Neuromuscular Stimulation as an Intervention Tool for Recovery from Upper Limb Paresis after Stroke and the Neural Basis

Neuromodulators at the periphery, such as neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), have been developed as add-on tools to regain upper extremity (UE) paresis after stroke, but this recovery has often been limited. To overcome these limits, novel strategies to enhance neural reorganization and functional recovery are needed. This review aims to discuss possible strategies for enhancing the benefits of NMES. To date, NMES studies have involved some therapeutic concerns that have been addressed under various conditions, such as the time of post-stroke and stroke severity and/or with heterogeneous stimulation parameters, such as target muscles, doses or durations of treatment and outcome measures. We began by identifying factors sensitive to NMES benefits among heterogeneous conditions and parameters, based on the “progress rate (PR)”, defined as the gains in UE function scores per intervention duration. Our analysis disclosed that the benefits might be affected by the target muscles, stroke severity and time period after stroke. Likewise, repetitive peripheral neuromuscular magnetic stimulation (rPMS) is expected to facilitate motor recovery, as already demonstrated by a successful study. In parallel, our efforts should be devoted to further understanding the precise neural mechanism of how neuromodulators make UE function recovery occur, thereby leading to overcoming the limits. In this study, we discuss the possible neural mechanisms.

Myles Brand’s Philosophy of the Value of Intercollegiate Athletics: A Collaborative Effort and the Perspective of Two Black Males on Educational Achievement at the NCAA

The value of intercollegiate athletics in universities has increased since Dr. Myles Brand’s presidency. Brand believed strongly in the integrated view of education and sport. This paper follows the emergence and value of the personal narrative by two African American males working together within the structural forces of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), higher education, and intercollegiate athletics. The personal narrative collaborative effort occurred in the early stages of the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate movement during Brand’s leadership decision to harmonize education and sport. The personal narrative structure focuses on one of Brand’s major initiatives: improving academic standards. One culturally relevant program that resulted in a collaborative moment during Brand’s leadership tenure will be the focus of this paper, as well as the potential contributions to theory and practice.

A Comprehensive Review on Power Efficient Fault Tolerance Models in High Performance Computation Systems

For the purpose of high performance computation, several machines are developed at an exascale level. These machines can perform at least one exaflop calculations per second, which corresponds to a billion billon or 108. The universe and nature can be understood in a better manner while addressing certain challenging computational issues by using these machines. However, certain obstacles are faced by these machines. As huge quantity of components is encompassed in the exascale machines, frequent failure may be experienced and also the resilience may be challenging. High progress rate must be maintained for the applications by incorporating certain form of fault tolerance in the system. Power management has to be performed by incorporating the system in a parallel manner. All layers inclusive of fault tolerance layer must adhere to the power limitation in the system. Huge energy bills may be expected on installation of exascale machines due to the high power consumption. For various fault tolerance models, the energy profile must be analyzed. Parallel recovery, message-logging, and restart or checkpoint fault tolerance models for rollback recovery are evaluated in this paper. For execution with failure, the most energy efficient solution is provided by parallel recovery when programs with various programming models are used. The execution is performed faster with parallel recovery when compared to the other techniques. An analytical model is used for exploring these models and their behavior at extreme scales.

Effect of Plant Age, Temperature and Vector Load on ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’ in planta titer and Shoot Proliferation Symptoms in Carrot

A decade ago, shoot proliferation symptoms (witches’ broom) in carrots were believed to be the cause of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma’ and/or Spiroplasma infection, yet in recent years, this association appeared to have weakened and a closer association was found with the yet-unculturable, psyllid-transmitted Gram-negative bacterium, ‘Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum’. In Israel, carrots are grown throughout the year, yet shoot proliferation symptoms tend to appear only in mature plants and mostly during late spring to early summer. We hypothesized that factors such as plant age, temperature and vector load, which vary along the year, have a critical effect on symptoms development and set to examine these factors under controlled conditions. Here we show that young carrot seedlings are as prone as older plants, to develop shoot proliferation symptoms, following ‘Ca. L. solanacearum’ inoculation. Surprisingly, we found that the local ‘Ca. L. solanacearum’ haplotype was extremely sensitive to constant temperature of 30˚C, which led to a significant reduction in bacterial growth and symptoms development, compared with 18˚C which was very conducive for symptoms development. We have also found that inoculations with 10 or 20 psyllids per plant results in faster symptoms development compared with inoculations with 2 psyllids per plant, however, the disease progress rate was insignificant among the different vector loads. These data provide important insight to the effects of plant age, temperature and vector load on ‘Ca. L. solanacearum’ and its associated symptoms and strengthen the notion that ‘Ca. L. solanacearum’ is the main responsible agent for carrot witches broom in Israel.

