contains an autoinstructional packet developed for secondary school biology students. The instructions present a lesson on classification using slides and packets of pictures as the media for displaying the animals and plants to be classified. A brief historical account leads into the study of the modern classification system. No…

  3. Internet of things forensics: Challenges and Case Study

    OpenAIRE

    Alabdulsalam, Saad; Schaefer, Kevin; Kechadi, Tahar; Le-Khac, Nhien-An

    2018-01-01

    Today is the era of Internet of Things (IoT), millions of machines such as cars, smoke detectors, watches, glasses, webcams, etc. are being connected to the Internet. The number of machines that possess the ability of remote access to monitor and collect data is continuously increasing. This development makes, on one hand, the human life more comfort- able, convenient, but it also raises on other hand issues on security and privacy. However, this development also raises challenges for the dig...

  4. Active Adult Lives for Persons with Learning Disabilities--The Perspectives of Professionals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Witsø, Aud Elisabeth; Kittelsaa, Anna M.

    2018-01-01

    Background: Living active adult lives is both a value and a right, but the right to do so is associated with restrictions among adults with learning disabilities. This research aimed to capture professionals' understanding and perception of active adult living for people with learning disabilities living in clustered housing in a Norwegian…

  5. Live video monitoring robot controlled by web over internet

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lokanath, M.; Akhil Sai, Guruju

    2017-11-01

    Future is all about robots, robot can perform tasks where humans cannot, Robots have huge applications in military and industrial area for lifting heavy weights, for accurate placements, for repeating the same task number of times, where human are not efficient. Generally robot is a mix of electronic, electrical and mechanical engineering and can do the tasks automatically on its own or under the supervision of humans. The camera is the eye for robot, call as robovision helps in monitoring security system and also can reach into the places where the human eye cannot reach. This paper presents about developing a live video streaming robot controlled from the website. We designed the web, controlling for the robot to move left, right, front and back while streaming video. As we move to the smart environment or IoT (Internet of Things) by smart devices the system we developed here connects over the internet and can be operated with smart mobile phone using a web browser. The Raspberry Pi model B chip acts as heart for this system robot, the sufficient motors, surveillance camera R pi 2 are connected to Raspberry pi.

  6. Nanostructured magnesium has fewer detrimental effects on osteoblast function

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weng L

    2013-05-01

    Full Text Available Lucy Weng, Thomas J Webster School of Engineering and Department of Orthopedics, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA Abstract: Efforts have been made recently to implement nanoscale surface features on magnesium, a biodegradable metal, to increase bone formation. Compared with normal magnesium, nanostructured magnesium has unique characteristics, including increased grain boundary properties, surface to volume ratio, surface roughness, and surface energy, which may influence the initial adsorption of proteins known to promote the function of osteoblasts (bone-forming cells. Previous studies have shown that one way to increase nanosurface roughness on magnesium is to soak the metal in NaOH. However, it has not been determined if degradation of magnesium is altered by creating nanoscale features on its surface to influence osteoblast density. The aim of the present in vitro study was to determine the influence of degradation of nanostructured magnesium, created by soaking in NaOH, on osteoblast density. Our results showed a less detrimental effect of magnesium degradation on osteoblast density when magnesium was treated with NaOH to create nanoscale surface features. The detrimental degradation products of magnesium are of significant concern when considering use of magnesium as an orthopedic implant material, and this study identified a surface treatment, ie, soaking in NaOH to create nanoscale features for magnesium that can improve its use in numerous orthopedic applications. Keywords: nanostructured magnesium, degradation, detrimental effects, osteoblasts

  7. Getting Things Done Key to Utilization of People.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pollok, Ted

    1979-01-01

    Presented are 16 practical rules based upon the experiences of successful managers that can help executives get more things accomplished by their subordinates. The rules include: delegate responsibility, acknowledge good work, schedule work breaks, encourage suggestions, and handle grievances promptly. (JMD)

  8. The evaluation of daily living activities, pressure sores and risk factors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aydın, Gökçen; Mucuk, Salime

    2015-01-01

    This study was conducted to assess daily living activities, pressure sores and risk factors. This was a descriptive study. The study was conducted at a rehabilitation center with 188 individuals participating in the study. Data were collected with a questionnaire form, Activities of Daily Living Scale (ADLS), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale (IADLS) and Braden Risk Assessment Scale (BRAS). Among the participants, 48.9% were dependent according to activities of daily living and 71.8% were dependent on instrumental activities of daily living. It was noted that 4.8% had pressure sores and 38.8% were at high risk. A strong and positive correlation was found among ADLS, IADLS, and BRAS scores (p pressure sores (p pressure sores. Individuals who are treated at rehabilitation centers should be periodically assessed in terms of risk. Pressure sore development can be prevented with appropriate nursing interventions. To reduce the risk of developing pressure sores, nurses should describe the individual's degree of dependency according to ADLS and IADLS and initiate preventive nursing care. © 2014 Association of Rehabilitation Nurses.

  9. Designing assisted living technologies ‘in the wild’: preliminary experiences with cultural probe methodology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wherton Joseph

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background There is growing interest in assisted living technologies to support independence at home. Such technologies should ideally be designed ‘in the wild’ i.e. taking account of how real people live in real homes and communities. The ATHENE (Assistive Technologies for Healthy Living in Elders: Needs Assessment by Ethnography project seeks to illuminate the living needs of older people and facilitate the co-production with older people of technologies and services. This paper describes the development of a cultural probe tool produced as part of the ATHENE project and how it was used to support home visit interviews with elders with a range of ethnic and social backgrounds, family circumstances, health conditions and assisted living needs. Method Thirty one people aged 60 to 98 were visited in their homes on three occasions. Following an initial interview, participants were given a set of cultural probe materials, including a digital camera and the ‘Home and Life Scrapbook’ to complete in their own time for one week. Activities within the Home and Life Scrapbook included maps (indicating their relationships to people, places and objects, lists (e.g. likes, dislikes, things they were concerned about, things they were comfortable with, wishes (things they wanted to change or improve, body outline (indicating symptoms or impairments, home plan (room layouts of their homes to indicate spaces and objects used and a diary. After one week, the researcher and participant reviewed any digital photos taken and the content of the Home and Life Scrapbook as part of the home visit interview. Findings The cultural probe facilitated collection of visual, narrative and material data by older people, and appeared to generate high levels of engagement from some participants. However, others used the probe minimally or not at all for various reasons including limited literacy, physical problems (e.g. holding a pen, lack of time or energy

  10. Internet of Persons and Things inspired on Brain Models and Neurophysiology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Luis - Ferreira

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Living in the twenty first century and being part of a modern society entails being entirely acquainted with the Internet. Business success, research and study rely on intense usage of the Internet, doing most of the ac tivities based on information gathered at the Internet and using diverse kind of services available. The recent development in devices and services, either for computational or mobile operations, has revealed a diversity of paths for the Internet to have impact in our lives, either professional or personal. Without notice, every activity we do is becoming somehow connected to the web in multiple forms that can range from the search of information, the communication between people and information storage at the cloud. Everything seems to be so useful and so destined to promote our life and supply our needs for work, learning or recreation activities. As for the social aspects, Internet has a multitude of opportunities to communicate, to share ideas and to get feedback or news, as it happens, with online newspapers, the blogosphere and social networks. With this pervasive and sometimes implicit integration of the Internet in our lives, we are migrating from traditional way of life to an Internet supported life style with many daily Internet based activities executed by each human being. However, despite this movement of almost putting us in the innards of Internet, we didn’t yet notice a structural change in such infrastructure to cope with our human nature and, in particular, with the way we perceive and feel the world. This article exposes the vision of the authors for a possible shift in Internet paradigms towards effective support of the human nature

  11. Internet of Things for Sensing: A Case Study in the Healthcare System

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Syed Aziz Shah

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Medical healthcare is one of the fascinating applications using Internet of Things (IoTs. The pervasive smart environment in IoTs has the potential to monitor various human activities by deploying smart devices. In our pilot study, we look at narcolepsy, a disorder in which individuals lose the ability to regulate their sleep-wake cycle. An imbalance in the brain chemical called orexin makes the sleep pattern irregular. This sleep disorder in patients suffering from narcolepsy results in them experience irrepressible sleep episodes while performing daily routine activities. This study presents a novel method for detecting sleep attacks or sleepiness due to immune system attacks and affecting daily activities measured using the S-band sensing technique. The S-Band sensing technique is channel sensing based on frequency spectrum sensing using the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing transmission at a 2 to 4 GHz frequency range leveraging amplitude and calibrated phase information of different frequencies obtained using wireless devices such as card, and omni-directional antenna. Each human behavior induces a unique channel information (CI signature contained in amplitude and phase information. By linearly transforming raw phase measurements into calibrated phase information, we ascertain phase coherence. Classification and validation of various human activities such as walking, sitting on a chair, push-ups, and narcolepsy sleep episodes are done using support vector machine, K-nearest neighbor, and random forest algorithms. The measurement and evaluation were carried out several times with classification values of accuracy, precision, recall, specificity, Kappa, and F-measure of more than 90% that were achieved when delineating sleep attacks.

  12. System collaboration and Information Sharing through Internet of Things

    OpenAIRE

    Grubisic, Maja; Marsic, Tina

    2015-01-01

    The focus of this thesis is realization of system collaboration and information sharing between devices through Internet of Things. Internet of Things is a network of things, where a thing can be any device capable of acquiring an IP address. Internet of Things has been discussed in many domains. Companies are exploring the full potential of it, with the purpose of automating their services and optimizing their productivity. In this thesis we have conducted a systematic research review to inv...

  13. The Internet of things and Smart Grid

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Biao; Lv, Sen; Pan, Qing

    2018-02-01

    The Internet of things and smart grid are the frontier of information and Industry. The combination of Internet of things and smart grid will greatly enhance the ability of smart grid information and communication support. The key technologies of the Internet of things will be applied to the smart grid, and the grid operation and management information perception service centre will be built to support the commanding heights of the world’s smart grid.

  14. How Things Work: Teaching Physics in the Context of Everyday Objects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bloomfield, Louis

    2015-03-01

    How Things Work is an unconventional introduction to physics, a course that starts with whole objects and looks inside them to see what makes them work. Effectively ``case-study physics,'' it is designed primarily for non-science students who are unsure of the role of physics in the world and are looking for relevance in their studies. How Things Work is essentially the generalization of context-based introductory courses (Physics of the Human Body, Physics of the Automobile, and Physics of Music) and demonstrates that when physics is taught in the context of ordinary objects, these students are enthusiastic about it, look forward to classes, ask insightful questions, experiment on their own, and find themselves explaining to friends and family how things in their world work. In this talk, I will discuss the concept and structure of a How Things Work course and look briefly at how to teach its objects and assess what students learn from it. Although this course focuses on concepts rather than on calculations, it is rich in physics and requires that students think hard about the world around them. It also teaches problem solving and logical thinking skills, and demands that students face their misconceptions and failures of intuition. Lastly, it is actually quantitative in many respects, though its results are usually more words than numbers: your weight, the battery's voltage, or the acceleration due to gravity.

  15. Quo Vadis „Living Human Treasures”?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicolae Lupu

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available „Living Human Treasures” (LHT is a program supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO. According to the Regulation of the Ministry of Culture in Bucharest, the title „Living Human Treasures” is the life contingency, personal and in transmissible. The person „must, simultaneously fulfill bearing, preserving and creating qualities of intangible heritage, be able to transmit traditional cultural models and be recognized as so by other LHT and the scientific community”. In six years, between 2010 and 2015 in Romania were granted 45 titles: half to craftsmen (weavers, carpenters, iconographers, furriers, builders of musical instruments, pottery etc. and half to performers of folklore (folk interpreter, rhapsodists, dancers etc.. Most distinctions, eight and seven, were awarded in Cluj and Alba county, followed by Brașov, Suceava county, each with five distinctions. Discussions are held about the possibilities of granting life annuity, following the model of athletes and some artists and writers. It is clear however that the title holders and their performance can be assimilated to tourism assets, as attractions of itself, transforming communities they belong to genuine tourist destinations. Furthermore, it would avoid the exhausting movements of artisans at the various trade fairs, being preferable to receive the audience in their personal household tranquility. A series of semi structured personal interviews with some LHT confirm this hypothesis. Strong promotion of those tourist destinations should no longer delay. At the central level it would require that the Tourism Authority take the „dossiers” for those LHT and promote them in a centralized manner, dedicating them an advertising brochure and a map.

  16. Eyes of Things.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deniz, Oscar; Vallez, Noelia; Espinosa-Aranda, Jose L; Rico-Saavedra, Jose M; Parra-Patino, Javier; Bueno, Gloria; Moloney, David; Dehghani, Alireza; Dunne, Aubrey; Pagani, Alain; Krauss, Stephan; Reiser, Ruben; Waeny, Martin; Sorci, Matteo; Llewellynn, Tim; Fedorczak, Christian; Larmoire, Thierry; Herbst, Marco; Seirafi, Andre; Seirafi, Kasra

    2017-05-21

    Embedded systems control and monitor a great deal of our reality. While some "classic" features are intrinsically necessary, such as low power consumption, rugged operating ranges, fast response and low cost, these systems have evolved in the last few years to emphasize connectivity functions, thus contributing to the Internet of Things paradigm. A myriad of sensing/computing devices are being attached to everyday objects, each able to send and receive data and to act as a unique node in the Internet. Apart from the obvious necessity to process at least some data at the edge (to increase security and reduce power consumption and latency), a major breakthrough will arguably come when such devices are endowed with some level of autonomous "intelligence". Intelligent computing aims to solve problems for which no efficient exact algorithm can exist or for which we cannot conceive an exact algorithm. Central to such intelligence is Computer Vision (CV), i.e., extracting meaning from images and video. While not everything needs CV, visual information is the richest source of information about the real world: people, places and things. The possibilities of embedded CV are endless if we consider new applications and technologies, such as deep learning, drones, home robotics, intelligent surveillance, intelligent toys, wearable cameras, etc. This paper describes the Eyes of Things (EoT) platform, a versatile computer vision platform tackling those challenges and opportunities.

  17. Lived experiences of self-care among older physically active urban-living individuals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sundsli K

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Kari Sundsli,1,2 Geir Arild Espnes,3 Olle Söderhamn21Department of Social Work and Health Science, Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, 2Centre for Caring Research, Southern Norway, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway, 3Research Centre for Health Promotion and Resources HiST-NTNU, Department of Social Work and Health Science, Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management, NTNU, Trondheim, NorwayBackground: Promoting physical activity is a public health priority in most industrial countries, and physical function is an important factor when taking into consideration older people’s self-care and health. Despite the increasing challenges associated with urbanization and the aging population, urban life appears to be positive in many ways for urban dwellers. However, the manner in which older people live in urban settings and how this influences their ability to take care of themselves should be considered important knowledge for health professionals and politicians to acquire. The aim of this study was to describe the lived experiences of self-care and features that may influence health and self-care among older urban home-dwelling individuals who are physically active.Methods: Ten subjects, three women and seven men, who were aged 65–82 years and identified to be physically active, were interviewed. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed according to the descriptive phenomenological method devised by Giorgi.Results: Our findings showed beneficial self-care. The participants lived active everyday lives and were frequently physically active. They were part of a supportive, inclusive, and promoting fellowship, and they had the opportunity to travel. They utilized their competence and experienced making themselves useful. It was a privilege to be part of a family life as a husband, wife, parent, and/or a grandparent. They

  18. Sweet Dreams and Nightmares: Security in the Internet of Things

    OpenAIRE

    Kasper , Timo; Oswald , David; Paar , Christof

    2014-01-01

    Part 1: Invited Paper; International audience; Wireless embedded devices are predominant in the Internet of Things: Objects tagged with Radio Frequency IDentification and Near Field Communication technology, smartphones, and other embedded tokens interact from device to device and thereby often process information that is security or privacy relevant for humans. For protecting sensitive data and preventing attacks, many embedded devices employ cryptographic algorithms and authentication schem...

  19. Finite element analysis of high modal dynamic responses of a composite floor subjected to human motion under passive live load

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Arash Behnia

    Full Text Available Light weight and long span composite floors are common place in modern construction. A critical consequence of this application is undesired vibration which may cause excessive discomfort to occupants. This work investigates the composite floor vibration behavior of an existing building based on a comprehensive study of high modal dynamic responses, the range of which has been absent in previous studies and major analytical templates, of different panels under the influence of loads induced by human motion. The resulting fundamental natural frequency and vibration modes are first validated with respect to experimental and numerical evidences from literature. Departing from close correlation established in comparison, this study explores in detail the effects of intensity of passive live load as additional stationary mass due to crowd jumping as well as considering human structure interaction. From observation, a new approach in the simulation of passive live load through the consideration of human structure interaction and human body characteristics is proposed. It is concluded that higher vibration modes are essential to determine the minimum required modes and mass participation ratio in the case of vertical vibration. The results indicate the need to consider 30 modes of vibration to obtain all possible important excitations and thereby making third harmonic of load frequency available to excite the critical modes. In addition, presence of different intensities of passive live load on the composite floor showed completely different behavior in each particular panel associated with load location of panel and passive live load intensity. Furthermore, implementing human body characteristics in simulation causes an obvious increase in modal damping and hence better practicality and economical presentation can be achieved in structural dynamic behavior.

  20. Evolutionary and ecological forces that shape the bacterial communities of the human gut

    Science.gov (United States)

    Messer, Jeannette S.; Liechty, Emma R; Vogel, Olivia A.; Chang, Eugene B.

    2017-01-01

    Since microbes were first described in the mid-1600's, we have come to appreciate that they live all around and within us with both beneficial and detrimental effects on nearly every aspect of our lives. The human gastrointestinal tract is inhabited by a dynamic community of trillions of bacteria that constantly interact with each other and their human host. The acquisition of these bacteria is not stochastic, but determined by circumstance (environment), host rules (genetics, immune state, mucus, etc), and dynamic self-selection among microbes to form stable, resilient communities that are in balance with the host. In this review, we will discuss how these factors lead to formation of the gut bacterial community and influence its interactions with the host. We will also address how gut bacteria contribute to disease and how they could potentially be targeted to prevent and treat a variety of human ailments. PMID:28145439

  1. Designing Environment for Teaching Internet of Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simic, Konstantin; Vujin, Vladimir; Labus, Aleksandra; Stepanic, Ðorde; Stevanovic, Mladen

    2014-01-01

    One of the new topics taught at technical universities is Internet of Things. In this paper, a workshop for organizing a lab in academic environment for the subject Internet of Things is described. The architecture of the platform, scenario and a description of components used for creating the environment for learning Internet of things are also…

  2. Harnessing Technology and Citizen Science to Support Neighborhoods that Promote Active Living in Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosas, Lisa G; Salvo, Deborah; Winter, Sandra J; Cortes, David; Rivera, Juan; Rodriguez, Nicole M; King, Abby C

    2016-12-01

    Middle- and low-income countries bear 80 % of the global chronic disease burden. Population-level, multi-sectoral approaches to promoting healthful lifestyles that take into local physical, socioeconomic, and sociocultural characteristics of both the environment and the population are needed. The "Nuestra Voz (Our Voice)" is one such approach that involves neighborhood residents acting as "citizen scientists" to systematically gather information on the barriers and facilitators of physical activity in their neighborhoods and then use their data to collectively advocate for local environmental- and policy-level changes to support active living. We pilot tested this approach in Cuernavaca, Mexico with adults and adolescents. This community-engaged and participatory approach is driven by residents, who utilize a GPS-enabled electronic tablet-based application with simple audio-based instructions to take photographs and record audio narratives of facets of their neighborhood that promote or hinder active living. After collecting these data, the citizen scientists come together in a community meeting and use their data to prioritize realistic, multi-level changes for promoting active living in their neighborhoods. A survey assessed participants' acceptability of the approach. Participating citizen scientists included 32 adults and 9 adolescents. The citizen scientists rated the acceptability of five of the nine acceptability survey items with an average of 4.0 or higher out of 5.0, indicating they thought it was "fun," were comfortable carrying the tablet, were likely to use it again, and would recommend it to friends and family. Items with average scores of less than 4 were all related to safety concerns. The most common barriers reported by citizen scientists using the tablet were poor sidewalk quality, presence of trash, negative characteristics of the streets, unpleasant aesthetics (e.g., graffiti), and presence of parks and recreational facilities. The Our Voice

  3. Security in Internet of Things

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kidmose, Egon; Pedersen, Jens Myrup

    2017-01-01

    2016 was a year when the discussions about Internet of Things and security gained significant grounds. Not only was it yet another year where the challenges of cybercrime became visible to the general public, maybe the presumable Russian hacking of Hillary Clinton's emails as the most prominent...... example, but at the end of the year the Mirai Botnet used Internet of Things devices to perform successful attacks on several Internet infrastructure points....

  4. Are drug companies living up to their human rights responsibilities? The Merck perspective.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Geralyn S Ritter

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND TO THE DEBATE: The human rights responsibilities of drug companies have been considered for years by nongovernmental organizations, but were most sharply defined in a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, submitted to the United Nations General Assembly in August 2008. The "Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in relation to Access to Medicines" include responsibilities for transparency, management, monitoring and accountability, pricing, and ethical marketing, and against lobbying for more protection in intellectual property laws, applying for patents for trivial modifications of existing medicines, inappropriate drug promotion, and excessive pricing. Two years after the release of the Guidelines, the PLoS Medicine Debate asks whether drug companies are living up to their human rights responsibilities. Sofia Gruskin and Zyde Raad from the Harvard School of Public Health say more assessment is needed of such responsibilities; Geralyn Ritter, Vice President of Global Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility at Merck & Co. argues that multiple stakeholders could do more to help States deliver the right to health; and Paul Hunt and Rajat Khosla introduce Mr. Hunt's work as the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, regarding the human rights responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies and access to medicines.

  5. Evaluating future detriment from radioactive discharges Judgements and implications for optimisation of protection

    CERN Document Server

    Fleishman, A B

    1982-01-01

    For long-lived nuclides released into the environment, it is possible to calculate dose commitments extending over thousands or millions of years. The inclusion of this detriment to future populations in present day decision-making is not a technical matter, but represents an area where judgement must be applied. This report shows how different judgements on the relative valuation of future doses can have significant implications for the management of radioactive effluents. A quantitative framework for the expression of such judgements is proposed for optimisation studies, to clarify for decision-makers these implications in the assessment of alternative management options. This is based on the economic principles of discounting, but is related to the use of incomplete collective dose commitments (truncated in time), and includes a zero discount rate which assigns the same weight to doses whenever received. The framework is applied to a series of potential management options for the control of carbon-14, kryp...

  6. Are drug companies living up to their human rights responsibilities? Moving toward assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gruskin, Sofia; Raad, Zyde

    2010-09-28

    The human rights responsibilities of drug companies have been considered for years by nongovernmental organizations, but were most sharply defined in a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, submitted to the United Nations General Assembly in August 2008. The "Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in relation to Access to Medicines" include responsibilities for transparency, management, monitoring and accountability, pricing, and ethical marketing, and against lobbying for more protection in intellectual property laws, applying for patents for trivial modifications of existing medicines, inappropriate drug promotion, and excessive pricing. Two years after the release of the Guidelines, the PLoS Medicine Debate asks whether drug companies are living up to their human rights responsibilities. Sofia Gruskin and Zyde Raad from the Harvard School of Public Health say more assessment is needed of such responsibilities; Geralyn Ritter, Vice President of Global Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility at Merck & Co. argues that multiple stakeholders could do more to help States deliver the right to health; and Paul Hunt and Rajat Khosla introduce Mr. Hunt's work as the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, regarding the human rights responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies and access to medicines.

  7. Are drug companies living up to their human rights responsibilities? The Merck perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ritter, Geralyn S

    2010-09-28

    The human rights responsibilities of drug companies have been considered for years by nongovernmental organizations, but were most sharply defined in a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, submitted to the United Nations General Assembly in August 2008. The "Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies in relation to Access to Medicines" include responsibilities for transparency, management, monitoring and accountability, pricing, and ethical marketing, and against lobbying for more protection in intellectual property laws, applying for patents for trivial modifications of existing medicines, inappropriate drug promotion, and excessive pricing. Two years after the release of the Guidelines, the PLoS Medicine Debate asks whether drug companies are living up to their human rights responsibilities. Sofia Gruskin and Zyde Raad from the Harvard School of Public Health say more assessment is needed of such responsibilities; Geralyn Ritter, Vice President of Global Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility at Merck & Co. argues that multiple stakeholders could do more to help States deliver the right to health; and Paul Hunt and Rajat Khosla introduce Mr. Hunt's work as the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, regarding the human rights responsibilities of pharmaceutical companies and access to medicines.

  8. Detrimental role of hydrogen on the corrosion rate of zirconium alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blat, M.; Noel, D.

