A Case Study of a Force-myography Controlled Bionic Hand Mitigating Limb Position Effect

Force Myography (FMG),which monitors pressure or radial deformation of a limb,has recently been proposed as a potential alternative for naturally controlling bionic robotic prostheses.This paper presents an exploratory case study aimed at evaluating how FMG behaves when a person with amputation uses a hand prosthetic prototype.One volunteer (transradial amputation) participated in this study,which investigated two experimental cases:static and dynamic.The static case considered forearm muscle contractions in a fixed elbow and shoulder positions whereas the dynamic case included movements of the elbow and shoulder.When considering eleven different hand grips,static data showed an accuracy over 99％,and dynamic data over 86％ (within-trial analysis).The across-trial analysis,that takes into account multiple trials in the same data collection set,showed a meaningful accuracy respectively of 81％ and 75％ only for the reduced six grips setup.While further research is needed to increase these accuracies,the obtained results provided initial evidence that this technology could represent an interesting alternative that is worth exploring for controlling prosthesis.     

Demerelate: calculating interindividual relatedness for kinship analysis based on codominant diploid genetic markers using R

The Demerelate package offers algorithms to calculate different interindividual relatedness measurements. Three different allele sharing indices, five pairwise weighted estimates of relatedness and four pairwise weighted estimates with sample size correction are implemented to analyse kinship structures within populations. Statistics are based on randomization tests; modelling relatedness coefficients by logistic regression, modelling relatedness with geographic distance by mantel correlation and comparing mean relatedness between populations using pairwise t‐tests. Demerelate provides an advance on previous software packages by including some estimators not available in R to date, along with F_IS, as well as combining analysis of relatedness and spatial structuring. An UPGMA tree visualizes genetic relatedness among individuals. Additionally, Demerelate summarizes information on data sets (allele vs. genotype frequencies; heterozygosity; F_IS values). Demerelate is – to our knowledge – the first R package implementing basic allele sharing indices such as Blouin's M_xy relatedness, the estimator of Wang corrected for sample size (wang_xy), estimators based on Morans I adapted to genetic relatedness as well as combining all estimators with geographic information. The R environment enables users to better understand relatedness within populations due to the flexibility of Demerelate of accepting different data sets as empirical data, reference data, geographical data and by providing intermediate results. Each statistic and tool can be used separately, which helps to understand the suitability of the data for relatedness analysis, and can be easily implemented in custom pipelines.     

Clonal integration facilitates spread of Paspalum paspaloides from terrestrial to cadmium‐contaminated aquatic habitats

• Cadmium (Cd) is a hazardous environmental pollutant with high toxicity to plants, which has been detected in many wetlands. Clonal integration (resource translocation) between connected ramets of clonal plants can increase their tolerance to stress. We hypothesised that clonal integration facilitates spread of amphibious clonal plants from terrestrial to Cd‐contaminated aquatic habitats.
• The spread of an amphibious grass Paspalum paspaloides was simulated by growing basal older ramets in uncontaminated soil connected (allowing integration) or not connected (preventing integration) to apical younger ramets of the same fragments in Cd‐contaminated water.
• Cd contamination of apical ramets of P. paspaloides markedly decreased growth and photosynthetic capacity of the apical ramets without connection to the basal ramets, but did not decrease these properties with connection. Cd contamination did not affect growth of the basal ramets without connection to the apical ramets, but Cd contamination of 4 and 12 mg·l^?1 significantly increased growth with connection. Consequently, clonal integration increased growth of the apical ramets, basal ramets and whole clones when the apical ramets were grown in Cd‐contaminated water of 4 and 12 mg·l^?1. Cd was detected in the basal ramets with connection to the apical ramets, suggesting Cd could be translocated due to clonal integration. Clonal integration, most likely through translocation of photosynthates, can support P. paspaloides to spread from terrestrial to Cd‐contaminated aquatic habitats.
• Amphibious clonal plants with a high ability for clonal integration are particularly useful for re‐vegetation of degraded aquatic habitats caused by Cd contamination.

     

History dependence of force production in submaximal stimulated rat medial gastrocnemius muscle

Studies on maximal stimulated muscle have shown that history dependence is an integral part of muscle force production. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the history dependent effects in submaximal stimulated muscle. For this purpose, lengthening and shortening experiments were performed on the medial gastrocnemius muscle of the rat. The length dependence of lengthening induced force enhancement and shortening induced force depression was studied in maximal (80 Hz) and submaximal (30 Hz) stimulated muscles. The most important results of this study are (a) submaximal stimulation reduces the maximal amplitude of the history effects and (b) lengthening induced force enhancement and shortening induced force deficit are affected differently by submaximal stimulation. The implication of these results for the underlying mechanism and functional relevance of the history dependent effects is discussed.     

