An architecture for presenting auditory awareness information in pervasive computing environments

Presented at the 12th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), London, UK, June 20-23, 2006.In this paper we present how awareness can be supported in pervasive computing environments through auditory information. We introduce an application which uses soundscapes to support people's awareness of each other's presence in an office environment. We describe several techniques for construction and control of such soundscapes. Finally, we present an architecture for designing and controlling soundscapes. The architecture is based on managers, agents, evaluators, a blackboard information storage, and a control language, it emphasizes reusability and extensibility, and it is built upon a common system framework

Are a lack social relationships and cigarette smoking really equally powerful predictors of mortality? Analyses of data from two cohort studies

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The AuthorsObjective: The suggestion from cross-review comparison that lower levels of social integration (social isolation, loneliness) and cigarette smoking are equally powerful predictors of premature mortality has been promulgated by policy organisations and widely reported in the media. For the first time, we examined this assertion by simultaneously comparing these associations using data from two large cohort studies. Study design: Individual-participant analyses of two large prospective cohort studies. Methods: Participants in UK Biobank and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing reported loneliness, social-isolation and smoking behaviours using standard scales at baseline. Cause-specific mortality was ascertained via linkage to national registries. We used Cox regression analyses to compute a relative index of inequality to summarise the relation between these baseline characteristics and mortality experience. Results: Mean age at baseline was 56.5 years in the 466,876 (273,452 women) Biobank participants and 66.1 years in the 7505 (4123 women) English Longitudinal Study of Ageing members. In Biobank, a mean duration of mortality surveillance of 6.6 years gave rise to a total of 13,072 deaths, while in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, 1183 deaths occurred after a mean of 7.7 years. In ascending magnitude, loneliness, social isolation then cigarette smoking were associated with an increased risk of mortality from all-causes and all cancers combined. When cardiovascular disease mortality was the endpoint of interest, both smoking and social isolation, though not loneliness, revealed similar relationships. Conclusions: Contrary to cross-review comparisons, in the present datasets it appears that poor social integration is in fact less strongly linked to total mortality than cigarette smoking.Peer reviewe

Estimating relative survival among people registered with cancer in England and Wales

Because routinely collected survival data for cancer patients in England and Wales do not typically specify cause of death, conventional estimates of survival in cancer patients based on such data are a measure of their mortality from all causes rather than their mortality due to cancer. As a result, trends in survival over time are difficult to interpret because changes in overall survival may well reflect changes in the risk of death from other causes, rather than from the cancer of interest. One way of overcoming this problem is to use some form of ‘relative survival’ defined as a measure of survival corrected for the effect of other independent causes of death. Since this concept was first introduced, various methods for calculating relative survival have been proposed and this had led to some confusion as to the most appropriate choice of estimate. This paper aims to provide an introduction to the concept of relative survival and reviews some of the suggested methods of estimation. In addition, a particularly simple, but robust approach, is highlighted based on expected and observed mortality. This method is illustrated using preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics on cancer survival in patients born after 1939 and diagnosed with cancer during 1972–84. The examples presented, although limited to analyses on a small number of selected sites, highlight some encouraging trends in survival in people aged under 35 diagnosed with leukaemia, Hodgkin's disease and testicular cancer during this period. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

Personality, disability-free life years, and life expectancy: Individual participant meta-analysis of 131,195 individuals from 10 cohort studies

Objective: We examined how personality traits of the Five Factor Model were related to years of healthy life years lost (mortality and disability) for individuals and the population. / Method: Participants were 131,195 individuals from 10 cohort studies from Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States (n = 43,935 from seven cohort studies for the longitudinal analysis of disability, assessed using scales of Activities of Daily Living). / Results: Lower Conscientiousness was associated with higher mortality and disability risk, but only when Conscientiousness was below its median level. If the excess risk associated with low Conscientiousness had been absent, population life expectancy would have been 1.3 years longer and disability‐free life 1.0 years longer. Lower emotional stability was related to shorter life expectancy, but only among those in the lowest 15% of the distribution, and disability throughout the distribution: if the excess risk associated with low emotional stability had been absent, population life expectancy would have been 0.4 years longer and disability‐free life 2.4 years longer. / Conclusions: Personality traits of low Conscientiousness and low emotional stability are associated with reduced healthy life expectancy of individuals and population

Association of social isolation, loneliness and genetic risk with incidence of dementia: UK Biobank Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Social isolation and loneliness have been associated with increased risk of dementia, but it is not known whether this risk is modified or confounded by genetic risk of dementia. METHODS: We used the prospective UK Biobank study with 155 070 participants (mean age 64.1 years), including self-reported social isolation and loneliness. Genetic risk was indicated using the polygenic risk score for Alzheimer's disease and the incident dementia ascertained using electronic health records. RESULTS: Overall, 8.6% of participants reported that they were socially isolated and 5.5% were lonely. During a mean follow-up of 8.8 years (1.36 million person years), 1444 (0.9% of the total sample) were diagnosed with dementia. Social isolation, but not loneliness, was associated with increased risk of dementia (HR 1.62, 95% CI 1.38 to 1.90). There were no interaction effects between genetic risk and social isolation or between genetic risk and loneliness predicting incident dementia. Of the participants who were socially isolated and had high genetic risk, 4.4% (95% CI 3.4% to 5.5%) were estimated to developed dementia compared with 2.9% (95% CI 2.6% to 3.2%) of those who were not socially isolated but had high genetic risk. Comparable differences were also in those with intermediate and low genetic risk levels. CONCLUSIONS: Socially isolated individuals are at increased risk of dementia at all levels of genetic risk

