Difference in Brain Densities Between Chronic Alcoholic and Normal Control Patients.

The densities of the brains of 11 chronic alcoholics were compared with those of 11 age-matched normal control subjects. Densities were determined from the density numbers generated by computerized tomography at three levels of the brain-the highest level of the lateral ventricles and the next two higher levels-with adjustments made to control for possible artifacts in the data. The advantage of the dominant hemisphere over the nondominant hemisphere was lessened in alcoholic

Robust averaging protects decisions from noise in neural computations

An ideal observer will give equivalent weight to sources of information that are equally reliable. However, when averaging visual information, human observers tend to downweight or discount features that are relatively outlying or deviant (‘robust averaging’). Why humans adopt an integration policy that discards important decision information remains unknown. Here, observers were asked to judge the average tilt in a circular array of high-contrast gratings, relative to an orientation boundary defined by a central reference grating. Observers showed robust averaging of orientation, but the extent to which they did so was a positive predictor of their overall performance. Using computational simulations, we show that although robust averaging is suboptimal for a perfect integrator, it paradoxically enhances performance in the presence of “late” noise, i.e. which corrupts decisions during integration. In other words, robust decision strategies increase the brain’s resilience to noise arising in neural computations during decision-making

Dorsal penile nerve block for robot-assisted radical prostatectomy catheter related pain: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Purpose: Following Robotic-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy (RARP) patients routinely have penile pain and urethral discomfort secondary to an indwelling urethral catheter. Our objective was to assess the effect of dorsal penile nerve block with bupivacaine on urethral catheter-related pain after RARP. Methods: From 2012–2013, 140 patients with organ-confined prostate cancer were enrolled in an IRB approved double-blinded, randomized control trial comparing a dorsal penile nerve block of bupivacaine versus placebo after RARP performed by a single-surgeon. Patients were asked to complete questionnaires using the Wong-Bakers FACES Pain Rating scale while hospitalized and for 9 days post-operatively, until the catheter was removed. The primary end-points were: catheter-related discomfort, abdominal (incisional) pain, and bladder spasm-related discomfort. Secondary end-points included narcotic and other analgesic usage. Results: 120 patients were randomized to placebo vs. bupivacaine dorsal penile nerve bock. The two arms (n = 56 bupivacaine and n = 60 placebo) did not differ in preoperative, perioperative, or pathological results. There was no difference in narcotic utilization between the two cohorts. Abdominal pain was slightly lower in the bupivacaine arm at 6 hours compared to the placebo arm, but there was no difference in abdominal pain at other time points, and there were no differences in reported catheter-related discomfort or bladder spasm-associated discomfort at any of the measured time points. Conclusions: The data does not support the routine use of a dorsal penile nerve block with bupivacaine following RARP

The variable prevalence of bovine tuberculosis among dairy herds in Central Ethiopia provides opportunities for targeted intervention.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is an important disease for dairy productivity, as well as having the potential for zoonotic transmission. Previous prevalence studies of bTB in the dairy sector in central Ethiopia have suggested high prevalence, however, they have been limited to relatively small scale surveys, raising concerns about their representativeness. Here we carried out a cross sectional one-stage cluster sampling survey taking the dairy herd as a cluster to estimate the prevalence of bTB in dairy farms in six areas of central Ethiopia. The survey, which to date is by far the largest in the area in terms of the number of dairy farms, study areas and risk factors explored, took place from March 2016 to May 2017. This study combined tuberculin skin testing and the collection of additional herd and animal level data by questionnaire to identify potential risk factors contributing to bTB transmission. We applied the single intradermal cervical comparative tuberculin (SICCT) test using >4mm cut-off for considering an individual animal as positive for bTB; at least one reactor animal was required for a herd to be considered bTB positive. Two hundred ninety-nine dairy herds in the six study areas were randomly selected, from which 5,675 cattle were tested. The overall prevalence of bTB after standardisation for herd-size in the population was 54.4% (95% CI 48.7-60%) at the herd level, and it was 24.5% (95% CI 23.3-25.8) at the individual animal level. A Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) with herd and area as random effect was used to explore risk factors association with bTB status. We found that herd size, age, bTB history at farm, and breed were significant risk factors for animals to be SICCT positive. Animals from large herds had 8.3 times the odds of being tuberculin reactor (OR: 8.3, p-value:0.008) as compared to animals from small herds. The effect of age was strongest for animals 8-10 years of age (the oldest category) having 8.9 times the odds of being tuberculin reactors (OR: 8.9, p-value:<0.001) compared to the youngest category. The other identified significant risk factors were bTB history at farm (OR: 5.2, p-value:0.003) and cattle breed (OR: 2.5, p-value: 0.032). Our study demonstrates a high prevalence of bTB in central Ethiopia but with a large variation in within-herd prevalence between herds, findings that lays an important foundation for the future development of control strategies

Environmental controls on benthic food web functions and carbon resource use in subarctic lakes

