Altered neuromuscular control mechanisms of the trapezius muscle in fibromyalgia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>fibromyalgia is a relatively common condition with widespread pain and pressure allodynia, but unknown aetiology. For decades, the association between motor control strategies and chronic pain has been a topic for debate. One long held functional neuromuscular control mechanism is differential activation between regions within a single muscle. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in neuromuscular control, i.e. differential activation, between myalgic trapezius in fibromyalgia patients and healthy controls.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>27 fibromyalgia patients and 30 healthy controls performed 3 minutes bilateral shoulder elevations with different loads (0-4 Kg) with a high-density surface electromyographical (EMG) grid placed above the upper trapezius. Differential activation was quantified by the power spectral median frequency of the difference in EMG amplitude between the cranial and caudal parts of the upper trapezius. The average duration of the differential activation was described by the inverse of the median frequency of the differential activations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>the median frequency of the differential activations was significantly lower, and the average duration of the differential activations significantly longer in fibromyalgia compared with controls at the two lowest load levels (0-1 Kg) (p < 0.04), but not at the two highest load levels (2 and 4 Kg).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>these findings illustrate a different neuromuscular control between fibromyalgia patients and healthy controls during a low load functional task, either sustaining or resulting from the chronic painful condition. The findings may have clinical relevance for rehabilitation strategies for fibromyalgia.</p

Correlations in Networks associated to Preferential Growth

Combinations of random and preferential growth for both on-growing and stationary networks are studied and a hierarchical topology is observed. Thus for real world scale-free networks which do not exhibit hierarchical features preferential growth is probably not the main ingredient in the growth process. An example of such real world networks includes the protein-protein interaction network in yeast, which exhibits pronounced anti-hierarchical features.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

The networked seceder model: Group formation in social and economic systems

The seceder model illustrates how the desire to be different than the average can lead to formation of groups in a population. We turn the original, agent based, seceder model into a model of network evolution. We find that the structural characteristics our model closely matches empirical social networks. Statistics for the dynamics of group formation are also given. Extensions of the model to networks of companies are also discussed

Fractal Profit Landscape of the Stock Market

We investigate the structure of the profit landscape obtained from the most basic, fluctuation based, trading strategy applied for the daily stock price data. The strategy is parameterized by only two variables, p and q. Stocks are sold and bought if the log return is bigger than p and less than -q, respectively. Repetition of this simple strategy for a long time gives the profit defined in the underlying two-dimensional parameter space of p and q. It is revealed that the local maxima in the profit landscape are spread in the form of a fractal structure. The fractal structure implies that successful strategies are not localized to any region of the profit landscape and are neither spaced evenly throughout the profit landscape, which makes the optimization notoriously hard and hypersensitive for partial or limited information. The concrete implication of this property is demonstrated by showing that optimization of one stock for future values or other stocks renders worse profit than a strategy that ignores fluctuations, i.e., a long-term buy-and-hold strategy.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Scaling determination of the nonlinear I-V characteristics for 2D superconducting networks

It is shown from computer simulations that the current-voltage ($I$-$V$) characteristics for the two-dimensional XY model with resistively-shunted Josephson junction dynamics and Monte Carlo dynamics obeys a finite-size scaling form from which the nonlinear $I$-$V$ exponent $a$ can be determined to good precision. This determination supports the conclusion $a=z+1$, where $z$ is the dynamic critical exponent. The results are discussed in the light of the contrary conclusion reached by Tang and Chen [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 67}, 024508 (2003)] and the possibility of a breakdown of scaling suggested by Bormann [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 78}, 4324 (1997)].Comment: 6 pages, to appear in PR

