1,166 research outputs found
Use of Acupuncture as a Complementary Therapy for the Treatment of Chronic Pain in the Veteran Population to Improve Outcomes: An Integrative Review
Clinical care in patient management is progressive and should change as evidence-based practice research is available. Veterans’ experiences with pain related to their service-related injuries are unique. This pain can limit their ability to function in society successfully. Many of the patients continue to experience uncontrolled pain, as well as side effects from medications that have been prescribed. This integrative review focused on the use of acupuncture as a complementary therapy to improve pain and quality of life in the Veteran population. The review analyzes systematic reviews, randomized control trials, and additional levels of evidence from scholarly articles supporting the benefits of acupuncture use. The literature promotes acupuncture therapy as a complementary therapy to improve patient outcomes—specifically pain intensity and quality of life. As a relatively safe therapy compared to opioid use, it is essential to implement acupuncture therapy for pain management into clinical practice
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Using Ontology Research in Semantic Web Applications
In the light of improving the World Wide Web, researchers are working towards the Semantic Web. Ontologies and ontology-based applications are its basic ingredients. Several ontological environments, categorizations and methodologies can be found in the literature. This paper shows how we have investigated the state of the art in these areas in an ontology building process that is the basis for an application developed at the later stage in an events organisation domain
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Integration with Ontologies
One of today’s hottest IT topics is integration, as bringing together information from different sources and structures is not completely solved. The approach outlined here wants to illustrate how ontologies [Gr93] could help to support the integration process
Transitions in coral reef accretion rates linked to intrinsic ecological shifts on turbid-zone nearshore reefs
Nearshore coral communities within turbid settings are typically perceived to have limited reef-building capacity. However, several recent studies have reported reef growth over millennial time scales within such environments and have hypothesized that depth-variable community assemblages may act as equally important controls on reef growth as they do in clear-water settings. Here, we explicitly test this idea using a newly compiled chronostratigraphic record (31 cores, 142 radiometric dates) from seven proximal (but discrete) nearshore coral reefs located along the central Great Barrier Reef (Australia). Uniquely, these reefs span distinct stages of geomorphological maturity, as reflected in their elevations below sea level. Integrated age-depth and ecological data sets indicate that contemporary coral assemblage shifts, associated with changing light availability and wave exposure as reefs shallowed, coincided with transitions in accretion rates at equivalent core depths. Reef initiation followed a regional ∼1 m drop in sea level (1200–800 calibrated yr B.P.) which would have lowered the photic floor and exposed new substrate for coral recruitment by winnowing away fine seafloor sediments. We propose that a two-way feedback mechanism exists where past growth history influences current reef morphology and ecology, ultimately driving future reef accumulation and morphological change. These findings provide the first empirical evidence that nearshore reef growth trajectories are intrinsically driven by changes in coral community structure as reefs move toward sea level, a finding of direct significance for predicting the impacts of extrinsically driven ecological change (e.g., coral-algal phase shifts) on reef growth potential within the wider coastal zone on the Great Barrier Reef
Cycles of coral reef ‘turn-on’, rapid growth and ‘turn-off’ over the past 8,500 years: a context for understanding modern ecological states and trajectories.
