Identifying characteristics of mentally ill homeless individuals who are successfully linked to health and social services post-incarceration via the jail inreach project

Healthcare for the Homeless—Houston (HHH) received a research grant from The Medallion Foundation, Inc. in March 2006 to pilot The Jail Inreach Project, an intensive “inreach” initiative to assess the impact of providing continuity of mental and primary health care services for homeless individuals who suffer from mental illness and/or substance abuse being released from jail. This pilot project was initiated by HHH, in collaboration with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County (MHMRA). Those who are flagged as “frequent flyers” and who are diagnosed with a mental illness are referred to the Jail Inreach Project. In order to maximize the effectiveness of the discharge plan, case managers offer the option of meeting the client at the time of release and bring them to the HHH clinic located four blocks from the jail. Participation in both the program and the option for direct release to the care of a case manager are voluntary.^ The purpose of this study is to determine the outcomes of the Jail Inreach Project and addresses the following objectives: (1) to evaluate the characteristics of inmates that chose to be released from jail to the direct care of an HHH case manager versus those who opt for self release and (2) to determine the number and percent of inmates that are linked to services and relationship with type of release (direct versus indirect), (3) to determine if there is a relationship between outcomes and characteristics and (4) to determine what outcomes are a function of release, controlling for characteristics. Statistical analysis, including frequencies, cross tabulations, chi-square and logistical regression, found that those who opt for self release are six times less likely to be successfully linked to services and that gender is the most significant predictor of choosing self release. Men are far more likely to opt for self release than women engaged in this program. These findings help inform policy and program design and development that addresses the difference in service utilization and successful linkage to services post-incarceration. Successful linkage to services, thus continuity of and access to care, further impact the effects of the revolving door phenomenon of mentally ill homeless individuals cycling between the streets, jails and hospital emergency centers.^

Maxima of interstitial water and gas parameters in ODP Leg 182 sediments

During the drilling of the southern Australian continental margin (Leg 182 of the Ocean Drilling Program), fluids with unusually high salinities (to 106?) were encountered in Miocene to Pleistocene sediments. At three sites (1127, 1129, and 1131), high contents of H2S (to 15%), CH4 (50%), and CO2 (70%) were also encountered. These levels of H2S are the highest yet reported during the history of either the Deep Sea Drilling Project or the Ocean Drilling Program. The high concentrations of H2S and CH4 are associated with anomalous Na+/Cl- ratios in the pore waters. Although hydrates were not recovered, and despite the shallow water depth of these sites (200-400 m) and relative warm bottom water temperatures (11-14°C), we believe that these sites possess disseminated H2S-dominated hydrates. This contention is supported by calculations using the measured gas concentrations and temperatures of the cores, and depths of recovery. High concentrations of H2S necessary for the formation of hydrates under these conditions were provided by the abundant (SO4)2- caused by the high salinities of the pore fluids, and the high concentrations of organic material. One hypothesis for the origin of these fluids is that they were formed on the adjacent continental shelf during previous lowstands of sea level and were forced into the sediments under the influence of hydrostatic head.

Carbon and deuterium isotopes and C ratios in gas hydrates of ODP Leg 204 sites

Sediments at the southern summit of Hydrate Ridge display two distinct modes of gas hydrate occurrence. The dominant mode is associated with active venting of gas exsolved from the accretionary prism and leads to high concentrations (15%-40% of pore space) of gas hydrate in seafloor or near-surface sediments at and around the topographic summit of southern Hydrate Ridge. These near-surface gas hydrates are mainly composed of previously buried microbial methane but also contain a significant (10%-15%) component of thermogenic hydrocarbons and are overprinted with microbial methane currently being generated in shallow sediments. Focused migration pathways with high gas saturation (>65%) abutting the base of gas hydrate stability create phase equilibrium conditions that permit the flow of a gas phase through the gas hydrate stability zone. Gas seepage at the summit supports rapid growth of gas hydrates and vigorous anaerobic methane oxidation. The other mode of gas hydrate occurs in slope basins and on the saddle north of the southern summit and consists of lower average concentrations (0.5%-5%) at greater depths (30-200 meters below seafloor [mbsf]) resulting from the buildup of in situ-generated dissolved microbial methane that reaches saturation levels with respect to gas hydrate stability at 30-50 mbsf. Net rates of sulfate reduction in the slope basin and ridge saddle sites estimated from curve fitting of concentration gradients are 2-4 mmol/m**3/yr, and integrated net rates are 20-50 mmol/m**2/yr. Modeled microbial methane production rates are initially 1.5 mmol/m**3/yr in sediments just beneath the sulfate reduction zone but rapidly decrease to rates of <0.1 mmol/m**3/yr at depths >100 mbsf. Integrated net rates of methane production in sediments away from the southern summit of Hydrate Ridge are 25-80 mmol/m**2/yr. Anaerobic methane oxidation is minor or absent in cored sediments away from the summit of southern Hydrate Ridge. Ethane-enriched Structure I gas hydrate solids are buried more rapidly than ethane-depleted dissolved gas in the pore water because of advection from compaction. With subsidence beneath the gas hydrate stability zone, the ethane (mainly of low-temperature thermogenic origin) is released back to the dissolved gas-free gas phases and produces a discontinuous decrease in the C1/C2 vs. depth trend. These ethane fractionation effects may be useful to recognize and estimate levels of gas hydrate occurrence in marine sediments.

