BackgroundThe interest in applying information and communications technology (ICT) in older adult health care is frequently promoted by the increasing and unsustainable costs of health care services. In turn, the unprecedented growth of the elderly population around the globe has urged institutions, companies, industries, and governments to respond to older adults’ medical needs.ObjectiveThe aim of this review is to systematically identify the opportunities that ICT offers to health services, specifically for patients with dementia and their families.MethodsA systematic review of the literature about ICT applications that have been developed to assist patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and their primary caregivers was conducted. The bibliographic search included works published between January 2005 and July 2015 in the databases Springer Link, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Of the published papers, 902 were obtained in the initial search, of which 214 were potentially relevant. Included studies fulfilled the following inclusion criteria: (1) studies carried out between the years of 2005 and 2015, (2) studies were published in English or Spanish, (3) studies with titles containing the keywords, (4) studies with abstracts containing information on ICT applications and AD, and (5) studies published in indexed journals, proceedings, and book chapters.ResultsA total of 26 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria for the current review. Among them, 16 were aimed at the patient with AD and 10 at the primary caregivers and/or family members. The studies targeted applications that included assistive technology (44%, 7/16), telecare (37%, 6/16), and telemedicine (31%, 5/16). The information systems (56%, 9/16) and Internet (44%, 7/16) were the most commonly used enabling technologies for the studies. Finally, areas of attention more covered by the studies were care (56%, 9/16), treatment (56%, 9/16), and management (50%, 8/16). Furthermore, it was found that 20 studies (77%, 8/26) evaluated their ICT applications through carrying out tests with patients with dementia and caregivers.ConclusionsThe key finding of this systematic review revealed that the use of ICT tools can be strongly recommended to be used as a lifestyle in the elderly in order to improve the quality of life for the elderly and their primary caregivers. Since patients with AD are completely dependent in most activities, it is necessary to give attention to their primary caregivers to avoid stress and depression. In addition, the use of ICT in the daily life of caregivers can help them understand the disease process and manage situations in a way that is beneficial for both parties. It is expected that future developments concerning technological projects can support this group of people.

We present a model of protein folding which is based on a potential function that describes the effective interaction between two amino acids (alanines, in this case). Our model is consistent with the formation of two important secondary structures, namely, an alpha-helix and a beta-ladder. In each case, we estimate the density of states using a random walk in energy space. This function allows the direct calculation of certain thermodynamic properties. By means of the configurational temperature, we also verify that the obtained polypeptides are in their native state.

We present an effective potential describing the interaction between pairs of residues (alanines, in this case) that belong to a protein. The effective potential is extracted from an experimental correlation function, by means of the Ornstein-Zernike equation together with a closure approximation. It is found that the most relevant features of the effective potential are consistent with the formation of two different secondary structures of proteins.

We derive a set of effective potentials describing the interaction between pairs of nucleotides that belong to an RNA molecule. Such interaction potentials are then used as the main constituents of a simplified simulation model, which is tested in the description of small secondary structure motifs. Our simulated RNA hairpins are consistent with the experimental structures obtained by NMR.

We present Monte Carlo simulations performed within a model based on a set of distance-dependent effective potentials which are used to describe the interactions between a pair of distinct amino acids. These effective potentials are extracted from experimental correlation functions through the Ornstein-Zernike equations and adequate closure approximations. We focus our attention on the sequences of two specific residues, namely, alanine and glycine. The studied sequences are (a) (Ala)(12)-(Gly)(4)-(Ala)(12) and (b) three interacting chains of alternating alanines and glycines (with five residues per chain). The resulting structures are combinations of known secondary structures. More importantly, we verify that our simulated structures are in thermodynamic equilibrium by means of an estimation of the density of states.

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Structure and dynamics of water in crowded environments slows down peptide conformational changes J. Chem. Phys. 141, 045101 (2014); 10.1063/1.4891465 RNA pseudo-knots simulated with a one-bead coarse-grained model We study the dynamics of driven polymer translocation using both molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and a theoretical model based on the non-equilibrium tension propagation on the cis side subchain. We present theoretical and numerical evidence that the non-universal behavior observed in experiments and simulations are due to finite chain length effects that persist well beyond the relevant experimental and simulation regimes. In particular, we consider the influence of the pore-polymer interactions and show that they give a major contribution to the non-universal effects. In addition, we present comparisons between the theory and MD simulations for several quantities, showing extremely good agreement in the relevant parameter regimes. Finally, we discuss the potential limitations of the present theories.

Adopción de las TIC en el EnvejecimientoRevisión sistematica basada en las TIC para la enfermedad de Alzheimer y otras demencias senilesResumo -El interés por las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC) en el adulto mayor es impulsado muchas veces por los crecientes e insostenibles costos de los servicios de salud. A su vez el crecimiento sin precedentes de la población adulta mayor en México y en todo el mundo, obliga a enfrentar las necesidades de atención médica de los adultos mayores por parte de instituciones, empresas, industria y gobierno. En este artículo integramos el conocimiento que se tiene del adulto mayor con la Enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA) y las oportunidades que brindan las TIC a este y al cuidador primario.Palabras Clave -TICs, eSalud, Adulto Mayor, Enfermedad de Alzheimer, Revisión Sistematica. Abstract -A deep interest in Information Technology and Communication (ICT) in the elderly is often driven by growingand unsustainable costs of health services. The unprecedented growth of the older population in Mexico and around the world, forces us to confront -in an urgent way-the health care needs of the elderly by institutions, businesses, industry and government. In this paper we integrate the knowledge we have so far about the elderly with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the opportunities offered by ICTs to him/her and his/her primary caregiver.