Shoulder Impingement

Background. Women who undergo mastectomy are almost 6 times more likely to experience shoulder restriction and impairment than patients who undergo breast-conserving surgery. Many women in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of their lives. The purpose of this case study is to review the rehabilitation plan for a patient with shoulder dysfunction and a history of surgical intervention for breast cancer. Case Description. The patient was referred to physical therapy with complaints of pain in the right shoulder and anterior chest which increased with overhead movement. The patient\u27s medical history included a skin graft to the right axilla, right sided lumpectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and a unilateral right total mastectomy. Examination procedures resulted in reproduction of symptoms during palpation of the mastectomy site and during shoulder impingement tests. Plan of Care. The interventions performed included scar mobilization, ultrasound, patient education, stretching, and shoulder girdle strengthening. After 8 physical therapy (PT) sessions, the patient reported decreased pain and was able to return to her previous level of function. Reflection on Practice. This patient demonstrated that, with time and support from health care professionals, psychological acceptance of a diagnosis was promoted. I could have also provided more information to the patient regarding psychological services and to the physician in regards to shoulder dysfunction diagnosis. It is recommended that education be provided to patients immediately after a mastectomy surgery in order to prevent shoulder dysfunction

Developing the Intervention and Outcome Components of a Proposed Randomised Controlled trial (RCT) of a National Screening Programme for Open Angle Glaucoma (OAG) : Medical Research Council funded trial platform study (G0701759): Study protocol

Postprin

Windows into Non-Euclidean Spaces

Two microlens arrays that are separated by the sum of their focal lengths form arrays of micro-telescopes. Parallel light rays that pass through corresponding lenses remain parallel, but the direction of the transmitted light rays is different. This remains true if corresponding lenses do not share an optical axis (i.e. if the two microlens arrays are shifted with respect to each other). The arrays described above are examples of generalized confocal lenslet arrays, and the light-ray-direction change in these devices is well understood [Oxburgh et al., Opt. Commun. 313, 119 (2014)]. Here we show that such micro-telescope arrays change light-ray direction like the interface between spaces with different metrics. To physicists, the concept of metrics is perhaps most familiar from General Relativity (where it is applied to spacetime, not only space, like it is here) and Transformation Optics [Pendry et al., Science 312, 1780 (2006)], where different materials are treated like spaces with different optical metrics. We illustrate the similarities between micro-telescope arrays and metric interfaces with raytracing simulations. Our results suggest the possibility of realising transformation-optics devices with micro-telescope arrays, which we investigate elsewhere

Maximizing Use of Extension Beef Cattle Benchmarks Data Derived from Cow Herd Appraisal Performance Software

One goal of Extension is to provide practical information that makes a difference to producers. Cow Herd Appraisal Performance Software (CHAPS) has provided beef producers with production benchmarks for 30 years, creating a large historical data set. Many such large data sets contain useful information but are underutilized. Our goal was to create a 20-year data set (CHAPS20Y) to examine trends in beef production from 1994 to 2013. In this article, we describe the CHAPS program and the process used to select herds for CHAPS20Y. We hope to publish additional related articles that will examine trends in calving distributions, reproduction, and growth and discuss implications for producers and Extension

Maximizing Use of an Extension Beef Cattle Data Set: Part 2—Reproductive Rates

Previously, we described CHAPS20Y, a historical data set, and trends in CHAPS20Y calving distributions. In this article, we describe reproductive rates, including total females exposed to bull(s), pregnancy, pregnancy loss, calving, calf death loss, weaning, culling, and replacement percentages. Yearly mean exposed females increased from 1994 through 2013, consistent with a greater replacement percentage versus culling percentage. Yearly mean reproductive percentages varied over time. Factors such as weather, body condition, temperament, nutrition, and health likely contributed to this variation. CHAPS20Y is a tool Extension professionals can use to understand beef reproductive rates and help producers set and achieve their herd management goals

Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex glutamate concentrations and their relationships in adults with autism spectrum disorder

