Purpose
To summarise recommendations about 20 non-surgical interventions for recent onset (<12 weeks) non-specific low back pain (LBP) and lumbar radiculopathy (LR) based on two guidelines from the ...Danish Health Authority.
Methods
Two multidisciplinary working groups formulated recommendations based on the GRADE approach.
Results
Sixteen recommendations were based on evidence, and four on consensus. Management of LBP and LR should include information about prognosis, warning signs, and advise to remain active. If treatment is needed, the guidelines suggest using patient education, different types of supervised exercise, and manual therapy. The guidelines recommend against acupuncture, routine use of imaging, targeted treatment, extraforaminal glucocorticoid injection, paracetamol, NSAIDs, and opioids.
Conclusion
Recommendations are based on low to moderate quality evidence or on consensus, but are well aligned with recommendations from international guidelines. The guideline working groups recommend that research efforts in relation to all aspects of management of LBP and LR be intensified.
In this randomized trial, African children 2 months to 12 years of age with uncomplicated severe anemia (hemoglobin level of 4 to 6 g per deciliter and no signs of severity) were assigned to receive ...immediate transfusion (20 ml or 30 ml of whole-blood equivalent per kilogram of body weight) or no immediate transfusion. There was no evidence of between-group differences in clinical outcomes over 6 months.
High northern latitude changes with Arctic amplification across a latitudinal forest gradient suggest a shift towards an increased presence of trees and shrubs. The persistence of change may depend ...on the future scenarios of climate and on the current state, and site history, of forest structure. Here, we explore the persistence of a gradient-based shift in the boreal by connecting current forest patterns to recent tree cover trends and future modeled estimates of canopy height through 2100. Results show variation in the predicted potential height changes across the structural gradient from the boreal forest through the taiga-tundra ecotone. Positive potential changes in height are concentrated in transitional forests, where recent positive changes in cover prevail, while potential change in boreal forest is highly variable. Results are consistent across climate scenarios, revealing a persistent biome shift through 2100 in North America concentrated in transitional landscapes regardless of climate scenario.
Background: Ghrelin, which is a stomach-derived hormone, increases with fasting and energy restriction and may influence eating behaviors through brain hedonic reward-cognitive systems. Therefore, ...changes in plasma ghrelin might mediate counter-regulatory responses to a negative energy balance through changes in food hedonics.Objective: We investigated whether ghrelin administration (exogenous hyperghrelinemia) mimics effects of fasting (endogenous hyperghrelinemia) on the hedonic response and activation of brain-reward systems to food.Design: In a crossover design, 22 healthy, nonobese adults (17 men) underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) food-picture evaluation task after a 16-h overnight fast (Fasted-Saline) or after eating breakfast 95 min before scanning (730 kcal, 14% protein, 31% fat, and 55% carbohydrate) and receiving a saline (Fed-Saline) or acyl ghrelin (Fed-Ghrelin) subcutaneous injection before scanning. One male subject was excluded from the fMRI analysis because of excess head motion, which left 21 subjects with brain-activation data.Results: Compared with the Fed-Saline visit, both ghrelin administration to fed subjects (Fed-Ghrelin) and fasting (Fasted-Saline) significantly increased the appeal of high-energy foods and associated orbitofrontal cortex activation. Both fasting and ghrelin administration also increased hippocampus activation to high-energy- and low-energy-food pictures. These similar effects of endogenous and exogenous hyperghrelinemia were not explicable by consistent changes in glucose, insulin, peptide YY, and glucagon-like peptide-1. Neither ghrelin administration nor fasting had any significant effect on nucleus accumbens, caudate, anterior insula, or amygdala activation during the food-evaluation task or on auditory, motor, or visual cortex activation during a control task.Conclusions: Ghrelin administration and fasting have similar acute stimulatory effects on hedonic responses and the activation of corticolimbic reward-cognitive systems during food evaluations. Similar effects of recurrent or chronic hyperghrelinemia on an anticipatory food reward may contribute to the negative impact of skipping breakfast on dietary habits and body weight and the long-term failure of energy restriction for weight loss.
