The experience and management of neck pain in general practice: the patients’ perspective

The objective of this study is to investigate the perspective and expectation of patients presenting with neck pain in general practice. The study design is a qualitative analysis of patient interviews and was conducted in a primary care setting in Germany. Twenty patients aged 20–78, according to theoretical sampling were included in the study. Patients tried to cope autonomously with the situation and consulted GPs only if their self-help had failed. When patients asked for external help, they usually focused on somatic treatment options such as massage, physiotherapy or injections. Most patients reported to have experiences with somatic therapies; however, they felt that some or all of these treatments were inefficient or led only to short-time improvements. Patients often avoided psychosocial themes when talking to doctors for fear of being branded as ‘neurotic’. Although neck pain is difficult to manage and a burden for patients, they have obviously found a way of both living with their pain and a pragmatic approach of talking about their symptoms with their doctor. According to the patients’ statements, the interaction between doctor and patient seems to be rather distant, ensuring that both sides avoid any issues that might touch upon psychological aspects of neck pain

A saturated SSR/DArT linkage map of Musa acuminata addressing genome rearrangements among bananas

Background: The genus Musa is a large species complex which includes cultivars at diploid and triploid levels. These sterile and vegetatively propagated cultivars are based on the A genome from Musa acuminata, exclusively for sweet bananas such as Cavendish, or associated with the B genome (Musa balbisiana) in cooking bananas such as Plantain varieties. In M. acuminata cultivars, structural heterozygosity is thought to be one of the main causes of sterility, which is essential for obtaining seedless fruits but hampers breeding. Only partial genetic maps are presently available due to chromosomal rearrangements within the parents of the mapping populations. This causes large segregation distortions inducing pseudo-linkages and difficulties in ordering markers in the linkage groups. The present study aims at producing a saturated linkage map of M. acuminata, taking into account hypotheses on the structural heterozygosity of the parents. Results: An F1 progeny of 180 individuals was obtained from a cross between two genetically distant accessions of M. acuminata, 'Borneo' and 'Pisang Lilin' (P. Lilin). Based on the gametic recombination of each parent, two parental maps composed of SSR and DArT markers were established. A significant proportion of the markers (21.7%) deviated (p < 0.05) from the expected Mendelian ratios. These skewed markers were distributed in different linkage groups for each parent. To solve some complex ordering of the markers on linkage groups, we associated tools such as tree-like graphic representations, recombination frequency statistics and cytogenetical studies to identify structural rearrangements and build parsimonious linkage group order. An illustration of such an approach is given for the P. Lilin parent. Conclusions: We propose a synthetic map with 11 linkage groups containing 489 markers (167 SSRs and 322 DArTs) covering 1197 cM. This first saturated map is proposed as a "reference Musa map" for further analyses. We also propose two complete parental maps with interpretations of structural rearrangements localized on the linkage groups. The structural heterozygosity in P. Lilin is hypothesized to result from a duplication likely accompanied by an inversion on another chromosome. This paper also illustrates a methodological approach, transferable to other species, to investigate the mapping of structural rearrangements and determine their consequences on marker segregation. (Résumé d'auteur

Polymorphism in Gag Gene Cleavage Sites of HIV-1 Non-B Subtype and Virological Outcome of a First-Line Lopinavir/Ritonavir Single Drug Regimen

Virological failure on a boosted-protease inhibitor (PI/r) first-line triple combination is usually not associated with the detection of resistance mutations in the protease gene. Thus, other resistance pathways are being investigated. First-line PI/r monotherapy is the best model to investigate in vivo if the presence of mutations in the cleavage sites (CS) of gag gene prior to any antiretroviral treatment might influence PI/r efficacy. 83 patients were assigned to initiate antiretroviral treatment with first-line lopinavir/r monotherapy in the randomised Monark trial. We compared baseline sequence of gag CS between patients harbouring B or non-B HIV-1 subtype, and between those who achieved viral suppression and those who experienced virological failure while on LPV/r monotherapy up to Week 96. Baseline sequence of gag CS was available for 82/83 isolates; 81/82 carried at least one substitution in gag CS compared to HXB2 sequence. At baseline, non-B subtype isolates were significantly more likely to harbour mutations in gag CS than B subtype isolates (p<0.0001). Twenty-three patients experienced virological failure while on lopinavir/r monotherapy. The presence of more than two substitutions in p2/NC site at baseline significantly predicted virological failure (p = 0.0479), non-B subtype isolates being more likely to harbour more than two substitutions in this specific site. In conclusion, gag cleavage site was highly polymorphic in antiretroviral-naive patients harbouring a non-B HIV-1 strain. We show that pre-therapy mutations in gag cleavage site sequence were significantly associated with the virological outcome of a first-line LPV/r single drug regimen in the Monark trial

An exact algorithm for the two-dimensional orthogonal packing problem with unloading constraints

This paper describes an exact algorithm for solving a two-dimensional orthogonal packing problem with unloading constraints, which occurs as a subproblem of mixed vehicle routing and loading problems. The packing considered in this work is basically a feasibility problem involving a single bin. The problem is addressed through a decomposition approach wherein a branch-and-cut algorithm is designed for solving a one-dimensional relaxation of the original problem. When an integer solution is found in the branching tree, a subsidiary problem is solved to identify a two-dimensional packing that does not lead to any overlap and satisfies the unloading constraints. Cuts are added when the subsidiary problem proves to be infeasible. Several preprocessing techniques aimed at reducing the size of the solution space and uncovering infeasibility are also described. A numerical comparison with the best known exact method is reported at the end based on benchmark instances. </jats:p

Mechanical characterization of heterogeneous soils with surface waves: experimental validation on reduced-scale physical models.

International audienc

Characterization of heterogeneous soils using surface waves: homogenisation and numerical modeling.

International audienc

I Wish IJTAG would do this

International audienceIEEE 1687-2014 gained traction in the test community very fast. Numerous innovations, publications, and implementations have been described, from both, industry and academia. Today, 7 years plus a few months after the release of the standard, much of the commercial test infrastructure is based on IJTAG. It is supported by all three major EDA tool vendors. In addition, derivatives of IEEE 1687, namely IEEE P1687.1 and P1687.2 are in active development. This is not to say that the original IEEE 1687 standard is without flaws. The 1687 working groups has actively collected not only errata, but also requests from users and tool developers alike, asking for upgrades to the standard, if it ever will be reopened. This time has finally come. In January 2022, Jeff Rearick had submitted a modified PAR, initiating the process. This PAR was subsequently approved, and with that, the P1687 is now officially open for upgrades.</p