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Ulrich Landry opublikował 5 miesięcy, 2 tygodnie temu
Scaling sports equipment to match the physical development of children allows motor skills to be performed with greater success and with more desirable movement patterns. It is unknown, however, how scaled equipment affects movement variability – a key factor associated with coordination. Our aim was to identify whether scaled sports equipment facilitates coordination and functional movement variability in children when performing a hitting for accuracy task in tennis. Twenty-five children were asked to execute a forehand stroke with the aim of hitting the ball to a target located 10 metres away. Participants performed the task in two conditions – a scaled equipment condition and a full-sized equipment condition. Scaled equipment led to superior hitting accuracy and greater temporal stability of the swing compared to full-sized equipment. Scaled equipment also afforded the emergence of a functional coupling between upper arm and forearm movement variability which helped regulate the distance between the shoulder and the racket. Comparatively there was a lack of coupling when full-sized equipment was used. Hence, scaled equipment promoted functional movement variability, whereas full-sized equipment resulted in the freezing of mechanical degrees of freedom. This suggests that children’s skill acquisition could be hindered and potentially regress when using inappropriately sized equipment.Influence of ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation on the corrosion behavior of electrodeposited Ni and Cu nanocrystalline foils in 3.5% NaCl solution was studied by means of electrochemical methods, electron work function (EWF) analysis, and characterization with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was demonstrated that the influence of solar light on corrosion of the metals was non-negligible, which could be very different for different materials. The UV light irradiation resulted in an increase in corrosion resistance of the Cu foil but showed an opposite influence on that of the Ni foil. Based on surface state analysis, it was concluded that the UV irradiation altered the surface oxide films. The UV light induced the formation of Cu2O on Cu, which is more stable and compacted than naturally formed CuO film. However, the UV light accelerated the formation of Ni2O3, which is loose, porous and brittle, compared to naturally formed NiO on Ni. The changes in oxide films were responsible for the opposite variations in the corrosion behavior of the Cu and Ni nanocrystalline foils caused by the UV light irradiation.Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 3 (HER3) have been investigated as triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) biomarkers. Reduced EGFR levels can be compensated by increases in HER3; thus, assaying EGFR and HER3 together may improve prognostic value. In a multi-institutional cohort of 510 TNBC patients, we analyzed the impact of HER3, EGFR, or combined HER3-EGFR protein expression in pre-treatment samples on breast cancer-specific and distant metastasis-free survival (BCSS and DMFS, respectively). A subset of 60 TNBC samples were RNA-sequenced using massive parallel sequencing. The combined HER3-EGFR score outperformed individual HER3 and EGFR scores, with high HER3-EGFR score independently predicting worse BCSS (Hazard Ratio [HR] = 2.30, p = 0.006) and DMFS (HR = 1.78, p = 0.041, respectively). TNBCs with high HER3-EGFR scores exhibited significantly suppressed ATM signaling and differential expression of a network predicted to be controlled by low TXN activity, resulting in activation of EGFR, PARP1, and caspases and inhibition of p53 and NFκB. Nuclear PARP1 protein levels were higher in HER3-EGFR-high TNBCs based on immunohistochemistry (p = 0.036). Assessing HER3 and EGFR protein expression in combination may identify which adjuvant chemotherapy-treated TNBC patients have a higher risk of treatment resistance and may benefit from a dual HER3-EGFR inhibitor and a PARP1 inhibitor.Carriers of the APOE e4 allele are at higher risk of age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The underlying neural mechanisms are uncertain, but genotype differences in medial temporal lobe (MTL) functional activity and structure at mid-age might contribute. We tested 16 non-e4 and 16 e4 carriers (aged 45-55) on a subsequent memory task in conjunction with MRI to assess how hippocampal volume (from T1 structural) and microstructure (neurite orientation-dispersion, from NODDI) differs by genotype and in relation to memory encoding. No previous study has investigated APOE effects on hippocampal microstructure using NODDI. Recall performance did not differ by genotype. A genotype by condition interaction in left parahippocampus indicated that in e4 carriers activity did not differentiate subsequently remembered from forgotten words. Hippocampal volumes and microstructure also did not differ by genotype but hippocampal volumes correlated positively with recognition performance in non-e4 carriers only. Similarly, greater hippocampal neurite orientation-dispersion was linked to better recall but only in non-e4s. Thus, we suggest that mid-age e4 carriers show a breakdown of normal MTL activation and structure-performance relationships. This could reflect an inability to utilise compensatory mechanisms, and contribute to higher risk of cognitive decline and AD in later life.We performed two phase I trials of the histone deacetylase inhibitor vorinostat combined with either the vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitor pazopanib (NCT01339871) or the proteasome inhibitor ixazomib (NCT02042989) in patients with metastatic TP53 mutant solid tumors. Both trials followed a 3 + 3 dose-escalation design allowing for a dose expansion cohort of up to 14 additional patients with a specific tumor type. Patients had to have a confirmed TP53 mutation to be enrolled in NCT02042989. Among patients enrolled in NCT01339871, TP53 mutation status was determined for those for whom tumor specimens were available. The