TechNews digests: Jan - Nov 2006

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month

A new track for technology: Can ICT take care for healthier lifestyles?

The paper takes a look on potential contribution of Information and Communication Technologies to abate public health challenges caused by demographics and lifestyle. From the current convergence of mhealth, and sport market products emerge targeting normal athletes to control their training in a quantified manner. The resulting feedback and transparency foster a healthier lifestyle. These products and services help overcome limitations to innovation typical to the health care market. The paper is based on research by the European Commission's Institute for Prospective Technological Studies on Integrated Personal Health/Care services. --eHealth,Integrated Personal Health/Care services,sport,training,lifestyle related disease,innovation

Internet of Things for Sustainable Human Health

The sustainable health IoT has the strong potential to bring tremendous improvements in human health and well-being through sensing, and monitoring of health impacts across the whole spectrum of climate change. The sustainable health IoT enables development of a systems approach in the area of human health and ecosystem. It allows integration of broader health sub-areas in a bigger archetype for improving sustainability in health in the realm of social, economic, and environmental sectors. This integration provides a powerful health IoT framework for sustainable health and community goals in the wake of changing climate. In this chapter, a detailed description of climate-related health impacts on human health is provided. The sensing, communications, and monitoring technologies are discussed. The impact of key environmental and human health factors on the development of new IoT technologies also analyzed

Trial of Sportswear Type ECG Sensor Device for Cardiac Safety Management during Marathon Running

Cardiac arrest has been reported during participation in several sports. Of these sports, marathon running is a particularly popular sport but imposes high cardiac load. Indeed, its popularity has been growing worldwide. Risk of cardiac arrest during marathon races is also expected to increase. Several studies have recorded electrocardiographic (ECG) information during marathon races to protect athletes from cardiac arrest. Although evaluable ECG data have been obtained and analyzed, cost-effectiveness of the system, data quality, and clinical significance remain inadequate. This report is the first to describe an economical electrocardiograph built into a T-shirt for use during marathon race. Twenty healthy runners aged 20 to 59 years (mean 36 years) wore the ECG device while running. The ECG data were monitored and analyzed to assess the observed frequencies of specified arrhythmias and the sections of the marathon in which the arrhythmias occurred. Of the ECG data obtained from 14 runners who completed the full marathon, six ECG datasets were evaluable. In some runners, there was inadequate contact between the electrode and body surface or poor Bluetooth connection between the ECG wireless transmitter and smartphone. Regarding arrhythmia analysis, all evaluable data that were analyzed showed some rhythm fluctuations. In conclusion, this economical T-shirt type ECG sensor provided evaluable ECG data during marathon races, although the evaluable rate was not high. The data were used to analyze specified arrhythmias, but some difficulties were encountered. The ECG sensor did not function properly because of a system error. The ECG sensor was not adequately moistened to record ECGs accurately. Moreover, some runners chose an unsuitable shirt size, which impaired the stability and strength of the electrode–skin contact. These shortcomings produced noise in the ECG data, which made it difficult to analyze arrhythmias. The next step will be to solve these problems and acquire data from a large number of runners

Initial feasibility study of a microwave-powered sailplane as a high-altitude observation platform

It is shown that a microwave-powered sailplane can be a reasonable substitute for a satellite in some missions requiring only limited coverage of the surface of the earth. A mode of operation in which the aircraft cyclically climbs to high altitude in the beam, and then glides for several hundred kilometers, is feasible and takes advantage of the inherent forward speed of the sailplane at high altitude

APPLICATION OF DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS: A DESCRIPTIVE PILOT STUDY ON THE PERCEPTIONS OF HOME MONITORING SYSTEMS BY ADULTS 45 TO 64 YEARS OF AGE

BACKGROUND: Improving the function and quality of life of older adults is a key objective identified in Healthy People 2020. Prevention efforts that address the needs of older adults while respecting their desire to remain independent are critical towards meeting this objective. Home monitoring systems (HMS) are a relatively new consumer health technology product that holds promise in enabling independence among seniors in their homes by delaying admittance into institutionalized settings and yet it struggles with low adoption rates in the consumer market. The purpose of this pilot study was to detect and measure the anticipated innovation attributes of HMSs to inform its positioning and promote faster diffusion rates by describing potential adopters among adults 45 to 64 years of age. METHODS: An existing survey was modified to collect perceptions of three anticipated attributes of innovation as they relate to the intention of adopting an HMS as a preventive health behavior. The survey modification was theoretically based on the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) piloted among residents of Chevy Chase and Bethesda, Maryland (N=71). Logistic regression and Pearson correlation analyses were used to detect evidence to support whether perceived relative advantage, compatibility and complexity and demographic variables were associated with the intention to adopt an HMS in the future. RESULTS: Majority of participants were highly educated, perceived themselves to be in very good health, were or had been caretakers and intended to adopt an HMS in the future. Evidence was found supporting the DOI variables were positively correlated with the intention to adopt an HMS at statistically significant levels (p < .01 and .05). However, high ORs and wide 95% CIs caution the use of these variables as precise predictors of innovativeness and small sample size inhibits the interpretation that a pure statistical relationship exists. Additional findings included the potential of using caretaker status as a predictive variable and purchasing an HMS directly from the manufacturer emerged as an insight into consumer behavior. CONCLUSION: Findings from this study can help us understand how assistive technologies like HMSs are perceived and describe characteristics of early adopters. These preliminary insights can inform future research and improve efforts to encourage faster rates of adoption, particularly in the consumer marketplace where rapid diffusion of promising technologies can have the greatest impact on improving health outcomes for a new aging population

