Cáeres, C., Heusser, B., Garnham, A., & Moczko, E. (2023). The Major Hypotheses of Alzheimer's Disease: Related Nanotechnology-Based Approaches for Its Diagnosis and Treatment. Cells, 12(23), 2669.
Abstract: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a well-known chronic neurodegenerative disorder that leads to the progressive death of brain cells, resulting in memory loss and the loss of other critical body functions. In March 2019, one of the major pharmaceutical companies and its partners announced that currently, there is no drug to cure AD, and all clinical trials of the new ones have been cancelled, leaving many people without hope. However, despite the clear message and startling reality, the research continued. Finally, in the last two years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first-ever medications to treat Alzheimer's, aducanumab and lecanemab. Despite researchers' support of this decision, there are serious concerns about their effectiveness and safety. The validation of aducanumab by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is still pending, and lecanemab was authorized without considering data from the phase III trials. Furthermore, numerous reports suggest that patients have died when undergoing extended treatment. While there is evidence that aducanumab and lecanemab may provide some relief to those suffering from AD, their impact remains a topic of ongoing research and debate within the medical community. The fact is that even though there are considerable efforts regarding pharmacological treatment, no definitive cure for AD has been found yet. Nevertheless, it is strongly believed that modern nanotechnology holds promising solutions and effective clinical strategies for the development of diagnostic tools and treatments for AD. This review summarizes the major hallmarks of AD, its etiological mechanisms, and challenges. It explores existing diagnostic and therapeutic methods and the potential of nanotechnology-based approaches for recognizing and monitoring patients at risk of irreversible neuronal degeneration. Overall, it provides a broad overview for those interested in the evolving areas of clinical neuroscience, AD, and related nanotechnology. With further research and development, nanotechnology-based approaches may offer new solutions and hope for millions of people affected by this devastating disease.
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Gaona, J., Hernández, R., Guevara, F., & Bravo, V. (2022). Influence of a Function’s Coefficients and Feedback of the Mathematical Work When Reading a Graph in an Online Assessment System. Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Learn., 17(20), 77–98.
Abstract: This paper shows the results of an experiment applied to 170
students from two Chilean universities who solve a task about reading a graph
of an affine function in an online assessment environment where the parameters
(coefficients of the graphed affine function) are randomly defined from an ad-hoc
algorithm, with automatic correction and automatic feedback. We distinguish two
versions: one of them with integer coefficients and the other one with decimal
coefficients in the affine function. We observed that the nature of the coefficients
impacts the mathematical work used by the students, where we again focus on
two of them: by direct estimation from the graph or by calculating the equation of
the line. On the other hand, feedback oriented towards the “estimation” strategy
influences the mathematical work used by the students, even though a non-negligible
group persists in the “calculating” strategy, which is partly explained by the
perception of each of the strategies.
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Han, Z. Y., Chen, H., He, C. L., Dodbiba, G., Otsuki, A., Wei, Y. Z., et al. (2023). Nanobubble size distribution measurement by interactive force apparatus under an electric field. Sci. Rep., 13(1), 3663.
Abstract: Nanobubbles have been applied in many fields, such as environmental cleaning, material production, agriculture, and medicine. However, the measured nanobubble sizes differed among the measurement methods, such as dynamic light scattering, particle trajectory, and resonance mass methods. Additionally, the measurement methods were limited with respect to the bubble concentration, refractive index of liquid, and liquid color. Here, a novel interactive force measurement method for bulk nanobubble size measurement was developed by measuring the force between two electrodes filled with bulk nanobubble-containing liquid under an electric field when the electrode distance was changed in the nm scale with piezoelectric equipment. The nanobubble size was measured with a bubble gas diameter and also an effective water thin film layer covered with a gas bubble that was estimated to be approximately 10 nm based on the difference between the median diameter of the particle trajectory method and this method. This method could also be applied to the solid particle size distribution measurement in a solution.
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Tachiquin, R., Velazquez, R., Del-Valle-Soto, C., Gutierrez, C. A., Carrasco, M., De Fazio, R., et al. (2021). Wearable Urban Mobility Assistive Device for Visually Impaired Pedestrians Using a Smartphone and a Tactile-Foot Interface.21(16), 5274.
Abstract: This paper reports on the progress of a wearable assistive technology (AT) device designed to enhance the independent, safe, and efficient mobility of blind and visually impaired pedestrians in outdoor environments. Such device exploits the smartphone's positioning and computing capabilities to locate and guide users along urban settings. The necessary navigation instructions to reach a destination are encoded as vibrating patterns which are conveyed to the user via a foot-placed tactile interface. To determine the performance of the proposed AT device, two user experiments were conducted. The first one requested a group of 20 voluntary normally sighted subjects to recognize the feedback provided by the tactile-foot interface. The results showed recognition rates over 93%. The second experiment involved two blind voluntary subjects which were assisted to find target destinations along public urban pathways. Results show that the subjects successfully accomplished the task and suggest that blind and visually impaired pedestrians might find the AT device and its concept approach useful, friendly, fast to master, and easy to use.
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Velazquez, R., Pissaloux, E., Rodrigo, P., Carrasco, M., Giannoccaro, N. I., & Lay-Ekuakille, A. (2018). An Outdoor Navigation System for Blind Pedestrians Using GPS and Tactile-Foot Feedback. Appl. Sci.-Basel, 8(4), 15 pp.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel, wearable navigation system for visually impaired and blind pedestrians that combines a global positioning system (GPS) for user outdoor localization and tactile-foot stimulation for information presentation. Real-time GPS data provided by a smartphone are processed by dedicated navigation software to determine the directions to a destination. Navigational directions are then encoded as vibrations and conveyed to the user via a tactile display that inserts into the shoe. The experimental results showed that users were capable of recognizing with high accuracy the tactile feedback provided to their feet. The preliminary tests conducted in outdoor locations involved two blind users who were guided along 380-420 m predetermined pathways, while sharing the space with other pedestrians and facing typical urban obstacles. The subjects successfully reached the target destinations. The results suggest that the proposed system enhances independent, safe navigation of blind pedestrians and show the potential of tactile-foot stimulation in assistive devices.
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Velazquez-Guerrero, R., Pissaloux, E., Del-Valle-Soto, C., Carrasco-Zambrano, M. A., Mendoza-Andrade, A., & Varona-Salazar, J. (2021). Mobility of blind people using the smartpho-ne's GPS and a wearable tactile display. Dyna, 96(1), 98–104.
Abstract: This paper presents a novel wearable system devoted to assist the mobility of blind and visually impaired people in urban environments with the simple use of a smartphone and tactile feedback. The system exploits the positioning data provided by the smartphone's GPS sensor to locate in real-time the user in the environment and to determine the directions to a destination. The resulting navigational directions are encoded as vibrations and conveyed to the user via an on-shoe tactile display. To validate the pertinence of the proposed system, two experiments were conducted. The first one involved a group of 20 voluntary normally sighted subjects that were requested to recognize the navigational instructions displayed by the tactile-foot device. The results show high recognition rates for the task. The second experiment consisted of guiding two blind voluntary subjects along public urban spaces to target destinations. Results show that the task was successfully accomplished and suggest that the system enhances independent safe navigation of people with visually impairments. Moreover, results show the potentials of smartphones and tactile-foot devices in assistive technology.
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