The effectiveness of origami on overall hand function after injury: A pilot controlled trial

This pilot study measured the effectiveness of using origami to improve the overall hand function of outpatients attending an NHS hand injury unit. The initiative came from one of the authors who had used origami informally in the clinical setting and observed beneficial effects. These observed effects were tested experimentally. The design was a pilot non-randomised controlled trial with 13 participants. Allocation of the seven control group members was based on patient preference. The experimental group members attended a weekly hour of origami for six weeks, in addition to their conventional rehabilitation. Hand function of all participants was measured using the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test before and after the six-week period, and additional qualitative data were gathered in the form of written evaluations from patients. The quantitative data were analysed using the Mann Whitney U test or Fisher’s exact test. Themes were highlighted from the qualitative data. The results show that there was a greater difference in the total score of the experimental group using the impaired hand between pre- and post-intervention of 11.8 seconds, compared with 4.3 seconds in the control group, but this was not statistically significant at the 5% level (p=0.06). Additionally, differences in the sub-test scores show a markedly larger improvement in the experimental group. Qualitative data indicate that the experimental group experienced the origami sessions as being enjoyable and beneficial. Further research with a larger sample and randomised group allocation is recommended to verify and expand these preliminary findings

Mechanisms by which circadian rhythm disruption may lead to cancer

Humans have evolved in a rhythmic environment and display daily (circadian) rhythms in physiology, metabolism and behaviour that are in synchrony with the solar day. Modern lifestyles have compromised the exposure to bright light during the day and dark nights, resulting in the desynchronisation of endogenously generated circadian rhythms from the external environment and loss of coordination between rhythms within the body. This has detrimental effects on physical and mental health, due to the misregulation and uncoupling of important cellular and physiological processes. Long-term shift workers who are exposed to bright light at night experience the greatest disruption of their circadian rhythms. Studies have shown an association between exposure to light at night, circadian rhythm disruption and an increased risk of cancer. Previous reviews have explored the relevance of light and melatonin in cancer, but here we explore the correlation of circadian rhythm disruption and cancer in terms of molecular mechanisms affecting circadian gene expression and melatonin secretion

Effect Of Legal Counsel Activity On The Cost Of Municipal Bond Offerings

The authors examine the relationship between interest cost to the issuer of municipal bonds and legal counsel associated with the offering. Modeling interest cost with explanatory variables reflecting legal counsel, issue characteristics, and conditions in the financial markets, the authors conclude that offerings in which an active bond counsel participated had average interest costs statistically significantly lower than those without such counsel. Offerings involving issuer=s counsel and activity of underwriter=s counsel experienced statistically higher average interest costs than otherwise. The authors note that their results are consistent with the certification hypothesis

Suppression of quantum oscillations and the dependence on site energies in electronic excitation transfer in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson trimer

Energy transfer in the photosynthetic complex of the Green Sulfur Bacteria known as the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex is studied theoretically taking all three subunits (monomers) of the FMO trimer and the recently found eighth bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) molecule into account. We find that in all considered cases there is very little transfer between the monomers. Since it is believed that the eighth BChl is located near the main light harvesting antenna we look at the differences in transfer between the situation when BChl 8 is initially excited and the usually considered case when BChl 1 or 6 is initially excited. We find strong differences in the transfer dynamics, both qualitatively and quantitatively. When the excited state dynamics is initialized at site eight of the FMO complex, we see a slow exponential-like decay of the excitation. This is in contrast to the oscillations and a relatively fast transfer that occurs when only seven sites or initialization at sites 1 and 6 is considered. Additionally we show that differences in the values of the electronic transition energies found in the literature lead to a large difference in the transfer dynamics

Estimates of cetacean abundance in the northern Gulf of Mexico from vessel surveys

The Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) initiated annual, vessel-based visual sampling surveys of northern Gulf of Mexico marine mammals in 1990. The primary goal of these surveys was to meet Marine Mammal Protection Act requirements for estimating abundance and monitoring trends of marine mammal stocks in United States waters. The surveys were designed to collect: 1) marine mammal sighting data to estimate abundance and to determine distribution and diversity; and 2) environmental data to evaluate factors which may affect the distribution, abundance and diversity of marine mammals. The analyses for abundance estimation from the 1991-1994 surveys are presented in this report

Testing Autonomous Robot Control Software Using Procedural Content Generation

We present a novel approach for reducing manual effort when testing autonomous robot control algorithms. We use procedural content generation, as developed for the film and video game industries, to create a diverse range of test situations. We execute these in the Player/Stage robot simulator and automatically rate them for their safety significance using an event-based scoring system. Situations exhibiting dangerous behaviour will score highly, and are thus flagged for the attention of a safety engineer. This process removes the time-consuming tasks of hand-crafting and monitoring situations while testing an autonomous robot control algorithm. We present a case study of the proposed approach – we generated 500 randomised situations, and our prototype tool simulated and rated them. We have analysed the three highest rated situations in depth, and this analysis revealed weaknesses in the smoothed nearness-diagram control algorithm

Abundance of Bottlenose Dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, in the Coastal Gulf of Mexico

The abundance of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) for many coastal areas of the United States Gulf of Mexico is poorly known. During spring and fall 1987, we used aircraft and strip transects to estimate bottlenose dolphin abundance within 37 km of the U.S. Gulf shore. Greatest estimated dolphin densities were in the north-central Gulf (spring), northern Florida (fall) and Louisiana study areas (fall) (about 0.30 dolphins / km2). We estimated the coastal U.S. Gulf population of bottlenose dolphins to be 16,892 ± 3,628 (95% Cl) and 16,089 ± 3,338 in spring and fall, respectively. Bottlenose dolphins were found throughout the U.S. Gulf waters searched, but herds offshore of Texas were concentrated near passes and Louisiana herds were more common in and near eastern bays. Our estimates are one of the first assessments of the abundance and density of bottlenose dolphins throughout the coastal U.S. Gulf and may provide useful baseline estimates

Fish of Lake Mead and Lake Mohave

This publication offers an in-depth study of the fish and other organisms that live in Lakes Mead and Mohave. The history and background of the two lakes is offered, as well as information about diseases, parasites, and unusual fish occurrences. Food sources, predation and competition are also discussed