Purpose -The past decade has witnessed a growing interest in vehicular networking and its myriad applications. The initial view of practitioners and researchers was that radio-equipped vehicles can keep the drivers informed about potential safety risks and can enhance their awareness of road conditions and traffic-related events. This conceptual paper seeks to put forth a novel vision, namely that advances in vehicular networks, embedded devices, and cloud computing can be used to set up what are known as vehicular clouds (VCs). Design/methodology/approach -The paper suggests that VCs are technologically feasible and that they are likely to have a significant societal impact. Findings -The paper argues that at least in some of its manifestations, the ideas behind VCs are eminently implementable under present day technology. It is also expected that, once adopted and championed by municipalities and third-party infrastructure providers, VCs will redefine the way in which pervasive computing and its myriad applications is thought of. Research limitations/implications -This is a new concept for which a small-scale prototype is being built. No large-scale prototype exists at the moment. Practical implications -VCs are a novel concept motivated by the realization of the fact that, most of the time, the tremendous amount of computing and communication resources available in vehicles is underutilized. Putting these resources to work in a meaningful way should have a significant societal impact. Social implications -The main goal of this paper is to introduce and promote the concept of VCs, a non-trivial extension, along several dimensions, of the by-now "classic" cloud computing. The paper shows that the concept of VCs is feasible as of today -at least in some of its manifestations -and that it can have a significant societal impact in the years to come. Originality/value -The idea of a VC is novel and so are the potential applications that are discussed in the paper.

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Activity recognition has attracted increasing attention as a number of related research areas such as pervasive computing, intelligent environments and robotics converge on this critical issue. It is also driven by growing real-world application needs in such areas as ambient assisted living and security surveillance. This chapter aims to provide an overview on existing approaches, current practices and future trends on activity recognition. It is intended to provide the necessary material to inform relevant research communities of the latest developments in this field in addition to providing a reference for researchers and system developers who are working towards the design and development of activity-based context aware applications. The chapter first reviews the existing approaches and algorithms that have been used for activity recognition in a number of related areas. It then describes the practice and lifecycle of the ontology-based approach to activity recognition that has recently been under vigorous investigation. Finally the chapter presents emerging research on activity recognition by outlining various issues and directions the field will take. IntroductionWith the advance and prevalence of low-cost low-power sensors, computing devices and wireless communication networks, pervasive computing has evolved from a vision [1] to an achievable and deployable computing paradigm. As a result, research is now being conducted in all areas related to pervasive computing, ranging from low-level data collection, to intermediate-level information processing, to high-level applications and service delivery. It is becoming increasingly evident that intelligent environments which can support both living and work places through flexible multimodal interactions, proactive service provision, and context aware personalized activity assistance will be commonplace in the very near future. For example, Smart Homes (SH) -augmented real or simulated home settings equipped with sensors, actuators and information processing systems, have been extensively studied. Work in this area has produced a number of lab-based or real-world SH prototypes [2]. Within a SH the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) of its inhabitants, usually 1

We describe the clinical presentation and course of a patient with autoerythrocyte sensitization (Gardner-Diamond) syndrome, and review the literature for similar cases. A 37-yr-old female presented with recurrent episodes of painful ecchymotic bruising over the anterior aspect of both thighs. These episodes were precipitated by emotional stress. The diagnosis was confirmed by induction of similar lesions by intradermal injection of the patient's own washed red blood cells and hemoglobin. The lesions did not recur for 6 months after the cause of her emotional stress was relieved. Autoerythrocyte sensitization (Gardner-Diamond) syndrome should be considered in the differential diagnosis of purpura, especially in patients with psychiatric problems.

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VTE prophylaxis is underutilized at AUBMC, a tertiary care teaching hospital in the Middle East. Critical care patients were being acceptably anti-coagulated, whereas cancer patients are doing the worst.