The contribution of peripheral visual information to visuospatial mapping prior to movement initiation

Compensatory balance reactions impose tight temporal constraints to motor responses employed to re–capture stability. Vision is particularly important for compensatory reach–to–grasp reactions as locations of hand hold targets have varying inherent features and locations in 3D space, requiring precise motor commands in order to successfully contact the target. Internalizing a representation of the surrounding environment by creating a visuospatial map is possible means of circumventing temporal lags associated with using online visual feedback when performing compensatory reactions. Hand hold targets are often located in the peripheral visual field. This suggests an importance of mapping from the peripheral visual field and further suggests mapping of peripherally located targets may require the allocation of attentional resources in order to correctly encode their location. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the contribution of peripheral vision and associated attentional requirements of visuospatial mapping for rapid upper limb movements. Study 1 was designed to examine the influence of mapping with peripheral vision for compensatory reach–to–grasp reactions, specifically the influence of timing and location of visual information. Study 2 was designed to examine the potential effect a secondary visual attention task would have on mapping peripheral located targets prior to movement initiation. Overall the results from these studies show support for the ability to map peripherally located targets with peripheral visual feedback, and suggest that this mapping may be an automatic process. Findings from this thesis provide a basic insight into the incorporation of peripheral visual information into intrinsic visuospatial maps that provides a framework for future experiments into the understanding of how visuospatial maps are incorporated into compensatory balance reactions

Ethical and Policy Issues Raised by Uterus Transplants

Introduction: In 2014, Brännström and colleagues reported the first human live birth following uterine transplantation (UTx). Research into this treatment for absolute uterine factor infertility has since grown with clinical trials currently taking place across centers in at least thirteen countries worldwide. Sources of data: This review summarizes and critiques the academic literature on ethical and policy issues raised by UTx. Areas of agreement: There is general agreement on the importance of risk reduction and, in principle, to the sharing and maintenance of patient data on an international registry. Areas of controversy: There are numerous areas of controversy ranging from whether it is ethically justified to carry out uterus transplants at all (considering the associated health risks) to how deceased donor organs for transplant should be allocated. This review focuses on three key issues: the choice between deceased and living donors, ensuring valid consent to the procedure and access to treatment. Growing points; UTx is presently a novel and rare procedure but is likely to become more commonplace in the foreseeable future, given the large number of surgical teams working on it worldwide. Areas timely for developing research: Uterus transplantation requires us to re-examine fundamental questions about the ethical and social value of gestation. If eventually extended to transgender women or even to men, it may also require us to reconceptualize what it is to be a ‘father’ or to be a ‘mother’, and the definition of these terms in law

Oestrogen-deficiency induces bone loss by modulating CD14+ monocyte and CD4+ T cell DR3 expression and serum TL1A levels

FLC was funded by an Arthritis Research UK PhD studentship (Grant code: 18598) awarded to ASW, ECYW and MDS. The funding body had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis and interpretation of the data.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Large-scale CO spiral arms and complex kinematics associated with the T Tauri star RU Lup

While protoplanetary disks often appear to be compact and well-organized in millimeter continuum emission, CO spectral line observations are increasingly revealing complex behavior at large distances from the host star. We present deep ALMA maps of the $J=2-1$ transition of $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O, as well as the $J=3-2$ transition of DCO$^+$, toward the T Tauri star RU Lup at a resolution of $\sim0.3''$ ($\sim50$ au). The CO isotopologue emission traces four major components of the RU Lup system: a compact Keplerian disk with a radius of $\sim120$ au, a non-Keplerian ``envelope-like'' structure surrounding the disk and extending to $\sim260$ au from the star, at least five blueshifted spiral arms stretching up to 1000 au, and clumps outside the spiral arms located up to 1500 au in projection from RU Lup. We comment on potential explanations for RU Lup's peculiar gas morphology, including gravitational instability, accretion of material onto the disk, or perturbation by another star. RU Lup's extended non-Keplerian CO emission, elevated stellar accretion rate, and unusual photometric variability suggest that it could be a scaled-down Class II analog of the outbursting FU Ori systems.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures, accepted by ApJ. Typos corrected. Data are available at https://zenodo.org/record/392886

Early discharge and rehabilitation in paediatric acquired brain and neurological injury: a transferable model

Children and young people who require rehabilitation following sustaining an acquired brain injury often experience long lengths of stay (LOS) and potentially poorer recovery outcomes due to limited access to therapy and little proactive discharge planning. After stakeholder enquiry we launched a new team and pathway with a primary aim to reduce LOS. The secondary aims were to pilot an outreach model, reduce cost and improve patient and family satisfaction. We achieved a significantly improved change in quality care with a financial gain and increased patient and family satisfaction.This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and th

Cohort profile: the Pharmacokinetic and clinical Observations in PeoPle over fiftY (POPPY) study

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