scholarly journals A Versatile Personal Assistant Dedicated to B/VIP

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 33-39
Author(s):  
Paul Costache ◽  
Simona Riurean ◽  
Sebastian Rosca
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Warning System ◽  
World Health ◽  
Fast Time ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
The World ◽  
Personal Assistant ◽  
Low Efficiency ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
Health Organization

Today, there are different systems on the market that aim to help Blind or Visually Impaired People (B/VIP) to gain more independency and self-trust. From the classic white cane to various intelligent devices to guide people with vision problems, most of the systems are expensive, difficult to be used or with low efficiency. The subject is a very important one because, according to the World Health Organization, there are approximately 2.2 billion people in the world that have a vision impairment or blindness. Thus, the purpose of this work is to make a short survey on solutions available on the market, in order to develop a low-cost, efficient and easy-to-use system for both indoor and outdoor use. The versatile personal assistant dedicated to B/VIP aims to enhance their independence and also improved outdoor navigation. The smart warning system addressed here is an innovative device aiming to detect obstacles with the help of ultrasonic sensors and warning of their presence by means of a buzzer or vibration. The system, when used outdoor, also gives the possibility to send short message to the B/VIP’s own assistant, in the form of an SMS with the exact location of the B/VIP. Moreover, the SMS’ content can easily create the optimal route to the B/VIP’s location with the Google Maps support for a fast-time assistance.

A novel pyrene based highly selective reversible fluorescent-colorimetric sensor for the rapid detection of Cu2+ ions: application in bio-imaging

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1063-1073 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anupam Ghorai ◽  
Jahangir Mondal ◽  
Amit Kumar Manna ◽  
Shubhamoy Chowdhury ◽  
Goutam K. Patra
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
Rapid Detection ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Colorimetric Sensor ◽  
World Health ◽  
Selective Detection ◽  
Imaging Methods ◽  
The World ◽  
Bio Imaging ◽  
Health Organization

A simple, low-cost pyrene derivative containing a benzilmonohydrazone moiety has been exploited for the selective detection of Cu2+ by colorimetric, absorption, emission and bio-imaging methods. The sensitivity of the fluorescence based assay is 7.8 nM for Cu2+, which is far below the limit mentioned in the World Health Organization.

scholarly journals Acridine-Based Antimalarials—From the Very First Synthetic Antimalarial to Recent Developments

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 600
Author(s):  
Mélanie Fonte ◽  
Natália Tassi ◽  
Paula Gomes ◽  
Cátia Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Antimalarial Drugs ◽  
World Health ◽  
Cost Strategy ◽  
The World ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Low Cost Strategy ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Emergence Of Resistance ◽  
Artemisinin Combination Therapies

Malaria is among the deadliest infectious diseases in the world caused by Plasmodium parasites. Due to the high complexity of the parasite’s life cycle, we partly depend on antimalarial drugs to fight this disease. However, the emergence of resistance, mainly by Plasmodium falciparum, has dethroned most of the antimalarials developed to date. Given recent reports of resistance to artemisinin combination therapies, first-line treatment currently recommended by the World Health Organization, in Western Cambodia and across the Greater Mekong sub-region, it seems very likely that artemisinin and its derivatives will follow the same path of other antimalarial drugs. Consequently, novel, safe and efficient antimalarial drugs are urgently needed. One fast and low-cost strategy to accelerate antimalarial development is by recycling classical pharmacophores. Quinacrine, an acridine-based compound and the first clinically tested synthetic antimalarial drug with potent blood schizonticide but serious side effects, has attracted attention due to its broad spectrum of biological activity. In this sense, the present review will focus on efforts made in the last 20 years for the development of more efficient, safer and affordable antimalarial compounds, through recycling the classical quinacrine drug.

scholarly journals Design of smart stick for visually impaired people using Arduino

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 58-71
Author(s):  
Ramiz Salama ◽  
Ahmad Ayoub
Keyword(s):  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Ultrasonic Sensor ◽  
World Health ◽  
Blind People ◽  
Independent Manner ◽  
C Language ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Health Organization

