1,736 research outputs found
Effects of active musical engagement during physical exercise on anxiety, pain and motivation in patients with chronic pain
The experience of anxiety is central to the development of chronic pain. Music listening has been previously shown to exert analgesic effects. Here we tested if an active engagement in music making is more beneficial than music listening in terms of anxiety and pain levels during physical activity that is often avoided in patients with chronic pain. We applied a music feedback paradigm that combines music making and sports exercise, and which has been previously shown to enhance mood. We explored this method as an intervention to potentially reduce anxiety in a group of patients with chronic pain (N = 24, 20 female and 4 men; age range 34 - 64, M = 51.67, SD = 6.84) and with various anxiety levels. All participants performed two conditions: one condition, Jymmin, where exercise equipment was modified with music feedback so that it could be played like musical instruments by groups of three. Second, a conventional workout condition where groups of three performed exercise on the same devices but where they listened to the same type of music passively. Participantsâ levels of anxiety, mood, pain and self-efficacy were assessed with standardized psychological questionnaires before the experiment and after each condition. Results demonstrate that exercise with musical feedback reduced anxiety values in patients with chronic pain significantly as compared to conventional workout with passive music listening. There were no significant overall changes in pain, but patients with greater anxiety levels compared to those with moderate anxiety levels were observed to potentially benefit more from the music feedback intervention in terms of alleviation of pain. Furthermore, it was observed that patients during Jymmin more strongly perceived motivation through others. The observed diminishing effects of Jymmin on anxiety have a high clinical relevance, and in a longer term the therapeutic application could help to break the Anxiety Loop of Pain, reducing chronic pain. The intervention method, however, also has immediate benefits to chronic pain rehabilitation, increasing the motivation to work out, and facilitating social bonding
Modifications of comet materials by the sublimation process: Results from simulation experiments
An active comet like comet Halley loses by sublimation a surface layer of the order of 1 m thickness per perihelion passage. In situ measurements show that water ice is the main constituent which contributes to the gas emission although even more volatile species (CO, NH3, CH4, CO2 etc.) have been identified. Dust particles which were embedded in the ices are carried by the sublimating gases. Measurements of the chemical composition of cometary grains indicate that they are composed of silicates of approximate chondritic composition and refractory carbonaceous material. Comet simulation experiments show that significant modifications of cometary materials occur due to sublimation process in near surface layers which have to be taken into account in order to derive the original state of the material
Physical Origin of the Boson Peak Deduced from a Two-Order-Parameter Model of Liquid
We propose that the boson peak originates from the (quasi-) localized
vibrational modes associated with long-lived locally favored structures, which
are intrinsic to a liquid state and are randomly distributed in a sea of
normal-liquid structures. This tells us that the number density of locally
favored structures is an important physical factor determining the intensity of
the boson peak. In our two-order-parameter model of the liquid-glass
transition, the locally favored structures act as impurities disturbing
crystallization and thus lead to vitrification. This naturally explains the
dependence of the intensity of the boson peak on temperature, pressure, and
fragility, and also the close correlation between the boson peak and the first
sharp diffraction peak (or prepeak).Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, An error in the reference (Ref. 7) was correcte
Vegetation history and climatic fluctuations on a transect along the Dead Sea west shore and impact on past societies over the last 3500 years.
This study represents the vegetation history of the last 3500 years and conducts an analysis of the climatic fluctuations on a 75 km long transect on the western Dead Sea shore. Palynological and sedimentological data are available from six cores near Mount Sedom, Ein Boqueq, and Ein Gedi and from outcrops near Ze'elim and Ein Feshkha. The comparison of the pollen data with the lake levels shows synchronous trends. During the Middle Bronze Age, Iron Age and Hellenistic to Byzantine Period the high lake level of the Dead Sea signals an increase in precipitation. Contemporaneously, values of cultivated plants indicate an increase in agriculture. Lake level is low during the Late Bronze Age, within the Iron Age and at the end of the Byzantine period, indicating dry periods when all pds show a decrease of cultivated plants. Forest regeneration led by drought-resistant pines is observed in all pollen diagrams (pds) following the agricultural decline in the Byzantine period and, in the pds near Ein Boqeq, Ze'elim and Ein Feshkha, during the late Iron Age. The modern vegetation gradient is reflected in the palaeo-records: a stronger expansion of Mediterranean vegetation and cultivated plants in the northern sites is recognisable
The evolution of vibrational excitations in glassy systems
The equations of the mode-coupling theory (MCT) for ideal liquid-glass
transitions are used for a discussion of the evolution of the
density-fluctuation spectra of glass-forming systems for frequencies within the
dynamical window between the band of high-frequency motion and the band of
low-frequency-structural-relaxation processes. It is shown that the strong
interaction between density fluctuations with microscopic wave length and the
arrested glass structure causes an anomalous-oscillation peak, which exhibits
the properties of the so-called boson peak. It produces an elastic modulus
which governs the hybridization of density fluctuations of mesoscopic wave
length with the boson-peak oscillations. This leads to the existence of
high-frequency sound with properties as found by X-ray-scattering spectroscopy
of glasses and glassy liquids. The results of the theory are demonstrated for a
model of the hard-sphere system. It is also derived that certain schematic MCT
models, whose spectra for the stiff-glass states can be expressed by elementary
formulas, provide reasonable approximations for the solutions of the general
MCT equations.Comment: 50 pages, 17 postscript files including 18 figures, to be published
in Phys. Rev.
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