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The efficacy of yoga as an adjunctive treatment for schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) has garnered interest, however, meta-analytic findings exhibit heterogeneity. While yoga may positively influence various symptom domains, further investigation is needed due to the limited number, quality, and generalizability of studies. Yoga-based Group Intervention (YoGI) was specifically developed together with persons with SSD through a participatory approach and its mechanisms and processes were explored within qualitative studies.
Objectives
This pre-registered randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessed the acceptability and feasibility as well as preliminary outcomes of YoGI compared to a commprehensive treatment as usual (TAU) in an inpatient setting.
Methods
Fifty inpatients with SSD received either treatment as usual (TAU, n = 25) or YoGI+TAU (n = 25) for four weeks. Preliminary analyses examined rater-blinded positive and negative symptoms, self-rated depressive and anxiety symptoms, body mindfulness, mindfulness, psychological flexibility, subjective cognition, social functioning, quality of life, and medication regime at baseline and post-intervention.
Results
Outcomes showed a 95% protocol adherence, feasibility and retention rates of 91% and 94%, respectively, and a dropout rate of 6%. ANCOVA revealed significant between-group post-intervention improvements for YoGI+TAU in positive symptoms, depression, cognitive fusion, and a mindfulness subscale. Medium-to-large pre-to-post intervention effects were found for body-mindfulness, positive, negative, and general symptomatology, depression, anxiety, stress, cognitive fusion, attention, and quality of life in YoGI+TAU, while within-group changes were consistently smaller in TAU. No severe adverse events were reported.
Conclusions
This trial contributes to the growing evidence supporting the feasibility and acceptability of yoga for persons with SSD in an inpatient setting. Furthermore, preliminary evidence suggests that YoGI may provide additional benefits beyond TAU alone, across various self- and rater-based outcomes. These outcomes include improvements in body mindfulness, mindfulness, and psychiatric symptomatology, including positive and negative symptoms, subjective cognition, depression, anxiety, stress, social functioning, and quality of life. Additional fully powered RCTs are warranted to further elucidate the efficacy and potential mechanisms of action of YoGI for SSD, which should also assess the cost-efficiency of YoGI and explore longitudinal changes associated with the intervention. Such comprehensive research endeavours will not only enhance our understanding of the therapeutic potential of YoGI but also inform clinical practice and intervention strategies for persons with SSD.
From early on, infants show a preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS), and exposure to IDS has been correlated with language outcome measures such as vocabulary. The present multi-laboratory study explores this issue by investigating whether there is a link between early preference for IDS and later vocabulary size. Infants’ preference for IDS was tested as part of the ManyBabies 1 project, and follow-up CDI data were collected from a subsample of this dataset at 18 and 24 months. A total of 341 (18 months) and 327 (24 months) infants were tested across 21 laboratories. In neither preregistered analyses with North American and UK English, nor exploratory analyses with a larger sample did we find evidence for a relation between IDS preference and later vocabulary. We discuss implications of this finding in light of recent work suggesting that IDS preference measured in the laboratory has low test-retest reliability.
Herbicide resistance is often viewed as a complex problem in need of innovative management solutions. Because of the transboundary mobility of many weeds, resistance to herbicides is also viewed as a community-scale issue. Consequently, the idea of greater coordination among resource users—especially growers—is often promoted as a management approach. Recently, scholars have framed herbicide resistance as a commons problem in need of collective action. Specifically, social scientists have explored the utility of adopting bottom-up, community-based approaches to help solve the growing problem of herbicide resistance through a framework for interpreting the commons known as common pool resource theory. This article analyzes how herbicide resistance fits—and fails to fit—within common pool resource theory and offers an updated conceptual framework from which to build future work. We argue that the application of common pool resource theory to herbicide-resistance management is underdeveloped, and approaches based on this theory have shown little success. The relevance of common pool resource theory for informing herbicide-resistance management is less settled than existing scholarship has suggested, and other frameworks for approaching transboundary resource problems—such as co-production of knowledge and participatory action research—warrant consideration.
