A numerical study of the r-mode instability of rapidly rotating nascent neutron stars

The first results of numerical analysis of classical r-modes of {\it rapidly} rotating compressible stellar models are reported. The full set of linear perturbation equations of rotating stars in Newtonian gravity are numerically solved without the slow rotation approximation. A critical curve of gravitational wave emission induced instability which restricts the rotational frequencies of hot young neutron stars is obtained. Taking the standard cooling mechanisms of neutron stars into account, we also show the `evolutionary curves' along which neutron stars are supposed to evolve as cooling and spinning-down proceed. Rotational frequencies of $1.4M_{\odot}$ stars suffering from this instability decrease to around 100Hz when the standard cooling mechanism of neutron stars is employed. This result confirms the results of other authors who adopted the slow rotation approximation.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; MNRAS,316,L1(2000

No electromagnetic interference exists between the new remote monitoring system and implantable devices

INTRODUCTION: The BodyGuardian® is a novel remote monitoring platform comprised of a rechargeable module that attaches to an adhesive patch with attached electrodes. ECG, respiration, activity level and other clinical parameters are transmitted via Bluetooth to a smartphone and then to the central cloud platform via cellular or Wi-Fi connection for clinical review (Figure). Although approved for clinical use, potential electromagnetic interference (EMI) precludes its use among patients with implantable ...postprin

Functional polymorphisms in the P2X7 receptor gene are associated with stress fracture injury

Context: Military recruits and elite athletes are susceptible to stress fracture injuries. Genetic predisposition has been postulated to have a role in their development. The P2X7 receptor (P2X7R) gene, a key regulator of bone remodelling, is a genetic candidate that may contribute to stress fracture predisposition. Objective: To evaluate the putative contribution of P2X7R to stress fracture injury in two separate cohorts, military personnel and elite athletes. Methods: In 210 Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) military conscripts, stress fracture injury was diagnosed (n=43) based on symptoms and a positive bone scan. In a separate cohort of 518 elite athletes, self-reported medical imaging scan-certified stress fracture injuries were recorded (n=125). Non-stress fracture controls were identified from these cohorts who had a normal bone scan or no history or symptoms of stress fracture injury. Study participants were genotyped for functional SNPs within the P2X7R gene using proprietary fluorescence-based competitive allele-specific PCR assay. Pearson Chi-square (χ2) tests, corrected for multiple comparisons, were used to assess associations in genotype frequencies. Results: The variant allele of P2X7R SNP rs3751143 (Glu496Ala- loss of function) was associated with stress fracture injury, while the variant allele of rs1718119 (Ala348Thr- gain of function) was associated with a reduced occurrence of stress fracture injury in military conscripts (P<0.05). The association of the variant allele of rs3751143 with stress fractures was replicated in elite athletes (P<0.05), whereas the variant allele of rs1718119 was also associated with reduced multiple stress fracture cases in elite athletes (P<0.05). Conclusions: The association between independent P2X7R polymorphisms with stress fracture prevalence supports the role of a genetic predisposition in the development of stress fracture injury

Impact of metabolic comorbidity on the association between body mass index and heatlh-related quality of life: a Scotland-wide cross-sectional study of 5,608 participants

&lt;p/&gt;Background: The prevalence of obesity is rising in Scotland and globally. Overall, obesity is associated with increased morbidity, mortality and reduced health-related quality of life. Studies suggest that "healthy obesity" (obesity without metabolic comorbidity) may not be associated with morbidity or mortality. Its impact on health-related quality of life is unknown. &lt;p/&gt;Methods: We extracted data from the Scottish Health Survey on self-reported health-related quality of life, body mass index (BMI), demographic information and comorbidity. SF-12 responses were converted into an overall health utility score. Linear regression analyses were used to explore the association between BMI and health utility, stratified by the presence or absence of metabolic comorbidity (diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia or cardiovascular disease), and adjusted for potential confounders (age, sex and deprivation quintile). &lt;p/&gt;Results: Of the 5,608 individuals, 3,744 (66.8%) were either overweight or obese and 921 (16.4%) had metabolic comorbidity. There was an inverted U-shaped relationship whereby health utility was highest among overweight individuals and fell with increasing BMI. There was a significant interaction with metabolic comorbidity (p = 0.007). Individuals with metabolic comorbidty had lower utility scores and a steeper decline in utility with increasing BMI (morbidly obese, adjusted coefficient: -0.064, 95% CI -0.115, -0.012, p = 0.015 for metabolic comorbidity versus -0.042, 95% CI -0.067, -0.018, p = 0.001 for no metabolic comorbidity). &lt;p/&gt;Conclusions: The adverse impact of obesity on health-related quality of life is greater among individuals with metabolic comorbidity. However, increased BMI is associated with reduced health-related quality of life even in the absence of metabolic comorbidity, casting doubt on the notion of "healthy obesity"

