Dynamic Simulation and Neuromechanical Coordination of Subject-Specific Balance Recovery to Prevent Falls

Falls are the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries in elderly people, resulting in approximately $31 billion in medical costs annually in the U.S. These injuries motivate balance control studies focused on improving stability by identifying prevention strategies for reducing the number of fall events. Experiments provide data about subjects’ kinematic response to loss of balance. However, simulations offer additional insights, and may be used to make predictions about functional outcomes of interventions. Several approaches already exist in biomechanics research to generate accurate models on a subject-by-subject basis. However, these representations typically lack models of the central nervous system, which provides essential feedback that humans use to make decisions and alter movements. Interdisciplinary methods that merge biomechanics with other fields of study may be the solution to fill this gap by developing models that accurately reflect human neuromechanics.Roboticists have developed control systems approaches for humanoid robots simultaneously accomplishing complex goals by coordinating component tasks under priority constraints. Concepts such as the zero-moment point and extrapolated center of mass have been thoroughly evaluated and are commonly used in the design and execution of dynamic robotic systems in order to maintain stability. These established techniques can benefit biomechanical simulations by replacing biological sensory feedback that is unavailable in the virtual environment. Subject-specific simulations can be generated by synthesizing techniques from both robotics and biomechanics and by creating comprehensive models of task-level coordination, including neurofeedback, of movement patterns from experimental data. In this work, we demonstrate how models built on robotic principles that emulate decision making in response to feedback can be trained by biomechanical motion capture data to produce a subject-specific fit. The resulting surrogate can predict a subject’s particular solution to accomplishing the movement goal of recovering balance by controlling component tasks. This research advances biomechanics simulations as we move closer towards the development of a tool capable of anticipating the results of rehabilitation interventions aimed at correcting movement disorders. The novel platform presented here marks the first step towards that goal, and may benefit engineers, researchers, and clinicians interested in balance control and falls in human subjects

Microbial infection risk predicts antimicrobial potential of avian symbionts

Funding EM-R was financed by a predoctoral contract (PRE2018-085378) while the whole research group received funds from the projects CGL2017-83103-P, PID2020-117429GB-C21, and PID2020-117429GB-C22, funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación/Agencia Estatal de Investigación/10.13039/501100011033 and by “Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, a way of making Europe.” The research group also benefits from facilities, including accommodation, provided by the City Hall of Guadix, where a small lab to quickly process the samples was installed.Data availability statement Data used in this paper can be found in CSIC Institutional Repository: https://doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/14748.Symbiotic bacteria on animal hosts can prevent pathogenic bacterial infections by several mechanisms. Among them, symbiotic bacteria can indirectly enhance host’s immune responses or, directly, produce antimicrobial substances against pathogens. Due to differences in life-style, different host species are under different risks of microbial infections. Consequently, if symbiotic bacteria are somewhat selected by genetically determined host characteristics, we would expect the antimicrobial properties of bacterial symbionts to vary among host species and to be distributed according to risk of infection. Here we have tested this hypothesis by measuring the antimicrobial ability of the bacterial strains isolated from the uropygial-gland skin of 19 bird species differing in nesting habits, and, therefore, in risk of microbial infection. In accordance with our predictions, intensity and range of antimicrobial effects against the indicator strains assayed varied among bird species, with hole-and open-nesters showing the highest and the lowest values, respectively. Since it is broadly accepted that hole-nesters have higher risks of microbial infection than open nesters, our results suggest that the risk of infection is a strong driver of natural selection to enhance immunocompetence of animals through selecting for antibiotic-producing symbionts. Future research should focus on characterizing symbiotic bacterial communities and detecting coevolutionary processes with particular antibiotic-producing bacteria within-host species.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación projects CGL2017-83103-P, PID2020-117429GB-C21, and PID2020-117429GB-C22European Regional Development FundAgencia Estatal de Investigación 10.13039/50110001103

Special structures of hoopoe eggshells enhance the adhesion of symbionts-carrying uropygial secretion to prevent embryo infection

