Advances in the therapy of Alzheimer's disease: Targeting amyloid beta and tau and perspectives for the future

Worldwide multidisciplinary translational research has led to a growing knowledge of the genetics and molecular pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) indicating that pathophysiological brain alterations occur decades before clinical signs and symptoms of cognitive decline can be diagnosed. Consequently, therapeutic concepts and targets have been increasingly focused on early-stage illness before the onset of dementia; and distinct classes of compounds are now being tested in clinical trials. At present, there is a growing consensus that therapeutic progress in AD delaying disease progression would significantly decrease the expanding global burden. The evolving hypothesis- and evidence-based generation of new diagnostic research criteria for early-stage AD has positively impacted the development of clinical trial designs and the characterization of earlier and more specific target populations for trials in prodromal as well as in pre- and asymptomatic at-risk stages of AD

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion

Swing-through gait with free-knees produced by surface functional electrical stimulation

The swing-through gait is often the gait of choice for those crutch walkers who can perform it. However, a practical (sufficiently low energy and sufficiently fast) gait is usually not achievable by paraplegic individuals with thoracic lesions. Functional electrical stimulation (FES) was used to assist three spinal cord injured (SCI) subjects with complete thoracic lesions at T11, T11 and T6 to ambulate with a swing-through gait patten. Eight channels of surface stimulation were used to bilaterally stimulate knee extensors, knee flexors, hip extensors and hip flexors. The stimulation sequence was controlled by a computer that implemented a finite-state, rule-based control strategy according to sensor inputs. Over a long, level walkway, the T11 subjects averaged 0.40 m/s and 0.38 m/s for distances of 56 m and 51 m; the T6 subject averaged 0.30 m/s for 43 m. Using a motion analysis system, the gait patterns of two of the subjects were compared to those of a trained, non-impaired subject. The SCI subjects spent more time in both double support phases (when both crutches and both feet contact the floor) than did the non-impaired subjects, leading to a loss of momentum and hence a slower and less efficient gait. In conclusion, an FES assisted swing-through gait is shown to be a potentially useful mode of FES gait