CUSCO: An Unobtrusive Custom Secure Audio-Visual Recording System for Ambient Assisted Living.

The ubiquity of digital technology has facilitated detailed recording of human behaviour. Ambient technology has been used to capture behaviours in a broad range of applications ranging from healthcare and monitoring to assessment of cooperative work. However, existing systems often face challenges in terms of autonomy, usability, and privacy. This paper presents a portable, easy-to-use and privacy-preserving system for capturing behavioural signals unobtrusively in home or in office settings. The system focuses on the capture of audio, video, and depth imaging. It is based on a device built on a small-factor platform that incorporates ambient sensors which can be integrated with the audio and depth video hardware for multimodal behaviour tracking. The system can be accessed remotely and integrated into a network of sensors. Data are encrypted in real time to ensure safety and privacy. We illustrate uses of the device in two different settings, namely, a healthy-ageing IoT application, where the device is used in conjunction with a range of IoT sensors to monitor an older person's mental well-being at home, and a healthcare communication quality assessment application, where the device is used to capture a patient-clinician interaction for consultation quality appraisal. CUSCO can automatically detect active speakers, extract acoustic features, record video and depth streams, and recognise emotions and cognitive impairment with promising accuracy.

In-plane mode dynamics of capillary self-alignment.

We present an experimental study of the complete in-plane dynamics of capillary self-alignment. The two translational (shift) and single rotational (twist) in-plane modes of square millimetric transparent dies bridged to shape-matching receptor sites through a liquid meniscus were selectively excited by preset initial offsets. The entire self-alignment dynamics was simultaneously monitored over the three in-plane degrees of freedom by high-speed optical tracking of the alignment trajectories. The dynamics of the twist mode is shown to qualitatively follow the sequence of dynamic regimes also observed for the shift modes, consisting of initial transient wetting, acceleration toward, and underdamped harmonic oscillations around the equilibrium position. Systematic analysis of alignment trajectories for individually as well as simultaneously excited modes shows that, in the absence of twist offset, the dynamics of the degenerate shift modes are mutually independent. In the presence of twist offset, the three modes conversely evidence coupled dynamics, which is attributed to a synchronization mechanism affected by the wetting of the bounding surfaces. The experimental results, justified by energetic, wetting, and dynamic arguments, provide substantial benchmarks for understanding the full dynamics of the process.

Systematic replacement of amides by 1,4-disubstituted[1,2,3]triazoles in Leu-enkephalin and the impact on the delta opioid receptor activity.

Using Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition in a mixed classical organic phase and solid phase peptide synthesis approach, we synthesized four analogs of Leu-enkephalin to systematically replace amides by 1,4-disubstituted[1,2,3]triazoles. The peptidomimetics obtained were characterized by competitive binding, contractility assays and ERK1/2 phosphorylation. The present study reveals that the analog bearing a triazole between Phe and Leu retains some potency, more than all the others, suggesting that the hydrogen bond acceptor capacity of the last amide of Leu-enkephalin is essential for the biological activity of the peptide.

Acute effects of subclinical epileptiform EEG discharges on cognitive activation.

In this prospective, open, clinical comparative study we analyzed impairments of cognitive activation occurring during, immediately before and immediately after epochs with epileptiform EEG discharges of 3 seconds or longer, in an attempt to establish whether cognitive slowing occurs in direct association with an epoch with epileptiform EEG discharges and whether cognitive impairments precede or follow such an epoch. All children were assessed with EEG/video (Brainlab) simultaneously with computerized neuropsychological testing (FePsy): a test for cognitive activation (simple visual and auditory reaction time measurement). Thirty-seven epochs with epileptiform EEG discharges without clinical signs of a seizure (subclinical epileptiform EEG discharges) were evaluated. The results showed a statistically significant and clinically relevant slowing (35% compared to the overall reaction time), occurring during the epoch with epileptiform EEG discharges (repeated measurement analysis of variance p = < .05; df = 3; F-value: 3.293). No statistically significant slowing was found for the periods 'post-discharge' or 'pre-discharge'. Type of discharge was important and effects on cognitive activation were found exclusively for generalized discharges. This effect was, however, also seen in the remaining period, outside the 'peri-discharge' periods and thus seemed to represent a more general effect of the type of epilepsy on cognitive activation. Our results show that the acute effect of short epileptiform EEG discharges (duration 4.14 sec; sd 1.38) may be impressive, causing impairment (slowing) of cognitive activation. This effect was limited to generalized discharges. This effect was not observed for focal discharges, even during longer periods with discharges. However, it is reassuring that this impact on cognitive activation is limited to the actual period in which the discharges occur and does not have 'post-discharge' effects. The risk of accumulating effects that may have longer-lasting repercussions on higher-order cognitive functions therefore seems to be negligible.