Review of technology‐supported multimodal solutions for people with dementia

Funding Information: This research was partially funded by FAITH project (H2020?SC1?DTH?2019?875358), CARELINK project (AAL?CALL?2016?049), and Funda??o para a Ci?ncia e Tecnologia through the program UIDB/00066/2020 (CTS?Center of Technology and Systems).Acknowledgments: The authors acknowledge the European Commission for its support and partial funding; the partners of the research project FAITH project (H2020?SC1?DTH?2019?875358); and CARELINK, AAL?CALL?2016?049 funded by AAL JP and co?funded by the European Commission and National Funding Authorities of Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, and Switzerland. Partial support also comes from Funda??o para a Ci?ncia e Tecnologia through the program UIDB/00066/2020 (CTS?Center of Technology and Systems). Funding Information: Acknowledgments: The authors acknowledge the European Commission for its support and partial funding; the partners of the research project FAITH project (H2020‐SC1‐DTH‐2019‐875358); and CARELINK, AAL‐CALL‐2016‐049 funded by AAL JP and co‐funded by the European Commission and National Funding Authorities of Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, and Switzerland. Partial support also comes from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through the program UIDB/00066/2020 (CTS—Center of Technology and Systems). Funding Information: Funding: This research was partially funded by FAITH project (H2020‐SC1‐DTH‐2019‐875358), CARELINK project (AAL‐CALL‐2016‐049), and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through the program UIDB/00066/2020 (CTS—Center of Technology and Systems). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.The number of people living with dementia in the world is rising at an unprecedented rate, and no country will be spared. Furthermore, neither decisive treatment nor effective medicines have yet become effective. One potential alternative to this emerging challenge is utilizing supportive technologies and services that not only assist people with dementia to do their daily activities safely and independently, but also reduce the overwhelming pressure on their caregivers. Thus, for this study, a systematic literature review is conducted in an attempt to gain an overview of the latest findings in this field of study and to address some commercially available supportive technologies and services that have potential application for people living with dementia. To this end, 30 potential supportive technologies and 15 active supportive services are identified from the literature and related websites. The technologies and services are classified into different classes and subclasses (according to their functionalities, capabilities, and features) aiming to facilitate their understanding and evaluation. The results of this work are aimed as a base for designing, integrating, developing, adapting, and customizing potential multimodal solutions for the specific needs of vulnerable people of our societies, such as those who suffer from different degrees of dementia.publishersversionpublishe

Skin-impedance in Fabry Disease: A prospective, controlled, non-randomized clinical study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We previously demonstrated improved sweating after enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) in Fabry disease using the thermo-regularity sweat and quantitative sudomotor axon reflex tests. Skin-impedance, a measure skin-moisture (sweating), has been used in the clinical evaluation of burns and pressure ulcers using the portable dynamic dermal impedance monitor (DDIM) system.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We compared skin impedance measurements in hemizygous patients with Fabry disease (22 post 3-years of bi-weekly ERT and 5 ERT naive) and 22 healthy controls. Force compensated skin-moisture values were used for statistical analysis. Outcome measures included 1) moisture reading of the 100^threpetitive reading, 2) rate of change, 3) average of 60–110^threading and 4) overall average of all readings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All outcome measures showed a significant difference in skin-moisture between Fabry patients and control subjects (p < 0.0001). There was no difference between Fabry patients on ERT and patients naïve to ERT. Increased skin-impedance values for the four skin-impedance outcome measures were found in a small number of dermatome test-sites two days post-enzyme infusions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The instrument portability, ease of its use, a relatively short time required for the assessment, and the fact that DDIM system was able to detect the difference in skin-moisture renders the instrument a useful clinical tool.</p

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase&nbsp;1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation&nbsp;disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age&nbsp; 6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score&nbsp; 652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc&nbsp;= 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N&nbsp;= 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in&nbsp;Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in&nbsp;Asia&nbsp;and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

2020 taxonomic update for phylum Negarnaviricota (Riboviria: Orthornavirae), including the large orders Bunyavirales and Mononegavirales.

In March 2020, following the annual International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) ratification vote on newly proposed taxa, the phylum Negarnaviricota was amended and emended. At the genus rank, 20 new genera were added, two were deleted, one was moved, and three were renamed. At the species rank, 160 species were added, four were deleted, ten were moved and renamed, and 30 species were renamed. This article presents the updated taxonomy of Negarnaviricota as now accepted by the ICTV

Bio-economics, socio-biology and other mixes. The advantage of linking disparate data to gain new insights into the exploitation of marine fish resources.

