Relationships between muscle electrical activity and the control of inter-vertebral motion during a forward bending task

Muscle strengthening exercises are commonly used in primary care for the treatment of chronic, non-specific low back pain (CNSLBP) as it has been theorised that increased muscle activity contributes to the stabilisation of intervertebral motion segments during bending and other spinal movements, however this has never been demonstrated in vivo. This study used contemporaneous quantitative fluoroscopy (QF) and surface electromyography (sEMG) to investigate relationships between continuous intervertebral motion variables and muscle electrical activity in the lumbar multifidus (LMU), lumbar and thoracic erector spinae (LES and TES) during standardised lumbar flexion and return in 18 healthy male human subjects. Our results demonstrated that intervertebral angular Motion Share Variability (MSV) and motion segment laxity were significantly (p<0.05) negatively correlated (Spearman) with, and weakly dependent (Kendall’s tau) on muscle electrical activity throughout the participant bend for both locally and globally acting muscle groups. MSV and laxity were also strongly correlated with each other for L2-3 laxity. The former suggests a damping mechanism reducing irregular displacements during bending and an action of spinal stabilisation by muscles at segmental levels and the latter a synergy between laxity at L2-3 and MSV. While this has previously been theorised, it has never been shown in vivo at the intervertebral level. These assessments may be considered for use in validation studies of exercise programs for CNSLBP, however further replication is required

Random walks in the space of conformations of toy proteins

Monte Carlo dynamics of the lattice 48 monomers toy protein is interpreted as a random walk in an abstract (discrete) space of conformations. To test the geometry of this space, we examine the return probability $P(T)$, which is the probability to find the polymer in the native state after $T$ Monte Carlo steps, provided that it starts from the native state at the initial moment. Comparing computational data with the theoretical expressions for $P(T)$ for random walks in a variety of different spaces, we show that conformational spaces of polymer loops may have non-trivial dimensions and exhibit negative curvature characteristic of Lobachevskii (hyperbolic) geometry.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Disc degeneration and cervical spine intervertebral motion: A Cross-sectional study in patients with neck pain and matched healthy controls

While neck pain can be defined in clinical terms, in most cases the underlying pathophysiology is largely unknown. Regional cervical spine range of motion is often found to be reduced in patients with neck pain compared to persons without pain although it is not clear if the decreased range is cause or effect. Less is known about the role of intervertebral kinematics and how that might be related to the presence of disc degeneration. In this study, the prevalence of intervertebral disc degeneration and continuous cervical intervertebral motion were both measured utilizing quantitative fluoroscopy (QF) in patients with subacute or chronic neck pain (n = 29) and gender-matched healthy controls (n = 30). A composite disc degeneration (CDD) score was calculated for each participant from the first, neutral, lateral fluoroscopic image. Intervertebral motion sharing parameters of motionsharing inequality (MSI) and motion-sharing variability (MSV) were derived from the active cervical motion sequences obtained while patients were seated. The objective was to determine if average age, CDD, MSI, and MSV values were correlated and if there were differences in these variables between the neck pain group and the healthy control group. Correlation analysis was conducted for age, CDD, MSI, and MSV in each group. Age was moderately correlated with MSV in cervical spine extension in patients only (r = 0.63, p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in the prevalence of disc degeneration (CDD) between patients, who had on average mild pain and related disability, and healthy controls (median CDD 2 both groups, p = 0.94). There were also no significant differences in either flexion or extension intervertebral motion-sharing inequality or variability (MSI or MSV) between groups as measured during active cervical motion

Structure and play: rethinking regulation in the higher education sector

This paper explores possible tactics for academics working within a context of increasing regulation and constraint. One suggested tactic is to move outside of a creativity-conformity binary. Rather than understanding creativity and conformity as separable, where one is seen as excluding the other, the authors consider the potential of examining the relationships between them. The theme of 'structure and play' illustrates the argument. In the first part of the paper, using various examples from art and design - fields generally associated with creativity - the authors explore the interrelatedness of creativity and conformity. For example, how might design styles, which are generally understood as creative outcomes, constrain creativity and lead to conformity within the design field? Is fashion producing creativity or conformity? Conversely, the ways in which conformity provides the conditions for creativity are also examined. For example, the conformity imposed by the state on artists in the former communist bloc contributed to a thriving underground arts movement which challenged conformity and state regulation. Continuing the theme of 'structure and play', the authors recount a story from an Australian university which foregrounds the ongoing renegotiation of power relations in the academy. This account illustrates how programmatic government in a university, with its aim of regulating conduct, can contribute to unanticipated outcomes. The authors propose that a Foucauldian view of distributed power is useful for academics operating in a context of increasing regulation, as it brings into view sites where power might begin to be renegotiated

Lessons from SARS-CoV-2 Pandemics: How Restrictive Measures Impacted the Trend of Respiratory Infections in Neonates and Infants up to Three Months of Age

(1) Background: Massive social efforts to prevent the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic have affected the epidemiological features of respiratory infections. (2) Methods: The study aims to describe the trend of hospitalizations for bronchiolitis among newborns and infants up to three months of life in Rome (Italy), in the pre-COVID-19 era and during the pandemic. (3) Results: We observed a marked decrease in the number of neonates and infants with bronchiolitis after national lockdowns in 2020 and the first months of 2021 and a similar trend in the number of bronchiolitis caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). RSV was the leading pathogen responsible for bronchiolitis before the national lockdown in March 2020 (70.0% of cases), while Rhinovirus was the leading pathogen responsible for bronchiolitis (62.5%) during the pandemic while strict restrictions were ongoing. As Italy approached the COVID-19 vaccination target, the national government lifted some COVID-19-related restrictions. A surprising rebound of bronchiolitis (particularly cases caused by RSV) was observed in October 2021. (4) Conclusions: In this study, we describe for the first time the fluctuations over time of RSV bronchiolitis among newborns and young infants in Italy in relation to the restrictive measures containing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our results are in line with other countries' reports

