Inha University

Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) makes smart objects the ultimate building blocks in the development of cyber-physical smart pervasive frameworks. The IoT has a variety of application domains, including health care. The IoT revolution is redesigning modern health care with promising technological, economic, and social prospects. This paper surveys advances in IoT-based health care technologies and reviews the state-of-the-art network architectures/platforms, applications, and industrial trends in IoT-based health care solutions. In addition, this paper analyzes distinct IoT security and privacy features, including security requirements, threat models, and attack taxonomies from the health care perspective. Further, this paper proposes an intelligent collaborative security model to minimize security risk; discusses how different innovations such as big data, ambient intelligence, and wearables can be leveraged in a health care context; addresses various IoT and eHealth policies and regulations across the world to determine how they can facilitate economies and societies in terms of sustainable development; and provides some avenues for future research on IoT-based health care based on a set of open issues and challenges.

Abstract: Background and Purpose— For a biomarker to serve as an auxiliary or surrogate outcome measure, it must be tightly correlated with and causally related to functional clinical outcome. Vessel recanalization is a potential surrogate outcome marker for functional outcome in trials of thrombolytic and mechanical recanalization therapies in acute stroke, but the correlation of recanalization and clinical outcome has not been previously systematically reviewed. Methods— Through Medline search, we identified and abstracted recanalization and outcome data from all articles published between 1985 and 2002 that assessed vessel recanalization, either spontaneous or therapeutically induced, in acute ischemic stroke. Results— Fifty-three studies encompassing 2066 patients reported recanalization rates. Recanalization rates categorized according to intervention were: spontaneous (24.1%), intravenous fibrinolytic (46.2%), intra-arterial fibrinolytic (63.2%), combined intravenous–intra-arterial (67.5%), and mechanical (83...

Abstract: In seeking greater sustainability in water resources management, wastewater is now being considered more as a resource than as a waste-a resource for water, for plant nutrients, and for energy. Energy, the primary focus of this article, can be obtained from wastewater's organic as well as from its thermal content. Also, using wastewater's nitrogen and P nutrients for plant fertilization, rather than wasting them, helps offset the high energy cost of producing synthetic fertilizers. Microbial fuel cells offer potential for direct biological conversion of wastewater's organic materials into electricity, although significant improvements are needed for this process to be competitive with anaerobic biological conversion of wastewater organics into biogas, a renewable fuel used in electricity generation. Newer membrane processes coupled with complete anaerobic treatment of wastewater offer the potential for wastewater treatment to become a net generator of energy, rather than the large energy consumer that it is today.

Abstract: We prepared hydrazine-reduced materials from both graphite oxide (GO) particles, which were not exfoliated, and completely exfoliated individual graphene oxide platelets, and then analyzed their chemical and structural properties by elemental analysis, XPS, TGA, XRD, and SEM. Both reduced materials showed distinctly different chemical and structural properties from one another. While hydrazine reduction of graphene oxide platelets produced agglomerates of exfoliated platelets, the reduction of GO particles produced particles that were not exfoliated. The degree of chemical reduction of reduced GO particles was lower than that of reduced graphene oxide and the BET surface area of reduced GO was much lower than that of reduced graphene oxide.

Abstract: Silk fibroin fiber scaffolds containing bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) and/or nanoparticles of hydroxyapatite (nHAP) prepared via electrospinning were used for in vitro bone formation from human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). BMP-2 survived the aqueous-based electrospinnig process in bioactive form. hMSCs were cultured for up to 31 days under static conditions in osteogenic media on the scaffolds (silk/PEO/BMP-2, silk/PEO/nHAP, silk/PEO/nHAP/BMP-2) and controls (silk/PEO, silk/PEO extracted). Electrospun silk fibroin-based scaffolds supported hMSC growth and differentiation toward osteogenic outcomes. The scaffolds with the co-processed BMP-2 supported higher calcium deposition and enhanced transcript levels of bone-specific markers than in the controls, indicating that these nanofibrous electrospun silk scaffolds were an efficient delivery system for BMP-2. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that the apatite formed on the silk fibroin/BMP-2 scaffolds had higher crystallinity than on the silk fibroin scaffold controls. In addition, nHAP particles were incorporated into the electrospun fibrous scaffolds during processing and improved bone formation. The coexistence of BMP-2 and nHAP in the electrospun silk fibroin fibers resulted in the highest calcium deposition and upregulation of BMP-2 transcript levels when compared with the other systems. The results suggest that electrospun silk-fibroin-based scaffolds are potential candidates for bone tissue engineering. Furthermore, the mild aqueous process required to spin the fibers offers an important option for delivery of labile cytokines and other components into the system.