Effects of light intensity and dual light intensity choice on plasma corticosterone, central serotonergic and dopaminergic activities in birds, Gallus gallus

Light intensity plays an important role in the regulation of growth, behavior, reproduction, and welfare of avian species. Light intensity preference behavior has been suggested to be involved in welfare of birds. This study aims to investigate the effects of different light intensity and dual light intensity choice (DLIC) lighting program on plasma corticosterone (CORT), and tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2, the rate-limiting enzyme of serotonin biosynthesis) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH, the rate-limiting enzyme of dopamine biosynthesis) gene expression in the brainstem of male chickens. Day old broilers were housed in two commercial houses, and placed in 24 pens. All the treatment groups were provided with 23 h light (L) /1 h dark (D) and 30 lx (lx) light intensity during the first week and then 18L:6D (10 lx) from day 7 to 14. Blood and brain were sampled at 14 days of age (10 lx) before the onset of light treatments. On day 15, four treatments (2, 10, 20, and 100 lx), and DLIC treatment (2/20 lx) were initiated. Samples were collected on days 15, 16, 17, 30 and 41. TPH2 expression in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) and caudal raphe nucleus (CRN) of brainstem, and TPH2 and TH expression in ventral tegmental areas (VTN) of the midbrain were determined by qPCR. Results showed that bright light and DLIC lighting program temporarily attenuated plasma CORT, suggesting the short-term stress attenuating effect of bright light and DLIC lighting program. Differential TPH2 expression in the DRN and CRN observed in the DLIC birds indicate a significant effect of DLIC lighting program on the serotonergic activity in the avian brainstem. At the 41 days of age, the significant downregulation of TPH2 and TH expression occurred in the VTA of DLIC treated birds compared to the other group of birds. Taken together, temporal and spatial regulation of TPH2 and TH expression by DLIC lighting program indicate that compensatory regulation of serotonergic and dopaminergic activities might be involved in the light intensity preference behavior of birds, suggesting a possible beneficial effect of the DLIC lighting program on broiler welfare.

Modeling underwater noise propagation from marine hydrokinetic power devices through a time-domain, velocity-pressure solution

Marine hydrokinetic (MHK) devices generate electricity from the motion of tidal and ocean currents, as well as ocean waves, to provide an additional source of renewable energy available to the United States. These devices are a source of anthropogenic noise in the marine ecosystem and must meet regulatory guidelines that mandate a maximum amount of noise that may be generated. In the absence of measured levels from in situ deployments, a model for predicting the propagation of sound from an array of MHK sources in a real environment is essential. A set of coupled, linearized velocity-pressure equations in the time-domain are derived and presented in this paper, which are an alternative solution to the Helmholtz and wave equation methods traditionally employed. Discretizing these equations on a three-dimensional (3D), finite-difference grid ultimately permits a finite number of complex sources and spatially varying sound speeds, bathymetry, and bed composition. The solution to this system of equations has been parallelized in an acoustic-wave propagation package developed at Sandia National Labs, called Paracousti. This work presents the broadband sound pressure levels from a single source in two-dimensional (2D) ideal and Pekeris wave-guides and in a 3D domain with a sloping boundary. The paper concludes with demonstration of Paracousti for an array of MHK sources in a simple wave-guide.

Making and Taking Health Care Decisions: Discussion Paper

‘I want to say a sentence to you and then I want to interpret that sentence in about four different ways, all of which are related to what we are talking about. And the sentence is, “Each person is his own central metaphor”.’

Mary Catherine Bateson1

Effects of bacitracin methylene disalicylate and diet change on gastrointestinal integrity and endotoxin permeability in the duodenum of broiler chicken

Objective

To determine the effect of bacitracin methylene disalicylate (BMD) and feed changes on gastrointestinal integrity, endotoxin permeability, and morphometric parameters in the duodenum of broilers.

Results

Birds were raised on a starter diet without growth promoting antibiotics for 31 days then switched to a grower diet. Four of the pens including 50 g/ton of BMD while 4 pens remained antibiotic free. Eight birds per treatment were sampled prior to the feed change and at 3 and 7 days following the feed change. Gastrointestinal integrity and endotoxin permeability in the duodenum were determined using a modified Ussing Chamber and an adjacent section fixed in 10% formalin for morphometric analysis. Data were analyzed using Proc Glimmix of SAS with the model fitting BMD treatment, time, and the interaction of BMD treatment and time as fixed effects. Intestinal integrity increased at d 3 and 7 compared to prior to the feed change and addition of BMD (P > 0.001) and villus height was decreased with BMD supplementation (P = 0.049). All other tested effects similar (P > 0.1). In conclusion, the practice of changing feed had a greater effect on intestinal health than addition of BMD. However, the factors driving these differences 42 are unclear.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-017-2781-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Functionality or aesthetics?A pilot study of music therapy in the treatment of multiple sclerosis patients