Gas hydrate structures and C1-C5 hydrocarbons at individual sites in the Gulf of Mexico

Gas hydrate samples from various locations in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) differ considerably in their microstructure. Distinct microstructure characteristics coincide with discrete crystallographic structures, gas compositions and calculated thermodynamic stabilities. The crystallographic structures were established by X-ray diffraction, using both conventional X-ray sources and high-energy synchrotron radiation. The microstructures were examined by cryo-stage Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM). Good sample preservation was warranted by the low ice fractions shown from quantitative phase analyses. Gas hydrate structure II samples from the Green Canyon in the northern GOM had methane concentrations of 70-80% and up to 30% of C2-C5 of measured hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons in the crystallographic structure I hydrate from the Chapopote asphalt volcano in the southern GOM was comprised of more than 98% methane. Fairly different microstructures were identified for those different hydrates: Pores measuring 200-400 nm in diameter were present in structure I gas hydrate samples; no such pores but dense crystal surfaces instead were discovered in structure II gas hydrate. The stability of the hydrate samples is discussed regarding gas composition, crystallographic structure and microstructure. Electron microscopic observations showed evidence of gas hydrate and liquid oil co-occurrence on a micrometer scale. That demonstrates that oil has direct contact to gas hydrates when it diffuses through a hydrate matrix.

(Supplementary Table 1) Proportions of methane (C1) to ethane (C2) and the stable isotope composition of methane (d13CCH4) of gas and oil collected by gas bubble sampler during cruise M 114 in the southern Gulf of Mexico

Hydrocarbon seepage is a widespread process at the continental margins of the Gulf of Mexico. We used a multidisciplinary approach, including multibeam mapping and visual seafloor observations with different underwater vehicles to study the extent and character of complex hydrocarbon seepage in the Bay of Campeche, southern Gulf of Mexico. Our observations showed that seafloor asphalt deposits previously only known from the Chapopote Knoll also occur at numerous other knolls and ridges in water depths from 1230 to 3150 m. In particular the deeper sites (Chapopopte and Mictlan knolls) were characterized by asphalt deposits accompanied by extrusion of liquid oil in form of whips or sheets, and in some places (Tsanyao Yang, Mictlan, and Chapopote knolls) by gas emission and the presence of gas hydrates in addition. Molecular and stable carbon isotopic compositions of gaseous hydrocarbons suggest their primarily thermogenic origin. Relatively fresh asphalt structures were settled by chemosynthetic communities including bacterial mats and vestimentiferan tube worms, whereas older flows appeared largely inert and devoid of corals and anemones at the deep sites. The gas hydrates at Tsanyao Yang and Mictlan Knolls were covered by a 5-to-10 cm-thick reaction zone composed of authigenic carbonates, detritus, and microbial mats, and were densely colonized by 1-2 m-long tube worms, bivalves, snails, and shrimps. This study increased knowledge on the occurrences and dimensions of asphalt fields and associated gas hydrates at the Campeche Knolls. The extent of all discovered seepage structure areas indicates that emission of complex hydrocarbons is a widespread, thus important feature of the southern Gulf of Mexico.

