VIVID: Independent Living of Aging Adults Suffered a Stroke.

Based on the recent statistics published by the Stroke Association (UK), first-time incidence of stroke occurs almost 17 million times a year worldwide (one every two seconds), making Stroke as the second cause of death in the world. By the age of 75, 1 in 5 women and 1 in 6 men will have a stroke, which is one of the largest causes of disability, as half of all stroke survivors have a disability, making those persons dependent on others (1 in 5 are cared for by family and/or friends). People living longer is a cause for celebration, but older people are more vulnerable to mental health, cognition and physical problems, especially if they have already experienced a stroke (minor or mild). Depression is a main condition after a stroke and may be experienced in the form of sadness, unexplained pains, loss of interest in socializing, weight loss etc. The abovementioned conditions reduce the person's ability to remain active and independent, affecting their well-being and quality of living. Independent living of aging adults that have suffered a stroke is the key motivation for the VIVID project.

The "Prisoner's Dilemma" in the Tumor Biology Context: The Warburg Effect, Proliferation Dynamics and Equilibria.

There are numerous theories concerning carcinogenesis. Starting from the Warburg effect, which was one of the first theories concerning the mitochondrial dysfunction in tumor cells. Further on, the "two-hit" theory, where tumors were considered to be the outcome of genetic aberrations or mutations and more specifically of a certain number of "hits" each one resulting in a mutation. One of the main physical problems of biological systems is proliferation. Proliferation brings forwards two main questions: First, under a given population of cells, at time t what will be the precise population at time t+24h (or any other time point)? Second, what are the metabolic strategies followed by tumor cells in order to facilitate for their growth? In the present work we have used experimental data obtained from proliferation experiments of leukemic cells, where cell population and glucose consumption were evaluated. These data were further used to examine whether cells progress through competitive behavior or synergistically. Our results have shown that cells probably progress through a cooperative strategy.

Utilizing Key Item Method to Manage Musculoskeletal Disorders in a Hospital Workplace.

Management of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) is a necessity for the modern work environment. In hospitals, these disorders have a particularly high frequency among health care workers whose work entails lifting and transporting patients as well as washing, dressing and feeding them. This paper, presents an electronic application which is based on the method of basic items (KIM - Key Item Method) in order to reduce incidents of MSDs resulting from manual transport of loads in healthcare facilities. The sample consisted of 15 female hospital meal servers from Metaxa Hospital (Piraeus, Greece) in order to assess the activities of lifting, carrying, transporting, pushing and pulling of loads which are part of their daily work duties. The key requirement for the application was not only helping the risk assessment but also leading to targeted, easily applicable and low cost corrective measures. The results of this electronic tool application showed increased usability and benefits which were associated with the used database and the detailed information relatively to the corrective measures, such as training of the employees to change body posture, replacement of wheels on trolleys and redesigning of serving aisles which proved beneficial.

Evaluation for the Necessity of Medical Imaging Tests Prescription in Neurology.

The evaluation and control algorithms for the necessity of medical prescription testing, comprises useful tool for health professionals. It is beyond doubt that a connection between illness, symptoms, medical tests and prescriptions is essential and thus algorithms facilitating such approaches should be available to health professionals. Such informatics tools require the implementation of smart, interactive tools and not just linear, information storing websites. Such algorithms should be dynamic, that is their output should change based on the input as for example, in the serial input of symptoms to clinical examination to subsequent diagnosis. Slight variations in symptomatology can greatly alter diagnosis and subsequent physical testing and prescription. The present work presents a novel algorithm for the control of medical prescription testing in neurology, by utilizing decision trees for the connection of symptomatology to diagnosis and prescription for neurological conditions and disease. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time that such an approach is proposed.

Time­dependent and independent effects of thyroid hormone administration following myocardial infarction in rats.

