ARIA digital anamorphosis : Digital transformation of health and care in airway diseases from research to practice

Digital anamorphosis is used to define a distorted image of health and care that may be viewed correctly using digital tools and strategies. MASK digital anamorphosis represents the process used by MASK to develop the digital transformation of health and care in rhinitis. It strengthens the ARIA change management strategy in the prevention and management of airway disease. The MASK strategy is based on validated digital tools. Using the MASK digital tool and the CARAT online enhanced clinical framework, solutions for practical steps of digital enhancement of care are proposed.Peer reviewe

ARIA 2016 : Care pathways implementing emerging technologies for predictive medicine in rhinitis and asthma across the life cycle

The Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) initiative commenced during a World Health Organization workshop in 1999. The initial goals were (1) to propose a new allergic rhinitis classification, (2) to promote the concept of multi-morbidity in asthma and rhinitis and (3) to develop guidelines with all stakeholders that could be used globally for all countries and populations. ARIA-disseminated and implemented in over 70 countries globally-is now focusing on the implementation of emerging technologies for individualized and predictive medicine. MASK [MACVIA (Contre les Maladies Chroniques pour un Vieillissement Actif)-ARIA Sentinel NetworK] uses mobile technology to develop care pathways for the management of rhinitis and asthma by a multi-disciplinary group and by patients themselves. An app (Android and iOS) is available in 20 countries and 15 languages. It uses a visual analogue scale to assess symptom control and work productivity as well as a clinical decision support system. It is associated with an inter-operable tablet for physicians and other health care professionals. The scaling up strategy uses the recommendations of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. The aim of the novel ARIA approach is to provide an active and healthy life to rhinitis sufferers, whatever their age, sex or socio-economic status, in order to reduce health and social inequalities incurred by the disease.Peer reviewe

ARIA 2016: Care pathways implementing emerging technologies for predictive medicine in rhinitis and asthma across the life cycle

The Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) initiative commenced during a World Health Organization workshop in 1999. The initial goals were (1) to propose a new allergic rhinitis classification, (2) to promote the concept of multi-morbidity in asthma a

Cabbage and fermented vegetables : From death rate heterogeneity in countries to candidates for mitigation strategies of severe COVID-19

Large differences in COVID-19 death rates exist between countries and between regions of the same country. Some very low death rate countries such as Eastern Asia, Central Europe, or the Balkans have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented foods. Although biases exist when examining ecological studies, fermented vegetables or cabbage have been associated with low death rates in European countries. SARS-CoV-2 binds to its receptor, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). As a result of SARS-CoV-2 binding, ACE2 downregulation enhances the angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AT(1)R) axis associated with oxidative stress. This leads to insulin resistance as well as lung and endothelial damage, two severe outcomes of COVID-19. The nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) is the most potent antioxidant in humans and can block in particular the AT(1)R axis. Cabbage contains precursors of sulforaphane, the most active natural activator of Nrf2. Fermented vegetables contain many lactobacilli, which are also potent Nrf2 activators. Three examples are: kimchi in Korea, westernized foods, and the slum paradox. It is proposed that fermented cabbage is a proof-of-concept of dietary manipulations that may enhance Nrf2-associated antioxidant effects, helpful in mitigating COVID-19 severity.Peer reviewe

Nrf2-interacting nutrients and COVID-19 : time for research to develop adaptation strategies

There are large between- and within-country variations in COVID-19 death rates. Some very low death rate settings such as Eastern Asia, Central Europe, the Balkans and Africa have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented foods whose intake is associated with the activation of the Nrf2 (Nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2) anti-oxidant transcription factor. There are many Nrf2-interacting nutrients (berberine, curcumin, epigallocatechin gallate, genistein, quercetin, resveratrol, sulforaphane) that all act similarly to reduce insulin resistance, endothelial damage, lung injury and cytokine storm. They also act on the same mechanisms (mTOR: Mammalian target of rapamycin, PPAR gamma:Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, NF kappa B: Nuclear factor kappa B, ERK: Extracellular signal-regulated kinases and eIF2 alpha:Elongation initiation factor 2 alpha). They may as a result be important in mitigating the severity of COVID-19, acting through the endoplasmic reticulum stress or ACE-Angiotensin-II-AT(1)R axis (AT(1)R) pathway. Many Nrf2-interacting nutrients are also interacting with TRPA1 and/or TRPV1. Interestingly, geographical areas with very low COVID-19 mortality are those with the lowest prevalence of obesity (Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia). It is tempting to propose that Nrf2-interacting foods and nutrients can re-balance insulin resistance and have a significant effect on COVID-19 severity. It is therefore possible that the intake of these foods may restore an optimal natural balance for the Nrf2 pathway and may be of interest in the mitigation of COVID-19 severity

ARIA digital anamorphosis: Digital transformation of health and care in airway diseases from research to practice

