Pain management in palliative care : choice of analgesia

Pain occurs in 40 to 80% of patients with advanced progressive disease.1 Despite the publications of various guidelines and research in this area together with an extensive choice of analgesia, pain management still presents a challenge in everyday practice. Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage2 or in simpler terms “pain is what the patient says hurts.”peer-reviewe

LvNotch signaling plays a dual role in regulating the position of the ectoderm-endoderm boundary in the sea urchin embryo

The molecular mechanisms guiding the positioning of the ectoderm-endoderm boundary along the animal-vegetal axis of the sea urchin embryo remain largely unknown. We report here a role for the sea urchin homolog of the Notch receptor, LvNotch, in mediating the position of this boundary. Overexpression of an activated form of LvNotch throughout the embryo shifts the ectoderm-endoderm boundary more animally along the animal-vegetal axis, whereas expression of a dominant negative form shifts the border vegetally. Mosaic experiments that target activated and dominant negative forms of LvNotch into individual blastomeres of the early embryo, combined with lineage analyses, further reveal that LvNotch signaling mediates the position of this boundary by distinct mechanisms within the animal versus vegetal portions of the embryo. In the animal region of the embryo, LvNotch signaling acts cell autonomously to promote endoderm formation more animally, while in the vegetal portion, LvNotch signaling also promotes the ectoderm-endoderm boundary more animally, but through a cell non-autonomous mechanism. We further demonstrate that vegetal LvNotch signaling controls the localization of nuclear β-catenin at the ectoderm-endoderm boundary. Based on these results, we propose that LvNotch signaling promotes the position of the ectoderm-endoderm boundary more animally via two mechanisms: (1) a cell-autonomous function within the animal region of the embryo, and (2) a cell non-autonomous role in the vegetal region that regulates a signal(s) mediating ectoderm-endoderm position, possibly through the control of nuclear β-catenin at the boundary

Evaluating an online support package delivered within a disability unemployment service: study protocol for a randomised controlled feasibility study

Background Mental health problems such as anxiety and depression are known to be higher in those who are unemployed. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a recognised support for people with such problems and can improve the ability of people to get back to work.<p></p> Methods/design Participants with symptoms of low mood will be recruited from the disability employment service, Remploy. Participants will receive either immediate or delayed access to an online CBT-based life skills intervention, the “Living Life” package. The primary end point will be at 3 months when the delayed group will be offered the intervention. This feasibility study will test the trial design and assess recruitment, retention, acceptability and adherence, as well as providing efficacy data.<p></p> Discussion The study will inform the design and sample size for a future full randomised controlled trial (RCT) which will be carried out to determine the effectiveness of the online package in improving mood and employment status.<p></p&gt

Language Research and Revitalization Through a Community-University Partnership: The Mi’gmaq Research Partnership

This paper discusses a collaboration between a university linguistics department and an Indigenous community, with the joint aim to increase the vitality of, and knowledge about, Mi’gmaq (Eastern Algonquian). It describes the history of the language in the community and how the partnership was initially formed. It discusses several joint initiatives: the development of digital language-learning resources, a class curriculum, and the hosting of an intergenerational open language workshop in the community. The authors share the models of work and lessons that have influenced them as this partnership has grown.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

Analogue Modelling of Inverted Oblique Rift Systems

The geometric evolution of brittle fault systems in inverted oblique and offset rift systems has been simulated using scaled sandbox analogue models. Dry fine-grained quartz sand was used to represent the brittle upper crust. Extensional faults geometries in the models were governed by the geometry and orientation of a stretching zone at the base of the models. Oblique rift models were characterized by segmented en-echelon border fault systems trending parallel to the rift axis and the underlying zone of basement stretching. Offset rift models promoted highly-segmented border faults as well as offset sub-basins within the rift. In both types of models, intra-rift fault arrays were oriented sub-perpendicular to the extension direction. Inversion of the oblique and offset extensional models was achieved by horizontal shortening. This resulted in partial inversion of the border and intra-rift faults as well as the formation of new reverse faults. The geometries, distribution, orientations and number of these new reverse faults were strongly controlled by the earlier-formed fault extensional architectures. At the margins of the rift zone, shortening was mainly accommodated by partial inversion of the border faults together with the formation of hanging-wall bypass faults and footwall shortcut thrusts. Inversion of the offset rift models produced reactivation of the extensional accommodation zones as soft-linked transfer zones between new thrust faults. The analogue model results have been compared with natural inversion structures in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and the Ukrainian Donbas fold belt. The analogue modelling results suggest that the High Atlas formed as the result of oblique inversion of an oblique rift system, and the contractional structures in the Ukranian Donbas belt were generated by partial inversion of the earlier-formed Donbas extensional graben via two major newly developed short-cuts that uplifted and exhumed the basin

Insights into the Early Evolution of the Côte d’Ivoire Margin (West Africa)

A tectono-stratigraphic analysis of a broadband 3D seismic survey over the outer slope of Côte d’Ivoire margin, west Africa, revealed that Cenomanian and younger strata seal well-developed rift fault blocks up to 15 km across. Growth strata indicate that these were formed during rifting that culminated in seafloor spreading in the late Albian, challenging existing plate reconstructions for the opening of the equatorial Atlantic ocean. A previously unrecognized system of volcanic edifices linked at depth to a network of sill complexes has also been identified. These are aligned along a NE–SW trend, concordant with kilometre-wide ridges, interpreted as folds formed by steep, crustal faults with an oblique-slip component. These trends are similar to those of frac- ture zones in the region and indicate that the Côte d’Ivoire was a transform margin in the late Albian. These results highlight the potential of offshore Côte d’Ivoire for deep-water rift plays with large traps formed by extensional fault blocks together with prospective Albian reservoirs ponded in their hanging walls. In addition, the volcanoes and ridges generated seabed relief along the newly created transform margin, forming confined basins for poten- tial deposition of Turonian and younger turbidites and the generation of stratigraphic traps

