Intelligent robotic rehabilitation system for treatment of disabilities subsequent to injuries or neurological disorders

Injuries or neurological trauma, such as stroke, complete and incomplete spinal cord injuries result in paraplegia and hemiplegia, which is the leading cause of disabilities world over. Survivors have muscle coordination discrepancies resulting in impaired joint motions and inability to perform activities of daily living (ADL). Neurological trauma falls in top 15 risk factors for Kazakhstan people and their health conditions. Urgent steps are required to be initiated as the current rate of such disorders is predicted to increase by three times over the next 30 years. Robot assisted physical therapy has shown some preliminary signs of improvement in subjects and therefore active orthosis have been developed to impart repetitive, prolonged and systematic therapy. Existing robots are normally inspired by the industrial robots and thus provide constrained motion to the articulating joints in an uncomfortable and unsafe manner. There is a need to develop human friendly, safe and intelligent robots in order to carry out physical therapy. We aim at developing an intelligent rehabilitation system (IRS) using wearable robots equipped with state of the art sensors and actuators, optimization routines (to identify musculoskeletal functions at the affected limb) and development of advanced controllers. Physical therapy is expected to be evidence based, objective and human friendly

Intelligent robotic rehabilitation system for treatment of disabilities subsequent to injuries or neurological disorders

Injuries or neurological trauma, such as stroke, complete and incomplete spinal cord injuries result in paraplegia and hemiplegia, which is the leading cause of disabilities world over. Survivors have muscle coordination discrepancies resulting in impaired joint motions and inability to perform activities of daily living (ADL). Neurological trauma falls in top 15 risk factors for Kazakhstan people and their health conditions. Urgent steps are required to be initiated as the current rate of such disorders is predicted to increase by three times over the next 30 years. Robot assisted physical therapy has shown some preliminary signs of improvement in subjects and therefore active orthosis have been developed to impart repetitive, prolonged and systematic therapy. Existing robots are normally inspired by the industrial robots and thus provide constrained motion to the articulating joints in an uncomfortable and unsafe manner. There is a need to develop human friendly, safe and intelligent robots in order to carry out physical therapy. We aim at developing an intelligent rehabilitation system (IRS) using wearable robots equipped with state of the art sensors and actuators, optimization routines (to identify musculoskeletal functions at the affected limb) and development of advanced controllers. Physical therapy is expected to be evidence based, objective and human friendly

Circular Economy Pathways for Municipal Wastewater Management in India: A Practitioner’s Guide

The 2030 Water Resources Group is a unique publicprivate- civil society partnership that helps governments to accelerate reforms that will ensure sustainable water resource management for the long term development and economic growth of their country. It does so by helping to change the “political economy” for water reform in the country through convening a wide range of actors and providing water resource analysis in ways that are digestible for politicians and business leaders. The 2030 WRG was launched in 2008 at the World Economic Forum and has been hosted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) since 2012

Clinical isolates of the modern Mycobacterium tuberculosis lineage 4 evade host defense in human macrophages through eluding IL-1\u3b2-induced autophagy article

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), has infected over 1.7 billion people worldwide and causes 1.4 million deaths annually. Recently, genome sequence analysis has allowed the reconstruction of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) evolution, with the identification of seven phylogeographic lineages: four referred to as evolutionarily "ancient", and three "modern". The MTBC strains belonging to "modern" lineages appear to show enhanced virulence that may have warranted improved transmission in humans over ancient lineages through molecular mechanisms that remain to be fully characterized. To evaluate the impact of MTBC genetic diversity on the innate immune response, we analyzed intracellular bacterial replication, inflammatory cytokine levels, and autophagy response in human primary macrophages infected with MTBC clinical isolates belonging to the ancient lineages 1 and 5, and the modern lineage 4. We show that, when compared to ancient lineage 1 and 5, MTBC strains belonging to modern lineage 4 show a higher rate of replication, associated to a significant production of proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1\u3b2, IL-6, and TNF-\u3b1) and induction of a functional autophagy process. Interestingly, we found that the increased autophagic flux observed in macrophages infected with modern MTBC is due to an autocrine activity of the proinflammatory cytokine IL-1\u3b2, since autophagosome maturation is blocked by an interleukin-1 receptor antagonist. Unexpectedly, IL-1\u3b2-induced autophagy is not disadvantageous for the survival of modern Mtb strains, which reside within Rab5-positive phagosomal vesicles and avoid autophagosome engulfment. Altogether, these results suggest that autophagy triggered by inflammatory cytokines is compatible with a high rate of intracellular bacilli replication and may therefore contribute to the increased pathogenicity of the modern MTBC lineages

