Playing the Goblin Post Office game improves movement control of the core: a case study

Movement function of the core (trunk and pelvis) can be improved in cerebral palsy, potentially leading to benefits which transfer to activities of daily living. A single child with CP diplegia played our custom made game which runs on the CAREN system. Three playing postures gradually introduced more and more joints in the legs to be controlled. Vicon cameras tracked trunk and pelvic rotations which drove a dragon towards envelope targets. Forward speed of the game was adjusted by an adaptive algorithm leading to a maximum settled speed for the various conditions. Results showed that core control improved after the six week training period. The trunk was better controlled than the pelvis, sideways rotations were better controlled than fore-aft rotations of body segments, and single plane rotations were more efficient than cross-plane rotations of the core. The quantifiable improvements suggest a good potential for our technique to improve core control which is a prerequisite for good movement control of the legs and arms

TETRA mobile radios interfere with electroencephalography recording equipment

We observed an anomaly in the human electroencephalogram (EEG) associated with exposure to terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) Radiofrequency Fields (RF). Here, we characterize the time and frequency components of the anomaly and demonstrate that it is an artefact caused by TETRA RF interfering with the EEG recording equipment and not by any direct or indirect effect on the brain

Differences in intestinal size, structure, and function contributing to feed efficiency in broiler chickens reared at geographically distant locations

The contribution of the intestinal tract to differences in residual feed intake (RFI) has been inconclusively studied in chickens so far. It is also not clear if RFI-related differences in intestinal function are similar in chickens raised in different environments. The objective was to investigate differences in nutrient retention, visceral organ size, intestinal morphology, jejunal permeability and expression of genes related to barrier function, and innate immune response in chickens of diverging RFI raised at 2 locations (L1: Austria; L2: UK). The experimental protocol was similar, and the same dietary formulation was fed at the 2 locations. Individual BW and feed intake (FI) of chickens (Cobb 500FF) were recorded from d 7 of life. At 5 wk of life, chickens (L1, n = 157; L2 = 192) were ranked according to their RFI, and low, medium, and high RFI chickens were selected (n = 9/RFI group, sex, and location). RFI values were similar between locations within the same RFI group and increased by 446 and 464 g from low to high RFI in females and males, respectively. Location, but not RFI rank, affected growth, nutrient retention, size of the intestine, and jejunal disaccharidase activity. Chickens from L2 had lower total body weight gain and mucosal enzyme activity but higher nutrient retention and longer intestines than chickens at L1. Parameters determined only at L1 showed increased crypt depth in the duodenum and jejunum and enhanced paracellular permeability in low vs. high RFI females. Jejunal expression of IL1B was lower in low vs. high RFI females at L2, whereas that of TLR4 at L1 and MCT1 at both locations was higher in low vs. high RFI males. Correlation analysis between intestinal parameters and feed efficiency metrics indicated that feed conversion ratio was more correlated to intestinal size and function than was RFI. In conclusion, the rearing environment greatly affected intestinal size and function, thereby contributing to the variation in chicken RFI observed across locations

Clinical trials in myasthenia gravis

Myasthenia Gravis is a chronic autoimmune disease associated with autoantibodies that are directed against post synaptic acetyl choline receptors in 80–88%. Although in many cases initial diagnosis and management is relatively straightforward, myasthenia remains a life-long condition without cure. Current treatment strategies are directed towards symptomatic relief with cholinesterase inhibitors and, in a proportion of patients, suppression of the immune response with the use of steroids and/or longer-term immunosuppressant strategies including oral immunosuppressants, plasma exchange, intravenous immunoglobulin, thymectomy, etc., many of which have significant side effects. Around 50% of patients will not respond to conventional treatment and disease course is often unpredictable with life-threatening myasthenic crises affecting 15–20% of patients at least once during their lives. In addition to the burden of disease on the individual, it has also been estimated that the financial cost from hospital admissions alone as a result of myasthenia was more than €450 million per year in Europe in 2010, and over $500 million in the USA in 2013

Estimate of dark halo ellipticity by lensing flexion

Aims. The predictions of the ellipticity of the dark matter halos from models of structure formation are notoriously difficult to test with observations. A direct measurement would give important constraints on the formation of galaxies, and its effect on the dark matter distribution in their halos. Here we show that galaxy-galaxy flexion provides a direct and potentially powerful method for determining the ellipticity of (an ensemble of) elliptical lenses. Methods. We decompose the spin-1 flexion into a radial and a tangential component. Using the ratio of tangential-to- radial flexion, which is independent of the radial mass profile, the mass ellipticity can be estimated. Results. An estimator for the ellipticity of the mass distribution is derived and tested with simulations. We show that the estimator is slightly biased. We quantify this bias, and provide a method to reduce it. Furthermore, a parametric fitting of the flexion ratio and orientation provides another estimate for the dark halo ellipticity, which is more accurate for individual lenses Overall, galaxy-galaxy flexion appears as a powerful tool for constraining the ellipticity of mass distributions.Comment: 6 pages,5 figures, submitted to AA, comments welcom

