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Assessing Wellbeing in People Living with Dementia Using Reminiscence Music with a Mobile App (Memory Tracks): A Mixed Methods Cohort Study
Get PDFThe number of people living with dementia is growing, leading to increasing pressure upon care providers. The mechanisms to reduce symptoms of dementia can take many forms and have the aim of improving the wellbeing and quality of life of the person living with dementia and those who care for them. Besides the person who has dementia, the condition has a profound impact upon their loved ones and carers. One therapeutic approach is the use of music, an area recognised as having potential benefit, but requiring further research. The present paper reports upon a mixed methods cohort study that examines the use of a musical mobile app as a way to promote song-task association in people living with dementia. The study took place in care home environments in the UK. A total of fourteen participants (N = 14) were recruited. Quantitative measurements were taken on a daily basis prior to, and during, use of the mobile app over several weeks. Metrics came from the complete Self-Assessment Manikin scale (arousal, valence, and dominance), and a subset of three from the Quality of Life in Alzheimer’s Disease questionnaire (physical health, memory, and life as a whole). Subsequently, semistructured interviews were conducted with staff at the care home to assess the impact of the app upon their role and the residents they care for. No significant differences were found in the combined quantitative measures for the ten (n = 10) sets of responses sufficient to be analysed. However, the qualitative results suggest that use of the mobile app produced positive changes in terms of behaviour, ability, and routine in the life of residents living with dementia. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence-based research in the field of musical therapies for reducing symptoms of dementia and highlight elements where further study is warranted
Rethinking Preventing Homelessness amongst Prison Leavers
Get PDFThe Wales (Housing) Act 2015 introduced a preventative approach to addressing homelessness that impacted on prison leavers in Wales. Since the same changes will take effect in England from October 2018, this paper provides early insight into how new preventative duties have been implemented in Wales. Drawing on interviews with 114 stakeholders and 75 prison leavers, we report that the promise associated with a preventative agenda is presently not fully realised. We contend that resettlement activity might be improved if it was better incentivised and facilitated inside the prison wall. However, we also suggest the time has come for more radical options to be pursued to address homelessness amongst prison leavers. We argue against short prison sentences, which are so often causative of homelessness, and for providers of probation services to be better incentivised and resourced to take a more active role in meeting accommodation needs
A Novel Compact Quadruple-Band Indoor Base Station Antenna for 2G/3G/4G/5G Systems
Get PDFThis paper presents a quadruple-band indoor base station antenna for 2G/3G/4G/5G mobile communications, which covers multiple frequency bands of 0.8 - 0.96 GHz, 1.7 - 2.7 GHz, 3.3 - 3.8 GHz and 4.8 - 5.8 GHz and has a compact size with its overall dimensions of 204 × 175 × 39 mm 3 . The lower frequency bands over 0.8 - 0.96 GHz and 1.7 - 2.7 GHz are achieved through the combination of an asymmetrical dipole antenna and parasitic patches. A stepped-impedance feeding structure is used to improve the impedance matching of the dipole antenna over these two frequency bands. Meanwhile, the feeding structure also introduces an extra resonant frequency band of 3.3 - 3.8 GHz. By adding an additional small T-shaped patch, the higher resonant frequency band at 5 GHz is obtained. The parallel surrogate model-assisted hybrid differential evolution for antenna optimization (PSADEA) is employed to optimize the overall quadruple-band performance. We have fabricated and tested the final optimized antenna whose average gain is about 5.4 dBi at 0.8 - 0.96 GHz, 8.1 dBi at 1.7 - 2.7 GHz, 8.5 dBi at 3.3 - 3.8 GHz and 8.1 dBi at 4.8 - 5.0 GHz respectively. The proposed antenna has high efficiency and is of low cost and low profile, which makes it an excellent candidate for 2G/3G/4G/5G base station antenna systems
Artificial neural network motor control for full-electric injection moulding machine
Get PDFThis paper proposes a new artificial neural network-based position controller for a full-electric injection moulding machine. Such a controller improves the dynamic characteristics of the positioning for hot runners, pin valve and the injection motors for varying moulding parameters. Practical experimental data and Matlab’s System Identification Toolbox have been used to identify the transfer functions of the motors. The structure of the artificial neural network, which used positioning error and speed of error, was obtained by numerical modelling in Matlab/Simulink. The artificial neural network was trained using back-propagation algorithms to provide control of the motor current thus ensuring the required position and velocity. The efficiency of the proposed ANN-based controller has been estimated and verified in Simulink using real velocity data and the position of the injection moulding machine and pin valve motors
Effect of arabinogalactan protein complex content on emulsification performance of gum arabic
Get PDFThe emulsification properties of the standard (STD), matured (EM2 and EM10) and fractionated gum arabic samples via phase separation induced molecular fractionation were investigated to find out how the content of arabinogalactan protein (AGP) complex affects the resulting emulsion properties. Phase separation and the accompanying molecular fractionation were induced by mixing with different hydrocolloids including hyaluronan (HA), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), and maltodextrin (MD). Increase of AGP content from 11 to 28% resulted in the formation of emulsions with relatively smaller droplet sizes and better stability. Further increase in the AGP content to 41% resulted in the formation of emulsions with larger droplets. In spite of the larger droplets sizes, these emulsions were extremely stable. In addition, the emulsions prepared with GA higher AGP content better stability in the presence of ethanol. The results indicate that AGP content plays a vital role in emulsion stability and droplet size
No More Privacy Any More?