Cardiac function is reduced following myocardial infarction (MI) due to myocardial injury and alterations in the viable non­ischemic myocardium, a process known as cardiac remodeling. The current treatments available for patients with acute MI (AMI) reduce infarct size, preserve left ventricular (LV) function and improve survival; however, these treatments do not prevent remodeling, which can lead to heart failure. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of thyroid hormone (TH) treatment following MI in an in vivo rat model. A total of 199 rats were separated into 3 groups: Sham operated and 2 different coronary artery ligation (CAL) groups. Rats subjected to CAL were randomly divided into a further 2 groups 24 h following surgery. The first group received standard rat chow (designated the CAL group), while the second group received food containing 0.05% thyroid powder (designated the CALTH group). The mean daily intake of TH per rat was estimated at 3.0 µg T3 and 12 µg T4. Echocardiography was used to monitor the rats. Large­scale analysis confirmed the favorable effects of TH treatment following CAL on various parameters of cardiac function. TH treatment reduced LV dilation, and increased global and regional LV function. The development of cardiac hypertrophy was induced and, thus, wall stress was limited. Furthermore, TH treatment improved cardiac geometry, which manifested as an increased sphericity index. Myocardial function, as well as LV dilatation, following CAL and TH treatment was not closely associated with the extent of injury, indicating a novel therapeutic intervention that may alter the course of LV remodeling that typically leads to post­MI heart failure. Data modelling and regressions may be developed to enable the simulation of the pathophysiological processes that occur following MI, and to predict with accuracy the effects of novel or current treatments that act via the modulation of tissue injury, LV dilation, LV geometry and hypertrophy.

An Internet of Things platform architecture for supporting ambient assisted living environments.

Internet of Things (IoT) is the logical further development of today's Internet, enabling a huge amount of devices to communicate, compute, sense and act. IoT sensors placed in Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) environments, enable the context awareness and allow the support of the elderly in their daily routines, ultimately allowing an independent and safe lifestyle. The vast amount of data that are generated and exchanged between the IoT nodes require innovative context modeling approaches that go beyond currently used models. Current paper presents and evaluates an open interoperable platform architecture in order to utilize the technical characteristics of IoT and handle the large amount of generated data, as a solution to the technical requirements of AAL applications.

Effect of modeling parameters on the frequency response of the middle ear by means of finite element analysis.

A 3D finite element model of the human middle ear was developed for the investigation of the modeling parameters' effect on the frequency response. In this study, we incorporated realistic reconstructed geometries from microCT imaging data. The geometric representation of the stapedial annular ligament provided additional damping and the Rayleigh parameter ß was adjusted to lower values in comparison to previous computational studies. The maximum displacement of the stapes footplate, equal to 0.168 µm, was observed at a frequency of 1050 Hz. The computational results were validated with experimental measurements. Good agreement is observed between our results and the experimental data and other finite element studies.

Reconstruction of cochlea based on micro-CT and histological images of the human inner ear.

The study of the normal function and pathology of the inner ear has unique difficulties as it is inaccessible during life and, so, conventional techniques of pathologic studies such as biopsy and surgical excision are not feasible, without further impairing function. Mathematical modelling is therefore particularly attractive as a tool in researching the cochlea and its pathology. The first step towards efficient mathematical modelling is the reconstruction of an accurate three dimensional (3D) model of the cochlea that will be presented in this paper. The high quality of the histological images is being exploited in order to extract several sections of the cochlea that are not visible on the micro-CT (mCT) images (i.e., scala media, spiral ligament, and organ of Corti) as well as other important sections (i.e., basilar membrane, Reissner membrane, scala vestibule, and scala tympani). The reconstructed model is being projected in the centerline of the coiled cochlea, extracted from mCT images, and represented in the 3D space. The reconstruction activities are part of the SIFEM project, which will result in the delivery of an infrastructure, semantically interlinking various tools and libraries (i.e., segmentation, reconstruction, and visualization tools) with the clinical knowledge, which is represented by existing data, towards the delivery of a robust multiscale model of the inner ear.

Novel mobile-health technologies.

Mobile Health is fast becoming one of the fastest growing sectors of health as health tries to shift to patient-centric solutions. Putting the patients in the centre of care also forces them to take control of their wellbeing, health management and/or disease management. This is especially relevant when the management is constant as it is the case with chronic diseases.

Occlusal caries detection using random walker algorithm: a graph approach.

