Detecting Periods of Eating in Everyday Life by Tracking Wrist Motion — What is a Meal?

Eating is one of the most basic activities observed in sentient animals, a behavior so natural that humans often eating without giving the activity a second thought. Unfortunately, this often leads to consuming more calories than expended, which can cause weight gain - a leading cause of diseases and death. This proposal describes research in methods to automatically detect periods of eating by tracking wrist motion so that calorie consumption can be tracked. We first briefly discuss how obesity is caused due to an imbalance in calorie intake and expenditure. Calorie consumption and expenditure can be tracked manually using tools like paper diaries, however it is well known that human bias can affect the accuracy of such tracking. Researchers in the upcoming field of automated dietary monitoring (ADM) are attempting to track diet using electronic methods in an effort to mitigate this bias. We attempt to replicate a previous algorithm that detects eating by tracking wrist motion electronically. The previous algorithm was evaluated on data collected from 43 subjects using an iPhone as the sensor. Periods of time are segmented first, and then classified using a naive Bayesian classifier. For replication, we describe the collection of the Clemson all-day data set (CAD), a free-living eating activity dataset containing 4,680 hours of wrist motion collected from 351 participants - the largest of its kind known to us. We learn that while different sensors are available to log wrist acceleration data, no unified convention exists, and this data must thus be transformed between conventions. We learn that the performance of the eating detection algorithm is affected due to changes in the sensors used to track wrist motion, increased variability in behavior due to a larger participant pool, and the ratio of eating to non-eating in the dataset. We learn that commercially available acceleration sensors contain noise in their reported readings which affects wrist tracking specifically due to the low magnitude of wrist acceleration. Commercial accelerometers can have noise up to 0.06g which is acceptable in applications like automobile crash testing or pedestrian indoor navigation, but not in ones using wrist motion. We quantify linear acceleration noise in our free-living dataset. We explain sources of noise, a method to mitigate it, and also evaluate the effect of this noise on the eating detection algorithm. By visualizing periods of eating in the collected dataset we learn that that people often conduct secondary activities while eating, such as walking, watching television, working, and doing household chores. These secondary activities cause wrist motions that obfuscate wrist motions associated with eating, which increases the difficulty of detecting periods of eating (meals). Subjects reported conducting secondary activities in 72% of meals. Analysis of wrist motion data revealed that the wrist was resting 12.8% of the time during self-reported meals, compared to only 6.8% of the time in a cafeteria dataset. Walking motion was found during 5.5% of the time during meals in free-living, compared to 0% in the cafeteria. Augmenting an eating detection classifier to include walking and resting detection improved the average per person accuracy from 74% to 77% on our free-living dataset (t[353]=7.86, p\u3c0.001). This suggests that future data collections for eating activity detection should also collect detailed ground truth on secondary activities being conducted during eating. Finally, learning from this data collection, we describe a convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect periods of eating by tracking wrist motion during everyday life. Eating uses hand-to-mouth gestures for ingestion, each of which lasts appx 1-5 sec. The novelty of our new approach is that we analyze a much longer window (0.5-15 min) that can contain other gestures related to eating, such as cutting or manipulating food, preparing foods for consumption, and resting between ingestion events. The context of these other gestures can improve the detection of periods of eating. We found that accuracy at detecting eating increased by 15% in longer windows compared to shorter windows. Overall results on CAD were 89% detection of meals with 1.7 false positives for every true positive (FP/TP), and a time weighted accuracy of 80%

A Device to Record Naturally Daily Wrist Motion

We introduce a new device to record and store wrist motion activity data. The motivation to create this device was the fact that this data can be used to detect periods of eating or the number of bites consumed. There is no similar device available in the market. This device uses new components that have been recently introduced to the market, and newer techniques that can be used for low quantity production. The production cost for this device was $52, similar to other fitness trackers on the market. The device was capable of recording wrist motion activity for 24 hours and was similar in weight to a wrist watch

