Virtual Coaches in Healthcare: A Vision of the Future

CISE Distinguished Lecture

September 20, 2012 10:00 AM  to

September 20, 2012 11:00 AM

NSF Room 110

Abstract:

With health care costs raising astronomically and the number of aging increasing, there are not enough economic or human resources in the way of care givers to meet society's needs. A confluence of technologies including miniature electronics, digital communications, human-computer interaction, robotics, and machine learning makes possible the creation of intelligent assistants that monitor and communicate with users, understand their needs and goals, and compensate for diminished capabilities as we age or suffer a disability. This talk will highlight the research challenges in creating virtual coaches that monitor user activities providing reminders and advice to reach personal and caregiver goals.

Daniel P. Siewiorek is the Buhl University Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.  He is the Director of the Quality of Life Technology Center, an NSF ERC in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh. Previously he served as head of CMU's Human Computer Interaction Institute.  His research interests span human interaction with intelligent systems, mobile and ubiquitous computing, and system reliability. He has designed or been involved with the design of nine multiprocessors, over two-dozen commercial computers, and over 20 generations of mobile systems.  He has written nine textbooks and is a recipient of major awards from AAEE, IEEE, and ACM. He is a Fellow of IEEE, ACM, and AAAS, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

To Join the Webinar:

The Webinar will be held from 10:00-11:00am EST on September 20, 2012 in Room 110.

To attend virtually, please register by August 15, 23:59 PDT at: https://mmancusa.webex.com/mmancusa/j.php?ED=190362862&RG=1&UID=0&RT=MiMxMQ%3D%3D

After your registration is accepted, you will get an email with a URL to join the meeting. Please be sure to join a few minutes before the start of the webinar. This system does not establish a voice connection on your computer; instead, your acceptance message will have a toll-free phone number that you will be prompted to call after joining.  Please note that this registration is a manual process; therefore, do not expect an immediate acceptance.  In the event the number of requests exceeds the capacity, some requests may have to be denied.

NASA Study Provides New Findings On Protecting Astronauts' Bones Through Diet And Exercise

Trent J. Perrotto

Headquarters, Washington          

202-358-0321

trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov

 

William Jeffs                                        

Johnson Space Center, Houston

281-483-5111

william.p.jeffs@nasa.gov

 

HOUSTON -- Eating the right diet and exercising hard in space helps protect International Space Station astronauts' bones, a finding that may help solve one of the key problems facing future explorers heading beyond low Earth orbit.

A new study, published this month in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, evaluated the mineral density of specific bones as well as the entire skeleton of astronauts who used the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED), a 2008 addition to the space station that can produce resistance of as much as 600 pounds in microgravity. Resistance exercise allows astronauts to "lift weights" in weightlessness.

Researchers compared data measured from 2006 until the new device arrived, when astronauts used an interim workout that offered about half the total resistance of the ARED. The researchers found astronauts using the advanced exercise system returned to Earth with more lean muscle and less fat, and maintained their whole body and regional bone mineral density compared to when they launched. Crew members using ARED also consumed sufficient calories and vitamin D, among other nutrients. These factors are known to support bone health and likely played a contributing role.

"After 51 years of human spaceflight, these data mark the first significant progress in protecting bone through diet and exercise," said Scott M. Smith, NASA nutritionist at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston and lead author of the publication. 

Since the 1990s, resistance exercise has been thought to be a key method of protecting astronauts' bones. Normal, healthy bone constantly breaks down and renews itself, a process called remodeling. As long as these processes are in balance, bone mass and density stay the same. Earlier studies of Russian Mir space station residents found an increased rate of breakdown, but little change in the rate of regrowth that resulted in an overall loss in bone density. In the new study, researchers looked at preflight and postflight images of bone using X-ray densitometry, as well as in-flight blood and urine measurements of chemicals that reflect bone metabolism. In crew members who used the ARED device during spaceflight, bone breakdown still increased, but bone formation also tended to increase, likely resulting in the maintenance of whole bone mineral density.

"The increase in both bone breakdown and formation suggests that the bone is being remodeled, but a key question remains as to whether this remodeled bone is as strong as the bone before flight," said Dr. Jean Sibonga, bone discipline lead at Johnson and coauthor of the study.

Studies to evaluate bone strength before and after flight are currently under way.

Beyond bone strength, further study is required to determine the best possible combination of exercise and diet for long-duration crews. Dietary effects on bone are being studied on the space station right now, with one experiment evaluating different ratios of animal protein and potassium in the diet on bone health. Another is looking at the benefits for bone of lowering sodium intake.

To view the study, visit http://tinyurl.com/c8fy32w.

For more about space station research and the resulting benefits on Earth, visit http://www.nasa.gov/iss-science.

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The Impact of Jenny Simpson -- Science of the Summer Olympics

The Impact of Jenny Simpson

Many runners suffer injuries to their joints due to the repeated impact of their feet hitting the ground. U.S. runner Jenny Simpson relies on new treadmill technology to help rehabilitate from a stress fracture as she trains for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Credit: NBC Learn and National Science Foundation

NASA, NSBRI Select 29 Proposals To Support Crew Health On Missions

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington     

202-358-1100

jbuck@nasa.gov

 

Kelly Humphries / William Jeffs

Johnson Space Center, Houston

281-483-5111

kelly.o.humphries@nasa.gov

william.p.jeffs@nasa.gov

 

Brad Thomas

National Space Biomedical Research Institute, Houston

713-798-7595

rbthomas@bcm.edu

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) of Houston will fund 29 proposals to help investigate questions about astronaut health and performance on future deep space exploration missions.

