An IoT Machine Learning-Based Mobile Sensors Unit for Visually Impaired People.

Visually impaired people face many challenges that limit their ability to perform daily tasks and interact with the surrounding world. Navigating around places is one of the biggest challenges that face visually impaired people, especially those with complete loss of vision. As the Internet of Things (IoT) concept starts to play a major role in smart cities applications, visually impaired people can be one of the benefitted clients. In this paper, we propose a smart IoT-based mobile sensors unit that can be attached to an off-the-shelf cane, hereafter a smart cane, to facilitate independent movement for visually impaired people. The proposed mobile sensors unit consists of a six-axis accelerometer/gyro, ultrasonic sensors, GPS sensor, cameras, a digital motion processor and a single credit-card-sized single-board microcomputer. The unit is used to collect information about the cane user and the surrounding obstacles while on the move. An embedded machine learning algorithm is developed and stored in the microcomputer memory to identify the detected obstacles and alarm the user about their nature. In addition, in case of emergencies such as a cane fall, the unit alerts the cane user and their guardian. Moreover, a mobile application is developed to be used by the guardian to track the cane user via Google Maps using a mobile handset to ensure safety. To validate the system, a prototype was developed and tested.

The Influence of the Gut Microbiome on Obesity in Adults and the Role of Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Synbiotics for Weight Loss.

The link between the gut microbiome and obesity is not well defined. Understanding of the role of the gut microbiome in weight and health management may lead to future revolutionary changes for treating obesity. This review examined the relationship between obesity and the gut microbiome, and the role of probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics for preventing and treating obesity. We used PubMed and Google Scholar to collect appropriate articles for the review. We showed that the gut microbiome has an impact on nutrient metabolism and energy expenditure. Moreover, different modalities of obesity treatment have been shown to change the diversity and composition of the gut microbiome; this raises questions about the role these changes may play in weight loss. In addition, studies have shown that supplementation with probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics may alter the secretion of hormones, neurotransmitters, and inflammatory factors, thus preventing food intake triggers that lead to weight gain. Further clinical studies are needed to better understand how different species of bacteria in the gut microbiome may affect weight gain, and to determine the most appropriate doses, compositions, and regimens of probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics supplementation for long-term weight control.

Laparoscopic removal of poor outcome gastric banding with concomitant sleeve gastrectomy.

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) has a significant incidence of long-term failure, which may require an alternative revisional bariatric procedure to remediate. Unfortunately, there is few data pinpointing which specific revisional procedure most effectively addresses failed gastric banding. Recently, it has been observed that laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is a promising primary bariatric procedure; however, its use as a revisional procedure has been limited. This study aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of LSG performed concomitantly with removal of a poor-outcome LAGB. METHODS: A retrospective review was performed on patients who underwent LAGB removal with concomitant LSG at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia between September 2007 and April 2012. Patient body mass index (BMI), percentage of excess weight loss (%EWL), duration of operation, length of hospital stay, complications after LSG, and indications for revisional surgery were all reviewed and compared to those of patients who underwent LSG as a primary procedure. RESULTS: Fifty-six patients (70 % female) underwent conversion of LAGB to LSG concomitantly, and 128 (66 % female) patients underwent primary LSG surgery. The revisional and primary LSG patients had similar preoperative ages (mean age 33.5 ± 10.7 vs. 33.6 ± 9.0 years, respectively; p = 0.43). However, revisional patients had a significantly lower BMI at the time of surgery (44.4 ± 7.0 kg/m(2) vs. 47.9 ± 8.2; p < 0.01). Absolute BMI postoperative reduction at 24 months was 14.33 points in the revision group and 18.98 points in the primary LSG group; similar %EWL was achieved by both groups at 24 months postoperatively (80.1 vs. 84.6 %). Complications appeared in two (5.5 %) revisional patients and in nine (7.0 %) primary LSG patients. No mortalities occurred in either group. CONCLUSIONS: Conversion of LAGB by means of concomitant LSG is a safe and efficient procedure and achieves similar outcomes as primary LSG surgery alone.

Coupling of enzymatic and immunoassay steps to detect E. coli: a new, highly sensitive tandem technique for the analysis of low levels of bacteria.

A tandem technique for the detection of very low levels E. coli within about 2h is demonstrated. The technique couples the widely employed microbial enzymatic detection methods with an immunoassay step. The bacterial marker enzyme, E. coli beta-D-galactosidase, was used in conjunction with synthetic enzyme substrates to produce products that could be measured with a highly sensitive enzyme-labelled immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The commercially available 4-methylumbelliferyl-beta-D-galactoside and a newly prepared substrate, 4-methylcoumarin-3-propionate-7-O-beta-D-galactoside, were used with an ELISA for 7-hydroxy-4-methylcoumarin to demonstrate the detection of low levels of E. coli. The 2h test indicates that a few viable bacteria cells could be detected by the tandem procedure. The end point of the test is an ELISA with colorimetric measurement step. The novel approach retains the essential features of the microbial enzymatic detection procedures and provides a highly sensitive detection system that can be used for rapid screening or quantification of viable microbial cells in water samples. The tandem test is generic for commonly employed glycosidases and other marker enzymes for which 4-methylumbillerone substrates are available.