Electrical Stimulation of the Upper Limb in Stroke:Stimulation of the Extensors of the Hand vs. Alternate Stimulation of Flexors and Extensors

Objective: To investigate whether there is a difference in functional improvement in the affected arm of chronic stroke patients when comparing two methods of electrical stimulation. Design: Explanatory trial in which 30 chronic stroke patients with impaired arm function were randomly allocated to either alternating electrical stimulation of the extensor and flexor muscles of the hand (group A) or electrical stimulation of the extensors only (group B). Primary outcome measure was the Action Research Arm test to assess arm function. Grip strength, Motricity Index, Ashworth Scale, and range of motion of the wrist were secondary outcome measures. Results: Improvement on the Action Research Arm test was 1.0 point in group A and 3.3 points in group B; the difference in functional gain was 2.3 points (95% confidence interval, -1.06 to 5.60). The success rate (i.e., percentage of patients with a clinically relevant improvement of >5.7 points on the Action Research Arm test) was 27% in group B (four patients) and 8% in group A (one patient). The differences in functional gain and success rate were not statistically significant, neither were the differences between the two groups on the secondary outcome measures. Conclusion: The difference between the two stimulation strategies was not statistically significan

Relation between stimulation characteristics and clinical outcome in studies using electrical stimulation to improve motor control of the upper extremity in stroke

Objective: Electrical stimulation can be applied in a variety of ways to the hemiparetic upper extremity following stroke. The aim of this review is to explore the relationship between characteristics of stimulation and the effect of electrical stimulation on the recovery of upper limb motor control following stroke. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed to identify clinical trials evaluating the effect of electrical stimulation on motor control. The reported outcomes were examined to identify a possible relationship between the reported effect and the following characteristics: duration of stimulation, method of stimulation, setting of stimulation parameters, target muscles and stage after stroke. Results: Nineteen clinical trials were included, and the results of 22 patient groups were evaluated. A positive effect of electrical stimulation was reported for 13 patient groups. Positive results were more common when electrical stimulation was triggered by voluntary movement rather than when non-triggered electrical stimulation was used. There was no relation between the effect of electrical stimulation and the other characteristics examined. Conclusion: Triggered electrical stimulation may be more effective than non-triggered electrical stimulation in facilitating upper extremity motor recovery following stroke. It appears that the specific stimulus parameters may not be crucial in determining the effect of electrical stimulation

Formation and quenching mechanisms of the electron beam pumped (XeRb)+ ionic excimer in different buffer gases

The ionic excimer molecule XeRb+ is formed in an electron beam excited gas mixture of Xe, Rb, and a buffer gas. The formation and quenching mechanisms of ionic excimers are investigated by measuring the XeRb+fluorescence as a function of the gas composition and gas pressure. The formation of XeRb+ is achieved by a three‐body association reaction between Xe+, Rb, and a buffer gas atom. For the buffer gases He, Ne, or Ar the values of the important formationrate constants are determined from the observed fluorescence signal decay

Biometfical genetic analysis of serum Cholesterol response and basal serum HDL cholesterol level in the rabbit

The inheritance of the susceptibility for dietary cholesterol (serum cholesterol response) and of basal serum HDL cholesterol level in the rabbit have been studied by measuring serum total cholesterol levels and HDL cholesterol levels in animalsfrom crosses between hyperresponding and hyporesponding inbred strains. The serum cholesterol response and basal serum HDL cholesterol levels of the resulting six populations (the two parental strains, Fl-hybrid, two baekerosses and F7)were subjected to a biomedical genetic analysis to determine the number of loci involved and the (narrow sense) heritability 0f the two traits. The study revealed that 30% of the individual variation of the serum cholesterol response is under geneticcontrol and that 10 to 16 loci may be involved. The heritability for basal serum HDL cholesterol levels was 50 to 80%, whereas two to five loci may be involved in regulating the basal serum HDL cholesterol level in rabbits

