Robust Step Counting for Inertial Navigation with Mobile Phones.

Mobile phones are increasingly used for purposes that have nothing to do with phone calls or simple data transfers, and one such use is indoor inertial navigation. Nevertheless, the development of a standalone application able to detect the displacement of the user starting only from the data provided by the most common inertial sensors in the mobile phones (accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer), is a complex task. This complexity lies in the hardware disparity, noise on data, and mostly the many movements that the mobile phone can experience and which have nothing to do with the physical displacement of the owner. In our case, we describe a proposal, which, after using quaternions and a Kalman filter to project the sensors readings into an Earth Centered inertial reference system, combines a classic Peak-valley detector with an ensemble of SVMs (Support Vector Machines) and a standard deviation based classifier. Our proposal is able to identify and filter out those segments of signal that do not correspond to the behavior of "walking", and thus achieve a robust detection of the physical displacement and counting of steps. We have performed an extensive experimental validation of our proposal using a dataset with 140 records obtained from 75 different people who were not connected to this research.

Level of acceptance of solid organ xenotransplantation among personnel in Spanish, Mexican, and Cuban hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Xenotransplantation is still a long way from becoming a clinical reality. However, in an emergency situation, it could be used as a bridge for replacing vital organs until the arrival of a human organ. To analyze the attitude toward xenotransplantation among hospital personnel from several hospitals in Spain and Latin America. METHODS: A random sample stratified according to the type of hospital and job category (n = 2618) in 10 hospitals in three different countries: Spain (n = 821), Mexico (n = 1595), and Cuba (n = 202). A validated questionnaire (PCID-XenoTx Rios) was self-administered and completed anonymously by the respondents. RESULTS: If the results of xenotransplantation were similar to those achieved using human donor organs, 61% (n = 1591) of the respondents would be in favor, while 9% (n = 234) would be against and 30% (n = 793) would be unsure. The analysis of the variables affecting attitude toward xenotransplantation revealed that attitude varied according to the country of reference and was more favorable among personnel in Cuban hospitals (70% a favor) than in Spanish (57%) and Mexican ones (62%; P = 0.000). However, these differences are mainly determined by job category with the physicians having the most favorable attitude. The ancillary staff, in contrast, had the least favorable attitude (76 vs. 51% respectively; P = 0.000). Of the remaining variables, attitude is significantly related to variables connected to human donation: attitude toward the different kinds of human organ donation (deceased [P < 0.001] and living [P < 0.001]), the possibility of needing a transplant oneself in the future (P < 0.001), and attitude toward donating the organs of a deceased family member (P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: A third of healthcare personnel from several hospitals are not in favor of xenotransplantation. It is necessary to provide more information about the matter, especially in hospitals where there is a preclinical xenotransplantation program or where there is access to one, such as in the hospitals in this study.

A cloud-based Internet of Things platform for ambient assisted living.

A common feature of ambient intelligence is that many objects are inter-connected and act in unison, which is also a challenge in the Internet of Things. There has been a shift in research towards integrating both concepts, considering the Internet of Things as representing the future of computing and communications. However, the efficient combination and management of heterogeneous things or devices in the ambient intelligence domain is still a tedious task, and it presents crucial challenges. Therefore, to appropriately manage the inter-connection of diverse devices in these systems requires: (1) specifying and efficiently implementing the devices (e.g., as services); (2) handling and verifying their heterogeneity and composition; and (3) standardizing and managing their data, so as to tackle large numbers of systems together, avoiding standalone applications on local servers. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes a platform to manage the integration and behavior-aware orchestration of heterogeneous devices as services, stored and accessed via the cloud, with the following contributions: (i) we describe a lightweight model to specify the behavior of devices, to determine the order of the sequence of exchanged messages during the composition of devices; (ii) we define a common architecture using a service-oriented standard environment, to integrate heterogeneous devices by means of their interfaces, via a gateway, and to orchestrate them according to their behavior; (iii) we design a framework based on cloud computing technology, connecting the gateway in charge of acquiring the data from the devices with a cloud platform, to remotely access and monitor the data at run-time and react to emergency situations; and (iv) we implement and generate a novel cloud-based IoT platform of behavior-aware devices as services for ambient intelligence systems, validating the whole approach in real scenarios related to a specific ambient assisted living application.

Measuring the effects of a hydrogen peroxide mouth rinse on breath alcohol values.

