Health and wellness monitoring through wearable and ambient sensors: exemplars from home-based care of elderly with mild dementia

Monitoring and timely intervention are extremely important in the continuous management of health and wellness among all segments of the population, but particularly among those with mild dementia. In relation to this, we prescribe three design principles for the construction of services and applications. These are ambient intelligence, service continuity, and micro-context. In this paper, we provide three exemplars from our research and development activities that illustrate the use of these design principles in the construction of services and applications. All the applications are drawn from the field of care for mild dementia patients in their living quarters.     

Long Duration Persistent Photocurrent in 3 nm Thin Doped Indium Oxide for Integrated Light Sensing and In-Sensor Neuromorphic Computation

Miniaturization and energy consumption by computational systems remain major challenges to address. Optoelectronics based synaptic and light sensing provide an exciting platform for neuromorphic processing and vision applications offering several advantages. It is highly desirable to achieve single-element image sensors that allow reception of information and execution of in-memory computing processes while maintaining memory for much longer durations without the need for frequent electrical or optical rehearsals. In this work, ultra-thin (<3 nm) doped indium oxide (In₂O₃) layers are engineered to demonstrate a monolithic two-terminal ultraviolet (UV) sensing and processing system with long optical state retention operating at 50 mV. This endows features of several conductance states within the persistent photocurrent window that are harnessed to show learning capabilities and significantly reduce the number of rehearsals. The atomically thin sheets are implemented as a focal plane array (FPA) for UV spectrum based proof-of-concept vision system capable of pattern recognition and memorization required for imaging and detection applications. This integrated light sensing and memory system is deployed to illustrate capabilities for real-time, in-sensor memorization, and recognition tasks. This study provides an important template to engineer miniaturized and low operating voltage neuromorphic platforms across the light spectrum based on application demand.     

A Fluorimetric Readout Reporting the Kinetics of Nucleotide‐Induced Human Ribonucleotide Reductase Oligomerization

Human ribonucleotide reductase (hRNR) is a target of nucleotide chemotherapeutics in clinical use. The nucleotide‐induced oligomeric regulation of hRNR subunit α is increasingly being recognized as an innate and drug‐relevant mechanism for enzyme activity modulation. In the presence of negative feedback inhibitor dATP and leukemia drug clofarabine nucleotides, hRNR‐α assembles into catalytically inert hexameric complexes, whereas nucleotide effectors that govern substrate specificity typically trigger α‐dimerization. Currently, both knowledge of and tools to interrogate the oligomeric assembly pathway of RNR in any species in real time are lacking. We therefore developed a fluorimetric assay that reliably reports on oligomeric state changes of α with high sensitivity. The oligomerization‐directed fluorescence quenching of hRNR‐α, covalently labeled with two fluorophores, allows for direct readout of hRNR dimeric and hexameric states. We applied the newly developed platform to reveal the timescales of α self‐assembly, driven by the feedback regulator dATP. This information is currently unavailable, despite the pharmaceutical relevance of hRNR oligomeric regulation.     

A novel methodology in transforming bulk properties of refining streams into molecular information

Stricter and ever increasing environmental legislations and demand for higher quality products are the driving forces for the refiner in an attempt to characterise the refining streams on the molecular basis. The objective of this work is to develop a new methodology to interrelate the bulk properties and molecular information of the refining streams in order for refiners to look at the contribution of each molecular group on the properties of the refining streams.The molecular information of a particular refining stream is presented in the form of MTHS (molecular type homologous series) matrix representation [Peng, B., 1999. Molecular modelling of petroleum processes. Ph.D. Thesis, UMIST]. To enhance the accuracy and usability of the method, structural contribution of each isomer on various properties such as octane number, and reid vapour pressure, etc. are considered. Structural lumping rules are then applied to obtain the physical properties of each homologous series. Databases are set up for the properties and molecular information of typical refining streams. Automatic selection of sample matrices through linear combination is used to predict new composition matrices. The methodology is illustrated for refining streams with gasoline range hydrocarbons. The properties predicted based on the new methodology proves to be within 5-6% error range.     

Theoretical performance analysis of heat pump water heaters using carbon dioxide as refrigerant

The aim of this paper is to simulate the performance of an air source heat pump water heater using carbon dioxide (CO₂) as a working fluid. The heat pump water heating system consists of a compressor, a gas cooler, an expansion device and an evaporator. The computer simulation model has been developed by using the heat transfer data and the thermodynamic properties of CO₂. The effects on the heat pump performance by the operating parameters such as the compressor rotational speed, the inlet water temperature at the gas cooler, the inlet air temperature at the evaporator and the mass flow rate ratio of water to refrigerant were presented. For rated capacities of a 4 kW compressor with a 10 kW gas cooler and a 6 kW evaporator, the coefficient of performance is found to be between 2.0 and 3.0. The mass flow rate ratio of water and CO₂ between 1.2 and 2.2 is the most suitable value for generating hot water temperature above 60°C at 15–25°C ambient air temperature. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Science's Response to CoVID-19

CoVID-19 is a multi-symptomatic disease which has made a global impact due to its ability to spread rapidly, and its relatively high mortality rate. Beyond the heroic efforts to develop vaccines, which we do not discuss herein, the response of scientists and clinicians to this complex problem has reflected the need to detect CoVID-19 rapidly, to diagnose patients likely to show adverse symptoms, and to treat severe and critical CoVID-19. Here we aim to encapsulate these varied and sometimes conflicting approaches and the resulting data in terms of chemistry and biology. In the process we highlight emerging concepts, and potential future applications that may arise out of this immense effort.