Upper limb rehabilitation using robotic exoskeleton systems: a systematic review

Exoskeleton assisted therapy has been reported as a significant reduction in impairment and gain in functional abilities of stroke patients. In this paper, we conduct a systematic review on the upper limb rehabilitation using robotic exoskeleton systems. This review is based on typical mechanical structures and control strategies for exoskeletons in clinical rehabilitation conditions. A variety of upper limb exoskeletons are classified and reviewed according to their rehabilitation joints. Special attentions are paid to the performance control strategies and mechanism designs in clinical trials and to promote the adaptability to different patients and conditions. Finally, we analyze and highlight the current research gaps and the future directions in this field. We intend to offer informative resources and reliable guidance for relevant researcher’s further studies, and exert a far-reaching influence on the development of advanced upper limb exoskeleton robotic systems

Vegetation characteristics and under - canopy assemblages of subtropical chir pine forests at two sites in Western Himalaya.

Chir pine forests occurring at 750 amsl (Site I) and 1400 amsl (Site 2) in Western Himalaya were studied for vegetation characteristics and under-canopy assemblages. The vegetation was sampled using quadrats. Total of 40 plant species belonging to 27 families were encountered in the sampling plots. Members of Asteraceae, Leguminosae and Rosaceae dominated the Chir pine under-canopy. At both the Sites, species to genera ratio was found to be one. Amongst the two Sites, the number of tree and shrub species was more at Site I; while that of herbs was more at Site 2. Higher tree and shrub diversity was recorded at Site 1,0.63 and 1.32 respectively, while Site 2 had higher (2.12) herb diversity. In general, both Sites had higher shrub and herb diversity compared to tree diversity. Chir pine forests at lower altitude (Site I) were found to be more diverse than at higher altitude (Site 2). Above ground biomass of Chir pine at the study Sites ranged from 302 t/ha at Site I to 338 tlha at Site 2. The density, diversity and biomass estimates from the present study area are comparable to other Chir pine forests in the Western Himalaya; however, regeneration potential of the present area was recorded to be comparatively poor

Folk Medicinal Practices in Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh, Western Himalaya

The importance of folk knowledge in improving livelihood and biodiversity conservation is now well recognized (Alcorn 1993; Gadgil et al. 2000). Of the various sectors that have benefited from folk knowledge, healthcare is the most important (Patwardhan 2007; Chadwick and Marsh 2007). Considering the growing acceptance of herbal medicine, almost 25% of prescribed drugs available in the market are plant based (Farnsworth et al. 1985), and novel plant based cures are being sought. In this regard, observations of folk medicinal practices are of great significance (Fabricant and Farnsworth 2001). In India, utilization of plants for medicinal purposes has been documented in ancient texts (Charak and Drdhbala 1996; Tulsidas 1631) and more than 40% of the Indian flora is reported to be used for medicinal purposes (Pushpangadan 1995). In the interior of the country such as the Himalayan region, dependence on plants for healthcare is much higher. No wonder it is said “folk medicine is the mother of the healing systems of India” (Valiathan 2006). However, now concerns are being raised about the erosion of this knowledge (Uniyal et al. 2003). Keeping this in view, the present study was conducted in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh where dependency on medicinal plants is high (Brij Lal et al. 1996; Chauhan 2003; Kapur 1993; Sharma and Chauhan 2000; Singh and Kumar 2000; Uniyal et al. 2006), yet detailed information on the plants used for treating different diseases by the local people and the techniques of treatments is lacking

Effects of urbanisation on the quality of the urban runoff for Delhi watershed

International audienceThe current paper is the first study to report quality of urban runoff, focusing on the diffuse sources contributing to pollutant loads in the Delhi watershed. The quality of stormwater runoff from the urban watershed of Delhi was evaluated to assess the effects of different land-use practices on pollutant concentrations. Six sites within the Delhi watershed with different land-use characteristics were selected. The microbial quality of the urban runoff from sub-catchments of Delhi watershed is very poor with Faecal Coliform (FC) levels varying between 6 and 7 log orders. There was a good correlation between the chemical and biological quality of urban runoff with land-use characteristics such as impervious land and population density. Except for chemical oxygen demand all other parameters in urban runoff were found to exceed the effluent discharge standards set by the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD), India. The public health risks associated with exposure to urban runoff via different routes have also been qualitatively estimated