scholarly journals Connectomics of Bone to Brain—Probing Physical Renderings of Cellular Experience

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa L. Knothe Tate ◽  
Abhilash Srikantha ◽  
Christian Wojek ◽  
Dirk Zeidler

“Brainless” cells, the living constituents inhabiting all biological materials, exhibit remarkably smart, i.e., stimuli-responsive and adaptive, behavior. The emergent spatial and temporal patterns of adaptation, observed as changes in cellular connectivity and tissue remodeling by cells, underpin neuroplasticity, muscle memory, immunological imprinting, and sentience itself, in diverse physiological systems from brain to bone. Connectomics addresses the direct connectivity of cells and cells’ adaptation to dynamic environments through manufacture of extracellular matrix, forming tissues and architectures comprising interacting organs and systems of organisms. There is imperative to understand the physical renderings of cellular experience throughout life, from the time of emergence, to growth, adaptation and aging-associated degeneration of tissues. Here we address this need through development of technological approaches that incorporate cross length scale (nm to m) structural data, acquired via multibeam scanning electron microscopy, with machine learning and information transfer using network modeling approaches. This pilot case study uses cutting edge imaging methods for nano- to meso-scale study of cellular inhabitants within human hip tissue resected during the normal course of hip replacement surgery. We discuss the technical approach and workflow and identify the resulting opportunities as well as pitfalls to avoid, delineating a path for cellular connectomics studies in diverse tissue/organ environments and their interactions within organisms and across species. Finally, we discuss the implications of the outlined approach for neuromechanics and the control of physical behavior and neuromuscular training.

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Camillo ◽  
Stuart B. Goodman ◽  
Patricia Thompson ◽  
Susanna Nemeth Imrie

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanny Goude ◽  
Sverre A. C. Kittelsen ◽  
Henrik Malchau ◽  
Maziar Mohaddes ◽  
Clas Rehnberg

Abstract Background Competition-promoting reforms and economic incentives are increasingly being introduced worldwide to improve the performance of healthcare delivery. This study considers such a reform which was initiated in 2009 for elective hip replacement surgery in Stockholm, Sweden. The reform involved patient choice of provider, free establishment of new providers and a bundled payment model. The study aimed to examine its effects on hip replacement surgery quality as captured by patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) of health gain (as indicated by the EQ-5D index and a visual analogue scale (VAS)), pain reduction (VAS) and patient satisfaction (VAS) one and six years after the surgery. Methods Using patient-level data collected from multiple national registers, we applied a quasi-experimental research design. Data were collected for elective primary total hip replacements that were carried out between 2008 and 2012, and contain information on patient demography, the surgery and PROMs at baseline and at one- and six-years follow-up. In total, 36,627 observations were included in the analysis. First, entropy balancing was applied in order to reduce differences in observable characteristics between treatment groups. Second, difference-in-difference analyses were conducted to eliminate unobserved time-invariant differences between treatment groups and to estimate the causal treatment effects. Results The entropy balancing was successful in creating balance in all covariates between treatment groups. No significant effects of the reform were found on any of the included PROMs at one- and six-years follow-up. The sensitivity analyses showed that the results were robust. Conclusions Competition and bundled payment had no effects on the quality of hip replacement surgery as captured by post-surgery PROMs of health gain, pain reduction and patient satisfaction. The study provides important insights to the limited knowledge on the effects of competition and economic incentives on PROMs.


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