Twelve month follow-up on a randomised controlled trial of relaxation training for post-stroke anxiety

© The Author(s) 2016. Objective: To follow up participants in a randomised controlled trial of relaxation training for anxiety after stroke at 12 months. Design: Twelve month follow-up to a randomised controlled trial, in which the control group also received treatment. Setting: Community. Participants: Fifteen of twenty one original participants with post-stroke anxiety participated in a one year follow-up study. Interventions: A self-help autogenic relaxation CD listened to five times a week for one month, immediately in the intervention group and after three months in the control group. Main measures: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Anxiety subscale and the Telephone Interview of Cognitive Status for inclusion. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-Anxiety subscale for outcome. All measures were administered by phone. Results: Anxiety ratings reduced significantly between pre and post-intervention, and between pre-intervention and one year follow-up (‡2(2) = 22.29, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Reductions in anxiety in stroke survivors who received a self-help autogenic relaxation CD appear to be maintained after one year

A pilot randomized controlled trial of self-help relaxation to reduce post-stroke depression

© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. Objective: To consider the potential of self-help relaxation training to treat depression after stroke. Design: Randomized controlled trial with cross-over at three months. Setting: Community. Participants: In total, 21 people with stroke, aged 49–82 years. Intervention: Autogenic relaxation CD. Main measure: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale–Depression (HADS-D) subscale. Results: No difference in depression change scores was identified between the treatment and control groups; however, on two follow-ups, significant positive differences relative to screening were found for the treatment group (at 2 months Z = −2.55, P =.011 and 12 months Z = −2.44, P =.015). A partial η2 =.07 was identified. Conclusion: Self-help relaxation holds promise as a self-help treatment for depression after stroke. Findings from this trial, considered with others of relaxation for depression, suggest that a study including a total of 80 participants would likely be sufficient to establish efficacy of the treatment, relative to controls, in those with stroke

Impairment of spatial cognitive function with preservation of verbal performance during spatial disorientation

Spatial disorientation, which is responsible for up to 30% of aircraft accidents causes impairment of cognitive function which may further compromise a pilot's ability to think his way out of the situation and regain control [1,]. The functional-anatomical separation of spatial and verbal processing [10,11] raises the possibility of selective interference between the task of resolving spatial disorientation and the ability to perform concurrent spatial, as opposed to verbal, secondary tasks. We report for the first time a degradation of spatial task performance with preservation of verbal performance when subjects in a simulator are disoriented by conflict between self- motion and visual flow in the view of the external environment

VEGF guides angiogenic sprouting utilizing endothelial tip cell filopodia

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) is a major regulator of blood vessel formation and function. it controls several processes in endothelial cells, such as proliferation, survival, and migration, but it is not known how these are coordinately regulated to result in more complex morphogenetic events, such as tubular sprouting, fusion, and network formation. We show here that VEGF-A controls angiogenic sprouting in the early postnatal retina by guiding filopodial extension from specialized endothelial cells situated at the tips of the vascular sprouts. The tip cells respond to VEGF-A only by guided migration; the proliferative response to VEGF-A occurs in the sprout stalks. These two cellular responses are both mediated by agonistic activity of VEGF-A on VEGF receptor 2. Whereas tip cell migration depends on a gradient of VEGF-A, proliferation is regulated by its concentration. Thus, vessel patterning during retinal angiogenesis depends on the balance between two different qualities of the extracellular VEGF-A distribution, which regulate distinct cellular responses in defined populations of endothelial cells

Long-term follow-up of intratympanic methylprednisolone versus gentamicin in patients with unilateral Menière’s disease

