Low back pain (LBP) and sciatica are highly prevalent and their treatment remains a clinical challenge. Systemic or local administration of corticosteroids is frequently prescribed for this indication, partly because its pathogenesis is believed to be a mix between mechanical and inflammatory phenomenon, and because corticosteroids do have some analgesic properties. Although there is some biolo...

While most traditional user interfaces are designed to pursue convenience by eliminating user operations and by automating tasks, some new categories of HCI, such as health support, may require explicit human participation and effort to achieve long-term benefits. For these areas, interfaces that require interactions that force users to perform activities, rather than interfaces that solely per...

Primary motor cortex (MI) plays an important role in voluntary motor behaviour, yet considerable debate remains on how neural processing within this brain region contributes to motor function. This article provides a brief review of the dominant conceptual frameworks used to interpret MI activity, notably servo-control during the 1970s and early 1980s, and sensorimotor transformations since tha...

Current iterations of the hygiene hypothesis suggest an adaptive role for helminth parasites in shaping the proper maturation of the immune system. However, aspects of this hypothesis are based on assumptions that may not fully account for realities about human helminth infections. Such realities include evidence of causal associations between helminth infections and asthma or inflammatory bowe...

In arid countries with long dry seasons and frequent occurrence of droughts, poultry litter is used often as a feedstuff for ruminants (Silanikove & Tiomkin, 1992; Deshck et al., 1998). It sometimes constitutes the main source of nutrients for the animals (Silanikove & Tiomkin, 1992). Similar situations exist in Southern Africa in particular during protracted droughts or when devastating veld f...

A case is made for the application of true ileal amino acid digestibility and true ileal reactive lysine digestibility (lysine availability) in poultry nutrition. Technical aspects of the true ileal digestibility assays are reviewed, as are factors influencing amino acid digestibility in the broiler. There is considerable variation in amino acid digestibility and lysine availability both within...

INTRODUCTION Canada has the second highest per capita water consumption in the world. However, little is known about complex socio-economic and cultural dynamics of water insecurities in Indigenous communities and the multiple health consequences. Most studies have concentrated on a simplified interpretation of accessibility, availability and quality issues, including some common water-borne in...

In their target article ‘Cognitive Ethology: A new approach for studying human cognition’, Kingstone, Smilek, and Eastwood (2008) remind us that it is important for cognitive psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists to keep asking whether their studies in the laboratory capture how humans think and act in their natural habitat. This reminder seems well warranted. When asking fellow researche...

The evolutionary struggles from which mutants arise have been documented in almost every living system. In this issue of the JCI, Varela and colleagues extend this list of systems to include neural derivatives of human embryonic stem cells, which they show exhibit a repeated gain of material from chromosome 1q. Although this raises safety issues for therapeutic use of such cells, the frequent o...

he United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copen-hagen (7–18 December) will soon be behind us. Climate change, however, continues to progress more rapidly and disruptively than climate scientists foreshadowed only 5 years ago. Recent peer-reviewed reports of climate change processes and impacts show, among other effects, an increased rate of greenhouse gas accumulation in the lower atmosphe...