Exposing an “Intangible” Cognitive Skill Among Collegiate Football Players: II. Enhanced Response Impulse Control

American football is played in a dynamic environment that places considerable demands on a player’s ability to make fast, precise reactions while controlling premature, impulsive reactions to spatial misinformation. We investigated the hypothesis that collegiate football players are more proficient than their non-athlete counterparts at controlling impulsive motor actions. National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I football players (n = 280) and non-athlete controls (n = 32) completed a variant of the Simon conflict task, which quantifies choice reaction speed and the proficiency of controlling spatially driven response impulses. Overall, the choice reaction times (RTs) and accuracy rates of football players and controls were equivalent. Similarly, football players and controls were equally susceptible to producing incorrect impulsive motor responses. However, the slowing of RT attributed to the activation and successful inhibition of these impulses (i.e., the Simon effect) was reduced significantly among football players compared to controls. Moreover, differences in impulse control varied by position among the players, with the reduction being greater for offensive than for defensive players. Among offensive players, running backs, wide receivers, and offensive linemen had greater impulse control than did controls, whereas among defensive players only linebackers had greater control. Notably, the Simon effect was reduced by 60% in running backs compared to controls. These results contribute to emerging evidence that elite football players possess more proficient executive control over their motor systems than their age counterparts and suggest that the speed of controlling impulsive motor reactions may represent an enhanced cognitive “intangible” among football players

Force Characterization and Manufacturing of a Dynamic Unilateral Clubfoot Brace

Clubfoot is a musculoskeletal birth defect that is characterized by an inward twisting of an infant’s feet. The current method for correction involves several casts and a bilateral boots-and-bar maintenance brace. This method of maintenance requires 5 years of bracing and has issues with compliance, comfort, and social stigma. CURE International in Kijabe, Kenya is currently using the boots-and-bar brace but is interested in implementing a design that reduces these concerns. Mr. Jerald Cunningham, CPO, designed and is utilizing a unilateral clubfoot maintenance brace, the Cunningham Brace, which he expects will reduce treatment time to 2-3 years, lessen the social stigma, and increase the child’s mobility. However, there is not enough published research on its biomechanics and patient success rates to confirm his findings. The Collaboratory Cunningham Clubfoot Brace project seeks to validate the effectiveness of this design and increase accessibility through force testing and standardized manufacturing. We are working on measuring the biomechanical forces created and applied by the brace with a series of force sensors that are attached to the child’s brace. In addition, a new wrapping process for manufacturing the Cunningham Brace is being developed to increase the productivity and reproducibility of brace manufacturing in Kenya. Along with a clinical study that was started in Kenya, this testing and manufacturing will allow for further understanding of the effectiveness of the Cunningham Brace and provide more research for the medical community for it to potentially be accepted as an alternative clubfoot maintenance brace.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/engr2020/1014/thumbnail.jp

High Quality, Low Cost Egg Incubator for BIC Church in Choma, Zambia

The Egg Incubator team is partnering with the Brethren in Christ Church located in Choma, Zambia to design a high-quality, low-cost chicken egg incubator to supply the pastors and church members with a means of food and income. The design will need to take into account the accessibility and cost of the tools and materials. The current prototype features separate heating and humidity systems, a control system to maintain a set temperature and humidity, and tilting egg racks. The heating system consists of two stovetop coils to produce heat and a fan to transfer it to the air. The humidifier utilizes an atomizer in a pan of water to create a mist that mixes with the hot air to create humidity. The control system uses a proportional integral derivative controller (PID) to keep the temperature at 37 ± 1 °C and the humidity at 60–70%. The egg racks are tilted by a motor that runs every 6 hours to prevent the embryos from sticking to the shell. With a fully functioning prototype, the team has begun to incubate 60 real fertilized eggs. During the 21-day incubation process, a final prototype iteration is being designed and will be built on-site in Zambia in May 2022. Funding for this work provided by The Collaboratory for Strategic Partnerships and Applied Research.https://mosaic.messiah.edu/engr2022/1004/thumbnail.jp

Family doctor-driven follow-up for adult childhood cancer survivors supported by a web-based survivor care plan