Nowadays, blind or impaired people are facing a lot of problems in their daily life since it is not easy for them to move, which is very dangerous. There are about 37 million visually impaired people across the globe according to the World Health Organization. People with these problems mostly depend on others, for example, a friend, or their trained dog while movıng outside. Thus, we were motivated to develop a smart stick to solve this problem. The smart stick, integrated with an ultrasonic sensor, buzzer and vibrator, can detect obstacles in the path of the blind people. The buzzer and vibration motor are activated when any obstacle is detected to alert the blind person. This work proposes a low-cost ultrasonic smart blind stick for blind people so that they can move from one place to another in an easy, safe and independent manner. The system was designed and programmed using C language. Keywords: Arduino Uno, Arduino IDE, ultrasonic sensor, buzzer, motor.

scholarly journals Intelligent Companion for Blind: Smart Stick

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 4251-4256
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
Guidance System ◽  
World Health ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Blind And Visually Impaired ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Current Location ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
User Friendly

Blindness is a state of lacking the visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors. According to World Health Organization, approximately 1.3 billion people live with some form of visual impairment with 36 million people being completely blind. These people face great difficulty in independent and safe mobility. Almost 89% of such people live in low and middle income countries, and are unable to afford existing mobility aid devices. Addressing these difficulties, the proposed research aims to design a low-cost and user- friendly guidance system “Smart Stick” which serves as an Electronic travel Aid and as a Position Locator Device. It helps to improve the mobility of both blind and visually impaired people, enabling them to navigate safely by avoiding any obstacles that may encounter and providing facility to communicate its current location to any of his/her relative. This device is tested under natural environmental conditions, and has performed excellent under low and high light environments too. The proposed design achieves reduction in cost by 44% in comparison to existing devices.

scholarly journals Live attenuated vaccines for tuberculosis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Kupz
Keyword(s):  
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
World Health ◽  
Bacillus Calmette Guerin ◽  
Live Attenuated Vaccines ◽  
The World ◽  
Latently Infected ◽  
Low Efficiency ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Active Disease

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of infectious death worldwide. TB is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and transmission happens via inhalation of droplets and aerosols coughed by an individual with active disease. There are about 10 million cases of active TB annually, and it is estimated that approximately 2 billion people are latently infected. Although most latently infected individuals are not sick and do not transmit the disease, in about 5%–10% of these people the disease reactivates. TB kills about 1.5 million people each year and resistance to current treatments increases steadily. Prevention of TB via a vaccine is considered the optimal solution by the World Health Organization. Presently, the only licensed vaccine against TB, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), prevents childhood versions of TB but affords low efficiency in the prevention and transmission of the disease in adults. Hence, an improved vaccine is urgently required to combat TB.

scholarly journals A Nature-Inspired Design Yields a New Class of Steroids Against Trypanosomatids

Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (20) ◽  
pp. 3800
Author(s):  
Elena Aguilera ◽  
Cintya Perdomo ◽  
Alejandra Espindola ◽  
Ileana Corvo ◽  
Paula Faral-Tello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
De Novo ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
World Health ◽  
New Class ◽  
The World ◽  
Low Toxicity ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Toxicity In Vitro

Chagas disease and Leishmaniasis are neglected endemic protozoan diseases recognized as public health problems by the World Health Organization. These diseases affect millions of people around the world however, efficient and low-cost treatments are not available. Different steroid molecules with antimicrobial and antiparasitic activity were isolated from diverse organisms (ticks, plants, fungi). These molecules have complex structures that make de novo synthesis extremely difficult. In this work, we designed new and simpler compounds with antiparasitic potential inspired in natural steroids and synthesized a series of nineteen steroidal arylideneketones and thiazolidenehydrazines. We explored their biological activity against Leishmania infantum, Leishmania amazonensis, and Trypanosoma cruzi in vitro and in vivo. We also assayed their genotoxicity and acute toxicity in vitro and in mice. The best compound, a steroidal thiosemicarbazone compound 8 (ID_1260) was active in vitro (IC50 200 nM) and in vivo (60% infection reduction at 50 mg/kg) in Leishmania and T. cruzi. It also has low toxicity in vitro and in vivo (LD50 >2000 mg/kg) and no genotoxic effects, being a promising compound for anti-trypanosomatid drug development.

