ALBERT

Description: This study assessed the pupil responses in the sensory integration of various directional optic flows during the perception of gravitational vertical. A total of 30 healthy participants were enrolled with normal responses to conventional subjective visual vertical (SVV) which was determined by measuring the difference (error angles) between the luminous line adjusted by the participants and the true vertical. SVV was performed under various types of rotational (5°/s, 10°/s, and 50°/s) and straight (5°/s and 10°/s) optic flows presented via a head-mounted display. Error angles (°) of the SVV and changes in pupil diameters (mm) were measured to evaluate the changes in the visually assessed subjective verticality and related cognitive demands. Significantly larger error angles were measured under rotational optic flows than under straight flows (p 

Description: RUNX2 encodes the master bone transcription factor driving skeletal development in vertebrates, and playing a specific role in craniofacial and skull morphogenesis. The anatomically modern human (AMH) features sequence changes in the RUNX2 locus compared with archaic hominins’ species. We aimed to understand how these changes may have contributed to human skull globularization occurred in recent evolution. We compared in silico AMH and archaic hominins’ genomes, and used mesenchymal stromal cells isolated from skull sutures of craniosynostosis patients for in vitro functional assays. We detected 459 and 470 nucleotide changes in noncoding regions of the AMH RUNX2 locus, compared with the Neandertal and Denisovan genomes, respectively. Three nucleotide changes in the proximal promoter were predicted to alter the binding of the zinc finger protein Znf263 and long-distance interactions with other cis-regulatory regions. By surface plasmon resonance, we selected nucleotide substitutions in the 3’UTRs able to affect miRNA binding affinity. Specifically, miR-3150a-3p and miR-6785-5p expression inversely correlated with RUNX2 expression during in vitro osteogenic differentiation. The expression of two long non-coding RNAs, AL096865.1 and RUNX2-AS1, within the same locus, was modulated during in vitro osteogenic differentiation and correlated with the expression of specific RUNX2 isoforms. Our data suggest that RUNX2 may have undergone adaptive phenotypic evolution caused by epigenetic and post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms, which may explain the delayed suture fusion leading to the present-day globular skull shape.

Description: Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) mainly originates from combustion emissions. On-road transportation is considered one of the primary sources of PM2.5 emission. The relationship between on-road transportation and PM2.5 concentration varies temporally and spatially, and the estimation for this variation is important for policymaking. Here, we reveal the quantitative association of PM2.5 concentration with on-road transportation by the spatial panel Durbin model and the geographical and temporal weighted regression. We find that 6.17 billion kilometres (km) per km2 on-road transportation increase is associated with a 1-μg/m3 county-level PM2.5 concentration increase in the contiguous United States. On-road transportation marginally contributes to PM2.5, only 1.09% on average. Approximately 3605 premature deaths are attributed to PM2.5 from on-road transportation in 2010, and about a total of 50,223 premature deaths ascribe to PM2.5 taking 6.49% from 2003 to 2016. Our findings shed light on the necessity of the county-level policies considering the temporal and spatial variability of the relationship to further mitigate PM2.5 from on-road transportation.

Description: In this article developed mathematical model that includes friction occurrence on spline connections is presented. The work also contains results of experimental research on torque capacity of multidisc wet clutch. These results are expressed as a function of contact pressure for different number of friction surfaces. Due to increased interest in research concerning multidisc wet clutches it is essential to determine impact of friction on fit connections on transmitted torque. Analytical calculations that include both known loss coefficient and assumed lack of friction on fit connections are compared to results of experiments. The paper contains detailed description of test stand and methodology of experiment. As a result of conducted tests it was found that correction coefficients known from literature are highly inaccurate. Measured values of torque indicate that transmitted torque reach significantly higher values. It was also revealed that after slippage appeared, the pressure plate usually moved in the direction of exerted clamping force, but movement in reversed direction also took place for some experiments. While movement corresponding to clamping force reached ca. 0.08 mm, in opposite direction amounted to 0.02 mm. Furthermore, studies presented that lapping of adjacent friction surfaces greatly affects differences between respective results obtained for a specific experiment.

Description: The estimation of scalar electrode position is a central point of quality control during the cochlear implant procedure. Ionic radiation is a disadvantage of commonly used radiologic estimation of electrode position. Recent developments in the field of cochlear implant magnets, implant receiver magnet position, and MRI sequence usage allow the postoperative evaluation of inner ear changes after cochlear implantation. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the position of lateral wall and modiolar cochlear implant electrodes using 3 T MRI scanning. In a prospective study, we evaluated 20 patients (10× Med-El Flex 28; 5× HFMS AB and 5× SlimJ AB) with a 3 T MRI and a T2 2D Drive MS sequence (voxel size: 0.3 × 0.3 × 0.9 mm) for the estimation of the intracochlear position of the cochlear implant electrode. In all cases, MRI allowed a determination of the electrode position in relation to the basilar membrane. This observation made the estimation of 19 scala tympani electrode positions and a single case of electrode translocation possible. 3 T MRI scanning allows the estimation of lateral wall and modiolar electrode intracochlear scalar positions.