Rabbit serum esterase genotyping and relationship to serum cholesterol response and basal serum HDL cholesterol level

Previous studies have indicated that esterases might be involved in the serum cholesterol response in rabbits. The question addressed in this study is whether in rabbits esterase loci of Linkage Group VI (LG VI) are genetically linked withthe serum cholesterol response to dietary cholesterol or the basal serum HDL cholesterol level. For this purpose the Est-2 and Es-1 genotypes of rabbits in segregating populations derived from a cross between IIIVO/JU (hyporespender andhigh basal serum HDL cholesterol level) and AX/1U (hypettesponder and low basal serum HDL cholesterol level) rabbits were determined. The segregating populations were fed a cholesterol-rich diet for 35 days. Both the Est-2 and Es—1 alleles failed to cosegregate with the serum cholesterol response, whereas a highly significant cosegregation was found with the basal serum HDL cholesterol level. It is concluded that one or more genes of LG VI are regulating the basal serumHDL cholesterol level in rabbits

What We Can Learn about Business Modeling from Homeostasis

Business modeling methods most often model an organization’s value provision to its customers followed by the necessary activities and structure to deliver this value. These activities and structure are seen as infinitely malleable; they can be specified and engineered at will. This is hardly in line with what even laymen can observe of organizations, that they are not easy to change and that their behavior often is not directly centered on providing value to customers. Homeostasis is an almost century old model that was developed in the field of physiology to explain how living beings survive by maintaining the constancy of their internal states. Homeostasis helps to explain both the inability of organizations to provide maximum value to their customers and their reluctance to change. From this point of view, resistance to change is not something to fight or to ignore but an essential force behind organizational behavior that can either enable or defeat new business models

Towards interoperability through inter-enterprise collaboration architectures

Most enterprise architectures published so far are capable of generating reasonably good descriptive models for individual enterprises to enable integration, organization and synchronization of enterprise elements: organizational structure, business processes, information systems and technology infrastructure, among others. However, research in this field applied to the extended enterprise or inter-enterprise architectures that takes into account the growing trend towards complex collaborative environments is very scarce. In this sense, this article seeks to analyze, link and synthesize the researches that has addressed the disciplines of enterprise architecture and business collaboration, in order to identify possible future research needs from the conceptualization made.Vargas, A.; Boza Garcia, A.; Cuenca, L. (2011). Towards interoperability through inter-enterprise collaboration architectures. En On the Move to Meaningful Internet Systems: OTM 2011 Workshops. 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PhD thesis Universidad Jaume I de Castello (2007)Scheer, A., Schneider, K.: ARIS – Architecture of Integrated Information. Handbook on Architectures of Information Systems. International Handbooks on Information Systems 3, 605–623 (2006)ISO/CEN 19439. Enterprise integration - Framework for enterprise modelling.: International Organization for Standardization (2006)Stadtler, H., Kilger, C.: Supply Chain Management and advance planning. Concepts, Models, Sofware and Cases Studies. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)Alarcón, F., Ortiz, A., Alemany, M., Lario, F.: Planificación Colaborativa en un contexto de varias Cadenas de Suministro: ventajas y desventajas. In: VIII Congreso de Ingeniería de Organización, Leganés, pp. 857–866 (2004)Alarcón, F.: Desarrollo de una Arquitectura para la definición del proceso de Comprometer Pedidos en contextos de Redes de Suministro Colaborativas. Aplicación a una Red compuesta por Cadenas de Suministro en los Sectores Cerámico y del Mueble. 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Supply Chain Management and Advanced Planning-—Concepts, Models Software and Case Studies, pp. 263–284. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)Audy, J., Lehoux, N., D’Amours, S.: A framework for an efficient implementation of logistics collaborations. International Transactions in Operational Research, 1–25 (2010)Zachman, J.: A Framework for Information Systems Architecture. IBM Systems Journal 26(3), 454–470 (1987

Global Oceans: Meridional overturning circulation observations in the North Atlantic Ocean

The abstract is included in the text