Association among pterygium, cataracts, and cumulative ocular ultraviolet exposure: A cross-sectional study in Han people in China and Taiwan

Purpose Pterygium is an ocular surface disorder mainly caused by ultraviolet (UV) light exposure. This study explored the relationships between six cataract types with pterygium and UV exposure. Methods We have previously studied cataracts in residents of three regions in China and Taiwan with different UV intensities. From that study, we identified 1,547 subjects with information on the presence or absence of pterygium. Pterygium severity was graded by corneal progress rate. Cataracts were graded by classification systems as three main types (cortical, nuclear, posterior subcapsular) and three subtypes (retrodots, waterclefts, fiber folds) with high prevalence in middle-aged and elderly people. We calculated the cumulative ocular UV exposure (COUV) based on subject data and National Aeronautics and Space Administration data on UV intensities and used logistic regression to calculate odds ratios for the associations of COUV, cataract, and pterygium. Results We found an overall pterygium prevalence of 23.3%, with significant variation among the three regions. Four cataract types (cortical, nuclear, posterior subcapsular, and retrodots) were significantly associated with the presence of pterygium. Conclusions There was a significant association between COUV and pterygium, indicating that COUV is associated with the risk of pterygium development and that pterygium is useful as an index of UV exposure. Furthermore, the type of cataract in eyes with pterygium may indicate the level of UV exposure.

Twinning Project between the Japanese Midwives Association and Mongolian Midwives Association for Organisational Strengthening as Shown by MACAT

BackgroundThe Japanese Midwives Association (JMA) collaborated with the Mongolian Midwives Association (MMA) on the twinning project under the guidance of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of the organisational strengthening of the MMA through the twinning project with the JMA. ICM’s Member Association Capacity Assessment Tool (MACAT) was used as an indicator of MMA’s organisational strengthening—first in the year 2015 and then at the end of 2018—for a comparative analysis. For a comprehensive evaluation, qualitative interviews were conducted with the board members and general members of the MMA in 2018, and the results were compared with the issues identified during the first visit to MMA in 2014. ResultsIn 2015, 27 (28.1%) of the 96 MACAT items were achieved, while in 2018, 66 items (68.8%) were achieved. The average progress rate was 40.7%. Items with a high progress rate corresponded to: Governance (50.0%), Management Practices and Leadership (50.0%), Functions (43.8%), and Financial Resource Management (37.5%). Four themes emerged from the interviews: Professional identity, Strengthening midwifery services, Advocacy for midwives, and Recognition of midwives as autonomous professionals.ConclusionsThe organisational strengthening of the MMA through the twinning project resulted in more positive outcomes than expected. These outcomes were apparent from the evaluation of the MACAT items and the opinions and impressions of the MMA members, as elicited through the qualitative interviews. The MACAT was selected as an easy-to-understand index. However, instead of following the concept of ‘equal participation on the ground level’, a mentorship approach was adopted in line with the concept of equity. Equity and a mentorship approach can serve as key variables of success in international co-operation.

Double-Stranded RNA Targeting Dicer-Like Genes Compromises the Pathogenicity of Plasmopara viticola on Grapevine

Downy mildew caused by Plasmopara viticola is one of the most devastating diseases of grapevine, attacking all green parts of the plant. The damage is severe when the infection at flowering stage is left uncontrolled. P. viticola management consumes a significant amount of classical pesticides applied in vineyards, requiring efficient and environmentally safe disease management options. Spray-induced gene silencing (SIGS), through the application of exogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), has shown promising results for the management of diseases in crops. Here, we developed and tested the potential of dsRNA targeting P. viticola Dicer-like (DCL) genes for SIGS-based crop protection strategy. The exogenous application of PvDCL1/2 dsRNA, a chimera of PvDCL1 and PvDCL2, highly affected the virulence of P. viticola. The reduced expression level of PvDCL1 and PvDCL2 transcripts in infected leaves, treated with PvDCL1/2 dsRNA, was an indication of an active RNA interference mechanism inside the pathogen to compromise its virulence. Besides the protective property, the PvDCL1/2 dsRNA also exhibited a curative role by reducing the disease progress rate of already established infection. Our data provide a promising future for PvDCL1/2 dsRNA as a new generation of RNA-based resistant plants or RNA-based agrochemical for the management of downy mildew disease in grapevine.

