On the mechanism of response latencies in auditory nerve fibers

Despite the structural differences of the middle and inner ears, the latency pattern in auditory nerve fibers to an identical sound has been found similar across numerous species. Studies have shown the similarity in remarkable species with distinct cochleae or even without a basilar membrane. This stimulus-, neuron-, and species- independent similarity of latency cannot be simply explained by the concept of cochlear traveling waves that is generally accepted as the main cause of the neural latency pattern. An original concept of Fourier pattern is defined, intended to characterize a feature of temporal processing—specifically phase encoding—that is not readily apparent in more conventional analyses. The pattern is created by marking the first amplitude maximum for each sinusoid component of the stimulus, to encode phase information. The hypothesis is that the hearing organ serves as a running analyzer whose output reflects synchronization of auditory neural activity consistent with the Fourier pattern. A combined research of experimental, correlational and meta-analysis approaches is used to test the hypothesis. Manipulations included phase encoding and stimuli to test their effects on the predicted latency pattern. Animal studies in the literature using the same stimulus were then compared to determine the degree of relationship. The results show that each marking accounts for a large percentage of a corresponding peak latency in the peristimulus-time histogram. For each of the stimuli considered, the latency predicted by the Fourier pattern is highly correlated with the observed latency in the auditory nerve fiber of representative species. The results suggest that the hearing organ analyzes not only amplitude spectrum but also phase information in Fourier analysis, to distribute the specific spikes among auditory nerve fibers and within a single unit. This phase-encoding mechanism in Fourier analysis is proposed to be the common mechanism that, in the face of species differences in peripheral auditory hardware, accounts for the considerable similarities across species in their latency-by-frequency functions, in turn assuring optimal phase encoding across species. Also, the mechanism has the potential to improve phase encoding of cochlear implants

Desk study on homeopathy in organic livestock farming: Principles, obstacles and recommendations for practice and research

Organic livestock farming has its own concept of health and welfare. The approach to health can be characterised by the key words human, preventive, self-regulating and holistic (Chapter 1). This has consequences for the way we deal with diseases and problems, the nature of the solutions and the use of medication, among other things. In terms of therapeutic and regulatory measures this health concept is based primarily on natural food supplements and homeopathic remedies, which in view of their origin fit in well with the natural character of organic agriculture (Verhoog et al., 2002). Apart from various forms of potentised remedies (classic, clinical, anthroposophic, isopathic; Chapter 2) and all manner of applications within phytotherapy (Bach flower, aromatherapy), there is interest in organic livestock farming in complementary health treatments other than acupuncture. We also need more detailed research into the practical implications of possible self-medication by animals (Engel, 2001). Complementary medicine demands a new type of knowledge in relation to its working mechanism, testing for authenticity and the way it is used (Chapter 3). The thinking behind the use of homeopathic remedies often based on a preventive approach to health. With the aid of these remedies the doctor seeks to create a more balanced environment in and around the animal and to improve the animal’s resistance to infections (Baars en Ellinger, 1997). Striezel (2001) calls homeopathy a regulatory therapy, which heals the body by stimulating the individual immune system and regulating the metabolism. The use of homeopathic remedies is still limited in practice, partly due to a lack of suitably trained veterinary practitioners (Chapter 4). In the elaboration of the research questions the authors discovered that the use of homeopathic remedies meets with particular resistance which can be traced back to philosophical assumptions (sections 4.1-4.3). As the research is fleshed out it is therefore important that it is not simply carried out in conformity with currently valid scientific standards. The research design must also be in line with the philosophy of homeopathy in terms of both quantity and quality (Chapter 5). This is particularly important for homeopathy because its therapeutic methods are based on principles which do not fit in with conventional notions about life. The similia principle (law of similars) is an important feature of homeopathy and homeopathy shares the second key concept of potentisation with anthroposophy (Chapter 2). There is limited acceptance of homeopathic remedies in particular, despite the fact that there is some empirical evidence for the efficacy of homeopathic treatments. Both outcome research into homeopathic treatments of humans and animals and fundamental empirical research into the validity of the similia law and the efficacy of high dilutions produce results which tend to bear this out. However, it is rejected out of hand on ontological grounds and because of the assumed working mechanism. Follow-up research into homeopathic remedies is desirable, but must be in line with the underlying complementary health and welfare concept of organic agriculture, which includes treatment with veterinary medicines. Randomised Clinical Trials are thus only of limited use, since they disregard the individually tailored nature of the treatment. In practice however, sufficient alternative therapies have been developed which can be used in outcome research. The researchers propose a graduated structure for the outcome research (Chapter 6). The first step is to join in with the monitoring of experience in practice, and follow this with casuistic outcome research

