Grasping at ‘thin air’: multimodal contact cues for reaching and grasping

Two experiments investigated the effects of haptic, auditory and graphic contact cues on reaching to grasp augmented objects (physical and graphic) and virtual objects (graphic only) of various sizes. In Experiment 1, auditory contact cues were presented either to enhance or to replace natural haptic contact cues in grasping. In Experiment 2, graphic contact cues were presented alone or in combination with auditory cues, and were provided either to enhance or to replace haptic contact information. Visual information of the hand was not available. Experiment 1 showed that enhancing haptic contact information with redundant auditory cues (augmented object) led to faster movement times than haptic cues alone. When haptic information was not available (virtual object), it could be replaced to some extent by auditory contact cues. In Experiment 2 movement times were fastest when both auditory and graphic cues were provided, and slowest when no contact cues were provided. Further, movement times were scaled to target width when reaching to grasp augmented objects, thus following Fitts’ law. In contrast, movement times showed a less pronounced decrease with increasing object size for virtual objects. However, even in the absence of haptic information, movement times showed a more pronounced scaling to object size when auditory contact cues were provided. These results emphasize the importance of contact information, especially haptic and auditory information, for planning and control of reaching and grasping.     

The impact of breathing motion versus heterogeneity effects in lung cancer treatment planning

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of tissue heterogeneity and breathing-induced motion/deformation on conformal treatment planning for pulmonary tumors and to compare the magnitude and the clinical importance of changes induced by these effects. Treatment planning scans were acquired at normal exhale/inhale breathing states for fifteen patients. The internal target volume (ITV) was defined as the union of exhale and inhale gross tumor volumes uniformly expanded by 5 mm. Anterior/posterior opposed beams (AP/PA) and three-dimensional (3D)-conformal plans were designed using the unit-density exhale ("static") dataset. These plans were further used to calculate (a) density-corrected ("heterogeneous") static dose and (b) heterogeneous cumulative dose, including breathing deformations. The DPM Monte Carlo code was used for dose computations. For larger than coin-sized tumors, relative to unit-density plans, tumor and lung doses increased in the heterogeneity-corrected plans. In comparing cumulative and static plans, larger normal tissue complication probability changes were observed for tumors with larger motion amplitudes and uncompensated breathing-induced hot/cold spots in lung. Accounting for tissue heterogeneity resulted in average increases of 9% and 7% in mean lung dose (MLD) for the 6 MV and 15 MV photon beams, respectively. Breathing-induced effects resulted in approximately 1% and 2% average decreases in MLD from the static value, for the 6 and 15 MV photon beams, respectively. The magnitude of these effects was not found to correlate with the treatment plan technique, i.e., AP/PA versus 3D-CRT. Given a properly designed ITV, tissue heterogeneity effects are likely to have a larger clinical significance on tumor and normal lung treatment evaluation metrics than four-dimensional respiratory-induced changes.     

Mapping air pollutants at municipality level in Italy and Spain in support to health impact evaluations

A growing health concern, due to poor air quality, recently led to an increased number of studies regarding air pollution effects on public health. Consequently, close attention is paid to estimation methods of exposure to atmospheric pollutants. This paper aims to meet a specific requirement of epidemiological researchers, that is providing annual air pollution maps at municipality scale for health impact assessment purposes on national basis. Firstly, data fusion through kriging with external drift is implemented, combining pollution data from two different sources, models and measurements, in order to improve the spatial distribution of surface concentrations at grid level. Then, the assimilated data of air pollution are upscaled, so as to obtain concentrations at municipality level. This methodology was applied to Italy and Spain (in Spain, only the second step was carried out since the modeled concentration already included an assimilation procedure). In both countries, for each municipality, an estimate of the concentration value for atmospheric pollutants of major concern for human health (PM₁₀ and NO₂) was provided, offering more relevant information from a surveillance point of view.     

Cultural animation in health research: An innovative methodology for patient and public involvement and engagement

Background

A significant challenge in Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) in health research is to include a wide range of opinions and experiences, including from those who repeatedly find themselves at the margins of society.

Objective

To contribute to the debate around PPIE by introducing a bottom‐up methodology: cultural animation (CA). Cultural Animation is an arts‐based methodology of knowledge co‐production and community engagement which employs a variety of creative and participatory exercises to help build trusting relationships between diverse participants (expert and non‐experts) and democratize the process of research.

Design

Three CA full‐day workshops for the research project “A Picture of Health.”

Participants

Each workshop was attended by 20‐25 participants including 4 academics, 5 retired health professionals who volunteered in the local community and 15 community members. Participants ranged in age from 25 to 75 years, and 80% of the participants were women over the age of 60.

Results

The CA workshops unearthed a diversity of hidden assets, increased human connectivity, led to rethinking of and co‐creating new health indicators and enabled participants to think of community health in a positive way and to consider what can be developed.

