A Calibrated Method of Massage Therapy Decreases Systolic Blood Pressure Concomitant With Changes in Heart Rate Variability in Male Rats.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to develop a method for applying calibrated manual massage pressures by using commonly available, inexpensive sphygmomanometer parts and validate the use of this approach as a quantitative method of applying massage therapy to rodents.MethodsMassage pressures were monitored by using a modified neonatal blood pressure (BP) cuff attached to an aneroid gauge. Lightly anesthetized rats were stroked on the ventral abdomen for 5 minutes at pressures of 20 mm Hg and 40 mm Hg. Blood pressure was monitored noninvasively for 20 minutes following massage therapy at 5-minute intervals. Interexaminer reliability was assessed by applying 20 mm Hg and 40 mm Hg pressures to a digital scale in the presence or absence of the pressure gauge.ResultsWith the use of this method, we observed good interexaminer reliability, with intraclass coefficients of 0.989 versus 0.624 in blinded controls. In Long-Evans rats, systolic BP dropped by an average of 9.86% ± 0.27% following application of 40 mm Hg massage pressure. Similar effects were seen following 20 mm Hg pressure (6.52% ± 1.7%), although latency to effect was greater than at 40 mm Hg. Sprague-Dawley rats behaved similarly to Long-Evans rats. Low-frequency/high-frequency ratio, a widely-used index of autonomic tone in cardiovascular regulation, showed a significant increase within 5 minutes after 40 mm Hg massage pressure was applied.ConclusionsThe calibrated massage method was shown to be a reproducible method for applying massage pressures in rodents and lowering BP

Confronting the language barrier: theory of mind in deaf children

The current study addressed deaf children's Theory of Mind (ToM) development as measured by a battery of first- and second-order belief tasks. Both a chronological age-matched control group and a younger group of pre-school aged hearing children were compared to a group of deaf children born to hearing parents. A hearing native signer enacted each of the tasks, which were pre-recorded in video clips in English (SSE), British Sign Language (BSL) and spoken English, in order to consider all communication preferences of the deaf children. Results revealed no differences in performance between the deaf and the young hearing children. However, despite the inclusion of ToM tasks based on their preferred mode of communication, the deaf children performed significantly worse at the unexpected-content and second-order belief task compared with their age-matched controls. These findings imply a delay rather than a deficit in ToM in deaf children that could be attributed to limited opportunities to converse and overhear conversations about mental states

Detecting Small-Scale Topographic Changes and Relict Geomorphic Features on Barrier Islands Using SAR

The shapes and elevations of barrier islands may change dramatically over a short period of time during a storm. Coastal scientists and engineers, however, are currently unable to measure these changes occurring over an entire barrier island at once. This three-year project, which is funded by NASA and jointly conducted by the Bureau of Economic Geology and the Center for Space Research at The University of Texas at Austin, is designed to overcome this problem by developing the use of interferometry from airborne synthetic aperture radar (AIRSAR) to measure coastal topography and to detect storm-induced changes in topography. Surrogate measures of topography observed in multiband, fully polarimetric AIRSAR (This type of data are now referred to as POLSAR data.) are also being investigated. Digital elevation models (DEM) of Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula, Texas obtained with Topographic SAR (TOPSAR) are compared with measurements by Global Positioning System (GPS) ground surveys and electronic total station surveys. In addition to topographic mapping, this project is evaluating the use of POLSAR to detect old features such as storm scarps, storm channels, former tidal inlets, and beach ridges that have been obscured by vegetation, erosion, deposition, and artificial filling. We have also expanded the work from the original proposal to include the mapping of coastal wetland vegetation and depositional environments. Methods developed during this project will provide coastal geologists with an unprecedented tool for monitoring and understanding barrier island systems. This understanding will improve overall coastal management policies and will help reduce the effects of natural and man-induced coastal hazards. This report summarizes our accomplishments during the second year of the study. Also included is a discussion of our planned activities for year 3 and a revised budget

Some color in the desert: description of a new species of Liolaemus (Iguania: Liolaemidae) from southern Peru, and its conservation status.

The desert of southern Peru and northern Chile is an area with a high degree of endemismin squamate reptiles. In this work, an endemic new species is described in the genus Liolaemus with a restricted geographical distribution on the western slopes of the La Caldera batholith in the Department of Arequipa, southern Peru, that inhabits the Desert province of southern Peru, between 1,800 and 2,756 m asl. The new species is characterized by a unique combination of morphological and molecular characters that distinguish it from all other Liolaemus species, and it is included in the L. reichei clade within the L. montanus group. Evidence presented shows that the category of threat corresponds to Endangered under the IUCN Red List criteriaFil: Huamani Valderrama, Ling. Universidad Nacional de San Agustín. Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento Académico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Quiroz, Aarón J.. Universidad Nacional de San Agustín. Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento Académico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Gutierrez, Roberto C.. Universidad Nacional de San Agustín. Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento Académico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Aguilar Kiriguin, Alvaro. Universidad Nacional de San Agustín. Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento Académico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Huanca Mamani, Wilson. Universidad de Tarapacá; ChileFil: Valladares Faúndez, Pablo. Universidad de Tarapaca.; ChileFil: Cerdeña, José. Universidad Nacional de San Agustín. Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento Académico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Chaparro, Juan C,. Museo de Biodiversidad del Perú; PerúFil: Abdala, Cristian Simón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; Argentin

