Assessing pain in patients with severe cerebral palsy: Development, reliability, and validity of a pain assessment instrument for cerebral palsy

Boldingh, EJ, Jacobs-van der Bruggen MA, Lankhorst GJ, Bouter LM. Assessing pain in patients with severe cerebral palsy: development, reliability, and validity of a pain assessment instrument for cerebral palsy. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2004;85:758-66. Objectives To develop the Pain Assessment Instrument for Cerebral Palsy (PAICP) and to study its test-retest reproducibility and construct validity. Design Cross-sectional validation study. Setting Homes for severely handicapped. Participants A total of 164 adults with severe cerebral palsy (CP), caregivers, and physiotherapists, and 9 healthy children. Interventions The PAICP contains drawings of situations, some situations of which usually produce pain. Patients rate the pain associated with each activity using a Faces Pain Scale. Reproducibility and construct validity was assessed in a pilot study with CP patients and healthy children. Construct validity and agreement between the pain scores of the patients and proxies was assessed in 160 patients with severe CP. Main outcome measure Pain score on the PAICP. Results The measure showed adequate test-retest reproducibility. A significant difference was found between the mean scores for "painful" and "not painful" situations. We also found moderate agreement between the scores of the patients and proxies for daily activities but only for those activities in which the proxies were personally involved. Conclusions The PAICP has adequate test-retest reproducibility and construct validity. It provides an indication of the pain experienced by patients in situations in which proxies are not personally involved and may also be more valid than proxy measures for other situations. © 2004 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Poleward shifts in marine fisheries under Arctic warming

As global warming makes the Arctic Ocean more accessible, concerns have been raised about the environmental consequences of a possible expansion of commercial fisheries into pristine marine ecosystems. Using a recently released global dataset, we quantify for the first time how fishing activities are responding to diminishing sea ice and a warmer Arctic Ocean. We show that trawling dominates Arctic fisheries and that this activity penetrates rapidly into Arctic shelf areas previously protected by extensive ice-cover as a response to interannual sea ice loss. We model the development of trawling activity under a climate change scenario and use the model to identify areas with high risk of increased trawling activity and estimate the amount of trawling avoided in recently established fishery protection zones. Stronger responsibility must be undertaken by Arctic coastal states to regulate increased fishing pressure and protect vulnerable Arctic shelf ecosystems.publishedVersio

Implementation and evaluation of open boundary conditions for sea ice in a regional coupled ocean (ROMS) and sea ice (CICE) modeling system

The Los Alamos Sea Ice Model (CICE) is used by several Earth system models where sea ice boundary conditions are not necessary, given their global scope. However, regional and local implementations of sea ice models require boundary conditions describing the time changes of the sea ice and snow being exchanged across the boundaries of the model domain. The physical detail of these boundary conditions regarding, for example, the usage of different sea ice thickness categories or the vertical resolution of thermodynamic properties, must be considered when matching them with the requirements of the sea ice model. Available satellite products do not include all required data. Therefore, the most straightforward way of getting sea ice boundary conditions is from a larger-scale model. The main goal of our study is to describe and evaluate the implementation of time-varying sea ice boundaries in the CICE model using two regional coupled ocean–sea ice models, both covering a large part of the Barents Sea and areas around Svalbard: the Barents-2.5 km, implemented at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET), and the Svalbard 4 km (S4K) model, implemented at the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI). We use the TOPAZ4 model and a Pan-Arctic 4 km resolution model (A4) to generate the boundary conditions for the sea ice and the ocean. The Barents-2.5 km model is MET’s main forecasting model for ocean state and sea ice in the Barents Sea. The S4K model covers a similar domain but it is used mainly for research purposes. Obtained results show significant improvements in the performance of the Barents-2.5 km model after the implementation of the time-varying boundary conditions. The performance of the S4K model in terms of sea ice and snow thickness is comparable to that of the TOPAZ4 system but with more accurate results regarding the oceanic component because of using ocean boundary conditions from the A4 model. The implementation of time-varying boundary conditions described in this study is similar regardless of the CICE versions used in different models. The main challenge remains the handling of data from larger models before its usage as boundary conditions for regional/local sea ice models, since mismatches between available model products from the former and specific requirements of the latter are expected, implying case-specific approaches and different assumptions. Ideally, model setups should be as similar as possible to allow a smoother transition from larger to smaller domains.Implementation and evaluation of open boundary conditions for sea ice in a regional coupled ocean (ROMS) and sea ice (CICE) modeling systempublishedVersio