The association between early-onset schizophrenia with employment, income, education, and cohabitation status : nationwide study with 35 years of follow-up

Purpose Individuals with schizophrenia have been reported to have low employment rates. We examined the associations of schizophrenia with employment, income, and status of cohabitation from a work life course perspective. Methods Nationwide cohort study including all individuals (n = 2,390,127) born in Denmark between 1955 and 1991, who were alive at their 25th birthday. Diagnosis of schizophrenia (yes/no) between ages 15 and 25 was used as an exposure. Employment status, annual wage or self-employment earnings, level of education, and cohabitant status from the age of 25–61 (years 1980–2016) were used as outcomes. Results Schizophrenia diagnosis between ages 15 and 25 (n = 9448) was associated with higher odds of not being employed (at the age of 30: OR 39.4, 95% CI 36.5–42.6), having no secondary or higher education (7.4, 7.0–7.8), and living alone (7.6, 7.2–8.1). These odds ratios were two-to-three times lower and decreasing over time for those individuals who did not receive treatment in a psychiatric inpatient or outpatient clinic for schizophrenia after the age of 25. Between ages 25–61, individuals with schizophrenia have cumulative earning of $224,000, which is 14% of the amount that the individuals who have not been diagnosed with schizophrenia earn. Conclusions Individuals with schizophrenia are at high risk of being outside the labour market and living alone throughout their entire life, resulting in an enormous societal loss in earnings. Individuals with less chronic course of schizophrenia had a gradual but substantial improvement throughout their work life.Peer reviewe

Structural and functional aspects of social support as predictors of mental and physical health trajectories: Whitehall II cohort study

BACKGROUND: Social support is associated with better health. However, only a limited number of studies have examined the association of social support with health from the adult life course perspective and whether this association is bidirectional. METHODS: Participants (n=6797; 30% women; age range from 40 to 77 years) who were followed from 1989 (phase 2) to 2006 (phase 8) were selected from the ongoing Whitehall II Study. Structural and functional social support was measured at follow-up phases 2, 5 and 7. Mental and physical health was measured at five consecutive follow-up phases (3–8). RESULTS: Social support predicted better mental health, and certain functional aspects of social support, such as higher practical support and higher levels of negative aspects in social relationships, predicted poorer physical health. The association between negative aspects of close relationships and physical health was found to strengthen over the adult life course. In women, the association between marital status and mental health weakened until the age of approximately 60 years. Better mental and physical health was associated with higher future social support. CONCLUSIONS: The strength of the association between social support and health may vary over the adult life course. The association with health seems to be bidirectional

Estrogenic Effects of Toremifene and Tamoxifen in Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Patients

Intrinsic estrogenicities of the selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) toremifene 60 mg daily or 200 mg daily and tamoxifen 20 mg daily (TOR60, TOR200 and TAM20) were compared in a randomized clinical study in postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer. The study was open label in three parallel groups. Variables for analysis were serum follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), estradiol (E2), antithrombin III (AT III), aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT) and vaginal cytology. Clinical efficacy and safety have been reported earlier. A total of 648 patients were randomized (221 to TOR60, 212 to TOR200 and 215 to TAM20). Sera were available for the analysis from 148, 165 and 156 and for vaginal cytology from 98, 93 and 86 patients, respectively. All treatment regimens showed tissue-specific and dose-dependent estrogen agonist effect. In the primary measure of in vivo estrogenicity, effect on hypothalamus–pituitary-axis, all three treatment regimens decreased serum FSH ( p < 0.001). TOR200 was more potent than the two other treatments ( p < 0.05), but surprisingly, TAM20 was more estrogenic than TOR60 ( p < 0.001). As could be expected in postmenopausal women, the treatments had no effect on mean serum E2 concentrations and decrease of serum LH was similar to that of FSH. Estrogenic effect on the liver was seen as dose-dependent increase of SHBG with statistically significant differences between the treatment groups ( p < 0.001). Trends of transient ASAT elevations in TOR200 group ( p = 0.07) and in all treatment groups AT III decrease ( p = 0.1) were seen in the beginning of the treatment. TOR60 or TAM20 did not have an effect on mean ASAT values, and AT III decreased in TAM20 group more than in the two other groups ( p = 0.1 compared to TOR60 and p < 0.05 compared to TOR200). Estrogenic effects on vaginal superficial cells were higher in TOR60 and TOR200 groups when compared to TAM20 ( p < 0.05). Toremifene and tamoxifen had tissue-specific and partially dose-dependent estrogenic effects in hypothalamus–pituitary-axis, in the liver and in the vaginal epithelium of postmenopausal women. In some tissues tamoxifen 20 may be more estrogenic than toremifene 60 mg/day.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44217/1/10549_2004_Article_5150739.pd