Silk-Corn Zein Alloy Materials: Influence of Silk Types (Mori, Thai, Muga, Tussah, and Eri) on the Structure, Properties, and Functionality of Insect-Plant Protein Blends.

Biocompatible materials fabricated from natural protein polymers are an attractive alternative to conventional petroleum-based plastics. They offer a green, sustainable fabrication method while also opening new applications in biomedical sciences. Available from several sources in the wild and on domestic farms, silk is a widely used biopolymer and one of the strongest natural materials.

Self-monitoring of blood pressure following a stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TASMIN5S): a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Blood pressure (BP) control following stroke is important but currently sub-optimal. This trial aimed to determine whether self-monitoring of hypertension with telemonitoring and a treatment escalation protocol, results in lower BP than usual care in people with previous stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA).

Methods: Unblinded randomised controlled trial, comparing a BP telemonitoring-based intervention with control (usual care) for hypertension management in 12 primary care practices in England.

Effect of Self-monitoring of Blood Pressure on Blood Pressure Control in Pregnant Individuals With Chronic or Gestational Hypertension: The BUMP 2 Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Inadequate management of elevated blood pressure is a significant contributing factor to maternal deaths. The role of blood pressure self-monitoring in pregnancy in improving clinical outcomes for the pregnant individual and infant is unclear.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of blood pressure self-monitoring, compared with usual care alone, on blood pressure control and other related maternal and infant outcomes, in individuals with pregnancy hypertension.

Supporting People With Type 2 Diabetes in the Effective Use of Their Medicine Through Mobile Health Technology Integrated With Clinical Care to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk: Protocol for an Effectiveness and Cost-effectiveness Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Type 2 diabetes is a common lifelong condition that affects over 400 million people worldwide. The use of effective medications and active self-management can reduce the risk of serious complications. However, people often have concerns when starting new medications and face difficulties in taking their medications regularly.

Correction: System Architecture for "Support Through Mobile Messaging and Digital Health Technology for Diabetes" (SuMMiT-D): Design and Performance in Pilot and Randomized Controlled Feasibility Studies.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/18460.].

System Architecture for "Support Through Mobile Messaging and Digital Health Technology for Diabetes" (SuMMiT-D): Design and Performance in Pilot and Randomized Controlled Feasibility Studies.

Background: Diabetes is a highly prevalent long-term condition with high morbidity and mortality rates. People with diabetes commonly worry about their diabetes medicines and do not always take them regularly as prescribed. This can lead to poor diabetes control.

Toward a Multivariate Prediction Model of Pharmacological Treatment for Women With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Algorithm Development and Validation.

Background: Successful management of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) reduces the risk of morbidity in women and newborns. A woman's blood glucose readings and risk factors are used by clinical staff to make decisions regarding the initiation of pharmacological treatment in women with GDM. Mobile health (mHealth) solutions allow the real-time follow-up of women with GDM and allow timely treatment and management.

An Intuitive Risk Communication Tool to Enhance Patient-Provider Partnership in Diabetes Consultation.

Introduction: This technology report introduces an innovative risk communication tool developed to support providers in communicating diabetes-related risks more intuitively to people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: The development process involved three main steps: (1) selecting the content and format of the risk message; (2) developing a digital interface; and (3) assessing the usability and usefulness of the tool with clinicians through validated questionnaires.

Results: The tool calculates personalized risk information based on a validated simulation model (United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study Outcomes Model 2) and delivers it using more intuitive risk formats, such as "effective heart age" to convey cardiovascular risks.

Optimizing a digital intervention for managing blood pressure in stroke patients using a diverse sample: Integrating the person-based approach and patient and public involvement.

Background: Having a stroke or transient ischaemic attack increases the risk of a subsequent one, especially with high blood pressure (BP). Home-based BP management can be effective at maintaining optimal BP.

Objective: To describe the optimization of a digital intervention for stroke patients and the value of participant diversity, using the person-based approach (PBA) and integral patient and public involvement (PPI).

Monitoring activity of hip injury patients (MoHIP): a sub-study of the World Hip Trauma Evaluation observational cohort study.

Background: Hip fracture is common, affecting 20% of women and 10% of men during their lifetime. The trajectory of patients' recovery as they transition from the acute hospital setting to their usual residence is poorly understood. Recently, the use of activity trackers to monitor physical activity during recovery has been investigated as a way to explore this trajectory.

Self-reported and objectively measured physical activity in people with and without chronic heart failure: UK Biobank analysis.

Objective: The impact of heart failure (HF) on perceived and objectively measured levels of physical activity (PA) can inform risk stratification and treatment recommendation. We aimed to compare self-reported and objectively measured PA levels in a large sample of participants with and without HF.

Methods: A validated PA questionnaire was used to estimate self-reported weekly PA among 1600 participants with HF and 387 580 participants without HF.

Blood pressure monitoring in high-risk pregnancy to improve the detection and monitoring of hypertension (the BUMP 1 and 2 trials): protocol for two linked randomised controlled trials.

Introduction: Self-monitoring of blood pressure (BP) in pregnancy could improve the detection and management of pregnancy hypertension, while also empowering and engaging women in their own care. Two linked trials aim to evaluate whether BP self-monitoring in pregnancy improves the detection of raised BP during higher risk pregnancies (BUMP 1) and whether self-monitoring reduces systolic BP during hypertensive pregnancy (BUMP 2).

