Chronic low back pain, chronic disability at work, chronic management issues.

Low-back  pain  (LBP)  stands  out  as  the  leading  musculoskeletal  disorder  because  it  is  both  highly prevalent and the disability with which people live for the greatest number of years (1, 2). Reaching a peak between the ages of 30–50 years, LBP affects a population at a time of career advancement (3, 4). Back pain is the most expensive disease in terms of indirect costs due to sickness absence and work disability. Indirect (or productivity) costs contribute 93% to total costs, illustrating the importance of the consequences of the disease for work performance (5, 6). On a personal level, low self-motivation and self-confidence make it harder to initiate the return-to-work (RTW) process, especially when problems at work are related to the reason for sick leave (7, 8). At the workplace level, colleagues take over the tasks of the worker on sick leave, work piles up, or another worker is hired to take over the tasks. Timely RTW is thus of great benefit for both injured workers and their employers. [...

Serial order of conditional stimuli as a discriminative cue for Pavlovian conditioning

The serial order in which events occur can be a signal for different outcomes and therefore might be a determinant of how an animal should respond. In this report, we propose a novel design for studying serial order learning in Pavlovian conditioning. In both Experiments 1a and 1b, hungry rats were trained with successively presented pairs of auditory and visual stimuli (e.g., A --> B) using four different stimuli (A-D). Four orders were paired with food (A --> B, B --> C, C --> D, D --> A) while the reversals were extinguished (B --> A, C --> B, D --> C, A --> D). An analysis of responding from the second element of each pair showed that the rats discriminated trial types that preceded food from those that did not. A replication of the effect using a completely counterbalanced design is described in Experiment 1b. These results suggest that rats can use the serial or temporal order of two sequentially presented non-overlapping elements as the basis for discrimination. Two associative accounts are suggested as possible mechanisms for solving the discrimination

Advancing Small Satellite Earth Observation: Operational Spacecraft, Planned Missions and Future Concepts

The launch of Surrey’s UoSAT-12 in April 1999 heralded a new era in small-satellite Earth observation. The UoSAT-12 mission, Surrey’s first mini-satellite, supports a variety of payloads, including a 10-m panchromatic imager and a 32-m multispectral imager - both built at Surrey using COTS technology. In building these imagers, Surrey applied the lessons learned over sixteen microsatellite missions, and took advantage of the minisatellite class platform, which can support larger payloads and more complex missions. In the year since launch, UoSAT-12 has succeeded in a series of demonstrations of key remote-sensing technologies and techniques including autonomous station keeping, repeat ground track maintenance, high-speed communications, slewing and ground target tracking. This paper reviews these operational achievements and also describes next-generation remote sensing missions under development at Surrey. Spurred by the outstanding success of UoSAT-12, Surrey is already planning more ambitious remote sensing missions. Already, minisatellite advances are feeding back into microsatellites, such as an enhanced microsatellite with 12-m panchromatic and 24-m multispectral imaging. Future minisatellite missions are pushing the boundaries further, including 4-m panchromatic and 13-m multispectral payloads based on COTS technology. Planned missions and future concepts are presented which include use of pushbroom imagers, development of new imagers, Earth observations constellations and improved data handling as applied to small satellites. UoSAT-12 has proven that small satellites can offer rapid development, cost-constrained Earth observations missions. These affordable missions offer the opportunity for governmental and commercial organisation to target specific applications and provide emerging space nations with independent Earth observation

Magnetic Fluctuations and Correlations in MnSi - Evidence for a Skyrmion Spin Liquid Phase

We present a comprehensive analysis of high resolution neutron scattering data involving Neutron Spin Echo spectroscopy and Spherical Polarimetry which confirm the first order nature of the helical transition and reveal the existence of a new spin liquid skyrmion phase. Similar to the blue phases of liquid crystals this phase appears in a very narrow temperature range between the low temperature helical and the high temperature paramagnetic phases.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figure

Numerical simulations of radiative magnetized Herbig-Haro jets: the influence of pre-ionization from X-rays on emission lines

We investigate supersonic, axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) jets with a time-dependent injection velocity by numerical simulations with the PLUTO code. Using a comprehensive set of parameters, we explore different jet configurations in the attempt to construct models that can be directly compared to observational data of microjets. In particular, we focus our attention on the emitting properties of traveling knots and construct, at the same time, accurate line intensity ratios and surface brightness maps. Direct comparison of the resulting brightness and line intensity ratios distributions with observational data of microjets shows that a closer match can be obtained only when the jet material is pre-ionized to some degree. A very likely source for a pre-ionized medium is photoionization by X-ray flux coming from the central object.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Successfully treated necrotizing fasciitis using extracorporeal life support combined with hemoadsorption device and continuous renal replacement therapy

