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Wireless Health Monitoring Via New 'Electronic Skin' Patches

2012-06-21T21:34:00.003-07:00

Like the colorful temporary tattoos that children stick to their arms for fun, people may one day put thin "electronic skin" patches onto their arms to wirelessly diagnose health problems or deliver treatments. A scientist reported on the development of "electronic skin" that paves the way for such innovations at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society.

John Rogers, Ph.D., said the patches have the potential to eliminate the need for patients to stay tethered to large machines in a doctor's office or hospital room for hours of treatment or monitoring. Each year, hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide have electroencephalograms, electrocardiograms and electromyograms to check the health of their brains, hearts or muscles.

The procedures are uncomfortable, Rogers explained, with patients hooked to machines by cumbersome wires or pins adhering to the skin with gels or tape that can be painful to remove and can leave a sticky residue. More importantly, the tests detect brain, heart and muscle activity while patients are in a medical setting, rather than carrying out activities of everyday life.

"A key feature of our epidermal electronics is its natural interface to the body, without wires, pins, adhesives or gels, to allow a much more comfortable and functional system," said Rogers. "The technology can be used to monitor brain, heart or muscle activity in a completely noninvasive way, while a patient is at home."

The electronic skin patches are about the thickness of a human hair, and wearers can't feel them on their skin. They could even be covered up with a real temporary tattoo. Despite their miniscule dimensions, the patches can pack full-scale electronic circuits needed to monitor health status with wireless capabilities that can, with future development, be used to transmit data to the patient's cell phone and on to the doctor's office.

Rogers and colleagues at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign developed the patches to not only be flexible, but stretchable to move with the natural motions of the skin as people go about their normal business. This was a big challenge, however. Silicon-based wafers are typically used for electronics, such as laptops and smartphones. But these wafers are hard and brittle, like glass. To get these onto a material that bends and stretches like skin or rubber, they had to use very small pieces in a wavy pattern. "We had to structure the system in a strategic way that would avoid any strains or stresses that would crack or fracture these tiny bits of silicon," Rogers explained.

The patches are transferred to the skin just like a temporary tattoo, with water and a backing that peels off. The first versions wore off after a day or sooner if they got wet. The latest version is applied in the same way, but a modified form of the spray-on bandages sold in drugstores is applied over the patch. The spray protects the circuit from water and normal wear-and-tear and keeps it on the skin for up to a week. In this format, the devices can accommodate transpiration, sweat and even washing with soapy water.

"We've also figured out how to make the devices operate in a bi-directional way," Rogers explained. "The older devices only measure what's going on in the body. Our newest patch can measure muscle activity and stimulate the muscles. That's useful for rehabilitation after an accident or long periods of bed rest or even for helping people move prosthetic limbs more easily." And with plans to add Wi-Fi capabilities, electronic skin could also send information back to a physician.

A company Rogers co-founded called mc10 is going a step further and putting the patches on medical instruments that go inside the body, such as catheters, which are balloon-like tubes used in heart surgery. The electronic skin patch is placed on the outside surface of the catheter. When the catheter expands in the heart, the patch expands with it and touches the inside of the heart, taking measurements used to guide surgery.

Rogers said the patches also could have applications in other areas useful for the consumer. For example, new devices allow monitoring and depth-profiling of skin hydration, with relevance in sports, skin-care and cosmetics, alike.

Fast, Cheap DNA Sequencing Feasible With Tiny Reader

2012-06-21T21:34:00.001-07:00

Researchers have devised a nanoscale sensor to electronically read the sequence of a single DNA molecule, a technique that is fast and inexpensive and could make DNA sequencing widely available.

The technique could lead to affordable personalized medicine, potentially revealing predispositions for afflictions such as cancer, diabetes or addiction.

"There is a clear path to a workable, easily produced sequencing platform," said Jens Gundlach, a University of Washington physics professor who leads the research team. "We augmented a protein nanopore we developed for this purpose with a molecular motor that moves a DNA strand through the pore a nucleotide at a time."

The researchers previously reported creating the nanopore by genetically engineering a protein pore from a mycobacterium. The nanopore, from Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A, has an opening 1 billionth of a meter in size, just large enough for a single DNA strand to pass through.

To make it work as a reader, the nanopore was placed in a membrane surrounded by potassium-chloride solution, with a small voltage applied to create an ion current flowing through the nanopore. The electrical signature changes depending on the type of nucleotide traveling through the nanopore. Each type of DNA nucleotide - cytosine, guanine, adenine and thymine - produces a distinctive signature.

The researchers attached a molecular motor, taken from an enzyme associated with replication of a virus, to pull the DNA strand through the nanopore reader. The motor was first used in a similar effort by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, but they used a different pore that could not distinguish the different nucleotide types.

Gundlach is the corresponding author of a paper published online March 25 by Nature Biotechnology that reports a successful demonstration of the new technique using six different strands of DNA. The results corresponded to the already known DNA sequence of the strands, which had readable regions 42 to 53 nucleotides long.

"The motor pulls the strand through the pore at a manageable speed of tens of milliseconds per nucleotide, which is slow enough to be able to read the current signal," Gundlach said.

Gundlach said the nanopore technique also can be used to identify how DNA is modified in a given individual. Such modifications, referred to as epigenetic DNA modifications, take place as chemical reactions within cells and are underlying causes of various conditions.

"Epigenetic modifications are rather important for things like cancer," he said. Being able to provide DNA sequencing that can identify epigenetic changes "is one of the charms of the nanopore sequencing method."

Predicting Malaria Outbreaks In India Using Climate Model

2012-06-21T21:33:00.001-07:00

Scientists from the University of Liverpool are working with computer modelling specialists in India to predict areas of the country that are at most risk of malaria outbreaks, following changes in monsoon rainfall.

The number of heavy rainfall events in India has increased over the past 50 years, but research has tended to focus on the impact this has on agriculture rather than the vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and Japanese Encephalitis.

The University's School of Environmental Sciences is working with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research's (CSIR) Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation (C-MMACS), Bangalore, to develop technology that will help decision makers and planners target areas that are prone to large scale climate variability and malaria epidemics.

The number of malaria cases in India has dropped from two million a year to 1.5 million in recent years, but the percentage of the more dangerous form of the disease, P. falciparum infection, has increased in some areas. The model could help inform early intervention methods to prevent the spread of malaria at key points in the seasonal monsoon cycle, reducing the economic and health impacts of the disease.

Dr Andy Morse, from the University's School of Environmental Sciences, said: "We already know that an anomalous season of heavy rainfall, when heat and humidity are high, allows insects such as mosquitoes to thrive and spread infection to humans. In order to prepare health services and prevent epidemics we must have a way of predicting when these events are likely to occur in areas that are not accustomed to annual outbreaks of malaria.

"Liverpool has developed human and animal disease models that can be integrated into seasonal forecasting systems to give a picture of what the climate impacts on disease risk will be like in four to six months time."

Dr Prashant Goswami, from C-MMACS, India, said: "We are rapidly developing our computer modelling capabilities using technology that can address the impacts of climate variability on agriculture and water systems. This knowledge, together with the Liverpool models of vector-borne diseases, will help us develop systems to predict when changes in the monsoonal rain may occur and which areas are most likely to see an increase in malaria.

"Health authorities in India are already very successful at controlling malaria cases, but this new research should support decision makers in keeping ahead of the more serious occurrences of the disease, which is starting to increase across the country alongside the changing climate conditions."

Smartcard Developed To Communicate Radiation Risks Of Adult Radiologic Exams

2012-06-21T21:32:00.003-07:00

According to a study in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology, the department of radiology at the University of Colorado in Denver has developed a convenient, pocket-sized reference card to communicate the effective doses and radiation risks of common adult radiologic exams to referring physicians and patients. The Adult Dose-Risk Smartcard is part of the department's ongoing efforts to ensure safe medical imaging.

The Adult Dose-Risk Smartcard is intended to facilitate radiation risk consultations and improve patient satisfaction by simplifying essential facts on radiation dose and risk to a level of understanding by referring physicians and their patients.

"This allows patients to make more informed decisions about the relative risks of radiologic examinations compared with the medical risk caused by refusing a recommended imaging procedure," said R. Edward Hendrick, PhD, lead author of the article.

To put doses and risks in perspective, the smartcard permits the comparison of effective doses from various radiologic examinations to natural background radiation levels. The smartcard also provides a color-coded scale categorizing risks of a fatal radiation-induced cancer and permits comparison to risks of death from other causes. Most estimates of cancer risk from the low-dose radiation exposures in the smartcard are based on the latest report from the International Commission on Radiological Protection.