    1996-01-01

    Recent studies have suggested that hydride precipitation at the metal/oxide interface could play a detrimental role on the waterside corrosion rate. Nevertheless, the mechanism of that detrimental role is not completely understood, and two hypotheses were investigated to understand the mechanism that controls the role of the hydrides. The first hypothesis is based on a mechanical effect: the hydrides precipitate at the metal/oxide interface and destroy the physical integrity of the barrier oxide layer. The second hypothesis is a modification of the transport properties of the oxide grown on the hydrided metal. The detrimental role of hydrides on the corrosion rate was studied by charging unirradiated Zircaloy-4 cladding material with hydrogen to a level higher than the limit of solubility at 400 C. Both gaseous and cathodic charging techniques were used. Static corrosion tests were carried out in autoclave with steam at 400 C on an as-received and hydrided sample. The detrimental role of hydrides is confirmed from the post-transition corrosion rate, and that effect is more significant for high cathodic charging. The results of the metallurgical examinations are discussed to provide an understanding of the mechanism. No relationship between hydrides, physical defects in the oxide, and local corrosion rate enhancement was found. Therefore, the results do not support the hypothesis of a mechanical effect at the scale of the performed examinations, but more detailed work is required to confirm this

  9. Where inside the world is the stuff that makes the wood things we write with and the small pretty rocks that women wear on their fingers? And where does that stuff go over time?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kellogg, L. H.

    2017-12-01

    The middle of the world we live on, between the top and the heart, is made of green rock. When it gets hot, the rock runs slowly like thick water, but it is still rock. The hot rock moves up, and the cold rock moves down. This makes the harder rock on top of our world move around, and it cools the inside of our world. We can not see the green rock place with our own eyes, so we make pretend worlds on a computer. We also use a lot of little tiny bits that are hard to find, to smell where the rock comes from, and where it has been, and how long it takes to move around. One tiny bit that we use is the kind of stuff that makes living things and also makes the wood things we write with and the small pretty rocks that women wear on their fingers. When it is in our air, these little pieces make the air and water warmer. So, how many of the tiny bits that are in wood things we write with and the small pretty rocks are in the green rock place? A lot: much, much more than is now in the air or the water. On another world, the one closer to the sun that is named for a beautiful woman, the air has a lot of the tiny bits that makes the wood things we write with and the small pretty rocks. The air is very heavy and it is very very hot there; no one could live on the beautiful woman world. But we think that maybe our world was like this when our world was very new. On our world, the water, the air, and the rock worked together, using the tiny bits that make wood things we write with and small pretty rocks to make a different kind of rock. Then that kind of rock went down into the green rock place. This made our air very light, and made our world a place where people and other living things can live. Since that early time, when the green rock comes up, it can send some of the tiny bits that make the wood things we write with and small pretty rocks back into the air. What goes down must come up, and what comes up, must go back down.

  10. Internet of Things from hype to reality the road to digitization

    CERN Document Server

    Rayes, Ammar

    2017-01-01

    This book comprehensively describes an end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) architecture that is comprised of devices, network, compute, storage, platform, and applications along with management and security components. It is organized into five main parts, comprising of a total of 11 chapters. Part I presents a generic IoT reference model to establish a common vocabulary for IoT solutions. This includes a detailed description of the Internet protocol layers and the Things (sensors and actuators) as well as the key business drivers to realize the IoT vision. Part II focuses on the IoT requirements that impact networking protocols and provides a layer-by-layer walkthrough of the protocol stack with emphasis on industry progress and key gaps. Part III introduces the concept of Fog computing and describes the drivers for the technology, its constituent elements, and how it relates and differs from Cloud computing. Part IV discusses the IoT services platform, the cornerstone of the solution followed by the Securit...

  11. A microcomputer-based daily living activity recording system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matsuoka, Shingo; Yonezawa, Yoshiharu; Maki, Hiromichi; Ogawa, Hidekuni; Hahn, Allen W; Thayer, Julian F; Caldwell, W Morton

    2003-01-01

    A new daily living activity recording system has been developed for monitoring health conditions and living patterns, such as respiration, posture, activity/rest ratios and general activity level. The system employs a piezoelectric sensor, a dual axis accelerometer, two low-power active filters, a low-power 8-bit single chip microcomputer and a 128 MB compact flash memory. The piezoelectric sensor, whose electrical polarization voltage is produced by mechanical strain, detects body movements. Its high-frequency output components reflect body movements produced by walking and running activities, while the low frequency components are mainly respiratory. The dual axis accelerometer detects, from body X and Y tilt angles, whether the patient is standing, sitting or lying down (prone, supine, left side or right side). The detected respiratory, behavior and posture signals are stored by the compact flash memory. After recording, these data are downloaded to a desktop computer and analyzed.

  12. A Survey on Energy Conserving Mechanisms for the Internet of Things: Wireless Networking Aspects

    OpenAIRE

    Zeeshan Abbas; Wonyong Yoon

    2015-01-01

    The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging key technology for future industries and everyday lives of people, where a myriad of battery operated sensors, actuators, and smart objects are connected to the Internet to provide services such as mobile healthcare, intelligent transport system, environmental monitoring, etc. Since energy efficiency is of utmost importance to these battery constrained IoT devices, IoT-related standards and research works have focused on the device energy conserving...

  13. Intelligent Device Discovery in the Internet of Things - Enabling the Robot Society

    OpenAIRE

    Sunthonlap, James; Nguyen, Phuoc; Ye, Zilong

    2017-01-01

    The Internet of Things (IoT) is continuously growing to connect billions of smart devices anywhere and anytime in an Internet-like structure, which enables a variety of applications, services and interactions between human and objects. In the future, the smart devices are supposed to be able to autonomously discover a target device with desired features and generate a set of entirely new services and applications that are not supervised or even imagined by human beings. The pervasiveness of s...

  14. Things to Avoid When Breastfeeding

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Healthy Living Healthy Living Healthy Living Nutrition Fitness Sports Oral Health Emotional Wellness Growing Healthy Sleep Safety & Prevention Safety & Prevention Safety and Prevention Immunizations ...

  15. Concurrent multitasking : From neural activity to human cognition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Nijboer, Menno

    2016-01-01

    Multitasking has become an important part of our daily lives. This delicate juggling act between several activities occurs when people drive, when they are working, and even when they should be paying attention in the classroom. While multitasking is typically considered as something to avoid, there

  16. Children's Preconceptions of Human-Animal Relationships, Dispositions towards a Humane Consciousness and Implications for Curriculum and Instruction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yoon, Susan

    Even though we live in an age of advancing technology and changing structure of science, especially in genetics engineering, there appears to be a great lack of understanding of these basic concepts by society in general. Society carries responsibilities to both living and non-living things; this lack of understanding may result in combined…

  17. Global impact of asthma on children and adolescents' daily lives: the room to breathe survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wildhaber, Johannes; Carroll, William D; Brand, Paul L P

    2012-04-01

    To establish children and adolescents' perspectives regarding their asthma and its impact upon their daily lives. A 14-item questionnaire. Canada, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. Children/adolescents (aged 8-15 years) with physician-diagnosed asthma. Interviews were conducted by telephone (Canada, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) or face-to-face (South Africa). Asthma symptoms, impact on activities, and quality of life. Of the 943 children/adolescents interviewed, 60% were male. Most (81%) described their asthma as "not too bad" or "I only get it every now and then," with only 4% reporting their asthma as being "very bad"; however, 92% experienced asthma-related coughing and 59% reported nocturnal awakening. Over half (57%) of children/adolescents believed they could predict when their asthma would make them ill; the most common initial symptoms being breathlessness (41%) and bad cough (33%). They considered the worst things about having asthma to be the symptoms of an asthma attack (32%) and not being able to play sport (25%). Almost half (47%) of children/adolescents felt that their asthma affected their ability to play sport or engage in physical activity. One in ten reported they had suffered asthma-related bullying. Children/adolescents underestimate the severity of their asthma, and overestimate its control, indicating that they expect their illness to be symptomatic. Asthma has a substantial impact on their daily lives, particularly on physical activity and social functioning. Efforts are required to improve asthma control and expectations of health in children/adolescents. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  18. Eyes of Things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oscar Deniz

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Embedded systems control and monitor a great deal of our reality. While some “classic” features are intrinsically necessary, such as low power consumption, rugged operating ranges, fast response and low cost, these systems have evolved in the last few years to emphasize connectivity functions, thus contributing to the Internet of Things paradigm. A myriad of sensing/computing devices are being attached to everyday objects, each able to send and receive data and to act as a unique node in the Internet. Apart from the obvious necessity to process at least some data at the edge (to increase security and reduce power consumption and latency, a major breakthrough will arguably come when such devices are endowed with some level of autonomous “intelligence”. Intelligent computing aims to solve problems for which no efficient exact algorithm can exist or for which we cannot conceive an exact algorithm. Central to such intelligence is Computer Vision (CV, i.e., extracting meaning from images and video. While not everything needs CV, visual information is the richest source of information about the real world: people, places and things. The possibilities of embedded CV are endless if we consider new applications and technologies, such as deep learning, drones, home robotics, intelligent surveillance, intelligent toys, wearable cameras, etc. This paper describes the Eyes of Things (EoT platform, a versatile computer vision platform tackling those challenges and opportunities.

  19. ASPIE: A Framework for Active Sensing and Processing of Complex Events in the Internet of Manufacturing Things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shaobo Li

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Rapid perception and processing of critical monitoring events are essential to ensure healthy operation of Internet of Manufacturing Things (IoMT-based manufacturing processes. In this paper, we proposed a framework (active sensing and processing architecture (ASPIE for active sensing and processing of critical events in IoMT-based manufacturing based on the characteristics of IoMT architecture as well as its perception model. A relation model of complex events in manufacturing processes, together with related operators and unified XML-based semantic definitions, are developed to effectively process the complex event big data. A template based processing method for complex events is further introduced to conduct complex event matching using the Apriori frequent item mining algorithm. To evaluate the proposed models and methods, we developed a software platform based on ASPIE for a local chili sauce manufacturing company, which demonstrated the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods for active perception and processing of complex events in IoMT-based manufacturing.

  20. Development and implementation of a local government survey to measure community supports for healthy eating and active living

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Latetia V Moore

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The ability to make healthy choices is influenced by where one lives, works, shops, and plays. Locally enacted policies and standards can influence these surroundings but little is known about the prevalence of such policies and standards that support healthier behaviors. In this paper, we describe the development of a survey questionnaire designed to capture local level policy supports for healthy eating and active living and findings and lessons learned from a 2012 pilot in two states, Minnesota and California, including respondent burden, survey sampling and administration methods, and survey item feasibility issues. A 38-item, web-based, self-administered survey and sampling frame were developed to assess the prevalence of 22 types of healthy eating and active living policies in a representative sample of local governments in the two states. The majority of respondents indicated the survey required minimal effort to complete with half taking <20 min to complete the survey. A non-response follow-up plan including emails and phone calls was required to achieve a 68% response rate (versus a 37% response rate for email only reminders. Local governments with larger residential populations reported having healthy eating and active living policies and standards more often than smaller governments. Policies that support active living were more common than those that support healthy eating and varied within the two states. The methods we developed are a feasible data collection tool for estimating the prevalence of municipal healthy eating and active living policies and standards at the state and national level.

  1. Imaging live humans through smoke and flames using far-infrared digital holography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Locatelli, M; Pugliese, E; Paturzo, M; Bianco, V; Finizio, A; Pelagotti, A; Poggi, P; Miccio, L; Meucci, R; Ferraro, P

    2013-03-11

    The ability to see behind flames is a key challenge for the industrial field and particularly for the safety field. Development of new technologies to detect live people through smoke and flames in fire scenes is an extremely desirable goal since it can save human lives. The latest technologies, including equipment adopted by fire departments, use infrared bolometers for infrared digital cameras that allow users to see through smoke. However, such detectors are blinded by flame-emitted radiation. Here we show a completely different approach that makes use of lensless digital holography technology in the infrared range for successful imaging through smoke and flames. Notably, we demonstrate that digital holography with a cw laser allows the recording of dynamic human-size targets. In this work, easy detection of live, moving people is achieved through both smoke and flames, thus demonstrating the capability of digital holography at 10.6 μm.

  2. The roles of nanotechnology and internet of nano things in healthcare

    OpenAIRE

    Mirjana Maksimović

    2017-01-01

    Healthcare, as a basic human right, did not remain immune to innovative technologies. Technological progress has significantly contributed to high-quality, on-time, acceptable and affordable healthcare. Since their appearance, nanotechnology and the Internet of Nano Things (IoNT) have continuously affected healthcare and have a tremendous influence on its transformation, contributing to the better outcome. The inclusion of nanotechnology in medicine through nanomaterials and nanodevices, know...

  3. Between Economic and Legal Analysis of Incorporated Things: a Critical "NO" to Aedilitian Remedies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    CG Kilian

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available This article analyses the dictum of the Phame v Paizes 1973 3 397 (A within economic and legal principles to determine whether incorporeal things could possess characteristics of value or quality characteristics as in the case of corporeal things. The author uses practical economic examples to argue for the development of common law. The author identifies relevant Roman law principles which justify the legal nature of incorporeal things. It is demonstrated that the value of incorporeal things depends greatly on future circumstances. It is argued in this article that the courts’ willingness to extend the Aedilitian remedies and the wide interpretation of a dictum et promissum create an open door for any unsatisfied buyer with no entrepreneurial skills to claim a reduced price if the business is unable to achieve similar financial results to those prior to the conclusion of the contract. Currently the seller of a business has no clear or enforceable defense under these circumstances. The author subsequently suggests that relevant Roman law principles should be revisited in the aim to develop an appropriate defense for the seller.

  4. User Empowerment in the Internet of Things

    OpenAIRE

    Munjin, Dejan; Morin, Jean-Henry

    2011-01-01

    This paper focuses on the characteristics of two big triggers that facilitated wide user adoption of the Internet: Web 2.0 and online social networks. We detect brakes for reproduction of these events in Internet of things. To support our hypothesis we first compare the difference between the ways of use of the Internet with the future scenarios of Internet of things. We detect barriers that could slow down apparition of this kind of social events during user adoption of Internet of Things an...

  5. Doing the right thing; gamification as a means to tuning human behavior

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Olthof, T.; Eliens, A.P.W.

    2016-01-01

    This chapter discusses how gamification, the use of game mechanics, game dynamics and game technology within the practice of our everyday lives is both the result of and a driving force in the convergence of physical and virtual worlds, in order to evaluate the promises and risks of gamification.

  6. Time to Talk: 5 Things You Should Know about Yoga

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Y Z 5 Things You Should Know About Yoga Share: Yoga typically combines physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation or relaxation. Researchers are studying how yoga may be used to help improve health and ...

  7. Risk Factors of Active Tuberculosis in People Living with HIV/AIDS ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    BACKGROUND: Determinants of active tuberculosis among People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) are not well elucidated in countries with limited resources. The objective of this study was to assess distal and proximate determinants of active tuberculosis among people living with HIV/AIDS in southwest. Ethiopia.

  8. Lansoprazole induces sensitivity to suboptimal doses of paclitaxel in human melanoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Azzarito, Tommaso; Venturi, Giulietta; Cesolini, Albino; Fais, Stefano

    2015-01-28

    Tumor acidity is now considered an important determinant of drug-resistance and tumor progression, and anti-acidic approaches, such as Proton Pump inhibitors (PPIs), have demonstrated promising antitumor and chemo-sensitizing efficacy. The main purpose of the present study was to evaluate the possible PPI-induced sensitization of human melanoma cells to Paclitaxel (PTX). Our results show that PTX and the PPI Lansoprazole (LAN) combination was extremely efficient against metastatic melanoma cells, as compared to the single treatments, both in vitro and in vivo. We also showed that acidity plays an important role on the anti-tumor activity of these drugs, being detrimental for PTX activity, while crucial for the synergistic effect of PTX following pretreatment with LAN, due to its nature of pro-drug needing protonation for a full activation. We obtained straightforward results in a human melanoma xenograft model combining well tolerated LAN doses with suboptimal and poorly toxic doses of PTX. With this study we provide a clear evidence that the PPI LAN may be included in new combined therapy of human melanoma together with low doses of PTX. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Human monitoring, smart health and assisted living techniques and technologies

    CERN Document Server

    Longhi, Sauro; Freddi, Alessandro

    2017-01-01

    This book covers the three main scientific and technological areas critical for improving people's quality of life - namely human monitoring, smart health and assisted living - from both the research and development points of view.

  10. Designing the fog : towards an intranet of things

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Funk, Mathias

    2018-01-01

    The Fog of Things, ubiquitous computing in local contexts, is a reality now. The Internet of Things has arrived, although users use and perceive it rather as Internet of Thing [sic!]. Data and information flows vertically, not horizontally through the connected Everyday and promises of convenience

  11. Environmental Governance as Stochastic Belief Updating: Crafting Rules to Live by

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel W. Bromley

    2012-09-01

    Full Text Available The idea that humans can "manage" nature is a modernist conceit. Natural systems and social (human systems are always in the process of becoming. In this setting of unknowable dynamic emergence, it is not possible to design institutional arrangements - rules to live by - that permit an activity called "management." The more fundamental challenge to the conceit of management is that humans are never sure what we want until we are put in a situation of having to work it out. We learn what we want by learning about what it might be possible for us to have. Science, properly engaged with the public, can contribute to this learning process. But science cannot hold itself up as an activity that produces truth about what it would be better to do. Sapient adults work that out, just as we work out the evolving meaning to us of the natural system. Science practiced outside of this realm of human meaning is impertinent.

  12. A Web Service Protocol Realizing Interoperable Internet of Things Tasking Capability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Chih-Yuan; Wu, Cheng-Hung

    2016-08-31

    The Internet of Things (IoT) is an infrastructure that interconnects uniquely-identifiable devices using the Internet. By interconnecting everyday appliances, various monitoring, and physical mashup applications can be constructed to improve human's daily life. In general, IoT devices provide two main capabilities: sensing and tasking capabilities. While the sensing capability is similar to the World-Wide Sensor Web, this research focuses on the tasking capability. However, currently, IoT devices created by different manufacturers follow different proprietary protocols and are locked in many closed ecosystems. This heterogeneity issue impedes the interconnection between IoT devices and damages the potential of the IoT. To address this issue, this research aims at proposing an interoperable solution called tasking capability description that allows users to control different IoT devices using a uniform web service interface. This paper demonstrates the contribution of the proposed solution by interconnecting different IoT devices for different applications. In addition, the proposed solution is integrated with the OGC SensorThings API standard, which is a Web service standard defined for the IoT sensing capability. Consequently, the Extended SensorThings API can realize both IoT sensing and tasking capabilities in an integrated and interoperable manner.

  13. The Internet of Playful Things

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wyeth, Peta; Brereton, Margot; Roe, Paul

    2015-01-01

    This one-day workshop brings together researchers and practitioners to share knowledge and practices on how people can connect and interact with the Internet of Things in a playful way. Open to participants with a diverse range of interests and expertise, and by exploring novel ways to playfully...... will be a road map to support the development of a Model of Playful Connectedness, focusing on how best to design and make playful networks of things, identifying the challenges that need to be addressed in order to do so....

  14. Implementation of Smart Metering based on Internet of Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaur, Milanpreet; Mathew, Lini, Dr.; Alokdeep; Kumar, Ajay

    2018-03-01

    From the aspect of saving energy, there is a continuous modification in communication technology and information in order to satisfy all customers demand. Today customers are demanding for accurate energy measurement, timely data and for good customer services. The best solution is smart grid system with various communication technologies which can be cost effective and electrical section to have a bidirectional communication in which information about electrical energy consumption is shared between consumers as well as by utility for remote checking. This paper describes the monitoring of energy consumption with Arduino Uno board and Ethernet using IoT (Internet of Things) concept. This proposed design eliminates human inclusion in the conservation of electricity. The consumer can receive the information about consumption of energy by using IP address on their devices. The web client code is uploaded for checking the client information such as location, content, connection, and disconnection to the web server. This proposed system gives reliable and accurate information regarding electrical energy management system (EMS) through Internet of things (IoT).

  15. Myth and Archetype in Recollections of Things to Come

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robert K. Anderson

    1985-01-01

    Full Text Available According to Elena Garro, "the great writer will be the one who presents the Mexican as a universal being." In her novel Recollections of Things to Come she achieves this goal primarily through an incessant infusion of mythic and archetypal motifs, elements that constitute the cornerstone of this study.

  16. A human activity approach to User Interfaces

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bødker, Susanne

    1989-01-01

    the work situations in which computer-based artifacts are used: The framework deals with the role of the user interface in purposeful human work. Human activity theory is used in this analysis. The purpose of this article is to make the reader curious and hopefully open his or her eyes to a somewhat...

  17. Disability, Activities of Daily Living and Self Efficacy in Dialysis Patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mukadder Mollaoglu

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess patients’ disability, activities of daily living and self-efficacy patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD and continuos ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD, to examine the relationship between them. Material and Methods: This study was carried with 152 patients as sample group. In this study, three instruments were used: Personal Information Form, Brief Disability Questionnaire, Katz\\'s Activity\\'s of Daily Living Index and Lawton and Brody\\'s Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Index and Self-efficacy Assessment Form. Data collected from the study was analyzed using percent, mean, Tukey test, significance test of two means, One-way variant analysis and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: The study results demonstrate that while there is a correlation between self-care ability and age, education level, marital status and additional health problems, factors such as age, gender, education level, work status, income level, social insurance status and frequency of hemodialysis application determine self-efficacy. Furthermore, a negative correlation was found between patients’ disability and activities of daily living , self-efficacy. It was determined that as the level of disability increases self-efficiacy level decreases. Conclusions: Dialysis application affects patients’ disability, activities of daily living and self-efficacy levels. In view of this study’s results, it is recommended to organize education programs to increase self-efficacy levels of dialysis patients and prepare comprehensive plans including patients’ families. [TAF Prev Med Bull 2011; 10(2.000: 181-186

  18. Using activity triggered e-diaries to reveal the associations between physical activity and affective states in older adult's daily living.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kanning, Martina; Ebner-Priemer, Ulrich; Schlicht, Wolfgang

    2015-09-17

    Evidence suggests that older adults show positive affects after participating in exercise bouts. However, it is less clear, if and how physical activities in daily living enhance affective states, too. This is dissatisfying, as most of older adults' physical activities are part of their daily living. To answer these questions we used activity-triggered e-diaries to investigate the within-subject effects of physical activity on three dimensions of affective states (valence, energetic arousal, calmness) during everyday life. Older adults (N = 74) between 50 and 70 years took part in the study during three consecutive days. Physical activity in daily living was objectively assessed using accelerometers. Affects were measured 10 min after a study participant surpassed a predefined threshold for activity or inactivity. The participants were prompted by an acoustic signal to assess their momentary affective states on an e-diary. Data were analyzed with hierarchical multilevel analyses. Whenever older individuals were more physically active, they felt more energized (energetic arousal) and agitated (calmness). However, they did not feel better (valence). Interestingly, body mass index (BMI) and valence were associated in a significant cross-level interaction. BMI acts as a moderating variable in the way that lower BMI scores were associated with higher levels of valence scores after being physically active. The innovative ambulatory assessment used here affords an interesting insight to the affective effects of daily activity of older adults. These effects are no simple and no linear ones, i.e. physical activity is not associated with positive affects per se as shown several times in experimental studies with single activity bouts. Rather there is a differentiating association seen as an enhanced feeling of energy and agitation, which is not accompanied by a better feeling. Socio-emotional selectivity theory may support the finding that older individuals are

  19. Active mechanics in living oocytes reveal molecular-scale force kinetics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahmed, Wylie; Fodor, Etienne; Almonacid, Maria; Bussonnier, Matthias; Verlhac, Marie-Helene; Gov, Nir; Visco, Paolo; van Wijland, Frederic; Betz, Timo

    Unlike traditional materials, living cells actively generate forces at the molecular scale that change their structure and mechanical properties. This nonequilibrium activity is essential for cellular function, and drives processes such as cell division. Single molecule studies have uncovered the detailed force kinetics of isolated motor proteins in-vitro, however their behavior in-vivo has been elusive due to the complex environment inside the cell. Here, we quantify active forces and intracellular mechanics in living oocytes using in-vivo optical trapping and laser interferometry of endogenous vesicles. We integrate an experimental and theoretical framework to connect mesoscopic measurements of nonequilibrium properties to the underlying molecular- scale force kinetics. Our results show that force generation by myosin-V drives the cytoplasmic-skeleton out-of-equilibrium (at frequencies below 300 Hz) and actively softens the environment. In vivo myosin-V activity generates a force of F ~ 0 . 4 pN, with a power-stroke of length Δx ~ 20 nm and duration τ ~ 300 μs, that drives vesicle motion at vv ~ 320 nm/s. This framework is widely applicable to characterize living cells and other soft active materials.

  20. A Survey on Sensor-based Threats to Internet-of-Things (IoT) Devices and Applications

    OpenAIRE

    Sikder, Amit Kumar; Petracca, Giuseppe; Aksu, Hidayet; Jaeger, Trent; Uluagac, A. Selcuk

    2018-01-01

    The concept of Internet of Things (IoT) has become more popular in the modern era of technology than ever before. From small household devices to large industrial machines, the vision of IoT has made it possible to connect the devices with the physical world around them. This increasing popularity has also made the IoT devices and applications in the center of attention among attackers. Already, several types of malicious activities exist that attempt to compromise the security and privacy of...

