The convergence of regenerative medicine and rehabilitation: federal perspectives.

Regenerative rehabilitation is the synergistic integration of principles and approaches from the regenerative medicine and rehabilitation fields, with the goal of optimizing form and function as well as patient independence. Regenerative medicine approaches for repairing or replacing damaged tissue or whole organs vary from utilizing cells (e.g., stem cells), to biologics (e.g., growth factors), to approaches using biomaterials and scaffolds, to any combination of these. While regenerative medicine offers tremendous clinical promise, regenerative rehabilitation offers the opportunity to positively influence regenerative medicine by inclusion of principles from rehabilitation sciences. Regenerative medicine by itself may not be sufficient to ensure successful translation into improving the function of those in the most need. Conversely, with a better understanding of regenerative medicine principals, rehabilitation researchers can better tailor rehabilitation efforts to accommodate and maximize the potential of regenerative approaches. Regenerative rehabilitative strategies can include activity-mediated plasticity, exercise dosing, electrical stimulation, and nutritional enhancers. Critical barriers in translating regenerative medicine techniques into humans may be difficult to overcome if preclinical studies do not consider outcomes that typically fall in the rehabilitation research domain, such as function, range of motion, sensation, and pain. The authors believe that encouraging clinicians and researchers from multiple disciplines to work collaboratively and synergistically will maximize restoration of function and quality of life for disabled and/or injured patients, including U.S. Veterans and Military Service Members (MSMs). Federal Government agencies have been investing in research and clinical care efforts focused on regenerative medicine (NIH, NSF, VA, and DoD), rehabilitation sciences (VA, NIH, NSF, DoD) and, more recently, regenerative rehabilitation (NIH and VA). As science advances and technology matures, researchers need to consider the integrative approach of regenerative rehabilitation to maximize the outcome to fully restore the function of patients.

A computational simulation of long-term synaptic potentiation inducing protocol processes with model of CA3 hippocampal microcircuit.

An experimental study of computational model of the CA3 region presents cog-nitive and behavioural functions the hippocampus. The main property of the CA3 region is plastic recurrent connectivity, where the connections allow it to behave as an auto-associative memory. The computer simulations showed that CA3 model performs efficient long-term synaptic potentiation (LTP) induction and high rate of sub-millisecond coincidence detection. Average frequency of the CA3 pyramidal cells model was substantially higher in simulations with LTP induction protocol than without the LTP. The entropy of pyramidal cells with LTP seemed to be significantly higher than without LTP induction protocol (p = 0.0001). There was depression of entropy, which was caused by an increase of forgetting coefficient in pyramidal cells simulations without LTP (R = -0.88, p = 0.0008), whereas such correlation did not appear in LTP simulation (p = 0.4458). Our model of CA3 hippocampal formation microcircuit biologically inspired lets you understand neurophysiologic data. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 2: 210-220).

Memory and forgetting processes with the firing neuron model.

The aim of this paper is to present a novel algorithm for learning and forgetting within a very simplified, biologically derived model of the neuron, called firing cell (FC). FC includes the properties: (a) delay and decay of postsynaptic potentials, (b) modification of internal weights due to propagation of postsynaptic potentials through the dendrite, (c) modification of properties of the analog weight memory for each input due to a pattern of long-term synaptic potentiation. The FC model could be used in one of the three forms: excitatory, inhibitory, or receptory (gan-glion cell). The computer simulations showed that FC precisely performs the time integration and coincidence detection for incoming spike trains on all inputs. Any modification of the initial values (internal parameters) or inputs patterns caused the following changes of the interspike intervals time series on the output, even for the 10 s or 20 s real time course simulations. It is the basic evidence that the FC model has chaotic dynamical properties. The second goal is the presentation of various nonlinear methods for analysis of a biological time series. (Folia Morphol 2018; 77, 2: 221-233).

The frequency of occurrence of abnormal frenal attachment of lips and enamel defects in Turner syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the work was to register the frequency of occurrence of abnormal frenal attachment of lips and enamel defects and find the correlation between these anomalies and three types of Turner syndrome. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty patients (aged 20-40 years) were clinically and cytogenetically diagnosed and divided into three groups, according to karyotype: 45,X (17 cases), with structural aberrations of chromosome X (12 cases) and with mosaic karyotype (21 cases). The control group consisted of 51 healthy woman aged 21-40 years. Subjects were screened for developmental anomalies in the labial frenula and enamel defects in three groups of Turner syndrome. RESULTS: Some significant anomalies of soft and hard tissues were found in studied patients: abnormal frenal attachments (42% of cases), enamel opacities (58% of cases) and enamel hypoplasia (38% of cases). Differences in the occurrence of these anomaly in all group with Turner syndrome in comparison with the control group were significantly different. Enamel defects were prevalent in the patients with karyotype 45,X and patients with structural aberrations of chromosome X in comparison with the mosaic karyotype. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study have shown, that abnormal attachment of lips and enamel defects were more frequent in Turner syndrome patients than in the control group. Enamel defects were correlated with the karyotypes of Turner syndrome and abnormal attachment of lips was not correlated with the karyotypes of Turner syndrome.