Digital anamorphosis is used to define a distorted image of health and care that may be viewed correctly using digital tools and strategies. MASK digital anamorphosis represents the process used by MASK to develop the digital transformation of health and care in rhinitis. It strengthens the ARIA change management strategy in the prevention and management of airway disease. The MASK strategy is based on validated digital tools. Using the MASK digital tool and the CARAT online enhanced clinical framework, solutions for practical steps of digital enhancement of care are proposed

Metamaterial Designs for Applications in Wireless Power Transfer and Computational Imaging

<p>The advent of resonant metamaterials with strongly dispersive behavior allowed scientists to design new electromagnetic devices -- including (but not limited to) absorbers, antennas, lenses, holograms, and arguably the most well-known of them all, invisibility cloaks -- exhibiting properties that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. At the heart of these breakthrough designs is our ability to model the behavior of individual metamaterial elements as Lorentzian dipoles, and -- in applications that call for it -- collectively model an entire array of such elements as a homogenous medium with effective electromagnetic properties retrieved from measurements or simulations. </p><p>Of particular interest in the context of this dissertation is a certain type of metamaterials elements which -- while composed entirely of essentially non-magnetic materials -- respond to a magnetic field, can be modeled as magnetic dipoles, and are able to form a material with effective magnetic response. This thesis describes how such ``magnetic metamaterials'' have been utilized by the author when designing devices for applications in wireless power transfer (WPT) and computational imaging. For the former, I discuss in the thesis a metamaterial implementation of a magnetic `superlens' for wireless power transfer enhancements, and a magnetic reflector for near field shielding. For the latter I detail how we model the imaging capabilities of a recently-introduced class of dispersive metamaterial-based leaky apertures that produce pseudo-random measurement modes, and demonstration of novel Lorentzian-constrained holograms able to tailor their radiation patterns. </p><p>To design a magnetic superlens for WPT enhancements, we first demonstrate how an array comprising resonant metamaterial elements can act as an effective medium with negative permeability ($\mu$) and enhance near-field transmission of quasi-static non-resonant coil antennas. We implement a new technique to retrieve all diagonal components of our superlens' permeability, including its normal component, which standard techniques cannot retrieve. We study the effect of different components of the $\mu$ tensor on field enhancements using analytical solutions as well as 2D rotationally-symmetric full-wave simulations which approximate the lens as a disc of equal diameter, enabling highly efficient axisymmetric description of the problem. Our studies indicate enhancements are strongest when all three diagonal components of Re$(\mu)$ are negative, which we attribute to the excitation of surface waves.</p><p>The ability to retrieve permeability's normal component, awarded to us with the implementation of the aforementioned retrieval technique, directly enabled the design of a near field magnetic shield, which -- in contrast to the tripple-negative superlens -- relies on the normal component of $\mu$ assuming values near zero. The thesis discusses the theory behind this phenomenon and explains why such an anisotropic slab is capable of reflecting magnetic fields with component of their wave vector parallel to the slab's surface (fields which contain significant portions of the energy transferred in WPT systems with dipole-like coils). Furthermore, the dispersive nature of the resonant metamaterials used to realize the shield grants us the ability to block certain frequencies while allowing the transmission of other, which can be particularly useful in certain applications; conventional materials used for shielding or electromagnetic interference (EMI) suppression, on the other hand, block frequencies indiscriminately. </p><p>The thesis also discusses a single-pixel, metamaterial-based aperture we designed for computational imaging purposes. This aperture, termed \textit{metaimager}, forms pseudo-random radiation patterns that vary with frequency by leaking energy from a guided mode via a collection of randomly distributed resonant metamaterial elements. The metaimager, then, is able to interrogate a scene without any moving parts or expensive auxiliary hardware (both are common problems which plague synthetic aperture and phased array systems, respectively). While such a structure cannot be homogenized, when modeling its imaging capabilities we still rely on the fact each of its irises can be modeled analytically as a magnetic dipole using a relatively simple Lorentzian expression. Accurate qualitative modeling of such apertures is of paramount importance in the design and optimization stages, since it allows us to save time and money by avoiding prohibitively slow full-wave simulations of such complex structures and unnecessary fabrication processes. </p><p>Lastly, the thesis discusses how such an aperture can be viewed as a hologram in which pixels are realized by the metamaterial elements and the reference wave is realized by the fields that excite them. While the current metaimager implementation produces pseudo-random modes, the last section of the thesis discusses how, by accounting for the Lorentzian constraints of each pixel, a novel metamaterial hologram can be designed to yield tailored radiation patterns. An experiment utilizing a Fraunhofer hologram excited in a free-space illumination configuration indicates tailored modes can indeed be formed by carefully choosing the resonance frequency and location of each metamaterial. While this proof-of-concept example is relatively simple, more sophisticated realizations of such holograms can be explored in future works.</p>Dissertatio