Does Resistance Training Reduce Falls and Improve Quality of Life in People with Parkinson’s Disease using Strength Training Exercise Programmes?

Background: Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder behind Alzheimer’s, affecting around 1% of the population over 50 years old. PD is associated with inhibited motor functions including tremors, muscle rigidity, impaired posture, bradykinesia (slowed movement) and loss of balance. Physical activity is thought to be one of the most important non-pharmacological strategies to target and improve the management of motor symptoms of PD. Objective: To identify the effect of Strength Training (ST) on Falls and Quality of Life (QOL) on people suffering with PD. Method: A systematic search of AMED, Cinahl, Cinhal Plus, CSP Online Library Catalogue, Medline and SportDiscus was conducted; articles were searched until November 2018. Results: Eleven studies were included in this review, with a total of 549 participants of which 539 had a confirmed diagnosis of PD, 10 did not. All eleven included studies were randomised control trials. The training volume including repetitions, sets, frequency and intensity varied between all studies. Interventions showed positive trends in reducing the proportion of fallers and improving QOL Scores. Conclusion: There is some evidence to show that ST is effective at improving strength in People with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPD) and has some passover effects in reducing falls and improving QOL. Future research is required to determine if optimum guideline training volumes for PwPD better support the secondary effects on falls and QOL

Extreme Variability in a Broad Absorption Line Quasar

CRTS J084133.15+200525.8 is an optically bright quasar at z=2.345 that has shown extreme spectral variability over the past decade. Photometrically, the source had a visual magnitude of V~17.3 between 2002 and 2008. Then, over the following five years, the source slowly brightened by approximately one magnitude, to V~16.2. Only ~1 in 10,000 quasars show such extreme variability, as quantified by the extreme parameters derived for this quasar assuming a damped random walk model. A combination of archival and newly acquired spectra reveal the source to be an iron low-ionization broad absorption line (FeLoBAL) quasar with extreme changes in its absorption spectrum. Some absorption features completely disappear over the 9 years of optical spectra, while other features remain essentially unchanged. We report the first definitive redshift for this source, based on the detection of broad H-alpha in a Keck/MOSFIRE spectrum. Absorption systems separated by several 1000 km/s in velocity show coordinated weakening in the depths of their troughs as the continuum flux increases. We interpret the broad absorption line variability to be due to changes in photoionization, rather than due to motion of material along our line of sight. This source highlights one sort of rare transition object that astronomy will now be finding through dedicated time-domain surveys.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Ap

Jol-m M . VeiJ..l.cu A

I-OSAlamos Abstract RF plasma glow discharges are being investigated for removing and recovering radioactive elements from contaminated objects, especially those contaminated with transuranic (TRU) materials. These plasmas, using nitrogen trifluoride as the working gas, have been successful at removing uranium and plutonium contaminants from test coupons of stainless steel and aluminum surfaces, including small cracks and crevices, and the interior surfaces of relatively hard to reach aluminum pipes. Contaminant removal exceeded 99.9% from simple surfaces and contaminant recovery using cryogenic traps has exceeded 50$Z0. Work continues with the objective of demonstrating that transuranic contaminated waste can be transformed to low level waste (LLW) and to better understand the physics of the interactions between plasma and surface contaminants. This work summarizes the preliminary results from plasma decontamination from the interior of aluminum objects-the nooks and crannies experiments

The proteome of extracellular vesicles released by clastic cells differs based on their substrate

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) from osteoclasts are important regulators in intercellular communication. Here, we investigated the proteome of EVs from clastic cells plated on plastic (clasts), bone (osteoclasts) and dentin (odontoclasts) by two-dimensional high performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry seeking differences attributable to distinct mineralized matrices. A total of 1,952 proteins were identified. Of the 500 most abundant proteins in EVs, osteoclast and odontoclast EVs were 83.3% identical, while clasts shared 70.7% of the proteins with osteoclasts and 74.2% of proteins with odontoclasts. For each protein, the differences between the total ion count values were mapped to an expression ratio histogram (Z-score) in order to detect proteins differentially expressed. Stabilin-1 and macrophage mannose receptor-1 were significantly-enriched in EVs from odontoclasts compared with osteoclasts (Z = 2.45, Z = 3.34) and clasts (Z = 13.86, Z = 1.81) and were abundant in odontoclast EVs. Numerous less abundant proteins were differentially-enriched. Subunits of known protein complexes were abundant in clastic EVs, and were present at levels consistent with them being in assembled protein complexes. These included the proteasome, COP1, COP9, the T complex and a novel sub-complex of vacuolar H+ -ATPase (V-ATPase), which included the (pro) renin receptor. The (pro) renin receptor was immunoprecipitated using an anti-E-subunit antibody from detergent-solubilized EVs, supporting the idea that the V-ATPase subunits present were in the same protein complex. We conclude that the protein composition of EVs released by clastic cells changes based on the substrate. Clastic EVs are enriched in various protein complexes including a previously undescribed VATPase sub-complex

BAL phosphorus abundance and evidence for immense ionic column densities in quasar outflows: VLT X-Shooter observations of quasar SDSS J1512+1119

We present spectroscopic analysis of the broad absorption line outflow in quasar SDSS J1512+1119. In particular, we focus our attention on a kinematic component in which we identify PV and SIV/SIV* absorption troughs. The shape of the unblended phosphorus doublet troughs and the three SIV/SIV* troughs allow us to obtain reliable column density measurements for these two ions. Photoionization modelling using these column densities and those of HeI* constrain the abundance of phosphorus to the range of 0.5-4 times the solar value. The total column density, ionization parameter and metalicity inferred from the PV and SIV column densities leads to large optical depth values for the common transition observed in BAL outflows. We show that the true CIV optical depth, is about 1000 times greater in the core of the absorption profile than the value deduced from its apparent optical depth.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ on August 26, 2012; 33 pages, 8 figure