An Analytical Study of Human Rights and Women

Human rights are those rights which a human being has only because he is humane. Man is considered to be the most intelligent creature of all the living beings on earth and is expected to live within the bounds of Morality and Law. According to the Law, rights cannot be discriminated on the basis of men and women. Women and children are the real capital of any country. Any country can progress only when there is proper development on women. They have the right to join the mainstream of the country. The preamble to the charter of the United Nations states that “We the people of the United Nations express our faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and importance and value of human beings and is the equal rights of man and women.” Along with this, the rights of equality of women have been declared in United Nations organisation charter. This research paper highlights the present status of women in various countries including India and their on-going human rights violation

Critical Pedagogy and Equity Promotion in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classroom

This paper explores English language teachers’ perception of critical pedagogy and equity promotion in lingo-cultural diverse classroom. The study concerns how the teachers find multicultural students’ problems and address them in the classroom. The study further investigates how teachers use dimensions of equity (multicultural education, social justice education and culturally responsive pedagogy) to promote social harmony, critical awareness and independent learning. In the study, I have used narrative inquiry as a research method, selected six participants purposively from public schools of Kathmandu and collected information from in-depth semi-structured interviews. I have employed multiple layers of thematic analysis, interpreted narrative data and developed six different themes: facility and access, classroom management, language and behavior, classroom activities, feedback and reinforcement and evaluation procedures. On the basis of this study, what I found that school environment, classroom activities, evaluation procedures and feedback and reinforcement are the major factors for the influence of their students’ participation. The school management has major role to facilitate and encourage teachers for the promotion of students centered methods such as project based learning and collaborative learning. Along all these aforementioned themes, teachers have prominent role to run active participatory classroom activities through student friendly activities like language games and healthy academic debate. Not only that, teachers are equally responsible to identify at-risk students and address their issues immediately to promote independent learning. Furthermore, to evaluate students’ progress, intra-personal comparative evaluation procedure is found more effective than inter-personal comparative evaluation procedures to encourage them to strive ahead with self-respect. The study expects relevant recommendations in the field of content-based child-friendly teaching learning activities where students participate actively enjoy the activities and learn from self and others

Use of Library for Promoting Students’ Learning

Library practices in schools exert significant influence on students’ learning attitude and behavior. This paper explores the existing situation of library practices in community and institutional schools of Nepal. Despite a number of options to educate students in school from library-use, library provision and its existing practices in community and institutional schools in Nepal are still unsearched. In context students study only during the time of their class, assignment and examination preparation, how the schools make use of library for the promotion of students’ learning is the main concern of the study. Information for the study was collected from fieldnotes and lived experiences of eight participants: one teacher and one student from each of four schools: two institutional and two community. The study found that teachers in community schools occasionally visit the library and rarely encourage their students to benefit from the library. However, some students were found to borrow books from the library. As students in institutional schools have library period once a week, they enjoy reading books or doing something in the library. Overall library practice in Nepal lacks adequate proficiency in management, administration, and provision of study materials; and ultimately has not motivated students’ hearty participation

Teaching Programming to the Post-Millennial Generation: Pedagogic Considerations for an IS Course

Teaching introductory programming to IS students is challenging. The educational, technological, demographic, and cultural landscape has changed dramatically in recent years. The post-millennial generation has different needs and expectations in an era of open resources. Learning to program is perceived as difficult, teaching approaches are diverse, and there is little research on what works best. In this paper, we share our experiences in developing, testing, and implementing a new design for teaching introductory IS programming at the undergraduate level. We describe pedagogic considerations and present teaching tips for a blended course that combines best practices with experimentation. Our approach recognizes the changing nature of the student body, the needs of an IS major in the current environment, and the worldwide shift in education from instructor-centered to student-centered learning

Economics of production and marketing of natural rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) in Jhapa, Nepal