Randomised controlled trial of GM-CSF in critically ill patients with impaired neutrophil phagocytosis

Background. Critically ill patients with impaired neutrophil phagocytosis have significantly increased risk of nosocomial infection. Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) improves phagocytosis by neutrophils ex vivo. This study tested the hypothesis that GM-CSF improves neutrophil phagocytosis in critically ill patients in whom phagocytosis is known to be impaired Methods. This was a multi-centre, phase 2a randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial Using a personalised medicine approach, only critically ill patients with impaired neutrophil phagocytosis were included. Patients were randomised 1:1 to subcutaneous GM-CSF (3 microgrammws/kg/day) or placebo, once daily for 4 days. The primary outcome measure was neutrophil phagocytosis 2 days after initiation of GM-CSF. Secondary outcomes included neutrophil phagocytosis over time, neutrophil functions other than phagocytosis, monocyte HLA-DR expression, and safety. Results. Thirty-eight patients were recruited from 5 intensive care units (17 randomised to GM-CSF). Mean neutrophil phagocytosis at day 2 was 57.2% (SD 13.2%) in the GM-CSF group and 49.8% (13.4%) in the placebo group, p=0.73. The proportion of patients with neutrophil phagocytosis >50% at day 2, and monocyte HLA-DR, appeared significantly higher in the GM-CSF group. Neutrophil functions other than phagocytosis did not appear significantly different between the groups. The most common adverse event associated with GM-CSF was pyrexia. Conclusions. GM-CSF did not improve mean neutrophil phagocytosis at day 2, but was safe and appeared to increase the proportion of patients with adequate phagocytosis. The study suggests proof of principle for a pharmacological effect on neutrophil function in a subset of critically ill patients.This work was funded by a grant from the Medical Research Council (G1100233), with additional support from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre. It was sponsored by Newcastle Universit

Surfactant and Matrix Metalloproteinase 3 in the Pathogenesis of Acute Lung Injury

Acute lung injury (ALI) is a pulmonary inflammatory disorder resulting in respiratory failure that is initiated by a number of different insults to the lung. Despite very high mortality, there are still no effective treatments for this disease, and the main supportive therapy, mechanical ventilation, can further lung injury and contribute to ALI progression. The overall objective of this work was therefore to evaluate the role of two key players in the disease process, such as: i) lung surfactant, a material essential for minimizing the work of breathing and for pulmonary immunomodulation, and ii) matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP-3), protease involved in the inflammatory response associated with ALI. The experimental approach consisted of exposing mice to different models of ALI, in order to investigate: i) the effects of exogenous surfactant administration on injury progression, ii) the role of MMP-3 in the pulmonary inflammatory response and iii) MMP-3 role in the surfactant alterations associated with ALI. The findings from this work underline the importance of a functional surfactant system in supporting the mechanics of breathing following lung injury. The data also illustrate that MMP-3 is an important contributor to the pulmonary inflammation associated with ALI. This exciting evidence has broadened the knowledge of ALI pathophysiology and identified a potential new therapeutic target –MMP-3- that could help improve the outcome of patients with this condition

Penggaruh Stimulasi Posisi Tengkurap Terhadap Kemampuan Mengangkat Kepala Bayi Usia 4 Minggu

