Evaluation of guided imagery as treatment for recurrent abdominal pain in children: a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Because of the paucity of effective evidence-based therapies for children with recurrent abdominal pain, we evaluated the therapeutic effect of guided imagery, a well-studied self-regulation technique. METHODS: 22 children, aged 5 – 18 years, were randomized to learn either breathing exercises alone or guided imagery with progressive muscle relaxation. Both groups had 4-weekly sessions with a therapist. Children reported the numbers of days with pain, the pain intensity, and missed activities due to abdominal pain using a daily pain diary collected at baseline and during the intervention. Monthly phone calls to the children reported the number of days with pain and the number of days of missed activities experienced during the month of and month following the intervention. Children with ≤ 4 days of pain/month and no missed activities due to pain were defined as being healed. Depression, anxiety, and somatization were measured in both children and parents at baseline. RESULTS: At baseline the children who received guided imagery had more days of pain during the preceding month (23 vs. 14 days, P = 0.04). There were no differences in the intensity of painful episodes or any baseline psychological factors between the two groups. Children who learned guided imagery with progressive muscle relaxation had significantly greater decrease in the number of days with pain than those learning breathing exercises alone after one (67% vs. 21%, P = 0.05), and two (82% vs. 45%, P < 0.01) months and significantly greater decrease in days with missed activities at one (85% vs. 15%, P = 0.02) and two (95% vs. 77%. P = 0.05) months. During the two months of follow-up, more children who had learned guided imagery met the threshold of ≤ 4 day of pain each month and no missed activities (RR = 7.3, 95%CI [1.1,48.6]) than children who learned only the breathing exercises. CONCLUSION: The therapeutic efficacy of guided imagery with progressive muscle relaxation found in this study is consistent with our present understanding of the pathophysiology of recurrent abdominal pain in children. Although unfamiliar to many pediatricians, guided imagery is a simple, noninvasive therapy with potential benefit for treating children with RAP

Imitators of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction

Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) is described by transient narrowing of the airways after exercise. It occurs in approximately 10% of the general population, while athletes may show a higher prevalence, especially in cold weather and ice rink athletes. Diagnosis of EIB is often made on the basis of self-reported symptoms without objective lung function tests, however, the presence of EIB can not be accurately determined on the basis of symptoms and may be under-, over-, or misdiagnosed. The goal of this review is to describe other clinical entities that mimic asthma or EIB symptoms and can be confused with EIB

The Hand - 2022

Oil on ACM 8”x9.5” Instructor: Rex Kare, Painting Ihttps://digitalcommons.collin.edu/fallstudent2022/1075/thumbnail.jp

New chondrite from Libya

On Saturday, 21 of May, 2006, a fall was observed and the stony meteorite was found in a small crater on an apple farm at Werdama village, near Al Beda town in Libya. Based on preliminary examinations, the authors described the meteorite as an ordinary chondrite. Further research aiming at full characteristics, classification and registration of the meteorite is in progress

Th-REE- and Nb-Ta-accessory minerals in post-collisional Ediacaran felsic rocks from the Katerina Ring Complex (S. Sinai, Egypt): An assessment for the fractionation of Y/Nb, Th/Nb, La/Nb and Ce/Pb in highly evolved A-type granites

The relationships of Y/Nb, Th/Nb, La/Nb and Ce/Pb ratios in A-type felsic rocks from the Ediacaran Katerina Ring Complex, northernmost Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS; S. Sinai, Egypt), are investigated in this work to understand their behavior during generation of highly evolved granitic magmas and to explore the nature of magma sources. Textural and compositional relationships of cognate Th-REE- and Nb-Ta-accessory minerals in Katerina felsic rocks show that chevkinite-group minerals (CGM), monazite, thorite, allanite and xenotime formed from residual liquids in quartz syenite porphyries, quartz monzonites and peralkaline granites, whereas in aluminous granites, allanite and monazite crystallized early, and thorite and columbite formed from residual liquids. Relationships of Y/Nb, Th/Nb, La/Nb and Ce/Pb ratios with Zr/Hf ratios in the aluminous granites and with Be abundances in the peralkaline granites suggest a decrease in La/Nb and Ce/Pb ratios in the former, and in Y/Nb and La/Nb ratios in the latter with crystallization progress. This contrasts with absence of systematic variations of Th/Nb and Ce/Pb ratios in the peralkaline compositions and of Y/Nb ratio in the aluminous ones. In this latter, Th/Nb ratio can present a significant decrease only in highly evolved compositions. An analysis of Y/Nb, Th/Nb, La/Nb and Ce/Pb relationships in worldwide 0113 and subduction-related magmatic suites reveals that A-type felsic rocks with (Th/Nb)(N) 1 may have A(1)-type affinity, and those with (Th/Nb)(N) >2, (La/Nb)(N) >2, and (Ce/Pb)(N) 0.18, (Th/Nb)(N) >2, (La/Nb)(N) >2, (Ce/Pb)(N) <1, and crustal-like Nb/Ta ratios may point to a significant contribution of crustal sources258173196FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESP2014/04920-

