L’effet de l’âge et de la douleur chronique sur le profil sensoriel des adultes ayant survécu à un traumatisme craniocérébral modéré à sévère

Introduction : La douleur chronique est une séquelle courante du traumatisme craniocérébral (TCC) modéré à sévère. Malheureusement, les patients ≥60 ans ont été sous-représentés dans les études sur le profil sensoriel post-TCC. But : Cette étude visait à examiner l’effet de l’âge et de la douleur chronique sur le profil sensoriel de patients ayant survécu à un TCC modéré à sévère. Méthode : Une évaluation quantitative sensorielle comprenant des tests de sensibilité thermique/mécanique, d’allodynie et de sommation temporelle a été réalisée. Les comorbidités potentielles ont été évaluées à l’aide de questionnaires validés. Résultats : Cinquante-neuf (n=59) survivants de TCC modéré à sévère ont été recrutés : n=37 jeunes (18-60ans, 57% avec douleur chronique) et n=22 âgés (≥60ans, 46% avec douleur chronique). Tout âge confondu, les participants avec douleur présentaient une hypoalgésie à la chaleur, une hypoesthésie à la vibration, une diminution de leur sensibilité au toucher dans la région douloureuse comparativement au site controlatéral et des niveaux de dépression plus élevés que ceux sans douleur. Selon l’âge, les jeunes présentaient une hyperesthésie à la chaleur et les personnes âgées une augmentation de leur sensibilité à la chaleur au site douloureux comparativement au site controlatéral. Cependant, la présence d’altérations n’était pas toujours synonyme de douleur puisqu’une hyperalgésie à la pression douloureuse chez les jeunes et une hypoesthésie au froid chez les plus âgés ont été notées chez les participants sans douleur. Conclusions : Ces résultats montrent que les survivants de TCC jeunes et âgés présentent des caractéristiques sensorielles communes et spécifiques.Background: Chronic pain is common following moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The few studies conducted on the sensory profile of this population underrepresented patients over 60 years old, providing little input on the effects of aging on sensory alterations after TBI. Objective: The aim of this study is to explore the effect of chronic pain and aging on the sensory profile of survivors of moderate-to-severe TBI. Methods: Sensory evaluation was conducted using a standardized Quantitative Sensory Testing procedure assessing thermal and mechanical detection/pain thresholds, allodynia, and temporal summation. Potential comorbidities were assessed using validated questionnaires. Results: Fifty-nine (n=59) survivors of moderate-to-severe TBI were recruited: n=37 young (18-60 years old, 57% with chronic pain) and n=22 elderly (≥60 years old, 46% with chronic pain). Independently of age, participants with chronic pain presented heat hypoalgesia, vibration hypoesthesia, a decrease level of touch sensitivity in the painful area when compared to a contralateral sites and higher level of depression when compared to participants without pain. Regarding age, young adults also presented hyperesthesia to warmth and elderly presented a significant augmentation in warmth sensitivity in the painful area when compared to its contralateral site. Interestingly, sensory alterations were not always synonymous of pain since pressure hyperalgesia in young participants and cold hypoesthesia in older ones were noted in participants without pain. Conclusions: These results suggest that moderate-to-severe TBI survivors present common and unique sensory characteristics related to their age group

Convergence Analysis of the Addition Theorem of Slater Orbitals and Its Application Three Center Nuclear Attraction Integrals

The mathematical foundation of the methods using addition theorems to evaluate multicenter integrals over Slater-type orbitals is actually well understood. However, many numerical aspects of such approaches still require further investigations. In the framework of these methods, multicenter integrals are generally represented by infinite series which under certain circumstances are very slowly convergent. Accordingly, the determination of the convergence type of such series is of great importance since it allows one to choose adequately the convergence accelerator to be used in the summation procedure. In this work, the convergence of the two-range addition theorem proposed by Barnett and Coulson ͓Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 243, 221 ͑1951͔͒ is analyzed. The results obtained from this study are then applied to study the convergence of three-center nuclear integrals, and most importantly, to discuss the choice of the convergence accelerator to be used in the summation procedure

Effectiveness of interprofessional manikin-based simulation training on teamwork among real teams during trauma resuscitation in adult emergency departments : a systematic review

