6,143 research outputs found
Cardiovascular health status between standard and nonstandard workers in Korea
OBJECTIVES: The effect of employment insecurity on employee health is an important public health issue due to the recent effects of neoliberalism and the global financial crisis (2007-2008) on labor markets. This study aims to evaluate the differences in cardiovascular health status and the use of preventive screening services between standard and nonstandard workers. METHODS: Waged employees (N = 5,338) between the ages of 20 and 64 were grouped into standard (full-time, permanent) and nonstandard (part-time, temporary, or daily) employees. Data from the Fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2007-2009, a nationwide representative survey, were examined, including cardiovascular health risk behaviors (tobacco, alcohol, physical inactivity), measured morbidities (blood pressure, blood glucose level, lipid profiles, body mass index), and the use of screening services for hypertension and diabetes mellitus. RESULTS: Female nonstandard employees tended to have higher blood pressure than did female standard employees (adjusted odds ratio, aOR 1.42, 95% confidence interval, CI 1.02 to 1.98). However, nonstandard employees (both men and women) were less likely to use preventive screening services for hypertension (aOR 0.72, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.94 in men; aOR 0.56, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.73 in women) and diabetes (aOR 0.58, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.79 in men; aOR 0.55, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.71 in women). CONCLUSION: Nonstandard work is associated with the underuse of screening services and poorer cardiovascular health in a specific population. Policies to reduce employment insecurity and encourage nonstandard employees to receive health screening services should be prioritized
High Quality Bioreplication of Intricate nanostructures from a Fragile Gecko Skin Surface with Bactericidal Properties
published_or_final_versio
Muscle Fatigue Analysis Using OpenSim
In this research, attempts are made to conduct concrete muscle fatigue
analysis of arbitrary motions on OpenSim, a digital human modeling platform. A
plug-in is written on the base of a muscle fatigue model, which makes it
possible to calculate the decline of force-output capability of each muscle
along time. The plug-in is tested on a three-dimensional, 29 degree-of-freedom
human model. Motion data is obtained by motion capturing during an arbitrary
running at a speed of 3.96 m/s. Ten muscles are selected for concrete analysis.
As a result, the force-output capability of these muscles reduced to 60%-70%
after 10 minutes' running, on a general basis. Erector spinae, which loses
39.2% of its maximal capability, is found to be more fatigue-exposed than the
others. The influence of subject attributes (fatigability) is evaluated and
discussed
Improving ductal carcinoma in situ classification by convolutional neural network with exponential linear unit and rank-based weighted pooling
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a pre-cancerous lesion in the ducts of the breast, and early diagnosis is crucial for optimal
therapeutic intervention. Thermography imaging is a non-invasive imaging tool that can be utilized for detection of DCIS and
although it has high accuracy (~88%), it is sensitivity can still be improved. Hence, we aimed to develop an automated artificial
intelligence-based system for improved detection of DCIS in thermographs. This study proposed a novel artificial intelligence
based system based on convolutional neural network (CNN) termed CNN-BDER on a multisource dataset containing 240
DCIS images and 240 healthy breast images. Based on CNN, batch normalization, dropout, exponential linear unit and
rank-based weighted pooling were integrated, along with L-way data augmentation. Ten runs of tenfold cross validation were
chosen to report the unbiased performances. Our proposed method achieved a sensitivity of 94.08±1.22%, a specificity
of 93.58±1.49 and an accuracy of 93.83±0.96. The proposed method gives superior performance than eight state-of-theart
approaches and manual diagnosis. The trained model could serve as a visual question answering system and improve
diagnostic accuracy.British Heart Foundation Accelerator Award, UKRoyal Society International Exchanges Cost Share Award, UK
RP202G0230Hope Foundation for Cancer Research, UK
RM60G0680Medical Research Council Confidence in Concept Award, UK
MC_PC_17171MINECO/FEDER, Spain/Europe
RTI2018-098913-B100
A-TIC-080-UGR1
Appetite suppressants and valvular heart disease - a systematic review
Background Although appetite suppressants have been implicated in the development of valvular heart disease, the exact level of risk is still uncertain. Initial studies suggested that as many as 1 in 3 exposed patients were affected, but subsequent research has yielded substantially different figures. Our objective was to systematically assess the risk of valvular heart disease with appetite suppressants. Methods We accepted studies involving obese patients treated with any of the following appetite suppressants: fenfluramine, dexfenfluramine, and phentermine. Three types of studies were reviewed: controlled and uncontrolled observational studies, and randomized controlled trials. Outcomes of interest were echocardiographically detectable aortic regurgitation of mild or greater severity, or mitral regurgitation of moderate or greater severity. Results Of the 1279 patients evaluated in seven uncontrolled cohort studies, 236 (18%) and 60 (5%) were found to have aortic and mitral regurgitation, respectively. Pooled data from six controlled cohort studies yielded, for aortic regurgitation, a relative risk ratio of 2.32 (95% confidence intervals 1.79 to 3.01, p < 0.00001) and an attributable rate of 4.9%, and for mitral regurgitation, a relative risk ratio of 1.55 (95% confidence intervals 1.06 to 2.25, p = 0.02) with an attributable rate of 1.0%. Only one case of valvular heart disease was detected in 57 randomized controlled trials, but this was judged unrelated to drug therapy. Conclusions The risk of valvular heart disease is significantly increased by the appetite suppressants reviewed here. Nevertheless, when considering all the evidence, valvulopathy is much less common than suggested by the initial, less methodologically rigorous studies
Explaining the continuum of social participation among older adults in Singapore: from 'closed doors' to active ageing in multi-ethnic community settings.