Implementation and evaluation of open boundary conditions for sea ice in a regional coupled ocean (ROMS) and sea ice (CICE) modeling system

The Los Alamos Sea Ice Model (CICE) is used by several Earth system models where sea ice boundary conditions are not necessary, given their global scope. However, regional and local implementations of sea ice models require boundary conditions describing the time changes of the sea ice and snow being exchanged across the boundaries of the model domain. The physical detail of these boundary conditions regarding, for example, the usage of different sea ice thickness categories or the vertical resolution of thermodynamic properties, must be considered when matching them with the requirements of the sea ice model. Available satellite products do not include all required data. Therefore, the most straightforward way of getting sea ice boundary conditions is from a larger-scale model. The main goal of our study is to describe and evaluate the implementation of time-varying sea ice boundaries in the CICE model using two regional coupled ocean–sea ice models, both covering a large part of the Barents Sea and areas around Svalbard: the Barents-2.5 km, implemented at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET), and the Svalbard 4 km (S4K) model, implemented at the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI). We use the TOPAZ4 model and a Pan-Arctic 4 km resolution model (A4) to generate the boundary conditions for the sea ice and the ocean. The Barents-2.5 km model is MET’s main forecasting model for ocean state and sea ice in the Barents Sea. The S4K model covers a similar domain but it is used mainly for research purposes. Obtained results show significant improvements in the performance of the Barents-2.5 km model after the implementation of the time-varying boundary conditions. The performance of the S4K model in terms of sea ice and snow thickness is comparable to that of the TOPAZ4 system but with more accurate results regarding the oceanic component because of using ocean boundary conditions from the A4 model. The implementation of time-varying boundary conditions described in this study is similar regardless of the CICE versions used in different models. The main challenge remains the handling of data from larger models before its usage as boundary conditions for regional/local sea ice models, since mismatches between available model products from the former and specific requirements of the latter are expected, implying case-specific approaches and different assumptions. Ideally, model setups should be as similar as possible to allow a smoother transition from larger to smaller domains.Implementation and evaluation of open boundary conditions for sea ice in a regional coupled ocean (ROMS) and sea ice (CICE) modeling systempublishedVersio

Fruit development of the diploid kiwifruit, Actinidia chinensis 'Hort16A'

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>With the advent of high throughput genomic tools, it is now possible to undertake detailed molecular studies of individual species outside traditional model organisms. Combined with a good understanding of physiological processes, these tools allow researchers to explore natural diversity, giving a better understanding of biological mechanisms. Here a detailed study of fruit development from anthesis through to fruit senescence is presented for a non-model organism, kiwifruit, <it>Actinidia chinensis </it>('Hort16A').</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Consistent with previous studies, it was found that many aspects of fruit morphology, growth and development are similar to those of the model fruit tomato, except for a striking difference in fruit ripening progression. The early stages of fruit ripening occur as the fruit is still growing, and many ripening events are not associated with autocatalytic ethylene production (historically associated with respiratory climacteric). Autocatalytic ethylene is produced late in the ripening process as the fruit begins to senesce.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>By aligning <it>A. chinensis </it>fruit development to a phenological scale, this study provides a reference framework for subsequent physiological and genomic studies, and will allow cross comparison across fruit species, leading to a greater understanding of the diversity of fruits found across the plant kingdom.</p

Determinants of hip pain in adult patients with severe cerebral palsy

The purpose of our investigation was to study the relationship between radiographic results of the femoral head and pain in people with severe cerebral palsy. We conducted a cross-sectional study on hip radiography results and pain in 160 patients with severe cerebral palsy. Eighteen percent of our patients had hip pain in hip-loading situations. Migration and deformity were closely related. There was a significant association with hip pain (odds ratio, 2.79; 95% confidence interval 1.01-7.70). There is a high prevalence of hip pain after unsuccessful femoral bone surgery. Migration and deformity of the femoral head are strongly interrelated, and are associated with pai