Abstract

Abstract
The evaluation of the diffusion properties of optical clearing agents in biological tissues, which are necessary to characterize the transparency mechanisms, has been traditionally made using ex vivo tissues. With the objective of performing such evaluation in vivo, this study was made to evaluate and compare those properties for propylene glycol in skeletal muscle, as obtained with the collimated transmittance and diffuse reflectance kinetics. The diffusion time and the diffusion coefficient of propylene glycol in the muscle that were calculated both from transmittance and reflectance kinetics presented a deviation of 0.8%, a result that opens the possibility to use such a method in vivo. © 2022 IEEE.

Abstract
The direct calculation of the absorption coefficient spectra of various tissues from spectral measurements allowed to retrieve the contents of melanin and lipofuscin. In the rabbit brain cortex, 1.8 times higher melanin content is explained by the neuron degeneration process. Similar melanin and lipofuscin contents were found in the rabbit pancreas as a result of the tissue aging process. The conversion of 83 % of the melanin in the human normal kidney into lipofuscin in the cancer kidney indicates that lipofuscin can be considered a kidney cancer marker in humans. © 2022 IEEE.

Abstract
The pancreas is a highly important organ, since it produces insulin and prevents the occurrence of diabetes. Although rare, pancreatic cancer is highly lethal, with a small life expectancy after being diagnosed. The pancreas is one of the organs less studied in the field of biophotonics. With the objective of acquiring information that can be used in the development of future applications to diagnose and treat pancreas diseases, the spectral optical properties of the rabbit pancreas were evaluated in a broad-spectral range, between 200 and 1000 nm. The method used to obtain such optical properties is simple, based almost on direct calculations from spectral measurements. The optical properties obtained show similar wavelength dependencies to the ones obtained for other tissues, but a further analysis on the spectral absorption coefficient showed that the pancreas tissues contain pigments, namely melanin, and lipofuscin. Using a simple calculation, it was possible to retrieve similar contents of these pigments from the absorption spectrum of the pancreas, which indicates that they accumulate in the same proportion as a result of the aging process. Such pigment accumulation was camouflaging the real contents of DNA, hemoglobin, and water, which were precisely evaluated after subtracting the pigment absorption.

Abstract
Understanding the main factors that can compromise or improve the efficacy of home-based rehabilitation on the perspective of technology requires the review of the features of the equipment used in this area, both in terms of hardware and software. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the most recent technologies implemented into home-based rehabilitation scenario, namely wearable devices, robotic end-effectors, exoskeletons, and the role of artificial intelligence amongst these fields. Evidence is presented to better understand the present state of art of home-based rehabilitation systems, facilitating the exploration of hypothetical healthcare uses for these systems or their possible future upgrades.

Abstract
Recent studies show the high prevalence of the use of messaging platform and its growth trend, especially in younger populations (Figueroa Jacinto and Arndt 2018). Messaging apps are used not only to communicate and stay in touch with family and friends, but also to access services. Interactions with commercial purposes, such as making purchases, seeking out assistance and customer support, providing feedback or making reservations are already widely used, but legal and healthcare related areas also present prominent growth (Eeuwen 2017). In this chapter it is our objective to explore how technologies such as natural language processing, speech recognition, text-to-speech, machine learning, and cloud computing can be integrated to develop high quality chatbots for healthcare purposes. Additionally, we will cover an application case based on COVID-19 prevention and management.