In a precedent study we observed that overall adiposity evaluated with the body mass index (BMI) was correlated with plasma viscosity and red blood cells (RBC) aggregation while abdominal obesity as assessed with the waist to hip ratio (WHR) was correlated with hematocrit. We investigated this issue in 129 women (age 15-65 years, BMI: 15 to 44 kg/m 2 , WHR: 0.65 to 1.13, fatness: 12-58%) who were divided into fatness groups: 17 underweight women (BMI <18.5), 75 normal weigh (BMI 18.5-24.9), 11 overweight (BMI 25-29.9), and 26 obese (BMI >30) divided according to WHR into 13 lower body and 13 upper body obese women. Whole blood viscosity significantly increases across obesity classes, and is higher in upper body than in lower body obesity (2.84 ± 0.08 vs 3.29 ± 0.09 mPa.s, p < 0.05). The correlations between whole blood viscosity and BMI (r = 0.383 p < 0.01) and WHR (r = 0.364 p < 0.01) are found again. The former is explained by correlations of BMI with plasma viscosity (r = 0.303 p < 0.01) and red cell rigidity (r = 0.356 p < 0.01) and the latter is only explained by a correlation between WHR and hematocrit (r = 0.524 p < 0.01). BMI is also correlated with RBC aggregation parameters. Actually, when total fatness is evaluated with the percentage of fat (%fat) given by bioimpedance analysis (BIA), the picture is slightly different, since %fat is correlated with whole blood viscosity and RBC aggregation parameters but not with hematocrit, plasma viscosity and red cell rigidity. Fat free mass is also correlated with whole blood viscosity (r = 0.227 p < 0.02) due to a correlation with hematocrit (r = 0.483 p < 0.01) but neither RBC rheology nor plasma viscosity. This study shows that fatness by its own is associated with increased red cell aggregation, that abdominal fat increases blood viscosity due to a rise in hematocrit, and that overall body size as assessed with the BMI is associated with increased plasma viscosity and red cell rigidity.

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Abstract-A converged broadcast and telecommunication service platform is presented that is able to create, deliver, and manage interactive, multimedia content and services for consumption on three different terminal types. The motivations of service providers for designing converged interactive multimedia services, which are crafted for their individual requirements, are investigated. The overall design of the system is presented with particular emphasis placed on the operational features of each of the sub-systems, the flows of media and metadata through the sub-systems and the formats and protocols required for inter-communication between them. The key features of tools required for creating converged interactive multimedia content for a range of different end-user terminal types are examined. Finally possible enhancements to this system are discussed. This study is of particular interest to those organizations currently conducting trials and commercial launches of DVB-H services because it provides them with an insight of the various additional functions required in the service provisioning platforms to provide fully interactive services to a range of different mobile terminal types.

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Body composition and nutrition have been reported to be correlated with blood rheology. However, in sedentary and in physically active individuals these relationships seem to be not exactly similar. This study investigated whether exercise training status influences these relationships. 32 athletes (ATH) (age: 25 ± 0.7 yr; body mass index (BMI): 23.75 ± 0.23 kg/m²) were compared to 21 sedentary subjects (SED) (age: 45.19 ± 2.90; BMI = 33.41 ± 1.33) with nutritional assessment (autoquestionnaire), bioelectrical impedancemetry, viscometry at high shear rate (MT90) and Myrenne aggregometer. Subjects differ according to age, weight and adiposity parameters. Their eating behavior is different: ATH eat a higher percentage of protein (p < 0.005), a lower percentage of lipid (p < 0.05), and a higher total amount of carbohydrate (+31% p < 0.02). Their viscosity factors are similar except plasma viscosity which is higher in SED than ATH (1.51 ± 0.03 vs 1.43 ± 0.02 mPa.s, p < 0.05). In both ATH and SED, abdominal obesity (waist-to-hip ratio or WHR) is associated with impairments in blood rheology, but not exactly the same. In ATH, WHR is associated with an increase in hematocrit (r = 0.647; p = 0.009), plasma viscosity (r = 0.723; p = 0.002), and caloric (and CHO) intake moderately increase RBC rigidity (r = 0.5405; p = 0.0251) and aggregability (r = 0.3366 p = 0.0596). In SED the picture is different, adiposity increases hematocrit (r = 0.460; p = 0.048), abdominal fatness increases blood viscosity independent of hematocrit, and CHO intake is associated with lower RBC aggregability (r = −0.493; p = 0.0319).

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