Neuroengineering: perspectives of neuroprostheses and neuroimplants

A study was made of the development of prosthetics from the earliest models to the latest. It is considered in the article how the work of the latest models of neuroprostheses is carried out. Proposed possible innovations in the field of neuroengineering in the near future. Considered non-standard possibilities of using neuroprostheses

Citizen Entrepreneurship: A Conceptual Picture of the Inclusion, Integration and Engagement of Citizens in the Entrepreneurial Process

This conceptual and exploratory article aims to present a rationale for the engagement of citizens with the process and practice of, and research on new civic forms of entrepreneurship. We argue that this form of citizen engagement could enable a better alignment of entrepreneurial initiatives with economic, social and community priorities, and to address issues of global significance of local interest in uncertain environments. To this end, we posit that engaging citizens in the entrepreneurial process could facilitate agency at the collective level of people with their rights, duties and responsibilities, to identify, participate in and govern with existing institutions, in meaningful economic and social activity in defined spatial environments. Our normative understanding of entrepreneurial process involves the creation of business, social and public enterprises, the formation of which is led by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are of course citizens of specific nation states, but their endeavours do not necessarily warrant the participation of the wider community of citizens in the entrepreneurial process beyond their receiving function as users of goods and services. We consider whether pro-active engagement in a variety of ways, as nurtured in the practice of Citizen Science or Citizen Economics projects, could strengthen the profile and substance of entrepreneurship to resolve critical economic, social and environmental concerns of our times. We use the concept of the ‘commons’ and collective efficacy to argue for an understanding of entrepreneurship and innovation as a social good. We argue that Citizen Entrepreneurship (CE) is able to create new forms of collective organisation and governance, and derive economic and social value by addressing local issues arising from wide-spread phenomena such as climate change, ecological and environmental challenges, inequality, social polarisation, populism, migration and the gradual erosion of democratic institutions. To do so, citizens need to develop capabilities for engagement in the entrepreneurship process, especially when traditional public and market institutions fail to satisfy their existential needs. Indeed, active engagement could lead to the achievement of capabilities for well-being and fulfilling lives which go beyond the acquisition of skills and competencies necessary to pursue a vocation or a career. We refer to and interpret three examples of collective entrepreneurial activity in different urban environments in European countries as models of CE highlighting what we see as a growing trend in the entrepreneurial substance of the ‘urban commons’. We work towards the creation of a conceptual model with which to develop an understanding of a unique formulation of entrepreneurship

Effect of promoter architecture on the cell-to-cell variability in gene expression

According to recent experimental evidence, the architecture of a promoter, defined as the number, strength and regulatory role of the operators that control the promoter, plays a major role in determining the level of cell-to-cell variability in gene expression. These quantitative experiments call for a corresponding modeling effort that addresses the question of how changes in promoter architecture affect noise in gene expression in a systematic rather than case-by-case fashion. In this article, we make such a systematic investigation, based on a simple microscopic model of gene regulation that incorporates stochastic effects. In particular, we show how operator strength and operator multiplicity affect this variability. We examine different modes of transcription factor binding to complex promoters (cooperative, independent, simultaneous) and how each of these affects the level of variability in transcription product from cell-to-cell. We propose that direct comparison between in vivo single-cell experiments and theoretical predictions for the moments of the probability distribution of mRNA number per cell can discriminate between different kinetic models of gene regulation.Comment: 35 pages, 6 figures, Submitte

RE-ENGINEERING UEVE TELEMETRY MONITORING OPERATIONS: A MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM A SUCCESSFUL REAL-WORLD IMPLEMENTATION

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, NevadaThe Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) Science Operations Center at UC Berkeley was recently successful in implementing an automated monitoring system that allowed reduced operations staffing from 24 hours per day to 9 hours per day. The payload safety is monitored exclusively by artificial intelligence (AI) telemetry-processing systems for 16 hours per day. At launch, the EUVE Science Operations Center was staffed and operated as a typical satellite control center, receiving real-time and tape recorder data 24 hours per day. From September 1993 through February 1995, EUVE science operations were redesigned in a phased, low-cost approach. A key factor in the implementation was to utilize existing personnel in new roles through additional training and reorganization. Through- out this period, EUVE guest observers and science data collection were unaffected by the transition in science operations. This paper describes the original and actual implementation plan, staffing phases, and cost savings for this project. We present the lessons learned in the successful transition from three-shift to one-shift operations.International Foundation for TelemeteringProceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit http://www.telemetry.org/index.php/contact-us if you have questions about items in this collection

RE-ENGINEERING THE EUVE PAYLOAD OPERATIONS INFORMATION FLOW PROCESS TO SUPPORT AUTONOMOUS MONITORING OF PAYLOAD TELEMETRY