The aim of this work is to present a modification of the Random Walker algorithm for the segmentation of occlusal caries from photographic color images. The modification improves the detection and time execution performance of the classical Random Walker algorithm and also deals with the limitations and difficulties that the specific type of images impose to the algorithm. The proposed modification consists of eight steps: 1) definition of the seed points, 2) conversion of the image to gray scale, 3) application of watershed transformation, 4) computation of the centroid of each region, 5) construction of the graph, 6) application of the Random Walker algorithm, 7) smoothing and extraction of the perimeter of the regions of interest and 8) overlay of the results. The algorithm was evaluated using a set of 96 images where 339 areas of interest were manually segmented by an expert. The obtained segmentation accuracy is 93%.

Smart adaptable system for older adults' Daily Life Activities Management - The ABLE platform.

In this paper we propose a system (ABLE) that will act as the main platform for a number of low-cost, mature technologies that will be integrated in order to create a dynamically adaptive Daily Life Activities Management environment in order to facilitate the everyday life of senior (but not exclusively) citizens at home. While the main target group of ABLE's users is the ageing population its use can be extended to all people that are vulnerable or atypical in body, intellect or emotions and are categorized by society as disabled. The classes of assistive products that are well defined in the international standard, ISO9999 such as assistive products for personal medical treatment, personal care and protection, communication, information and reaction and for personal mobility, will be easily incorporated in our proposed platform. Furthermore, our platform could integrate and implement the above classes under several service models that will be analyzed further.

E-Health towards ecumenical framework for personalized medicine via Decision Support System.

The purpose of the present manuscript is to present the advances performed in medicine using a Personalized Decision Support System (PDSS). The models used in Decision Support Systems (DSS) are examined in combination with Genome Information and Biomarkers to produce personalized result for each individual. The concept of personalize medicine is described in depth and application of PDSS for Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) and Type-1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) are analyzed. Parameters extracted from genes, biomarkers, nutrition habits, lifestyle and biological measurements feed DSSs, incorporating Artificial Intelligence Modules (AIM), to provide personalized advice, medication and treatment.

Mobile phone technologies and advanced data analysis towards the enhancement of diabetes self-management.

Advances in the area of mobile and wireless communication for healthcare (m-Health) along with the improvements in information science allow the design and development of new patient-centric models for the provision of personalised healthcare services, increase of patient independence and improvement of patient's self-control and self-management capabilities. This paper comprises a brief overview of the m-Health applications towards the self-management of individuals with diabetes mellitus and the enhancement of their quality of life. Furthermore, the design and development of a mobile phone application for Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) self-management is presented. The technical evaluation of the application, which permits the management of blood glucose measurements, blood pressure measurements, insulin dosage, food/drink intake and physical activity, has shown that the use of the mobile phone technologies along with data analysis methods might improve the self-management of T1DM.

SMARTDIAB: a communication and information technology approach for the intelligent monitoring, management and follow-up of type 1 diabetes patients.

SMARTDIAB is a platform designed to support the monitoring, management, and treatment of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), by combining state-of-the-art approaches in the fields of database (DB) technologies, communications, simulation algorithms, and data mining. SMARTDIAB consists mainly of two units: 1) the patient unit (PU); and 2) the patient management unit (PMU), which communicate with each other for data exchange. The PMU can be accessed by the PU through the internet using devices, such as PCs/laptops with direct internet access or mobile phones via a Wi-Fi/General Packet Radio Service access network. The PU consists of an insulin pump for subcutaneous insulin infusion to the patient and a continuous glucose measurement system. The aforementioned devices running a user-friendly application gather patient's related information and transmit it to the PMU. The PMU consists of a diabetes data management system (DDMS), a decision support system (DSS) that provides risk assessment for long-term diabetes complications, and an insulin infusion advisory system (IIAS), which reside on a Web server. The DDMS can be accessed from both medical personnel and patients, with appropriate security access rights and front-end interfaces. The DDMS, apart from being used for data storage/retrieval, provides also advanced tools for the intelligent processing of the patient's data, supporting the physician in decision making, regarding the patient's treatment. The IIAS is used to close the loop between the insulin pump and the continuous glucose monitoring system, by providing the pump with the appropriate insulin infusion rate in order to keep the patient's glucose levels within predefined limits. The pilot version of the SMARTDIAB has already been implemented, while the platform's evaluation in clinical environment is being in progress.

Neural network based glucose - insulin metabolism models for children with Type 1 diabetes.