Climate warming and consequent greening of subarctic landscapes increase the availability of organic carbon to the detrital food webs in aquatic ecosystems. This may cause important shifts in ecosystem functioning through the functional feeding patterns of benthic organisms that rely differently on climatically altered carbon resources. Twenty-five subarctic lakes in Finnish Lapland across a tree line ecotone were analysed for limnological and optical variables, carbon (delta C-13) and nitrogen (delta N-15) stable isotope (SI) composition of surface sediment organic matter (OM) and fossil Chironomidae (Diptera) remains to examine environmental controls behind chironomid functional feeding group (FFG) structure and their isotopic associations for assessing ecosystem functioning and carbon utilisation. We hypothesise that the chironomid SI signatures reflect increased allochthony with increasing allochthonous input, but the resource use may be altered by the functional characteristics of the assemblage. Multivariate analyses indicated that carbon geochemistry in the sediments (delta C-13, delta N-15, C/N), nutrients, indices of productivity (chlorophyll-a) and lake water optical properties, related to increasing presence of OM, played a key role in defining the chironomid FFG composition and isotopic signatures. Response modelling was used to examine how individual FFGs respond to environmental gradients. They showed divergent responses for OM quantity, dissolved organic carbon and nutrients between feeding strategies, suggesting that detritivores and filter feeders prefer contrasting carbon and nutrient conditions, and may thus hold paleoecological indicator potential to identify changes between different carbon fluxes. Benthic production was the primary carbon source for the chironomid assemblages according to a three-source SI mixing model, whereas pelagic and terrestrial components contributed less. Between-lake variability in source utilisation was high and controlled primarily by allochthonous OM inputs. Combination of biogeochemical modelling and functional classification is useful to widen our understanding of subarctic lake ecosystem functions and responses to climate-driven changes in limnology and catchment characteristics for long-term environmental change assessments and functional paleoecology.Peer reviewe

Significant aspects of carbon capture and storage – A review

Excessive emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere has resulted in a progressive climate change and global warming in the past decades. There have been many approaches developed to reduce the emission of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, among which Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) techniques has been recognized as the most promising method. This paper provides a deeper insight about the CCS technology where CO2 is captured and stored in deep geological formations for stabilization of the earth's temperature. Principles of capturing and storage for a long-term sequestration are also discussed together with the processes, mechanisms and interactions induced by supercritical CO2 upon injection into subsurface geological sites

Biomimetic tactile target acquisition, tracking and capture

Good performance in unstructured/uncertain environments is an ongoing problem in robotics; in biology, it is an everyday observation. Here, we model a particular biological system - hunting in the Etruscan shrew - as a case study in biomimetic robot design. These shrews strike rapidly and accurately after gathering very limited sensory information from their whiskers; we attempt to mimic this performance by using model-based simultaneous discrimination and localisation of a 'prey' robot (i.e. by using strong priors to make sense of limited sensory data), building on our existing low-level models of attention and appetitive behaviour in small mammals. We report performance that is comparable, given the spatial and temporal scale differences, to shrew performance, and discuss what this study reveals about biomimetic robot design in general. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Community based intervention to optimize osteoporosis management: randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Osteoporosis-related fractures are a significant public health concern. Interventions that increase detection and treatment of osteoporosis are underutilized. This pragmatic randomised study was done to evaluate the impact of a multifaceted community-based care program aimed at optimizing evidence-based management in patients at risk for osteoporosis and fractures.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a 12-month randomized trial performed in Ontario, Canada. Eligible patients were community-dwelling, aged ≥55 years, and identified to be at risk for osteoporosis-related fractures. Two hundred and one patients were allocated to the intervention group or to usual care. Components of the intervention were directed towards primary care physicians and patients and included facilitated bone mineral density testing, patient education and patient-specific recommendations for osteoporosis treatment. The primary outcome was the implementation of appropriate osteoporosis management.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>101 patients were allocated to intervention and 100 to control. Mean age of participants was 71.9 ± 7.2 years and 94% were women. Pharmacological treatment (alendronate, risedronate, or raloxifene) for osteoporosis was increased by 29% compared to usual care (56% [29/52] vs. 27% [16/60]; relative risk [RR] 2.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.29 to 3.40). More individuals in the intervention group were taking calcium (54% [54/101] vs. 20% [20/100]; RR 2.67, 95% CI 1.74 to 4.12) and vitamin D (33% [33/101] vs. 20% [20/100]; RR 1.63, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.65).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A multi-faceted community-based intervention improved management of osteoporosis in high risk patients compared with usual care.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>This trial has been registered with clinicaltrials.gov (ID: NCT00465387)</p

Psychosocial issues of women with type 1 diabetes transitioning to motherhood: a structured literature review

BACKGROUND: Life transitions often involve complex decisions, challenges and changes that affect diabetes management. Transition to motherhood is a major life event accompanied by increased risk that the pregnancy will lead to or accelerate existing diabetes-related complications, as well as risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, all of which inevitably increase anxiety. The frequency of hyperglycaemia and hypoglycaemia often increases during pregnancy, which causes concern for the health and physical well-being of the mother and unborn child. This review aimed to examine the experiences of women with T1DM focusing on the pregnancy and postnatal phases of their transition to motherhood. METHODS: The structured literature review comprised a comprehensive search strategy identifying primary studies published in English between 1990-2012. Standard literature databases were searched along with the contents of diabetes-specific journals. Reference lists of included studies were checked. Search terms included: 'diabetes', 'type 1', 'pregnancy', 'motherhood', 'transition', 'social support', 'quality of life' and 'psychological well-being'. RESULT: Of 112 abstracts returned, 62 articles were reviewed in full-text, and 16 met the inclusion criteria. There was a high level of diversity among these studies but three common key themes were identified. They related to physical (maternal and fetal) well-being, psychological well-being and social environment. The results were synthesized narratively. CONCLUSION: Women with type 1 diabetes experience a variety of psychosocial issues in their transition to motherhood: increased levels of anxiety, diabetes-related distress, guilt, a sense of disconnectedness from health professionals, and a focus on medicalisation of pregnancy rather than the positive transition to motherhood. A trusting relationship with health professionals, sharing experiences with other women with diabetes, active social support, shared decision and responsibilities for diabetes management assisted the women to make a positive transition. Health professionals can promote a positive transition to motherhood by proactively supporting women with T1DM in informed decision-making, by facilitating communication within the healthcare team and co-ordinating care for women with type 1 diabetes transitioning to motherhood