Background: Gross motor skills is the biggest area in children under three years old. Gross motor development in infants aged 4-8 weeks which is the ability to lift the head 45º, can be done by stimulating the prone position to maximize the ability to elevate the baby's head age of 4-8 weeks. Objective: To determine the effect of stimulation of the prone position on the ability to lift the baby's head age of 4 weeks. Benefits: Can determine the effect of stimulation prone position on the ability to lift the baby's head age of 4 weeks. Method: This research used in this study is Quasi experiment with methods of pre and post test with control group design. In the treatment group was given stimulation prone position for 4 weeks with a frequency of 3 times a week and every day 2 time treatment, while collecting data for the control group only performed in infants age 4 weeks and 8 weeks of age when the baby without any stimulation prone position. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon test is to test the effect and influence of different test between the treatment groups with the control group using the Mann Whitney test. Results: There is a stimulation effect of the prone position on the ability to lift the baby's head age of 4 weeks of statistical test results obtained Wilcoxon test p-value of 0.004 in the treatment group, while the control group to influence but not so big that 0,017. Having performed using the Mann Whitney statistical test p-value 0.000 obtained there is different effect between the treatment group and the control group. Conclusions: There is a stimulation effect of the prone position on the ability to lift the baby's head age of 4 weeks. Keywords: Stimulation of the prone position, ability to lift his head, Infants aged 4 week

Coaching-Based Leadership Intervention Program: A Controlled Trial Study

In spite of the potential benefits that coaching-based leadership interventions can bring to organizations, basic questions remain about their impact on developing coaching skills and increasing psychological capital (PsyCap), work engagement and in- and extra-role performance. In a controlled trial study, 41 executives and middle managers (25 in the experimental group and 16 in the waiting-list control group) from an automotive sector company in Spain received pre-assessment feedback, a coaching-based leadership group workshop, and three individual executive coaching sessions over a period of 3 months. The intervention program used a strengths-based approach and the RE-GROW model, and it was conducted by executive coaching psychologists external to the organization. Participants (N = 41) and their supervisors (N = 41) and employees (N = 180) took part in a pre-post-follow up 360-degree assessment during the research period. Quantitative data were analyzed using Analyses of Variance (ANOVA) with a 2 2 design, paired-samples t-tests, and univariate analyses between groups. Results indicated that the intervention program was successful in increasing the participants’ coaching-based leadership skills, PsyCap, work engagement, and in- and extrarole performance. Qualitative measures were also applied, and results from individual responses provided additional support for the study hypotheses. Regarding practical implications, the results suggest that the Coaching-based Leadership Intervention Program can be valuable as an applied positive intervention to help leaders develop coaching skills and enhance well-being and optimal functioning in organizations

Transmitter release from cochlear hair cells is phase locked to cyclic stimuli of different intensities and frequencies

The auditory system processes time and intensity through separate brainstem pathways to derive spatial location as well as other salient features of sound. The independent coding of time and intensity begins in the cochlea, where afferent neurons can fire action potentials at constant phase throughout a wide range of stimulus intensities. We have investigated time and intensity coding by simultaneous presynaptic and postsynaptic recording at the hair cell-afferent synapse from rats. Trains of depolarizing steps to the hair cell were used to elicit postsynaptic currents that occurred at constant phase for a range of membrane potentials over which release probability varied significantly. To probe the underlying mechanisms, release was examined using single steps to various command voltages. As expected for vesicular release, first synaptic events occurred earlier as presynaptic calcium influx grew larger. However, synaptic depression produced smaller responses with longer first latencies. Thus, during repetitive hair cell stimulation, as the hair cell is more strongly depolarized, increased calcium channel gating hurries transmitter release, but the resulting vesicular depletion produces a compensatory slowing. Quantitative simulation of ribbon function shows that these two factors varied reciprocally with hair cell depolarization (stimulus intensity) to produce constant synaptic phase. Finally, we propose that the observed rapid vesicle replenishment would help maintain the vesicle pool, which in turn would equilibrate with the stimulus intensity (and therefore the number of open Ca 2+ channels), so that for trains of different levels the average phase will be conserved.Fil: Goutman, Juan Diego. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; Argentin

