Socially Assistive Robots in Elderly Care: A Mixed-Method Systematic Literature Review

The world’s population is aging, and developed countries are engaged in developing a new aged-care paradigm to reduce spiraling healthcare costs. Assistive technologies like Socially Assistive Robots (SAR) are being considered as enablers to support the process of care giving or keep elderly at home longer. This article reports a mixed-method systematic review of SAR in elderly care and recognizes its impact on elderly well-being, integrating evidence from qualitative and quantitative studies. It follows the principles explained in Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and classifies interventions, measures, and outcomes of field trials of SAR in elderly care. Eighty-six studies in 37 study groups have been included. The findings imply positive effects of SAR on elderly well-being. Ten significant recommendations are made to help avoid the current limitations of existing research and to improve future research and its applicability. This review revealed that SAR can potentially enhance elderly well-being and decrease the workload on caregivers. There is a need for rigorous research methodology, person-centered care, caregiver expectation model, multimodal interaction, multimodal data collection, and modeling of culturally diverse groups to facilitate acceptability of SAR.     

Compositional analysis and rheological characterization of gum tragacanth exudates from six species of Iranian Astragalus

The sugar composition and viscoelastic behaviour of Iranian gum tragacanth exuded by six species of Astragalus was investigated at a concentration of 1.3% and varying ionic strength using a controlled shear-rate rheometer. Compositional analysis of the six species of gum tragacanth by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection suggested the occurrence of arabinose, xylose, glucose, galactose, fucose, rhamnose and galacturonic acid residues in the gum structure; however, the proportions of each sugar varied significantly among the gums from the different species of Astragalus, and this variation led to interesting differences in functional properties. Rheological measurements performed on dispersions of the six species of gum tragacanth demonstrated viscoelastic properties. The mechanical spectra derived from strain sweep and frequency sweep measurements indicated that the different gum tragacanth dispersions had distinctive viscoelastic behaviours. Investigation of the viscoelastic properties of the different gum dispersions in the presence of NaCl revealed that the addition of NaCl could lead to slight to drastic decreases in the G′, G″ or η^∗ values of the various gums. In general, the results indicated that the six varieties of gum tragacanth studied exhibited significantly different rheological properties; therefore, these different gums may find use in a variety of applications as stabilisers, thickeners, emulsifiers and suspending agents depending on their rheological behaviour.     

Modeling of gas diffusion layers with curved fibers using a genetic algorithm

This paper presents a methodology for modeling microstructures of fibrous porous media with curved fibers. The developed methodology utilizes implicit periodic surface model coupled with the genetic algorithm (GA) optimization to construct the porous microstructures. The fibers profile is represented by the periodic implicit surfaces and their orientation and curvature are determined by GA optimization. To reconstruct the microstructures with higher resemblance to the actual porous media GA is utilized to minimize the fibers stored strain energy and their intersection volumes. Coupling the image processing techniques to the geometry construction procedure the morphological and transport properties of the constructed microstructures are also determined. To verify the feasibility and the accuracy of the proposed methodology the microstructure of Freudenberg H2315 GDL is constructed and characterized. The presented methodology enables a parametric design approach. Thus, the effects of the microstructure's properties e.g., fibers diameter, fibers orientation and porosity of the porous structure on the transport properties of the fibrous media are investigated.     

Mechanical,Thermal, and Morphological Behavior of Silicone Rubber during Accelerated Aging

An accelerated aging study on silicone rubber exploring the effects of exposure to a functional oil (polyalkylene glycol) at elevated temperature (195°C) is reported in this paper. Variations in mechanical (tensile, tear, hardness) and thermal (conductivity, specific heat capacity) properties were monitored versus aging time while permanent deformation of the rubber was evaluated through creep and recovery measurements. Morphology and surface chemistry of the aged rubber were also investigated through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, respectively. Aging had a significant impact on the mechanical properties with the ultimate tensile strength and elongation at break decreasing from 7.4?MPa and 2250% in unaged samples to 1.5?MPa and 760% in 6-week aged samples, respectively. The tear strength and hardness exhibited an initial increase during the early stages of aging, followed by a decreasing trend. In contrast, the thermal properties did not change significantly and FTIR did not detect any changes in the surface chemistry of the rubber with aging. SEM however, provided evidence of an increase in brittle behavior from the morphology of the fractured surfaces.     

