A Low-Cost Indoor Activity Monitoring System for Detecting Frailty in Older Adults

Indoor localization systems have already wide applications mainly for providing localized information and directions. The majority of them focus on commercial applications providing information such us advertisements, guidance and asset tracking. Medical oriented localization systems are uncommon. Given the fact that an individual’s indoor movements can be indicative of his/her clinical status, in this paper we present a low-cost indoor localization system with room-level accuracy used to assess the frailty of older people. We focused on designing a system with easy installation and low cost to be used by non technical staff. The system was installed in older people houses in order to collect data about their indoor localization habits. The collected data were examined in combination with their frailty status, showing a correlation between them. The indoor localization system is based on the processing of Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) measurements by a tracking device, from Bluetooth Beacons, using a fingerprint-based procedure. The system has been tested in realistic settings achieving accuracy above 93% in room estimation. The proposed system was used in 271 houses collecting data for 1–7-day sessions. The evaluation of the collected data using ten-fold cross-validation showed an accuracy of 83% in the classification of a monitored person regarding his/her frailty status (Frail, Pre-frail, Non-frail)

Near Eastern art in the Iron Age Mediterranean

This chapter provides a few examples to demonstrate the diverse purposes to which Near Eastern ivories and metalwork were put by the peoples of the Mediterranean. These examples include as follows: first Crete, particularly the Idaean Cave sanctuary and the cemeteries of Knossos; within the Aegean world, Attica, Euboia, Corinthia, and the sanctuaries of Olympia and the Samian Heraion; and in the West, Latium and southern Etruria. Multiple examples of “Phoenician” bronze bowls have been found in the cemeteries of Knossos. These bowls are the most sensitive index of the various ways in which different peoples of the Mediterranean responded to Near Eastern art, and in Crete most appear in the Idaean Cave. The chapter finally summarizes in tabular form, by area, the types of Oriental objects found—Cypriot bronzes, Phoenician bowls, Nimrud ivories and griffin auldrons—and their contexts of deposition

The ambiguous role of the Na+–H+ exchanger isoform 1 (NHE1) in leptin-induced oxidative stress in human monocytes

Leptin, a 16-kDa cytokine produced mainly by the adipose tissue, is known to increase energy expenditure while at the same time lowering food intake by acting directly on the hypothalamus. ObRb, the leptin receptor mostly involved in intracellular signaling, is expressed in a wide range of tissues, thus allowing leptin to affect a much broader diversity of biological processes. High concentrations of leptin are encountered in patients with hyperleptinemia, a condition which very often accompanies obesity and which is a direct result of leptin resistance. In the present study, moderate and high concentrations of leptin (16 and 160 ng/ml) were mostly utilized in order to investigate the role of this cytokine in oxidative stress levels in human monocytes. Leptin was found to increase oxidative species production as measured with 2′,7′-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (general marker of oxidative species, but not O2−.) and dihydroethidium (marker of O2−.). Surprisingly, it also augmented superoxide dismutase activity. Inhibition of the Na+–H+ exchanger isoform 1 (NHE1) also inhibited leptin-induced superoxide anion production but at the same time amplified leptin-induced production of other oxidative species. Signaling proteins such as phosphoinositide 3 kinase and conventional isoforms of protein kinase C (α-, βi-, βii-), as well as NADPH oxidase, also participated in leptin signaling. Finally, leptin was found to increase glutathionylation levels of NHE1-bound heat shock protein 70 kDa (Hsp70) but not Hsp70 binding to NHE1