Pain neuroscience education on YouTube.

OBJECTIVES: The Internet in general, and YouTube in particular, is now one of the most popular sources of health-related information. Pain neuroscience education has become a primary tool for managing persistent pain, based in part on the discovery that information about pain can change pain. Our objective was to examine the availability, characteristics, and content of YouTube videos that address the neuroscience of pain. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of videos on YouTube using the search terms "pain education", "what is pain", and "pain brain" in January 2018. Videos were included if they were in English, were under 10 minutes long, and included information on the neuroscience of pain. Videos were coded for (i) descriptive characteristics (e.g., number of views, duration on YouTube), (ii) source and style, (iii) whether or not they addressed seven pre-determined target concepts of pain neuroscience education (e.g., 'Pain is not an accurate marker of tissue state'), and (iv) how engaging they were. RESULTS: We found 106 unique videos that met the inclusion criteria. The videos ranged from having four views to over five million views (Mdn = 1,163 views), with the three most highly viewed videos accounting for 75% of the total views. Animated videos were much more highly viewed than non-animated videos. Only a small number of videos had been posted by a clearly-identifiable reputable source such as an academic or medical institution (10%), although a number of videos were posted by healthcare professionals and professional medical societies. For a small number of videos (7%), the source was unclear. We found 17 videos that addressed at least one target concept of pain neuroscience science education, only nine of which were considered to be at least somewhat engaging. The target concept 'Pain is a brain output' was considered to be well addressed by the most videos (N = 11), followed by 'Pain is a protector' (N = 10). We found only one video that adequately addressed all seven target concepts of pain neuroscience education. DISCUSSION: YouTube contains a variety of videos that practitioners, patients, and families may view to access pain neuroscience education information. A small portion of these videos addressed one or more target concepts of pain neuroscience education in an engaging manner. It is yet to be determined to what extent patients are able to learn information from these videos, to what extent the videos promote behavior change, and thus to what extent the videos may be useful for clinical practice

Перспективи використання тонкодисперсних вуглецевих матеріалів

У останні десятиліття особливу увагу вчених привертає дослідження різних алотропних видозмін вуглецю, зокрема природних: алмазу, графіту, лонсдейліту, фулерену, вуглецевих нанотрубок (у тому числі шунгіту – природного нанотехн-логічного матеріалу) і штучних: карбіну, графену, аморфного вуглецю (кокс, вугілля, технічний вуглець, сажа, активоване вугілля). Водночас у техніці все більше розповсюдження отримують тонкодисперсні вуглецеві матеріали, зокрема тонкодисперсне вугілля та технічний вуглець, тонкоподрібнений аморфний вуглець, активоване вугілля, дослідженню яких присвячено ряд окремих досліджень, у т.ч. і авторів статті

Dynamic walking features and improved walking performance in multiple sclerosis patients treated with fampridine (4-aminopyridine)

Background: Impaired walking capacity is a frequent confinement in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Patients are affected by limitations in coordination, walking speed and the distance they may cover. Also abnormal dynamic walking patterns have been reported, involving continuous deceleration over time. Fampridine (4-aminopyridine), a potassium channel blocker, may improve walking in MS. The objective of the current study was to comprehensively examine dynamic walking characteristics and improved walking capacity in MS patients treated with fampridine. Methods: A sample of N = 35 MS patients (EDSS median: 4) underwent an electronic walking examination prior to (Time 1), and during treatment with fampridine (Time 2). Patients walked back and forth a distance of 25 ft for a maximum period of 6 min (6-minute 25-foot-walk). Besides the total distance covered, average speed on the 25-foot distance and on turns was determined separately for each test minute, at Time 1 and Time 2. Results: Prior to fampridine administration, 27/35 patients (77 %) were able to complete the entire 6 min of walking, while following the administration, 34/35 patients (97 %) managed to walk for 6 min. In this context, walking distance considerably increased and treatment was associated with faster walking and turning across all six test minutes (range of effect sizes: partial eta squared = .34-.72). Importantly, previously reported deceleration across test minutes was consistently observable at Time 1 and Time 2. Discussion: Fampridine administration is associated with improved walking speed and endurance. Regardless of a treatment effect of fampridine, the previously identified, abnormal dynamic walking feature, i.e. the linear decline in walking speed, may represent a robust feature. Conclusions: The dynamic walking feature might hence be considered as a candidate for a new outcome measure in clinical studies involving interventions other than symptomatic treatment, such as immune-modulating medication. Trial registration: DRKS00009228 (German Clinical Trials Register). Date obtained: 25.08.2015

Differential pain response at local and remote muscle sites following aerobic cycling exercise at mild and moderate intensity

