271 research outputs found
Aerospace medicine and biology: A cumulative index to a continuing bibliography (supplement 319)
This publication is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in Supplements 307 through 318 of Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography. Seven indexes are included -- subject, personal author, corporate source, foreign technology, contract number, report number and accession number
Noninvasive strategies to promote functional recovery after stroke
Stroke is a common and disabling global health-care problem, which is the third most common cause of death and one of the main causes of acquired adult disability in many countries. Rehabilitation interventions are a major component of patient care. In the last few years, brain stimulation, mirror therapy, action observation, or mental practice with motor imagery has emerged as interesting options as add-on interventions to standard physical therapies. The neural bases for poststroke recovery rely on the concept of plasticity, namely, the ability of central nervous system cells to modify their structure and function in response to external stimuli. In this review, we will discuss recent noninvasive strategies employed to enhance functional recovery in stroke patients and we will provide an overview of neural plastic events associated with rehabilitation in preclinical models of stroke
The social life of placebos: proximate and evolutionary mechanisms of biocultural interactions in Asante medical encounters
The Social Life of Placebos is an interdisciplinary study of the evolution of placebogenic responses – beneficial ones activated by psychosocial triggers -- and their elicitation in Asante medical contexts. Based on an extensive literature review in social, cultural, and medical studies and over 26 months of intensive research in rural Ghana, West Africa, it examines the therapeutic efficacy of Asante medical encounters by analyzing rites of care-giving within an evolutionary framework. Section 1 investigates why evolutionary processes appear to have made human physiology susceptible to psychosocial manipulation, what the health consequences of that susceptibility are in modern environments, and how culturally specific expectations and healing rituals might dampen or amplify that susceptibility. Because of key transitions in human evolution, the fitness consequences of sociality have increased rapidly and created the conditions whereby endogenous mechanisms have become responsive to sociocultural conditions. This explanation helps us better understand why culturally specific rituals can elicit powerful beneficial (placebo) and adverse (nocebo) physiological responses.
Using a mixed methodology of physiological data and ethnographic case studies collected from hundreds of Asante medical encounters, Section 2 illuminates evolutionary and proximate processes in Asante contexts of care-giving and healing rituals in detailed chapters on pain, emotion, and stress. It examines the social and cultural resources and techniques that Asante health practitioners rely on for pain management in contexts where no pain medication is available. It analyzes the biocultural interactions that can take place when healers modify patient perceptions, emotions, and expectations. The dissertation concludes with biometric evidence that Asante indigenous ritual healing ceremonies actually promote significant entrainment and relaxation effects
Circles within spirals, wheels within wheels; Body rotation facilitates critical insights into animal behavioural ecology
How animals behave is fundamental to enhancing their lifetime fitness, so defining how animals move in space and time relates to many ecological questions, including resource selection, activity budgets and animal movement networks. Historically, animal behaviour and movement has been defined by direct observation, however recent advancements in biotelemetry have revolutionised how we now assess behaviour, particularly allowing animals to be monitored when they cannot be seen. Studies now pair ‘convectional’ radio telemetries with motion sensors to facilitate more detailed investigations of animal space-use. Motion sensitive tags (containing e.g., accelerometers and magnetometers) provide precise data on body movements which characterise behaviour, and this has been exemplified in extensive studies using accelerometery data, which has been linked to space-use defined by GPS. Conversely, consideration of body rotation (particularly change in yaw) is virtually absent within the biologging literature, even though various scales of yaw rotation can reveal important patterns in behaviour and movement, with animal heading being a fundamental component characterising space-use. This thesis explores animal body angles, particularly about the yaw axis, for elucidating animal movement ecology. I used five model species (a reptile, a mammal and three birds) to demonstrate the value of assessing body rotation for investigating fine-scale movement-specific behaviours. As part of this, I advanced the ‘dead-reckoning’ method, where fine-scale animal movement between temporally poorly resolved GPS fixes can be deduced using heading vectors and speed. I addressed many issues with this protocol, highlighting errors and potential solutions but was able to show how this approach leads to insights into many difficult-to-study animal behaviours. These ranged from elucidating how and where lions cross supposedly impermeable man-made barriers to examining how penguins react to tidal currents and then navigate their way to their nests far from the sea in colonies enclosed within thick vegetation
Aerospace medicine and biology: A cumulative index to a continuing bibliography (supplement 345)
This publication is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in Supplements 333 through 344 of Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography. Seven indexes are included -- subject, personal author, corporate source, foreign technology, contract number, report number, and accession number
