sábado, 18 de outubro de 2014
Tailored 'activity coaching' by smartphone
Tailored activity monitoring.
Today's smartphone user can obtain a lot of data about his or her health, thanks to built-in or separate sensors. Researcher Harm op den Akker of the University of Twente (CTIT Institute) now takes this health monitoring to a higher level. Using the system he developed, the smartphone also acts as an 'activity coach': it advices the user to walk or take a rest. In what way the user wants to be addressed, is typically something the system learns by itself. Op den Akker conducted his research at Roessingh Research and Development in Enschede. October 17, he defends his PhD-thesis.
The new telemedicine system was tested for three months, among a group of COPD patients -- a chronic lung disease. For these patients, physical activity is very important but it can also lead to an oppressed feeling and thus, to over-cautiousness. Using the coaching system of Van den Akker, the patients carry a small movement sensor and a smartphone. The system calculates if it is advisable to take a rest or, on the other hand, have a walk. The system is 'context aware': it looks at the time of day, the weather, the surroundings of the patient and determines if the time is right for taking some exercise.
Tone of voice
In addition, the system knows how the patient wants to be addressed. Some people don't mind an imperative tone of voice 'go for a 10 minutes' walk', others prefer a more friendly advice: 'what if you would take a walk in the park?' Op den Akker designed learning algorithms for this: the system learns the preferences of the user by itself. Future versions of the system may not use text messages anymore, but an 'avatar' on the screen, enabling interaction with the user as well. For this, Op den Akker has started starting cooperation with the Human Media Interaction group of the University of Twente.
Roessingh Research & Development (RRD) is the research department of Roessingh rehabilitation centre in Enschede, The Netherlands. RRD closely cooperates with the University of Twente in many projects. Op den Akker conducted his research at RRD and UT's CTIT Institute, under supervision of Hermie Hermens, Professor in Neuromuscular Control and Telemedicine. A spin-off company of the university, Inertia Technology, developed the movement sensor used in this project.
Op den Akker's PhD-thesis is titled 'Smart tailoring of real-time physical activity coaching systems'.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of Twente. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Emergency aid for overdoses
Every minute counts in the event of an overdose. ETH professor Jean-Christophe Leroux and his team have developed an agent to filter out toxins from the body more quickly and efficiently. It can also be used for dialysis in patients suffering from hepatic failure.
To date, antidotes exist for only a very few drugs. When treating overdoses, doctors are often limited to supportive therapy such as induced vomiting. Treatment is especially difficult if there is a combination of drugs involved. So what can be done if a child is playing and accidentally swallows his grandmother's pills? ETH professor Jean-Christophe Leroux from the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at ETH Zurich wanted to find an answer to this question. "The task was to develop an agent that could eliminate many different toxic substances from the body as quickly as possible," he says.
Leroux and his team knew that lipid emulsions can bind to drugs when injected into the blood stream. The researchers pursued this approach in their own studies, developing an agent based on liposomes, which are tiny bubbles with a lipid membrane as an outer layer. Instead of an intravenous injection, the agent is used as a dialysis fluid for so-called peritoneal dialysis. This method of dialysis is less common than haemodialysis, which is mainly used as a long-term form of treatment of kidney failure.
"Washing" toxic substances out of the body
In the case of haemodialysis, the blood is "washed" in a machine at the hospital, whereas peritoneal dialysis involves eliminating toxic substances from within the body. The peritoneum serves as a dialysis membrane. The dialysis fluid is passed through a catheter into the abdominal cavity where it rids the body of toxins through the highly perfused peritoneum. In the case of the new dialysis liquid developed by the ETH researchers, the toxic compounds find their way into the core of the liposomes. Once the solution is loaded with toxins, it is drained out of the abdominal cavity through the catheter. The researchers were able to demonstrate that the new agent is especially effective at this. "Our peritoneal dialysis fluid can extract up to a hundred times more toxins than conventional alternatives," reported the ETH professor.
Their efforts are based on the principle that peritoneal dialysis is an especially attractive method for the emergency treatment of overdoses. Unlike haemodialysis, it does not require sophisticated equipment and can even be employed away from specialized hospitals.
