An overview of the effect of probiotics and exercise on mood and associated health conditions

The present paper provides a review of the current knowledge relating to the health benefits of probiotics, specially focused on the effects they may have together with physical exercise on mood disorders and related chronic medical conditions. With both these conditions being a substantial contributor to the global disease burden any alternative therapy must be considered. Probiotics influence the gut microbiota through a complex network of events which can influence mechanisms leading to development of mood disorders such as depression and anxiety. Similarly, through a complex interaction between psychological and neurobiological mechanisms, exercise has been found to play a key role in mood enhancement

Symposium - How effective are brief motivational interviewing interventions : Are they necessary? Do they require enhancement? Can they be translated into routine clinical practice? [Conference Abstract]

Brief interventions are effective for problem drinking and reductions are known to occur in association with screening and assessment. Design and methods: This study aimed to determine how much change occurred between baseline assessment and a one-session brief intervention (S1), and the predictors of early change among adults with comorbid depression and alcohol misuse (n=202) participating in a clinical trial. The primary focus was on changes in Beck Depression Inventory fastscreen scores and alcohol consumption (standard drinks per week) prior to random allocation to nine further sessions addressing either depression, alcohol, or both problems. Results: There were large and clinically significant reductions between baseline and S1, with the strongest predictors being baseline scores in the relevant domain and change in the other domain. Client engagement was also predictive of early depression changes. Discussion and Conclusion: Monitoring progress in both domains from first contact, and provision of empathic care, followed by brief intervention appear to be useful for this high prevalence comorbidity..

Closed Loop Solitons and Sigma Functions: Classical and Quantized Elasticas with Genera One and Two

Closed loop solitons in a plane, whose curvatures obey the modified Korteweg-de Vries equation, were investigated. It was shown that their tangential vectors are expressed by ratio of Weierstrass sigma functions for genus one case and ratio of Baker's sigma functions for the genus two case. This study is closely related to classical and quantized elastica problems.Comment: AMS-Tex Use 12 page

Addressing Autism Spectrum Disorder In A School Based Setting

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability that is currently estimated to be diagnosed in 1 in every 59 children (Baio et al., 2018). It has been established that it is important for individuals with a diagnosis of ASD to receive occupational therapy services (McGuire et al., 2015). Due to the high prevalence of an ASD diagnosis and the importance of occupational therapy services for children with this diagnosis there is a need for occupational therapy practitioners in all settings that work with these children to be competent in evidencebased approaches. Currently, students with ASD are receiving occupational therapy services within the school setting with most of these services being provided through a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS; Clark, 2018). Due to these tiers these students are receiving these services both through direct and indirect interventions. This is because school-based occupational therapists are well equipped to offer both direct interventions to students and indirection interventions such as support to teachers working with children with different diagnosis due to their understanding of the factors that inhibit the child from being able to participate in school tasks (Hui et al., 2016). However, there are very few guidelines or resources available for how to best provide interventions across all three tiers of MTSS. Due to the lack of guidelines or resources for providing interventions across all three tiers of MTSS there is a need for how to best implement interventions across all three tiers of MTSS to increase occupational performance for students with a diagnosis of ASD. The purpose of this project is to assist occupational therapy practitioners and school professionals to facilitate increased occupational performance for children with ASD within the school setting. A literature review was completed and utilized to collaborate with an agency to determine a need to address best practices for the ASD population in schools. The information gathered in the literature review and constructs from the Person Environment Occupation (PEO) model (Law et al., 1996) were utilized in the development of the product. The product consists of 6 tables and 3 case studies as well as a multitude of manualized and originally developed interventions. Table 1 consists of assessments found in the literature that are commonly used for students with ASD and the tier that they are most often implemented at. Table 1 also organizes these assessments by the construct of PEO that they most evaluate. Tables 2, 3, and 4 provide an outline for how to complete an occupational performance evaluation of a student with ASD. Table 5 provides examples of how to utilize information gathered during the occupational performance evaluation and how to translate that into a PEO transaction (Law et al., 1996) and how to use that transaction to select an intervention from Table 6. Although increasing occupational performance for students with ASD within the school setting was the purpose of this product, there were some limitations. The first being the author of this product also has limited clinical experience working with this population, which may impact credibility or the ability for the tables and product to be properly disseminated. This product also only addresses the role of occupational therapy practitioners within the school setting and not the large number of other professionals that work with these same students. Lastly, a limitation of the product is that due to the complex and unique needs of each student with ASD specific interventions were unable to be included. Instead, tips and strategies for a multitude of interventions and methods of implementing interventions at all three tiers of MTSS were created and provided so that the occupational therapy practitioner can utilize their clinical reasoning to apply those intervention principles to that student’s individual situation. It is hoped that this product can be implemented within the school system to expand the use of evidence-based interventions across all three tiers of MTSS to increase occupational performance for students with ASD