INTRODUCTION: Necrotizing fasciitis represents a life-threatening infectious condition that causes spreading necrotisis of superficial fascia and subcutaneous cellular tissues. We describe the case of a patient diagnosed with septic and toxic shocks leading to multiple organ failure successfully treated with a combination of extracorporeal life support, continuous renal replacement therapy, and a hemoadsorption device. METHODS: A 41-year-old patient presented with necrotizing fasciitis and multi-organ failure. Initial extracorporeal life support therapy was implanted, compensating for systolic failure. Due to acute renal failure that persisted in time, continuous renal replacement therapy was added. Despite these treatments and as a last attempt to control the septic condition, a CytoSorb hemoadsorption device was installed in parallel to the extracorporeal life support circuit and two sessions were run. RESULTS: During the days following CytoSorb treatment, hemodynamic stabilization was observed, as well as normalization of lactic acidosis and blood parameters. CONCLUSION: This case describes the successful use of CytoSorb with continuous renal replacement therapy and extracorporeal life support in a combined way to overcome a critical phase of septic shock in a young adult patient. This combination of treatments turned out to be efficient for this patient in the context of necrotizing fasciitis

Prévalence des lombalgies et de leurs facteurs de risque professionnels chez les travailleurs de l'agriculture en France en 2010

Introduction La phase pilote du programme Coset-MSA a permis d’évaluer la prévalence des lombalgies et de leurs facteurs de risque professionnels chez les travailleurs de l’agriculture, et notamment les agriculteurs exploitants et les ouvriers agricoles. Méthodes Les travailleurs ont été recrutés, dans cinq départements, par tirage au sort dans les bases de données de la MSA et invités à remplir un auto-questionnaire portant sur les expositions et les lombalgies au cours des 12 derniers mois. L’échantillon d’analyse était constitué de 1130 travailleurs, âgés de 18 à 65 ans, exerçant dans le secteur agriculture, sylviculture et pêche, et en activité au moment de l’enquête. Résultats La prévalence des lombalgies au cours des 12 derniers mois était élevée, chez les hommes (65 %) comme chez les femmes (64 %). Chez ces dernières, la prévalence diminuait significativement avec l’âge (de 95 % chez les moins de 30 ans à 56 % chez les 50 ans et plus, p < 0,01). Des douleurs quotidiennes étaient rapportées par 10 % des hommes et 11 % des femmes, avec une prévalence qui augmentait avec l’âge, de façon significative chez les hommes (p < 0,001). La prévalence ne différait pas significativement selon la catégorie socioprofessionnelle (CSP). Cependant, soulignons la forte prévalence des lombalgies parmi les hommes artisans, commerçants et chefs d’entreprise (surtout des jardiniers, paysagistes…) malgré des effectifs faibles. Chez les femmes, les agricultrices exploitantes et les ouvrières agricoles étaient plus nombreuses à souffrir de lombalgies, quelle que soit la durée des symptômes. Le port de charges de plus de 25 kg plus de 2 heures par jour concernait 16 % des hommes et 5 % des femmes, se pencher en avant ou sur le côté plus de 4 heures par jour 15 % et 16 % respectivement et la conduite plus de 4 heures par jour 27 % et 10 %. Chez les hommes, les ouvriers non agricoles étaient les plus exposés aux trois facteurs (17 % au port de charges [p < 0,05], 22 % au fait de se pencher [p < 0,01], 32 % à la conduite [NS]). Chez les femmes, les ouvrières agricoles rapportaient les plus fortes expositions : 29 % se penchaient plus de 4 h/j (p < 0,001) et 16 % conduisaient plus de 4 h/j (NS). Conclusions La prévalence des lombalgies est particulièrement élevée dans l’agriculture, comparativement à des études portant sur tous secteurs d’activité (par exemple, l’étude Cosali menée auprès de salariés des Pays de la Loire). De plus, cette étude permet d’identifier les CSP les plus exposées aux facteurs de risque professionnels de lombalgie, qui devraient être ciblées prioritairement par les actions de prévention

L’hygroma du genou chez les salariés des Pays de la Loire en 2002-2004

International audienc

Time-Dependent MHD Shocks and Line Emission: The Case of the DG Tau Jet

The line emission from a growing number of Herbig-Haro jets can be observed and resolved at angular distances smaller than a few arcseconds from the central source. The interpretation of this emission is problematic, since the simplest model of a cooling jet cannot sustain it. It has been suggested that what one actually observes are shocked regions with a filling factor of $\sim 1$. In this framework, up to now, comparisons with observations have been based on stationary shock models. Here we introduce for the first time the self-consistent dynamics of such shocks and we show that considering their properties at different times, i.e. locations, we can reproduce observational data of the DG Tau microjet. In particular, we can interpret the spatial behavior of the [SII]6716/6731 and [NII]/[OI]6583/6300 line intensity ratios adopting a set of physical parameters that yield values of mass loss rates and magnetic fields consistent with previous estimates. We also obtain the values of the mean ionization fraction and electron density along the jet, compare these values with the ones derived from observations using the sulfur doublet to constrain the electron density (e.g. Bacciotti et al. 1995).Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure