Poster: Toward Expert Consensus on Guidelines for the Use of Yoga in the Treatment of Anxiety in Children and Adolescents

Problem Statement: Despite clinical evidence to support the use of yoga as a treatment option for children and adolescents with anxiety, clinical practice guidelines do not exist. Purpose: This project used the modified Delphi technique to determine if consensus exists on the need for clinical practice guidelines among experts in the fields of child and adolescent psychiatry, psychology, and yoga. Additionally, this project aimed to determine if consensus exists on what should be included in clinical practice guidelines for the use of yoga as a therapeutic intervention for anxiety in children and adolescents. Methods: Three rounds of questionnaires were used to survey identified experts in psychiatry, psychology, and yoga. Quantitative data were collected to describe the sample and to determine consensus using frequencies and percentages as measures of central tendency, and ranges as measures of dispersion. Qualitative data were gathered and a textual content analysis was performed. Significance: Establishing expert consensus on the need for clinical practice guidelines for the use of yoga as treatment intervention for children and adolescents with anxiety has the potential to improve access to safe and effective mental health care for children and adolescents who might otherwise go untreated. Outcomes: Consensus (≥ 80%) was found among identified experts in psychiatry and psychology for the need for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for the use of yoga as a treatment intervention for children and adolescents with anxiety, although consensus was not found among identified yoga experts. Consensus among identified experts was also established on the risks, benefits, and items that should be included in evidence-based clinical practice guidelines

Toward expert consensus on guidelines for the use of Yoga in the treatment of anxiety in children and adolescents.

Problem Statement: Despite clinical evidence to support the use of yoga as a treatment option for children and adolescents with anxiety, clinical practice guidelines do not exist. Purpose: This project used the modified Delphi technique to determine if consensus exists on the need for clinical practice guidelines among experts in the fields of child and adolescent psychiatry, psychology, and yoga. Additionally, this project aimed to determine if consensus exists on what should be included in clinical practice guidelines for the use of yoga as a therapeutic intervention for anxiety in children and adolescents. Methods: Three rounds of questionnaires were used to survey identified experts in psychiatry, psychology, and yoga. Quantitative data were collected to describe the sample and to determine consensus using frequencies and percentages as measures of central tendency, and ranges as measures of dispersion. Qualitative data were gathered and a textual content analysis was performed. Significance: Establishing expert consensus on the need for clinical practice guidelines for the use of yoga as treatment intervention for children and adolescents with anxiety has the potential to improve access to safe and effective mental health care for children and adolescents who might otherwise go untreated. Outcomes: Consensus (≥ 80%) was found among identified experts in psychiatry and psychology for the need for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for the use of yoga as a treatment intervention for children and adolescents with anxiety, although consensus was not found among identified yoga experts. Consensus among identified experts was also established on the risks, benefits, and items that should be included in evidence-based clinical practice guidelines

Optimizing Compressed Air Storage for Energy Efficiency

Compressed air storage is an important, but often misunderstood, component of compressed air systems. This paper discusses methods to properly size compressed air storage in load-unload systems to avoid short cycling and reduce system energy use. First, key equations relating storage, pressure, and compressed air flow are derived using fundamental thermodynamic relations. Next, these relations are used to calculate the relation between volume of storage and cycle time in load-unload compressors. It is shown that cycle time is minimized when compressed air demand is 50% of compressor capacity. The effect of pressure drop between compressor system and storage on cycle time is discussed. These relations are used to develop guidelines for compressed air storage that minimize energy consumption. These methods are demonstrated in two case study examples

Existence of Weak Solutions for a Diffuse Interface Model for Two-Phase Flows of Incompressible Fluids with Different Densities

We prove existence of weak solutions for a diffuse interface model for the flow of two viscous incompressible Newtonian fluids in a bounded domain in two and three space dimensions. In contrast to previous works, we study a new model recently developed by Abels, Garcke, and Gr\"un for fluids with different densities, which leads to a solenoidal velocity field. The model is given by a non-homogeneous Navier-Stokes system with a modified convective term coupled to a Cahn-Hilliard system. The density of the mixture depends on an order parameter.Comment: 33 page

