A Study on Muscle Fatigue Associated with Awkward Posture Among Workers in Aerospace Industry

Abstract. In aerospace industry, many tasks required manufacturing workers to perform their works in awkward posture. Awkward posture is a practical working posture when joints are not in neutral position such as lifting heavy products, reaching materials, bending forward their back when doing jobs, and pushing or pulling excessive loads because those tasks require a stable position and large degree of freedom. If the workers perform the jobs continuously in awkward posture throughout the working hours, they may be experience muscle fatigue. The objective of this study is to measure the myoelectric level (µV) exerted by the right and left thoracolumbar fascia muscles while workers perform the lay-up process in aerospace industry. The myoelectric level in the muscles was measured using surface Electromyography (sEMG) measurement. Six production workers from aerospace industry participated as subjects. The muscle fatigue of the subjects was measured during beginning until finish of lay-up process. This measuring activity has been doing from Wednesday to Friday. Highest results of myoelectric level for right thoracolumbar fascia is when the workers make the lay-up process for ply seven until ply eleven. Different with the results of myoelectric level for left thoracolumbar fascia which is; three of the workers got highest result when they are making the lay-up process for ply seven until ply eleven, but the other three of the workers got highest result when they are making the lay-up process for ply twelve. Nevertheless, after averaging both of the results, a mean result for each worker shows the highest myoelectric level is when the workers make the lay-up process for ply seven until ply eleven. According to the mean, a percentage of worse tasks are projected. Based on this study, the authors concluded that muscle fatigue of the lay-up workers in aerospace industry was influenced by the work load, work activity and duration of awkward posture

Rethinking Sudan Studies: A Post-2011 Manifesto

Abstract This essay appraises “Sudan Studies” following the 2011 secession of South Sudan. It asks two questions. First, what has Sudan Studies been as a colonial and postcolonial field of academic inquiry and how should or must it change? Second, should we continue to write about a single arena of Sudan Studies now that Sudan has split apart? The authors advance a “manifesto” for Sudan Studies by urging scholars to map out more intellectual terrain by attending to non-elite actors and women; grass-roots and local history; the environment and the arts; oral sources; and interdisciplinary studies of culture, politics, and society. They propose that scholars can transcend the changing boundaries of the nation-state, and recognize connections forged through past and present migrations and contacts, by studying the Sudan as a zone rather than a fixed country. Finally, in their introduction to this bilingual special issue, they highlight the increasing relevance of French scholarship to the endeavor of rethinking Sudan Studies. Résumé Cet essai évalue la situation des « études soudanaises » après la sécession du Soudan du Sud. Il pose deux questions. La première : En quoi ont consisté les études soudanaises en tant que domaine colonial et postcolonial de recherche universitaire et dans quelle mesure doivent-elles changer, si tant est qu\u27elles doivent changer ? La seconde : Devrions-nous continuer à baser nos écrits sur un domaine unique d\u27études soudanaises maintenant que le Soudan est divisé ? Les auteurs proposent un « manifeste » pour les études soudanaises en exhortant les experts à cartographier un terrain intellectuel élargi en s\u27intéressant aux acteurs ne faisant pas partie des élites et des femmes ; à l\u27histoire de la base populaire et locale ; à l\u27environnement et à l\u27art ; aux sources orales ; et aux études interdisciplinaires portant sur la culture, la politique et la société. Ils avancent que les chercheurs peuvent aller au-delà des frontières en mutation de l\u27État-nation et reconnaitre les connexions établies grâce aux migrations et aux contacts passés et présents en étudiant le Soudan comme zone plutôt que comme un pays fixe. Enfin, dans leur introduction à ce numéro bilingue spécial, ils mettent en relief la pertinence croissance des travaux universitaires français dans le cadre de l\u27initiative visant à repenser les études soudanaises

Loss of function mutations in CCDC32 cause a congenital syndrome characterized by craniofacial, cardiac and neurodevelopmental anomalies