Multisensor Satellite Data and Field Studies for Unravelling the Structural Evolution and Gold Metallogeny of the Gerf Ophiolitic Nappe, Eastern Desert, Egypt

The gold mineralization located in the southern Eastern Desert of Egypt mostly occurs in characteristic geologic and structural settings. The gold-bearing quartz veins and the alteration zones are confined to the ductile shear zones between the highly deformed ophiolitic blocks, sheared metavolcanics, and gabbro-diorite rocks. The present study attempts to integrate multisensor remotely sensed data, structural analysis, and field investigation in unraveling the geologic and structural controls of gold mineralization in the Gabal Gerf area. Multispectral optical sensors of Landsat-8 OLI/TIRS (L8) and Sentinel-2B (S2B) were processed to map the lithologic rock units in the study area. Image processing algorithms including false color composite (FCC), band ratio (BR), principal component analysis (PCA), minimum noise fraction (MNF), and Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC) were effective in producing a comprehensive geologic map of the area. The mafic index (MI) = (B13-0.9147) × (B10-1.4366) of ASTER (A) thermal bands and a combined band ratio of S2B and ASTER of (S2B3+A9)/(S2B12+A8) were dramatically successful in discriminating the ophiolitic assemblage, that are considered the favorable lithology for the gold mineralization. Three alteration zones of argillic, phyllic and propylitic were spatially recognized using the mineral indices and constrained energy minimization (CEM) approach to ASTER data. The datasets of ALSO PALSAR and Sentinel-1B were subjected to PCA and filtering to extract the lineaments and their spatial densities in the area.Furthermore, the structural analysis revealed that the area has been subjected to three main phases of deformation; (i) NE-SW convergence and sinistral transpression (D2); (ii) ~E-W far field compressional regime (D3), and (iii) extensional tectonics and terrane exhumation (D4)

The palaeogeographic position of Central Iberia in Gondwana during the Ordovician: Evidence from zircon chronology and Nd isotopes

The abnormally elevated abundance of inherited zircon (locally up to 80-90% of zircon grains contain pre-magmatic cores) in the Cambro-Ordovician magmatic rocks of Central Iberia made possible an estimation of the distribution of ages of their source rocks. The comparison of inherited U-Pb ages and whole-rock Nd model ages with those of three main North African Neoproterozoic terranes reveals that the Iberian magmas can only have been generated from a crust similar to that of the East African Orogen west of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. Such crust is currently found in the three Precambrian inliers of the Western Desert of Egypt east of the Archaean terranes of Gebel Kamel. Palaeontological evidence also indicates that the Ordovician fauna of Central Iberia is similar to that of the region between eastern Algeria and Arabia; therefore, we conclude that during the Ordovician Iberia was not attached to north-west Africa near Morocco, as is usually assumed, but instead to the East African Orogen in northern Egypt

SHRIMP U–Pb zircon dating of the Katerina Ring Complex: Insights into the temporal sequence of Ediacaran calc-alkaline to peralkaline magmatism in southern Sinai, Egypt

SHRIMP U–Pb dating reveals that the hypabyssal Katerina Ring Complex formed over a ~ 9 Ma interval. The first rocks that formed were the alkaline to peralkaline granitoids that form the wall and the roof cap of the Ring Dike, emplaced at 602 ± 8 Ma and 602 ± 4 Ma respectively. These were closely followed by the Isbaiya calc-alkaline quartz-monzonites at 599 ± 3 Ma, and by the main Katerina pluton at 596 ± 3 Ma. The pluton is composed of A-type metaluminous fluorite-bearing granites that contain one inherited Archean zircon (~ 3.2 Ga). The Katerina magmatic cycle ended with the intrusion of another peralkaline body in the ring interior at 593 ± 2 Ma; this body forms the summit of Gebel Musa (Mount Sinai). The Ring Dike encloses older rocks such as the 844 ± 4 Ma Moneiga quartz-diorites and the 622 ± 3 Ma Rutig volcanic rocks. The conglomerates interbedded with these contain boulders of granites with ages of 735 ± 6 Ma and 748 ± 11 Ma. Outcrops of igneous rocks with these ages are currently unknown in the Sinai, probably because they were recycled into the late ~ 590–625 Ma granites and volcanic rocks, as is revealed by zircon inheritance. The alternating formation of calc-alkaline and alkaline granite magmas during the short time frame of the Katerina magmatic cycle (~ 9 Ma) poses the problem to understand which mechanisms have controlled the production of coeval calc-alkaline and alkaline magmas, the magma sources of which remain poorly constrained as identical Sr and Nd isotope compositions cannot distinguish between mantle melting and reworking of juvenile crust. Additionally, the diachronism of peralkaline magmas from the Katerina magmatic cycle with respect to other areas of the Sinai suggests that the magmatic focus migrated in space and time which may be related to alkaline metasomatism processes in the crust