Determinants of health-related quality of life in people with Parkinson’s disease: a path analysis

Purpose:
To identify the demographic factors, impairments and activity limitations that contribute to health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in people with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Method:
Two hundred and ten individuals with idiopathic PD who participated in the baseline assessment of a randomized clinical trial were included. The Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire-39 summary index was used to quantify HRQOL. In order to provide greater clarity regarding the determinants of HRQOL, path analysis was used to explore the relationships between the various predictors in relation to the functioning and disability framework of the International Classification of Functioning model.

Results:
The two models of HRQOL that were examined in this study had a reasonable fit with the data. Activity limitations were found to be the strongest predictor of HRQOL. Limitations in performing self-care activities contributed the most to HRQOL in Model 1 (β = 0.38; p < 0.05), while limitations in functional mobility had the largest contribution in Model 2 (β = −0.31; p < 0.0005). Self-reported history of falls was also found to have a significant and direct relationship with HRQOL in both models (Model 1 β = −0.11; p < 0.05; Model 2 β = −0.21; p < 0.05).

Conclusions:
Health-related quality of life in PD is associated with self-care limitations, mobility limitations, self-reported history of falls and disease duration. Understanding how these factors are inter-related may assist clinicians focus their assessments and develop strategies that aim to minimize the negative functional and social sequelae of this debilitating disease.

The complete fool: Insights and trajectories from an ancient path

This study presents a novel and accompanying exegesis which explore the fool behind the Fool by stripping away his usual costume and arenas of power and folly to expose an essence – an impulse of potentiality – that helps explain the Fool’s perpetuity and argues his critical significance as a catalyst for creative thinking.

Path planning for CNC machines considering centripetal acceleration and jerk

In planning an s-curve speed profile for a computer numerical control (CNC) machine, centripetal acceleration and its derivative have to be considered. In a CNC machine, these quantities dictate how much voltage and current should be applied to servo motor windings. In this paper, the necessity of considering centripetal jerk in speed profile generation especially in the look-ahead mode is explained. It is demonstrated that the magnitude of centripetal jerk is proportional to the curvature derivative of the path known as "sharpness". It is also explained that a proper limited jerk motion is only possible when a G2-continuous machining path is planned. Then using a simplified mathematical representation of clothoids, a novel method for approximating a given path with a sequence of clothoid segments is proposed. Using this method, a semi-parallel G2-continuous path with adjustable deviation from the original shape for a sample machining contour is generated. Maximum permissible feed rate for the generated path is also calculated.

Formulation and simulation of a 3D mechanical model of embryos for microinjection

The understanding of cell manipulation, for example in microinjection, requires an accurate model of the cells. Motivated by this important requirement, a 3D particlebased mechanical model is derived for simulating the deformation of the fish egg membrane and the corresponding cellular forces during microrobotic cell injection. The model is formulated based on the kinematic and dynamic of spring- damper configuration with multi-particle joints considering the visco-elastic fluidic properties. It simulates the indentation force feedback as well as cell visual deformation during microinjection. A preliminary simulation study is conducted with different parameter configurations. The results indicate that the proposed particle-based model is able to provide similar deformation profiles as observed from a real microinjection experiment of the zebrafish embryo published in the literature. As a generic modelling approach is adopted, the proposed model also has the potential in applications with different types of manipulation such as micropipette cell aspiration.

Dynamic path determination policy for distributed multimedia content adaptation

Multimedia content adaptation allows the ever increasing variety of handheld devices such as Smartphones to access distributed rich media resources available on the Internet today. Path planning and determination is a fundamental problem in enhancing performance of distributed multimedia content adaptation systems. Most of the existing path determination mechanisms use static path determination criteria based solely on associating a path with a single behavior aggregate score. However, some criteria such as availability are best represented using different functionality rather than being accumulated into the aggregate score. Moreover, since selection criteria have different behavior towards the score, this principle need to be considered. In this paper, we propose a dynamic multi-criteria path determination policy that selects an optimal path to the content adaptation services that best meet the user preferences and QoS requirements. The performance of the proposed approach is studied in terms of score’s fairness and reliability under different variations. The results indicate that the proposed policy performs substantially better than the baseline policy.

The effect of plant tissue and vaccine formulation on the oral immunogenicity of a model plant-made antigen in sheep

Antigen-specific antibody responses against a model antigen (the B subunit of the heat labile toxin of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, LTB) were studied in sheep following oral immunisation with plant-made and delivered vaccines. Delivery from a root-based vehicle resulted in antigen-specific immune responses in mucosal secretions of the abomasum and small intestine and mesenteric lymph nodes. Immune responses from the corresponding leaf-based vaccine were more robust and included stimulation of antigen-specific antibodies in mucosal secretions of the abomasum. These findings suggest that oral delivery of a plant bioencapsulated antigen can survive passage through the rumen to elicit mucosal and systemic immune responses in sheep. Moreover, the plant tissue used as the vaccine delivery vehicle affects the magnitude of these responses.

Comparison of food industry policies and commitments on marketing to children and product (re)formulation in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji

Unhealthy food environments are known to be major drivers of diet-related non-communicable diseases globally, and there is an imperative for major food companies to be publicly accountable for their actions to improve the healthiness of food environments. This paper examines the prevalence of publicly available policies and commitments of major packaged food and soft drink manufacturers, and fast-food restaurants in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji with respect to reducing food marketing to children and product (re)formulation. In each country, the most prominent companies in each sector were selected. Company policies, commitments and relevant industry initiatives were gleaned from company and industry association websites. In Australia and New Zealand, there are a higher proportion of companies with publicly available marketing and formulation policies than in Fiji. However, even in Australia, a large proportion of the most prominent food companies do not have publicly available policies. Where they exist, policies on food marketing to children generally focus on those aged less than 12, do not apply to all types of media, marketing channels and techniques, and do not provide transparency with respect to the products to which the policies apply. Product formulation policies, where they exist, focus mostly on salt reduction and changes to the make-up of overall product portfolios, and do not generally address saturated fat, added sugar and energy reduction. In the absence of strong policies and corresponding actions by the private sector, it is likely that government action (e.g. through co-regulation or legislation) will be needed to drive improved company performance.