Iron species are one of the least toxic and least expensive substances that are photocatalytic in the visible region of the spectrum. Therefore, this article focuses on iron-based photocatalysts ...sensitive to visible light. Photo-Fenton reactions are considered with respect to those assisted by and involve the in situ production of H₂O₂. The possible role that photoactive iron species play by interacting with natural organic matter in water purification in the natural environment is considered. The review also considered photosensitization by phthalocyanines and the potential role that layered double hydroxides may have not only as catalyst supports but also as photosensitizers themselves. Finally, photocatalytic disinfection of water is discussed, and the desirability of standardized metrics and experimental conditions to assist in the comparative evaluation of photocatalysts is highlighted.
This paper discusses some of the problem areas and considerations unique to large space-vehicle telemetry. Some significant characteristics of specific telemetry multiplexing and modulation ...techniques are pointed out. The contributions to real-time data requirements such as vehicle prelaunch monitoring and checkout that can be made by telemetry techniques are described. Finally, some observations are made on the direction of future research and development (R & D) effort in the telemetry field.
Species interactions shape native plant communities, influencing both composition and ecosystem processes, with invasion by non‐native species threatening these dynamic relationships, native species, ...and function. The consequences of invasive plants in particular may stretch across taxa to impact plant, insect, and soil microbial communities directly and indirectly, with consequences for ecological functioning. In northern mixed‐grass prairies in the United States, invasion by two annual brome grasses, Bromus arvensis and B. tectorum, negatively impacts rangeland plants; however, the simultaneous effects on insects and soil microbes (bacteria and archaea), and the implications for ecological function, have received less attention. Here, using observational field studies conducted at two mixed‐grass prairie sites in Montana and Wyoming, we assessed the relationships between plants, insects, and soil microbes across gradients of invasion by B. arvensis and B. tectorum. Overall, we found differences in plant and insect communities and functional groups with increasing invasion abundance for both brome species. However, associations between invasion and the soil microbial community were species specific, as we only saw these relationships under B. tectorum invasion, implying B. tectorum may have more substantial consequences for rangeland management. While invasion by annual bromes may cause changes in certain plant and insect functional groups, such as C4 perennial grasses and certain insect herbivores, soil microbial functional groups may be less impacted, especially under B. arvensis invasion. This work sheds light on the need to explore changes in natural communities across taxa and to all invasive species, as ecosystem effects are likely to be contingent upon both.
This study aimed to determine how small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) protect myofibrillar proteins from μ-calpain degradation during ageing. Immunoprecipitation experiments with M. longissimus dorsi ...(LD) from Angus heifers (n=14) examined the interaction between αβ-crystallin, desmin, titin, HSP20, HSP27 and μ-calpain. Results showed that αβ-crystallin associated with desmin, titin, HSP20, HSP27 and μ-calpain. Exogenous αβ-crystallin reduced desmin and titin degradations in myofibrillar extracts and attenuated μ-calpain activity. In a second experiment, bull LD (n=94) were aged at −1.5°C for up to 28days post mortem. μ-Calpain autolysed faster in high ultimate pH (pHu) meat (pHu≥6.2) and this was concomitant with the more rapid degradation of titin and filamin in this pHu group. Desmin stability in intermediate pHu meat (pHu 5.8 to 6.19) may be due to the protection of myofibril-bound sHSPs combined with the competitive inhibition of μ-calpain by sHSPs.
•αβ-Crystallin stabilise denaturing proteins from further proteolysis by µ-calpain.•αβ-Crystallin functions as a competitive inhibitor or µ-calpain.•sHSP transition to the myofibrils as muscle pH decreases post mortem.•Greater sHSP protection from protein degradation in intermediate meat is proposed.
Although the intracellular bacterium Wolbachia is ubiquitous in insects, it has a unique relationship with New World ants on which particular bacterial strains have specialized. However, data are ...from distantly related hosts and detailed phylogenetic information which could reveal transmission dynamics are lacking. Here, we investigate host-Wolbachia relationships in the monophyletic fungus-growing ant tribe Attini, screening 23 species and using multilocus sequence typing to reliably identify Wolbachia strains. This technique reduces the significant problem of recombination seen using traditional single gene techniques. The relationship between Wolbachia and the fungus-growing ants appears complex and dynamic. There is evidence of co-cladogenesis, supporting vertical transmission; however, this is incomplete, demonstrating that horizontal transmission has also occurred. Importantly, the infection prevalence is frequently different between closely related taxa, with the Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants appearing particularly prone to infection and there being no consistent relationship with any of the major life history transitions. We suggest that infection loss and horizontal transmission have driven epidemics or selective sweeps of Wolbachia, resulting in multiple gains and losses of infection across the fungus-growing ants.
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