Background: Stroke patients often experience alterations in their subjective feeling of ownership for the affected limb, which can hinder motor function and interfere with rehabilitation. In this study, we aimed at disentangling the complex relationship between sensory impairment, body ownership (BO), and motor control in stroke patients.
Methods: We recruited 20 stroke patients with unilateral upper limb sensory deficits and 35 age-matched controls.
Particles trapped at a fluid-fluid interface by capillary forces can form a monolayer that jams and buckles when subject to uniaxial compression. Here we investigate experimentally the buckling mechanics of monolayers of millimeter-sized rigid plates trapped at a planar fluid-fluid interface subject to uniaxial compression in a Langmuir trough. We quantified the buckling wavelength and the associated force on the trough barriers as a function of the degree of compression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAscopus longisetosus Borovec & Perrin sp. nov. from Guinea and A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: While scarce, literature suggests that women at the intersection of HIV status and gender and/or sexual minority identities experience heightened social and health disparities within health care systems.
Objectives: This study examines the association between sexual and/or gender minority identities and: (1) experiences of poor treatment by health professionals and (2) being unable to access health services among a cohort of women living with HIV in Metro Vancouver, Canada.
Design: Data were drawn from a longitudinal community-based cohort of women living with HIV (Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS Women's Longitudinal Needs Assessment).
In this study, a high- aerospace-grade epoxy composite plate was co-curing welded using a unidirectional PEEK thermoplastic carbon fibre tape to develop advanced composite joints. To account for the surface roughness and the weldability of carbon-epoxy/carbon-PEEK composites, plasma treatments were performed. The co-curing was conducted by the following steps: each treated thermoplastic tape was first placed in the mould, and followed by nine layers of dry-woven carbon fabrics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSimple multisensory manipulations can induce the illusory misattribution of external objects to one's own body, allowing to experimentally investigate body ownership. In this context, body ownership has been conceptualized as the result of the online Bayesian optimal estimation of the probability that one object belongs to the body from the congruence of multisensory inputs. This idea has been highly influential, as it provided a quantitative basis to bottom-up accounts of self-consciousness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElevated humidity levels in medical, food, and pharmaceutical products may reduce the products' shelf life, trigger bacterial growth, and even lead to complete spoilage. In this study, we report a humidity indicator that mechanically bends and rolls itself irreversibly upon exposure to high humidity conditions. The indicator is made of two food-grade polymer films with distinct ratios of a milk protein, casein, and a plasticizer, glycerol, that are physically attached to each other.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe melt strength of Elium acrylic resin is an important factor to ensure limited fluid flow during welding. To provide Elium with a suitable melt strength via a slight crosslink, this study examines the effect of two dimethacrylates, namely butanediol-di-methacrylate (BDDMA) and tricyclo-decane-dimethanol-di-methacrylate (TCDDMDA), on the weldability of acrylic-based glass fibre composites. The resin system impregnating a five-layer woven glass preform is a mixture of Elium acrylic resin, an initiator, and each of the multifunctional methacrylate monomers in the range of 0 to 2 parts per hundred resin (phr).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarnot cycles of samples of harmonically confined ultracold 87Rb fluids, near and across Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), are analyzed. This is achieved through the experimental determination of the corresponding equation of state in terms of the appropriate global thermodynamics for non-uniform confined fluids. We focus our attention on the efficiency of the Carnot engine when the cycle occurs for temperatures either above or below the critical temperature and when BEC is crossed during the cycle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJoining of dissimilar thermoplastics and their composites is a challenge for thermal welding techniques due to different melting points. Reactive welding with an auxiliary functional material can offer the clear opportunities to develop joining processes due to robustness to joining dissimilar thermoplastic polymers and their composites. The current study employed reactive compatibilization to offer the possibility of joining an acrylic-based glass fiber composite to polyamide (PA)-12 by applying a hot-tool welding technique.