Metabolic risk score indexes validation in overweight healthy people

The constellation of adverse cardiovascular disease (CVD) and metabolic risk factors, including elevated abdominal obesity, blood pressure (BP), glucose, and triglycerides (TG) and lowered high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), has been termed the metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) [1]. A number of different definitions have been developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) [2], the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) [3], the European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance (EGIR) [4] and, most recently, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) [5]. Since there is no universal definition of the Metabolic Syndrome, several authors have derived different risk scores to represent the clustering of its components [6-11].

Score optimization and template updating in a biometric technique for authentication in mobiles based on gestures

This article focuses on the evaluation of a biometric technique based on the performance of an identifying gesture by holding a telephone with an embedded accelerometer in his/her hand. The acceleration signals obtained when users perform gestures are analyzed following a mathematical method based on global sequence alignment. In this article, eight different scores are proposed and evaluated in order to quantify the differences between gestures, obtaining an optimal EER result of 3.42% when analyzing a random set of 40 users of a database made up of 80 users with real attempts of falsification. Moreover, a temporal study of the technique is presented leeding to the need to update the template to adapt the manner in which users modify how they perform their identifying gesture over time. Six updating schemes have been assessed within a database of 22 users repeating their identifying gesture in 20 sessions over 4 months, concluding that the more often the template is updated the better and more stable performance the technique presents.

A proposal for an interchange abstract syntax for (parallel) Prolog

We propose an abstract syntax for Prolog that will help the manipulation of programs at compile-time, as well as the exchange of sources and information among the tools designed for this manipulation. This includes analysers, partial evaluators, and program transformation tools. We have chosen to concentrate on the information exchange format, rather than on the syntax of programs, for which we assume a simplified format. Our purpose is to provide a low-level meeting point for the tools which will allow them to read the same programs and understand the information about them. This report describes our first design in an informal way. We expect this design to evolve and concretize, along with the future development of the tools, during the project.

Federating queries in SPARQL 1.1: syntax, semantics and evaluation

Given the sustained growth that we are experiencing in the number of SPARQL endpoints available, the need to be able to send federated SPARQL queries across these has also grown. To address this use case, the W3C SPARQL working group is defining a federation extension for SPARQL 1.1 which allows for combining graph patterns that can be evaluated over several endpoints within a single query. In this paper, we describe the syntax of that extension and formalize its semantics. Additionally, we describe how a query evaluation system can be implemented for that federation extension, describing some static optimization techniques and reusing a query engine used for data-intensive science, so as to deal with large amounts of intermediate and final results. Finally we carry out a series of experiments that show that our optimizations speed up the federated query evaluation process.

Effects of coaches' timeouts on basketball teams' offensive and defensive performances according to momentary differences in score and game period.

The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of game timeouts on basketball teams? offensive and defensive performances according to momentary differences in score and game period. The sample consisted of 144 timeouts registered during 18 basketball games randomly selected from the 2007 European Basketball Championship (Spain). For each timeout, five ball possessions were registered before (n?493) and after the timeout (n?475). The offensive and defensive efficiencies were registered across the first 35 min and last 5 min of games. A k-means cluster analysis classified the timeouts according to momentary score status as follows: losing ( ?10 to ?3 points), balanced ( ?2 to 3 points), and winning (4 to 10 points). Repeated-measures analysis of variance identified statistically significant main effects between pre and post timeout offensive and defensive values. Chi-square analysis of game period identified a higher percentage of timeouts called during the last 5 min of a game compared with the first 35 min (64.999.1% vs. 35.1910.3%; x ?5.4, PB0.05). Results showed higher post timeout offensive and defensive performances. No other effect or interaction was found for defensive performances. Offensive performances were better in the last 5 min of games, with the least differences when in balanced situations and greater differences when in winning situations. Results also showed one interaction between timeouts and momentary differences in score, with increased values when in losing and balanced situations but decreased values when in winning situations. Overall, the results suggest that coaches should examine offensive and defensive performances according to game period and differences in score when considering whether to call a timeout.