The current study evaluated alternative sources of nutrients to improve the soil fertility status and yield of maize-wheat succession in Southern Brazil. The treatments were: T1: no fertilization; T2: liming with dolomitic marble; T3: alternative liming (AL) with limestone interbedded with shale; T4: AL + 50% P - with Arad natural phosphate (P-ANP) + 50% P – triple superphosphate (P-TSP); T5: AL + 100% P-ANP; T6: AL + 100% P-ANP + 100% K-rich monzogranite; T7: AL + 100% P-ANP + 100% N (50% N from tung pressed cake (N-TPC) + 50% N-urea); T8: AL + 100% P-ANP + 100% K-rich monzogranite + 100% N (50% N-TPC + 50% N-Urea) + 100% S; T9: AL + regional average rate of NPK (5-20-20) formulation. Except for T7 and T8, all treatments received the full recommended rate of N through Urea. Immediate and residual effects were evaluated over 2.5 years (90, 360 and 900 days) on soil fertility and maize - wheat yield. The limestone interbedded with shale released Ca, Mg and corrected soil acidity similarly to dolomitic marble. The fertilization strategies used in T4, T7 and T8 presented the highest cumulative productivities while T3 (U$ = 1223), T9 (U$ = 1174) and T4 (U$ = 1122) resulted in higher profits than the other evaluated fertilization strategies. The limestone interbedded with shale (T3), alone or combined with 50% of P-ANP + 50% of P – TSP (T4) provided the best economical and technical results, highlighting the potential of selected alternative regional sources for soil fertility improvement and plant-nutrients supply.
To summarize presentations and discussions from the 2022 trans-agency workshop titled “Overlapping science in radiation and sulfur mustard (SM) exposures of skin and lung: Consideration of models, mechanisms, organ systems, and medical countermeasures.”
Methods:
Summary on topics includes: (1) an overview of the radiation and chemical countermeasure development programs and missions; (2) regulatory and industry perspectives for drugs and devices; 3) pathophysiology of skin and lung following radiation or SM exposure; 4) mechanisms of action/targets, biomarkers of injury; and 5) animal models that simulate anticipated clinical responses.
Results:
There are striking similarities between injuries caused by radiation and SM exposures. Primary outcomes from both types of exposure include acute injuries, while late complications comprise chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and vascular dysfunction, which can culminate in fibrosis in both skin and lung organ systems. This workshop brought together academic and industrial researchers, medical practitioners, US Government program officials, and regulators to discuss lung-, and skin- specific animal models and biomarkers, novel pathways of injury and recovery, and paths to licensure for products to address radiation or SM injuries.
Conclusions:
Regular communications between the radiological and chemical injury research communities can enhance the state-of-the-science, provide a unique perspective on novel therapeutic strategies, and improve overall US Government emergency preparedness.
Yarkoni's analysis clearly articulates a number of concerns limiting the generalizability and explanatory power of psychological findings, many of which are compounded in infancy research. ManyBabies addresses these concerns via a radically collaborative, large-scale and open approach to research that is grounded in theory-building, committed to diversification, and focused on understanding sources of variation.
We present 63 new multi-site radial velocity (RV) measurements of the K1III giant HD 76920, which was recently reported to host the most eccentric planet known to orbit an evolved star. We focused our observational efforts on the time around the predicted periastron passage and achieved near-continuous phase coverage of the corresponding RV peak. By combining our RV measurements from four different instruments with previously published ones, we confirm the highly eccentric nature of the system and find an even higher eccentricity of $e=0.8782 \pm 0.0025$, an orbital period of $415.891^{+0.043}_{-0.039}\,\textrm{d}$, and a minimum mass of $3.13^{+0.41}_{-0.43}\,\textrm{M}_{\textrm{J}}$ for the planet. The uncertainties in the orbital elements are greatly reduced, especially for the period and eccentricity. We also performed a detailed spectroscopic analysis to derive atmospheric stellar parameters, and thus the fundamental stellar parameters ($M_*, R_*, L_*$), taking into account the parallax from Gaia DR2, and independently determined the stellar mass and radius using asteroseismology. Intriguingly, at periastron, the planet comes to within 2.4 stellar radii of its host star’s surface. However, we find that the planet is not currently experiencing any significant orbital decay and will not be engulfed by the stellar envelope for at least another 50–80 Myr. Finally, while we calculate a relatively high transit probability of 16%, we did not detect a transit in the TESS photometry.
We use Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) Integral Field Unit (IFU) observations of a sample of 5 bright nearby Seyfert galaxies to map their emission-line flux distributions and kinematics at a spatial resolution ranging from 110 to 280 pc. For all galaxies, the gas kinematics show two components: a rotation and an outflow component.