Promoting institutional connectivity in the Asia Pacific region : a study of supply chain and trade in services

This paper analyzes "institutional connectivity", or the degree of seamless trade in services centering on the distribution sector. Foreign equity participation in mode 3 (commercial presence) of trade in services and business firms’ investment performance has been studied closely. Net economic benefits of transparent institutional connectivity in the wholesale sector have also been revealed statistically in the case of Japan’s bilateral FTAs with other APEC members. Given these results, APEC could work on establishing its own harmonized "service trade commitment table" with only the foreign capital participation as its simple policy restriction. This would surely enhance an APEC-wide, institutional supply chain connectivity.

Next Generation of Energy Residential Gateways for Demand Response and Dynamic Pricing

Predictions about electric energy needs, based on current electric energy models, forecast that the global energy consumption on Earth for 2050 will double present rates. Using distributed procedures for control and integration, the expected needs can be halved. Therefore implementation of Smart Grids is necessary. Interaction between final consumers and utilities is a key factor of future Smart Grids. This interaction is aimed to reach efficient and responsible energy consumption. Energy Residential Gateways (ERG) are new in-building devices that will govern the communication between user and utility and will control electric loads. Utilities will offer new services empowering residential customers to lower their electric bill. Some of these services are Smart Metering, Demand Response and Dynamic Pricing. This paper presents a practical development of an ERG for residential buildings.

Developing front-end Web 2.0 technologies to access services, content and things in the future Internet

The future Internet is expected to be composed of a mesh of interoperable web services accessible from all over the web. This approach has not yet caught on since global user?service interaction is still an open issue. This paper states one vision with regard to next-generation front-end Web 2.0 technology that will enable integrated access to services, contents and things in the future Internet. In this paper, we illustrate how front-ends that wrap traditional services and resources can be tailored to the needs of end users, converting end users into prosumers (creators and consumers of service-based applications). To do this, we propose an architecture that end users without programming skills can use to create front-ends, consult catalogues of resources tailored to their needs, easily integrate and coordinate front-ends and create composite applications to orchestrate services in their back-end. The paper includes a case study illustrating that current user-centred web development tools are at a very early stage of evolution. We provide statistical data on how the proposed architecture improves these tools. This paper is based on research conducted by the Service Front End (SFE) Open Alliance initiative.

The new cloud computing paradigm: the way to IT seen as a utility

In the present competitive environment, companies are wondering how to reduce their IT costs while increasing their efficiency and agility to react when changes in the business processes are required. Cloud Computing is the latest paradigm to optimize the use of IT resources considering ?everything as a service? and receiving these services from the Cloud (Internet) instead of owning and managing hardware and software assets. The benefits from the model are clear. However, there are also concerns and issues to be solved before Cloud Computing spreads across the different industries. This model will allow a pay-per-use model for the IT services and many benefits like cost savings, agility to react when business demands changes and simplicity because there will not be any infrastructure to operate and administrate. It will be comparable to the well known utilities like electricity, water or gas companies. However, this paper underlines several risk factors of the model. Leading technology companies should research on solutions to minimize the risks described in this article. Keywords - Cloud Computing, Utility Computing, Elastic Computing, Enterprise Agility

VISIONS Vehicular communication Improvement : solution based on IMS Operational Nodes and Services

