Prosthetic EMG control enhancement through the application of man-machine principles

An area in medicine that appears suitable to man-machine principles is rehabilitation research, particularly when the motor aspects of the body are involved. If one considers the limb, whether functional or not, as the machine, the brain as the controller and the neuromuscular system as the man-machine interface, the human body is reduced to a man-machine system that can benefit from the principles behind such systems. The area of rehabilitation that this paper deals with is that of an arm amputee and his prosthetic device. Reducing this area to its man-machine basics, the problem becomes one of attaining natural multiaxis prosthetic control using Electromyographic activity (EMG) as the means of communication between man and prothesis. In order to use EMG as the communication channel it must be amplified and processed to yield a high information signal suitable for control. The most common processing scheme employed is termed Mean Value Processing. This technique for extracting the useful EMG signal consists of a differential to single ended conversion to the surface activity followed by a rectification and smoothing

Pharmacological interventions other than botulinum toxin for spasticity after stroke.

BACKGROUND: The long-term risk of stroke increases with age, and stroke is a common cause of disability in the community. Spasticity is considered a significantly disabling impairment that develops in people who have had a stroke. The burden of care is higher in stroke survivors who have spasticity when compared with stroke survivors without spasticity with regard to treatment costs, quality of life, and caregiver burden. OBJECTIVES: To assess if pharmacological interventions for spasticity are more effective than no intervention, normal practice, or control at improving function following stroke. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials Register (May 2016), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, 2016, Issue 5), MEDLINE (1946 to May 2016), Embase (2008 to May 2016), CINAHL (1982 to May 2016), AMED (1985 to May 2016), and eight further databases and trial registers. In an effort to identify further studies, we undertook handsearches of reference lists and contacted study authors and commercial companies. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared any systemically acting or locally acting drug versus placebo, control, or comparative drug with the aim of treating spasticity. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently assessed the studies for inclusion and extracted the data. We assessed the included studies for both quality and risk of bias. We contacted study authors to request further information when necessary. MAIN RESULTS: We included seven RCTs with a total 403 participants. We found a high risk of bias in all but one RCT. Two of the seven RCTs assessed a systemic drug versus placebo. We pooled data on an indirect measure of spasticity (160 participants) from these two studies but found no significant effect (odds ratio (OR) 1.66, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.21 to 13.07; I(2) = 85%). We identified a significant risk of adverse events per participant occurring in the treatment group versus placebo group (risk ratio (RR) 1.65, 95% CI 1.12 to 2.42; 160 participants; I(2) = 0%). Only one of these studies used a functional outcome measure, and we found no significant difference between groups.Of the other five studies, two assessed a systemic drug versus another systemic drug, one assessed a systemic drug versus local drug, and the final two assessed a local drug versus another local drug. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The lack of high-quality RCTs limited our ability to make specific conclusions. Evidence is insufficient to determine if systemic antispasmodics are effective at improving function following stroke

Loss of TLE3 promotes the mitochondrial program in beige adipocytes and improves glucose metabolism.

Prolonged cold exposure stimulates the recruitment of beige adipocytes within white adipose tissue. Beige adipocytes depend on mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to drive thermogenesis. The transcriptional mechanisms that promote remodeling in adipose tissue during the cold are not well understood. Here we demonstrate that the transcriptional coregulator transducin-like enhancer of split 3 (TLE3) inhibits mitochondrial gene expression in beige adipocytes. Conditional deletion of TLE3 in adipocytes promotes mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and increases energy expenditure, thereby improving glucose control. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation and deep sequencing, we found that TLE3 occupies distal enhancers in proximity to nuclear-encoded mitochondrial genes and that many of these binding sites are also enriched for early B-cell factor (EBF) transcription factors. TLE3 interacts with EBF2 and blocks its ability to promote the thermogenic transcriptional program. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that TLE3 regulates thermogenic gene expression in beige adipocytes through inhibition of EBF2 transcriptional activity. Inhibition of TLE3 may provide a novel therapeutic approach for obesity and diabetes

Employment 12 months after kidney transplantation: an in-depth bio-psycho-social analysis of the Swiss Transplant Cohort