Extracellular breakdown of collagen by mice decidual cells. A cytochemical and ultrastructural study.

The interaction of antimesometrial decidual cells and collagen fibrils was studied by light microscopy and ultrastructural cytochemistry in fed and acutely fasted mice on days 9-11 of pregnancy. Fibrillar elements in the extracellular space consisted of collagen fibrils and filamentous aggregates (disintegrating collagen fibrils). Intracellular vacuoles exhibited typical collagen immersed in electron-translucent material (clear vacuoles) and faint cross-banded collagen immersed in electron-opaque material (dark vacuoles). Fibrillar elements showed extracellular acid phosphatase activity which was stronger in the region of mature decidua than in predecidual cells region in all animals; it was conspicuous in mature decidua of fasted animals. Intracellular acid phosphatase activity was observed in dark vacuoles and lysosomes, and was absent in clear vacuoles in all cells studied. Since acid phosphatase activity reflects the presence of lysosomal hydrolases in general, the results indicate that breakdown of extracellular collagen occurs by release of lysosomal enzymes by decidual cells and also by internalization of collagen for intracellular degradation in fed and fasted mice. Collagen breakdown may be part of the process of tissue remodeling in mature and predecidual regions, however, in mature decidua, collagen breakdown is enhanced and may therefore contribute to nutrition of the fetus, specially in acutely fasted mice.     

新型干法水泥厂窑尾塔架的结构选型

近十年来,由于大规模水泥厂窑尾塔架跨度大,单根梁柱的内力大,钢结构梁柱和钢管混凝土柱因其特有的性能优势得到了广泛的应用。结合近30年的工程实践,总结了新型干法水泥窑窑尾塔架设计的结构选型,分析了在不同背景条件下窑尾塔架各种结构形式的适用范围和性能特点。     

老幼复合型社区养老机构的构想与实践——日本的经验与启示

作为社区型养老机构的特殊类型,将老年人和儿童看护设施邻近或合并设置的老幼复合型机构因其对促进不同世代人群间交流、理解的独特社会效益而在海外受到瞩目。日本从20世纪90年代起尝试建设此类机构,而对其使用情况的追踪调查也证实了设施对促进使用者身心健康以及社区人际交往的积极意义。本文认为尽管面临着国情和相关规范方面的诸多不同,但从社会和经济意义的角度考虑,老幼复合型机构仍然值得在中国试点推广。     

Microstructure and activation characteristics of Mg–Ni alloy modified by multi-walled carbon nanotubes

An Mg–6 wt% Ni alloy was fabricated by a casting technique and the drilled chips ball-milled by high energy ball milling to be examined for their hydrogenation modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The activation characteristics of ball-milled alloy are compared with those of the materials obtained by ball milling with 5 wt% MWCNTs for 0.5, 1, 2, 5 and 10 h. MWCNTs enhanced the absorption kinetics considerably in all cases. The hydrogen content of the modified powder with MWCNTs reached maximum hydrogen capacity within 2 min of exposure to hydrogen at 370 °C and 2 MPa pressure. X-ray diffraction analysis provided evidence that no carbon-containing phase was formed during milling. However, milling with MWCNTs reduced the crystallite size, even if the milling was carried out for only an hour. The rate-controlling steps of the hydriding reactions at different milling times were determined by fitting the respective kinetic equations. Evidence is provided that nucleation and growth of hydrides are accelerated drastically by a homogenous distribution of MWCNTs on the surface of the ball-milled powders. We show that MWCNTs are very effective at promoting the hydriding/dehydriding kinetics, as well as in increasing the hydrogen capacity of the magnesium alloy.