Digital services and communications in vehicular scenarios provide the essential assets to improve road transport in several ways like reducing accidents, improving traffic efficiency and optimizing the transport of goods and people. Vehicular communications typically rely on VANET (Vehicular Ad hoc Networks). In these networks vehicles communicate with each other without the need of infrastructure. VANET are mainly oriented to disseminate information to the vehicles in certain geographic area for time critical services like safety warnings but present very challenging requirements that have not been successfully fulfilled nowadays. Some of these challenges are; channel saturation due to simultaneous radio access of many vehicles, routing protocols in topologies that vary rapidly, minimum quality of service assurance and security mechanisms to efficiently detect and neutralize malicious attacks. Vehicular services can be classified in four important groups: Safety, Efficiency, Sustainability and Infotainment. The benefits of these services for the transport sector are clear but many technological and business challenges need to be faced before a real mass market deployment. Service delivery platforms are not prepared for fulfilling the needs of this complex environment with restrictive requirements due to the criticism of some services To overcome this situation, we propose a solution called VISIONS “Vehicular communication Improvement: Solution based on IMS Operational Nodes and Services”. VISIONS leverages on IMS subsystem and NGN enablers, and follows the CALM reference Architecture standardized by ISO. It also avoids the use of Road Side Units (RSUs), reducing complexity and high costs in terms of deployment and maintenance. We demonstrate the benefits in the following areas: 1. VANET networks efficiency. VISIONS provide a mechanism for the vehicles to access valuable information from IMS and its capabilities through a cellular channel. This efficiency improvement will occur in two relevant areas: a. Routing mechanisms. These protocols are responsible of carrying information from a vehicle to another (or a group of vehicles) using multihop mechanisms. We do not propose a new algorithm but the use of VANET topology information provided through our solution to enrich the performance of these protocols. b. Security. Many aspects of security (privacy, key, authentication, access control, revocation mechanisms, etc) are not resolved in vehicular communications. Our solution efficiently disseminates revocation information to neutralize malicious nodes in the VANET. 2. Service delivery platform. It is based on extended enablers, reference architectures, standard protocols and open APIs. By following this approach, we reduce costs and resources for service development, deployment and maintenance. To quantify these benefits in VANET networks, we provide an analytical model of the system and simulate our solution in realistic scenarios. The simulations results demonstrate how VISIONS improves the performance of relevant routing protocols and is more efficient neutralizing security attacks than the widely proposed solutions based on RSUs. Finally, we design an innovative Social Network service based in our platform, explaining how VISIONS facilitate the deployment and usage of complex capabilities. RESUMEN Los servicios digitales y comunicaciones en entornos vehiculares proporcionan herramientas esenciales para mejorar el transporte por carretera; reduciendo el número de accidentes, mejorando la eficiencia del tráfico y optimizando el transporte de mercancías y personas. Las comunicaciones vehiculares generalmente están basadas en redes VANET (Vehicular Ad hoc Networks). En dichas redes, los vehículos se comunican entre sí sin necesidad de infraestructura. Las redes VANET están principalmente orientadas a difundir información (por ejemplo advertencias de seguridad) a los vehículos en determinadas zonas geográficas, pero presentan unos requisitos muy exigentes que no se han resuelto con éxito hasta la fecha. Algunos de estos retos son; saturación del canal de acceso de radio debido al acceso simultáneo de múltiples vehículos, la eficiencia de protocolos de encaminamiento en topologías que varían rápidamente, la calidad de servicio (QoS) y los mecanismos de seguridad para detectar y neutralizar los ataques maliciosos de manera eficiente. Los servicios vehiculares pueden clasificarse en cuatro grupos: Seguridad, Eficiencia del tráfico, Sostenibilidad, e Infotainment (información y entretenimiento). Los beneficios de estos servicios para el sector son claros, pero es necesario resolver muchos desafíos tecnológicos y de negocio antes de una implementación real. Las actuales plataformas de despliegue de servicios no están preparadas para satisfacer las necesidades de este complejo entorno con requisitos muy restrictivos debido a la criticidad de algunas aplicaciones. Con el objetivo de mejorar esta situación, proponemos una solución llamada VISIONS “Vehicular communication Improvement: Solution based on IMS Operational Nodes and Services”. VISIONS se basa en el subsistema IMS, las capacidades NGN y es compatible con la arquitectura de referencia CALM estandarizado por ISO para sistemas de transporte. También evita el uso de elementos en las carreteras, conocidos como Road Side Units (RSU), reduciendo la complejidad y los altos costes de despliegue y mantenimiento. A lo largo de la tesis, demostramos los beneficios en las siguientes áreas: 1. Eficiencia en redes VANET. VISIONS proporciona un mecanismo para que los vehículos accedan a información valiosa proporcionada por IMS y sus capacidades a través de un canal de celular. Dicho mecanismo contribuye a la mejora de dos áreas importantes: a. Mecanismos de encaminamiento. Estos protocolos son responsables de llevar información de un vehículo a otro (o a un grupo de vehículos) utilizando múltiples saltos. No proponemos un nuevo algoritmo de encaminamiento, sino el uso de información topológica de la red VANET a través de nuestra solución para enriquecer el funcionamiento de los protocolos más relevantes. b. Seguridad. Muchos aspectos de la seguridad (privacidad, gestión de claves, autenticación, control de acceso, mecanismos de revocación, etc) no están resueltos en las comunicaciones vehiculares. Nuestra solución difunde de manera eficiente la información de revocación para neutralizar los nodos maliciosos en la red. 2. Plataforma de despliegue de servicios. Está basada en capacidades NGN, arquitecturas de referencia, protocolos estándar y APIs abiertos. Siguiendo este enfoque, reducimos costes y optimizamos procesos para el desarrollo, despliegue y mantenimiento de servicios vehiculares. Para cuantificar estos beneficios en las redes VANET, ofrecemos un modelo de analítico del sistema y simulamos nuestra solución en escenarios realistas. Los resultados de las simulaciones muestran cómo VISIONS mejora el rendimiento de los protocolos de encaminamiento relevantes y neutraliza los ataques a la seguridad de forma más eficientes que las soluciones basadas en RSU. Por último, diseñamos un innovador servicio de red social basado en nuestra plataforma, explicando cómo VISIONS facilita el despliegue y el uso de las capacidades NGN.

