The Burden of Mental Disorders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 1990-2013

The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) is witnessing an increase in chronic disorders, including mental illness. With ongoing unrest, this is expected to rise. This is the first study to quantify the burden of mental disorders in the EMR. We used data from the Global Burden of Disease study (GBD) 2013. DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) allow assessment of both premature mortality (years of life lost–YLLs) and nonfatal outcomes (years lived with disability–YLDs). DALYs are computed by adding YLLs and YLDs for each age-sex-country group. In 2013, mental disorders contributed to 5.6% of the total disease burden in the EMR (1894 DALYS/100,000 population): 2519 DALYS/100,000 (2590/100,000 males, 2426/100,000 females) in high-income countries, 1884 DALYS/100,000 (1618/100,000 males, 2157/100,000 females) in middle-income countries, 1607 DALYS/100,000 (1500/100,000 males, 1717/100,000 females) in low-income countries. Females had a greater proportion of burden due to mental disorders than did males of equivalent ages, except for those under 15 years of age. The highest proportion of DALYs occurred in the 25–49 age group, with a peak in the 35–39 years age group (5344 DALYs/100,000). The burden of mental disorders in EMR increased from 1726 DALYs/100,000 in 1990 to 1912 DALYs/100,000 in 2013 (10.8% increase). Within the mental disorders group in EMR, depressive disorders accounted for most DALYs, followed by anxiety disorders. Among EMR countries, Palestine had the largest burden of mental disorders. Nearly all EMR countries had a higher mental disorder burden compared to the global level. Our findings call for EMR ministries of health to increase provision of mental health services and to address the stigma of mental illness. Moreover, our results showing the accelerating burden of mental health are alarming as the region is seeing an increased level of instability. Indeed, mental health problems, if not properly addressed, will lead to an increased burden of diseases in the region

Tire/road friction coefficient estimation applied to road safety

International audienceRecent statistics show that a large number of traffic accidents occur due to a loss of control on vehicle by the driver. This is mainly due to a loss of friction between tire and road. Many of these accidents could be avoided by introducing ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) based on the detection of loss of tire/road friction. Friction (more specifically the maximum coefficient of friction) which is a parameter of tire/road interaction, mainly depends on the state of the road (dry, wet, snow, ice) and is closely related to the efforts at the tire level. In this paper, we propose, a new method for the estimation of the maximum tire/road friction coefficient, to automatically detect possible state of loss of friction which result in an abrupt change on the road state. This method is based on an iterative quadratic minimization of the error between the developed lateral force and the model of tire/road interaction. Results validate the application of the method

Estimation embarquée des efforts latéraux et de la dérive d'un véhicule : validation expérimentale

National audienceLes principales préoccupations de la sécurité de conduite sont la compréhension et la prévention des situations critiques. Un examen attentif du nombre d'accidents révèle que la perte du contrôle du véhicule est l'une des causes principales des accidents routiers. L'amélioration de la stabilisation du véhicule est possible lorsque ses paramètres dynamiques sont connus. Certains paramètres fondamentaux de la dynamique, tels que les efforts de contact pneumatiques/chaussée, l'angle de dérive et l'adhérence, ne sont pas disponibles sur les véhicules de série ; par conséquence, ces variables doivent être estimées. L'observateur proposé dans cette étude est de type filtre de Kalman, il est basé sur la réponse dynamique d'un véhicule équipé par des capteurs standards. Cet article décrit le procédé d'estimation et présente des évaluations expérimentales. Les résultats expérimentaux acquis avec le véhicule du laboratoire INRETS-MA prouvent l'exactitude et le potentiel de cette approche

A Signal Processing Method for Artefact Rejection in Transcranial Doppler Signals used for Micro-embolus detection

International audienceArtefacts are High Intensity Transient Signals that appear in the Doppler signal due to probe tapping, probe displacement, patient movement and other external factors during TCD recording. In Holter TCD, the number of artefacts are further increased due to the servo-controlled probe positioning and long recording time. Current artefact rejection methods must be adapted to the new holter devices. Therefore, in this paper we present a complete procedure for eliminating two types of artefacts that occur during Holter TCD. The latter two types are bidirectional areftact, occurring in the energy of both positive and negative frequencies, and unidirectional artefacts occuring only in the energy of the negative frequencies. From a dataset of 25 signals, 218 artefact signatures were identified; 95% of which are bidirectional and 5% unidirectional. As a final result, 98% of the artefacts where successfully removed

