The effectiveness of neuromuscular warm-up strategies, that require no additional equipment, for preventing lower limb injuries during sports participation: a systematic review

PMCID: PMC3408383The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/10/75. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Hookworm Infection and Environmental Factors in Mbeya Region, Tanzania: A Cross-sectional, Population-based study.

Hookworm disease is one of the most common infections and cause of a high disease burden in the tropics and subtropics. Remotely sensed ecological data and model-based geostatistics have been used recently to identify areas in need for hookworm control. Cross-sectional interview data and stool samples from 6,375 participants from nine different sites in Mbeya region, south-western Tanzania, were collected as part of a cohort study. Hookworm infection was assessed by microscopy of duplicate Kato-Katz thick smears from one stool sample from each participant. A geographic information system was used to obtain remotely sensed environmental data such as land surface temperature (LST), vegetation cover, rainfall, and elevation, and combine them with hookworm infection data and with socio-demographic and behavioral data. Uni- and multivariable logistic regression was performed on sites separately and on the pooled dataset. Univariable analyses yielded significant associations for all ecological variables. Five ecological variables stayed significant in the final multivariable model: population density (odds ratio (OR) = 0.68; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.63-0.73), mean annual vegetation density (OR = 0.11; 95% CI = 0.06-0.18), mean annual LST during the day (OR = 0.81; 95% CI = 0.75-0.88), mean annual LST during the night (OR = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.44-1.64), and latrine coverage in household surroundings (OR = 1.02; 95% CI = 1.01-1.04). Interaction terms revealed substantial differences in associations of hookworm infection with population density, mean annual enhanced vegetation index, and latrine coverage between the two sites with the highest prevalence of infection. This study supports previous findings that remotely sensed data such as vegetation indices, LST, and elevation are strongly associated with hookworm prevalence. However, the results indicate that the influence of environmental conditions can differ substantially within a relatively small geographic area. The use of large-scale associations as a predictive tool on smaller scales is therefore problematic and should be handled with care

Geometrical Insights for Implicit Generative Modeling

Learning algorithms for implicit generative models can optimize a variety of criteria that measure how the data distribution differs from the implicit model distribution, including the Wasserstein distance, the Energy distance, and the Maximum Mean Discrepancy criterion. A careful look at the geometries induced by these distances on the space of probability measures reveals interesting differences. In particular, we can establish surprising approximate global convergence guarantees for the $1$-Wasserstein distance,even when the parametric generator has a nonconvex parametrization.Comment: this version fixes a typo in a definitio

Placement of an aortomonoiliac stent graft without femorofemoral revascularization in endovascular aneurysm repair: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Endovascular aortic repair, if technically feasible, is the treatment of choice for patients with a contained ruptured aortic aneurysm who are unfit for open surgery.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the case of an 80-year-old Caucasian man who presented with an unusually configured, symptomatic infrarenal aortic aneurysm. His aneurysm showed an erosion of the fourth lumbar vertebra and a severely arteriosclerotic pelvic axis. A high thigh amputation of his right leg had been performed 15 months previously. On his right side, occlusion of his external iliac artery, common femoral artery, and deep femoral artery had occurred. His aneurysm was treated by a left-sided aortomonoiliac stent graft without femorofemoral revascularization, resulting in occlusions of both internal iliac arteries. No ischemic symptoms appeared, although perfusion of his right side was maintained only over epigastric collaterals.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The placement of aortomonoiliac stent grafts for endovascular treatment of infrarenal aortic aneurysms without contralateral revascularization is a feasible treatment option in isolated cases. In this report, access problems and revascularization options in endovascular aneurysm repair are discussed.</p

Idiopathic giant abdominal lymph cyst: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Giant lymph cysts are a relatively frequent complication after surgical procedures in the abdomen, often after kidney transplantation, but there are also cases after pelvic surgery such as lymphadenectomy and others. In the recent literature, there have been no reported cases of idiopathic giant lymphocyst.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We present the case of a 76-year-old Caucasian man who had a lymph cyst he had known of for more than 15 years. Laparoscopic treatment was necessary because of hydronephrosis of the left kidney.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This case shows that laparoscopic drainage and partial resection of the lymph cyst is a safe and effective treatment.</p

