Postpartum dysglycaemia after early gestational diabetes: Follow-up of women in the TOBOGM randomised controlled trial.

Aim: To evaluate the incidence and predictors of postpartum dysglycaemia among high-risk women who develop early gestational diabetes (eGDM) prior to 20 weeks' gestation.

Methods: This is a sub-study of the Treatment of Booking Gestational Diabetes (TOBOGM) Study, a randomised controlled trial of early or deferred treatment for women with risk factors for gestational diabetes diagnosed with eGDM, using current WHO criteria. Overt diabetes in pregnancy was excluded.

Corrigendum: Impact of a tobacco sales ban on the frequency of tobacco consumption in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.18332/tid/161855.].

Biologically inspired robotic perception-action for soft fruit harvesting in vertical growing environments.

Unlabelled: Multiple interlinked factors like demographics, migration patterns, and economics are presently leading to the critical shortage of labour available for low-skilled, physically demanding tasks like soft fruit harvesting. This paper presents a biomimetic robotic solution covering the full 'Perception-Action' loop targeting harvesting of strawberries in a state-of-the-art vertical growing environment. The novelty emerges from both dealing with crop/environment variance as well as configuring the robot action system to deal with a range of runtime task constraints.

Impact of a tobacco sales ban on the frequency of tobacco consumption in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: Measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic in India included a ban on the sale and use of tobacco products during 2020 when stay at home guidance (lockdown) was in place. In this study we examined the extent of reduction in frequency of tobacco consumption across all products.

Methods: Telephone survey was conducted between July and August 2020 across an existing cohort of tobacco users (n=801) residing in Delhi (55.

Early Intensified Insulin Therapy in Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes Leads to Sustained Improvement in Glycemic Control and Improved Beta Cell Function.

Aim: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a progressive disease characterized by relentless deterioration of pancreatic β-cell function. Traditionally, insulin is used in later stages of T2DM. This study looks at use of insulin at time of diagnosis of T2DM and its effect on glycemic control and beta cell function.

Goal-Directed Reasoning and Cooperation in Robots in Shared Workspaces: an Internal Simulation Based Neural Framework.

From social dining in households to product assembly in manufacturing lines, goal-directed reasoning and cooperation with other agents in shared workspaces is a ubiquitous aspect of our day-to-day activities. Critical for such behaviours is the ability to spontaneously anticipate what is doable by oneself as well as the interacting partner based on the evolving environmental context and thereby exploit such information to engage in goal-oriented action sequences. In the setting of an industrial task where two robots are jointly assembling objects in a shared workspace, we describe a bioinspired neural architecture for goal-directed action planning based on coupled interactions between multiple internal models, primarily of the robot's body and its peripersonal space.

Social Cognition for Human-Robot Symbiosis-Challenges and Building Blocks.

The next generation of robot companions or robot working partners will need to satisfy social requirements somehow similar to the famous laws of robotics envisaged by Isaac Asimov time ago (Asimov, 1942). The necessary technology has almost reached the required level, including sensors and actuators, but the cognitive organization is still in its infancy and is only partially supported by the current understanding of brain cognitive processes. The brain of symbiotic robots will certainly not be a "positronic" replica of the human brain: probably, the greatest part of it will be a set of interacting computational processes running in the cloud.

Muscleless motor synergies and actions without movements: From motor neuroscience to cognitive robotics.

Emerging trends in neurosciences are providing converging evidence that cortical networks in predominantly motor areas are activated in several contexts related to 'action' that do not cause any overt movement. Indeed for any complex body, human or embodied robot inhabiting unstructured environments, the dual processes of shaping motor output during action execution and providing the self with information related to feasibility, consequence and understanding of potential actions (of oneself/others) must seamlessly alternate during goal-oriented behaviors, social interactions. While prominent approaches like Optimal Control, Active Inference converge on the role of forward models, they diverge on the underlying computational basis.

The continuous challenge of AF ablation: From foci to rotational activity.

Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is central to ablation approaches for atrial fibrillation (AF), yet many patients still have arrhythmia recurrence after one or more procedures despite the latest technology for PVI. Ablation of rotational or focal sources for AF, which lie outside the pulmonary veins in many patients, is a practical approach that has been shown to improve success by many groups. Localized sources lie in atrial regions shown mechanistically to sustain AF in optical mapping and clinical studies of human AF, as well as computational and animal studies.

Recurrent Post-Ablation Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation Shares Substrates With Persistent Atrial Fibrillation : An 11-Center Study.

