Continuous infusion of an agonist of the tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 in the spinal cord improves recovery after traumatic contusive injury.

AimThe activation of the TNFR2 receptor is beneficial in several pathologies of the central nervous system, and this study examines whether it can ameliorate the recovery process following spinal cord injury.MethodsEHD2-sc-mTNFR2 , an agonist specific for TNFR2, was used to treat neurons exposed to high levels of glutamate in vitro. In vivo, it was infused directly to the spinal cord via osmotic pumps immediately after a contusion to the cord at the T9 level. Locomotion behavior was assessed for 6 weeks, and the tissue was analyzed (lesion size, RNA and protein expression, cell death) after injury. Somatosensory evoked potentials were also measured in response to hindlimb stimulation.ResultsThe activation of TNFR2 protected neurons from glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity through the activation of phosphoinositide-3 kinase gamma in vitro and improved the locomotion of animals following spinal cord injury. The extent of the injury was not affected by infusing EHD2-sc-mTNFR2 , but higher levels of neurofilament H and 2', 3'-cyclic-nucleotide 3'-phosphodiesterase were observed 6 weeks after the injury. Finally, the activation of TNFR2 after injury increased the neural response recorded in the cortex following hindlimb stimulation.ConclusionThe activation of TNFR2 in the spinal cord following contusive injury leads to enhanced locomotion and better cortical responses to hindlimb stimulation

Neurobiology of hyperactivity and reward:Agreeable restlessness in Anorexia Nervosa

Restricted food intake is associated with increased physical activity, very likely an evolutionary advantage, initially both functional and rewarding. The hyperactivity of patients with Anorexia Nervosa, however, is a main problem for recovery. This seemingly paradoxical reward of hyperactivity in Anorexia Nervosa is one of the main aspects in our framework for the neurobiological changes that may underlie the development of the disorder. Here, we focus on the neurobiological basis of hyperactivity and reward in both animals and humans suggesting that the mesolimbic dopamine and hypothalamic orexin neurons play central roles. The paper represents an invited review by a symposium, award winner or keynote speaker at the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior [SSIB] Annual Meeting in Portland, July 2009. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Meeting the Mental Health Needs of Syrian Refugees in Turkey

Movements such as the Arab Spring (as described by popular media) and recent regional conflicts have forced people to leave their homes and flee to other countries or regions. Syrian refugees are currently the second largest refugee group worldwide, with half of them resettled in Turkey. Turkish government and non-governmental civil organizations have mobilized efforts to address the immediate survival needs of these refugees such as food, shelter and other provisions. Despite efforts to manage the complexity of mental health and social service needs of forcibly displaced people, counseling services are still lacking. This expository article addresses the mental health needs of Syrian refugees and provides implications for counseling professionals working with displaced people from a crisis intervention approach built on principles and perspectives of humanistic mental health. In addition, programs of support, such as the Mental Health Facilitator program, are discussed

Cascade metathesis reactions for the synthesis of taxane and isotaxane derivatives

Tricyclic isotaxane and taxane derivatives and have been synthesized by a very efficient cascade ring-closing dienyne metathesis (RCDEYM) reaction, which formed the A and B rings in one operation. When the alkyne is present at C13 (with no neighboring gem-dimethyl group), the RCEDYM reaction leads to 14,15-isotaxanes 16a,b and 18b with the gem-dimethyl group on the A ring. If the alkyne is at the C11 position (and thus flanked by a gem-dimethyl group), RCEDYM reaction only proceeds in the presence of a trisubstituted olefin at C13, which disfavors the competing diene ring-closing metathesis reaction, to give the tricyclic core of Taxol 44

An ensemble approach to assess hydrological models’ contribution to uncertainties in the analysis of climate change impact on water resources

Over the recent years, several research efforts investigated the impact of climate change on water resources for different regions of the world. The projection of future river flows is affected by different sources of uncertainty in the hydro-climatic modelling chain. One of the aims of the QBic3 5 project (Que´bec-Bavarian International Collaboration on Climate Change) is to assess the contribution to uncertainty of hydrological models by using an ensemble of hydrological models presenting a diversity of structural complexity (i.e. lumped, semi distributed and distributed models). The study investigates two humid, mid-latitude catchments with natural flow conditions; one located in 10 Southern Que´bec (Canada) and one in Southern Bavaria (Germany). Daily flow is simulated with four different hydrological models, forced by outputs from regional climate models driven by a given number of GCMs’ members over a reference (1971–2000) and a future (2041–2070) periods. The results show that the choice of the hydrological model does strongly affect the climate change response of selected hydrological indicators, especially those related to low flows. Indicators related to high flows seem less sensitive on the choice of the hydrological model. Therefore, the computationally less demanding models (usually simple, lumped and conceptual) give a significant level of trust for high and overall mean flows

