Relation Between EEG Measures and Upper Limb Motor Recovery in Stroke Patients: A Scoping Review

Current clinical practice does not leverage electroencephalography (EEG) measurements in stroke patients, despite its potential to contribute to post-stroke recovery predictions. We review the literature on the effectiveness of various quantitative and qualitative EEG-based measures after stroke as a tool to predict upper limb motor outcome, in relation to stroke timeframe and applied experimental tasks. Moreover, we aim to provide guidance on the use of EEG in the assessment of upper limb motor recovery after stroke, suggesting a high potential for some metrics in the appropriate context. We identified relevant papers (N = 16) from databases ScienceDirect, Web of Science and MEDLINE, and assessed their methodological quality with the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal. We applied the Preferred Reporting Systems for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) Framework. Identified works used EEG to identify properties including event-related activation, spectral power in physiologically relevant bands, symmetry in brain dynamics, functional connectivity, cortico-muscular coherence and rhythmic coordination. EEG was acquired in resting state or in relation to behavioural conditions. Motor outcome was mainly evaluated with the Upper Limb Fugl-Meyer Assessment. Despite great variability in the literature, data suggests that the most promising EEG quantifiers for predicting post-stroke motor outcome are event-related measures. Measures of spectral power in physiologically relevant bands and measures of brain symmetry also show promise. We suggest that EEG measures may improve our understanding of stroke brain dynamics during recovery, and contribute to establishing a functional prognosis and choosing the rehabilitation approach

A game theory model to explore the role of cooperation and diversity in community food security: the case of Southern Malawi

The Sustainable Development Goals aim at ending food insecurity by 2030. Therefore, civil society needs to understand the inherent complexities of both socio-economic and ecological dynamics and their interdependencies. In particular, the behavioural dynamics that underpin human agents are crucial in driving the final outcomes in terms of community food security and require further attention. Using household behaviour within a rural village of Southern Malawi as an example, we describe a game theory model representing cropping strategies: (1) cooperation, as driven by other-regarding preferences, and (2) conformation, the tendency to converge to similar crop planting choices as opposed to differentiation (and thus crop diversity). We find that the latter plays a crucial role in driving the system towards successful strategies: how individuals relate to social norms has greater effect. Cooperation is only necessary for community success when the community converges on crop planting choices. On the contrary, differentiation, the affirmation of the individual unique identity, can succeed with or without cooperation. We further elaborate on the idea that community level sustainability can be reached through different pathways, which might require food exchange mechanisms within and beyond the system boundaries. © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.This research is supported by the Basque Government through the BERC 2018-2021 program and by the Ikertzaile Doktoreentzako Hobekuntzarako doktoretza-ondoko Programa and by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO through BC3 María de Maeztu excellence accreditation MDM-2017-0714 and by the Leverhulme TrustResearch Fellowship “CREATE: the network components of creativity and success. This work was also inspired and partially funded by the ASSETS (Attaining Sustainable Services from Ecosystems) project (NERC/ESPA NE-J002267-1)

Phosphodiesterase type-5 inhibitor tadalafil modulates steroid hormones signaling in a prostate cancer cell line

Background: The androgen receptor (AR) plays a key role in normal prostate homeostasis and in prostate cancer (PCa) development, while the role of aromatase (Cyp19a1) is still unclear. We evaluated the effects of a treatment with Tadalafil (TAD) on both these proteins. Methods: Androgen-sensitive human PCa cell line (LnCAP) was incubated with/without TAD (10−6 M) and bicalutamide (BCT) (10−4 M) to evaluate a potential modulation on cell proliferation, protein and mRNA expression of Cyp19a, AR and estrogen receptor-β (ERβ), respectively. Results: TAD increased early AR nuclear translocation (p < 0.05, after 15 min of exposure), and increased AR transcriptional activity (p < 0.05) and protein expression (p < 0.05) after 24 h. Moreover, after 24 h this treatment upregulated Cyp19a1 and ERβ mRNA (p < 0.05 and p < 0.005 respectively) and led to an increase in protein expression of both after 48 h (p < 0.05). Interestingly, TAD counteracted Cyp19a1 stimulation induced by BCT (p < 0.05) but did not alter the effect induced by BCT on the AR protein expression. Conclusion: We demonstrate for the first time that TAD can significantly modulate AR expression and activity, Cyp19a1 and ERβ expression in PCa cells, suggesting a specific effect of these proteins. In addition, TAD potentiates the antiproliferative activity of BCT, opening a new clinical scenario in the treatment of PCa

