In 2018, the National Park Service (NPS) was authorized to enter into cooperative agreements with nonprofit organizations to utilize the talents of older Americans, providing a cost-effective way to recruit experienced workers aged 55 and older to address short-term needs, unanticipated workloads, and new initiatives, without impacting the retirement benefits of retired federal employees.
The field of rehabilitation medicine is advancing through rigorous clinical trials and personalized therapies, with Rehabilomics emerging from biomedical data collection and analysis. This study systematically reviewed 19 primary studies on machine learning algorithms for predicting post-stroke motor recovery, identifying frequent use of demographic and clinical predictors, common reliance on linear and logistic regressions, and highlighting methodological limitations such as small sample sizes and high heterogeneity among variables.
A novel cooperative ankle-exoskeleton control strategy, inspired by human balance responses, was evaluated in ten able-bodied participants, demonstrating that the controller effectively reduced muscle effort and maintained balance during unexpected disturbances, suggesting its potential use for improving balance in individuals with motor disabilities.
The term embodiment in prosthetics research is often used but poorly defined, complicating study comparisons; this study systematically reviewed and recommended defining prosthetic embodiment as the combination of ownership and agency to create a quantifiable metric for translational research.
Freezing of gait, a common symptom of Parkinson's disease, can be monitored at home using inertial measurement units (IMUs), but optimal sensor placement remains unclear. This study found that a set of three IMUs (lumbar and both ankles) provided the best detection performance and wearability, while a minimal set with a single ankle IMU also performed well, correlating strongly with human ratings of freezing events and duration.
Nice review! Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has proven effective for motor recovery in stroke patients, with repetitive TMS (rTMS) and theta burst stimulation (TBS) modulating cortical excitability. This systematic review of 61 studies found that low frequency rTMS and intermittent TBS significantly affect cortical excitability in both affected and unaffected motor areas, while the effects of continuous TBS remain inconclusive.
Electrical and electromechanical stimulation significantly aids soft tissue regeneration, and this study explores polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) as a substrate for wireless neuronal differentiation, showing that PVDF's piezoelectric stimulation upon acoustic activation induces neuritogenesis in PC12 cells via a cAMP-dependent pathway, comparable to neuronal growth factor (NGF) effects, and holds promise for non-invasive neuroregenerative devices.
Great paper! Serious bone injuries significantly impact patients' lives and incur high costs, leading to a demand for synthetic bone graft substitutes due to limitations of autografts and allografts; piezoelectric smart materials, which mimic bone's natural piezoelectric properties, show promise for enhancing bone regeneration through the converse piezoelectric effect by improving mechanical response and activating beneficial cellular pathways, potentially with wireless control.
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