Migrating agile methods to standardized development practice

Situated process and quality frame-works offer a way to resolve the tensions that arise when introducing agile methods into standardized software development engineering. For these to be successful, however, organizations must grasp the opportunity to reintegrate software development management, theory, and practice

Wearable Sensors for Sensing and Communicating Body Functions to a Cell Phone

This poster summarizes the entire process designing and building of senior design project for the senior design course at the University of Southern Maine. This poster gives a brief introduction about the project which is to implement a wearable device to measure and transfer biomedical data of a human to a cell phone app. It consists of implementing a device that can detect and communicate the heartbeats, blood oxygen level, and the skin temperature data of a human. The poster shows the sensors used in the project as well as how each operates. At the end of the poster there are the pictures of the results with the data being discussed and the conclusion taking about the experiences and outlook

Ionic Mechanisms of Spinal Neuronal Cold Hypersensitivity in Ciguatera

Cold hypersensitivity is evident in a range of neuropathies and can evoke sensations of paradoxical burning cold pain. Ciguatoxin poisoning is known to induce a pain syndrome caused by consumption of contaminated tropical fish that can persist for months and include pruritus and cold allodynia; at present no suitable treatment is available. These studies for the first time examine neural substrates and molecular components of Pacific ciguatoxin-2 induced cold hypersensitivity. Electrophysiological recordings of dorsal horn lamina V/VI wide dynamic range neurones were made in non-sentient rats. Subcutaneous injection of 10 nM ciguatoxin-2 into the receptive field increased neuronal responses to innocuous and noxious cooling. In addition, neuronal responses to low threshold but not noxious punctate mechanical stimuli were also elevated. The resultant cold hypersensitivity was not reversed by M8-An, an antagonist of TRPM8. Both mechanical and cold hypersensitivity were completely prevented by co-injection with Nav1.8 antagonist A803467, whereas TRPA1 antagonist A967079 only prevented hypersensitivity to innocuous cooling and partially prevented hypersensitivity to noxious cooling. In naïve rats, neither innocuous nor noxious cold evoked neuronal responses were inhibited by antagonists of Nav1.8, TRPA1 or TRPM8 alone. Ciguatoxins may confer cold sensitivity to a subpopulation of cold-insensitive Nav1.8/TRPA1+ primary afferents, which could underlie cold allodynia reported in ciguatera. These data expand the understanding of central spinal cold sensitivity under normal conditions and the role of these ion channels in this translational rat model of ciguatoxin induced-hypersensitivity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Role of yogic practices in individuals with hypertension and low-Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) of Ahmedabad city

589-594Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for various heart related diseases in India, especially in South-Asian region. Nowadays because of very fast life style, breathing pattern and its duration is changed considerably. Breathing duration becomes very short. The main aim of the present study was to assess the therapeutic role of yoga on various cardiovascular parameters, peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) through pulmonary function test and peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2), amount of oxygen in the blood in Ahmedabad population. Total 50 individuals with hypertension, low-PEFR and low-SpO2 were selected for the present study. All participants were subjected to yoga therapy (pranayama, yoga postures and meditation) for various time intervals of 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Heart rate (HR), systolic pressure (SP), diastolic pressure (DP), pulse pressure (PP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), rate pressure product (RPP), double product (DoP), PEFR and SpO2 were measured from all individuals at different intervals. At 0 month, all individuals had very high heart rate (HR), systolic pressure (SP), diastolic pressure (DP), pulse pressure (PP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), rate pressure product (RPP), double product (DoP), but PEFR and SpO2 levels were very low. At the end of 12 month of yoga intervention, significant decrease in all cardiovascular parameters whereas significant elevation of PEFR and SpO2 levels were observed. In conclusion, a comprehensive yoga therapy programme has immense potential to augment the beneficial effects of standard medical management of hypertension, lungs function and total oxygen concentration. Hence it can be used as an effective complementary therapy for heart related diseases

Study of therapeutic role of yoga (Hathyoga) on lipid profile in dyslipidemic individuals of Ahmedabad city