Physical exercise has been shown to inhibit experimental pain response in the post-exercise period. Modulation of the pain system may be differentiated between muscle sites engaging in contractile activity. The purpose of this study was to assess the pain response at remote and local muscle sites following aerobic exercise at different work intensities. Participants included 10 healthy and physically active males (mean age ± SD, 21.2 ± 3.4). Somatic pressure pain threshold (PPT) at the rectus femoris (local) and brachioradialis (remote) muscle site was measured at before (Pre), 5 min after (Post1), and 15 min after (Post2) aerobic cycling exercise at 70 and 30 % of peak oxygen uptake (VO(2peak)) performed on different occasions in a counterbalanced order, separated by minimum of 3 days interval. Repeated measures ANOVA for PPT reveals significant main effect for time (f = 3.581, p = 0.049, observed power = 0.588) and muscle site (f = 17.931, p = 0.002, observed power = 0.963). There was a significant interaction shown for exercise intensity by time (f = 11.390, p = 0.012, observed power = 0.790). PPT at rectus femoris following cycling exercise at 70 % of VO(2peak) reveals a significant increase between Pre-Post1 (p = 0.040). PPT for rectus femoris following cycling exercise at 30 % of VO(2peak) revealed a significant decrease between Pre-Post1 (p = 0.026) and Pre-Post2 (p = 0.008). The PPT for brachioradialis following cycling exercise at 30 % of VO(2peak) revealed a significant decrease between Pre-Post1 (p = 0.011) and Pre-Post2 (p = 0.005). These results show that aerobic exercise increases PPT locally at the exercise muscle site following exercise at 70 % of VO(2peak) but reduces PPT following exercise at 30 % of VO(2peak)

A rasch analysis of the Manchester foot pain and disability index

© 2009 Muller and Roddy; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Counter-current chromatography for the separation of terpenoids: A comprehensive review with respect to the solvent systems employed

Copyright @ 2014 The Authors.This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.Natural products extracts are commonly highly complex mixtures of active compounds and consequently their purification becomes a particularly challenging task. The development of a purification protocol to extract a single active component from the many hundreds that are often present in the mixture is something that can take months or even years to achieve, thus it is important for the natural product chemist to have, at their disposal, a broad range of diverse purification techniques. Counter-current chromatography (CCC) is one such separation technique utilising two immiscible phases, one as the stationary phase (retained in a spinning coil by centrifugal forces) and the second as the mobile phase. The method benefits from a number of advantages when compared with the more traditional liquid-solid separation methods, such as no irreversible adsorption, total recovery of the injected sample, minimal tailing of peaks, low risk of sample denaturation, the ability to accept particulates, and a low solvent consumption. The selection of an appropriate two-phase solvent system is critical to the running of CCC since this is both the mobile and the stationary phase of the system. However, this is also by far the most time consuming aspect of the technique and the one that most inhibits its general take-up. In recent years, numerous natural product purifications have been published using CCC from almost every country across the globe. Many of these papers are devoted to terpenoids-one of the most diverse groups. Naturally occurring terpenoids provide opportunities to discover new drugs but many of them are available at very low levels in nature and a huge number of them still remain unexplored. The collective knowledge on performing successful CCC separations of terpenoids has been gathered and reviewed by the authors, in order to create a comprehensive document that will be of great assistance in performing future purifications. © 2014 The Author(s)

Distances and ages of globular clusters using Hipparcos parallaxes of local subdwarfs

We discuss the impact of Population II and Globular Cluster (GCs) stars on the derivation of the age of the Universe, and on the study of the formation and early evolution of galaxies, our own in particular. The long-standing problem of the actual distance scale to Population II stars and GCs is addressed, and a variety of different methods commonly used to derive distances to Population II stars are briefly reviewed. Emphasis is given to the discussion of distances and ages for GCs derived using Hipparcos parallaxes of local subdwarfs. Results obtained by different authors are slightly different, depending on different assumptions about metallicity scale, reddenings, and corrections for undetected binaries. These and other uncertainties present in the method are discussed. Finally, we outline progress expected in the near future.Comment: Invited review article to appear in: `Post-Hipparcos Cosmic Candles', A. Heck & F. Caputo (Eds), Kluwer Academic Publ., Dordrecht, in press. 22 pages including 3 tables and 2 postscript figures, uses Kluwer's crckapb.sty LaTeX style file, enclose

Negative Effects of Paternal Age on Children's Neurocognitive Outcomes Can Be Explained by Maternal Education and Number of Siblings

Background: Recent findings suggest advanced paternal age may be associated with impaired child outcomes, in particular, neurocognitive skills. Such patterns are worrisome given relatively universal trends in advanced countries toward delayed nuptiality and fertility. But nature and nurture are both important for child outcomes, and it is important to control for both when drawing inferences about either pathway. Methods and Findings: We examined cross-sectional patterns in six developmental outcome measures among children in the U.S. Collaborative Perinatal Project (n = 31,346). Many of these outcomes at 8 mo, 4 y, and 7 y of age (Bayley scales, Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale, Graham-Ernhart Block Sort Test, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Wide Range Achievement Test) are negatively correlated with paternal age when important family characteristics such as maternal education and number of siblings are not included as covariates. But controlling for family characteristics in general and mother’s education in particular renders the effect of paternal age statistically insignificant for most developmental measures. Conclusions: Assortative mating produces interesting relationships between maternal and paternal characteristics that can inject spurious correlation into observational studies via omitted variable bias. Controlling for both nature and nurture reveals little residual evidence of a link between child neurocognitive outcomes and paternal age in these data. Result