EEG-based evaluation of motion sickness and reducing sensory conflict in a simulated autonomous driving environment.

Autonomous driving offers significant potential for changes in the automotive industry. However, sensory conflict during autonomous driving can lead to motion sickness. Quantitative evaluation and effective preventions to predict and reduce motion sickness are needed.

Saturation of the mitochondrial NADH shuttles drives aerobic glycolysis in proliferating cells.

Proliferating cells exhibit a metabolic phenotype known as "aerobic glycolysis," which is characterized by an elevated rate of glucose fermentation to lactate irrespective of oxygen availability. Although several theories have been proposed, a rationalization for why proliferating cells seemingly waste glucose carbon by excreting it as lactate remains elusive. Using the NCI-60 cell lines, we determined that lactate excretion is strongly correlated with the activity of mitochondrial NADH shuttles, but not proliferation.

Procyanidin B2 ameliorates endothelial dysfunction and impaired angiogenesis via the Nrf2/PPARγ/sFlt-1 axis in preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is a severe complication of pregnancy characterised by variable degrees of placental malperfusion. A growing body of evidence indicates that soluble endoglin and soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 (sFlt-1) play important pathophysiological roles in preeclampsia, causing endothelial dysfunction, hypertension, and multiorgan injury. A drug that is safe in pregnancy and inhibits placental sFlt-1 and soluble endoglin secretion would be an attractive treatment strategy for preeclampsia.

How Height and Weight of Patients with Spinal Cord Injury Affect the Spring Locations of Unpowered Energy-stored Exoskeleton.

The paper focused on the effects of body dimensions of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) on the spring locations of unpowered energy-stored exoskeleton (ES-EXO) based on energy-stored element optimization method. The optimal spring locations and muscle activations of patients with different combinations of height and weight were simulated in AnyBody Modeling System. The spring locations of ES-EXO changed slightly with height, and the weight affected the spring locations of S and S significantly.

Effects of Ankle Joint Motion on Pelvis-Hip Biomechanics and Muscle Activity Patterns of Healthy Individuals in Knee Immobilization Gait.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the pelvis-hip biomechanics and trunk and lower limb muscle activity patterns between healthy people walking in two gaits and evaluate the effects of ankle joint motion on these two gaits. The two gaits included walking with combined knee and ankle immobilization and with individual knee immobilization. Ten healthy participants were recruited and asked to walk along a 10 m walk away at their comfortable speeds in the two gaits.

Mitochondrial fusion supports increased oxidative phosphorylation during cell proliferation.

Proliferating cells often have increased glucose consumption and lactate excretion relative to the same cells in the quiescent state, a phenomenon known as the Warburg effect. Despite an increase in glycolysis, however, here we show that non-transformed mouse fibroblasts also increase oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) by nearly two-fold and mitochondrial coupling efficiency by ~30% during proliferation. Both increases are supported by mitochondrial fusion.

B Lymphocytes Are Predictors of Insulin Resistance in Women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.

Unlabelled: Backgroud: The present study aimed to investigate the association between immune cells and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and identify a reasonable predictor of insulin resistance in women with GDM.

Objective: The clinical and biochemical characteristics of 124 women with GDM and 168 healthy pregnant women were compared.

Methods: The percentage of immune cells in the blood of the subjects was analyzed by flow cytometry.

Identifying off-target effects of etomoxir reveals that carnitine palmitoyltransferase I is essential for cancer cell proliferation independent of β-oxidation.

It has been suggested that some cancer cells rely upon fatty acid oxidation (FAO) for energy. Here we show that when FAO was reduced approximately 90% by pharmacological inhibition of carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT1) with low concentrations of etomoxir, the proliferation rate of various cancer cells was unaffected. Efforts to pharmacologically inhibit FAO more than 90% revealed that high concentrations of etomoxir (200 μM) have an off-target effect of inhibiting complex I of the electron transport chain.

The Development and Preliminary Test of a Powered Alternately Walking Exoskeleton With the Wheeled Foot for Paraplegic Patients.

Upright walking has both physical and social meanings for paraplegic patients. The main purpose of this paper is to reduce the automatic functioning of the powered exoskeleton and enable the user to fully control the walking procedure in real-time, aiming to further improve the engagement of the patient during rehabilitation training. For this prototype, a custom-made hub motor was placed at the bottom of the exoskeleton's foot, and a pair of crutches with the embedded wireless controller were utilized as the auxiliary device.

Effectiveness of an innovative hip energy storage walking orthosis for improving paraplegic walking: A pilot randomized controlled study.

Background: The high energy cost of paraplegic walking using a reciprocating gait orthosis (RGO) is attributed to limited hip motion and excessive upper limb loading for support. To address the limitation, we designed the hip energy storage walking orthosis (HESWO) which uses a spring assembly on the pelvic shell to store energy from the movements of the healthy upper limbs and flexion-extension of the lumbar spine and hip and returns this energy to lift the pelvis and lower limb to assist with the swing and stance components of a stride. Our aim was to evaluate gait and energy cost indices for the HESWO compared to the RGO in patients with paraplegia.

Trunk muscle activity patterns and motion patterns of patients with motor complete spinal cord injury at T8 and T10 walking with different un-powered exoskeletons.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore how neurological injured levels of spinal cord affect the performance of patients walking with different un-powered exoskeletons.

Study Design: Case series observational study.

Setting: Gait and Motion Analysis Laboratory at the National Research Center Rehabilitation Technical Aids.

Optimization of an unpowered energy-stored exoskeleton for patients with spinal cord injury.

