Instant download Healthcare Engineering Proceedings of CAETS 2015 Convocation on Pathways to Sustainability 1st Edition Rajeev Shorey pdf all chapter
Instant download Healthcare Engineering Proceedings of CAETS 2015 Convocation on Pathways to Sustainability 1st Edition Rajeev Shorey pdf all chapter
Instant download Healthcare Engineering Proceedings of CAETS 2015 Convocation on Pathways to Sustainability 1st Edition Rajeev Shorey pdf all chapter
com
https://textbookfull.com/product/healthcare-engineering-
proceedings-of-caets-2015-convocation-on-pathways-to-
sustainability-1st-edition-rajeev-shorey/
OR CLICK BUTTON
DOWNLOAD NOW
https://textbookfull.com/product/energy-engineering-proceedings-of-
caets-2015-convocation-on-pathways-to-sustainability-1st-edition-k-v-
raghavan/
textboxfull.com
https://textbookfull.com/product/proceedings-of-the-10th-world-
congress-on-engineering-asset-management-wceam-2015-1st-edition-kari-
t-koskinen/
textboxfull.com
https://textbookfull.com/product/engineering-of-microbial-
biosynthetic-pathways-vijai-singh/
textboxfull.com
https://textbookfull.com/product/transactions-on-engineering-
technologies-world-congress-on-engineering-and-computer-
science-2015-amouzegar/
textboxfull.com
Rajeev Shorey · Purnendu Ghosh Editors
Healthcare
Engineering
Proceedings of CAETS 2015 Convocation
on Pathways to Sustainability
Healthcare Engineering
Rajeev Shorey Purnendu Ghosh
•
Editors
Healthcare Engineering
Proceedings of CAETS 2015 Convocation
on Pathways to Sustainability
123
Editors
Rajeev Shorey Purnendu Ghosh
Indian National Academy of Engineering Birla Institute of Scientific Research
Gurgaon, Haryana Jaipur, Rajasthan
India India
v
vi Foreword
stimulating and have resulted in interesting papers which are showcased in the
Post-Proceedings. I thank all the authors for devoting their precious time for con-
tributing papers for the proceedings.
I express my sincere thanks to the editors of the CAETS 2015 Convocation
Post-Proceedings for their untiring efforts at every stage of planning of the event
and in publication of the Post-Proceedings. The assistance and initiative taken by
Springer in bringing out the publication are deeply appreciated.
On behalf of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), it is my proud
privilege to express my deepest gratitude to the CAETS organization for giving us
an opportunity to host this event of international repute for the first time in India.
I sincerely hope that the event left many pleasant and memorable memories for
all the delegates, and I am certain that the Post-Proceedings of the CAETS 2015
Convocation on “Pathways to Sustainability: Energy, Mobility and Healthcare
Engineering” shall be well accepted in the engineering realm and by the engi-
neering community.
Preamble
The CAETS CONVOCATION-2015, hosted by the Indian National Academy of
Engineering (INAE), was held on 13 October–14 October 2015 at New Delhi,
India. The CAETS Governing Council had chosen the theme on sustainable
engineering pathways for energy, mobility and healthcare sectors for the conference
attended by 250+ delegates comprising of the Fellowship of CAETS member
academies, senior engineering experts, scientists, thought leaders, policy makers
and industry executives from Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hungary,
India, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK,
USA, Uruguay and other countries. This international event was formally inau-
gurated by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Hon’ble Minister of Science and Technology,
Government of India, and he assured that the recommendations of the CAETS
Convocation will be acted upon by the government. Professor Asutosh Sharma,
Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, addressed
the gathering and highlighted the importance of the selected themes to developing
nations.
The two unique features of CAETS-2015 were the special gesture made by the
INAE (a) to provide 50 % international travel support and complimentary accom-
modation to encourage young engineers below 45 years of age to deliver lectures in
the technical sessions along with eminent senior engineers and (b) to organize poster
sessions and awards to encourage very young engineers and research scholars from
CAETS member academies to present their research work. These initiatives paid rich
dividends by attracting the participation of 30+ young engineers in CAETS
Convocation. Another major initiative is the formal launching of the electronic
version of the CAETS report on “Transitioning to Lower Carbon Economy:
Technological and Engineering Considerations for Building and Transportation
Sectors” during the inaugural function of CAETS CONVOCATION-2015 by the
chief guest. This is a joint initiative of 12 CAETS Member Academies from
Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Switzerland
and UK. The experts from these academies met at Capetown (South Africa), Beijing
vii
viii Preface
(China), Berlin (Germany) and London (UK) during 2013–2015 to identify the
technological and engineering priorities and emerging options for transition to lower
carbon economy in building and transportation sectors.
