Hand posture prediction using neural networks within a biomechanical model

This paper proposes the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) in the framework of a biomechanical hand model for grasping. ANNs enhance the model capabilities as they substitute estimated data for the experimental inputs required by the grasping algorithm used. These inputs are the tentative grasping posture and the most open posture during grasping. As a consequence, more realistic grasping postures are predicted by the grasping algorithm, along with the contact information required by the dynamic biomechanical model (contact points and normals). Several neural network architectures are tested and compared in terms of prediction errors, leading to encouraging results. The performance of the overall proposal is also shown through simulation, where a grasping experiment is replicated and compared to the real grasping data collected by a data glove device. 

Confidentiality in Medical Oaths: (when the white crow becomes gray...)

La confidencialidad, junto con los principios éticos de beneficencia y no-maleficencia, es la norma más señalada en los Juramentos Médicos de la actualidad. A pesar de ello, el avance científico-técnico en la Medicina ha hecho que constituya una de las reglas más controvertidas por sus excepciones. En consecuencia, los objetivos del presente trabajo son analizar comparativamente la regla de confidencialidad en los Juramentos Médicos de distintos lugares, épocas, orígenes y en diferentes versiones del Hipocrático y a su vez, determinar en aquellos Juramentos que expresan esta regla, qué es lo que se debe guardar en secreto y con qué grado de compromiso (absoluto o "prima facie"). De los treinta y seis Juramentos analizados, veintisiete manifiestan esta regla y nueve, no. No se halló relación entre la manifestación de esta regla y el lugar, época, origen y distintas versiones del Hipocrático. La mayoría sugiere no revelar lo visto u oído en relación con lo médico, al igual que el Hipocrático. Siete textos señalan que la confidencialidad debe ser absoluta y cuatro señalan excepciones en relación con los principios de beneficencia y justicia y el deber moral de no dañar a terceras partes. Dos fórmulas especifican la protección de la privacidad. En síntesis, la confidencialidad es considerada en estos tiempos como un deber moral para el bien del paciente y por respeto a su autonomía; pero a pesar de ello, en la actualidad en Medicina se está replanteando el deber de guardar el secreto en una forma absoluta.Confidentiality, together with the ethical principles of beneficence and non-maleficence, is the most important rule in Medical Oaths at the present time. However, the scientific-technical advances in medicine have made this rule one of the most controversial ones because of its exceptions. In consequence, the aim of the present paper is to comparatively analyze the rule of confidentiality in Medical Oaths of different places, times, origins and in different versions of the Hippocratic Oath in order to determine what should be kept a secret and with what degree of commitment (absolute or "prima facie"). Of the thirty six analyzed Oaths, twenty-seven manifest this rule and nine do not. No relation was found between the manifestation of this rule and the place, time, origin and different versions of the Hippocratic Oath. Most pledges suggest not to reveal what has been seen or heard during the medical act, the same as in the Hippocratic Oath. Seven texts point out that confidentiality should be absolute and four give exceptions in connection with beneficence and justice principles and the moral duty of causing no damage to third parties. Two pledges specify protection of privacy. In conclusion, today confidentiality is considered to be a moral duty for the benefit of the patient and out of consideration for his autonomy; however, at the present time in medicine the duty of keeping absolute secrecy is being reconsidered.Fil: Gelpi, Ricardo Jorge. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Bioquímica y Medicina Molecular. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Bioquímica y Medicina Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Pérez, Marta L.. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Rancich, Ana María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Bioquímica y Medicina Molecular. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Farmacia y Bioquímica. Instituto de Bioquímica y Medicina Molecular; ArgentinaFil: Mainetti, Jose Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fundación Para Progreso Medicina-hospital Privado. Instituto de Bioética y Humanidades Médicas; Argentin

Grip force and force sharing in two different manipulation tasks with bottles

Grip force and force sharing during two activities of daily living were analysed experimentally in 10 right-handed subjects. Four different bottles, filled to two different levels, were manipulated for two tasks: transporting and pouring. Each test subject’s hand was instrumented with eight thin wearable force sensors. The grip force and force sharing were significantly different for each bottle model. Increasing the filling level resulted in an increase in grip force, but the ratio of grip force to load force was higher for lighter loads. The task influenced the force sharing but not the mean grip force. The contributions of the thumb and ring finger were higher in the pouring task, whereas the contributions of the palm and the index finger were higher in the transport task. Mean force sharing among fingers was 30% for index, 29% for middle, 22% for ring and 19% for little finger. Practitioner Summary: We analysed grip force and force sharing in two manipulation tasks with bottles: transporting and pouring. The objective was to understand the effects of the bottle features, filling level and task on the contribution of different areas of the hand to the grip force. Force sharing was different for each task and the bottles features affected to both grip force and force sharing.We wish to thank the Fundació Caixa-Castelló and the Universi- tat Jaume I for financial support through project P1-1B2009-40 and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER through project DPI2014-60635-R. With the financial support of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Con- struction at the Universitat Jaume I, Mark Andrews helped the authors with the English language edition of the manuscript

Commissioning and First Observations with Wide FastCam at the Telescopio Carlos S\'anchez

The FastCam instrument platform, jointly developed by the IAC and the UPCT, allows, in real-time, acquisition, selection and storage of images with a resolution that reaches the diffraction limit of medium-sized telescopes. FastCam incorporates a specially designed software package to analyse series of tens of thousands of images in parallel with the data acquisition at the telescope. Wide FastCam is a new instrument that, using the same software for data acquisition, does not look for lucky imaging but fast observations in a much larger field of view. Here we describe the commissioning process and first observations with Wide FastCam at the Telescopio Carlos S\'anchez (TCS) in the Observatorio del Teide.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, Proc. SPIE. 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, 99082O. (August 09, 2016

Vitamin C activates young LINE-1 elements in mouse embryonic stem cells via H3K9me3 demethylation

This work was supported by grants from the Wellcome Trust/Royal Soci‑ ety (101225/Z/13/Z) and MRC (MR/X008487/1) to M.R.B.; and BBSRC (BB/ T000031/1) to M.R.B. and J.M.F.Background Vitamin C (vitC) enhances the activity of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases, including TET enzymes, which catalyse DNA demethylation, and Jumonji-domain histone demethylases. The epigenetic remodelling promoted by vitC improves the efficiency of induced pluripotent stem cell derivation, and is required to attain a ground-state of pluripotency in embryonic stem cells (ESCs) that closely mimics the inner cell mass of the early blastocyst. However, genome-wide DNA and histone demethylation can lead to upregulation of transposable elements (TEs), and it is not known how vitC addition in culture media affects TE expression in pluripotent stem cells. Results Here we show that vitC increases the expression of several TE families, including evolutionarily young LINE-1 (L1) elements, in mouse ESCs. We find that TET activity is dispensable for L1 upregulation, and that instead it occurs largely as a result of H3K9me3 loss mediated by KDM4A/C histone demethylases. Despite increased L1 levels, we did not detect increased somatic insertion rates in vitC-treated cells. Notably, treatment of human ESCs with vitC also increases L1 protein levels, albeit through a distinct, post-transcriptional mechanism. Conclusion VitC directly modulates the expression of mouse L1s and other TEs through epigenetic mechanisms, with potential for downstream effects related to the multiple emerging roles of L1s in cellular function.Wellcome Trust/Royal Society (101225/Z/13/Z)MRC (MR/X008487/1)BBSRC (BB/T000031/1

Multi-isotopic assessments of spatio-temporal diet variability: the case of two sympatric gulls in the western Mediterranean

In predator populations, changes in foraging behaviour in response to spatio-temporal variability of prey are expected. Prey depletion might cause trophic niche widening in generalist species, but not in specialists, which are expected to increase their foraging effort without diet shifts. In sympatric species feeding on similar resources, reduced food availability can increase interspecific competition and cause trophic niche segregation. To understand these processes, we studied the spatio-temporal variability in diet and niche width in 2 sympatric gull species, the yellow-legged gull Larus michahellis and Audouin’s gull Ichthyaetus audouinii, which have experienced exponential growth in recent decades due to an increase in anthropogenic food subsidies. We sampled feathers from chicks of both species in several colonies along the western Mediterranean from 2009 to 2011 and performed stable isotope analysis of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur on these feathers. Bayesian modelling shows that both species displayed opportunistic behaviour if different types of resources were available, but could also narrow their trophic niche if 1 resource was abundant. We also provide evidence of trophic segregation between the 2 gull species, suggesting the occurrence of interspecific competition for food. Our meta-population approach provides a comprehensive view of the trophic ecology and the competitive interactions of these gull species. We emphasize the usefulness of 3-dimensional isotope analyses to correctly assess spatio-temporal variability in trophic behaviour of predator species, revealing differences that would remain hidden in single population studies or when using only the isotopic ratios of 2 elements.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Medición del movimiento de todos los segmentos de la mano mediante videogrametría

