Daily Archives: November 26, 2014

Penn researchers identify protein that predicts post-concussion severity in professional athletes

Posted: November 26, 2014 at 1:43 pm

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

25-Nov-2014

Contact: Lee-Ann Donegan leeann.donegan@uphs.upenn.edu 215-349-5660 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine @PennMedNews

PHILADELPHIA - New Penn Medicine research has found that elevated levels in the blood of the brain-enriched protein calpain-cleaved II-spectrin N-terminal fragment, known as SNTF, shortly after sports-related concussion can predict the severity of post-concussion symptoms in professional athletes. The complete findings were released today in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

This new study builds on previous research from this group showing that elevated blood levels of SNTF on the day of a mild traumatic brain injury treated in the emergency room predicted those patients who would go on to suffer diffuse axonal injury and long-term cognitive dysfunction.

"We extended this biomarker research to the domain of professional sports to test its merit as an objective and rapid way to determine players' severity of brain injury," says lead author, Robert Siman, PhD, Research Professor of Neurosurgery at Penn. "This blood test may aid neurobiologically-informed decisions on suitability for return to play following a sports-related concussion."

The study, conducted in collaboration with Henrik Zetterberg, MD, PhD and Kai Blennow, MD, PhD, of the Sahgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and their colleagues, enrolled 288 players in the top Swedish professional ice hockey league. Each of the 28 players who suffered a concussion during the first half of the 2012-2013 season received serial blood draws and was evaluated daily for symptom resolution using the latest guidelines for treatment of sports concussions. Eight of the concussed players were symptom-free within a few days of their injury, but 20 of the players had persistent post-concussion symptoms requiring they be withheld from play six days or longer. An additional 45 players were evaluated during the preseason, 17 of whom were also tested before and after a concussion-free training game.

Compared to those players who were not concussed, or whose concussion symptoms resolved rapidly, the researchers found an increase in the blood SNTF concentration from one hour up to 144 hours post-concussion in those players experiencing persisting post-concussion symptoms. SNTF is a protein that is present at undetectable levels in healthy human brains, but is produced under conditions where nerve cells are traumatized and begin to die. Concussions that lead to lasting brain dysfunction cause SNTF to accumulate in vulnerable long axon tracts of the brain, and its blood elevation is a measure of this diffuse axonal injury.

"These results show that SNTF has promise as a blood biomarker for sports-related concussion and beyond. High blood levels of SNTF appear to identify acute brain damage that corresponds with persisting symptoms after concussion. These observations lend further support to the growing awareness that concussion is not trivial, since it can induce permanent brain damage in some individuals," agree Siman and senior author, Douglas H. Smith, MD, professor of Neurosurgery and director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at Penn.

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More Than Friends Futurism Remix Edit – Video

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More Than Friends Futurism Remix Edit
More Than Friends Futurism Remix Edit Inna Feat. Daddy Yankee 2013 Blanco y Negro Music Released on: 2013-04-23 Auto-generated by YouTube.

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AP EURO ART PROJECT FUTURISM – Video

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AP EURO ART PROJECT FUTURISM
I created this video with the YouTube Slideshow Creator (http://www.youtube.com/upload)

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Back to the Future's Hoverboards Were Originally Way Bigger

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The hoverboard from Back to the Future: Part II is one of the most iconic artifacts of 20th century futurism. But surprisingly, the hovering toys were originally envisioned to be much larger than what made it on screen. That's according to John Bell, the visual effects art director on the classic 1989 film.

"The early designs for those hoverboards were much bigger," Bell told Uproxx. "More like wake boards and they had a lot more power devices on them, a lot of personalization that [Griff's] gang would have done to them. They were much more elaborate. But they kept evolving and whittling back till it became the minimal boards."

The Uproxx interview with Bell has plenty of other behind-the-scenes trivia from BTTF2 including his marching orders from the producers: "We don't have a script. All we know is they go 30 years in the future and there's something called hoverboards. So come up with some stuff."

And come up with some stuff they did, creating a movie that left an entire generation enthralled with the years to come and more than a little disappointed that we still don't have our hoverboards.

You can read the entire interview with Bell over at Uproxx. He talks about surveillance, hologram sharks, and the fashion of 2015. Bell's reflection on his own childhood in the 1960s and the optimistic futurism of that era is particularly fascinating.

"I grew up as a kid in the '60s and all the images of the future back then were optimistic," Bell told Uproxx. "We're going to be having jet packs and cars and city under bubbles and there would be peace and no bigotry. A lot of wonderful things and a lot of that hasn't happened."

In the end it would seem that Bell's legacy as a Baby Boomer was to pass the torch of optimistic futurism to Gen X and Millennial kids around the world, only to set us all up yet again for disappointment that the world is still so broken.

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The First Object Has Been 3D Printed In Space

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Astronaut Barry Wilmore and the first 3D printed part in space. (Credit: Made In Space/NASA)

The International Space Stations newly-installed 3D printer made history on Tuesday by manufacturing the first object ever 3D printed in space.

NASAs 3D printer was developed under a contract with the startup Made In Space, which was founded in 2010. The purpose of the 3D printer is to experiment with the possibility of manufacturing crucial replacement parts on on the station, foregoing the expense of shipping them via rocket.

This first print is the initial step toward providing an on-demand machine shop capability away from Earth, said NASAs Niki Werkheiser, project manager for the International Space Station 3-D Printer, in a press release.

The printer was delivered to the space station in September via a Space X Dragon capsule. It was installed on the station on November 17, and the first in a series of calibration prints was made. More calibration prints followed over the next few days.

On Tuesday, November 25, the first actual part was manufactured by the 3D-printer a faceplate for a printhead extruder on the printer itself. The teams at NASA and Made In Space are currently looking at the data from the part to see how it conforms to expectations.

As we print more parts well be able to learn whether some of the effects we are seeing are caused by microgravity or just part of the normal fine-tuning process for printing. When we get the parts back on Earth, well be able to do a more detailed analysis to find out how they compare to parts printed on Earth, Werkheiser said in the release.

More importantly, this demonstrates that Made In Spaces printer works which means that 3D printing could become an important part of the research being conducted on board the International Space Station, both for NASA and the commercial space industry.

This project demonstrates the basic fundamentals of useful manufacturing in space. The results of this experiment will serve as a stepping stone for significant future capabilities that will allow for the reduction of spare parts and mass on a spacecraft, which will change exploration mission architectures for the better, Made In Spaces Mike Snyder said in a statement.

The information from these experiments will help as the team at Made In Space works on its next 3D printer, which is expected to be delivered to the ISS in early 2015.

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Something For Kate – The Futurist (Drum Cover) – Video

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Something For Kate - The Futurist (Drum Cover)
Something For Kate - The Futurist Drum Cover by Bossmah. Filmed with a Nikon Coolpix. The audio is from the camera. I used a couple Vst #39;s to clean up the aud...

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Something For Kate - The Futurist (Drum Cover) - Video

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