Rethinking pain communication of patients with Alzheimer's disease through E-textile interaction design.

Older individuals are easily prone to chronic pain. Due to the complexity of chronic pain, most elderly often have difficulty expressing pain to others to seek assistance, especially those with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The caregivers cannot instantly discover the patients' pain condition and provide timely pain management. This project applies physiological signal sensing technology to help AD patients express the presence of pain non-verbally. We embed sensors on patients' handkerchiefs to identify the patient's abnormal physical activity when pain occurs. Next, we translate the physiological signal into qualitative light alert to send to caregivers and indicate the pain occurrence condition. Then, utilizing multi-sensory stimulation intervention, we create an electronic textile (e-textile) tool to help caregivers effectively support patients in pain. And thus to create a two-way pain communication between caregivers and the patients. Pain perception can be independent of subjective expressions and tangibly perceived by others through our textile prototype. The e-textile handkerchiefs also bring up a new guide to facilitate communication for caregivers when their patients. We contribute the design insights of building a bio-sensing and e-textile system with considering the pain communication needs, patients' pain behaviors and preference of objects. Our e-textile system may contribute to pain communication bio-sensing tool design for special elderly groups, especially those with weakened cognition and communication abilities. We provide a new approach to dealing with the pain of AD patients for healthcare professionals.

Protective effects of konjac glucomannan on gut microbiome with antibiotic perturbation in mice.

This study assessed the protective effects of konjac glucomannan (KGM) on gut microbiome against the antibiotic perturbation in C57BL/6J mice. The native KGM (1.82 × 107) was partially hydrolyzed by endo-1,4-ß-mannanase, and two hydrolyzed fractions (KGM-eM with 3.82 × 105 Da and KGM-eL with 8.27 × 103 Da) were characterized and applied to mice with perturbation of antibiotics in comparison with the native KGM. The results showed that the native KGM better maintained the microbial diversity and composition in feces, and increased the production of the individual and total SCFAs in feces and serum with perturbation of antibiotics. In contrast, KGM with lower MW (KGM-eM and KGM-eL) increased the proportion of Lactobacillus and SCFA production with no antibiotics, however, the prebiotic effects were eliminated with perturbation of antibiotics. These results have demonstrated the protective effects of KGM with high MW on gut microbiome against the antibiotic perturbation in vivo.

Effects of konjac glucomannan with different molecular weights on gut microflora with antibiotic perturbance in in vitro fecal fermentation.

This study investigated the effect of konjac glucomannan (KGM) of different molecular weight on fecal microflora against antibiotic disturbance. KGM (~1.8 × 107 Da) was partially hydrolysed with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) for 10 and 60 min to KGM1 (~2.1 × 104 Da) and KGM2 (7413 Da), respectively. The acid treatment caused significant reduction of intrinsic viscosity, average molecular weight (MW) and particle size of KGM, but brought limited change to the molecular structure. Low-MW KGM2 showed the most significant effect on fecal microflora in the presence of two common antibiotics (ampicillin and clindamycin), by increasing the relative abundance of Bifidobacteriaceae while decreasing the proportion of Enterobacteriaceae. Additionally, both the native and acid-treated KGM counteracted the adverse influence of antibiotics on the production of short chain fatty acids. The results have demonstrated the effect of KGM on gut microbiota with antibiotic disturbance.

Influences of coal mining water irrigation on the maize losses in the Xingdong Mine area, China.

In 2008, a maize underproduction disaster occurred in the Xianyu village after irrigation using the coal mining water from the Xingdong Mine, China. This disaster resulted in about 40 hectare maize underproduction and 20 hectare total loss of the maize yields. In order to study the reason, a total of 25 soil, water and plant samples were taken from the study area. These samples were analysed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and ion chromatography. The results indicate that the contents of both water-soluble fluorine and total fluorine are very high and resulting of maize underproduction and total loss of production. The possible pollution sources of fluorine in the study area could be from the coal mine water used for irrigation and glass chemical factory near the study area.