Communications Biophysics

Contains research objectives and summary of research on five research projects, with ten sub-topics.National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 RO1 NS10916-01)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 RO1 NS11000-03)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 RO1 NS11153-01)Harvard-M.I.T. Rehabilitation Engineering CenterU. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (Grant 23-P-55854)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 RO1 NS11680-01)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 ROI NS11080-02)M.I.T. Health Sciences FundNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NSG-2032)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 TO1 GM01555-09)Massachusetts General Hospital Purchase Order F63853Boston City Hospital Purchase Order 4338-7543

Communications Biophysics

Contains research objectives and summary of research on nine research projects split into four sections.National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 ROI NS11000-03)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 P01 NS13126-01)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 RO1 NS11153-01)National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 R01 NS10916-02)Harvard-M.I.T. Rehabilitation Engineering CenterU. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (Grant 23-P-55854)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 ROl NS11680-01)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 ROI NS11080-03)M.I.T. Health Sciences Fund (Grant 76-07)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 T32 GM07301-02)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 TO1 GM01555-10

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase 1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age  6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score  652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc = 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N = 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in Asia and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701

Theoretical uncertainties on alpha_s from event-shape variables in e+e? annihilations.

The precision of measurements of the strong coupling constant using event-shape variables in e +e- annihilations is limited by theoretical systematic uncertainties. The uncertainties are related to missing higher orders in the perturbative predictions for the event-shape distributions. A new method is presented for the assessment of theoretical uncertainties in α s . This method evaluates the systematic uncertainty of the parameter α s from the uncertainty of the prediction for the distributions from which it is extracted. The perturbative uncertainties are calculated on a purely theoretical basis, without accessing measured distributions. The method is therefore especially suited for an unbiased combination of results from different observables or experiments. It is universal and can be applied to other processes like jet production in deep-inelastic ep scattering or in hadron collisions

Clinical application of robotics and technology in the restoration of walking

Robots for neurorehabilitation have been designed principally to automate repetitive labor-intensive training and to support therapists and patients during different stages of rehabilitation. Devices designed for body weight-supported treadmill training are promising task-oriented tools intended to assist in the restoration of gait. In early rehabilitation, robots provide a safe environment through the use of a suspension harness and assistance in achieving a more physiological gait pattern while promoting a high number of repetitions. In the later stages of rehabilitation, more sophisticated control strategies, virtual environment scenarios, or the possibility to address specific gait deficits by modulating different parameters extends their application. Scientific and clinical evidence for the effectiveness, safety, and tolerability of these devices exists; however documentation of their comparative advantages to conventional therapies is limited. This might be due to the lack of appropriate selection parameters of locomotor training interventions based on functional impairments. Despite this shortcoming, robotic devices are being integrated into clinical settings with promising results. Appropriate use is dependent on the clinicians’ knowledge of different robotic devices as well as the ability to utilize the devices’ technical features, thereby allowing patients to benefit from robot-aided gait training throughout the rehabilitation continuum with the ultimate goal of safe and efficient overground walking. This chapter will provide an overview on the rationales of introducing robots into the clinic and discuss their value in various neurological diagnoses. In addition, recommendations for goal setting and practice of robot-assisted training based on disease-related symptoms and functional impairment are summarized

A highly virulent variant of HIV-1 circulating in the Netherlands

We discovered a highly virulent variant of subtype-B HIV-1 in the Netherlands. One hundred nine individuals with this variant had a 0.54 to 0.74 log10 increase (i.e., a ~3.5-fold to 5.5-fold increase) in viral load compared with, and exhibited CD4 cell decline twice as fast as, 6604 individuals with other subtype-B strains. Without treatment, advanced HIV-CD4 cell counts below 350 cells per cubic millimeter, with long-term clinical consequences-is expected to be reached, on average, 9 months after diagnosis for individuals in their thirties with this variant. Age, sex, suspected mode of transmission, and place of birth for the aforementioned 109 individuals were typical for HIV-positive people in the Netherlands, which suggests that the increased virulence is attributable to the viral strain. Genetic sequence analysis suggests that this variant arose in the 1990s from de novo mutation, not recombination, with increased transmissibility and an unfamiliar molecular mechanism of virulence