Genome-wide association studies for feedlot and growth traits in cattle

A genome wide-association study for production traits in cattle was carried out using genotype data from the 10K Affymetrix (Santa Clara, CA) and the 50K Illumina (San Diego, CA) SNP chips. The results for residual feed intake (RFI), BW, and hip height in 3 beef breed types (Bos indicus, Bos taurus, and B. indicus × B. taurus), and for stature in dairy cattle, are presented. The aims were to discover SNP associated with all traits studied, but especially RFI, and further to test the consistency of SNP effects across different cattle populations and breed types. The data were analyzed within data sets and within breed types by using a mixed model and fitting 1 SNP at a time. In each case, the number of significant SNP was more than expected by chance alone. A total of 75 SNP from the reference population with 50K chip data were significant (P < 0.001) for RFI, with a false discovery rate of 68%. These 75 SNP were mapped on 24 different BTA. Of the 75 SNP, the 9 most significant SNP were detected on BTA 3, 5, 7, and 8, with P ≤ 6.0 × 10 . In a population of Angus cattle divergently selected for high and low RFI and 10K chip data, 111 SNP were significantly (P < 0.001) associated with RFI, with a false discovery rate of 7%. Approximately 103 of these SNP were therefore likely to represent true positives. Because of the small number of SNP common to both the 10K and 50K SNP chips, only 27 SNP were significantly (P < 0.05) associated with RFI in the 2 populations. However, other chromosome regions were found that contained SNP significantly associated with RFI in both data sets, although no SNP within the region showed a consistent effect on RFI. The SNP effects were consistent between data sets only when estimated within the same breed type

Synthesis and Structural Investigation of an \u27Oxazinoquinolinespirohexadienone\u27 That Only Exists as Its Long-Wavelength Ring-Opened Quinonimine Isomer

The spirocyclic oxazinoquinolinespirohexadienone (OSHD) photochromes are computationally predicted to be an attractive target as electron deficient analogues of the perimidinespirohexadienone (PSHD) photochromes, for eventual application as photochromic photooxidants. We have found the literature method for their preparation unsuitable and present an alternative synthesis. Unfortunately the product of this synthesis is the long wavelength (LW) ring-opened quinonimine isomer of the OSHD. We have found this isomer does not close to the spirocyclic short wavelength isomer (SW) upon prolonged standing in the dark, unlike other PSHD photochromes. The structure of this long wavelength isomer was found by NMR and X-ray crystallography to be exclusively the quinolinone (keto) tautomer, though experimental cyclic voltammetry supported by our computational methodology indicates that the quinolinol (enol) tautomer (not detected by other means) may be accessible through a fast equilibrium lying far toward the keto tautomer. Computations also support the relative stability order of keto LW over enol LW over SW

Shear-flexion cross-talk in weak-lensing measurements

Gravitational flexion, caused by derivatives of the gravitational tidal field, is potentially important for the analysis of the dark-matter distribution in gravitational lenses, such as galaxy clusters or the dark-matter haloes of galaxies. Flexion estimates rely on measurements of galaxy-shape distortions with spin-1 and spin-3 symmetry. We show in this paper that and how such distortions are generally caused not only by the flexion itself, but also by coupling terms of the form (shear $\times$ flexion), which have hitherto been neglected. Similar coupling terms occur between intrinsic galaxy ellipticities and the flexion. We show, by means of numerical tests, that neglecting these terms can introduce biases of up to 85% on the $F$ flexion and 150% on the $G$ flexion for galaxies with an intrinsic ellipticity dispersion of $\sigma_{\epsilon}=0.3$. In general, this bias depends on the strength of the lensing fields, the ellipticity dispersion, and the concentration of the lensed galaxies. We derive a new set of equations relating the measured spin-1 and spin-3 distortions to the lensing fields up to first order in the shear, the flexion, the product of shear and flexion, and the morphological properties of the galaxy sample. We show that this new description is accurate with a bias $\leq 7$ (spin-1 distortion) and $\leq 3$ (spin-3 distortion) even close to points where the flexion approach breaks down due to merging of multiple images. We propose an explanation why a spin-3 signal could not be measured yet and comment on the difficulties in using a model-fitting approach to measure the flexion signal.Comment: 11 pages, MNRAS accepte

Local biases drive, but do not determine, the perception of illusory trajectories

When a dot moves horizontally across a set of tilted lines of alternating orientations, the dot appears to be moving up and down along its trajectory. This perceptual phenomenon, known as the slalom illusion, reveals a mismatch between the veridical motion signals and the subjective percept of the motion trajectory, which has not been comprehensively explained. In the present study, we investigated the empirical boundaries of the slalom illusion using psychophysical methods. The phenomenon was found to occur both under conditions of smooth pursuit eye movements and constant fixation, and to be consistently amplified by intermittently occluding the dot trajectory. When the motion direction of the dot was not constant, however, the stimulus display did not elicit the expected illusory percept. These findings confirm that a local bias towards perpendicularity at the intersection points between the dot trajectory and the tilted lines cause the illusion, but also highlight that higher-level cortical processes are involved in interpreting and amplifying the biased local motion signals into a global illusion of trajectory perception