INTRODUCTION

Neuro-degenerative diseases are, and will remain, an enormous public health problem. Interventions that could delay disease onset even modestly will have a major public health impact. The aim of this study is to see which components of the illness are responsive to change when treated with music therapy in contrast to a group of patients receiving standard medical treatment alone.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Twenty multiple sclerosis patients (14 female, 6 male) were involved in the study, their ages ranging from 29 to 47 years. Ten participants formed the therapy group, and 10 the matched control group matched by age, gender and the standard neurological classification scheme Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS). Exclusion criteria were pregnancy and mental disorders requiring medication. Patients in the therapy group received three blocks of music therapy in single sessions over the course of the one-year project (8-10 sessions, respectively). Measurements were taken before therapy began (U1), and subsequently every three months (U2-U4) and within a 6-month follow-up without music therapy (U5) after the last consultation. Test battery included indicators of clinical depression and anxiety (Beck Depression Inventory and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), a self-acceptance scale (SESA) and a life quality assessment (Hamburg Quality of Life Questionnaire in Multiple Sclerosis). In addition, data were collected on cognitive (MSFC) and functional (EDSS) parameters.

RESULTS

There was no significant difference between the music-therapy treatment group and the control group. However, the effect size statistics comparing both groups show a medium effect size on the scales measuring self-esteem (d, 0.5423), depression HAD-D (d, 0.63) and anxiety HAD-A (d, 0.63). Significant improvements were found for the therapy group over time (U1-U4) in the scale values of self-esteem, depression and anxiety. In the follow-up, scale values for fatigue, anxiety and self-esteem worsen within the group treated with music therapy.

DISCUSSION

A therapeutic concept for multiple sclerosis, which includes music therapy, brings an improvement in mood, fatigue and self-acceptance. When music therapy is removed, then scale scores worsen and this appears to intimate that music therapy has an influence.

Social poetics as research and practice: living in and learning from the process of research

This paper is both a report of research work carried out by one author of the paper with the other involved in a supervisory role, and a reflection on methodology that was an emergent property of the research process. The research question arose when professional preunderstandings about schizophrenia as a biological disturbance were bracketed as a Husserlian form of phenomenology was adopted. The initial study focused on the meanings three individuals attached to being diagnosed with a mental illness and being involved in psychiatric treatment systems. The exploration of meanings led to the researcher being guided by one study participant in relation to a suitable framework for making sense of her lived experience of being entangled in psychiatric systems. This involved an appreciation of the poetics of interpersonal interaction that was simultaneously fuelled by the researcher's reading of social poetics in psychology. Thus, the research became a hermeneutic inquiry, focused upon the text of one participant (Beth)1 and the psychiatric system that she and colleagues encountered. Beth's psychiatric predicament was described by a loss of 'self', psychiatric interrogation, and positive and negative features of immersion in the system. A byproduct of taking a poetic approach was that the participant found the research process therapeutic. Thus, social poetics encouraged a beneficial blurring of the boundaries between research and practice. In both arenas, social poetics can lead to a different level of understanding. This is contradictory to mainstream approaches to research that value objectivity with a strict division between the researcher and the subjects, with the aim of producing scientific knowledge.

Guidelines for clinical research in complementary medicine

There are several stages in preparing clinical research studies. Stage 1 includes identifying the purpose of the inquiry and finding the essential financial resources. Careful thinking about the clinical practice to be investigated and the allocation of time for research is also necessary. Stage 2 involves assessing the feasibility of the study. Statistical decisions are best made before data are collected, and this means consultation with a statistician or methodologist. There has to be ethical approval from the cooperating institution. A thorough search of the literature is fundamental. In Stage 3, the final trial is designed, ethical approval obtained, and the proposal is submitted for funding. In the final stage, Stage 4, the trial is carried out, analyzed, and prepared for publication.

Qigong Yangsheng as a complementary therapy in the management of asthma: a single-case appraisal

OBJECTIVES

Qigong Yangsheng, the health-promoting method of traditional Chinese medicine that combines movement, mental exercise, and breathing technique, is used in China for the therapy of bronchial asthma, and for some time now has been enjoying an ever-widening acceptance in the Western world as well. This pilot study investigates if Qigong Yangsheng could be used as a complementary therapeutic measure to treat asthma patients in a Western industrialized country.

DESIGN

Thirty asthma patients, with varying degrees of illness severity, were taught Qigong Yangsheng under medical supervision. They were asked to exercise independently, if possible, on a daily basis and to keep a diary of their symptoms for half a year including peak-flow measurements three times daily, use of medication, frequency and length of exercise as well as five asthma-relevant symptoms (sleeping through the night, coughing, expectoration, dyspnea, and general well-being). The concept of this study was based on a single-case research design series with baseline, one teaching phase, a phase of self-practice and a refresher teaching course. A 4-week follow-up period was carried out in the same season as the original baseline phase 52 weeks later.

