1,771 research outputs found
Tai Chi movements for wellbeing - evaluation of a British Lung Foundation pilot
No full textAims:
In breathless individuals with respiratory disease, pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) can improve exercise capacity, symptoms and ability to cope with their condition. However, access is often limited, and adherence can be poor. Thus, there is interest in developing alternative and complementary forms of exercise intervention and tai chi may be effective in this context.
Method:
The British Lung Foundation worked in collaboration with ‘Tai Chi Movements for Wellbeing’ Training to train leaders to run community-based tai chi groups in the UK. Leaders received funding to run 3 months of once-a-week classes consisting of a 12 movement sequence of tai chi. Participants completed a questionnaire survey to evaluate the service at the start of their first session and again after 3 months.
Results:
Ten tai chi groups recruited 128 participants, 65% women, mean (standard deviation (SD)) age 70.1 (7.4) years at baseline. Seventy individuals completed the follow-up questionnaire at 3 months. Participants demonstrated an improvement in Medical Research Council (MRC) Dyspnoea Score pre 3 (interquartile range (IQR) = 1.8), post 2 (IQR = 1), p = .013 and disease burden; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) assessment test score pre 19.4 (8.7), post 17.9 (9.4), mean change –1.5 (confidence interval (CI): –2.89 to –0.127), p = .033. Those who completed the programme had a worse baseline COPD assessment test (CAT) score and were more likely to have participated in maintenance exercise previously. Qualitative feedback suggested that participants felt the classes had helped with breathlessness and relaxation.
Conclusion:
Establishing a tai chi for wellbeing programme for people with respiratory disease is feasible, with a reasonable level of compliance, and is perceived to be helpful by participants
Nabootsing N.S. baansignaleringssysteem: Deel I : Ontvanger schakeling
No full textBij de N.S. bestaat behoefte om te beschikken over een nabootser van het transmissie systeem voor de overdracht van signaleringen en commando's (het N.S. Quiktrol-systeem). Dit verslag beschrijft de realisering van een dergelijke nabootser, m.b.v. een M6800 microprocessor en dan vooral de ontvanger schakeling.Applied SciencesElectrotechniekLaboratorium voor automatische verkeerssysteme
LITERARY TEXTBY N.S. LESKOV AS A SYSTEM OF LANGUAGE MEANS
No full textThe article gives a linguistic and stylistic analysis of N.S. Leskov’s fiction. One of the main ambitions of the author is to reveal the possible correlation between the language features of N.S. Leskov’s heroes and the Russian cultural tradition of the past. Some original and vivid examples of the speech of representatives of specific Russian professions and estates are analyzed as well as linguistic parallels between complicated church language and the writer’s system of stylistic devices are defined. We show new interlinks between historic, linguistic and literary aspects of the text and especially N.S. Leskov’s unusual world as a form of culturally-historically determined consciousness. We pay special attention to Old Slavonic «experiment» in Leskov’s texts and skaz , polyphony of names of his heroes and writers’ examples of folk etymology. We came to the conclusion that in The Notes of the Unknown different stylistic and linguistic devices are combined
The Impact of Homogeneous Versus Heterogeneous Emphysema on Dynamic Hyperinflation in Patients with Severe COPD Assessed for Lung Volume Reduction
No full textDynamic hyperinflation (DH) is a pathophysiologic hallmark of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of emphysema distribution on DH during a maximal cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET) in patients with severe COPD.This was a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data among severe COPD patients who underwent thoracic high-resolution computed tomography, full lung function measurements and maximal CPET with inspiratory manouvers as assessment for a lung volume reduction procedure. ΔIC was calculated by subtracting the end-exercise inspiratory capacity (eIC) from resting IC (rIC) and expressed as a percentage of rIC (ΔIC %). Emphysema quantification was conducted at 3 predefined levels using the syngo PULMO-CT (Siemens AG); a difference >25% between best and worse slice was defined as heterogeneous emphysema.Fifty patients with heterogeneous (62.7% male; 60.9 ± 7.5 years old; FEV1% = 32.4 ± 11.4) and 14 with homogeneous emphysema (61.5% male; 62.5 ± 5.9 years old; FEV1% = 28.1 ± 10.3) fulfilled the enrolment criteria. The groups were matched for all baseline variables. ΔIC% was significantly higher in homogeneous emphysema (39.8% ± 9.8% vs.31.2% ± 13%, p = 0.031), while no other CPET parameter differed between the groups. Upper lobe predominance of emphysema correlated positively with peak oxygen pulse, peak oxygen uptake and peak respiratory rate, and negatively with ΔIC%. Homogeneous emphysema is associated with more DH during maximum exercise in COPD patients. © 2015 A.K. Boutou, Z. Zoumot, A. Nair, C. Davey, D.M. Hansell, A. Jamurtas, M.I. Polkey, N.S. Hopkinson
Increased expression of H19/miR-675 is associated with a low fat free mass index in patients with COPD
