Historical and ongoing pedestrian anxiety about night crimes in alleyways is an important issue in our society. Therefore, recommended illuminance levels in pedestrian alleys have been established and security lighting meeting such illuminance levels has been installed to ensure proper brightness. However, pedestrians may still feel that such areas are too dark and want to ensure their safety through sufficient brightness, especially late at night. In this study, a smart security lighting system, which was namely the Connected Security Lighting System (CSLS), has been designed to reduce the pedestrians’ fear of crime in smart cities. The CSLS increases the brightness of security lighting by turning on additional lights to relax pedestrians’ psychological fear of crime because of the increased sense of surveillance. Such a change may also deter potential offenders. The CSLS employs various sensors and information communication technologies that are widely used in interior and outdoor smart lighting applications. It also uses a beacon device and smartphone application to effectively detect pedestrians while infrared sensors in the CSLS are activated to detect any pedestrians approaching from the opposite direction after the beacon device is initiated. The method for controlling the CSLS is described and a prototype system is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of this security lighting system in smart cities.
Smart homes improve quality of life by providing various services based on information and communication technologies. However, smart home systems are complicated and user interfaces for the interaction between smart home and user are often not user-friendly, causing potential difficulties and inconvenience for the user. Therefore, in order for smart homes to become user-centered, usability needs to be improved. This study aims to present guidelines for improving the usability of smart homes based on the concept of affordance, which is highly meaningful in user-centered design. To do this, firstly, the affordance factors that could be applied to improve the usability of active devices and user interfaces in smart homes were extracted, secondly, a case study was conducted to analyze the application of affordance factors, focusing on active devices (e.g., control devices and smart appliances) and user interfaces that directly interact with users in smart homes. Lastly, guidelines on the application of affordance factors were presented by combining case analysis results with relevant guidelines. Active devices and user interfaces should provide users with appropriate cognitive, physical, functional, and sensory affordances so that users can use the smart home services easily and conveniently.
Natural killer (NK) cells, which are cytotoxic lymphocytes of the innate immune system and recognize cancer cells via various immune receptors, are promising agents in cell immunotherapy. To utilize NK cells as a therapeutic agent, their biodistribution and pharmacokinetics need to be evaluated following systemic administration. Therefore, in vivo imaging and tracking with efficient labeling and quantitative analysis of NK cells are required. However, the lack of the phagocytic capacity of NK cells makes it difficult to establish breakthroughs in cell labeling and subsequent in vivo studies. Herein, an effective labeling of upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) in NK cells is proposed using electroporation with high sensitivity and stability. The labeling performance of UCNPs functionalized with carboxypolyethylene glycol (PEG) is better than with methoxy-PEG or with amine-PEG. The labeling efficiency becomes higher, but cell damage is greater as electric field increases; thus, there is an optimum electroporation condition for internalization of UCNPs into NK cells. The tracking and biodistribution imaging analyses of intravenously injected NK cells show that the labeled NK cells are initially distributed primarily in lungs and then spread to the liver and spleen. These advances will accelerate the application of NK cells as key components of immunotherapy against cancer.
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