To facilitate family doctor-driven follow-up for adult childhood cancer survivors, we developed a survivor care plan (SCP) for adult survivors and their family doctors. The SCP was accessible for survivors and their family doctors on a secure website and as a printed booklet. It included data on diagnosis, treatment and potential risks as well as recommendations for follow-up. Childhood cancer survivors who were off-treatment >= 5 years, aged >= 18 years and not involved in a long-term follow-up program were eligible. They were advised to visit their family doctor. The endpoints were numbers of participants, adherence of family doctors to the guidelines and satisfaction ratings. The eligibility criteria were fulfilled by 108 survivors. Three family doctors and 15 survivors refused, 10 survivors were non-responders. Of the remaining 80 survivors, 73 survivors visited 72 family doctors. Sixty-nine (96%) family doctors returned data of whom 60 (83%) fully adhered to the recommended tests. The majority of survivors and family doctors were satisfied about the SCP. A (web-based) SCP for survivors and family doctors can serve as an effective communication vehicle to provide adequate shared care by the long-term follow-up clinic and family doctors

Experienced stress produces inhibitory deficits in old adults’ Flanker task performance: First evidence for lifetime stress effects beyond memory

Studies regarding aged individuals' performance on the Flanker task differ with respect to reporting impaired or intact executive control. Past work has explained this discrepancy by hypothesising that elderly individuals use increased top-down control mechanisms advantageous to Flanker performance. This study investigated this mechanism, focussing on cumulative experienced stress as a factor that may impact on its execution, thereby leading to impaired performance. Thirty elderly and thirty young participants completed a version of the Flanker task paired with electroencephalographic recordings of the alpha frequency, whose increased synchronisation indexes inhibitory processes. Among high stress elderly individuals, findings revealed a general slowing of reaction times for congruent and incongruent stimuli, which correlated with alpha desynchronisation for both stimulus categories. Results found high performing (low stress) elderly revealed neither a behavioural nor electrophysiological difference compared to young participants. Therefore, rather than impacting on top-down compensatory mechanisms, findings indicate that stress may affect elderly participants' inhibitory control in attentional and sensorimotor domains

Staphylococcus aureus Host Cell Invasion and Virulence in Sepsis Is Facilitated by the Multiple Repeats within FnBPA

Entry of Staphylococcus aureus into the bloodstream can lead to metastatic abscess formation and infective endocarditis. Crucial to the development of both these conditions is the interaction of S. aureus with endothelial cells. In vivo and in vitro studies have shown that the staphylococcal invasin FnBPA triggers bacterial invasion of endothelial cells via a process that involves fibronectin (Fn) bridging to α5β1 integrins. The Fn-binding region of FnBPA usually contains 11 non-identical repeats (FnBRs) with differing affinities for Fn, which facilitate the binding of multiple Fn molecules and may promote integrin clustering. We thus hypothesized that multiple repeats are necessary to trigger the invasion of endothelial cells by S. aureus. To test this we constructed variants of fnbA containing various combinations of FnBRs. In vitro assays revealed that endothelial cell invasion can be facilitated by a single high-affinity, but not low-affinity FnBR. Studies using a nisin-inducible system that controlled surface expression of FnBPA revealed that variants encoding fewer FnBRs required higher levels of surface expression to mediate invasion. High expression levels of FnBPA bearing a single low affinity FnBR bound Fn but did not invade, suggesting that FnBPA affinity for Fn is crucial for triggering internalization. In addition, multiple FnBRs increased the speed of internalization, as did higher expression levels of FnBPA, without altering the uptake mechanism. The relevance of these findings to pathogenesis was demonstrated using a murine sepsis model, which showed that multiple FnBRs were required for virulence. In conclusion, multiple FnBRs within FnBPA facilitate efficient Fn adhesion, trigger rapid bacterial uptake and are required for pathogenesis