  1. From machine-to-machine to the Internet of Things

    CERN Document Server

    Holler, Jan; Mulligan, Catherine; Avesand, Stefan; Karnouskos, Stamatis; Boyle, David

    2014-01-01

    This book outlines the background and overall vision for the Internet of Things (IoT) and M2M communications and services, including major standards. Key technologies are described: Everything from physical instrumentation devices to the cloud infrastructures used to collect data, derive information and map it to current processes, as well as system architectures and regulatory requirements. Real world service use case studies provide the hands-on knowledge needed to successfully develop and implement M2M and IoT technologies sustainably and profitably. Finally, the future vision for M2M tech

  2. Open Technologies for prototyping the Internet of Things

    OpenAIRE

    Martínez Abascal, María Jesús

    2013-01-01

    The worldwide "hyper-connection" of any object around us is the challenge that promises to cover the paradigm of the Internet of Things. If the Internet has colonized the daily life of more than 2000 million1 people around the globe, the Internet of Things faces of connecting more than 100000 million2 "things" by 2020. The underlying Internet of Things’ technologies are the cornerstone that promises to solve interrelated global problems such as exponential population growth, energy management...

  3. Toward real time detection of the basic living activity in home using a wearable sensor and smart home sensors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bang, Sunlee; Kim, Minho; Song, Sa-Kwang; Park, Soo-Jun

    2008-01-01

    As the elderly people living alone are enormously increasing recently, we need the system inferring activities of daily living (ADL) for maintaining healthy life and recognizing emergency. The system should be constructed with sensors, which are used to associate with people's living while remaining as non intrusive views as possible. To do this, the proposed system use a triaxial accelerometer sensor and environment sensors indicating contact with subject in home. Particularly, in order to robustly infer ADLs, we present component ADL, which is decided with conjunction of human motion together, not just only contacted object identification. It is an important component in inferring ADL. In special, component ADL decision firstly refines misclassified initial activities, which improves the accuracy of recognizing ADL. Preliminary experiments results for proposed system provides overall recognition rate of over 97% over 8 component ADLs, which can be effectively applicable to recognize the final ADLs.

  4. The Future Potential of Internet of Things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aelita Skaržauskienė

    2012-07-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: To define the Internet of things and to analyze it as a background for the internet of services.Design/methodology/approach: The article discusses potential possibilities and problematic issues concerning the Internet of things (IoT and Internet of services (IoS. The debates concerning IoT and its possible application fields have continued for more than ten years. The technological background is there and the fields of application are broad. However, there is still a lack of understanding about the possible benefits that technology could give to various bodies if applied correctly. This article is based on comparison and analysis of scientific articles, research papers and case studies related to the potential for IoT and its implementation in IoS.Theoretical findings: IoT is a logical evolutionary step for the internet. Despite the technological background, the concept of objects which are aware of their surroundings, allow to manipulate them by defining different rule patterns and ensuring interaction possibilities with other objects or human beings. The necessity for web-based services is increasing along with the technological gadgets which support them. Applying things, which are connected in a network, could revolutionize many industry and service sectors and create new service provision and administration methods based on information technology. However, there are many problematic issues and research challenges related to the IoT. Few of the most significant are related to standardization of technology, legal regulation and ethical aspects concerning the IoT technology.Research limitations/implications: The IoT is a popular trend promoted by the business sector and governmental bodies. There are few comprehensive studies and projects which talk about the benefits that business and society could gain from the IoT. There is a lot less information about the possible risk and problematic aspects, and a lack of agreements between the

  5. Constructing the Web of Events from Raw Data in the Web of Things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yunchuan Sun

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available An exciting paradise of data is emerging into our daily life along with the development of the Web of Things. Nowadays, volumes of heterogeneous raw data are continuously generated and captured by trillions of smart devices like sensors, smart controls, readers and other monitoring devices, while various events occur in the physical world. It is hard for users including people and smart things to master valuable information hidden in the massive data, which is more useful and understandable than raw data for users to get the crucial points for problems-solving. Thus, how to automatically and actively extract the knowledge of events and their internal links from the big data is one key challenge for the future Web of Things. This paper proposes an effective approach to extract events and their internal links from large scale data leveraging predefined event schemas in the Web of Things, which starts with grasping the critical data for useful events by filtering data with well-defined event types in the schema. A case study in the context of smart campus is presented to show the application of proposed approach for the extraction of events and their internal semantic links.

  6. How to Identify Success Among Networks That Promote Active Living.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Litt, Jill; Varda, Danielle; Reed, Hannah; Retrum, Jessica; Tabak, Rachel; Gustat, Jeanette; O'Hara Tompkins, Nancy

    2015-11-01

    We evaluated organization- and network-level factors that influence organizations' perceived success. This is important for managing interorganizational networks, which can mobilize communities to address complex health issues such as physical activity, and for achieving change. In 2011, we used structured interview and network survey data from 22 states in the United States to estimate multilevel random-intercept models to understand organization- and network-level factors that explain perceived network success. A total of 53 of 59 "whole networks" met the criteria for inclusion in the analysis (89.8%). Coordinators identified 559 organizations, with 3 to 12 organizations from each network taking the online survey (response rate = 69.7%; range = 33%-100%). Occupying a leadership position (P Organizations' perceptions of success can influence decisions about continuing involvement and investment in networks designed to promote environment and policy change for active living. Understanding these factors can help leaders manage complex networks that involve diverse memberships, varied interests, and competing community-level priorities.

  7. A time series based sequence prediction algorithm to detect activities of daily living in smart home.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marufuzzaman, M; Reaz, M B I; Ali, M A M; Rahman, L F

    2015-01-01

    The goal of smart homes is to create an intelligent environment adapting the inhabitants need and assisting the person who needs special care and safety in their daily life. This can be reached by collecting the ADL (activities of daily living) data and further analysis within existing computing elements. In this research, a very recent algorithm named sequence prediction via enhanced episode discovery (SPEED) is modified and in order to improve accuracy time component is included. The modified SPEED or M-SPEED is a sequence prediction algorithm, which modified the previous SPEED algorithm by using time duration of appliance's ON-OFF states to decide the next state. M-SPEED discovered periodic episodes of inhabitant behavior, trained it with learned episodes, and made decisions based on the obtained knowledge. The results showed that M-SPEED achieves 96.8% prediction accuracy, which is better than other time prediction algorithms like PUBS, ALZ with temporal rules and the previous SPEED. Since human behavior shows natural temporal patterns, duration times can be used to predict future events more accurately. This inhabitant activity prediction system will certainly improve the smart homes by ensuring safety and better care for elderly and handicapped people.

  8. The half-lives of biological activity of some pesticides in water

    OpenAIRE

    Kyaw Myint Oo,

    2001-01-01

    In the absence of analytical methods, the half-lives of biological activity of pesticides can be estimated by bioassays. To determine the half-lives of biological acivity of pesticides to fish, static bioassays were conducted in the laboratory with ten different formulations of pesticides using Labeo rohita as a bio-indicator. The half-lives of biological activity for ten different pesticides in soft water at pH 7.5 and 27░C, ranged from 4.6 days to 11.8 days. The half-life of biological acti...

  9. Ecstatic things

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bille, Mikkel

    2017-01-01

    This article addresses the orchestration of domestic lighting as an object of anthropological study. It takes Bedouin domestic architecture in southern Jordan as a starting point in an analysis of how light is used as means of safeguarding spaces as part of hospitality practices central to Bedoui...... by the ecstasy of material things, which aim to safeguard other aspects of life through less tangible strategies....

  10. 7 Things You Should Know About Educational Design Research

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Reeves, Thomas; McKenney, Susan

    2013-01-01

    Reeves, T., & McKenney, S. (2012). 7 Things You Should Know About Educational Design Research. Educause 7 Things Series. Available online: http://www.educause.edu/library/resources/7-things-you-should-know-about-educational-design-research.

  11. Humoral and cellular immune responses to Yersinia pestis Pla antigen in humans immunized with live plague vaccine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feodorova, Valentina A; Lyapina, Anna M; Khizhnyakova, Maria A; Zaitsev, Sergey S; Sayapina, Lidiya V; Arseneva, Tatiana E; Trukhachev, Alexey L; Lebedeva, Svetlana A; Telepnev, Maxim V; Ulianova, Onega V; Lyapina, Elena P; Ulyanov, Sergey S; Motin, Vladimir L

    2018-06-01

    To establish correlates of human immunity to the live plague vaccine (LPV), we analyzed parameters of cellular and antibody response to the plasminogen activator Pla of Y. pestis. This outer membrane protease is an essential virulence factor that is steadily expressed by Y. pestis. PBMCs and sera were obtained from a cohort of naïve (n = 17) and LPV-vaccinated (n = 34) donors. Anti-Pla antibodies of different classes and IgG subclasses were determined by ELISA and immunoblotting. The analysis of antibody response was complicated with a strong reactivity of Pla with normal human sera. The linear Pla B-cell epitopes were mapped using a library of 15-mer overlapping peptides. Twelve peptides that reacted specifically with sera of vaccinated donors were found together with a major cross-reacting peptide IPNISPDSFTVAAST located at the N-terminus. PBMCs were stimulated with recombinant Pla followed by proliferative analysis and cytokine profiling. The T-cell recall response was pronounced in vaccinees less than a year post-immunization, and became Th17-polarized over time after many rounds of vaccination. The Pla protein can serve as a biomarker of successful vaccination with LPV. The diagnostic use of Pla will require elimination of cross-reactive parts of the antigen.

  12. Turn me on! Using the “Internet of Things” to turn things on and off

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Butgereit, L

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available to the Internet. There are many examples of things posting their status on Twitter and allowing uni-directional access. TurnMeOn is an example of allowing bidirectional access between people and things using Internet protocols. Users can query the status of a...

  13. Time to Talk: 6 Things To Know About Massage Therapy for Health Purposes

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... that massage therapy may also promote relaxation and boost mood in people with cancer. A recent review ... mail More Tips 5 Things To Know About Mind and Body Approaches for Substance Use Disorders 6 ...

  14. Active living environment assessments in four rural Latino communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cynthia K. Perry

    2015-01-01

    Conclusions: These four rural towns have some policies, programming and infrastructure in place that support active living. The information from the RALA can be used to inform program and policy development to enhance physical activity in these rural communities.

  15. Nordic children’s ideas about living things in the sea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stougaard, Birgitte

    The aim of the study is to explores what kind of ideas eight years old children in the Nordic countries have about life in the sea according to their drawings. It aim is also to see if there is a difference between their ideas and if so, what kind of difference. The children were asked to draw...... everything they knew that lives in the sea. Each child was asked to explain their drawing. A special scale was used to analyse the drawings. Oral presentation at ASE Annual Conference, University of Reading 6-8 January 2011...

  16. Are solar neutrinos detected by living things

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruderfer, M.

    1975-01-01

    Scattering of electrons by solar neutrinos induces an inherently detectable noise frequency approximately 100 Hz per gram of active mammalian brain tissue based on a scattering cross section previously shown to satisfactorily explain the Davis solar neutrino experiment. (Auth.)

  17. Defense Human Resources Activity > PERSEREC

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skip to main content (Press Enter). Toggle navigation Defense Human Resources Activity Search Search Defense Human Resources Activity: Search Search Defense Human Resources Activity: Search Defense Human Resources Activity U.S. Department of Defense Defense Human Resources Activity Overview

  18. Advancing the sexual and reproductive health and human rights of women living with HIV: a review of UN, regional and national human rights norms and standards.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khosla, Rajat; Van Belle, Nuna; Temmerman, Marleen

    2015-01-01

    The right to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is an essential part of the right to health and is dependent upon substantive equality, including freedom from multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that result in exclusion in both law and practice. Nonetheless, general and specific SRH needs of women living with HIV are often not adequately addressed. For example, services that women living with HIV need may not be available or may have multiple barriers, in particular stigma and discrimination. This study was conducted to review United Nations Human Rights Council, Treaty Monitoring Bodies and Special Rapporteur reports and regional and national mechanisms regarding SRH issues of women living with HIV. The objective is to assess areas of progress, as well as gaps, in relation to health and human rights considerations in the work of these normative bodies on health and human rights. The review was done using keywords of international, regional and national jurisprudence on findings covering the 2000 to 2014 period for documents in English; searches for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and national judgments were also conducted in Spanish. Jurisprudence of UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies, regional mechanisms and national bodies was considered in this regard. In total, 236 findings were identified using the search strategy, and of these 129 were selected for review based on the inclusion criteria. The results highlight that while jurisprudence from international, regional and national bodies reflects consideration of some health and human rights issues related to women living with HIV and SRH, the approach of these bodies has been largely ad hoc and lacks a systematic integration of human rights concerns of women living with HIV in relation to SRH. Most findings relate to non-discrimination, accessibility, informed decision-making and accountability. There are critical gaps on normative standards regarding the human rights of women living with

  19. Physical activity and human health

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paulina Wojciechowska

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The dynamic development of the automotive industry, transport, and the media means that human life has become much easier. At the same time, the comfortable living conditions have decreased physical activity. Biologically conditioned, the need of activity has been minimised by the ever-increasing pace of life. As a result, it may lead to the loss of physical and mental health. Active recreation is not only an excellent source of activity, but also a source of satisfaction. Youths and adults should therefore spend their free time primarily on various forms of physical activity. Aim of the research : To evaluate the physical fitness of students who regularly practice physical exercise, those who occasionally practice, and those not practicing any form of physical activity. Material and methods : In the research we used a questionnaire of the Ruffier test and an orthostatic test. The study involved a group of 15 people aged 20–25 years. Participation in the study was entirely voluntary and anonymous. The study group consisted only of women. Results obtained from the questionnaire survey were fully reflected during exercise tests performed. Results and conclusions: Only regularly practiced physical activity has an effect on our body. Regular exercise increases our body’s physical capacity. Activity is the best means of prevention of lifestyle diseases. Youths and adults should spend their free time mainly doing various forms of physical activity.

  20. Artistic Activism in Nigeria Art

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    DR Nneka

    2015-04-14

    Apr 14, 2015 ... Indexed African Journals Online (AJOL) www.ajol.info. Vol. 4(2), S/No 14, ... This led to several arrests, molestation among other things ... in both the familial platform and the lampooning of government and politicians. The .... The human activity participating in the buying and selling is restricted to the top,.

  1. The Detrimental Effects of Oxytocin-Induced Conformity on Dishonesty in Competition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aydogan, Gökhan; Jobst, Andrea; D'Ardenne, Kimberlee; Müller, Norbert; Kocher, Martin G

    2017-06-01

    Justifications may promote unethical behavior because they constitute a convenient loophole through which people can gain from immoral behavior and preserve a positive self-image at the same time. A justification that is widely used is rooted in conformity: Unethical choices become more permissible because one's peers are expected to make the same unethical choices. In the current study, we tested whether an exogenous alteration of conformity led to a lower inclination to adhere to a widely accepted norm (i.e., honesty) under the pressure of competition. We took advantage of the well-known effects of intranasally applied oxytocin on affiliation, in-group conformity, and in-group favoritism in humans. We found that conformity was enhanced by oxytocin, and this enhancement had a detrimental effect on honesty in a competitive environment but not in a noncompetitive environment. Our findings contribute to recent evidence showing that competition may lead to unethical behavior and erode moral values.

  2. The roles of Nanotechnology and Internet of Nano things in healthcare transformation

    OpenAIRE

    Maksimović, Mirjana

    2017-01-01

    Abstract Healthcare, as a basic human right, did not remain immune to innovative technologies. Technological progress has significantly contributed to high-quality, on-time, acceptable and affordable healthcare. Since their appearance, nanotechnology and the Internet of Nano Things (IoNT) have continuously affected healthcare and have a tremendous influence on its transformation, contributing to the better outcome. The inclusion of nanotechnology in medicine through nanomaterials and nanodevi...

  3. 6 Things to Know about Type 2 Diabetes and Dietary Supplements

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... NCCIH NCCIH At a Glance Mission and Vision Organizational Structure Director's Message Strategic Plans & Reports Budget & ... 6 Things To Know About Type 2 Diabetes and Dietary Supplements Share: Diabetes is ...

  4. Accumulation of Long-lived activity in heavy metal liquid targets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shubin, Y. N.; Gai, E. V.; Ignatyuk, A. V.; Lunev, V. P.

    1997-01-01

    The calculations and analysis of the accumulation of radioactive nuclei and long-lived activity in heavy metal liquid targets were performed. The dominating contributions to the total radioactivity of radionuclides resulting from fission, spallation reactions and radiative capture by target nuclei for various irradiation and cooling times were calculated and analyzed. The most important parts of neutron and proton spectra were determined that give the dominant contributions to the total and partial activity of the targets. The contributions of fission products to the target activity and partial activities of main long-lived fission products were evaluated. The results of the calculations are compared with the data on Energy Amplifier Project. (Author) 12 refs

  5. Systema naturae or the outline of living world classification

    OpenAIRE

    Shipunov, Alexey

    2009-01-01

    Here we present the short outline of the classification of living things (to the level of classes), given with two main goals: to provide a compact, synthetic overview of the biological diversity; and to supply users with up-todate information of latest taxonomic achievements. The latter is especially important in the recent epoch of molecular revolution in the taxonomy.

  6. The internet of things and the development of network technology in China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Ruxin; Zhao, Jianzhen; Ma, Hangtong

    2018-04-01

    The English name of the Internet of Things the Internet of Things, referred to as: the IOT. Internet of Things through the pass, radio frequency identification technology, global positioning system technology, real-time acquisition of any monitoring, connectivity, interactive objects or processes, collecting their sound, light, heat, electricity, mechanics, chemistry, biology, the location of a variety of the information you need network access through a variety of possible things and things, objects and people in the Pan-link intelligent perception of items and processes, identification and management. The Internet of Things IntelliSense recognition technology and pervasive computing, ubiquitous network integration application, known as the third wave of the world's information industry development following the computer, the Internet. Not so much the Internet of Things is a network, as Internet of Things services and applications, Internet of Things is also seen as Internet application development. Therefore, the application of innovation is the core of the development of Internet of Things, and 2.0 of the user experience as the core innovation is the soul of Things.

  7. Are Animals "More Alive" than Plants? Animistic-Anthropocentric Construction of Life Concept

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yorek, Nurettin; Sahin, Mehmet; Aydin, Halil

    2009-01-01

    This study investigated the characteristics students use in attributing value to and classifying the living things; the relational construction of the life concepts and the living things and the place of human in this construction. Participants were first-year high school students from seven schools in Izmir (a large western city in Turkey). An…

  8. Connectivity, interoperability and manageability challenges in internet of things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haseeb, Shariq; Hashim, Aisha Hassan A.; Khalifa, Othman O.; Ismail, Ahmad Faris

    2017-09-01

    The vision of Internet of Things (IoT) is about interconnectivity between sensors, actuators, people and processes. IoT exploits connectivity between physical objects like fridges, cars, utilities, buildings and cities for enhancing the lives of people through automation and data analytics. However, this sudden increase in connected heterogeneous IoT devices takes a huge toll on the existing Internet infrastructure and introduces new challenges for researchers to embark upon. This paper highlights the effects of heterogeneity challenges on connectivity, interoperability, management in greater details. It also surveys some of the existing solutions adopted in the core network to solve the challenges of massive IoT deployment. The paper finally concludes that IoT architecture and network infrastructure needs to be reengineered ground-up, so that IoT solutions can be safely and efficiently deployed.

  9. Active in-database processing to support ambient assisted living systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Morais, Wagner O; Lundström, Jens; Wickström, Nicholas

    2014-08-12

    As an alternative to the existing software architectures that underpin the development of smart homes and ambient assisted living (AAL) systems, this work presents a database-centric architecture that takes advantage of active databases and in-database processing. Current platforms supporting AAL systems use database management systems (DBMSs) exclusively for data storage. Active databases employ database triggers to detect and react to events taking place inside or outside of the database. DBMSs can be extended with stored procedures and functions that enable in-database processing. This means that the data processing is integrated and performed within the DBMS. The feasibility and flexibility of the proposed approach were demonstrated with the implementation of three distinct AAL services. The active database was used to detect bed-exits and to discover common room transitions and deviations during the night. In-database machine learning methods were used to model early night behaviors. Consequently, active in-database processing avoids transferring sensitive data outside the database, and this improves performance, security and privacy. Furthermore, centralizing the computation into the DBMS facilitates code reuse, adaptation and maintenance. These are important system properties that take into account the evolving heterogeneity of users, their needs and the devices that are characteristic of smart homes and AAL systems. Therefore, DBMSs can provide capabilities to address requirements for scalability, security, privacy, dependability and personalization in applications of smart environments in healthcare.

  10. Thing theory & urban objects at EXPO '58

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wallis De Vries, J.G.

    2012-01-01

    This issue of Seminarch us devoted to the seminar Urban Objects at the Expo '58, a Thing Theory for Urbanism, initiated by Karel Wuytack, from Ghent, who is pursuing his PhD at our faculty under the supervision of prof. B. Colenbrander. The 15 participants in this Master's seminar studied the thing

  11. Internet of Things Framework for Home Care Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Biljana Risteska Stojkoska

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The increasing average age of the population in most industrialized countries imposes a necessity for developing advanced and practical services using state-of-the-art technologies, dedicated to personal living spaces. In this paper, we introduce a hierarchical distributed approach for home care systems based on a new paradigm known as Internet of Things (IoT. The proposed generic framework is supported by a three-level data management model composed of dew computing, fog computing, and cloud computing for efficient data flow in IoT based home care systems. We examine the proposed model through a real case scenario of an early fire detection system using a distributed fuzzy logic approach. The obtained results prove that such implementation of dew and fog computing provides high accuracy in fire detection IoT systems, while achieving minimum data latency.

  12. Medical Imaging and the Human Brain: Being Warped is Not Always a Bad Thing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Patterson, James C. II

    2005-01-01

    The capacity to look inside the living human brain and image its function has been present since the early 1980s. There are some clinicians who use functional brain imaging for diagnostic or prognostic purposes, but much of the work done still relates to research evaluation of brain function. There is a striking dichotomy in the use of functional brain imaging between these two fields. Clinical evaluation of a brain PET or SPECT scan is subjective; that is, a Nuclear Medicine physician examines the brain image, and states whether the brain image looks normal or abnormal. On the other hand, modern research evaluation of functional brain images is almost always objective. Brain images are processed and analyzed with advanced software tools, and a mathematical result that relates to regional changes in brain activity is provided. The potential for this research methodology to provide a more accurate and reliable answer to clinical questions about brain function and pathology are immense, but there are still obstacles to overcome. Foremost in this regard is the use of a standardized normal control database for comparison of patient scan data. The tools and methods used in objective analysis of functional imaging data, as well as potential clinical applications will be the focus of my presentation

  13. The S-Lagrangian and a theory of homeostasis in living systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sandler, U.; Tsitolovsky, L.

    2017-04-01

    A major paradox of living things is their ability to actively counteract degradation in a continuously changing environment or being injured through homeostatic protection. In this study, we propose a dynamic theory of homeostasis based on a generalized Lagrangian approach (S-Lagrangian), which can be equally applied to physical and nonphysical systems. Following discoverer of homeostasis Cannon (1935), we assume that homeostasis results from tendency of the organisms to decrease of the stress and avoid of death. We show that the universality of homeostasis is a consequence of analytical properties of the S-Lagrangian, while peculiarities of the biochemical and physiological mechanisms of homeostasis determine phenomenological parameters of the S-Lagrangian. Additionally, we reveal that plausible assumptions about S-Lagrangian features lead to good agreement between theoretical descriptions and observed homeostatic behavior. Here, we have focused on homeostasis of living systems, however, the proposed theory is also capable of being extended to social systems.

  14. A Context-Aware System Infrastructure for Monitoring Activities of Daily Living in Smart Home

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qin Ni

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available We propose a three-layered context-aware architecture for monitoring activities of daily life in smart home. This architecture provides for the inclusion of functionalities that range from low-level data collection to high-level context knowledge extraction. We have also devised an upper-level ontology to model the context in which the activities take place. This enables having a common activity-related context representation, on which to infer and share knowledge. Furthermore, we have begun to implement a platform that realizes our architecture and ontology, making use of Microsoft’s Lab of Things (LoT platform, being the preliminary results on this task also described in the paper.