Comunicación presentada en el XIX Congreso Nacional de Ingeniería Mecánica, celebrado en Castellón, del 14 al 16 de noviembre de 2012La medición del movimiento de la mano es importante en muy diversos campos, a la vez que compleja por el elevado número de grados de libertad que posee. Generalmente es deseable que la técnica de medición no interfiera en el normal desarrollo de las actividades a realizar por la mano, siendo una buena alternativa la captura de movimiento a partir de imágenes de video y uso de marcadores pasivos (o videogrametría). Estas técnicas se han usado ampliamente en el análisis de la marcha, pero su aplicación al análisis del movimiento de la mano es todavía escasa. La mayor parte de los trabajos de la literatura presentan su uso sólo para un dedo, o realizan grandes simplificaciones cinemáticas. En este trabajo se describe un método para la medición de los movimientos de todos los segmentos de la mano a partir del registro de imágenes de video y el uso de 29 marcadores reflectantes, seleccionados para definir unos sistemas de referencia asociados a cada segmento, que se utilizan para calcular los ángulos de rotación entre cada par de segmentos consecutivos. Se ha tenido especial cuidado en el significado fisiológico de estos ángulos de rotación (25 en total). Así, el movimiento de la mano se describe con ángulos de flexión-extensión en todas las articulaciones interfalángicas y en las metacarpocarpianas de los dedos anular y meñique, y con ángulos de flexión-extensión y de abducción-aducción en todas las articulaciones metacarpofalángicas, en la metacarpocarpiana del pulgar y también en la muñeca. Para analizar la repetibilidad y factibilidad del método propuesto, se ha desarrollado un experimento que ha consistido en el agarre de un mismo cono por cinco sujetos distintos. Cada sujeto ha realizado tres repeticiones diferentes del agarre en cada una de las dos sesiones en que se le han colocado los marcadores y se ha realizado su seguimiento. La técnica ha demostrado ser factible para el estudio del movimiento de la mano durante la realización de agarres, con un error de repetibilidad global de 2.3º

8000 years of environmental evolution of barrier–lagoon systems emplaced in coastal embayments (NW Iberia)

The rocky and indented coast of NW Iberia is characterized by the presence of highly valuable and vulnerable, small and shallow barrier– lagoon systems structurally controlled. The case study was selected to analyse barrier–lagoon evolution based on detailed sedimentary architecture, chronology, geochemical and biological proxies. The main objective is to test the hypothesis of structural control and the significance at regional scale of any highenergy event recorded. This work is also aimed at identifying general patterns and conceptualizing the formation and evolution of this type of coastal systems. The results allowed us to establish a conceptual model of Holocene evolution that applies to rock-bounded barrier–lagoon systems. The initial stage (early Holocene) is characterized by freshwater peat sedimentation and ended by marine flooding. The timing of the marine flooding depends on the relation between the elevation of the basin and the relative mean sea-level position; the lower the topography, the earlier the marine inundation. Thus, the age of basin inundation ranged from 8 to 4 ka BP supporting significant structural differences. Once marine inundation occurred, all systems followed similar evolutionary patterns characterized by a phase of landward barrier migration and aeolian sedimentation towards the back-barrier (i.e. retrogradation) that extended circa 3.5 ka BP. The later phases of evolution are characterized by a general trend to the stabilization of the barriers and the infilling of the lagoons. This stabilization may be temporally interrupted by episodes of enhanced storminess or sediment scarcity. In this regard, washover deposits identified within the sedimentary architecture of the case study explored here suggest pervasive high-energy events coeval with some of the cooling events identified in the North Atlantic during the mid- to late Holocene

8000 years of environmental evolution of barrier–lagoon systems emplaced in coastal embayments (NW Iberia)

The rocky and indented coast of NW Iberia is characterized by the presence of highly valuable and vulnerable, small and shallow barrier– lagoon systems structurally controlled. The case study was selected to analyse barrier–lagoon evolution based on detailed sedimentary architecture, chronology, geochemical and biological proxies. The main objective is to test the hypothesis of structural control and the significance at regional scale of any highenergy event recorded. This work is also aimed at identifying general patterns and conceptualizing the formation and evolution of this type of coastal systems. The results allowed us to establish a conceptual model of Holocene evolution that applies to rock-bounded barrier–lagoon systems. The initial stage (early Holocene) is characterized by freshwater peat sedimentation and ended by marine flooding. The timing of the marine flooding depends on the relation between the elevation of the basin and the relative mean sea-level position; the lower the topography, the earlier the marine inundation. Thus, the age of basin inundation ranged from 8 to 4 ka BP supporting significant structural differences. Once marine inundation occurred, all systems followed similar evolutionary patterns characterized by a phase of landward barrier migration and aeolian sedimentation towards the back-barrier (i.e. retrogradation) that extended circa 3.5 ka BP. The later phases of evolution are characterized by a general trend to the stabilization of the barriers and the infilling of the lagoons. This stabilization may be temporally interrupted by episodes of enhanced storminess or sediment scarcity. In this regard, washover deposits identified within the sedimentary architecture of the case study explored here suggest pervasive high-energy events coeval with some of the cooling events identified in the North Atlantic during the mid- to late Holocene