The selected proposals are from 25 institutions in 11 states and will receive a total of about $26 million over a one- to three-year period.

A major area of emphasis for both HRP and NSBRI has been the recently identified issue of visual impairment in astronauts during and after long-duration spaceflight. In addition, eight of the selected proposals will examine several facets of this poorly understood syndrome.

HRP and NSBRI research provides knowledge and technologies to improve human health and performance during space exploration and develops possible countermeasures for problems experienced during space travel. The organizations' goals are to help astronauts complete their challenging missions successfully and preserve astronauts' health throughout their lives.

HRP quantifies crew health and performance risks during spaceflight and develops strategies that mission planners and system developers can use to monitor and mitigate the risks. These studies often lead to advancements in understanding and treating illnesses in patients on Earth.

The 29 projects were selected from 104 proposals received in response to the research announcement "Research and Technology Development to Support Crew Health and Performance in Space Exploration Missions." Scientific and technical experts from academia and government reviewed the proposals. NASA will manage 14 of the projects; NSBRI will manage 15.

NSBRI is a NASA-funded consortium of institutions studying health risks related to long-duration spaceflight. The Institute's science, technology and education projects take place at more than 60 institutions across the United States.

For a complete list of the selected principal investigators, organizations and proposals, visit http://go.nasa.gov/LlGsLz.

For information about NASA's Human Research Program, visit http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/humanresearch/.

For information about NSBRI's science, technology and education programs, visit http://www.nsbri.org.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov.

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Cool Under Pressure – Using Science to Stave Off Hypothermia

By Bob Reinert for USAG-Natick Public Affairs

Seventeen years after four soldiers died from hypothermia during the final phase of Ranger School, researchers at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine at Natick Soldier Systems Center continue to study how the human body cools down, in hopes of one day developing medical techniques to help prevent such tragedies.

“You can’t design possible countermeasures — pharmacological treatments, perhaps — until you know mechanisms,” said Capt. David DeGroot, Ph.D., a research physiologist in USARIEM’s Thermal and Mountain Medicine Division, who is leading the study. “You’ve got to understand the basic mechanism before you (say), ‘Okay, now how do I target it?’

“This is going to allow us to get further insight with the actual mechanisms so that we can follow it up with, Okay, what could we possibly do in terms of an intervention to mitigate that rate of core temperature drop?”

Dr. John Castellani, serving as an Army captain with USARIEM at the time, was a member of the team that conducted the institute’s initial study at Camp Rudder on Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., soon after the February 1995 deaths. He still works at the institute as a research physiologist.

Castellani said that the original study led to adjustments to the tables Rangers use to determine what amount of exposure to cold is safe.

 “The swamp portion of training takes place at the very tail end of Ranger School, so soldiers have lost a lot of muscle, fat,” Castellani said. “They’re also, during that time frame, purposefully not being fed, so they may have very little food on board, and they’re also sleep deprived a lot as part of that part of the training.”

“So we studied Ranger students who were finishing up Ranger School. We tested them immediately as they came out of the swamp.”

Castellani followed these studies with the Rangers by trying to understand how physically fatigued soldiers are more susceptible to hypothermia.

“What John found was if you exposed people to cold air after they exercised, they cooled off faster than people who were warmed up passively,” DeGroot said. “So there was something about that prior exercise that led to a faster rate of decline in core temperature, higher skin temperature, higher rate of heat transfer through the skin.

“The follow-up question was always, ‘why? What’s controlling that skin temperature? What’s the mechanism responsible for this abnormal response?’”

DeGroot and his team are studying that mechanism with the help of eight soldiers from the Human Research Volunteer Program at NSSC, who are fitted with microdialysis fibers, muscle temperature probes and skin temperature sensors. They are then put into the 102-degree waters of an immersion tank, followed by a trip to an environmental chamber, where the air temperature is a relatively cool 66 degrees.

“Now that doesn’t sound very cold, (but) all he’s wearing is a pair of shorts and a pair of socks, and he’s at rest,” said DeGroot of one volunteer. “A normal response in the cold is that the blood vessels in the skin are going to constrict, and that’s to limit the rate of heat loss from the core out to the environment. What varies is how we warm them up prior to the cold exposure — exercise versus passive.”

The use of microdialysis fibers, implanted under the skin to gather samples, was in its “infancy” when Castellani did his study, DeGroot said. Things have changed since then.

“(We are) using some different techniques that, frankly, we didn’t have a dozen years ago,” DeGroot said. “We didn’t have the technical capability to do this study.

“This is unique. Off the top of my head, I can think of (only) six other labs in the world that use microdialysis to study the control of skin blood flow.”

With a better understanding of the human body’s response to cold, USARIEM researchers likely will be in a better position to help future soldiers ward off hypothermia.

“Everything in science is incremental,” said DeGroot, “just building off of others.”