This is the author's post-print version of an article published in Global Change Biology, Vol. 17, pp. 76 - 86. Copyright © Wiley-Blackwell 2011. The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.comHuman activities threaten reef ecosystems globally, forcing ecological change at rates and scales regarded as unprecedented in the Holocene. These changes are so profound that a cessation of reef accretion (reef ‘turn-off’) and net erosion of reef structures is argued by many as the ultimate and imminent trajectory. Here, we use a regional scale reef growth dataset, based on 76 core records (constrained by 211 radiometric dates) from 22 reefs along and across the inner-shelf of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, to examine the timing of different phases of reef initiation (‘turn-on’), growth and ‘turn-off’ during the Holocene. This dataset delineates two temporally discrete episodes of reef-building over the last 8500 years: the first associated with the Holocene transgression-early highstand period [∼8.5–5.5 k calibrated years bp (cal ybp)]; the second since ∼2.3 k cal ybp. During both periods, reefs accreted rapidly to sea level before entering late evolutionary states – states naturally characterized by reduced coral cover and low accretion potential – and a clear hiatus occurs between these reef-building episodes for which no records of reef initiation exist. These transitions mimic those projected under current environmental disturbance regimes, but have been driven entirely by natural forcing factors. Our results demonstrate that, even through the late Holocene, reef health and growth has fluctuated through cycles independent of anthropogenic forcing. Consequently, degraded reef states cannot de facto be considered to automatically reflect increased anthropogenic stress. Indeed, in many cases degraded or nonaccreting reef communities may reflect past reef growth histories (as dictated by reef growth–sea level interactions) as much as contemporary environmental change. Recognizing when changes in reef condition reflect these natural ‘turn-on’– growth –‘turn-off’ cycles and how they interact with on-going human disturbance is critical for effective coral reef management and for understanding future reef ecological trajectories
A continuum mechanics model of the plant cell wall reveals interplay between enzyme action and cell wall structure
Plant cell growth is regulated through manipulation of the cell wall network, which consists of oriented cellulose microfibrils embedded within a ground matrix incorporating pectin and hemicellulose components. There remain many unknowns as to how this manipulation occurs. Experiments have shown that cellulose reorients in cell walls as the cell expands, while recent data suggest that growth is controlled by distinct collections of hemicellulose called biomechanical hotspots, which join the cellulose molecule together. The enzymes expansin and Cel12A have both been shown to induce growth of the cell wall; however, while Cel12A’s wall-loosening action leads to a reduction in the cell wall strength, expansin’s has been shown to increase the strength of the cell wall. In contrast, members of the XTH enzyme family hydrolyse hemicellulose but do not appear to cause wall creep. This experimentally observed behaviour still awaits a full explanation. We derive and analyse a mathematical model for the effective mechanical properties of the evolving cell wall network, incorporating cellulose microfibrils, which reorient with cell growth and are linked via biomechanical hotspots made up of regions of crosslinking hemicellulose. Assuming a visco-elastic response for the cell wall and using a continuum approach, we calculate the total stress resultant of the cell wall for a given overall growth rate. By changing appropriate parameters affecting breakage rate and viscous properties, we provide evidence for the biomechanical hotspot hypothesis and develop mechanistic understanding of the growth-inducing enzymes. </p
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Corrigendum: a decision framework for considering climate change adaptation in biodiversity conservation planning
Assessing whether early attention of very preterm infants can be improved by an omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid intervention: a follow-up of a randomised controlled tria
Introduction Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) accumulates
in the frontal lobes (responsible for higher-order cognitive
skills) of the fetal brain during the last trimester of
pregnancy. Infants born preterm miss some of this in utero
provision of DHA, and have an increased risk of suboptimal
neurodevelopment. It is thought that supplementing infants
born preterm with DHA may improve developmental
outcomes. The aim of this follow-up is to determine
whether DHA supplementation in infants born preterm can
improve areas of the brain associated with frontal lobe
function, namely attention and distractibility.
Methods and analysis We will assess a subset
of children from the N-3 (omega-3) Fatty Acids
for Improvement in Respiratory Outcomes (N3RO)
multicentre double-blind randomised controlled trial
of DHA supplementation. Infants born <29 weeks’
completed gestation were randomised to receive an
enteral emulsion containing 60 mg/kg/day of DHA or a
control emulsion from within the first 3 days of enteral
feeding until 36 weeks’ postmenstrual age. Children will
undergo multiple measures of attention at 18 months’
corrected age. The primary outcome is the average time
to be distracted when attention is focused on a toy.
Secondary outcomes are other aspects of attention, and
(where possible) an assessment of cognition, language
and motor development with the Bayley Scales of Infant
and Toddler Development, Third Edition. A minimum of
72 children will be assessed to ensure 85% power to
detect an effect on the primary outcome. Families, and
research personnel are blinded to group assignment. All
analyses will be conducted according to the intentionto-treat principal.
Ethics and dissemination All procedures were approved
by the relevant institutional ethics committees prior to
commencement of the study. Results will be disseminated
in peer-reviewed journal publications and academic
presentations.
Trial registration number ACTRN12612000503820; Preresults
Schistosoma mansoni: importance of skin and pulmonary phases to concomitant immunity in albino mice
Fourteen-day-old schistosomula obtained from mice previously infected were surgically transferred to the portal vein of receptor mice. Another group of mice was infected with cercariae by transcutaneous route. After 90 days, those groups were challenged with 100 cercariae, transcutaneously, as well as a control group. Two weeks later the animals were perfused and mature and immature worms counted separately. Statistically significant differences were observed in the recovery of immature worms, when the control group was compared with those twice infected. No statistical difference was detected between the group infected transcutaneously, and that infected by worm inoculation in portal vein. Results demonstrated that suppression of skin and lung migration of the parasite does not interfere with the development of the so called concomitant immunity
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