Inflight estimation of gyro noise

A method is described and demonstrated for estimating single-axis gyro noise levels in terms of the Farrenkopf model parameters. This is accomplished for the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) by comparing gyro-propagated attitudes with less accurate single-frame solutions and fitting the squared differences to a third-order polynomial in time. Initial results are consistent with the gyro specifications, and these results are used to determine limits on the duration of batches used to determine attitude. Sources of error are discussed, and guidelines for a more elegant implementation, as part of a batch estimator or filter, are included for future work

Using the Pathways Community HUB Care Coordination Model to Address Chronic Illnesses: A Case Study

Background/Objectives: Ohio communities are developing and expanding care coordination initiatives to integrate care for low-income pregnant women. Some of these initiatives are guided by the Pathways Community HUB model, which uses community healthworkers to address health, social, and behavioral risks for at-risk populations. This study documents the development, challenges andmanagement responses, and lessons learned from implementing a Pathways Community HUB care coordination program for anotherpopulation -- low-income adults with chronic disease risks.Methods: The study utilizes data extracted from the Care Coordination Systems (CCS) database used in Lucas County, Ohio between2015 and 2017 and interviews with program managers. Based on CCS data and insights from those interviewed, we describe the development and accomplishments of a Pathways Community HUB program for adults with chronic illnesses and identify challenges and lessons learned.Results: The Toledo/Lucas County program addressed more than half of 3,515 identified health and behavioral risks for 651 low-income adults in the program during its first two years of operation. Key challenges included building community support, establishing capacities to coordinate care, and sustaining the program over time. Establishing community networks to support program services and developing multiple funding sources are key lessons for long-term program sustainability.Conclusions: Documenting challenges and successes of existing programs and extracting lessons to guide implementation of similarpublic health efforts can potentially improve delivery of interventions. The Pathways Community HUB model has demonstrated success in addressing risks among at-risk adults. However, more comprehensive assessments of the model across different populations are warranted

Spinocerebellar ataxia types 1, 2, 3, and 6: disease severity and nonataxia symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: To identify factors that determine disease severity and clinical phenotype of the most common spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs), we studied 526 patients with SCA1, SCA2, SCA3. or SCA6. METHODS: To measure the severity of ataxia we used the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA). In addition, nonataxia symptoms were assessed with the Inventory of Non-Ataxia Symptoms (INAS). The INAS count denotes the number of nonataxia symptoms in each patient. RESULTS: An analysis of covariance with SARA score as dependent variable and repeat lengths of the expanded and normal allele, age at onset, and disease duration as independent variables led to multivariate models that explained 60.4% of the SARA score variance in SCA1, 45.4% in SCA2, 46.8% in SCA3, and 33.7% in SCA6. In SCA1, SCA2, and SCA3, SARA was mainly determined by repeat length of the expanded allele, age at onset, and disease duration. The only factors determining the SARA score in SCA6 were age at onset and disease duration. The INAS count was 5.0 +/- 2.3 in SCA1, 4.6 +/- 2.2 in SCA2, 5.2 +/- 2.5 in SCA3, and 2.0 +/- 1.7 in SCA6. In SCA1, SCA2, and SCA3, SARA score and disease duration were the strongest predictors of the INAS count. In SCA6, only age at onset and disease duration had an effect on the INAS count. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) 1, SCA2, and SCA3 share a number of common biologic properties, whereas SCA6 is distinct in that its phenotype is more determined by age than by disease-related factors

A randomized clinical trial of lithium in multiple system atrophy.

The aim of our study was to test the safety and tolerability of lithium in multiple system atrophy (MSA). The study was randomized, placebo-controlled, and double-blind. The primary endpoint of the study was safety and tolerability. An interim analysis, performed 1 year after the first patient was randomized, showed a higher proportion of trial abandon (P < 0.01) and a higher number of adverse events (P < 0.02) in the lithium group. The trial was stopped by the Data Monitoring Committee. Overall, lithium was not well tolerated, and we do not encourage future studies with lithium in MSA patients

Early symptoms in spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, 2, 3, and 6.