The paper describes a novel unpowered energy-stored exoskeleton (ES-EXO) for spinal cord injured patients in consideration of patients' characteristics and injured levels. It proposed a method to optimize the energy-stored element to decrease the hip joint moment in walking. EMG patterns, ground reaction force and motion data from one participant with complete spinal cord injury at T10 were recorded.

Exogenous Fatty Acids Are the Preferred Source of Membrane Lipids in Proliferating Fibroblasts.

Cellular proliferation requires the formation of new membranes. It is often assumed that the lipids needed for these membranes are synthesized mostly de novo. Here, we show that proliferating fibroblasts prefer to take up palmitate from the extracellular environment over synthesizing it de novo.

Trunk muscle activity patterns in a person with spinal cord injury walking with different un-powered exoskeletons: A case study.

Objective: To investigate trunk muscle activity patterns in a person with thoracic spinal cord injury when walking with different un-powered exoskeletons, and to explore how different un-powered exoskeletons affect trunk muscle activity patterns.

Case Report: Data were recorded from a subject with complete spinal cord injury at T10, using an electromyography system on 4 pairs of trunk muscles and a motion capture system simultaneously.

Results: The participant generated large muscle force to laterally bend and rotate trunk, and swung his leg through the moments generated, not only by trunk flexion and extension, but by trunk rotation.

Peroxisome protein transportation affects metabolism of branched-chain fatty acids that critically impact growth and development of C. elegans.

The impact of specific lipid molecules, including fatty acid variants, on cellular and developmental regulation is an important research subject that remains under studied. Monomethyl branched-chain fatty acids (mmBCFAs) are commonly present in multiple organisms including mammals, however our understanding of mmBCFA functions is very limited. C.

Preliminary study on the DNA-binding properties of phage ΦC31 integrase.

ΦC31 integrase is a member of the large serine subfamily and is required for the recombination of the phage genome into the host chromosome, either to establish or exit from the lysogenic state. This enzyme can also mediate site-specific integration in mammalian cells in a cofactor-independent manner and has been considered as a potentially powerful tool for gene therapy. It has previously been reported that DAXX interacts with ΦC31 integrase and markedly inhibits its integration efficiency, and the 451RFGK454 tetramer of ΦC31 integrase has been identified as the interacting motif.

A multicenter, double-blind, randomized, controlled phase III clinical trial of chicken type II collagen in rheumatoid arthritis.

Introduction: Chicken type II collagen (CCII) is a protein extracted from the cartilage of chicken breast and exhibits intriguing possibilities for the treatment of autoimmune diseases by inducing oral tolerance. A 24-week, double-blind, double-dummy, randomized, methotrexate (MTX)-controlled study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of CCII in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: Five hundred three RA patients were included in the study.

Simulation of the ligament forces affected by prosthetic alignment in a trans-tibial amputee case study.

The aims of this study were to predict and explain the patterns of ligament forces in the stump of a left trans-tibial amputee during walking, and to study the effects of the prosthetic alignment. Musculoskeletal modeling and computer simulation were combined to calculate ligament forces. The prosthesis was aligned to be in optimal position for the subject and then changed by +/-6 degrees in the sagittal plane.

Effects of alignment on interface pressure for transtibial amputee during walking.

Purpose: To assess the mechanical behaviour at interface for unilateral transtibial amputees during walking when the prosthesis is misaligned, since studies examining interface pressure between residual limb and prosthetic socket have been restricted to unsupported stance and natural gait.

Method: One male subject with transtibial amputation volunteers for the study. Interface pressures over five sites are measured under three sagittal alignment settings.

Modeling and simulation of muscle forces of trans-tibial amputee to study effect of prosthetic alignment.

Background: The muscle forces tend to change when any musculoskeletal system is damaged. It is necessary to predict and explain the patterns of muscle forces in the stump of a left trans-tibial amputee during walking, and to study the effects of the prosthetic alignment.

Methods: Musculoskeletal modeling and computer simulation were combined to calculate muscle forces in the trans-tibial lower limb during walking.

Study of multi-freedom myoelectric prostheses with tactile sense.

This paper designs a bionic artificial hand that has a tactile sensing, two degrees of freedom, driven by surface electro-myography (SEMG). The tactile sensor applying PVDF as a sensitive material, fitted the finger of artificial hand, has a good dynamic response. The tactile sense is spread to the user by an electric shock generator.

A Study on Fitts' Law Based Gait Symmetric Evaluation and It's Clinic Application.

Symmetry, one of the prominent characters of normal human gait, could be destroyed by some special or abnormal factors such as barrier spanning, walking impediment, etc. Therefore, it becomes an important factor used to evaluate qualities and functions of walking. In this paper, the fitts' law based symmetry index calculation is introduced and its application in clinic test is also reported.

The investigation on sEMG of lower extremity when a slip occurs in level walking.

The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between the surface electromyography (sEMG) variables and slip events using principal component analysis (PCA). Ten healthy young adults were required to walk on the oily surface on a self-selected comfortable pace. The sEMG signals of lower extremity muscles were recorded and analyzed, while kinematics data was recorded to assist slip definitions.

[The research advances of biomechanics of human knee joint ligaments].

Ligaments are the main parts which stabilize the knee joint. How to analog the ligaments in biomechanical model will affect the characteristics of the human knee dynamics and in the computation of the stress in ligaments between two bones. This symposium is aimed at the survey of the simplified method of the ligaments via mechanical parameters, and providing an exact method of constructing model.