Pain perception and stabilometric parameters in people with chronic low back pain after a pilates exercise program: A randomized controlled trial

Various exercise interventions, such as Pilates exercises and traditional physical therapy methods, are employed to decrease low back pain (LBP). Nonspecific low back pain (NSLBP) is distinct from LBP, however, as the distribution of pain is restricted to the region between the costal margin and the inferior gluteal. The aim of our randomized controlled trial was to evaluate the effects of a program of Pilates exercises on pain perception and stabilometric parameters in patients with NSLBP.Thirty-eight participants were randomly allocated, using a 1:1 scheme, to either the experimental group (EG) or control group (CG). The EG completed a 14-week program of Pilates exercises, performed thrice per week under the supervision of an exercise specialist, while the CG was managed with a social program only. Measures of posturography and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) for pain perception were obtained at baseline (T0) and after the 14 weeks of intervention (T)1.Posturography measures improved for patients in the EG, with both eyes open and eyes closed (P\u200a<\u200a0.05). There were no statistical differences in posturography in the CG. ODI decreased significantly in both groups over the 14 weeks of the study protocol: EG, T0, 13.7\u200a\ub1\u200a5.0 compared with T1, 6.5\u200a\ub1\u200a4.0 (P\u200a<\u200a0.001); and CG, T0, 10.7\u200a\ub1\u200a7.8 compared with T1, 8.4\u200a\ub1\u200a7.8 (P\u200a<\u200a0.01). A greater extent of reduction in pain was achieved in the EG.The Pilates exercise program yielded improvements in pain and posturography outcomes. Our study also confirms the applicability of posturography in evaluating postural instability in patients with NSLBP. Due to our relatively small study group, future studies would be necessary to confirm our findings

A privacy-preserving approach to grid balancing using scheduled electric vehicle charging

The introduction of renewable energy generation (e.g. solar and wind) in the energy distribution infrastructure makes balancing the total energy load and production in the grid more challenging due to the weather-dependent nature of these energy sources. One approach to mitigate the issue is to use weather forecasts to predict the production and then offer incentives to electric vehicle users (EVUs) to charge their vehicles during the times of energy surplus. However, doing this without leaking sensitive information about the EVUs location and identity presents challenges to the system design. This thesis proposes a privacy-preserving architecture that allows the grid operator to offer incentives for contributing to the grid stability, and to reliably and automatically quantify the extent of each contribution while still maintaining the privacy of the EVUs. Furthermore, the architecture enables decentralised privacy-preserving dispute resolution without leaking any personally identifiable information (PII). The architecture fulfils the goal by utilising self-sovereign identity technologies, such as decentralised identifiers (DIDs), and privacy-preserving digital credentials solutions, such as verifiable credentials (VCs). They allow the solution to utilise ephemeral identifiers and to compartmentalise the information into three different knowledge domains to ensure that only the minimum amount of information needed crosses any domain border. An analysis of the solution indicates that the architecture ensures relatively strong privacy guarantees to the EVUs and solves the grid balancing problem while reducing the number of assumptions to the minimum. This makes the architecture applicable to a wide set of use cases in the EV charging field. Future work includes a detailed performance analysis of a proof-of-concept (PoC), although the information available from related research already indicates relatively low latency and a good level of deployability even on resource-constrained Internet-of-things (IoT) devices

Determination of a strength index for upper body local endurance strength in sedentary individuals: a cross sectional analysis

A range of balance between flexor and extensor muscles is fundamental in order to prevent pathologies caused by bad postures or to ensure health of the joint as a measure of prevention of overtraining in specific muscle groups. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the ratio between "pulling" and "pushing" strength in sedentary individuals. 212 healthy participants, of both genders (139 male and 73 female; age 32 \ub1 13.3 years, weight 70.2 \ub1 14.1 kg, height 173 \ub1 9 cm) were retained for investigation. Strength was assessed through a new methodology: Pulling through a lat-pulldown test while pushing strength through a chest-press test. Both tests were performed to exhaustion with an overload of 30 % of each participants bodyweight. Such method aims to prevent excessive overloads in sedentary individuals. Pearson's correlations and a t test to assess differences were analyzed. Subsequently, the ratio for both genders of pulling and pushing local endurance strength was assessed by means. A mean number of 57 repetitions was shown with the lat-pulldown while 34 repetition with the chest press. A correlation of 0.42 has been found between the number of repetitions of the two tests. A significant difference (p < 0.001) was found between such performances. No correlation was found between the strength measures and the anthropometric parameters of the participants. The lat machine to chest press ratio was 1.36:1 for male while 2.69:1 for female. The results indicate that sedentary participants have higher pulling rather than pushing local endurance strength. Such ratio should be considered as a normative value when starting to perform exercise protocols. Resistance training should be performed in order to improve strength measures of the weaker muscles and reduce such ratio