On the need for bias correction in regional climate scenarios to assess climate change impacts on river runoff

In climate change impact research, the assessment of future river runoff as well as the catchment scale water balance is impeded by different sources of modeling uncertainty. Some research has already been done in order to quantify the uncertainty of climate 5 projections originating from the climate models and the downscaling techniques as well as from the internal variability evaluated from climate model member ensembles. Yet, the use of hydrological models adds another layer of incertitude. Within the QBic3 project (Qu´ebec-Bavaria International Collaboration on Climate Change) the relative contributions to the overall uncertainty from the whole model chain (from global climate 10 models to water management models) are investigated using an ensemble of multiple climate and hydrological models. Although there are many options to downscale global climate projections to the regional scale, recent impact studies tend to use Regional Climate Models (RCMs). One reason for that is that the physical coherence between atmospheric and land-surface 15 variables is preserved. The coherence between temperature and precipitation is of particular interest in hydrology. However, the regional climate model outputs often are biased compared to the observed climatology of a given region. Therefore, biases in those outputs are often corrected to reproduce historic runoff conditions from hydrological models using them, even if those corrections alter the relationship between temperature and precipitation. So, as bias correction may affect the consistency between RCM output variables, the use of correction techniques and even the use of (biased) climate model data itself is sometimes disputed among scientists. For those reasons, the effect of bias correction on simulated runoff regimes and the relative change in selected runoff indicators is explored. If it affects the conclusion of climate change analysis in 25 hydrology, we should consider it as a source of uncertainty. If not, the application of bias correction methods is either unnecessary in hydro-climatic projections, or safe to use as it does not alter the change signal of river runoff. The results of the present paper highlight the analysis of daily runoff simulated with four different hydrological models in two natural-flow catchments, driven by different regional climate models for a reference and a future period. As expected, bias correction of climate model outputs is important for the reproduction of the runoff regime of the 5 past regardless of the hydrological model used. Then again, its impact on the relative change of flow indicators between reference and future period is weak for most indicators with the exception of the timing of the spring flood peak. Still, our results indicate that the impact of bias correction on runoff indicators increases with bias in the climate simulations

Determination of total plasma hydroperoxides using a diphenyl-1- pyrenylphosphine fluorescent probe

Plasma hydroperoxides (HPs) are widely accepted to be good indicators of oxidative stress. By means of the method proposed here, which uses diphenyl-1-pyrenylphosphine (DPPP) as a fluorescent probe, all types of plasma HP were determined. The limits of detection and quantification of the method were 0.08 and 0.25 nmol of cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) equivalents in 40 μl of plasma, respectively. The method is satisfactory in terms of precision (5.3% for 14.5 μM CHP eq., n = 8), and the recoveries were 91% and 92% after standard additions of 26 and 52 μM CHP, respectively. The selectivity of the proposed method is higher than 96%. Moreover, optimization of the reaction conditions and the addition of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) disodium salt and 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol (BHT) prevented the formation of HP artifacts during the analysis. Therefore, the proposed method is useful for simple and quantitative determination of total plasma HPs. © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Peer Reviewe

Effects of footwear variations on three-dimensional kinematics and tibial accelerations of specific movements in American football

American football is associated with a high rate of non-contact chronic injuries. Players are able to select from both high and low cut footwear. The aim of the current investigation was to examine the influence of high and low cut American football specific footwear on tibial accelerations and three-dimensional (3D) kinematics during three sport specific movements. Twelve male American football players performed three movements, run, cut and vertical jump whilst wearing both low and high cut footwear. 3D kinematics of the lower extremities were measured using an eight-camera motion analysis system alongside tibial acceleration parameters which were obtained using a shank mounted accelerometer. Tibial acceleration and 3D kinematic differences between the different footwear were examined using either repeated measures or Friedman’s ANOVA. Tibial accelerations were significantly greater in the low cut footwear in comparison to the high cut footwear for the run and cut movements. In addition, peak ankle eversion and tibial internal rotation parameters were shown to be significantly greater in the low cut footwear in the running and cutting movement conditions. The current study indicates that the utilization of low cut American football footwear for training/performance may place American footballers at increased risk from chronic injuries

Effects of Vision on Dynamic Stability Against Backward Loss of Balance in Young and Elderly Subjects

Download PD