Postural awareness and its relation to pain: Validation of an innovative instrument measuring awareness of body posture in patients with chronic pain

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: Habitual postural patterns are associated with musculoskeletal pain, and improving a maladaptive posture requires postural awareness in order to lead to clinical improvements. This study aimed to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of an innovative postural awareness scale. Methods: A 12-item Postural Awareness Scale (PAS) was developed and administered to 512 chronic pain patients (50.3 ± 11.4 years, 91.6% female, 37.1% spinal/shoulder pain) to assess its factor structure and reliability. To determine convergent validity, measures of body awareness, body responsiveness, body image, and mindfulness were correlated with the PAS, as were clinical measures of pain intensity, disability, and mental health. Sensitivity to change was assessed in 202 outpatients participating in a 10-week multimodal mind-body program. Results: Factor analysis revealed two factors (Ease/Familiarity with Postural Awareness and Need for Attention Regulation with Postural Awareness) that explained 50.8% of the variance. Cronbach's alpha for the complete scale was 0.80; Spearman-Brown coefficient of split-half reliability was 0.67; and intra-class correlation was ICC2,1 = 0.75 (95% confidence interval = 0.71, 0.78). Significant positive correlations were found for body awareness (r = 0.23), body responsiveness (r = 0.41), body image (r = 0.22-0.32), and mindfulness (r = 0.38); negative correlations for pain intensity (r = - 0.14), disability (r = - 0.12), depression (r = - 0.23), and stress (r = - 0.29). Postural awareness scores increased with a mind-body program (p < 0.001); changes in the PAS were negatively correlated with changes in pain intensity (r = - 0.35) in patients with spinal/shoulder pain. Conclusion: Self-reported postural awareness is associated with clinical symptoms in chronic pain patients; improvements in postural awareness are longitudinally associated with reduced pain in patients with spinal/shoulder pain

Significant reduction in helicobacter pylori load in humans with non-viable lactobacillus reuteri DSM17648: A pilot study

Reducing the amount of Helicobacter pylori in the stomach by selective bacterial-bacterial cell interaction was sought as an effective and novel method for combating the stomach pathogen. Lactobacillus reuteri DSM17648 was identified as a highly specific binding antagonist to H. pylori among more than 700 wild-type strains of Lactobacillus species. Applying a stringent screening procedure, the strain DSM17648 was identified as selective binder to H. pylori cells under in vivo gastric conditions. The strain DSM17648 co-aggregates the pathogen in vivo and in vitro. The specific co-aggregation occurs between Lact. reuteri DSM17648 and different H. pylori strains and serotypes, as well as H. heilmannii, but not with Campylobacter jejuni or other commensal oral and intestinal bacteria. Lact. reuteri DSM17648 was shown in a proof-of-concept single-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled pilot study to significantly reduce the load of H. pylori in healthy yet infected adults. Reducing the amount of H. pylori in the stomach by selective bacterial-bacterial cell interaction might be an effective and novel method for combating the stomach pathogen. Lact. reuteri DSM17648 might prove useful as an adhesion blocker in antibiotic-free H. pylori therapies

Planar torsion spring

A torsion spring comprises an inner mounting segment. An outer mounting segment is located concentrically around the inner mounting segment. A plurality of splines extends from the inner mounting segment to the outer mounting segment. At least a portion of each spline extends generally annularly around the inner mounting segment

Method and apparatus for electromagnetically braking a motor

An electromagnetic braking system and method is provided for selectively braking a motor using an electromagnetic brake having an electromagnet, a permanent magnet, a rotor assembly, and a brake pad. The brake assembly applies when the electromagnet is de-energized and releases when the electromagnet is energized. When applied the permanent magnet moves the brake pad into frictional engagement with a housing, and when released the electromagnet cancels the flux of the permanent magnet to allow a leaf spring to move the brake pad away from the housing. A controller has a DC/DC converter for converting a main bus voltage to a lower braking voltage based on certain parameters. The converter utilizes pulse-width modulation (PWM) to regulate the braking voltage. A calibrated gap is defined between the brake pad and permanent magnet when the brake assembly is released, and may be dynamically modified via the controller

Being aware of the painful body: Validation of the German Body Awareness Questionnaire and Body Responsiveness Questionnaire in patients with chronic pain

© 2018 Cramer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Body awareness is an attentional focus on and awareness of internal body sensations. This study aimed to validate German versions of the Body Awareness Questionnaire (BAQ) and the Body Responsiveness Questionnaire (BRQ) in chronic pain patients and to assess their associations with pain-related variables and to assess their responsiveness to intervention. The instruments were translated to German and administered to 512 chronic pain patients (50.3±11.4 years, 91.6% female) to assess their factor structure and reliability. Cronbach’s α for the BAQ total score was 0.86. Factor analysis of the BRQ revealed the two factors Importance of Interoceptive Awareness (Cronbach’s α = 0.75) and Perceived Connection (Cronbach’s α = 0.75) and the single-item Suppression of Bodily Sensations. The BAQ was independently associated with lower mindfulness, self-esteem, stress, and depression; Importance of Interoceptive Awareness with mindfulness, self-acceptance, self-esteem, and physical contact; Perceived Connection with self-acceptance, vitality, and lower sensory pain; Suppression of Bodily Sensations with lower self-esteem, physical contact, and higher depressive symptoms. After a 10-week multimodal mind-body program (n = 202), the BAQ and Importance of Interoceptive Awareness increased and pain intensity and Suppression of Bodily Sensation decreased. In conclusion, body awareness and body responsiveness are associated with pain-related variables in patients with chronic pain. Mind-body interventions may positively influence both pain and body awareness, hinting at a potential mechanism of action of these interventions to be tested in further research