"We recognize that there may be significant age-dependent and gender-dependent variations in both radiation dose and risk estimates. The Adult Dose-Risk Smartcard does not attempt to incorporate all of those variations but instead to communicate a representative estimate of effective doses and radiation risks to adults from various radiologic procedures," said Hendrick.

"Like other radiology departments, the University of Colorado Department of Radiology is dedicated to the goal of ensuring that patients undergoing diagnostic examinations receive the minimum radiation dose needed to yield a medical benefit," he said.

Social Exclusion: Being Ignored Online Or In Person, It's Still Exclusion

2012-06-21T21:32:00.001-07:00

People who are excluded by others online, such as on Facebook, may feel just as bad as if they had been excluded in person, according to researchers at Penn State and Misericordia University.

"If you've ever felt bad about being 'ignored' on Facebook you're not alone," said Joshua Smyth, professor of biobehavioral health and of medicine at Penn State. "Facebook -- with its approximately 800 million users -- serves as a place to forge social connections; however, it is often a way to exclude others without the awkwardness of a face-to-face interaction. Most people would probably expect that being ignored or rejected via a remote source like the Internet would not hurt as much as being rejected in person. Yet, our studies show that people may experience similar psychological reactions to online exclusion as they do with face-to-face exclusion." Smyth and Kelly Filipkowski, assistant professor of psychology at Misericordia University, conducted two studies examining the perceptions of and reactions to face-to-face and online chat room exclusion. In the first study, the team asked more than 275 college students to anticipate how they would feel in a hypothetical exclusion scenario in which they were ignored during a conversation. The participants said they expected that they would feel somewhat distressed and that their self-esteem would drop, regardless of whether the rejection occurred in a chat room or in person; however, they expected the in-person exclusion to feel worse. According to Smyth, such anticipated reactions are important as they may help determine how people make decisions about situations that they perceive as holding some risk of rejection -- attending a party where they do not know anyone or participating in an online dating event. In the second study, Smyth and Filipkowski set up two scenarios in which 77 unsuspecting college students were ignored during a staged "get to know each other" conversation. Half of the participants were excluded in person, while the other half were excluded in an online chat-room setting.

The students operating face to face believed they were participating in a study on the formation of impressions in casual settings. They thought they would briefly interact with two other student participants and then supply the researchers with their impressions of themselves and the others.

The students involved in the chat-room conversation believed they were participating in a study to investigate the formation of impressions when individuals do not receive visual cues from one another. In reality, the researchers set up both scenarios -- the in-person conversations and the chat-room conversations -- so student participants would be ignored by student research assistants trained to pose as study participants.

The team found that participants in both scenarios responded similarly to being excluded.

"Contrary to our expectation, the students' responses to rejection were not primarily characterized by severe distress, but rather characterized by numbness and distancing or withdrawal," Smyth said.

Overall, the team showed that the participants expected the exclusion to be much worse than what they actually reported when they experienced the exclusion. The results of both studies appeared in a recent online issue of Computers in Human Behavior.

"What we found interesting is that in the lab setting, the vast majority of participants attributed their exclusion as being no fault of their own, but rather due to the other individuals in the room," Filipkowski said. "In other words, people said, 'it isn't me, it's you.' This may have been a type of protective mechanism in order to buffer their mood and self-esteem."

The results suggest that our culture may not differentiate between in-person and online experiences as much as we might think, according to the researchers.

"Although the meaningfulness of online or remote interactions may seem troubling, these data may also hold a more positive message," Smyth said. "Meaningful online interactions may support the utilization of remote interventions that can enhance physical and psychological well-being, in turn providing increased access to opportunities for people who are in need."

However, the researchers caution that these findings may be related to the types of individuals who participated in their study.

"These studies were conducted with college-aged students who have grown up with the Internet and other related technology," Filipkowski said. "These findings may not apply to individuals who have much less experience with technology and remote communication."

Filipkowski suggests that future studies investigate the applicability of these findings to different populations.

In the future, the team wants to investigate biological reactions to different types of exclusion.

Researchers Create An Application Allowing Online Statistical Analysis Of Gene-Expression Data

2012-06-21T21:31:00.001-07:00

The journal Computers in Biology and Medicine has published an article on the new IT application BootstRatio, created by IDIBELL researchers. The application allows online statistical analysis of data from gene expression*.

Researchers at the Human Molecular Genetics group at IDIBELL, led by Dr. Virginia Nunes, had a problem to provide signification to the results of statistical analyses of gene expression data. Most of the statistical calculations which are done to compare gene expression data assume a normal distribution of data and this distribution is not always real.

Together with Ramon Clèries, statistician at IDIBELL's Cancer Prevention and Control group, Dr. Nunes decided to work on a statistical analysis using resampling techniques that allows to generate a hypothetical distribution of the data without any initial distribution and exposing the data in a comprehensible language to the scientist.

That was the beginning of BootstRatio, which can be accessed from a remote server. "After the researcher enters the data, in a few time the program sends the results via email in a comprehensible language to the scientist," explains Miguel Lopez de Heredia, CIBERER researcher at the Human Molecular Genetics group at IDIBELL. "Statisticians and biologists sometimes speak different languages. This new tool allows a biological interpretation of the results of statistical analysis. "

Dr. Clèries explains that the application BootstRatio "is very easy to use and it doesn't require statistical expertise."

Google Searching Linked To Socio-Economic Health

2012-06-21T21:30:00.003-07:00

Internet users in countries with greater socio-economic health are more likely to use Google to search for information about the future than about the past, according to a new study published online in Scientific Reports on 5 April. The researchers say their findings suggest there may be a link between online behavior and real-world economic indicators.

Co-author Dr Susannah Moat, a research associate in the Department of Mathematics at UCL in the UK, and colleagues, report that they analyzed Google logs and found a "striking correlation" between a country's gross domestic product (GDP) and the tendency of its people to look forward.

Moat said in a statement that the Internet is becoming deeply enmeshed in the fabric of global society.

"Our use of this gigantic information resource is generating huge amounts of data on our current interests and concerns. We were interested in whether we could find cross-country differences in basic online search behaviour which could be linked to real world indicators of socio-economic wellbeing, such as per capita GDP," she explained.

For the study, Moat and colleagues examined data on Google searches made in 2010 by Internet users in 45 countries.

The data, which is held in the Google Trends website, includes over 45 billion search queries.

The researchers then calculated a "future orientation index" for each country: this is the ratio of searches for the coming year (which in 2010 would have been for 2011) to searches for the previous year (2009).

They then compared each country's future orientation index to its per capita GDP.

The results showed a strong tendency for countries with a higher future orientation index, that is where Internet users were using Google to enquire more about the future, to show a higher GDP.

For example, one cluster on the "best fit" line through the plots on the chart shows UK, Germany, France and Japan, all with future orientation indices of around 1.2, and similar per capital GDPs in 2010 (between $35,000 and $38,000). While Russia is lower down, with a future orientation index of 0.6 and a per capital GDP of nearly $16,000 in 2010.

In their discussion, the authors suggest two reasons for this:

"Firstly, these findings may reflect international differences in attention to the future and the past, where a focus on the future supports economic success. Secondly, these findings may reflect international differences in the type of information sought online, perhaps due to economic influences on available Internet infrastructure."

They propose that the future orientation index could be a useful measure to include with other social and economic indicators, to help us see worldwide society as reflected in the way it uses the Internet.

Every day, the Internet, and other electronic systems are increasingly giving us the opportunity to mine and analyze huge amounts of data that can give insights into what is happening in the world, from flu epidemics to stock market trading.

One such group that is already looking at this is the FuturICT, a large European project currently co-ordinated by co-author Dr Steven Bishop, a professor of Mathematics at UCL.

FuturICT is looking at best ways to use these large data sets to understand the dynamics of human behavior interacting with networked systems, in terms of both the opportunities of being more connected, and the catastrophes (the recent financial crisis being a good example of the latter).

Exploring Nicotine Addiction With The Help Of Mobile Technology

2012-06-21T21:30:00.001-07:00

Some people quit smoking on the first try while others have to quit repeatedly. Using such mobile technology as hand-held computers and smartphones, a team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh is trying to find out why.

"One thing that really stood out among the relapsers is how their urge to smoke just never dropped, in contrast to those who were successful in quitting for a month -- their urge dropped quickly and systematically -- almost immediately upon quitting," said Stephanie Lanza, scientific director of The Methodology Center at Penn State. "That was surprising to see."

