Adipose Tissue Engineering: A Therapeutic Strategy for the Treatment of Obesity and Glucose Intolerance

Despite available treatment options, the number of people afflicted by type 2 diabetes has steadily risen for decades. Nearly 90% of the diabetic population also suffers from obesity and the link between the two diseases is undeniable. Characterized by rapid expansion of the adipose tissue and improper lipid storage, the mishandling of lipids by adipose tissue promotes the diabetic state. Excess lipids, unable to be properly stored, build up in peripheral tissues promoting insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Therapeutic strategies designed to address adipose tissue lipid handling could represent a promising treatment strategy for obesity associated type 2 diabetes. Here we investigate the use of polymer scaffolds made of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) as a way to engineer adipose tissue lipid metabolism. Implant of scaffolds into the epididymal adipose tissue of mice leads to glucose and lipid utilization and is attributed to the host response to the material. This lipid oxidizing effect is enhanced by incorporating resveratrol into the polymer scaffolds. Importantly, implant of scaffolds protects mice against fat gain and insulin resistance in a mouse model of obesity associated type 2 diabetes. Finally, we demonstrate the ability of scaffolds combined with healthy dietary changes to reverse insulin resistance in a mouse model of obesity associated type 2 diabetes. Taken together, this work demonstrates promise for tissue engineering strategies designed to address adipose tissue lipid handling as a platform to treat obesity associated type 2 diabetes

MyTraces: Investigating Correlation and Causation between Users' Emotional States and Mobile Phone Interaction

Most of the existing work concerning the analysis of emotional states and mobile phone interaction has been based on correlation analysis. In this paper, for the first time, we carry out a causality study to investigate the causal links between users’ emotional states and their interaction with mobile phones, which could provide valuable information to practitioners and researchers. The analysis is based on a dataset collected in-the-wild. We recorded 5,118 mood reports from 28 users over a period of 20 days. Our results show that users’ emotions have a causal impact on different aspects of mobile phone interaction. On the other hand, we can observe a causal impact of the use of specific applications, reflecting the external users’ context, such as socializing and traveling, on happiness and stress level. This study has profound implications for the design of interactive mobile systems since it identifies the dimensions that have causal effects on users’ interaction with mobile phones and vice versa. These findings might lead to the design of more effective computing systems and services that rely on the analysis of the emotional state of users, for example for marketing and digital health applications

Selecting Miners within Blockchain-based Systems Using Evolutionary Algorithms for Energy Optimisation

In this paper, we represent the problem of selecting miners within a blockchain-based system as a subset selection problem. We formulate the problem of minimising blockchain energy consumption as an optimisation problem with two conflicting objectives: energy consumption and trust. The proposed model is compared across different algorithms to demonstrate its performance.Comment: To appear in 2021 Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference Companion (GECCO '21 Companion), July 10--14, 2021, Lille, Franc

My Phone and Me: Understanding People's Receptivity to Mobile Notifications

Notifications are extremely beneficial to users, but they often demand their attention at inappropriate moments. In this paper we present an in-situ study of mobile interruptibility focusing on the effect of cognitive and physical factors on the response time and the disruption perceived from a notification. Through a mixed method of automated smartphone logging and experience sampling we collected 10372 in-the-wild notifications and 474 questionnaire responses on notification perception from 20 users. We found that the response time and the perceived disruption from a notification can be influenced by its presentation, alert type, sender-recipient relationship as well as the type, completion level and complexity of the task in which the user is engaged. We found that even a notification that contains important or useful content can cause disruption. Finally, we observe the substantial role of the psychological traits of the individuals on the response time and the disruption perceived from a notification

Notifymehere: Intelligent notification delivery in multi-device environments

Personal interactions and information access are happening more and more through the mediation of computing devices of various types all around us. In our daily life we use many computing devices running di!erent versions of the same application such as email clients or social media platforms, which alert users about a new piece of information or event on all devices. In this paper we "rst present a study investigating the factors in#uencing users’ decisions in handling noti"cations in a multi-device environment. We collected 57,242 in-the-wild noti"cations from 24 users over a period of 21 days. We found that users’ decisions in handling noti"cations are impacted by their physical activity, location, network connectivity, application category and the device used for handling the previous noti"cation. Finally, we show that an individualized model can predict the device on which the user will handle a noti"cation in the given context with 82% speci"city and 91% sensitivit

In silico assessment of histotripsy-induced changes in catheter-directed thrombolytic delivery

Introduction: For venous thrombosis patients, catheter-directed thrombolytic therapy is the standard-of-care to recanalize the occluded vessel. Limitations with thrombolytic drugs make the development of adjuvant treatments an active area of research. One potential adjuvant is histotripsy, a focused ultrasound therapy that lyses red blood cells within thrombus via the spontaneous generation of bubbles. Histotripsy has also been shown to improve the efficacy of thrombolytic drugs, though the precise mechanism of enhancement has not been elucidated. In this study, in silico calculations were performed to determine the contribution of histotripsy-induced changes in thrombus diffusivity to alter catheter-directed therapy.Methods: An established and validated Monte Carlo calculation was used to predict the extent of histotripsy bubble activity. The distribution of thrombolytic drug was computed with a finite-difference time domain (FDTD) solution of the perfusion-diffusion equation. The FDTD calculation included changes in thrombus diffusivity based on outcomes of the Monte Carlo calculation. Fibrin degradation was determined using the known reaction rate of thrombolytic drug.Results: In the absence of histotripsy, thrombolytic delivery was restricted in close proximity to the catheter. Thrombolytic perfused throughout the focal region for calculations that included the effects of histotripsy, resulting in an increased degree of fibrinolysis.Discussion: These results were consistent with the outcomes of in vitro studies, suggesting histotripsy-induced changes in the thrombus diffusivity are a primary mechanism for enhancement of thrombolytic drugs

The School Sport Co-ordinator Programme: Changing the Role of the Physical Education Teacher?

Over the last decade or so, young people have increasingly become a focus of UK sport policy. Fuelled in part by concerns such as the increasing levels of childhood inactivity and obesity, and the lack of international success in sport, a plethora of policy initiatives aimed at young people have been developed. In April 2000, the government published its sport strategy document, A Sporting Future for All, pulling together all the threads of recent policies, and in it, restating its commitment to youth sport, sport in education, excellence and sport in the community. One such policy initiative, the School Sport Co-ordinator programme, is the focus of this paper. The School Sport Co-ordinator programme, currently being introduced into schools in England, is an initiative that involves two government departments (sport and education) and a number of other agencies, reflecting the government's current agenda to ensure 'joined up policy' thinking. It aims to develop opportunities for youth sport through co-ordinated links between PE and sport in schools, both within and outside of the formal curriculum, with those in local community sports settings. The essence of the School Sport Co-ordinator programme is to free up nominated teachers in schools from teaching to allow them time for development activities, specifically to encourage schools and community sports providers to work in partnership. This paper draws on data from an ongoing research project examining the implementation of one School Sport Co-ordinator partnership, 'northbridge'. Drawing on in-depth interviews, it explores the perceptions of the newly established School Sport Co-ordinators of their changing role. The paper highlights some of the initial tensions and challenges for them in their task of working across different educational and sporting contexts