The high consumption of alcoholic drinks has become acceptable in many societies and is often promoted by commercials. Unfortunately, many people risk their lives by driving drunk. They even try to outsmart breathalyzer tests, for example, using a novel procedure based on the partial oxidation of expired breathed ethanol after rinsing the mouth with diluted hydrogen peroxide. To check the validity of this procedure, the different variables involved in the process were tested: the type of alcoholic beverage, the amount of ethanol swallowed, and the time elapsed between consumption and mouth rinsing. Our ultimate aim was to measure the effects of this process. If the mouth rinse succeeds in masking a drinker's true alcohol level, then further study of possible remedies is needed to prevent such fraud. However, if the rinsing proves to have no effect, then this work could help strengthen the integrity of the breathalyzer test and its ability to deter drivers from overdrinking. The final conclusion, after all the experiments, is that a reduction in the alcohol level is observed with the use of hydrogen peroxide as a mouthwash before performing a breathalyzer test.

The effect of TV viewing on children's obesity risk and mental well-being: Evidence from the UK digital switchover.

We examine the effect of screen-based activities on obesity and mental well-being for children, using a large survey dataset representative of the UK population and an event study model that exploits exogenous variation in the entry date of the digital television transition in the UK. The digital transition increased the number of available free television channels from 5 to 40, leading to a rise in television viewing time. Our results show that receiving access to digital television signal considerably increases the mental health total difficulties score among children, and that this impact grows over time. We also find suggestive evidence that the digital transition could have increased BMI for children. Underlying the net effects appear to be decreases in participation in social and physical activities.

Knowledge of the brain death concept by personnel in Spanish and Latin-American healthcare centers.

BACKGROUND: The knowledge and acceptance of the concept of brain death (BD) among health care personnel is fundamental. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the level of understanding of the BD concept among personnel in Spanish and Latin American healthcare centers and to determine the factors affecting this attitude. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data from 12 hospitals and 32 primary care centers in 4 countries within the International Collaborative Donor Project were selected (Spain, Mexico, Cuba and Costa Rica (n=4378)). RESULTS: 62% of the personnel (n=2714) understood BD and believed that this was the death of an individual. Of the rest, 30% (n=1333) did not understand it and the remaining 8% (n=331) believed it did not mean the death of a patient. 83% (n=931) of physicians understood BD, compared to 75% (n=895) of nurses, 55% (n=299) of healthcare assistants, 53% (n=108) of non-healthcare university-educated personnel and 36% (n=481) of those without a university education (p<0.001). 68% (n=1084) of Mexicans understood BD compared to 66% (n=134) of Cubans, 58% (n=1411) of Spaniards, and 52% (n=85) (p<0.001) of Costa Ricans. There were significant relationships between knowledge of the concept and the following: type of healthcare center (p<0.001), clinical service (p<0.001), having spoken about organ donation within the family (p<0.001) and one's partner's attitude to the subject (p<0.001). A direct relationship has been found between understanding the concept and attitude toward deceased donation (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The understanding of BD by personnel from healthcare centers was not as good as expected. There were marked differences depending on job category.

Attitudes of non-medical staff in hospitals in Spain, Mexico, Cuba and Costa Rica towards organ donation.

INTRODUCTION: Non-medical staff members in hospitals are highly credible at population level, and are a source of opinion even though they do not have sufficient medical training. OBJECTIVES: To analyse the attitudes of non-medical professionals of Spanish and Latin American hospitals towards organ donation and identify the factors that influence these attitudes. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Through the "Proyecto Colaborativo Internacional Donante" (International Collaborative Donor Project), a stratified random sample was selected from non-medical services of eleven hospitals: 3 Spanish (n=277), 5 Mexican (n=632), 2 Cuban (n=42) and 1 Costa Rican (n=101). RESULTS: Of the 1052 professionals surveyed, 72% (n=754) were in favour of donating an organ after death. By country, 98% of Cubans, 80% of Mexicans, 66% of Costa Ricans and 52% of Spanish were in favour (P<.001). The most influential variables were: 1) country, with results being more positive in Mexico (odds ratio [OR]=2.197), 2) believing in the possibility that they will require a transplant (OR=2.202), 3) having discussed the issue with their family (OR=3.23), 4) the positive attitude of their partner towards donation (OR=3.322), 5) not being concerned about possible mutilation of their body after donation (OR=3.378), 6) preferring options other than burial (OR=2.525), 7) accepting an autopsy (OR=2.958). CONCLUSIONS: The attitude of non-medical staff members of hospitals towards the donation of their own organs varies greatly depending on the country of the respondent. Psychosocial factors that influence these attitudes are similar to those described at the population level.