杭州春季常见庭园鸟类的晨鸣时序和频域特征

对杭州春季（3－5月）5种庭园常见鸟的晨鸣做定点和定个体录音,然后用计算机声谱分析系统处理录音。结果表明：同域鸟类的晨鸣有一定的时序;乌鸫最早鸣叫,而大山雀、白头鹎和鹊鸲的始鸣时序有月间变化。5种鸟晨鸣的主频集中在2.4-4.1kHz;除了鹊鸲和麻雀无差异外,其余均有极显著差异;这种差异为进一步研究群落内种间频域竞争提供了部分基础资料。     

Divisible Load Theory: A New Paradigm for Load Scheduling in Distributed Systems

Divisible load theory is a methodology involving the linear and continuous modeling of partitionable computation and communication loads for parallel processing. It adequately represents an important class of problems with applications in parallel and distributed system scheduling, various types of data processing, scientific and engineering computation, and sensor networks. Solutions are surprisingly tractable. Research in this area over the past decade is described.     

生物单分子研究的进展

大多数分子生物学实验都代表一种集体平均的测量,所记录的都是复杂系统中大量分子的行为,随着技术的发展,目前已能够对单分子观察、探测、操纵并研究其动态与构象变化。从单分子研究可得到新的信息,这些信息隐藏在集体测量之中,或已被平均掉。这一领域代表着本世纪结构生物学的一个新方向。     

《名古屋议定书》获取与惠益分享制度对传统生物防治研究的影响与对策

为了保证公平和公正地分享利用遗传资源所产生的惠益,研究和开发中使用的遗传资源必须按照《名古屋议定书》中规定的获取与惠益分享制度进行收集和利用.截至2020年7月,该议定书的缔约方中已有67个国家制定了相关立法,另有57个国家正在制定法律,行政或政策措施.传统生物防治通常是从有害生物的原产地或自然分布区引进天敌资源,用于可持续防治外来入侵有害生物.本文基于履约现状与挑战,分析了获取与惠益分享制度对于传统生物防治研究的影响,并以国际应用生物科学中心为例介绍了获取与惠益分享政策和最佳做法以及履约实践与对策,以期为我国从事传统生物防治研究的机构和科研人员遵守并执行《名古屋议定书》提供参考.     

《名古屋议定书》背景下我国传统知识的保护:以德昂族酸茶为例

中国于2016年9月6日成为《名古屋议定书》缔约方, 意味着遗传资源及相关传统知识的保护以及获取与惠益分享制度, 在国际和国内层面已经步入履行阶段。传统知识的防御性保护是防范生物剽窃, 建设性保护是促进惠益分享。本研究通过多年的实地调研发现, 德昂族酸茶作为一类与遗传资源相关的传统知识, 在原持有方不知情同意的情况下, 被某利用方申请了专利, 构成了生物剽窃。本研究指出, 传统知识防御性保护可考虑修订国内专利法, 将传统知识强制性来源披露要求纳入其中, 进而防范生物剽窃。为促进传统知识的持有方分享应得惠益和可持续利用, 本研究建议依据《名古屋议定书》精神, 通过立法制定特殊制度, 创造性地发展出可行的惠益分享制度, 区分不同的传统知识主体资格, 以事先知情同意程序和共同商定条件为途径, 以补偿责任或知识共享许可协议为手段, 来实现《生物多样性公约》的保护与可持续利用两大目标, 方能达成传统知识的建设性保护。     

生命与健康大数据中心资源

生命与健康多组学数据是生命科学研究和生物医学技术发展的重要基础。然而,我国缺乏生物数据管理和共享平台,不但无法满足国内日益增长的生物医学及相关学科领域的研究发展需求,而且严重制约我国生物大数据整合共享与转化利用。鉴于此,中国科学院北京基因组研究所于2016年初成立生命与健康大数据中心(BIG Data Center, BIGD),围绕国家人口健康和重要战略生物资源,建立生物大数据管理平台和多组学数据资源体系。本文重点介绍BIGD的生命与健康大数据资源系统,主要包括组学原始数据归档库、基因组数据库、基因组变异数据库、基因表达数据库、甲基化数据库、生物信息工具库和生命科学维基知识库,提供生物大数据汇交、整合与共享服务,为促进我国生命科学数据管理、推动国家生物信息中心建设奠定重要基础。