644 research outputs found
Putting people and robots together in manufacturing: are we ready?
Traditionally, industrial robots have been completely segregated from people in
manufacturing systems to mitigate the dangers posed by their operational speeds and heavy
payloads. Putting human operators together with large-scale industrial robots is now becoming
increasingly possible with the development of integrated safety monitoring systems, and with
smaller force-limited robotics that are now being produced with sufficient robustness for industry.
However, with long-standing perceptions of robots as hazardous, we do not yet know how
manufacturing workforces will accept collaborative systems with either large or small scale
robotics and there is a need to identify and define new ethical and safety standard requirements
for integrating people and robots to work collaboratively in industrial assembly tasks. To date
there is little or no attention to ethical issues or psychological safety in the industrial safety
standards that govern robotics and automated work systems. This paper describes the current
situation and specific ways in which human-robot collaboration will significantly improve
efficiency and flexibility, and outlines some early work that is being performed to identify the
requirements that will be needed in order to facilitate this new way of bringing people and robots
together in manufacturing. It presents a brief summary of initial findings that support the need for
ethical issues to be considered as a candidate for new and / or revised safety standards
Preclinical evaluation of lime juice as a topical microbicide candidate
Background: The continued growth of the global HIV epidemic highlights the urgent need to develop novel prevention strategies to reduce HIV transmission. The development of topical microbicides is likely to take a number of years before such a product would be widely available.
This has resulted in a call for the rapid introduction of simpler vaginal intervention strategies in the interim period. One suggested practice would be vaginal douching with natural products including lime or lemon juice. Here we present a comprehensive preclinical evaluation of lime juice (LiJ) as a potential intervention strategy against HIV.
Results: Pre-treatment of HIV with LiJ demonstrated direct virucidal activity, with 10% juice inactivating the virus within 5 minutes. However, this activity was significantly reduced in the presence of seminal plasma, where inactivation required maintaining a 1:1 mixture of neat LiJ and seminal plasma for more than 5 minutes. Additionally, LiJ demonstrated both time and dosedependent
toxicity towards cervicovaginal epithelium, where exposure to 50% juice caused 75â90% toxicity within 5 minutes increasing to 95% by 30 minutes. Cervicovaginal epithelial cell monolayers were more susceptible to the effects of LiJ with 8.8% juice causing 50% toxicity after 5
minutes. Reconstructed stratified cervicovaginal epithelium appeared more resilient to LiJ toxicity with 30 minutes exposure to 50% LiJ having little effect on viability. However viability was reduced by 75% and 90% following 60 and 120 minutes exposure. Furthermore, repeat application (several times daily) of 25% LiJ caused 80â90% reduction in viability.
Conclusion: These data demonstrate that the virucidal activity of LiJ is severely compromised in the presence of seminal plasma. Potentially, to be effective against HIV in vivo, women would need to apply a volume of neat LiJ equal to that of an ejaculate, and maintain this ratio vaginally for 5â30 minutes after ejaculation. Data presented here suggest that this would have significant adverse
effects on the genital mucosa. These data raise serious questions about the plausibility and safety of such a prevention approach
Validation of EpiTRAQ, a transition readiness assessment tool for adolescents and young adults with epilepsy
ObjectiveTo design and validate a transition readiness assessment tool for adolescents and young adults with epilepsy and without intellectual disability.MethodsWe adapted a general transition readiness assessment tool (TRAQ) to add epilepsyârelevant items based on concepts in current epilepsy quality measures. The adapted tool, EpiTRAQ, maintained the original structure and scoring system. Concurrent with clinical implementation in pediatric and adult epilepsy clinics at an academic medical center, we assessed the validity and reliability of this adapted tool for patients 16â26Â years of age. This process included initial validation with 302 patients who completed EpiTRAQ between October 2017 and May 2018; repeat validation with 381 patients who completed EpiTRAQ between June 2018 and September 2019; and retest reliability among 153 patients with more than one completed EpiTRAQ.ResultsMean scores were comparable between initial and repeat validation populations (absolute value differences between 0.05 and 0.1); internal consistency ranged from good to high. For both the initial and repeat validation, mean scores and internal consistency demonstrated high comparability to the original TRAQ validation results. Upon retest, few patients rated themselves with a lower score, while the majority rated themselves with higher scores.SignificanceEpiTRAQ is a valid and reliable tool for assessing transition readiness in adolescents and young adults with epilepsy and without intellectual disability.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162789/2/epi412427_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162789/1/epi412427.pd
Brief report: how adolescents with ASD process social information in complex scenes. Combining evidence from eye movements and verbal descriptions