Contribution to integration and coordination mechanisms for mobile distributed services in publish/subscribe networks

Esta tesis doctoral está enmarcada en dos diferentes pero complementarias áreas de investigación: las redes de Publicación/Subscripción y los servicios móviles distribuidos. Con el paso de los años las redes de Publicación/Subscripción han ido ofreciendo el soporte de comunicaciones desacopladas y ligeras que a su vez, han mejorado la distribución de la información en muchos escenarios de aplicación como lo son la ejecución de servicios distribuidos en entornos fijos. Los servicios móviles distribuidos han de ser desplegados en ambientes inalámbricos en donde los dispositivos móviles deben confiar en las mismas características que las redes de Publicación/Subscripción han estado ofreciendo a sus contrapartes fijos. En este contexto, una de las líneas de investigación pendientes consiste en cómo tomar ventaja de estas características, y cómo avanzar hacia nuevas soluciones no existentes con el fin de mejorar la integración entre los dispositivos fijos y móviles, y la ejecución de los servicios móviles distribuidos. En esta tesis doctoral se pretende avanzar en los mecanismos de integración y coordinación de los servicios móviles distribuidos en el contexto de las redes de Publicación/Subscripción. Los objetivos específicos de esta disertación están enfocados en lograr la integración de los sistemas de Publicación/Suscripción fijos y móviles, y la pro-visión de una versión de red de Publicación/Subscripción específica y uniforme que cuente con mecanismos de coordinación que mejoren la ejecución de los servicios móviles distribuidos. Los resultados de esta tesis doctoral están enmarcados en una versión específica de una red de Publicación/Subscripción que integra brokers fijos y móviles, y permite una coordinación totalmente desacoplada y mejorada entre dispositivos móviles que ejecutan fragmentos de servicios. Las contribuciones específicas son las siguientes: una nueva arquitectura de broker móvil que he llamado Rendezvous Mobile broker, un modelo abstracto de servicios móviles distribuidos coordinados sobre una red de Publicación/Subscripción, mejoras en los mecanismos de enrutamiento epidémicos para diseminar eventos de control producidos por fragmentos de servicios, una solución para soportar servicios altamente fragmentados y geográficamente dispersos, y finalmente una solución de interconexión entre dos dominios de red basados en Publicación/Subscripción: una red basada en el protocolo PubSubHubbub y otro en una red basada en el Publish/Subscribe Internet Routing Paradigm (PSIRP). Los experimentos llevados a cabo confirman que la versión específica de red de Pu-blicación/Subscripción propuesta incrementa el rendimiento de la red en términos de tiempo de espera entre nodos finales, permite una coordinación de los servicios móviles distribuidos más resistente a interrupciones y un mejor uso de los recursos de red, y finalmente logra exitosamente, con variaciones mínimas en el rendimiento de las comunicaciones, la interconexión entre estos dominios de Publicación/Subscripción diferentes. ABSTRACT This dissertation is made up of two different but complementary research areas: Publish/Subscribe networks and mobile distributed services. Over the years, Publish/Subscribe networks have been offering the lightweight and decoupled communication characteristics to improve the information distribution in several application domains such as the execution of distributed services. Mobile distributed services are set to be deployed in wireless environments where mobile devices must rely on the same features Publish/Subscribe networks can offer; so one of the pending research directions consists of how to take advantage of these features and further advance to-wards new un-existing solutions that enhance the integration between mobile and fixed systems and the execution of mobile distributed services. This dissertation seeks to advance the integration and coordination mechanisms of mobile distributed services in the context of Publish/Subscribe networks. The specific objectives aim to enable the integration of mobile and fixed Publish/Subscribe systems and provide a uniform and specific version of a Publish/Subscribe network with new coordination mechanisms that improve the execution of mobile distributed services. The results of this dissertation are enclosed in one specific version of a Publish/Subscribe network that integrates mobile and fixed brokers and coordinates the execution of mobile distributed services. These specific contributions are: a new architecture of a mobile broker I called Rendezvous Mobile Broker, an abstract model for coordinating mobile distributed services executions using a Publish/Subscribe net-work, new gossip routing solutions to disseminate events of services, mechanisms to support highly partitioned and geographically dispersed services and finally, an inter-networking solution between two Publish/Subscribe domains: a PubSubHubbub-based network and the Publish/Subscribe Internet Routing Paradigm (PSIRP)-based network. The experimental efforts confirm that the specific version of the Publish/Subscribe proposed in this dissertation improves the performance of the overall network in terms of end-to-end delay, enables a more resilience execution of mobile distributed services, a better usage of the existing network resources, and finally successfully achieves, with minor variations in the network performance, the internetworking between two different Publish/Subscribe domains.

