Continuous-mode 448 kHz capacitive resistive monopolar radiofrequency induces greater deep blood flow changes compared to pulsed mode shortwave: a crossover study in healthy adults

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Binoy Kumaran, Anthony Herbland and Tim Watson, ‘Continuous-mode 448 kHz capacitive resistive monopolar radiofrequency induces greater deep blood flow changes compared to pulsed mode shortwave: a crossover study in healthy adults’, European Journal of Physiotheraphy, first published online 20 April 2017. The version of record is available online at doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21679169.2017.1316310. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Aims: Radiofrequency-based electrophysical agents (EPAs) have been used in therapy practice over several decades (e.g. shortwave therapies). Currently, there is insufficient evidence supporting such EPAs operating below shortwave frequencies. This laboratory-based study investigated the deep physiological effects of 448 kHz capacitive resistive monopolar radiofrequency (CRMRF) and compared them to pulsed shortwave therapy (PSWT). Methods: In a randomized crossover study, 17 healthy volunteers initially received four treatment conditions: high, low and placebo dose conditions receiving 15-min CRMRF treatment and a control condition receiving no intervention. Fifteen participants additionally received high-dose PSWT as fifth condition, for comparison. Pre- and post-treatment measurements of deep blood flow and tissue extensibility were obtained using Doppler ultrasound and sonoelastography. Group data were compared using analysis of variance model. Statistical significance was set at p ≤ .05, 0.8 power, and 95% confidence interval. Results: Significant increases in volume and intensity of deep blood flow were obtained with CRMRF over placebo, control (p = .003) and PSWT (p < .001). No significant changes in blood flow velocity or tissue extensibility were noted for any condition. Conclusions: Deep blood flow changes with CRMRF were more pronounced than that with PSWT, placebo or control. Potential greater therapeutic benefits need to be confirmed with comparative clinical studies.Peer reviewe

Estimation of a probability in inverse binomial sampling under normalized linear-linear and inverse-linear loss

Sequential estimation of the success probability $p$ in inverse binomial sampling is considered in this paper. For any estimator $\hat p$, its quality is measured by the risk associated with normalized loss functions of linear-linear or inverse-linear form. These functions are possibly asymmetric, with arbitrary slope parameters $a$ and $b$ for $\hat pp$ respectively. Interest in these functions is motivated by their significance and potential uses, which are briefly discussed. Estimators are given for which the risk has an asymptotic value as $p$ tends to $0$, and which guarantee that, for any $p$ in $(0,1)$, the risk is lower than its asymptotic value. This allows selecting the required number of successes, $r$, to meet a prescribed quality irrespective of the unknown $p$. In addition, the proposed estimators are shown to be approximately minimax when $a/b$ does not deviate too much from $1$, and asymptotically minimax as $r$ tends to infinity when $a=b$.Comment: 4 figure

Summer weather becomes more persistent in a 2 °C world

Heat and rainfall extremes have intensified over the past few decades and this trend is projected to continue with future global warming1–3. A long persistence of extreme events often leads to societal impacts with warm-and-dry conditions severely affecting agriculture and consecutive days of heavy rainfall leading to flooding. Here we report systematic increases in the persistence of boreal summer weather in a multi-model analysis of a world 2 °C above pre-industrial compared to present-day climate. Averaged over the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude land area, the probability of warm periods lasting longer than two weeks is projected to increase by 4% (2–6% full uncertainty range) after removing seasonal-mean warming. Compound dry–warm persistence increases at a similar magnitude on average but regionally up to 20% (11–42%) in eastern North America. The probability of at least seven consecutive days of strong precipitation increases by 26% (15–37%) for the mid-latitudes. We present evidence that weakening storm track activity contributes to the projected increase in warm and dry persistence. These changes in persistence are largely avoided when warming is limited to 1.5 °C. In conjunction with the projected intensification of heat and rainfall extremes, an increase in persistence can substantially worsen the effects of future weather extremes

Sources of Community Health Worker Motivation: A Qualitative Study in Morogoro Region, Tanzania.