Abstract: Onset of genetically determined neurodegenerative diseases is difficult to specify because of their insidious and slowly progressive nature. This is especially true for spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) because of varying affection of many parts of the nervous system and huge variability of symptoms. We investigated early symptoms in 287 patients with SCA1, SCA2, SCA3, or SCA6 and calculated the influence of CAG repeat length on age of onset depending on (1) the definition of disease onset, (2) people defining onset, and (3) duration of symptoms. Gait difficulty was the initial symptom in two-thirds of patients. Double vision, dysarthria, impaired hand writing, and episodic vertigo preceded ataxia in 4% of patients, respectively. Frequency of other early symptoms did not differ from controls and was regarded unspecific. Data about disease onset varied between patients and relatives for 1 year or more in 44% of cases. Influence of repeat length on age of onset was maximum when onset was defined as beginning of permanent gait disturbance and cases with symptoms for more than 10 years were excluded. Under these conditions, CAG repeat length determined 64% of onset variability in SCA1, 67% in SCA2, 46% in SCA3, and 41% in SCA6 demonstrating substantial influence of nonrepeat factors on disease onset in all SCA subtypes. Identification of these factors is of interest as potential targets for disease modifying compounds. In this respect, recognition of early symptoms that develop before onset of ataxia is mandatory to determine the shift from presymptomatic to affected status in SCA

Pharmacological screening using an FXN-EGFP cellular genomic reporter assay for the therapy of Friedreich ataxia

Copyright @ 2013 Li et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by neurodegeneration and cardiomyopathy. The presence of a GAA trinucleotide repeat expansion in the first intron of the FXN gene results in the inhibition of gene expression and an insufficiency of the mitochondrial protein frataxin. There is a correlation between expansion length, the amount of residual frataxin and the severity of disease. As the coding sequence is unaltered, pharmacological up-regulation of FXN expression may restore frataxin to therapeutic levels. To facilitate screening of compounds that modulate FXN expression in a physiologically relevant manner, we established a cellular genomic reporter assay consisting of a stable human cell line containing an FXN-EGFP fusion construct, in which the EGFP gene is fused in-frame with the entire normal human FXN gene present on a BAC clone. The cell line was used to establish a fluorometric cellular assay for use in high throughput screening (HTS) procedures. A small chemical library containing FDA-approved compounds and natural extracts was screened and analyzed. Compound hits identified by HTS were further evaluated by flow cytometry in the cellular genomic reporter assay. The effects on FXN mRNA and frataxin protein levels were measured in lymphoblast and fibroblast cell lines derived from individuals with FRDA and in a humanized GAA repeat expansion mouse model of FRDA. Compounds that were established to increase FXN gene expression and frataxin levels included several anti-cancer agents, the iron-chelator deferiprone and the phytoalexin resveratrol.Muscular Dystrophy Association (USA), the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia), the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance (USA), the Brockhoff Foundation (Australia), the Friedreich Ataxia Research Association (Australasia), Seek A Miracle (USA) and the Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program

Friedreich ataxia patient tissues exhibit increased 5-hydroxymethylcytosine modification and decreased CTCF binding at the FXN locus

© 2013 Al-Mahdawi et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Friedreich ataxia (FRDA) is caused by a homozygous GAA repeat expansion mutation within intron 1 of the FXN gene, which induces epigenetic changes and FXN gene silencing. Bisulfite sequencing studies have identified 5-methylcytosine (5 mC) DNA methylation as one of the epigenetic changes that may be involved in this process. However, analysis of samples by bisulfite sequencing is a time-consuming procedure. In addition, it has recently been shown that 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5 hmC) is also present in mammalian DNA, and bisulfite sequencing cannot distinguish between 5 hmC and 5 mC.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement number 242193/EFACTS (CS), the Wellcome Trust [089757] (SA) and Ataxia UK (RMP) to MAP

