Search

Across the world, people are living longer. This phenomenon is creating a demographic shift: by 2050, the number of people aged 60 and older is expected to double and the number of people older than 80 is expected to triple. A growing elderly population also means an increase in age-related health concerns. In particular, with age comes normal memory decline as well as an increased risk of Alzheimer’s and other dementias. All this means that now more than ever the world needs interventions to support memory. From developing memory protheses to improving memory consolidation during sleep, neurostimulation is one particularly promising type of intervention for enhancing memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until relatively recently, basic biomedical research was almost exclusively conducted with male human, animal, and cell models. It was widely assumed that the research findings and medical treatments developed from these studies could be generalized to the whole population. However, there are sex differences in key biological pathways and processes that can influence a person’s disease risk, experience of symptoms, and response to treatment. The lack of female representation in preclinical biomedical research has resulted in gaps in our medical knowledge, with important consequences for women’s health. In the past decade, efforts to remedy this historic exclusion have increased, but opportunities remain to make basic biomedical research more equitable, reproducible, and applicable to all people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a grand challenge. It’s common, affecting about 10% of the population; it’s expensive, costing the nation nearly ${\$}$ 350 billion in 2023; and it often causes years of suffering for patients and their loved ones. Other age-related neurodegenerative conditions, such as vascular dementia and Parkinson’s disease, also continue to pose problems, both for patients and society as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While COVID-19 Has been racing through much of the human population, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has also turned up in other mammals. This leads to many questions: Might these animals serve as reservoirs where new variants can emerge and then infect humans? Can animal surveillance identify novel variants before they appear in humans? How dangerous is COVID-19 to nonhuman animals? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this issue of IEEE Pulse, we explore the human interface of the microscopic with global systems. The parallels are as a Fibonacci fractal: Human beings are a scaffolding upon which microbiomes live, much like populations that live in the varying climates and geographies of the planet. As we advance technology for humanity, it is worth considering the impact of that interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title refers to the conceptual quality of being similar, as a kind of resemblance between both procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2018 brought multiple, unprecedented natural disasters, including hurricanes, floods, and in the United States, the deadliest wildfire in California’s history. After the immediate emergency is over and the media attention wanes, communities must deal with the long process of recovering and rebuilding. Yet, some of the greatest challenges that disaster victims face come not only from the disaster itself but also from the long-term health problems stemming from the event. In the immediate aftermath, physical injuries and infections must be treated and controlled. Long-term needs include mental and psychological assistance and reinstatement of the infrastructure of the health services system. While immediate casualty numbers are often cited following a natural disaster, it’s the insidious and long-lasting health effects that can hurt communities for years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although women and men share many similar health challenges throughout their lifetimes, women are not necessarily healthier. Some conditions that only women experience-such as pregnancy, ovarian cancer, or the abnormal growth of the uterus called endometriosis- can become great health risks. HIV, AIDS, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are also serious medical and social issues for women worldwide. And because a woman's reproductive system is complex and delicate-which makes it particularly vulnerable to dysfunction or disease-finding ways to treat conditions that take root in the reproductive tract often prove challenging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the last ten years, Peter Wintlev-Jensen has been immersed in one of the greatest challenges the world will have to address in the decades ahead-the unprecedented aging of the population not only in Europe but also across the globe. This trend is reshaping consumer spending, challenging established economic models, driving the development of new industry and service sectors, and forcing a rethinking of key policy areas within health and social care. To quantify the challenge from a U.K. perspective, a recent report from the nonprofit organization Age UK showed that the country now has more people 60 or over than under 18 and more pensioners than children under 16. Just as striking, the number of people over 65 will rise almost 50% by 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The human population is getting older, and technology will play a key role in addressing the pressures this aging will place on healthcare systems. According to the 2015 United Nations' World Population Ageing report [1], the number of people worldwide 60 and older will increase from one in eight in 2015 to one in six by 2030 and to one in five by 2050; in Europe and "Northern America" (mainly the United States and Canada), those 60 and older will make up 25% of the population by 2030, and in Asia and Latin America, the number is predicted to be 17%. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The United States is hailed as providing the most advanced health care the world has to offer. With cutting-edge medical devices, groundbreaking procedures, and innovative technologies, our hospitals and medical centers define what the global community sees as modern biomedicine. Engineers and clinicians continue to push and reshape this standard with new inventions enabled by a rapidly developing knowledge base. However, the fruit of this advancement has not benefited Americans equally. Millions still face significant obstacles to access health care, and our rural communities in particular have been left behind (see also "The Challenge of Rural Health Care"). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil wells, endless deserts, stifling heat, masses of pilgrims, and wealthy-looking urban areas still dominate the widespread mental image of Saudi Arabia. Currently, this image is being extended to include a recent endeavor that is reserving a global share in the limelight as one of the top ten genomics projects currently underway: the Saudi Human Genome Program (SHGP). With sound funding, dedicated resources, and national determination, the SHGP targets the sequencing of 100,000 human genomes over the next five years to conduct world-class genomics-based biomedical research in the Saudi population. Why this project was conceived and thought to be feasible, what is the ultimate target, and how it operates are the questions we answer in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Each year, the developed world is flooded with complex new medical technologies, from robotic prosthetics to remote-controlled aspirin implants. Meanwhile, only about 10% of health research funds are spent addressing the pressing problems of developing nations, although these countries make up 93% of the worldwide burden of disease. In short, while a small fraction of the world pops brand-name pharmaceuticals, the majority suffers from poor sanitation, contaminated drinking water, preventable disease, and child mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a crisis that is impacting health care in the Arab nations of the Middle East and in north and west Africa: six countries in this region are on the top-ten list worldwide in terms of diabetes prevalence. Comprising 22 countries with a total population of 350 million people, these nations constitute only about 5% of the total world population. Yet, nearly 20% of the people in Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are diabetic. Not to be forgotten is the likelihood that between 41% (Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) to 62% (Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, occupied Palestine, Sudan, and Tunisia) of the population is suffering from undiagnosed diabetes. Currently, nearly 10% of all adult deaths in Arab countries are related to the complications of diabetes. This disproportionate prevalence of diabetes within the Arab nations undoubtedly has long-term health implications that will manifest in several ways unless social norms regarding diet and exercise change, along with a serious effort to reconsider government priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aging population and the wish to improve quality of life, as well as the economic pressure to work longer, call for intuitive and efficient assistive and rehabilitation technologies. Therefore, we have developed a project based education paradigm in the design of assistive and rehabilitation devices. Using a miniature wireless sensing and feedback platform, the multimodal interactive motor assessment and training environment (MIMATE), students from different engineering backgrounds were able to develop innovative devices implementing rehabilitative games in the short span of a one-term course. We describe here this novel H-CARD course on the human-centered design of assistive and rehabilitative devices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2010, the World Health Organization estimated that 285 million people exhibit some form of vision impairment. Of these, almost 40 million people are functionally blind [1]. Yet, 80% of blindness could either be treated or avoided at the point of onset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

War between the two worlds Eminiar VII and Vendikar had gone on for 500 years with no cessation in sight. This war was conducted by computer simulation, so that a virtual hit on one planet was retaliated by a computer-generated strike on the other. This avoided the large-scale death and destruction normally suffered during real wartime. To compensate for a war of this surgical nature, a segment of the population of a virtually stricken planet had to be assigned to die in disintegration chambers once the planet was targeted. People dutifully reported to these chambers once their fates were assigned. This was the basis of the episode titled “A Taste of Armageddon” of season one of the original Star Trek television series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]