Methods And Analyses: Both are multicentre, non-masked, parallel group, randomised controlled trials.

Intervention planning and modification of the BUMP intervention: a digital intervention for the early detection of raised blood pressure in pregnancy.

Background: Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, particularly pre-eclampsia, pose a substantial health risk for both maternal and foetal outcomes. The BUMP (Blood Pressure Self-Monitoring in Pregnancy) interventions are being tested in a trial. They aim to facilitate the early detection of raised blood pressure through self-monitoring.

Supporting people with type 2 diabetes in effective use of their medicine through mobile health technology integrated with clinical care (SuMMiT-D Feasibility): a randomised feasibility trial protocol.

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes is common, affecting over 400 million people worldwide. Risk of serious complications can be reduced through use of effective treatments and active self-management. However, people are often concerned about starting new medicines and face difficulties in taking them regularly.

Mood Monitoring Over One Year for People With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Using a Mobile Health System: Retrospective Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Comorbid anxiety and depression can add to the complexity of managing treatment for people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Monitoring mood has the potential to identify individuals who might benefit from additional support and treatment.

Objective: We used data from the sElf-management anD support proGrammE (EDGE) trial to examine: (1) the extent to which the mood-monitoring components of a mobile health system for patients with COPD were used by participants; (2) the levels of anxiety and depression symptoms among study participants; (3) the extent to which videos providing advice about coping with low mood were viewed; and (4) the characteristics of participants with differing levels of mood and utilization of mood monitoring.

Automated method for detecting and reading seven-segment digits from images of blood glucose metres and blood pressure monitors.

There is an increasing need for fast and accurate transfer of readings from blood glucose metres and blood pressure monitors to a smartphone mHealth application, without a dependency on Bluetooth technology. Most of the medical devices recommended for home monitoring use a seven-segment display to show the recorded measurement to the patient. We aimed to achieve accurate detection and reading of the seven-segment digits displayed on these medical devices using an image taken in a realistic scenario by a smartphone camera.

Nudging people with Type 2 diabetes towards better self-management through personalized risk communication: A pilot randomized controlled trial in primary care.

Objectives: To assess the feasibility in routine primary care consultation and investigate the effect on risk recall and self-management of a new type of risk communication intervention based on behavioural economics ("nudge-based") for people with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: Forty adults with poorly controlled T2DM (HbA1c > 7.5%) were randomized to receive a personalized, nudge-based risk communication intervention (n = 20) or standard care (n = 20).

Feasibility of Telemonitoring Blood Pressure in Patients With Kidney Disease (Oxford Heart and Renal Protection Study-1): Observational Study.

Background: Blood pressure (BP) is a key modifiable risk factor for patients with CKD, with current guidelines recommending strict control to reduce the risk of both progression of CKD and cardiovascular disease. Trials of BP lowering require multiple visits to achieve target BP which increases the costs of such trials, and in routine care BP measured in clinic may not accurately reflect usual BP.

Objective: We sought to assess whether a telemonitoring system for BP (using a Bluetooth-enable BP machine which could transmit BP measurements to a tablet device which had a bespoke app to guide measurement of BP and collect questionnaire data) was acceptable to patients with CKD, and whether patients would provide sufficient BP readings to assess variability and guide treatment.

Physical Activity and Sleep Analysis of Heart Failure Patients using Multi-sensor Patches.

Traditional heart failure markers fail to reliably predict heart-failure related hospitalisations and deaths. Multi- sensor patch data can provide an objective insight into activity and sleep patterns of patients and may therefore improve the performance of current risk-quantification algorithms. This work aimed to establish the feasibility of collecting multi-sensor patch data from heart failure patients and to perform an initial analysis of activity and sleep patterns of heart failure patients in relation to disease severity.

An Optimised Algorithm for Accurate Steps Counting From Smart-Phone Accelerometry.

Step counting from smart-phones allows a wide range of applications related to fitness and health. Estimating steps from phones' accelerometers is challenging because of the multitude of ways a smart-phone can be carried. We focus our work on the windowed peak detection algorithm, which has previously been shown to be accurate and efficient and thus suitable for mobile devices.

Clinical Implications of the NICE 2015 Criteria for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.

Background: In response to concerns that the International Association of Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group (IADPSG) criteria labeled too many women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) without evidence of clinical or economic benefit, NICE recommended a change in diagnostic criteria in 2015.

Aim: To compare diabetes associated maternal and neonatal complications in pregnancies complicated by GDM diagnosed using IADPSG criteria only, to those with GDM diagnosed using both IADPSG and NICE 2015 criteria. GDM screening was risk factor based.

Cognitive and behavioural strategies for weight management in overweight adults: Results from the Oxford Food and Activity Behaviours (OxFAB) cohort study.

Background: Though many overweight and obese adults attempt to lose weight without formal support, little is known about the strategies used in self-directed weight loss attempts. We set out to assess cognitive and behavioural strategies for weight loss and their associations with weight change.

Methods: Prospective, web-based cohort study of overweight UK adults (BMI≥25kg/m2) trying to lose weight through behaviour change.