Previous studies have reported altered glutamate (Glu) concentrations in the blood and brain of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to neurotypical controls (NC), but the direction (increased or decreased) of metabolite differences is still unclear. Moreover, the relationship between Glu and both brain function and clinical manifestations of the disorder require further investigation. Within this study, we investigated metabolite concentrations within the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), a brain region functionally associated with inhibitory executive control tasks and also part of the salience network. There were 19 participants with ASD and 20 NCs between the ages of 23 and 58 years who participated in this study. A study clinician administered the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) to individuals with ASD to further confirm their diagnosis. In addition, all participants in this study completed assessments of general intelligence and attention, which included an inhibitory executive control task. Researchers also acquired in vivo single-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) in the dACC to quantify both Glu and combined Glu and glutamine (Glx) concentrations. We hypothesised that these metabolite concentrations would be altered (decreased or increased) in adult participants with ASD compared to NCs and would correlate with inhibitory performance and ASD severity in individuals with ASD. Participants also underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan to assess the relationship between functional connectivity and Glu and Glx concentrations. We also hypothesised that there would be an altered relationship between local Glu and Glx concentrations and seed-based functional connectivity in adults with ASD compared to NCs. There were no significant group differences in Glu or Glx concentrations between individuals with ASD and NCs. Furthermore, we did not find any relationship between metabolite concentrations and either inhibitory performance or clinical symptoms of the disorder. This evidence suggests that increased or decreased Glu and Glx concentrations were not a core marker of altered brain function in the dACC in this group of adult individuals with ASD. When individuals taking psychotropic medications were excluded from the analysis, there was a significant interaction between age and group for Glx concentrations. This evidence weakly suggests disease-specific variations in Glx concentrations over the lifespan of an individual with ASD. Nevertheless, this result did not survive correction for multiple comparisons and requires further replication. In our final experiment, we reported that Glu concentrations were negatively correlated with right and left dACC seed-based resting-state functional connectivity to the left medial temporal lobe only in individuals with ASD. We also reported an interaction between groups in the association between Glx concentrations and both left and right dACC functional connectivity to other salience network regions including the insular cortex. This evidence suggests that local Glu and Glx concentrations were incongruent with long-distance functional connectivity in individuals with ASD. This analysis was largely exploratory, but further investigation and replication of these relationships may further explain the pathophysiology of the disorder as well as provide a useful marker for therapeutic intervention

Husbandry stress of Zebrafish, Danio rerio

Zebrafish, Danio rerio, are widely used as vertebrate research organisms yet little is know about their responses to husbandry stressors. This dissertation examined the whole-body cortisol responses of zebrafish to husbandry stress. Additionally, the effects of stress on the susceptibility to mycobacteriosis and microsporidiosis (Pseudoloma neurophilia) were determined including effects on growth and reproduction. In Chapter 2, crowding increased cortisol but this was modulated by fasting and feeding; fasted but not fed fish elevated cortisol when crowded. Fish weight was inversely related to cortisol level in fasted, crowded fish. In Chapter 3, zebrafish rapidly responded to net handling stressors with a 6-fold increase in whole-body cortisol which peaked at 15 min post-net-stress. Cortisol recovered to control levels by 60 min. The variability in resting cortisol increased with fish age. In Chapter 4, fish infected with Mycobacterium marinum and subjected to husbandry stressors had 14% cumulative mortality over 8 weeks while no mortality occurred among infected fish without stress. Stressed fish, injected with M. chelonae were 15-fold more likely to be infected than non-stressed fish. Sub-acute, diffuse infections were more common among infected fish that were stressed than those not stressed. In Chapter 5, we examined the effects of stress on pre-existing and experimental Pseudoloma infections and the subsequent effects on survival, growth, and reproduction. Stress increased mortality and myositis in fish with pre-existing infections. There was no mortality among fish experimentally infected with Pseudoloma regardless of stress treatment. The onset of infection occurred sooner in stressed fish and stress significantly increased the mean intensity of infection. Weight decreased in stressed and experimentally infected groups from week 13 to 20 post-exposure but not in the control group. Fecundity was negatively related to mean parasite area among Pseudoloma-infected and stressed fish. Whole-body cortisol is an indicator of crowding and handling stress in zebrafish. Husbandry stressors exacerbated mycobacteriosis and microsporidiosis in zebrafish with associated reductions in growth and fecundity. Zebrafish are hardy and well adapted to a laboratory environment. Nevertheless, reducing stress should aid in preventing disease outbreaks and maintaining growth and fecundity of this popular laboratory fish species

Braid computations for the crossing number of Klein links

Klein links are a nonorientable counterpart to torus knots and links. It is shown that braids representing a subset of Klein links take on the form of a very positive braid after manipulation. Once the braid has reached this form, its number of crossings is the crossing number of the link it represents. Two formulas are proven to calculate the crossing number of K(m,n) Klein links, where m≥n≥1. In combination with previous results, these formulas can be used to calculate the crossing number for any Klein link with given values of m and n