Earth orbital experiment program and requirements study, volume 1, sections 1 - 6
A reference manual for planners of manned earth-orbital research activity is presented. The manual serves as a systems approach to experiment and mission planning based on an integrated consideration of candidate research programs and the appropriate vehicle, mission, and technology development requirements. Long range goals and objectives for NASA activities during the 1970 to 1980 time period are analyzed. The useful and proper roles of manned and automated spacecraft for implementing NASA experiments are described. An integrated consideration of NASA long range goals and objectives, the system and mission requirements, and the alternative implementation plans are developed. Specific areas of investigation are: (1) manned space flight requirements, (2) space biology, (3) spaceborne astronomy, (4) space communications and navigation, (5) earth observation, (6) supporting technology development requirements, (7) data management system matrices, (8) instrumentation matrices, and (9) biotechnology laboratory experiments
Aerospace medicine and biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes (supplement 385)
This bibliography lists 536 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System Database. Subject coverage includes: aerospace medicine and physiology, life support systems and man/system technology, protective clothing, exobiology and extraterrestrial life, planetary biology, and flight crew behavior and performance
Behaviour and ecology of the Northern lesser galago (Galago senegalensis)
Galagids (family: Galagidae; suborder: Strepsirrhini) are small nocturnal primates distributed across sub-Saharan Africa. Knowledge on their behaviour and ecology is important for understanding our early primate ancestors, who were also most likely small and nocturnal. Data on the behaviour and ecology of many galagid species is lacking but urgently needed for their effective conservation in the face of anthropogenic threats. The Northern lesser galago (Galago senegalensis) is the most widely distributed of all the galagids, occupying a range of habitats, and is therefore a particularly suitable model species for the study of the behaviour and ecology of galagids.
I researched Northern lesser galagos from January 2016 to January 2022. For my thesis I had the following aims: highlight taxonomic and geographic biases in the study of all galagids; investigate Northern lesser galago activity and social behaviour; determine factors that contribute to Northern lesser galago sleeping ecology; assess the response of Northern lesser galagos to systematic predation from Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus); and create a non-invasive method to retrieve DNA from wild galagids. I used a range of methods for data collection: systematic search of the literature, continuous behavioural observations, vegetation surveys, line transect surveys, and non-invasive sampling; and analysis: hypothesis testing, negative binomial regression, logistic regression, text mining, random forest classification analysis, distance sampling, density surface modelling, and DNA extraction and amplification.
My systematic review in Chapter 2 revealed that, between 1971 and 2020, most research was on larger-bodied species and those with larger geographic ranges, and study sites were in cooler and more accessible areas. The behavioural study in Chapter 3 found that, at Kwakuchinja in Tanzania, Northern lesser galago behaviour varied across different periods of the night, with foraging being most prevalent in the evening (post-dusk). The use of both vocal and olfactory social communication, observations of complex social behaviours, and galagos at Kwakuchinja being in groups in the majority of observations, suggests that Northern lesser galagos may have a higher degree of sociality than previously thought. The study of Northern lesser galago sleeping ecology at Kwakuchinja in Chapter 4 revealed that sleeping sites allow galagids to remain hidden but able to escape easily from opportunistic predators, especially aerial predators, and remain cool when sleeping during the day. Chapter 5 found that, at Fongoli in Senegal, Northern lesser galagos sleep inside trees with several escape routes from chimpanzees, which systematically hunt them at their sleeping sites. When active, galagos at Fongoli avoid areas frequently used by chimpanzees. Finally, Chapter 6 describes a novel non-invasive technique that can be used to obtain samples from galagids for genetic analysis.
This thesis contributes significantly to the understanding of Northern lesser galago behaviour and ecology, revealing how they respond to the different pressures acting on populations across their range. The knowledge on Northern lesser galago microhabitat requirements and activity will be invaluable in future behavioural research and for implementing effective conservation strategies. For the study of all galagids, the review acts as a guide to ensure that future research addresses the uneven representation of species and study sites. The novel non-invasive genetic sampling method presents a way to study the genetics of galagids and other nocturnal, arboreal or cryptic animals, with a plethora of applications
Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 267, January 1985
This publication is a cumulative index to the abstracts contained in the Supplements 255 through 266 of Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A Continuing Bibliography. It includes seven indexes--subject, personal author, corporate source, foreign technology, contract number, report number, and accession number
Concepts in Animal Parasitology: Master Bibliography
Master bibliography for the open educational resource/open access textbook Concepts in Animal Parasitology, Scott L. Gardner and Sue Ann Gardner, editors, published by Zea Books, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States, 2023. This includes the references from literature cited and suggested supplemental reading
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