  15. SIRT1 activation with neuroheal is neuroprotective but SIRT2 inhibition with AK7 is detrimental for disconnected motoneurons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romeo-Guitart, David; Leiva-Rodríguez, Tatiana; Espinosa-Alcantud, María; Sima, Núria; Vaquero, Alejandro; Domínguez-Martín, Helena; Ruano, Diego; Casas, Caty

    2018-05-10

    Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) activity is neuroprotective, and we have recently demonstrated its role in the retrograde degenerative process in motoneurons (MNs) in the spinal cord of rats after peripheral nerve root avulsion (RA) injury. SIRT2 has been suggested to exert effects opposite those of SIRT1; however, its roles in neurodegeneration and neuron response after nerve injury remain unclear. Here we compared the neuroprotective potentials of SIRT1 activation and SIRT2 inhibition in a mouse model of hypoglossal nerve axotomy. This injury induced a reduction of around half MN population within the hypoglossal nucleus by a non-apoptotic neurodegenerative process triggered by endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress that resulted in activation of the unfolded protein response mediated by IRE1α and XBP1 by 21 days post injury. Both SIRT1 activation with NeuroHeal and SIRT2 inhibition with AK7 protected NSC-34 motor neuron-like cells against ER stress in vitro. In agreement with the in vitro results, NeuroHeal treatment or SIRT1 overexpression was neuroprotective of axotomized hypoglossal MNs in a transgenic mouse model. In contrast, AK7 treatment or SIRT2 genetic depletion in mice inhibited damaged MN survival. To resolve the in vitro/in vivo discrepancies, we used an organotypic spinal cord culture system that preserves glial cells. In this system, AK7 treatment of ER-stressed organotypic cultures was detrimental for MNs and increased microglial nuclear factor-κB and the consequent transcription of cytotoxic pro-inflammatory factors similarly. The results highlight the importance of glial cells in determining the neuroprotective impact of any treatment.

  16. An Internet of Things Generic Reference Architecture

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bhalerao, Dipashree M.; Riaz, Tahir; Madsen, Ole Brun

    2013-01-01

    Internet of things Network is a future application of Internet. This network has three major basic blocks as business process or Application, core network or internetwork and peripheral network as Things or objects. The assembly has the basic intention of connecting all physical and virtual things......, and keeping track of all these things for monitoring and controlling some information. IoT architecture is studied from software architecture, overall system architecture and network architecture point of view. Paper puts forward the requirements of software architecture along with, its component...... and deployment diagram, process and interface diagram at abstract level. Paper proposes the abstract generic IoT reference and concrete abstract generic IoT reference architectures. Network architecture is also put up as a state of the art. Paper shortly gives overviews of protocols used for IoT. Some...

  17. [Applying the human dignity ideals of Confucianism and Kant to psychiatric nursing: from theory to practice].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Mei-Hsiu; Lee, Shui-Chuen; Lee, Shu-Chen

    2012-04-01

    Literature articles and clinical observation suggest disease and environmental factors as primary causes of the low self-esteem and stigmatization that typify most psychiatric patients. These patients are at risk of injury when subjected to inappropriate physical restraint. Hospital staffs, including nurses, are in immediate and close contact with psychiatric patients. Mencius's and Kant's thoughts on human dignity can enhance reflections on clinical nursing practices. Mencius's belief that preserving life is not the most desirable thing and death is not the most hated thing can help nurses realize the human dignity of psychiatric patients by understanding that, as an unrighteous act is more detestable than death, the meaning and value of righteousness are greater than life itself. In light of Kant's views on human dignity, nurses should treat patients as goals rather than means. Exploring such ideas can raise nursing quality, restore a positive sense of humanity to psychiatric patients, and develop nursing values and meaning to a higher plane.

  18. Helminths of wild hybrid marmosets (Callithrix sp. living in an environment with high human activity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alexandre de Oliveira Tavela

    Full Text Available The objective of this study was to identify the helminth fauna in hybrid, non-native marmosets, through analysis of fecal samples. The study involved 51 marmosets (genus Callithrix from five groups living in places with levels of human impact in Viçosa-MG. The marmosets were caught using a multiple-entrance trap and were anaesthetized. Feces were collected, refrigerated and analyzed by means of the sedimentation technique (Hoffmann-Pons-Janner. Eggs and parasites were identified, but not counted. Most of the marmosets (86% were parasitized by at least one genus of helminths. Among the infected marmosets, 37% presented co-infection. The intestinal helminths comprised four different taxa: Primasubulura jacchi, Ancylostomatidae, Prosthenorchis sp. and Dilepididae.P. jacchi and Ancylostomatidae had higher prevalences (> 80% and > 40%, respectively and were found in all marmoset groups. Dilepididae species were found in almost all the groups, but only accounted for around 30% of the marmosets. Prosthenorchis sp. showed a relatively low prevalence (< 10% and was only found in one group. Although two parasites are commonly found in marmosets and other primates (P. jacchi and Prosthenorchis sp., our study is the first record for Ancylostomatidae and Dilepididae. Factors like marmosets' feeding behavior and their contact with humans and other species of nonhuman primates seem to be determinants of infection among marmosets.

  19. Improvement in Activities of Daily Living among Danish Centenarians?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rasmussen, Signe Høi; Thinggaard, Mikael; Højgaard, Majken Boris

    2018-01-01

    at investigating if the later born cohort had better functioning in terms of activities of daily living (ADL). Methods: Identification, methodology and assessment instruments were identical in the 1895-West and 1915-West Birth Cohort Studies: All persons living in the western part of Denmark and turning 100 years...

  20. Long-lived activation products in reactor materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Evans, J.C.; Lepel, E.L.; Sanders, R.W.; Wilkerson, C.L.; Silker, W.; Thomas, C.W.; Abel, K.H.; Robertson, D.R.

    1984-08-01

    The purpose of this program was to assess the problems posed to reactor decommissioning by long-lived activation products in reactor construction materials. Samples of stainless steel, vessel steel, concrete, and concrete ingredients were analyzed for up to 52 elements in order to develop a data base of activatable major, minor, and trace elements. Large compositional variations were noted for some elements. Cobalt and niobium concentrations in stainless steel, for example, were found to vary by more than an order of magnitude. A thorough evaluation was made of all possible nuclear reactions that could lead to long lived activation products. It was concluded that all major activation products have been satisfactorily accounted for in decommissioning planning studies completed to date. A detailed series of calculations was carried out using average values of the measured compositions of the appropriate materials to predict the levels of activation products expected in reactor internals, vessel walls, and bioshield materials for PWR and BWR geometries. A comparison is made between calculated activation levels and regulatory guidelines for shallow land disposal according to 10 CFR 61. This analysis shows that PWR and BWR shroud material exceeds the Class C limits and is, therefore, generally unsuitable for near-surface disposal. The PWR core barrel material approaches the Class C limits. Most of the remaining massive components qualify as either Class A or B waste with the bioshield clearly Class A, even at the highest point of activation. Selected samples of activated steel and concrete were subjected to a limited radiochemical analysis program as a verification of the computer model. Reasonably good agreement with the calculations was obtained where comparison was possible. In particular, the presence of 94 Nb in activated stainless steel at or somewhat above expected levels was confirmed

  1. Live-cell Imaging of Pol II Promoter Activity to Monitor Gene expression with RNA IMAGEtag reporters

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shin, Ilchung [Ames Laboratory; Ray, Judhajeet [Ames Laboratory; Gupta, Vinayak [Iowa State University; Ilgu, Muslum [Ames Laboratory; Beasley, Jonathan [Iowa State University; Bendickson, Lee [Ames Laboratory; Mehanovic, Samir [Molecular Express; Kraus, George A. [Iowa State University; Nilsen-Hamilton, Marit [Ames Laboratory

    2014-04-20

    We describe a ribonucleic acid (RNA) reporter system for live-cell imaging of gene expression to detect changes in polymerase II activity on individual promoters in individual cells. The reporters use strings of RNA aptamers that constitute IMAGEtags (Intracellular MultiAptamer GEnetic tags) that can be expressed from a promoter of choice. For imaging, the cells are incubated with their ligands that are separately conjugated with one of the FRET pair, Cy3 and Cy5. The IMAGEtags were expressed in yeast from the GAL1, ADH1 or ACT1 promoters. Transcription from all three promoters was imaged in live cells and transcriptional increases from the GAL1 promoter were observed with time after adding galactose. Expression of the IMAGEtags did not affect cell proliferation or endogenous gene expression. Advantages of this method are that no foreign proteins are produced in the cells that could be toxic or otherwise influence the cellular response as they accumulate, the IMAGEtags are short lived and oxygen is not required to generate their signals. The IMAGEtag RNA reporter system provides a means of tracking changes in transcriptional activity in live cells and in real time.

  2. Polyamines: Bio-Molecules with Diverse Functions in Plant and Human Health and Disease

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Avtar K. Handa

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available Biogenic amines—polyamines (PAs, particularly putrescine, spermidine and spermine are ubiquitous in all living cells. Their indispensable roles in many biochemical and physiological processes are becoming commonly known, including promoters of plant life and differential roles in human health and disease. PAs positively impact cellular functions in plants—exemplified by increasing longevity, reviving physiological memory, enhancing carbon and nitrogen resource allocation/signaling, as well as in plant development and responses to extreme environments. Thus, one or more PAs are commonly found in genomic and metabolomics studies using plants, particulary during different abiotic stresses. In humans, a general decline in PA levels with aging occurs parallel with some human health disorders. Also, high PA dose is detrimental to patients suffering from cancer, aging, innate immunity and cognitive impairment during Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases. A dichotomy exists in that while PAs may increase longevity and reduce some age-associated cardiovascular diseases, in disease conditions involving higher cellular proliferation, their intake has negative consequences. Thus, it is essential that PA levels be rigorously quantified in edible plant sources as well as in dietary meats. Such a database can be a guide for medical experts in order to recommend which foods/meats a patient may consume and which ones to avoid. Accordingly, designing both high and low polyamine diets for human consumption are in vogue, particularly in medical conditions where PA intake may be detrimental, for instance, cancer patients. In this review, literature data has been collated for the levels of the three main PAs, putrescine, spermidine and spermine, in different edible sources—vegetables, fruits, cereals, nuts, meat, sea food, cheese, milk, and eggs. Based on our analysis of vast literature, the effects of PAs in human/animal health fall into two broad, Yang and Yin

  3. Polyamines: Bio-Molecules with diverse functions in plant and human health and disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Handa, Avtar K.; Fatima, Tahira; Mattoo, Autar K.

    2018-02-01

    Biogenic amines – polyamines (PAs), particularly putrescine, spermidine and spermine (and thermospermine) are ubiquitous in all living cells. Their indispensable roles in many biochemical and physiological processes are becoming commonly known, including promoters of plant life and differential roles in human health and disease. PAs positively impact cellular functions in plants – exemplified by increasing longevity, reviving physiological memory, enhancing carbon and nitrogen resource allocation/signaling, as well as in plant development and responses to extreme environments. Thus, one or more PAs are commonly found in genomic and metabolomics studies using plants, particulary during different abiotic stresses. In humans, a general decline in PA levels with aging occurs parallel with some human health disorders. Also, high PA dose is detrimental to patients suffering from cancer, aging, innate immunity and cognitive impairment during Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases. A dichotomy exists in that while PAs may increase longevity and reduce some age-associated cardiovascular diseases, in disease conditions involving higher cellular proliferation, their intake has negative consequences. Thus, it is essential that PA levels be rigorously quantified in edible plant sources as well as in dietary meats. Such a database can be a guide for medical experts in order to recommend which foods/meats a patient may consume and which ones to avoid. Accordingly, designing both high and low polyamine diets for human consumption are in vogue, particularly in medical conditions where PA intake may be detrimental, for instance, cancer patients. In this review, literature data has been collated for the levels of the three main PAs, putrescine, spermidine and spermine, in different edible sources - vegetables, fruits, cereals, nuts, meat, sea food, cheese, milk and eggs. Based on our analysis of vast literature, the effects of PAs in human/animal health fall into two broad, Yang and

  4. A quick method for estimation of long-lived alpha activity in work atmospheres

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Srivastava, G.K.; Ramakrishna Rao, A.; Balbudhe, A.Y.; Sarma, P.S.

    2003-01-01

    In an operating plant quick reporting of the status of long-lived alpha activity concentrations in the work atmosphere is required. This will help in taking any corrective control measures if required. Radon and thoron progeny concentrations prevalent in the general atmosphere predominantly interfere in measurement of long-lived alpha activity in air. The alpha counts due to radon and thoron progeny vary widely in many atmospheric conditions. Therefore, conventionally, 5 days delay is allowed for all interfering activity to decay completely and true alpha air activity is then estimated. An approach for quick assessment of long-lived alpha activity by eliminating interference due to radon and thoron progeny in air, is made here. Based on the study of the pattern of alpha count rate due to radon and thoron progeny in air, a method for estimation of long-lived alpha activity within 8 hours delay time is suggested in this paper. (author)

  5. No evidence of murine leukemia virus-related viruses in live attenuated human vaccines.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    William M Switzer

    Full Text Available The association of xenotropic murine leukemia virus (MLV-related virus (XMRV in prostate cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome reported in previous studies remains controversial as these results have been questioned by recent data. Nonetheless, concerns have been raised regarding contamination of human vaccines as a possible source of introduction of XMRV and MLV into human populations. To address this possibility, we tested eight live attenuated human vaccines using generic PCR for XMRV and MLV sequences. Viral metagenomics using deep sequencing was also done to identify the possibility of other adventitious agents.All eight live attenuated vaccines, including Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV (SA-14-14-2, varicella (Varivax, measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR-II, measles (Attenuvax, rubella (Meruvax-II, rotavirus (Rotateq and Rotarix, and yellow fever virus were negative for XMRV and highly related MLV sequences. However, residual hamster DNA, but not RNA, containing novel endogenous gammaretrovirus sequences was detected in the JEV vaccine using PCR. Metagenomics analysis did not detect any adventitious viral sequences of public health concern. Intracisternal A particle sequences closest to those present in Syrian hamsters and not mice were also detected in the JEV SA-14-14-2 vaccine. Combined, these results are consistent with the production of the JEV vaccine in Syrian hamster cells.We found no evidence of XMRV and MLV in eight live attenuated human vaccines further supporting the safety of these vaccines. Our findings suggest that vaccines are an unlikely source of XMRV and MLV exposure in humans and are consistent with the mounting evidence on the absence of these viruses in humans.

  6. Human activities threaten coral reefs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tveitdal, Svein; Bjoerke, Aake

    2002-01-01

    Research indicates that 58 per cent of the coral reefs of the world are threatened by human activities. Pollution and global heating represent some of the threats. Coral reefs just beneath the surface of the sea are very sensitive to temperature changes. Since 1979, mass death of coral reefs has been reported increasingly often. More than 1000 marine species live in the coral reefs, among these are one fourth of all marine species of fish. It is imperative that the coral reefs be preserved, as coastal communities all over the world depend on them as sources of food and as they are the raw materials for important medicines. The article discusses the threats to the coral reefs in general and does not single out any particular energy-related activity as the principal threat. For instance, the El-Nino phenomenon of the Pacific Ocean is probably involved in mass death of coral reefs and in the North Sea large parts of deep-water reefs have been crushed by heavy beam trawlers fishing for bottom fish

  7. As a Group, Millennials are Unlike Any Other Youth Generation in Living Memory

    Science.gov (United States)

    2005-01-01

    parents.6 In these times of extremely youthful entrepreneurs , such things as college tuition are not enough to bring Millennials to the recruiters. In...As A Group, Millennials Are Unlike Any Other Youth Generation In Living Memory EWS 2005 Subject Area Topical Issues Report...3. DATES COVERED 00-00-2005 to 00-00-2005 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE As A Group, Millennials Are Unlike Any Other Youth Generation In Living Memory

  8. Internet of Things

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Shim, J. P.; Avital, Michel; Dennis, Alan R.

    2017-01-01

    Recent research reports illustrate that Internet of things (IoT) is projected to be a multi-trillion dollar opportunity by 2020, with 50 billion devices connected by then. The IoT is a leading-edge topic in Information Systems (IS). In a hyperconnected economy, IoT can transform a business...

  9. Feature Types and Object Categories: Is Sensorimotoric Knowledge Different for Living and Nonliving Things?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ankerstein, Carrie A.; Varley, Rosemary A.; Cowell, Patricia E.

    2012-01-01

    Some models of semantic memory claim that items from living and nonliving domains have different feature-type profiles. Data from feature generation and perceptual modality rating tasks were compared to evaluate this claim. Results from two living (animals, fruits/vegetables) and two nonliving (tools, vehicles) categories showed that…

  10. Local adaptation of the National Physical Activity Plan: creation of the Active Living Plan for a Healthier San Antonio.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esparza, Laura A; Velasquez, Katherine S; Zaharoff, Annette M

    2014-03-01

    Physical inactivity and related health consequences are serious public health threats. Effective strategies to facilitate and support active-living opportunities must be implemented at national, state, and local levels. San Antonio, Texas, health department officials launched the Active Living Council of San Antonio (ALCSA) to engage the community in developing a 3- to 5-year plan to promote active living. A steering committee set preliminary ALCSA aims and established a multisector membership structure modeled after the US National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP). ALCSA adopted governance standards, increased knowledge of physical activity and health, and engaged in an 18-month collaborative master plan writing process. ALCSA selected overarching strategies and evidence-based strategies for each societal sector and adapted strategies to the local context, including tactics, measures of success, and timelines. Community and expert engagement led to a localized plan reflecting national recommendations, the Active Living Plan for a Healthier San Antonio. Multisector collaborations among governmental agencies and community organizations, which were successfully developed in this case to produce the first-ever local adaptation of the NPAP, require clearly defined expectations. Lessons learned in ALCSA's organizational and plan development can serve as a model for future community-driven efforts to increase active living.

  11. Neuronal medium that supports basic synaptic functions and activity of human neurons in vitro.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bardy, Cedric; van den Hurk, Mark; Eames, Tameji; Marchand, Cynthia; Hernandez, Ruben V; Kellogg, Mariko; Gorris, Mark; Galet, Ben; Palomares, Vanessa; Brown, Joshua; Bang, Anne G; Mertens, Jerome; Böhnke, Lena; Boyer, Leah; Simon, Suzanne; Gage, Fred H

    2015-05-19

    Human cell reprogramming technologies offer access to live human neurons from patients and provide a new alternative for modeling neurological disorders in vitro. Neural electrical activity is the essence of nervous system function in vivo. Therefore, we examined neuronal activity in media widely used to culture neurons. We found that classic basal media, as well as serum, impair action potential generation and synaptic communication. To overcome this problem, we designed a new neuronal medium (BrainPhys basal + serum-free supplements) in which we adjusted the concentrations of inorganic salts, neuroactive amino acids, and energetic substrates. We then tested that this medium adequately supports neuronal activity and survival of human neurons in culture. Long-term exposure to this physiological medium also improved the proportion of neurons that were synaptically active. The medium was designed to culture human neurons but also proved adequate for rodent neurons. The improvement in BrainPhys basal medium to support neurophysiological activity is an important step toward reducing the gap between brain physiological conditions in vivo and neuronal models in vitro.

  12. Contamination of living environment and human organism with plutonium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Benes, J.

    1981-01-01

    The applicability of 239 Pu in nuclear power is discussed. The radiotoxic properties of plutonium, its tissue distribution and the effects of internal and external contamination are described. The contamination of the atmosphere, water, and soil with plutonium isotopes is discussed. Dosimetry is described of plutonium in the living and working environments as is plutonium determination in the human organism. (H.S.)

  13. Vibrant architecture material realm as a codesigner of living spaces

    CERN Document Server

    Armstrong, Rachel

    2015-01-01

    This book sets out the conditions in which the need for a new approach to the production of architecture in the twenty-first century is established, where our homes and cities are facing increasing pressures from environmental challenges that are compromising our well being and our lives. Vibrant architecture embodies a new kind of architectural design practice that explores how lively materials, or ‘vibrant matter’ may be incorporated into our buildings to confer on them some of the properties of living things such as, movement, growth, sensitivity and self-repair. My research examines the theoretical and practical implications of how this may occur through the application of a new group of materials in the production of our living spaces, collectively referred to as ‘vibrant matter’.

  14. Humpback Dolphin (Genus Sousa) Behavioural Responses to Human Activities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piwetz, Sarah; Lundquist, David; Würsig, Bernd

    2015-01-01

    Humpback dolphins (genus Sousa) use shallow, near-shore waters throughout their range. This coastal distribution makes them vulnerable to recreational and commercial disturbances, especially near heavily populated and industrialized areas. Most research focusing on Sousa and human activities has emphasized direct impacts and threats, involving injury and death, with relatively little focus on indirect effects on dolphins, such as changes in behaviour that may lead to deleterious effects. Understanding behaviour is important in resolving human-wildlife conflict and is an important component of conservation. This chapter gives an overview of animal behavioural responses to human activity with examples from diverse taxa; reviews the scientific literature on behavioural responses of humpback dolphins to human activity throughout their range, including marine vessel traffic, dolphin tourism, cetacean-fishery interactions, noise pollution, and habitat alteration; and highlights information and data gaps for future humpback dolphin research to better inform behaviour-based management decisions that contribute to conservation efforts. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.

  15. What helps children to be more active and less sedentary? Perceptions of mothers living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Veitch, J; Hume, C; Salmon, J; Crawford, D; Ball, K

    2013-01-01

      Increasing children's participation in physical activity and decreasing time spent in sedentary behaviours is of great importance to public health. Despite living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, some children manage to engage in health-promoting physical activity and avoid high levels of screen-based activities (i.e. watching TV, computer use and playing electronic games). Understanding how these children manage to do well and whether there are unique features of their home or neighbourhood that explain their success is important for informing strategies targeting less active and more sedentary children. The aim of this qualitative study was to gain in-depth insights from mothers regarding their child's resilience to low physical activity and high screen-time.   Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 38 mothers of children who lived in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in urban and rural areas of Victoria, Australia. The interviews were designed to gain in-depth insights about perceived individual, social and physical environmental factors influencing resilience to low physical activity and high screen-time.   Themes relating to physical activity that emerged from the interviews included: parental encouragement, support and modelling; sports culture in a rural town; the physical home and neighbourhood environment; child's individual personality; and dog ownership. Themes relating to screen-time behaviours encompassed: parental control; and child's individual preferences.   The results offer important insights into potential avenues for developing 'resilience' and increasing physical activity and reducing screen-time among children living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. In light of the negative effects of low physical activity and high levels of screen-time on children's health, this evidence is urgently needed. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  16. Active In-Database Processing to Support Ambient Assisted Living Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wagner O. de Morais

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available As an alternative to the existing software architectures that underpin the development of smart homes and ambient assisted living (AAL systems, this work presents a database-centric architecture that takes advantage of active databases and in-database processing. Current platforms supporting AAL systems use database management systems (DBMSs exclusively for data storage. Active databases employ database triggers to detect and react to events taking place inside or outside of the database. DBMSs can be extended with stored procedures and functions that enable in-database processing. This means that the data processing is integrated and performed within the DBMS. The feasibility and flexibility of the proposed approach were demonstrated with the implementation of three distinct AAL services. The active database was used to detect bed-exits and to discover common room transitions and deviations during the night. In-database machine learning methods were used to model early night behaviors. Consequently, active in-database processing avoids transferring sensitive data outside the database, and this improves performance, security and privacy. Furthermore, centralizing the computation into the DBMS facilitates code reuse, adaptation and maintenance. These are important system properties that take into account the evolving heterogeneity of users, their needs and the devices that are characteristic of smart homes and AAL systems. Therefore, DBMSs can provide capabilities to address requirements for scalability, security, privacy, dependability and personalization in applications of smart environments in healthcare.

  17. Optical coherence tomography of the living human kidney

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter M. Andrews

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Acute tubular necrosis (ATN induced by ischemia is the most common insult to donor kidneys destined for transplantation. ATN results from swelling and subsequent damage to cells lining the kidney tubules. In this study, we demonstrate the capability of optical coherence tomography (OCT to image the renal microstructures of living human donor kidneys and potentially provide a measure to determine the extent of ATN. We also found that Doppler-based OCT (i.e., DOCT reveals renal blood flow dynamics that is another major factor which could relate to post-transplant renal function. All OCT/DOCT observations were performed in a noninvasive, sterile and timely manner on intact human kidneys both prior to (ex vivo and following (in vivo their transplantation. Our results indicate that this imaging model provides transplant surgeons with an objective visualization of the transplant kidneys prior and immediately post transplantation.

  18. Effect of the cooling suit method applied to individuals with multiple sclerosis on fatigue and activities of daily living.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Özkan Tuncay, Fatma; Mollaoğlu, Mukadder

    2017-12-01

    To determine the effects of cooling suit on fatigue and activities of daily living of individuals with multiple sclerosis. Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms in people with multiple sclerosis and adversely affects their activities of daily living. Studies evaluating fatigue associated with multiple sclerosis have reported that most of the fatigue cases are related to the increase in body temperature and that cooling therapy is effective in coping with fatigue. This study used a two sample, control group design. The study sample comprised 75 individuals who met the inclusion criteria. Data were collected with study forms. After the study data were collected, cooling suit treatment was administered to the experimental group. During home visits paid at the fourth and eighth weeks after the intervention, the aforementioned scales were re-administered to the participants in the experimental and control groups. The analyses performed demonstrated that the severity levels of fatigue experienced by the participants in the experimental group wearing cooling suit decreased. The experimental group also exhibited a significant improvement in the participants' levels of independence in activities of daily living. The cooling suit worn by individuals with multiple sclerosis was determined to significantly improve the participants' levels of fatigue and independence in activities of daily living. The cooling suit therapy was found to be an effective intervention for the debilitating fatigue suffered by many multiple sclerosis patients, thus significantly improving their level of independence in activities of daily living. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  19. Semantic Reasoning for Context-aware Internet of Things Applications

    OpenAIRE

    Maarala, Altti Ilari; Su, Xiang; Riekki, Jukka

    2016-01-01

    Advances in ICT are bringing into reality the vision of a large number of uniquely identifiable, interconnected objects and things that gather information from diverse physical environments and deliver the information to a variety of innovative applications and services. These sensing objects and things form the Internet of Things (IoT) that can improve energy and cost efficiency and automation in many different industry fields such as transportation and logistics, health care and manufacturi...