Removal of microbes to World Health Organization requirements using a locally developed, low cost, micro-porous, ceramic water filter

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 620-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Simonis ◽  
A. K. Basson ◽  
T. Selepe
Keyword(s):  
Water Treatment ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Porous Ceramic ◽  
Cryptosporidium Oocyst ◽  
Ceramic Filter ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Infective Dose ◽  
Health Organization

The quality of drinking water can no longer be taken for granted and has been the subject of tremendous attention from pressure groups and the media due to poor service delivery in South Africa. Furthermore, many of the older water treatment plants are incapable of effectively reducing microbes to safe levels. Unfortunately there are various definitions of ‘safe’. The South African government considers 10 or less viable Cryptosporidium oocysts an infective dose, while the USA and UK governments believe that one viable Cryptosporidium oocyst is an infective dose. To add to the confusion the World Health Organization recommends above 99.99% microbial reduction as safe. In Africa it really depends on how compromised your immune system is and age and nutritional level at the time of consumption of contaminated water. How can anyone protect themselves from consuming water contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms? The ceramic filter offers the poor a simple, effective and economical way of producing potable water. We report on the successful testing of a low-cost, locally produced ceramic filter (OUTBAC) with removal efficiencies in excess of 99.99% that therefore meets the World Health Organization household water treatment system criterion for safe water for a family of five at an affordable cost per year.

scholarly journals Knowledge networking for family planning: The potential for virtual communities of practice to move forward the global reproductive health agenda

2010 ◽  
pp. 109-121
Keyword(s):  
Family Planning ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
World Health ◽  
Virtual Communication ◽  
The World ◽  
Virtual Communities Of Practice ◽  
Health Organization

This paper highlights experience from five years of using virtual communication tools developed by the World Health Organization Department of Reproductive Health and Research (WHO/RHR) and its partners in the Implementing Best Practices (IBP) in Reproductive Health Initiative to help bridge the knowledge-to-practice gap among family planning and reproductive health professionals. It explores how communities of practice and virtual networks offer a unique low-cost way to convene public health practitioners around the world to share experiences. It offers examples of how communities of practice can contribute to the development and dissemination of evidence-based health information products, and explores the potential for online networking and collaboration to enhance and inform program design and management. The paper is intended to inform the reproductive health community, as well as others working in health and development, of the potential for using virtual communities of practice to work towards achieving common goals and provide some examples of their successful use.

scholarly journals Vitamin C and COVID-19: should clinical trials be prioritised for low income settings and vitamin C-deficient populations?

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-120
Author(s):  
Anitra C Carr ◽  
◽  
Sam Rowe ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Vitamin C ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
World Health ◽  
Biological Plausibility ◽  
Resource Limited Settings ◽  
Resource Limited ◽  
The World ◽  
Adjunctive Intervention ◽  
Health Organization

TO THE EDITOR: Managing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in resource-limited settings requires a number of considerations, including reducing or preventing requirements for respiratory support.1 Vitamin C is a low cost, readily available therapy that the World Health Organization has highlighted for further research as an adjunctive intervention with biological plausibility for improving the clinical outcome of patients with COVID-19

scholarly journals Low Cost System for Face Mask Detection Based Haar Cascade Classifier Method

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Radimas Putra Muhammad Davi Labib ◽  
Sirojul Hadi ◽  
Parama Diptya Widayaka
Keyword(s):  
Detection System ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
World Health ◽  
Cascade Classifier ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Areas ◽  
The Face ◽  
Haar Cascade ◽  
Health Organization

In December 2019, there was a pandemic caused by a new type of coronavirus, namely SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus 2) spread almost throughout the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) named it COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease). To minimize the spread of the COVID-19, the Indonesian government announced a policy for the social distancing of 1-2 meters and wearing a medical mask. In this study, a mask detection system was built using the Haar Cascade Classifier method by detecting the facial areas such as the nose and lips. The study aims to distinguish between using masks and on the contrary. It is expected that the mask detection system can be implemented to provide direct warnings to people who do not wear masks in public areas. The results using the Haar Cascade Classifier method show that the system designed is able to detect faces, noses, and lips at a light intensity of 80-140 lux. The face is detected at a distance of 30-120cm, while the nose is at a distance of 30-60cm, while the lips are at a distance of 30-70cm. The system designed can perform the detection process at a speed of 5 fps. The overall test results obtained a success rate of 88,89%.

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