Personal Assistants for Healthcare Treatment at Home

ABSTRACT This paper describes the research plans in the SuperAssist project, introducing personal assistants in the care of diabetes patients, assisting the patients themselves, the medical specialists looking after the patients' healthcare, and the technical specialists responsible for maintaining the health of the devices involved. The paper discusses the issues of trust and cooperation as the critical success factors within this multi-user multi-agent (MUMA) project and within the future of agent-based healthcare attempting to increase the self-help abilities of individual patients

The Inter-Relationship of Platelets with Interleukin-1 beta-Mediated Inflammation in Humans

Background Inflammation and coagulation are key processes in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The Canakinumab Anti-inflammatory Thrombosis Outcome Study trial affirmed the importance of inflammation in CVD by showing that inhibition of the interleukin (IL)-1 beta pathway prevents recurrent CVD. A bi-directional relationship exists between inflammation and coagulation, but the precise interaction of platelets and IL-1 beta-mediated inflammation is incompletely understood. We aimed to determine the inter-relationship between platelets and inflammation-and especially IL-1 beta-in a cohort of healthy volunteers. Methods We used data from the 500-Human Functional Genomics cohort, which consists of approximately 500 Caucasian, healthy individuals. We determined associations of plasma levels of IL-1 beta and other inflammatory proteins with platelet number and reactivity, the association of platelet reactivity with ex vivo cytokine production as well as the impact of genetic variations through a genome-wide association study (GWAS). Results Platelets were associated with IL-1 beta on different levels. First, platelet number was positively associated with plasma IL-1 beta concentrations (p = 8.9 x 10(-9)) and inversely with concentrations of alpha-1-anti-trypsin (p = 1.04 x 10(-18)), which is a known antagonist of IL-1 beta. Second, platelet degranulation capacity, as determined by agonist-induced P-selectin expression, was associated with ex vivo IL-1 beta and IL-6 production. Third, several platelet single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were associated with cytokine production and there was a significant platelet SNP enrichment in specific biological important pathways. Finally, platelet SNPs were enriched among SNPs earlier identified in GWAS studies in blood-related diseases and immune-mediated diseases. Conclusion This comprehensive assessment of factors associated with platelet number and reactivity reinforces the important inter-relationship of platelets and IL-1 beta-mediated inflammation

ALICE: Physics performance report, volume I

Cortese P, Dellacasa G, Ramello L, et al. ALICE: Physics performance report, volume I. Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics. 2004;30(11):1517-1763.ALICE is a general-purpose heavy-ion experiment designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC. It currently includes more than 900 physicists and senior engineers, from both nuclear and high-energy physics, from about 80 institutions in 28 countries. The experiment was approved in February 1997. The detailed design of the different detector systems has been laid down in a number of Technical Design Reports issued between mid-1998 and the end of 2001 and construction has started for most detectors. Since the last comprehensive information on detector and physics performance was published in the ALICE Technical Proposal in 1996, the detector as well as simulation, reconstruction and analysis software have undergone significant development. The Physics Performance Report (PPR) will give an updated and comprehensive summary of the current status and performance of the various ALICE subsystems, including updates to the Technical Design Reports, where appropriate, as well as a description of systems which have not been published in a Technical Design Report. The PPR will be published in two volumes. The current Volume I contains: 1. a short theoretical overview and an extensive reference list concerning the physics topics of interest to ALICE, 2. relevant experimental conditions at the LHC, 3. a short summary and update of the subsystem designs, and 4. a description of the offline framework and Monte Carlo generators. Volume II, which will be published separately, will contain detailed simulations of combined detector performance, event reconstruction, and analysis of a representative sample of relevant physics observables from global event characteristics to hard processes. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version.