Medical data processing and analysis for remote health and activities monitoring

Recent developments in sensor technology, wearable computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and wireless communication have given rise to research in ubiquitous healthcare and remote monitoring of human\u2019s health and activities. Health monitoring systems involve processing and analysis of data retrieved from smartphones, smart watches, smart bracelets, as well as various sensors and wearable devices. Such systems enable continuous monitoring of patients psychological and health conditions by sensing and transmitting measurements such as heart rate, electrocardiogram, body temperature, respiratory rate, chest sounds, or blood pressure. Pervasive healthcare, as a relevant application domain in this context, aims at revolutionizing the delivery of medical services through a medical assistive environment and facilitates the independent living of patients. In this chapter, we discuss (1) data collection, fusion, ownership and privacy issues; (2) models, technologies and solutions for medical data processing and analysis; (3) big medical data analytics for remote health monitoring; (4) research challenges and opportunities in medical data analytics; (5) examples of case studies and practical solutions

Reference values of whole-blood fatty acids by age and sex from European children aged 3-8 years

OBJECTIVES: To establish reference values for fatty acids (FA) especially for n-3 and n-6 long-chain polyunsaturated FAs (LC PUFA) in whole-blood samples from apparently healthy 3-8-year-old European children. The whole-blood FA composition was analysed and the age-and sex-specific distribution of FA was determined. DESIGN AND SUBJECTS: Blood samples for FA analysis were taken from 2661 children of the IDEFICS (identification and prevention of dietary-and lifestyle-induced health effects in children and infants) study cohort. Children with obesity (n = 454) and other diseases that are known to alter the FA composition (n = 450) were excluded leaving 1653 participants in the reference population. MEASUREMENTS: The FA composition of whole blood was analysed from blood drops by a rapid, validated gas chromatographic method. RESULTS: Pearson correlation coefficients showed an age-dependent increase of C18:2n-6 and a decrease of C18:1n-9 in a subsample of normal weight boys and girls. Other significant correlations with age were weak and only seen either in boys or in girls, whereas most of the FA did not show any age dependence. For age-dependent n-3 and n-6 PUFA as well as for other FA that are correlated with age (16:0, C18:0 and C18:1n-9) percentiles analysed with the general additive model for location scale and shape are presented. A higher median in boys than in girls was observed for C20:3n-6, C20:4n-6 and C22:4n-6. CONCLUSIONS: Given the reported associations between FA status and health-related outcome, the provision of FA reference ranges may be useful for the interpretation of the FA status of children in epidemiological and clinical studies

Formation of a Bacteriostatic Surface on ZrNb Alloy via Anodization in a Solution Containing Cu Nanoparticles

High strength, excellent corrosion resistance, high biocompatibility, osseointegration ability, and low bacteria adhesion are critical properties of metal implants. Additionally, the implant surface plays a critical role as the cell and bacteria host, and the development of a simultaneously antibacterial and biocompatible implant is still a crucial challenge. Copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) could be a promising alternative to silver in antibacterial surface engineering due to low cell toxicity. In our study, we assessed the biocompatibility and antibacterial properties of a PEO (plasma electrolytic oxidation) coating incorporated with CuNPs (Cu nanoparticles). The structural and chemical parameters of the CuNP and PEO coating were studied with TEM/SEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy/Scanning Electron Microscopy), EDX (Energy-Dispersive X-ray Dpectroscopy), and XRD (X-ray Diffraction) methods. Cell toxicity and bacteria adhesion tests were used to prove the surface safety and antibacterial properties. We can conclude that PEO on a ZrNb alloy in Ca–P solution with CuNPs formed a stable ceramic layer incorporated with Cu nanoparticles. The new surface provided better osteoblast adhesion in all time-points compared with the nontreated metal and showed medium grade antibacterial activities. PEO at 450 V provided better antibacterial properties that are recommended for further investigation

An Ann-Based Scalable Hashing Algorithm for Computational Clouds with Schedulers

The significant benefits of cloud computing (CC) resulted in an explosion of their usage in the last several years. From the security perspective, CC systems have to offer solutions that fulfil international standards and regulations. In this paper, we propose a model for a hash function having a scalable output. The model is based on an artificial neural network trained to mimic the chaotic behaviour of the Mackey-Glass time series. This hashing method can be used for data integrity checking and digital signature generation. It enables constructing cryptographic services according to the user requirements and time constraints due to scalable output. Extensive simulation experiments are conduced to prove its cryptographic strength, including three tests: a bit prediction test, a series test, and a Hamming distance test. Additionally, flexible hashing function performance tests are run using the CloudSim simulator mimicking a cloud with a global scheduler to investigate the possibility of idle time consumption of virtual machines that may be spent on the scalable hashing protocol. The results obtained show that the proposed hashing method can be used for building light cryptographic protocols. It also enables incorporating the integrity checking algorithm that lowers the idle time of virtual machines during batch task processing

Performance optimization of edge computing homeland security support applications

Critical distributed applications have strict requirements over performance parameters, that may affect life of users. This is a limitation that may prevent the exploitation of cost effective solutions such as Cloud Computing (CC) based architectures: in fact, the quality of the connection with the CC facility and the lack of control on cloud resources may limit the overall performances of an application and may cause outages. A way to overcome the problem, and disclose the advantages of CC to critical applications, is provided by Edge Computing (EC). EC adds local support to CC, allowing a better distribution of application tasks according to their timeliness requirements. In this paper we present an innovative Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) support application, designed to empower effective operations in wide scenarios, that leverages EC to join CC elasticity and local immediateness, and we exploit Queuing Networks (QN) and Genetic Algorithms (GA) to design and optimize the system parameters for an effective workload distribution

Multiorigination of chromatographic peaks in derivatized GC/MS metabolomics: A confounder that influences metabolic pathway interpretation

10.1021/pr900738bJournal of Proteome Research8125657-566