Pulsed electromagnetic energy treatment offers no clinical benefit in reducing the pain of knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review

Background The rehabilitation of knee osteoarthritis often includes electrotherapeutic modalities as well as advice and exercise. One commonly used modality is pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (PEMF). PEMF uses electro magnetically generated fields to promote tissue repair and healing rates. Its equivocal benefit over placebo treatment has been previously suggested however recently a number of randomised controlled trials have been published that have allowed a systematic review to be conducted. Methods A systematic review of the literature from 1966 to 2005 was undertaken. Relevant computerised bibliographic databases were searched and papers reviewed independently by two reviewers for quality using validated criteria for assessment. The key outcomes of pain and functional disability were analysed with weighted and standardised mean differences being calculated. Results Five randomised controlled trials comparing PEMF with placebo were identified. The weighted mean differences of the five papers for improvement in pain and function, were small and their 95% confidence intervals included the null. Conclusion This systematic review provides further evidence that PEMF has little value in the management of knee osteoarthritis. There appears to be clear evidence for the recommendation that PEMF does not significantly reduce the pain of knee osteoarthritis

Pressure dependent electronic properties of MgO polymorphs: A first-principles study of Compton profiles and autocorrelation functions

The first-principles periodic linear combination of atomic orbitals method within the framework of density functional theory implemented in the CRYSTAL06 code has been applied to explore effect of pressure on the Compton profiles and autocorrelation functions of MgO. Calculations are performed for the B1, B2, B3, B4, B8_1 and h-MgO polymorphs of MgO to compute lattice constants and bulk moduli. The isothermal enthalpy calculations predict that B4 to B8_1, h-MgO to B8_1, B3 to B2, B4 to B2 and h-MgO to B2 transitions take place at 2, 9, 37, 42 and 64 GPa respectively. The high pressure transitions B8_1 to B2 and B1 to B2 are found to occur at 340 and 410 GPa respectively. The pressure dependent changes are observed largely in the valence electrons Compton profiles whereas core profiles are almost independent of the pressure in all MgO polymorphs. Increase in pressure results in broadening of the valence Compton profiles. The principal maxima in the second derivative of Compton profiles shifts towards high momentum side in all structures. Reorganization of momentum density in the B1 to B2 structural phase transition is seen in the first and second derivatives before and after the transition pressure. Features of the autocorrelation functions shift towards lower r side with increment in pressure.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Journal of Materials Scienc

A companion to a quasar at redshift 4.7

There is a growing consensus that the emergence of quasars at high redshifts is related to the onset of galaxy formation, suggesting that the detection of concentrations of gas accompanying such quasars should provide clues about the early history of galaxies. Quasar companions have been recently identified at redshifts up to $z \approx 3$. Here we report observations of Lyman-$\alpha$ emission (a tracer of ionised hydrogen) from the companion to a quasar at $z$=4.702, corresponding to a time when the Universe was less than ten per cent of its present age. We argue that most of the emission arises in a gaseous nebula that has been photoionised by the quasar, but an additional component of continuum light -perhaps quasar light scattered from dust in the companion body, or emission from young stars within the nebula- appears necessary to explain the observations. These observations may be indicative of the first stages in the assembly of galaxy-sized structures.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, plain LaTeX. Accepted for publication in Natur

Longer fixation duration while viewing face images

The spatio-temporal properties of saccadic eye movements can be influenced by the cognitive demand and the characteristics of the observed scene. Probably due to its crucial role in social communication, it is argued that face perception may involve different cognitive processes compared with non-face object or scene perception. In this study, we investigated whether and how face and natural scene images can influence the patterns of visuomotor activity. We recorded monkeys’ saccadic eye movements as they freely viewed monkey face and natural scene images. The face and natural scene images attracted similar number of fixations, but viewing of faces was accompanied by longer fixations compared with natural scenes. These longer fixations were dependent on the context of facial features. The duration of fixations directed at facial contours decreased when the face images were scrambled, and increased at the later stage of normal face viewing. The results suggest that face and natural scene images can generate different patterns of visuomotor activity. The extra fixation duration on faces may be correlated with the detailed analysis of facial features

Isothermal Recombinase Polymerase amplification (RPA) of Schistosoma haematobium DNA and oligochromatographic lateral flow detection

© 2015 Rosser et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. The attached file is the published version of the article

Influence of modern coal-fired power technologies on fly ash properties and its use in concrete