Identification of conserved secondary structures and expansion segments in enod40 RNAs reveals new enod40 homologues in plants

enod40 is a plant gene that participates in the regulation of symbiotic interaction between leguminous plants and bacteria or fungi. Furthermore, it has been suggested to play a general role in non-symbiotic plant development. Although enod40 seems to have multiple functions, being present in many land plants, the molecular mechanisms of its activity are unclear; they may be determined though, by short peptides and/or RNA structures encoded in the enod40 genes. We utilized conserved RNA structures in enod40 sequences to search nucleotide sequence databases and identified a number of new enod40 homologues in plant species that belong to known, but also, to yet unknown enod40-containing plant families. RNA secondary structure predictions and comparative sequence analysis of enod40 RNAs allowed us to determine the most conserved structural features, present in all known enod40 genes. Remarkably, the topology and evolution of one of the conserved structural domains are similar to those of the expansion segments found in structural RNAs such as rRNAs, RNase P and SRP RNAs. Surprisingly, the enod40 RNA structural elements are much more stronger conserved than the encoded peptides. This finding suggests that some general functions of enod40 gene could be determined by the encoded RNA structure, whereas short peptides may be responsible for more diverse functions found only in certain plant families

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

Contains fulltext : 172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Bokningskalender

Detta examensarbete gjordes för Österbottens museum som behövde en bokningskalender med svenska, finska och engelska som språkval till deras webbsida. Den skulle ge användare möjlighet att från Österbottens museum, Kuntsi museum för modern konst eller Tikanojas konsthem välja utställning och boka en guidad rundtur till denna. Kalenderns dynamiska delar gjordes med JavaScript samt PHP kombinerat med SQL och en MySQL databas. Delar av arbetet använder HTML5 elementet canvas för grafiska objekt. Resultatet blev en responsiv webbapplikation där användare kan göra bokningar och ett admingränssnitt för att administrera utställningar. Via admingränssnitt kommer användaren även åt en bokningslista och statistik över bl.a. antalet bokningar.Tämä opinnäytetyö on tehty Pohjanmaan museolle joka tarvitsi verkkosivuilleen varauskalenterin ruotsiksi, suomeksi ja englanniksi. Kalenterin täytyi suoda käyttäjälle mahdollisuus valita näyttely ja varata opastettu kierros Pohjanmaan museossa, Kuntsin modernin taiteen museossa tai Tikanojan taidekodissa. Kalenterin dynaamiset osat tehtiin JavaScriptillä ja PHP:llä yhdistettynä SQL ja MySQL tietokantaan. Osa työstä käyttää HTML5 canvas elementtiä graafisille objekteille. Lopputulos on sulavasti toimiva verkkosovellus jossa käyttäjä voi tehdä varauksia sekä järjestelmänhallintatyökalu näyttelyiden hallinnointiin. Järjestelmänhallintatyökalun kautta käyttäjä voi myös tulostaa varauskirjan sekä tilastoja mm. varausten määrästä.This thesis was made for the Ostrobothnian museum that needed a booking calendar with swedish, finnish and english as language choices for their website. The requirements were that it would give users the ability to choose between the Ostrobothnian museum, Kuntsi Museum of Modern Art and the Tikanoja Art Museum and book a guided tour. The calendars dynamic parts were made with JavaScript and PHP combined with SQL and a MySQL database. Portions of the web application uses the HTML5 canvas element for drawing graphical objects. The result is a responsive web application where users can make bookings and an admin interface for managing exhibitions. From the admin interface, the user can also access a reservation list and view statistics such as the number of bookings

Complex patterns : from physical to social interactions

Interactions are what gives us the knowledge of the world around us. Interactions on all levels may fundamentally be seen as an exchange of information and a possible response of the same. Whether it is an electron in an electrical field or a handsome dude in a bar responding to a flirtation---interactions make things happen. In this sense we can see that objects without the capability of interacting with each other also are invisible to each other. Chains of pairwise interacting entities can serve as mediators of indirect interactions between objects. Nonetheless, in the limit of no interactions, we get into a philosophical debate whether we actually may consider anything to exist since it can not be detected in any way. Interactions between matter tend to be organized and show a hierarchical structure in which smaller sub-systems can be seen as parts of a bigger system, which in turn might be a smaller part of an even bigger system. This is reflected by the fact that we have sciences that successfully study specific interactions between objects or matter---physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, sociology,... What happens in a situation where all length scales are important? How does the structure of the underlying network of interactions affect the dynamical properties of a system? What network structures do we find and how are they created? This thesis is a physicist's view of collective dynamics, from superconductors to social systems and navigation in city street networks