Engineered jumpers overcome biological limits via work multiplication.

For centuries, scientists have explored the limits of biological jump height, and for decades, engineers have designed jumping machines that often mimicked or took inspiration from biological jumpers. Despite these efforts, general analyses are missing that compare the energetics of biological and engineered jumpers across scale. Here we show how biological and engineered jumpers have key differences in their jump energetics.

[Illustration Techniques in Ophthalmic Textbooks 200 Years Ago - a Platform for the Rostock Glass Eye Collection of Anterior Segment Pathologies from 1860].

Very recent research results have demonstrated that the "Rostock Artificial Eye Collection" - assembled 150 years ago with 132 glass modelled exhibits of anterior segment pathologies - is mainly based on the figures of the Atlas of Ophthalmology published by Antoine Pierre Demours in 1818. This article focusses on the analyses of the imaging techniques of this atlas. Present knowledge implies that the author used different colour etching concepts which were partially re-coloured individually.

Inpatient trial of an artificial pancreas based on multiple model probabilistic predictive control with repeated large unannounced meals.

Background: Closed-loop control of blood glucose levels in people with type 1 diabetes offers the potential to reduce the incidence of diabetes complications and reduce the patients' burden, particularly if meals do not need to be announced. We therefore tested a closed-loop algorithm that does not require meal announcement.

Materials And Methods: A multiple model probabilistic predictive controller (MMPPC) was assessed on four patients, revised to improve performance, and then assessed on six additional patients.

Feedback control of acoustic musical instruments: collocated control using physical analogs.

Traditionally, the average professional musician has owned numerous acoustic musical instruments, many of them having distinctive acoustic qualities. However, a modern musician could prefer to have a single musical instrument whose acoustics are programmable by feedback control, where acoustic variables are estimated from sensor measurements in real time and then fed back in order to influence the controlled variables. In this paper, theory is presented that describes stable feedback control of an acoustic musical instrument.

A closed-loop artificial pancreas based on risk management.

Background: Control algorithms that regulate blood glucose (BG) levels in individuals with type 1 diabetes mellitus face several fundamental challenges. Two of these are the asymmetric risk of clinical complications associated with low and high glucose levels and the irreversibility of insulin action when using only insulin. Both of these nonlinearities force a controller to be more conservative when uncertainties are high.

Probabilistic evolving meal detection and estimation of meal total glucose appearance.

Background: Automatic compensation of meals for type 1 diabetes patients will require meal detection from continuous glucose monitor (CGM) readings. This is challenged by the uncertainty and variability inherent to the digestion process and glucose dynamics as well as the lag and noise associated with CGM sensors. Thus any estimation of meal start time, size, and shape is fundamentally uncertain.

Laser-Machined Shape Memory Alloy Sensors for Position Feedback in Active Catheters.

Catheter-based interventions are a form of minimally invasive surgery that can decrease hospitalization time and greatly lower patient morbidity compared to traditional methods. However, percutaneous catheter procedures are hindered by a lack of precise tip manipulation when actuation forces are transmitted over the length of the catheter. Active catheters with local shape-memory-alloy (SMA) actuation can potentially provide the desired manipulation of a catheter tip, but hysteresis makes it difficult to control the actuators.

Statistical hypoglycemia prediction.

Background: Hypoglycemia presents a significant risk for patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. We propose a predictive hypoglycemia detection algorithm that uses continuous glucose monitor (CGM) data with explicit certainty measures to enable early corrective action.

Method: The algorithm uses multiple statistical linear predictions with regression windows between 5 and 75 minutes and prediction horizons of 0 to 20 minutes.

ERG components of negative polarity from the inner retina and the optic nerve response.

ERG components of negative polarity in the light-adapted and in the dark-adapted inner retina are reviewed from a clinical perspective and include consideration of experimental research. Field potentials are inherently complex including summating contributions from specialized neurons as well as from glial elements. This property applies to the PERG, PhNR and to the STR.

Improving contact realism through event-based haptic feedback.

Tapping on surfaces in a typical virtual environment feels like contact with soft foam rather than a hard object. The realism of such interactions can be dramatically improved by superimposing event-based, high-frequency transient forces over traditional position-based feedback. When scaled by impact velocity, hand-tuned pulses and decaying sinusoids produce haptic cues that resemble those experienced during real impacts.

Quantitative analysis of OCT characteristics in patients with achromatopsia and blue-cone monochromatism.

Purpose: To quantify optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of the central retina in patients with blue-cone monochromatism (BCM) and achromatopsia (ACH) compared with healthy control individuals.

