An IoT-Aware System for Managing Patients’ Waiting Time Using Bluetooth Low-Energy Technology

It is a common observation that whenever patients arrives at the front desk of a hospital, outpatient clinic, or other health-associated centers, they have to first queue up in a line and wait to fill in their registration form to get admitted. The long waiting time without any status updates is the most common complaint, concerning health officials. In this paper, UrNext, a location-aware mobile-based solution using Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) technology is presented to solve the problem. Recently, a technology-oriented method, the Internet of Things (IoT), has been gaining popularity in helping to solve some of the healthcare sector’s problems. The implementation of this solution could be illustrated through a simple example of when a patient arrives at a clinic for a consultation. Instead of having to wait in long lines, that patient will be greeted automatically, receive a push notification of an admittance along with an estimated waiting time for a consultation session. This will not only provide the patients with a sense of freedom but would also reduce the uncertainty levels that are generally observed, thus saving both time and money. This work aims to improve the clinics’ quality of services, organize queues and minimize waiting times, leading to patients’ comfort while reducing the burden on nurses and receptionists. The results demonstrate that the presented system is successful in its performance and helps achieves a pleasant and conducive clinic visitation process with higher productivity.     

Effect of heat-treatment on the electrical and dielectric properties of a TiO2-containing lithia–calcia–silica glass and glass ceramics

The glass 65 SiO₂, 20 CaO, 15 Li₂O (mol%) containing 4 g TiO₂/100 g glass was prepared. Samples of this glass were heat treated at temperatures pre-determined by DTA to produce crystalline samples which were characterized by IR, XRD and SEM. The dielectric constant (?′), dielectric loss (?″) and conductivity σ_ac over a wide range of frequency and temperatures were measured. Optical absorption and values of the absorption edge were also determined for the transparent samples. Li–calcium silicate was found to crystallize at 964 °C as the main phase with lithium disilicate and quartz as minor phases. An enhancement in conductivity of about 1–3 orders of magnitude was obtained in the heat treated samples as compared to parent glass. Conduction takes place through an electronic mechanism in the low temperature region. In crystalline samples, the electronic conduction is extended to high temperature regions. Crystallized samples show high ?′ values, particularly at low frequencies. The values of (?′) reached 60–300 at 300 °C. The capacitance results indicated that these materials can be used in capacitors. Dielectric loss bands appeared in the range 0.32–5 MHz and the conduction relaxation times were calculated.     

Comparative lyophilized platelet-rich plasma wafer and powder for wound-healing enhancement: formulation,in vitro and in vivo studies

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) accelerates wound healing, as it is an excellent source of growth factors. PRP was separated from whole human blood by centrifugation. PRP powder and wafers were prepared by lyophilization, with the wafers prepared using sodium carboxymethylcellulose (Na CMC). The PRP wafers showed porous structures, as indicated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images, and the ability of the wafer to absorb exudates and thus promote wound healing was tested with the hydration capacity test. The platelet count was tested and indicated that the presence of PRP in the wafers had no effect on the platelet count. An antimicrobial activity test was carried out, showing that PRP had antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria. Compared with lyophilized PRP powder and PRP-free wafers, PRP wafers showed the highest percent of wound size reduction on induced wounds in rats. Histopathological examination of rat skin showed that the PRP wafers achieved the shortest healing time, followed by the lyophilized PRP powder and finally the PRP-free wafers. The present study revealed that PRP can be formulated as a wafer, which is a promising pharmaceutical delivery system that can be used for enhanced wound-healing activity and improved the ease of application compared to lyophilized PRP powder.     

Egyptian mango by-product 1. Compositional quality of mango seed kernel

Egyptian mango seeds were collected as wastes from local fruit processing units and the kernels were separated and dried. This study was carried out on mango seed kernels to clarify their proximate composition, amino acids, phenolic compounds and the characteristics of the extracted oil including unsaponifiable matter constituents, lipid classes and fatty acid composition. Mango seed kernels contained a considerable amount of total phenolic compounds, total lipid, unsaponifiable matter, and a low amount of crude protein, but the quality of protein was good because it was rich in all essential amino acids. Eight phenolic compounds were identified; tannin and vanillin were in highest amounts. Unsaponifiable matter showed the occurrence of high amounts of squaline followed by sterols and tocopherols. Stearic acid was the main saturated fatty acid, while oleic acid was the major unsaturated fatty acid in all lipid classes. The fatty acid composition of total lipid and neutral lipid was similar, while phospholipid had a high amount of palmitic, linoleic and linolenic acids.     

