Motion Sickness Lessons from the Southern Ocean

BACKGROUND: The objectives were to assess the prevalence, severity, and medication taken, and to look for predictive factors, in order to better identify characteristics of passengers at risk of motion sickness during transport from Hobart in Tasmania to the French polar stations in Antarctica. METHODS: There were 239 passengers who were surveyed over 4 yr with 4 round trips per year using the Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire (MSSQ), Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), state-trait anxiety test (STAI -Trait and STAI -State), and general parameters (age, gender, number of trips, jet-lag, direction of the trip), medication, calculation of the distance of each passenger’s cabin to the Centre of Gravity (CoG.). RESULTS: While the passengers had a low intrinsic sensitivity to motion sickness (MSSQ), 94% reported at least one SSQ symptom of motion sickness, and 38% vomited. Five associated factors were discovered: greater initial sensitivity (MSSQ), anticipation of being ill, younger age, higher level of anxiety at midtrip, and greater distance from the CoG. Of the passengers, there were 54% who took anti-motion sickness medication at different times of the trip, however, these passengers experienced more nausea. This could be due to self-selection since they were more sensitive to motion sickness. CONCLUSION: We identified three predictive factors of motion sickness (greater intrinsic susceptibility, younger age, and greater cabin distance from the CoG). For preventive purposes, two associated factors of MS (anticipation of being ill, MSSQ score) were determined to classify three groups of risk of MS to improve passenger care during the trip

Avaliação da tecnologia zoneamento de risco climático da cultura do sorgo no Estado de Pernambuco.

O zoneamento da área de risco climático do sorgo no Estado de Pernambuco veio atender a uma demanda do setor avícola que estava crescendo mas seus custos eram altos pela dependência do milho para a produção da ração das aves. O milho é muito sensível à estiagem enquanto o sorgo é cultivado em áreas muito secas e/ou muito quentes próprias da região do Semi-árido e Sertão, onde a produtividade de outros cereais é antieconômica. Este trabalho fez uma avaliação dos impactos da tecnologia do zoneamento do risco climático da cultura do sorgo nas áreas do semi-árido de Pernambuco, sob os aspectos econômicos, sociais e ambientais. O estudo abrangeu um período de três anos, empregando a Metodologia de Referência da Embrapa. Sob o ponto de vista econômico, o resultado encontrado foi de um grande aumento da área plantada, da quantidade produzida de sorgo e da renda gerada. No aspecto social houve aumento de emprego. Quanto ao aspecto ambiental não houve preocupação na conservação e recuperação dos recursos naturais.bitstream/CNPS-2010/14746/1/bpd139-2009-avaliacao-zoneamento-sorgo.pd

BMQ

BMQ: Boston Medical Quarterly was published from 1950-1966 by the Boston University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals

On Online Banking Authentication for All: A Comparison of BankID Login Efficiency Using Smartphones Versus Code Generators

acceptedVersionpublishedVersio

Confirmation of six Be X-ray binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud

The X-ray binary population of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) contains a large number of massive X-ray binaries, and the recent survey of the SMC by XMM–Newton has resulted in almost 50 more tentative high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) candidates. Using probability parameters from Haberl and Sturm together with the optical spectra and timing in this work, we confirm six new massive X-ray binaries in the SMC. We also report two very probable binary periods of 36.4 d in XMM 1859 and of 72.2 d in XMM 2300. These Be X-ray binaries are likely part of the general SMC population, which rarely undergoes an X-ray outburst.This paper is based on ESO data from 079.D−0371 and 088.D−0352. The AAT observations have been supported by the OPTICON project (observing proposals 2011A/014 and 2012/A015), which is funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). VAM acknowledges financial support from the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant 93405) and the World Universities Network. RD, AM and IN from the University of Alicante acknowledge support from the Spanish Government Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under grant AYA2015-68012-C2-2-P (MINECO/FEDER). ESB acknowledges support from a Claude Leon Foundation fellowship and from the Marie Curie Actions of the European Commission (FP7-COFUND). The OGLE project has received funding from the National Science Centre, Poland, grant MAESTRO 2014/14/A/ST9/00121 to AU

Changes in cortical and striatal neurons predict behavioral and electrophysiological abnormalities in a transgenic murine model of Huntington\u27s disease

Neurons in Huntington\u27s disease exhibit selective morphological and subcellular alterations in the striatum and cortex. The link between these neuronal changes and behavioral abnormalities is unclear. We investigated relationships between essential neuronal changes that predict motor impairment and possible involvement of the corticostriatal pathway in developing behavioral phenotypes. We therefore generated heterozygote mice expressing the N-terminal one-third of huntingtin with normal (CT18) or expanded (HD46, HD100) glutamine repeats. The HD mice exhibited motor deficits between 3 and 10 months. The age of onset depended on an expanded polyglutamine length; phenotype severity correlated with increasing age. Neuronal changes in the striatum (nuclear inclusions) preceded the onset of phenotype, whereas cortical changes, especially the accumulation of huntingtin in the nucleus and cytoplasm and the appearance of dysmorphic dendrites, predicted the onset and severity of behavioral deficits. Striatal neurons in the HD mice displayed altered responses to cortical stimulation and to activation by the excitotoxic agent NMDA. Application of NMDA increased intracellular Ca(2+) levels in HD100 neurons compared with wild-type neurons. Results suggest that motor deficits in Huntington\u27s disease arise from cumulative morphological and physiological changes in neurons that impair corticostriatal circuitry

Open geodata to support agricultural research.

We describe our effort on building a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) at Embrapa, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, a networked public company composed by 46 research centers distributed throughout the country.Publication # BS5002. Na publicação: E. C. Cardoso, D. O. Custodio, B. T. Almeida, V. V. S. Brandão, G. Bayma-Silva, L. H. Oliveira

Histopathological differences of myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) and PROMM/DM2

Muscle biopsy findings in DM2 have been reported to be similar to those in DM1. The authors used myosin heavy chain immunohistochemistry and enzyme histochemistry for fiber type differentiation on muscle biopsies. Their results show that DM2 patients display a subpopulation of type 2 nuclear clump and other very small fibers and, hence, preferential type 2 fiber atrophy in contrast to type 1 fiber atrophy in DM1 patients