ReSCon '09, Research Student Conference: Book of Abstracts

The second SED Research Student Conference (ReSCon2009) was hosted over three days, 22-24 June 2009, in the Lecture Centre at Brunel University. The conference consisted of technical presentations, a poster session and social events. The abstracts and presentations were the result of ongoing research by postgraduate research students from the School of Engineering and Design at Brunel University. The conference is held annually, and ReSCon plays a key role in contributing to research and innovations within the School

Heart rhythm assessment in elite endurance athletes: A better method?

BAKGRUNN: Hjertearytmier, spesielt atrieflimmer (AF) er normalt blant profesjonelle utholdenhetsutøvere. Konvensjonelle diagnostiseringsverktøy for evaluering av rytmeforstyrrelser er begrenset med tanke på tilgjengelighet, begrenset testvarighet og brukervennlighetsutfordringer. Denne studien sikter mot å evaluere (1) forholdet mellom treningskarateristikk og helseerfaringer i et større, representativt utvalg av utholdenhetsutøvere (2) validiteten og funksjonaliteten av det nye utviklede ECG247 Smart Heart Sensor™ i en profesjonell utøvers treningsmiljø. METODE: Et digitalt spørreskjema som kvantifiserer sammenhengen mellom treningskarakteristikk og helseerfaringer ble utviklet og utlevert i digitalt format. Totalt 1802 menn og kvinner svarte på spørreskjemaet. I tillegg ble totalt 13 profesjonelle syklister ved UNO-X Pro Cycling Team undersøkt kontinuerlig med ECG247 Smart Heart Sensor™ under en treningssamling i Spania, desember 2021 ved bruk av automatisert algoritmisk deteksjon av arytmihendelser. De samme EKG-dataene ble også analysert av sertifiserte kardiologer ved Sørlandet Sykehus Arendal. Idrettsutøvere fullførte et kort spørreskjema som registrerte treningen deres (fra overvåkingsenheter på sykkel), og utførte en egenvurdering av brukervennlighetsparameterne til EKG-enheten og applikasjonen etter testen. RESULTATER: Diagnostisert AF ble rapportert av 52 av de 1802 utholdenhetsutøvere (2.9%). Alder, årlig utholdenhetstreningsvolum og subjektivt prestasjonsnivå var signifikante prediktorer (p=0.001) for diagnostisert AF. Under EKG-testen var gjennomsnittlig testvarighet var 8924 timer, inkludert et gjennomsnitt på 155 treningstimer under hver test. EKG-kvaliteten fra alle tester ble ansett som tilfredsstillende for rytmeanalyse, også under trening. Den rapporterte brukervennligheten til ECG247 Smart Heart Sensor var høy. Den automatiske arytmialgoritmen rapporterte mulige arytmihendelser i 13 (62%) tester; 9 atrieflutter og 4 supraventrikulær takykardi. Retrospektiv manuell vurdering av leger avslørte normal sinusrytme i alle tester med disse falske positive hendelsene observert under trening når hjertefrekvensen var forhøyet. Ingen falske negative funn ble observert. KONKLUSJON: Prevalensen av diagnostisert AF steg ved prestasjonsnivå og årlig treningstimer, noe som støtter behovet for et bedre EKG-målingsverktøy. ECG247 Smart Heart Sensor™ viste høykvalitets EKG-opptak under intensiv trening. Den integrerte arytmianalyseringsalgoritmen kan bli optimalisert for denne gruppen for å redusere antallet falske positive tilfeller assosiert med normal «takykardi» av utholdenhetstrening. NØKKELORD: Utholdenhet, Utholdenhetsutøvere, Atrieflimmer, Elektrokardiogram, Kardiologisk helsesjekk, kardiovaskulære lidelser i utøvere

Salford postgraduate annual research conference (SPARC) 2012 proceedings

These proceedings bring together a selection of papers from the 2012 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC). They reflect the breadth and diversity of research interests showcased at the conference, at which over 130 researchers from Salford, the North West and other UK universities presented their work. 21 papers are collated here from the humanities, arts, social sciences, health, engineering, environment and life sciences, built environment and business

Costs and benefits of superfast broadband in the UK

This paper was commissioned from LSE Enterprise by Convergys Smart Revenue Solutions to stimulate an open and constructive debate among the main stakeholders about the balance between the costs, the revenues, and the societal benefits of ‘superfast’ broadband. The intent has been to analyse the available facts and to propose wider perspectives on economic and social interactions. The paper has two parts: one concentrates on superfast broadband deployment and the associated economic and social implications (for the UK and its service providers), and the other considers alternative social science approaches to these implications. Both parts consider the potential contribution of smart solutions to superfast broadband provision and use. Whereas Part I takes the “national perspective” and the “service provider perspective”, which deal with the implications of superfast broadband for the UK and for service providers, Part II views matters in other ways, particularly by looking at how to realise values beyond the market economy, such as those inherent in neighbourliness, trust and democrac