Automatic car driving detection using raw accelerometry data.

Measuring physical activity using wearable devices has become increasingly popular. Raw data collected from such devices is usually summarized as 'activity counts', which combine information of human activity with environmental vibrations. Driving is a major sedentary activity that artificially increases the activity counts due to various car and body vibrations that are not connected to human movement. Thus, it has become increasingly important to identify periods of driving and quantify the bias induced by driving in activity counts. To address these problems, we propose a detection algorithm of driving via accelerometry (DADA), designed to detect time periods when an individual is driving a car. DADA is based on detection of vibrations generated by a moving vehicle and recorded by an accelerometer. The methodological approach is based on short-time Fourier transform (STFT) applied to the raw accelerometry data and identifies and focuses on frequency vibration ranges that are specific to car driving. We test the performance of DADA on data collected using wrist-worn ActiGraph devices in a controlled experiment conducted on 24 subjects. The median area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) for predicting driving periods was 0.94, indicating an excellent performance of the algorithm. We also quantify the size of the bias induced by driving and obtain that per unit of time the activity counts generated by driving are, on average, 16% of the average activity counts generated during walking.

Increase in cognitive eating restraint predicts weight loss and change in other anthropometric measurements in overweight/obese premenopausal women.

In modern societies characterized by food abundance, dietary restraint may serve as a factor in the successful control of weight or facilitation of weight loss. This secondary analysis of data examined whether changes in cognitive eating restraint (CER) and disinhibition predicted weight loss in a sample of 60 overweight/obese premenopausal women [mean ± SD, age = 35.9 ± 5.8 y; weight = 84.4 ± 13.1 kg; body mass index (BMI) = 31.0 ± 4.3 kg/m(2)]. Changes in weight, BMI, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist-to-hip ratio and body fat percentage (BF%) were examined in relation to changes in CER, disinhibition and hunger as measured by the Eating Inventory questionnaire at baseline and week 18 of an 18-week dietary intervention. Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to identify predictors of weight loss and changes in other anthropometric variables from baseline to study completion. Increase in CER was found to be the most robust predictor of reduction in weight (P < 0.0001), BMI (P < 0.0001), waist circumference (P < 0.001), hip circumference (P < 0.0001) and BF% (P < 0.0001). Effect of increase in CER on change in BMI, hip circumference and BF% was moderated by increase in disinhibition (all P < 0.05). Results suggest that strategies that target CER and disinhibition should be emphasized in programs proposed to treat and prevent obesity.

[Criteria for assessing the need for rehabilitation and for sanctioning refund claims -- Würzburg rating scale for sociomedical expertising on the need for rehabilitation and on the justification of refund demands on statutory insurance]. / Kriterien des Rehabilitationsbedarfs -- Die Würzburger Checkliste zur Erfassung des Rehabilitationsbedarfs in der sozialmedizinischen Begutachtung.

The essential criteria governing the assessment of the need for rehabilitation must be reviewed before making a sociomedical decision on claims to the German Statutory Pension Insurance (GRV) for refunding expenditure on rehabilitation. For an objective view of such a sociomedical decision, one must specify more clearly the fundamental assessment criteria. The study presented here was based on an exploratory analysis using a specific rating scale (the "Würzburg Checklist") for the various aspects of necessary rehabilitation according to sociomedical assessment of the medical records and medical examination of the patient. The aim of such an analysis is to pinpoint the various necessary decisions one by one before arriving at a final sociomedical expertise enabling the insurance body to decide to meet the cost of rehabilitating a particular patient. Three Bavarian Statutory Sickness Insurance bodies conducted medical random checks by selecting a sample of applicants with musculo-skeletal disease (n = 483) and examining the medical records and the results of a personal examination of the applicant by the medical expert. Completion of the rating scale was done after the experts had made their decision. The rating was subsequently repeated by the clinicians when the patient was admitted to the rehabilitation hospital. Although there were significant differences between these three groups of physicians in the evaluation of the applicants in respect of requirement criteria, it was not possible to identify any particular tendency to a verdict. Assessing the criteria according to the records is limited to some extent. Factor analysis yields five subscales in the rating list with good internal consistency: overall impediment, forecasting the ability to being motivated for rehabilitation, professional efficiency rating, psychosocial stress, risk factors. These subscales, while fairly consistent, are discriminatively valid in respect of rehabilitation recommendations by the sociomedical experts. The results of this survey are a first approach to the development of a practically relevant structural tool for sociomedical assessment.

The effect of TRH, cyproheptadine and pimozide on the growth hormone response to intramuscular glucagon.

Glucagon-induced growth hormone (GH) secretion was studied in healthy subjects under basal conditions (n = 18), and when treated with TRH (n = 10), cyproheptadine (n = 8) and pimozide (n = 6). With glucagon alone, the mean serum GH level significantly increased at 150 minutes and at 180 minutes. TRH administered as a bolus injection completely suppressed the GH response to glucagon. Cyproheptadine pretreatment resulted in a substantial suppression of the GH response to glucagon. A significant difference between basal and post-cyproheptadine GH levels was observed at 150 minutes after glucagon. Pimozide pretreatment was followed by a reduction of GH response to glucagon, but the difference between control and pimozide-treated groups was not significant. In conclusion, it is proposed that glucagon-induced GH secretion is at least partly mediated via serotoninergic mechanisms while significant dopaminergic involvement does not seem probable. It is further suggested that TRH plays a substantial inhibitory role in glucagon-stimulated SH secretion.

Plasma renin activity in men with relation to the presence of ischaemic heart disease.

Plasma renin activity (PRA) stimulated by upright posture was measured, in 300 men aged 45-64 years, by a radio-immunoassay of angiotensin I. The subjucts examined were divided into six groups, comparable in mean age, each containing 50 subjects: group 1, normotensives without manifest atherosclerosis; group 2, normotensives with angina pectoris definite; group 3, normotensives with a history of a transmural myocardial infarction; groups 4 to 6, patients with benign essential hypertension, without manifest atherosclerosis in group 4, with angina pectoris in group 5 and with a history of myocardial infarction in group 6. Significant differences in mean PRA were found between corresponding groups of hypertensives and normotensives, the values in hypertensives being lower. The precentage of low renin values was higher in hypertensives with ischaemic heart disease than in other groups. An analysis of 3-year cardiovascular mortality revealed no significant difference in mortality due to ischaemic heart disease between high-renin and low renin sub-groups.

Plasma renin activity in patients with ischaemic heart disease.

Plasma renin activity (PRA) stimulated by upright posture was measured in 300 men aged 45-64 years using a radioimmunoassay of angiotensin-I. The examined subjects were normotensive or patients with benign essential hypertension and were divided into 6 groups according to the absence of manifest atherosclerosis, the presence of definite angina pectoris or a history of myocardial infarction. Each group contained 50 unselected subjects, with a comparable mean age. Significant differences in mean PRA were found between corresponding groups of hypertensives and normotensives, the values in hypertensives being lower. The percentage of low renin values was higher in hypertensives with ischaemic heart disease than in other groups. It is suggested that this finding might be explained by functional disturbances in the kidneys in hypertensives with ischaemic heart disease.