Relative Odds of Neck Pain to Helmet Use Among Motorcyclists: a Case-Control Study

Background: Neck pain is a widespread problem among motorcyclists, which is often neglected. There is limited research on the motorcycle's ergonomics, particularly in the context of the interaction between the riders and motorcycle. Motorcycle helmets have proven to increase the weight on the neck, thus causing more burdens which can lead to neck pain. Methodology: Case-Control study design was opted to measure the relative odds of neck pain in relation to the helmet use as an exposure. A total of 260 (mean age of 22.58 ± S.D. 1.95 years) undergraduate students were selected using purposive sampling. The case to control ratio was 1:4 (54 Cases and 206 Controls) where cases were defined as the motorcyclists having neck pain with a riding experience of more than one year. The neck pain and disability scale were obtained using a self-administered questionnaire. Chi-square and binary logistic regression were used to calculate the significant relationship and odds of neck pain amongst motorcyclists with and without helmet use. Results: The study results showed that out of 260 motorcyclists, 190 (73.1%) were helmet users, and 54 (20.8%) had neck pain, 70 (27.9%) helmet users had a neck pain prevalence of 11 (4.2%). The relative odd to have neck pain was 2.13 times more amongst the motorcyclists using the helmet as compared to that of non-helmet users. The logistic regression results showed significant results (P < 0.05) with regards to the BMI, helmet weight and duration of helmet use but did not show a significant relation with average motorcycle use per day unless it exceeded 70 kilometres. Conclusion: Use of helmet can be a potential cause of neck pain amongst motorcyclist users but the odds to have neck pain enhance with the increase in motorcycle use per day. The protective benefits are multi-fold for helmet use which outreaches the negative impact, including neck pain amongst motorcyclists

Deep radio images of the HEGRA and Whipple TeV sources in the Cygnus OB2 region

Context. The modern generation of Cherenkov telescopes has revealed a new population of gamma-ray sources in the Galaxy. Some of them have been identified with previously known X-ray binary systems while other remain without clear counterparts a lower energies. Our initial goal here was reporting on extensive radio observations of the first extended and yet unidentified source, namely TeV J2032+4130. This object was originally detected by the HEGRA telescope in the direction of the Cygnus OB2 region and its nature has been a matter of debate during the latest years. Aims. We aim to pursue our radio exploration of the TeV J2032+4130 position that we initiated in a previous paper but taking now into account the latest results from new Whipple and MILAGRO TeV telescopes. Methods. Our investigation is mostly based on interferometric radio observations with the Giant Metre Wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) close to Pune (India) and the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico (USA). We also conducted near infrared observations with the 3.5 m telescope and the OMEGA2000 camera at the Centro Astronomico Hispano Aleman (CAHA) in Almeria (Spain). Results. We present deep radio maps centered on the TeV J2032+4130 position at different wavelengths. In particular, our 49 and 20 cm maps cover a field of view larger than half a degree that fully includes the Whipple position and the peak of MILAGRO emission. Our most important result here is a catalogue of 153 radio sources detected at 49 cm within the GMRT antennae primary beam with a full width half maximum (FWHM) of 43 arc-minute. Moreover, our multi-configuration VLA images reveal the non-thermal extended emission previously reported by us with improved angular resolution.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 1 online catalogue. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Tomorrow's Doctors: Review of The Australian Medical Workforce Advisory Committee (AMWAC)

The aim of this Review, prepared under the auspices of the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council, is to 1. Assess AMWAC's performance to date against its original terms of reference and assess to what extent have expectations been achieved? 2. Assess and make relevant recommendations on future national medical workforce planning needs, taking account of the relationship between the medical workforce and other health professionals and support staff, and AHMAC's decision to establish the Australian Health Workforce Advisory Committee (AHWAC); and the relationship between workforce and broader health systems issues. 3. Assess and make relevant recommendations on the suitability of AMWAC - including its structure and methodology - for meeting future medical workforce planning needs, taking account of access to and utilisation of evidence-based data; need for independence and access to broadly sourced advice; international experiences; and current issues, including the changing medical workforce; the implications of the application of the Trade Practices Act 1974 and competition policy; and corporatisation of medical practice. 4. Consider and recommend on appropriate financial commitment by AHMAC to medical workforce planning