Recommendations
Energy
Global energy consumption will grow from 524 to 820 quadrillion BTU between
2010 and 2040, leading to GHG emission increase by more than 40 % from the
present level under business as usual scenario. Since the dynamics of energy growth
is driven by the population and wealth enhancements, it is important to keep track
of these growth dynamics in different countries. Energy resources sustainability as
well as their cost efficiencies would dictate as rapid shift as possible to lower carbon
non-fossil energy systems. Since under this context, recent developments in
three-stage thorium-based nuclear energy, large-capacity solar thermal power
plants, fuel cell-based independent propulsion systems for strategic and civilian
applications, wind-generated hydrogen as a renewable energy carrier and uncon-
ventional gas from coal seams, underground coal gasifications and biohydrogen
from waste resources provide potentially lower carbon energy options. A joint
voluntary initiative by CAETS member academies from Argentina, Australia,
Canada, China, Germany, South Africa, Switzerland and UK on unconventional
gas involving basic and social scientists, engineers and economists on unconven-
tional gas provides a new model for CAETS member academies to emulate in the
future.
Developing energy scenarios under various application modes is a powerful
mechanism for devising future energy-efficient systems. A typical example is the
highly interconnected electricity, transport and heating sectors. The coal-based
energy continues to attract engineers to develop the cleaner process options and to
minimize the GHG emissions keeping in mind the transitional priorities. The actions
include upgradation of beneficiation, ultra-supercritical combustion and integrated
gas combined cycle concept for gasification, cofiring of coal and biomass, and
China’s achievements in some of these areas are noteworthy. In energy materials, in
which significant developments are taking place worldwide, we have to look beyond
silicon for next-generation solar cells by adopting conjugate organics, inorganic
quantum dots and mixed semiconductor oxides/peroxides. Similar challenges are
foreseen in high-energy-density battery and membrane materials for fuel cells.
Light-based technologies can play a major part in developing future energy-efficient
systems. There is a need to integrate photonic and biophotonic technologies. In this
international year of light technologies, such initiatives have to be taken to achieve
multi-functionality, tunability, low power for fast operations, reconfigurability and
cost-effectiveness so much necessary for energy, mobility and healthcare sectors.
Preface ix
Mobility
The future engineering challenges lie in the development of semi- and fully auto-
mated transport vehicles, intelligent driver–vehicle interface and innovative
multi-axle hydraulic trailers for heavy loads. The fast-changing digital technology
has opened up new avenues for electrifications of rail, air and marine transport
vehicles. The five digital forces, viz. cloud computing, mobile technologies, social
networks, big data and robotics, will make high impact on these developments.
Exciting developments are taking place in bridge design and construction
technologies with urban and rural transport restructuring, virtual mobility and
carbon footprint minimization during their construction as defining factors. Novel
retrofit technologies are needed for their restoration. A life cycle approach
embracing bridge design, construction, maintenance, restoration and dismantling is
a future priority area for civil engineers.
The recent developments in rapid urban rail transportation systems in China,
India and Japan have demonstrated the new engineering skills acquired in the
planning, design and execution of underground tunnels and structures. From
material engineering point of view, material recycle and functionalized material
applications are high priority areas in evolving sustainable roadways.
The dilemmas in mass transportation in emerging economies are many. It is
important to consider seamless connectivity, smart mobility, enforcement of
advanced safety measures, equitable allocations of road space for multiple type of
vehicles and time-variant traffic demands.