With a new statistical model to interpret data and the ability to collect data via mobile devices, the researchers looked at how baseline nicotine dependence and negative emotional states influenced people's urge to smoke while they were trying to quit.

The Centers for Disease Control found in a 2010 National Health Interview Survey of 27,157 adults that about 52 percent of cigarette smokers tried to quit during the year. Six percent of all smokers -- who had been smoking for two years or more -- quit for at least six months. Also in 2010, the CDC reported that even though cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S., nearly one in five Americans smokes.

The team found that those who successfully quit during the four-week study period had a weaker association between their urge to smoke and their ability to quit. However, those who were unable to abstain did not show any association between their urge to smoke and their self-confidence.

Saul Shiffman, professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, followed 304 long-term cigarette smokers as they tried to quit. On average, the participants smoked more than a pack a day for 23 years. Forty participants quit smoking for the initial 24 hours, but subsequently relapsed. During the two weeks after quitting, 207 participants remained relatively tobacco-free. If smokers relapsed but smoked less than five cigarettes per day, they were considered successful quitters in this study. The remaining 57 participants were unable to quit for even 24 hours.

Five times randomly throughout the day, mobile devices prompted participants to answer questions. These questions asked the smokers about their emotional state, their urge to smoke and if they were smoking. They rated their urge to smoke at that moment on a scale of zero to 10. Using this data collection method, the researchers collected data from subjects in their natural environments.

Researchers followed subjects for two weeks prior to their attempt to quit, and for four weeks after their attempt to quit, the researchers report online in Prevention Science.

The Penn State team used a flexible statistical model -- a time-varying effect model -- that allows the researchers to look at more than one variable at a time. This model is a decade old, but until now was not user-friendly. The Methodology Center created accessible software* to analyze data that vary over time.

"To me, the biggest innovation here is looking at how something like baseline dependence is predictive of that behavior over time or (specifically) the urge to smoke over time," said Lanza. "It's now expressed as a function of time. Instead of saying 'if you're higher on dependence you're going to have a higher urge to smoke over time,' you can now depict how that association between baseline dependence and urge to smoke varies with time in a very fluid and naturalistic way."

One advantages of this model is that researchers are not confined to changes in one dimension. Researchers can look at time in a smooth way, viewing it as a gradual and constant variable and simultaneously view two or more variables that can change over time, such as smoking urges and negative affect. Lanza noted that this method could be used to look at addiction and behavior in many other areas, such as obesity, alcohol dependence, stress and more.

"Our goal is to work hand-in-hand with tobacco (and other) researchers, to help them understand these really intricate processes that are happening," said Lanza. "We want to really understand addiction and how to break addiction, so that interventions can be targeted and adaptable."

Youth Exposure To Alcohol Ads On Radio Estimated By Online Tool

2012-06-21T21:29:00.001-07:00

A new online tool from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health determines the extent of exposure to radio alcohol advertisements among young people ages 12 to 20 in 75 different media markets. This free and user-friendly tool is the first service to provide parents, health departments and other key audiences with access to customizable information on youth exposure to radio alcohol advertising.

"Despite the proliferation of things like smart phones and tablets, radio continues to be a popular source of media among youth," said David Jernigan, PhD, CAMY director. "This tool gives users in dozens of cities across the U.S. the ability to determine the scope to which young people in their community are exposed to alcohol marketing."

In 2003, trade groups for beer and distilled spirits committed to placing alcohol ads in media venues only when underage youth comprise 30 percent of the audience or less. Since that time, a number of groups and officials, including the National Research Council, the Institute of Medicine and 24 state attorneys general, have called upon the alcohol industry to strengthen its standard and meet a "proportional" 15 percent placement standard, given that the group most at risk for underage drinking - 12 to 20 year-olds - is less than 15 percent of the U.S. population. At least 14 longitudinal research studies have found that the more young people are exposed to alcohol marketing, the more likely they are to start drinking or, if already drinking, to drink more.

The tool provides three important measures for each market: the percent of alcohol ads that are out of compliance with the 30 percent standard; the percent which exceed the 15 percent proportional standard; and "youth overexposure," that is, how many ads in each market were more likely to be heard by youth per capita than by adults. An earlier CAMY analysis of all 75 markets found close to one-third of advertising placements occurred when proportionately more youth were listening than adults age 21 and above. The analysis also found that 9 percent of the ads in 75 markets failed to meet the industry standards, which accounted for almost 50 percent of all radio listeners age 12 and older. Three brands alone - Miller Lite, Bud Light and Coors Light - placed more than half of these violating ads.

"Alcohol is the leading substance abuse problem among youth in the U.S., and we know alcohol advertising and marketing have a significant impact on youth decisions to drink," said Robert Brewer, Alcohol Program Leader in the Division of Population Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "CAMY's radio tool gives state and local health departments a brand new data source to help inform local efforts to reduce youth exposure to alcohol marketing."

Alcohol is responsible for 4,700 deaths per year among young people under the age of 21. Every day, close to 4,500 young people under the age of 16 take their first drink, and binge drinking (defined as consuming five or more drinks within 2 hours) accounts for more than 90 percent of the alcohol consumed by young people.

Separate Interventions Needed To Combat Cyberbullying And Bullying

2012-06-21T21:28:00.001-07:00

University of British Columbia research comparing traditional bullying with cyberbullying finds that the dynamics of online bullying are different, suggesting that anti-bullying programs need specific interventions to target online aggression.

"There are currently many programs aimed at reducing bullying in schools and I think there is an assumption that these programs deal with cyberbullying as well," says Jennifer Shapka, an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at UBC who is presenting this research at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting in Vancouver.

"What we're seeing is that kids don't equate cyberbullying with traditional forms of schoolyard bullying. As such, we shouldn't assume that existing interventions will be relevant to aggression that is happening online."

Shapka is presenting a study that involved 17,000 Vancouver, B.C. students in Grades 8 to 12 and a follow-up study involving 733 Vancouver, B.C. youth aged 10-18.

Results of the studies show that about 25-30 per cent of youth report that they have experienced or taken part in cyberbullying, compared to 12 per cent of youth who say they've experienced or taken part in schoolyard bullying. However, "Youth say that 95 per cent of what happens online was intended as a joke and only 5 per cent was intended to harm," says Shapka. "It is clear that youth are underestimating the level of harm associated with cyberbullying."

According to Shapka, the findings suggest that in cyberbullying adolescents play multiple roles - as bullies, victims, and witnesses - and "downplay the impact of it, which means that existing education and prevention programs are not going to get through to them."

"Students need to be educated that this 'just joking' behaviour has serious implications."

Being victimized online can have consequences for a person's mental health, developmental wellbeing, and academic achievement, according to Shapka. In extreme cases, there have been reports of suicide.

Traditional bullying, or schoolyard bullying, is often associated with three main characteristics: a power differential between bully and victim, a proactive targeting of a victim, and ongoing aggression.

Shapka says, research is beginning to show that cyberbullying does not necessarily involve these three characteristics. Traditional power differentials - size and popularity - do not necessarily apply online. There also seems to be more fluid delineation between the roles youth play; it is not unusual for an individual to act in all capacities - bullies, victims, and witnesses - online.

Previous work by Shapka and her colleagues has shown that in contrast to traditional bullying, cyberbullying is rarely associated with planned targeting of a victim.

A number of Internet safety campaigns suggest parents keep an eye on their children's online activity but Shapka says this kind of micro-managing can undermine healthy adolescent development.

"An open and honest relationship between parents and children is one of the best ways to protect teenagers from online risks related to cyberbullying, Internet addiction, and privacy concerns related to disclosing personal information online."

Tailored, Web-Based Intervention Helped Women Understand Options For Breast Cancer Prevention

2012-06-21T21:27:00.003-07:00

When women at high risk of breast cancer viewed a customized web-based decision guide about prevention options, they were more likely to make a choice about prevention and to feel comfortable with their choice, a new study finds.

Researchers developed a web-based tool called the Guide to Decide, which included general information about breast cancer and personalized information about an individual woman's five-year risk of breast cancer. The guide walked women through two medical options to prevent breast cancer: tamoxifen and raloxifene. Information was tailored to each woman's age and race, and included information on the benefits and risk of tamoxifen and raloxifene as well as how it would affect the woman's breast cancer risk.