The employee as 'Dish of the Day’:human resource management and the ethics of consumption

This article examines the ethical implications of the growing integration of consumption into the heart of the employment relationship. Human resource management (HRM) practices increasingly draw upon the values and practices of consumption, constructing employees as the ‘consumers’ of ‘cafeteria-style’ benefits and development opportunities. However, at the same time employees are expected to market themselves as items to be consumed on a corporate menu. In relation to this simultaneous position of consumer/consumed, the employee is expected to actively engage in the commodification of themselves, performing an appropriate organizational identity as a necessary part of being a successful employee. This article argues that the relationship between HRM and the simultaneously consuming/consumed employee affects the conditions of possibility for ethical relations within organizational life. It is argued that the underlying ‘ethos’ for the integration of consumption values into HRM practices encourages a self-reflecting, self-absorbed subject, drawing upon a narrow view of individualised autonomy and choice. Referring to Levinas’ perspective that the primary ethical relation is that of responsibility and openness to the Other, it is concluded that these HRM practices affect the possibility for ethical being

Embodied Knowledge: Writing Researchers’ Bodies Into Qualitative Health Research

After more than a decade of postpositivist health care research and an increase in narrative writing practices, social scientific, qualitative health research remains largely disembodied. The erasure of researchers’ bodies from conventional accounts of research obscures the complexities of knowledge production and yields deceptively tidy accounts of research. Qualitative health research could benefit significantly from embodied writing that explores the discursive relationship between the body and the self and the semantic challenges of writing the body by incorporating bodily details and experiences into research accounts. Researchers can represent their bodies by incorporating autoethnographic narratives, drawing on all of their senses, interrogating the connections between their bodily signifiers and research processes, and experimenting with the semantics of self and body. The author illustrates opportunities for embodiment with excerpts from an ethnography of a geriatric oncology team and explores implications of embodied writing for the practice of qualitative health research

Young people's uses of celebrity: Class, gender and 'improper' celebrity

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 34(1), 2013, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01596306.2012.698865.In this article, we explore the question of how celebrity operates in young people's everyday lives, thus contributing to the urgent need to address celebrity's social function. Drawing on data from three studies in England on young people's perspectives on their educational and work futures, we show how celebrity operates as a classed and gendered discursive device within young people's identity work. We illustrate how young people draw upon class and gender distinctions that circulate within celebrity discourses (proper/improper, deserving/undeserving, talented/talentless and respectable/tacky) as they construct their own identities in relation to notions of work, aspiration and achievement. We argue that these distinctions operate as part of neoliberal demands to produce oneself as a ‘subject of value’. However, some participants produced readings that show ambivalence and even resistance to these dominant discourses. Young people's responses to celebrity are shown to relate to their own class and gender position.The Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science Engineering and Technology

Assessment of low-dose cisplatin as a model of nausea and emesis in beagle dogs, potential for repeated administration

Cisplatin is a highly emetogenic cancer chemotherapy agent, which is often used to induce nausea and emesis in animal models. The cytotoxic properties of cisplatin also cause adverse events that negatively impact on animal welfare preventing repeated administration of cisplatin. In this study, we assessed whether a low (subclinical) dose of cisplatin could be utilized as a model of nausea and emesis in the dog while decreasing the severity of adverse events to allow repeated administration. The emetic, nausea-like behavior and potential biomarker response to both the clinical dose (70 mg/m2) and low dose (15 mg/m2) of cisplatin was assessed. Plasma creatinine concentrations and granulocyte counts were used to assess adverse effects on the kidneys and bone marrow, respectively. Nausea-like behavior and emesis was induced by both doses of cisplatin, but the latency to onset was greater in the low-dose group. No significant change in plasma creatinine was detected for either dose groups. Granulocytes were significantly reduced compared with baseline (P = 0.000) following the clinical, but not the low-dose cisplatin group. Tolerability of repeated administration was assessed with 4 administrations of an 18 mg/m2 dose cisplatin. Plasma creatinine did not change significantly. Cumulative effects on the granulocytes occurred, they were significantly decreased (P = 0.03) from baseline at 3 weeks following cisplatin for the 4th administration only. Our results suggest that subclinical doses (15 and 18 mg/m2) of cisplatin induce nausea-like behavior and emesis but have reduced adverse effects compared with the clinical dose allowing for repeated administration in crossover studies

The whereabouts of power: politics, government and space

In a world where it has become almost commonplace to talk about power as centralised or distributed, concentrated or diffuse, deterritorialized or dispersed even, it is all too easy to miss the diverse geographies of power that put us in place. The binary talk that forces us to choose between a centred or a decentred view of power, or to shuffle between them in an effort to blur clearly demarcated scales, leaves little room to move beyond defined distances and settled proximities in relation to the exercise of power. In this paper, a more spatially-curious dialogue of power is opened up which foregrounds associational as well as instrumental forms of power which can make a difference to how we act politically