Kinematic, kinetic and electromyographic response to customized foot orthoses in patients with tibialis posterior tenosynovitis, pes plano valgus and rheumatoid arthritis

Objective. To describe the effect of customized foot orthoses (FOs) on the kinematic, kinetic and EMG features in patients with RA, tibialis posterior (TP) tenosynovitis and associated pes plano valgus.<p></p> Methods. Patients with RA and US-confirmed tenosynovitis of TP underwent gait analysis, including three-dimensional (3D) kinematics, kinetics, intramuscular EMG of TP and surface EMG of tibialis anterior, peroneus longus, soleus and medial gastrocnemius. Findings were compared between barefoot and shod with customized FO conditions.<p></p> Results. Ten patients with RA with a median (range) disease duration of 3 (1–18) years were recruited. Moderate levels of foot pain and foot-related impairment and disability were present with moderately active disease states. Altered timing of the soleus (P = 0.05) and medial gastrocnemius (P = 0.02) and increased magnitude of tibialis anterior (P = 0.03) were noted when barefoot was compared with shod with FO. Trends were noted for reduced TP activity in the contact period (P = 0.09), but this did not achieve statistical significance. Differences in foot motion characteristics were recorded for peak rearfoot eversion (P = 0.01), peak rearfoot plantarflexion (P < 0.001) and peak forefoot abduction (P = 0.02) in the shod with FOs compared with barefoot conditions. No differences in kinetic variables were recorded.<p></p> Conclusion. This study has demonstrated, for the first time, alterations in muscle activation profiles and foot motion characteristics in patients with RA, pes plano valgus and US-confirmed TP tenosynovitis in response to customized FOs. Complex adaptations were evident in this cohort and further work is required to determine whether these functional alterations lead to improvements in patient symptoms.<p></p&gt

Exact results for a charged, harmonically trapped quantum gas at arbitrary temperature and magnetic field strength

An analytical expression for the first-order density matrix of a charged, two-dimensional, harmonically confined quantum gas, in the presence of a constant magnetic field is derived. In contrast to previous results available in the literature, our expressions are exact for any temperature and magnetic field strength. We also present a novel factorization of the Bloch density matrix in the form of a simple product with a clean separation of the zero-field and field-dependent parts. This factorization provides an alternative way of analytically investigating the effects of the magnetic field on the system, and also permits the extension of our analysis to other dimensions, and/or anisotropic confinement.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev.

Treadmill exercise within lower body negative pressure protects leg lean tissue mass and extensor strength and endurance during bed rest.

Leg muscle mass and strength are decreased during reduced activity and non-weight-bearing conditions such as bed rest (BR) and spaceflight. Supine treadmill exercise within lower body negative pressure (LBNPEX) provides full-body weight loading during BR and may prevent muscle deconditioning. We hypothesized that a 40-min interval exercise protocol performed against LBNPEX 6 days week(-1) would attenuate losses in leg lean mass (LLM), strength, and endurance during 6° head-down tilt BR, with similar benefits for men and women. Fifteen pairs of healthy monozygous twins (8 male and 7 female pairs) completed 30 days of BR with one sibling of each twin pair assigned randomly as the non-exercise control (CON) and the other twin as the exercise subject (EX). Before and after BR, LLM and isokinetic leg strength and endurance were measured. Mean knee and ankle extensor and flexor strength and endurance and LLM decreased from pre- to post-BR in the male CON subjects (P < 0.01), but knee extensor strength and endurance, ankle extensor strength, and LLM were maintained in the male EX subjects. In contrast, no pre- to post-BR changes were significant in the female subjects, either CON or EX, likely due to their lower pre-BR values. Importantly, the LBNPEX countermeasure prevents or attenuates declines in LLM as well as extensor leg strength and endurance. Individuals who are stronger, have higher levels of muscular endurance, and/or have greater LLM are likely to experience greater losses during BR than those who are less fit

Effects of mutating the Mrub_1345 gene found in Meiothermus Ruber

Meiothermus ruber is a unique, red-pigmented, thermophilic bacterium that preferentially grows in high-temperature environments ranging from 35-70°C. Due to the lack of studies performed on this organism, there is quite a bit of information missing in regard to the genes found within this organism’s genome and their function. This study focuses in on the Mrub_1345 gene in M. ruber, which has been suggested to be orthologous to the proC gene found of E. coli proline biosynthesis pathway. To test if these genes are orthologs, we performed the complementation assay on wild-type proC. Next, we performed site-directed mutagenesis on amino acids that are suspected to play an important role in enzyme functionality, and then repeated the complementation assay. A missense mutation swapping a glycine residue to aspartate was shown to have no effect on M. ruber proC functionality. We are currently working on preparing more mutant versions of this gene for further studies

HB 249 - Controlled Substances and Prescription Drug Monitoring Database

The Act amends Georgia’s controlled-substances statutes to expand medical provider requirements to record prescription drug information in an electronic prescription drug monitoring program database (PDMP). Medical providers are now required to use the PDMP to enter information about their prescription of certain types and quantities of opioids. The purpose of the act is to fight Schedule II opioid abuse throughout the state of Georgia. A medical provider’s failure to report required information is reported to his or her respective state regulatory board for possible reprimand. In addition to mandatory reporting, the Act includes various other provisions related to regulating opioid misuse. The Act removes naloxone’s codification as a dangerous drug when naloxone is used for overdose prevention. Additionally, the Act requires law enforcement officers to notify the coroner or county medical examiner of apparent drug overdoses. Finally, the Act adds a name to a separate Code section regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation and use of automated defibrillators

Linearized self-forces for branes

We compute the regularized force density and renormalized action due to fields of external origin coupled to a brane of arbitrary dimension in a spacetime of any dimension. Specifically, we consider forces generated by gravitational, dilatonic and generalized antisymmetric form-fields. The force density is regularized using a recently developed gradient operator. For the case of a Nambu--Goto brane, we show that the regularization leads to a renormalization of the tension, which is seen to be the same in both approaches. We discuss the specific couplings which lead to cancellation of the self-force in this case.Comment: 15 page

Age-Related Gene Expression Differences in Monocytes from Human Neonates, Young Adults, and Older Adults.

A variety of age-related differences in the innate and adaptive immune systems have been proposed to contribute to the increased susceptibility to infection of human neonates and older adults. The emergence of RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) provides an opportunity to obtain an unbiased, comprehensive, and quantitative view of gene expression differences in defined cell types from different age groups. An examination of ex vivo human monocyte responses to lipopolysaccharide stimulation or Listeria monocytogenes infection by RNA-seq revealed extensive similarities between neonates, young adults, and older adults, with an unexpectedly small number of genes exhibiting statistically significant age-dependent differences. By examining the differentially induced genes in the context of transcription factor binding motifs and RNA-seq data sets from mutant mouse strains, a previously described deficiency in interferon response factor-3 activity could be implicated in most of the differences between newborns and young adults. Contrary to these observations, older adults exhibited elevated expression of inflammatory genes at baseline, yet the responses following stimulation correlated more closely with those observed in younger adults. Notably, major differences in the expression of constitutively expressed genes were not observed, suggesting that the age-related differences are driven by environmental influences rather than cell-autonomous differences in monocyte development