How do people with chronic low back pain perceive specific and general exercise? A mixed methods survey

Purpose: Exercise prescriptions for chronic low back pain (CLBP) often utilize reductionistic, trunk-focused exercise aimed at addressing proposed pain mechanisms. It is unknown if the use of these trunk-focused exercises imply beliefs to people with CLBP about the rationale for their use (e.g., etiology), even without concurrent biomedical narratives. This study aimed to explore people's perceptions of specific and general exercise without an accompanying narrative when experiencing CLBP. Methods: An anonymous online survey was distributed. Mixed methods were utilized for analysis. Six-point Likert scales categorized people's beliefs about individual exercises. Open-ended questions were used to gather further beliefs which were then coded into themes. Results: People with CLBP perceived specific exercise as more beneficial than general exercise. Eight themes and five subthemes were defined. A high volume of positive beliefs were centered around strengthening the low back and abdominal musculature, emphasizing the importance of correct technique. Negative beliefs were held against spinal flexion and external load. Both positive and negative beliefs were underpinned by spinal/pelvic stability being important as well as certain exercises being achievable or not. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that people with CLBP consider specific exercises to be more beneficial than general exercises for CLBP. Specific exercises irrespective of an accompanying narrative can imply meaning about the intent of an exercise. Understanding this requires practitioners to be mindful when prescribing and communicating exercise

Discipline-Specific Compared to Generic Training of Teachers in Higher Education

A recurrent theme arising in the higher education sector is the suitability and effectiveness of generic versus discipline-specific training of university teachers, who are often recruited based on their disciplinary specialties to become teachers in higher education. We compared two groups of participants who had undergone training using a generic post-graduate certificate in higher education (PGCertGeneric) versus a discipline-specific course in veterinary education (PGCertVetEd). The study was conducted using a survey that allowed comparison of participants who completed PGCertGeneric (n=21) with PGCertVetEd (n=22). Results indicated that participants from both PGCertGeneric and PGCertVetEd considered teaching to be satisfying and important to their careers, valued the teaching observation component of the course, and identified similar training needs. However, the participants of the PGCertVetEd felt that the course made them better teachers, valued the relevance of the components taught, understood course design better, were encouraged to do further courses/reading in teaching and learning, changed their teaching as a result of the course, and were less stressed about teaching as compared to the PGCertGeneric participants (p<.05). It is likely that the PGCertVetEd, which was designed and developed by veterinarians with a wider understanding of the veterinary sector, helped the participants perceive the training course as suited to their needs

Quantitative immuno-mass spectrometry imaging of skeletal muscle dystrophin

Emerging and promising therapeutic interventions for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) are confounded by the challenges of quantifying dystrophin. Current approaches have poor precision, require large amounts of tissue, and are difficult to standardize. This paper presents an immuno-mass spectrometry imaging method using gadolinium (Gd)-labeled anti-dystrophin antibodies and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry to simultaneously quantify and localize dystrophin in muscle sections. Gd is quantified as a proxy for the relative expression of dystrophin and was validated in murine and human skeletal muscle sections following k-means clustering segmentation, before application to DMD patients with different gene mutations where dystrophin expression was measured up to 100 µg kg−1 Gd. These results demonstrate that immuno-mass spectrometry imaging is a viable approach for pre-clinical to clinical research in DMD. It rapidly quantified relative dystrophin in single tissue sections, efficiently used valuable patient resources, and may provide information on drug efficacy for clinical translation

Effects of larval growth condition and water availability on desiccation resistance and its physiological basis in adult Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Natural populations of the malaria mosquito <it>Anopheles gambiae </it>s.s. are exposed to large seasonal and daily fluctuations in relative humidity and temperature, which makes coping with drought a crucial aspect of their ecology.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To better understand natural variation in desiccation resistance in this species, the effects of variation in larval food availability and access to water as an adult on subsequent phenotypic quality and desiccation resistance of adult females of the Mopti chromosomal form were tested experimentally.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>It was found that, under normal conditions, larval food availability and adult access to water had only small direct effects on female wet mass, dry mass, and water, glycogen and body lipid contents corrected for body size. In contrast, when females subsequently faced a strong desiccation challenge, larval food availability and adult access to water had strong carry-over effects on most measured physiological and metabolic parameters, and affected female survival. Glycogen and water content were the most used physiological reserves in relative terms, but their usage significantly depended on female phenotypic quality. Adult access to water significantly influenced the use of water and body lipid reserves, which subsequently affected desiccation resistance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results demonstrate the importance of growth conditions and water availability on adult physiological status and subsequent resistance to desiccation.</p

Widespread sex differences in gene expression and splicing in the adult human brain

There is strong evidence to show that men and women differ in terms of neurodevelopment, neurochemistry and susceptibility to neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disease. The molecular basis of these differences remains unclear. Progress in this field has been hampered by the lack of genome-wide information on sex differences in gene expression and in particular splicing in the human brain. Here we address this issue by using post-mortem adult human brain and spinal cord samples originating from 137 neuropathologically confirmed control individuals to study whole-genome gene expression and splicing in 12 CNS regions. We show that sex differences in gene expression and splicing are widespread in adult human brain, being detectable in all major brain regions and involving 2.5% of all expressed genes. We give examples of genes where sex-biased expression is both disease-relevant and likely to have functional consequences, and provide evidence suggesting that sex biases in expression may reflect sex-biased gene regulatory structures

Substrate stabilisation and small structures in coral restoration: State of knowledge, and considerations for management and implementation.

Coral reef ecosystems are under increasing pressure from local and regional stressors and a changing climate. Current management focuses on reducing stressors to allow for natural recovery, but in many areas where coral reefs are damaged, natural recovery can be restricted, delayed or interrupted because of unstable, unconsolidated coral fragments, or rubble. Rubble fields are a natural component of coral reefs, but repeated or high-magnitude disturbances can prevent natural cementation and consolidation processes, so that coral recruits fail to survive. A suite of interventions have been used to target this issue globally, such as using mesh to stabilise rubble, removing the rubble to reveal hard substrate and deploying rocks or other hard substrates over the rubble to facilitate recruit survival. Small, modular structures can be used at multiple scales, with or without attached coral fragments, to create structural complexity and settlement surfaces. However, these can introduce foreign materials to the reef, and a limited understanding of natural recovery processes exists for the potential of this type of active intervention to successfully restore local coral reef structure. This review synthesises available knowledge about the ecological role of coral rubble, natural coral recolonisation and recovery rates and the potential benefits and risks associated with active interventions in this rapidly evolving field. Fundamental knowledge gaps include baseline levels of rubble, the structural complexity of reef habitats in space and time, natural rubble consolidation processes and the risks associated with each intervention method. Any restoration intervention needs to be underpinned by risk assessment, and the decision to repair rubble fields must arise from an understanding of when and where unconsolidated substrate and lack of structure impair natural reef recovery and ecological function. Monitoring is necessary to ascertain the success or failure of the intervention and impacts of potential risks, but there is a strong need to specify desired outcomes, the spatial and temporal context and indicators to be measured. With a focus on the Great Barrier Reef, we synthesise the techniques, successes and failures associated with rubble stabilisation and the use of small structures, review monitoring methods and indicators, and provide recommendations to ensure that we learn from past projects

Retained Surgical Items and Minimally Invasive Surgery

A retained surgical item is a surgical patient safety problem. Early reports have focused on the epidemiology of retained-item cases and the identification of patient risk factors for retention. We now know that retention has very little to do with patient characteristics and everything to do with operating room culture. It is a perception that minimally invasive procedures are safer with regard to the risk of retention. Minimally invasive surgery is still an operation where an incision is made and surgical tools are placed inside of patients, so these cases are not immune to the problem of inadvertent retention. Retained surgical items occur because of problems with multi-stakeholder operating room practices and problems in communication. The prevention of retained surgical items will therefore require practice change, knowledge, and shared information between all perioperative personnel

Global Production of Marine Bivalves. Trends and Challenges

The global production of marine bivalves for human consumption is more than 15 million tonnes per year (average period 2010–2015), which is about 14% of the total marine production in the world. Most of the marine bivalve production (89%) comes from aquaculture and only 11% comes from the wild fishery. Asia, especially China, is by far the largest producer of marine bivalves, accounting for 85% of the world production and responsible for the production growth. In other continents, the production is stabilizing or decreasing (Europe) the last decades. In order to stimulate growth, sustainability (Planet, Profit, People) of the aquaculture activities is a key issue. Environmental (Planet) aspects for sustainable aquaculture include the fishery on seed resources, carrying capacity, invasive species and organic loading. Food safety issues due to environmental contaminants and biotoxines should be minimized to increase the reliability of marine bivalves as a healthy food source and to stimulate market demands. Properly designed monitoring programs are important tools to accomplish sustainable growth of marine bivalve production

UK Iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease:Investigating human prion transmission across genotypic barriers using human tissue-based and molecular approaches

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is the prototypic human prion disease that occurs most commonly in sporadic and genetic forms, but it is also transmissible and can be acquired through medical procedures, resulting in iatrogenic CJD (iCJD). The largest numbers of iCJD cases that have occurred worldwide have resulted from contaminated cadaveric pituitary-derived human growth hormone (hGH) and its use to treat primary and secondary growth hormone deficiency. We report a comprehensive, tissue-based and molecular genetic analysis of the largest series of UK hGH-iCJD cases reported to date, including in vitro kinetic molecular modelling of genotypic factors influencing prion transmission. The results show the interplay of prion strain and host genotype in governing the molecular, pathological and temporal characteristics of the UK hGH-iCJD epidemic and provide insights into the adaptive mechanisms involved when prions cross genotypic barriers. We conclude that all of the available evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that the UK hGH-iCJD epidemic resulted from transmission of the V2 human prion strain, which is associated with the second most common form of sporadic CJD