Health Care
Multitude of engineering challenges await healthcare sector in terms of new
diagnostic tools, next-generation medical devices and application of informatics
and analytics. The recent advances in nano- and point-of-care diagnostic, scalable
medical and remote neonatal monitoring systems have enhanced the chances of
early and accessible diagnosis. Structural process concept has greatly helped in
developing groundbreaking technologies for these systems in advanced nations
x Preface
xi
Contents
xiii
xiv Contents
Dr. Rajeev Shorey is the Principal Scientist at the TCS Innovation Lab,
Cincinnati, USA, and Bangalore, India. Dr. Shorey received his Ph.D. and MS in
Electrical Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc),
Bangalore, India, in 1997 and 1991, respectively. He received his B.E. degree in
Computer Science and Engineering from IISc, Bangalore, in 1987, and the B.Sc.
degree from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University in 1984. Dr. Shorey’s career
spans several reputed research laboratories—General Motors (GM) India Science
Laboratory (ISL), IBM India Research Laboratory and SASKEN Technologies. He
was an adjunct faculty in the Computer Science Department at IIT, Delhi, from
1998 to 2005. He was a faculty in the Computer Science Department at the National
University of Singapore from 2003 to 2004, while on leave from IBM Research
Labsoratories in New Delhi.
Dr. Shorey’s work has resulted in more than 50 publications in international
journals and conferences and several US patents, all in the area of wireless and
wired networks, including wireless security. He has 12 issued US patents and
several pending US patents to his credit. His areas of interest are wireless networks,
Internet, telecommunications, telematics, data security and data analytics.
Dr. Shorey has served on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Mobile
Computing and is currently serving on the editorial board of WINET (Wireless
Networks Journal of Mobile Communication, Computation and Information)
journal. He is the editor of the book titled “Mobile, Wireless and Sensor Networks:
Technology, Applications and Future Directions” published by John Wiley, USA,
in March 2006. Dr. Shorey has given numerous talks, tutorials and seminars in
industry and academia all over the world. He is the founding member of the
Communication Systems & Networks (COMSNETS) conference in India.
For his contributions in the area of communication networks, Dr. Shorey was
elected as Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2007.
Dr. Shorey was recognized by ACM as a Distinguished Scientist in December
2014. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication
Engineers, India.
xv
xvi About the Editors
Hideaki Koizumi
Abstract Marie Curie (1867–1934) and Pierre Curie (1859–1906) received the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 for the discovery of polonium and radium, which
eventually led to nuclear energy. At the award ceremony, their lectures concluded
with Pierre’s remarks to the effect that “science is neutral in values. Whether to use
the results of scientific research for good or bad purposes is entirely up to the
humans who use them. Are humans really mature enough to use science only for
good purposes? I hope we are.”
Keywords Engineering ethics Warfare technology Human ethics Human
security Ethics for sustainability
1 Introduction
Marie Curie (1867–1934) and Pierre Curie (1859–1906) received the Nobel Prize in
Physics in 1903 for the discovery of polonium and radium, which eventually led to
nuclear energy. At the award ceremony, their lectures concluded with Pierre’s
remarks to the effect that “science is neutral in values. Whether to use the results of
scientific research for good or bad purposes is entirely up to the humans who use
them. Are humans really mature enough to use science only for good purposes? I
hope we are.”
A paper for the CAETS (International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological
Sciences) Convocation to be held in New Delhi, India, October 12–16.
H. Koizumi (&)
Engineering Academy of Japan (EAJ), Tokyo, Japan
e-mail: tanaka@eaj.or.jp
H. Koizumi
Science Council of Japan (SCJ), Cabinet Office of Japan, Tokyo, Japan
H. Koizumi
Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
As is widely known, the Nobel Prize was initiated in accordance with the dying
words of Alfred B. Nobel (1833–1896), who wanted to recognize the development
of scientific technologies and peace using the enormous assets acquired from his
invention of dynamite as the original funding. Dynamite helped save many people’s
lives by enabling large-scale flood control works, but it also was used as a tool of
massacre in warfare, becoming a typical example of a scientific technology with a
double-edged sword, reflecting the bright and dark sides of science.
The case of Fritz Haber (1868–1934) led to further consideration of the
importance of the ethics of scientists and engineers. Haber showed significant talent
in physics, chemistry and biology and developed a process to fix nitrogen from the
air to provide artificial nitrogen fertilizers for the soil (receiving the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry in 1918). This trailblazing technology made a tremendous contribution
to increasing food production to support the increasing population worldwide.
However, the same technology enabled the production of nitric acid from the
atmosphere, which at that time was necessary for the production of explosives. This
aspect created a connection between Haber and military technology. Using his
comprehensive talents, Haber became absorbed in research on toxic gas as a
weapon of massacre. Actually, chlorine gas, which is heavier than air, was first used
intrench warfare in World War I (Ieper 1915), followed by the development of a
more advanced series of toxic gases. It was said that Haber’s first wife (Clara
Immerwahr 1870–1915, Ph.D. in chemistry) committed suicide to protest Haber’s
beliefs and actions.
