Synopsis of an engineering solution for a painful problem Phantom Limb Pain

This paper is synopsis of a recently proposed solution for treating patients who suffer from Phantom Limb Pain (PLP). The underpinning approach of this research and development project is based on an extension of “mirror box” therapy which has had some promising results in pain reduction. An outline of an immersive individually tailored environment giving the patient a virtually realised limb presence, as a means to pain reduction is provided. The virtual 3D holographic environment is meant to produce immersive, engaging and creative environments and tasks to encourage and maintain patients’ interest, an important aspect in two of the more challenging populations under consideration (over-60s and war veterans). The system is hoped to reduce PLP by more than 3 points on an 11 point Visual Analog Scale (VAS), when a score less than 3 could be attributed to distraction alone

Synopsis of an engineering solution for a painful problem: Phantom limb pain

This paper is synopsis of a recently proposed solution for treating patients who suffer from Phantom Limb Pain (PLP). The underpinning approach of this research and development project is based on an extension of "mirror box" therapy which has had some promising results in pain reduction. An outline of an immersive individually tailored environment giving the patient a virtually realised limb presence, as a means to pain reduction is provided. The virtual 3D holographic environment is meant to produce immersive, engaging and creative environments and tasks to encourage and maintain patients' interest, an important aspect in two of the more challenging populations under consideration (over-60s and war veterans). The system is hoped to reduce PLP by more than 3 points on an 11 point Visual Analog Scale (VAS), when a score less than 3 could be attributed to distraction alone. Copyright © 2014 SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications. All rights reserved.Published versio

Simultaneous quantification of 12 different nucleotides and nucleosides released from renal epithelium and in human urine samples using ion-pair reversed-phase HPLC

Nucleotides and nucleosides are not only involved in cellular metabolism but also act extracellularly via P1 and P2 receptors, to elicit a wide variety of physiological and pathophysiological responses through paracrine and autocrine signalling pathways. For the first time, we have used an ion-pair reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography ultraviolet (UV)-coupled method to rapidly and simultaneously quantify 12 different nucleotides and nucleosides (adenosine triphosphate, adenosine diphosphate, adenosine monophosphate, adenosine, uridine triphosphate, uridine diphosphate, uridine monophosphate, uridine, guanosine triphosphate, guanosine diphosphate, guanosine monophosphate, guanosine): (1) released from a mouse renal cell line (M1 cortical collecting duct) and (2) in human biological samples (i.e., urine). To facilitate analysis of urine samples, a solid-phase extraction step was incorporated (overall recovery rate ? 98 %). All samples were analyzed following injection (100 ?l) into a Synergi Polar-RP 80 Å (250 × 4.6 mm) reversed-phase column with a particle size of 10 ?m, protected with a guard column. A gradient elution profile was run with a mobile phase (phosphate buffer plus ion-pairing agent tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulfate; pH 6) in 2-30 % acetonitrile (v/v) for 35 min (including equilibration time) at 1 ml min(-1) flow rate. Eluted compounds were detected by UV absorbance at 254 nm and quantified using standard curves for nucleotide and nucleoside mixtures of known concentration. Following validation (specificity, linearity, limits of detection and quantitation, system precision, accuracy, and intermediate precision parameters), this protocol was successfully and reproducibly used to quantify picomolar to nanomolar concentrations of nucleosides and nucleotides in isotonic and hypotonic cell buffers that transiently bathed M1 cells, and urine samples from normal subjects and overactive bladder patients

SYNAPS: A library for dedicated applications in symbolic numeric computing,

International audienceWe present an overview of the open source library synaps. We describe some of the representative algorithms of the library and illustrate them on some explicit computations, such as solving polynomials and computing geometric information on implicit curves and surfaces. Moreover, we describe the design and the techniques we have developed in order to handle a hierarchy of generic and specialized data-structures and routines, based on a view mechanism. This allows us to construct dedicated plugins, which can be loaded easily in an external tool. Finally, we show how this design allows us to embed the algebraic operations, as a dedicated plugin, into the external geometric modeler axel

Rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy: evolution of disease activity and pathophysiological considerations for drug use

It has long been known that pregnancy and childbirth have a profound effect on the disease activity of rheumatic diseases. For clinicians, the management of patients with RA wishing to become pregnant involves the challenge of keeping disease activity under control and adequately adapting drug therapy during pregnancy and post-partum. This article aims to summarize the current evidence on the evolution of RA disease activity during and after pregnancy and the use of anti-rheumatic drugs around this period. Of recent interest is the potential use of anti-TNF compounds in the preconception period and during pregnancy. Accumulating experience with anti-TNF therapy in other immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, provides useful insights for the use of TNF blockade in pregnant women with RA, or RA patients wishing to become pregnant

Micromechanical Properties of Injection-Molded Starch–Wood Particle Composites

The micromechanical properties of injection molded starch–wood particle composites were investigated as a function of particle content and humidity conditions. The composite materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. The microhardness of the composites was shown to increase notably with the concentration of the wood particles. In addition,creep behavior under the indenter and temperature dependence were evaluated in terms of the independent contribution of the starch matrix and the wood microparticles to the hardness value. The influence of drying time on the density and weight uptake of the injection-molded composites was highlighted. The results revealed the role of the mechanism of water evaporation, showing that the dependence of water uptake and temperature was greater for the starch–wood composites than for the pure starch sample. Experiments performed during the drying process at 70°C indicated that the wood in the starch composites did not prevent water loss from the samples.Peer reviewe

ExCITE project: A review of forty-two months of robotic telepresence technology evolution

This article reports on the EU project ExCITE with specific focus on the technical development of the telepresence platform over a period of 42 months. The aim of the project was to assess the robustness and validity of the mobile robotic telepresence (MRP) system Giraff as a means to support elderly people and to foster their social interaction and participation. Embracing the idea of user-centered product refinement, the robot was tested over long periods of time in real homes. As such, the system development was driven by a strong involvement of elderly people and their caregivers but also by technical challenges associated with deploying the robot in real-world contexts. The results of the 42-months’ long evaluation is a system suitable for use in homes rather than a generic system suitable, for example, in office environments