The study looked at post-menopausal women ages 40-74 who were considered at high risk of breast cancer. Of the 1,012 women who participated, 690 were randomly assigned to view the decision guide. Participants were asked after viewing the guide and again three months later about whether they wanted to receive preventive treatment and how they felt about that decision.

Women who viewed the Guide to Decide reported significantly less uncertainty when deciding whether to take tamoxifen or raloxifene, and three months later they were more likely to have made a decision.

"Since the decision to use tamoxifen or raloxifene to prevent breast cancer is based on each woman's preferences, with no single right or wrong answer, the intervention enabled each woman to weigh the relative risks and benefits for herself and make a decision that aligned with her own values and preferences," says study first author Matthew (Mateo) P. Banegas, M.P.H., M.S., a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Banegas presented the findings at the Society of Behavioral Medicine annual meeting in New Orleans, La.

"Because the guide was web-based, women could access it in the comfort of their home or preferred setting, at their own pace, and with their family, friends or other support system around. In addition, tailoring the information meant it matched each woman's circumstances and was much more personal," says study senior author Angela Fagerlin, Ph.D., associate professor of internal medicine and co-director of the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, and a research scientist at the VA Ann Arbor Center for Clinical Management Research.

Future research will look at how many risks and benefits can be presented to patients before they are overwhelmed by information and are not able to process it fully.

Breast cancer statistics: 229,060 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 39,920 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

When Online Dating Goes Wrong, Victims Of Scams Feel Doubly Traumatized

2012-06-21T21:27:00.001-07:00

Online dating scammers groom their victims by developing 'hyper-personal' relationships which can leave victims feeling doubly traumatised.

This is one of the findings of a study by Professor Monica Whitty, of the University of Leicester, who presents her research at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference today (19 April), held at the Grand Connaught Rooms, London (18-20 April).

The research, part of a larger study supported by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), focused on fraud where criminals set up fake identities using stolen photographs (often of models or army officers) and pretend to develop a romantic relationship with their victim. This is often done using online dating sites and social networking sites. At some point during the relationship they pretend to be in urgent need of money and ask for help. Many victims have been persuaded to part with large sums of money before their suspicions are aroused.

To find out what techniques scammers use 15 victims were interviewed (11 women; four men). Professor Whitty asked them about their relationship history; what psychological state they were in before the scam; the full description of the scam; why they believe they were persuaded to part with money (if they did); details of what happened after the scam (e.g. how police dealt with it); how they were psychologically affected by the scam; and what their current state is.

The results showed that basic marketing techniques were used to groom victims, increasing the feelings of a genuine relationship and leaving victims susceptible to fraud.

Professor Whitty said: "Our data suggests that the numbers of British victims of this relatively new crime is much higher than reported incidents show. It also confirms law enforcement suspicions that this is an underreported crime, and thus more serious than first thought.

"This is a concern not solely because people are losing large sums of money to these criminals, but also because of the psychological impact experienced by victims of this crime. It is our view that the trauma caused by this scam is worse than any other, because of the 'double hit' experienced by the victims - loss of money and loss of 'romantic relationship."

Elsewhere in the study Dr Tom Buchanan (University of Westminster) looked at the psychological characteristics of victims. Over 1000 participants answered an online questionaire. The reponses showed that people with strong romantic beliefs, who idealised romantic partners were most likely to fall prey to online scammers.

Technology May Help Keep Older Drivers On The Road

2012-06-21T21:26:00.001-07:00

A research car which monitors our concentration, stress levels and driving habits while we're sat behind the steering wheel is being used to develop new technologies to support older drivers.

The Intelligent Transport team at Newcastle University, UK, have converted an electric car into a mobile laboratory.

Dubbed 'DriveLAB', the car is kitted out with tracking systems, eye trackers and bio-monitors in an effort to understand the challenges faced by older drivers and to identify where the key stress points are.

Research shows that giving up driving is one of the key factors responsible for a fall in health and well-being among older people, leading to them becoming more isolated and inactive.

Led by Professor Phil Blythe, the Newcastle team are investigating in-vehicle technologies for older drivers which they hope could help them to continue driving into later life.

These include bespoke navigation tools, night vision systems and intelligent speed adaptations.

Phil Blythe, Professor of Intelligent Transport Systems at Newcastle University, explains: "For many older people, particularly those living alone or in rural areas, driving is essential for maintaining their independence, giving them the freedom to get out and about without having to rely on others.

"But we all have to accept that as we get older our reactions slow down and this often results in people avoiding any potentially challenging driving conditions and losing confidence in their driving skills. The result is that people stop driving before they really need to.

"What we are doing is to look at ways of keeping people driving safely for longer, which in turn boosts independence and keeps us socially connected."

Funded by Research Councils UK's Digital Economy programme the research is part of the Social inclusion through the Digital Economy (SiDE) project, a £12m research hub led by Newcastle University.

Using the new DriveLAB as well as the University's driving simulator, the team have been working with older people from across the North East and Scotland to understand their driving habits and fears and look at ways of overcoming them.

By incorporating the eye tracker and bio-monitor with the driving simulator the team are able to monitor eye movement, speed, reaction, lane position, acceleration, braking and driving efficiency.

Dr Amy Guo, the leading researcher on the older driver study, explains: "The DriveLAB is helping us to understand what the key stress triggers and difficulties are for older drivers and how we might use technology to address these problems.

"For example, most of us would expect older drivers always go slower than everyone else but surprisingly, we found that in 30mph zones they struggled to keep at a constant speed and so were more likely to break the speed limit and be at risk of getting fined.

"We're looking at the benefits of systems which control your speed as a way of preventing that."

Another solution is a tailored SatNav which identifies the safest route - such as avoiding right turns and dual carriageways - and uses pictures as turning cues, such as a post box or public house.

Researcher Chris Emmerson, explains: "One thing that came out of the focus groups was that while the older generation is often keen to try new technologies it's their lack of experience with, and confidence in, digital technologies which puts them off. Also, they felt most were designed with younger people in mind."

The work is being presented at the Aging, Mobility and Quality of Life conference in Michigan in June.

The driving simulator is also being used to look at how distractions such as answering a mobile phone, sending a text or eating can affect our driving.

Video Games May Promote Healthier Aging

2012-06-21T21:25:00.003-07:00

Videogame technology is proving to be a valuable tool for helping people of all ages improve lifestyle and health habits and manage disease. New research is showing that exergames have significant benefits for older adults by providing cognitive stimulation and a source of social interaction, exercise, and fun. Thus, the games help them to lead fuller, more independent lives for a longer time, according to two articles in Games for Health Journal, a new bimonthly peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The articles are available free on the Games for Health Journal website.*

"The elderly often forsake their lifelong activities in exchange for the safety, security, and care of institutional living," says Editor-in-Chief Bill Ferguson, PhD. "This trade-off need not require the sacrifice of physical activity and fitness. Furthermore, videogames offer an escape from routine. All of these benefits can improve the well-being of elderly adults."

Digital games offer a home-based method to support behavior modification, motivating patients to take better care of themselves and to self-mange chronic conditions. Recommendations for how to use and integrate videogame technology in the rehabilitation and training of older adults are presented in the review article "Interactive Videogame Technologies to Support Independence in the Elderly." Videogames offer a good alternative to traditional forms of aerobic exercise, according to the authors, Hannah Marston, PhD, German Sport University Cologne, Germany, and Stuart Smith, PhD, Neuroscience Research, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia.

Another article in the issue describes a study performed in three European countries that defined and compared the specific features of videogames that would most interest older adults. Unai Diaz-Orueta, PhD, Matia Gerontological Institute Foundation-INGEMA (Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain), and colleagues from Spain, The Netherlands, and Greece identified several main factors that motivate interest in gaming: the social aspect of the experience; the challenge it presents; the combination of cognitive and physical activity; and the ability to gain specific skills as a result of gaming. They present their findings in the article entitled "What is the Key for Older People to Show Interest in Playing Digital Learning Games? Initial Qualitative Findings from the LEAGE Project on a Multicultural European Sample."

How To Combat Global Disease With A Cell Phone, Google Maps And A Lot Of Ingenuity

2012-06-21T21:25:00.001-07:00

In the fight against emerging public health threats, early diagnosis of infectious diseases is crucial. And in poor and remote areas of the globe where conventional medical tools like microscopes and cytometers are unavailable, rapid diagnostic tests, or RDTs, are helping to make disease screening quicker and simpler.

RDTs are generally small strips on which blood or fluid samples are placed. Specific changes in the color of the strip, which usually occur within minutes, indicate the presence of infection. Different tests can be used to detect various diseases, including HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and syphilis.

