Highly challenging balance program reduces fall rate in Parkinson disease

Published in final edited form as: J Neurol Phys Ther. 2016 January ; 40(1): 24–30. doi:10.1097/NPT.0000000000000111BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: There is a paucity of effective treatment options to reduce falls in Parkinson disease (PD). Although a variety of rehabilitative approaches have been shown to improve balance, evidence of a reduction in falls has been mixed. Prior balance trials suggest that programs with highly challenging exercises had superior outcomes. We investigated the effects of a theory-driven, progressive, highly challenging group exercise program on fall rate, balance, and fear of falling. METHODS: Twenty-three subjects with PD participated in this randomized cross-over trial. Subjects were randomly allocated to 3 months of active balance exercises or usual care followed by the reverse. During the active condition, subjects participated in a progressive, highly challenging group exercise program twice weekly for 90 minutes. Outcomes included a change in fall rate over the 3-month active period and differences in balance (Mini-Balance Evaluation Systems Test [Mini-BESTest]), and fear of falling (Falls Efficacy Scale-International [FES-I]) between active and usual care conditions. RESULTS: The effect of time on falls was significant (regression coefficient = -0.015 per day, P < 0.001). The estimated rate ratio comparing incidence rates at time points 1 month apart was 0.632 (95% confidence interval, 0.524-0.763). Thus, there was an estimated 37% decline in fall rate per month (95% confidence interval, 24%-48%). Improvements were also observed on the Mini-BESTest (P = 0.037) and FES-I (P = 0.059). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study show that a theory-based, highly challenging, and progressive exercise program was effective in reducing falls, improving balance, and reducing fear of falling in PD.Video abstract available for more insights from the authors (see Supplemental Digital Content 1, http://links.lww.com/JNPT/A120). TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02302144.This study was funded by the Boston Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (NIH 5P30AG031679). Additional support was provided by the American Parkinson Disease Association (ADPA); ADPAMA Chapter. (NIH 5P30AG031679 - Boston Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center; American Parkinson Disease Association (ADPA); ADPAMA Chapter

Briefing: Young Coastal Scientists and Engineers Conference 2013

On 25–26 March 2013, 52 early career scientists and engineers, studying various aspects of coastal science, met at the University of Aberdeen for the ninth Young Coastal Scientists and Engineers Conference. The conference was jointly organised by the School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen, and Marine Scotland Science. Early-career scientists, researchers and practitioners presented 23 oral and 17 poster presentations over the 2-day meeting. The papers all had a coastal theme with a large diversity in the subjects covered, including waves, currents, tidal energy, coastal erosion, sediment transport, fluid mechanics and particle tracking. This briefing paper reports on the conference, and presents the keynote lecture and four papers voted to be of especially high quality by the panel of judges

Limited contribution of ancient methane to surface waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea shelf

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Science Advances 4 (2018): eaao4842, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aao4842.In response to warming climate, methane can be released to Arctic Ocean sediment and waters from thawing subsea permafrost and decomposing methane hydrates. However, it is unknown whether methane derived from this sediment storehouse of frozen ancient carbon reaches the atmosphere. We quantified the fraction of methane derived from ancient sources in shelf waters of the U.S. Beaufort Sea, a region that has both permafrost and methane hydrates and is experiencing significant warming. Although the radiocarbon-methane analyses indicate that ancient carbon is being mobilized and emitted as methane into shelf bottom waters, surprisingly, we find that methane in surface waters is principally derived from modern-aged carbon. We report that at and beyond approximately the 30-m isobath, ancient sources that dominate in deep waters contribute, at most, 10 ± 3% of the surface water methane. These results suggest that even if there is a heightened liberation of ancient carbon–sourced methane as climate change proceeds, oceanic oxidation and dispersion processes can strongly limit its emission to the atmosphere.The National Science Foundation (PLR-1417149; awarded to J.D.K.) primarily supported this work with additional support provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FE0028980; awarded to J.D.K.). Atmospheric 14C-CH4 measurements were funded by NASA via the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Earth Ventures project “Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment”) to the University of Colorado under contract 1424124. K.M.S. acknowledges support from the University of Minnesota Grant-in-Aid program

The canopy cover Webmap of the United Kingdom’s towns and cities

Urban trees and other green infrastructure are advocated as a cost-effective sustainable solution to ameliorate the socio-economic and environmental challenges of urbanisation. UK research has only recently started to quantify urban trees. Tree canopy cover percentage (TCC) is a useful indicator of tree presence. Its estimation can be reproducible, simple, fast, and cost-effective; it can also be evaluated through citizen science, improving people’s appreciation for urban trees and widening the data collection resource pool. This research summarises a citizen science assessment of the TCC of the UK’s 5,749 urban wards. Descriptive statistics are presented spanning local authority to country. The area-weighted mean (and standard error) of TCC across urban wards was 17.3 ± 0.1%. Nationally, the TCC were 11.8 ± 0.5%, 15.7 ± 0.5%, 17.5 ± 0.2%, and 18.1 ± 0.5%, for Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales, respectively. Results show that only 27.6% of urban wards had a TCC higher than 20%, previously suggested as a minimum target for UK towns. The findings highlight substantial geographical variance in TCC equity, as well as a negative correlation between TCC and deprivation. This information will be of value in urban forest strategy and management