We investigated attention, encoding and processing of social aspects of complex photographic scenes. Twenty-four high-functioning adolescents (aged 11â16) with ASD and 24 typically developing matched control participants viewed and then described a series of scenes, each containing a person. Analyses of eye movements and verbal descriptions provided converging evidence that both groups displayed general interest in the person in each scene but the salience of the person was reduced for the ASD participants. Nevertheless, the verbal descriptions revealed that participants with ASD frequently processed the observed personâs emotion or mental state without prompting. They also often mentioned eye-gaze direction, and there was evidence from eye movements and verbal descriptions that gaze was followed accurately. The combination of evidence from eye movements and verbal descriptions provides a rich insight into the way stimuli are processed overall. The merits of using these methods within the same paradigm are discussed
Effectiveness of caregiver interventions for people with cancer and non-cancer related chronic pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Background: People with chronic pain frequently have difficulties in completing everyday tasks to maintain independence and quality of life. Informal caregivers may provide support to these individuals. However, the effectiveness of interventions to train and support these individuals in caregiving remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to systematically review the evidence to determine the effectiveness of caregiver interventions to support informal caregivers of people with chronic pain. Methods: A systematic review of published and unpublished literature databases was undertaken (9 April 2021). Trials reporting clinical outcomes of caregiver interventions to train informal caregivers to support community-dwelling people with chronic pain were included. Meta-analysis was undertaken and each outcome was assessed using Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation. Results: Twenty-seven studies were eligible (N = 3427 patients). Twenty-four studies assessed patients with cancer pain and three with musculoskeletal pain. No other patient groups were identified. There was very low-quality evidence that caregiver interventions were beneficial for caregiver health-related quality of life (standardised mean difference = 0.26, 95% confidence interval = 0.01 to 0.52; N = 231). There was moderate-quality evidence that caregiving interventions were effective in reducing pain in the short-term (standardised mean difference = 0.16, 95% confidence interval = â0.29 to â0.03). There was low-quality evidence that caregiving interventions had no beneficial effect over usual care for psychological outcomes, fatigue, coping or physical function in the long-term. Conclusion: Caregiving interventions may be effective for patients and caregivers but only in the shorter-term and for a limited number of outcomes. There is insufficient evidence examining the effectiveness of caregiver interventions for people with non-cancer-related pain
Trivalent RING assembly on retroviral capsids activates TRIM5 ubiquitination and innate immune signaling
Summary: TRIM5 is a RING domain E3 ubiquitin ligase with potent antiretroviral function. TRIM5 assembles into a hexagonal lattice on retroviral capsids, causing envelopment of the infectious core. Concomitantly, TRIM5 initiates innate immune signaling and orchestrates disassembly of the viral particle, yet how these antiviral responses are regulated by capsid recognition is unclear. We show that hexagonal assembly triggers N-terminal polyubiquitination of TRIM5 that collectively drives antiviral responses. In uninfected cells, N-terminal monoubiquitination triggers non-productive TRIM5 turnover. Upon TRIM5 assembly on virus, a trivalent RING arrangement allows elongation of N-terminally anchored K63-linked ubiquitin chains (N-K63-Ub). N-K63-Ub drives TRIM5 innate immune stimulation and proteasomal degradation. Inducing ubiquitination before TRIM5 assembly triggers premature degradation and ablates antiviral restriction. Conversely, driving N-K63 ubiquitination after TRIM5 assembly enhances innate immune signaling. Thus, the hexagonal geometry of TRIM5âs antiviral lattice converts a capsid-binding protein into a multifunctional antiviral platform
Savanna rodentsâ selective removal of an encroaching plantâs seeds increased with grass biomass
In savannas across the planet, encroaching woody plants are altering ecosystem
functions and reshaping communities. Seed predation by rodents may serve to
slow the encroachment of woody plants in grasslands and savannas. Our goals for
this study were to determine if rodents in an African savanna selectively removed
seeds of an encroaching plant and if foraging activity was influenced by the local
vegetation structure or by the landscape context. From trials with two species of
seeds (encroacher = Dichrostachys cinerea, non-encroaching overstory tree = Senegalia
nigrescens) at 64 seed stations, we recorded 1,065 foraging events by seven
species of granivorous rodents. We found a strong positive relationship between
rodent activity and the number of seeds removed during trials. Foraging events were
dominated by rodent seed predators, with <10.6% of events involving a rodent
with the potential for secondary dispersal. Rodents selectively removed the seeds
of the encroaching species, removing 32.6% more D. cinerea seeds compared to
S. nigrescens. Additionally, rodent activity and the number of seeds removed increased
at sites with more grass biomass. Our results suggest a potential mechanistic role for
rodents in mitigating the spread of woody plants in grass dominated savannas.This research was part of the BROWSE program and conducted out of the Savannah Research Center.NSF IRES and U.S. National Institute of Food and Agriculture.https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution#am2022Mammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog
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