Effectiveness of an mHealth intervention combining a smartphone app and smart band on body composition in an overweight and obese population: Randomized controlled trial (EVIDENT 3 study)

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) is currently among the supporting elements that may contribute to an improvement in health markers by helping people adopt healthier lifestyles. mHealth interventions have been widely reported to achieve greater weight loss than other approaches, but their effect on body composition remains unclear. Objective: This study aimed to assess the short-term (3 months) effectiveness of a mobile app and a smart band for losing weight and changing body composition in sedentary Spanish adults who are overweight or obese. Methods: A randomized controlled, multicenter clinical trial was conducted involving the participation of 440 subjects from primary care centers, with 231 subjects in the intervention group (IG; counselling with smartphone app and smart band) and 209 in the control group (CG; counselling only). Both groups were counselled about healthy diet and physical activity. For the 3-month intervention period, the IG was trained to use a smartphone app that involved self-monitoring and tailored feedback, as well as a smart band that recorded daily physical activity (Mi Band 2, Xiaomi). Body composition was measured using the InBody 230 bioimpedance device (InBody Co., Ltd), and physical activity was measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Results: The mHealth intervention produced a greater loss of body weight (–1.97 kg, 95% CI –2.39 to –1.54) relative to standard counselling at 3 months (–1.13 kg, 95% CI –1.56 to –0.69). Comparing groups, the IG achieved a weight loss of 0.84 kg more than the CG at 3 months. The IG showed a decrease in body fat mass (BFM; –1.84 kg, 95% CI –2.48 to –1.20), percentage of body fat (PBF; –1.22%, 95% CI –1.82% to 0.62%), and BMI (–0.77 kg/m2, 95% CI –0.96 to 0.57). No significant changes were observed in any of these parameters in men; among women, there was a significant decrease in BMI in the IG compared with the CG. When subjects were grouped according to baseline BMI, the overweight group experienced a change in BFM of –1.18 kg (95% CI –2.30 to –0.06) and BMI of –0.47 kg/m2 (95% CI –0.80 to –0.13), whereas the obese group only experienced a change in BMI of –0.53 kg/m2 (95% CI –0.86 to –0.19). When the data were analyzed according to physical activity, the moderate-vigorous physical activity group showed significant changes in BFM of –1.03 kg (95% CI –1.74 to –0.33), PBF of –0.76% (95% CI –1.32% to –0.20%), and BMI of –0.5 kg/m2 (95% CI –0.83 to –0.19). Conclusions: The results from this multicenter, randomized controlled clinical trial study show that compared with standard counselling alone, adding a self-reported app and a smart band obtained beneficial results in terms of weight loss and a reduction in BFM and PBF in female subjects with a BMI less than 30 kg/m2 and a moderate-vigorous physical activity level. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to ensure that this profile benefits more than others from this intervention and to investigate modifications of this intervention to achieve a global effect

Effect of Ala54Thr polymorphism of FABP2 on anthropometric and biochemical variables in response to a moderate-fat diet

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of adding a bacterial inoculum and a handmade additive to sugarcane silage (SCS) on the in situ digestibility of dry matter (DM). The treatments were: T1) sugarcane silage (SCS) and T2) sugarcane silage with 1% inoculum and 1% additive (SCS+). The bacterial inoculum consisted of 10.0% molasses, 1.0% yogurt, 5.0% chicken manure, 0.5% urea, and 83.0% water, and the additive was formulated with 1.0% urea, 0.1% ammonium sulfate, and 0.25% phosphorus. In situ dry matter digestibility (DMD) was determined using the nylon bag technique with four cows equipped with ruminal fistulas. Cows were fed with ensiled sugarcane supplemented with 1 kg of commercial concentrate. 5 g of ground sample for each sugarcane treatment were weighted in nylon bags and incubated for 4, 8, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h in a completely randomized design with six replicates. The DMD (%) was higher (. P<0.05) for SCS+ for all incubation times when compared with SCS. There were no differences in ruminal pH between the treatments for all the incubation times. The data suggested that the sugarcane silage with bacterial inoculum and additive could be an alternative for providing forage for ruminants during the season of low growth and quality grass. " 2015 Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.",,,,,,"10.1016/S2095-3119(14)60826-1",,,"http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12104/40890","http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84922883094&partnerID=40&md5=e918a99f85f2c76df02229e9b3f49e31",,,,,,"3",,"Journal of Integrative Agriculture",,"49