This is the pre-peer-reviewed version of the following article: Martín-Vivaldi, M.; et al. Special structures of hoopoe eggshells enhance the adhesion of symbionts-carrying uropygial secretion to prevent embryo infection. Journal of Animal Ecology, (2014). which has been published in final form at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12243/abstract1. Animals live in a bacterial world, and detecting and exploring adaptations favouring mutualistic relationships with antibiotic-producing bacteria as a strategy to fight pathogens are of prime importance for evolutionary ecologists. 2. Uropygial secretion of European hoopoes (Upupa epops, Linnaeus) contains antimicrobials from mutualistic bacteria that may be used to prevent embryo infection. Here, we investigated the microscopic structure of hoopoe eggshells looking for special features favouring the adhesion of antimicrobial uropygial secretions. 3. We impeded female access to the uropygial gland and compared microscopic characteristics of eggshells, bacterial loads of eggs and of uropygial secretion, and hatching success of experimental and control females. Then, we explored the link between microbiological characteristics of uropygial secretion and these of eggs of hoopoes, as well as possible fitness benefits. 4. The microscopic study revealed special structures in hoopoes' eggshells (crypts). The experimental prevention of females' gland access demonstrated that crypts are filled with uropygial secretion and that symbiotic enterococci bacteria on the eggshells come, at least partially, from those in the female's uropygial gland. Moreover, the experiment resulted in a higher permeability of eggshells by several groups of bacteria and in elimination of the positive relationships detected for control nests between hatching success and density of symbiotic bacteria, either in the uropygial secretion of females or on the eggshell. 5. The findings of specialized crypts on the eggshells of hoopoes, and of video-recorded females smearing secretion containing symbiotic bacteria at a high density onto the eggshells strongly support a link between secretion and bacteria on eggs. Moreover, the detected associations between bacteria and hatching success suggest that crypts enhancing the adhesion of symbiont-carrying uropygial secretion likely protect embryos against infections.Support by funding was provided by Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, European funds (FEDER) (CGL2009-14006, CGL2010-19233-C03-01 and CGL2010-19233-C03-03) and Junta de Andalucía (P09-RNM-4557)

Report on second selection of resources, revising selection in D2.1

The central objective of the Metanet4u project is to contribute to the establishment of a pan-European digital platform that makes available language resources and services, encompassing both datasets and software tools, for speech and language processing, and supports a new generation of exchange facilities for them.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Bacterial density rather than diversity correlates with hatching success across different avian species

We thank Rosario Millán for technical assistance; Liesbeth de Neve, María Roldán, Juan Rodríguez-Ruiz, Deseada Parejo, Magdalena Ruiz-Rodríguez and Carlos Navarro for sampling nests of some species. We also thank the efforts and comments of two anonymous reviewers that have greatly improved the manuscript. Bird and egg manipulations were performed under the authorization of Junta de Andalucía - Consejería de Medio Ambiente (permit No. SGYB-AFR-CMM, February 19th 2007).Bacterial communities within avian nests are considered an important determinant of egg viability, potentially selecting for traits that confer embryos with protection against trans-shell infection. A high bacterial density on the eggshell increases hatching failure, whether this effect could be due to changes in bacterial community or just a general increase in bacterial density. We explored this idea using intra- and interspecific comparisons of the relationship between hatching success and eggshell bacteria characterized by culture and molecular techniques (fingerprinting and high-throughput sequencing). We collected information for 152 nests belonging to 17 bird species. Hatching failures occurred more frequently in nests with higher density of aerobic mesophilic bacteria on their eggshells. Bacterial community was also related to hatching success, but only when minority bacterial operational taxonomic units were considered. These findings support the hypothesis that bacterial density is a selective agent of embryo viability, and hence a proxy of hatching failure only within species. Although different avian species hold different bacterial densities or assemblages on their eggs, the association between bacteria and hatching success was similar for different species. This result suggests that interspecific differences in antibacterial defenses are responsible for keeping the hatching success at similar levels in different species.Funding was provided by Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia and European founds (FEDER) [CGL2007-61251, CGL2010-19233-C03- 01, CGL2010-19233-C03-03]. JMPS was funded by Ministerio de Educación and Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa under International Excellence Campus Program, University of Granada (CEI Granada 2009). RK was supported in part by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The Earth Microbiome Project was supported in part by the John Templeton Foundation and the W.M. Keck Foundation

Report on first selection of resources

The central objective of the Metanet4u project is to contribute to the establishment of a pan-European digital platform that makes available language resources and services, encompassing both datasets and software tools, for speech and language processing, and supports a new generation of exchange facilities for them.Peer ReviewedPreprin