Argentine Tango Practice as a Balance Intervention for Cancer Survivors

Art/Architecture: 1st Place (The Ohio State University Denman Undergraduate Research Forum)Cancer survivors have reported that problems in balance and walking are a leading cause of distress and discomfort post-cancer. This critical loss of balance function is attributed to deconditioning and peripheral neuropathy resulting from chemotherapy treatments or lymphedema. Our study evaluates feasibility of the use of Argentine Tango to improve balance among cancer survivors, focusing on survivors who are deconditioned or nerve damaged (e.g. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy). Our primary aim is to determine the feasibility of conducting a 10-week, dance-based balance intervention given concerns regarding retention and compliance among participants who are receiving concurrent care in oncology and rehabilitation. Our follow-on aim is to establish pilot data regarding the impact of participation on balance function, specifically on balance measures that have been shown to correlate to participant risk of falling (i.e., root mean square medial-lateral sway amplitude during eyes closed condition). We offered 20 sessions (1-hour each) of Argentine Tango over 10 weeks and collected the following data each class: attendance, satisfaction with intervention. In addition, at three time points (baseline, 5 weeks, 10 weeks) we collected a biomechanical measure of fall risk. Satisfaction with intervention was high for cancers survivors and controls. In addition we report balance data from a group of cancer survivors with peripheral neuropathy post cancer due to chemotherapy or lymphedema and age-matched controls. At the beginning of the intervention this group of cancer survivors started at higher than normal medial-lateral sway indicating high fall risk, but ended within normal range by midpoint (5-weeks) of the intervention. The cancer survivors showed an average 56% reduction in medial-lateral sway at midpoint (p<0.01) achieving values comparable to controls. This work provides the first known evidence regarding whether cancer survivors find a dance-based intervention, Argentine Tango, satisfying and feasible for balance improvement. Improved control of lateral stability after 5-weeks of practice indicates that Argentine Tango is a promising balance intervention for cancer survivors experiencing impaired balance post treatment.Pelotonia Undergraduate Fellowship ProgramArts Undergraduate Research ScholarshipJamesCare for LifeAcademic Major: Danc

It Takes Two to Tango: Argentine Tango Practice as an Intervention for Cancer Survivors

Cancer survivors have reported that problems in balance and walking are a leading cause of distress and discomfort post-cancer. This critical loss of balance function is attributed to deconditioning and peripheral neuropathy resulting from chemotherapy treatments or lymphedema. Our study evaluates feasibility of the use of Argentine Tango to improve balance among cancer survivors, focusing on survivors who are deconditioned or nerve damaged (e.g. Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy). Our primary aim is to determine the feasibility of conducting a 10-week, dance-based balance intervention given concerns regarding retention and compliance among participants who are receiving concurrent care in oncology and rehabilitation. Our follow-on aim is to establish pilot data regarding the impact of participation on balance function, specifically on balance measures that have been shown to correlate to participant risk of falling (i.e., root mean square medial-lateral sway amplitude during eyes closed condition). We offered 20 sessions (1-hour each) of Argentine Tango over 10 weeks and collected the following data each class: attendance, satisfaction with intervention. In addition, at three time points (baseline, 5 weeks, 10 weeks) we collected a biomechanical measure of fall risk. Satisfaction with intervention was high for cancers survivors and controls. In addition we report balance data from a group of cancer survivors with peripheral neuropathy post cancer due to chemotherapy or lymphedema and age-matched controls. At the beginning of the intervention this group of cancer survivors started at higher than normal medial-lateral sway indicating high fall risk, but ended within normal range by midpoint (5-weeks) of the intervention. The cancer survivors showed an average 56% reduction in medial-lateral sway at midpoint (p<0.01) achieving values comparable to controls. This work provides the first known evidence regarding whether cancer survivors find a dance-based intervention, Argentine Tango, satisfying and feasible for balance improvement. Improved control of lateral stability after 5-weeks of practice indicates that Argentine Tango is a promising balance intervention for cancer survivors experiencing impaired balance post treatment.Pelotonia Undergraduate Research FellowshipArts Undergraduate Research ScholarshipJamesCare for LifeNo embargoAcademic Major: Danc

Behavioral Avoidance and the Evaluation, Expression, and Intensity of Emotions in Generalized Anxiety and Major Depressive Disorders

Emotion dysregulation manifests in ways, such as behavioral avoidance and differential patterns of emotional reactivity and processing. The current study examined whether behavioral avoidance (i.e., task disengagement and expression suppression) and emotional experience (i.e., intensity and evaluation) are associated differently in those with GAD, MDD, and healthy controls

Controllable and Sequential Activation of Cancer Nanotherapy for Enhanced Synergistic Effec

The treatment of numerous disease states has become increasingly more complex and challenging, even as we come out with new pharmacological and technological advancements. It is well known that cancer is not one disease, but many diseases that progress and present new challenges with each patient. With this we present a novel design which uses biorthogonal chemistry and magnetic nanoparticles (MNP’s) to create a drug delivery system with the capability to deliver two drugs that are released at two different time points under the direction of a single trigger. This innovative combination of multiple advancements will allow for the treatment of normally resistant cancer phenotypes by rewiring the cell with one treatment, and then inducing apoptosis with the next, sequentially killing the targeted cell. Our system allows for a controllable, finely tuned delivery that can be targeted and imaged using MRI with our active MNP’s. The system has been tested with release kinetics using two florescent probes, and then later in vitro to confirm efficient delivery of the payload. This simple, non-invasive treatment allows for a much easier and effective dual drug delivery system. It was shown using triple negative breast cancer cell lines to be more effective than current therapeutic treatments and enhance the efficiency of the drugs, when used synergistically

Exploitation of renewable resources with differentiated technologies: An evolutionary analysis

In this paper, we propose a dynamical model of technology adoption for the exploitation of a renewable natural resource. Each technology has a different efficiency and environmental impact. The process of technology adoption over time is modeled through an evolutionary game employed by profit maximizing exploiters. The loss in profits due to lower efficiency levels of environmentally-friendly technologies can be counterbalanced by the higher consumers' propensity to pay for greener goods. The dynamics of the resource take place in continuous time, whereas the technology choice can be revised either in continuous-time or in discrete-time. In the latter case, the model assumes the form of a hybrid system, whose dynamics is mainly explored numerically. We shows that: (1) overexploitation of the resource arises whenever the reduction in harvesting due to a lower efficiency of clean technology is more than compensated by a higher propensity to pay for greener goods; (2) the difference between the fixed costs of these technologies can be exogenously fixed to provide an incentive for adopting clean technology without affecting the long-run level of the resource; and (3) in some cases, discrete switching of the technology causes overshooting in the dynamics whereas in others it enhances the stability of the system

Adviesregel pootaardappelen 24 : een toets in de praktijk van de werking van stikstof bijbemesten op basis van gewasreflectie metingen in pootaardappelen

In Noord Nederland is de teelt van pootaardappelen een zeer belangrijk onderdeel binnen de bedrijfsvoering van verreweg de meeste akkerbouwbedrijven. Het spreekt dan ook voor zich dat er vanuit de telers belangstelling is voor nieuwe ontwikkelingen die het rendement van de pootgoedteelt verder kunnen verbeteren. Binnen het Programma PrecisieLandbouw (PPL) is er vanuit een aantal telersgroepen, te weten “de Wadden”, “Spinoff” en “het Hogeland” samen met mechanisatiebedijf Mijno van Dijk het verzoek aan PPO gedaan om een praktijkexperiment uit te voeren op een perceel aardappelen van pootgoedteler (en lid van Spinoff) Anselm Claassen