Inter-hemispheric integration of tactile-motor responses across body parts

In simple detection tasks, reaction times are faster when stimuli are presented to the visual field or side of the body ipsilateral to the body part used to respond. This advantage, the crossed-uncrossed difference (CUD), is thought to reflect inter-hemispheric interactions needed for sensorimotor information to be integrated between the two cerebral hemispheres. However, it is unknown whether the tactile CUD is invariant when different body parts are stimulated. The most likely structure mediating such processing is thought to be the corpus callosum (CC). Neurophysiological studies have shown that there are denser callosal connections between regions that represent proximal parts of the body near the body midline and more sparse connections for regions representing distal extremities. Therefore, if the information transfer between the two hemispheres is affected by the density of callosal connections, stimuli presented on more distal regions of the body should produce a greater CUD compared to stimuli presented on more proximal regions. This is because interhemispheric transfer of information from regions with sparse callosal connections will be less efficient, and hence slower. Here, we investigated whether the CUD is modulated as a function of the different body parts stimulated by presenting tactile stimuli unpredictably on body parts at different distances from the body midline (i.e., Middle Finger, Forearm, or Forehead of each side of the body). Participants detected the stimulus and responded as fast as possible using either their left or right foot. Results showed that the magnitude of the CUD was larger on the finger (~2.6 ms) and forearm (~1.8 ms) than on the forehead (~-0.9 ms). This result suggests that the interhemispheric transfer of tactile stimuli varies as a function of the strength of callosal connections of the body parts

Large-Scale Model-Based Assessment of Deer-Vehicle Collision Risk

Ungulates, in particular the Central European roe deer Capreolus capreolus and the North American white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus, are economically and ecologically important. The two species are risk factors for deer–vehicle collisions and as browsers of palatable trees have implications for forest regeneration. However, no large-scale management systems for ungulates have been implemented, mainly because of the high efforts and costs associated with attempts to estimate population sizes of free-living ungulates living in a complex landscape. Attempts to directly estimate population sizes of deer are problematic owing to poor data quality and lack of spatial representation on larger scales. We used data on 74,000 deer–vehicle collisions observed in 2006 and 2009 in Bavaria, Germany, to model the local risk of deer–vehicle collisions and to investigate the relationship between deer–vehicle collisions and both environmental conditions and browsing intensities. An innovative modelling approach for the number of deer–vehicle collisions, which allows nonlinear environment–deer relationships and assessment of spatial heterogeneity, was the basis for estimating the local risk of collisions for specific road types on the scale of Bavarian municipalities. Based on this risk model, we propose a new “deer–vehicle collision index” for deer management. We show that the risk of deer–vehicle collisions is positively correlated to browsing intensity and to harvest numbers. Overall, our results demonstrate that the number of deer–vehicle collisions can be predicted with high precision on the scale of municipalities. In the densely populated and intensively used landscapes of Central Europe and North America, a model-based risk assessment for deer–vehicle collisions provides a cost-efficient instrument for deer management on the landscape scale. The measures derived from our model provide valuable information for planning road protection and defining hunting quota. Open-source software implementing the model can be used to transfer our modelling approach to wildlife–vehicle collisions elsewhere

Characterization of covalent inhibitors that disrupt the interaction between the tandem SH2 domains of SYK and FCER1G phospho-ITAM

RNA sequencing and genetic data support spleen tyrosine kinase (SYK) and high affinity immunoglobulin epsilon receptor subunit gamma (FCER1G) as putative targets to be modulated for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) therapy. FCER1G is a component of Fc receptor complexes that contain an immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM). SYK interacts with the Fc receptor by binding to doubly phosphorylated ITAM (p-ITAM) via its two tandem SH2 domains (SYK-tSH2). Interaction of the FCER1G p-ITAM with SYK-tSH2 enables SYK activation via phosphorylation. Since SYK activation is reported to exacerbate AD pathology, we hypothesized that disruption of this interaction would be beneficial for AD patients. Herein, we developed biochemical and biophysical assays to enable the discovery of small molecules that perturb the interaction between the FCER1G p-ITAM and SYKtSH2. We identified two distinct chemotypes using a high-throughput screen (HTS) and orthogonally assessed their binding. Both chemotypes covalently modify SYK-tSH2 and inhibit its interaction with FCER1G p-ITAM, however, these compounds lack selectivity and this limits their utility as chemical tools