There is a renewed interest in community health workers (CHWs) in Tanzania, but also a concern that low motivation of CHWs may decrease the benefits of investments in CHW programs. This study aimed to explore sources of CHW motivation to inform programs in Tanzania and similar contexts. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 CHWs in Morogoro Region, Tanzania. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and coded prior to translation and thematic analysis. The authors then conducted a literature review on CHW motivation and a framework that aligned with our findings was modified to guide the presentation of results. Sources of CHW motivation were identified at the individual, family, community, and organizational levels. At the individual level, CHWs are predisposed to volunteer work and apply knowledge gained to their own problems and those of their families and communities. Families and communities supplement other sources of motivation by providing moral, financial, and material support, including service fees, supplies, money for transportation, and help with farm work and CHW tasks. Resistance to CHW work exhibited by families and community members is limited. The organizational level (the government and its development partners) provides motivation in the form of stipends, potential employment, materials, training, and supervision, but inadequate remuneration and supplies discourage CHWs. Supervision can also be dis-incentivizing if perceived as a sign of poor performance. Tanzanian CHWs who work despite not receiving a salary have an intrinsic desire to volunteer, and their motivation often derives from support received from their families when other sources of motivation are insufficient. Policy-makers and program managers should consider the burden that a lack of remuneration imposes on the families of CHWs. In addition, CHWs' intrinsic desire to volunteer does not preclude a desire for external rewards. Rather, adequate and formal financial incentives and in-kind alternatives would allow already-motivated CHWs to increase their commitment to their work

A Semantic Reasoning Method Towards Ontological Model for Automated Learning Analysis

Semantic reasoning can help solve the problem of regulating the evolving and static measures of knowledge at theoretical and technological levels. The technique has been proven to enhance the capability of process models by making inferences, retaining and applying what they have learned as well as discovery of new processes. The work in this paper propose a semantic rule-based approach directed towards discovering learners interaction patterns within a learning knowledge base, and then respond by making decision based on adaptive rules centred on captured user profiles. The method applies semantic rules and description logic queries to build ontology model capable of automatically computing the various learning activities within a Learning Knowledge-Base, and to check the consistency of learning object/data types. The approach is grounded on inductive and deductive logic descriptions that allows the use of a Reasoner to check that all definitions within the learning model are consistent and can also recognise which concepts that fit within each defined class. Inductive reasoning is practically applied in order to discover sets of inferred learner categories, while deductive approach is used to prove and enhance the discovered rules and logic expressions. Thus, this work applies effective reasoning methods to make inferences over a Learning Process Knowledge-Base that leads to automated discovery of learning patterns/behaviour

Multiple Oncogenic Pathway Signatures Show Coordinate Expression Patterns in Human Prostate Tumors

BACKGROUND: Gene transcription patterns associated with activation of oncogenes Myc, c-Src, beta-catenin, E2F3, H-Ras, HER2, EGFR, MEK, Raf, MAPK, Akt, and cyclin D1, as well as of the cell cycle and of androgen signaling have been generated in previous studies using experimental models. It was not clear whether genes in these "oncogenic signatures" would show coordinate expression patterns in human prostate tumors, particularly as most of the signatures were derived from cell types other than prostate. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The above oncogenic pathway signatures were examined in four different gene expression profile datasets of human prostate tumors (representing approximately 250 patients in all), using both Q1-Q2 and one-sided Fisher's exact enrichment analysis methods. A significant fraction (approximately 5%) of genes up-regulated experimentally by Myc, c-Src, HER2, Akt, or androgen were co-expressed in human tumors with the oncogene or biomarker corresponding to the pathway signature. Genes down-regulated experimentally, however, did not show anticipated patterns of anti-enrichment in the human tumors. CONCLUSIONS: Significant subsets of the genes in these experimentally-derived oncogenic signatures are relevant to the study of human prostate cancer. Both molecular biologists and clinical researchers could focus attention on the relatively small number of genes identified here as having coordinate patterns that arise from both the experimental system and the human disease system