In this study, we aim to investigate the relation between nuclear activity and the environment for luminous (L[O III] >7.63 × 1041 erg s–1) Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) - that, at these luminosities are classified as quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) - using a sample of 436 type 2 QSOs. Recent studies suggest that there is an excess of interacting hosts in luminous AGN, indicating that interactions trigger the nuclear activity. In order to examine this, it is necessary to select a control sample of non-active galaxies, matched to the active ones by the properties of the host galaxies, such as distance and stellar mass. We present here the results of the search for such a control sample.
We analyzed the inner 320 × 535 pc2 of the elliptical galaxy NGC 1052 with integral field spectroscopy, both in the optical and in the near-infrared (NIR). The stellar population analysis revealed a dominance of old stellar populations from the optical data, and an intermediate-age ring from NIR data. When combining optical+NIR data, optical results were favoured. The emission-line analysis revealed five kinematic components, where two of them are unresolved and probably associated with the active galactic nucleus (AGN), one is associated with large-scale shocks, one with the radio jets, and the last could be explained by either a bipolar outflow, rotation in an eccentric disc or a combination of a disc and large-scale gas bubbles. Our results also indicate that the emission within the galaxy is caused by a combination of shocks and photoionization by the AGN.
We investigate the processes of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feeding and feedback in the narrow line regions (NLRs) and host galaxies of nearby AGN through spatially resolved spectroscopy with the Gemini Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) and the Hubble Space Telescope’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). We examine the connection between nuclear and galactic inflows and outflows by adding long-slit spectra of the host galaxies from Apache Point Observatory. We demonstrate that nearby AGN can be fueled by a variety of mechanisms. We find that the NLR kinematics can often be explained by in situ ionization and radiative acceleration of ambient gas, often in the form of dusty molecular spirals that may be the fueling flow to the AGN.
Understanding the interplay between the phenomena of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and starbursts remains an open issue in studies of galaxy evolution. The galaxy NGC 34 is the remnant of the merger of two former gas-rich disc galaxies and it also hosts a strong nuclear starburst. In this work, we map the ionized and molecular gas present in the nuclear regions of the galaxy NGC 34 using adaptive optics (AO) assisted near infrared (NIR) integral field unity (IFU) observations. Our main goals are to better constrain the energy source of this object and to use NGC 34 as a laboratory to probe the AGN-starburst connection in the context of galaxy evolution and AGN feeding and feedback processes.
This study investigated a method for characterizing the behaviour of clays in an aqueous medium in the presence of an electric field. The experiments were performed with different clays (kaolinite, smectite, kaolinite-smectite) suspended in deionized water. An apparatus was developed for measuring a continuous electric current under the singular effect of adding sodium silicate to the aqueous suspensions. The results showed that the method allows the differentiation of the investigated clays through their electrophoretic behaviour in an aqueous solution.
New oral treatments are needed for all forms of leishmaniasis. Here, the improved oral efficacy of quercetin (Qc) and its penta-acetylated derivative (PQc) was evaluated in cutaneous leishmaniasis after encapsulation in lipid-core nanocapsules (LNCs) of poly(ε-caprolactone). Leishmania amazonensis-infected BALB/c mice were given 51 daily oral doses of free drugs (16 mg kg−1) or LNC-loaded drugs (0·4 mg kg−1). While treatment with free Qc reduced the lesion sizes and parasite loads by 38 and 71%, respectively, LNC-Qc produced 64 and 91% reduction, respectively. The antileishmanial efficacy of PQc was similar but not as potently improved by encapsulation as Qc. None of the treatments increased aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase or creatinine serum levels. These findings indicate that when encapsulated in LNC, Qc and, to a lesser extent, PQc can safely produce an enhanced antileishmanial effect even at a 40-fold lower dose, with implications for the development of a new oral drug for cutaneous leishmaniasis.
