2nd Place Contest Entry: Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in a Veteran Population: Efficacy of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Therapies

This is Brooke Snelgrove\u27s submission for the 2014-2015 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won second place. She wrote about the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans with Complementary and Alternative Medicine therapies. You can read the final essay that came out of her research here

Adjusting Learning Parameters to Increase Cognitive Resource Allocation in Persons with Alcoholism Risk

Parental history of alcoholism is associated with increased alcoholism risk in their children. One factor increasing alcoholism risk is the presence of attention and information encoding disruptions in adult children of alcoholics (ACOA) compared to persons who are not ACOAs (NACOA). Alcohol ingestion reduces these disruptions in ACOAs. This study examined whether alterations of information processing parameters can function like alcohol and reduce processing disruptions experienced by the ACOA. Participants were 80 ACOAs and 80 NACOAs, partitioned into four groups of 20 participants. During learning, subjects studied presentations of stimulus items followed by the presentation of associated response items. The task was to learn which stimulus was associated with which response item. Based on information processing parameters, the study used a 2.5 second learning response period and either a short (3.0 second) or a long (5.0 second) period for evaluating whether the response was or was not correct. Within each group, one-half of the subjects received a short and one-half received a long response evaluation period. In addition to learning performance, information processing was evaluated using psychophysiological-indices of resource allocation in the central nervous system. Whereas the learning performance of the ACOAs during the short review periods was significantly below the performance of the NACOAs, the groups did not significantly differ during long review period conditions. The findings support the implementation of “tuning” information processing parameters to compensate for processing disruptions related to ACOA-status. This outcome could allow development of focused preventive strategies for persons at higher risk for alcoholism

2nd Place Research Paper: Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in a Veteran Population: Efficacy of Complementary and Alternative Medicine Therapies

It is estimated that a half million veterans from recent deployments in the Middle East conflicts and about 479,000 veterans deployed during the Vietnam War are diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Current treatments are limited by a relatively high frequency of patients who do not continue with their therapy. With increased PTSD diagnosis and limited effectiveness of treatments, there is a growing need to research and develop new therapies to better assist affected service members. The present study assessed the clinical validity of Complementary and Alternative Medicine therapies for the treatment of PTSD symptoms in a military population using a systematic review design. It was hypothesized that a veteran diagnosed with PTSD who is treated with Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies will experience a greater improvement in their PTSD symptoms than a veteran diagnosed with PTSD who is treated with other, current evidence-based treatments (CEBT). Data were obtained from empirical articles that compared and contrasted CAM therapies against CEBT’s across commonly used PTSD symptom assessment scales. Though CAM therapies were not shown to be significantly superior to other therapies, the findings did indicate that select CAM therapies have valid, clinical implications for the reduction of PTSD symptoms in a veteran population. More research is needed to assess, isolate, and standardize CAM therapies for the treatment of PTSD in different veteran populations

What global biogeochemical consequences will marine animal-sediment interactions have during climate change?

Benthic animals profoundly influence the cycling and storage of carbon and other elements in marine systems, particularly in coastal sediments. Recent climate change has altered the distribution and abundance of many seafloor taxa and modified the vertical exchange of materials between ocean and sediment layers. Here, we examine how climate change could alter animal-mediated biogeochemical cycling in ocean sediments.The fossil record shows repeated major responses from the benthos during mass extinctions and global carbon perturbations, including reduced diversity, dominance of simple trace fossils, decreased burrow size and bioturbation intensity, and nonrandom extinction of trophic groups. The broad dispersal capacity of many extant benthic species facilitates poleward shifts corresponding to their environmental niche as overlying water warms. Evidence suggests that locally persistent populations will likely respond to environmental shifts through either failure to respond or genetic adaptation rather than via phenotypic plasticity. Regional and global ocean models insufficiently integrate changes in benthic biological activity and their feedbacks on sedimentary biogeochemical processes. The emergence of bioturbation, ventilation, and seafloor-habitat maps and progress in our mechanistic understanding of organism-sediment interactions enable incorporation of potential effects of climate change on benthic macrofaunal mediation of elemental cycles into regional and global ocean biogeochemical models.SCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Including biogeochemical factors and a temporal component in benthic habitat maps: Influences on infaunal diversity in a temperate embayment

Mapping of benthic habitats seldom considers biogeochemical variables or changes across time. We aimed to: (i) develop winter and summer benthic habitat maps for a sandy embayment; and (ii) compare the effectiveness of various maps for differentiating infauna. Patch types (internally homogeneous areas of seafloor) were constructed using combinations of abiotic parameters and are presented in sediment-based, biogeochemistry-based and combined sedimentbiogeochemistry-based habitat maps. August and February surveys were undertaken in Jervis Bay, NSW, Australia, to collect samples for physical (% mud, sorting, % carbonate), biogeochemical (chlorophyll a, sulfur, sediment metabolism, bioavailable elements) and infaunal analyses. Boosted decision tree and cokriging models generated spatially continuous data layers. Habitat maps were made from classified layers using geographic information system (GIS) overlays and were interpreted from a biophysical-process perspective. Biogeochemistry and % mud varied spatially and temporally, even in visually homogeneous sediments. Species turnover across patch types was important for diversity; the utility of habitat maps for differentiating biological communities varied across months. Diversity patterns were broadly related to reactive carbon and redox, which varied temporally. Inclusion of biogeochemical factors and time in habitat maps provides a better framework for differentiating species and interpreting biodiversity patterns than once-off studies based solely on sedimentology or video-analysis. © 2011 CSIRO