333-338Abnormal lipid profile is a common problem among hypertensive as well as working individuals. The rate of mortality is increasing day-by-day due to cardiovascular problems which occurs due to dyslipidemia. The aim of the present study was to assess the therapeutic role of yoga on lipid profile in Ahmedabad population. Total 50 normal healthy control and 50 individuals with dyslipidemia aged >20 years were enrolled for the present study. They were divided into two groups. Individuals in Group-1 were normal healthy, whereas individuals in Group-2 were dyslipidemics. All participants were subjected to yoga practices (Hathyogic practices - Pranayama, yoga postures and meditation) for the various intervals of 0, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Serum lipid profile was estimated for all individuals at different intervals. Before beginning the yoga intervention i.e., at 0 month the levels of Total Cholesterol, Total Triglycerides, LDL-cholesterol and VLDL-cholesterol were significantly high, whereas HDL-cholesterol levels were significantly low. After completion of 12 months yoga intervention a significant reduction was observed in Total Cholesterol, Total Triglycerides, LDL-cholesterol and VLDL-cholesterol as well as a significant elevation of HDL-cholesterol was observed. Yoga (Hathyoga) can be a new added adjuvant and cost effective therapy for the patients with abnormal lipid profile

Psychological, social and welfare interventions for psychological health and well-being of torture survivors

Background: Torture is widespread, with potentially broad and long-lasting impact across physical, psychological, social and other areas of life. Its complex and diverse effects interact with ethnicity, gender, and refugee experience. Health and welfare agencies offer varied rehabilitation services, from conventional mental health treatment to eclectic or needs-based interventions. This review is needed because relatively little outcome research has been done in this field, and no previous systematic review has been conducted. Resources are scarce, and the challenges of providing services can be considerable. Objectives: To assess beneficial and adverse effects of psychological, social and welfare interventions for torture survivors, and to comp are these effects with those reported by active and inactive controls. Search methods: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were identified through a search of PsycINFO, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINA HL), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTR AL) and the Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Specialise d Register (CCDANCTR), the Latin American and Caribbean Health Science Information Database (LILACS), the Open System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (OpenSIGLE), the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) and Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress (PILOTS) all years to 11 April 2013; searches of Cochrane resources, international trial registries and the main biomedical databases were updated on 20 June 2014. We also searched the On line Library of Dignity (Danish Institute against Torture), reference lists of reviews and included studies and the most frequently cited journals, up to April 2013 but not repeated for 2014. Investigators were contacted to provide updates or details as necessary. Selection criteria: Full publications of RCTs or quasi-RCTs of psychological, social or welfare interventions for survivors of torture against any active or inactive comparison condition. Data collection and analysis: We included all major sources of grey literature in our search and used standard methodological procedures as expected by The Cochrane Collaboration for collecting data, evaluating risk of bias and using GRADE (Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) methods to assess the quality of evidence. Main results: Nine RCTs were included in this review. All were of psychological interventions; none provided social or welfare interventions. The nine trials provided data for 507 adults; none involved children or adolescents. Eight of the nine studies described individual treatment, and one discussed group treatment. Six trials were conducted in Europe, and three in different African countries. Most people were refugees in their thirties and forties; most met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at the outset. Four trials used narrative exposure therapy (NET), one cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT ) and the other four used mixed methods for trauma symptoms, one of which included reconciliation methods. Five interventions were compared with active controls, such as psychoeducation; four used treatment as usual or waiting list/no treatment; we analysed all control conditions together. Duration of therapy varied from one hour to longer than 20 hours with a median of around 12 to 15 hours. All trials reported effects on distress and on PTSD, and two reported on quality of life. Five studies followed up participants for at least six months. No immediate benefits of psychological therapy were noted in comparison with controls in terms of our primary outcome of distress (usually depression), nor for PTSD symptoms, PTSD caseness, or quality of life. At six-month follow-up, three NET and one CBT study (86 participants) showed moderate effect sizes for intervention over control in reduction of distress (standardised me an difference (SMD) -0.63, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.07 to -0.19) and of PTSD symptoms (SMD -0.52, 95% CI -0.97 to -0.07). However, the quality of evidence was very low, and risk of bias resulted from researcher/therapist allegiance to treatment methods, effects of uncertain asylum status of some people and real-time non-standardised translation of assessment measures. No measures of adverse events were described, nor of participation, social functioning, quantity of social or family relationships, proxy measures by third parties or satisfaction with treatment. Too few studies were identified for review authors to attempt sensitivity analyses. Authors’ conclusions: Very low-quality evidence suggests no differences between psychological therapies and controls in terms of immediate effects on post- traumatic symptoms, distress or quality of life; however, NET and CBT were found to confer moderate benefits in reducing dis tress and PTSD symptoms over the medium term (six months after treatment). Evidence was of very low quality, mainly because non- standardised assessment methods using interpreters were applied, and sample sizes were very small. Most eligible trials also revealed medium to high risk of bias. Further, attention to the cultural appropriateness of interventions or to their psychometric qualities was inadequate, and assessment measures used were unsuitable. As such, these findings should be interpreted with caution. No data were available on whether symptom reduction enabled improvements in quality of life, participation in community life, or in social and family relationships in the medium term. Details of adverse events and treatment satisfaction were not available immediately after treatment nor in the medium term. Future research should aim to address these gaps in the evidence and should include larger sample sizes when possible. Problems of torture survivors need to be defined far more broadly than by PTSD symptoms, and re cognition given to the contextual influences of being a torture survivor, including as an asylum seeker or refugee, on psychological and social health