results of NCT01339871 were reported previously. Common treatment-related adverse events in NCT02042989 included anemia, thrombocytopenia, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Compared with patients with metastatic TP53 hotspot mutant solid tumors who were treated with ixazomib and vorinostat (n = 59), those who were treated with pazopanib and vorinostat (n = 11) had a significantly higher rate of clinical benefit, defined as stable disease lasting ≥6 months or an objective response (3.4% vs. 45%; p less then 0.001), a significantly longer median progression-free survival duration (1.7 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.1-2.3] vs. 3.5 months [95% CI, 1.7-5.2]; p = 0.002), and a longer median overall survival duration (7.3 months [95% CI, 4.8-9.8] vs. 12.7 months [95% CI, 7.1-18.3]; p = 0.24). Our two phase I trials provide preliminary evidence supporting the use of antiangiogenisis-based therapy in patients with metastatic TP53 mutant solid tumors, especially in those with metastatic sarcoma or metastatic colorectal cancer.The Middle Triassic was a time of major changes in tetrapod faunas worldwide, but the fossil record for this interval is largely obscure for terrestrial faunas. This poses a severe limitation to our understanding on the earliest stages of diversification of lineages representing some of the most diverse faunas in the world today, such as lepidosauromorphs (e.g., lizards and tuataras). Here, we report a tiny new lepidosauromorph from the Middle Triassic from Vellberg (Germany), which combines a mosaic of features from both early evolving squamates and rhynchocephalians, such as the simultaneous occurrence of a splenial bone and partial development of acrodonty. Phylogenetic analyses applying different optimality criteria, and combined morphological and molecular data, consistently recover the new taxon as a stem-lepidosauromorph, implying stem-lepidosauromorph species coinhabited areas comprising today’s central Europe at the same time as the earliest known rhynchocephalians and squamates. It further demonstrates a more complex evolutionary scenario for dental evolution in early lepidosauromorphs, with independent acquisitions of acrodonty early in their evolutionary history. The small size of most terrestrial vertebrates from Vellberg is conspicuous, contrasting to younger Triassic deposits worldwide, but comparable to Early Triassic faunas, suggesting a potential long-lasting Lilliput effect in this fauna.Understanding biological network dynamics is a fundamental issue in various scientific and engineering fields. Network theory is capable of revealing the relationship between elements and their propagation; however, for complex collective motions, the network properties often transiently and complexly change. A fundamental question addressed here pertains to the classification of collective motion network based on physically-interpretable dynamical properties. Here we apply a data-driven spectral analysis called graph dynamic mode decomposition, which obtains the dynamical properties for collective motion classification. Using a ballgame as an example, we classified the strategic collective motions in different global behaviours and discovered that, in addition to the physical properties, the contextual node information was critical for classification. Furthermore, we discovered the label-specific stronger spectra in the relationship among the nearest agents, providing physical and semantic interpretations. Our approach contributes to the understanding of principles of biological complex network dynamics from the perspective of nonlinear dynamical systems.Humans perceptual judgments are imprecise, as repeated exposures to the same physical stimulation (e.g. audio-visual inputs separated by a constant temporal offset) can result in different decisions. Moreover, there can be marked individual differences – precise judges will repeatedly make the same decision about a given input, whereas imprecise judges will make different decisions. The causes are unclear. We examined this using audio-visual (AV) timing and confidence judgments, in conjunction with electroencephalography (EEG) and multivariate pattern classification analyses. One plausible cause of differences in timing precision is that it scales with variance in the dynamics of evoked brain activity. Another possibility is that equally reliable patterns of brain activity are evoked, but there are systematic differences that scale with precision. Trial-by-trial decoding of input timings from brain activity suggested precision differences may not result from variable dynamics. Instead, precision was associated with evoked responses that were exaggerated (more different from baseline) ~300 ms after initial physical stimulations. We suggest excitatory and inhibitory interactions within a winner-take-all neural code for AV timing might exaggerate responses, such that evoked response magnitudes post-stimulation scale with encoding success.Off-equatorial wind anomalies on seasonal timescales from both the North and South Pacific, known as „precursors” of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), have been shown to independently trigger the ENSO feedbacks in the tropics and its teleconnections to the extra-tropics. However, the impacts of ENSO precursors on Tropical Pacific Decadal-scale Variability (TPDV) is still not well understood and quantified. We show that the dynamic sequence from extra-tropical ENSO precursors to ENSO (tropics) to extra-tropical ENSO teleconnections is not only important for ENSO, but acts as a primary mechanism to filter (e.g. reddening) the low-frequency variability of the seasonal precursors into the decadal-scale variance of the Pacific basin, accounting for the largest fraction of the TPDV (~65%) and its phase. This process, which contrasts previous theories advocating for a TPDV generated internally in the tropics (e.g. ENSO residuals), is inherently unpredictable and not well reproduced in climate models and raises challenges for understanding and predicting the role of internal TPDV in future climate change scenarios.