Objectives: To determine whether long term (>48 months) symptomatic vertigo control is sustained in patients with Menie`re’s disease from a previous comparative trial of intratympanic methylprednisolone versus gentamicin, and if the two treatments remain nonsignificantly different at longterm follow-up. Study Design: Mail survey recording vertigo frequency in the previous one and six months, further intratympanic treatment received, and validated symptom questionnaires. Setting: Outpatient hospital clinic setting. Patients: Adult patients with definite unilateral refractory Menie`re’s disease, who previously received in tratympanic treatment in a comparative trial. Intervention: A survey of trial participants who received intratympanic gentamicin (40 mg/mL) or methylprednisolone (62.5 mg/mL). Outcome measures: Primary: number of vertigo attacks in the 6 months prior to receiving this survey compared with the 6 months before the first trial injection. Secondary: : Number of vertigo attacks over the previous 1 month; validated symptom questionnaire scores of tinnitus, dizziness, vertigo, aural fullness, and functional disability. Results: Average follow-up was 70.8 months (standard deviation 17.0) from the first treatment injection. Vertigo attacks in the 6 months prior to receiving the current survey reduced by 95% compared to baseline in both drug groups (intention-to-treat analysis, both p<0.001). No significant difference between drugs was found for the primary and secondary outcomes. Eight participants (methylprednisolone ¼ 5 and gentamicin ¼ 3) required further injections for relapse after completing the original trial. Conclusion: Intratympanic methylprednisolone treatment provides effective long-lasting relief of vertigo, without the known inner-ear toxicity associated with gentamicin. There are no significant differences between the two treatments at long term follow-up

Fifty years of spellchecking

A short history of spellchecking from the late 1950s to the present day, describing its development through dictionary lookup, affix stripping, correction, confusion sets, and edit distance to the use of gigantic databases

Mineralogical controls on porosity and water chemistry during O2-SO2-CO2 reaction of CO2 storage reservoir and cap-rock core

Reservoir and cap-rock core samples with variable lithology's representative of siliciclastic reservoirs used for CO storage have been characterized and reacted at reservoir conditions with an impure CO stream and low salinity brine. Cores from a target CO storage site in Queensland, Australia were tested. Mineralogical controls on the resulting changes to porosity and water chemistry have been identified. The tested siliciclastic reservoir core samples can be grouped generally into three responses to impure CO-brine reaction, dependent on mineralogy. The mineralogically clean quartzose reservoir cores had high porosities, with negligible change after reaction, in resolvable porosity or mineralogy, calculated using X-ray micro computed tomography and QEMSCAN. However, strong brine acidification and a high concentration of dissolved sulphate were generated in experiments owing to minimal mineral buffering. Also, the movement of kaolin has the potential to block pore throats and reduce permeability. The reaction of the impure CO-brine with calcite-cemented cap-rock core samples caused the largest porosity changes after reaction through calcite dissolution; to the extent that one sample developed a connection of open pores that extended into the core sub-plug. This has the potential to both favor injectivity but also affect CO migration. The dissolution of calcite caused the buffering of acidity resulting in no significant observable silicate dissolution. Clay-rich cap-rock core samples with minor amounts of carbonate minerals had only small changes after reaction. Created porosity appeared mainly disconnected. Changes were instead associated with decreases in density from Fe-leaching of chlorite or dissolution of minor amounts of carbonates and plagioclase. The interbedded sandstone and shale core also developed increased porosity parallel to bedding through dissolution of carbonates and reactive silicates in the sandy layers. Tight interbedded cap-rocks could be expected to act as baffles to fluids preventing vertical fluid migration. Concentrations of dissolved elements including Ca, Fe, Mn, and Ni increased during reactions of several core samples, with Mn, Mg, Co, and Zn correlated with Ca from cap-rock cores. Precipitation of gypsum, Fe-oxides and clays on seal core samples sequestered dissolved elements including Fe through co-precipitation or adsorption. A conceptual model of impure CO-water-rock interactions for a siliciclastic reservoir is discussed

Short-wave infrared barriode detectors using InGaAsSb absorption material lattice matched to GaSb

Short-wave infrared barriode detectors were grown by molecular beam epitaxy. An absorption layer composition of In0.28Ga0.72As0.25Sb0.75 allowed for lattice matching to GaSb and cut-off wavelengths of 2.9 μm at 250 K and 3.0 μm at room temperature. Arrhenius plots of the dark current density showed diffusion limited dark currents approaching those expected for optimized HgCdTe-based detectors. Specific detectivity figures of around 7×1010 Jones and 1×1010 Jones were calculated, for 240 K and room temperature, respectively. Significantly, these devices could support focal plane arrays working at higher operating temperatures