History also highlights the issue of ethics at the time of the development of the
atomic bomb. The same logic used by Haber to justify the necessity of toxic gases
was repeated, that is, the development of a strong technology helps to end war,
there by decreasing the number of people killed in warfare. However, history
further shows that this logic escalates the warfare engagement of both parties and
sacrifices many innocent civilians. As slavery has been recognized widely as an
absolute evil, even though that acknowledgment took considerable time, the
recognition of warfare as an absolute evil is rising gradually.
Furthermore, scientific technology is stepping into an untapped field, the
manipulation of life, posing the possibility of creating an android and requiring a
new strong ethical perspective immediately. In biotechnology, the issue of ethics is
increasingly important. In this paper, I will discuss the perspective of “Ethics-Based
Engineering,” including the future role of engineering academies worldwide.
The origin of the word stem of science, “sci-,” is from the ancient Greek “skei-,”
which means “split/divide.” Thus, the original meaning of science is considered to
be “to understand nature by dividing or breaking down the system into elements,”
which is linked to the Reductionism of René Descartes (1596–1650)—“to under-
stand the essence of phenomena through analysis.” The word stem of engineering is
“gin-(gen)” meaning “to give birth or create.” The suffix of science, “-en,” is
attached after the word stem, whereas the “en-” of engine is the prefix attached to
“gin-(gen),”meaning “to produce” a system to generate power to do an intended
task using steam, gasoline or another power source. This concept applies not only to
objects but also to information, as reflected in such a term as search engine. The
term engineering always refers to activities to produce intended objects—human
artifacts that do not exist in the world of nature.
The word stem of technology is “tekhne-,” which has the same root as the
ancient Latin “ars.” In ancient Greek and Latin cultures, technology and art were
considered to be similar activities. The three concepts of science, engineering and
technology intersect orthogonally with each other according to their word stems.
These are different from the mixed-up or multilayered general concepts of “sci-
entific technology” and “art” being used in the 18th century and thereafter.
Because science is about uncovering natural phenomena and understanding the
world of nature at a deeper level, the ethics of science is not highlighted and related
observation is not required except for a few exceptions, whereas because engi-
neering is about creating and producing human artifacts that are nonexistent in
nature, the ethics of engineering inherently is an important issue.
3 Human Ethics
Remarks such as “God is with us” or “We follow God’s direction” are often heard
from two countries or entities fighting each other. Both parties regard their God as
the same, the one and only absolute existence. How can such logic be contradic-
tory? Each party justifies its ideas and activities in the name of God, an absolute
existence. Even though wonderful religions exist in the world, if their doctrines are
used to justify what they want to do, ethics and morals do not exist in the real
world. Unfortunately, human history shows the repeated use of such doctrines for
wrong purposes.
Many innocent civilians have been killed by weapons created by the results of
engineering. High-performance weapons for massacre are used by both parties in
strife. The development and supply of such weapons is a serious issue.
Many Eastern concepts consider that humans are allowed to live in an eternal
time and universe. If an absolute person or a great existence behind nature beyond
human power is considered as God, such existence could be logically possible.
Humans who are allowed to live a moment of the eternity on this planet need to live
with compassion for others, complying with the rules of the world of nature. In such
a way of life, we find various feelings, for example, joy and passion. To live in
4 H. Koizumi
harmony with nature, ethics and morals are required. For engineering, which creates
new human artifacts based on science and technology, ethics and morals are
essential.
Unfortunately, in the world of science, the fabrication of scientific theses is seen
because of intense competition. Because science involves human activities to
uncover the world of nature accurately and at a deeper level, nothing is left if a fact
is distorted. Ethics and morals are a compliance-based norm of human behavior and
are nothing more than that as far as science goes. On the other hand, because
engineering involves activities to create human artifacts that do not exist in the
world of nature, the ethics and morals for engineering require a higher level of
awareness and discipline than mere compliance with laws and regulations because
the results of engineering could directly affect human lives. It is necessary to
recognize clearly that more stringent ethics and morals are required from engineers
than from scientists. The issues recognized by Nobel and even the Curies mainly
concerned ethics in the domain of engineering.