This systematic review synthesizes the relevant evidence about the effectiveness of interprofessional manikin-based simulation training on teamwork among real teams during trauma resuscitation in adult civilian emergency departments. A systematic literature search was conducted in MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, EBM reviews, PsycINFO, and Web of Science with no time limit. Only experimental and quasi-experimental studies were included. Effects of the simulation intervention on teamwork were categorized according to a modified version of the Kirkpatrick's model. From the 1120 studies found, 11 studies were included for synthesis. All studies showed immediate improvement in teamwork after training, but divergent results were found regarding skills retention. Although this review focused on interprofessional manikin-based simulations in real trauma teams, the results are similar to previous systematic reviews including different types of simulation. This raises significant questions regarding the importance of simulation design characteristics to improve teamwork in trauma care

Self-Consistent Electron-Nucleus Cusp Correction for Molecular Orbitals

We describe a method for imposing the correct electron-nucleus (e-n) cusp in molecular orbitals expanded as a linear combination of (cuspless) Gaussian basis functions. Enforcing the e-n cusp in trial wave functions is an important asset in quantum Monte Carlo calculations as it significantly reduces the variance of the local energy during the Monte Carlo sampling. In the method presented here, the Gaussian basis set is augmented with a small number of Slater basis functions. Note that, unlike other e-n cusp correction schemes, the presence of the Slater function is not limited to the vicinity of the nuclei. Both the coefficients of these cuspless Gaussian and cusp-correcting Slater basis functions may be self-consistently optimized by diagonalization of an orbital-dependent effective Fock operator. Illustrative examples are reported for atoms (\ce{H}, \ce{He} and \ce{Ne}) as well as for a small molecular system (\ce{BeH2}). For the simple case of the \ce{He} atom, we observe that, with respect to the cuspless version, the variance is reduced by one order of magnitude by applying our cusp-corrected scheme.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure

Correlation-Polarization Effects in Electron/Positron Scattering from Acetylene: A Comparison of Computational Models

Different computational methods are employed to evaluate elastic (rotationally summed) integral and differential cross sections for low energy (below about 10 eV) positron scattering off gas-phase C$_2$H$_2$ molecules. The computations are carried out at the static and static-plus-polarization levels for describing the interaction forces and the correlation-polarization contributions are found to be an essential component for the correct description of low-energy cross section behavior. The local model potentials derived from density functional theory (DFT) and from the distributed positron model (DPM) are found to produce very high-quality agreement with existing measurements. On the other hand, the less satisfactory agreement between the R-matrix (RM) results and measured data shows the effects of the slow convergence rate of configuration-interaction (CI) expansion methods with respect to the size of the CI-expansion. To contrast the positron scattering findings, results for electron-C$_2$H$_2$ integral and differential cross sections, calculated with both a DFT model potential and the R-matrix method, are compared and analysed around the shape resonance energy region and found to produce better internal agreement

Mathematical Properties of a New Levin-Type Sequence Transformation Introduced by \v{C}\'{\i}\v{z}ek, Zamastil, and Sk\'{a}la. I. Algebraic Theory

\v{C}\'{\i}\v{z}ek, Zamastil, and Sk\'{a}la [J. Math. Phys. \textbf{44}, 962 - 968 (2003)] introduced in connection with the summation of the divergent perturbation expansion of the hydrogen atom in an external magnetic field a new sequence transformation which uses as input data not only the elements of a sequence $\{s_n \}_{n=0}^{\infty}$ of partial sums, but also explicit estimates $\{\omega_n \}_{n=0}^{\infty}$ for the truncation errors. The explicit incorporation of the information contained in the truncation error estimates makes this and related transformations potentially much more powerful than for instance Pad\'{e} approximants. Special cases of the new transformation are sequence transformations introduced by Levin [Int. J. Comput. Math. B \textbf{3}, 371 - 388 (1973)] and Weniger [Comput. Phys. Rep. \textbf{10}, 189 - 371 (1989), Sections 7 -9; Numer. Algor. \textbf{3}, 477 - 486 (1992)] and also a variant of Richardson extrapolation [Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London A \textbf{226}, 299 - 349 (1927)]. The algebraic theory of these transformations - explicit expressions, recurrence formulas, explicit expressions in the case of special remainder estimates, and asymptotic order estimates satisfied by rational approximants to power series - is formulated in terms of hitherto unknown mathematical properties of the new transformation introduced by \v{C}\'{\i}\v{z}ek, Zamastil, and Sk\'{a}la. This leads to a considerable formal simplification and unification.Comment: 41 + ii pages, LaTeX2e, 0 figures. Submitted to Journal of Mathematical Physic

Contribution a l'evaluation des integrales multicentriques sur une base de fonctions de SLATER

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