Motion Shield: An Automatic Notifications System for Vehicular Communications.

Motion Shield is an automatic crash notification system that uses a mobile phone to generate automatic alerts related to the safety of a user when the user is boarding a means of transportation. The objective of Motion Shield is to improve road safety by considering a moving vehicle's risk, estimating the probability of an emergency, and assessing the likelihood of an accident. The system, using multiple sources of external information, the mobile phone sensors' readings, geolocated information, weather data, and historical evidence of traffic accidents, processes a plethora of parameters in order to predict the onset of an accident and act preventively. All the collected data are forwarded into a decision support system which dynamically calculates the mobility risk and driving behavior aspects in order to proactively send personalized notifications and alerts to the user and a public safety answering point (PSAP) (112).

SSEv: A New Small Samples Evaluator Based on Modified Survival Curves.

Rare diseases, either of genetic or epigenetic origin, either proliferative or degenerative, are hard to be studied credibly, because of sparse prevalence, thus, small sampling. In addition, biological or translational experimentation either with animal models, or in vitro studies share small sampling-often due to lack of financial support or due to mannered and costly techniques. Pilot or feasibility studies been performed, before expensive clinical trials are decided, focus on small samples. Small Samples Evaluator (SSEv) is a useful tool based on a modification of survival curves. The technique can be applied to repeated measures, as well as to case-control or cross-sectional designed studies. A web-based application of SSEv is created and presented herein. The application is freely accessible at: https://ssev.eu .

Heatwave 1987: the Piraeus versus Athens case.

Background: Heatwaves represent the main indices of climate change, while mortality is one of the established markers of their human effects. For unknown reasons populations adapt to temperature variations/challenges differently. Thus, to allow better precision and prediction, heatwave evaluations should be enriched by historical context and local data. Methods: The mortality data for 1987 were collected from the Piraeus municipality registry, whereas data for Athens were obtained from literature retrieved from PUBMED. Ambient characteristics were extracted from the Geronikolou's 1991 BSc thesis and the reports of national organizations. From the death events, the odds ratio and relative risk in Piraeus compared to the Athens were calculated. Finally, a simple neural network proposed the dominant ambient parameter of the heatwave effects in the city residents of each location. Results: The 1987 heatwave was more lethal (seven-fold) in Athens than in Piraeus and dependent on atmospheric nitric oxide (NO) concentration (with probability 0.999). In the case of Piraeus in 1987, ozone characterized the phenomenon (with probability 0.993). Conclusions: The odds of dying due to a heatwave are highly dependent on lifestyle, population sensitivity to preventive measures and public health policy, while the phenomenon was mainly moderated by ozone in Piraeus in 1987, and NO in Athens irrespective of year.

2D Anatomical Structure for COVID-19 Medical Images.

For many clinical goals like surgical planning and radiotherapy treatment planning is necessary to understand the anatomical structures of the organ that is targeted. At the same time the 2D/3D shape of the organ is important to be reconstructed for the benefit of the doctors. For that reason, accurate segmentation techniques must be proposed to overcome the big data medical image storage problem. The main purpose of this work is to apply segmentation techniques for the definition of 3D organs (anatomical structures) when big data information has been stored and must be organized by the doctors for medical diagnosis. The processes would be implemented in the CT images from patients with COVID-19.

Cardioprotective effect of metoprolol and enalapril in doxorubicin-treated lymphoma patients: a prospective, parallel-group, randomized, controlled study with 36-month follow-up.

Anthracyclines have contributed to a marked increase in survival in different types of cancer [1,2]. Unfortunately, they are associated with dose-dependent cardiotoxicity and heart failure (HF) [3­8]. Change to a weekly dosage schedule with slow infusions has been tested, a strategy that requires more frequent hospital visits and increased storage resources[7,9]. Liposomal anthracycline formulations with reduced drug exposure and lower plasma concentrations may still be cardiotoxic at higher cumulative doses [10]. Beta-blockers and angiotensin converting enzyme(ACE) inhibitors have been shown to reduce anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity,but have not been tested in long-term prospective, randomized,controlled studies with well defined cardiotoxicity criteria and careful cardiac function monitoring [11­16]. We investigated doxorubicin-induced clinical or subclinical cardiotoxicity in lymphoma patients after concomitant prophylactic therapy with metoprolol or enalapril or no concomitant treatment. We examined whether cardiotoxicity was related to the treatment or any other variable. We found that HF was less frequent under concomitant treatment than no treatment, especially in the metoprolol group, but the differences were not significant. No association was found between the presence of cardiotoxicity and concomitant treatment or other variable apart of age that had a significant impact. The marginal benefit seen with metoprolol should be investigated further.

Epidemiological Analysis of the Covid-19 Epidemic in Greece.

