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Therapy dogs effectively reduce stress in college preparatory students

Ikeda et al. | Nov 27, 2023

Therapy dogs effectively reduce stress in college preparatory students
Image credit: Ryan Stone

In this article the authors looked at the effect of spending time with a therapy dog before and after stressful events. They found that interacting with a therapy before a stressful event showed more significant reduction in signs of stress compared to interacting with a therapy dog after stressful events have already occurred.

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Analyzing resilience in a sample population as a novel qualifier for triage in psychological first aid

Ramesh et al. | Apr 18, 2023

Analyzing resilience in a sample population as a novel qualifier for triage in psychological first aid
Image credit: Mat Napo

While serving as an immediate address for psychological safety and stability, psychological first aid (PFA) currently lacks the incorporation of triage. Without triage, patients cannot be prioritized in correspondence to condition severity that is often called for within emergency conditions. To disentangle the relevance of a potential triage system to PFA, the authors of this paper have developed a method to quantify resilience - a prominent predictor of the capability to recover from a disaster. With this resilience index, they have quantified resilience of differing age, race, and sex demographics to better inform the practice of PFA and potential demographic prioritization via a triage system.

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A Quantitative Assessment of Time, Frequency, and Time-frequency Algorithms for Automated Seizure Detection and Monitoring

Vangal et al. | Sep 28, 2020

A Quantitative Assessment of Time, Frequency, and Time-frequency Algorithms for Automated Seizure Detection and Monitoring

Each year, over 100,000 patients die from Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). A reliable seizure warning system can help patients stay safe. This work presents a comprehensive, comparative analysis of three different signal processing algorithms for automated seizure/ictal detection. The experimental results show that the proposed methods can be effective for accurate automated seizure detection and monitoring in clinical care.

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Comparative Analysis of Vital Capacities of Athletes, Singers and Other Students of Age 13-14 Years: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study

Taneja et al. | Sep 30, 2019

Comparative Analysis of Vital Capacities of Athletes, Singers and Other Students of Age 13-14 Years: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study

Physical activity when performed regularly has beneficial effects on all systems of the body, including pulmonary functions. This study, conducted at Springdales School in Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi, aimed to determine the effect of sports and singing on the vital capacity (the maximum amount of air a person can expel from the lungs after a maximum inhalation), an important measure of pulmonary health.

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Comparing the Dietary Preference of Caenorhabditis elegans for Bacterial Probiotics vs. Escherichia coli.

Lulla et al. | Dec 18, 2020

Comparing the Dietary Preference of <i>Caenorhabditis elegans</i> for Bacterial Probiotics vs. <i>Escherichia coli</i>.

In this experiment, the authors used C. elegans as a simple model organism to observe the impact of probiotics on the human digestive system. The results of the experiments showed that the C. elegans were, on average, most present in Chobani cultures over other tested yogurts. While not statistically significant, these results still demonstrated that C. elegans might prefer Chobani cultures over other probiotic yogurts, which may also indicate greater gut benefits from Chobani over the other yogurt brands tested.

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The Effectiveness of Different Palate Relievers Against a Hot Chili Pepper Sauce

Avendaño-Rodríguez et al. | Jun 11, 2016

The Effectiveness of Different Palate Relievers Against a Hot Chili Pepper Sauce

Cuisine with hot chili peppers can be tasty, but sometimes painful to consume because of the burning sensations caused by the capsaicin molecule. The authors wanted to find the palate reliever that decreases the burning sensation of capsaicin the most by testing water, soft drink, olive oil, milk, and ice-cream as possible candidates. The authors hypothesized that olive oil would be the best palate reliever as it is non-polar like the capsaicin molecule. The authors surveyed 12 panelists with low, medium, and high spice tolerances and found that across all levels of spice tolerance, milk and ice-cream were the best palate relievers and soft drink the worst.

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Dune flora can emerge from seed islands (Concon, Chile)

Farías Giusti-Bilz et al. | Dec 07, 2020

Dune flora can emerge from seed islands (Concon, Chile)

In the field of ecology, little is known about how plant communities originate. Through the process of characterizing dunes, mounds of sand formed by the wind, and their plant communities we can get to know the physiognomy and floristic composition of the territory. Based on the hypothesis that dune flora can emerge from seed islands: holes in the sand 6 cm deep containing a mixture of seeds, broken branches of shrubbery, and rabbit feces, during spring, the authors determined the composition of 20 seed islands in the sand dunes of Concon, Chile and measured how many seeds germinated in each one.

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Pollination Patterns by Green-Backed Firecrown Hummingbirds

Freeland et al. | May 28, 2020

Pollination Patterns by Green-Backed Firecrown Hummingbirds

The Green-backed Firecrown hummingbird is an essential pollinator in the temperate rainforests of southern South America. However, little is known about the ecology of these birds. Authors examined the foraging patterns of these birds identifying interesting differences in foraging patterns among season, age and sex.

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