Stratigraphy of the Southern part of the Sergipano Belt, NE Brazil : tectonic implications

A Faixa Sergipana (NE, Brasil) é uma cunha orogenética de direção geral ESE-WNW e que foi polideformada/metamorfisada em consequencia da colisão entre o Macifo Pernambuco- Alagoas, a norte, e o Cráton de São Francisco, a sul, no Ciclo Brasiliano, há cerca de 700-600 Ma, A partir de estudos anteriores em escala regional a faixa e dividida, de sul para norte, em tres domínios litotectônicos longitudinals, respectivamente assemelhados a pilhas de rochas sedimentares e vulcanicas construidas em ambiente cratdnico, miogeoclinal e eugeoclinal separados por falhas reversas, em geral de alto angulo, que indicam transporte de topo para SSW com transcorrgncia associada. Na parte norte da faixa são ainda individualizados dois outros domfnios de rochas fgneas e um domfnio de migmatitos e gnaisses. Modelos divergentes de evolução tectônica foram produzidos para a faixa, com base em interpretações a favor e contra a continuidade lateral entre os metasedimentos. Estudos litoestratigrdficos-estruturais realizados em escala de detalhe (1987-1995) em drea de 4000km2 circundando dois domos gnáissicos de embasamento e englobando a interface entre o craton, miogeoclinal e eugeoclinal, na parte sul da faixa Sergipana, revelam: (1) uma nova litoestratigrafia das rochas depositadas nos dois domínios mais a sul, distinta daquela dos estudos anteriores; (2) evidencias sedimentológicas, estruturais, metamórficas e geofísicas inequívocas a favor da continuidade entre os três domínios, através das suas falhas de borda; (3) a parte superior da seção da cobertura cratonica compreende uma sequencia de argilito, siltito, arenito, arcósio e grauvação lítica, com granulometria crescente para o topo; esta seção passa gradativamente a metasiltito e filito depositados na bacia, onde ocorre sobreposta ao grupo basal e sotoposta a diamictitos e carbonates do grupo superior, todos depositados em tomo dos domos de embasamento que ocupam o nucleo de antiformes regionais; (4) as caracteristicas sedimentológicas e o posicionamento estratigráfico inequívoco da sequência de granulometria crescente para o topo descartam modelos tipo bacia foreland anteriormente adotados para explicar o topo da seção da cobertura cratônica adjacente a Faixa Sergipana. Os dados permitem interpretar que o preenchimento da bacia precursora se deu em regime de sedimentação controlada por tectônica, no qual os domos de embasamento provavelmente atuaram como paleo-altos e as falhas regionais limitantes dos domínios (meta)vulcano-sedimentares sao provdveis falhas normals originais, que foram positivamente invertidas na fase de fechamento da bacia. A origem da parte superior da cobertura cratônica, cuja deve ser atribuída ao soerguimento e erosao de fonte a sul, e os controles tectonicos da sedimentacao, implicam consideravelmente para a evolução da Faixa Sergipana e do Cráton de São Francisco. _________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThe Sergipano Belt (NE Brazil) is a ESE-WNW trending volcano-sedimentary wedge polydeformed and metamorphosed (700-600Ma) due to the collision of the Pernambuco-Alagoas Massif, to the north, with the São Francisco Craton, to the south, during the Pan-African/Brasiliano orogeny. According to previous, regional-scale studies, the belt comprises three longitudinal lithotectonic domains with cratonic, miogeoclinal and eugeoclinal affinities, respectively from S to N, separated by regional, WNW-ESE trending, generally high-angle thrust-strike slip faults. Divergent tectonic evolution models were produced based on interpretations for and against the lateral continuity between these domains. Detailed stratigraphic-structural analysis from a 1:50,000 scale mapping carried out (1987-1995) in a 4000km2 area encompassing the interface between the three domains and surrounding two basement gneiss domes in the southern part of the belt, revealed: (1) the lithostratigraphy of the rocks deposited in the cratonic and miogeoclinal segments; (2) innequivocal evidence for the sedimentological, structural and metamorphic continuity across the domains boundary faults; (3) the upper section of the sediments deposited in the cratonic domain records the deposition of coarsening-upwards mudstones, siltstones, arkosic sandstones and lithic wackes that spreaded from the craton, to the south, across the craton-basin interface and graded into metasiltites and phyllites towards the miogeoclinal basin, where they occur in the core of a major basement-cored antiform and are overlain by a distinct diamictite formation, thus building up a siliciclastic mcgascquence. The sedimentological characteristics and innequivocal stratigraphic position of these arkosic sandstones and lithic wackes do not fit in previously suggested thrust-fold belt/foreland basin models; (4) very strong evidence for the miogeoclinal and eugeoclinal domains being also continuous across their boundary faults, allowing to erect a new stratigraphic template for the Sergipano Belt. The data allow to interpret that sedimentation was tectônicaly controlled by the basement domes and normal faults likely to have been inverted during the closure of the basin. The origin of the upper section of the sediments deposited in the cratonic domain and the tectonic controls of the sedimentation have relevant implications for the evolution of both the Sergipano Belt and the São Francisco Craton