The management of chronic neck pain in general practice

Objective - To describe the management in patients with chronic non- specific neck pain in general practice. Design - A descriptive, questionnaire-based retrospective study. Setting - General practices in the Netherlands. Patients - 517 patients with chronic non-specific neck pain. Main outcome measures - Nature and frequency of diagnostic procedures, therapeutic interventions and referrals by the general practitioner (GP). Results - Forty-four per cent visited the GP for neck pain in the previous year. Of the patients who did visit the GP in the previous year, 32% did not receive a diagnostic modality, 31% did not receive therapy and 43% were not referred. The most frequently applied diagnostic and therapeutic modalities were physical examination (66%) and pain medication (58%), respectively. The GPs most frequently referred to a physiotherapist (51%). Conclusion - Once neck pain has become chronic, the minority (44%) of patients do seek help from their GP on a yearly base. In spite of the fact that the patients' conditions are non-specific and chronic, GPs still find indications for further diagnostics in two-thirds of patients. The GPs were rather consistent in their management, as the nature of the diagnostic/therapeutic modalities and referrals was similar in more than 50% of the patients

Noise figure and S-parameter measurement setups for on-wafer differential 60GHz circuits

On-wafer measurement setups are introduced for measuring the noise figure and s-parameters of differential 60GHz circuits. The need for expensive four-port mm-wave vector network analyzers is circumvented by using magic-Ts, providing a minimum CMRR of 20dB, in combination with cheaper two-port mm-wave network analyzers. Waveguide interfaces are used in the vicinity of the RF probes to achieve a robust and repeatable setup, as the cables at mm-wave frequencies are prone to impedance and delay variation due to movement and bending. The noise figure of a double-balanced 60GHz mixer and the noise figure and s-parameters of a differential 60GHz LNA are measured using this setup and the measurement results are in good agreement with the simulations

The effect of irradiance on long-term skeletal growth and net photosynthesis in Galaxea fascicularis under four light conditions.

The relation between irradiance, skeletal growth and net photosynthesis was studied for the scleractinian coral Galaxea fascicularis to provide experimental evidence for mediation of light-enhanced calcification through photosynthesis. The hypothesis was tested that skeletal growth and photosynthesis are linearly correlated. A long-term experiment was performed in a closed-circuit aquarium system, in which four series of nine nubbins (single polyp clones of a coral colony) of Galaxea fascicularis were exposed to four light treatments (10L:14D): 144 W T8 fluorescent lighting providing an irradiance of 68 µE/m2/s and 70, 250 and 400 W Metal Halide lighting providing an irradiance of 38 µE/m2/s, 166 µE/m2/s and 410 µE/m2/s, respectively. Growth of these nubbins was measured as buoyant weight at different time intervals in a 294 day experiment. A light-saturation curve for photosynthesis was measured in a respirometric flow cell using a 54 week Galaxea fascicularis colony grown at 60 µE/m2/s. No saturation of net photosynthesis of Galaxea fascicularis was found at the irradiances tested. The specific growth rate (µ, in day- 1) of the coral nubbins increased with irradiance. Whereas irradiance varied 11-fold (38 to 410 µE/m2/s), buoyant weight (increase after 294 days) increased 5.7 times (2243 to 12374 mg), specific growth rate (1-294 days) increased 1.6 times (0.0103 to 0.0161 day- 1), while net photosynthetic rate increased 8.9 times (0.009 µmol O2/min/cm2 to 0.077 µmol O2/min/cm2). The increase of specific growth rate with irradiance was less than expected based on the increase in net photosynthetic rate with irradiance. This discrepancy between potential energy produced in photosynthesis and energy used for skeletal growth indicates that skeletal growth is not limited by photosynthetic potential at high irradiance level

Colonic expression of calcium transporter TRPV6 is regulated by dietary sodium butyrate.

Dietary fibers have been shown to increase the intestinal absorption of calcium (Ca(2+)) and magnesium (Mg(2+)). However, the mechanisms that explain the enhanced electrolyte absorption remain unknown. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the short-term and long-term effects of 5% (w/w) sodium butyrate (Na-butyrate), an important end-metabolite of bacterial fermentation of dietary fibers, on Ca(2+) and Mg(2+) homeostasis in mice. Serum Ca(2+) levels were only significantly increased in mice treated with Na-butyrate for 1 day. This was associated with a twofold increase in the mRNA expression levels of Trpv6 in the proximal and distal colon. Contrary, Na-butyrate did not affect serum Mg(2+) concentrations at either of the intervention periods. However, we observed a reduction in urinary Mg(2+) excretion, although not significantly, after 1 day of treatment. A significant reduction of 2.5-fold in urinary Mg(2+) excretion was observed after 14 days of treatment. Indeed, 14-day Na-butyrate supplementation increased colonic Trpm7 expression by 1.2-fold compared to control mice. In conclusion, short-term Na-butyrate supplementation increases serum Ca(2+) levels in mice. This was associated with increased mRNA expression levels of Trpv6 in the colon, suggesting that Na-butyrate regulates the expression of genes involved in active intestinal Ca(2+) absorption

High INDO (indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase) mRNA level in blasts of acute myeloid leukemic patients predicts poor clinical outcome (vol 93, pg 1894, 2008)

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase degrades the amino acid tryptophan which is essential for T cells. Tryptophan depletion causes T-cell cycle arrest and solid tumors that express high levels of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase can create immune suppression. Recently, blasts of patients with acute myeloid leukemia were shown to express indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. We determined INDO (encoding gene for indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase) mRNA expression in leukemic blasts of 286 patients with acute myeloid leukemia by gene-expression profiling. Results were validated by quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis in blasts of an independent cohort of 71 patients. High INDO expression was correlated to significantly shortened overall and relapse-free survival. Correlation of INDO expression to relevant known prognostic factors and survival identified high INDO expression as a strong negative independent predicting variable for overall and relapse-free survival. Inhibition of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase expressed by myeloid leukemic blasts may result in breaking immune tolerance and offers new therapeutic options for patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Heterogeneous multi-processor for the management of real-time video & graphics streams

A chip for the concurrent processing of many real time multi-media streams has three independent and uncorrelated video input channels. They are stored in and retrieved from an external SDRAM to be displayed on a TV set using PC-like multiple windows. Graphics data generated by an external CPU is read from SDRAM to be blended with the composition of the video