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOur everyday life summons numerous novel sensorimotor experiences, to which our brain needs to adapt in order to function properly. However, tracking plasticity of naturalistic behavior and associated brain modulations is challenging. Here, we tackled this question implementing a prism adaptation-like training in virtual reality (VRPA) in combination with functional neuroimaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlternative medicines such as phytotherapy and herbal preparations have been widely used over the past 5 decades. However, they are still poorly known in Western medicine, and because they are considered as natural products, they are often omitted in the review of medication. One of the most used herbal preparations in Europe is Iberogast®, a formulation of 9 medicinal plant extracts, including Greater Celandine that has proven effective in the treatment of functional dyspepsia and irritable bowel syndrome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChromatin accessibility and gene expression in relevant cell contexts can guide identification of regulatory elements and mechanisms at genome-wide association study (GWAS) loci. To identify regulatory elements that display differential activity across adipocyte differentiation, we performed ATAC-seq and RNA-seq in a human cell model of preadipocytes and adipocytes at days 4 and 14 of differentiation. For comparison, we created a consensus map of ATAC-seq peaks in 11 human subcutaneous adipose tissue samples.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe jamming transition is accompanied by a rich phenomenology such as hysteresis or nonlocal effects that is still not well understood. Here, we experimentally investigate a model frictionless granular layer flowing down an inclined plane as a way to disentangle generic collective effects from those arising from frictional interactions. We find that thin frictionless granular layers are devoid of hysteresis of the avalanche angle, yet the layer stability increases as it gets thinner.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIdentifying the molecular mechanisms by which genome-wide association study (GWAS) loci influence traits remains challenging. Chromatin accessibility quantitative trait loci (caQTLs) help identify GWAS loci that may alter GWAS traits by modulating chromatin structure, but caQTLs have been identified in a limited set of human tissues. Here we mapped caQTLs in human liver tissue in 20 liver samples and identified 3,123 caQTLs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF3D printed neat thermoplastic polymers (TPs) and continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites (CFRTPCs) by fused filament fabrication (FFF) are becoming attractive materials for numerous applications. However, the structure of these materials exhibits interfaces at different scales, engendering non-optimal mechanical properties. The first part of the review presents a description of these interfaces and highlights the different strategies to improve interfacial bonding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrism adaptation is a method for studying visuomotor plasticity in healthy individuals, as well as for rehabilitating patients suffering spatial neglect. We developed a new set-up based on virtual-reality (VR) and haptic-robotics allowing us to induce sensorimotor adaptation and to reproduce the effect of prism adaptation in a more ecologically valid, yet experimentally controlled context. Participants were exposed to an immersive VR environment while controlling a virtual hand via a robotic-haptic device to reach virtual objects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that pediatricians promote school readiness with children and families. To our knowledge, no published resident-focused curricula addressing school readiness are currently available. We sought to fill this gap by developing and evaluating a school readiness curriculum for pediatrics residents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLoci identified in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) can include multiple distinct association signals. We sought to identify the molecular basis of multiple association signals for adiponectin, a hormone involved in glucose regulation secreted almost exclusively from adipose tissue, identified in the Metabolic Syndrome in Men (METSIM) study. With GWAS data for 9,262 men, four loci were significantly associated with adiponectin: ADIPOQ, CDH13, IRS1, and PBRM1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMeta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 240 loci that are associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D); however, most of these loci have been identified in analyses of individuals with European ancestry. Here, to examine T2D risk in East Asian individuals, we carried out a meta-analysis of GWAS data from 77,418 individuals with T2D and 356,122 healthy control individuals. In the main analysis, we identified 301 distinct association signals at 183 loci, and across T2D association models with and without consideration of body mass index and sex, we identified 61 loci that are newly implicated in predisposition to T2D.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present the experimental realization of a long-lived superfluid flow of a quantum gas rotating in an anharmonic potential, sustained by its own angular momentum. The gas is set into motion by rotating an elliptical deformation of the trap. An evaporation selective in angular momentum yields an acceleration of rotation until the density vanishes at the trap center, resulting in a dynamical ring with ≃350ℏ angular momentum per particle.
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