701 research outputs found
Data-as-a-Service Platform for Delivering Healthy Lifestyle and Preventive Medicine: Concept and Structure of the DAPHNE Project
Background: Overweight and obesity is related to many health problems and diseases. The current obesity epidemic, which is a major health problem, is closely related to a lack of physical activity, high levels of sedentary behavior, and increased energy intake; with evidence to show increasing incidence of these issues in the younger population. Tackling obesity and its comorbid conditions requires a holistic approach encompassing attention on physical activity, healthy diet, and behavioral activation in order to enable and maintain meaningful and long-term weight loss and weight maintenance. Objective: The objective of the Data-as-a-Service Platform for Healthy Lifestyle and Preventive Medicine (DAPHNE) project is to develop a breakthrough information communications technology (ICT) platform for tracking health, weight, physical activity, diet, lifestyle, and psychological components within health care systems, whereby the platform and clinical support is linked. Methods: The DAPHNE platform aims to deliver personalized guidance services for lifestyle management to the citizen/patient by means of (1) advanced sensors and mobile phone apps to acquire and store continuous/real-time data on lifestyle aspects, behavior, and surrounding environment; (2) individual models to monitor their health and fitness status; (3) intelligent data processing for the recognition of behavioral trends; and (4) specific services for personalized guidance on healthy lifestyle and disease prevention. It is well known that weight loss and maintenance of weight loss are particularly difficult. This tool will address some of the issues found with conventional treatment/advice in that it will collect data in real time, thereby reducing reliability issues known with recalling events once they have passed and will also allow adjustment of behavior through timely support and recommendations sent through the platform without the necessity of formal one-to-one visits between patient and clinician. Patient motivation/compliance is a particular issue with conventional weight loss regimes; DAPHNE aims to increase the individuals’ awareness of their own behavior and fosters their accountability. Results: The project has been funded and the research work has started. Results for the validation of the different components is due imminently. Conclusions: In contrast with previous existing solutions, the DAPHNE project tackles the obesity problem from a clinical point of view, designing the different interfaces for its use by patients (adults and children), physicians, and caregivers. A specific design for children and adolescent patients treated for obesity has been followed, guided by pediatric physicians at hospitals in Europe. The final clinical validation of the DAPHNE platform will be carried out in different European hospitals, testing the platform in both adolescents and adults
Cognitive and functional assessment about elderly people users of health public service
Midgut microbiota of the malaria mosquito vector Anopheles gambiae and Interactions with plasmodium falciparum Infection
The susceptibility of Anopheles mosquitoes to Plasmodium infections relies on complex interactions between the insect vector and the malaria parasite. A number of studies have shown that the mosquito innate immune responses play an important role in controlling the malaria infection and that the strength of parasite clearance is under genetic control, but little is known about the influence of environmental factors on the transmission success. We present here evidence that the composition of the vector gut microbiota is one of the major components that determine the outcome of mosquito infections. A. gambiae mosquitoes collected in natural breeding sites from Cameroon were experimentally challenged with a wild P. falciparum isolate, and their gut bacterial content was submitted for pyrosequencing analysis. The meta-taxogenomic approach revealed a broader richness of the midgut bacterial flora than previously described. Unexpectedly, the majority of bacterial species were found in only a small proportion of mosquitoes, and only 20 genera were shared by 80% of individuals. We show that observed differences in gut bacterial flora of adult mosquitoes is a result of breeding in distinct sites, suggesting that the native aquatic source where larvae were grown determines the composition of the midgut microbiota. Importantly, the abundance of Enterobacteriaceae in the mosquito midgut correlates significantly with the Plasmodium infection status. This striking relationship highlights the role of natural gut environment in parasite transmission. Deciphering microbe-pathogen interactions offers new perspectives to control disease transmission.Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD); French Agence Nationale pour la Recherche [ANR-11-BSV7-009-01]; European Community [242095, 223601]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Magnon-assisted tunnelling in van der Waals heterostructures based on CrBr3