Semantic Annotation of RESTful and WFS OGC services

Actualmente, la Web provee un inmenso conjunto de servicios (WS-*, RESTful, OGC WFS), los cuales están normalmente expuestos a través de diferentes estándares que permiten localizar e invocar a estos servicios. Estos servicios están, generalmente, descritos utilizando información textual, sin una descripción formal, es decir, la descripción de los servicios es únicamente sintáctica. Para facilitar el uso y entendimiento de estos servicios, es necesario anotarlos de manera formal a través de la descripción de los metadatos. El objetivo de esta tesis es proponer un enfoque para la anotación semántica de servicios Web en el dominio geoespacial. Este enfoque permite automatizar algunas de las etapas del proceso de anotación, mediante el uso combinado de recursos ontológicos y servicios externos. Este proceso ha sido evaluado satisfactoriamente con un conjunto de servicios en el dominio geoespacial. La contribución principal de este trabajo es la automatización parcial del proceso de anotación semántica de los servicios RESTful y WFS, lo cual mejora el estado del arte en esta área. Una lista detallada de las contribuciones son: • Un modelo para representar servicios Web desde el punto de vista sintáctico y semántico, teniendo en cuenta el esquema y las instancias. • Un método para anotar servicios Web utilizando ontologías y recursos externos. • Un sistema que implementa el proceso de anotación propuesto. • Un banco de pruebas para la anotación semántica de servicios RESTful y OGC WFS. Abstract The Web contains an immense collection of Web services (WS-*, RESTful, OGC WFS), normally exposed through standards that tell us how to locate and invocate them. These services are usually described using mostly textual information and without proper formal descriptions, that is, existing service descriptions mostly stay on a syntactic level. If we want to make such services potentially easier to understand and use, we may want to annotate them formally, by means of descriptive metadata. The objective of this thesis is to propose an approach for the semantic annotation of services in the geospatial domain. Our approach automates some stages of the annotation process, by using a combination of thirdparty resources and services. It has been successfully evaluated with a set of geospatial services. The main contribution of this work is the partial automation of the process of RESTful and WFS semantic annotation services, what improves the current state of the art in this area. The more detailed list of contributions are: • A model for representing Web services. • A method for annotating Web services using ontological and external resources. • A system that implements the proposed annotation process. • A gold standard for the semantic annotation of RESTful and OGC WFS services, and algorithms for evaluating the annotations.

iCarer Project: Intelligent Care Guidance and Learning Services Platform for Informal Carers of the Elderly

The increasing ageing population is demanding new care approaches to maintain the quality of life of elderly people. Informal carers are becoming crucial agents in the care and support of elderly people, which can lead to those carers suffering from additional stress due to competing priorities with employment or due to lack of knowledge about elderly people?s care needs. Thus, support and stress relief in carers should be a key issue in the home-care process of these older adults. Considering this context, this work presents the iCarer project aimed at developing a personalized and adaptive platform to offer informal carers support by means of monitoring their activities of daily care and psychological state, as well as providing an orientation to help them improve the care provided. Additionally, iCarer will provide e-Learning services and an informal carers learning network. As a result, carers will be able to expand their knowledge, supported by the experience provided by expert counsellors and fellow carers. Additionally, the coordination between formal and informal carers will be improved, offering the informal carers flexibility to organize and combine their assistance and social activities.