4 Ethics of Engineering
Gene editing, which is currently a part of flagship research for regenerative medical
treatment, is closer to engineering than science. How much should we be allowed to
modify and/or manipulate humans? Traditionally, medical treatment was compared
to a candle. A candle has a limited life. The candlelight eventually goes out when
the candle wax is gone. In midlife, the wind could blow out the light and therefore
must be controlled to sustain the light’s life, which is analogous to the mission of
medical treatment. This concept, which is the origin of medical treatments, is about
to be changed by the greed of humans, who want to add unlimited amounts of
candle wax. Humans eventually die. Because we all die, our lives shine, which has
been observed by sages since ancient times.
The compliance required from society means observation of laws and regula-
tions. Although compliance often overlaps with ethics, there are cases where they
are not the same. Even without the violation of laws, there are various ethically
unacceptable cases. Especially in the case of biotechnology, a rapidly developing
science and technology, related laws and regulations are yet to be properly in place
and related ethical issues have not been addressed fully. Increasingly important in
the future will not be the compliance simply to win litigations but rather the ethical
perspective based on the dignity of humans that helps distinguish what needs to be
done and what does not need to be done. In particular, engineers who could
potentially have direct impact on human lives and the global environment must not
only comply with laws but also possess a refined sense of ethics.
Old Indian philosophy includes excellent insight, for example, “warmhearted-
ness” related to the depth of the human mind that is not possessed by other animals.
This concept, which had been passed down orally since before B.C. 500 and was
later recorded in the ancient Pāli language, directly links to the dignity of humans
Ethics-Based-Engineering … 5
promoted at a national scale, based on the concept that safe utilization of this
technology will contribute to a healthy society and longevity, which is also eco-
nomically beneficial, as well as human welfare and happiness. However, the
question remains as to whether this is an ideal direction for future society to pursue.
This is a typical example of the complex ethics of engineering.
The alchemy in the medieval era, as seen in the illustrations inserted in Faust by
Johann W. von Goethe (1749–1832), not only converted base metal into precious
metal but also had the ultimate purpose of producing an android (“homunculus” at
that time). Furthermore, Isaac Newton (1642–1727), the forefather of modern
physics, was secretly researching alchemy. That fact was revealed by the insightful
John M. Keynes (1883–1946), an economist at the University of Cambridge, for
which Newton was working, and later discovered in many documents written by
Newton himself. Why was such a famous scientist as Newton secretly researching
alchemy? A natural answer to this question could beth at Newton was well aware of
the issue of ethics. At any time in history, the curiosity and pursuit of fame of
scientists and engineers are endless indeed.
to utilize engineering as a positive measure for humans and other life forms.
Recently, in many fields the purposes and measures are getting mixed up. The
mission of engineering and scientific academies, with their concentrated intelli-
gence, is to be an ethical compass.
Every time a scandalous incident occurs, the same thing is repeated—redis-
tributing materials indicating the ethical matters to be observed, addressing a
measure that should have been taken, often without discussing the specific mea-
sures and the evaluation of such measures. From now on, however, ethical issues
that involve the survival or extinction of the human race will increase, leaving no
room for compromising ethical issues. We are entering an era that requires con-
vincing ethics to ensure that the human artifacts to be created are conducive to the
entire human race. Profound discussion as to the future direction is needed as part
of the engineering academy’s activities. I sincerely hope that the CAETS will
pioneer a bright future for the engineering and technological sciences.
Acknowledgments I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Profs. Emma Rothschild and
Amartya Sen of Harvard University and Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, who was the fourth Prime
Minister of Malaysia, for their invaluable suggestions.
Scalable Medical Devices: Personal
and Social
Abstract Health and well-being is poised to become more quantitative and con-
nected, with a brand new class of devices. These personalized and population-scale
health diagnostics, assessment and analysis devices will be markedly different from
the current generation devices in three important attributes: (a) access, (b) afford-
ability, and (c) required operational skill. We discuss the design principles and
examples of next generation of medical devices and highlight the potential of this
new class of devices to revolutionize health monitoring and eventual health
outcomes.
1 Introduction
first crucial challenge is to reduce the cost and expertise barrier to conduct advanced
diagnostic tests.