Return to work with or after a chronic disease is a dynamic process influenced by a variety of interactions between personal, work, societal and medical resources or constraints. The aim of this study was to identify predictors for employment 12 months after transplantation in kidney patients, applying a bio-psycho-social model. All kidney patients followed in the Swiss Transplant Cohort between May 2008 and December 2012, aged 18 to 65 were assessed before, 6 and 12 months after transplantation. Of the 689 included patients, 56.2% worked 12 months post- transplantation compared to 58.9% pre-transplantation. Age, education, self-perceived health (6 months post- transplantation), pre- transplantation employment and receiving an organ from a living donor are significant predictors of employment post- transplantation. Moreover, while self-perceived health increased post- transplantation, depression score decreased only among those employed 12 months post- transplantation. Pre- transplantation employment status was the main predictor for post- transplantation employment (OR = 18.6) and was associated with sex, age, education, depression and duration of dialysis. An organ from a living donor (42.1%) was more frequent in younger patients, with higher education, no diabetes and shorter waiting time to surgery. Transplantation did not increase employment in end-stage kidney disease patients but helped maintaining employment. Pre-transplantation employment has been confirmed to be the most important predictor of post-transplantation employment. Furthermore, socio-demographic and individual factors predicted directly and indirectly the post-transplantation employment status. With living donor, an additional predictor linked to social factors and the medical procedure has been identified

Discovery of progenitor cell signatures by time-series synexpression analysis during Drosophila embryonic cell immortalization

The use of time series profiling to identify groups of functionally related genes (synexpression groups) is a powerful approach for the discovery of gene function. Here we apply this strategy during RasV12 immortalization of Drosophila embryonic cells, a phenomenon not well characterized. Using high-resolution transcriptional time-series datasets, we generated a gene network based on temporal expression profile similarities. This analysis revealed that common immortalized cells are related to adult muscle precursors (AMPs), a stem cell-like population contributing to adult muscles and sharing properties with vertebrate satellite cells. Remarkably, the immortalized cells retained the capacity for myogenic differentiation when treated with the steroid hormone ecdysone. Further, we validated in vivo the transcription factor CG9650, the ortholog of mammalian Bcl11a/b, as a regulator of AMP proliferation predicted by our analysis. Our study demonstrates the power of time series synexpression analysis to characterize Drosophila embryonic progenitor lines and identify stem/progenitor cell regulators

How COVID-19 is affecting LTC facilities

Historically, viruses have had major impact on society. Some viruses are relatively harmless, while other are a death sentence. We are currently facing a highly communicable virus that is vigorously making its way around the globe, having a devastating impact on the management and delivery of everyday care in Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF’s). In December 2019, a new coronavirus was discovered in Wuhan China. While rapidly spreading in China, it only took a month to make its way to the United States, resulting in the Trump Administration declaring a national emergency, only two months later, on March 13, 2020. Shortly after, other governing agencies followed suit enacting their own policies and regulations to slow the transmission of COVID-19. The administrator of CMS enacted regulations restricting visits to SNF’s to those only deemed medically essential. Residents residing in SNF’s are at a increased risk of contracting and transmitting COVID-19 due to having comorbidities. Residents are also at an increased risk for developing social anxiety and mental health issues. The policies and procedures that have been implemented have changed the way SNF’s, medical professionals, and vendors provide services to nursing home residents. Regardless if these procedures are effective or not, they are having a devastating impact on SNF’s revenue. There are many influences that come into play that are affecting SNF’s bottom line, such as facilities not being able to take in as many admissions, low census, staffing issues and patients passing away due to COVID-19. Currently, emphasis is being placed on hand hygiene, social distancing, and proper use of PPE. Recently, the FDA granted emergency use of newly developed vaccines made by Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, that is shown to effectively prevent at least 66 percent of laboratory confirmed infection of COVID-19. It is unknown at this time if recipients will have a lasting immunity or if an annual vaccine will be required

Oncogenic transformation of Drosophila somatic cells induces a functional piRNA pathway.

Germline genes often become re-expressed in soma-derived human cancers as "cancer/testis antigens" (CTAs), and piRNA (PIWI-interacting RNA) pathway proteins are found among CTAs. However, whether and how the piRNA pathway contributes to oncogenesis in human neoplasms remain poorly understood. We found that oncogenic Ras combined with loss of the Hippo tumor suppressor pathway reactivates a primary piRNA pathway in Drosophila somatic cells coincident with oncogenic transformation. In these cells, Piwi becomes loaded with piRNAs derived from annotated generative loci, which are normally restricted to either the germline or the somatic follicle cells. Negating the pathway leads to increases in the expression of a wide variety of transposons and also altered expression of some protein-coding genes. This correlates with a reduction in the proliferation of the transformed cells in culture, suggesting that, at least in this context, the piRNA pathway may play a functional role in cancer.We thank the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Microscopy Shared Resources for assistance, which are funded in part by Cancer Center Support Grant 5P30CA045508. This work was supported in part by a grant from the STARR Cancer Consortium, grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH MERIT Award, R37GM062534 to G. J.H.), and a generous gift from Kathryn W. Davis to G.J.H. N.P. and G.J.H. are or were Investigators of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Stocks obtained from the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (NIH P40OD018537) were used in this study. Cell lines have been deposited by A.S. at the Drosophila Genomics Resource Center (NIH 2P40OD010949-10A1). G.J.H. is supported by Cancer Research UK and is a Wellcome Trust Investigator.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Cold Spring Harbor Press at http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/gad.284927.116