Van der Waals heterostructures, which are composed of layered two-dimensional materials, offer a platform to investigate a diverse range of physical phenomena and could be of use in a variety of applications. Heterostructures containing two-dimensional ferromagnets, such as chromium triiodide (CrI3), have recently been reported, which could allow two-dimensional spintronic devices to be developed. Here we study tunnelling through thin ferromagnetic chromium tribromide (CrBr3) barriers that are sandwiched between graphene electrodes. In devices with non-magnetic barriers, conservation of momentum can be relaxed by phonon-assisted tunnelling or by tunnelling through localized states. In contrast, in the devices with ferromagnetic barriers, the major tunnelling mechanisms are the emission of magnons at low temperatures and the scattering of electrons on localized magnetic excitations at temperatures above the Curie temperature. Magnetoresistance in the graphene electrodes further suggests induced spin–orbit coupling and proximity exchange via the ferromagnetic barrier. Tunnelling with magnon emission offers the possibility of spin injection
The Pioneer Anomaly
Radio-metric Doppler tracking data received from the Pioneer 10 and 11
spacecraft from heliocentric distances of 20-70 AU has consistently indicated
the presence of a small, anomalous, blue-shifted frequency drift uniformly
changing with a rate of ~6 x 10^{-9} Hz/s. Ultimately, the drift was
interpreted as a constant sunward deceleration of each particular spacecraft at
the level of a_P = (8.74 +/- 1.33) x 10^{-10} m/s^2. This apparent violation of
the Newton's gravitational inverse-square law has become known as the Pioneer
anomaly; the nature of this anomaly remains unexplained. In this review, we
summarize the current knowledge of the physical properties of the anomaly and
the conditions that led to its detection and characterization. We review
various mechanisms proposed to explain the anomaly and discuss the current
state of efforts to determine its nature. A comprehensive new investigation of
the anomalous behavior of the two Pioneers has begun recently. The new efforts
rely on the much-extended set of radio-metric Doppler data for both spacecraft
in conjunction with the newly available complete record of their telemetry
files and a large archive of original project documentation. As the new study
is yet to report its findings, this review provides the necessary background
for the new results to appear in the near future. In particular, we provide a
significant amount of information on the design, operations and behavior of the
two Pioneers during their entire missions, including descriptions of various
data formats and techniques used for their navigation and radio-science data
analysis. As most of this information was recovered relatively recently, it was
not used in the previous studies of the Pioneer anomaly, but it is critical for
the new investigation.Comment: 165 pages, 40 figures, 16 tables; accepted for publication in Living
Reviews in Relativit
Potential impact of invasive alien species on ecosystem services provided by a tropical forested ecosystem: a case study from Montserrat
Local stakeholders at the important but
vulnerable Centre Hills on Montserrat consider that
the continued presence of feral livestock (particularly
goats and pigs) may lead to widespread replacement of
the reserve’s native vegetation by invasive alien trees
(Java plum and guava), and consequent negative
impacts on native animal species. Since 2009, a
hunting programme to control the feral livestock has
been in operation. However long-term funding is not
assured. Here, we estimate the effect of feral livestock
control on ecosystem services provided by the forest to
evaluate whether the biodiversity conservation rationale
for continuation of the control programme is
supported by an economic case. A new practical tool
(Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment)
was employed to measure and compare ecosystem
service provision between two states of the
reserve (i.e. presence and absence of feral livestock
control) to estimate the net consequences of the
hunting programme on ecosystem services provided
by the forest. Based on this we estimate that cessation
of feral livestock management would substantially
reduce the net benefits provided by the site, including a
46 % reduction in nature-based tourism (from
228,000) and 36 % reduction in harvested
wild meat (from 132,000). The
overall net benefit generated from annual ecosystem
service flows associated with livestock control in thereserve, minus the management cost, was $214,000
per year. We conclude that continued feral livestock
control is important for maintaining the current level
of ecosystem services provided by the reserve
Non-Contrast MRI Methods as a Tool for the Pre-Operative Assessment and Surveillance of the Arterio-Venous Fistula for Haemodialysis
First report of Lutzomyia (Nyssomyia) umbratilis Ward & Frahia, 1977 outside of Amazonian Region, in Recife, State of Pernambuco, Brazil (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae)
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