Visualizing the Anthropocene dialectically: Jessica Woodworth and Peter Brosens’ eco-crisis trilogy

The ambition of this article is to propose a way of visualizing the Anthropocene dialectically. As suggested by the Dutch atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen and the professor of biology Eugene F. Stoermer, the term Anthropocene refers to a historical period in which humankind has turned into a geological force that transforms the natural environment in such a way that it is hard to distinguish between the human and the natural world. Crutzen and Stoermer explain that the Anthropocene has begun after the Holocene, the geological epoch that followed the last ice age and lasted until the industrial revolution. Drawing on a number of figures such as the “tenfold” increase in urbanisation, the extreme transformation of land surface by human action, the use of more than 50% of all accessible fresh water by humans, and the massive increase in greenhouse emissions, Crutzen and Stoermer conclude that the term Anthropocene describes aptly mankind's influence on ecological and geological cycles (Crutzen & Stoermer, 2000, p.17). The wager of this article is that we need to identify ways to visualize the Anthropocene dialectically and I proceed to do so using as a case study Jessica Woodworth's and Peter Brosen's trilogy on the conflict between humans and nature, which consists of Khadak (2006), Altiplano (2009), and The Fifth Season (La Cinquième Saison, 2012)

El ojo: un rompecabezas diagnóstico

Se comunica una serie de casos, multicéntricos de la cual participaron cinco instituciones.  La muestra fue de 17 pacientes, de los cuales 11 pertenecían al Hospital Dr. J. M. Cullen. Todos consultaron por compromiso orbitario y/o periorbitario. El compromiso en hombres fue de 23.4% y un 76.6% en mujeres. La edad media en años fue de 45.4 (17-69 años). Dentro de los diagnósticos encontrados, cinco casos fueron Enfermedad Relacionada con IgG4 (ER-IgG4), dos casos de Enfermedad de Erdheim Chester (EEC), dos Xantogranuloma, dos xantelasmas, un caso de metástasis de cáncer de mama, un caso de orbitopatía tiroidea, un caso de Amiloidosis con mieloma múltiple, y tres sin diagnóstico.  Se revisan los diagnósticos diferenciales encontrados

Topological Strata of Weighted Complex Networks

The statistical mechanical approach to complex networks is the dominant paradigm in describing natural and societal complex systems. The study of network properties, and their implications on dynamical processes, mostly focus on locally defined quantities of nodes and edges, such as node degrees, edge weights and --more recently-- correlations between neighboring nodes. However, statistical methods quickly become cumbersome when dealing with many-body properties and do not capture the precise mesoscopic structure of complex networks. Here we introduce a novel method, based on persistent homology, to detect particular non-local structures, akin to weighted holes within the link-weight network fabric, which are invisible to existing methods. Their properties divide weighted networks in two broad classes: one is characterized by small hierarchically nested holes, while the second displays larger and longer living inhomogeneities. These classes cannot be reduced to known local or quasilocal network properties, because of the intrinsic non-locality of homological properties, and thus yield a new classification built on high order coordination patterns. Our results show that topology can provide novel insights relevant for many-body interactions in social and spatial networks. Moreover, this new method creates the first bridge between network theory and algebraic topology, which will allow to import the toolset of algebraic methods to complex systems.Comment: 26 pages, 19 figures, 1 tabl

Cooperation and its evolution in growing systems with cultural reproduction

We explore the evolution of cooperation in the framework of the evolutionary game theory using the prisoner's dilemma as metaphor of the problem. We present a minimal model taking into account the growing process of the systems and individuals with imitation capacity. We consider the topological structure and the evolution of strategies decoupled instead of a coevolutionary dynamic. We show conditions to build up a cooperative system with real topological structures for any natural selection intensity. When the system starts to grow, cooperation is unstable but becomes stable as soon as the system reaches a small core of cooperators whose size increase when the intensity of natural selection decreases. Thus, we reduce the emergence of cooperative systems with cultural reproduction to justify a small initial cooperative structure that we call cooperative seed. Otherwise, given that the system grows principally as cooperator whose cooperators inhabit the most linked parts of the system, the benefit-cost ratio required for cooperation evolve is drastically reduced compared to the found in static networks. In this way, we show that in systems whose individuals have imitation capacity the growing process is essential for the evolution of cooperation.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1111.247