In this paper two models for the simulation of glucose-insulin metabolism of children with Type 1 diabetes are presented. The models are based on the combined use of Compartmental Models (CMs) and artificial Neural Networks (NNs). Data from children with Type 1 diabetes, stored in a database, have been used as input to the models. The data are taken from four children with Type 1 diabetes and contain information about glucose levels taken from continuous glucose monitoring system, insulin intake and food intake, along with corresponding time. The influences of taken insulin on plasma insulin concentration, as well as the effect of food intake on glucose input into the blood from the gut, are estimated from the CMs. The outputs of CMs, along with previous glucose measurements, are fed to a NN, which provides short-term prediction of glucose values. For comparative reasons two different NN architectures have been tested: a Feed-Forward NN (FFNN) trained with the back-propagation algorithm with adaptive learning rate and momentum, and a Recurrent NN (RNN), trained with the Real Time Recurrent Learning (RTRL) algorithm. The results indicate that the best prediction performance can be achieved by the use of RNN.

Diterpenes from the brown algae Dictyota dichotoma and Dictyota linearis.

Nineteen secondary metabolites of the brown alga Dictyota dichotoma (Huds.) Lam. and fifteen metabolites of the brown alga D. linearis (Ag.) Grev. were isolated and their chemical structures were elucidated on the basis of their NMR and mass spectral data. The diterpenes isopachydictyolal (1) from D. dichotoma and 4alpha-acetyldictyodial (2) from D. linearis are new natural products. The antiviral activity of metabolites isolated in adequate amounts was evaluated in laboratory assays against Herpes simplex virus I (HSV I) and Poliomyelitis Virus I, using Vero cells as hosts.

Chemical composition and biological activity of Nepeta parnassica oils and isolated nepetalactones.

Essential oils of Nepeta parnassica, collected at different developmental stages, were analyzed by means of GC/MS. From the fifty-five identified constituents in samples A and B, representing 94.8% and 98.7% of the oils respectively, 4a(alpha),7alpha,7alpha(beta)-nepetalactone (22.0%), 1,8-cineole (21.1%), alpha-pinene (9.5%) and 4a(alpha),7,beta,7alpha(beta)-nepetalactone (7.9%) were the major components of sample A (vegetative stage), whereas in sample B (flowering stage) the main contributors were 1,8-cineole (34.6%), 4a(alpha),7alpha,7a(alpha)-nepetalactone (17.3%), alpha-pinene (11.4%) and 4a(alpha),7alpha,7alpha(beta)-nepetalactone (8.9%). The oils were tested on human health important insects such as the Pogonomyrmex sp. ants and the Culex pipiens molestus mosquitoes with promising results on insect repellency/toxicity.

Novel cytotoxic brominated diterpenes from the red alga Laurencia obtusa.

Five new brominated diterpenes, along with two known, have been isolated from the organic extract of the red alga Laurencia obtusa, collected from the coastal rocks of Preveza in the Ionean Sea, Greece. The novel metabolites prevezols B-E possess two new carbon skeletons, to the best of our knowledge, unprecedented in the literature. The structures and the relative stereochemistry of the new natural products were established by means of spectral data analyses. The new metabolites were tested for their cytotoxic activity against five human cell lines. Two metabolites have exhibited significant cytotoxicity.

New brominated labdane diterpenes from the red alga Laurencia obtusa.

Two labdane type brominated diterpenes (1 and 2) containing unprecedented eight- and seven-membered ether rings have been isolated from the organic extract of the red alga Laurencia obtusa, collected from Mitikas Bay in the Ionean Sea, Greece. The structures of the new natural products, as well as their relative stereochemistry, were established by means of spectral data analysis, including 2D NMR experiments.

Brasilane-type sesquiterpenoids from Laurencia obtusa.

[structure: see text] Three novel halogenated rearranged sesquiterpenes (1-3) have been isolated along with brasilenol (4) and epibrasilenol (5) from the organic extract of the red alga Laurencia obtusa, collected at Symi island in the Aegean Sea, Greece. The new metabolites possess the unusual skeleton of brasilane and contain the unprecedented 1,6-epoxy moiety. The structures of the new natural products, as well as their relative stereochemistry, were established by means of spectral data analyses, including two-dimensional NMR experiments along with molecular calculations.