Ankle sprains are one of the most common musculoskeletal injuries. Physiotherapy treatment and advice to rest, use ice, use compression, and elevate the ankle (RICE advice) is believed to speed up the functional recovery and enhance healing associated with acute ankle sprains. However, there is limited evidence to support the efficacy of RICE treatment. This study investigated whether physiotherapy (including RICE advice) was as effective as RICE advice alone in improving the time to recovery in a clinical situation.The evidence for RICE advice was reviewed along with the different treatment modalities currently used by physiotherapists in New Zealand for acute ankle sprain. This review highlighted the low number and poor quality of studies investigating RICE and early intervention physiotherapy management for ankle sprains. RICE principals appear to be relatively inexpensive and somewhat effective for pain relief and may reduce further tissue damage in the acute stage of Grade I and II ankle sprains. Evidence extrapolated from studies investigating the use of post surgical ice appears to support the use of ice in the acute stage of an ankle sprain to minimise bleeding and oedema. The intermittent application of ice is more effective for pain relief in the acute phase than sustained icing. Physiotherapy interventions such as TENS for pain relief and bracing for the support of Grade II - III ankle sprains have been shown to be beneficial for pain relief in the acute phase. A need for further high quality, randomised controlled trials (RCT's) was identified.Subsequently a RCT was conducted with 28 participants to investigate the difference between (a) early intervention physiotherapy management combined with RICE advice, and (b) self management RICE advice without physiotherapy.Twenty eight individuals (males n = 22, females n = 6), between the ages of 16 and 40 with acute ankle sprains, who met the inclusion criteria, were approached by physiotherapists working on this project and invited to participate. Dependant variables were pain, function, swelling, compliance and medication use up to Day 11 post injury. Swelling, pain and function were measured over three assessments on Days 1, 3 and 11, using volumetric analysis, a visual analogue scale (VAS) and a functional question derived from a validated functional questionnaire respectively. Medication use and compliance were elicited from information gathered in a participant home diary. Both groups were similar on Day 1 in respect to their initial pain, swelling, the number of participants who were referred for X-rays, and the time taken to present to the physiotherapist. However the RICE group had significantly higher function scores (p = 0.042). The RICE group also had a significantly higher use of medication on Day 1 (p = 0.035) and Day 11 (p = 0.048). For both groups there was a statistically significant decrease in swelling (p = 0.003), pain scores (p = 0.000), and an increase in function scores (p = 0.000) in relation to time over the eleven days of assessment. The physiotherapy group had significantly improved function scores (p = 0.042) from Day 1 to Day 11 compared to the RICE group. There were no significant differences between groups for swelling, pain scores, and their first day of documented non-compliance. The within day range of error in the volumetric measurements was within 189.9 ml and 1.2 ml. Three trials were conducted per person within a Day session. The first volumetric analysis was significantly less than the subsequent two measurements (p = 0.040).It was concluded that, in the early stage of an ankle injury both physiotherapy and RICE, and RICE advice alone, resulted in significant improvements in swelling, pain and function. Early intervention physiotherapy was significantly better at improving the functional ability of participants by Day 11. Early intervention physiotherapy may also identify complications associated with ankle sprains.Despite its limitations this research could potentially lead to changes in the standard treatment protocols for soft tissue ankle injuries. Implementation of self management RICE by patients in the acute stage would initially reduce the cost of physiotherapy treatments, and may lead to equal improvements in pain and swelling outcomes. However, it appears that physiotherapy may lead to better functional outcomes which would reduce the costs associated with time off work, and rehabilitation. It is important to note that these findings are based on a small sample size and on Grade I or II ankle ligament sprains, and that treatment for more severe ankle injuries may be better with physiotherapy, or surgery, rather than self management RICE by patients. Findings contribute to the growing body of 'best practice' evidence for health practitioners. Keywords: Acute soft tissue injuries, ankle, sprain, early intervention, physiotherapy, RICE, volumetric measurement.

Doctor of Philosophy / Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is very susceptible to water deficit at any time during its life cycle as a semi-aquatic cereal crop. However, the consequential damage is particularly severe if water deficit occurs during reproductive phases. The conspicuous injury often observed in rice plants exposed to water stress during meiosis of the pollen mother cell is the reduction of grain set, which is attributed to the decline of male fertility. In spite of much research on drought-induced male sterility in rice, the underlying mechanisms of the problem are poorly understood. This project was therefore conducted to investigate the molecular mechanisms of water deficit-induced pollen sterility in rice. In this study three consecutive days of water deficit treatment at -0.5 MPa osmotic potential during anther development effectively reduced the leaf water potential (leaf) and the number of viable pollen which later led to a decrease in grain set. Moreover, this thesis demonstrates that the immediate deleterious effects of water deficit to plant fertility could be estimated using a young microspore viability index, which showed a strong correlation with mature viable pollen and grain set. The present work has also illustrated that oxidative stress appears to be a plausible cause for the decline of male fertility and grain set. Water deficit has induced the excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) above the redox balance, which in turn caused detrimental effects to cellular DNA and might result in programmed cell death (PCD) in the anthers. Moreover, ROS accumulation effectively influenced ATP synthesis leading to a decrease in the level of ATP in the anthers. Excessive ROS accumulation after drought could be the consequence of insufficient activity of the antioxidant system, which has been illustrated by qRT-PCR expression analysis of major antioxidant genes. Down-regulation of those genes would increase the incidence of oxidative damage. In contrast, stable or up-regulated expression of these genes resulted in less oxidative damage. Detailed investigations of sugar metabolism in anthers has provided supplemental data to develop a model of sugar unloading and transport within anther using in situ hybridisation to mRNA techniques. Analysis of sugar transportation within the cellular compartments of anther has unveiled the role of sugar metabolism on pollen sterility in rice. qRT-PCR assays of genes associated with the sugar metabolic pathway has demonstrated that the supply of both sucrose and hexoses from the anther walls to the locules was not restricted after water deficit stress. The results indicate that water deficit might not cause sugar starvation for developing microspores as previously thought, nor inhibit the initial steps of sugar utilisation such as glycolysis. This thesis has suggested new ideas regarding the role of rising sugar levels to cope with oxidative stress in anthers. Sugar accumulation might have provided protection against oxidant damage by strengthening the antioxidant system. However, the interplay between sugar and oxidative stress is not straightforward and needs to be further characterised. In-depth investigations on the interaction between sugar signalling and oxidative stress responses may help indentify the role of sugars in protecting anthers under water deficit. Although many studies on drought and chilling stresses in rice anthers have been performed, the causal mechanism of male sterility still remains to be elucidated. Findings presented in this thesis may contribute to understanding molecular mechanisms of male sterility in rice as a response to drought stress. A more detailed investigation of mitochondrial respiration in rice anthers is required to further examine this problem. Finally, this thesis suggests that signalling molecules such as 14-3-3 proteins and abscisic acid (ABA) might act upstream of ROS production and antioxidant defence in plants. Further work on these molecules might therefore further illustrate how they influence plant fertility under water shortage conditions.

