87value/wos11967 huggingface dataset:
Combining biological components, such as cells and tissues, with soft robotics can enable the fabrication of biological machines with the ability to sense, process signals, and produce force. An intuitive demonstration of a biological machine is one that can produce motion in response to controllable external signaling. Whereas cardiac cell-driven biological actuators have been demonstrated, the requirements of these machines to respond to stimuli and exhibit controlled movement merit the use of skeletal muscle, the primary generator of actuation in animals, as a contractile power source. Here, we report the development of 3D printed hydrogel bio-bots with an asymmetric physical design and powered by the actuation of an engineered mammalian skeletal muscle strip to result in net locomotion of the bio-bot. Geometric design and material properties of the hydrogel bio-bots were optimized using stereolithographic 3D printing, and the effect of collagen I and fibrin extracellular matrix proteins and insulin-like growth factor 1 on the force production of engineered skeletal muscle was characterized. Electrical stimulation triggered contraction of cells in the muscle strip and net locomotion of the bio-bot with a maximum velocity of similar to 156 m s(-1), which is over 1.5 body lengths per min. Modeling and simulation were used to understand both the effect of different design parameters on the bio-bot and the mechanism of motion. This demonstration advances the goal of realizing forward-engineered integrated cellular machines and systems, which can have a myriad array of applications in drug screening, programmable tissue engineering, drug delivery, and biomimetic machine design.
Dementia is a global health problem with a huge impact on the lives of those afflicted. There are several distinct diseases that are classified under the umbrella term dementia ranging from neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease to chronic infections of the central nervous system such as subacute sclerosing panencephalitis ( SSPE), a rare complication of measles virus infection in childhood. Clinical features, neuropsychological profiles and imaging characteristics of the various dementia syndromes can be sufficiently distinct to distinguish them from one another. However, in some cases, the cognitive, psychiatric and behavioural features can sufficiently overlap such that neurophysiologic testing may be of help. While it is recognized the electroencephalogram ( EEG) may have a special role to play in the diagnosis of certain dementing illnesses such as SSPE and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) that have characteristic EEG changes, current research focusses on the potential utility of quantitative EEG as one more tool in the armamentarium of clinicians dealing with patients who suffer from a dementing illness. We searched PubMed and the Cochrane Database from 1 January 1946 up to 1 January 2016, combining the search terms EEG, electroencephalography, dementia and status epilepticus; identified papers from these searches were then read in detail and summarized. Here, we discuss both the qualitative and quantitative EEG findings in the various types of dementia.
Purpose - Surface roughness is an important parameter in manufacturing engineering with significant influence on the performance of mechanical parts. Failures, sometimes catastrophic failures, leading to high costs, have been imputed to a component's surface roughness. Owing to the need for improvement of machining parameters in order to obtain a prescribed surface roughness, new developments have been recently investigated. This work aims to report on a study of an optimisation model based on genetic algorithms (GAs). Design/methodology/approach - The developed algorithm considers a machining parameter data population obtained from experimental tests. The exchange of structured information based on natural selection principles and survival-of-the-fittest allows the combination of solutions in a sequence of generations leading to the best solution. Findings - Over standard experimental design methodologies the proposed GA approach shows advantages in finding the optimal conditions under the imposed constraints. Indeed the quality of the produced surface roughness cannot be evaluated using only a criterion. This GA method determines the combined effects of the input parameters to the optimal machining parameter. Originality/value - A new methodology for determining optimal machining parameters in dry turning based on the measurement of the surface roughness is proposed. The numerical and experimental developed model can be used with success on further applications with industrial interest.
