The effects of Tai Chi on peripheral somatosensation, balance, and fitness in Hispanic older adults with type 2 diabetes:a pilot and feasibility study

Peripheral neuropathy and loss of somatosensation in older adults with type 2 diabetes can increase risk of falls and disability. In nondiabetic older adult population Tai Chi has been shown to enhance balance and fitness through improvements in somatosensation and neuromuscular control, and it is unclear if Tai Chi would elicit similar benefits in older adults with diabetes. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an 8-week, three-hour-per-week Tai Chi intervention on peripheral somatosensation in older adults with type 2 diabetes. Participants were eight Hispanic older adults with type 2 diabetes who participated in the Tai Chi intervention and a convenience sample of Hispanic older adults as a referent group. Baseline and postintervention assessments included ankle proprioception, foot tactile sense, plantar pressure distribution, balance, and fitness. After intervention, older adults with type 2 diabetes showed significant improvements in ankle proprioception and fitness and decreased plantar pressure in the forefoot, with no statistical effect noted in balance or tactile sensation. Study results suggest that Tai Chi may be beneficial for older adults with diabetes as it improves ankle proprioception; however, study findings need to be confirmed in a larger sample size randomized controlled trial

Accuracy of RT3 Accelerometer and SenseWear Armband to Estimate Free-Living Energy Expenditure

Devices that estimate energy expenditure (EE), such as the RT3 accelerometer and the SenseWear (SW) Armband, are a convenient way to assess free-living activity, as they store multiple days of data. Purpose: This study evaluated the ability of the RT3 accelerometer and the SW Armband to accurately estimate the total EE of adults under free-living conditions compared to indirect calorimetry (IC). Methods: A total of three men and six women [mean (SD) age: 30.9 (16.6) y; height: 168.3 (10.2) cm; body mass: 64.2 (10.4) kg; BMI: 22.5 (1.8) kg/m2] participated in this study. Each participant wore the RT3 accelerometer at the waist, the SW Armband positioned midway on the posterior aspect of the right upper arm, and a portable metabolic measurement system (COSMED K4b2) during three hours of free-living activity. Simultaneous measurements of EE were continuously recorded by the RT3 accelerometer, SW Armband, and IC during all activities. Difference scores for EE were calculated as RT3 accelerometer minus IC, SW Armband minus IC, and RT3 accelerometer minus SW Armband. A one-sample t-test was used to determine if the difference between devices was significantly different from zero. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated between each of the devices and IC. Results: Mean EE estimated by the RT3 accelerometer [338.1 (146.5) kcal] was similar to IC [320.9 (157.1) kcal; P = 0.31]; however, the SW Armband [462.6 (137.5) kcal] significantly overestimated EE compared to IC (P = 0.004) and the RT3 accelerometer (P = 0.004). There was a significant relationship between the RT3 accelerometer and IC (r = 0.95; P \u3c 0.01), and between the SW Armband and IC (r = 0.75; P \u3c0.05). Conclusion: The findings indicate that the RT3 accelerometer more accurately estimated EE in adults under free-living conditions than the SW Armband. While the mean difference between RT3 accelerometer-estimated EE and IC-measured EE over the three hour sampling interval was minimal (5.6%), the summative error over a more prolonged measurement period may still produce an unacceptable overestimation of EE

Spatial repellency and vapour toxicity of transfluthrin against the biting midges Culicoides nubeculosus and C. sonorensis (Ceratopogonidae)

Biting midges (Diptera; Ceratopogonidae; Culicoides spp.) are biological vectors of disease agents, and they cause nuisance and insect bite hypersensitivity. Currently there are no effective means to control biting midges as screening is impractical and the application of insecticides or repellents is of limited efficacy. Spatial repellents have the advantage over contact repellents that they can create a vector-free environment. Studies have shown the efficacy of spatial repellents to protect humans against mosquitoes, also outdoors, but no data are available for biting midges. We tested the spatial repellency and toxicity (knockdown effect) of the volatile pyrethroid transfluthrin against the laboratory-reared biting midges Culicoides nubeculosus (Meigen) and Culicoides sonorensis (Wirth and Jones) and the mosquito Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) in a high-throughput tube setup. Observations were made 15, 30 and 60 min. after application of the repellent. In addition to transfluthrin, the non-volatile pyrethroid permethrin and DEET, the gold standard of repellents, were included. Spatial repellency by transfluthrin was observed against both biting midge species and Ae. aegypti, already at the first observation after 15 min. and at much lower concentrations than DEET. Permethrin was spatially repellent only to C. sonorensis at the highest concentration tested (10 μg/cm2). Knockdown of biting midges and mosquitoes by transfluthrin, both by vapour or contact toxicity, was observed even at low concentrations. DEET had little to no effect on the knockdown of the insects, neither by direct contact nor vapour toxicity, while permethrin caused a high proportion of knockdown when direct contact was possible. In case these results can be confirmed in field experiments, spatial repellents could become a novel tool in integrated control programmes to reduce biting by Culicoides spp

