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Consistent Response (consistent + response)
Selected AbstractsTopiramate in Patients with Learning Disability and Refractory EpilepsyEPILEPSIA, Issue 4 2002Kevin Kelly Summary: ,Purpose: Management of seizures in learning disabled people is challenging. This prospective study explored the efficacy and tolerability of adjunctive topiramate (TPM) in patients with learning disability and refractory epilepsy attending a single centre. Methods: Sixty-four patients (36 men, 28 women, aged 16,65 years) were begun on adjunctive TPM after a 3-month prospective baseline on unchanged medication. Efficacy end points were reached when a consistent response was achieved over a 6-month period at optimal TPM dosing. These were seizure freedom or ,50% seizure reduction (responder). Appetite, behaviour, alertness, and sleep were assessed by caregivers throughout the study. Results: Sixteen (25%) patients became seizure free with adjunctive TPM. There were 29 (45%) responders. A further 10 (16%) patients experiencing a more modest improvement in seizure control continued on treatment at the behest of their family and/or caregivers. TPM was discontinued in the remaining nine (14%) patients, mainly because of side effects. Final TPM doses and plasma concentrations varied widely among the efficacy outcome groups. Many patients responding well to adjunctive TPM did so on ,200 mg daily. Mean carer scores did not worsen with TPM therapy. Conclusions: TPM was effective as add-on therapy in learning-disabled people with difficult-to-control epilepsy. Seizure freedom is a realistic goal in this population. [source] Olanzapine as an Abortive Agent for Cluster HeadacheHEADACHE, Issue 8 2001Todd D. Rozen MD Objective.,To evaluate olanzapine as a cluster headache abortive agent in an open-label trial. Background.,Cluster headache is the most painful headache syndrome known. There are very few recognized abortive therapies for cluster headache and fewer for patients who have contraindications to vasoconstrictive drugs. Methods.,Olanzapine was given as an abortive agent to five patients with cluster headache in an open-label trial. The initial olanzapine dose was 5 mg, and the dose was increased to 10 mg if there was no pain relief. The dosage was decreased to 2.5 mg if the 5-mg dose was effective but caused adverse effects. To be included in the study, each patient had to treat at least two attacks with either an effective dose or the highest tolerated dose. Results.,Five patients completed the investigation (four men, one woman; four with chronic cluster, one with episodic cluster). Olanzapine reduced cluster pain by at least 80% in four of five patients, and two patients became headache-free after taking the drug. Olanzapine typically alleviated pain within 20 minutes after oral dosing and treatment response was consistent across multiple treated attacks. The only adverse event was sleepiness. Conclusions.,Olanzapine appears to be a good abortive agent for cluster headache. It alleviates pain quickly and has a consistent response across multiple treated attacks. It appears to work in both episodic and chronic cluster headache. [source] Non-local damage modelling of concrete: a procedure for the determination of model parametersINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 7 2007Giang D. Nguyen Abstract This paper presents a procedure for the determination of parameters of non-local damage models. This is to assure a consistent response of a non-local damage model, as choice of the internal length and other parameters of the model are varied. Correlations between the internal length and other parameters governing the local constitutive behaviour of the model are addressed and exploited. Focus is put on the relationship between the internal length of the non-local model and the width of the fracture process zone. Numerical examples are used to demonstrate the rigour of the proposed method. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Putting harm reduction into an adolescent contextJOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH, Issue 1 2001YA Bonomo Abstract: Drug use is now widespread amongst Australian youth. Substance abuse and dependence are becoming increasingly significant health problems. Approximately 50% of 17-year-old Australians report regular consumption of alcohol and nearly 30% report tobacco smoking. The age of onset of substance use is reported to be decreasing. Between 1993 and 1995 the proportion of heroin users who had used the drug before the age of 16 years increased from 2% to 14%. The debate about youth substance use tends to be polarized between the views of Zero Tolerance and Legalization of drugs. The harm reduction approach spans between these two extremes. Examples of harm reduction strategies, such as education campaigns on safe injecting and needle exchange programs, have been effective in curbing the spread of blood-borne viruses such as HIV amongst intravenous drug using youth. The harm reduction approach, taking social context and developmental stage of the individual into account, may also be applied to adolescents at the less extreme end of the substance use spectrum. It is proposed that the harm reduction framework used in this way enables a rational, relevant and consistent response to contemporary youth substance use, aiming to minimize drug related harm. [source] Interactions between histamine and bradykinin in stimulation of ischaemically sensitive cardiac afferents in felinesTHE JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 3 2005Liang-Wu Fu Cardiac spinal afferents are activated during myocardial ischaemia. Our previous studies have shown that during ischaemia, histamine and bradykinin (BK) stimulate cardiac spinal afferents. Because the two mediators are released together during ischaemia, the present study examined the interactions between these two mediators with respect to their influence on ischaemically sensitive cardiac afferents. Single-unit cardiac afferent activity was recorded from