Alterations in thoracolumbosacral movement when pain causing lameness has been improved by diagnostic analgesia

Lameness, thoracolumbosacral pain and reduced range of motion (ROM) often coexist; better understanding of their relationship is needed. The objectives were to determine if thoracolumbosacral movement of horses changes when pain causing lameness is improved by diagnostic analgesia. We hypothesised that reduction of lameness will increase ROM of the thoracolumbosacral region. Thirteen horses with different types of hind limb lameness were trotted in straight lines and lunged on a 10 m diameter circle on left and right reins before and after lameness was subjectively substantially improved by diagnostic analgesia. Inertial sensor data were collected from the withers, thirteenth (T13) and eighteenth thoracic (T18) vertebrae, third lumbar (13) vertebra, tubera sacrale (TS), left and right tubera coxae. ROM of flexion-extension, axial rotation, lateral bending, dorsoventral, lateral-lateral motion and vertical movement symmetry were quantified at each thoracolumbar site. Hiphike difference (HHD), maximum difference (MaxDiff) and minimum difference (MinDiff) for the pelvic sensors were measured. Percentage changes for before and after diagnostic analgesia were calculated; mean standard deviation (SD) or median [interquartile range] were determined. Associations between the change in pelvic versus thoracolumbar movement symmetry after each local analgesic technique were tested. After resolution of lameness, HHD decreased by 7% [68%] (P = 0.006). The MinDiff decreased significantly by 33%[61%] (P = 0.01), 45 +/- 13% (P = 0.005) and 52 +/- 23% (P = 0.04), for TS, L3 and T18, respectively. There was significantly increased ROM in flexion-extension at T13, in axial rotation at T13, T18, 13 and in lateral-lateral ROM at 13. Thoracolumbosacral asymmetry and reduced ROM associated with lameness were both altered immediately by improvement in lameness using diagnostic analgesia. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Collective oscillations of dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates and accurate comparison between contact and dipolar interaction

We propose a scheme for the measurement of the s-wave scattering length $a$ of an atom or molecule with significant dipole-dipole interaction with an accuracy at the percent level. The frequencies of the collective oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate are shifted by the magnetic dipole interaction. The shift is polarization dependent and proportional to the ratio $\epsilon_{dd}$ of dipolar and s-wave coupling constants. Measuring the differences in the frequencies for different polarization we can extract the value of $\epsilon_{dd}$ and thus measure $a$. We calculate the frequency shifts for a large variety of non-axisymmetric harmonic traps in the Thomas-Fermi limit and find optimal trapping geometries to maximize the shifts.Comment: 4 pages, brief repor

Mesoscopic ensembles of polar bosons in triple-well potentials

Mesoscopic dipolar Bose gases in triple-well potentials offer a minimal system for the analysis of the long-range character of the dipole-dipole interactions. We show that this long-range character may be clearly revealed by a variety of possible ground-state phases. In addition, an appropriate control of short-range and dipolar interactions may lead to novel scenarios for the dynamics of atoms and polar molecules in lattices, including the dynamical creation of mesoscopic Schr\"odinger cats, which may be employed as a source of highly-nonclassical states for Heisenberg-limited interferometry.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Identical to the published version, including supplemental material (4 pages, 6 figures)

Tuning the dipolar interaction in quantum gases

We have studied the tunability of the interaction between permanent dipoles in Bose-Einstein condensates. Based on time-dependent control of the anisotropy of the dipolar interaction, we show that even the very weak magnetic dipole coupling in alkali gases can be used to excite collective modes. Furthermore, we discuss how the effective dipolar coupling in a Bose-Einstein condensate can be tuned from positive to negative values and even switched off completely by fast rotation of the orientation of the dipoles.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to PRL. (v3: Figure 3 replaced

Room temperature Rydberg Single Photon Source

We present an optimal protocol to implement a room temperature Rydberg single photon source within an experimental setup based on micro cells filled with thermal vapor. The optimization of a pulsed four wave mixing scheme allows to double the effective Rydberg blockade radius as compared to a simple Gaussian pulse scheme, releasing some of the constrains on the geometry of the micro cells. The performance of the optimized protocol is improved by about 70% with respect to the standard protocol.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Alterations in body lean angle in lame horses before and after diagnostic analgesia in straight lines in hand and on the lunge

Altered body lean has been subjectively observed during lungeing in lame horses. The objectives were to quantify the influence of lameness on body lean in trot on the lunge and to investigate the influence of improvement in lameness on the differences in body lean between reins. Thirteen lame horses were trotted in straight lines and lunged on a 10m-diameter circle on both reins before and after lameness was subjectively substantially improved by diagnostic analgesia. A global position system-aided inertial measurement unit attached to the tubera sacrale quantified body lean. Differences between reins in body lean before and after diagnostic analgesia were calculated and means were determined. Five and eight horses had unilateral and bilateral hindlimb lameness, respectively. Two of five horses with unilateral and three of eight horses with bilateral lameness leaned more on the rein with the lame or lamer hindlimb on the inside of the circle (difference between reins 5−8°). Two of five horses with unilateral and two of eight horses with bilateral lameness leaned more on the rein with the lame or lamer hindlimb on the outside of the circle (4−10°). Four horses, one with unilateral and three with bilateral lameness, had only 1° difference in body lean angle between left and right reins. When lameness was improved by diagnostic analgesia, the body lean changed significantly towards similar leaning on left and right reins (mean angle changed from 8.8° to 10.0° (P = 0.03) on one rein and 13.4° to 10.8° (P = 0.002) on the other rein). It was concluded that body lean becomes more symmetrical between reins after improvement in lameness using diagnostic analgesia