A Micro-Embolic Energy Detector based on Sub-band Decomposition

International audienceCerebrovascular Accidents can be caused by cerebral emboli blocking brain blood vessels. Analysis of transcranial Doppler signals practically aids the detection of emboli. Signal processing methods have been proposed for emboli detection. In this study, we introduce a new micro-embolic energy detector composed of N detectors associated to N Doppler frequency sub-bands. To test our detectors, we propose a training phase during which we adjust the optimal number of sub-bands and detection thresholds and a testing phase through which we measure performances. Using real signals, we show that in terms of the number of sub-bands, 4 sub-bands provide the highest detection rate and lowest false alarm. Moreover, compared to standard detectors, the 4 sub-band energy detector reduces the false alarm rate from 44% to 36%, increases the detection rate from 66% to 79% and augments the Embolus to Blood Ratio from 24 dB to 40 dB. This new energy detector permits detecting smallest micro-emboli, precursors of coming large emboli with high stroke risks

3D+t segmentation of PET images using spectral clustering

International audienceSegmentation of dynamic PET images is often needed to extract the time activity curve (TAC) of regions. While clustering methods have been proposed to segment the PET sequence, they are generally either sensitive to initial conditions or favor convex shaped clusters. Recently, we have proposed a deterministic and automatic spectral clustering method (AD-KSC) of PET images. It has the advantage of handling clusters with arbitrary shape in the space in which they are identified. While improved results were obtained with AD-KSC compared to other methods, its use for clinical applications is constrained to 2D+t PET data due to its computational complexity. In this paper, we propose an extension of AD-KSC to make it applicable to 3D+t PET data. First, a preprocessing step based on a recursive principle component analysis and a Global K-means approach is used to generate many small seed clusters. AD-KSC is then applied on the generated clusters to obtain the final partition of the data. We validated the method with GATE Monte Carlo simulations of Zubal head phantom. The proposed approach improved the region of interest (ROI) definition and outperformed the K-means algorithm

The Burden of Mental Disorders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 1990-2013

Charara R, Forouzanfar M, Naghavi M, et al. The Burden of Mental Disorders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 1990-2013. PLOS ONE. 2017;12(1): e0169575.The Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) is witnessing an increase in chronic disorders, including mental illness. With ongoing unrest, this is expected to rise. This is the first study to quantify the burden of mental disorders in the EMR. We used data from the Global Burden of Disease study (GBD) 2013. DALYs (disability-adjusted life years) allow assessment of both premature mortality (years of life lost-YLLs) and nonfatal outcomes (years lived with disability-YLDs). DALYs are computed by adding YLLs and YLDs for each age-sex-country group. In 2013, mental disorders contributed to 5.6% of the total disease burden in the EMR (1894 DALYS/100,000 population): 2519 DALYS/100,000 (2590/100,000 males, 2426/100,000 females) in high-income countries, 1884 DALYS/100,000 (1618/100,000 males, 2157/100,000 females) in middle-income countries, 1607 DALYS/100,000 (1500/100,000 males, 1717/100,000 females) in low-income countries. Females had a greater proportion of burden due to mental disorders than did males of equivalent ages, except for those under 15 years of age. The highest proportion of DALYs occurred in the 25-49 age group, with a peak in the 35-39 years age group (5344 DALYs/100,000). The burden of mental disorders in EMR increased from 1726 DALYs/100,000 in 1990 to 1912 DALYs/100,000 in 2013 (10.8% increase). Within the mental disorders group in EMR, depressive disorders accounted for most DALYs, followed by anxiety disorders. Among EMR countries, Palestine had the largest burden of mental disorders. Nearly all EMR countries had a higher mental disorder burden compared to the global level. Our findings call for EMR ministries of health to increase provision of mental health services and to address the stigma of mental illness. Moreover, our results showing the accelerating burden of mental health are alarming as the region is seeing an increased level of instability. Indeed, mental health problems, if not properly addressed, will lead to an increased burden of diseases in the region

Burden of musculoskeletal disorders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 1990–2013: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013

Moradi-Lakeh M, Forouzanfar MH, Vollset SE, et al. Burden of musculoskeletal disorders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, 1990–2013: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. 2017;76(8):annrheumdis-2016-210146

Burden of obesity in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: findings from the Global Burden of Disease 2015 study

Mokdad AH, El Bcheraoui C, Afshin A, et al. Burden of obesity in the Eastern Mediterranean Region: findings from the Global Burden of Disease 2015 study. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH. 2018;63(Suppl. 1):165-176.We used the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2015 study results to explore the burden of high body mass index (BMI) in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR). We estimated the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children (2-19 years) and adults (20 years) in 1980 and 2015. The burden of disease related to high BMI was calculated using the GBD comparative risk assessment approach. The prevalence of obesity increased for adults from 15.1% (95% UI 13.4-16.9) in 1980 to 20.7% (95% UI 18.8-22.8) in 2015. It increased from 4.1% (95% UI 2.9-5.5) to 4.9% (95% UI 3.6-6.4) for the same period among children. In 2015, there were 417,115 deaths and 14,448,548 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to high BMI in EMR, which constitute about 10 and 6.3% of total deaths and DALYs, respectively, for all ages. This is the first study to estimate trends in obesity burden for the EMR from 1980 to 2015. We call for EMR countries to invest more resources in prevention and health promotion efforts to reduce this burden