Is the Use of Animal Assisted Therapy/Activity Effective in Improving Quality of Life through Self-Efficacy, Self-Perceived Health, Sense of Coherence and Mood?

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this selective EBM review is to determine whether or not the use of Animal Assisted Therapy/Activity is effective in improving quality of life through self-efficacy, self-perceived health, sense of coherence and mood.STUDY DESIGN: Review of three English language randomized control trials, two published in 2008, and one published in 2009.DATA SOURCES: Three randomized, controlled trials comparing Animal Assisted Therapy/Activity to restricted or absent animal contact or alternative control therapy were found using PubMed Health and Cochrane Systematic Reviews.OUTCOMES MEASURED: Depression measured via BDI (Beck Depression Inventory), Anxiety measured via BAI (Beck Anxiety Inventory), Quality of Life measured via QOLS-N (Quality of Life Scale-N), Moods measured via POMS (Profile of Mood States), Self-Perceived Health measured via Self-Perceived Health Questionnaire), Self-Efficacy measured via GSE (Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale), Sense of Coherence measured via OTLQ (Orientation to Life Questionnaire). RESULTS: In a study by Berget et al, AAT was found to improve self-efficacy within the treatment group in the post treatment period and when comparing 6 months post treatment to before treatment. However, no changes were found when comparing the AAT group to the control group. No statistically significant changes were found directly related to the QOLS-N questionnaire regarding quality of life. No significant changes were found at all in Johnson et al as all p-values were greater than 0.05. Their investigation included changes in mood, self- perceived health and sense of coherence. LE ROUX et al showed improvement in BDI scores within the AAA group but no statistical difference was found in the comparison between the AAA group and the control groups. No statistically significant changes were noted in any of the BAI score comparisons. There were no adverse effects of AAT/AAA noted.CONCLUSIONS: The results of two of the randomized control trials demonstrate AAA/AAT to improve QOL within the treatment groups. None of the studies showed that AAA/AAAT improved QOL in comparison to control groups

Implementation Profile: Modeling Environment (DOE-PSU-0000922-3)

This implementation profile provides the scope, background, and requirements necessary to implement a Modeling Environment (ME) to test a Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Management System (DERMS). A DERMS is used by an aggregator to dispatch large numbers of DERs in order to provide grid services to a Grid Operator. The ME addresses scalability issues inherent to Hardware-in-the-Loop DERMS simulation; a large number of assets are needed in order to observe effects on the grid from deployment and dispatch of DERs

Starvation Resistance is Associated with Developmentally Specified Changes in Sleep, Feeding and Metabolic Rate

Food shortage represents a primary challenge to survival, and animals have adapted diverse developmental, physiological and behavioral strategies to survive when food becomes unavailable. Starvation resistance is strongly influenced by ecological and evolutionary history, yet the genetic basis for the evolution of starvation resistance remains poorly understood. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster provides a powerful model for leveraging experimental evolution to investigate traits associated with starvation resistance. While control populations only live a few days without food, selection for starvation resistance results in populations that can survive weeks. We have previously shown that selection for starvation resistance results in increased sleep and reduced feeding in adult flies. Here, we investigate the ontogeny of starvation resistance-associated behavioral and metabolic phenotypes in these experimentally selected flies. We found that selection for starvation resistance resulted in delayed development and a reduction in metabolic rate in larvae that persisted into adulthood, suggesting that these traits may allow for the accumulation of energy stores and an increase in body size within these selected populations. In addition, we found that larval sleep was largely unaffected by starvation selection and that feeding increased during the late larval stages, suggesting that experimental evolution for starvation resistance produces developmentally specified changes in behavioral regulation. Together, these findings reveal a critical role for development in the evolution of starvation resistance and indicate that selection can selectively influence behavior during defined developmental time points

Millimeter Observations of Optically Selected Quasars

We have observed a group of optically selected quasars at a wavelength of 1.25mm with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory in 1988 May. Except for Mrk 231, they were chosen from the PG sample of quasars (Schmidt and Green 1983) and are thus UV bright objects. All of them, except for PG 2209+184, were also detected at 60μm by IRAS

Focused laser Doppler velocimeter

A system for remotely measuring velocities present in discrete volumes of air is described. A CO2 laser beam is focused by a telescope at such a volume, a focal volume, and within the focusable range, near field, of the telescope. The back scatter, or reflected light, principally from the focal volume, passes back through the telescope and is frequency compared with the original frequency of the laser, and the difference frequency or frequencies represent particle velocities in that focal volume

Strontium Isotopic Variations of Neoproterozoic Seawater: Implications for Crustal Evolution

We report high precision Sr isotopic data on carbonates from the Neoproterozoic Shaler Group, Victoria Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. Lithostratigraphic correlations with the relatively well-dated Mackenzie Mountains Supergroup constrain Shaler deposition to approximately 770-880 Ma, a range corroborated by 723 +/- 3 Ma lavas that disconformably overlie Shaler carbonates and by Late Riphean microfossils within the section. Samples with low Rb-87/Sr-86 ratios (< 0.01) were selected for Sr isotopic analysis. delta-O-18, Mn, Ca, Mg, and Sr data were used to recognize altered samples. The altered samples are characterized by high Mn/Sr (greater-than-or-equal-to 2) and variable delta-O-18; most are dolomites. The data indicate that between ca. 790-850 Ma the Sr-87/Sr-86 ratio of seawater varued between 0.70676 and 0.70561. The samples show smooth and systematic variation, with the lowest Sr-87/Sr-86 value of 0.70561 at ca. 830 Ma. The low Sr-87/Sr-86 ratio of carbonates from the lower parts of our section is similar to a value reported for one sample from the Adrar of Mauritania (almost-equal-to 900 Ma), West African Craton. Isotopic ratios from the upper part of the Shaler section are identical to values from the lower part of the Neoproterozoic Akademikerbreen Group, Spitsbergen. Although a paucity of absolute age determinations hinders attempts at the precise correlation of Neoproterozoic successions, it is possible to draw a broad outline of the Sr isotopic composition of seawater for this period. Indeed, the Sr isotope data themselves provide a stratigraphic tool of considerable potential. Data from this study and the literature are used to construct a curve of the Sr-87/Sr-86 ratio of Neoproterozoic seawater. The new data reported in this study substantially improve the isotopic record of Sr in seawater for the period 790-850 Ma. The Sr isotope composition of seawater reflects primarily the balance between continental Sr input through river input and mantle input via hydrothermal circulation of seawater through mid-ocean ridges. Coupling of Nd and Sr isotopic systems allows us to model changes in seafloor spreading rates (or hydrothermal flux) and continental erosion. The Sr hydrothermal flux and the erosion rate (relative to present-day value) are modeled for the period 500-900 Ma. The results indicate that the hydrothermal flux reached a maximum value at ca. 830 Ma. In contrast, a large peak in erosion rate is indicated at ca. 570 Ma. The peaks in hydrothermal flux and erosion rate are most likely related to developments in the Pan-African and related orogenic events, whose initial development is characterized by production of juvenile crust during supercontinental break up and rifting. The time ca. 570 Ma is characterized by continent-continent collision and production of recycled crust. Sr isotope data from Proterozoic carbonates offer a valuable resource for understanding large-scale crust dynamics.Earth and Planetary SciencesOrganismic and Evolutionary Biolog