Using Delay Tolerant Networks as a Backbone for Low-cost Smart Cities

Rapid urbanization burdens city infrastructure and creates the need for local governments to maximize the usage of resources to serve its citizens. Smart city projects aim to alleviate the urbanization problem by deploying a vast amount of Internet-of-things (IoT) devices to monitor and manage environmental conditions and infrastructure. However, smart city projects can be extremely expensive to deploy and manage. A significant portion of the expense is a result of providing Internet connectivity via 5G or WiFi to IoT devices. This paper proposes the use of delay tolerant networks (DTNs) as a backbone for smart city communication; enabling developing communities to become smart cities at a fraction of the cost. A model is introduced to aid policy makers in designing and evaluating the expected performance of such networks. Preliminary results are presented based on a public transit network data-set from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Finally, innovative ways of improving network performance in a low-cost smart city is discussed.Comment: 3 pages, accepted to IEEE SmartComp 201

Salt redistribution during freezing of saline sand columns with applications to subsea permafrost

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1987Laboratory experiments were designed to investigate salt redistribution during the freezing of saline sand columns and to obtain information on salt movement in saturated sands and reconstituted subsea permafrost samples. The results of these experiments were combined with results from field investigations of subsea permafrost at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to develop an improved understanding of salt redistribution during freezing and the movement of salt in the seabed sediments. These processes can produce soil solution salinities in the sediments greater than about 50 ppt. Comparison of spring and fall salinity profiles indicate salt movement with velocities of at least 2 m/year. Laboratory freezing (downward) tests of saline sand columns show significant salt redistribution at growth rates between 0.1 and 2 cm/day. Salt movement was observed with velocities of at least 2 cm/day. Salt movement in the unfrozen soil solution in partially frozen sand appears to be the result of gravity drainage. Freezing upward produced no significant salt redistribution. Salt fingering experiments showed that salt fingers could move with velocities of several cm/hr and suggest that it may be a major mechanism for rapid salt movement in subsea permafrost. Fingers (freshwater) at a thawing fresh ice boundary overlain by thawed saline soil solution displayed similar rapid movement behavior. Laboratory measurements of the hydraulic conductivity, K, of subsea permafrost samples yielded values that were 10\sp2 to 10\sp3 times greater than previously reported in-situ measurements. While it is difficult to apply the laboratory results to subsea permafrost under field conditions, these greater values for K and the large salt fingering velocities suggest that gravity-driven convection, in the form of salt fingering, should be considered as a primary mechanism for rapid salt transport in subsea permafrost

The effect of prior upper body exercise on subsequent wingate performance

It has been reported previously that the upper body musculature is continually active during high intensity cycle ergometry. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of prior upper body exercise on subsequent Wingate (WAnT) performance. Eleven recreationally active males (20.8 ± 2.2 yrs; 77.7 ± 12.0 kg;  1.79 ± 0.04 m) completed two trials in a randomised order. In one trial participants completed 2 × 30 s WAnT tests (WAnT1 and WAnT2) with a 6 min recovery period; in the other trial, this protocol was preceded with 4 sets of biceps curls to induce localised arm fatigue. Prior upper body exercise was found to have a statistically significant detrimental effect on peak power output (PPO) during WAnT1 (P < 0.05) but no effect was observed for mean power output (MPO) (P > 0.05). Handgrip (HG) strength was also found to be significantly lower following the upper body exercise. These results demonstrate that the upper body  is meaningfully involved in the generation of leg power during intense cycling

Geranium Oil Profile

NYS IPM Type: Minimum Risk PesticideGeranium oil is an essential oil primarily derived from Pelargonium graveolens, but may be extracted from other plants in the genera Geranium and Pelargonium. The oil is a mixture of various aromatics and esters. The primary use is as a fragrance and flavoring agent, but it is also used as an insecticide, fungicide, herbicide, rodenticide and antimicrobial. In reviewing the health and safety incidents related to geranium oil, none were related to its pesticidal uses

Lauryl Sulfate Profile

NYS IPM Type: Minimum Risk PesticideLauryl sulfate, otherwise known as hydrogen dodecyl sulfate, is an anionic surfactant. It is not commonly used in pesticides, with sodium lauryl sulfate being the preferred form. Lauryl sulfate has selective antimicrobial activity and is also synergistic with various insecticides. Given current limited uses, there is little evidence that lauryl sulfate poses significant risks to human health or the environment

Fostering Improvement in Occupational Performance Through Environment Modification in Skilled Nursing Facilities

First-year occupational therapy students at the University of North Dakota School of Medicines and Health Sciences completed this CAT. The general topic assigned was the completion of activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) by older adults in a skilled nursing facility (SNF). Students formed a focus question, a case scenario, and then researched and presented key findings. Students then presented implications for practice in occupational therapy with the evidence of scholarly research in the areas of theory, environment, population, and interventions. The intervention that was chosen for this CAT was the Green House Project. The Green House Project is an intervention strategy in which the proponents of this intervention suggest remodeling skilled nursing facilities into small homes (10 or fewer residents per home) that are designed to be similar to the clients’ home environments (Cutler & Kane, 2009). The population of older adults living in SNF in urban areas was further explored to grasp a better understanding of their unique characteristics. The Person-Environment-Occupation model (PEO) (Law et al., 1996) was the theory chosen to guide scholarly research for this CAT. The founders of PEO emphasized the importance of goodness of fit (Law et al., 1996). Law et al. (1996) suggested that the person, environment, and occupation should be interdependent upon one another, creating an optimal performance for the individual in whichever context he or she is performing his or her occupation