RESULTS

An improvement was indicated if subjects showed a decrease of at least 10 percent in peak-flow variability between the 1st and the 52nd week. This occurred more frequently in the group of the exercisers (n = 17) than in the group of nonexercisers (n = 13) (p < 0.01 chi-square with Yates correction). When comparing the study year with the year before the study, there was improvement also in reduced hospitalization rate, less sickness leave, reduced antibiotic use and fewer emergency consultations resulting in reduced treatment costs.

CONCLUSION

Qigong Yangsheng is recommended for asthma patients with professional supervision. An improvement in airway capability and a decrease in illness severity can be achieved by regular self-conducted Qigong exercises.

Alzheimer's disease: rhythm, timing and music as therapy

Active music-making provides a form of therapy for the Alzheimer's patient which may stimulate cognitive activities such that areas subject to progressive failure are maintained. Anecdotal evidence suggests that quality of life of Alzheimer's patients is significantly improved with music therapy, accompanied by the overall social benefits of acceptance and sense of belonging gained by communicating with others. Music therapy, when based on clear treatment objectives can reduce the individual prescription of tranquilizing medication, reduce the use of hypnotics and help overall goals of rehabilitation. Mood improvement and self-expression, the stimulation of speech and organisation of mental processes; and sensory stimulation and motor integration are promoted. Given that the rate of deterioration in Alzheimer's disease is not predictable, a series of single case experimental designs would generate valuable empirical data concerning treatment outcome and promote basic research into the timing functions required for the co-ordination of cognition, physiology, motor ability and the integrity of behaviour.

Suicidal behaviour: a continuing cause for concern

There is an increase in suicidal behaviour in the western world providing a major challenge to health care providers. There is an increase in the number of suicides among elderly people in Europe. The problem of suicides among elderly people is in itself a social problem, not solely a medical one. The general practitioner may be the only source of social contact for the elderly. Elderly individuals often present their problems to doctors as somatic complaints; these complaints must not be taken at face value but understood as expressions of psychosocial and social distress. The rise in suicide rates among young people is also alarming. The warning signs of escalating distress in adolescents are known and a treatment programme coordinating medical initiatives, such that recidivism of suicidal behaviour in adolescents is reduced, is necessary. The general practitioner is urged to sense when the problem presented by the individual stems from a source which is predominantly social, and to suggest an appropriate solution which may entail a family intervention. The general practitioner is in the front line of treatment and he or she may be better advised to treat both the social situation and the individual person in cases of attempted suicide. Medical initiatives must incorporate aspects of social medicine whereby community solutions are found for the management of individual distress. Social disruption, isolation, conflict and neglect are the doors to the house of despair. While medicine must respond to those who enter that house, it is the social level at which we must be the architects of change. People will die.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Spirituality, healing and medicine

The natural science base of modern medicine influences the way in which medicine is delivered and may ignore the spiritual factors associated with illness. The history of spirituality in healing presented here reflects the growth of scientific knowledge, demands for religious renewal, and the shift in the understanding of the concept of health within a broader cultural context. General practitioners have been willing to entertain the idea of spiritual healing and include it in their daily practice, or referral network. Recognizing patients' beliefs in the face of suffering is an important factor in health care practice.

Adolescent and pre-adolescent suicide in Newfoundland and Labrador

This study investigated suicides by people aged ten to 19 in Newfoundland and Labrador from 1977 to 1988. It is the first study of suicide in the province to use the records of death from all eight hospital pathology departments in the province and from the office of the Chief Forensic Pathologist. Cases were selected for the study using standardized criteria, independent of the manner of death recorded on the death certificate. A suicide rate of 4.37 per 100,000 was found. This rate and the age- and sex-specific suicide rates are lower than the official figures for Canada but higher than those reported in earlier Newfoundland studies. The rate for males was nearly five times the female rate, and the rate for people aged 15 to 19 was nearly six times that of people aged ten to 14. Suicide rates for Labrador were higher than for the island portion of the province for both Native and for non Native adolescents. Extremely high rates of suicide were found only among the Native population living in Northern Labrador, while none were recorded for Native people elsewhere. Firearms accounted for 54% and hanging for 33% of all suicides. Thirty percent of suicides occurred on a Saturday. Only 36 of the 63 deaths included in this study were designated as suicide on death certificates. The higher rate of under-reporting of suicide than in other jurisdictions suggests that official rates may not be useful for comparisons. The reasons for the high rate of under-reporting are discussed.

Research trials in general practice: towards a focus on clinical practice

With current moves towards an emphasis on the 'whole' patient rather than fragmenting the person into organ systems research methods need to be developed which reflect that emphasis and direct us in our endeavour as clinicians. It is possible to have a descriptive science of human behaviour which can be based upon clinical consultations. In this way the clinician is required to act as a clinical anthropologist as well as a clinical epidemiologist.

Families, cancer and dying

Cancer involves change in individuals and families. Family practitioners are in a unique position to meet the needs of families where cancer is present. By coordinating differing therapeutic interventions and developing therapeutic support within the community the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of those who are dying, and the needs of their families, can be met.