Measuring Progress with Normalized Energy Intensity

Energy standard ISO 50001 will require industries to quantify improvement in energy intensity to qualify for certification. This paper describes a four-step method to analyze utility billing, weather, and production data to quantify a company\u27s normalized energy intensity over time. The method uses 3-pararameter change-point regression modeling of utility billing data against weather and production data to derive energy signature equations. The energy signature equation is driven by typical weather and production data to calculate the \u27normal annual consumption\u27, NAC, and divided by typical production to calculate \u27normalized energy intensity\u27 NEI. These steps are repeated on sequential sets of 12 months of data to generate a series of \u27sliding\u27 NEIs and regression coefficients. The method removes the effects of changing weather and production levels, so that the change in energy intensity is a sole function of changing energy efficiency. Deficiencies of other methods of calculating NEI are identified. The method is demonstrated in a case study example

Understanding Industrial Energy Use through Lean Energy Analysis

Due to rising energy costs and global climate change, many industries seek to improve their energy efficiency. This paper describes a three-step method to analyze utility billing, weather, and production data to understand a company’s energy performance over time. The method uses regression modeling of utility billing data against weather and production data. The regression models are then driven with typical weather and production data to calculate the ‘normal annual consumption’, NAC. These steps are repeated on sequential sets of 12 months of data to generate a series of ‘sliding’ NACs and regression coefficients. The method can quantify successful energy efficiency initiatives and lend insight into the cause of the energy savings. In addition, the method is able to proactively identify energy saving opportunities. The method is demonstrated with a case study. The case study shows that the method is able to disaggregate energy use into weather, production and independent components, accurately measure changes in plant energy efficiency, lend insight into the nature of the those changes, identify savings opportunities and identify changes in overall process control

Effect of nitrous oxide on folate coenzyme distribution and de novo synthesis of thymidylate in human bone marrow cells

Abstract The effect of nitrous oxide on intracellular folate metabolism of the human bone marrow was studied in vitro. Bone marrow cells, obtained from healthy volunteers, were incubated with 5 × 10−8m-[3H]5-formyltetrahydrofolate (5-formylTHF) for 18 hr to label intracellular folate pools. Subsequently the cells were exposed to nitrous oxide for up to 10 hr, and the intracellular folate coenzyme levels were quantitated by HPLC. The dU suppression test was carried out on part of the bone marrow samples in order to measure folate-dependent synthesis of the DNA precursor thymidylate (dTMP). After 5 hr exposure to nitrous oxide the de novo dTMP synthesis of the bone marrow cells was significantly decreased (P < 0.05), and this reduced synthesis persisted at 10 hr. After both 5 and 10 hr of exposure to nitrous oxide the amount of 10-formylTHF was reduced (P < 0.05) while that of 5-methylTHF was increased (P < 0.05). At 10 hr the level of THF was also decreased (P < 0.05). This study shows that nitrous oxide exposure of human bone marrow cells causes a redistribution of the various folate coenzymes which supports the idea of ‘functional cobalamin deficiency’. Moreover it seems probable that following prolonged exposure to nitrous oxide, not only folate-dependent dTMP synthesis but also de novo purine synthesis is reduced

Cross-linguistic evidence for cognitive universals in the noun phrase

Noun phrase word order varies cross-linguistically, however, two distributional asymmetries have attracted substantial attention (i.a., Greenberg 1963, Cinque 2005). First, the most common orders place adjectives closest to the noun, then numerals, then demonstratives (e.g., N-Adj- Num-Dem). Second, exceptions to this are restricted to post-nominal position (e.g., N-Dem- Num-Adj, but not Adj-Num-Dem-N). These observations have been argued to reflect constraints on cognition. Here we report two experiments, following work by Culbertson & Adger (2014), providing additional support for this claim. We taught English- and Thai-speaking participants artificial languages in which the position of modifiers relative to the noun differed from their native order (post-nominal position in English, pre-nominal in Thai). We trained participants on single-modifier phrases, and asked them to extrapolate to multiple modifier phrases. We found that both populations infer relative orders of modifiers that conform to the tendency for closest proximity of adjectives, then numerals, then demonstratives. Further, we show that Thai participants, learning pre-nominal modifiers, exhibit a stronger such preference. These results track the typology closely and are consistent with the claim that noun phrase word order reflects properties of human cognition. We discuss future research needed to rule out alternative explanations for our findings, including prior language experience