The design of Lab on a Chip microfluidic devices is, typically, preceded by a long and costly period of prototyping stages in which the system is gradually refined by an iterative process, involving the manufacturing of a physical prototype and the making of a lot of laboratory experiments. In this scenario, a virtual prototyping framework which allows the emulation of the behavior of the complete system is greatly welcome. This paper presents such a framework and details a virtual prototyping methodology able to soundly handle microfluidic behavior based on SystemC-AMS extensions. The use of these extensions will permit the communication of the developed microfluidic models with external digital or mixed signal devices. This allows the emulation of the whole Lab on a Chip system as it usually includes a digital control and a mixed-signal reading environment. Moreover, as SystemC-AMS is also being extended to cover other physical domains within the CATRENE CA701 project, interactions with these domains will be possible, for example, with electromechanical or optical parts, should they be part of the system. The presented extensions that can manage the modeling of a micro-fluidic system are detailed. Two approaches have been selected: to model the fluid analytically based on the Poiseuille flow theory and to model the fluid numerically following the SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) approach. Both modeling techniques are, by now, encapsulated under the TDF (Timed Data Flow) MoC (Model of Computation) of SystemC-AMS. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Study Design. A prospective multicenter cohort study for more than 10 years of outpatients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Objective. To identify predictive risk factors of cervical spine instabilities, which may induce compression myelopathy in patients with RA. Summary of Background Data. Many reports described the natural course of cervical spine involvement in RA. Only a few studies, however, conducted comprehensive evaluation of its prognostic factors. Methods. Cervical spine instability was radiographically defined as atlantoaxial subluxation with the atlantodental interval greater than 3 mm, vertical subluxation (VS) with the Ranawat value less than 13 mm, and subaxial subluxation with irreducible translation of 2mm or higher. The severe'' category of instability was defined as atlantoaxial subluxation with the atlantodental interval of 10mm or lower, vertical subluxation with the Ranawat value of 10mm or higher, and subaxial subluxation with translation of 4 mm or higher or at multiple levels. Of 503 definite'' or classical'' patients with RA without baseline severe'' instability, 143 were prospectively followed throughout for more than 10 years. The Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was performed to determine predictors for the development of severe'' instabilities. To exclude biases from the low follow-up rate, similar assessments were performed in 223 patients followed for more than 5 years from baseline. Results. The incidence of cervical spine instabilities and severe'' instabilities significantly increased during more than 10 years in both 143 and 223 cohorts (all P<0.01). Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models found that baseline mutilating changes (hazard ratio [HR] = 19.15, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 3.96-92.58, P< 0.01), corticosteroid administration (HR = 4.00, 95% CI = 1.76-9.11, P< 0.01), and previous joint surgery (HR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.01-3.93, P = 0.048) correlated with the progression to severe'' instability in 143 cases and also in 223 cases (HR = 8.12, 95% CI = 2.22-29.64, P< 0.01; HR = 3.31, 95% CI = 1.68-6.53, P< 0.01; and HR = 2.07, 95% CI = 1.16-3.69, P = 0.014, respectively). Conclusion. Established mutilating changes, concomitant corticosteroid treatment, and previous joint surgery are relatively robust indicators for a poor prognosis of the cervical spine in patients with RA, based on the consistency in more than 10-year analysis of two different settings.
The American educational system currently yields disappointing levels of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) engagement and achievement among students. One way to remedy this may be to increase children's motivation in STEM from an early age. This study examined whether a social cue-being part of an experimental minimal group-increases STEM engagement in preschoolers (N = 141; 4.5-year-olds). Using a within-subjects design, participants were assigned to a group and an individual condition (counterbalanced for order) before they worked on a math task and a spatial task. Children persisted longer on, placed more pieces correctly, reported higher self-efficacy, and were more interested in the group STEM task than the individual STEM task. In addition, we conducted a continuously cumulating meta-analysis (CCMA) to combine the results of the current experiment with two previous experiments. These findings suggest that incorporating nonacademic social factors, such as group membership, into current STEM curricula could be an effective way to boost young children's STEM motivation.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of mortality in Western societies, affecting about one third of the population before their seventieth year. Over the past decades modifiable risk factors of CHD have been identified, including smoking and diet. These factors when altered can have a significant impact on an individuals' risk of developing CHD, their overall health and quality of life. There is strong evidence suggesting that dietary intake of plant foods rich in fibre and polyphenolic compounds, effectively lowers the risk of developing CHD. However, the efficacy of these foods often appears to be greater than the sum of their recognised biologically active parts. Here we discuss the hypothesis that beneficial metabolic and vascular effects of dietary fibre and plant polyphenols are due to an up regulation of the colon-systemic metabolic axis by these compounds. Fibres and many polyphenols are converted into biologically active compounds by the colonic microbiota. This microbiota imparts great metabolic versatility and dynamism, with many of their reductive or hydrolytic activities appearing complementary to oxidative or conjugative human metabolism. Understanding these microbial activities is central to determining the role of different dietary components in preventing or beneficially impacting on the impaired lipid metabolism and vascular dysfunction that typifies CHD and type 11 diabetes. This approach lays the foundation for rational selection of health promoting foods, rational target driven design of functional foods, and provides an essential thus-far, overlooked, dynamic to our understanding of how foods recognised as healthy impact on the human metabonome.