Transition, development and the supply of wheat in China

The overall goal of this article is to better understand the factors that influence China’s wheat supply. We assess trends in China’s wheat output and develop a framework to measure the relationship between output and key determinants of China’s wheat sector growth. Elasticity estimates and factor growth trends help decompose the growth of reform‐era wheat supply into its component parts. The results show that growth in the early reform period was due to institutional change and technology. In the late reform period, however, with the returns to institutional change exhausted, all of China’s growth in wheat supply was due to technology, a result that implies China’s government should invest heavily in agricultural research and development.Crop Production/Industries,

Classical and quantum aspects of tomography

We present here a set of lecture notes on tomography. The Radon transform and some of its generalizations are considered and their inversion formulae are proved. We will also look from a group-theoretc point of view at the more general problem of expressing a function on a manifold in terms of its integrals over certain submanifolds. Finally, the extension of the tomographic maps to the quantum case is considered, as a Weyl-Wigner quantization of the classical case.Comment: 32 pages, 9 figure

Pregnant Women's Behavior in Stimulating the Fetus After Giving Education Through Audiovisual Media

National data from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia in 2018, 11 percent of toddlers in Indonesia experience growth and development disorders. It is estimated that 1-3 percent experience delays in motor development. Efforts to maintain and increase intelligence potential during pregnancy are very important to prepare quality Indonesian human resources in an effort to increase the Human Development Index (IPM) of Indonesian society in the future. The purpose of this study is to ascertain how fetal stimulation knowledge and behavior among pregnant women in the Bandengan Subdistrict are related to education through audiovisual media. The research design is a quasi-experiment with a one-group pretest and posttest design technique. This research was conducted in Bandengan Village, Kendal District, Kendal Regency in September-December 2022. The population in this study were all pregnant women who were in Bandengan Village Trimesters 2 and 3 in October-December 2021, with a total of 73 pregnant women. In this study, the respondents were the total population of pregnant women in Bandengan village. The measurement tool used a questionnaire regarding the depth of fetal stimulation knowledge. The result of a statistical test using the Wilcoxon test show that there is a relationship between fetal stimulation in pregnant women through audiovisual media education with a p-value of 0.000, with a description of pregnant women's behavior regarding fetal stimulation after receiving education of 100 percent. For future researchers, other methods that are more perfect in the health education model can be used.Data nasional Kemenkes RI  2018, 11 persen balita di Indonesia mengalami gangguan pertumbuhan dan perkembangan. Diperkirakan 1-3 persen mengalami keterlambatan perkembangan motorik. Upaya dalam memelihara dan meningkatkan potensi intelegensi pada periode kehamilan sangat penting untuk mempersiapkan SDM Indonesia yang berkualitas dalam upaya meningkatkan Indeks Pembangunan Manusia (IPM) masyarakat Indonesia dikemudian hari. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh edukasi melalui media audiovisual terhadap pengetahuan dan perilaku stimulasi janin pada ibu hamil di Kelurahan Bandengan. Desain penelitian ini yaitu quasi experiment dengan pendekatan one group pretest and posttest design. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan di Kelurahan Bandengan Kecamatan Kendal Kabupaten Kendal pada bulan September-Desember 2022. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah semua ibu hamil yang berada di Kelurahan Bandengan Trimester 2 dan 3 pada bulan Oktober-Desember 2021, sebanyak 73 ibu hamil. Dalam penelitian ini, responden adalah total populasi ibu hamil di Kelurahan Bandengan. Instrumen penelitian menggunakan kuesioner tingkat pengetahuan stimulasi janin.  Uji statistik yang digunakan adalah Uji Wilcoxon, diperoleh hasil bahwa ada pengaruh edukasi melalui media audiovisual terhadap pengetahuan ibu hamil tentang stimulasi janin dengan p value 0.000, dengan gambaran perilaku ibu hamil mengenai stimulasi janin setelah mendapatkan edukasi sebesar 100 persen. Bagi peneliti selanjutnya dapat menggunakan metode lain yang lebih sempurna dalam model pendidikan kesehatan