Root morphology of mandibular premolars in 40 patients with Turner syndrome.

AIM: To analyse root morphology of mandibular premolars in 40 females with Turner syndrome. METHODOLOGY: All patients aged 18-50 years (mean+/-SD: 26.2+/-6.22) were clinically and cytogenetically diagnosed and divided into three groups according to karyotype: I-with 45,X (n=19); II-with 46,X,i(Xq) and other structural changes of this chromosome (n=8); III-with mos45,X/46,XX and other mosaic karyotype (n=13). The control group consisted of 30 healthy women aged 20-50 years (mean+/-SD: 31.52+/-5.21) who underwent dental treatment at the Department of Conservative Dentistry and Department of Periodontology and Oral Mucosa Diseases, Medical University of Gdansk, Poland. The root morphology of mandibular premolars was studied based on orthopantomogram X-ray images. The results were analysed using chi-square test with Yates's adjustment. RESULTS: Separate mesial and distal root canals and separate root apices were noted on orthopantomograms in patients with Turner syndrome. Two-rooted mandibular first premolars were observed in 34% of cases in group 45,X (group I), in 31% of cases in the group with structural aberrations of chromosome X (group II) and in 31% of cases with mosaic karyotypes (group III). Two-rooted mandibular second premolars were observed in 39% cases in group 45,X and in 31% of cases in the group with structural aberrations of chromosome X and in 35% of cases with mosaic karyotypes. This type of root morphology was not observed in the control group. No significant difference was found between the three groups of Turner syndrome. CONCLUSION: Highly significant differences in root morphology of mandibular premolars between patients with Turner syndrome and a population control group were found.

The G-algorithm for extraction of robust decision rules--children's postoperative intra-atrial arrhythmia case study.

Clinical medicine is facing a challenge of knowledge discovery from the growing volume of data. In this paper, a data mining algorithm (G-algorithm) is proposed for extraction of robust rules that can be used in clinical practice for better understanding and prevention of unwanted medical events. The G-algorithm is applied to the data set obtained for children born with a malformation of the heart (univentricular heart). As the result of the Fontan surgical procedure, designed to palliate the children, 10%-35% of patients postoperatively develop an arrhythmia known as the intra-atrial reentrant tachycardia. There is an obvious need to identify the children that may develop the tachycardia before the surgery is performed. Prior attempts to identify such children with statistical techniques have been unrewarding. The G-algorithm discussed in this paper shows that there exists an unambiguous relationship between measurable features and the tachycardia. The data set used in this study shows that, for 78.08% of infants, the occurrence of tachycardia can be accurately predicted. The authors' prior computational experience with diverse medical data sets indicates that the percentage of accurate predictions may become even higher if data on additional features is collected for a larger data set.

[Evaluation of clinical and radiological results of operative treatment of patellar fractures]. / Zlamania rzepki w klinicznej i radiologicznej ocenie wyników leczenia operacyjnego.

The paper presents the clinical and radiological evaluation of surgical treatment of patellar fractures in the years 1984-1999. Th study group included 45 patients (18 female and 27 males). The observation period ranged from 2 to 6 years; on average 6 years. The most common procedure was tension band fixation (20 patients), followed by hemipatellectomy (14 patients) and patellectomy (11 patients). Radiological assessment revealed the highest number of excellent and very good results in patients treated with tension band fixation. No excellent results and 50% food results were noted in patients treated by partial patellectomy. The worst radiological resulted were noted in patients treated by total patellectomy. Clinical results were similar to radiological results: 75% of patients treated by tension band fixation had no pain, while the group treated by total patellectomy revealed only 27.3% excellent and very good results.

Autonomous decision-making: a data mining approach.

The researchers and practitioners of today create models, algorithms, functions, and other constructs defined in abstract spaces. The research of the future will likely be data driven. Symbolic and numeric data that are becoming available in large volumes will define the need for new data analysis techniques and tools. Data mining is an emerging area of computational intelligence that offers new theories, techniques, and tools for analysis of large data sets. In this paper, a novel approach for autonomous decision-making is developed based on the rough set theory of data mining. The approach has been tested on a medical data set for patients with lung abnormalities referred to as solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs). The two independent algorithms developed in this paper either generate an accurate diagnosis or make no decision. The methodolgy discussed in the paper depart from the developments in data mining as well as current medical literature, thus creating a variable approach for autonomous decision-making.

[Evaluation of the value of intraarticular Hyalgan injections for treatment of knee joint osteoarthritis]. / Ocena wartosci dostawowych iniekcji preparatu Hyalgan w leczeniu zmian zwyrodnieniowych stawu kolanowego.

The efficacy of Hyalgan has been assessed in a series of 96 patients with osteoarthritis of the knee of various stage. Subjective and objective findings were recorded during four weeks of Hyalgan administration and during 6 months following. Marked improvement was observed in patients with low to medium degree of degenerative changes. Those with advanced osteoarthritis seem to benefit little if any from Hyalgan.