Role of Physiological Resilience in Aging: Challenges and Opportunities

Lifespan and healthspan remain a cornerstone of documenting efficacy in aging research. However, it is becoming increasingly appreciated that housing rodents in conventional, unprovoked conditions, rather than exposed to the same variety of stressors normally encountered by free-living humans, has limited our understanding of how these strategies can be translated. Resilience can be defined as the ability of an organism to respond to a physical challenge or stress and return to homeostasis. Indeed, physiologic resilience is recognized to decline with age from a weakening of interactions among multiple physiologic regulatory functions. Here, we have attempted to optimize stress assays as a means of measuring physiologic resilience in mice. Our data demonstrate that these assays can readily detect age-related deficits in recovery, are amendable to geroprotector strategies, including rapamycin, while acute exposure to a stress can accelerate aging and mortality, thereby serving as a potentially useful paradigm for testing age-delaying interventions.

LAP1 regulates nuclear plasticity to enable constrained migration

Metastatic spread involves the dissemination of cancer cells from a primary tumour and their colonisation of distal sites. During this process, cancer cells must negotiate multiple physical constraints imposed by the microenvironment and tissue structure, and the biophysical properties of the nucleus place a physical challenge on this form of migration. By analysing nuclear genes upregulated during the acquisition of metastatic potential, we discovered increased expression of the inner nuclear membrane protein LAP1 in metastatic cell lines and at the leading edge of human primary tumours and in metastatic lesions. Human cells express two LAP1 isoforms (LAP1B and LAP1C), which differ in their amino terminus. We found that the longer isoform, LAP1B, binds more strongly to nuclear lamins and enhances nuclear mechanocoupling, whilst the shorter isoform, LAP1C, favours nuclear envelope blebbing and permits migration through physical constraints. Thus, we propose that LAP1B and LAP1C act together to support a permissive nucleus which overcomes the physical constraints that cancer cells face during metastatic spread.

How Reality TV Demands the Body. Eliciting and Exploiting Emotions in the Staging of Self-Overcoming in Germany’s Next Top Model

In reality TV, the eliciting of emotions and physical expressions and displays is a key strategy to authenticate represented behavior. We follow a multimodal approach to analyze the eliciting of participants’ body reactions and the exploiting of provoked emotions in the German reality show Germany’s Next Top Model. Here, controllable and staged working situations, such as a catwalk in high altitude, become a mental or physical challenge for the contestants. These challenges trigger uncontrollable affective momentum as the participants must overcome their physical and mental resistance to master the task. We analyze how physical representations are elicited, exploited and applied stage believable images of self-overcoming. The real challenge for the contestant is to regain control of her body and to overcome her fear. Within the staging of authenticity, this illustrates that and how bodily expressions are used to verify mediated events regarding a “claim to ‘the real’”. The success of the contestants in Germany’s Next Topmodel and the appeal of the show both highly depend on whether and how the representation of the evoked self-overcoming appears as credible. To achieve this, the proper staging of elicited emotions and corresponding bodily displays is crucial.

Waiter Robots Conveying Drinks

Robots have been reportedly seen serving food in several restaurants in many parts of the world. New ventures have been deploying mechanical partners which promote the growth in service robotics. However, robots are considerably incompetent when it comes to beverage and soup delivery. The physical challenge behind the clumsy motion of these machines is found to be its jerky motion control. Jerk control solutions are widely studied in a constrained environment but not well introduced in dynamic environments. In this paper, we will begin by examining developed kinematics solutions, open-source packages from Robot Operating System and the constraints of motion planning. The proposed solution in this paper provides a quick system response with jerk limits using spline velocity profiles. The solution will introduce the concepts of a state machine design that enables the robot to behave and move reactively; effectively balancing its desired velocity and position without spilling a drop of customer satisfaction. Experiments have proven that robots can move at higher velocity without any crashing, spilling, or docking issues. The smooth velocity control proposed will improve the capabilities of waiter robot and service operations in restaurants.

That dog won’t fit: body size awareness in dogs

With very few exceptions, no coherent model of representing the self exists for nonhuman species. According to our hypothesis, understanding of the Self as an object’ can also be found in a wide range of animals including the dog, a fast-moving terrestrial predator/scavenger, with highly developed senses and complex cognitive capacity. We tested companion dogs in three experiments in which they faced three different variations of the same physical challenge: passing through an opening in a wall. We predicted that if dogs are capable of representing their own body size, they will react differently when faced with adequate or too small openings. We found that dogs started to move towards and approached the too small openings with significantly longer latencies than the suitable ones; and upon reaching it, they did not try to get through the too small openings. In another experiment, the medium-size (still large enough) opening was approached with latencies that fell between the latencies measured in the cases of the very large or the too small openings. Having discussed the potential underlying mechanisms, we concluded that our results convincingly assume that dogs can represent their own body size in novel contexts.