New applications for peritoneal dialysis
Until now, however, peritoneal dialysis has only filled a specific niche. No more than 10 percent of all dialysis patients worldwide use this method, and it is almost never used for overdoses. One reason for this is that cleaning the blood using peritoneal dialysis and currently available dialysis agents has often been less effective than haemodialysis. Secondly, there is a greater risk of infection. The catheter insertion point can become inflamed, and bacteria can infiltrate the abdominal cavity through this opening. Doctors therefore opt for peritoneal dialysis only for a minority of patients whose blood needs to be cleaned due to renal failure caused by toxic metabolic products.
The findings of the ETH researchers may help to discover new applications for peritoneal dialysis in two respects: in the course of their research, Leroux and his team were pleased to find that their dialysis fluid rids the body of both drug residues as well as toxic metabolic products.
Treatment of serious liver diseases
The researchers' findings are especially promising for treating serious liver disease. Leroux has no doubt that there is a need for this because in addition to hepatitis and severe alcoholism, being overweight or obese can lead to liver disease. Given that obesity rates are constantly increasing in the western world, this is quite literally becoming a weightier issue all the time.
The dialysis fluid appears to be especially effective for liver diseases involving the accumulation of ammonia in the blood. Experiments in rats have shown that the substance effectively eliminates toxic ammonia. For example, it might be possible to provide effective emergency aid to infants who are born with metabolic disorders such as urea cycle disorder. "If a baby is not treated within a few hours of birth, there is already a hazard of irreparable brain damage," explains Leroux. Peritoneal dialysis is well-suited for newborns, because venous access for haemodialysis is difficult and there is a high risk of thrombosis.
Following these promising findings, Jean-Christophe Leroux's team now hopes to further develop the agent for actual medical applications. If everything goes as planned, the first clinical trials will be possible within the next five years.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by ETH Zürich. The original article was written by Inken Heeb. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- V. Forster, R. D. Signorell, M. Roveri, J.-C. Leroux. Liposome-supported peritoneal dialysis for detoxification of drugs and endogenous metabolites. Science Translational Medicine, 2014; 6 (258): 258ra141 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3009135
Cystic Fibrosis lung infection: Scientists open black box on bacterial growth
Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have shown for the first time how bacteria can grow directly in the lungs of Cystic fibrosis patients, giving them the opportunity to get tremendous insights into bacteria behavior and growth in chronic infections.
The study also discovered the bacterial growth in chronic lung infections among cystic fibrosis (CF) patients was halted or slowed down by the immune cells. The researchers discovered the immune cells consumed all the oxygen and helped "suffocate" the bacteria, forcing the bacteria to switch to a much slower growth.
The findings have recently been published in the journal Infection and Immunity, ASM, USA.
Professor Thomas Bjarnsholt and Ph.D. student Kasper Nørskov Kragh from the Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology were able to measure the growth of bacteria directly in transplanted infected tissue without disturbing the bacterial cells, giving them the opportunity to get tremendous insights into bacteria behavior and growth in chronic infections.
"The "suffocating" mechanism of the immune cells is the first time a bacteriostatic effect of immune cells has been described. The immune cells have up until now thought to only kill bacteria not halt their growth. In addition this helps us explain why the intensive and combinatory drug treatment approach developed and used in the CF clinic at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen is as successful as it is," says Professor Bjarnsholt.
Better treatment
The growth of bacteria in chronic infection is poorly understood and up until now it has been impossible to open up the black box. This is all the more paradoxical as the effect of antibiotics are very closely connected to the rate of growth of the target bacteria. Most types of antibiotic are ineffective against dormant bacterial cells yet this study finally opens up the black box and helps pinpoint the best treatment of chronic lung infection among cystic fibrosis patients. Being able to understand bacterial growth will in the future enable clinicians to improve treatment with known antibiotics, combinations or give raise to new targets in antibiotic development.
"When we applied this to measure growth for bacteria living in biofilm in explanted lunge tissue, we saw a diverse pattern of growth throughout our tissue sample. This puzzled us, and so we investigated possible correlations, and found that high local concentrations of immune cells restricted the growth of the bacteria. Furthermore in vitro experiments supported this mechanism of how the immune cells can remove oxygen and in this way vigorously restrict the bacterial growth," adds Kasper Nørskov Kragh.