Pyrite-induced hydroxyl radical formation and its effect on nucleic acids

BACKGROUND: Pyrite, the most abundant metal sulphide on Earth, is known to spontaneously form hydrogen peroxide when exposed to water. In this study the hypothesis that pyrite-induced hydrogen peroxide is transformed to hydroxyl radicals is tested. RESULTS: Using a combination of electron spin resonance (ESR) spin-trapping techniques and scavenging reactions involving nucleic acids, the formation of hydroxyl radicals in pyrite/aqueous suspensions is demonstrated. The addition of EDTA to pyrite slurries inhibits the hydrogen peroxide-to-hydroxyl radical conversion, but does not inhibit the formation of hydrogen peroxide. Given the stability of EDTA chelation with both ferrous and ferric iron, this suggests that the addition of the EDTA prevents the transformation by chelation of dissolved iron species. CONCLUSION: While the exact mechanism or mechanisms of the hydrogen peroxide-to-hydroxyl radical conversion cannot be resolved on the basis of the experiments reported in this study, it is clear that the pyrite surface promotes the reaction. The formation of hydroxyl radicals is significant because they react nearly instantaneously with most organic molecules. This suggests that the presence of pyrite in natural, engineered, or physiological aqueous systems may induce the transformation of a wide range of organic molecules. This finding has implications for the role pyrite may play in aquatic environments and raises the question whether inhalation of pyrite dust contributes to the development of lung diseases

Thermal photons in QGP and non-ideal effects

We investigate the thermal photon production-rates using one dimensional boost-invariant second order relativistic hydrodynamics to find proper time evolution of the energy density and the temperature. The effect of bulk-viscosity and non-ideal equation of state are taken into account in a manner consistent with recent lattice QCD estimates. It is shown that the \textit{non-ideal} gas equation of state i.e $\epsilon-3\,P\,\neq 0$ behaviour of the expanding plasma, which is important near the phase-transition point, can significantly slow down the hydrodynamic expansion and thereby increase the photon production-rates. Inclusion of the bulk viscosity may also have similar effect on the hydrodynamic evolution. However the effect of bulk viscosity is shown to be significantly lower than the \textit{non-ideal} gas equation of state. We also analyze the interesting phenomenon of bulk viscosity induced cavitation making the hydrodynamical description invalid. We include the viscous corrections to the distribution functions while calculating the photon spectra. It is shown that ignoring the cavitation phenomenon can lead to erroneous estimation of the photon flux.Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures; accepted for publication in JHE

Optimising Strategies for Plasmodium falciparum Malaria Elimination in Cambodia: Primaquine, Mass Drug Administration and Artemisinin Resistance

Malaria elimination requires a variety of approaches individually optimized for different transmission settings. A recent field study in an area of low seasonal transmission in South West Cambodia demonstrated dramatic reductions in malaria parasite prevalence following both mass drug administration (MDA) and high treatment coverage of symptomatic patients with artemisinin-piperaquine plus primaquine. This study employed multiple combined strategies and it was unclear what contribution each made to the reductions in malaria.A mathematical model fitted to the trial results was used to assess the effects of the various components of these interventions, design optimal elimination strategies, and explore their interactions with artemisinin resistance, which has recently been discovered in Western Cambodia. The modelling indicated that most of the initial reduction of P. falciparum malaria resulted from MDA with artemisinin-piperaquine. The subsequent continued decline and near elimination resulted mainly from high coverage with artemisinin-piperaquine treatment. Both these strategies were more effective with the addition of primaquine. MDA with artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) increased the proportion of artemisinin resistant infections, although much less than treatment of symptomatic cases with ACT, and this increase was slowed by adding primaquine. Artemisinin resistance reduced the effectiveness of interventions using ACT when the prevalence of resistance was very high. The main results were robust to assumptions about primaquine action, and immunity.The key messages of these modelling results for policy makers were: high coverage with ACT treatment can produce a long-term reduction in malaria whereas the impact of MDA is generally only short-term; primaquine enhances the effect of ACT in eliminating malaria and reduces the increase in proportion of artemisinin resistant infections; parasite prevalence is a better surveillance measure for elimination programmes than numbers of symptomatic cases; combinations of interventions are most effective and sustained efforts are crucial for successful elimination