While the advantages of RDTs are significant - better disease-management, more efficient surveillance of outbreaks in high-risk areas and the ability of minimally trained technicians to test large number of individuals - they can also present problems.

"Conventional RDTs are currently read manually, by eye, which is prone to error, especially if various different types of tests are being used by the health care worker," said Aydogan Ozcan, a UCLA professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering.

To address such challenges, Ozcan and his colleagues from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA have developed a compact and cost-effective RDT-reading device that works in tandem with standard cell phones.

"What we have created is a digital 'universal' reader for all RDTs, without any manual decision-making," he said.

The RDT-reader attachment, which clips onto a cell phone, weighs approximately 65 grams and includes an inexpensive lens, three LED arrays and two AAA batteries. The platform has the ability to read nearly every type of RDT. An RDT strip is inserted into the attachment, and with the help of cell phone's existing camera unit and a special smart-phone application, the strip is converted into a digital image.

The platform then rapidly reads the digitized RTD image to determine, first, whether the test is valid and, second, whether the results are positive or negative, thus eliminating the potential errors that can occur with a human reader, especially one administering multiple tests of various test types. And because the color changes in RDTs don't last more than a few hours in the field, the ability to store the digitized image indefinitely provides an added benefit.

After this step, the RDT-reader platform wirelessly transmits the results of the tests to a global server, which processes them, stores them and, using Google Maps, creates maps charting the spread of various diseases and conditions - both geographically and over time - throughout the world.

Together, the universal RDT reader and the mapping feature, which have been implemented on both iPhones and Android-based smart-phones, could significantly increase our ability to track emerging epidemics worldwide and aid in epidemic preparedness, the researchers say.

"This platform would be quite useful for global health professionals, as well as for policymakers, to understand cause-effect relationships at a much larger scale for combating infectious diseases," Ozcan said.

The research is published in the journal Lab on a Chip.

Additional authors of the study include Onur Mudanyali (first author), Stoyan Dimitrov, Uzair Sikora, Swati Padmanabhan, and Isa Navruz, all of the department of electrical engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Ozcan and his UCLA research team have been developing a variety of cell-phone attachments that utilize the digital components already embedded in standard cell phones to aid in the fight against global disease. With more than 5 billion cell-phone subscribers around the world today, cell phones can play a central role in telemedicine applications, and existing wireless telecommunications infrastructure presents new opportunities for innovative cloud-based health-monitoring and management platforms, the researchers say.

Improved Resident Learning With Tablet-Based Case Conferences

2012-06-21T21:24:00.001-07:00

Tablet based conference mirroring is giving residents an up close and personal look at images and making radiology case conferences a more interactive learning experience, a new study shows.

Residents at Northwestern University in Chicago are using tablets and a free screen sharing software during case conferences to see and manipulate the images that are being presented.

"The idea stems from the fact that I was used to having presentation slides directly in front of me during medical school lectures. I thought this would benefit radiology residents, especially in an image-detailed digital version," said Sabeen Dhand, MD, lead author of the study.

The residents can see the images more clearly on their tablet and they can manipulate the images, zooming in on subtle abnormalities or panning through the images, said Dr. Dhand. Having the tablet also means access to the Internet so residents can do quick Internet searches as needed during the case conferences, he said.

In addition, to manipulating the images on each individual tablet, the screen sharing software allows the presenter to shift control of his/her computer to anyone in the audience, said Dr. Dhand. That means a person in the audience can move the mouse, point out something on the presentation, etc., thereby showing it on the projector for the entire case conference audience, he said.

The technology translates beyond the case conference room, allowing residents off-site to participate - at low cost - as well, Dr. Dhand added.

Tablet-based conference mirroring has been in place at Northwestern since September, 2011. More than 75% of residents who have participated in this new learning format either agreed or strongly agreed that conference mirroring enhanced their learning experience.

Age-Related Memory Loss May Be Reduced By Computer Use And Exercise

2012-06-21T21:23:00.001-07:00

You think your computer has a lot of memory ... if you keep using your computer you may, too.

Combining mentally stimulating activities, such as using a computer, with moderate exercise decreases your odds of having memory loss more than computer use or exercise alone, a Mayo Clinic study shows. Previous studies have shown that exercising your body and your mind will help your memory but the new study, published in the May 2012 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, reports a synergistic interaction between computer activities and moderate exercise in "protecting" the brain function in people better than 70 years old.

Researchers studies 926 people in Olmsted County, Minn., ages 70 to 93, who completed self-reported questionnaires on physical exercise, and computer use within one year prior of the date of interview. Moderate physical exercise was defined as brisk walking, hiking, aerobics, strength training, golfing without a golf cart, swimming, doubles tennis, yoga, martial arts, using exercise machines and weightlifting. Mentally stimulating activities included reading, crafts, computer use, playing games, playing music, group and social and artistic activities and watching less television. Of those activities the study singled out computer use because of its popularity, said study author Yonas E. Geda, M.D., MSc, a physician scientist with Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

"The aging of baby boomers is projected to lead to dramatic increases in the prevalence of dementia," Dr. Geda said. "As frequent computer use has becoming increasingly common among all age groups, it is important to examine how it relates to aging and dementia. Our study further adds to this discussion."

The study examined exercise, computer use and the relationship to neurological risks such as mild cognitive impairment, Dr. Geda says. Mild cognitive impairment is the intermediate stage between normal memory loss that comes with aging and early Alzheimer's disease. Of the study participants who did not exercise and did not use a computer, 20.1 percent were cognitively normal and 37.6 percent showed signs of mild cognitive impairment. Of the participants who both exercise and use a computer, 36 percent were cognitively normal and 18.3 percent showed signs of MCI.

How Information Technology Is Used To Solve Global Health Challenges

2012-06-21T21:22:00.003-07:00

Innovators around the world are using information technology to extend healthcare access to the rural poor, manage data, and improve doctor and patient communication, authors report in the WHO Bulletin

In response to the considerable challenges in providing high-quality, affordable and universally accessible care in low- and middle-income countries, policy makers, donors and program implementers are increasingly looking at the potential of e-health and m-health (the use of information communication technology for health) as a solution.

Results for Development Institute published a study in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization demonstrating that information technology is being increasingly employed to solve some of the world's biggest health systems challenges. The study, "E-health in low- and middle-income countries: findings from the Center for Health Market Innovations," is the most comprehensive survey to date in peer reviewed literature of programs using e-health to improve the quality, accessibility, and affordability of privately delivered health care for the poor in developing countries.

The Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI) maintains an interactive database that now includes nearly 1200 health programs in more than 100 developing countries. Partners in 16 countries around the world search for these programs and compile detailed profiles. The data are supplemented through literature reviews and with self-reported data supplied by the programs themselves. For this study, authors analyzed CHMI data to identify programs that are enabled by information technology, and determined what kinds of technologies are being employed, and for what purpose.

The study finds that information technology is a fundamental component of the model for 176 of 657 health programs in the study sample. In recent years, there has been much interest in how specific technologies can improve health in the developing world, but this is the first study to use a large sample size of health programs to assess the extent to which e-health is proliferating in low- and middle-income countries and to determine how it is used.

"By identifying emerging global trends in e-health, the study provides guidance on how technologies can help solve common health systems challenges in developing countries, such as reaching patients in rural areas," said Gina Lagomarsino, Managing Director at Results for Development Institute. Lagomarsino adds, "As e-health continues to evolve, managers of programs in developing countries are turning to technology to solve a wide array of problems."

The study's findings identify options for program managers, funders, and policy makers to more effectively utilize information technologies to make good quality health care more affordable and accessible in developing countries. It highlights six ways technology is being used:

Extending geographical access to overcome distance between physicians and patients,
Facilitating communications between health workers and patients,
Improving diagnosis and treatment for health workers,
Improving data management,
Streamlining financial transactions, and
Mitigating fraud and abuse

Authors also find that despite the heightened focus around the use of text messages for health, voice and software applications are more frequently used. In addition, programs launched before recent advances in information technologies are not rapidly adopting new technologies when compared to newer programs with technology built in from the start. The study also finds that about half of programs using e-health received their primary funding from donors. This heavy reliance on donor funding could jeopardize their long-term success.

"We have found that various types of information technologies are being employed by private organizations to address key health system challenges," said Lagomarsino. "For successful implementation it is critically important that more sustainable sources of funding, greater support for the adoption of new technologies and better ways of evaluating impact are found."