OBJECTIVES: This study aims to identify and explain the continuum in which older people in Singapore participate in community and social life, highlighting the influence of culture and policy context on social participation. METHODS: Using an ethnographic approach in a neighbourhood (n=109), we conducted focus groups with older adults of different ethnicities, exploring experiences of social participation. Next, participants took 50 photographs relating to 'lives of elders', showcasing the socio-ecological context that influenced social participation. Lastly, go-along interviews were conducted in various precincts with community leaders. RESULTS: A continuum of social participation emerged among older adults, ranging from (1) marginalization and exclusion, to (2) 'comfort-zoning' alone (3) seeking consistent social interactions, (4) expansion of social network, and (5) giving back to society. Seeking consistent social interactions was shaped by a preference for cultural grouping and ethnic values, but also a desire for emotional safety. Attitudes about expanding one's social network depended on the psychosocial adjustment of the older person to the prospect of gossip and 'trouble' of managing social relations. Despite the societal desirability of an active ageing lifestyle, cultural scripts emphasizing family meant older adults organized participation in social and community life, around family responsibilities. Institutionalizing family reliance in Singapore's welfare approach penalized lower-income older adults with little family support from accessing subsidies, and left some living on the margins. DISCUSSION: To promote inclusiveness, ageing programs should address preferences for social participation, overcoming barriers at the individual, ethnic culture and policy level
Concurrent use of prescription drugs and herbal medicinal products in older adults: A systematic review
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.The use of herbal medicinal products (HMPs) is common among older adults. However, little is known about concurrent use with prescription drugs as well as the potential interactions associated with such combinations. Objective Identify and evaluate the literature on concurrent prescription and HMPs use among older adults to assess prevalence, patterns, potential interactions and factors associated with this use. Methods Systematic searches in MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED, Web of Science and Cochrane from inception to May 2017 for studies reporting concurrent use of prescription medicines with HMPs in adults (≥65 years). Quality was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute checklists. The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) three stage approach to mixed method research was used to synthesise data. Results Twenty-two studies were included. A definition of HMPs or what was considered HMP was frequently missing. Prevalence of concurrent use by older adults varied widely between 5.3% and 88.3%. Prescription medicines most combined with HMPs were antihypertensive drugs, beta blockers, diuretics, antihyperlipidemic agents, anticoagulants, analgesics, antihistamines, antidiabetics, antidepressants and statins. The HMPs most frequently used were: ginkgo, garlic, ginseng, St John’s wort, Echinacea, saw palmetto, evening primrose oil and ginger. Potential risks of bleeding due to use of ginkgo, garlic or ginseng with aspirin or warfarin was the most reported herb-drug interaction. Some data suggests being female, a lower household income and less than high school education were associated with concurrent use. Conclusion Prevalence of concurrent prescription drugs and HMPs use among older adults is substantial and potential interactions have been reported. Knowledge of the extent and manner in which older adults combine prescription drugs will aid healthcare professionals can appropriately identify and manage patients at risk.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio
Psychological interventions in asthma
Asthma is a multifactorial chronic respiratory disease characterised by recurrent episodes of airway obstruction. The current management of asthma focuses principally on pharmacological treatments, which have a strong evidence base underlying their use. However, in clinical practice, poor symptom control remains a common problem for patients with asthma. Living with asthma has been linked with psychological co-morbidity including anxiety, depression, panic attacks and behavioural factors such as poor adherence and suboptimal self-management. Psychological disorders have a higher-than-expected prevalence in patients with difficult-to-control asthma. As psychological considerations play an important role in the management of people with asthma, it is not surprising that many psychological therapies have been applied in the management of asthma. There are case reports which support their use as an adjunct to pharmacological therapy in selected individuals, and in some clinical trials, benefit is demonstrated, but the evidence is not consistent. When findings are quantitatively synthesised in meta-analyses, no firm conclusions are able to be drawn and no guidelines recommend psychological interventions. These inconsistencies in findings may in part be due to poor study design, the combining of results of studies using different interventions and the diversity of ways patient benefit is assessed. Despite this weak evidence base, the rationale for psychological therapies is plausible, and this therapeutic modality is appealing to both patients and their clinicians as an adjunct to conventional pharmacological treatments. What are urgently required are rigorous evaluations of psychological therapies in asthma, on a par to the quality of pharmaceutical trials. From this evidence base, we can then determine which interventions are beneficial for our patients with asthma management and more specifically which psychological therapy is best suited for each patient
Understanding consumer demand for new transport technologies and services, and implications for the future of mobility
The transport sector is witnessing unprecedented levels of disruption.
Privately owned cars that operate on internal combustion engines have been the
dominant modes of passenger transport for much of the last century. However,
recent advances in transport technologies and services, such as the development
of autonomous vehicles, the emergence of shared mobility services, and the
commercialization of alternative fuel vehicle technologies, promise to
revolutionise how humans travel. The implications are profound: some have
predicted the end of private car dependent Western societies, others have
portended greater suburbanization than has ever been observed before. If
transport systems are to fulfil current and future needs of different
subpopulations, and satisfy short and long-term societal objectives, it is
imperative that we comprehend the many factors that shape individual behaviour.
This chapter introduces the technologies and services most likely to disrupt
prevailing practices in the transport sector. We review past studies that have
examined current and future demand for these new technologies and services, and
their likely short and long-term impacts on extant mobility patterns. We
conclude with a summary of what these new technologies and services might mean
for the future of mobility.Comment: 15 pages, 0 figures, book chapte
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