Ideally, a diagnostic test should be designed such that it can be performed by
anyone and anywhere. However, some thought immediately reveals there are new
challenges in developing diagnostic devices to meet the envisioned
anywhere-anyone use. First, the operating conditions cannot be controlled, and
hence the design has to fundamentally account for a much larger range of operating
conditions. That is, the design has to be operating-condition-robust. Second, since
the operator expertise is no longer guaranteed, the design should require zero-
training such that the devices can be operated by almost anyone without any
training. Third, the devices should seek to achieve clinical grade accuracy, to
ensure that the data from the devices is diagnostically relevant. If a medical device
achieves the three goals of operating-condition-robustness, zero-training and
clinical-grade accuracy, it forms the foundation of a scalable medical device.
Adding to the diagnostic challenge, a significant challenge in healthcare is
human behavior that impacts all aspects of our health. For example, it is well
known that many chronic disease patients find it challenging to adhere to their
medical regimens (see e.g. CDC data on chronic diseases like Asthma, COPD,
diabetes). Analogously, many individuals find it challenging to adopt healthy
lifestyles. Human behavior is complex and multi-dimensional, making it extremely
challenging to understand the causal pathways that lead us to make specific choices.
While it is well appreciated in concept that our behavior is heavily influenced by
our social context, it is still not possible to measure its strength and overall impact
on the health for an individual. Product marketing and public health campaigns
have long used social network ties to achieve their aims. However, we still do not
have a systematic understanding of how to leverage our social networks to impact
positive change for an individual.
Opportunity: The rise of smartphones has led to a multi-faceted opportunity to
meet both challenges. First, there is a growing acceptance that more of our world
will be smartphone-connected and app-controlled. Second, participation in online
social networks has made us increasingly more comfortable with sharing personal
data, at least in closed circles of our friends and families. Third, there is an
increasingly more acceptance to behavior logging, where more of our actions can
be automatically logged. The best example is perhaps activity monitors, like Fitbit
and similar products, that automatically log and categorize physical activity and in
some cases, related physiological state. Finally, the preponderance and ubiquity of
smartphones, in all corners of the world, mean that smartphone-centric solutions
may provide the potential to reach a geographically, socially and economically
diverse population, resulting in at-scale monitoring and interventions. Our key hope
is that the more than billion smartphones being sold world-over today, become the
distributing health and wellness infrastructure that ushers in a new era of quanti-
tative, connected and scalable health monitoring, diagnosis and interventions.
In the sequel, we divide our discussion into two classes of medical devices:
(i) scaling traditional diagnostics, (ii) measuring social context.
Scalable Medical Devices: Personal and Social 11
The key design goal is enabling measurements by anyone and anywhere. Thus, the
devices have to be designed for scalability, to be used in non-ideal conditions and
by non-expert operations and yet be clinically accurate. To appreciate the design
thought process, we use two examples, CameraVitals and mobileVision, from our
recent research that illustrate the concept of developing scalable medical devices.
Other examples from our recent research include mobileSpiro for easier spirometry
[1, 2], unconstrained gaze estimation for tablets [3], improved methods to manage
Asthma [4] and even simplifying mHealth trials [5]. Our ongoing research also
addresses zero-effort respiratory health status diagnostics, automated mental health
tracking and measuring cognitive engagement.
Case Study 1—Rice CameraVitals: Our first design study targets measuring
some of the most basic diagnostics—heart rate and breathing rate—in a manner that
is much more scalable than current methods.
Current Practice All common techniques to measure the vital signs are based on
contact sensors such as ECG probes, chest straps, pulse oximeters and blood
pressure cuffs. Contact-based sensors are so prevalent that we do not stop to think
about them. However, they are not convenient in all scenarios, e.g. contact sensors
are known to cause skin damage in pre-mature babies during their treatment in a
neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Similarly, elderly may have difficulty time
following precise instructions, thereby contributing to lower rates of regular
self-monitoring. Finally, one of the challenges of contact-based vital sign mea-
surement that they all require special hardware, thereby limited by the shipping,
service and associated costs.
Scalable Design The driving question is how do we create a highly scalable
method to measure vital signs. It is well known that software is simply more
scalable than hardware, especially when considering all steps in the process, from
creation to delivery. Currently, the most accessible computing platform is smart-
phones, and apps have made nearly everyone comfortable with using software.
Ideally, if vital sign measurement was an app on the phone, using only its built-in
sensor, then we have the foundation for a highly scalable approach.
