Mental practice with motor imagery in stroke recovery: Randomized controlled trial of efficacy

This randomized controlled trial evaluated the therapeutic benefit of mental practice with motor imagery in stroke patients with persistent upper limb motor weakness. There is evidence to suggest that mental rehearsal of movement can produce effects normally attributed to practising the actual movements. Imagining hand movements could stimulate restitution and redistribution of brain activity, which accompanies recovery of hand function, thus resulting in a reduced motor deficit. Current efficacy evidence for mental practice with motor imagery in stroke is insufficient due to methodological limitations. This randomized controlled sequential cohort study included 121 stroke patients with a residual upper limb weakness within 6 months following stroke (on average <3 months post-stroke). Randomization was performed using an automated statistical minimizing procedure. The primary outcome measure was a blinded rating on the Action Research Arm test. The study analysed the outcome of 39 patients involved in 4 weeks of mental rehearsal of upper limb movements during 45-min supervised sessions three times a week and structured independent sessions twice a week, compared to 31 patients who performed equally intensive non-motor mental rehearsal, and 32 patients receiving normal care without additional training. No differences between the treatment groups were found at baseline or outcome on the Action Research Arm Test (ANCOVA statistical P = 0.77, and effect size partial η2 = 0.005) or any of the secondary outcome measures. Results suggest that mental practice with motor imagery does not enhance motor recovery in patients early post-stroke. In light of the evidence, it remains to be seen whether mental practice with motor imagery is a valid rehabilitation technique in its own right

Plasma Membrane Insertion of KCa2.3 (SK3) is Dependent Upon the SNARE Proteins, Syntaxin-4 and SNAP23

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. We previously demonstrated endocytosis of KCa2.3 is caveolin-1-, dynamin II- and Rab5-dependent. KCa2.3 then enters Rab35/EPI64C- and RME-1-containing recycling endosomes and is returned to the plasma membrane (PM). Herein, we report on the mechanism by which KCa2.3 is inserted into the PM during recycling and following exit from the Golgi. We demonstrate KCa2.3 colocalizes with SNAP-23 and Syntaxin-4 in the PM of HEK and endothelial cells by confocal immunofluorescence microscopy. We further show KCa2.3 can be co-immunoprecipitated with SNAP-23 and Syntaxin-4. Overexpression of either Syntaxin-4 or SNAP-23 increased PM expression of KCa2.3, whereas shRNA-mediated knockdown of these SNARE proteins significantly decreased PM KCa2.3 expression, as assessed by cell surface biotinylation. Whole-cell patch clamp studies confirmed knockdown of SNAP-23 significantly decreased the apamin sensitive, KCa2.3 current. Using standard biotinylation/stripping methods, we demonstrate shRNA mediated knockdown of SNAP-23 inhibits recycling of KCa2.3 following endocytosis, whereas scrambled shRNA had no effect. Finally, using biotin ligase acceptor peptide (BLAP)-tagged KCa2.3, coupled with ER-resident biotin ligase (BirA), channels could be biotinylated in the ER after which we evaluated their rate of insertion into the PM following Golgi exit. We demonstrate knockdown of SNAP-23 significantly slows the rate of Golgi to PM delivery of KCa2.3. The inhibition of both recycling and PM delivery of newly synthesized KCa2.3 channels likely accounts for the decreased PM expression observed following knockdown of these SNARE proteins. In total, our results suggest insertion of KCa2.3 into the PM depends upon the SNARE proteins, Syntaxin-4 and SNAP-23

The association between patient attitudes and values and the strength of consideration for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy in a population‐based sample of breast cancer patients

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140052/1/cncr30924_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140052/2/cncr30924.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/140052/3/cncr30924-sup-0002-suppinfo.pd

Patient views and correlates of radiotherapy omission in a population‐based sample of older women with favorable‐prognosis breast cancer

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144597/1/cncr31378_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144597/2/cncr31378.pd

Decision‐support networks of women newly diagnosed with breast cancer

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138904/1/cncr30848_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138904/2/cncr30848.pd

Primary care provider–reported involvement in breast cancer treatment decisions

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149227/1/cncr31998.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149227/2/cncr31998_am.pd

Treatment experiences of Latinas after diagnosis of breast cancer

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138310/1/cncr30702.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138310/2/cncr30702_am.pd

WARNING: Physics Envy May Be Hazardous To Your Wealth!

The quantitative aspirations of economists and financial analysts have for many years been based on the belief that it should be possible to build models of economic systems - and financial markets in particular - that are as predictive as those in physics. While this perspective has led to a number of important breakthroughs in economics, "physics envy" has also created a false sense of mathematical precision in some cases. We speculate on the origins of physics envy, and then describe an alternate perspective of economic behavior based on a new taxonomy of uncertainty. We illustrate the relevance of this taxonomy with two concrete examples: the classical harmonic oscillator with some new twists that make physics look more like economics, and a quantitative equity market-neutral strategy. We conclude by offering a new interpretation of tail events, proposing an "uncertainty checklist" with which our taxonomy can be implemented, and considering the role that quants played in the current financial crisis.Comment: v3 adds 2 reference

Perioperative Vision Loss in Cervical Spinal Surgery.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective multicenter case series. OBJECTIVE: To assess the rate of perioperative vision loss following cervical spinal surgery. METHODS: Medical records for 17 625 patients from 21 high-volume surgical centers from the AOSpine North America Clinical Research Network who received cervical spine surgery (levels from C2 to C7) between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2011, inclusive, were reviewed to identify occurrences of vision loss following surgery. RESULTS: Of the 17 625 patients in the registry, there were 13 946 patients assessed for the complication of blindness. There were 9591 cases that involved only anterior surgical approaches; the remaining 4355 cases were posterior and/or circumferential fusions. There were no cases of blindness or vision loss in the postoperative period reported during the sampling period. CONCLUSIONS: Perioperative vision loss following cervical spinal surgery is exceedingly rare