The Immediate Effects of Carbon Composite Ankle Foot Orthoses on Balance and Gait in Individuals with Peripheral Neuropathy: A Pilot Study

Peripheral neuropathy (PN) is a neurological disorder that involves damage or disease of the peripheral nervous system. Diabetes is one of the most common causes on PN, while another large percentage of cases are idiopathic in nature. Individuals with PN often experience a distal to proximal progression of motor and sensory deficits such as loss of proprioception, muscle weakness, and loss of ankle reflexes. Since lower extremity proprioception plays a primary role in postural control, individuals with PN demonstrate difficulty maintaining balance, especially under conditions in which vision or vestibular input are also compromised. Because of these deficits, individuals with PN demonstrate an increased risk of falling. To improve balance in these individuals, literature suggests that providing additional or alternative sensory cues may enhance postural control. One practical strategy for improving sensory input that has been investigated is the use of orthotics or ankle-foot orthoses (AFO) to augment tactile and proprioceptive input to the foot and lower leg. Significant improvements in both sensory organization and postural motor control have been shown to occur with some commonly used AFOs, however, relatively little is known about how the newer generation carbon composite AFO may positively or negatively influence individuals with PN.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/dpt_symposium/1012/thumbnail.jp

Project finance as a driver of economic growth in low-income countries

This study investigates the role of project finance as a driver of economic growth. We hypothesize that project finance is beneficial to the least developed economies as it is able to compensate for a lack of domestic financial development. The contractual structure unique to project finance leads to better investment management and governance. Investigating 90 countries from 1991 to 2005, we find support for our hypothesis. Results show that project finance fosters economic growth and that its effect is strongest in low-income countries, where financial development and governance is weakest

DETRITAL ZIRCON U-Pb GEOCHRONOLOGY OF THE MARICÁ GROUP: SOURCES AREAS AND MAXIMUM DEPOSITIONAL AGE: Geocronologia U-Pb de Zircão Detritíco do Grupo Maricá: Áreas Fontes e Idade Máxima de Deposição

The Maricá Group is the basal unit of the Camaquã Basin and comprises mainly fluvial deposits and shallow marine beds. Provenance studies of the Maricá Group are crucial to understanding the initial development of this basin. This paper aims to present new LA-ICP-MS U-Pb provenance data for the evaluation of the source areas and the maximum depositional age of the Maricá Group. This work includes fieldwork recognition, petrographic analysis, and U-Pb dating of one sandstone and two clasts samples, from the Arroio América Formation, the youngest unit from Maricá Group. The Arroio América Formation was deposited on a braided fluvial system and is composed of sandstones, conglomeratic sandstones, and conglomerates rocks. The sandstone and the sandstone clast display a similar zircon age range and pattern. They are derived from mixed sources (599 – 3025 Ma) with a major contribution of Syderian (2422 Ma), Ediacaran (621 Ma), and Statherian (1749 Ma) sources. Minor contributions from Ryacian (2212-2040 Ma) and Archean (2823-2503) are also present. The Ediacaran sources are related to Ediacaran granites from Bagé Region as the Santo Afonso Suite. The maximum depositional age of the sandstone was constrained at 599.8 ± 11.5 Ma and the sandstone clast at 619.4 ± 11 Ma. The similarity between the sandstone and the clast ages shows that portions of this basin and probably the Maricá Group itself served as a source of sediments, indicating a dynamic setting with deposition, burial, uplift, and rework in a short time.O Grupo Maricá é a unidade basal da Bacia do Camaquã e é composto principalmente por depósitos fluviais e marinhos rasos. Estudos de proveniência do Grupo Maricá são fundamentais para o entendimento das fases iniciais dessa bacia. Este trabalho objetiva apresentar novos dados de proveniência do LA-ICP-MS U-Pb para o reconhecimento das áreas fontes e determinação da idade máxima de deposição do Grupo Maricá. Este trabalho inclui reconhecimento de campo, análises petrográficas e a datação U-Pb de um arenito e dois clastos, da Formação Arroio América, a unidade mais jovem do Grupo Maricá. A Formação Arroio América registra depósitos de um sistema fluvial entrelaçado e é composta por arenitos, arenitos conglomeráticos e conglomerados. Dados de proveniniência de uma amostra de arenito e de um clasto de arenito exibem intervalos de idades e padrões de distribuição semelhantes. São, ambos derivados de fontes mistas (599 - 3025 Ma), com grande contribuição de fontes Siderianas (2422 Ma), Ediacaranas (621 Ma) e Estaterianas (1749 Ma). Contribuições menores Riacianas (2212-2040 Ma) e Arqueanas (2823-2503) também estão presentes. As fontes ediacaranas estão relacionadas aos granitos ediacaranos da região de Bagé como a suíte Santo Afonso. A idade máxima de deposição do arenito é de 599,8 ± 11,5 Ma e do clasto de arenito de 619,4 ± 11 Ma. A semelhança de idades máximas e áreas fontes indicam que porções dessa bacia e provavelmente do próprio Grupo Maricá serviram como fonte de sedimentos, indicando um contexto dinâmico com deposição, soterramento, soerguimento e retrabalhamento em um curto espaço de tempo

