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Hand impairment is prevalent in individuals after stroke. Regaining independent finger control is especially challenging. An objective and continuous assessment of finger impairment could inform clinicians and allow them to prescribe targeted therapies. The objective of this preliminary work was to quantify the neuromuscular factors that contribute to impairment in independent finger control in chronic stroke survivors. We obtained high-density electromyographic (HD-EMG) signals of extrinsic finger muscles and fingertip forces, while stroke or control participants were instructed to produce independent finger forces. We observed an impaired ability to isolate individual muscle compartment activation (i.e., co-activation of muscle compartment). This muscle co-activation pattern correlated with finger independence as well as clinical assessment scales on hand impairment. Our preliminary work showed that HD-EMG recordings can be used to continuously monitor activation abnormalities of small finger muscles in contribution to impaired finger independence. With further development, the outcomes can provide a basis for clinical decision making to reduce hand impairments of stroke survivors. 

We present the discovery of TOI-2136 b, a sub-Neptune planet transiting a nearby M4.5V-type star every 7.85 d, identified through photometric measurements from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. The host star is located 33 pc away with a radius of R* = 0.34 ± 0.02 R⊙, a mass of $0.34\pm 0.02 \, \mathrm{M}_{\odot }$, and an effective temperature of 3342 ± 100 K. We estimate its stellar rotation period to be 75 ± 5 d based on archival long-term photometry. We confirm and characterize the planet based on a series of ground-based multiwavelength photometry, high-angular-resolution imaging observations, and precise radial velocities from Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT)/SpectroPolarimètre InfraROUge (SPIRou). Our joint analysis reveals that the planet has a radius of 2.20 ± 0.17 R⊕ and a mass of 6.4 ± 2.4 M⊕. The mass and radius of TOI-2136 b are consistent with a broad range of compositions, from water-ice to gas-dominated worlds. TOI-2136 b falls close to the radius valley for M dwarfs predicted by thermally driven atmospheric mass-loss models, making it an interesting target for future studies of its interior structure and atmospheric properties.