Methods: The study included 15 patients with ACH, 6 with BCM, and 20 control subjects. Diagnosis of BCM and ACH was established by visual acuity testing, morphologic examination, color vision testing, and Ganzfeld ERG recording.

THUMP: an immersive haptic console for surgical simulation and training.

Telerobotic systems are revolutionizing minimally invasive surgery (MIS), giving the surgeon complete control over precise dexterous movements of tiny robotic instruments. Such 'surgery-by-wire' approaches also create unique opportunities for simulation and training, as the surgeon operates at a computer-mediated haptic console. Possible extensions include offline training in simulated environments and advanced guidance and mentoring during actual operations.

Clinical description and exclusion of candidate genes in a novel autosomal recessively inherited vitreoretinal dystrophy.

Objectives: To describe the clinical phenotype of a novel autosomal recessively inherited vitreoretinal dystrophy in one generation of a family originating from eastern Switzerland.

Methods: A clinical study including electroretinographic investigations followed by laboratory-based genetic and molecular analysis. Four affected and 3 unaffected members of the family were examined.

Absolute sensitivity of the electroretinogram and of the optic nerve action potential in the perfused feline eye.

Purpose: To assess and characterize the electroretinogram (ERG) and the optic nerve response (ONR) at threshold stimulus intensity in the isolated perfused cat eye.

Methods: Eyes were enucleated from deeply anesthetized adult cats and arterially perfused with oxygenated serum-enriched tissue culture medium. Light stimuli of 20- to 400- msec duration from a xenon arc source, attenuated down to threshold intensities by neutral density filters, were delivered via a modified fundus camera in full dark adaptation.

Multiple effects of adenosine in the arterially perfused mammalian eye. Possible mechanisms for the neuroprotective function of adenosine in the retina.

It has been postulated that the major physiological role of adenosine is protection of the central nervous system in conditions such as ischemia, hypoxia, or prolonged neuronal excitation. Under these conditions adenosine is released, and exerts multiple effects, including vasodilation, inhibition of neuronal activity, and enhancement of glycogenolysis, resulting in neuroprotection. In this article, published as well as unpublished data on the multiple effects of exogenous adenosine and application of adenosine-related agents, performed using the arterially perfused cat eye, will be reviewed and discussed within the framework of the neuroprotective role of adenosine.

Multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) in a family with occult macular dystrophy (OMD).

Background: Localized macular dysfunction, in Stargardt macular dystrophy for example, is frequently not detected by Ganzfeld electroretinography (ERG) but it may be detected by methods such as focal macular electroretinogram and pattern electroretinogram at the posterior pole of the eye or indirectly by recording of the visual evoked cortical potentials (VEP). The multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) is a new diagnostic tool allowing analysis of local bioelectrical signals of circumscript areas across the macular region. Miyake recently described a type of macular dystrophy, which he termed "Occult Macular Dystrophy" (OMD) because of a normal fundus aspect and functional deficit even in aged patients.

Cross-sectional study of visual acuity and electroretinogram in two types of dominant drusen.

Purpose: To compare the changes with increasing age of ERG parameters in relation to clinical data in two distinct phenotypes of genetically determined, dominantly inherited macular drusen: malattia leventinese (ML) and Zermatt macular dystrophy (ZMD).

Methods: Ganzfeld rod- and cone-electroretinograms (ERGs) from 15 patients affected with ML and 14 patients with ZMD and clinical data were analyzed retrospectively. The patients' ages ranged from 20 to 77 years in the ML group and from 9 to 74 years in the ZMD group.

[Normal fundus and abnormal electroretinogram: differential diagnosis].

Purpose: To assess retinal dysfunction when ophthalmoscopy reveals normal features.

Methods: Ganzfeld electroretinography of the rod and of the cone systems was used to detect congenital or acquired retinal dysfunction. In infants under 5 years of age ERG was performed using inhalational anaesthesia.

[Ganzfeld and multifocal electroretinography in Malattia Leventinese and Zermatt Macular Dystrophy].

Background: To show the value of Ganzfeld electroretinography (ERG) in Malattia Leventinese (ML, or Hereditary Dominant Drusen) and Zermatt Macular Dystrophy (ZMD) and to illustrate multifocal electroretinography (mfERG) in 2 cases of ML.

Patients And Methods: In 15 patients with ML and 14 with ZMD we recorded Ganzfeld ERGs along with clinical examinations. In two patients with ML, and an we also performed a mfERG and an automated and Goldmann perimetry.