On the right track
The main goal of the project was to improve the understanding of the bacterial behavior in chronic infections including CF, and how the bacteria and immune defense compete with each other.
"We show that it is possible to study the bacteria not only in shake flasks in the laboratory but directly in the very complex environment in an infection. This is a major improvement for chronic infections in general. On top of this, the new mechanism of the white blood cells is very important to understand chronic infections. It is fair to say that we are on the right track to understand chronic infections like cystic fibrosis and piece by piece we will solve the puzzle," concludes Professor Bjarnsholt.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of Copenhagen – The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- K. N. Kragh, M. Alhede, P. O. Jensen, C. Moser, T. Scheike, C. S. Jacobsen, S. Seier Poulsen, S. R. Eickhardt-Sorensen, H. Trostrup, L. Christoffersen, H.-P. Hougen, L. F. Rickelt, M. Kuhl, N. Hoiby, T. Bjarnsholt. Polymorphonuclear Leukocytes Restrict Growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the Lungs of Cystic Fibrosis Patients. Infection and Immunity, 2014; 82 (11): 4477 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.01969-14
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of Copenhagen – The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- K. N. Kragh, M. Alhede, P. O. Jensen, C. Moser, T. Scheike, C. S. Jacobsen, S. Seier Poulsen, S. R. Eickhardt-Sorensen, H. Trostrup, L. Christoffersen, H.-P. Hougen, L. F. Rickelt, M. Kuhl, N. Hoiby, T. Bjarnsholt. Polymorphonuclear Leukocytes Restrict Growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the Lungs of Cystic Fibrosis Patients. Infection and Immunity, 2014; 82 (11): 4477 DOI: 10.1128/IAI.01969-14
University of Copenhagen – The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. "Cystic Fibrosis lung infection: Scientists open black box on bacterial growth." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 October 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141017093120.htm>.
Um bate-papo ao cair da noite–IV /complemento/
Eu não quis mais editar esta postagem (Um bate-papo ao cair da noite-IV) pois já foi editada várias vezes, e por isso resolvi postar este complemento.
Quando se menciona “SAÚDE” como a única verdade possível para a humanidade, não quer dizer que ela seja dirigida apenas às pessoas normais. Como pessoas não-normais, podemos citar aquelas que tiveram doenças incapacitantes, que sofreram acidentes, que tiveram um vício e depois abandonaram ao sentirem seus efeitos; Qualquer pessoas nessas e em outras condições semelhantes é claro que podem pensar em “SAÚDE”, podem mante-la, podem até pretender melhorá-la. “SAÚDE” não significa que esteja reservada apenas às pessoas em ótimas condições, por hereditariedade, ou por desejos de a conseguir ou manter. Ela pertence à todos que entendem a VIDA como um bem-maior, doado por Deus, e que está intimamente ligada à “SAÚDE” como um complemento básico, indissolúvel, quando o ser humano a entende como a riqueza maior da vida.
Quem a deseja, já está de posse dela. A manutenção desse desejo é que fará toda a diferença.
Saúde !
José S de Melo
Improving bladder function among people with spinal cord injuries
This is V. Reggie Edgerton, University of California - Los Angeles.
People who have suffered spinal cord injuries are often susceptible to bladder infections, and those infections can cause kidney damage and even death.
New UCLA research may go a long way toward solving the problem. A team of scientists studied 10 paralyzed rats that were trained daily for six weeks with epidural stimulation of the spinal cord and five rats that were untrained and did not receive the stimulation. They found that training and epidural stimulation enabled the rats to empty their bladders more fully and in a timelier manner.
The study was published in the online journal PLOS ONE.
"The big deal here is the immediate effect," said V. Reggie Edgerton, a distinguished professor of integrative biology and physiology, neurobiology, and neurosurgery at UCLA and senior author of the research. "There may be a way that when people have bladder problems, you can turn the stimulator on and they can release urine at will. This strategy could have a major impact in improving the quality of life and longevity of human patients."
Nearly 1.3 million Americans have spinal cord injuries, and those with complete spinal cord injuries typically have two to six bladder infections per year. Edgerton said the advance could eventually treat or even cure one of their highest priority health concerns.