Comparison of thermistor linearization techniques for accurate temperature measurement in phase change materials

Alternate energy technologies are developing rapidly in the recent years. A significant part of this trend is the development of different phase change materials (PCMs). Proper utilization of PCMs requires accurate thermal characterization. There are several methodologies used in this field. This paper stresses the importance of accurate temperature measurements during the implementation of T-history method. Since the temperature sensor size is also important thermistors have been selected as the sensing modality. Two thermistor linearization techniques, one based on Wheatstone bridge and the other based on simple serial-parallel resistor connection, are compared in terms of achievable temperature accuracy through consideration of both, nonlinearity and self-heating errors. Proper calibration was performed before T-history measurement of RT21 (RUBITHERM® GmbH) PCM. Measurement results suggest that the utilization of serial-parallel resistor connection gives better accuracy (less than ±0.1°C) in comparison with the Wheatstone bridge based configuration (up to ±1.5°C)

On the subjective acceptance during cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging at 7.0 Tesla

PURPOSE: This study examines the subjective acceptance during UHF-CMR in a cohort of healthy volunteers who underwent a cardiac MR examination at 7.0T. METHODS: Within a period of two-and-a-half years (January 2012 to June 2014) a total of 165 healthy volunteers (41 female, 124 male) without any known history of cardiac disease underwent UHF-CMR. For the assessment of the subjective acceptance a questionnaire was used to examine the participants experience prior, during and after the UHF-CMR examination. For this purpose, subjects were asked to respond to the questionnaire in an exit interview held immediately after the completion of the UHF-CMR examination under supervision of a study nurse to ensure accurate understanding of the questions. All questions were answered with "yes" or "no" including space for additional comments. RESULTS: Transient muscular contraction was documented in 12.7% of the questionnaires. Muscular contraction was reported to occur only during periods of scanning with the magnetic field gradients being rapidly switched. Dizziness during the study was reported by 12.7% of the subjects. Taste of metal was reported by 10.1% of the study population. Light flashes were reported by 3.6% of the entire cohort. 13% of the subjects reported side effects/observations which were not explicitly listed in the questionnaire but covered by the question about other side effects. No severe side effects as vomiting or syncope after scanning occurred. No increase in heart rate was observed during the UHF-CMR exam versus the baseline clinical examination. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds to the literature by detailing the subjective acceptance of cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging examinations at a magnetic field strength of 7.0T. Cardiac MR examinations at 7.0T are well tolerated by healthy subjects. Broader observational and multi-center studies including patient cohorts with cardiac diseases are required to gain further insights into the subjective acceptance of UHF-CMR examinations

Dietary omega-3 fatty acids modulate the eicosanoid profile in man primarily via the CYP-epoxygenase pathway

Cytochrome P450 (CYP)-dependent metabolites of arachidonic acid (AA) contribute to the regulation of cardiovascular function. CYP enzymes also accept eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to yield more potent vasodilatory and potentially anti-arrhythmic metabolites, suggesting that the endogenous CYP-eicosanoid profile can be favorably shifted by dietary omega-3 fatty acids. To test this hypothesis, 20 healthy volunteers were treated with an EPA/DHA-supplement and analyzed for concomitant changes in the circulatory and urinary levels of AA-, EPA-, and DHA-derived metabolites produced by the cyclooxygenase-, lipoxygenase- and CYP-dependent pathways. Raising the Omega-3 Index from about 4 to 8 primarily resulted in a large increase of EPA-derived CYP-dependent epoxy-metabolites followed by increases of EPA- and DHA-derived lipoxygenase-dependent monohydroxy-metabolites including the precursors of resolvin E and D families; resolvins themselves were not detected. The metabolite/precursor fatty acid ratios indicated that CYP epoxygenases metabolized EPA with an 8.6-fold and DHA with a 2.2-fold higher efficiency than AA. Effects on leukotriene, prostaglandin E, prostacyclin, and thromboxane formation remained rather weak. We propose that CYP-dependent epoxy-metabolites of EPA and DHA may function as mediators of the vasodilatory and cardioprotective effects of omega-3 fatty acids and could serve as biomarkers in clinical studies investigating the cardiovascular effects of EPA/DHA-supplementation

Thermal, mechanical and microstructural analysis of concrete containing microencapsulated phase change materials

This paper studies the thermal, mechanical and microstructural aspects of concrete containing different amounts of microencapsulated phase change materials (PCMs). In addition, numerical simulation is carried out to study the potential application of PCM-modified concrete for reduction in summer surface temperature. It is shown that increasing PCM content in concrete led to lower thermal conductivity and an increase in the heat storage ability of concrete. However, the compressive and flexural strength of concrete significantly decreased. Microstructural analysis showed that PCMs appear to remain intact during mixing; however, PCM particles appear to fail by bursting under loading, creating hemispherical voids and crack initiation points as well as possible entrapped air behaviour. The result of numerical simulation revealed that reduction in summer concrete pavement surface temperature by several degrees was possible, with implications for reduction in concrete thermal stresses, shrinkage and urban heat island effect

Rotary Series Elastic Actuator

A rotary actuator assembly is provided for actuation of an upper arm assembly for a dexterous humanoid robot. The upper arm assembly for the humanoid robot includes a plurality of arm support frames each defining an axis. A plurality of rotary actuator assemblies are each mounted to one of the plurality of arm support frames about the respective axes. Each rotary actuator assembly includes a motor mounted about the respective axis, a gear drive rotatably connected to the motor, and a torsion spring. The torsion spring has a spring input that is rotatably connected to an output of the gear drive and a spring output that is connected to an output for the joint