Get PDFThe embodiment of the potential loss of privacy through a combination of artificial intelligence algorithms, big data analytics and Internet of Things technology might be something as simple, yet potentially terrifying, as an integrated app capable of recognising anyone, anytime, anywhere: effectively a global ‘Shazam for People’; but one additionally capable of returning extremely personal material about the individual. How credible is such a system? How many years away? And what might stop it
A Parallel Surrogate Model Assisted Evolutionary Algorithm for Electromagnetic Design Optimization
Get PDFOptimization efficiency is a major challenge for electromagnetic (EM) device, circuit, and machine design. Although both surrogate model-assisted evolutionary algorithms (SAEAs) and parallel computing are playing important roles in addressing this challenge, there is little research that investigates their integration to benefit from both techniques. In this paper, a new method, called parallel SAEA for electromagnetic design (PSAED), is proposed. A state-of-the-art SAEA framework, surrogate model-aware evolutionary search, is used as the foundation of PSAED. Considering the landscape characteristics of EM design problems, three differential evolution mutation operators are selected and organized in a particular way. A new SAEA framework is then proposed to make use of the selected mutation operators in a parallel computing environment. PSAED is tested by a micromirror and a dielectric resonator antenna as well as four mathematical benchmark problems of various complexity. Comparisons with state-of-the-art methods verify the advantages of PSAED in terms of efficiency and optimization capacity
An exploratory study of the FinTech (Financial Technology) education and retraining in UK
Get PDFThe purpose of this paper is to explore two identified knowledge gaps: first, the identification and analysis of online searching trends for Financial Technology (FinTech)-related jobs and education information in UK, and second to assess the current strength of the FinTech-related job distribution in terms of job titles and locations in UK, job market in UK and what is required to help it to grow
Speed estimation applying sinc-filter to a period-based method for incremental position encoder
Get PDFPrecise speed estimation and short measurement time delay is compulsory for high-performance electric drives. Rotary incremental position encoders are widely used together with speed estimation techniques such as period-based, frequency-based, constant elapse time, and synchronous measurement methods. This paper proposes the speed estimation technique, which helps to obtain higher accuracy by means of filtering the results of period-based method using third order Sinc-filter. As the sequence of period-based method estimations has the properties of delta-sigma modulated signal, extra information can be extracted. For the specified measurement time that gives higher accuracy than moving average filter. The developed speed estimation method was tested using experimental setup showing better accuracy compared to conventional methods
Design, Simulation and Manufacturing a CFRP Prototype Mirror for Active/Adaptive Optics
Get PDFIn this work, we are aiming to reduce the mass of large precision mirrors for space missions by using space approved composite materials. We report the development of an active/adaptive optics prototype of carbon fiber reinforced polymer mirrors using a pre-impregnated (pre-preg) composite MTM44-1/IMS65. The carbon fiber mirror has 16 layers of carbon fiber and one layer of polishable resin which compensate the well-known problem of ‘’fiber print through’’. The development of a fabrication method, suited for creating a CFRP mirror is outlined. As all materials will change properties to some degree, during cool down to cryogenic temperatures, FEA model is employed to investigate the change on overall form and figure of the mirror. Characterizing this dimensional change is critical in insuring that any mirror material can be used in this environment and, if required, corrected either by utilizing a deformable mirror control systems or by correction in the optical system. Two different piezoelectric actuators are modelled and used to create an active composite reflector. Push actuators and micro fiber composite (MFC) actuators are simulated and the performance of them are compared by surface deformation and dynamic response