Successful Aging

This issue's Works in Progress department presents six abstracts for projects that are developing interesting solutions to the elderly's quality of life challenges. The first two abstracts discuss projects that will help provide the elderly with freedom and independence by instrumenting their environments with supportive technology. The next two abstracts discuss projects building specialized user interfaces for addressing some of the challenges associated with aging, such as vision impairment. The final two abstracts present projects that will aid independence for the elderly by providing remote monitoring and assistance.     

A Comprehensive Review of Genetically Engineered Mouse Models for Prader-Willi Syndrome Research

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a neurogenetic multifactorial disorder caused by the deletion or inactivation of paternally imprinted genes on human chromosome 15q11-q13. The affected homologous locus is on mouse chromosome 7C. The positional conservation and organization of genes including the imprinting pattern between mice and men implies similar physiological functions of this locus. Therefore, considerable efforts to recreate the pathogenesis of PWS have been accomplished in mouse models. We provide a summary of different mouse models that were generated for the analysis of PWS and discuss their impact on our current understanding of corresponding genes, their putative functions and the pathogenesis of PWS. Murine models of PWS unveiled the contribution of each affected gene to this multi-facetted disease, and also enabled the establishment of the minimal critical genomic region (PWScr) responsible for core symptoms, highlighting the importance of non-protein coding genes in the PWS locus. Although the underlying disease-causing mechanisms of PWS remain widely unresolved and existing mouse models do not fully capture the entire spectrum of the human PWS disorder, continuous improvements of genetically engineered mouse models have proven to be very powerful and valuable tools in PWS research.     

Embryonic Mortality in Dairy Cows Estimated by Nonreturns to Service,Estrus, and Cyclic Milk Progesterone Patterns

Cyclic patterns of progesterone in milk were studied in 262 Holstein cows. Milk progesterone data were obtained from 153 cows for at least 75 days after conception as indicated by continuous high progesterone concentrations in milk for 28 days or more following artificial insemination. Cycling was reinitiated in 11 of these cows between 28 and 75 days after breeding, for an estimated 7.2% rate of embryo-fetal mortality. This was considerably less than a corresponding rate of 22.7% estimated for this herd by the delayed returns to estrus (28 to 75 days). In 350,180 cows inseminated with semen from Holstein bulls the estimated embryo-fetal mortality by the same delayed return to service method was 12.5%. Biases in this latter method of estimation are discussed.     

Preliminary examinations on the effects of the breed characteristic feature "feather crest" on skull and brain anatomy of domestic ducks (Anas platyrhynchos f. dom.)]

Physical therapy assessment involves confirmation of a medical diagnosis. To help discuss this process, this case report is presented regarding a ballet dancer who experienced 6 years of chronic hip pain and dysfunction. Many diagnostic tests and surgical procedures were performed by various physicians in search of a diagnosis. Physical therapy assessments did not support the working diagnoses, and treatment given according to evaluation findings was not effective. Initial hip radiographs revealed a bony ossicle at the lesser trochanter, which was overlooked. Hip radiographs taken 5 years later revealed the same bony ossicle. Ultimately, surgical removal of the ossicle eliminated the hip pain, and the patient returned to full activity and dance again. With the attempt to confirm the patient's diagnosis, the physical therapy approach to problem solving is discussed. This case gives an example where it is important to question the physician's diagnosis when the physical therapy assessment and treatment response do not support it. it is also evident that an in-depth physical therapy assessment may be self-limiting if pathology has not been ruled out properly by the physician.     

Consistent Modelling of Users, Devices and Sensors in a Ubiquitous Computing Environment

This paper describes the use of an accretion-resolution user modelling representation to model people, places and objects. We explain the motivation for the key properties of the representation, especially those of particular importance for ubiquitous computing: firstly, for flexibility in interpreting the typically noisy and potentially conflicting evidence about users’ locations; secondly, to support users in scrutinising their user model, the processes that determine its contents and the way that it is used in the ubiquitous computing environment. A novel and important aspect of this work is our extension of the representation beyond modelling just users, using it also to represent the other elements such as devices, sensors, rooms and buildings. We illustrate our approach in terms of models we have been building for a system which enables users to gain personalised information about the sensors and services in a ubiquitous computing environment. We report experiments on the scalability and the management of inconsistency in modelling of location, based on accretion-resolution     

Plasma cholesterol determination in birds--a diagnostic tool for detection of organophosphate and carbamate intoxication]

An investigation was done on the clinical usefulness of the dry chemistry analyzer Vitros DT 60 II for determination of avian plasma cholinesterase. The analytical reliability of the method, evaluated by precision and accuracy, proved to be high for plasma of numerous pet and wild birds. Values of normal plasma-cholinesterase activity were established for different psittacine and European wild birds. Significant differences in physiologic plasma-cholinesterase activity were noted between closely related species as well as between juvenile and adult birds. These findings emphasize the necessity to use control values of the same species and age group for comparison. Dry chemistry plasma-cholinesterase determination can be used as a diagnostic tool for detection of organophosphate and carbamate poisonings in the majority of investigated birds.