Physiotherapists’ perceptions of problematic musculoskeletal soft tissue disorders

Original article can be found at: http://www.ijtr.co.uk/ Copyright MA Healthcare Limited.Aims: Many common musculoskeletal disorders are resistant to existing management strategies,causing long-term pain and disability. While arthritic and spinal problems have been prioritized for research, several soft tissue disorders may be equally burdensome for individuals and difficult to treat successfully. dentifying those that are least responsive to reatment may help focus the limited resources available for research and treatment provision. This study aimed to rank the most problematic disorders, and identify contributory factors, to inform the debate on research and service priorities in the management of musculoskeletal disorders. Methods: The views of practising physiotherapists on the most problematic soft tissue disorders were sought using a postal questionnaire survey and telephone interviews. The questionnaire was sent to 193 experienced musculoskeletal physiotherapists working in National Health Service and private clinics in south-east England. Findings: The response rate was 48%. The top three problematic disorders were identifi ed as frozen shoulder, plantar fasciitis and tennis elbow. Subsequent interviews with 20 respondents indicated that inadequate differential diagnosis, triaging and differences in therapeutic practice may account for some of the observed variation in outcomes. Conclusions: A greater focus on these particular disorders and issues by both clinicians and the research community is warranted.Peer reviewe

A hydrological analysis of East Australian floods using Nimbus 5 electrically scanning microwave radiometer data

A chronology of a major Australian flood in 1974 is presented using Nimbus 5 Passive Microwave Data (ESMR) and other conventional and satellite supporting data

Sheep grazing experiment with mown and unmown pasture, Chapman Research Station, 1958-1959

INVESTIGATIONS carried out several years ago at the Avondale, Chapman and * Wongan Hills Research Station showed that increased wool yields and reduced liveweight losses could be obtained by grazing sheep on pasture which had been mown at the hay stage and left in the paddock instead of allowing it to mature and dry off normally

Modeling the growth of multicellular cancer spheroids in a\ud bioengineered 3D microenvironment and their treatment with an\ud anti-cancer drug

A critical step in the dissemination of ovarian cancer cells is the formation of multicellular spheroids from cells shed from the primary tumor. The objectives of this study were to establish and validate bioengineered three-dimensional (3D) microenvironments for culturing ovarian cancer cells in vitro and simultaneously to develop computational models describing the growth of multicellular spheroids in these bioengineered matrices. Cancer cells derived from human epithelial ovarian carcinoma were embedded within biomimetic hydrogels of varying stiffness and cultured for up to 4 weeks. Immunohistochemistry was used to quantify the dependence of cell proliferation and apoptosis on matrix stiffness, long-term culture and treatment with the anti-cancer drug paclitaxel.\ud \ud Two computational models were developed. In the first model, each spheroid was treated as an incompressible porous medium, whereas in the second model the concept of morphoelasticity was used to incorporate details about internal stresses and strains. Each model was formulated as a free boundary problem. Functional forms for cell proliferation and apoptosis motivated by the experimental work were applied and the predictions of both models compared with the output from the experiments. Both models simulated how the growth of cancer spheroids was influenced by mechanical and biochemical stimuli including matrix stiffness, culture time and treatment with paclitaxel. Our mathematical models provide new perspectives on previous experimental results and have informed the design of new 3D studies of multicellular cancer spheroids

Growth of confined cancer spheroids: a combined experimental and mathematical modelling approach

We have integrated a bioengineered three-dimensional platform by generating multicellular cancer spheroids in a controlled microenvironment with a mathematical model to investigate\ud confined tumour growth and to model its impact on cellular processes

EU Peatlands: Current Carbon Stocks and Trace Gas Fluxes

Peatlands in Europe has formed a significant sink for atmospheric CO2 since the last glacial maximum. Currently they are estimated to hold ca. 42 Gt carbon in the form of peat and are therefore a considerable component in the European carbon budget. Due to the generally wet soil conditions in peatlands they are also significant emitters of the strong greenhouse gas (GHG) methane (CH4) and in some cases also of nitrous oxide (N2O). The EU funded CarboEurope-GHG Concerted Action attempts to develop a reliable and complete greenhouse gas budget for Europe and this report aims to provide a review and synthesis of the available information about GHG exchanges in European peatlands and their underlying processes. A best estimate for all the European countries shows that some are currently sinks for atmospheric CO2 while others are sources. In contrast, for CH4 and N2O, only the sources are relevant. Whilst some countries are CO2 sinks, all countries are net GHG emitters from peatlands. The results presented, however, carry large uncertainties, which cannot be adequately quantified yet. One outstanding uncertainty is the distribution of land use types, particular in Russia, the largest European peat nation. The synthesis of GHG exchange, nevertheless, indicates some interesting features. Russia hosts an estimated 41% of European peatlands and contributes most to all GHG exchanges (CO2: 25%, CH4: 52%, N2O: 26%, Total: 37%). Germany is the second-largest emitter (12% of European total) although it contains only 3.2% of European peatlands. The reason is the use of most of the peatland area for intensive cropland and grassland. The largest CO2 emitters are countries with large agricultural peatland areas (Russia, Germany, Belarus, Poland), the largest N2O emitters are those with large agricultural fen areas (Russia, Germany, Finland). In contrast, the largest CH4 emitters are concentrated in regions with large areas of intact mires, namely Russia and Scandinavia. High average emission densities above 3.5 t C-equiv. ha-1 are found in the Southeast Mediterranean, Germany and the Netherlands where agricultural use of peatlands is intense. Low average emission densities below 0.3 t C-equiv. ha-1 occur where mires and peatland forests dominate, e.g. Finland and the UK. This report concludes by pointing at key gaps in our knowledge about peatland carbon stocks and GHG exchanges which include insufficient basic information on areal distribution of peatlands, measurements of peat depth and also a lack of flux datasets providing full annual budgets of GHG exchanges

Discussion of "Geodesic Monte Carlo on Embedded Manifolds"

Contributed discussion and rejoinder to "Geodesic Monte Carlo on Embedded Manifolds" (arXiv:1301.6064)Comment: Discussion of arXiv:1301.6064. To appear in the Scandinavian Journal of Statistics. 18 page

Development of the dry tape battery concept

High energy anode and cathode for dry tape battery - incapsulation of electrolyte - manufacturing and testing of devic

Optical studies of Ge islanding on Si(111)

We report an experimental study of the optical properties of island layers resulting from molecular beam epitaxial deposition of Ge on Si(111) substrates. The combination of electroreflectance spectroscopy of the E1 transition and Raman scattering allows us to separately determine the strain and composition of the islands. For deposition at 500 °C a deposited layer of 1.36 nm of Ge assembles into 80 nm diameter islands 11 nm thick. The average Si impurity content in the islands is 2.5% while the average in-plane strain is 0.5%. Both strain and Si impurity content in islands decrease with increasing Ge depositio