An Avatar Uses Your Gait to Predict How Many Calories You Will Burn
Humans instinctively adopt the gait that requires the least amount of energy given the walking conditions. Without realizing it, we are constantly tweaking our pace, stride length and foot lift. But could we consciously play with these parameters in order to influence our energy expenditure?
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Large Collection of Brain Cancer Data Now Easily, Freely Accessible to Global Researchers
A valuable cache of brain cancer biomedical data has been made freely available to researchers worldwide, say researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. The dataset, REMBRANDT (REpository for Molecular BRAin Neoplasia DaTa) hosted and supported by Georgetown, is one of only two such large collections in the country.
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Wearable Devices and Mobile Health Technology: One Step Towards Better Health
With increasing efforts being made to address the current global obesity epidemic, wearable devices and mobile health ("mHealth") technology have emerged as promising tools for promoting physical activity. However, current literature seems to indicate that these new technologies may serve best as part of a larger overall health plan, rather than working alone to encourage weight loss.
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E-Textiles Control Home Appliances with the Swipe of a Finger
Electronic textiles could allow a person to control household appliances or computers from a distance simply by touching a wristband or other item of clothing - something that could be particularly helpful for those with limited mobility. Now researchers, reporting in ACS Nano, have developed a new type of e-textile that is self-powered, highly sensitive and washable.
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Doctors Rely on More than Just Data for Medical Decision Making
Many technology companies are working on artificial intelligence systems that can analyze medical data to help diagnose or treat health problems. Such systems raise the question of whether this kind of technology can perform as well as a human doctor. A new study from MIT computer scientists suggests that human doctors provide a dimension that, as yet, artificial intelligence does not.
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App, Brief Intervention may be Lifesaver for Suicidal Teens
A troubled teenager is hospitalized with suicidal thoughts. The patient is diagnosed, medicated, and counseled by a team of experts. The teen is sent home a few days later, and the following week the parent finds the child's bedsheets fashioned into a noose. The scenario is tragically common in the field of psychiatry, which has long struggled to develop strategies to help adolescents cope with recurring thoughts of suicide in the weeks after leaving the hospital.
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Wearable Device can Predict Older Adults' Risk of Falling
Every year, more than one in three individuals aged 65 and older will experience a fall. Falls are the most common cause of injury in older adults, and can create ongoing health problems. But treatment and awareness of falling usually happens after a fall has already occurred. As a part of the NIH's Women's Health Initiative, researchers wanted to see if they could predict an individual's risk of falling so that preventative measures could be taken to reduce this risk.
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