This paper formulates a new Minimum Constraint Removal (MCR) motion planning problem in which the objective is to remove the fewest geometric constraints necessary to connect a start and goal state with a free path. I present a probabilistic roadmap motion planner for MCR in continuous configuration spaces. The planner operates by constructing increasingly refined roadmaps, and efficiently solv...

In 1964, US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, a master of words, when trying to define hardcore pornography admitted, “I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so, but I know it when I see it. . . .” Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) has been in that sense the pornography of rheumatic diseases—a difficult to define syndrome of inflammatory pain and stiffness in older people, but one commonly ...

This study determines the perinatal mortality rate (PMR) among births recorded at the Women's Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) in India, and from other centers in the Patna district community, where the ICDS program was not implemented. Births include all infants over 28 weeks of gestational development and who weighed over 1000 g at birth. Infants were grouped by birth weights as follow...

BACKGROUND Papillary muscle rupture (PMR) is a rare, but often life-threatening mechanical complication of myocardial infarction (MI). Immediate surgical intervention is considered the optimal and most rational treatment for acute PMR, but carries high risks. At this point it is not entirely clear which patients are at highest risk. In this study we sought to determine in-hospital mortality and...

BACKGROUND Papillary muscle rupture (PMR) is an infrequent but catastrophic complication of acute myocardial infarction (MI). Although always considered, surgical treatment is often denied because of high operative mortality. Moreover, the effects of surgery for PMR on long-term outcome, particularly compared with expected outcome after MI, are undefined. METHODS AND RESULTS Fifty-four consec...

The nuclear factor erythroid-derived 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) is a key regulator of gene expression during oxidative stress and drug detoxification. Thus, identifying Nrf2 activators to protect from possible cell damage is necessary. In this study, we investigated whether E-p-methoxycinnamoyl-α-l-rhamnopyranosyl ester (MCR), a phenylpropanoid isolated from Scrophularia buergeriana, can activat...

INTRODUCTION Motoric cognitive risk (MCR) syndrome is a recently described pre-dementia syndrome characterized by slow gait and cognitive complaints that has been implicated as a predictor of cognitive decline and dementia in older adults. Previous work suggests that cerebrovascular disease is associated with MCR. White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are postulated to be a product of cerebrovasc...

The metabolic clearance rate (MCR) of human growth hormone (HGH) was determined by the constant infusion to equilibrium technique utilizing HGH-(125)I. 22 control subjects had a MCR of 229 +/-52 ml/min (mean +/-SD). No difference was evident between sexes, or between various age groups. Patients with acromegaly demonstrated normal MCR's. Moreover, acute elevations of plasma growth hormone conce...

BACKGROUND Glucocorticoids are associated with increased fracture risk and are the mainstay of treatment in polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and giant cell arteritis (GCA). However, fracture risk in these conditions has not been previously quantified. The aim of this study was to quantify the risk of fracture among patients with PMR and GCA. METHODS A retrospective cohort study was conducted usin...

Patients with intractable angina and severe diffuse coronary artery disease not amenable to conventional revascularisation therapy have relatively few treatment options. A number of studies suggest myocardial laser revascularisation is of clinical benefit in such patients. 2 Percutaneous myocardial revascularisation (PMR) involves the use of an intravascular catheter, positioned within the left...