"We're not saying it will restore this part of their lives to normal, but we think it will lead to a significant improvement in quality of life," he said.
The researchers also found that after they filled a rat's bladder with saline, and turned on an epidural electrical stimulator, the rat released urine within 90 seconds, said lead author Parag Gad, an assistant researcher in Edgerton's laboratory.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (grants R01EB007615 and R01NS062009) and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. Other co-authors were Dr. Daniel Lu, assistant professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; researcher Roland Roy and project scientist Hui Zhong, both of Edgerton's laboratory; and Yury Gerasimenko, professor and director of the laboratory of movement physiology at Russia's Pavlov Institute in St. Petersburg and a researcher in Edgerton's lab.
Edgerton believes there is a connection between the neural networks that control walking and bladder function, and is planning to investigate the connection. To research bladder control with human subjects, his team plans to place electrodes on the skin over a critical part of the spinal cord and evaluating their improvement.
Edgerton and colleagues from the University of Louisville reported in the medical journal Brain in April a fundamentally new intervention strategy that enabled four young men who had been paralyzed for years to move their legs, hips, ankles and toes as a result of epidural electrical stimulation of the spinal cord, and were able to execute voluntary movements immediately following the implantation and activation of the stimulator.
In that study, researchers used a stimulator to deliver a continuous electrical current to the participants' lower spinal cords, mimicking signals the brain normally transmits to initiate movement. The electrical current was applied at varying frequencies and intensities to specific locations on the lumbosacral spinal cord, corresponding to the dense neural bundles that largely control the movement of the hips, knees, ankles and toes. Once the signal was triggered, the men's spinal cords reengaged their neural networks to control and direct muscle movements.
"The circuitry in the spinal cord is remarkably resilient," said Edgerton, who has been conducting fundamental research in this area for 38 years and is a member of the Reeve Foundation International Research Consortium on Spinal Cord Injury. "Once you get them up and active, many physiological systems that are intricately connected and that were dormant come back into play."
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. The original article was written by Stuart Wolpert. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
- Parag N. Gad, Roland R. Roy, Hui Zhong, Daniel C. Lu, Yury P. Gerasimenko, V. Reggie Edgerton. Initiation of Bladder Voiding with Epidural Stimulation in Paralyzed, Step Trained Rats. PLoS ONE, 2014; 9 (9): e108184 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108184
University of California - Los Angeles. "Improving bladder function among people with spinal cord injuries." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 October 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141017093124.htm>.
Um bate-papo ao cair da noite - IV
Verdades diversas, várias verdades, não existe. Existe uma só verdade, e seu oposto, a não-verdade. O oposto da verdade não é a mentira ou a falsidade. Quer saber o que é a Verdade? Então fique por dentro.
Qual é o elemento PRIMÁRIO mais desejado, mais precioso para o ser humano? A SAÚDE…. E ela pode acompanhar-nos desde o nascimento até os últimos dias de nossas vidas. Ela não é proporcionada a todos, infelizmente, básicamente em função de HEREDITARIEDADE. Mas, para a maior parte das pessoas a Saúde pode ser obtida, melhorada, gerenciada e mantida ao longo da vida.
Por isso é que declarei no início a existência de uma só Verdade. A base de todos os nossos atos, desejos, motivações, progresso, e todos o nosso bem-estar físico e psíquico é sem dúvida a SAÚDE.
Então por que existiriam outras Verdades? Você trocaria qualquer outra, essas que são tidas como Verdades absolutas, pela sua SAÚDE? Evidentemente ninguém, em sã consciência, trocaria.
E qual é o oposto da Verdade? Lá em cima eu digitei, “A não-verdade”, ou seja, o não desejo de obter, conservar, melhorar a SAÚDE, não se importar com ela, ela que é a fonte do amor, do prazer em sentir tudo que a vida tem de bom. Tudo deriva da Saúde. Obter conforto, segurança, paz, depende da SAÚDE.
Ter um bom emprego, ganhando um bom salário, conservar-se forte, comprar um bom automóvel, uma boa casa, não pense que tudo isso é reservado na maioria dos casos somente aos jovens. Mesmo eles podem perder a SAÚDE. E a recuperação em muitos casos será lenta e dolorosa, e numa segunda queda, talvez não haja retorno. A saúde é uma condição que pode existir em qualquer idade.