During the last months the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019) has been recognized as a global threat. Transmission of the infection has rapidly increased in Europe as well as in Greece, living behind a huge number of deaths. During this situation an analysis of the spread of the disease must be undertaken and characteristics of the virus must be recognized. For the analysis of the impact of the disease in the population during this time period, epidemiological indexes have been introduced.

An Epidemiological Analysis for H1N1 Infection.

During the last years the dependence of inflections have been increased, especially the infection H1N1, in Europe as well as in Greece. Especially the last 2 years (2017-2018) the percentage of spreading is still significant. For the analysis of the impact's diseases in population during these periods, epidemiological indexes have been introduced.

Correction: Diverse radiofrequency sensitivity and radiofrequency effects of mobile or cordless phone near fields exposure in Drosophila melanogaster.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0112139.].

The Role of Metoprolol and Enalapril in the Prevention of Doxorubicin-induced Cardiotoxicity in Lymphoma Patients.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Anthracyclines, such as doxorubicin, though widely used in anticancer therapy, they are associated with cardiotoxic side-effects. The aim of this trial was to investigate long-term follow-up cardiotoxicity findings in patients treated with doxorubicin and concomitant metoprolol or enalapril 10 years earlier. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Overall, 147 patients were randomized into the treatment arms. A total of 125 patients treated with doxorubicin without evidence of heart disease at the start of chemotherapy were analyzed. They were followed-up for up to 10 years after treatment start. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A total of 47 patients completed the follow-up and 21 patients died, none due to cardiotoxicity events. Clinical signs of heart failure were not seen in any patients and no statistically significant differences between baseline and 10-year findings were seen for echocardiographic variables. No evidence of long-term cardiotoxicity was seen and nor metoprolol or enalapril offered an additional benefit.

Computer Virus Models - The Susceptible Infected Removed (SIR) Model.

The healthcare domain requires security against possible threats, such as viruses to defend the integrity of the health and patient records. During the system analysis, different parts of the sub systems are connected under a main system. Under these connections into the Internet, malicious programs are spread into the system network and damages to vital information have been appearing. For that reason, it is crucial to model the spreading of the computer virus using dynamic equation systems and the solution of these systems will be presented. In this work an epidemiological model SIR is presented, and the analysis of its performance is illustrated.

Survival Models in Computer Virus.

During the communication between various computer system parts under a basic unit various threats can appear causing different damages into the system. The spreading of the computer virus into the system must be investigated under modeling analysis and simulations must be applied. In this work survival analysis models have been introduced to overcome the problem with the computer virus. During that process of spreading two main considerations analyzed: (1) the epidemiological models of the spreading and (2) the survival of the computer virus inside the system under mathematical modeling.

Relational Algebra in Spatial Decision Support Systems Ontologies.

Decision Support Systems (DSS) is a powerful tool, for facilitates researchers to choose the correct decision based on their final results. Especially in medical cases where doctors could use these systems, to overcome the problem with the clinical misunderstanding. Based on these systems, queries must be constructed based on the particular questions that doctors must answer. In this work, combination between questions and queries would be presented via relational algebra.

Investigation of the Impact of Extracting and Exchanging Health Information by Using Internet and Social Networks.

INTRODUCTION: Social networks (1) have been embedded in our daily life for a long time. They constitute a powerful tool used nowadays for both searching and exchanging information on different issues by using Internet searching engines (Google, Bing, etc.) and Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter etc.). In this paper, are presented the results of a research based on the frequency and the type of the usage of the Internet and the Social Networks by the general public and the health professionals. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the research were focused on the investigation of the frequency of seeking and meticulously searching for health information in the social media by both individuals and health practitioners. The exchanging of information is a procedure that involves the issues of reliability and quality of information. METHODS: In this research, by using advanced statistical techniques an effort is made to investigate the participant's profile in using social networks for searching and exchanging information on health issues. RESULTS: Based on the answers 93 % of the people, use the Internet to find information on health-subjects. Considering principal component analysis, the most important health subjects were nutrition (0.719 %), respiratory issues (0.79 %), cardiological issues (0.777%), psychological issues (0.667%) and total (73.8%). CONCLUSIONS: The research results, based on different statistical techniques revealed that the 61.2% of the males and 56.4% of the females intended to use the social networks for searching medical information. Based on the principal components analysis, the most important sources that the participants mentioned, were the use of the Internet and social networks for exchanging information on health issues. These sources proved to be of paramount importance to the participants of the study. The same holds for nursing, medical and administrative staff in hospitals.

Examine Trustiness of Medical Information Through Social Networks Using Path Models.