'Menopause Map' - First-Of-Its-Kind Internet Tool Helps Women Navigate Treatment

2012-06-21T21:22:00.001-07:00

Women going through menopause now have a first-of-its-kind interactive guide to help them better understand their menu of treatment options, including whether hormone therapy may be right for them. The Endocrine Society and its Hormone Health Network today released the "Menopause Map," an online tool to help women and their doctors discuss which hormonal and non-hormonal treatment options would be most effective and safe to relieve the sometimes debilitating symptoms of menopause. A new accompanying survey found that the majority of women facing challenging symptoms are concerned about hormone treatment and are not discussing it, or other non-hormonal options, with their doctor. The Map was developed by Endocrine Society physician experts who specialize in menopause management.

The tool is based on the latest unbiased research and is intended to jumpstart conversations between women and their doctors about the choices available to them as they approach and experience menopause.

Hormone therapy has been under intense scrutiny since 2002, when a large government study called the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) reported that hormone therapy - specifically the combination of estrogen and progestin together-increased the risk for blood clots, stroke, breast cancer and heart attacks. The researchers halted the study and concluded that the risks of hormone therapy outweighed the benefits. Although the study was designed to evaluate the role of hormone therapy in the prevention of diseases related to aging, many women and their doctors also abandoned it as therapy for menopausal symptoms.

Over the past 10 years, additional research has found that the level of risk depends on the individual woman, her health history, age, and the number of years since her menopause began. In general, younger women (under 60) who have recently started menopause are at a lower risk than older women when taking low doses of hormone therapy.

"Left with the false impression that hormone therapy isn't a safe option, far too many women have suffered in silence thinking their options for symptom relief were limited or non-existent," says Cynthia Stuenkel, MD, a member of The Endocrine Society and an endocrinologist specializing in menopause at the University of California, San Diego. "We know that for some women, hormonal therapy provides the only relief for severe menopausal symptoms. Women deserve some clear answers and helpful tools to engage their doctors in meaningful conversations about the multiple choices available to improve their menopausal symptoms."

When a woman enters menopause, she stops menstruating and her body produces less of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone. The process of menopause takes years. During that time, women may experience moderate to severe symptoms, including hot flashes, interrupted sleep, vaginal dryness, and other symptoms that affect her quality of life.

The survey found that 72 percent of women currently experiencing symptoms have not received any treatment for them. Other findings include:

Majorities of menopausal women experiencing symptoms have not talked to their primary health care provider or OB/GYN about hormone therapy (62%) or non-hormone options (61%), and half of them have not talked about lifestyle changes;
Nearly half (49%) of menopausal women experiencing symptoms have a negative impression of hormone therapy; and
While the sample sizes of African Americans and Latinos in the survey are small, only 17 percent of African-American respondents say they have talked to their doctors about hormone therapy, compared to 39 percent of white women and 35 percent of Latinas, suggesting that disparities may exist.

"Unfortunately, as in many health care issues, significant disparities exist. Add to that, many primary care doctors don't have enough information about the latest research or what to prescribe," Dr. Stuenkel says. "We want to make health care providers across the nation aware of this tool so that they can facilitate better discussions with their patients."

The "Menopause Map" is an online interactive tool that guides a woman through the different options available to get relief from her symptoms through a series of prompting questions about those symptoms and her personal health history. The Map also has links to questionnaires that help assess current risk for breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke. The tool weighs hormonal and non-hormonal therapies against the risks based on individual symptoms and medical history.

The Map was not designed to be a self-diagnostic tool. It's recommended that women print out their results along with a list of provided questions to discuss the best treatment options for them with their provider. Women should revisit this tool to check their symptoms and have a continuous, informed dialogue with their provider.

The important facts to know about hormone therapy are:

Women 60 years and older should not use menopausal hormone therapy.
Women 50-59 years or younger, with no family or personal history of breast cancer, no history of heart disease or stroke, and with moderate to severe menopausal symptoms are the best candidates for hormone therapy.
If considering hormone therapy, women should talk with their health care provider to determine a plan that is right for them.
In addition, lifestyle approach also helps alleviate symptoms and benefit long-term health.
For those who decide on hormone therapy, this is an ongoing process and might require a period of trial and error to find the right fit for each individual woman.
For those who decide on non-hormonal options, there are several proven therapies available that may help with symptoms. It is important women share information about all medications they are using, including over-the-counter drugs and nutritional supplements, to make sure the choice of therapy doesn't interact with other medications.

Large-Scale Computer Simulation Of Human Blood

2012-06-21T21:21:00.001-07:00

Having a virtual copy of a patient's blood in a computer would be a boon to researchers and doctors. They could examine a simulated heart attack caused by blood clotting in a diseased coronary artery and see if a drug like aspirin would be effective in reducing the size of such a clot.

Now, a team of biomedical engineers and hematologists at the University of Pennsylvania has made large-scale, patient-specific simulations of blood function under the flow conditions found in blood vessels, using robots to run hundreds of tests on human platelets responding to combinations of activating agents that cause clotting.

Their work was published in the journal Blood.

Patient-specific information on how platelets form blood clots can be a vital part of care. Normally, clots prevent bleeding, but they can also cause heart attacks when they form in plaque-laden coronary arteries. Several drugs, including aspirin, are used to reduce the size of such clots and prevent heart attacks, but, as platelets differ from person to person, the efficacy of such drugs differs as well.

"Blood platelets are like computers in that they integrate many signals and make a complex decision of what to do," said senior author Scott Diamond, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. "We were interested to learn if we could make enough measurements in the lab to detect the small differences that make each of us unique. It would be impossible to do this with the cells of the liver, heart or brain. But we can easily obtain a tube of blood from each donor and run tests of platelet calcium release."

When blood platelets are exposed to the conditions of a cut or, in a more dangerous situation, a ruptured atherosclerotic plaque, they respond by elevating their internal calcium, which causes release of two chemicals, thromboxane and ADP. These two activating agents further enhance calcium levels and are the targets of common anti-platelet drugs such as aspirin or clopidogrel, also known as Plavix. By preventing platelets from increasing their calcium levels, these drugs make them less able to stick together and block blood vessels, decreasing the likelihood of a heart attack.

Since blood is a liquid, the liquid-handling robots originally developed for drug screening tests were ideal to test platelet function.

"We used a technique developed in our lab called 'pairwise agonist scanning' on platelets from three different donors to generate a massive data set of how their cells responded to all different pairs of these activating agents," Diamond said. "Then we trained neural network models for each donor based on this data to simulate how each and every cell in a blood clot is responding."

Neural networks are a way of looking at the relationship between inputs and outputs for very complex processes, rather than at the details of the process.

"They summarize the overall function of all the chemical reaction networks that are occurring within a single platelet," Diamond said.

Graduate student and lead author Matt Flamm developed a powerful multi-scale computer model that populates a simulation of blood flowing over a site of vessel damage with thousands of platelets whose behaviors derive from the neural network model developed for each patient.

"This is the first time that it has been possible to predict blood clotting under flow using patient-specific platelets," Flamm said. "We were able to predict the ranked potency of several drugs."

To show that the computer simulations allowed them to make accurate predictions about an individual donor's platelet behavior, the researchers performed physical test as well. Using microfluidic devices, they ran scores of blood tests with each blood sample at venous and arterial flow conditions using different drugs.

The multi-scale computer simulation for each donor predicted the drug responses very accurately.

"We even identified one person who was resistant to aspirin," Diamond said, "and then discovered a novel genetic mutation in their thromboxane receptor gene. The computer simulation for that donor identified the functional defect before we even sequenced the gene."

Multi-scale, patient-specific simulation of blood function is an example in the rapidly growing field of systems biology. Multi-scale models require the understanding of the intracellular signaling in thousands of individual cells activating at the site of damaged blood vessel as well as detailed calculations of blood flow and molecular diffusion.

"Fields like weather prediction and airplane design simulate the flow of air," Diamond said, "In cardiovascular medicine, we encounter the individually unique and complex fluid of human blood. Research areas involving traumatic bleeding, stroke and deep vein thrombosis may benefit advanced simulations of blood function."

The development of equations and algorithms to model reactive blood flow will be very helpful in predicting clinical risks, drug responses and new disease mechanisms and in designing biomedical devices.

Researchers Use Online Crowd-Sourcing To Diagnose Malaria

2012-06-21T21:20:00.004-07:00

Online crowd-sourcing - in which a task is presented to the public, who respond, for free, with various solutions and suggestions - has been used to evaluate potential consumer products, develop software algorithms and solve vexing research-and-development challenges. But diagnosing infectious diseases?