ACCURATE VISUAL LOCALIZATION IN OUTDOOR AND INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS EXPLOITING 3D IMAGE SPACES AS SPATIAL REFERENCE

In this paper, we present a method for visual localization and pose estimation based on 3D image spaces. The method works in indoor and outdoor environments and does not require the presence of control points or markers. The method is evaluated with different sensors in an outdoor and an indoor test field. The results of our research show the viability of single image localization with absolute position accuracies at the decimetre level for outdoor environments and 5 cm or better for indoor environments. However, the evaluation also revealed a number of limitations of single image visual localization in real-world environments. Some of them could be addressed by an alternative AR-based localization approach, which we also present and compare in this paper. We then discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches and show possibilities for combining them to obtain accurate and robust visual localization in an absolute coordinate frame

Nurse Researchers in Children\u27s Hospitals

Little is known about the role of nurse researchers (NRs) and the structure of nursing research programs in children\u27s hospitals in the United States. This descriptive study obtained survey data from 33 NRs. Data suggest that the NR role is emerging and has both commonalities and unique components when compared with the previous studies of NRs in adult hospitals. Most participants have been in their position for less than 4 years. Conducting research, having staff development related to research, and facilitating evidence-based practice or research were common responsibilities. The structure of nursing research programs impacts both the NRs and the program outcomes

Comprehensive evaluation of human-derived anti-poly-GA antibodies in cellular and animal models of C9orf72 disease

Hexanucleotide G4C2 repeat expansions in the C9orf72 gene are the most common genetic cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia. Dipeptide repeat proteins (DPRs) generated by translation of repeat-containing RNAs show toxic effects in vivo as well as in vitro and are key targets for therapeutic intervention. We generated human antibodies that bind DPRs with high affinity and specificity. Anti-GA antibodies engaged extra- and intra-cellular poly-GA and reduced aggregate formation in a poly-GA overexpressing human cell line. However, antibody treatment in human neuronal cultures synthesizing exogenous poly-GA resulted in the formation of large extracellular immune complexes and did not affect accumulation of intracellular poly-GA aggregates. Treatment with antibodies was also shown to directly alter the morphological and biochemical properties of poly-GA and to shift poly-GA/antibody complexes to more rapidly sedimenting ones. These alterations were not observed with poly-GP and have important implications for accurate measurement of poly-GA levels including the need to evaluate all centrifugation fractions and disrupt the interaction between treatment antibodies and poly-GA by denaturation. Targeting poly-GA and poly-GP in two mouse models expressing G4C2 repeats by systemic antibody delivery for up to 16 mo was well-tolerated and led to measurable brain penetration of antibodies. Long-term treatment with anti-GA antibodies produced improvement in an open-field movement test in aged C9orf72450 mice. However, chronic administration of anti-GA antibodies in AAV-(G4C2)149 mice was associated with increased levels of poly-GA detected by immunoassay and did not significantly reduce poly-GA aggregates or alleviate disease progression in this model. Keywords: C9orf72; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; dipeptide repeat proteins; frontotemporal dementia; immunotherap

Temporal Stability and the Effects of Training on Saccade Latency in “Express Saccade Makers”

The temporal stability of saccade latency, and the effects of training, particularly in “express saccade makers” (ESMs), has received little attention. ESMs are healthy, naïve, adults, who persist in executing very many low latency “express saccades” (ES; saccades with latency of 80 ms to 130 ms), in conditions designed to suppress such responses. We investigated the stability of ES production (%ES) in 59 ESM and 54 non-ESM participants in overlap tasks. Within a single session, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for %ES in two runs of 200 trials was 0.97 (p30% of saccades over the two runs were ES, were classified as ESMs. For 60 participants tested over two sessions 12 weeks apart, and 30 participants tested in three sessions over approximately six months, the ICC for %ES was uniformly high (0.95, p<0.001 and 0.97, p<0.001 respectively) and participants behaved consistently with their initial classification. Fourteen participants (7 ESMs) were then exposed to training consisting of either gap or overlap tasks. Training increased %ES in both groups. However, when tested in overlap tasks, it was not sufficient to transform Normal participants into ESMs. We conclude that the pattern of saccade behaviour exhibited by ESMs constitutes a stable and distinct oculomotor phenotype