Spectroscopic,electrical, and relaxor‐like properties of cellulose acetate–erbium (III) chloride composite films

Cellulose acetate thin films doped with erbium (III) chloride (ErCl₃) of different concentrations were prepared by the solution method. The prepared composite films were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis. IR spectral analysis, UV–visible absorption, a.c. conductivity, and dielectric properties were investigated. The studied ErCl₃‐doped samples showed different properties from those of their pure components. SEM micrographs showed that for small dopant concentrations, samples tend to form conducting nanostructures with negligible particle agglomeration. DSC showed a monotonic development of the glass transition temperature by increasing the concentration of dopant material. Variation in the height, shape, and position of the bands in infrared transmission spectra, as well as the glass transition temperatures, indicated a complex interaction with the polymer molecular chains. Thermal stability and thermodynamic parameters were found to be concentration dependent. The electronic transitions’ band gabs and energy tails were calculated from the optical data. The dielectric studies showed that the correlated barrier hopping model was the dominant mechanism of a.c. conductivity. We found that samples with 10% and 20% ErCl₃ exhibited high dielectric constants and have pronounced electrostriction and relaxor‐like properties. Such samples can be used in many applications like electromechanical and thermomechanical transducers. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 45220.     

Genetic algorithm-based initial contour optimization for skin lesion border detection

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Automated segmentation has an essential role in detecting several diseases, such as skin lesions. In segmentation, the active contour (AC) is an efficient method...     

Security challenges in internet of things: Distributed denial of service attack detection using support vector machine-based expert systems

The rapid development of internet of things (IoT) is to be the next generation of the IoT devices are a simple target for attackers due to the lack of security. Attackers can easily hack the IoT devices that can be used to form botnets, which can be used to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against networks. Botnets are the most dangerous threat to the security systems. Software-defined networking (SDN) is one of the developing filed, which introduce the capacity of dynamic program to the network. Use the flexibility and multidimensional characteristics of SDN used to prevent DDoS attacks. The DDoS attack is the major attack to the network, which makes the entire network down, so that normal users might not avail the services from the server. In this article, we proposed the DDoS attack detection model based on SDN environment by combining support vector machine classification algorithm is used to collect flow table values in sampling time periods. From the flow table values, the five-tuple characteristic values extracted and based on it the DDoS attack can be detected. Based on the experimental results, we found the average accuracy rate is 96.23% with a normal amount of traffic flow. Proposed research offers a better DDoS detection rate on SDN.     

Nickel oxide nanoparticles grown on mesoporous carbon as an efficient electrocatalyst for urea electro-oxidation

Nickel oxide nanoparticles were formed on mesoporous carbon (NiO/MC) through precipitating nickel hydroxide species followed by post annealing treatment. The as-prepared electrocatalysts were physically characterized using XRD, Raman, EDX, SEM, TEM and HRTEM analysis techniques. Very fine nanoparticles were shown in TEM image and their chemical identity was proved in XRD pattern by three crystal indices of nickel oxide species as (111), (200) and (220). The electrocatalytic activity of NiO/MC electrocatalysts was investigated for oxidizing urea molecules in 0.5 M NaOH solution. Adding variable nickel oxide loading values during the electrocatalyst preparation method appreciably affected the obtained oxidation current density. Increasing the deposited oxide weight percentage would enhance the activity of formed nanocomposite to attain its optimum performance at the electrocatalyst containing 17.5 wt% NiO. The effect of altering urea concentration and scan rate during the oxidation process on the resultant electrocatalyst activity was studied. Chronoamperograms displayed improved steady state oxidation current density values after 1800 s revealing stable nanocatalysts. This promising electrocatalytic behavior of NiO/MC elects its application as an active component for urea electro-oxidation in many potential applications including hydrogen production, fuel cells and water purification.