Remote Tongue-based Control of a Wheelchair Mounted Assistive Robotic Manipulator and the Effect of Adaptive Semi-automation.

Increasing the independence of individuals with tetraplegia is a challenging task. One potential solution is to allow for use of an assistive robotic manipulator (ARM), when solving tasks in personal and remote space. There is a lack in available control interfaces that are suitable for severely disabled individuals.

Shotgun metagenomic sequencing on skin microbiome indicates dysbiosis exists prior to the onset of atopic dermatitis.

Background: While the microbiome is increasingly seen as a targetable contributor to atopic dermatitis (AD), questions remain as to whether the dysbiosis is secondary to diseased skin or if it predates symptom onset. Previous work has evaluated how the skin microbiome changes with age and established the influence of factors like delivery mode and breastfeeding on global microbiome diversity. However, these studies were unable to identify taxa which predict subsequent AD.

The impact of interdisciplinarity and user involvement on the design and usability of an assistive upper limb exoskeleton - a case study on the EXOTIC.

This study describes an interdisciplinary approach to develop a 5 degrees of freedom assistive upper limb exoskeleton (ULE) for users with severe to complete functional tetraplegia. Four different application levels were identified for the ULE ranging from basic technical application to interaction with users, interaction with caregivers and interaction with the society, each level posing requirements for the design and functionality of the ULE. These requirements were addressed through an interdisciplinary collaboration involving users, clinicians and researchers within social sciences and humanities, mechanical engineering, control engineering media technology and biomedical engineering.

User Based Development and Test of the EXOTIC Exoskeleton: Empowering Individuals with Tetraplegia Using a Compact, Versatile, 5-DoF Upper Limb Exoskeleton Controlled through Intelligent Semi-Automated Shared Tongue Control.

This paper presents the EXOTIC- a novel assistive upper limb exoskeleton for individuals with complete functional tetraplegia that provides an unprecedented level of versatility and control. The current literature on exoskeletons mainly focuses on the basic technical aspects of exoskeleton design and control while the context in which these exoskeletons should function is less or not prioritized even though it poses important technical requirements. We considered all sources of design requirements, from the basic technical functions to the real-world practical application.

Eyes-Free Tongue Gesture and Tongue Joystick Control of a Five DOF Upper-Limb Exoskeleton for Severely Disabled Individuals.

Spinal cord injury can leave the affected individual severely disabled with a low level of independence and quality of life. Assistive upper-limb exoskeletons are one of the solutions that can enable an individual with tetraplegia (paralysis in both arms and legs) to perform simple activities of daily living by mobilizing the arm. Providing an efficient user interface that can provide full continuous control of such a device-safely and intuitively-with multiple degrees of freedom (DOFs) still remains a challenge.

Eocene animal trace fossils in 1.7-billion-year-old metaquartzites.

The Paleoproterozoic (1.7 Ga [billion years ago]) metasedimentary rocks of the Mount Barren Group in southwestern Australia contain burrows indistinguishable from ichnogenera , , , and , known from firmgrounds and softgrounds. The metamorphic fabric in the host rock is largely retained, and because the most resilient rocks in the sequence, the metaquartzites, are too hard for animal burrowing, the trace fossils have been interpreted as predating the last metamorphic event in the region.

[Hypersexuality].

Sexual behaviour is a normal and healthy part of life. However, some individuals report excessive sexual appetite and/or an inability to control sexual behaviour. The literature has conceptualised this behaviour as hypersexuality (HS).

[Therapy of sex offenders].

Outcomes of reviews of the effect of interventions for sexual offenders vary and are inconclusive. The lack of consensus reflects the inherent ethic and methodological difficulties related to the evaluation of treatment effect for sexual offenders. In this overview, we examined seven reviews of treatment outcome studies for adult sexual offenders.

A late Paleoproterozoic (1.74 Ga) deep-sea, low-temperature, iron-oxidizing microbial hydrothermal vent community from Arizona, USA.

