Effects of cognitive behavioral stress management on HIV-1 RNA, CD4 cell counts and psychosocial parameters of HIV-infected persons

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of cognitive-behavioral stress management (CBSM) training on clinical and psychosocial markers in HIV-infected persons. METHODS: A randomized controlled trial in four HIV outpatient clinics of 104 HIV-infected persons taking combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), measuring HIV-1 surrogate markers, adherence to therapy and well-being 12 months after 12 group sessions of 2 h CBSM training. RESULTS: Intent-to-treat analyses showed no effects on HIV-1 surrogate markers in the CBSM group compared with the control group: HIV-1 RNA < 50 copies/ml in 81.1% [95% confidence interval (CI), 68.0-90.6] and 74.5% (95% CI, 60.4-85.7), respectively (P = 0.34), and mean CD4 cell change from baseline of 53.0 cells/microl (95% CI, 4.1-101.8) and 15.5 cells/microl (95% CI, -34.3 to 65.4), respectively (P = 0.29). Self-reported adherence to therapy did not differ between groups at baseline (P = 0.53) or at 12 month's post-intervention (P = 0.47). Significant benefits of CBSM over no intervention were observed in mean change of quality of life scores: physical health 2.9 (95% CI, 0.7-5.1) and -0.2 (95% CI, -2.1 to 1.8), respectively (P = 0.05); mental health 4.8 (95% CI, 1.8-7.3) and -0.5 (95% CI, -3.3 to 2.2) (P = 0.02); anxiety -2.1 (95% CI, -3.6 to -1.0) and 0.3 (95% CI, -0.7 to 1.4), respectively (P = 0.002); and depression -2.1 (95% CI, -3.2 to -0.9) and 0.02 (95% CI, -1.0 to 1.1), respectively (P = 0.001). Alleviation of depression and anxiety symptoms were most pronounced among participants with high psychological distress at baseline. CONCLUSION: CBSM training of HIV-infected persons taking on cART does not improve clinical outcome but has lasting effects on quality of life and psychological well-being.

L'expérience de Iéna démontre les avantages de la diversité végétale pour les prairies

A number of studies suggest that there could be a positive relationship between the productivity of a plant community and its floristic diversity. Besides, for grasslands, productivity is not the only desirable advantage. The Jena trials, constituting a large-scale and long-duration experiment, were set up to tackle these questions. In the plots of the Jena trials, the number of species varies from 1 to 60. Various sub-trials deal with the effects of the composition and the diversity of a pasture sward on its productivity, the diversity of certain organisms, and several ecological processes. The results from the first 6 years show clearly that there exist positive relationships between the number of species, the presence of legumes and/or the functional diversity on the one hand, and on the other the productivity, the resistance to encroachment by plants and to pathogenic fungi, and the cycles of nutrients. The positive effects of the floristic diversity on the processes at the scale of the eco-system are of importance to the agricultural production and to the general environmental impact.

Effect of detraining on bone and muscle tissue in subjects with chronic spinal cord injury after a period of electrically-stimulated cycling: a small cohort study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate adaptive changes in bone and muscle parameters in the paralysed limbs after detraining or reduced functional electrical stimulation (FES) induced cycling following high-volume FES-cycling in chronic spinal cord injury. SUBJECTS: Five subjects with motor-sensory complete spinal cord injury (age 38.6 years, lesion duration 11.4 years) were included. Four subjects stopped FES-cycling completely after the training phase whereas one continued reduced FES-cycling (2-3 times/week, for 30 min). METHODS: Bone and muscle parameters were assessed in the legs using peripheral quantitative computed tomography at 6 and 12 months after cessation of high-volume FES-cycling. RESULTS: Gains achieved in the distal femur by high-volume FES-cycling were partly maintained at one year of detraining: 73.0% in trabecular bone mineral density, 63.8% in total bone mineral density, 59.4% in bone mineral content and 22.1% in muscle cross-sectional area in the thigh. The subject who continued reduced FES-cycling maintained 96.2% and 95.0% of the previous gain in total and trabecular bone mineral density, and 98.5% in muscle cross-sectional area. CONCLUSION: Bone and muscle benefits achieved by one year of high-volume FES-cycling are partly preserved after 12 months of detraining, whereas reduced cycling maintains bone and muscle mass gained. This suggests that high-volume FES-cycling has clinical relevance for at least one year after detraining.

