Preface - Robotics and Well-Being

It is a fact that the well-being of any life form must correspond to the iterative or hopefully continuous satisfaction of the basic needs dictated by its internal states along an existential time line. Common to all life forms and primordial will be hose & nbsp;..

Development and validation of personal care module as a guideline to assist older adults with more significant disabilities

Introduction: Older adults residing in community, as well as those who are residing in institutional or care home may experience various cognitive, health and physical impairments that may affect their independent. Continuous supports are needed to manage most of their personal care activities usually managed by their family members, often without proper training or guidance. To date, there is no personal care module that can be used as a guideline by family members and paid caretakers. Therefore, this study aims to develop and validate a personal care module as a guideline in assisting older adults with more significant disabilities. Methods: This study was a three-phase study, involving 1) development of the personal care module, 2) focus group discussion with healthcare experts and 3) face and content validity by the expert reviewers. Results: A total of 13 occupational therapists (77% of the experts were female) involved as experts in evaluating the module, 46% of them having Bachelor Degree in Occupational Therapy and having between 5 to 25 years of working experience. The finding showed that the developed module had high content validity ranging from 0.88 to 1.00 on six domains of personal hygiene, bathing, dressing, feeding, bed mobility and stairs climbing, indicated that the module is suitable for used as a guideline in assisting older adults with more significant disabilities. Conclusion: This study provides a preliminary support for the developed personal care module as a valid instrument to be used as a guideline in managing personal care activities of older adults with more significant disabilities

TNFR1 and TNFR2 regulate the extrinsic apoptotic pathway in myeloma cells by multiple mechanisms

The huge majority of myeloma cell lines express TNFR2 while a substantial subset of them failed to show TNFR1 expression. Stimulation of TNFR1 in the TNFR1-expressing subset of MM cell lines had no or only a very mild effect on cellular viability. Surprisingly, however, TNF stimulation enhanced cell death induction by CD95L and attenuated the apoptotic effect of TRAIL. The contrasting regulation of TRAIL- and CD95L-induced cell death by TNF could be traced back to the concomitant NFκB-mediated upregulation of CD95 and the antiapoptotic FLIP protein. It appeared that CD95 induction, due to its strength, overcompensated a rather moderate upregulation of FLIP so that the net effect of TNF-induced NFκB activation in the context of CD95 signaling is pro-apoptotic. TRAIL-induced cell death, however, was antagonized in response to TNF because in this context only the induction of FLIP is relevant. Stimulation of TNFR2 in myeloma cells leads to TRAF2 depletion. In line with this, we observed cell death induction in TNFR1-TNFR2-costimulated JJN3 cells. Our studies revealed that the TNF-TNF receptor system adjusts the responsiveness of the extrinsic apoptotic pathway in myeloma cells by multiple mechanisms that generate a highly context-dependent net effect on myeloma cell survival

On the evolutionary ecology of symbioses between chemosynthetic bacteria and bivalves

Mutualistic associations between bacteria and eukaryotes occur ubiquitously in nature, forming the basis for key ecological and evolutionary innovations. Some of the most prominent examples of these symbioses are chemosynthetic bacteria and marine invertebrates living in the absence of sunlight at deep-sea hydrothermal vents and in sediments rich in reduced sulfur compounds. Here, chemosynthetic bacteria living in close association with their hosts convert CO2 or CH4 into organic compounds and provide the host with necessary nutrients. The dominant macrofauna of hydrothermal vent and cold seep ecosystems all depend on the metabolic activity of chemosynthetic bacteria, which accounts for almost all primary production in these complex ecosystems. Many of these enigmatic mutualistic associations are found within the molluscan class Bivalvia. Currently, chemosynthetic symbioses have been reported from five distinct bivalve families (Lucinidae, Mytilidae, Solemyidae, Thyasiridae, and Vesicomyidae). This brief review aims to provide an overview of the diverse physiological and genetic adaptations of symbiotic chemosynthetic bacteria and their bivalve hosts

Early phase of plasticity-related gene regulation and SRF dependent transcription in the hippocampus

Hippocampal organotypic cultures are a highly reliable in vitro model for studying neuroplasticity: in this paper, we analyze the early phase of the transcriptional response induced by a 20 \ub5M gabazine treatment (GabT), a GABA-Ar antagonist, by using Affymetrix oligonucleotide microarray, RT-PCR based time-course and chromatin-immuno-precipitation. The transcriptome profiling revealed that the pool of genes up-regulated by GabT, besides being strongly related to the regulation of growth and synaptic transmission, is also endowed with neuro-protective and pro-survival properties. By using RT-PCR, we quantified a time-course of the transient expression for 33 of the highest up-regulated genes, with an average sampling rate of 10 minutes and covering the time interval [10 3690] minutes. The cluster analysis of the time-course disclosed the existence of three different dynamical patterns, one of which proved, in a statistical analysis based on results from previous works, to be significantly related with SRF-dependent regulation (p-value<0.05). The chromatin immunoprecipitation (chip) assay confirmed the rich presence of working CArG boxes in the genes belonging to the latter dynamical pattern and therefore validated the statistical analysis. Furthermore, an in silico analysis of the promoters revealed the presence of additional conserved CArG boxes upstream of the genes Nr4a1 and Rgs2. The chip assay confirmed a significant SRF signal in the Nr4a1 CArG box but not in the Rgs2 CArG box

A World with Robots

Preface: The increasing deployment of robotic technology in many domains of human life will have a substantial impact on the economic, social and cultural tissues of our societies. Though one can already anticipate some of its huge benefits, it also urges us to try to reflect on its impact on fundamental instances of everyday life and also envisage to what extent essential societal values on which we have based our cultures and legal systems may be eventually affected