Previously, we described the protective action of the immunomodulatory extract of Kalanchoe pinnata (Kp) in murine and human cutaneous leishmaniasis. In the present study, we investigated the effectiveness of Kp against visceral leishmaniasis, using the BALB/c mouse model of infection with Leishmania chagasi. Mice receiving oral daily doses of Kp (400 mg/kg) for 30 days displayed significantly reduced hepatic and splenic parasite burden, when compared with untreated animals. Protectiveness was accompanied by a reduction in parasite-specific IgG serum levels, and impaired capacity of spleen cells to produce IL-4, but not IFN-γ and nitric oxide upon antigen recall in vitro. The reference drug Pentostam (72 mg/kg) given by the intra-peritoneal route on alternate days produced an anti-leishmanial effect similar to oral Kp. Our findings show that the oral efficacy of Kp, seen previously in murine cutaneous leishmaniasis, extends also to visceral leishmaniasis caused by L. chagasi, a difficult to treat and lethal disease of man.
Thrombosis of the right side of the heart has previously been a rarely reported early or late postoperetive complication after a modified Fontan-procedure.
In 4(5.5%) of 72 surviving patients who underwent a total cavopulmonary connection for various forms of univentricular atrioventricular connection or other complex lesion a thrombus within the right atrium was diagnosed by transthoracic echocardiogaphy either early (in 3 cases) or late (in one cases) postoperatively. Predisposing haemodynamic abnormalities could be identified in all four patients, but no patient was found to have severe abnormalities of coagulation. Two patients presented with acute clinical symptoms on the third and twelfth day after initial surgery. They underwent emergency reoperation with thrombectomy followed by prophylactic treatment with coumadin or aspirin after initial heparinization. In the other 2 patients, routine postoperative echocardiography revealed a right atrial thrombus without specific clinical symptoms 25 days or 3 months postoperatively. Thrombolytic therapy with an initial bolus of tissue plasminogen activator (0.1 mg/kg) followed by continuous infusion (1 mg/kg/day) combined with heparinization yielded complete resolution of the thrombus after 27 and 40 hours, respectively, as demonstrated on follow-up echocardiograms. Our own experience, coupled with a review of the literature, indicate that prophylactic anticoagulation therapy with coumadin should continue for at least 4 to 6 months for patients with an increased risk for postoperative thrombosis. For infants and young children with a low risk for postoperative thrombosis, aspirin should be given routinely for 6 months postoperatively.
As an essential aspect of life, food can evoke strong competition among individuals and shape a species' social system. Through a pathway of relationships we can link the competitive regime that food evokes in a population to such seemingly loosely related traits as social relationships within and between groups, ranging patterns and dispersal patterns. Food most strongly determines female relationships in many mammals because female reproductive success is mainly constrained by food acquisition. Male success, on the other hand, largely depends on access to mating partners (Trivers 1972, Emlen & Oring 1977). The competitive regime among females can be predicted based on the contestability or usurpability of their food (Wrangham 1980, van Schaik & van Hooff 1983, van Schaik 1989, 1996, Isbell 1991, Sterck et al. 1997). In most primates, food competition increases with group size (Clutton-Brock & Harvey 1977, Wrangham et al. 1993). However, folivores do not always fit into the general patterns found in such studies (Clutton-Brock & Harvey 1977, Isbell 1991, Janson & Goldsmith 1995). A comparative test of the effect of diet on social systems within a largely folivorous genus can solve some of these controversies. Since dietary category is only a proxy for a whole suite of traits that together determines the contestability of a species' food we need to look at each of these traits to investigate differences within a dietary specialization.
To describe physical activity of participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).
Design:
A cross-sectional analysis of baseline data of a European prospective cohort study.
Subjects:
This analysis was restricted to participants in the age group 50–64 years, which was represented in all EPIC centres. It involved 236 386 participants from 25 centres in nine countries. In each EPIC centre, physical activity was assessed by standardised and validated questions. Frequency distribution of type of professional activity and participation in non-professional activities, and age-adjusted means, medians and percentiles of time dedicated to non-professional activities are presented for men and women from each centre.
Results:
Professional activity was most frequently classified as sedentary or standing in all centres. There was a wide variation regarding participation in different types of non-professional activities and time dedicated to these activities across EPIC centres. Over 80% of all EPIC participants engaged in walking, while less than 50% of the subjects participated in sport. Total time dedicated to recreational activities was highest among the Dutch participants and lowest among men from Malmö (Sweden) and women from Naples (Italy). In all centres, total time dedicated to recreational activity in the summer was higher than in the winter. Women from southern Europe spent the most time on housekeeping.
Conclusions:
There is a considerable variation of physical activity across EPIC centres. This variation was especially evident for recreational activities in both men and women.