Addressing Water Contamination and Associated Health Issues through Community-Based Interventions: A Case Study in Khon Kaen Province.

A recent study conducted in Khon Kaen Province, Thailand, evaluated the effectiveness of a technology-assisted intervention aimed at improving water quality and addressing related health issues in communities around key water bodies. The intervention targeted health concerns associated with water contamination, including chronic kidney diseases, skin conditions, hypertension, and neurological symptoms. The study included water quality assessments and health evaluations of 586 residents and implemented a Learning Innovation Platform (LIP) across 13 communities. Results showed significant improvements in the community, including a decrease in hypertension and skin-related health issues, as well as enhanced community awareness and proficiency in implementing simple water quality assessments and treatment. The study demonstrated the value of a comprehensive, technology-driven community approach, effectively enhancing water quality and health outcomes, and promoting greater community awareness and self-sufficiency in managing environmental health risks.

Mobile-device-based two-dimensional measurement for estimating the embryo and endosperm areas of brown rice.

The rice kernel inside a hull is composed of the embryo and endosperm. The embryo or germ of the rice seed will grow and become the shoot and the root parts of a seedling, while the endosperm is an important nutrient source for the embryo in the early stages. Hence, the health of seedlings depends particularly on the sizes of the embryo and endosperm. In this work, we propose and experimentally demonstrate how the embryo and endosperm areas of brown rice can simply be determined. Our key idea is based on the utilization of a smart mobile device equipped with our specifically designed lens module arranged in a simple cross-polarization imaging configuration for acquiring a rice grain image upon the illumination of a white light source and then spatially analyzing the sizes of embryo and endosperm areas. The prototype shows promising results in identifying the sizes of the embryo and endosperm within 2 s per seed with a measurement error of <9% compared with the use of off-the-shelf image editing software. In addition, the prototype is in a small package of 20×32.5×6.5cm3 with 4 kg weight, thus showing high potential to perform in the real scenario.

Temperature-compensated infrared-based low-cost mobile platform module for mass human temperature screening.

As fast human temperature screening is needed in large public areas, this paper proposes a low-cost mobile platform module that combines the advantages of analyzing visible and thermal images. In particular, the key idea relies on face detection in the visible image. Then the coordinates of all faces detected are mapped on to the thermal image to determine their corresponding temperatures. Internal temperature compensation and external reference temperature also are employed to reduce the unwanted temperature fluctuation inside the module and in the surrounding environment. Our mobile platform module, called $\unicode{x00B5} {\rm Therm}$, uses a FLIR ONE camera as our visible and thermal imaging cameras. It can simultaneously determine the temperatures of nine people at a speed of 8 frames/second. A field test operation was performed for four days with 1,170 people, with very promising results of 100% sensitivity, 92.6% specificity, and 92.7% accuracy.

Development and beam-shape analysis of an integrated fiber-optic confocal probe for high-precision central thickness measurement of small-radius lenses.

This work describes a new design of a fiber-optic confocal probe suitable for measuring the central thicknesses of small-radius optical lenses or similar objects. The proposed confocal probe utilizes an integrated camera that functions as a shape-encoded position-sensing device. The confocal signal for thickness measurement and beam-shape data for off-axis measurement can be simultaneously acquired using the proposed probe. Placing the probe's focal point off-center relative to a sample's vertex produces a non-circular image at the camera's image plane that closely resembles an ellipse for small displacements. We were able to precisely position the confocal probe's focal point relative to the vertex point of a ball lens with a radius of 2.5 mm, with a lateral resolution of 1.2 µm. The reflected beam shape based on partial blocking by an aperture was analyzed and verified experimentally. The proposed confocal probe offers a low-cost, high-precision technique, an alternative to a high-cost three-dimensional surface profiler, for tight quality control of small optical lenses during the manufacturing process.