The commonly adopted method of dumping dredge spoil at sea using split-hull barges leads to considerable sediment loss to the water column and a subsequent dispersion of fine material that can pose a risk to sensitive downstream habitats such as coral reefs. Containing sediment loads using stitched closed geotextile bags is practiced for minimizing loss of contaminated sediment, but is expensive in terms of operational efficiency. Following promising observations from initial laboratory trials, the plunging of partially shielded sediment loads, released on open sea, was studied. The partial shielding was achieved with rigid, open containers as well as flexible, open bags. The loss of sediment from these modes of shielding was measured, and it was observed that even limited and unstitched shielding can be effective in debilitating the entrainment of water into the descending load. In particular, long-sleeved flexible bags practically self-eliminated the exposure of the load and thus losses. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
The objective of this study was to compare performance of partial least square regression (PLSR) and best narrowband normalize nitrogen vegetation index (NNVI) linear regression models for predicting N concentration and best narrowband normalize different vegetation index (NDVI) for end of season biomass yield in bioenergy crop production systems. Canopy hyperspectral data was collected using an ASD FieldSpec FR spectroradiometer (350-2500 nm) at monthly intervals in 2012 and 2013. The cropping systems evaluated in the study were perennial grass {mixed grass [50 % switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), 25 % Indian grass Cheyenne (Sorghastrum nutans (L.) Nash) and 25 % big bluestem Kaw (Andropogon gerardii Vitman)] and switchgrass Alamo} and high biomass sorghum Blade 5200 (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) grown under variable N applications rates to estimate biomass yield and quality. The NNVI was computed with the wavebands pair of 400 and 510 nm for the high biomass sorghum and 1500 and 2260 nm for the perennial grass that were strongly correlated to N concentration for both years. Wavebands used in computing best narrowband NDVI were highly variable, but the wavebands from the red edge region (710-740 nm) provided the best correlation. Narrowband NDVI was weakly correlated with final biomass yield of perennial grass (r(2) = 0.30 and RMSE = 1.6 Mg ha(-1) in 2012 and r(2) = 0.37 and RMSE = 4.0 Mg ha(-1), but was strongly correlated for the high biomass sorghum in 2013 (r(2) = 0.72 and RMSE = 4.6 Mg ha(-1)). Compared to the best narrowband VI, the RMSE of the PLSR model was 19-41 % lower for estimating N concentration and 4.2-100 % lower for final biomass. These results indicates that PLSR might be best for predicting the final biomass yield using spectral sample obtained in June to July, but narrowband NNVI was more robust and useful in predicting N concentration.
Technological education is a different kind of education, since it manages to channel the students beyond conventional frontal learning. The paper refers to the educational process in the secondary education, at the 8th grade Technological education courses. The electric circuit in a house is the most important piece of the utility network. The authors create an original educational software which is made of two main components: one informative part that is directly taught to the whole class as a didactic movie that refers to the knowledge and abilities accumulated by the students in the module Energy, and the second one, that is an interactive part used to apply the information by individual or collective activities that can be verified and measured. This interactive part allows the students to make a draft regarding the electrical circuits of plugs and light using the specific symbols of a given plan of a house. Unlike academic learning, this process allows the teacher to see the students in different ways, working individual, in pairs, and in groups. The role of the teacher is to provide feedback, comments and reinforcement. The ICT products creates a new approach that places the student at the center of doing, allowing him to undergo a process of developing independent thinking and finding personal solutions.
In Study 1, the authors find that people are more satisfied with a service experience when they choose to participate in the provider's voluntary green program (e.g., recycling)-an effect mediated by the warm glow of participation. The downside, however, is that this same mechanism decreases satisfaction among people who choose not to participate. In Study 2, analysis of data from the J.D. PowerGuest Satisfaction Index suggests that incentivizing the program (i.e., compensating the program participants) paradoxically increases satisfaction for those who do not participate but decreases satisfaction among those who do. Studies 3 and 4 explore how manipulating incentive characteristics might enable managers to maximize satisfaction for both groups. Study 3 indicates that, compared with no incentive, an other-benefiting incentive increases warm glow and satisfaction for green program participants but decreases them among nonparticipants. Study 4, however, suggests that mixed incentive bundles (i.e., providing both self-benefiting and other-benefiting options) maximize warm glow and satisfaction for both groups-the ideal outcome for managers.
A pilot project was conducted to examine the health status and possible adverse health effects associated with seawater exposure (microbial water-quality indicators and phytoplankton abundance and their toxins) of surfers in Monterey Bay, Central California coastal waters. Forty-eight surfers enrolled in the study and completed an initial health background survey and weekly health surveys online using Survey Monkey. Descriptive statistics and generalized estimating equation, a regression technique, were used to identify longitudinal and correlated results. The surfers were predominately Caucasian, male, and physically active. They surfed approximately 4 h a week. Their average age was 34 years. The data indicated that the surfers were generally healthy,'' with a low prevalence of diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension. Their most common health problems were allergies and asthma. During the study, 10% of the surfers reported gastrointestinal symptoms and 29% reported upper respiratory symptoms. This study suggests surfers were significantly more likely to report upper respiratory symptoms when they had a history of allergies, housemates with upper respiratory symptoms, and/or a history of previous adverse health symptoms while surfing during a red tide'' (an event often associated with the presence of phytoplankton toxins). Additionally, female surfers reported upper respiratory symptoms more than males.