Graph Lambda Theories

to appear in MSCSInternational audienceA longstanding open problem in lambda calculus is whether there exist continuous models of the untyped lambda calculus whose theory is exactly lambda-beta or the the least sensible lambda-theory H (generated by equating all the unsolvable terms). A related question, raised recently by C. Berline, is whether, given a class of lambda models, there are a minimal lambda-theory and a minimal sensible lambda-theory represented by it. In this paper, we give a positive answer to this question for the class of graph models à la Plotkin-Scott-Engeler. In particular, we build two graph models whose theories are respectively the set of equations satisfied in any graph model and in any sensible graph model. We conjecture that the least sensible graph theory, where ''graph theory" means ''lambda-theory of a graph model", is equal to H, while in one of the main results of the paper we show the non-existence of a graph model whose equational theory is exactly the beta-theory. Another related question is whether, given a class of lambda models, there is a maximal sensible lambdatheory represented by it. In the main result of the paper we characterize the greatest sensible graph theory as the lambda-theory B generated by equating lambda-terms with the same Boehm tree. This result is a consequence of the main technical theorem of the paper: all the equations between solvable lambda-terms, which have different Boehm trees, fail in every sensible graph model. A further result of the paper is the existence of a continuum of different sensible graph theories strictly included in B

A novel combination of triple metachronous malignancies of the kidney, oropharynx and prostate. A case report

Synchronous or metachronous malignancies are a rare event, with an incidence rate that increases with age. The present study reports the case of a 70-year-old Caucasian male who was referred to the outpatient office of the Urology Unit, Sapienza University of Rome (Latina, Italy) due to lower urinary tract symptoms. An abdominal ultrasound investigation was performed that demonstrated the presence of a right renal mass. The patient underwent right radical nephrectomy, which resulted in the definitive diagnosis of clear cell type renal cell carcinoma. The patient was eventually diagnosed with triple primary metachronous cancer consisting of renal clear cell carcinoma, prostate adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx (palatine tonsil). To the best of our knowledge, this combination of primary neoplasms has not previously been documented

On Noncommutative Generalisations of Boolean Algebras

Skew Boolean algebras (SBA) and Boolean-like algebras (nBA) are one-pointed and n-pointed noncommutative generalisation of Boolean algebras, respectively. We show that any nBA is a cluster of n isomorphic right-handed SBAs, axiomatised here as the variety of skew star algebras. The variety of skew star algebras is shown to be term equivalent to the variety of nBAs. We use SBAs in order to develop a general theory of multideals for nBAs. We also provide a representation theorem for right-handed SBAs in terms of nBAs of n-partitions

Exploring New Topologies for the Theory of Clones

Clones of operations of arity $\omega$ (referred to as $\omega$-operations) have been employed by Neumann to represent varieties of infinitary algebras defined by operations of at most arity $\omega$. More recently, clone algebras have been introduced to study clones of functions, including $\omega$-operations, within the framework of one-sorted universal algebra. Additionally, polymorphisms of arity $\omega$, which are $\omega$-operations preserving the relations of a given first-order structure, have recently been used to establish model theory results with applications in the field of complexity of CSP problems. In this paper, we undertake a topological and algebraic study of polymorphisms of arity $\omega$ and their corresponding invariant relations. Given a Boolean ideal $X$ on the set $A^\omega$, we propose a method to endow the set of $\omega$-operations on $A$ with a topology, which we refer to as $X$-topology. Notably, the topology of pointwise convergence can be retrieved as a special case of this approach. Polymorphisms and invariant relations are then defined parametrically, with respect to the $X$-topology. We characterise the $X$-closed clones of $\omega$-operations in terms of $Pol^\omega$-$Inv^\omega$ and present a method to relate $Inv^\omega$-$Pol^\omega$ to the classical (finitary) $Inv$-$Pol$