ARE ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS EFFECTIVE? ISSUES & METHODS INVOLVED IN MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS OF ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS

This paper reviews common research methods which have been used in alternative medicine. We focus on a case series method called the before-after treatment experimental design. How this method can be used by practitioners to measure the effectiveness of their treatments is explored in depth. We address what variables should be measured before, during and after treatment. References to commonly used measurement instruments for physical, emotional and spiritually based variables are included

The Iowa Homemaker vol.35, no.6

A trailer for two, Nancy Merchant, page 5 Our replanned Pammel unit, Judy Klingman, page 6 How a story goes to press, Donna Danielson, page 8 It’s a Speedy Microwave, page 10 Challenge to “live”, Carol Vokral and Ruth Abbott, page 12 What’s New, Carol Stadtmueller, page 13 Trends, Donna Schneider and Ann McCarthy, page 1

The HR 4796A Debris System: Discovery of Extensive Exo-Ring Dust Material

The optically and IR bright, and starlight-scattering, HR 4796A ring-like debris disk is one of the most (and best) studied exoplanetary debris systems. The presence of a yet-undetected planet has been inferred (or suggested) from the narrow width and inner/outer truncation radii of its r = 1.05" (77 au) debris ring. We present new, highly sensitive, Hubble Space Telescope (HST) visible-light images of the HR 4796A circumstellar debris system and its environment over a very wide range of stellocentric angles from 0.32" (23 au) to ~ 15" (1100 au). These very high contrast images were obtained with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) using 6-roll PSF-template subtracted coronagraphy suppressing the primary light of HR 4796A and using three image plane occulters and simultaneously subtracting the background light from its close angular proximity M2.5V companion. The resulting images unambiguously reveal the debris ring embedded within a much larger, morphologically complex, and bi-axially asymmetric exoring scattering structure. These images at visible wavelengths are sensitive to, and map, the spatial distribution, brightness, and radial surface density of micron size particles over 5 dex in surface brightness. These particles in the exo-ring environment may be unbound from the system and interacting with the local ISM. Herein we present a new morphological and photometric view of the larger than prior seen HR 4796A exoplanetary debris system with sensitivity to small particles at stellocentric distances an order of magnitude greater than has previously been observed.Comment: 28 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal 21 December 201

The Case of AB Aurigae's Disk in Polarized Light: Is There Truly a Gap?

Using the NICMOS coronagraph, we have obtained high-contrast 2.0 micron imaging polarimetry and 1.1 micron imaging of the circumstellar disk around AB Aurigae on angular scales of 0.3-3 arcsec (40-550 AU). Unlike previous observations, these data resolve the disk in both total and polarized intensity, allowing accurate measurement of the spatial variation of polarization fraction across the disk. Using these observations we investigate the apparent "gap" in the disk reported by Oppenheimer et al. 2008. In polarized intensity, the NICMOS data closely reproduces the morphology seen by Oppenheimer et al., yet in total intensity we find no evidence for a gap in either our 1.1 or 2.0 micron images. We find instead that region has lower polarization fraction, without a significant decrease in total scattered light, consistent with expectations for back-scattered light on the far side of an inclined disk. Radiative transfer models demonstrate this explanation fits the observations. Geometrical scattering effects are entirely sufficient to explain the observed morphology without any need to invoke a gap or protoplanet at that location.Comment: Accepted to ApJ Letter

Aquilegia, Vol. 33 No. 5, Winter 2009, Newsletter of the Colorado Native Plant Society

https://epublications.regis.edu/aquilegia/1130/thumbnail.jp

Homeless street children in Nepal : use of allostatic load to assess the burden of childhood adversity.

As challenges to child well-being through economic disadvantage, family disruption, and migration or displacement escalate world wide, the need for cross-culturally robust understanding of childhood adversity proportionately increases. Toward this end, developmental risk was assessed in four contrasting groups of 107 Nepali children ages 10–14 years that represent distinctive, common conditions in which contemporary children grow up. Relative cumulative burden (allostatic load) indexed by multiple dimensions of physical and psychosocial stress was ascertained among homeless street boys and three family-based groups, from poor urban squatter settlements, urban middle class, and a remote rural village. Biomarkers of stress and vulnerability to stress included growth status, salivary cortisol, antibodies to Epstein–Barr virus, acute phase inflammatory responses (alpha1-antichymotrypsin), and cardiovascular fitness and reactivity (flex heart rate and pressor response). Individual biomarkers of risk and allostatic load differed markedly among groups, were highest in villagers, and varied by components of allostatic load. Such data suggest a need for critical appraisal of homelessness and migration as a risk factor to youth, given prevailing local conditions such as rural poverty, and represents the only multidimensional study of childhood allostatic load and developmental risk in non-Western settings

A multi-criteria decision support for optimal instrumentation in scoliosis spine surgery

In adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, the selection of an optimal instrumentation configuration for correcting a specific spinal deformity is a challenging combinatorial problem. Current methods mostly rely on surgeons' expertise, which has been shown to lead to different treatment strategies for the same patients. In this work, a mathematical model of the human spine derived from in-vitro experimentally-obtained data was used to simulate the biomechanical behavior of the spine under the application of corrective forces and torques. The corrective forces and torques were optimized based on the particle swarm optimization algorithm for each combinatorially possible instrumentation strategy. Finally, a multi-criteria decision support for optimal instrumentation in scoliosis spine surgery has been proposed and applied to five patient data sets exhibiting similar spinal deformities according to two commonly used classification systems. Results indicated that the classification of the spinal deformities based on the current standardized clinical classifications systems is not a sufficient condition for recommending selective fusion of spinal motion segments. In addition, the particle swarm optimization algorithm was successfully applied to solve a realistic interdisciplinary clinical problem in a patient-specific fashion. The proposed method enables a better understanding of the biomechanical behavior of spinal structures and has the potential to become a standard tool in preoperative plannin