Windborne long-distance migration of malaria mosquitoes in the Sahel

Over the past two decades efforts to control malaria have halved the number of cases globally, yet burdens remain high in much of Africa and the elimination of malaria has not been achieved even in areas where extreme reductions have been sustained, such as South Africa1,2. Studies seeking to understand the paradoxical persistence of malaria in areas in which surface water is absent for 3–8 months of the year have suggested that some species of Anopheles mosquito use long-distance migration3. Here we confirm this hypothesis through aerial sampling of mosquitoes at 40–290 m above ground level and provide—to our knowledge—the first evidence of windborne migration of African malaria vectors, and consequently of the pathogens that they transmit. Ten species, including the primary malaria vector Anopheles coluzzii, were identified among 235 anopheline mosquitoes that were captured during 617 nocturnal aerial collections in the Sahel of Mali. Notably, females accounted for more than 80% of all of the mosquitoes that we collected. Of these, 90% had taken a blood meal before their migration, which implies that pathogens are probably transported over long distances by migrating females. The likelihood of capturing Anopheles species increased with altitude (the height of the sampling panel above ground level) and during the wet seasons, but variation between years and localities was minimal. Simulated trajectories of mosquito flights indicated that there would be mean nightly displacements of up to 300 km for 9-h flight durations. Annually, the estimated numbers of mosquitoes at altitude that cross a 100-km line perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction included 81,000 Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto, 6 million A. coluzzii and 44 million Anopheles squamosus. These results provide compelling evidence that millions of malaria vectors that have previously fed on blood frequently migrate over hundreds of kilometres, and thus almost certainly spread malaria over these distances. The successful elimination of malaria may therefore depend on whether the sources of migrant vectors can be identified and controlled

Biochar successfully replaces activated charcoal for in vitro culture of two white poplar clones reducing ethylene concentration

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Radiofrequency-based treatment in therapy-related clinical practice – a narrative review. Part I : acute conditions

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Physical Therapy Reviews on 24 June 2015, available online at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1179/1743288X15Y.0000000016Background: Radiofrequency electromagnetic field (RFEMF or simply RF)-based electrophysical agents (EPAs) have been employed in therapy-related clinical practice for several decades. They are used to reduce pain and inflammation and enhance tissue healing. Although these agents have generally become less popular in contemporary therapy practice, surveys have shown that some of these modalities are still reasonably widely used. Objective: To review the evidence for the use of non-invasive low frequency RFs (30 kHz–30 MHz) in therapy-related clinical practice. Major findings: All peer reviewed therapy-related clinical studies published in English and concerning low frequency RF were sought. Identified literature was divided into acute and chronic segments based on their clinical area and analysed to assess the volume and scope of current evidence. The studies on acute conditions were reviewed in detail for this paper. One hundred twenty clinical studies were identified, of which 30 related to acute conditions. The majority of studies employed Pulsed Shortwave Therapy (PSWT). Twenty-two studies out of 30 were related to conditions of pain and inflammation, seven to tissue healing and one to acute pneumothorax. No studies were identified on frequencies other than shortwave. Conclusions: Evidence for and against RF-based therapy is available. There is reasonable evidence in support of PSWT to alleviate postoperative pain and promote postoperative wound healing. Evidence for other acute conditions is sparse and conflicting. A general lack of research emphasis in the non-shortwave RF band is evident, with studies on acute conditions almost non-existent. Further and wider research in this area is warranted.Peer reviewe

The Evolution of Facultative Conformity Based on Similarity

Conformist social learning can have a pronounced impact on the cultural evolution of human societies, and it can shape both the genetic and cultural evolution of human social behavior more broadly. Conformist social learning is beneficial when the social learner and the demonstrators from whom she learns are similar in the sense that the same behavior is optimal for both. Otherwise, the social learner's optimum is likely to be rare among demonstrators, and conformity is costly. The trade-off between these two situations has figured prominently in the longstanding debate about the evolution of conformity, but the importance of the trade-off can depend critically on the flexibility of one's social learning strategy. We developed a gene-culture coevolutionary model that allows cognition to encode and process information about the similarity between naive learners and experienced demonstrators. Facultative social learning strategies that condition on perceived similarity evolve under certain circumstances. When this happens, facultative adjustments are often asymmetric. Asymmetric adjustments mean that the tendency to follow the majority when learners perceive demonstrators as similar is stronger than the tendency to follow the minority when learners perceive demonstrators as different. In an associated incentivized experiment, we found that social learners adjusted how they used social information based on perceived similarity, but adjustments were symmetric. The symmetry of adjustments completely eliminated the commonly assumed trade-off between cases in which learners and demonstrators share an optimum versus cases in which they do not. In a second experiment that maximized the potential for social learners to follow their preferred strategies, a few social learners exhibited an inclination to follow the majority. Most, however, did not respond systematically to social information. Additionally, in the complete absence of information about their similarity to demonstrators, social learners were unwilling to make assumptions about whether they shared an optimum with demonstrators. Instead, social learners simply ignored social information even though this was the only information available. Our results suggest that social cognition equips people to use conformity in a discriminating fashion that moderates the evolutionary trade-offs that would occur if conformist social learning was rigidly applied