Zygapophysial joint blocks in chronic low back pain: a test of Revel's model as a screening test

BACKGROUND: Only controlled blocks are capable of confirming the zygapophysial joints (ZJ) as the pain generator in LBP patients. However, previous workers have found that a cluster of clinical signs ("Revel's criteria"), may be valuable in predicting the results of an initial screening ZJ block. It was suggested that these clinical findings are unsuitable for diagnosis, but may be of value in selecting patients for diagnostic blocks of the lumbar ZJ's. To constitute evidence in favour of a clinical management strategy, these results need confirmation. This study evaluates the utility of 'Revel's criteria' as a screening tool for selection of chronic low back pain patients for controlled ZJ diagnostic blocks. METHODS: This study utilized a prospective blinded concurrent reference standard related validity design. Consecutive chronic LBP patients completed pain drawings, psychosocial distress and disability questionnaires, received a clinical examination and lumbar zygapophysial blocks. Two reference standards were evaluated simultaneously: 1. 75% reduction of pain on a visual analogue scale (replication of previous work), and 2. abolition of the dominant or primary pain. Using "Revel's criteria" as predictors, logistic regression analyses were used to test the model. Estimates of sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and likelihood ratios for selected variables were calculated for the two proposed clinical strategies. RESULTS: Earlier results were not replicated. Sensitivity of "Revel's criteria" was low sensitivity (<17%), and specificity high (approximately 90%). Absence of pain with cough or sneeze just reached significance (p = 0.05) within one model. CONCLUSIONS: "Revel's criteria" are unsuitable as a clinical screening test to select chronic LBP patients for initial ZJ blocks. However, the criteria may have use in identifying a small subset (11%) of patients likely to respond to the initial block (specificity 93%)

A novel cell immunoassay to measure survival of motor neurons protein in blood cells

BACKGROUND: The motor neuron degenerative disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the leading genetic cause of infant mortality and is caused by mutations in the survival of motor neurons (SMN) gene that reduce the expression levels of the SMN protein. A major goal of current therapeutic approaches is to increase SMN levels in SMA patients. The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable assay to measure SMN protein levels from peripheral blood samples. METHODS: We developed a novel cell immunoassay to quantitatively measure SMN levels from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) using a single anti-SMN antibody. RESULTS: SMN levels determined by the cell immunoassay are comparable to levels determined by Western blot, but in contrast, the immunoassay does not involve cell lysis, requires a small amount of patient material, and can be done on a large number of samples simultaneously. SMN levels from PBMCs are not influenced by cell type heterogeneity. CONCLUSION: SMN levels measured from total PBMCs provide an important snapshot of SMN protein expression, which should be a useful aid in SMA diagnosis, and a surrogate marker of efficacy of treatment in SMA clinical trials

Clustering and α -capture reaction rate from ab initio symmetry-adapted descriptions of Ne 20

We introduce a new framework for studying clustering and for calculating α partial widths using ab initio wave functions. We demonstrate the formalism for Ne20, by calculating the overlap between the O16+α cluster configuration and states in Ne20 computed in the abinitio symmetry-adapted no-core shell model. We present spectroscopic amplitudes and spectroscopic factors, and compare those to no-core symplectic shell-model results in larger model spaces, to gain insight into the underlying physics that drives α clustering. Specifically, we report on the α partial width of the lowest 1- resonance in Ne20, which is found to be in good agreement with experiment. We also present first no-core shell-model estimates for asymptotic normalization coefficients for the ground state, as well as for the first excited 4+ state in Ne20 that lies in a close proximity to the α+16O threshold. This outcome highlights the importance of correlations for developing cluster structures and for describing α widths. The widths can then be used to calculate α-capture reaction rates for narrow resonances of interest to astrophysics. We explore the reaction rate for the α-capture reaction O16(α,γ)20Ne at astrophysically relevant temperatures and determine its impact on simulated x-ray burst abundances

Functional determinants for general Sturm-Liouville problems

Simple and analytically tractable expressions for functional determinants are known to exist for many cases of interest. We extend the range of situations for which these hold to cover systems of self-adjoint operators of the Sturm-Liouville type with arbitrary linear boundary conditions. The results hold whether or not the operators have negative eigenvalues. The physically important case of functional determinants of operators with a zero mode, but where that mode has been extracted, is studied in detail for the same range of situations as when no zero mode exists. The method of proof uses the properties of generalised zeta-functions. The general form of the final results are the same for the entire range of problems considered.Comment: 28 pages, LaTe

Albumin enhanced morphometric image analysis in CLL.

BACKGROUND: The heterogeneity of lymphocytes from patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and blood film artifacts make morphologic subclassification of this disease difficult. METHODS: We reviewed paired blood films prepared from ethylene-diamine-tetraacetic acid (ETDA) samples with and without bovine serum albumin (BSA) from 82 CLL patients. Group 1 adhered to NCCLS specifications for the preparations of EDTA blood films. Group 2 consisted of blood films containing EDTA and a 1:12 dilution of 22% BSA. Eight patients were selected for digital photomicroscopy and statistical analysis. Approximately 100 lymphocytes from each slide were digitally captured. RESULTS: The mean cell area +/- standard error was 127.8 microm(2) +/- 1.42 for (n = 793) for group 1 versus 100.7 microm(2) +/- 1.39 (n = 831) for group 2. The nuclear area was 88.9 microm(2) +/- 0.85 for group 1 versus 76.4 microm(2) +/- 0.83 for group 2. For the nuclear transmittance, the values were 97.6 +/- 0.85 for group 1 and 104.1 +/- 0.83 for group 2. The nuclear:cytoplasmic ratios were 0.71 +/- 0.003 for group 1 and 0.78 +/- 0.003 for group 2. All differences were statistically significant (P \u3c 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: BSA addition results in the reduction of atypical lymphocytes and a decrease in smudge cells. BSA also decreases the lymphocyte area and nuclear area, whereas nuclear transmittance and nuclear:cytoplasmic ratio are increased. A standardized method of slide preparation would allow accurate interlaboratory comparison. The use of BSA may permit better implementation of the blood film-based subclassification of CLL and lead to a better correlation of morphology with cytogenetics and immunophenotyping. Published 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc

Practice Based in Learning Theory: Peer Leaders Explain their Poster Projects

Three Peer Leaders present their final projects, one in Mathematics and two in Statics (Civil Engineering), for a one-credit course in Peer Leader Facilitation at New York City College of Technology, City University of New York, at the Honors and Emerging Scholars Poster Presentation in December 2015. The impetus for videotaping their presentations was the commemoration of a process which could be termed “How to Make a Poster.” The abbreviated directions are provided here. To aid the viewer of the videos, editing provides the static text of the poster section as the Peer Leader discusses that section. Introducing videos as exemplary practice advances the presentation of research in Peer Leader facilitation and theory