The purpose of the Charpy test is to determine the impact resistance of materials. It makes it possible to measure their impact strength. It consists of breaking a standard notched bar using a pendulum hammer. The notch can take various forms: out of U or, generally, out of V The power consumption to break the bar is measured by making the difference between the drop height of the hammer and that to which it goes up after having broken the bar. If this last were completely brittle, the hammer would go up with the same height as that from where it fell. If it were on the contrary extremely tough, it would not be broken and the pendulum would not go up at all. The fracture energy thus determined is called impact strength. More it is raised, more the material is tough. Today, this test is identified by measuring of the impact force in accordance with ISO 148-1 and largely used for industrial materials. However, with technological evolution of industrial materials used in manufacturing engineering, other test methods have been developed, in time and complexity, to characterise particularly thin sheet welded pieces (tailored blanks) used in automotive industry. However, one may see a little development in this domain for thin plates regarding to thick plates. This paper reports the early history of instrumented impact testing, started from Augustin Georges Albert CHARPY (1865-1945) up to now, and gives a comparative study on the recent results of experiments obtained on the different welded steel grades by means of the new developed machine called impact tensile crash test or simulated crash test and presents of new ductile/brittle transition diagrams concerning different welding techniques. This concerns dynamic testing of the welded pieces used in automotive industry. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Purpose of the Study: On the face of the shrinking opportunities for children and older adults to routinely interact with one another-sometimes the result of adolescent geographies, age-segregated and gated communities, families' geographical mobility-many communities have introduced intergenerational programs within the school curriculum. For more than a decade one Massachusetts community has maintained an intergenerational program that brings fourth grade students together with older adults. The question is, does students' involvement in an intergenerational program lessened ageist beliefs 5-9 years later. Design and Methods: A quasi-experimental research design examined the images of aging held by 944 students who grew up in neighboring towns and attend a regional high school. Participants completed brief questionnaire. Results: Separate regression analyses of positive and negative images of aging-controlling for students' frequency and self-reported quality of interaction with older adults, ethnicity, age, and gender-reveal a town difference in students' positive, but not negative, images of aging. Implications: What is certain is that the high school students from one community with ongoing intergenerational programming hold a more positive image of older adults. Further research is needed to parse out exactly how short-and long-term legacy effects arise when young students have an opportunity to interact closely with older adults who are not their grandparents or neighbors.
Background: Psoriatic arthritis is associated with psychosocial morbidity and decrease in quality of life. Psychiatric comorbidity also plays an important role in the impairment of quality of life and onset of fatigue. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the prevalence of fatigue in psoriatic arthritis patients and to correlate it to quality of life indexes, functional capacity, anxiety, depression and disease activity. Patients and methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on outpatients with psoriatic arthritis. Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue (FACIT-F; version 4) was used to measure fatigue; 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and Psoriasis Disability Index (PDI) to measure quality of life; Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) to assess functional capacity; Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) scale to measure anxiety and depression symptoms; Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) and Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI) to evaluate clinical activity. Results: In all, 101 patients with mean age of 50.77 years were included. The mean PDI score was 8.01; PASI score, 9.88; BASDAI score, 3.59; HAQ score, 0.85; HAD-Anxiety (HAD A) score, 7.39; HAD Depression (HAD D) score, 5.93; FACIT-Fatigue Scale (FACIT-FS) score, 38.3 and CDAI score, 2.65. FACIT-FS was statistically associated with PASI (r(s)-0.345, p < 0.001), PDI (r(s)-0.299, p < 0.002), HAQ (r(s)-0.460, p < 0.001), HAD A (r(s)-0.306, p=0.002) and HAD D (r(s)-0.339, p < 0.001). The correlations with CDAI and BASDAI were not confirmed. There was statistically significant correlation with all of the domains of SF-36 and FACIT-F (version 4). Conclusion: Prevalence of fatigue was moderate to intense in < 25% of patients with psoriatic arthritis. Fatigue seems to be more related to the emotional and social aspects of the disease than to joint inflammatory aspects, confirming that the disease's visibility is the most disturbing aspect for the patient and that skin pain is more intense than the joint pain.