Despite the wide use of genomics to investigate the molecular basis of rare congenital malformations, a significant fraction of patients remains bereft of diagnosis. As part of our continuous effort to recruit and perform genomic and functional studies on such cohorts, we investigated the genetic and mechanistic cause of disease in two independent consanguineous families affected by overlapping craniofacial, cardiac, laterality, and neurodevelopmental anomalies. Using whole exome sequencing, we identified homozygous frameshift CCDC32 variants in three affected individuals. Functional analysis in a zebrafish model revealed that ccdc32 depletion recapitulates the human phenotypes. Because some of the patient phenotypes overlap defects common to ciliopathies, we asked if loss of CCDC32 might contribute to the dysfunction of this organelle. Consistent with this hypothesis, we show that ccdc32 is required for normal cilia formation in zebrafish embryos and mammalian cell culture, arguing that ciliary defects are at least partially involved in the pathomechanism of this disorder

Familial hematuria

Hematuria is a common presenting complaint in pediatric nephrology clinics and often has a familial basis. This teaching article provides an overview of causes, diagnosis, and management of the major forms of familial hematuria, Alport syndrome, and thin basement membrane nephropathy

Aspects of Plane Wave (Matrix) String Dynamics

We analyse two issues that arise in the context of (matrix) string theories in plane wave backgrounds, namely (1) the use of Brinkmann- versus Rosen-variables in the quantum theory for general plane waves (which we settle conclusively in favour of Brinkmann variables), and (2) the regularisation of the quantum dynamics for a certain class of singular plane waves (discussing the benefits and limitations of regularisations of the plane-wave metric itself).Comment: 29 page

Detection of kinase domain mutations in BCR::ABL1 leukemia by ultra-deep sequencing of genomic DNA

The screening of the BCR::ABL1 kinase domain (KD) mutation has become a routine analysis in case of warning/failure for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) Philadelphia (Ph)-positive patients. In this study, we present a novel DNA-based next-generation sequencing (NGS) methodology for KD ABL1 mutation detection and monitoring with a 1.0E−4 sensitivity. This approach was validated with a well-stablished RNA-based nested NGS method. The correlation of both techniques for the quantification of ABL1 mutations was high (Pearson r = 0.858, p < 0.001), offering DNA-DeepNGS a sensitivity of 92% and specificity of 82%. The clinical impact was studied in a cohort of 129 patients (n = 67 for CML and n = 62 for B-ALL patients). A total of 162 samples (n = 86 CML and n = 76 B-ALL) were studied. Of them, 27 out of 86 harbored mutations (6 in warning and 21 in failure) for CML, and 13 out of 76 (2 diagnostic and 11 relapse samples) did in B-ALL patients. In addition, in four cases were detected mutation despite BCR::ABL1 < 1%. In conclusion, we were able to detect KD ABL1 mutations with a 1.0E−4 sensitivity by NGS using DNA as starting material even in patients with low levels of disease.Tis project was funded in part by CRIS CANCER FOUNDATION

Next Generation Molecular Diagnosis of Hereditary Spastic Paraplegias: An Italian Cross-Sectional Study

Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) refers to a group of genetically heterogeneous neurodegenerative motor neuron disorders characterized by progressive age-dependent loss of corticospinal motor tract function, lower limb spasticity, and weakness. Recent clinical use of next generation sequencing (NGS) methodologies suggests that they facilitate the diagnostic approach to HSP, but the power of NGS as a first-tier diagnostic procedure is unclear. The larger-than-expected genetic heterogeneity-there are over 80 potential disease-associated genes-and frequent overlap with other clinical conditions affecting the motor system make a molecular diagnosis in HSP cumbersome and time consuming. In a single-center, cross-sectional study, spanning 4 years, 239 subjects with a clinical diagnosis of HSP underwent molecular screening of a large set of genes, using two different customized NGS panels. The latest version of our targeted sequencing panel (SpastiSure3.0) comprises 118 genes known to be associated with HSP. Using an in-house validated bioinformatics pipeline and several in silico tools to predict mutation pathogenicity, we obtained a positive diagnostic yield of 29% (70/239), whereas variants of unknown significance (VUS) were found in 86 patients (36%), and 83 cases remained unsolved. This study is among the largest screenings of consecutive HSP index cases enrolled in real-life clinical-diagnostic settings. Its results corroborate NGS as a modern, first-step procedure for molecular diagnosis of HSP. It also disclosed a significant number of new mutations in ultra-rare genes, expanding the clinical spectrum, and genetic landscape of HSP, at least in Italy