28 research outputs found

    From Information to Choice: A Critical Inquiry Into Visualization Tools for Decision Making

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    In the face of complex decisions, people often engage in a three-stage process that spans from (1) exploring and analyzing pertinent information (intelligence); (2) generating and exploring alternative options (design); and ultimately culminating in (3) selecting the optimal decision by evaluating discerning criteria (choice). We can fairly assume that all good visualizations aid in the intelligence stage by enabling data exploration and analysis. Yet, to what degree and how do visualization systems currently support the other decision making stages, namely design and choice? To explore this question, we conducted a comprehensive review of decision-focused visualization tools by examining publications in major visualization journals and conferences, including VIS, EuroVis, and CHI, spanning all available years. We employed a deductive coding method and in-depth analysis to assess if and how visualization tools support design and choice. Specifically, we examined each visualization tool by (i) its degree of visibility for displaying decision alternatives, criteria, and preferences, and (ii) its degree of flexibility for offering means to manipulate the decision alternatives, criteria, and preferences with interactions such as adding, modifying, changing mapping, and filtering. Our review highlights the opportunities and challenges and reveals a surprising scarcity of tools that support all stages, and while most tools excel in offering visibility for decision criteria and alternatives, the degree of flexibility to manipulate these elements is often limited, and the lack of tools that accommodate decision preferences and their elicitation is notable. Future research could explore enhancing flexibility levels and variety, exploring novel visualization paradigms, increasing algorithmic support, and ensuring that this automation is user-controlled via the enhanced flexibility levels

    Personalized Medicine for Parkinson's Disease

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    Personalized medicine for Parkinson’s disease is a growing and emerging concept in light of recent recognition that Parkinson’s is a syndromic condition affecting multiple neurotransmitter systems, as well as brain and extracranial structures. The clinical expression is, thus, heterogeneous, and presentation age can range from the 30s to the 90s, with PD in older patients being associated with significant neuropathological comorbidity as well, involving not just misfolded alpha synuclein deposition but also amyloid and tau. Traditional and largely guideline-driven “one size fits all” management strategies adopted in clinical practice are, therefore, often inadequate in holistic management of a patient, particularly when aspects of motor and nonmotor symptoms are taken into consideration. In this supplement of JPM, we present a selection of papers which address several possible strands of personalized medicine in PD, ranging from genomic precision medicine to digital “checklists” to ensure delivery of holistic personalized medicine involving nonpharmacological strategies, as well. We are soliciting any papers addressing biomarkers, genetics and pharmacogenetics, treatment or complementary therapies for personalized or individualized treatment for PD

    Child Obesity and Nutrition Promotion Intervention

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    Childhood obesity continues to be a global problem, with several regions showing increasing rates and others having one in every three children overweight despite an apparent halt or downward trend. Children are exposed to nutritional, social, and obesogenic environmental risks from different settings, and this affects their lifelong health. There is a consensus that high-quality multifaceted smart and cost-effective interventions enable children to grow with a healthy set of habits that have lifelong benefits to their wellbeing. The literature has shown that dietary approaches play key roles in improving children’s health, not only on a nutritional level but also in diet quality and patterns. An association between the nutritional strategy and other lifestyle components promotes a more comprehensive approach and should be envisioned in intervention studies. This Special Issue entitled “Child Obesity and Nutrition Promotion Intervention” combines original research manuscripts or reviews of the scientific literature concerning classic or innovative approaches to tackle this public health issue. It presents several nutritional interventions alongside lifestyle health factors, and outcome indicators of effectiveness and sustainability from traditional to ground-breaking methods to exploit both qualitative and quantitative approaches in tackling child obesity

    Legumes as Food Ingredient

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    Legume crops provide a significant sources of plant-based proteins for humans. Grain legumes present outstanding nutritional and nutraceutical properties as sources of bioactive components with benefits in human health, while they are affordable food that contributes to achieving future food and feed security. Furthermore, they are major ingredients in the Mediterranean diet, playing a vital role in developing countries. Global food security requires a major re-focusing of plant sciences, crop improvement and production agronomy towards grain legumes (pulse crops) over coming decades, with intensive research to identify cultivars with improved grain characteristics, helping to develop novel legume-derived products (foods) adapted to today consumer preference. In this context, studies dealing with legume processing impact such as soaking, boiling, microwave cooking, germination, and fermentation among others, in their nutritional and anti-nutritional (i.e., food allergy) properties are of great interest in these future food developments. This Research Topic aims to bring together a collection of studies for a better understanding of current research in legume seed compounds functional properties to provide an updated and global vision of the importance of legumes in human health

    Urban Food Deserts: Perspectives from the Global South

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    The industrialization of the urban food system, alongside the proliferation of supermarkets, has dramatically transformed the landscape of food accessibility in cities. In many countries, the spatial consolidation of food provisioning has deprived many urban neighbourhoods of easy access to food, particularly foodstuffs integral to a healthy diet. These often socioeconomically disadvantaged urban areas are referred to as “food deserts”. However, studies of urban food deserts in cities of the Global South are sparse, given their complicated urban food systems with the strong presence of informal food economies and diverse food sources. This book draws on empirical studies from South African, Brazilian and Chinese cities to investigate the food desert narrative, the characteristics of urban food environment and the various socioeconomic factors shaping it, as well as the food security and health consequences of urban food deserts. These studies reveal the limitations of applying the food desert concept to cities in the Global South and call for more holistic measurements of urban food insecurity