The work reported in this paper investigated the properties and use of fly ash (FA) produced from technologies developed to reduce the environmental impact and improve the efficiency of the coal-fired power generation process. These include nitrogen oxides (NO x) reduction, co-combustion, supercritical steam technology and oxy-fuel combustion. The nine FA samples examined from these technologies were characterised physically, chemically and in terms of their reactivity. Tests were also carried out to determine the consistence (slump) and compressive strength of FA concretes. Comparisons were made with a selection of reference FAs, the requirements of BS EN 450-1 and reported FA studies from the 1980s and 1990s. The results indicated that, for some technologies, the FA tended to be coarser and of higher loss on ignition (co-combustion and in-combustion NO x reduction) while, for others lower carbon contents were found (supercritical steam) or there was little obvious effect. FA chemistry was slightly affected in some cases, but mainly as expected for the coal being used. There was general agreement between water requirement and activity index with FA fineness for the materials tested. For the FA concretes, similar effects were noted in terms of the dosage of superplasticising admixture needed for a target slump and compressive strength. The behaviour of the materials from the new technologies was found to be similar to that reported in earlier studies on FA and suggests suitability for their use in concrete construction. </p

Assisted evolution enables HIV-1 to overcome a high trim5α-imposed genetic barrier to rhesus macaque tropism

Diversification of antiretroviral factors during host evolution has erected formidable barriers to cross-species retrovirus transmission. This phenomenon likely protects humans from infection by many modern retroviruses, but it has also impaired the development of primate models of HIV-1 infection. Indeed, rhesus macaques are resistant to HIV-1, in part due to restriction imposed by the TRIM5α protein (rhTRIM5α). Initially, we attempted to derive rhTRIM5α-resistant HIV-1 strains using two strategies. First, HIV-1 was passaged in engineered human cells expressing rhTRIM5α. Second, a library of randomly mutagenized capsid protein (CA) sequences was screened for mutations that reduced rhTRIM5α sensitivity. Both approaches identified several individual mutations in CA that reduced rhTRIM5α sensitivity. However, neither approach yielded mutants that were fully resistant, perhaps because the locations of the mutations suggested that TRIM5α recognizes multiple determinants on the capsid surface. Moreover, even though additive effects of various CA mutations on HIV-1 resistance to rhTRIM5α were observed, combinations that gave full resistance were highly detrimental to fitness. Therefore, we employed an 'assisted evolution' approach in which individual CA mutations that reduced rhTRIM5α sensitivity without fitness penalties were randomly assorted in a library of viral clones containing synthetic CA sequences. Subsequent passage of the viral library in rhTRIM5α-expressing cells resulted in the selection of individual viral species that were fully fit and resistant to rhTRIM5α. These viruses encoded combinations of five mutations in CA that conferred complete or near complete resistance to the disruptive effects of rhTRIM5α on incoming viral cores, by abolishing recognition of the viral capsid. Importantly, HIV-1 variants encoding these CA substitutions and SIVmac239 Vif replicated efficiently in primary rhesus macaque lymphocytes. These findings demonstrate that rhTRIM5α is difficult to but not impossible to evade, and doing so should facilitate the development of primate models of HIV-1 infection

Genetic Covariance Structure of Reading, Intelligence and Memory in Children

This study investigates the genetic relationship among reading performance, IQ, verbal and visuospatial working memory (WM) and short-term memory (STM) in a sample of 112, 9-year-old twin pairs and their older siblings. The relationship between reading performance and the other traits was explained by a common genetic factor for reading performance, IQ, WM and STM and a genetic factor that only influenced reading performance and verbal memory. Genetic variation explained 83% of the variation in reading performance; most of this genetic variance was explained by variation in IQ and memory performance. We hypothesize, based on these results, that children with reading problems possibly can be divided into three groups: (1) children low in IQ and with reading problems; (2) children with average IQ but a STM deficit and with reading problems; (3) children with low IQ and STM deficits; this group may experience more reading problems than the other two

Levels of Multiplexity in Entrepreneur's Networks: Implications for Dynamism and Value Creation

© 2016 by De Gruyter. Relationships and networks are important to how entrepreneurs create value. However, many aspects about relationships and networks remain poorly understood because their characteristics are often reduced to one-dimensional variables or dichotomous measures. This paper unpacks the concept of multiplexity and proposes a hierarchy of four different levels (social, relational, strategic, and closed). Each level is associated with a different level of dynamism which governs how rapidly entrepreneurs can alter their network. The hierarchy of multiplexity and associated levels of dynamism, have implications regarding different value creation processes that are associated with these network conditions

A habituation account of change detection in same/different judgments

We investigated the basis of change detection in a short-term priming task. In two experiments, participants were asked to indicate whether or not a target word was the same as a previously presented cue. Data from an experiment measuring magnetoencephalography failed to find different patterns for “same” and “different” responses, consistent with the claim that both arise from a common neural source, with response magnitude defining the difference between immediate novelty versus familiarity. In a behavioral experiment, we tested and confirmed the predictions of a habituation account of these judgments by comparing conditions in which the target, the cue, or neither was primed by its presentation in the previous trial. As predicted, cue-primed trials had faster response times, and target-primed trials had slower response times relative to the neither-primed baseline. These results were obtained irrespective of response repetition and stimulus–response contingencies. The behavioral and brain activity data support the view that detection of change drives performance in these tasks and that the underlying mechanism is neuronal habituation