Então, não se pode contestar. Não procure a verdade em todos os temas. Existe um só tema para o ser humano, nós que pensamos e abstraimos, esse tema básico, essencial, único mesmo, que é a fonte da felicidade, do amor, da paz, da prosperidade, do gosto pela vida. é a SAÚDE. Tudo que possa pretender de bom nesta vida, tem uma raíz, e essa raíz chama-se SAÚDE.
José S de Melo
Você não vai acreditar que essas fotos de animais selvagens foram feitas sem zoom
Adam Tatlow é guarda florestal e, quando está no trabalho, não larga sua fiel companheira: uma máquina fotográfica. É com ela que tem construído um incrível portfólio de fotos de animais silvestres, que mais parecem ter sido tiradas com um enorme zoom.
O britânico trabalha em Cotswold, sudoeste inglês, mas fotografa em todo o território – a sua afinidade com a natureza e a relação de confiança que rapidamente estabelece com os animais permitem que chegue a poucos centímetros deles. “Na verdade, às vezes chego tão perto que a lente nem consegue focar”. Não é à toa que ele ficou conhecido como o Dr Dolittle da vida real, pela sua intimidade com os animais.
Tatlow tem 46 anos e se apaixonou pela fotografia há cerca de 30, mas garante ser mais um apaixonado pela vida animal do que um fotógrafo. O material que utiliza é rudimentar (uma câmera digital SLR básica, com uma lente de 70mm-200mm) e os animais fotografados incluem raposas bebês, ouriços, gamos ou aves raríssimas. Tatlow garante que só quer mostrar para as pessoas o mundo que nos rodeia e do qual por vezes nem damos conta. Veja algumas dessas fantásticas fotos que você poderia jurar que foram feitas com zoom:
Zeiss VR One headset delivers smartphone-powered virtual reality for $99
Zeiss’ VR One headset aims to bring virtual reality to the masses
Image Gallery (5 images)
Zeiss’ VR One is a Samsung Gear VR-like headset that takes advantage of your smartphone’s processing power and display to provide a wireless, self-contained virtual reality experience. Unlike Samsung’s product, the German company’s headset is set to be compatible with a number of smartphones, including the iPhone 6.
Though upcoming headsets like Sony’s Project Morpheus and Samsung’s Gear VR require specific hardware to function (namely the PlayStation 4 console and Galaxy Note 4 smartphone respectively), the VR One is designed to be compatible with smartphones of varying sizes, from 4.7 to 5.2 inches.
This doesn’t mean that you can slot just any old device into the headset, with the company instead producing different trays designed for certain models – something that it claims leads to better display positioning and the best possible image quality. At present, the VR One can be pre-ordered with a choice of iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S5 trays. The company has promised to increase compatibility in the future, and is currently asking customers which devices they would most like to see supported.
The headset makes use of the open source Unity3D SDK which, like the headset itself, is compatible with both iOS and Android. Zeiss is actively encouraging developers to get on board with the hardware and create applications that work with its new headset.
As the connected smartphone provides the processing, audio, sensors and display for the headset, there’s not a huge amount to report when it comes to specs. The VR One packs a pair of Zeiss precision lenses, providing an approximate 100 degree field of view, and there’s a dark transparent shield designed to conceal the smartphone, cutting out light while still allowing the camera to function.
The company will release the VR One Media App alongside the headset, allowing users to view the images and videos saved on their smartphone, as well as both 2D and 3D YouTube clips. Users will be able to move back and forth through content by tapping the right and left sides of the headset. The software will also integrate with Google Maps Streetview, allowing users to look to view 360 degree panoramas and "walk forward" by tapping the front of the headset.
Though the VR One’s affordable and compatible nature makes it an appealing concept, we’ll have to wait and see if it receives enough substantial developer support to make it a big player in virtual reality tech, and how said developers cope with the task of catering for multiple smartphones.
Zeiss’ VR One is available for pre-order now for US$99, and is expected to start shipping by the end of the year.
Source: Zeiss
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