Active Sense: Early Staging of Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM) Hinges upon Recognizing Daily Activity Pattern

The Human Activity Recognition (HAR) system allows various accessible entries for the early diagnosis of Diabetes as one of the nescient applications domains for the HAR. Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) was applied and recognized 13 activities that resemble diabetes symptoms. Afterward, risk factor assessment for an experimental subject identified similar activity pattern attributes between diabetic patients and the experimental subject. Because of this, a trained LSTM model was deployed to monitor the average time length for every activity performed by the experimental subject for 30 consecutive days. Concurrently, the symptomatic diabetes activity patterns of diabetic patients were explored. The cosine similarity of activity patterns of the experimental subject and diabetic patients measured 57.39%, putting the experimental subject into moderate risk factor class. The experimental subject was clinically tested for risk factors using the diabetic clinical diagnosis process, known as the A1C. The A1C level was 6.1%, recognizing the experimental subject as a patient suffering from Diabetes. Thus, the proposed novel approach remarkably classifies the risk factor level based on activity patterns.

Effects of Docosahexaenoic Acid Supplementation on Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, and Serum Lipids in Scottish Men with Hypertension and Hypercholesterolemia

To investigate the effects of daily supplementation with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on coronary heart disease risks in 38 middle-aged men with hypertension and/or hypercholesterolemia in Scotland, a five-week double-blind placebo-controlled dietary supplementation with either 2 g of DHA or active placebo (1 g of olive oil) was conducted. Percent composition of DHA in plasma phospholipids increased significantly in DHA group. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate decreased significantly in DHA group, but not in placebo group. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) increased significantly, and total cholesterol (TC)/HDL-C and non-HDL-C/HDL-C ratios decreased significantly in both groups. There was no change in TC and non-HDL-C. We conclude that 2 g/day of DHA supplementation reduced coronary heart disease risk factor level improving blood pressure, heart rate, and lipid profiles in hypertensive, hypercholesterolemic Scottish men who do not eat fish on a regular basis.

Prospective Longevity Risk Analysis

ABSTRACTMortality improvement has traditionally been analysed using an array of statistical methods, and extrapolated to make actuarial projections. This paper presents a forward-looking approach to longevity risk analysis which is based on stochastic modelling of the underlying causes of mortality improvement, due to changes in lifestyle, health environment, and advances in medical science. The rationale for this approach is similar to that adopted for modelling other types of dynamic insurance risk, e.g. natural catastrophes, where risk analysts construct a stochastic ensemble of events that might happen in the future, rather than rely on a retrospective analysis of the non-stationary and comparatively brief historical record.Another feature of prospective longevity risk analysis, which is shared with catastrophe risk modelling, is the objective of capturing vulnerability data at a high resolution, to maximise the benefit of detailed modelling capability down to individual risk factor level. Already, the use by insurers of postcode data for U.K. flood risk assessment has carried over to U.K. mortality assessment. Powered by fast numerical computation and parameterised with high quality geographical data, hydrological models of flood risk have superseded the traditional statistical insurance loss models. A decade later, medically-motivated computational models of mortality risk can be expected to gain increasing prominence in longevity risk management.

Participation in Sports Groups for Patients with Cardiac Problems: An Experimental Study

An experimental study was carried out to determine the influence of participation in Sports Groups for Patients with Cardiac Problems (SPCP) on physical and mental fitness and on risk factor level after myocardial infarction. SPCP members (n = 74; 67 men and 7 women) were compared with Nonsporting Patients with Cardiac Problems (NPCP, n = 60; 52 men and 8 women). Patients were a random sample from two hospitals in the Netherlands. In comparison with NPCP, the SPCP group showed a greater maximum oxygen uptake, a higher degree of perceived well-being, and a lower risk factor level. After correction for differences in cardiac and personal characteristics, SPCP yielded an independent significant multivariate effect on maximum oxygen uptake, perceived well-being, and risk factor level. Therefore, the application and integration of SPCP in cardiac rehabilitation should be further investigated.

Risk Factor Variability and Coronary Heart Disease

Present attempts to identify genes contributing to coronary heart disease (CHD) risk focus on “candidate genes”. With respect to CHD this could be any gene whose protein product is directly or indirectly involved in atherogenesis, thrombogenesis or thrombolysis/fibrinolysis. Genes that exhibit associations with absolute risk factor levels may be referred to as “level genes” to distinguish them from “variability genes”, which are genes involved in establishing the framework within which environmental influences may cause risk factor variation. In a series of persons recruited from the Norwegian Twin Panel, confirmatory evidence for level gene effect with respect to apolipoprotein B (apoB) concentration was found with an XbaI polymorphism in DNA at the apoB locus corresponding to residue 2,488 in the mature protein. Evidence for variability gene effect with respect to apoB as well as body mass index emerged with DNA variants in the 3′ part of the apoB gene. Level gene effect with respect to apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol as well as apparent variability gene effect with respect to total and LDL cholesterol were detected with a DNA polymorphism at the cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) locus. The first example of interaction between normal genes in determining risk factor level was uncovered in analysis of the apolipoprotein E (apoE) polymorphism and a restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) at the low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) locus. An LDLR gene identified by presence of a PvuII restriction site eliminated completely the well known effect of the apoE4 allele on cholesterol level. Finally, in families where high Lp(a) lipoprotein level (a well established risk factor for CHD) segregated as a Mendelian trait, very close linkage with an RFLP at the plasminogen locus was established and DNA variation at the LPA locus reflecting varying numbers of a structure homologous to the “kringle IV” region of plasminogen was uncovered.