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Purpose: To examine whether children with or without cerebral palsy (CP) would follow a humanoid robot’s (i.e., Darwin) feedback to move their arm faster when playing virtual reality (VR) games. Methods: Seven children with mild CP and 10 able-bodied children participated. Real-time reaching was evaluated by playing the Super Pop VRTM system, including 2-game baseline, 3-game acquisition, and another 2-game extinction. During acquisition, Darwin provided verbal feedback to direct the child to reach a kinematically defined target goal (i.e., 80% of average movement time in baseline). Outcome variables included the percentage of successful reaches (“% successful reaches”), movement time (MT), average speed, path, and number of movement units. Results: All games during acquisition and extinction had larger “%successful reaches,” faster speeds, and faster MTs than the 2 games during baseline (p < .05). Conclusion: Children with and without CP could follow the robot’s feedback for changing their reaching kinematics when playing VR games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether Super Pop VR, a low-cost virtual reality (VR) system, was a feasible system for documenting improvement in children with cerebral palsy (CP) and whether a home-based VR intervention was effective. Methods. Three children with CP participated in this study and received an 8-week VR intervention (30 minutes × 5 sessions/week) using the commercial EyeToy Play VR system. Reaching kinematics measured by Super Pop VR and two fine motor tools (Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency second edition, BOT-2, and Pediatric Motor Activity Log, PMAL) were tested before, mid, and after intervention. Results. All children successfully completed the evaluations using the Super Pop VR system at home where 85% of the reaches collected were used to compute reaching kinematics, which is compatible with literature using expensive motion analysis systems. Only the child with hemiplegic CP and more impaired arm function improved the reaching kinematics and functional use of the affected hand after intervention. Conclusion. Super Pop VR proved to be a feasible evaluation tool in children with CP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To measure the association between the degree of knowledge on how to solve problems associated with the use of contraceptive methods and the presence of unplanned pregnancies in women using short-acting contraception; to determine the prevalence of unplanned pregnancies; and to describe attitudes, perceptions and characteristics in relation to family planning activities. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional analytical study conducted in women between 14 and 49 years of age coming for a pregnancy test to a public, low-complexity healthcare institution in Medellín, Colombia, that provides care to a population covered under a state-subsidized healthcare system. Before delivering the result of the pregnancy test they were given a structured survey and a test to measure their knowledge for solving situations that might affect the effectiveness of contraception methods under the woman's control. Results: Of the 471 women surveyed, 75.2 % were not planning to become pregnant and 57 % had an unplanned pregnancy. The median knowledge level was 50% (p25: 37.5%, p75: 62.5%). The prevalence ratio of unplanned pregnancy with an intermediate or high level of knowledge was 0.56 (95% CI 0.34-0.92). Conclusion: Knowledge about how to solve problems regarding contraceptive methods that depend for their effectiveness on the appropriate use by the woman is associated with a lower frequency of unplanned pregnancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship of self-efficacy and perceived social support with treatment adherence in patients with type 2 diabetes. The study was carried out in 118 patients, both sexes, 35-64 years of age, from Concepción (Chile), who answered the General Self-Efficacy Scale and the Perceived Social Support Questionnaire. Adherence was measured through self-report and metabolic compensation. It was found that both self-efficacy and social support had significant relationships with self-reported adherence and metabolic compensation, being higher the relationship of social support with treatment adherence. Diverse explanatory factors for obtained results are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We describe two algorithms for calculating reversible one-dimensional cellular automata of neighborhood size 2. We explain how this kind of automaton represents all the other cases. Using two basic properties of reversible automata such as uniform multiplicity of ancestors and Welch indices, these algorithms only require matrix products and transitive closures of binary relations to classify all the possible reversible automata of neighborhood size 2. We expose the features, advantages and differences with other well-known methods. Finally, we present results for reversible automata from three to six states and neighborhood size 2. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Reversible cellular automata are invertible dynamical systems characterized by discreetness, determinism and local interaction. This article studies the local behavior of reversible one-dimensional cellular automata by means of the spectral properties of their connectivity matrices. We use the transformation of every one-dimensional cellular automaton to another of neighborhood size 2 to generalize the results exposed in this paper. In particular we prove that the connectivity matrices have a single positive eigenvalue equal to 1; based on this result we also prove the idempotent behavior of these matrices. The significance of this property lies in the implementation of a matrix technique for detecting whether a one-dimensional cellular automaton is reversible or not. In particular, we present a procedure using the eigenvectors of these matrices to find the inverse rule of a given reversible one-dimensional cellular automaton. Finally illustrative examples are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of computing in Mexico cannot be thought without the name of Prof. Harold V. McIntosh (1929–2015). For almost 50 years, in Mexico, he contributed to the development of computer science with wide international recognition. Approximately in 1964, McIntosh began working in the Physics Department of the Advanced Studies Center (CIEA) of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), now called CINVESTAV. In 1965, at the National Center of Calculus (CeNaC), he was a founding member of the Master in Computing, first in Latin America. With the support of Mario Baez Camargo and Enrique Melrose, McIntosh continues his research of Martin-Baltimore Computer Center and University of Florida at IBM 709. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a single cell visible by unaided eye. During its foraging behavior the cell spans spatially distributed sources of nutrients with a protoplasmic network. The geometrical structure of the protoplasmic networks allows the plasmodium to optimize transport of nutrients between remote parts of its body. Assuming major Mexican cities are sources of nutrients that need to be distributed across Mexico, how much does the structure of the Physarum protoplasmic network correspond to the structure of Mexican Federal highway network? To address the issue we undertook a series of laboratory experiments with living P. polycephalum. We represent geographical locations of major cities (19 locations) by oat flakes, place a piece of plasmodium in the area corresponding to Mexico city, record the plasmodium's foraging behavior and extract topology of the resulting nutrient transport networks. Results of our experiments show that the protoplasmic network formed by Physarum is isomorphic, subject to limitations imposed, to a network of principal highways. Ideas and results in the paper may contribute towards future developments in bio-inspired road planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor Harold V. McIntosh has realized deep and elegant contributions in the analysis and understanding of cellular automata. Inspired in his work about applying graph and algebraic tools in the study of reversible automata, this paper implements some of his ideas and results for characterizing the features of the inverse rule for a reversible one-dimensional cellular automata. In particular, we use the pair diagram for knowing the size of the inverse neighborhood and the position of its evolution and we take advantage of the cyclic behavior in finite configurations for obtaining the inverse local rule. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on biology has seen significant advances with the use of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The MD methodology enables explanation and discovery of molecular mechanisms in a wide range of natural processes and biological systems. The need to readily share the ever-increasing amount of MD data has been hindered by the lack of specialized bioinformatic tools. The difficulty lies in the efficient management of the data, i.e., in sending and processing 3D information for its visualization. In this work, we present HTMoL, a plug-in-free, secure GPU-accelerated web application specifically designed to stream and visualize MD trajectory data on a web browser. Now, individual research labs can publish MD data on the Internet, or use HTMoL to profoundly improve scientific reports by including supplemental MD data in a journal publication. HTMoL can also be used as a visualization interface to access MD trajectories generated on a high-performance computer center directly. Furthermore, the HTMoL architecture can be leveraged with educational efforts to improve learning in the fields of biology, chemistry, and physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper implements the cyclic tag system (CTS) in Rule 110 developed by Cook in [1, 2] using regular expressions denominated phases fi&lowbar;1 [3]. The main problem in CTS is coding the initial condition based in a system of gliders. In this way, we develop a method to control the periodic phases of the strings representing all gliders until now known in Rule 110, including glider guns. These strings form a subset of regular expressions implemented in a computational system to facilitate the construction of CTS. Thus, these phases are useful to establish distances and positions for every glider and then to delineate more sophisticated components or packages of gliders. In this manuscript, it is possible to find differences with the results exposed in Wolfram's book [2], inclusively some mistakes which avoid to obtain an appropriated realization of CTS in Rule 110; fortunately, these irregularities were discussed and clarified by Cook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the properties of amalgamations and permutations of states in the matrix representation of reversible one-dimensional cellular automata where both evolution rules have neighborhood size 2 and a Welch index equal to 1. These properties are later used for constructing reversible automata and defining a compact nomenclature to identify them. Some examples are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reversible cellular automata are discrete invertible dynamical systems determined by local interactions among their components. For the one-dimensional case, there are classical references providing a complete characterization based on combinatorial properties. Using these results and the simulation of every automaton by another with neighborhood size 2, this paper describes other types of invertible behaviors embedded in these systems different from the classical one observed in the temporal evolution. In particular, spatial reversibility and diagonal surjectivity are studied, and the generation of macrocells in the evolution space is analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rule 110 is a complex elementary cellular automaton able of support universal computation and complicated collision-based reactions between gliders. We propose a representation for coding initial conditions by means of a finite subset of regular expressions. The sequences are extracted both from de Bruijn diagrams and tiles specifying a set of phases fi-1 for each glider in Rule 110. The subset of regular expressions is explained in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The one-dimensional cellular automaton Rule 110 shows a very ample and diversified glider dynamics. The huge number of collision-based reactions presented in its evolution space are useful to implement some specific (conventional and unconventional) computable process, hence Rule 110 may be used to implement any desired simulation. Therefore there is necessity of defining some interesting objects as: solitons, eaters, black holes, flip-flops, fuses and more. For example, this work explains the construction of meta-gliders; for these constructions, we specify a regular language in Rule 110 to code in detail initial conditions with a required behavior. The paper depicts as well several experimental collision-based constructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper exposes a procedure for modeling and solving linear systems using continuous-valued cellular automata. The original part of this work consists on showing how the cells in the automaton may contain both real values and operators for carrying out numerical calculations and solve a desired problem. In this sense the automaton acts as a program, where data and operators are mixed in the evolution space for obtaining the correct calculations. As an example, Euler's integration method is implemented in the configuration space in order to achieve an approximated solution for a dynamical system. Three examples showing linear behaviors are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cellular automata are discrete dynamical systems based on simple local interactions among its components, but sometimes they are able to yield quite a complex global behavior. A special kind of cellular automaton is the one where the global behavior is invertible, this type of cellular automaton is called reversible. In this paper we expose the graph representation provided by de Bruijn diagrams of reversible one-dimensional cellular automata and we define the distinct types of paths between self-loops in such diagrams. With this, we establish the way in which a reversible one-dimensional cellular automaton generates sequences composed by subsequences produced by the undefined repetition of a single state. Using this graph presentation, we define Welch diagrams which will be useful for proving that all the extensions of the ancestors in reversible one-dimensional cellular automata are equivalent to the full shift. In this way an important result of this paper is that we understand and classify the behavior of a reversible automaton analyzing the extensions of the ancestors of a given sequence by means of symbolic dynamics tools. A final example illustrates the results exposed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The KARS gene encodes the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS), which activates and joins lysine with its corresponding transfer RNA (tRNA) through the ATP-dependent aminoacylation of the amino acid. KARS gene mutations have been linked to diverse neurologic phenotypes, such as neurosensorial hearing loss, leukodystrophy, microcephaly, developmental delay or regression, peripheral neuropathy, cardiomyopathy, the impairment of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, and hyperlactatemia, among others. This article presents the case of a Colombian pediatric patient with two pathological missense variants in a compound heterozygous state in the KARS gene and, in addition to the case report, the paper reviews the literature for other cases of KARS1-associated leukodystrophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]