Recent and earlier changes in the fisheries management paradigm, forced fisheries scientists to look around for alternative ways of gaining insight into a very complex system, like the exploitation of marine resources by fishing. When leaving the comfort of single species management into ecosystem based management, coupled with mixed fisheries and mingled with stronger public and policy involvement, fisheries scientists realized that the world in not round after all, but multishape, depending on who's looking and from which angle. A change in mindset requires new approaches and their integration to be developed or reconsideration of traditional approaches, or a mix of everything. For example, the introduction of harvest control rules (HCR) allowed the operationalization of complex indicators and opened the way for a creative and extensive research path. A quick search for "harvest control rules" in google scholar gives more than 800 references between 2010 and 2014. Nevertheless, HCRs deal with one side of the management conundrum, the decision making process, though interesting perspectives remain to be found. Can common sense type of wisdom, limited understanding of complex system behavior or vagueness in objectives and system characterization be used to improve management decisions and possibly gain knowledge about the system? Can the distinct spatial domains be reconciled and is it needed? How can societal information be incorporated? Should fisheries advice be provided without considering economics? The session aims at providing a playground for those interested in having an alternative angle into the wide subject of exploitation of marine fish resources, making use of disparate datasets to build new insights into the fisheries system. Climate, genetics, fleet diversity, multi-objectives, are all issues for potential inclusion, with an emphasis on novel insights and integration of ideas and approaches. Fisheries science has the advantage of being intrinsically multi-disciplinary, involving, biologists, engineers, sociologists, ecologists, geneticists, economists, policy, etc. Merging, linking, embedding and visualizing data; are ways of gaining knowledge by efficient utilization of available information. The challenge is to formulate ways to improve the usage of our marine food resources.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

5.4 ToR d) Close-kin mark recapture approaches to estimate abundance and population parameters of deep-sea marine fish species in support of en-hanced management under the Common Fisheries Policy

In 2015/16 a JRC Technical report was produced, offering a reflection and review of the close-kin approach suggested by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Re-search Organisation (CSIRO – Australia) in the context of commercially exploited deep-sea fish species. This report served as a starting point for further evaluation and first simulations documented in the ICES WGAGFM interim report (2016). In June 2016 a web-conference meeting was convened to establish a strategy that allows to move clos-er to a practical project type of approach, which was extended in July 2016 wth Robin Waples of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Also ICES WGDEEP was contacted to learn more about their work on deep sea species and knowledge gaps and needs that could be covered by a genetic close-kin approach. Out-comes of these actiities will be documented together with recommendations in 2017.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Nanopore environmental DNA sequencing of catch water for estimating species composition in demersal bottom trawl fisheries

Bycatch and discards, representing unwanted catches, undermine sustainable fisheries and hinder the conservation of vulnerable and endangered species. To effectively monitor bycatch and enhance the effectiveness of management measures while promoting sustainable fishing practices, reliable data is essential. Here, we explore the use of Nanopore metabarcoding to analyze the catch composition in demersal bottom fisheries. We collected eDNA samples directly from an onboard catch holding tank (catch water) for 10 fishing hauls from a fishing vessel operating in the Skagerrak (North-East Atlantic). The approach involved sequencing a combination of long (~2 kb) and short (~170–313 bp) mitochondrial amplicons and was validated by analyzing a fishery-related mock community sample and fishing haul replicates. Overall, the detection rate accuracy was 95% for landed species, and replicates obtained from the same fishing haul showed consistent results, validating the robustness of this approach. The detection rate accuracy for all caught species observed on board (including the non-landed fraction) was 81%. Undetected species were always limited to species in low abundance, but may also be attributed to problems with identifying closely related species due to the impact of sequencing errors and limited diagnostic variation in the genetic regions used. In the future, such biases may be reduced by using additional markers to increase species discrimination power and applying newly available technological advantages in flow cell chemistry to improve sequencing accuracy. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the effectiveness of Nanopore eDNA sequencing of catch water for estimating species composition in demersal bottom trawl fisheries, including catches of non-commercial and threatened and vulnerable species, without disrupting fishing activities. Incorporating eDNA analysis of catch water may therefore help facilitate effective monitoring, leading to better-informed fisheries management, biodiversity conservation efforts, and the implementation of relevant legislation such as the EU landing obligation