A study was carried to assess the production and marketing status of natural rubber in Jhapa district in 2019, from a random sample of 70 households and 5 traders. Results were drawn using descriptive and inferential statistics employing SPSS and MS-Excel. The average area under natural rubber cultivation was 2.2 bigha and the productive area was 1.21 bigha. The average rubber sheet produced per household was 1167.092 kg and average yield was found to be 958.77 kg/bigha in the study area. The average annual household income from natural rubber was found to be NRs. 233418.57 which contributes 58.54 percent in the total household income. Three marketing channels were identified and the price spread ranged from NRs. 20 to 40. The producers’ share in consumers’ price ranged from 81.82% to 90.91%. The major production problem identified was the lodging by wind (0.80) and the major marketing problem faced by producers and traders was the absence of grading facility (0.82). Rubber farms were found to be a profitable farm enterprise with a discounted benefit-cost ratio of 1.88. The calculated NPV was 410992.40, IRR was 22% and PBP was 8.52 years respectively denoting the sustainability of rubber cultivation. RRIM 600, RRII 105 and GT1 were the major growing varieties of rubber in the study area. The cost of establishment in the first year (48.702%) is highest compared to the following years. The selling price of latex and sheet was found higher in 2015 and 2016 with a reduction of price in 2017 due to the high import of Indonesian rubber sheet. This research tries to present the general idea on the overall production and marketing status in the study area

Trigeminal neuralgia in an elderly male patient with serologically proven myasthenia gravis: Co-occurrence or causation?

Trigeminal neuralgia and myasthenia gravis, both are debilitating neurological pathologies causing a significant negative impact on a person's quality of life by virtue of symptoms like unrelenting excruciating pain and muscle weakness respectively. The case was distinct as the elderly male presented with two variable presentations of distinct neurological diseases over a short period. He presented to us with sudden onset ptosis and monocular diplopia followed by sharp stabbing lancinating hemifacial pain around the V1-V2 region two months later. Hereby, trigeminal neuralgia was diagnosed in a case of seropositive ocular myasthenia gravis. Timely and appropriate diagnoses were made with the support of pertinent investigation and imaging and a relevant treatment plan was commenced

RECENT APPROACHES IN GLUCOSE RESPONSIVE INSULIN DELIVERY SYSTEM

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic medical condition currently affecting 382 million people across the globe, caused due to increased blood glucose levels due to less insulin production or insulin resistance. Subcutaneous insulin administration for diabetes is the only most accepted therapy for maintaining blood glucose levels in diabetic patients. Many patients with advanced type II diabetes mellitus need to regularly monitor their blood glucose level to keep their blood glucose level in the target range. However long-term insulin therapy through an invasive route of administration causes problems with patient compliance and a sudden decrease in blood glucose levels. An artificial closed-loop insulin release system that mimics the glucose-responsive insulin secretion by β-cells of pancreas is one of the ways to overcome the problem faced with the conventional method of insulin administration. Many polymeric formulations showed an improved glucose-responsive release of insulin when incorporated with glucose-responsive catalysts such as glucose oxidase, phenylboronic acid, and glucose binding proteins, the release rate can be controlled by optimizing the concentration of glucose-responsive catalysts. This article is been focused on different mechanisms of glucose-responsive release by incorporation with glucose-responsive catalysts

Effect of glimepiride compared with glibenclamide on post prandial blood sugar in type II diabetes mellitus patients

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a major public health problem with many complications. The Global Burden of Diabetes Study has projected that there will be a 122% increase in the number of people with diabetes mellitus worldwide in 2025 compared to 1995. Despite the availability of new agents for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus oral sulfonylureas remain a cornerstone of therapy.Glibenclamide and glimepiride are widely used sulfonylurea antidiabetic drugs.Methods: A randomized, open, parallel group study was conducted by the Department of Pharmacology in association with Department of Medicine at Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Medical Sciences & Research (MMIMSR), Mullana, Ambala. Total 50 patients were divided into two groups I & II. In Group I (n=25) glibenclamide (5-15 mg/day) & in Group II (n=25) glimepiride (1-6mg/day) was administered for a period of 24 weeks and data analyzed by Student’s “t”- test.Results: There was a significant improvement in  the post prandial blood sugar score (p0.05) between the two groups.Conclusions: Both the drugs glibenclamide and glimepiride were effectively reduced post prandial blood sugar in both the groups. But these sulfonylurea drugs lowered post prandial blood sugar to a similar degree without significant difference between the two groups