An improved method for surface immobilisation of RNA: application to small Non-Coding RNA - mRNA pairing

Characterisation of RNA and its intermolecular interactions is increasing in importance as the inventory of known RNA functions continues to expand. RNA-RNA interactions are central to post-transcriptional gene regulation mechanisms in bacteria, and the interactions of bacterial small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) with their mRNA targets are the subject of much current research. The technology of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is an attractive approach to studying these interactions since it is highly sensitive, and allows interaction measurements to be recorded in real-time. Whilst a number of approaches exist to label RNAs for surface-immobilisation, the method documented here is simple, quick, efficient, and utilises the high-affinity streptavidin-biotin interaction. Specifically, we ligate a biotinylated nucleotide to the 3' end of RNA using T4 RNA ligase. Although this is a previously recognised approach, we have optimised the method by our discovery that the incorporation of four or more adenine nucleotides at the 3' end of the RNA (a poly-A-tail) is required in order to achieve high ligation efficiencies. We use this method within the context of investigating small non-coding RNA (sRNA)-mRNA interactions through the application of surface technologies, including quantitative SPR assays. We first focus on validating the method using the recently characterised Escherichia coli sRNA-mRNA pair, MicA-ompA, specifically demonstrating that the addition of the poly-A-tail to either RNA does not affect its subsequent binding interactions with partner molecules. We then apply this method to investigate the novel interactions of a Vibrio cholerae Qrr sRNA with partner mRNAs, hapR and vca0939; RNA-RNA pairings that are important in mediating pathogenic virulence. The calculated binding parameters allow insights to be drawn regarding sRNA-mRNA interaction mechanisms

Investigation of electrical properties for cantilever-based piezoelectric energy harvester

In the present era, the renewable sources of energy, e.g., piezoelectric materials are in great demand. They play a vital role in the field of micro-electromechanical systems, e.g., sensors and actuators. The cantilever-based piezoelectric energy harvesters are very popular because of their high performance and utilization. In this research-work, an energy harvester model based on a cantilever beam with bimorph PZT-5A, having a substrate layer of structural steel, was presented. The proposed energy scavenging system, designed in COMSOL Multiphysics, was applied to analyze the electrical output as a function of excitation frequencies, load resistances and accelerations. Analytical modeling was employed to measure the output voltage and power under pre-defined conditions of acceleration and load resistance. Experimentation was also performed to determine the relationship between independent and output parameters. Energy harvester is capable of producing the maximum power of 1.16 mW at a resonant frequency of 71 Hz under 1g acceleration, having load resistance of 12 k Omega. It was observed that acceleration and output power are directly proportional to each other. Moreover, the investigation conveys that the experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical results. The maximum error obtained between the experimental and numerical investigation was found to equal 4.3%

Dynamics of quartz tuning fork force sensors used in scanning probe microscopy

We have performed an experimental characterization of the dynamics of oscillating quartz tuning forks which are being increasingly used in scanning probe microscopy as force sensors. We show that tuning forks can be described as a system of coupled oscillators. Nevertheless, this description requires the knowledge of the elastic coupling constant between the prongs of the tuning fork, which has not yet been measured. Therefore tuning forks have been usually described within the single oscillator or the weakly coupled oscillators approximation that neglects the coupling between the prongs. We propose three different procedures to measure the elastic coupling constant: an opto-mechanical method, a variation of the Cleveland method and a thermal noise based method. We find that the coupling between the quartz tuning fork prongs has a strong influence on the dynamics and the measured motion is in remarkable agreement with a simple model of coupled harmonic oscillators. The precise determination of the elastic coupling between the prongs of a tuning fork allows to obtain a quantitative relation between the resonance frequency shift and the force gradient acting at the free end of a tuning fork prong.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 2 Table