the left sympathetic chain or rami communicantes (T2,T5) in anaesthetized cats. Fifty-five ischaemically sensitive cardiac afferents (conduction velocity (CV) = 0.2,5.6 m s,1, 8 A,- and 47 C-fibres) were identified. Administration of histamine (10 ,g kg,1) and BK (1 ,g) in combination into the left atrium (LA) caused an additive response in 16 afferents compared with administration of either BK or histamine alone (2.62 ± 0.39 versus 1.67 ± 0.20 versus 1.24 ± 0.23 impulses s,1 (imp s,1), BK + histamine versus BK versus histamine). To further evaluate interactions between these mediators, we observed that injection of histamine (10 ,g kg,1, LA) 4 min after the administration of BK (1 ,g, LA) induced a significantly larger cardiac afferent response than the response to histamine before BK (1.24 ± 0.23 versus 1.96 ± 0.39 imp s,1, before versus after, n= 10). In contrast, six other afferents responded reproducibly to repeated injections of histamine (10 ,g kg,1, LA) in the absence of BK. BK sensitization of the afferent response to histamine lasted for less than 10 min. Cyclooxygenase blockade with indomethacin (5 mg kg,1, i.v.) abolished BK sensitization of the response to histamine (1.09 ± 0.11 versus 1.11 ± 0.10 imp s,1, n= 10). Conversely, the response of most (7/9) cardiac afferents to repeat application of BK (1 ,g, LA) 4 min after histamine (10 ,g kg,1, LA) was attenuated compared with the BK response before histamine (1.84 ± 0.25 versus 1.31 ± 0.18 imp s,1, before versus after, P < 0.05). Repeat BK (1 ,g, LA) induced a consistent response in five other afferents in the absence of histamine. Thus, BK interacts with histamine, and together they cause a larger response than either one alone. BK sensitizes cardiac afferents responding to histamine in a time-dependent fashion, and the BK sensitization effect is dependent on an intact cyclooxygenase pathway. Conversely, histamine reduces the response of most afferents to BK. [source] Low-resolution remotely sensed images of winegrape vineyards map spatial variability in planimetric canopy area instead of leaf area indexAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF GRAPE AND WINE RESEARCH, Issue 1 2008A. HALL Abstract Background and Aims:, Knowledge of the spatial variability of grapevine canopy density is useful in managing the variability of grape composition and yield. Rapid assessment of the characteristics of vineyards by remote sensing offers distinct advantages over ground-based measurements. In an effort to capture such advantages, this study aimed to assess the relative contribution to LAI of grapevine canopy density and grapevine canopy area derived from high-spatial-resolution airborne digital imagery. Methods and Results:, High-spatial-resolution airborne NDVI imagery of minimally pruned, unconfined (i.e. not confined by trellising) grapevines was used to partition image pixels into grapevine-only and non-grapevine groupings. An evaluation of the relative contributions of grapevine planimetric area (number of grapevine pixels across a single row) and leaf layers (NDVI of grapevine-only pixels) found that the variability observed across the vineyard was dominated by changes in canopy area rather than grapevine-only NDVI. Conclusion:, The primary predictive variable of grapevine LAI is canopy area. Low-spatial-resolution NDVI imagery of minimally pruned, unconfined vineyards is therefore effective in mapping spatial variability in planimetric canopy area, rather than LAI. Significance of the Study:, The process of estimating grapevine LAI from mixed pixels has incorrectly assumed that both components of LAI within a pixel's footprint, namely the number of leaf layers and planimetric canopy area, produce a consistent response in NDVI. Correlations between NDVI and LAI reported in previous studies based on low-resolution imagery most likely relied on the proxy relationship between NDVI and canopy area. [source] The molecular receptive range of an olfactory receptor in vivo (Drosophila melanogaster Or22a)DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROBIOLOGY, Issue 14 2006Daniela Pelz Abstract Understanding how odors are coded within an olfactory system requires knowledge about its input. This is constituted by the molecular receptive ranges (MRR) of olfactory sensory neurons that converge in the glomeruli of the olfactory bulb (vertebrates) or the antennal lobe (AL, insects). Aiming at a comprehensive characterization of MRRs in Drosophila melanogaster we measured odor-evoked calcium responses in olfactory sensory neurons that express the olfactory receptor Or22a. We used an automated stimulus application system to screen [Ca2+] responses to 104 odors both in the antenna (sensory transduction) and in the AL (neuronal transmission). At 10,2 (vol/vol) dilution, 39 odors elicited at least a half-maximal response. For these odorants we established dose-response relationships over their entire dynamic range. We tested 15 additional chemicals that are structurally related to the most efficient odors. Ethyl hexanoate and methyl hexanoate were the best stimuli, eliciting consistent responses at dilutions as low as 10,9. Two substances led to calcium decrease, suggesting that Or22a might be constitutively active, and that these substances might act as inverse agonists, reminiscent of G-protein coupled receptors. There was no difference between the antennal and the AL MRR. Furthermore we show that Or22a has a broad yet selective MRR, and must be functionally described both as a specialist and a generalist. Both these descriptions are ecologically relevant. Given that adult Drosophila use approximately 43 ORs, a complete description of all MRRs appears now in reach. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Neurobiol, 2006 [source] Do arthropod assemblages display globally consistent responses to intensified agricultural land use and management?GLOBAL ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2008S. J. Attwood ABSTRACT Aim, To determine whether arthropod richness and abundance for combined taxa, feeding guilds and broad taxonomic groups respond in a globally consistent manner to a range of agricultural land-use and management intensification scenarios. Location, Mixed land-use agricultural landscapes, globally. Methods, We performed a series of meta-analyses using arthropod richness and abundance data derived from the published literature. Richness and abundance were compared among land uses that commonly occur in agricultural landscapes and that represent a gradient of increasing intensification. These included land-use comparisons, such as wooded native vegetation compared with improved pasture, and a management comparison, reduced-input cropping compared with conventional cropping. Data were analysed using three different meta-analytical techniques, including a simple vote counting method and a formal fixed-effects/random-effects meta-analysis. Results, Arthropod richness was significantly higher in areas of less intensive land use. The decline in arthropod richness was greater between native vegetation and agricultural land uses than among different agricultural land uses. These patterns were evident for all taxa combined, predators and decomposers, but not herbivorous taxa. Overall, arthropod abundance was greater in native vegetation than in agricultural lands and under reduced-input cropping compared with conventional cropping. Again, this trend was largely mirrored by predators and decomposers, but not herbivores. Main conclusions, The greater arthropod richness found in native vegetation relative to agricultural land types indicates that in production landscapes still containing considerable native vegetation, retention of that vegetation may well be the most effective method of conserving arthropod biodiversity. Conversely, in highly intensified agricultural landscapes with little remaining native vegetation, the employment of reduced-input crop management and the provision of relatively low-intensity agricultural land uses, such as pasture, may prove effective in maintaining arthropod diversity, and potentially in promoting functionally important groups such as predators and decomposers. [source] Predicting plant species' responses to grazingJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 5 2001Peter A. Vesk Summary 1The aim of this study was to identify whether plant species show consistent responses to livestock grazing. The analyses were based on 35 published studies from Australian rangelands providing 55 species response lists. The primary data set comprised 1554 responses from 829 species. 2Eight-hundred and twenty-nine species were categorized as increasers, decreasers or neutral under grazing. Of 324 species that occurred in at least two response lists, 133 (41%) responded inconsistently, increasing at least once and decreasing at least once. While 59% of species responded consistently, these results suggest that our ability to predict vegetation change under grazing is limited. 3Particular species were not inherently more or less consistent. Rather, as species occurred in more trials, the likelihood of at least one opposite response increased; no species that occurred at least eight times was wholly consistent. A binomial model indicated that the probability of an opposite response, across all species, was 0·275. 4Contrary responses within species must result from context rather than from species' traits. Species were more likely to decrease in response to grazing at lower rainfall than at higher rainfall. Forbs tended to increase under grazing at sites where wet seasons were cooler. Changing the grazing animal was weakly correlated with change in response direction, although not enough for it to be useful for manipulating pasture composition. We found little support for ideas that different responses within species are due to differences in alternative forage available, or due to non-linearity of response to grazing intensity. 5At present it appears we can predict species response direction about three-quarters of the time, at a continental scale. This represents an upper limit of the reliability of prediction based on species' traits alone. Presently we do not know what aspects of the context might allow us to predict reliably the remaining one-quarter of responses. [source] Investigating the effects of crop type, fertility management and crop protection on the activity of beneficial invertebrates in an extensive farm management comparison trialANNALS OF APPLIED BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2009M.D. Eyre Abstract The activity of 11 groups of invertebrates, mainly predators and parasites, was investigated in 2005 and 2006 in a plot trial system on a farm in northern England, where the effects of organic and conventional fertility and crop protection management were separated within different crop types. Invertebrate activity was assessed using pitfall traps and suction sampling. Mixed effects models indicated that crop type significantly affected activity in all 11 groups. Crop protection applications had only a limited impact on activity but fertility management had considerable effects in some crops. Most differences were in barley, wheat and grass/clover, with less in vegetable and bean plots. Carabidae, Lycosidae, Staphylinidae, Linyphiidae and Braconidae gave consistent responses to fertility management, with more activity of the first two groups in organic plots and more of the other three in conventional plots. However, Coccinellidae and Ichneumonidae were not consistent in their activity between crops. After the effects of crop type had been partialled out, a constrained ordination showed that the novel combination of organic fertility and conventional crop protection had the most influence on group activity, with the combination of organic fertility and organic crop protection also significant. Maximising the activity of beneficial invertebrates in organic and sustainable farming systems requires a basic understanding of the effects of both crop type and fertility management, as well as crop protection. [source] | |||||||||||||