Effect of a bacterial inoculum and additive on dry matter in situ degradability of sugarcane silage

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of adding a bacterial inoculum and a handmade additive to sugarcane silage (SCS) on the in situ digestibility of dry matter (DM). The treatments were: T1) sugarcane silage (SCS) and T2) sugarcane silage with 1% inoculum and 1% additive (SCS+). The bacterial inoculum consisted of 10.0% molasses, 1.0% yogurt, 5.0% chicken manure, 0.5% urea, and 83.0% water, and the additive was formulated with 1.0% urea, 0.1% ammonium sulfate, and 0.25% phosphorus. In situ dry matter digestibility (DMD) was determined using the nylon bag technique with four cows equipped with ruminal fistulas. Cows were fed with ensiled sugarcane supplemented with 1 kg of commercial concentrate. 5 g of ground sample for each sugarcane treatment were weighted in nylon bags and incubated for 4, 8, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h in a completely randomized design with six replicates. The DMD (%) was higher (. P<0.05) for SCS+ for all incubation times when compared with SCS. There were no differences in ruminal pH between the treatments for all the incubation times. The data suggested that the sugarcane silage with bacterial inoculum and additive could be an alternative for providing forage for ruminants during the season of low growth and quality grass. © 2015 Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Authentication by polarization: A powerful anti-spoofing method

This paper presents a method to detect and mitigate a spoofing attack by means of a dual polarized antenna. It exploits the similarity in polarization of spoofed satellites to identify spoofed satellites and copes with three major challenges. A first challenge is to avoid false alarms, which could be triggered by occasional polarization alignment of authentic satellites. The second challenge is the detection of spoofed signals out of a mix of spoofed and non-spoofed signals, as is the case in most practical spoofing attacks. The final challenge is to be able to work with spoofed signals from RHCP spoofing antennas operating from a higher elevation. The technique was developed based on analysis of a large amount of experimental signal data recorded in spoofed and non-spoofed environments. The paper first describes the recording system, which uses a high-performance dual polarized antenna, optimized for low axial ratio. This connects to a multi-frequency multi-constellation receiver, supporting concurrent coherent tracking of the RHCP and LHCP signal components provided by the antenna. We subsequently discuss the measurement campaign. It is rather straightforward to collect data in a variety of non-spoofed environments to build a database of scenarios which are supposed to yield a negative spoofing indication. This doesn’t hold for spoofing scenarios, because of regulatory constraints. Therefore, the spoofing tests were done in a special anechoic chamber which can simulate both polarization and angle of arrival of satellite signals. This wave field synthesis (WFS) testbed was configured to create a mix of satellite signals, some of them emulating authentic signals and the other ones representing the spoofer. The WFS testbed was used to simulate an advanced matched power timing attack. Finally, the paper discusses a new spoofing detection algorithm, based on the experimental data. We present an analysis of the spoofing classification performance, analyzing metrics for probability of false alarm and probability of detection

IL-17A GENE IMPLICATION IN SPANISH PATIENTS WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS

Pathophysiology and treatment of rheumatic disease

The T2K experiment

The T2K experiment is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. Its main goal is to measure the last unknown lepton sector mixing angle θ13 by observing νe appearance in a νμ beam. It also aims to make a precision measurement of the known oscillation parameters, and sin22θ23, via νμ disappearance studies. Other goals of the experiment include various neutrino cross-section measurements and sterile neutrino searches. The experiment uses an intense proton beam generated by the J-PARC accelerator in Tokai, Japan, and is composed of a neutrino beamline, a near detector complex (ND280), and a far detector (Super-Kamiokande) located 295 km away from J-PARC. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the instrumentation aspect of the T2K experiment and a summary of the vital information for each subsystem

Lack of Association Between ZHX2, Lepr, Gckr and ASCL1 and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, Carotid Plaques and Cardiovascular Disease in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Pathophysiology and treatment of rheumatic disease