Under certain environmental conditions, some varieties of wheat synthesize the enzyme alpha amylase late in grain ripening, even in the absence of rain or sprouting. The resulting grain has a sound appearance but can be unsuitable for end-product applications due to the presence of late maturity alpha amylase (LMA) activity. Reduction of LMA and the development of cultivars tolerant to boron toxic soils are high priority traits in the WA wheat breeding program and the use of molecular markers closely linked to these traits for marker assisted selection (MAS) is highly desirable. The aims of this study were to take a genomics approach to provide detailed structural information for the region on wheat chromosome 7BL in which quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for LMA and boron tolerance (Bo1) have been mapped. Once the structure had been determined, this then laid the foundation for further studies to investigate the function of putative candidate genes identified within this region. The research involved the use of bioinformatic tools and rice/wheat synteny to investigate the structure of this chromosome region, followed by the use of molecular probes to isolate genomic DNA clones (BAC clones) corresponding to this region. A two-step bioinformatics strategy was used, involving (1) alignment of portions of the wheat and rice genomes, to identify rice genomic regions syntenic to wheat group 7L and (2) selection of candidate genes from those regions of the rice genome. The selected candidate genes included an anion transporter, as a candidate gene for boron tolerance, and GAMYB-like genes, as candidate genes for LMA. The GAMYB class of transcription factors identified were of particular interest because of published literature indicating its importance in controlling ƒÑ-amylase levels in cereal grains. The key phenotype of interest in this thesis is LMA and different levels of expression of ƒÑ-amylase are a key feature of this phenotype. Molecular markers and candidate genes were then used to screen two BAC libraries, one derived from the French cultivar, ¡¥Renan¡¦ and the other derived from Aegilops tauschii (the source of the D genome of wheat). About 300 BAC clones corresponding to the chromosome region of interest were obtained. Of these, 8 BAC clones (6 chosen through hybridization to a GAMYB-like probe, and 2 from wheat ESTs anchored to the rice genome) were selected for sequencing, allowing for the development of new microsatellite and single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and for the discovery of novel transposable elements that provide a rich source of polymorphism for the development of additional markers. Novel microsatellite and SNP markers that were identified from the BAC clone sequence were mapped on the Cranbrook/Halberd doubled haploid (DH) mapping population. Markers were located to chromosomes 7AL, 7BL and 7DL. New markers derived from the BAC sequence information were used to anchor the BAC clones to the genetic map and develop a framework physical-genetic map. An automated annotation pipeline has been established and was used to annotate selected contigs of the sequenced BAC clones. A new marker assisted selection strategy, termed Multiplex Trait Signature (MuTs) analysis, was developed and tested on 39 wheat cultivars of known LMA phenotype. MuTs provides a graphical genotype of individuals for a particular chromosomal region and is a convenient tool for interrogating genetic similarity in the individuals surveyed. Based on assays of 22 markers (12 spanning the LMA QTL on chromosome 7BL and 10 spanning the LMA QTL on chromosome 3BS) on these 39 wheat cultivars, it was found that the varieties can be grouped according to pedigree and provides a tool for interpreting LMA status for a variety. Validation of the 7BL LMA and boron tolerance (Bo1) QTL regions was achieved using a targeted mapping approach using the doubled haploid population Pastor/RAC891 using published molecular markers and markers developed in this thesis. The main outcome of this study is that the genomic organisation of this region on chromosome 7BL is complex, and that the identification of candidate genes in wheat controlling 1) tolerance of cultivars to boron toxic soils and 2) pathways regulating the expression of LMA, is likely to involve the interplay of a network of regulatory genes.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Natural Resources Management))--Mahidol University, 2005.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Tropical Medicine))--Mahidol University, 2007. / LICL has E-Thesis 0025 ; please contact computer services. LIRV has E-Thesis 0025 ; please contact circulation services.

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-71).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 183-193).

Thesis (doctoral)--Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-150).

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-88).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1974. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 414-419).