Risk of severe asthma episodes predicted from fluctuation analysis of airway function

Asthma is an increasing health problem worldwide, but the long-term temporal pattern of clinical symptoms is not understood and predicting asthma episodes is not generally possible. We analyse the time series of peak expiratory flows, a standard measurement of airway function that has been assessed twice daily in a large asthmatic population during a long-term crossover clinical trial. Here we introduce an approach to predict the risk of worsening airflow obstruction by calculating the conditional probability that, given the current airway condition, a severe obstruction will occur within 30 days. We find that, compared with a placebo, a regular long-acting bronchodilator (salmeterol) that is widely used to improve asthma control decreases the risk of airway obstruction. Unexpectedly, however, a regular short-acting beta2-agonist bronchodilator (albuterol) increases this risk. Furthermore, we find that the time series of peak expiratory flows show long-range correlations that change significantly with disease severity, approaching a random process with increased variability in the most severe cases. Using a nonlinear stochastic model, we show that both the increased variability and the loss of correlations augment the risk of unstable airway function. The characterization of fluctuations in airway function provides a quantitative basis for objective risk prediction of asthma episodes and for evaluating the effectiveness of therapy.

A comparison of the strength of biodiversity effects across multiple functions

In order to predict which ecosystem functions are most at risk from biodiversity loss, meta-analyses have generalised results from biodiversity experiments over different sites and ecosystem types. In contrast, comparing the strength of biodiversity effects across a large number of ecosystem processes measured in a single experiment permits more direct comparisons. Here, we present an analysis of 418 separate measures of 38 ecosystem processes. Overall, 45 % of processes were significantly affected by plant species richness, suggesting that, while diversity affects a large number of processes not all respond to biodiversity. We therefore compared the strength of plant diversity effects between different categories of ecosystem processes, grouping processes according to the year of measurement, their biogeochemical cycle, trophic level and compartment (above- or belowground) and according to whether they were measures of biodiversity or other ecosystem processes, biotic or abiotic and static or dynamic. Overall, and for several individual processes, we found that biodiversity effects became stronger over time. Measures of the carbon cycle were also affected more strongly by plant species richness than were the measures associated with the nitrogen cycle. Further, we found greater plant species richness effects on measures of biodiversity than on other processes. The differential effects of plant diversity on the various types of ecosystem processes indicate that future research and political effort should shift from a general debate about whether biodiversity loss impairs ecosystem functions to focussing on the specific functions of interest and ways to preserve them individually or in combination.

„Neko bi pomislio da se barem delimično sačuva dogma o monarhiji”: Antilatinski traktati Varlaama Kalabrijskog u srpskoslovenskom prevodu 14. veka

Die antilateinischen Traktate von Gregorios Palamas und Barlaam von Kalabrien stellten für die serbischen Übersetzer des 14. Jahrhunderts eine grosse Herausforderung dar – nicht nur wegen ihres dogmatischen Inhalts, sondern auch wegen des ausgeprägt polemischen Charakters ihrer Argumentation. In diesem Aufsatz wird die argumentative Form der zwei Traktate („opuscula“ ) Barlaams von Kalabrien analysiert, die in cod. Dečani 88 enthalten sind (fol. 38r-81r). Der zweite von ihnen (fol. 69v-81r) richtet sich an ein griechisches (orthodoxes) Auditorium; die Anreden an die Lateiner, die sich darin finden, haben rein rhetorischen Charakter. Der erste Traktat (fol. 39r-69r), der während der Unionsverhandlungen des Jahres 1334/1335 entstand, hat jedoch eine für die byzantinische Unionspolemik eher ungewöhnliche Form: der Dialog mit der Gegenseite ist hier keine rhetorische Fiktion, sondern ein ernstes Anliegen des Autors. Dies hat bereits bei der Rezeption des Traktats im griechisch-athonitischen Milieu den Verdacht geweckt, Barlaam habe den Lateinern unzulässige Zugeständnisse gemacht. Barlaam hat versucht, diesen Verdacht durch metakommunikative Kommentare zu entkräften, die ausschliesslich in der serbisch-kirchenslavischen Übersetzung von Dečani 88 enthalten sind. Der Übersetzer der Traktate hat deren argumentative Form im wesentlichen nicht angetastet und nur gelegentlich versucht, die Zugehörigkeit der einzelnen Argumente dem Leser durch Marginalscholien deutlich zu machen.