  20. These Things Continue

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Meinert, Lotte; Whyte, Susan Reynolds

    2017-01-01

    After decades of violent war, families are rebuilding their lives in the Acholi sub-region of Northern Uganda. The return to normal order is marked by problems people see as consequences of the years of insecurity: mental illness, alcoholism, domestic violence, marital instability, and land...... and contamination of “these things”. We show how Acholi ideas of cen, the spirits of the vengeful dead, relate to phenomenological conceptions of violence and “the alien”, in human experience....

  1. Real-time dynamics of RNA Polymerase II clustering in live human cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cisse, Ibrahim

    2014-03-01

    Transcription is the first step in the central dogma of molecular biology, when genetic information encoded on DNA is made into messenger RNA. How this fundamental process occurs within living cells (in vivo) is poorly understood,[1] despite extensive biochemical characterizations with isolated biomolecules (in vitro). For high-order organisms, like humans, transcription is reported to be spatially compartmentalized in nuclear foci consisting of clusters of RNA Polymerase II, the enzyme responsible for synthesizing all messenger RNAs. However, little is known of when these foci assemble or their relative stability. We developed an approach based on photo-activation localization microscopy (PALM) combined with a temporal correlation analysis, which we refer to as tcPALM. The tcPALM method enables the real-time characterization of biomolecular spatiotemporal organization, with single-molecule sensitivity, directly in living cells.[2] Using tcPALM, we observed that RNA Polymerase II clusters form transiently, with an average lifetime of 5.1 (+/- 0.4) seconds. Stimuli affecting transcription regulation yielded orders of magnitude changes in the dynamics of the polymerase clusters, implying that clustering is regulated and plays a role in the cells ability to effect rapid response to external signals. Our results suggest that the transient crowding of enzymes may aid in rate-limiting steps of genome regulation.

  2. FUNGSI KOGNITIF MEMILIKI HUBUNGAN DENGAN KEMANDIRIAN ACTIVITY DAILY LIVING LANSIA

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dian Suspiyanti

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available ABSTRACTBackground:The increasing number of the elderly will becomeproblems due to theaging process. Theagingprocess in elderly has many aspects of life especially in health problem, one of them is the cognitivefunction. The cognitiveproblemwill be a serious problem because it attacks the elderly’s thought. Thecognitive destructionon the elderly known as demensia. Sliding scale of demensia will influence the socialactivities, normal occupation and daily activities whereas the daily activities are important to the viability,health and prosperity of the elderly.Objective:The study aimed to know between cognitive function with the independency of the elderly infullfiling activity daily living in Jodog Village, Gilangharjo District, Pandak, Bantul.Methods:The study used a cross sectional design. The data collection used proportional random samplingmethode, with the number of 62 elderly. The data are collected using MMSE andKatz Indexquestionaire.The data analysis method used the univariat and bivariat analysis of Kendall’s tau with p<0,05.Results:The result of cognitive function showed that 11,3% of the elderly have average level of cognitivefunction, 56,5% have light interruption level of cognitive function, and 3,2 % have heavy destruction level ofcognitive function. The assesment of independency of the elderly in doing activity daily living shows that theindepency of the elderly in category A (35,5%, B (19,4%, C (17,7%, D(14,5%, E (4,8%, F (1,6% and G(6,5%. The result of Kendall’s tau correlation between cognitive function with the indepency of the elderly indoing daily activities has 0,003 significance level (0<0,05 with the lowest correlation strength (coefficientcorrelation 0,321.Conclusion:There was a correlation between cognitive function and independency elderly in the doingactivity daily living.Suggestion :The result of study can give more information for cadre at Jodog Village about the value ofelderly cognitive impairment and

  3. Vibrational imaging of glucose uptake activity in live cells and tissues by stimulated Raman scattering microscopy (Conference Presentation)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Fanghao; Chen, Zhixing; Zhang, Luyuan; Shen, Yihui; Wei, Lu; Min, Wei

    2016-03-01

    Glucose is consumed as an energy source by virtually all living organisms, from bacteria to humans. Its uptake activity closely reflects the cellular metabolic status in various pathophysiological transformations, such as diabetes and cancer. Extensive efforts such as positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and fluorescence microscopy have been made to specifically image glucose uptake activity but all with technical limitations. Here, we report a new platform to visualize glucose uptake activity in live cells and tissues with subcellular resolution and minimal perturbation. A novel glucose analogue with a small alkyne tag (carbon-carbon triple bond) is developed to mimic natural glucose for cellular uptake, which can be imaged with high sensitivity and specificity by targeting the strong and characteristic alkyne vibration on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscope to generate a quantitative three dimensional concentration map. Cancer cells with differing metabolic characteristics can be distinguished. Heterogeneous uptake patterns are observed in tumor xenograft tissues, neuronal culture and mouse brain tissues with clear cell-cell variations. Therefore, by offering the distinct advantage of optical resolution but without the undesirable influence of bulky fluorophores, our method of coupling SRS with alkyne labeled glucose will be an attractive tool to study energy demands of living systems at the single cell level.

  4. Sex enhances adaptation by unlinking beneficial from detrimental mutations in experimental yeast populations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gray Jeremy C

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The maintenance of sexuality is a classic problem in evolutionary biology because it is a less efficient mode of reproduction compared with asexuality; however, many organisms are sexual. Theoretical work suggests sex facilitates natural selection, and experimental data support this. However, there are fewer experimental studies that have attempted to determine the mechanisms underlying the advantage of sex. Two main classes of hypotheses have been proposed to explain its advantage: detrimental mutation clearance and beneficial mutation accumulation. Here we attempt to experimentally differentiate between these two classes by evolving Saccharomyces cerevisiae populations that differ only in their ability to undergo sex, and also manipulate mutation rate. We cannot manipulate the types of mutation that occur, but instead propagate populations in both stressful and permissive environments and assume that the extent of detrimental mutation clearance and beneficial mutation incorporation differs between them. Results After 300 mitotic generations interspersed with 11 rounds of sex we found there was no change or difference in fitness between sexuals and asexuals propagated in the permissive environment, regardless of mutation rate. Sex conferred a greater extent of adaptation in the stressful environment, and wild-type and elevated mutation rate sexual populations adapted equivalently. However, the asexual populations with an elevated mutation rate appeared more retarded in their extent of adaptation compared to asexual wild-type populations. Conclusions Sex provided no advantage in the permissive environment where beneficial mutations were rare. We could not evaluate if sex functioned to clear detrimental mutations more effectively or not here as no additional fitness load was observed in the mutator populations. However, in the stressful environment, where detrimental mutations were likely of more consequence, and where

  5. A methodology to leverage cross-sectional accelerometry to capture weather's influence in active living research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Katapally, Tarun R; Rainham, Daniel; Muhajarine, Nazeem

    2016-06-27

    While active living interventions focus on modifying urban design and built environment, weather variation, a phenomenon that perennially interacts with these environmental factors, is consistently underexplored. This study's objective is to develop a methodology to link weather data with existing cross-sectional accelerometry data in capturing weather variation. Saskatoon's neighbourhoods were classified into grid-pattern, fractured grid-pattern and curvilinear neighbourhoods. Thereafter, 137 Actical accelerometers were used to derive moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) data from 455 children in 25 sequential one-week cycles between April and June, 2010. This sequential deployment was necessary to overcome the difference in the ratio between the sample size and the number of accelerometers. A data linkage methodology was developed, where each accelerometry cycle was matched with localized (Saskatoon-specific) weather patterns derived from Environment Canada. Statistical analyses were conducted to depict the influence of urban design on MVPA and SB after factoring in localized weather patterns. Integration of cross-sectional accelerometry with localized weather patterns allowed the capture of weather variation during a single seasonal transition. Overall, during the transition from spring to summer in Saskatoon, MVPA increased and SB decreased during warmer days. After factoring in localized weather, a recurring observation was that children residing in fractured grid-pattern neighbourhoods accumulated significantly lower MVPA and higher SB. The proposed methodology could be utilized to link globally available cross-sectional accelerometry data with place-specific weather data to understand how built and social environmental factors interact with varying weather patterns in influencing active living.

  6. Identification of phosphoproteins coupled to initiation of motility in live epididymal mouse sperm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tash, J. S.; Bracho, G. E.

    1998-01-01

    A method for collecting live immotile cauda epididymal mouse sperm that initiate motility by dilution into an activation buffer is described. Sperm in collection buffer showed low percent motility (MOT) and population progression (PRG) that increased 10-fold and 9-fold, respectively, during the first 2 min after dilution into activation buffer. Western phosphoserine (pS), phosphothreonine (pT), and phosphotyrosine (pY) analysis revealed a 120 kDa protein that markedly increased in pT content during initiation of motility and may be related to FP130, the motility-coupled axonemal protein of sea urchin sperm. A prominent 82 kDa protein that was pS and pT-phosphorylated in immotile and motile sperm is likely the fibrous sheath component AKAP82 that is phosphorylated during spermatogenesis. Analysis of live human sperm also identified a prominent 120 kDa pT protein. Thus it appears that phosphorylation of FP130 and related 120 kDa proteins in mouse, and perhaps human sperm, represent common targets during motility initiation in sperm. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

  7. Effectiveness of Three Therapeutic Modalities of Bobath, Conductive Education to Parents Regarding to Activity of Daily Living in Cerebral Palcied Children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hamid Dalvand

    2008-04-01

    Full Text Available Objective: The goal of this study was to determine effectiveness of Bobath, conductive education (CE and education to parents on activity daily living (ADL in educable children with cerebral palsy, 3-5 years old. Materials & Methods: This research was a Quasi-experimental and interventional with pre - post study design that performed on 45 children with cerebral palsy from Valyasr rehabilitation foundation clinics. They were selected by simple sampling and matched from sex, age, IQ and disorder type and were assigned to three groups by simple randomize method (15 Bobath, 15 CE, 15 education to parents. Clinical tests were goodenough and client development evaluation report (CDER. The data were analyzed by statistical tests such as Wilcoxon signed, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-whitney U. Results: Three groups had significant improved in activity of daily living (ADL after treatment (P<0/001. There was significant difference in total function of activity of daily living between three groups after treatment (P<0/001. The most effective approach was conductive education (CE, then education to parent and Bobath There were significant relations between function difference of three groups in 13 sub tasks of 17 ADL subtasks (P<0/05. Conclusion: Bobath, conductive education (CE and education to parent’s approaches improve skills of activity of daily living, but in CE approach, group educations causes better improvement in social communication and practical educations and programs increase improvement of ADL skills.

  8. Does the association between leisure activities and survival in old age differ by living arrangement?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nilsen, Charlotta; Agahi, Neda; Shaw, Benjamin A

    2018-01-01

    Government policies to promote ageing in place have led to a growing frail population living at home in advanced old age, many of whom live alone. Living alone in old age is associated with adverse health outcomes, but we know little about whether it moderates the health impact of other risk and protective factors. Engagement in leisure activities is considered critical to successful ageing. We investigated whether the association between different types of leisure activities and survival in non-institutionalised older adults (aged 76 and above) differs by living arrangement and gender. We used the Swedish Panel Study of Living Conditions of the Oldest Old study from 2011 and the Swedish Cause of Death Register (until 30 June 2014) to conduct Cox regression analyses (n=669). Incident mortality was 30.2% during the follow-up period. Overall level of leisure activity was not significantly associated with survival in either living arrangement, but some specific leisure activities, and associations, were different across gender and living arrangement. More specifically, certain social activities (participation in organisations and having relatives visit) were associated with longer survival, but only in men living alone. In women, most results were statistically non-significant, with the exception of solving crosswords being associated with longer survival in women living with someone. In order to facilitate engagement with life, interventions focusing on leisure activities in the oldest age groups should take gender and living arrangement into consideration when determining the type of activity most needed. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  9. Developing Ubiquitous Sensor Network Platform Using Internet of Things: Application in Precision Agriculture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francisco Javier Ferrández-Pastor

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The application of Information Technologies into Precision Agriculture methods has clear benefits. Precision Agriculture optimises production efficiency, increases quality, minimises environmental impact and reduces the use of resources (energy, water; however, there are different barriers that have delayed its wide development. Some of these main barriers are expensive equipment, the difficulty to operate and maintain and the standard for sensor networks are still under development. Nowadays, new technological development in embedded devices (hardware and communication protocols, the evolution of Internet technologies (Internet of Things and ubiquitous computing (Ubiquitous Sensor Networks allow developing less expensive systems, easier to control, install and maintain, using standard protocols with low-power consumption. This work develops and test a low-cost sensor/actuator network platform, based in Internet of Things, integrating machine-to-machine and human-machine-interface protocols. Edge computing uses this multi-protocol approach to develop control processes on Precision Agriculture scenarios. A greenhouse with hydroponic crop production was developed and tested using Ubiquitous Sensor Network monitoring and edge control on Internet of Things paradigm. The experimental results showed that the Internet technologies and Smart Object Communication Patterns can be combined to encourage development of Precision Agriculture. They demonstrated added benefits (cost, energy, smart developing, acceptance by agricultural specialists when a project is launched.

  10. Developing Ubiquitous Sensor Network Platform Using Internet of Things: Application in Precision Agriculture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferrández-Pastor, Francisco Javier; García-Chamizo, Juan Manuel; Nieto-Hidalgo, Mario; Mora-Pascual, Jerónimo; Mora-Martínez, José

    2016-07-22

    The application of Information Technologies into Precision Agriculture methods has clear benefits. Precision Agriculture optimises production efficiency, increases quality, minimises environmental impact and reduces the use of resources (energy, water); however, there are different barriers that have delayed its wide development. Some of these main barriers are expensive equipment, the difficulty to operate and maintain and the standard for sensor networks are still under development. Nowadays, new technological development in embedded devices (hardware and communication protocols), the evolution of Internet technologies (Internet of Things) and ubiquitous computing (Ubiquitous Sensor Networks) allow developing less expensive systems, easier to control, install and maintain, using standard protocols with low-power consumption. This work develops and test a low-cost sensor/actuator network platform, based in Internet of Things, integrating machine-to-machine and human-machine-interface protocols. Edge computing uses this multi-protocol approach to develop control processes on Precision Agriculture scenarios. A greenhouse with hydroponic crop production was developed and tested using Ubiquitous Sensor Network monitoring and edge control on Internet of Things paradigm. The experimental results showed that the Internet technologies and Smart Object Communication Patterns can be combined to encourage development of Precision Agriculture. They demonstrated added benefits (cost, energy, smart developing, acceptance by agricultural specialists) when a project is launched.

  11. The detrimental effects of lead on human and animal health

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammed Abdulrazzaq Assi

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Lead, a chemical element in the carbon group with symbol Pb (from Latin: Plumbum, meaning “the liquid silver” and has an atomic number 82 in the periodic table. It was the first element that was characterized by its kind of toxicity. In animal systems, lead (Pb has been incriminated in a wide spectrum of toxic effects and it is considered one of the persistent ubiquitous heavy metals. Being exposed to this metal could lead to the change of testicular functions in human beings as well as in the wildlife. The lead poising is a real threat to the public health, especially in the developing countries. Accordingly, great efforts on the part of the occupational and public health have been taken to curb the dangers of this metal. Hematopoietic, renal, reproductive, and central nervous system are among the parts of the human body and systems that are vulnerable toward the dangers following exposure to high level of Pb. In this review, we discussed the massive harmful impact that leads acetate toxicity has on the animals and the worrying fact that this harmful toxicant can be found quite easily in the environment and abundance. Highlighting its (Pb effects on various organs in the biological systems, its economic, as well as scientific importance, with the view to educate the public/professionals who work in this area. In this study, we focus on the current studies and research related to lead toxicity in animals and also to a certain extent toward human as well.

  12. Bioremediation of oxytetracycline in seawater by living and dead biomass of the microalga Phaeodactylum tricornutum.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Santaeufemia, Sergio; Torres, Enrique; Mera, Roi; Abalde, Julio

    2016-12-15

    Due to its use, a large amount of Oxytetracycline (OTC) is released into water, which has a detrimental impact on aquatic ecosystems and human health. Although there are different physicochemical methods (mainly photodegradation) to remove OTC, there is increasing interest in the use of bioremediation. The sorption characteristics of OTC using living and dead biomass of the microalga Phaeodactylum tricornutum have been investigated in this study. Kinetics, isotherms and maximum elimination capacity were tested and discussed. Kinetic studies showed that the OTC removal by living biomass followed a sigmoidal model. However, the dead biomass followed a pseudo-first order model. The living biomass showed higher efficiency than the dead biomass with maximum sorption capacities of 29.18mgg -1 and 4.54mgg -1 , respectively. Combination of living biomass and photodegradation under the culture conditions eliminated 13.2mgL -1 of OTC during 11h of culture and with an initial OTC concentration of 15mgL -1 . With an initial OTC concentration of 2.5mgL -1 , 97% of OTC was removed. This removal was mainly caused by bioremediation than by photodegradation. The results proved the potential practical application of the living P. tricornutum biomass for a low-cost and efficient removal of OTC from seawater. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. PROBLEMS OF INFORMAT ION SECURITY: INTERNET OF THINGS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stanislav A. Shikov

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: The article deals with the threats to information security in the internetworking of physical devices, also known as Internet of Things (IoT, and the security challenge in terms of home automation systems, ZigBee protocol, Tesla electric cars and Apple Pay mobile payment. Section provides the term definition and history of the Internet of Things. The IEEE 1888 IoT-related standard developed in 2011 as integrated solution based on energy-saving technologies for the Internet of Things. The author considers security challenges for the “smart home” system. Next section reviews the experiments of the author involved in testing of the Internet of Things devices. Materials and Methods: The subjects of study are the Apple Pay, the ZigBee wireless standard, Tesla Model S electric cars. The main methods for identification of security threats are analysis and comparison. Results: The companies of electronic devices simplify and reduce the price of manufacturing process. The customers and users are rarely interested in levels of electronic devices security policies. This is the weakest link of electronic products in terms of security and safety. The tests demonstrated that modern electronic-based technologies do not reach the 100-percentage security level. Apple Pay mobile payment system demonstrated the highest security rating. Discussion and Conclusions: Modern electronic devices for Internet of Things does not meet all safety requirements, from the point of view of the author. The article recommends analyzing the potential threats and developing new security standards. In addition, the logistics of electronic devices for Internet of Things need to be under control from the manufacturer to equipment installation time.

  14. Improving activities of daily living ability in women with fibromyalgia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    von Bülow, Cecilie; Amris, Kirstine; Bandak, Elisabeth

    2017-01-01

    OBJECTIVE: To explore and compare the outcomes of adaptation and physical activity programmes regarding activities of daily living (ADL) ability following interdisciplinary rehabilitation in women with fibromyalgia. METHODS: Participants (n = 85) were quasi-randomized to 16-week adaptation (ADAPT...

  15. Ambient-Energy Powered Multi-Hop Internet of Things

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rao, V.S.

    2017-01-01

    The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the disruptive technologies in today’s connected world. The idea is to connect every thing to the Internet. IoT holds the key to many current and future technologies that will significantly influence the quality and sustainability of life. The vision of IoT is

  16. Sensor Mania! The Internet of Things, Wearable Computing, Objective Metrics, and the Quantified Self 2.0

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Melanie Swan

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available The number of devices on the Internet exceeded the number of people on the Internet in 2008, and is estimated to reach 50 billion in 2020. A wide-ranging Internet of Things (IOT ecosystem is emerging to support the process of connecting real-world objects like buildings, roads, household appliances, and human bodies to the Internet via sensors and microprocessor chips that record and transmit data such as sound waves, temperature, movement, and other variables. The explosion in Internet-connected sensors means that new classes of technical capability and application are being created. More granular 24/7 quantified monitoring is leading to a deeper understanding of the internal and external worlds encountered by humans. New data literacy behaviors such as correlation assessment, anomaly detection, and high-frequency data processing are developing as humans adapt to the different kinds of data flows enabled by the IOT. The IOT ecosystem has four critical functional steps: data creation, information generation, meaning-making, and action-taking. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current and rapidly emerging ecosystem of the Internet of Things (IOT.

  17. The Promise of the Internet of Things in Healthcare: How Hard Is It to Keep?

    OpenAIRE

    Marques, R; Gregório, João; Mira da Silva , M; Lapão, L

    2016-01-01

    Internet of Things is starting to be implemented in healthcare. An example is the automated monitoring systems that are currently being used to provide healthcare workers with feedback regarding their hand hygiene compliance. These solutions seem effective in promoting healthcare workers self-awareness and action regarding their hand hygiene performance, which is still far from desired. Underlying these systems, an indoor positioning component (following Internet of Things paradigm) is used t...

  18. Survey of the ICRP 103 detriment-model; Untersuchung und Bewertung des Detrimentbegriffs im Strahlenschutz

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Emami, S.; Buermeyer, J.; Spruck, K.; Breckow, J. [Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM), Giessen (Germany). Inst. fuer Medizinische Physik und Strahlenschutz (IMPS)

    2016-07-01

    The detriment of ICRP 103 is roughly defined as the product of the (organ specific) risk coefficient and the ''damage'' that may be associated with a (organ specific) cancer or hereditary effect, respectively. This is to indicate a weighted risk according to the radiation sensitivity of the different organs and the severity of damage that may possibly arise. Whereas the risk coefficients refer to radiation exposure parameters, the scale or degree of damage is independent of these parameters. The radiation independent parameters are the lethality, the loss of quality of life and the reduced life expectancy, which are considered as quantities associated with the severity of disease or damage, respectively. These parameters may change gradually, on the one hand possibly due to an increase of cancer becoming a common disease within the population. On the other hand, possibly to a decrease of cancer due to the progress in medical diagnostics and treatments that allow patients to survive or at least maintain a higher life quality standard. The damage and therefore the detriment appears to be mostly affected by the lethality. The lethality is the quotient of mortality to incidence. The investigation of the detriment presented in this paper focuses on the influence of the lethality on the detriment from 1980-2012 in Germany and USA.

  19. Intensification of hydrological drought due to human activity in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Dan; Zhang, Qi; Qiu, Jiaming; Bai, Peng; Liang, Kang; Li, Xianghu

    2018-10-01

    Hydrological extremes are changing under the impacts of environmental change, i.e., climate variation and human activity, which can substantially influence ecosystems and the living environment of humans in affected region. This study investigates the impacts of environmental change on hydrological drought in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in China based on hydrological modelling. Change points for streamflow into two major lakes and a reservoir in the study area were detected in the late 1980s using the Mann-Kendall test. Streamflow simulation by a water balance model was performed, and the resulting Kling-Gupta efficiency value was >0.90. Hydrological drought events were identified based on the simulated streamflow under different scenarios. The results show that the hydrological drought occurrence was increased by precipitation, whereas the drought peak value was increased by potential evapotranspiration. The impacts of precipitation and potential evapotranspiration on drought severity and duration varied in the study area. However, hydrological drought was intensified by the influence of human activity, which increased the severity, duration and peak value of droughts. The dominant factor for hydrological drought severity is precipitation, followed by potential evapotranspiration and human activity. The impacts of climate variation and human activity on drought severity are larger than on drought duration. In addition, environmental change is shown to have an "accumulation effect" on hydrological drought, demonstrating that the indirect impacts of environmental change on hydrological drought are much larger than the direct impacts on streamflow. This study improves our understanding of the responses of hydrological extremes to environmental change, which is useful for the management of water resources and the prediction of hydrological disasters. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Extending the Internet of Things to the Future Internet Through IPv6 Support

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Antonio J. Jara

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Emerging Internet of Things (IoT/Machine-to-Machine (M2M systems require a transparent access to information and services through a seamless integration into the Future Internet. This integration exploits infrastructure and services found on the Internet by the IoT. On the one hand, the so-called Web of Things aims for direct Web connectivity by pushing its technology down to devices and smart things. On the other hand, the current and Future Internet offer stable, scalable, extensive, and tested protocols for node and service discovery, mobility, security, and auto-configuration, which are also required for the IoT. In order to integrate the IoT into the Internet, this work adapts, extends, and bridges using IPv6 the existing IoT building blocks (such as solutions from IEEE 802.15.4, BT-LE, RFID while maintaining backwards compatibility with legacy networked embedded systems from building and industrial automation. Specifically, this work presents an extended Internet stack with a set of adaptation layers from non-IP towards the IPv6-based network layer in order to enable homogeneous access for applications and services.