EMERGING ANTI-INFLAMMATORY POTENTIALS OF SOME NOVEL SCHIFF’S BASE DERIVATIVES OF 3, 4- DIOXYMETHYLENE ACETOPHENONE

Inflammation represents a physical challenge to the human by offering acute pain, edema, redness, and bodily discomfort. Thearea of drug discovery is a continuous process for designing and fabricating better non-steroidal anti-inflammation drugs (NSAIDs). However,they suffer from abundant side-effects such as bleeding in GIT, stomach pain, heartburn, etc. Objective: Based on the path of new drugdiscovery, the present investigation aimed at exploration of anti-inflammatory potential of two Schiff’s base containing 3, 4-dioxymethylenebased compounds. Materials and Methods: (Z)-4-(2-aminoethyl)-N-(1-(benzo[d][1,3]dioxol-5-yl)ethylidene)aniline (3) (at 100 mg/kg b.w.) and(Z)-N-(1-(benzo[d][1,3]dioxol-5-yl)ethylidene)-4-(2-(methylamino)ethyl)aniline (5) (at 100 mg/kg b.w.) were screened for edema reducingpotentials using carrageenan-induced paw edema method with comparison to the standard drug indomethacin (at 10 mg/kg b.w.). Results andDiscussion: The molecule (3) exhibited % edema reduction of 14.88%, 27.64%, and 38.24%, respectively at 1 hr, 2 hr, and 3 hr. The compound(5) demonstrated % edema reduction of 20.53%, 31.49%, and 44.13%, respectively at first hr, second hr, and third hr. The synthesized Schiff’sbase molecules expressed noteworthy activity as compared to indomethacin (standard drug). Conclusion: The present research represented theimportance of Schiff’s base containing 3,4-dioxymethylene hybrid compounds and will open new avenues in pharmacotherapeutics. The studywill also motivate the researchers across the globe in developing still better molecules with better therapeutic index.

Preventing Firefighter Injuries When Handling Obsese Patients: Understanding the Patient Handling Scenarios

Karter and Molis(2014), in their recent analysis of fire service injuries, noted that overall the number of injuries experienced by firefighters has been declining over the past 20 years. Yet, in 2013 there were still an estimated 65,880 injuries; 12,535 of these injuries occurred during non-fire emergencies. From 1981 to 2013, the number of non-fire injuries increased by 31 percent, largely due to nearly a tripling in the number of non-fire response calls received. Injury risks associated with patient-handling are compounded by the obesity epidemic in the US. About one-third of American adults are now overweight (25<BMI<29.9), and another third are obese (BMI >=30) (NCHS, 2012). Given the obesity epidemic in this country, more and more of these calls are servicing overweight and obese individuals. In addition to weight, body shape and medical conditions that heighten pain or limit mobility contribute to the physical challenge of handling obese patients (Crowley and Leggett, 2010). The larger goal of this research effort is to develop control measures that are perceived by firefighters to be useful, usable, and desirable. The first step in this process requires a better understanding of the scenarios in which heavy patients are handled. The scope of this this project focused on the patient handling situations that occur in the patient’s home. Thus, the objective of the current phase of the project was to identify frequent scenarios encountered when handling obese individuals and the specific challenges associated with these scenarios that lend themselves to ergonomic solutions. A series of focus groups was conducted with 53 professional firefighters and EMS responders to identify the physically demanding scenarios firefighters frequently encounter when handling obese patients in their homes. In 9 out of the 10 focus group sessions, at least one of the described scenarios involved assisting patients in the bathroom where there is limited space for fire service personnel to assist. This included scenarios where the patient is in the tub, in a stand-up shower, on the floor between the toilet and the wall, or the toilet and the bathtub. Other frequently described scenarios involved patients on the floor between the bed and the wall, and transporting patients up the stairs. While not as common as transporting patients down the stairs, there is limited equipment available to assist with up the stairs transport. For example, the non-powered track-style stair chairs, while useful when descending the stairs, do not facilitate transporting patients up the stairs. Most of these situations were not urgent and many were “fall assist” calls. Some the factors that the participants identified that made the situations even more physically demanding included needing to transport up or down stairs, a lack of space for additional responders therein limiting the amount of assistance available, patient sensitivity (sores, prior injury, etc.), clutter in the home, difficult to firmly grasp patient, wet and slippery patients, tight turns, and narrow doorways. Thus, firefighters would have time to use ergonomic devices if such devices were available and perceived to be useful, usable, and desirable by the firefighters on the scene.

Activations of Landscape in De Aetna

The father-son relationship recurs as the central theme of Chapter 6, in which Etna powerfully symbolizes the generational tensions—Bernardo Bembo committed to traditional Venetian patrician civic duty, Pietro far more ambivalent about that calling—that underlie (and gently qualify) their congenial exchanges in De Aetna. Bernardo views Etna with studied detachment, resisting its wonder by systematically explaining its workings in terms of volcanic typology; Pietro’s Etna is as much a mountain of the mind as it is a formidable physical challenge. Bernardo objectifies nature; Pietro views Etna with a far more subjective eye for fabulist projection on to its slopes, for engaging with its air of mystery and enchantment, and above all for making the mountain his own as a figurative locus of self-expression. If Bernardo expounds de Aetna, Pietro exults de sua Aetna; whereas Bernardo deciphers the mountain, Pietro encrypts it in his own code of fantasy.