Auxin transport-feedback models of patterning in plants

Many patterning events in plants are regulated by the phytohormone auxin. In fact, so many things are under the influence of auxin that it seems difficult to understand how a single hormone can do so much. Auxin moves throughout the plant via a network of specialized membrane-bound import and export proteins, which are often differentially expressed and polarized depending on tissue type. Here, we review simulation models of pattern formation that are based on the control of these transporters by auxin itself. In these transport-feedback models, diversity in patterning comes not from the addition of more morphogens, but rather by varying the mechanism that regulates the transporters

Phospholipase D signaling: orchestration by PIP2 and small GTPases

Hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine by phospholipase D (PLD) leads to the generation of the versatile lipid second messenger, phosphatidic acid (PA), which is involved in fundamental cellular processes, including membrane trafficking, actin cytoskeleton remodeling, cell proliferation and cell survival. PLD activity can be dramatically stimulated by a large number of cell surface receptors and is elaborately regulated by intracellular factors, including protein kinase C isoforms, small GTPases of the ARF, Rho and Ras families and, particularly, by the phosphoinositide, phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2). PIP2 is well known as substrate for the generation of second messengers by phospholipase C, but is now also understood to recruit and/or activate a variety of actin regulatory proteins, ion channels and other signaling proteins, including PLD, by direct interaction. The synthesis of PIP2 by phosphoinositide 5-kinase (PIP5K) isoforms is tightly regulated by small GTPases and, interestingly, by PA as well, and the concerted formation of PIP2 and PA has been shown to mediate receptor-regulated cellular events. This review highlights the regulation of PLD by membrane receptors, and describes how the close encounter of PLD and PIP5K isoforms with small GTPases permits the execution of specific cellular functions

Diferenciação da tuberculose ativa de outras doenças pulmonares através da expressão gênica

Em uma tentativa de definir uma bioassinatura especifíca para diagnóstico da tuberculose (TB) pulmonar, esse estudo avaliou os níveis de expressão gênica em pacientes com TB, pneumonia e asma (OPD), e também em pacientes infectados latentemente com M. tuberculosis, e em pacientes não infectados com o bacilo. Foram analisados genes alvos específicos previamente testados por Maertzrdorf el at. (2011) como uma bioassinatura que sugere a diferenciação de casos de TB pulmonar a casos de TB latente: CD64, FCGR1B, GZMA, GBP5 and LTF. Nesse estudo foram realizadas análises estatísticas randomForest para calcular a especificidade e a sensibilidade de cada combinação feita entre os genes CD64, GZMA e GBP5, visando discriminar a diferença de expressão gênica entre individuos com TB e OPD. Essa bioassinatura nos proporcionou uma especificidade de 92,6% e uma sensibilidade de 95,5% para TB (o reverso para OPD). Os genes GZMA e GBP5 mostraram um poder de discriminação entre os grupos com fator de importância de 18,5 e 26,3, respectivamente para TB, e de 19,2 e 17,4, respectivamente para OPD. O gene CD64 teve seu fator de importância para TB de 8,5 e para OPD de 3,3. Nosso estudo sugere que a criação de uma ferramenta diagnóstica utilizando a bioassinatura estudada pode ser uma forma de ajudar a área clínica a diferenciar TB de OPD, apoiando a possibilidade de começar a trabalhar em níveis protéicos, com a intenção de criar ferramentas de diagnóstico mais rápidas, acessíveis e precisas, seguindo as recomendações da OMS de reduzir a incidência da TB no mundo.In this study, in an attempt to define a TB-specific biosignature for diagnostics, we evaluated gene expression in TB, pneumonia and asthma patients, as well as healthy donors with latent M. tuberculosis infection (LTBI) and healthy non-infected donors (NIDs). We decided to pursue a targeted approach utilizing a specific set of genes previously validated by Maertzdorf et al. 2011 as a biosignature to discriminate TB patients and LTBI subjects: CD64, FCGR1B, GZMA, GBP5 and LTF. Random forest analysis was applied to calculate the specificity and sensitivity of each gene combination of CD64, GZMA and GBP5 to discriminate between TB and OPD. The combination of the 3 genes gave the highest accuracy in identifying TB and OPD patients. This biosignature gave a specificity of 92.6% and a sensitivity of 95.5% for TB (reverse for OPD). GZMA and GBP5 showed the highest discriminating power with an importance factor of 18.5 and 26.3, respectively for TB, of 19.2 and 17.4, respectively for OPD, versus CD64 importance of 8.5 for TB and 3.3 for OPD. Our study suggest that the creation of a diagnostic tool using the studied biosignature may be a way to help physician’s to differentiate TB from OPD and support the possibility to start to work at protein levels, using this to create faster, cheaper and accurate tools to diagnosis TB and to follow WHO recommendations to reduce global burden of TB incidence worldwide