  1. Formations of Feeling, Constellation of Things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ben Highmore

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available This essay revisits Raymond Williams’s notion of ‘structures of feeling’ with the intention of clarifying what Williams meant by ‘feelings’, and of exploring the concept’s possible range and reach within the study of culture. It recovers the initial anthropological context for the phrase by reconnecting it to the work of Ruth Benedict and Gregory Bateson. It goes on to suggest that while the analysis of ‘structures of feeling’ has been deployed primarily in studies of literary and filmic culture it might be usefully extended towards the study of more ubiquitous forms of material culture such as clothing, housing, food, furnishings and other material practices of daily living. Indeed it might be one way of explaining how formations of feeling are disseminated, how they suture us to the social world and how feelings are embedded in the accoutrements of domestic, habitual life. The essay argues that by joining together a socially phenomenological interest in the world of things, accompanied by an attention to historically specific moods and atmospheres, ‘structures of feelings’ can direct analyses towards important mundane cultural phenomena.

  2. Correcting the Eyesight: Cosmopolitanism in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Asım AYDIN

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Correcting the Eyesight: Cosmopolitanism in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Abstract  The evolutionary process of separatist efforts such as colonialism, imperialism, globalization, neo-colonialism or any nationalism are outdated because global resources are becoming scarce every day, so such terms as human solidarity, Cosmopolitanism, and co-existence will have to endure in order to make use of the resources in the most optimum way. Mankind will have to understand that global sameness has to prevail despite long years of hostility, violence and bloodshed. In line with such an understanding, cosmopolitanism, as a term refers to world citizenship and 'a tolerance for things and people who are different’ and 'morality which is not rooted locally, but globally.’ Chinua Achebe tries to change the African images created by the writers depending on Eurocentric and Afrocentric perspectives. He handles the same periphery from an unusual viewpoint that is because he utilizes a different approach in representing Africa and composes counter discourses in response to colonial, imperial and racial discourses presented in colonial contexts.

  3. Coalitions of things: supporting ISR tasks via internet of things approaches

    Science.gov (United States)

    Preece, Alun; Taylor, Ian; Dawson, Andrew; Braines, Dave; O'Leary, Nick; Thomas, Anna; Tomsett, Richard; La Porta, Tom; Bakdash, Jonathan Z.; Zaroukian, Erin

    2017-05-01

    In the wake of rapid maturing of Internet of Things (IoT) approaches and technologies in the commercial sector, the IoT is increasingly seen as a key `disruptive' technology in military environments. Future operational environments are expected to be characterized by a lower proportion of human participants and a higher proportion of autonomous and semi-autonomous devices. This view is reflected in both US `third offset' and UK `information age' thinking and is likely to have a profound effect on how multinational coalition operations are conducted in the future. Much of the initial consideration of IoT adoption in the military domain has rightly focused on security concerns, reflecting similar cautions in the early era of electronic commerce. As IoT approaches mature, this initial technical focus is likely to shift to considerations of interactivity and policy. In this paper, rather than considering the broader range of IoT applications in the military context, we focus on roles for IoT concepts and devices in future intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) tasks, drawing on experience in sensor-mission resourcing and human-computer collaboration (HCC) for ISR. We highlight the importance of low training overheads in the adoption of IoT approaches, and the need to balance proactivity and interactivity (push vs pull modes). As with sensing systems over the last decade, we emphasize that, to be valuable in ISR tasks, IoT devices will need a degree of mission-awareness in addition to an ability to self-manage their limited resources (power, memory, bandwidth, computation, etc). In coalition operations, the management and potential sharing of IoT devices and systems among partners (e.g., in cross-coalition tactical-edge ISR teams) becomes a key issue due heterogeneous factors such as language, policy, procedure and doctrine. Finally, we briefly outline a platform that we have developed in order to experiment with human-IoT teaming on ISR tasks, in both

  4. Human growth hormone may be detrimental when used to accelerate recovery from acute tendon-bone interface injuries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baumgarten, Keith M; Oliver, Harvey A; Foley, Jack; Chen, Ding-Geng; Autenried, Peter; Duan, Shanzhong; Heiser, Patrick

    2013-05-01

    There have been few scientific studies that have examined usage of human growth hormone to accelerate recovery from injury. The hypothesis of this study was that human growth hormone would accelerate tendon-to-bone healing compared with control animals treated with placebo in a rat model of acute rotator cuff injury repair. Seventy-two rats underwent repair of acute rotator cuff injuries and were randomized into the following postoperative dosing regimens: placebo, and human growth hormone at 0.1, 1, 2, 5, and 10 mg/kg/day, administered subcutaneously once per day for fourteen days (Protocol 1). An additional twenty-four rats were randomized to receive either (1) placebo or (2) human growth hormone at 5 mg/kg, administered subcutaneously twice per day for seven days preoperatively and twenty-eight days postoperatively (Protocol 2). All rats were killed twenty-eight days postoperatively. Mechanical testing was performed. Ultimate stress, ultimate force, stiffness, energy to failure, and ultimate distension were determined. For Protocol 1, analysis of variance testing showed no significant difference between the groups with regard to ultimate stress, ultimate force, stiffness, energy to failure, or ultimate distension. In Protocol 2, ultimate force to failure was significantly worse in the human growth hormone group compared with the placebo group (21.1 ± 5.85 versus 26.3 ± 5.47 N; p = 0.035). Failure was more likely to occur through the bone than the tendon-bone interface in the human growth hormone group compared with the placebo group (p = 0.001). No significant difference was found for ultimate stress, ultimate force, stiffness, energy to failure, or ultimate distension between the groups in Protocol 2. In this rat model of acute tendon-bone injury repair, daily subcutaneous postoperative human growth hormone treatment for fourteen days failed to demonstrate a significant difference in any biomechanical parameter compared with placebo. Furthermore, subcutaneous

  5. Some human-related problems in radiation protection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yoshizawa, Yasuo

    1980-01-01

    Radiation protection includes both human and source-related problems. The human problems have not only medical but also social aspects, such as labor management. Special attention should be paid to the fact that the subject of radiation protection is not a human being as living thing but as member of society. ICRP recommended that conditions of work can be divided into two classed, working condition A and B, according to annual exposure. This application is of great value to radiation protection practice. Nevertheless the legal regulations do not adopt it yet. The present condition of the medical surveillance of radiation workers is not appropriate from the scientific standpoint. This is the difficult problem which is caused by the delay of the legal application of ICRP recommendation. Compensation for occupational radiation hazards should be overlooked. This problem have been investigated by an authorized committee, but a number of unsolved problems still remain. (author)

  6. The Internet of Things : The Next Big Thing for New Product Development?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Oliana, Rubina; Constantinides, Efthymios; de Vries, Sjoerd A.

    2018-01-01

    More and more physical products are equipped with sensors or RFID that connect them to the Internet; the network of these 'smart products' is known as the Internet of Things. Connected products generate large amounts of data (smart product data) that can pro-vide insights in the product’s

  7. In Things We Trust? : Towards trustability in the Internet of Things

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hoepman, J.H.

    2011-01-01

    The Internet of Things is nothing new. First introduced as Ubiquitous Computing by Mark Weiser [49] around 1990, the basic concept of the “disappearing computer” has been studied as Ambient Intelligence or Pervasive Computing in the decades that followed. Today we witness the first large scale

  8. Time to Talk: Five Things to Know about Omega-3s for Heart Disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... 5 Things To Know About Omega-3s for Heart Disease Share: Omega-3 fatty acids are a group ... shows omega-3s have a protective effect against heart disease. Experts agree that fish rich in omega-3 ...

  9. Positive Technology for Healthy Living and Active Ageing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riva, Giuseppe; Gaggioli, Andrea; Villani, Daniela; Cipresso, Pietro; Repetto, Claudia; Serino, Silvia; Triberti, Stefano; Brivio, Eleonora; Galimberti, Carlo; Graffigna, Guendalina

    2014-01-01

    Information and communication technologies are widely and rapidly spreading in people's daily lives. But what is the possible role of the mass proliferation of digital devices in supporting healthy living and active ageing? Are they useful in fostering personal growth and individual integration of the elderly, by promoting satisfaction, opportunities for action, and self-expression? Rather, do they enhance automation, impose constraints on personal initiative, and result in compulsive consumption of information? In this chapter, we suggest that possible answers to these questions will be offered by the "Positive Technology" approach, i.e., the scientific and applied approach to using technology so that it improves the quality of our personal experiences through its structuring, augmentation, and/or replacement. First, we suggest that it is possible to use technology to manipulate the quality of experience with the goal of increasing wellness and generating strengths and resilience in individuals, organizations, and society. Then, we classify positive technologies according to their effects on these three features of personal experience - Hedonic: technologies used to induce positive and pleasant experiences; Eudaimonic: technologies used to support individuals in reaching engaging and self-actualizing experiences; Social/Interpersonal: technologies used to support and improve the connectedness between individuals, groups, and organizations. Finally, we discuss the possible role of positive technologies for healthy living and active ageing by presenting different practical applications of this approach.

  10. Applications of short-lived activation products in neutron activation analysis of bio-environmental specimens

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1987-03-01

    This report discusses the advantages and disadvantages, special techniques, and actual and potential applications of neutron activation analysis (NAA) utilizing short-lived neutron-induced products, with special reference to the analysis of samples of biological and environmental origin. Attention is devoted mainly to products having half-lives in roughly the range of 10 milliseconds to 60 seconds, but with some discussion of the usefulness of even shorter-lived species, and ones with half-lives as long as a few minutes. Important aspects of the analytical methodology include sample preparation, irradiation/transfer systems, activity measurements, data processing and analytical quality assurance. It is concluded that several trace elements can be determined in bio-environmental samples (as well as in samples of industrial, geochemical and other origin). In particular, this method provides analytical possibilities for several elements (e.g. B, F, Li and V) that are difficult to determine in some matrices at trace levels by any other technique. These conclusions are illustrated in an annex by results of calculations in which the applicability of the techniques to the analysis of several biological and environmental reference materials is evaluated by means of an advance computer prediction program. The report concludes with an annotated bibliography of relevant publications (including abstracts, where available) taken from the INIS database. (author)

  11. FY 2000 report on the results of the research and development project for utilization of information of high-molecular-weight structures in a living body. Survey on the technological trends of utilizing the reactions with metals in a living body; 2000 nendo seitai kobunshi kozo joho riyo gijutsu kaihatsu chosa hokokusho. 'Seitai kinzoku hanno riyo gijutsu' ni kansuru gijutsu doko chosa

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2001-03-01

    Described herein are the FY 2000 results of the survey on the technological trends of utilizing the reactions with metals in a living body, noting the bio-processes effectively coping with the environmental problems. The effects of heavy metals on microorganisms have been investigated on the molecular biology level, but are not fully elucidated. Recently, the microorganisms capable of converting inorganic metal ions in water into the insoluble compounds have been known, leading to possibility of bioremediation to solve pollution by heavy metals, which have detrimental effects on human health. Heavy metals must be recovered, because they are not extinct by decomposition. The plant aided purification has been attracting attention to cope with heavy metals accumulated in soil. Application of bacteria-aided leaching, which is adopted as one ore smelting process, to the technologies for utilizing metals in a living body has been expected, because diversified activities of inanimate matters in extreme environments have been known. Recently, bio-machining of metals aided by Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, one species of independent nutrient bacteria capable of eating metals, has been developed to a potentially viable stage. (NEDO)

  12. FY 2000 report on the results of the research and development project for utilization of information of high-molecular-weight structures in a living body. Survey on the technological trends of utilizing the reactions with metals in a living body; 2000 nendo seitai kobunshi kozo joho riyo gijutsu kaihatsu chosa hokokusho. 'Seitai kinzoku hanno riyo gijutsu' ni kansuru gijutsu doko chosa

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2001-03-01

    Described herein are the FY 2000 results of the survey on the technological trends of utilizing the reactions with metals in a living body, noting the bio-processes effectively coping with the environmental problems. The effects of heavy metals on microorganisms have been investigated on the molecular biology level, but are not fully elucidated. Recently, the microorganisms capable of converting inorganic metal ions in water into the insoluble compounds have been known, leading to possibility of bioremediation to solve pollution by heavy metals, which have detrimental effects on human health. Heavy metals must be recovered, because they are not extinct by decomposition. The plant aided purification has been attracting attention to cope with heavy metals accumulated in soil. Application of bacteria-aided leaching, which is adopted as one ore smelting process, to the technologies for utilizing metals in a living body has been expected, because diversified activities of inanimate matters in extreme environments have been known. Recently, bio-machining of metals aided by Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, one species of independent nutrient bacteria capable of eating metals, has been developed to a potentially viable stage. (NEDO)

  13. Things and Words About Them: On the Legal Protection of Design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Teilmann-Lock, Stina

    2011-01-01

    Traditional registration of design relied on the deposit of an example of the thing itself; the Registrar who held things thus deposited was responsible for ensuring that they would be protected from unauthorized imitation. The material thing itself is to be the standard against which copies can ...

  14. Effect of a human-type communication robot on cognitive function in elderly women living alone.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanaka, Masaaki; Ishii, Akira; Yamano, Emi; Ogikubo, Hiroki; Okazaki, Masatsugu; Kamimura, Kazuro; Konishi, Yasuharu; Emoto, Shigeru; Watanabe, Yasuyoshi

    2012-09-01

    Considering the high prevalence of dementia, it would be of great value to develop effective tools to improve cognitive function. We examined the effects of a human-type communication robot on cognitive function in elderly women living alone. In this study, 34 healthy elderly female volunteers living alone were randomized to living with either a communication robot or a control robot at home for 8 weeks. The shape, voice, and motion features of the communication robot resemble those of a 3-year-old boy, while the control robot was not designed to talk or nod. Before living with the robot and 4 and 8 weeks after living with the robot, experiments were conducted to evaluate a variety of cognitive functions as well as saliva cortisol, sleep, and subjective fatigue, motivation, and healing. The Mini-Mental State Examination score, judgement, and verbal memory function were improved after living with the communication robot; those functions were not altered with the control robot. In addition, the saliva cortisol level was decreased, nocturnal sleeping hours tended to increase, and difficulty in maintaining sleep tended to decrease with the communication robot, although alterations were not shown with the control. The proportions of the participants in whom effects on attenuation of fatigue, enhancement of motivation, and healing could be recognized were higher in the communication robot group relative to the control group. This study demonstrates that living with a human-type communication robot may be effective for improving cognitive functions in elderly women living alone.

  15. Parenting experiences of couples living with human immunodeficiency virus: a qualitative study from rural Southern Malawi.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gombachika, Belinda Chimphamba; Sundby, Johanne; Chirwa, Ellen; Malata, Address

    2014-01-01

    The advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has allowed couples living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to live longer and healthier lives. The reduction in the mother-to-child transmission of HIV has encouraged some people living with HIV (PLWH) to have children. However, little is known about the parenting experiences of couples living with HIV (CLWH). The aim of this qualitative study was to explore and describe parenting experiences of seroconcordant couples who have a child while living with HIV in Malawi. Data were collected using in-depth interviews with 14 couples purposively sampled in matrilineal Chiradzulu and patrilineal Chikhwawa communities from July to December 2010. The research findings shows that irrespective of kinship organization, economic hardships, food insecurity, gender-specific role expectations and conflicting information from health institutions and media about sources of support underpin their parenting roles. In addition, male spouses are directly involved in household activities, childcare and child feeding decisions, challenging the existing stereotyped gender norms. In the absence of widow inheritance, widows from patrilineal communities are not receiving the expected support from the deceased husband relatives. Finally, the study has shown that CLWH are able to find solutions for the challenges they encounter. Contrary to existing belief that such who have children depend solely on public aid. Such claims without proper knowledge of local social cultural contexts, may contribute to stigmatizing CLWH who continue to have children. The study is also relevant to PLWH who, although not parents themselves, are confronted with a situation where they have to accept responsibility for raising children from their kin. We suggest the longer-term vision for ART wide access in Malawi to be broadened beyond provision of ART to incorporate social and economic interventions that support the rebuilding of CLWH social and economic lives. The

  16. Applications of short lived nuclides in activation analysis, problems and progress

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Grass, F [Atominstitut, Vienna (Austria)

    1976-07-01

    Short lived nuclides or isomeric transitions, respectively would have some advantages over long lived ones. Although we published a paper concerning a germanium-determination in iron meteorites some years ago, only few laboratories use this technique, the main reason being that the high matrix activity disturbs the measurement of energy-spectra. A multichannel analyzer in the time sequence mode enables Li-8 determination by a purely instrumental method which is therefore used more frequently. In the time sequence mode much higher counting rates up to 10 - 50 MHz are processed then by taking energy-spectra. This is the reason why activation analysis with short lived isomeric states is seldom applied when counting rate and pulse height are to be detected simultaneously. Exceptional difficulties are encountered in measurement of samples activated by a reactor pulse. Further difficulties arise from the fact that an optimal expelling time depends on the half life of the nuclide, and is more critical if the half life is short and the full width half maximum of the reactor pulse is small. Commercial Ge-Li-detectors can be used only at low counting rates, so that samples with high matrix activities cannot be measured. Modifying the electronic system enables registration of samples with high matrix activities. For short lived nuclides emitting hard beta-rays, e.g. B-12 or Li-8, a Cerenkov-detector is optimal. These problems are discussed in examples. (author)

  17. MinT: Middleware for Cooperative Interaction of Things.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jeon, Soobin; Jung, Inbum

    2017-06-20

    This paper proposes an Internet of Things (IoT) middleware called Middleware for Cooperative Interaction of Things (MinT). MinT supports a fully distributed IoT environment in which IoT devices directly connect to peripheral devices easily construct a local or global network, and share their data in an energy efficient manner. MinT provides a sensor abstract layer, a system layer and an interaction layer. These enable integrated sensing device operations, efficient resource management, and active interconnection between peripheral IoT devices. In addition, MinT provides a high-level API to develop IoT devices easily for IoT device developers. We aim to enhance the energy efficiency and performance of IoT devices through the performance improvements offered by MinT resource management and request processing. The experimental results show that the average request rate increased by 25% compared to Californium, which is a middleware for efficient interaction in IoT environments with powerful performance, an average response time decrease of 90% when resource management was used, and power consumption decreased by up to 68%. Finally, the proposed platform can reduce the latency and power consumption of IoT devices.

  18. Sustained NFκB inhibition improves insulin sensitivity but is detrimental to muscle health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Ning; Valentine, Joseph M; Zhou, You; Li, Mengyao E; Zhang, Yiqiang; Bhattacharya, Arunabh; Walsh, Michael E; Fischer, Katherine E; Austad, Steven N; Osmulski, Pawel; Gaczynska, Maria; Shoelson, Steven E; Van Remmen, Holly; Chen, Hung I; Chen, Yidong; Liang, Hanyu; Musi, Nicolas

    2017-08-01

    Older adults universally suffer from sarcopenia and approximately 60-70% are diabetic or prediabetic. Nonetheless, the mechanisms underlying these aging-related metabolic disorders are unknown. NFκB has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several aging-related pathologies including sarcopenia and type 2 diabetes and has been proposed as a target against them. NFκB also is thought to mediate muscle wasting seen with disuse, denervation, and some systemic diseases (e.g., cancer, sepsis). We tested the hypothesis that lifelong inhibition of the classical NFκB pathway would protect against aging-related sarcopenia and insulin resistance. Aged mice with muscle-specific overexpression of a super-repressor IκBα mutant (MISR) were protected from insulin resistance. However, MISR mice were not protected from sarcopenia; to the contrary, these mice had decreases in muscle mass and strength compared to wild-type mice. In MISR mice, NFκB suppression also led to an increase in proteasome activity and alterations in several genes and pathways involved in muscle growth and atrophy (e.g., myostatin). We conclude that the mechanism behind aging-induced sarcopenia is NFκB independent and differs from muscle wasting due to pathologic conditions. Our findings also indicate that, while suppressing NFκB improves insulin sensitivity in aged mice, this transcription factor is important for normal muscle mass maintenance and its sustained inhibition is detrimental to muscle function. © 2017 The Authors. Aging Cell published by the Anatomical Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  19. A Comparative Study on the Architecture Internet of Things and its’ Implementation method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiao, Zhiliang

    2017-08-01

    With the rapid development of science and technology, Internet-based the Internet of things was born and achieved good results. In order to further build a complete Internet of things system, to achieve the design of the Internet of things, we need to constitute the object of the network structure of the indicators of comparative study, and on this basis, the Internet of things connected to the way and do more in-depth to achieve the unity of the object network architecture and implementation methods. This paper mainly analyzes the two types of Internet of Things system, and makes a brief comparative study of the important indicators, and then introduces the connection method and realization method of Internet of Things based on the concept of Internet of Things and architecture.

  20. The Cultural Impact upon Human Struggle for Social Existence in Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart"

    Science.gov (United States)

    El-Dessouky, Mohamed Fawzy

    2010-01-01

    This paper aims at introducing an insight into the nature of cultural conflict as depicted in Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart." This study shows how the African black culture represented by Ibo tribe comes into disagreement with the white one imposed by the British imperialism. The greatness of Achebe lies in the vivid description of…

  1. INTERNET OF THINGS IN EDUCATION: CASE STUDY AND PERSPECTIVES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sérgio Tavares

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available With the presence of the Internet in people's lives there was a significant behavioral change. People communicate, work, relate and learn in a totally different way. Technological innovation ends up facilitating access to information through an increasing number of devices, as well as bringing with it an ever increasing demand by people with good educational background, able to generate skills and abilities of a professional with a more critical profile, flexible, dynamic and in continuous lifelong learning. The most diverse pedagogical models try to adapt to this diversity of information, devices and technologies known as Internet of Things (IoT in order to establish new forms of knowledge and learning. This paper presents a learning experience that integrates the BYOD method into the IoT scenario. The results obtained evidenced a clear acceptance of IoT technology within the teaching process.

  2. Greater Baltimore Open Air: an Internet of Things (IoT) approach to citizen science and community-driven climate, air quality, and urban heat island monitoring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott, A.; Kelley, C.; Azdoud, Y.; Ambikapathi, R.; Hobson, M.; Lehman, A.; Ghugare, P.; He, C.; Zaitchik, B. F.; Waugh, D.; McCormack, M.; Baja, K.

    2017-12-01

    Anthropogenic activities alter the urban surface and surface atmosphere, generating heat and pollutants that have known detrimental impacts on health. Monitoring these environmental variables in urban environments is made difficult by the spatial heterogeneity of urban environments, meaning that two nearby locations may have significantly different temperatures, humidities, or gas concentrations. Thus, urban monitoring often requires more densely placed monitors than current standards or budgets allow. Recent advances in low-cost sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) enabled hardware offer possible solutions. We present an autonomous wireless, open-source, IoT-enabled environmental monitor called a WeatherCube, developed for the Greater Baltimore Open Air project, funded in part by the EPA SmartCity Challenge. The WeatherCube is suitable for urban monitoring and capable of measuring meteorological variables (temperature and humidity) as well as air quality (ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide). The WeatherCube devices were built in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, local government, and community members, including through an innovative job training program. Monitors are hosted by community partners and libraries throughout Baltimore city and surrounding communities. We present the first wave of data collected by the Greater Baltimore Open Air project and compare it to data collected by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). Additionally, we will provide an overview of our experience engaging with the local makers, citizen scientists, and environmental groups to improve their urban environmental monitoring. By developing low-cost devices tailored for urban environmental monitoring, we present an innovative model for both conducting research and community outreach.

  3. A multi-environment dataset for activity of daily living recognition in video streams.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Borreo, Alessandro; Onofri, Leonardo; Soda, Paolo

    2015-08-01

    Public datasets played a key role in the increasing level of interest that vision-based human action recognition has attracted in last years. While the production of such datasets has been influenced by the variability introduced by various actors performing the actions, the different modalities of interactions with the environment introduced by the variation of the scenes around the actors has been scarcely took into account. As a consequence, public datasets do not provide a proper test-bed for recognition algorithms that aim at achieving high accuracy, irrespective of the environment where actions are performed. This is all the more so, when systems are designed to recognize activities of daily living (ADL), which are characterized by a high level of human-environment interaction. For that reason, we present in this manuscript the MEA dataset, a new multi-environment ADL dataset, which permitted us to show how the change of scenario can affect the performances of state-of-the-art approaches for action recognition.