Working on the assumption that large groups of public non-experts can be trained to recognize infectious diseases with the accuracy of trained pathologists, researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have created a crowd-sourced online gaming system in which players distinguish malaria-infected red blood cells from healthy ones by viewing digital images obtained from microscopes.

The UCLA team found that a small group of non-experts playing the game (mostly undergraduate student volunteers) was collectively able to diagnosis malaria-infected red blood cells with an accuracy that was within 1.25 percent of the diagnostic decisions made by a trained medical professional.

The game, which can be accessed on cell phones and personal computers, can be played by anyone around the world, including children.

"The idea is, if you carefully combine the decisions of people - even non-experts - they become very competitive," said Aydogan Ozcan, an associate professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering and the corresponding author of the crowd-sourcing research. "Also, if you just look at one person's response, it may be OK, but that one person will inevitably make some mistakes. But if you combine 10 to 20, maybe 50 non-expert gamers together, you improve your accuracy greatly in terms of analysis."

Crowd-sourcing, the UCLA researchers say, could potentially help overcome limitations in the diagnosis of malaria, which affects some 210 million people annually worldwide and accounts for 20 percent of all childhood deaths in sub-Saharan Africa and almost 40 percent of all hospitalizations throughout that continent.

The current gold standard for malaria diagnosis involves a trained pathologist using a conventional light microscope to view images of cells and count the number of malaria-causing parasites. The process is very time-consuming, and given the large number of cases in resource-poor countries, the sheer volume presents a big challenge. In addition, a significant portion of cases reported in sub-Sahara Africa are actually false positives, leading to unnecessary and costly treatments and hospitalizations.

By training hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of members of the public to identify malaria through UCLA's crowd-sourced game, a much greater number of diagnoses could be made more quickly - at no cost and with a high degree of collective accuracy.

"The idea is to use crowds to get collectively better in pathologic analysis of microscopic images, which could be applicable to various telemedicine problems," said Sam Mavandadi, a postdoctoral scholar in Ozcan's research group and the study's first author.

Ozcan and Mavandadi emphasized that the same platform could be applied to combine the decisions of minimally trained health care workers to significantly boost the accuracy of diagnosis, which is especially promising for telepathology, among other telemedicine fields.

The new UCLA study, "Distributed Medical Image Analysis and Diagnosis Through Crowd-Sourced Games," has been accepted for publication in the journal PLoS ONE. More information is available at http://biogames.ee.ucla.edu.

In addition to developing the crowd-sourced gaming platform that allows players to assist in identifying malaria in cells imaged under a light microscope, Ozcan's research group created an automated algorithm for diagnosing the same images using computer vision, as well as a novel hybrid platform for combining human and machine resources toward efficient, accurate and remote diagnosis of malaria.

"The most exciting aspect is that this is an entirely novel approach in the area of visual diagnostics, which really challenges diagnostic algorithms used to date," said Karin Nielsen, a professor of infectious diseases in the department of pediatrics at the Geffen School of Medicine. "It is diagnostics outside the box - that is, the study introduces an entirely new concept in diagnostics with the use of games for this purpose. The potential applications of this new approach are immense."

How the game works:

Before playing the game, each player is given a brief online tutorial and an explanation of what malaria-infected red blood cells typically look like using sample images. After completing a short training phase, players go through the actual game, in which they are presented with multiple frames of red blood cell images and can use a "syringe" tool to "kill" the infected cells one-by-one and use a "collect-all" tool to designate the remaining cells in the frame as "healthy."

Within each frame, there are a certain number of cells whose status (i.e., infected or not) is known by the game but not by the players. These control cell images allow Ozcan's team to dynamically estimate the performance of gamers as they go through each frame and also helps the team assign a score for every frame the gamer passes through.

"I believe that, similar to other very innovative ideas, one of the major challenges will be the skepticism of traditional microscopists, pathologists and clinical laboratory personnel, not to mention malaria experts, who will initially view with suspicion a gaming approach in malaria diagnostics," said Nielsen, also an author of the study. "It is a very revolutionary proposal and it might take a few clinical studies in the field to document the efficacy of this platform in order to convince traditional microbiologists and other infectious disease colleagues."

"Scaling up accurate, automated and remote diagnosis of malaria through a crowd-sourced gaming platform may lead to significant changes for developing countries," Ozcan said.

"It could eliminate the current overuse and misuse of anti-malarial drugs, improve management of non-malaria fevers by ruling malaria out, lead to better use of existing funds, and reduce risks due to long-term side-effects of anti-malarial drugs on patients who don't need treatment," Mavandadi added.

Ozcan's team hopes to bring the platform into the field through clinical trials to help validate its use and facilitate implementation of the technology worldwide. Nielsen and Ozcan plan to implement it at clinical sites in countries such as Mozambique, Malawi and Brazil.

In addition, the same crowd-sourcing and gaming-based micro-analysis and medical diagnosis platform could be further scaled up for a variety of other biomedical and environmental applications in which microscopic images need to be examined by experts, the researchers said.

Having A Break From Emails Decreases Stress, Increases Concentration

2012-06-21T21:19:00.005-07:00

Being cut off from work email significantly reduces stress and allows employees to focus far better, according to a new study by UC Irvine and U.S. Army researchers.

Heart rate monitors were attached to computer users in a suburban office setting, while software sensors detected how often they switched windows. People who read email changed screens twice as often and were in a steady "high alert" state, with more constant heart rates. Those removed from email for five days experienced more natural, variable heart rates.

"We found that when you remove email from workers' lives, they multitask less and experience less stress," said UCI informatics professor Gloria Mark. She co-authored the study, "A Pace Not Dictated by Electrons," with UCI assistant project scientist Stephen Voida and Army senior research scientist Armand Cardello. The UCI team will present the work Monday, May 7, at the Association for Computing Machinery's Computer-Human Interaction Conference in Austin, Texas.

The study was funded by the Army and the National Science Foundation. Participants were computer-dependent civilian employees at the Army's Natick Soldier Systems Center outside Boston. Those with no email reported feeling better able to do their jobs and stay on task, with fewer stressful and time-wasting interruptions.

Measurements bore that out, Mark said. People with email switched windows an average of 37 times per hour. Those without changed screens half as often - about 18 times in an hour.

She said the findings could be useful for boosting productivity and suggested that controlling email login times, batching messages or other strategies might be helpful. "Email vacations on the job may be a good idea," she noted. "We need to experiment with that."

Mark said it was hard to recruit volunteers for the study, but "participants loved being without email, especially if their manager said it was OK. In general, they were much happier to interact in person."

Getting up and walking to someone's desk offered physical relief too, she said. Other research has shown that people with steady "high alert" heart rates have more cortisol, a hormone linked to stress. Stress on the job, in turn, has been linked to a variety of health problems.

Study subjects worked in a variety of positions and were evenly split between women and men. The only downside to the experience was that the individuals without email reported feeling somewhat isolated. But they were able to garner critical information from colleagues who did have email.

The Army is examining use of smartphones and such applications as email for soldiers on battlefields, said David Accetta, spokesman for the Natick facility's research and development section. "This data may very well prove helpful".

State-Of-The-Art Radio Transmitters Able To Withstand High Temperatures Could Soon Provide Early Volcanic Eruption Warnings Or Survive A Bomb Blast

2012-06-21T21:12:00.003-07:00

Radio transmitters that can withstand temperatures of up to 900 oC could soon be dropped into the depths of the earth to provide early warning of a volcanic eruption.

The state-of-the-art technology being pioneered by experts at Newcastle University uses Silicon Carbide electronics that can withstand temperatures equal to the inside of a jet engine.

Measuring subtle changes in the levels of key volcanic gases such as carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide, the wireless sensor would feed back real-time data to the surface, providing vital information about volcanic activity and any impending eruption.

And because of its unique molecular structure - which is more stable than silicon - Silicon Carbide also has a high radiation tolerance opening up possibilities for its use in the nuclear industry.

The team has developed the necessary components and are now working to integrate them into a device about the size of an iPhone that could be used in a variety of locations such as power plants, aircraft engines and even volcanoes.

The device, featured today in The Engineer, is one of a number of technologies which has been developed by experts at the university's Centre for Extreme Environment Technology, which was set up to 'go where no technology has gone before' and unlock the secrets of some of the world's harshest environments.

