Outdoor Exercise and Air Quality under Real World Conditions: What can we learn from Wearable Sensors on Runners in Paris?
It is easy to measure the number of heart beats per minute. Clearly, this number increases during physical activity with exercise intensity. But how regular is your heart beat during exercise? We have studied the fluctuations of beat-to-beat time intervals during physical exercise by methods of statistical physics (see Figure). Known as Heart Rate Variability (HRV), a reduction of these fluctuations are associated with increased risks of cardiovascular events, and they reflect also respiratory dynamics. Studies have led to the hypothesis that air pollution may influence cardiovascular risk in part through disturbance of cardiac autonomic function as reflected by changes in HRV. However, most studies do not monitor air pollution surrounding the exercising individual but use data from monitoring stations. Since pollutant concentration can strongly vary across urban areas, simultaneous and local measurements of air quality and HRV, through wearable sensors, are desirable.
The first goal of this internship is to develop and use wearable/mobile sensors to measure pollutants on runners, including fine and ultrafine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and ozone, and to use exciting heart rate monitors to measure HRV. In the second part the intern will participate in the data analysis by looking at the dynamical fluctuations of heart beats and their correlation with pollutant concentrations. The project is expected to be carried out in Paris with the participation of members of running groups and clubs.
This project is proposed in collaboration with Sorbonne’s T-CAPES (Transdisciplinarite – Capteurs et Instrumentation pour l’Environnement et la Sante) initiative, bringing together efforts in the broad field of sensors and connecting different disciplines.
Expected skills: The project involves the collection of data with wearable sensors connected to the runner’s smart watches, and the theoretical analysis (fluctuation analysis of time series) of the data.
Location: PMMH, Jussieu Campus