    Coloured filters can simulate colour deficiency in normal vision but cannot compensate for congenital colour vision deficiency

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    Red-green colour vision deficiency (CVD) affects ~ 4% of Caucasians. Notch filters exist to simulate CVD when worn by colour vision normal (CVN) observers (simulation tools), or to improve colour discrimination when worn by CVD observers (compensation tools). The current study assesses effects of simulation (Variantor) and compensation (EnChroma) filters on performance in a variety of tasks. Experiments were conducted on 20 CVN and 16 CVD participants under no-filter and filter conditions (5 CVN used Variantor; 15 CVN and 16 CVD used EnChroma). Participants were tested on Ishihara and Farnsworth-Munsell 100 hue tests, CVA-UMinho colour discrimination and colour naming tasks and a board-game colour-sorting task. Repeated-measures ANOVAs found Variantor filters to significantly worsen CVN performance, mimicking protanopia. Mixed-model and repeated-measures ANOVAs demonstrate that EnChroma filters do not significantly enhance performance in CVD observers. Key EnChroma results were replicated in 8 CVD children (Ishihara test) and a sub-sample of 6 CVD adults (CVA-UMinho colour discrimination and colour naming tasks) for a smaller stimulus size. Pattern similarity exists across hue for discrimination thresholds and naming errors. Variantor filters are effective at mimicking congenital colour vision defects in CVN observers for all tasks, however EnChroma filters do not significantly compensate for CVD in any

    Examination of the community food environment and the drivers affecting and impacting obesogenicity in a deprived urban neighbourhood in Scotland

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    Introduction: The condition of obesity has been classified as a pandemic , given that it is negatively impacted health in almost every country in the world (1). Scotland has one of the worst obesity records in the world and one of the highest rates of all OECD countries (2). Scottish men and women in the most deprived areas had higher rates of obesity in 2016 in comparison with less deprived areas (3,4). Its alarming increasing trend year on year and the magnitude of the level of obesity over the last 30 years, coupled with the causality network which appears to be rooted in health inequities has been made obesity a titan challenge of the 21st century (1,5,6). No country in the world has reversed the challenge of obesity. The community food environment has been identified as one of the environmental causes of obesity (7–9). The high presence and accessibility of less healthy food sources appears to determine an increased availability of high-energy dense food, and the lower presence and accessibility of healthier food outlets also decreases the availability and shopping possibilities for more nutritious products (7–9). Both scenarios encourage a more frequent consumption of obesogenic food, promoting a rapid and sustained weight increase in all age groups, but especially among adults and elders (6,7,10). This thesis is the first study in Scotland that has mapped a complete foodscape or food map in a deprived neighbourhood and identify some key contributors that promote obesity. Methodology and methods: the study was conducted in a Scottish urban neighbourhood, which is low-income with high levels of poverty and obesity and poor dietary patterns. Data collection made use of a combination of different databases and approaches, including ethnographic fieldwork and online validation. Predominance, proximity and density of all type food sources, and healthier and less healthy food sources were calculated, using the Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) software. Food sources were categorised using 15-point classification tool, proposed by Lake et al (11). Accessibility to these sources was assessed separately for general stores and healthier and less healthy categories. Results: Findings reported a wide range of outlet types and confirmed an obesogenic food environment in the neighbourhood. Food sources related to deprivation were also present, such as food banks, whereas others such as organic food outlets which are related to more affluent areas were absent. A set of ready-made food at a low price, easy to collect or delivery at home preparations was present in over 30% of the establishments and are described in the thesis. These preparations were highly popular among the residents, and almost all the menu options were served in extra-large portions. The food outlets’ showcases were often in a deteriorated state with a preponderance of special cheap offers. Most of the establishments had a small sit-in area, while promotion of food delivery and takeaway was high. A higher proportion of less healthy food sources (27.7%) than healthy food sources (5.5%) were present within the neighbourhood. Less healthy food sources, such as fast-food outlets, takeaways, and convenience stores, were highly accessible and offered a wide range of high-energy dense foods. This scenario is known as food swamp. On the opposite side, the few healthier food sources, such as supermarkets, and fruit and vegetable stores, were located further away from households than the less healthy food sources. This scenario is known as a food desert, and alongside a food swamp, they confirmed that the geographical area mapped, anonymised to Whitewood has a highly obesogenic food environment. This environment appeared to be encouraging unhealthy eating patterns among residents and people working and studying in the area. Conclusions: This complete food exposure mapping showed for the first time in an area of intense deprivation, the features of a low-income food environment. Regarding the obesogenic characteristics of the food environment, results resonated with previous investigations. The presence of a food swamp and a food desert and the high accessibility of less healthy food in comparison with healthier establishments, is a scenario described previously in literature in other countries, including the US and Canada (12,13). According to Glanz et al. and Story et al. there are common drivers related to deprivation that influence a less healthy food shopping behaviour among residents, contributing to the weight gain process (7,8,14). Although the obesity causality network is hugely complex and several determinants can potentially influence eating patterns, the community food environments quality and accessibility may be part of the factors that encourage inhabitants to eat less healthy food regularly. Obesity causes are potentiated by health inequities, and there is an urgent need to tackle the obesity problem from the roots, using a multilevel approach (5,6,15). Intervening within the food environments in deprived neighbourhoods is part of the Scottish government new food policy; however, more articulated initiatives are needed to fight against obesity, starting from tackling the roots of poverty (16,17)
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