Modern marine hydrothermal vents occur in a wide variety of tectonic settings and are characterized by seafloor emission of fluids rich in dissolved chemicals and rapid mineral precipitation. Some hydrothermal systems vent only low-temperature Fe-rich fluids, which precipitate deposits dominated by iron oxyhydroxides, in places together with Mn-oxyhydroxides and amorphous silica. While a proportion of this mineralization is abiogenic, most is the result of the metabolic activities of benthic, Fe-oxidizing bacteria (FeOB), principally belonging to the Zetaproteobacteria.

Fungal-Selective Resorcylate Aminopyrazole Hsp90 Inhibitors: Optimization of Whole-Cell Anticryptococcal Activity and Insights into the Structural Origins of Cryptococcal Selectivity.

The essential eukaryotic chaperone Hsp90 regulates the form and function of diverse client proteins, many of which govern thermotolerance, virulence, and drug resistance in fungal species. However, use of Hsp90 inhibitors as antifungal therapeutics has been precluded by human host toxicities and suppression of immune responses. We recently described resorcylate aminopyrazoles (RAPs) as the first class of Hsp90 inhibitors capable of discriminating between fungal (, ) and human isoforms of Hsp90 in biochemical assays.

A transcriptomic overview of lung and liver changes one day after pulmonary exposure to graphene and graphene oxide.

Hazard evaluation of graphene-based materials (GBM) is still in its early stage and it is slowed by their large diversity in the physicochemical properties. This study explores transcriptomic differences in the lung and liver after pulmonary exposure to two GBM with similar physical properties, but different surface chemistry. Female C57BL/6 mice were exposed by a single intratracheal instillation of 0, 18, 54 or 162 μg/mouse of graphene oxide (GO) or reduced graphene oxide (rGO).

A Cryptic Alternative for the Evolution of Hyphae.

A growing awareness of a subsurface fossil record of mostly hyphal fungi organisms stretching back through the Phanerozoic to ≈400 megaannum (Ma) and possibly earlier, provides an alternative view on hyphal development. Parallel with the emergence of hyphal fungi during Ordovician-Devonian times when plants colonized the land, which is the traditional notion of hyphal evolution, hyphae-based fungi existed in the deep biosphere. New insights suggest that the fundamental functions of hyphae may have evolved in response to an ancient subsurface endolithic life style and might have been in place before the colonization of land.

Mortality among male forensic and non-forensic psychiatric patients: matched cohort study of rates, predictors and causes-of-death.

The mortality of forensic psychiatric (FP) patients compared to non-forensic psychiatric (non-FP) patients has been sparsely examined. We conducted a matched cohort study and compared Danish male FP patients ( = 490) who underwent pre-trial forensic psychiatric assessment (FPA) 1980-1992 and were subsequently sentenced to psychiatric treatment with matched (on year of birth, marital status, and municipality of residence) male non-FP patients ( = 490) and male general population controls ( = 1716). FP and non-FP patients were also matched on major psychiatric diagnostic categories.

The Early Ediacaran Caveasphaera Foreshadows the Evolutionary Origin of Animal-like Embryology.

The Ediacaran Weng'an Biota (Doushantuo Formation, 609 Ma old) is a rich microfossil assemblage that preserves biological structure to a subcellular level of fidelity and encompasses a range of developmental stages [1]. However, the animal embryo interpretation of the main components of the biota has been the subject of controversy [2, 3]. Here, we describe the development of Caveasphaera, which varies in morphology from lensoid to a hollow spheroidal cage [4] to a solid spheroid [5] but has largely evaded description and interpretation.

Long-Term Violent Reoffending Following Forensic Psychiatric Treatment: Comparing Forensic Psychiatric Examinees and General Offender Controls.

Long-term violent re-offending in forensic psychiatric (FP) patients . non-FP offenders is largely unknown. We studied rates and facets of long-term violent reoffending among 1,062 violent forensic psychiatric examinees (FPE) consecutively undergoing pre-trial, forensic psychiatric examination (FPE) in Denmark during 1980-1992.