The microsurgical management of benign pineal cysts: Helsinki experience in 60 cases

Background: Microsurgical resection represents a well-accepted management option for symptomatic benign pineal cysts. Symptoms such as a headache, hydrocephalus, and visual deficiency are typically associated with pineal cysts. However, more recent studies reported over the past years have characterized additional symptoms as a part of the clinical manifestation of this disease and represent additional indications for intervention. Methods: We present a retrospective review of patients with histologically confirmed benign pineal cysts that were operated on in our department between 1997 and 2015. A demographic analysis, evaluation of preoperative status, surgical treatment, as well as immediate and long-term clinical and radiological outcomes were conducted. Results: A total of 60 patients with benign pineal cysts underwent surgery between 1997 and 2015. Gross total resection was achieved in 58 cases. All patients except one improved in their clinical status or had made a full recovery at the time of the last follow-up. The key steps for surgical resection of pineal cysts are reported, based on an analysis of representative surgical videos. Conclusions: We describe in this paper one of the largest series of microsurgically treated pineal cysts. In our opinion, judicious microsurgery remains the most suitable technique to effectively deal with this disease.Peer reviewe

Descripción y relaciones filogenéticas de una nueva especie de Liolaemus (Iguania: Liolaemidae) y notas sobre el grupo de L. montanus de Perú

Se describe una nueva especie de lagartija del grupo de Liolaemus montanus, endémico de lavertiente occidental de los Andes, en la provincia de Huaytará, departamento de Huancavelica,Perú. Esta nueva especie de Liolaemus, es de tamaño medio (máximo LHC 70,1 mm),se caracteriza por presentar un patrón de coloración único en los machos, donde numerosasescamas celestes se destacan sobre el dorso del cuerpo y el vientre es de color amarillo intenso.Además tiene las escamas del dorso y lados del cuerpo subimbricadas, con quilla leve y deforma redondeada a triangular. Tanto machos como hembras tienen poros precloacales. Lacombinación de varios estados de caracteres morfológicos, morfométricos, de escamación, yen el patrón de coloración, diferencian claramente este nuevo taxón de las demás especies deLiolaemus, especialmente de los integrantes del grupo de L. montanus descritos para el centroy sur del Perú. Asimismo, en este trabajo, presentamos una revisión del estado taxonómico ydistribución de las especies del grupo de L. montanus descritas o citadas para Perú.Fil: Gutierrez Roberto C.. Universidad Nacional de San Agustin. Facultad de Cs. Biológicas. Departamento Academico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Chaparro, Juan C.. Universidad Nacional de San Agustin. Facultad de Cs. Biológicas. Departamento Academico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Vásquez, Meylin Y.. Universidad Nacional de San Agustin. Facultad de Cs. Biológicas. Departamento Academico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Quiroz, Aaron J.. Universidad Nacional de San Agustin. Facultad de Cs. Biológicas. Departamento Academico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Aguilar Kiriguin, A.. Colección Boliviana de Fauna; BoliviaFil: Abdala, Cristian Simón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; Argentin

A new lizard of the Liolaemus montanus group that inhabits the hyperarid desert of southern Peru