Efficacy of temsirolimus in metastatic chromophobe renal cell carcinoma

<p>Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a histopathologically and molecularly heterogeneous disease with the chromophobe subtype (chRCC) accounting for approximately 5% of all cases. The median overall survival of advanced RCC has improved significantly since the advent of tyrosine kinase inhibitors and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors. However, high-quality evidence for the use of new generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors in patients with advanced chRCC is lacking. Few published case reports have highlighted the use of temsirolimus in chRCC.</p> <p>Case presentation: Here, we report the case of a 36-year-old Caucasian woman with metastatic chRCC with predominantly skeletal metastases who was refractory to sunitinib who demonstrated a durable clinical response to temsirolimus lasting 20 months. We review the available evidence pertaining to the use of new generation molecularly targeted agents, in particular mTOR inhibitors in chRCC and discuss their emerging role in the management of this disease which would aid the oncologists faced with the challenge of treating this rare type of RCC.</p> <p>Conclusion: Conducting randomised clinical trials in this rarer sub-group of patients would be challenging and our case report and the evidence reviewed would guide the physicians to make informed decision regarding the management of these patients.</p&gt

Conservative and disruptive modes of adolescent change in human brain functional connectivity

Adolescent changes in human brain function are not entirely understood. Here, we used multiecho functional MRI (fMRI) to measure developmental change in functional connectivity (FC) of resting-state oscillations between pairs of 330 cortical regions and 16 subcortical regions in 298 healthy adolescents scanned 520 times. Participants were aged 14 to 26 y and were scanned on 1 to 3 occasions at least 6 mo apart. We found 2 distinct modes of age-related change in FC: “conservative” and “disruptive.” Conservative development was characteristic of primary cortex, which was strongly connected at 14 y and became even more connected in the period from 14 to 26 y. Disruptive development was characteristic of association cortex and subcortical regions, where connectivity was remodeled: connections that were weak at 14 y became stronger during adolescence, and connections that were strong at 14 y became weaker. These modes of development were quantified using the maturational index (MI), estimated as Spearman’s correlation between edgewise baseline FC (at 14 y, FC14) and adolescent change in FC (ΔFC14−26), at each region. Disruptive systems (with negative MI) were activated by social cognition and autobiographical memory tasks in prior fMRI data and significantly colocated with prior maps of aerobic glycolysis (AG), AG-related gene expression, postnatal cortical surface expansion, and adolescent shrinkage of cortical thickness. The presence of these 2 modes of development was robust to numerous sensitivity analyses. We conclude that human brain organization is disrupted during adolescence by remodeling of FC between association cortical and subcortical areas