Coordinating Upper and Lower Body During FES-Assisted Transfers in Persons With Spinal Cord Injury in Order to Reduce Arm Support

International audienceObjective:The goal of this study is to minimize arm forces applied during sit-to-stand (STS) transfers in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) by using functional electrical stimulation (FES) applied to lower limbs muscles.Materials and Methods:A new FES system has been used to automatically trigger muscle stimulation of the lower limbs, at the desired moment in regards to trunk motion. The objective was to decrease arm participation during STS motion of a person with complete paraplegia and low-level tetraplegia. Six participants with chronic SCI participated in the study. Participants with SCI were recruited to complete STS movement using a new system for FES-assisted STS transfer. All participants attended one muscle mapping session to test their muscles condition, two training sessions to become familiarized with the experimental setup, and two measurement sessions using the proposed system for FES-assisted STS movement. The applied arm forces during STS movement were recorded and analyzed for different stimulation onset values with respect to the maximal trunk acceleration signal using one-way ANOVA statistical test. Post-hoc analysis was performed using Tukey's method.Results:The results of this study showed that the moment of the stimulation onset has an influence on the arm forces applied during the STS motion. The lowest values of arm forces were obtained for STS movements where the electrical stimulation was triggered before and around the time corresponding to the maximal value of the trunk acceleration signal.Conclusion:Lowest arm forces values were obtained for STS motions that were similar to those of healthy persons in terms of trunk movements and beginning of lower limb movements in regards to maximal trunk acceleration signal. The FES system was able to mimic the rising motion of a healthy individual by triggering the FES at the appropriate moment. This method could prove useful for pivot transfer, therapeutic or functional verticalization

Can We Predict Individual Concentrations of Tacrolimus After Liver Transplantation? Application and Tweaking of a Published Population Pharmacokinetic Model in Clinical Practice

International audienceBackground: Various population pharmacokinetic models have been developed to describe the pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus in adult liver transplantation. However, their extrapolated predictive performance remains unclear in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to predict concentrations using a selected literature model and to improve these predictions by tweaking the model with a subset of the target population.Methods: A literature review was conducted to select an adequate population pharmacokinetic model (L). Pharmacokinetic data from therapeutic drug monitoring of tacrolimus in liver-transplanted adults were retrospectively collected. A subset of these data (70%) was exploited to tweak the L-model using the $PRIOR subroutine of the NONMEM software, with 2 strategies to weight the prior information: full informative (F) and optimized (O). An external evaluation was performed on the remaining data; bias and imprecision were evaluated for predictions a priori and Bayesian forecasting.Results: Seventy-nine patients (851 concentrations) were enrolled in the study. The predictive performance of L-model was insufficient for a priori predictions, whereas it was acceptable with Bayesian forecasting, from the third prediction (ie, with ≥2 previously observed concentrations), corresponding to 1 week after transplantation. Overall, the tweaked models showed a better predictive ability than the L-model. The bias of a priori predictions was -41$PRIOR approach allows to obtain better predictions

Can We Predict Individual Concentrations of Tacrolimus After Liver Transplantation? Application and Tweaking of a Published Population Pharmacokinetic Model in Clinical Practice

International audienceBackground: Various population pharmacokinetic models have been developed to describe the pharmacokinetics of tacrolimus in adult liver transplantation. However, their extrapolated predictive performance remains unclear in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to predict concentrations using a selected literature model and to improve these predictions by tweaking the model with a subset of the target population.Methods: A literature review was conducted to select an adequate population pharmacokinetic model (L). Pharmacokinetic data from therapeutic drug monitoring of tacrolimus in liver-transplanted adults were retrospectively collected. A subset of these data (70%) was exploited to tweak the L-model using the $PRIOR subroutine of the NONMEM software, with 2 strategies to weight the prior information: full informative (F) and optimized (O). An external evaluation was performed on the remaining data; bias and imprecision were evaluated for predictions a priori and Bayesian forecasting.Results: Seventy-nine patients (851 concentrations) were enrolled in the study. The predictive performance of L-model was insufficient for a priori predictions, whereas it was acceptable with Bayesian forecasting, from the third prediction (ie, with ≥2 previously observed concentrations), corresponding to 1 week after transplantation. Overall, the tweaked models showed a better predictive ability than the L-model. The bias of a priori predictions was -41$PRIOR approach allows to obtain better predictions

Climate analogs can catalyze cross-regional dialogs for US specialty crop adaptation

Abstract Communication theory suggests that interactive dialog rather than information transmission is necessary for climate change action, especially for complex systems like agriculture. Climate analogs—locations whose current climate is similar to a target location’s future climate—have garnered recent interest as transmitting more relatable information; however, they have unexplored potential in facilitating meaningful dialogs, and whether the way the analogs are developed could make a difference. We developed climate context-specific analogs based on agriculturally-relevant climate metrics for US specialty crop production, and explored their potential for facilitating dialogs on climate adaptation options. Over 80% of US specialty crop counties had acceptable US analogs for the mid-twenty-first century, especially in the West and Northeast which had greater similarities in the crops produced across target-analog pairs. Western counties generally had analogs to the south, and those in other regions had them to the west. A pilot dialog of target-analog pairs showed promise in eliciting actionable adaptation insights, indicating potential value in incorporating analog-driven dialogs more broadly in climate change communication

Clinical and genetic characteristics of late-onset Huntington's disease

Background: The frequency of late-onset Huntington's disease (>59 years) is assumed to be low and the clinical course milder. However, previous literature on late-onset disease is scarce and inconclusive. Objective: Our aim is to study clinical characteristics of late-onset compared to common-onset HD patients in a large cohort of HD patients from the Registry database. Methods: Participants with late- and common-onset (30–50 years)were compared for first clinical symptoms, disease progression, CAG repeat size and family history. Participants with a missing CAG repeat size, a repeat size of ≤35 or a UHDRS motor score of ≤5 were excluded. Results: Of 6007 eligible participants, 687 had late-onset (11.4%) and 3216 (53.5%) common-onset HD. Late-onset (n = 577) had significantly more gait and balance problems as first symptom compared to common-onset (n = 2408) (P <.001). Overall motor and cognitive performance (P <.001) were worse, however only disease motor progression was slower (coefficient, −0.58; SE 0.16; P <.001) compared to the common-onset group. Repeat size was significantly lower in the late-onset (n = 40.8; SD 1.6) compared to common-onset (n = 44.4; SD 2.8) (P <.001). Fewer late-onset patients (n = 451) had a positive family history compared to common-onset (n = 2940) (P <.001). Conclusions: Late-onset patients present more frequently with gait and balance problems as first symptom, and disease progression is not milder compared to common-onset HD patients apart from motor progression. The family history is likely to be negative, which might make diagnosing HD more difficult in this population. However, the balance and gait problems might be helpful in diagnosing HD in elderly patients