No full textBackgroundLoss of muscle mass and strength is a significant comorbidity in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that limits their quality of life and has prognostic implications but does not affect everyone equally. To identify mechanisms that may contribute to the susceptibility to a low muscle mass, we investigated microRNA (miRNA) expression, methylation status, and regeneration in quadriceps muscle from COPD patients and the effect of miRNAs on myoblast proliferation in vitro. The relationships of miRNA expression with muscle mass and strength was also determined in a group of healthy older men.MethodsWe identified miRNAs associated with a low fat-free mass (FFM) phenotype in a small group of patients with COPD using a PCR screen of 750 miRNAs. The expression of two differentially expressed miRNAs (miR-675 and miR-519a) was determined in an expanded group of COPD patients and their associations with FFM and strength identified. The association of these miRNAs with FFM and strength was also explored in a group of healthy community-dwelling older men. As the expression of the miRNAs associated with FFM could be regulated by methylation, the relative methylation of the H19 ICR was determined. Furthermore, the proportion of myofibres with centralized nuclei, as a marker of muscle regeneration, in the muscle of COPD patients was identified by immunofluorescence.ResultsImprinted miRNAs (miR-675 and from a cluster, C19MC which includes miR-519a) were differentially expressed in the quadriceps of patients with a low fat-free mass index (FFMI) compared to those with a normal FFMI. In larger cohorts, miR-675 and its host gene (H19) were higher in patients with a low FFMI and strength. The association of miR-519a expression with FFMI was present in male patients with severe COPD. Similar associations of miR expression with lean mass and strength were not observed in healthy community dwelling older men participating in the Hertfordshire Sarcopenia Study. Relative methylation of the H19 ICR was reduced in COPD patients with muscle weakness but was not associated with FFM. In vitro, miR-675 inhibited myoblast proliferation and patients with a low FFMI had fewer centralized nuclei suggesting miR-675 represses regeneration.ConclusionsThe data suggest that increased expression of miR-675/H19 and altered methylation of the H19 imprinting control region are associated with a low FFMI in patients with COPD but not in healthy community dwelling older men suggesting that epigenetic control of this loci may contribute to a susceptibility to a low FFMI.<br/
The Six-Minute Step Test as an Exercise Outcome in COPD
No full textNo additional data available. Originally Published in: Patel, S., Jones, S.E., Walsh, J.A., Barker, R.E., Polgar, O., Maddocks, M., Hopkinson, N.S., Nolan, C.M. and Man, W.D.-C. (2022) 'The Six-Minute Step Test as an Exercise Outcome in COPD', Annals ATS, 0 (in press), pp. 1-11. DOI: 10.1513/AnnalsATS.202206-516RL. Copyright © 2022 by the American Thoracic Society. The final publication is available at https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/10.1513/AnnalsATS.202206-516RL.NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship (NIHR300566); NIHR Clinical Doctoral Research Fellowship (ICA-CDRF-2017-03-018); NIHR Clinical Trials Fellowship (CTF-2017-06-005); British Lung Foundation Project Grant (IPFPG17-15); National Institute Health Research (NIHR) Doctoral Research Fellowship (DRF-2015-08-004); NIHR Research for Patient Benefit PB-PG-0816-20022; NIHR Career
Development Fellowship (CDF-2017-10-009); NIHR Applied Research Collaboration
South London (NIHR ARC South London) at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Western Eyes on the Latin East: The Chronique d’Ernoul et de Bernard le Trésorier and Robert of Clari’s Conquête de Constantinople
No full textThe article compares the narratives on the Fourth Crusade by Robert de Clari and the Ernoul-Bernard author; their similarities may go back to the cultural milieu of Corbie abbey, that was an important centre for the production of French historiography writtent in prose at the beginning of the thirteenth century. An appendix explores the status quaestionis about Bernard the Treasurer of Corbie abbey, whose name appears in the colophon of two manuscripts of the Ernoul-Bernard Chronique
The resurrection of the author
No full text81 leaves ; 29 cmIncludes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-81).In The Resurrection of the Author, Daniel Trainor-McKinnon supports a form of intentionalism by arguing that intentions and meaning are metaphysically separate from artworks. This form of intentionalism is what he calls externalist intentionalism, which is the theory of art interpretation that holds that intentions are often relevant (though not always necessary) to understanding artworks. Because it holds this, externalist intentionalism is an adequate response to both the anti-intentionalist objection that artists' intentions are inadmissible in critical examinations of artworks because they are external to those artworks, and the neo-Wittgensteinian intentionalist claim that intentions are internal properties of artworks. A consequent study of allusion shows that some features of art are dependent on intentions for their existence and correct interpretation, while a concluding section examines externalist intentionalism's compatibility with evaluative criticism
An artificial intelligence system to model and guide chemical synthesis planning by computer: a proposal
No full textOne of the central problems in applying computer methods to chemical synthesis planning is Search Guidance. The ability of a chemist to guide an interactive computer in its search for syntheses and the possibilities for self-guidance in Artificial Intelligence programs are both limited by the form and content of the search information that is made available as the exploration proceeds. A system for Search Modelling is proposed in this paper which can augment existing systems for synthesis planning and serce to gather, analyze and amplify the information generated during controlled exploration. The search management model is specified in a simple descriptive form and two example models are included in the paper. The guidance of search using te information gathered is specified by a rule set in the simple syntax of Condition=>Action pairs. A chemist can interactively modify this rule set.
Further, an advanced search model is presented which, by introducing the powerful concept of a Planning Space, allows the search for syntheses to go forward, backward and to leap into the middle under controlled conditions.Technical report DCS-TR-4
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