Fall Recognition Based on an IMU Wearable Device and Fall Verification through a Smart Speaker and the IoT.

A fall is one of the most devastating events that aging people can experience. Fall-related physical injuries, hospital admission, or even mortality among the elderly are all critical health issues. As the population continues to age worldwide, there is an imperative need to develop fall detection systems. We propose a system for the recognition and verification of falls based on a chest-worn wearable device, which can be used for elderly health institutions or home care. The wearable device utilizes a built-in three-axis accelerometer and gyroscope in the nine-axis inertial sensor to determine the user's postures, such as standing, sitting, and lying down. The resultant force was obtained by calculation with three-axis acceleration. Integration of three-axis acceleration and a three-axis gyroscope can obtain a pitch angle through the gradient descent algorithm. The height value was converted from a barometer. Integration of the pitch angle with the height value can determine the behavior state including sitting down, standing up, walking, lying down, and falling. In our study, we can clearly determine the direction of the fall. Acceleration changes during the fall can determine the force of the impact. Furthermore, with the IoT (Internet of Things) and smart speakers, we can verify whether the user has fallen by asking from smart speakers. In this study, posture determination is operated directly on the wearable device through the state machine. The ability to recognize and report a fall event in real-time can help to lessen the response time of a caregiver. The family members or care provider monitor, in real-time, the user's current posture via a mobile device app or internet webpage. All collected data supports subsequent medical evaluation and further intervention.

Portable self-flowing platform for filtration separation of samples.

A portable self-flow filtration and separation platform was designed using soft lithography to create a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microfluidic channel cover combined with a matching acrylic substrate. The separation zone was filled with microbeads of appropriate sizes to achieve universal filtration and separation. This simple structure requires only 20 µl of the sample for filtration separation. A vacuum of 760 torr is applied to the porous PDMS cover to drive the sample during testing. The average time required for a 20 µl sample of blood to pass through the separation zone is about 56 s, while the filling time for the detection zone of volume 6 µl is about 319 s. When the hematocrit of the blood sample is about 20-25%, the separation efficiency is 99.98%. Further, the separation efficiency of fat globules from raw milk is close to 100%, whereas almost all impurities are filtered out from juice and stool samples. It is also observed that E. coli in the stool can pass from the separation to detection zone at a maximum rate of about 81.21%, with an average of about 68.18%.

Fabrication of PLLA/C3S Composite Membrane for the Prevention of Bone Cement Leakage.

Kyphoplasty is an important treatment for stabilizing spine fractures due to osteoporosis. However, leakage of polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) bone cement during this procedure into the spinal canal has been reported to cause many adverse effects. In this study, we prepared an implantable membrane to serve as a barrier that avoids PMMA cement leakage during kyphoplasty procedures through a hybrid composite made of poly-l-lactic acid (PLLA) and tricalcium silicate (C3S), with the addition of C3S into PLLA matrix, showing enhanced mechanical and anti-degradation properties while keeping good cytocompatibility when compared to PLLA alone and most importantly, when this material design was applied under standardized PMMA cement injection conditions, no posterior wall leakage was observed after the kyphoplasty procedure in pig lumbar vertebral bone models. Testing results assess its effectiveness for clinical practice.

Nanoparticle-induced intraperitoneal hyperthermia and targeted photoablation in treating ovarian cancer.

Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy is effective in treating various intra-abdominal malignancies. However, this therapeutic modality can only be performed during surgical operations and cannot be used repeatedly. We propose repeatedly noninvasive hyperthermia mediated by pegylated silica-core gold nanoshells (pSGNs) in vivo with external near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. This study demonstrated that repeated photothermal treatment can effectively eliminate intraperitoneal tumors in mouse ovarian cancer models without damage of normal tissues. By conjugating pSGNs with anti-human CD47 monoclonal antibody, a significant photoablative effect can be achieved using lower amount of pSGNs and shorter NIR laser irradiation. Conjugated pSGNs specifically targeted and bound to cancer cells inside the peritoneal cavity. Our results indicate the possibility of a noninvasive method of repeated hyperthermia and photoablative therapies using nanoparticles. This has substantial clinical potential in treating ovarian and other intraperitoneal cancers.

Intra-peritoneal hyperthermia combining α-galactosylceramide in the treatment of ovarian cancer.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the anti-tumor effect and potential mechanisms of i.p. hyperthermia in combination with α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) for the treatment of ovarian cancer. In this study, immuno-competent tumor models were established using murine ovarian cancer cell lines and treated with i.p. hyperthermia combining α-GalCer. Th1/Th2 cytokine expression profiles in the serum, NK cell cytotoxicity and phagocytic activities of dendritic cells (DCs) were assayed. We also analyzed the number of CD8(+)/IFN-γ(+) tumor specific cytotoxic T cells, as well as the tumor growth based on depletion of lymphocyte sub-population. Therapeutic effect on those ovarian tumors was monitored by a non-invasive luminescent imaging system. Intra-peritoneal hyperthermia induced significant pro-inflammatory cytokines expression, and sustained the response of NK and DCs induced by α-GalCer treatment. The combination treatment enhanced the cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) immune response in two mouse ovarian cancer models. This novel treatment modality by combination of hyperthermia and glycolipid provides a pronounced anti-tumor immune response and better survival. In conclusion, intra-peritoneal hyperthermia enhanced the pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion and phagocytic activity of DCs stimulated by α-GalCer. The subsequent CTL immune response induced by α-GalCer was further strengthened by combining with i.p. hyperthermia. Both innate and adaptive immunities were involved and resulted in a superior therapeutic effect in treating the ovarian cancer.

