How In-Home Technologies Mediate Caregiving Relationships in Later Life

In-home technologies can support older adults' activities of daily living, provide physical safety and security, and connect elders to family and friends. They facilitate aging in place while reducing caregiver burden. One of older adults' primary concerns about in-home technologies is their potential to reduce human contact, particularly from cherished caregivers. In this exploratory in situ study, we provided an ecosystem of networked monitoring technologies to six older adults and their caregivers. We analyzed the amount and content of communication between them. The amount of noncomputer-mediated communication did not decrease through the 6-week study. The content of communication coalesced into four themes: communication about the technologies, communication facilitated by technologies, intrusiveness of technologies, and fun and playfulness with the technologies. Results suggest that in-home technologies, designed with sensitivity to older adults' primary motivations, have the potential to shape and tailor important relationships in later life.     

Optimization techniques for spectrum handoff in cognitive radio networks using cluster based cooperative spectrum sensing

Wireless Networks - Spectrum handoff has an undesirable effect in utilizing the space for Secondary user (SU) in the spectrum, which causes a handoff delay in cognitive radio network. The SU...     

Existence and Global Asymptotic Stability of Fuzzy Cellular Neural Networks with Time Delay in the Leakage Term and Unbounded Distributed Delays

Fuzzy cellular neural network (FCNN) structures are based on the uncertainties in human cognitive processes and in modeling neural systems, and they provide an interface between a human expert and classical cellular neural networks (CNNs). In this paper, an existence and global asymptotic stability analysis of the equilibrium point of FCNNs with time delay in the leakage term and unbounded distributed delays is investigated. Based on the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional with free-weighting matrix, and using the homeomorphism mapping principle and linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), a new set of stability criteria for FCNNs is obtained with time delay in the leakage term, time-varying delays and unbounded distributed delays. The proposed results can be easily checked via the LMI Control Toolbox in MATLAB. Moreover, it is well known that the stability behavior of FCNNs is very sensitive to the time delay in the leakage term. In the absence of the leakage term, a new stability criterion is also derived by employing a Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional using an LMI approach. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and reduced conservativeness of the developed techniques.     

Test‐Generation‐Based Fault Detection in Analog VLSI Circuits Using Neural Networks

In this paper, we propose a novel test methodology for the detection of catastrophic and parametric faults present in analog very large scale integration circuits. An automatic test pattern generation algorithm is proposed to generate piece‐wise linear (PWL) stimulus using wavelets and a genetic algorithm. The PWL stimulus generated by the test algorithm is used as a test stimulus to the circuit under test. Faults are injected to the circuit under test and the wavelet coefficients obtained from the output response of the circuit. These coefficients are used to train the neural network for fault detection. The proposed method is validated with two IEEE benchmark circuits, namely, an operational amplifier and a state variable filter. This method gives 100% fault coverage for both catastrophic and parametric faults in these circuits.     

Nanomedicine-Based Delivery Strategies for Breast Cancer Treatment and Management

Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer among women globally. It is caused by mutations in the estrogen/progesterone receptors and conventional treatment methods are commonly utilized. About 70–80 percent of individuals with the early-stage non-metastatic disease may be cured. Conventional treatment is far less than the optimal ratio, as demonstrated through the high mortality rate of women with this cancer. However, conventional treatment methods like surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy are not as effective as expected and lead to concerns about low bioavailability, low cellular uptake, emerging resistance, and adverse toxicities. A nanomedicine-based approach is a promising alternative for breast cancer treatment. The present era is witnessing rapid advancements in nanomedicine as a platform for investigating novel therapeutic applications and modern intelligent healthcare management strategies. This paper focuses on nanomedicine-based therapeutic interventions that are becoming more widely accepted for improving treatment effectiveness and reducing undesired side effects in breast cancer patients. By evaluating the state-of-the-art tools and taking the challenges involved into consideration, various aspects of the proposed nano-enabled therapeutic approaches have been discussed in this review.     

Stabilization of foams and emulsions by mixtures of surface active food-grade particles and proteins

Surface active biopolymers such as proteins can form films with particularly high interfacial elasticities and viscosities and these molecules are widely exploited as foaming and emulsifying agents in foods. Solid particles of the correct size and wetting characteristics can also be extremely effective stabilizers of foams and emulsions, although the underlying mechanism of stabilization is somewhat different. Relatively little is known about what happens when both surface active polymers and surface active particles are present together. This work presents recent findings on the effects of mixtures of proteins plus novel food-compatible surface active particles. The proteins include caseins and whey proteins. The surface active particles prepared include cellulose + ethyl cellulose complexes, hydrophobically-modified starch granule particles and stable (non-spreading) protein-stabilized oil droplets. Interfacial shear rheology of adsorbed films was measured via a biconical bob apparatus and interfacial dilatational rheology was measured via a Langmuir trough type apparatus. The corresponding stability of bubbles to coalescence and disproportionation was assessed in separate experiments. Stability of oil-in-water emulsions was assessed via measurement of particle size distributions as function of time and visual assessment of the tendency to creaming and oiling off. In general, it is shown that the surface active particles on their own exhibit much lower measures of interfacial elasticity and viscosity than the proteins, but in combination with the proteins they appear to enhance the interfacial viscoelasticity considerably, with concomitant increases in bubble and emulsion droplet stability. There is little evidence of attractive interactions between the particles and the proteins, so a possible explanation of the increased stability is that the proteins increase the accumulation of particles at the interface, giving rise to increased jamming of particles at the interface.     

BUBBLE TEMPERATURES OF THE BINARY MIXTURES OF 1,2-DIMETHYLBENZENE WITH 2-PROPANOL, 1-BUTANOL, 2-BUTANOL, 2-METHYLPROPAN-1-OL AND 2-METHYLPROPAN-2-OL AT 95 kPa

Bubble temperatures at 95 kPa over the entire composition range are measured for the five binary systems formed by 1,2-dimethylbenzene with 2-propanol, 1-butanol, 2-butanol, 2- methylpropan-1-ol, and 2-methylpropan- 2-ol. A Swietoslawski - type ebulliometer was used for the measurements. The composition versus temperature measurements are well represented by the Wilson model.     

Synthesis,characterization and properties of a castor oil modified biodegradable poly(ester amide) resin

A biodegradable poly(ester amide) resin was synthesized from N,N-bis(2-hydroxy ethyl) fatty amide of castor oil with maleic anhydride, phthalic anhydride and isophthalic acid (100:30:35:35 mole ratio) by the polycondensation process. The fatty amide of the oil was obtained for the first time with 95% yield. The chemical structure of the synthesized resin was characterized by spectroscopic techniques like FTIR, ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR. Various physical properties such as acid value, saponification value, iodine value, specific gravity and viscosity of the resin were also determined. Further the rheological behavior, studied in the steady shear mode showed shear thinning behavior of the resin. The epoxy cured poly(ester amide) thermoset using poly(amido amine) hardener exhibited better properties than with the cycloaliphatic amine hardener cured system. TGA studies also revealed higher thermal stability of the former system than the latter. In vitro-biodegradation study of the poly(ester amide) thermoset using Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilus bacteria revealed superior biodegradability of the thermoset using the former bacterial strain. Excellent chemical resistance against various chemical media including alkali was observed for epoxy-poly(amido amine) cured poly(ester amide) resin over epoxy-cycloaliphatic amine one. The epoxy-poly(amido amine) cured poly(ester amide) thermoset thus has the potential to be used as surface coating material.