[Diagnosing and treating paedophilia].

In this review, we discuss paedophilia, which is a persistent and intense sexual interest in prepuberty children. Paedophilia is related to but not identical to sexual offending. Valid and reliable identification of paedophilia is complicated.

Acute phase response and inflammation following pulmonary exposure to low doses of zinc oxide nanoparticles in mice.

Inhalation of nanosized zinc oxide (ZnO) induces metal fume fever and systemic acute phase response in humans. Acute phase response activation is a cardiovascular risk factor; we investigated whether pulmonary exposure of mice can be used to assess ZnO-induced acute phase response as well as inflammation and genotoxicity. Uncoated (NM-110) and triethoxycaprylylsilane-coated (NM-111) ZnO nanoparticles were intratracheally instilled once at 0.

Semi-Autonomous Tongue Control of an Assistive Robotic Arm for Individuals with Quadriplegia.

Individuals suffering from quadriplegia can achieve increased independence by using an assistive robotic manipulator (ARM). However, due to their disability, the interfaces that can be used to operate such devices become limited. A versatile intraoral tongue control interface (ITCI) has previously been develop for this user group, as the tongue is usually spared from disability.

A review of computer vision for semi-autonomous control of assistive robotic manipulators (ARMs).

The advances in artificial intelligence have started to reach a level where autonomous systems are becoming increasingly popular as a way to aid people in their everyday life. Such intelligent systems may especially be beneficially for people struggling to complete common everyday tasks, such as individuals with movement-related disabilities. The focus of this paper is hence to review recent work in using computer vision for semi-autonomous control of assistive robotic manipulators (ARMs).

Organism motility in an oxygenated shallow-marine environment 2.1 billion years ago.

Evidence for macroscopic life in the Paleoproterozoic Era comes from 1.8 billion-year-old (Ga) compression fossils [Han TM, Runnegar B (1992) 257:232-235; Knoll et al. (2006) 361:1023-1038], Stirling biota [Bengtson S et al.

Pulmonary effects of nanofibrillated celluloses in mice suggest that carboxylation lowers the inflammatory and acute phase responses.

We studied if the pulmonary and systemic toxicity of nanofibrillated celluloses can be reduced by carboxylation. Nanofibrillated celluloses administered at 6 or 18 μg to mice by intratracheal instillation were: 1) FINE NFC, 2-20 μm in length, 2-15 nm in width, 2) AS (-COOH), carboxylated, 0.5-10 μm in length, 4-10 nm in width, containing the biocide BIM MC4901 and 3) BIOCID FINE NFC: as (1) but containing BIM MC4901.

Intricate tunnels in garnets from soils and river sediments in Thailand - Possible endolithic microborings.

Garnets from disparate geographical environments and origins such as oxidized soils and river sediments in Thailand host intricate systems of microsized tunnels that significantly decrease the quality and value of the garnets as gems. The origin of such tunneling has previously been attributed to abiotic processes. Here we present physical and chemical remains of endolithic microorganisms within the tunnels and discuss a probable biological origin of the tunnels.

Fungi in Deep Subsurface Environments.

The igneous crust of the oceans and the continents represents the major part of Earth's lithosphere and has recently been recognized as a substantial, yet underexplored, microbial habitat. While prokaryotes have been the focus of most investigations, microeukaryotes have been surprisingly neglected. However, recent work acknowledges eukaryotes, and in particular fungi, as common inhabitants of the deep biosphere, including the deep igneous provinces.

Evidence of oxygenic phototrophy in ancient phosphatic stromatolites from the Paleoproterozoic Vindhyan and Aravalli Supergroups, India.

Fossil microbiotas are rare in the early rock record, limiting the type of ecological information extractable from ancient microbialites. In the absence of body fossils, emphasis may instead be given to microbially derived features, such as microbialite growth patterns, microbial mat morphologies, and the presence of fossilized gas bubbles in lithified mats. The metabolic affinity of micro-organisms associated with phosphatization may reveal important clues to the nature and accretion of apatite-rich microbialites.