Recent trends in UK insects that inhabit early successional stages of ecosystems

Improved recording of less popular groups, combined with new statistical approaches that compensate for datasets that were hitherto too patchy for quantitative analysis, now make it possible to compare recent trends in the status of UK invertebrates other than butterflies. Using BRC datasets, we analysed changes in status between 1992 and 2012 for those invertebrates whose young stages exploit early seral stages within woodland, lowland heath and semi-natural grassland ecosystems, a habitat type that had declined during the 3 decades previous to 1990 alongside a disproportionally high number of Red Data Book species that were dependent on it. Two clear patterns emerged from a meta-analysis involving 299 classifiable species belonging to ten invertebrate taxa: (i) during the past 2 decades, most early seral species that are living near their northern climatic limits in the UK have increased relative to the more widespread members of these guilds whose distributions were not governed by a need for a warm micro-climate; and (ii) independent of climatic constraints, species that are restricted to the early stages of woodland regeneration have fared considerably less well than those breeding in the early seral stages of grasslands or, especially, heathland. The first trend is consistent with predicted benefits for northern edge-of-range species as a result of climate warming in recent decades. The second is consistent with our new assessment of the availability of early successional stages in these three ecosystems since c. 1990. Whereas the proportion and continuity of early seral patches has greatly increased within most semi-natural grasslands and lowland heaths, thanks respectively to agri-environmental schemes and conservation management, the representation of fresh clearings has continued to dwindle within UK woodlands, whose floors are increasingly shaded and ill-suited for this important guild of invertebrates

Migratory Characteristics and Passage Efficiency of Fishes at Two Dams on the Alabama River, Alabama

Fish passage facilities are a widely accepted mitigation tool at many dams in the United States to assist migratory fish species to upstream spawning areas on the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Here we investigated the potential to move fish through two locks on the Alabama River-- Millers Ferry Lock and Dam and Claiborne Lock and Dam-- using specialized lock operations. We used manual tracking combined with submersible ultrasonic receivers (SUR) deployed both above and below each dam, as well as inside the navigational lock chamber to determine whether fish passage occurred. We recorded over 359,000 detections of 157 individuals with the SURs and 144 manual detections of 67 individuals. Most fish movement past dams occurred during the spring, when many riverine fish make spawning migrations. Our results suggest that specialized lock operations along the Alabama River increase opportunities for upstream fish passage although relatively few fish moved through the lock chambers

Idealism and Education: Continuities and Transformations in Schelling\u27s Philosophy and Its Implications for a Philosophy of Education

This project is centrally concerned with the connection of Schellings philosophy of education to his broader philosophical commitments, from his identity-philosophy period to his middle period philosophy of freedom. I argue that, while there are some essential threads of continuity from Schelling\u27s earlier views to his middle period philosophy that should not be ignored, there are some basic problems inhering in the identity-philosophy system that motivate some radical transformations in his views by 1809. I argue that these transformations must result in a rethinking of his earlier views on university education, as expressed in his 1802-1803 lectures On University Studies. I begin with an exposition of Schelling\u27s absolute idealism, specifically as it is presented in his 1802 Bruno dialogue. This lays the ground for the discussion of Schelling\u27s philosophy of education in his 1802 Lectures on the Method of University Studies. In an analysis of those Lectures, I show the direct implications of his identity-philosophy for his plan for a reformation of the university. I then trace the developments and transformations of his idealism in his 1809 essay Of Human Freedom. In my explication of this later text, I show that certain basic features of Schelling\u27s earlier educational program would have to be abandoned in light of these later developments in his philosophical project. This project is one of historical scholarship. I aim to bring into clearer light the nature of Schelling\u27s philosophy of education in particular, and his philosophy in general as it developed over the course of the early 1800\u27s. The research presented here, while valuable in its own right, also lays the groundwork for future studies of Schelling\u27s relationship to other major historical figures of philosophy, such as Heidegger, enriching our understanding of each through the other