Social networks provide an alternative way to communicate and exchange of information with various people. Especially for Health Care Professionals, information ought to be exchanged and shared between individuals for diagnosis and proposed therapies. In this research, the important sources of medical information that people trust, through the exchange of information on social networks, were analyzed based on the perceived information quality using path models. A questionnaire was developed to run the survey. Based on the answers, it seems that the surveyed population does not trust heavily the content of social networks as source of information for healthcare issues. Further research is needed to examine the trustiness of social networks as a Source of Health Care Information.

A Decision Support System Platform for Spatial Epidemiology.

A wide range of health care systems have been implemented, to support medical opinions, which are defined as Decision Support Systems. In this work a pilot information system was developed based on patients health records data combined with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology, which could be used as an advisor in cases where epidemiological diseases are taking place.

Diverse radiofrequency sensitivity and radiofrequency effects of mobile or cordless phone near fields exposure in Drosophila melanogaster.

INTRODUCTION: The impact of electromagnetic fields on health is of increasing scientific interest. The aim of this study was to examine how the Drosophila melanogaster animal model is affected when exposed to portable or mobile phone fields. METHODS/RESULTS: Two experiments have been designed and performed in the same laboratory conditions. Insect cultures were exposed to the near field of a 2G mobile phone (the GSM 2G networks support and complement in parallel the 3G wide band or in other words the transmission of information via voice signals is served by the 2G technology in both mobile phones generations) and a 1880 MHz cordless phone both digitally modulated by human voice. Comparison with advanced statistics of the egg laying of the second generation exposed and non-exposed cultures showed limited statistical significance for the cordless phone exposed culture and statistical significance for the 900 MHz exposed insects. We calculated by physics, simulated and illustrated in three dimensional figures the calculated near fields of radiation inside the experimenting vials and their difference. Comparison of the power of the two fields showed that the difference between them becomes null when the experimental cylinder radius and the height of the antenna increase. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest a possible radiofrequency sensitivity difference in insects which may be due to the distance from the antenna or to unexplored intimate factors. Comparing the near fields of the two frequencies bands, we see similar not identical geometry in length and height from the antenna and that lower frequencies tend to drive to increased radiofrequency effects.

The use of geographical information system in health sector.

The provision of health care has undergone radical changes during the last years. Geography plays an important role in understanding the dynamics of health, as well as the reasons why a disease is spreading. In general, a Geographic Information System (GIS) is based on the same principals with a traditional relational database. The main idea behind this study is the methodological approach as far as the implementation of a real- time electronic healthcare record is concerned, for the descriptive statistical analysis that uses geographical information to identify spatial data related to accidents. The purpose of developing such a health care record is to record the patients who were injured in accidents. The database that will be used for the development of the EHR is based on Microsoft Office 2007, which is considered to be one of the best tools for developing databases. The main table of the database includes the fields with demographics, ie name, surname, age, sex, address and place of birth. The primary key of the table Demographics is Patient_ID. The demographics from the table are connected to the table Admission with a relationship type one- to- many. The combination of these features in a graphic representation can be used to display the health problems on the map, so that the proper health policies can be applied. The results of the monitoring could be used as pilot instructions for spatial epidemiological analysis.

Epidemiological Indexes in Healthcare based on Social Cost Factors.

Hospital healthcare the last dictate becomes an important subject for analysis which includes factors such as epidemiological indexes and many others like Surgical, Economic, Organizational, Structural issues necessary for the overall evaluation of the general hospital performance. The social cost includes the private cost, the public expenditures and the external cost affecting the society at large from an incoming event, a current action and / or a policy change. For that reason, the calculation of these social costs over time (t) could be defined as a social measure to dictate the variability of social indicators on society. In this study epidemiological factor based on the social cost maybe introduced with the main goal being the evaluation of the hospital healthcare performance.

Calculating the social cost of illegal drugs: a theoretical approach.

The use of illegal drugs generates a wide range of social harms depending on various ways, according to the policy definition of the problem. The challenge is the way to model the impact of illegal drugs use during a long time period considering the factors that affects the process. Based on these models, estimation could be measured and prediction could be achieved. The illegal drugs use might affect the economic and social structure of the public system leading to direct and effective decisions to overcome the problematic. For that reason, calculation of social cost related to the use of illegal could be introduced over time (t) as a proposed social measure to define the variability of social indicator on society. In this work, a theoretical approach for the calculation of social cost of illegal drugs is proposed and models over time are defined.

Epidemiological factors affecting "hepatitis C".

Hepatitis C is an infectious disease affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The infection is often asymptomatic, but once established, chronic infection can progress to scarring of the liver (fibrosis), and advanced scarring (cirrhosis) which is generally apparent after many years. The main goal of this work is the investigation of the important factors that affect hepatitis C. Epidemiological and Statistical analysis using non-parametric tests (Kruskal-Willis, Mann-Whitney) are considered to present the amount of significant differences between important factors. Proposed model are analyzed when logistic regression is applied.