A brain machine interface framework for exploring proactive control of smart environments.

Brain machine interfaces (BMIs) can substantially improve the quality of life of elderly or disabled people. However, performing complex action sequences with a BMI system is onerous because it requires issuing commands sequentially. Fundamentally different from this, we have designed a BMI system that reads out mental planning activity and issues commands in a proactive manner.

Rabbit neurospheres as a novel in vitro tool for studying neurodevelopmental effects induced by intrauterine growth restriction.

The aim of this study was to develop a rabbit neurosphere culture to characterize differences in basic processes of neurogenesis induced by intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). A novel in vitro neurosphere culture has been established using fresh or frozen neural progenitor cells from newborn (PND0) rabbit brains. After surgical IUGR induction in pregnant rabbits and cesarean section 5 days later, neural progenitor cells from both control and IUGR groups were isolated and directly cultured or frozen at -80°C.

Modular Neural Mechanisms for Gait Phase Tracking, Prediction, and Selection in Personalizable Knee-Ankle-Foot-Orthoses.

Orthoses for the lower limbs support patients to perform movements that they could not perform on their own. In traditional devices, generic gait models for a limited set of supported movements restrict the patients mobility and device acceptance. To overcome such limitations, we propose a modular neural control approach with user feedback for personalizable Knee-Ankle-Foot-Orthoses (KAFO).

Impaired mitochondrial Ca2+ homeostasis in respiratory chain-deficient cells but efficient compensation of energetic disadvantage by enhanced anaerobic glycolysis due to low ATP steady state levels.

Energy-producing pathways, adenine nucleotide levels, oxidative stress response and Ca(2+) homeostasis were investigated in cybrid cells incorporating two pathogenic mitochondrial DNA point mutations, 3243A>G and 3302A>G in tRNA(Leu(UUR)), as well as Rho(0) cells and compared to their parental 143B osteosarcoma cell line. All cells suffering from a severe respiratory chain deficiency were able to proliferate as fast as controls. The major defect in oxidative phosphorylation was efficiently compensated by a rise in anaerobic glycolysis, so that the total ATP production rate was preserved.

Antigenic and cellular localisation analysis of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus nucleocapsid protein using monoclonal antibodies.

A member of the family of coronaviruses has previously been identified as the cause of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). In this study, several monoclonal antibodies against the nucleocapsid protein have been generated to examine distribution of the nucleocapsid in virus-infected cells and to study antigenic regions of the protein. Confocal microscopic analysis identified nucleocapsids packaged in vesicles in the perinuclear area indicating viral synthesis at the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus.

Modulation of murine tumor growth and colonization by bromelaine, an extract of the pineapple plant (Ananas comosum L.).

The antitumor and antimetastatic activities of the plant cysteine endoproteinase bromelaine were evaluated in a murine model. Syngeneic sarcoma L-1 cells were incubated with bromelaine (after preceeding time and dosage kinetics) and subcutaneously; (s.c.