Discussion

Cultural animation encourages participants to imagine and create ideal pictures of health by experimenting with new ways of working together.

Conclusion

We conclude by highlighting the main advantages to PPIE as follows: CA provides a route to co‐produce research agendas, empowers the public to engage actively with health professionals and make a positive contribution to their community.     

Synthesis of isotope‐labeled HSP90 inhibitor: [13CD3] and [14C]‐TAK‐459

[¹³CD₃]‐TAK‐459 (1A), an HSP90 inhibitor, was synthesized from [¹³CD₃]‐sodium methoxide in three steps in an overall yield of 29%. The key intermediate [¹³CD₃]‐2‐methoxy‐6‐(4,4,5,5‐tetramethyl‐1,3,2‐dioxaborolan‐2‐yl)pyridine was synthesized in two steps from 2,6‐dibromopyridine and stable isotope‐labeled sodium methoxide. [¹⁴C]‐TAK‐459 (1B) was synthesized from [¹⁴C(U)]‐guanidine hydrochloride in five steps in an overall radiochemical yield of 5.4%. The key intermediate, [¹⁴C]‐(R)‐2‐amino‐7‐(2‐bromo‐4‐fluorophenyl)‐4‐methyl‐7,8‐dihydropyrido[4,3‐d]pyrimidin‐5(6H)‐one, was prepared by microwave‐assisted condensation.     

Molecular Interactions between Saliva and Dental Composites Resins: A Way Forward

Dentin and enamel loss related to trauma or especially caries is one of the most common pathological issues in dentistry that requires restoration of the teeth by using materials with appropriate properties. The composite resins represent dental materials with significant importance in today’s dentistry, presenting important qualities, including their mechanical behavior and excellent aesthetics. This paper focuses on the saliva interactions with these materials and on their biocompatibility, which is continuously improved in the new generations of resin-based composites. Starting from the elements involved on the molecular landscape of the dental caries process, the paper presents certain strategies for obtaining more advanced new dental composite resins, as follows: suppression of oral biofilm acids formation, promotion of remineralization process, counteraction of the proteolytic attack, and avoidance of cytotoxic effects; the relation between dental composite resins and salivary oxidative stress biomarkers is also presented in this context.     

Hard Dental Tissues Regeneration—Approaches and Challenges

With the development of the modern concept of tissue engineering approach and the discovery of the potential of stem cells in dentistry, the regeneration of hard dental tissues has become a reality and a priority of modern dentistry. The present review reports the recent advances on stem-cell based regeneration strategies for hard dental tissues and analyze the feasibility of stem cells and of growth factors in scaffolds-based or scaffold-free approaches in inducing the regeneration of either the whole tooth or only of its component structures.     

The p38 MAPK inhibitor, SB203580, abrogates ischaemic preconditioning in rat heart but timing of administration is critical

There is debate concerning the involvement of p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) in the mediation of ischaemic preconditioning. Pharmacological inhibition of p38 MAPK with SB203580 has been reported to block preconditioning in some studies but not in others. We hypothesised that this divergence could be due to differences in the timing of inhibitor administration. Isolated rat hearts were perfused in the Langendorff mode and subjected to 35 min regional ischaemia followed by 120 min reperfusion. Hearts were then double stained with Evans' blue and triphenyltetrazolium chloride to determine risk (R) and infarct zones (I), expressed as I/R% ratios. Preconditioned hearts were subjected to 2 times 5 min global ischaemia with 10 min intervening reperfusion. SB203580 10 μ M was perfused either during the preconditioning protocol (PC+SB-early), just prior to and during the first 15 min of the lethal ischaemia (PC+SB-late) or prior to regional ischaemia in the absence of preconditioning. Ischaemic preconditioning significantly limited infarct size (I/R 38.9 ± 3.0% in control vs 13.4 ± 2.4%, P < 0.01). In the PC+SB-early group, preconditioning was still fully protective (I/R% 14.6 ± 1.0). However, in the PC+SB-late group, SB203580 completely blocked the protection afforded by preconditioning (I/R% 33.6 ± 4.4%, P < 0.01 vs 13.4 ± 2.4% in preconditioned hearts, p < 0.05). SB203580 alone did not affect infarct size when given prior to and during regional ischaemia (I/R 36.2 ± 2.7%). These histological data are corroborated by a significant increase in p38 MAPK activation in the preconditioned hearts during sustained ischaemia in comparison with the controls. In conclusion the activation of p38 MAPK during lethal ischaemia, but not during the ischaemic preconditioning protocol, is essential for the mediation of protection and may resolve some of the earlier controversy surrounding the use of SB203580 in preconditioning studies. Received: 28 June 2000, Returned for revision: 21 July 2000, Revision received: 9 August 2000, Accepted: 13 September 2000