Rice CameraVitals In [6], we presented a new method to turn video selfies using
cameras into a vital sign estimator with clinical-grade accuracy. While using a
camera to estimate vital signs has been known for a decade; see [6] for more details,
all prior proposals have found it challenging to measure vital signs accurately for
darker skin tones, in low ambient lights and in the presence of unavoidable natural
motion. Our method, distancePPG, leveraged ideas from computer vision, motion
tracking and wireless communications to develop a composite method that provides
a significant gain in measurement accuracy, overcoming nearly all challenges.
Case Study 2—Rice MobileVision: Our second design study is that of retinal
imaging, that falls more in the category of advanced diagnostics and hence is often
12 A. Sabharwal and A. Veeraraghavan
nutrition. Healthy food choices can vary significantly from one region to another,
and nutritional strategies are often learnt from our social environment (homes,
friends, schools). As we repeat our actions, the repetition of our specific behaviors
gets coded as habits. That is, we may be inclined to eat a specific type of diet,
primarily because it is part of habitual decision making. In short, habits are auto-
matic behaviors, triggered by cues and are believed to form a bulk of our actions on
day to day basis.
From public health perspective, it is highly desirable that the population adopts
good habits (e.g. regular exercise, healthy foods) and avoids bad habits (e.g.
smoking or sugary drinks). The challenge to achieving the desired public health
outcome is well captured by the age-old adage “old habits die hard”. Substantial
evidence rooted in neuroscience [9] has shown that habitual behavior is supported
by strong and stable mental representations, which makes forgetting or unlearning
of habits very challenging.
Prior research has studied the role of incentives to change habits. One possible
strategy is to offer financial incentives to either reduce or eliminate an undesirable
behavior (e.g. smoking) or increase a desirable behavior (e.g. regular exercise).
Many recent studies have shown promise with its approach. For example, the
studies reported in [10] offered different level of financial incentives to university
students to attend the gym. It was found that by requiring some students to attend
the gym multiple times for a financial compensation led to increased gym atten-
dance, even beyond the period of the study. However, while a later study [11]
managed to replicate the results, it also discovered that there was a substantial decay
in gym participation after the winter break.
A very promising result was reported in [12], where the researchers obtained a
detailed friendship network from the participants, living in the same residence hall,
before the start of the study and then provided financial incentives like the prior
studies. A key finding was that the gym participation was not only increased by the
financial incentive, but its effect was higher for the participants with friends who
had also been incentivized. That is, the overall participation was higher for par-
ticipants if their friends were also in the incentive group, and lower if their friends
were in control group. The finding in [12] shows the importance of the social
network in enhancing the effect of incentives for habit change.
While the result reported in [12] is highly intuitive and satisfying, the overall
evidence to support the role, methods and strength of habit change due to social
engagement remains in its infancy. A key challenge lies is our ability to measure
social context, and its impact on our specific health behaviors and outcomes.
Rice OWLympics1 At Rice, we are developing the engineering core to measure
social context (e.g. our friendship network), health metrics and mental well-being
using a combination of (i) sensors mounted throughout the campus that can mea-
sure the type of activity, its intensity and its impact on the person’s vitals,
1
OWLS is the name of Rice University’s sports teams. The name, OWLympics, is thus derived
from the Rice team name.
14 A. Sabharwal and A. Veeraraghavan
(ii) mental well-being using innovative analysis of one’s digital footprint, and
(iii) social network interactions, both in-person and online. The combined data will
enable a unique Quantified Organization, complementing the quantified self
movement, where we can leverage both the personal and social for our best health
outcomes. The project is still in its early stages, and the results from the pilot
program were reported in [13].
References
Keywords Regenerative medicine Stroke Traumatic brain injury Treatment
planning Multicentric trial Grid computing
1 Introduction
Brain injury can occur due to brain damage produced by various means as by
cerebrovascular accidents (like insults from haemorrhage, aneurysm, thrombosis),
or by mechanical accidents (traumatic brain injury, violence or assaults, sports, and
vertical falls). In 5 years time, brain injury becomes the leading disease burden
globally, after myocardial infarction and malignant disease, with India’s burden as
highest [1–3].
While customary symptomatic clinical management are available, there is much
need of newer therapeutic approaches, since currently no adjunct treatment approa-
ches are available for appreciably improving neurorestoration or neuroregeneration,
Fünftes Kapitel.
Einmarsch ins Innere. Die ersten
Eindrücke.
Massassi, 20. Juli 1906.
Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.
textbookfull.com