A new lizard of the genus Liolaemus is described from the Tacna region of southern of Peru. This species belongs to the L. montanus group and was initially thought to be L. poconchilensis and L. insolitus. However, a series of diagnostic characters differentiate it consistently from these two species and all other species of the genus. To determine the taxonomic status of these lizards, their phylogenetic relationships were analyzed, as well as their morphological and ecological characteristics. The results of the analysis support the conclusion that this population of lizards represents a new species to science, and that the new species is related to L. nazca and L. chiribaya. The new species has sexual dimorphism and is known from elevations of ca. 1,000 m above sea level in the hyperarid Pacifc deserts, which are populated by scattered Ephedra americana and Poissonia sp. Due to its highly restricted range and observed habitat loss, we recommend this species be categorized as Critically EndangeredUna nueva especie de lagarto del género Liolaemus es descrita para la Región Tacna, sur de Perú. Esta especie pertenece al grupo L. montanus, la que fue inicialmente confundida con L. poconchilensis y L. insolitus. Sin embargo, una serie de caracteres diagnósticos la diferencian consistentemente de estas y otras especies del género. Para determinar su estatus taxonómico, nosotros analizamos sus relaciones filogenéticas, así como sus características morfológicas y ecológicas. Nuestros resultados sustentan la conclusión que esta población es una nueva especie para la Ciencia, e indica que esta nueva especie está relacionada a L. nazca and L. chiribaya. La nueva especie presenta dimorfismo sexual, y es conocida en elevaciones cercanas a los 1,000 m sobre el nivel del mar, en el hiperárido desierto del Pacífico con matorral de Ephedra americana y Poissonia sp. Debido a su distribución restringida y la pérdida de hábitat observada, nosotros proponemos que sea incluida en la lista de especies amenazadas como En Peligro Crítico.Fil: Valladares Faundez, John Pablo. Universidad de Tarapaca.; ChileFil: Franco León, Pablo. Universidad Jorge Basadre Grohmann; PerúFil: Chipana, César Jove. Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohmann.; PerúFil: Navarro Guzmán, Marco. Universidad Nacional Jorge Basadre Grohmann.; PerúFil: Apaza, Javier Ignacio. Universidad Jorge Basadre Grohmann; PerúFil: Cáceres Musaja, César. Universidad Jorge Basadre Grohmann; PerúFil: Langstroth, Robert. Colección Boliviana de Fauna; Bolivia. Universidad Mayor de San Andrés; BoliviaFil: Aguilar Kiriguin, Alvaro. Colección Boliviana de Fauna; BoliviaFil: Gutierrez, Roberto C.. Universidad Nacional de San Agustín. Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas. Departamento Académico de Biología. Museo de Historia Natural; PerúFil: Abdala, Cristian Simón. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - Tucumán. Unidad Ejecutora Lillo; Argentin

Symbolic dynamics to enhance diagnostic ability of portable oximetry from the Phone Oximeter in the detection of paediatric sleep apnoea

Objective: This study is aimed at assessing symbolic dynamics as a reliable technique to characterize complex fluctuations of portable oximetry in the context of automated detection of childhood obstructive sleep apnoea-hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS). Approach: Nocturnal oximetry signals from 142 children with suspected OSAHS were acquired using the Phone Oximeter: a portable device that integrates a pulse oximeter with a smartphone. An apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) ⩾ 5 events h−1 from simultaneous in-lab polysomnography was used to confirm moderate-to-severe childhood OSAHS. Symbolic dynamics was used to parameterise non-linear changes in the overnight oximetry profile. Conventional indices, anthropometric measures, and time-domain linear statistics were also considered. Forward stepwise logistic regression was used to obtain an optimum feature subset. Logistic regression (LR) was used to identify children with moderate-to-severe OSAHS. Main results: The histogram of 3-symbol words from symbolic dynamics showed significant differences (p < 0.01) between children with AHI < 5 events h−1 and moderate-to-severe patients (AHI ⩾ 5 events h−1). Words representing increasing oximetry values after apnoeic events (re-saturations) showed relevant diagnostic information. Regarding the performance of individual characterization approaches, the LR model composed of features from symbolic dynamics alone reached a maximum performance of 78.4% accuracy (65.2% sensitivity; 86.8% specificity) and 0.83 area under the ROC curve (AUC). The classification performance improved combining all features. The optimum model from feature selection achieved 83.3% accuracy (73.5% sensitivity; 89.5% specificity) and 0.89 AUC, significantly (p <0.01) outperforming the other models. Significance: Symbolic dynamics provides complementary information to conventional oximetry analysis enabling reliable detection of moderate-to-severe paediatric OSAHS from portable oximetry

The role of motion and intensity in deaf children’s recognition of real human facial expressions of emotion

© 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.There is substantial evidence to suggest that deafness is associated with delays in emotion understanding, which has been attributed to delays in language acquisition and opportunities to converse. However, studies addressing the ability to recognise facial expressions of emotion have produced equivocal findings. The two experiments presented here attempt to clarify emotion recognition in deaf children by considering two aspects: the role of motion and the role of intensity in deaf children’s emotion recognition. In Study 1, 26 deaf children were compared to 26 age-matched hearing controls on a computerised facial emotion recognition task involving static and dynamic expressions of 6 emotions. Eighteen of the deaf and 18 age-matched hearing controls additionally took part in Study 2, involving the presentation of the same 6 emotions at varying intensities. Study 1 showed that deaf children’s emotion recognition was better in the dynamic rather than static condition, whereas the hearing children showed no difference in performance between the two conditions. In Study 2, the deaf children performed no differently from the hearing controls, showing improved recognition rates with increasing rates of intensity. With the exception of disgust, no differences in individual emotions were found. These findings highlight the importance of using ecologically valid stimuli to assess emotion recognition.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio