Spinal Cord Injury and Osteoporosis: Causes, Mechanisms, and Rehabilitation Strategies

Spinal cord injury (SCI) has a huge impact on the individual, society and the economy. Though advances in acute care resulted in greatly reduced co-morbidities, there has been much less progress preventing long-term sequelae of SCI. Among the long-term consequences of SCI is bone loss (osteoporosis) due to the mechanical unloading of the paralyzed limbs and vascular dysfunction below the level of injury. Though osteoporosis may be partially prevented via pharmacologic interventions during the acute post-injury phase, there are no clinical guidelines to treat osteoporosis during the chronic phase. Thus there is need for scientific advances to improve the rehabilitative approaches to SCI-related osteoporosis. Recent advances in application of a new technology, functional electrical stimulation, provide a new and exciting opportunity to improve bone metabolism and to provide mechanical strain to the paralyzed lower limbs sufficient to stimulate new bone formation in individuals with SCI. The purpose of this minireview is to delineate our current understanding of SCI-related osteoporosis and to highlight recent literature towards its prevention and treatment

Mapping electronic reconstruction at the metal/insulator interfaces in \ce{LaVO_3/SrVO_3} heterostructures

A \ce{(LaVO_3)_6/(SrVO_3)_3} superlattice is studied with a combination of sub-{\AA} resolved scanning transmission electron microscopy and monochromated electron energy-loss spectroscopy. The V oxidation state is mapped with atomic spatial resolution enabling to investigate electronic reconstruction at the \ce{LaVO_3}/\ce{SrVO_3} interfaces. Surprisingly, asymmetric charge distribution is found at adjacent chemically symmetric interfaces. The local structure is proposed and simulated with double channeling calculation which agrees qualitatively with our experiment. We demonstrate that local strain asymmetry is the likely cause of the electronic asymmetry of the interfaces. The electronic reconstruction at the interfaces extends much further than the chemical composition, varying from 0.5 to 1.2 nm. This distance corresponds to the length of charge transfer previously found in the \ce{(LaVO_3)_m}/\ce{(SrVO_3)_n} metal/insulating and the \ce{(LaAlO_3)_m}/\ce{(SrTiO_3)_n} insulating/insulating interfaces.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. Physical Review B, 201

Commercial Vehicle Research Buggy For Active Driver Assistance Systems

This is the Final Design Report for Daimtronics, a senior project team sponsored by Professor Charles Birdsong of Cal Poly and by Daimler Trucks North America. This team integrated mechatronic systems into a scale semi-truck chassis using existing mechanical and software systems from three separate Cal Poly senior projects over the recent years: Daimscale, MicroLaren, and ProgreSSIV. The goal was to have a user-friendly platform capable of executing autonomous driving algorithms that are programmable at a high level in Simulink and Robotic Operating System (ROS). Advanced driver assistance and autonomous vehicle algorithms were not within the scope of this project, but the capability to upload the platform with such software was. Through research on existing products and technologies in the field today, as well as through communication with the sponsors, Daimtronics has compiled a list of customer needs and resulting engineering specifications that will verify whether the needs are met or not. Included is both the preliminary design direction, encompassing the selection of a motor, a computing platform and a middleware framework, as well as the final design direction as the project evolved. The sensor suite for object detection and detailed plans for the integration of the electronic, computing, and mechanical components are described. The proposed and final design of the motherboard integrating the electronic and computing platforms of the system is detailed. A description of the current state of the project is included, as well as suggested next steps for future teams who will be working on this platform. A timeline of key deliverables and their due dates throughout the 2018-2019 academic school year is included

Analysis of tidal strain observations in Lanzarote Island

Comunicación presntada a la 3ª Asamblea Hispano-Portuguesa de Geodesia y Geofísica = 3ª Assembleia Luso-Espanhola de Geodesia e Geofisica, celebrada en Valencia entre el 4 y el 8 de febrero de 2002.The strain response of the Earth to tidal forces is observed in the Geodynamics Laboratory of Lanzarote Island. The instruments, installed in a gallery inside the lava tunnel of Cueva de los Verdes, are kind of horizontal ceramic-tube extensometers. Their base fines comprise from 8 to 38 m length and are orientated in two orthogonal directions (45º.2 N Y 135°.2 N), which depend on the situation in the gallery. The reliability of this instruments, which measure the variation of distance between two fixed points with a resolution of 10 -10, allow us to dispose long term series of tidal strains since 1992. The data series are analysed in order to study the stability of the instruments. Also, with these data we can determine the tidal strain models, as well as the tidal deformation and the long-term variations of strains in this island. Due to the dependence of the local conditions of the station, which is located in an island, the oceanic influence will be investigated together with local atmospheric disturbing effects. These effects are carefully studied for this station, in order to allow the identification and, if possible, its separation from other signals of interest, given the volcanic feature of the island.Peer reviewe

A Preliminary Investigation into Search and Matching for Tumour Discrimination in WHO Breast Taxonomy Using Deep Networks

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting women worldwide. They include a group of malignant neoplasms with a variety of biological, clinical, and histopathological characteristics. There are more than 35 different histological forms of breast lesions that can be classified and diagnosed histologically according to cell morphology, growth, and architecture patterns. Recently, deep learning, in the field of artificial intelligence, has drawn a lot of attention for the computerized representation of medical images. Searchable digital atlases can provide pathologists with patch matching tools allowing them to search among evidently diagnosed and treated archival cases, a technology that may be regarded as computational second opinion. In this study, we indexed and analyzed the WHO breast taxonomy (Classification of Tumours 5th Ed.) spanning 35 tumour types. We visualized all tumour types using deep features extracted from a state-of-the-art deep learning model, pre-trained on millions of diagnostic histopathology images from the TCGA repository. Furthermore, we test the concept of a digital "atlas" as a reference for search and matching with rare test cases. The patch similarity search within the WHO breast taxonomy data reached over 88% accuracy when validating through "majority vote" and more than 91% accuracy when validating using top-n tumour types. These results show for the first time that complex relationships among common and rare breast lesions can be investigated using an indexed digital archive

Manipulating task constraints shapes emergence of herding tendencies in team games performance

The herding phenomenon is observed in nature and has been perceived to be less desirable use of space in impacting overall team play performance. The effective manipulating of rules and task constraints might be able to alter herding tendencies in sport performance. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of altering task constraints on herding tendencies, measured with the use of cluster phase analysis, which has also been used to analyse the synchrony exhibited by performers in invasion games such as professional association football matches. In this study, tracking positional data of individual players in a simulated pass and catch game was undertaken, with no specific verbal instructions provided to participants on how and where to move so that emergent behavioural tendencies could be observed. Data revealed how task constraint manipulations impacted on herding tendencies. Manipulation of task constraints revealed higher levels of clustering tendencies in the herding condition compared to, the non-herding condition. Within the herding condition, between-team synchrony was also strong, especially in the longitudinal direction. Ball possession also seemed to have some impact on within-team synchrony. Findings provided preliminary evidence on how manipulating task constraints can be effective in altering herding tendencies in team games