  4. The Future Potential of Internet of Things

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aelita Skaržauskienė

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: To define the Internet of things and to analyze it as a background for the internet of services. Design/methodology/approach: The article discusses potential possibilities and problematic issues concerning the Internet of things (IoT and Internet of services (IoS. The debates concerning IoT and its possible application fields have continued for more than ten years. The technological background is there and the fields of application are broad. However, there is still a lack of understanding about the possible benefits that technology could give to various bodies if applied correctly. This article is based on comparison and analysis of scientific articles, research papers and case studies related to the potential for IoT and its implementation in IoS. Theoretical findings: IoT is a logical evolutionary step for the internet. Despite the technological background, the concept of objects which are aware of their surroundings, allow to manipulate them by defining different rule patterns and ensuring interaction possibilities with other objects or human beings. The necessity for web-based services is increasing along with the technological gadgets which support them. Applying things, which are connected in a network, could revolutionize many industry and service sectors and create new service provision and administration methods based on information technology. However, there are many problematic issues and research challenges related to the IoT. Few of the most significant are related to standardization of technology, legal regulation and ethical aspects concerning the IoT technology. Research limitations/implications: The IoT is a popular trend promoted by the business sector and governmental bodies. There are few comprehensive studies and projects which talk about the benefits that business and society could gain from the IoT. There is a lot less information about the possible risk and problematic aspects, and a lack of agreements between

  5. Watch Out for the “Living Dead”: Cell-Free Enzymes and Their Fate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Federico Baltar

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Microbes are the engines driving biogeochemical cycles. Microbial extracellular enzymatic activities (EEAs are the “gatekeepers” of the carbon cycle. The total EEA is the sum of cell-bound (i.e., cell-attached, and dissolved (i.e., cell-free enzyme activities. Cell-free enzymes make up a substantial proportion (up to 100% of the total marine EEA. Although we are learning more about how microbial diversity and function (including total EEA will be affected by environmental changes, little is known about what factors control the importance of the abundant cell-free enzymes. Since cell-attached EEAs are linked to the cell, their fate will likely be linked to the factors controlling the cell’s fate. In contrast, cell-free enzymes belong to a kind of “living dead” realm because they are not attached to a living cell but still are able to perform their function away from the cell; and as such, the factors controlling their activity and fate might differ from those affecting cell-attached enzymes. This article aims to place cell-free EEA into the wider context of hydrolysis of organic matter, deal with recent studies assessing what controls the production, activity and lifetime of cell-free EEA, and what their fate might be in response to environmental stressors. This perspective article advocates the need to go “beyond the living things,” studying the response of cells/organisms to different stressors, but also to study cell-free enzymes, in order to fully constrain the future and evolution of marine biogeochemical cycles.

  6. Watch Out for the “Living Dead”: Cell-Free Enzymes and Their Fate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baltar, Federico

    2018-01-01

    Microbes are the engines driving biogeochemical cycles. Microbial extracellular enzymatic activities (EEAs) are the “gatekeepers” of the carbon cycle. The total EEA is the sum of cell-bound (i.e., cell-attached), and dissolved (i.e., cell-free) enzyme activities. Cell-free enzymes make up a substantial proportion (up to 100%) of the total marine EEA. Although we are learning more about how microbial diversity and function (including total EEA) will be affected by environmental changes, little is known about what factors control the importance of the abundant cell-free enzymes. Since cell-attached EEAs are linked to the cell, their fate will likely be linked to the factors controlling the cell’s fate. In contrast, cell-free enzymes belong to a kind of “living dead” realm because they are not attached to a living cell but still are able to perform their function away from the cell; and as such, the factors controlling their activity and fate might differ from those affecting cell-attached enzymes. This article aims to place cell-free EEA into the wider context of hydrolysis of organic matter, deal with recent studies assessing what controls the production, activity and lifetime of cell-free EEA, and what their fate might be in response to environmental stressors. This perspective article advocates the need to go “beyond the living things,” studying the response of cells/organisms to different stressors, but also to study cell-free enzymes, in order to fully constrain the future and evolution of marine biogeochemical cycles. PMID:29354095

  7. Waste - the human factor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McLaren, D.J.

    1993-01-01

    Waste is a human concept, referring to things that have no use to human beings and arising entirely from human activities. It is the useless residue of any human process that affects the economy or environment. The changes brought about by the industrial revolution are enormous; fossil fuels, not just photosynthesis, now provide energy and wastes at rates far exceeding the capacity of the ecosystem to absorb or recycle. Three major problems face the Planet: accelerated population growth, accelerated use of resources for energy and industry, and the disproportionate use of resources and waste between the northern and southern parts of the Planet. Knowledge and science are in a position to provide both human creativity and the directed technology to take remedial action and rediscover harmony between nature and mankind. Only social and political will is lacking

  8. The physical activity levels among people living with human ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    J.M. Frantz

    2014-02-13

    Feb 13, 2014 ... activities because they are often not motivated to exercise (Buch- holz & Purath ..... Physical Activity and Hypertension among University .... Endurance and Resistance Exercise on HIV Metabolic Abnormalities: A Pilot. Study.

  9. The role of positron emission tomography in neuropharmacology in the living human brain and drug development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yanai, Kazuhiko

    1999-01-01

    Neuroimaging is a powerful and innovative tool for studying the pathology of psychiatric and neurological diseases and, more recently, for studying the drugs used in their treatment. Technological advances in imaging have made it possible to noninvasively extract information from the human brain regarding a drug's mechanism and site of action. Until now, our understanding of human brain pharmacology has depended primarily on indirect assessments or models derived from animal studies. However, the advent of multiple techniques for human brain imaging allows researchers to focus directly on human pharmacology and brain function. In this review article, our PET studies on the histaminergic neuron system were presented as an example. We have developed and used the PET techniques for 10 years in order to examine the H 1 receptors in the living human brain. This review outlines available PET techniques and examine how these various methods have already been applied to the drug development process and neuropharmacology in the living human brain. (author)

  10. The role of positron emission tomography in neuropharmacology in the living human brain and drug development

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yanai, Kazuhiko [Tohoku Univ., Sendai (Japan). School of Medicine

    1999-09-01

    Neuroimaging is a powerful and innovative tool for studying the pathology of psychiatric and neurological diseases and, more recently, for studying the drugs used in their treatment. Technological advances in imaging have made it possible to noninvasively extract information from the human brain regarding a drug's mechanism and site of action. Until now, our understanding of human brain pharmacology has depended primarily on indirect assessments or models derived from animal studies. However, the advent of multiple techniques for human brain imaging allows researchers to focus directly on human pharmacology and brain function. In this review article, our PET studies on the histaminergic neuron system were presented as an example. We have developed and used the PET techniques for 10 years in order to examine the H{sub 1} receptors in the living human brain. This review outlines available PET techniques and examine how these various methods have already been applied to the drug development process and neuropharmacology in the living human brain. (author)

  11. WHAT MAKES THINGS GO.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mobilization for Youth, Inc., New York, NY.

    THE INITIAL QUESTION IN THE TITLE IS ANSWERED THROUGH SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS FOR CULTURALLY DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. MUSCLES, RUNNING, WATER, WIND, STEAM, FAST BURNING AND ELECTRICITY ARE FOUND TO "MAKE THINGS GO." USING THESE BASIC DISCOVERIES, VOCABULARY IS BUILT UP BY WORKING WITH DIFFERENT WORDS RELATING TO THE…

  12. Building the base: two active living projects that inspired community participation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hamamoto, Mark H; Derauf, David D; Yoshimura, Sheryl R

    2009-12-01

    Kalihi Valley is a densely populated, low-income community (28,958 residents in approximately 6 square miles) with insufficient sidewalks, bike lanes, and public green space to support regular physical activity for its residents. Kokua Kalihi Valley (KKV), a community health center formed in 1972, sought to improve Kalihi Valley's built environment based on its history of community- and partnership-based preventive health initiatives that have focused on the social determinants of health. Kokua Kalihi Valley used a flexible partnership model and a focus on direct community action to develop an unused 100-acre state park (the Kalihi Valley Nature Park) and establish a bicycle repair and recycling program that mobilized thousands of community volunteers, attracted widespread media coverage, and established a number of innovative programs for active living. Kokua Kalihi Valley and its partners also contributed to the successful passage of a city charter amendment to prioritize Honolulu as a bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly city. This initiative was successful in reclaiming a substantial amount of land for active living and in stimulating both public governmental support and widespread private community involvement in programs and activities. Projects that engaged community members in activities with tangible accomplishment were shown to be most successful. This initiative showed that community health centers may be uniquely positioned to provide leadership and assume responsibility for cross-sectoral active-living health projects.

  13. Nanostructured magnesium has fewer detrimental effects on osteoblast function

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weng, Lucy; Webster, Thomas J

    2013-01-01

    Efforts have been made recently to implement nanoscale surface features on magnesium, a biodegradable metal, to increase bone formation. Compared with normal magnesium, nanostructured magnesium has unique characteristics, including increased grain boundary properties, surface to volume ratio, surface roughness, and surface energy, which may influence the initial adsorption of proteins known to promote the function of osteoblasts (bone-forming cells). Previous studies have shown that one way to increase nanosurface roughness on magnesium is to soak the metal in NaOH. However, it has not been determined if degradation of magnesium is altered by creating nanoscale features on its surface to influence osteoblast density. The aim of the present in vitro study was to determine the influence of degradation of nanostructured magnesium, created by soaking in NaOH, on osteoblast density. Our results showed a less detrimental effect of magnesium degradation on osteoblast density when magnesium was treated with NaOH to create nanoscale surface features. The detrimental degradation products of magnesium are of significant concern when considering use of magnesium as an orthopedic implant material, and this study identified a surface treatment, ie, soaking in NaOH to create nanoscale features for magnesium that can improve its use in numerous orthopedic applications. PMID:23674891

  14. Nanostructured magnesium has fewer detrimental effects on osteoblast function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weng, Lucy; Webster, Thomas J

    2013-01-01

    Efforts have been made recently to implement nanoscale surface features on magnesium, a biodegradable metal, to increase bone formation. Compared with normal magnesium, nanostructured magnesium has unique characteristics, including increased grain boundary properties, surface to volume ratio, surface roughness, and surface energy, which may influence the initial adsorption of proteins known to promote the function of osteoblasts (bone-forming cells). Previous studies have shown that one way to increase nanosurface roughness on magnesium is to soak the metal in NaOH. However, it has not been determined if degradation of magnesium is altered by creating nanoscale features on its surface to influence osteoblast density. The aim of the present in vitro study was to determine the influence of degradation of nanostructured magnesium, created by soaking in NaOH, on osteoblast density. Our results showed a less detrimental effect of magnesium degradation on osteoblast density when magnesium was treated with NaOH to create nanoscale surface features. The detrimental degradation products of magnesium are of significant concern when considering use of magnesium as an orthopedic implant material, and this study identified a surface treatment, ie, soaking in NaOH to create nanoscale features for magnesium that can improve its use in numerous orthopedic applications.

  15. Healthy active living for children and youth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2002-05-01

    Poor lifestyle habits, such as unhealthy eating and physical inactivity, are major contributors to increased adult morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases. Over the past decade there has been an increase in sedentary lifestyle and obesity in children and adolescents, both in North America and worldwide. Physicians need to be aware of the scope of this problem, provide anticipatory guidance to families and promote healthy active living in their practices.

  16. Human errors in operation - what to do with them?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Michalek, J.

    2009-01-01

    'It is human to make errors!' This saying of our predecessors is still current and will continue to be valid also in the future, until human is a human. Errors cannot be completely eliminated from human activities. In average human makes two simple errors in one hour. For example, how many typing errors do we make while typing on the computer keyboard? How many times we make mistakes in writing the date in the first days of a new year? These errors have no major consequences, however, in certain situations errors of humans are very unpleasant and may be also very costly, they may even endanger human lives. (author)

  17. Convolutional Neural Networks for Human Activity Recognition Using Body-Worn Sensors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando Moya Rueda

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Human activity recognition (HAR is a classification task for recognizing human movements. Methods of HAR are of great interest as they have become tools for measuring occurrences and durations of human actions, which are the basis of smart assistive technologies and manual processes analysis. Recently, deep neural networks have been deployed for HAR in the context of activities of daily living using multichannel time-series. These time-series are acquired from body-worn devices, which are composed of different types of sensors. The deep architectures process these measurements for finding basic and complex features in human corporal movements, and for classifying them into a set of human actions. As the devices are worn at different parts of the human body, we propose a novel deep neural network for HAR. This network handles sequence measurements from different body-worn devices separately. An evaluation of the architecture is performed on three datasets, the Oportunity, Pamap2, and an industrial dataset, outperforming the state-of-the-art. In addition, different network configurations will also be evaluated. We find that applying convolutions per sensor channel and per body-worn device improves the capabilities of convolutional neural network (CNNs.

  18. Health smart home for elders - a tool for automatic recognition of activities of daily living.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Le, Xuan Hoa Binh; Di Mascolo, Maria; Gouin, Alexia; Noury, Norbert

    2008-01-01

    Elders live preferently in their own home, but with aging comes the loss of autonomy and associated risks. In order to help them live longer in safe conditions, we need a tool to automatically detect their loss of autonomy by assessing the degree of performance of activities of daily living. This article presents an approach enabling the activities recognition of an elder living alone in a home equipped with noninvasive sensors.

  19. The Activation Pathway of Human Rhodopsin in Comparison to Bovine Rhodopsin*

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kazmin, Roman; Rose, Alexander; Szczepek, Michal; Elgeti, Matthias; Ritter, Eglof; Piechnick, Ronny; Hofmann, Klaus Peter; Scheerer, Patrick; Hildebrand, Peter W.; Bartl, Franz J.

    2015-01-01

    Rhodopsin, the photoreceptor of rod cells, absorbs light to mediate the first step of vision by activating the G protein transducin (Gt). Several human diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa or congenital night blindness, are linked to rhodopsin malfunctions. Most of the corresponding in vivo studies and structure-function analyses (e.g. based on protein x-ray crystallography or spectroscopy) have been carried out on murine or bovine rhodopsin. Because these rhodopsins differ at several amino acid positions from human rhodopsin, we conducted a comprehensive spectroscopic characterization of human rhodopsin in combination with molecular dynamics simulations. We show by FTIR and UV-visible difference spectroscopy that the light-induced transformations of the early photointermediates are very similar. Significant differences between the pigments appear with formation of the still inactive Meta I state and the transition to active Meta II. However, the conformation of Meta II and its activity toward the G protein are essentially the same, presumably reflecting the evolutionary pressure under which the active state has developed. Altogether, our results show that although the basic activation pathways of human and bovine rhodopsin are similar, structural deviations exist in the inactive conformation and during receptor activation, even between closely related rhodopsins. These differences between the well studied bovine or murine rhodopsins and human rhodopsin have to be taken into account when the influence of point mutations on the activation pathway of human rhodopsin are investigated using the bovine or murine rhodopsin template sequences. PMID:26105054

  20. Switching Brains: Cloud-based Intelligent Resources Management for the Internet of Cognitive Things

    OpenAIRE

    R. Francisco; A.M. Arsenio

    2014-01-01

    Cognitive technologies can bring important benefits to our everyday life, enabling connected devices to do tasks that in the past only humans could do, leading to the Cognitive Internet of Things. Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSAN) are often employed for communication between Internet objects. However, WSAN face some problems, namely sensors’ energy and CPU load consumption, which are common to other networked devices, such as mobile devices or robotic platforms. Additionally, cogni...

  1. Water, Water Everywhere but is it Safe to Drink? Some Detrimental Health Effects Associated with Consumption of Groundwater Enriched in Naturally-Occurring Contaminants

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fuge, R.

    2007-05-01

    Drinking water represents a major pathway of trace elements into the human body. As such, groundwaters, the chemistry of which reflect water/rock interaction, can be a source of trace elements which will have a marked health effect on humans consuming them. Health problems associated with the consumption of groundwater enriched in various elements and compounds have been recorded for many years. For example, high-arsenic groundwaters used for public water supply were first associated with harmful health effects as early as 1917 in Córdoba Province in Argentina, where the local population suffered from skin disorders. Subsequently, in the 1960s consumption of high-arsenic groundwaters was identified as a factor in the aetiology of "black foot disease", an endemic vascular disease, in Taiwan. However, it is problems associated with the very high-arsenic groundwaters of the highly populous Ganges delta area of Bangladesh and West Bengal that has more recently highlighted the health problem of consuming high-arsenic waters. The most obvious problems of excess arsenic consumption through drinking water are arsenical skin lesions, the severity of which being generally correlated with arsenic content of the water. A high incidence of cancers of the skin, bladder and other organs has been recorded in the high-arsenic drinking water areas of the world. A high incidence of vascular disease, found in the arsenic-rich area of Taiwan, has also been shown to occur in Bangladesh. In addition, it has been suggested that high arsenic in drinking water results in increased incidence of diabetes mellitus. Fluorine is another element long recognised as having a major effect on the well-being of humans. Consumption of high-fluorine waters were first identified as having a detrimental effect on teeth in the 1920s and 30s. It was subsequently shown that where fluorine is present in drinking waters at concentrations of around 0.5 to 1 mg/L it can have beneficial effects on humans

  2. Security Challenges of the Internet of Things

    OpenAIRE

    Goeke, Lisa

    2017-01-01

    The ‘Internet of Things’ is the buzz phrase that describes a new era of computation. Briefly, the Internet of Things can be defined as the interaction of smart objects that are connected to the Internet. These objects can sense, share and process information, upload them in the cloud, and make them available to the user via a large amount of different applications. Despite all of these promising innovations, the Internet of Things, as every other technology, faces multiple security...

  3. An Information Theoretical Analysis of Human Insulin-Glucose System Toward the Internet of Bio-Nano Things.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abbasi, Naveed A; Akan, Ozgur B

    2017-12-01

    Molecular communication is an important tool to understand biological communications with many promising applications in Internet of Bio-Nano Things (IoBNT). The insulin-glucose system is of key significance among the major intra-body nanonetworks, since it fulfills metabolic requirements of the body. The study of biological networks from information and communication theoretical (ICT) perspective is necessary for their introduction in the IoBNT framework. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to provide and analyze for the first time in the literature, a simple molecular communication model of the human insulin-glucose system from ICT perspective. The data rate, channel capacity, and the group propagation delay are analyzed for a two-cell network between a pancreatic beta cell and a muscle cell that are connected through a capillary. The results point out a correlation between an increase in insulin resistance and a decrease in the data rate and channel capacity, an increase in the insulin transmission rate, and an increase in the propagation delay. We also propose applications for the introduction of the system in the IoBNT framework. Multi-cell insulin glucose system models may be based on this simple model to help in the investigation, diagnosis, and treatment of insulin resistance by means of novel IoBNT applications.

  4. Security Framework and Jamming Detection for Internet of Things

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Babar, Sachin D.

    The Internet of Things (IoT) consists of billions of people, things and services having the potential to interact with each other and their environment. This highly interconnected global network structure presents new types of challenges from a security, trust and privacy perspective. Hence...

  5. Do It Yourself solution of Internet of Things Healthcare System: Measuring body parameters and environmental parameters affecting health.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mirjana Maksimović

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available The rapid advancements in information and communications technologies (ICT and the increasing number of smart things shift an old-fashioned healthcare system to a model better suited for a population of the 21st century. New healthcare approaches based on Internet of Things (IoT/Internet of Medical Things (IoMT powered systems make health monitoring, diagnostics and treatment more personalized, timely and convenient, enabling a global approach to the healthcare system infrastructure development. Commercial systems in this area exist in various forms but usually do not fit the general patient needs, and those that do are usually economically unacceptable due to the high operational and development costs. Do It Yourself (DIY healthcare, including mobile applications and consumer medical devices, nowadays is the top healthcare trend. Therefore, this paper, based on well-known low-cost technologies, presents a DIY IoMT solution for observing human vital parameter as well as environmental factors affecting health.

  6. Health Promotion Behaviours and Level of Activities of Daily Living and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Among Elderly People in West Region of Tehran: A Cross-Sectional Survey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aghil Habibi Sola

    2007-10-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: As individuals live longer, health promotion behaviors get even more important, particularly with regard to maintaining functional independence and improving quality of life. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between health promotion behaviors and level of Activities of Daily Living (ADL and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL among elderly people in west region of Tehran. Methods & Materials: This was a descriptive-correlational study. A multi-stage sample of 410 community residents who were over 60 years old were selected from west region of Tehran. Participants who consented to participate in the study were interviewed with a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of 2-part; Health Promotion Behavior Checklist and questions related to status of physical functioning, which includes activities of daily living (ADLs and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs. Descriptive statistics and T-test were used to data analysis. Results: The results of the study showed that there were significant relations between ADLs and ' exercise or walking', 'drinking milk, eating dairy and meat', 'eating vegetables and fruits', 'low salt diet' and 'low fat diet' (P<0.05. Furthermore there were significant relations between the IADLs and 'smoking cessation', 'alcohol abstinence', 'exercise or walking', 'drinking milk, eating dairy and meat', 'eating vegetables and fruits', 'low salt diet' and 'low fat diet' (P<0.05. Conclusion: Study showed, health promotion behaviors and level of ADL and IADL are related meaningfully. Health care professionals should enhance the physical functioning in elderly people by facilitating health promotion behaviors through formal health promotion programs which focus on regular diet, exercise, and regular physical check-ups which will maintain and increase a healthy and active life.

  7. Any Thing for Anyone? A New Digital Divide in Internet-of-Things Skills

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Deursen, Alexander J.A.M.; Mossberger, Karen

    2018-01-01

    The "Internet-of-Things" (IoT) promises social benefits across a range of policy areas, such as energy, health, transportation, public safety, and environmental policy, but attention to the skills needed by individuals who use it will be an important issue for public policy, in order to ensure full

  8. Raman microscopy of individual living human embryonic stem cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Novikov, Sergey M.; Beermann, Jonas; Bozhevolnyi, Sergey I.

    2010-01-01

    We demonstrate the possibility of mapping the distribution of different biomolecules in living human embryonic stem cells grown on glass substrates, without the need for fluorescent markers. In our work we improve the quality of measurements by finding a buffer that gives low fluorescence, growing...... cells on glass substrates (whose Raman signals are relatively weak compared to that of the cells) and having the backside covered with gold to improve the image contrast under direct white light illumination. The experimental setup used for Raman microscopy is the commercially available confocal...

  9. The Promise of the Internet of Things in Healthcare: How Hard Is It to Keep?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marques, Rita; Gregório, João; Mira Da Silva, Miguel; Lapão, Luís Velez

    2016-01-01

    Internet of Things is starting to be implemented in healthcare. An example is the automated monitoring systems that are currently being used to provide healthcare workers with feedback regarding their hand hygiene compliance. These solutions seem effective in promoting healthcare workers self-awareness and action regarding their hand hygiene performance, which is still far from desired. Underlying these systems, an indoor positioning component (following Internet of Things paradigm) is used to collect data from the ward regarding healthcare workers' position, which will be later used to make some assumptions about the usage of alcohol-based handrub dispensers and sinks. We found that building such a system under the scope of the healthcare field is not a trivial task and it must be subject to several considerations, which are presented, analyzed and discussed in this paper. The limitations of present Internet of Things technologies are not yet ready to address the demanding field of healthcare.

  10. Human Activity Recognition Supported on Indoor Localization: A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cerón, Jesús; López, Diego M

    2018-01-01

    The number of older adults is growing worldwide. This has a social and economic impact in all countries because of the increased number of older adults affected by chronic diseases, health emergencies, and disabilities, representing at the end high cost for the health system. To face this problem, the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) domain has emerged. Its main objective is to extend the time that older adults can live independently in their homes. AAL is supported by different fields and technologies, being Human Activity Recognition (HAR), control of vital signs and location tracking the three of most interest during the last years. To perform a systematic review about Human Activity Recognition (HAR) approaches supported on Indoor Localization (IL) and vice versa, describing the methods they have used, the accuracy they have obtained and whether they have been directed towards the AAL domain or not. A systematic review of six databases was carried out (ACM, IEEE Xplore, PubMed, Science Direct and Springer). 27 papers were found. They were categorised into three groups according their approach: paper focus on 1. HAR, 2. IL, 3. HAR and IL. A detailed analysis of the following factors was performed: type of methods and technologies used for HAR, IL and data fusion, as well as the precision obtained for them. This systematic review shows that the relationship between HAR and IL has been very little studied, therefore providing insights of its potential mutual support to provide AAL solutions.

  11. Physical Human Activity Recognition Using Wearable Sensors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ferhat Attal

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a review of different classification techniques used to recognize human activities from wearable inertial sensor data. Three inertial sensor units were used in this study and were worn by healthy subjects at key points of upper/lower body limbs (chest, right thigh and left ankle. Three main steps describe the activity recognition process: sensors’ placement, data pre-processing and data classification. Four supervised classification techniques namely, k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN, Support Vector Machines (SVM, Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM, and Random Forest (RF as well as three unsupervised classification techniques namely, k-Means, Gaussian mixture models (GMM and Hidden Markov Model (HMM, are compared in terms of correct classification rate, F-measure, recall, precision, and specificity. Raw data and extracted features are used separately as inputs of each classifier. The feature selection is performed using a wrapper approach based on the RF algorithm. Based on our experiments, the results obtained show that the k-NN classifier provides the best performance compared to other supervised classification algorithms, whereas the HMM classifier is the one that gives the best results among unsupervised classification algorithms. This comparison highlights which approach gives better performance in both supervised and unsupervised contexts. It should be noted that the obtained results are limited to the context of this study, which concerns the classification of the main daily living human activities using three wearable accelerometers placed at the chest, right shank and left ankle of the subject.