Introduction: The role of atrial fibrillation (AF) substrates is unclear in patients with paroxysmal AF (PAF) that recurs after pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). We hypothesized that patients with recurrent post-ablation (redo) PAF despite PVI have electrical substrates marked by rotors and focal sources, and structural substrates that resemble persistent AF more than patients with (de novo) PAF at first ablation.

Methods: In 175 patients at 11 centers, we compared AF substrates in both atria using 64 pole-basket catheters and phase mapping, and indices of anatomical remodeling between patients with de novo or redo PAF and first ablation for persistent AF.

Humanoid infers Archimedes' principle: understanding physical relations and object affordances through cumulative learning experiences.

Emerging studies indicate that several species such as corvids, apes and children solve 'The Crow and the Pitcher' task (from Aesop's Fables) in diverse conditions. Hidden beneath this fascinating paradigm is a fundamental question: by cumulatively interacting with different objects, how can an agent abstract the underlying cause-effect relations to predict and creatively exploit potential affordances of novel objects in the context of sought goals? Re-enacting this Aesop's Fable task on a humanoid within an open-ended 'learning-prediction-abstraction' loop, we address this problem and (i) present a brain-guided neural framework that emulates rapid one-shot encoding of ongoing experiences into a long-term memory and (ii) propose four task-agnostic learning rules (elimination, growth, uncertainty and status quo) that correlate predictions from remembered past experiences with the unfolding present situation to gradually abstract the underlying causal relations. Driven by the proposed architecture, the ensuing robot behaviours illustrated causal learning and anticipation similar to natural agents.

Revisiting the body-schema concept in the context of whole-body postural-focal dynamics.

The body-schema concept is revisited in the context of embodied cognition, further developing the theory formulated by Marc Jeannerod that the motor system is part of a simulation network related to action, whose function is not only to shape the motor system for preparing an action (either overt or covert) but also to provide the self with information on the feasibility and the meaning of potential actions. The proposed computational formulation is based on a dynamical system approach, which is linked to an extension of the equilibrium-point hypothesis, called Passive Motor Paradigm: this dynamical system generates goal-oriented, spatio-temporal, sensorimotor patterns, integrating a direct and inverse internal model in a multi-referential framework. The purpose of such computational model is to operate at the same time as a general synergy formation machinery for planning whole-body actions in humanoid robots and/or for predicting coordinated sensory-motor patterns in human movements.

Increased IL-12 and decreased IL-33 serum levels are associated with increased Th1 and suppressed Th2 cytokine profile in patients with diabetic nephropathy (CURES-134).

The role played by recently discovered novel cytokine IL-33 in controlling T-helper (Th)1 and Th2 cytokines under conditions of diabetic nephropathy (DN) is less well studied. In the present study, we estimated the levels of IL-33 along with both Th1 and Th2 cytokines in the serum of normal glucose tolerant (NGT), diabetic subjects with (DN) or without nephropathy (DM) and correlated it with the clinical risk factors of diabetes and nephropathy. 222 study subjects were recruited from the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (CURES): 61 NGT, 79 DM and 82 DN.

A neural framework for organization and flexible utilization of episodic memory in cumulatively learning baby humanoids.

Cumulatively developing robots offer a unique opportunity to reenact the constant interplay between neural mechanisms related to learning, memory, prospection, and abstraction from the perspective of an integrated system that acts, learns, remembers, reasons, and makes mistakes. Situated within such interplay lie some of the computationally elusive and fundamental aspects of cognitive behavior: the ability to recall and flexibly exploit diverse experiences of one's past in the context of the present to realize goals, simulate the future, and keep learning further. This article is an adventurous exploration in this direction using a simple engaging scenario of how the humanoid iCub learns to construct the tallest possible stack given an arbitrary set of objects to play with.

The ITALK project: a developmental robotics approach to the study of individual, social, and linguistic learning.

This article presents results from a multidisciplinary research project on the integration and transfer of language knowledge into robots as an empirical paradigm for the study of language development in both humans and humanoid robots. Within the framework of human linguistic and cognitive development, we focus on how three central types of learning interact and co-develop: individual learning about one's own embodiment and the environment, social learning (learning from others), and learning of linguistic capability. Our primary concern is how these capabilities can scaffold each other's development in a continuous feedback cycle as their interactions yield increasingly sophisticated competencies in the agent's capacity to interact with others and manipulate its world.

A biomimetic framework for coordinating and controlling whole body movements in humanoid robots.