Weevil Borers Affect the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Banana Fusarium Wilt

Dispersal of propagules of a pathogen has remarkable effects on the development of epidemics. Previous studies suggested that insect pests play a role in the development of Fusarium wilt (FW) epidemics in banana fields. We provided complementary evidence for the involvement of two insect pests of banana, the weevil borer (Cosmopolites sordidus L., WB) and the false weevil borer (Metamasius hemipterus L., FWB), in the dispersal of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) using a comparative epidemiology approach under field conditions. Two banana plots located in a field with historical records of FW epidemics were used; one was managed with Beauveria bassiana to reduce the population of weevils, and the other was left without B. bassiana applications. The number of WB and FWB was monitored biweekly and the FW incidence was quantified bimonthly during two years. The population of WB and the incidence (6.7%) of FW in the plot managed with B. bassiana were lower than in the plot left unmanaged (13%). The monomolecular model best fitted the FW disease progress data, and as expected, the average estimated disease progress rate was lower in the plot managed with the entomopathogenic fungus (r = 0.002) compared to the unmanaged plot (r = 0.006). Aggregation of FW was higher in the field with WB management. WB affected the spatial and temporal dynamics of FW epidemics under field conditions. Management of the insects may reduce yield loss due to FW.

Weevil borers affect the spatio-temporal dynamics of banana Fusarium wilt

Dispersal of propagules of a pathogen has remarkable effects on the development of epidemics. Previous studies suggested that insect pests play a role in the development of Fusarium wilt (FW) epidemics in banana fields. We provided complementary evidence for the involvement of two insect pests of banana, the weevil borer (Cosmopolites sordidus L. - WB) and the false weevil borer (Metamasius hemipterus L. - FWB), in the dispersal of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) using a comparative epidemiology approach under field conditions. Two banana plots located in a field with historical records of FW epidemics were used, one was managed with Beauveria bassiana to reduce the population of weevils, and the other was left without B. bassiana applications. The number of WB and FWB was monitored biweekly and the FW incidence was quantified bimonthly during two years. The population of WB and the incidence (6.7%) of FW in the plot managed with B. bassiana were lower than in the plot left unmanaged (13%). The monomolecular model best fitted the FW disease progress data and, as expected, the average estimated disease progress rate was lower in the plot managed with the entomopathogenic fungus (r = 0.0024) compared to the unmanaged plot (r = 0.0056). Aggregation of FW was higher in the field with WB management. WB affected the spatial and temporal dynamics of FW epidemics under field conditions and brought evidence that managing the insects may reduce FW of bananas intensity.

Susceptibility of fungi, mainly chocolate spot (Botrytis fabae sard.), to gamma irradiation in the faba bean crop (Vicia faba l.)

Fungi causeconsiderable losses in the faba bean crop in many regions of the world. The aim of the current research was to evaluate the susceptibility of faba bean to fungi, mainly chocolate spot, and its effect on yield, using seeds exposed to gamma irradiation. Faba bean seeds were cultivated in three regions: Hidalgo, Puebla and Tlaxcala, Mexico; the seeds were irradiated with a dose rate of 4.90 Gy·min-1using a Gammacell 220 irradiator. The irradiation doseswere 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 160, 250 and 350 Gy of gamma rays with 60Co radioisotopes. The irradiated seeds showed acceptablegermination (75.70 %)without visible damages,and survival was 53.62 % until 118 days after sowing. When unirradiated seed was used, the susceptibility of the crop could reach 60 % and the disease severity up to 34 %, with a disease progress rate of 0.006 units·day-1. The 40 Gy dose offered the best response to control the disease; up to 58.80 g of dry weight was obtained for every 100 seeds and a production of 4,442 kg·ha-1. In faba bean crop, up to 77 % of the variation in yield was due toseverity of fungi, mainlythe chocolate spot.