  12. Physical Human Activity Recognition Using Wearable Sensors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Attal, Ferhat; Mohammed, Samer; Dedabrishvili, Mariam; Chamroukhi, Faicel; Oukhellou, Latifa; Amirat, Yacine

    2015-12-11

    This paper presents a review of different classification techniques used to recognize human activities from wearable inertial sensor data. Three inertial sensor units were used in this study and were worn by healthy subjects at key points of upper/lower body limbs (chest, right thigh and left ankle). Three main steps describe the activity recognition process: sensors' placement, data pre-processing and data classification. Four supervised classification techniques namely, k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM), and Random Forest (RF) as well as three unsupervised classification techniques namely, k-Means, Gaussian mixture models (GMM) and Hidden Markov Model (HMM), are compared in terms of correct classification rate, F-measure, recall, precision, and specificity. Raw data and extracted features are used separately as inputs of each classifier. The feature selection is performed using a wrapper approach based on the RF algorithm. Based on our experiments, the results obtained show that the k-NN classifier provides the best performance compared to other supervised classification algorithms, whereas the HMM classifier is the one that gives the best results among unsupervised classification algorithms. This comparison highlights which approach gives better performance in both supervised and unsupervised contexts. It should be noted that the obtained results are limited to the context of this study, which concerns the classification of the main daily living human activities using three wearable accelerometers placed at the chest, right shank and left ankle of the subject.

  13. Oceans and human health: Emerging public health risks n the marine environment

    OpenAIRE

    Fleming, L.E.; Broad, K.; Clement, A.; Dewailly, E.; Elmir, S.; Knap, A.; Pomponi, S.A.; Smith, S.; Gabriele, H. Solo; Walsh, P.

    2006-01-01

    There has been an increasing recognition of the inter-relationship between human health and the oceans. Traditionally, the focus of research and concern has been on the impact of human activities on the oceans, particularly through anthropogenic pollution and the exploitation of marine resources. More recently, there has been recognition of the potential direct impact of the oceans on human health, both detrimental and beneficial. Areas identified include: global change, harmful algal blooms ...

  14. Physical Activity among Older People Living Alone in Shanghai, China

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Yu; While, Alison E; Hicks, Allan

    2015-01-01

    Objective: To investigate physical activity among older people living alone in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, and key factors contributing to their physical activity. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was administered in nine communities in Shanghai, using a stratified random cluster sample: 521 community-dwelling older people…

  15. Influence of Fragrances on Human Psychophysiological Activity: With Special Reference to Human Electroencephalographic Response

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kandhasamy Sowndhararajan

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available The influence of fragrances such as perfumes and room fresheners on the psychophysiological activities of humans has been known for a long time, and its significance is gradually increasing in the medicinal and cosmetic industries. A fragrance consists of volatile chemicals with a molecular weight of less than 300 Da that humans perceive through the olfactory system. In humans, about 300 active olfactory receptor genes are devoted to detecting thousands of different fragrance molecules through a large family of olfactory receptors of a diverse protein sequence. The sense of smell plays an important role in the physiological effects of mood, stress, and working capacity. Electrophysiological studies have revealed that various fragrances affected spontaneous brain activities and cognitive functions, which are measured by an electroencephalograph (EEG. The EEG is a good temporal measure of responses in the central nervous system and it provides information about the physiological state of the brain both in health and disease. The EEG power spectrum is classified into different frequency bands such as delta (0.5–4 Hz, theta (4–8 Hz, alpha (8–13 Hz, beta (13–30 Hz and gamma (30–50 Hz, and each band is correlated with different features of brain states. A quantitative EEG uses computer software to provide the topographic mapping of the brain activity in frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital brain regions. It is well known that decreases of alpha and beta activities and increases of delta and theta activities are associated with brain pathology and general cognitive decline. In the last few decades, many scientific studies were conducted to investigate the effect of inhalation of aroma on human brain functions. The studies have suggested a significant role for olfactory stimulation in the alteration of cognition, mood, and social behavior. This review aims to evaluate the available literature regarding the influence of fragrances on the

  16. Influence of Fragrances on Human Psychophysiological Activity: With Special Reference to Human Electroencephalographic Response

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sowndhararajan, Kandhasamy; Kim, Songmun

    2016-01-01

    The influence of fragrances such as perfumes and room fresheners on the psychophysiological activities of humans has been known for a long time, and its significance is gradually increasing in the medicinal and cosmetic industries. A fragrance consists of volatile chemicals with a molecular weight of less than 300 Da that humans perceive through the olfactory system. In humans, about 300 active olfactory receptor genes are devoted to detecting thousands of different fragrance molecules through a large family of olfactory receptors of a diverse protein sequence. The sense of smell plays an important role in the physiological effects of mood, stress, and working capacity. Electrophysiological studies have revealed that various fragrances affected spontaneous brain activities and cognitive functions, which are measured by an electroencephalograph (EEG). The EEG is a good temporal measure of responses in the central nervous system and it provides information about the physiological state of the brain both in health and disease. The EEG power spectrum is classified into different frequency bands such as delta (0.5–4 Hz), theta (4–8 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), beta (13–30 Hz) and gamma (30–50 Hz), and each band is correlated with different features of brain states. A quantitative EEG uses computer software to provide the topographic mapping of the brain activity in frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital brain regions. It is well known that decreases of alpha and beta activities and increases of delta and theta activities are associated with brain pathology and general cognitive decline. In the last few decades, many scientific studies were conducted to investigate the effect of inhalation of aroma on human brain functions. The studies have suggested a significant role for olfactory stimulation in the alteration of cognition, mood, and social behavior. This review aims to evaluate the available literature regarding the influence of fragrances on the

  17. Performance of activities of daily living among hospitalized cancer patients

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Lindahl-Jacobsen, Line; Hansen, Dorte Gilså; Wæhrens, Eva Ejlersen

    2015-01-01

    and characterize ADL task performance problems among a group of adult disabled hospitalized cancer patients using interview and questionnaire data. METHODS: Cross-sectional study on prevalence of ADL task performance problems experienced by disabled hospitalized cancer patients using the Activities of Daily Living...... Questionnaire (ADL-Q) (n = 118) and the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) (n = 55). RESULTS: All 118 patients reported problems with ADL task performance. Based on the ADL-Q patients reported more problems within instrumental (I-)ADL than personal (P-)ADL. In both I-ADL and P-ADL the results......BACKGROUND: Many cancer patients report unmet rehabilitation needs. Rehabilitation may include activities of daily living (ADL) tasks, but little is known about how cancer patients perform these tasks and how they prioritize their daily activities. Hence, this study aims to identify...

  18. The Internet of Things Technology Development and Application -- Zhengzhou Airport as An Example

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hu Songlin

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available In order to understand the trend of the development of the Internet of things, and the role of development and construction in the future,this article introduces the developing situation of the Internet of things at home and abroad. Summarizes the architecture and key technologies of iot, this paper expounds the application of the Internet of things, the last development of the Internet of things industry of our country is prospected. Combining with the development of the Internet of things industry area, zhengzhou air port development makes us on the Internet of things has a comprehensive and accurate understanding and awareness.

  19. Correlation between Cognitive Functions and Activity of Daily Living among Post-Stroke Patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kurniawan Prakoso

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Background: Cognitive impairment is one of the most common post-stroke complications; however, neither patients nor health professionals are often aware of this complication. The impact of cognitive impairment on quality of life is reflected through basic activity daily living (bADL and instrumental activity daily living (IADL. Prior studies concerning the correlation between cognitive impairment and activity daily living has shown contradictive results. This study was conducted in order to analyze the correlation between the cognitive functions and activity daily living in post stroke patients at Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out to 23 post-stroke patients from September–November 2015. Samples were collected through consecutive sampling at Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital. Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE was used to assess the cognitive functions and Lawton and Brody Scale to assess both bADL and IADL. Spearman correlation was selected to analyze the existing correlation between each cognitive domain and activity daily living. Results: Spearman statistical correlation showed an insignificant correlation between the cognitive functions and bADL (r2=0.181, p=0.408 and a significant correlation with IADL was obtained (r2=0.517, p=0.03. The only cognitive domain positively correlated with IADL was orientation to time and verbal recall. Conclusions: There is a correlation between cognitive functions and IADL among post-stroke patients at Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital.

  20. Meaning through Things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Marilynn

    2017-01-01

    Interpretation is the process by which we find meaning in the things in the world around us: clouds on the horizon, bones, street signs, hairbrushes, uniforms, paintings, letters, and utterances. But where does that meaning come from and on what basis are we justified in saying a particular meaning is the right meaning? Drawing from debates in the…

  1. Internet of Things Technology and its Applications in Smart Grid

    OpenAIRE

    Liu Hua; Zhang Junguo; Lin Fantao

    2013-01-01

    Smart grid is the latest trend of development and reform in today’s world, and it is also a major technological innovation and development trend in the 21st century. Internet of Things technology is a new information processing and acquisition method, and it has been widely used in intelligent transportation, environmental monitoring and other fields. Internet of Things is an important technical mean to promote the development of smart grid. Using Internet of Things technology can effectively...

  2. Vulnerable Cyborgs: Learning to Live with our Dragons.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Coeckelbergh, Mark

    2011-01-01

    Transhumanist visions appear to aim at invulnerability. We are invited to fight the dragon of death and disease, to shed our old, human bodies, and to live on as invulnerable minds or cyborgs. This paper argues that even if we managed to enhance humans in one of these ways, we would remain highly

  3. Getting Things Done. A Learning Package for Process Skills. An Occasional Paper.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, Max

    This manual is designed to help teachers and tutors implement a 4-day modular course in the skills and processes necessary to get things done. The aims and content of the course are described. A course summary is provided along with a model course program that includes parallel lists of objectives, suggested learning activities and text materials,…

  4. Application of neutron activation analysis to biological materials. Pt. 4. Approach to simultaneous determination of trace elements in human eye tissues with non-destructive neutron activation analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yamaguchi, T; Bando, M; Nakajima, A [Juntendo Univ., Tokyo (Japan). School of Medicine; Terai, M [Tokyo Metropolitan Univ. (Japan). Faculty of Science; Suzuki-Yasumoto, M [National Inst. of Radiological Sciences, Chiba (Japan)

    1980-01-01

    Fourteen trace elements (short-lived nuclides: Al, Br, Cu, Mn and V; long-lived nuclides: Ag, Au, Cd, Co, Cr, Fe, Sc, Se and Zn) in human eye tissues are determined simultaneously by non-destructive neutron activation analysis. The quantity of Al, Br, Fe, Se and Zn in the eye tissues (about 1 to more than 10 ..mu..g/g dry weight tissue) seems to be higher than that of other trace elements, although the content of each trace element in individual tissue is scattered in a wide range. Conjunctiva, iris (+ciliary body) and choroid (+pigment epithelium) seem to contain larger amount of various trace elements than other eye tissues. From correlation studies it is evident that the relative distribution of 14 trace elements in various eye tissues are similar, and furthermore the content of trace elements in the eye tissues may be correlated in each of the three groups (group A: Cd, Se and Zn; group B: Al, Cr, Fe, Se and V; group C: Al, Au, Fe and Se).

  5. Creating a movement for active living via a media campaign.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huberty, Jennifer; Dodge, Tammie; Peterson, Kerri R; Balluff, Mary

    2012-11-01

    Activate Omaha (AO), a community-wide health initiative, was awarded a grant by Active Living by Design in 2003. To establish credibility of the partners in AO and increase awareness of active living in the community by emphasizing promotions (branding, logo recognition). Media, including billboards, TV and radio ads, high-profile spokespersons, grassroots efforts, and worksite "toolkits" featuring tips and creative messaging on physical activity were combined to incentivize people to be physically active. Campaign surveys were conducted by the Market Survey Research Group each year from 2005 to 2008. Survey data based on the first campaign indicated that 86% of Omahans wanted to be part of an active community and to be active with younger generations. The second campaign focused on getting families physically active together, and this survey data showed that citizens wanted to be a part of an active community. A third campaign added practical examples of citizens being active within the community and efforts expanded to worksites with consistent messaging for employees. The final survey indicated that 78% of respondents found Omaha to be an active community compared to 63% who had that response 3 years earlier. Activate Omaha was successful in gaining credibility and leveraging additional funding to implement complementary programming and physical projects, and as a result, changing community perceptions and influencing policy decisions. Copyright © 2012 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Four queries concerning the metaphysics of early human embryogenesis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howsepian, A A

    2008-04-01

    In this essay, I attempt to provide answers to the following four queries concerning the metaphysics of early human embryogenesis. (1) Following its first cellular fission, is it coherent to claim that one and only one of two "blastomeric" twins of a human zygote is identical with that zygote? (2) Following the fusion of two human pre-embryos, is it coherent to claim that one and only one pre-fusion pre-embryo is identical with that postfusion pre-embryo? (3) Does a live human being come into existence only when its brain comes into existence? (4) At implantation, does a pre-embryo become a mere part of its mother? I argue that either if things have quidditative properties or if criterialism is false, then queries (1) and (2) can be answered in the affirmative; that in light of recent developments in theories of human death and in light of a more "functional" theory of brains, query (3) can be answered in the negative; and that plausible mereological principles require a negative answer to query (4).

  7. A live zebrafish-based screening system for human nuclear receptor ligand and cofactor discovery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tiefenbach, Jens; Moll, Pamela R; Nelson, Meryl R; Hu, Chun; Baev, Lilia; Kislinger, Thomas; Krause, Henry M

    2010-03-22

    Nuclear receptors (NRs) belong to a superfamily of transcription factors that regulate numerous homeostatic, metabolic and reproductive processes. Taken together with their modulation by small lipophilic molecules, they also represent an important and successful class of drug targets. Although many NRs have been targeted successfully, the majority have not, and one third are still orphans. Here we report the development of an in vivo GFP-based reporter system suitable for monitoring NR activities in all cells and tissues using live zebrafish (Danio rerio). The human NR fusion proteins used also contain a new affinity tag cassette allowing the purification of receptors with bound molecules from responsive tissues. We show that these constructs 1) respond as expected to endogenous zebrafish hormones and cofactors, 2) facilitate efficient receptor and cofactor purification, 3) respond robustly to NR hormones and drugs and 4) yield readily quantifiable signals. Transgenic lines representing the majority of human NRs have been established and are available for the investigation of tissue- and isoform-specific ligands and cofactors.

  8. A live zebrafish-based screening system for human nuclear receptor ligand and cofactor discovery.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jens Tiefenbach

    2010-03-01

    Full Text Available Nuclear receptors (NRs belong to a superfamily of transcription factors that regulate numerous homeostatic, metabolic and reproductive processes. Taken together with their modulation by small lipophilic molecules, they also represent an important and successful class of drug targets. Although many NRs have been targeted successfully, the majority have not, and one third are still orphans. Here we report the development of an in vivo GFP-based reporter system suitable for monitoring NR activities in all cells and tissues using live zebrafish (Danio rerio. The human NR fusion proteins used also contain a new affinity tag cassette allowing the purification of receptors with bound molecules from responsive tissues. We show that these constructs 1 respond as expected to endogenous zebrafish hormones and cofactors, 2 facilitate efficient receptor and cofactor purification, 3 respond robustly to NR hormones and drugs and 4 yield readily quantifiable signals. Transgenic lines representing the majority of human NRs have been established and are available for the investigation of tissue- and isoform-specific ligands and cofactors.

  9. Living actively in the face of impending death: constantly adjusting to bodily decline at the end-of-life.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morgan, Deidre D; Currow, David C; Denehy, Linda; Aranda, Sanchia A

    2017-06-01

    People with advanced cancer experience bodily change resulting in debilitating functional decline. Although inability to participate in everyday activities (occupation) contributes to profound suffering, limited research has examined the relationship between altered bodily experience (embodiment) and functional ability. The purpose of this study was to better understand the lived experience of functional decline for people with advanced cancer living at home. Indepth interviews were conducted with 10 community dwelling people with advanced cancer about their bodily experiences of functional decline. This study employed a pragmatic qualitative approach, informed by hermeneutic phenomenology. People described living with rapidly disintegrating bodies and how this affected their ability to participate in everyday activities. Analysis identified themes which were evaluated against conceptual frameworks of 'occupation' and 'embodiment'. People experienced a shifting sense of self. They had to continuously reinterpret changing bodies. Previously automatic movements became disjointed and effortful. Simple actions like standing or getting out of bed required increasing concentration. Relentless bodily breakdown disrupted peoples' relationship with time, hindering their ability, but not their desire, to participate in everyday activities. Contending with this deterioration is the work of adaptation to functional decline at the end-of-life. This study highlights the role active participation in everyday activities plays in mediating adjustment to functional decline. These findings challenge us to look beyond palliation of physical symptoms and psychospiritual care as ends in themselves. Symptom control and palliation should be viewed as mechanisms to optimise active participation in essential and valued activities. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

  10. Rational design of human metapneumovirus live attenuated vaccine candidates by inhibiting viral mRNA cap methyltransferase.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yu; Wei, Yongwei; Zhang, Xiaodong; Cai, Hui; Niewiesk, Stefan; Li, Jianrong

    2014-10-01

    The paramyxoviruses human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV), human metapneumovirus (hMPV), and human parainfluenza virus type 3 (hPIV3) are responsible for the majority of pediatric respiratory diseases and inflict significant economic loss, health care costs, and emotional burdens. Despite major efforts, there are no vaccines available for these viruses. The conserved region VI (CR VI) of the large (L) polymerase proteins of paramyxoviruses catalyzes methyltransferase (MTase) activities that typically methylate viral mRNAs at positions guanine N-7 (G-N-7) and ribose 2'-O. In this study, we generated a panel of recombinant hMPVs carrying mutations in the S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) binding site in CR VI of L protein. These recombinant viruses were specifically defective in ribose 2'-O methylation but not G-N-7 methylation and were genetically stable and highly attenuated in cell culture and viral replication in the upper and lower respiratory tracts of cotton rats. Importantly, vaccination of cotton rats with these recombinant hMPVs (rhMPVs) with defective MTases triggered a high level of neutralizing antibody, and the rats were completely protected from challenge with wild-type rhMPV. Collectively, our results indicate that (i) amino acid residues in the SAM binding site in the hMPV L protein are essential for 2'-O methylation and (ii) inhibition of mRNA cap MTase can serve as a novel target to rationally design live attenuated vaccines for hMPV and perhaps other paramyxoviruses, such as hRSV and hPIV3. Human paramyxoviruses, including hRSV, hMPV, and hPIV3, cause the majority of acute upper and lower respiratory tract infections in humans, particularly in infants, children, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals. Currently, there is no licensed vaccine available. A formalin-inactivated vaccine is not suitable for these viruses because it causes enhanced lung damage upon reinfection with the same virus. A live attenuated vaccine is the most promising

  11. Concepts of the Internet of Things from the Aspect of the Autonomous Mobile Robots

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Janos Simon

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The Internet of Things (IoT is slowly gaining grounds and through the properties of barcodes, QR codes, RFID, active sensors and IPv6, objects are fitted with some form of readability and traceability. People are becoming part of digital global network driven by personal interests. The feeling being part of a community and the constant drive of getting connected from real life finds it continuation in digital networks. This article investigates the concepts of the internet of things from the aspect of the autonomous mobile robots with an overview of the performances of the currently available database systems.

  12. Unit and ubiquitous Internet of Things

    CERN Document Server

    Ning, Huansheng

    2013-01-01

    Although the Internet of Things (IoT) will play a key role in the development of next generation information, network, and communication technologies, many are still unclear about what makes IoT different from similar concepts. Answering fundamental questions about IoT architectures and models, Unit and Ubiquitous Internet of Things introduces essential IoT concepts from the perspectives of mapping and interaction between the physical world and the cyber world. It addresses key issues such as strategy and education, particularly around unit and ubiquitous IoT technologies. Supplying a new pers

  13. Visual feature extraction and establishment of visual tags in the intelligent visual internet of things

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Yiqun; Wang, Zhihui

    2015-12-01

    The Internet of things (IOT) is a kind of intelligent networks which can be used to locate, track, identify and supervise people and objects. One of important core technologies of intelligent visual internet of things ( IVIOT) is the intelligent visual tag system. In this paper, a research is done into visual feature extraction and establishment of visual tags of the human face based on ORL face database. Firstly, we use the principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm for face feature extraction, then adopt the support vector machine (SVM) for classifying and face recognition, finally establish a visual tag for face which is already classified. We conducted a experiment focused on a group of people face images, the result show that the proposed algorithm have good performance, and can show the visual tag of objects conveniently.

  14. Research on Application of Internet of Things in the Disposal of Environmental Emergency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhu Yanju

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Internet of things is an important part of a new generation of information technology and also an important stage of Information Age. Application of Internet of things in the disposal of environmental emergency is an inevitable trend of application of Internet of things in the field of environmental protection. This paper summarizes the principle, process and application field of Internet of things, and focuses on the general frame-work of environmental emergency disposal system based on Internet of things and further analyses the factors of restricting application of Internet of things in the disposal of environmental emergency. At last, the suggestions and countermeasures to optimize environmental emergency disposal system are proposed.

  15. Middleware solutions for the Internet of Things

    CERN Document Server

    Delicato, Flávia C; Batista, Thais

    2013-01-01

    After a brief introduction and contextualization on the Internet of Things (IoT) and Web of Things (WoT) paradigms, this timely new book describes one of the first research initiatives aimed at tackling the several challenges involved in building a middleware-layer infrastructure capable of realizing the WoT vision: the SmartSensor infrastructure. It is based on current standardization efforts and designed to manage a specific type of physical devices, those organized to shape a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), where sensors work collaboratively, extracting data and transmitting it to external n

  16. 5G internet of things: A survey

    OpenAIRE

    Li, S.; Xu, L.; Zhao, S.

    2018-01-01

    The existing 4G networks have been widely used in the Internet of Things (IoT) and is continuously evolving to match the needs of the future Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The 5G networks are expected to massive expand today's IoT that can boost cellular operationgs, IoT security, and network challenges and driving the Internet future to the edge. The existing IoT solutions are facing a number of challenges such as large number of conneciton of nodes, security, and new standards. This...

  17. Increasing trend of wearables and multimodal interface for human activity monitoring: A review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumari, Preeti; Mathew, Lini; Syal, Poonam

    2017-04-15

    Activity recognition technology is one of the most important technologies for life-logging and for the care of elderly persons. Elderly people prefer to live in their own houses, within their own locality. If, they are capable to do so, several benefits can follow in terms of society and economy. However, living alone may have high risks. Wearable sensors have been developed to overcome these risks and these sensors are supposed to be ready for medical uses. It can help in monitoring the wellness of elderly persons living alone by unobtrusively monitoring their daily activities. The study aims to review the increasing trends of wearable devices and need of multimodal recognition for continuous or discontinuous monitoring of human activity, biological signals such as Electroencephalogram (EEG), Electrooculogram (EOG), Electromyogram (EMG), Electrocardiogram (ECG) and parameters along with other symptoms. This can provide necessary assistance in times of ominous need, which is crucial for the advancement of disease-diagnosis and treatment. Shared control architecture with multimodal interface can be used for application in more complex environment where more number of commands is to be used to control with better results in terms of controlling. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. What is the next innovation after the internet of things?

    OpenAIRE

    Cao, Hung

    2017-01-01

    The world had witnessed several generations of the Internet. Starting with the Fixed Internet, then the Mobile Internet, scientists now focus on many types of research related to the "Thing" Internet (or Internet of Things). The question is "what is the next Internet generation after the Thing Internet?" This paper envisions about the Tactile Internet which could be the next Internet generation in the near future. The paper will introduce what is the tactile internet, why it could be the next...

  19. Superstrings and other things a guide to physics

    CERN Document Server

    Calle, Carlos I

    2009-01-01

    Part I Introductory ConceptsChapter 1. Physics: The Fundamental Science What Is Physics?The Scientific Method: Learning from Our Mistakes Physics and Other Sciences Sizes of Things: Measurement Fundamental Units Physics and MathematicsPart II The Laws of MechanicsChapter 2. The Description of Motion Understanding Motion Uniform Motion Average Speed Instantaneous Speed Velocity: Speed and Direction Vectors AccelerationUniformly Accelerated MotionFalling Bodies The Motion of ProjectilesChapter 3. The Laws of Mechanics: Newton's Laws of Motion The Concept of ForceThe Ancient Idea of Motion The Bi

  20. A Depth Video-based Human Detection and Activity Recognition using Multi-features and Embedded Hidden Markov Models for Health Care Monitoring Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmad Jalal

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Increase in number of elderly people who are living independently needs especial care in the form of healthcare monitoring systems. Recent advancements in depth video technologies have made human activity recognition (HAR realizable for elderly healthcare applications. In this paper, a depth video-based novel method for HAR is presented using robust multi-features and embedded Hidden Markov Models (HMMs to recognize daily life activities of elderly people living alone in indoor environment such as smart homes. In the proposed HAR framework, initially, depth maps are analyzed by temporal motion identification method to segment human silhouettes from noisy background and compute depth silhouette area for each activity to track human movements in a scene. Several representative features, including invariant, multi-view differentiation and spatiotemporal body joints features were fused together to explore gradient orientation change, intensity differentiation, temporal variation and local motion of specific body parts. Then, these features are processed by the dynamics of their respective class and learned, modeled, trained and recognized with specific embedded HMM having active feature values. Furthermore, we construct a new online human activity dataset by a depth sensor to evaluate the proposed features. Our experiments on three depth datasets demonstrated that the proposed multi-features are efficient and robust over the state of the art features for human action and activity recognition.