An integrated model for the coordination of whole body movements of a humanoid robot with a compliant ankle similar to the human case is described. It includes a synergy formation part, which takes into account the motor redundancy of the body model, and an intermittent controller, which stabilizes in a robust way postural sway movements, thus combining the hip strategy with ankle strategy.

Analysis & commentary: Global prevention and control of type 2 diabetes will require paradigm shifts in policies within and among countries.

Continued increases in the prevalence of and disproportionate health spending associated with type 2 diabetes argue for policies focused on preventing that condition and treating it appropriately, even as we strive to improve coordination of care for coexisting chronic diseases. This article argues that four policy paradigm shifts will be necessary to achieve that specific emphasis on type 2 diabetes: conceptually integrating primary and secondary prevention along a clinical continuum; recognizing the central importance of early detection of prediabetes and undiagnosed diabetes in implementing cost-effective prevention and control; integrating community and clinical expertise, and resources, within organized and affordable service delivery systems; and sharing and adopting evidence-based policies at the global level.

Passive motion paradigm: an alternative to optimal control.

IN THE LAST YEARS, OPTIMAL CONTROL THEORY (OCT) HAS EMERGED AS THE LEADING APPROACH FOR INVESTIGATING NEURAL CONTROL OF MOVEMENT AND MOTOR COGNITION FOR TWO COMPLEMENTARY RESEARCH LINES: behavioral neuroscience and humanoid robotics. In both cases, there are general problems that need to be addressed, such as the "degrees of freedom (DoFs) problem," the common core of production, observation, reasoning, and learning of "actions." OCT, directly derived from engineering design techniques of control systems quantifies task goals as "cost functions" and uses the sophisticated formal tools of optimal control to obtain desired behavior (and predictions).

Decreased prevalence of lymphatic filariasis among subjects with type-1 diabetes.

Several animal studies have shown a protective effect of helminth infections against type-1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). However, epidemiologic studies demonstrating this protective relationship with T1DM are largely lacking, although an inverse correlation between the prevalence of lymphatic filariasis (LF) and prevalence of allergies and autoimmunity has been shown. A cross-sectional study was undertaken in southern India to assess the baseline prevalence of seropositivity of LF among persons with T1DM (n = 200) and normal glucose tolerant (NGT) persons (n = 562).

Association of cystatin-C with metabolic syndrome in normal glucose-tolerant subjects (CURES-97).

Background: This study looked at the association of cystatin-C (cys-C) with severity of metabolic syndrome in Asian Indians.

Methods: Five sets of normal glucose tolerance subjects were recruited from the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (CURES), a population-based study in southern India: 43 subjects with no metabolic risk factors, 44 subjects with one metabolic risk factor, 37 subjects with two risk factors, 40 subjects with three risk factors, and 40 subjects with four or five metabolic risk factors. Metabolic syndrome was defined using National Cholesterol Education Program criteria for adults modified for waist measured using the World Health Organization Asia Pacific guidelines.

Risk factors for microvascular complications of diabetes among South Indian subjects with type 2 diabetes--the Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (CURES) Eye Study-5.

Background: This study assessed the relationship between and risk factors for microvascular complications of diabetes in an urban South Indian type 2 diabetes population.

Methods: Subjects with diabetes (n = 1,736) were selected from the population-based Chennai Urban Rural Epidemiology Study (CURES) Eye Study conducted on a representative population of Chennai city in south India. Four-field stereo retinal color photography was done, and diabetic retinopathy (DR) was classified according to the Early Treatment DR Study grading system.

Diabetes prevalence and its risk factors in urban Pondicherry.

The present study was conducted in the Urban Health centre, Muthialpet, Pondicherry covering a population of 40000 from July to October 2007 by using a predesigned and pretested proforma to find out the risk of diabetes in general population by using Indian Diabetes Risk Score. A total of 616 respondents were studied comprising 325(53%) females and 290(47%) males. Majority 518(85%) were Hindus.

Prevalence of diagnosed diabetes in an urban area of Puducherry, India: Time for preventive action.

Background: Epidemiological studies in India have shown that the prevalence of diabetes in the population is at least twice the number of persons diagnosed with diabetes residing in the given area. Similarly, community-based prevalence figures are unavailable in Puducherry,.

Aims: The aim of this study was to estimate the number of persons diagnosed with diabetes mellitus in Puducherry.

A neural mechanism of synergy formation for whole body reaching.

The present study proposes a computational model for the formation of whole body reaching synergy, i.e., coordinated movements of lower and upper limbs, characterized by a focal component (the hand must reach a target) and a postural component (the center of mass must remain inside the support base).