Building reliable components that will continue to work under these conditions has been an on-going challenge for electronic engineers and the team at Newcastle University is recognised as a world leader in the field.

Dr Alton Horsfall, who leads the Silicon Carbide work alongside Professor Nick Wright, explains: "At the moment we have no way of accurately monitoring the situation inside a volcano and in fact most data collection actually goes on post-eruption. With an estimated 500 million people living in the shadow of a volcano this is clearly not ideal.

"We still have some way to go but using silicon carbide technology we hope to develop a wireless communication system that could accurately collect and transmit chemical data from the very depths of a volcano."

And the device has other uses. "If someone sets off a bomb on the underground, for example, this will still sit on the wall and tell you what's going on," says Dr Horsfall.

Volcanic monitoring is just one of the strands of research being carried out at the Centre for Extreme Environment Technology.

With expertise in underwater communications, Professor Bayan Sharif, Jeff Neasham and Dr Charalampos Tsimenidis have developed a micro Remotely-Operated Vehicle that can be used to feed back environmental data about our coastlines. The team is also working on through metal communications which involves transmitting a signal through almost 10cm of steel and wireless sensor networks.

Professor Nick Wright, pro-vice chancellor for innovation and research at Newcastle University, added: "The situations we are planning to use our technology in means it's not enough for the electronics to simply withstand extremes of temperature, pressure or radiation - they have to continue operating absolutely accurately and reliably.

"Increasingly mankind is spreading out into harsher and more extreme environments as our population grows and we explore new areas for possible sources of energy and food in order to sustain it.

"But with this comes new challenges and this is why research into extreme technologies is becoming ever more important."

Identifying Terrorists With The Help Of Facial Recognition Technology

2012-06-21T21:11:00.007-07:00

Rapid improvements in facial-recognition software mean airport security workers might one day know with near certainty whether they're looking at a stressed-out tourist or staring a terrorist in the eye.

A research team led by Dr. Alice O'Toole, a professor in The University of Texas at Dallas' School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, is evaluating how well these rapidly evolving recognition programs work. The researchers are comparing the rates of success for the software to the rates for non-technological, but presumably "expert" human evaluation.

"The government is interested in spotting people who might pose a danger," O'Toole said. "But they also don't want to have too many false alarms and detain people who are not real risks."

The studies in the Face Perception and Research Laboratories are funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. The agency is seeking the most accurate and cost-effective way to recognize individuals who might pose a security risk to the nation.

Algorithms - formulae that allow computers to "recognize" faces - vary greatly among the various software developers, and most have not faced real-world challenges. So O'Toole and her team are carefully examining where the algorithms succeed and where they come up short. They're using point-by-point comparisons to examine similarities in millions of faces captured within a database, and then comparing results to algorithm determinations.

In the studies, humans and algorithms decided whether pairs of face images, taken under different illumination conditions, were pictures of the same person or different people.

The UT Dallas researchers have worked with algorithms that match up still photos and are now moving into comparisons involving more challenging images, such as faces caught on video or photographs taken under poor lighting conditions.

"Many of the images that security people have to work with are not high-quality," O'Toole said. "They may be taken off closed-circuit television or other low-resolution equipment."

The study is likely to continue through several more phases, as more and better software programs are presented for review. So far, the results of man vs. machine have been a bit surprising, O'Toole said.

"In fact, the very best algorithms performed better than humans at identifying faces," she said. "Because most security applications rely primarily on human comparisons up until now, the results are encouraging about the prospect of using face recognition software in important environments."

The real success comes when the software is combined with human evaluation techniques, O'Toole said. By using the software to spot potential high-risk individuals and then combining the software with the judgment of a person, nearly 100 percent of matching faces were identified, O'Toole said.

The researchers also are interested in the role race plays in humans' ability to spot similar facial features. O'Toole said many studies indicate individuals almost always recognize similarities among members of their own race with more accuracy. But there is little research evaluating how technological tools differ in recognizing faces of varying races.

In a paper to be published soon in ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, O'Toole reports that the "other race effect" occurs for algorithms tested in a recent international competition for state-of-the-art face recognition algorithms. The study involved a Western algorithm made by fusing eight algorithms from Western countries and an East Asian algorithm made by fusing five algorithms from East Asian countries. At the low false-accept rates required for most security applications, the Western algorithm recognized Caucasian faces more accurately than East Asian faces, and the East Asian algorithm recognized East Asian faces more accurately than Caucasian faces.

Next, using a test that spanned all false-alarm rates, O'Toole's team compared the algorithms with humans of Caucasian and East Asian descent matching face identity in an identical stimulus set. In this case, both algorithms performed better on the Caucasian faces, the "majority" race in the database. The Caucasian face advantage was far larger for the Western algorithm than for the East Asian algorithm.

Humans showed the standard other-race effect for these faces, but showed more stable performance than the algorithms over changes in the race of the test faces. These findings indicate that state-of-the-art face-recognition algorithms, like humans, struggle with "other-race face" recognition, O'Toole said.

The companies that develop the most reliable facial recognition software are likely to reap big profits down the line. Although governments may be their most obvious clients, there is also a great deal of interest from other major industries.

"Casinos have been some of the first users of face recognition software," O'Toole said. "They obviously want to be able to spot people who are counting cards and trying to cheat the casino."

O'Toole collaborated on the research with Dr. P. Jonathon Phillips of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Dr. Fang Jiang of the University of Washington, and Dr. Abhijit Narvekar of Alcon Labs.

New Luggage Inspection Methods Identify Liquid Explosives

2012-06-21T21:11:00.003-07:00

Liquid explosives are easy to produce. As a result, terrorists can use the chemicals for attacks - on aircraft, for instance. In the future, new detection systems at airport security checkpoints will help track down these dangerous substances. Researchers are currently testing equipment in their special laboratories.

To most air travelers, it is an annoying fact of life: the prohibition of liquids in carry-on luggage. Under aviation security regulations introduced in Europe in November 2006, passengers who wish to take liquids such as creams, toothpaste or sunscreen on board must do so in containers no larger than 100 ml (roughly 3.4 fluid oz.). The EU provisions came in response to attempted attacks by terrorist suspects using liquid explosives on trans-Atlantic flights in August 2006. Now, travelers have a reason to hope to see the prohibition lifted. On November 19, 2009, the EU Regulatory Committee of the Member States passed a proposal to this effect issued by the EU Commission. Under the terms of the proposal, the prohibition of liquids will be lifted in two phases. First, beginning April 20 9, 2011, passengers in transit will be permitted to take liquids along with them. Under the second phase, beginning April 20 9, 2013, the limit on quantities of liquids will be lifted altogether. The EU Commission intends to introduce legislation to this effect this August. In the future, security checkpoints will feature equipment that can reliably distinguish between liquid explosives and harmless substances such as cola, perfume or shampoo.

This is also the intention of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC), which lays down standardized detection procedures and inspection routines for liquid explosives. The explosives tests are being carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT in Pfinztal. The German Federal Ministry of the Interior has officially designated the institute as a German Testing Center. The researchers there are working in cooperation with the German Federal Police. »In our safety laboratory, we can carry out the experiments under all of the safety conditions we would find in the field,« remarks Dr. Dirk Röseling, a researcher at ICT. "Either on their own or at the invitation of ECAC, the manufacturers bring their detection equipment to our lab, where they show us how to operate it and then leave. Then we begin with testing."

But how do these experiments work? In their partially remote-controlled experimental facilities, first researchers at the safety laboratories manufacture explosives according to specifications provided by the ECAC. Security services provide the organization with lists of substances to use in manufacturing explosives. Then, the detection equipment must automatically identify the liquid explosive - as well as any harmless substances - as such. For instance, the equipment must not identify shampoo as an explosive and set off a false alarm. Depending on the scenario involved, individualized testing methods and systems are required: If open containers need to be inspected, for example, then the sensors detect the vapors given off. If luggage screeners need to scan unopened bottles in a tub, on the other hand, then x-ray equipment is used. The experts forward the findings of their tests either directly to the manufacturers of the equipment, or to the German Federal Police, which in turn passes the results along to the ECAC. The ECAC, in turn, notifies the companies of whether or not their equipment is suitable for certification. "In the past, luggage screening has only identified metals and solid explosives. The screening equipment of the future will also identify liquid explosives. Initial tests at the Frankfurt Airport have already successfully been completed," Röseling summarizes. The researcher and his team will present details of the test scenarios and methods at the Future Security conference in Berlin, September 7 to 9, 2010.

Research News September 2010 [ PDF 548KB ]