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, NevadaThe UC Berkeley Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) Science Operations Center (ESOC) is developing and implementing knowledge-based software to automate the monitoring of satellite payload telemetry. Formerly, EUVE science payload data were received, archived, interpreted, and responded to during round-the-clock monitoring by human operators. Now, knowledge-based software will support, augment, and supplement human intervention. In response to and as a result of this re-engineering project, the creation, storage, revision, and communication of information (the information flow process) within the ESOC has been redesigned. We review the information flow process within the ESOC before, during, and after the re-engineering of telemetry monitoring. We identify six fundamental challenges we face in modifying the information flow process. (These modifications are necessary because of the shift from continuous human monitoring to a knowledge-based autonomous monitoring system with intermittent human response.) We describe the innovations we have implemented in the ESOC information systems, including innovations in each part of the information flow process for short-term or dynamic information (which changes or updates within a week) as well as for long-term or static information (which is valid for more than a week). We discuss our phased approach to these innovations, in which modifications were made in small increments and the lessons learned at each step were incorporated into subsequent modifications. We analyze some mistakes and present lessons learned from our experience.International Foundation for TelemeteringProceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit http://www.telemetry.org/index.php/contact-us if you have questions about items in this collection

A Low-Cost, Autonomous, Ground Station Operations Concept and Network Design for EUVE and Other Earth-Orbiting Satellites

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, NevadaThe Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) satellite was designed to operate with the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) and Deep Space Network (DSN). NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Center for EUV Astrophysics have been evaluating a commercially available ground station already used for NASA's Low Earth Orbit (LEO) weather satellites. This ground station will be used in a network of unattended, autonomous ground stations for telemetry reception, processing, and routing of data over a commercial, secure data line. Plans call for EUVE to be the initial network user. This network will be designed to support many TDRSS/DSN compatible missions. It will open an era of commercial, low-cost, autonomous ground station networks. The network will be capable of supporting current and future NASA scientific missions, and NASA's LEO and geostationary weather satellites. Additionally, it could support future, commercial communication satellites in low, and possibly medium, Earth orbit. The combination of an autonomous ground station and an autonomous telemetry monitoring system will allow reduction in personnel. The EUVE Science Operations Center has already reduced console work from three shifts to one by use of autonomous telemetry monitoring software.International Foundation for TelemeteringProceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit http://www.telemetry.org/index.php/contact-us if you have questions about items in this collection

Asymptomatic Post-Traumatic Rupture of the Right Diaphragm Dome

Aim.  This paper is aimed at presenting the materials of clinical observations associated with diagnosing rare-occurring ruptures of the right dome of the diaphragm that have been overlooked for a long period.Results.  A 61-year-old man was admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of chronic heart failure. Chest radiograph revealed a high position of the right dome of the diaphragm. Computed tomography revealed a defect in the central parts of the diaphragm on the right, the liver was rotated outward with its visceral surface deployed anteriorly and upward. In the right thoracic cavity, anterior to the liver, were the loops of the intestine and the outlet of the stomach.More than 30 years before, the patient had experienced an explosive trauma, which might have caused a rupture in the right dome of the diaphragm. A 70-year-old man, a smoker with a ten-year history of hypertension, was hospitalized with an increase in dyspnea, a cough with the discharge of purulent sputum, the feeling of heaviness behind the sternum. Chest radiograph revealed a high standing of the right dome of the diaphragm at the level of 3rd rib with a decrease in the volume of the right lung, and an increase in cardiac silhouette (cardiothoracic index 0.64). Computed tomography revealed a high standing of the right dome of the diaphragm as well as the compression of the middle and lower lobe of the right lung with the presence of compression atelectasis. The liver was rotated, displaced into the right thoracic cavity, the deformation of the inferior vena cava to the right was visualized due to the displacement and rotation of the liver. The consolidated fractures of 10th–12th ribs on the right were visualized. The patient had had a chest injury resulting from a traffic accident about 15 years before, with no X-ray examination having been conducted at that time.Conclusion.  In the case of left-sided diaphragm ruptures, which are much more frequent than the right-sided ones, the stomach, large and small intestines as well as spleen are displaced into the thoracic cavity. In the case of rightsided diaphragm ruptures, the liver and gallbladder are displaced into the thoracic cavity. Right-sided posttraumatic diaphragmatic hernias that are not diagnosed at the time of injury or trauma and continue to be asymptomatic for a number of years are very rare. The sensitivity and specificity of computed tomography for the diagnosis of diaphragm ruptures is 61–87 % and 72–100 %, respectively. In an acute period, the treatment of diaphragm ruptures is surgical. However, in long-term asymptomatic ruptures, expectant management is possible, particularly if the risk of surgical treatment is high

Clinical case of combined genetic pathology in a patient

Family hypercholesterolemia (HSX) is a form of genetically deterministic increase in blood lipid levels associated with a high risk of cardiovascular disease, usually at a young age. HSX is a common genetic disease found in the general population in most countries in 1:500 people. Clinically xantomas are found in achilles tendor and wrist flexors, lipoid arc of the cornea, concentration of total cholesterol and low-density lipoproteins is 4.911.6 mmol/l. Gilberts syndrome is a hereditary benign hyperbilirubinium, associated with a decrease in the functional activity of the liver enzyme uridinfosfat-glucuronosil transferase. Clinically, this syndrome appers in intermittent jaundice, which is provoked by physical activity, consumption of alcoholic beverages, insulation and an increase in the level of indirect bilirubin within 20100 micromol/ml. The article presents a rare clinical case of genetic combination of HSC SSC and Gilbert syndrome a young patient has and discusses the elevated bilirubin levels protective role in the atherosclerosis progression in Gilbert syndrome