Rightward hemispheric asymmetries in auditory language cortex in children with autistic disorder: an MRI investigation

Purpose: determine if language disorder in children with autistic disorder (AD) corresponds to abnormalities in hemispheric asymmetries in auditory language cortex. Methods: MRI morphometric study in children with AD (n = 50) to assess hemispheric asymmetries in auditory language cortex. A key region of interest was the planum temporale (PT), which is larger in the left hemisphere in most healthy individuals. Results: (i) Heschl’s gyrus and planum polare showed typical hemisphere asymmetry patterns; (ii) posterior Superior Temporal Gyrus (pSTG) showed significant rightward asymmetry; and (iii) PT showed a trend for rightward asymmetry that was significant when constrained to right-handed boys (n = 30). For right-handed boys, symmetry indices for pSTG were significantly positively correlated with those for PT. PT asymmetry was age dependent, with greater rightward asymmetry with age. Conclusions: results provide evidence for rightward asymmetry in auditory association areas (pSTG and PT) known to subserve language processing. Cumulatively, our data provide evidence for a differing maturational path for PT for lower functioning children with AD, with both pre- and post-natal experience likely playing a role in PT asymmetry

A Narrative of Psychiatry and Mental Illness in Newfoundland: The History of the Waterford Hospital

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The effectiveness of communication strategy training with adult Cochlear implantees

This study evaluated changes in repair strategy use by adult cochlear implantees following a communication training program that emphasized the use of communication repair strategies. Fifteen subjects, male and female, pre- and postlingually deafened adults, participated. The experimental group completed a four-session training program. The control group received no intervention. Evaluations were performed preintervention, postintervention, and at a 5- to 7-week follow-up with both familiar and unfamiliar communication partners. A video analysis technique was implemented. Video analysis showed that subjects often requested repetition (verbal/nonverbal), confirmation, or repetition of a specific portion of an utterance. Other repair strategies were rarely used. Results showed no significant change in the use of repair strategies for the control or experimental groups. Findings suggest that the training program was not effective with the present subject group or that the video analysis measure was not sufficiently sensitive to detect a change in communication behavior. It is suggested that some repair strategies may not comply with the rules of normal conversation

Assessing the contribution of methane sourced from ancient carbon in the Alaskan Arctic Ocean to the modern atmosphere using natural radiocarbon measurements

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Rochester. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2017.The overarching purpose of this doctoral research was to understand what Arctic Ocean methane sources are presently being emitted to the atmosphere, where methane acts as a greenhouse gas that warms the Earth. Radiocarbon-methane (14C-CH4) measurements were used as the primary tool to evaluate hypotheses about the contributions of ancient and modern Arctic Ocean-sourced methane to the modern atmosphere. Dissolved 14C-CH4 sampling and preparation techniques for low concentration waters were developed to obtain dissolved 14C-CH4 data for Prudhoe Bay, part of the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. For each 14C-CH4 sample, 300 to 400 L of gas is extracted from 20,000 to 40,000 L of seawater in order to collect sufficient methane-carbon for high confidence traditional accelerator mass spectrometry analysis even when the sampled seawater is of background methane concentration (~2 nM). The Prudhoe Bay 14C-CH4 dataset asserts that ancient carbon sources contribute methane to surface waters inside of the 28 m isobath of this region. In waters shallower than 28 m, ancient methane sources are calculated to contribute as much as 78 ± 26% of the methane found in surface waters, where methane can be emitted from the ocean to the atmosphere. Permafrost-derived methane is supplied to the waters of this continental shelf from the riverine transport of thawing inland permafrost (Jorgenson et al. 2006), from the erosion of the permafrost-dominated coastline (Jones et al. 2009), and from thawing subsea permafrost (Brothers et al. 2016; Ruppel et al. 2016). At and beyond the 28 m isobath, modern sources are dominant in surface waters, contributing as much as 94 ± 9% of the methane collected there. While Late Pleistocene-age methane was observed near the seafloor where total depth was 28 m, this ancient-sourced methane was observed to be disconnected from surface waters, where methane had >Modern 14C ages. These results establish limits on the contribution of ancient carbon-sourced methane to the atmosphere from the Alaskan Arctic Ocean

Overcoming the barriers to the uptake of nonclinical microsampling in regulatory safety studies

Toxicokinetic analysis is an essential part of nonclinical drug development. Advances in bioanalytical techniques have opened up the potential to use smaller sample volumes (microsamples) to assess drug exposure in blood, plasma and/or serum. Microsampling can increase the amount of nonclinical safety information available, improve its validity by linking toxic effects to drug exposure in individual animals and represents the most significant opportunity to reduce animal use in toxicology studies in the short term. In May 2013, a workshop was held with 80 delegates from 33 companies with the aim of sharing information and knowledge on microsampling technologies. This article covers the discussions at the workshop, current practice in the industry, regulatory experiences and the future direction of microsampling across drug development. © 2014 The Authors