Surgery for elderly lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE: There are still controversies about the surgical benefits for elderly lung cancer.The aims of this study were to assess impacts of aging for non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC) following pulmonary resection. METHODS: A retrospective study was undertaken for patients operated at a curative intent from January 1998 to October 2008. Patients were divided into two groups: Group 1 consisted of patients aged at least 75 years old, and group 2 were patients less than 75 years old. Perioperative characteristics and details, hospital courses, surgery-related morbidities, surgical mortality, and survival were compared between groups. RESULTS: Of 442 eligible patients, 73 patients (16.5%) were in group 1 (mean age 78.3 years) and 369 (83.5%) patients were in group 2 (mean age 62.5 years). The following data were compared with statistical significance: hospital stay (17.8 vs. 8.9 days), mortality rate (8.2 vs. 2.2%), morbidity rate (26.0 vs. 13.3%), and length in intensive care unit (5.7 vs. 3.2 days). The main causes for morbidities in group 1 showed cardiopulmonary-related. Tumor stage without considering age had statistically significant influence on survival. Survivals of two groups were comparative. (p= 0.10) Intriguingly, the disease-related survival (28.3 months; p= 0.008) and progression-free survival (25.0 months; p<0.001) in group 1 were significantly better than group 2 (20.2 and 12.2 months). CONCLUSIONS: Although operation for NSCLC in the elderly patients causes more complications, especially in the cardiopulmonary system, their outcome showed better than their younger counterparts. Pulmonary resection for elderly patients may get longer disease control. Elderly patients with physical fit for surgery should not be considered as a contraindication to pulmonary resection based on age alone.

Identification of Salmonella using colony-print and detection with antibody-coated gold nanoparticles.

In this study, we developed an easy screening test that identifies Salmonella in 2 h after colony-print which is a procedure based on the transfer of surface cells of the colonies to a nitrocellulose membrane. Gold nanoparticles coated with the anti-Salmonella antibody were used to highlight the Salmonella spp. on the membrane to facilitate the selectivity. On Hektoen agar, 134 stool samples containing black or crystalloid colonies were identified using the proposed method. Without any equipment, such as microscope, the red dots corresponding Salmonella were observed. After colony-print test, 22 of the isolates were correctly identified as Salmonella to achieve 100% sensitivity. 111 samples were correctly identified as non-Salmonella spp., but one was incorrectly identified as Salmonella. The specificity is 99.1%. This method is simple, straightforward, inexpensive, and fast. It can be easily applied to the routine workload of clinical laboratories, and can be very useful when large amounts of fecal samples should be evaluated for rapid screening and diagnosis.

Development of a biochip using antibody-coated gold nanoparticles to detect specific bioparticles.

This study developed a method of detecting bioparticles such as Salmonella that exist in the biological samples. The method employed a substrate with interlaced comb-like electrodes into which the mixtures of biological samples and antibody-coated gold nanoparticles were added. The alternative signals with appropriate frequency bands were then conducted into the comb-like electrodes to change the dielectrophoresis force. The gold-modified Salmonella can be adsorbed on the edges of the electrodes and isolated from various biological samples. The impedance of the adsorbed Salmonella on the edges of the electrodes was measured and comparison of the impedance between the electrodes with and without Salmonella can quantify the amount of the adsorbed Salmonella.

A chip for catching, separating, and transporting bio-particles with dielectrophoresis.

This study aims at developing a 3D device for catching, separating, and transporting bio-particles based on dielectrophoresis (DEP). Target particles can be simultaneously caught and transported using the negative DEP method. In non-uniform electric fields, the levitation height or complex permittivity of certain particle may be different from that of another and this property can facilitate separation of particles. We have designed and constructed a 3D device consisting of two layers of electrodes separated by a channel formed by 50 microm thick photoresist. The electrodes can operate effectively with 10-15 V and 5-7 MHz to catch all particles in the channel, and can move particles after switching the electric field to 5-15 V and 500-1,000 KHz. Hence, particles experienced coupling force of two different directional twDEP forces, and tallied with our estimation to move along the coupling direction.

Detection of specific bioparticles using antibodies-coated gold nanoparticles and dielectrophoretic impedance measurement.

In this study, we developed an easy and quick test capable of identifying specific bacteria in one hour. The protocol was established based on the measurement of bacteria quantity on a biochip with comb-like electrodes. Gold nanoparticles coated with anti-Salmonella antibody were used to enhance the dielectrophretic property of Salmonella spp. on the biochip to facilitate the sensitivity.