Dynamic Analysis of Vascular Morphogenesis Using Transgenic Quail Embryos

Background: One of the least understood and most central questions confronting biologists is how initially simple clusters or sheet-like cell collectives can assemble into highly complex three-dimensional functional tissues and organs. Due to the limits of oxygen diffusion, blood vessels are an essential and ubiquitous presence in all amniote tissues and organs. Vasculogenesis, the de novo self-assembly of endothelial cell (EC) precursors into endothelial tubes, is the first step in blood vessel formation [1]. Static imaging and in vitro models are wholly inadequate to capture many aspects of vascular pattern formation in vivo, because vasculogenesis involves dynamic changes of the endothelial cells and of the forming blood vessels, in an embryo that is changing size and shape. Methodology/Principal Findings: We have generated Tie1 transgenic quail lines Tg(tie1:H2B-eYFP) that express H2B-eYFP in all of their endothelial cells which permit investigations into early embryonic vascular morphogenesis with unprecedented clarity and insight. By combining the power of molecular genetics with the elegance of dynamic imaging, we follow the precise patterning of endothelial cells in space and time. We show that during vasculogenesis within the vascular plexus, ECs move independently to form the rudiments of blood vessels, all while collectively moving with gastrulating tissues that flow toward the embryo midline. The aortae are a composite of somatic derived ECs forming its dorsal regions and the splanchnic derived ECs forming its ventral region. The ECs in the dorsal regions of the forming aortae exhibit variable mediolateral motions as they move rostrally; those in more ventral regions show significant lateral-to-medial movement as they course rostrally. Conclusions/Significance: The present results offer a powerful approach to the major challenge of studying the relative role(s) of the mechanical, molecular, and cellular mechanisms of vascular development. In past studies, the advantages of the molecular genetic tools available in mouse were counterbalanced by the limited experimental accessibility needed for imaging and perturbation studies. Avian embryos provide the needed accessibility, but few genetic resources. The creation of transgenic quail with labeled endothelia builds upon the important roles that avian embryos have played in previous studies of vascular development

A Combined Nucleic Acid and Protein Analysis in Friedreich Ataxia: Implications for Diagnosis, Pathogenesis and Clinical Trial Design

BACKGROUND: Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA) is the most common hereditary ataxia among caucasians. The molecular defect in FRDA is the trinucleotide GAA expansion in the first intron of the FXN gene, which encodes frataxin. No studies have yet reported frataxin protein and mRNA levels in a large cohort of FRDA patients, carriers and controls. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We enrolled 24 patients with classic FRDA phenotype (cFA), 6 late onset FRDA (LOFA), all homozygous for GAA expansion, 5 pFA cases who harbored the GAA expansion in compound heterozygosis with FXN point mutations (namely, p.I154F, c.482+3delA, p.R165P), 33 healthy expansion carriers, and 29 healthy controls. DNA was genotyped for GAA expansion, mRNA/FXN was quantified in real-time, and frataxin protein was measured using lateral-flow immunoassay in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Mean residual levels of frataxin, compared to controls, were 35.8%, 65.6%, 33%, and 68.7% in cFA, LOFA, pFA and healthy carriers, respectively. Comparison of both cFA and pFA with controls resulted in 100% sensitivity and specificity, but there was overlap between LOFA, carriers and controls. Frataxin levels correlated inversely with GAA1 and GAA2 expansions, and directly with age at onset. Messenger RNA expression was reduced to 19.4% in cFA, 50.4% in LOFA, 52.7% in pFA, 53.0% in carriers, as compared to controls (p<0.0001). mRNA levels proved to be diagnostic when comparing cFA with controls resulting in 100% sensitivity and specificity. In cFA and LOFA patients mRNA levels correlated directly with protein levels and age at onset, and inversely with GAA1 and GAA2. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: We report the first explorative study on combined frataxin and mRNA levels in PBMCs from a cohort of FRDA patients, carriers and healthy individuals. Lateral-flow immunoassay differentiated cFA and pFA patients from controls, whereas determination of mRNA in q-PCR was sensitive and specific only in cFA