Affiliation history and age similarity predict alliance formation in adult male bottlenose dolphins

Male alliances are an intriguing phenomenon in the context of reproduction since, in most taxa, males compete over an indivisible resource, female fertilization. Adult male bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in Shark Bay, Western Australia, form long-term, multilevel alliances to sequester estrus females. These alliances are therefore critical to male reproductive success. Yet, the long-term processes leading to the formation of such complex social bonds are still poorly understood. To identify the criteria by which male dolphins form social bonds with other males, we adopted a long-term approach by investigating the ontogeny of alliance formation. We followed the individual careers of 59 males for 14 years while they transitioned from adolescence (8-14 years of age) to adulthood (15-21 years old). Analyzing their genetic relationships and social associations in both age groups, we found that the vast majority of social bonds present in adolescence persisted through time. Male associations in early life predict alliance partners as adults. Kinship patterns explained associations during adolescence but not during adulthood. Instead, adult males associated with males of similar age. Our findings suggest that social bonds among peers, rather than kinship, play a central role in the development of adult male polyadic cooperation in dolphins. Multilevel cooperation in adult male bottlenose dolphins is based on friendships that are formed among similarly aged males during their adolescence. Although cooperative behaviors in many animals are found among relatives, this is not the case in dolphins. Our findings reveal the existence of enduring friendships in a complex marine mammal society, similar to those that have been described in many primate species including humans

Comparison of embedded and added motor imagery training in patients after stroke: Study protocol of a randomised controlled pilot trial using a mixed methods approach

Copyright @ 2009 Schuster et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 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.Background: Two different approaches have been adopted when applying motor imagery (MI) to stroke patients. MI can be conducted either added to conventional physiotherapy or integrated within therapy sessions. The proposed study aims to compare the efficacy of embedded MI to an added MI intervention. Evidence from pilot studies reported in the literature suggests that both approaches can improve performance of a complex motor skill involving whole body movements, however, it remains to be demonstrated, which is the more effective one.Methods/Design: A single blinded, randomised controlled trial (RCT) with a pre-post intervention design will be carried out. The study design includes two experimental groups and a control group (CG). Both experimental groups (EG1, EG2) will receive physical practice of a clinical relevant motor task ('Going down, laying on the floor, and getting up again') over a two week intervention period: EG1 with embedded MI training, EG2 with MI training added after physiotherapy. The CG will receive standard physiotherapy intervention and an additional control intervention not related to MI.The primary study outcome is the time difference to perform the task from pre to post-intervention. Secondary outcomes include level of help needed, stages of motor task completion, degree of motor impairment, balance ability, fear of falling measure, motivation score, and motor imagery ability score. Four data collection points are proposed: twice during baseline phase, once following the intervention period, and once after a two week follow up. A nested qualitative part should add an important insight into patients' experience and attitudes towards MI. Semi-structured interviews of six to ten patients, who participate in the RCT, will be conducted to investigate patients' previous experience with MI and their expectations towards the MI intervention in the study. Patients will be interviewed prior and after the intervention period.Discussion: Results will determine whether embedded MI is superior to added MI. Findings of the semi-structured interviews will help to integrate patient's expectations of MI interventions in the design of research studies to improve practical applicability using MI as an adjunct therapy technique

Mining multi-item drug adverse effect associations in spontaneous reporting systems

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Multi-item adverse drug event (ADE) associations are associations relating multiple drugs to possibly multiple adverse events. The current standard in pharmacovigilance is bivariate association analysis, where each single drug-adverse effect combination is studied separately. The importance and difficulty in the detection of multi-item ADE associations was noted in several prominent pharmacovigilance studies. In this paper we examine the application of a well established data mining method known as association rule mining, which we tailored to the above problem, and demonstrate its value. The method was applied to the FDAs spontaneous adverse event reporting system (AERS) with minimal restrictions and expectations on its output, an experiment that has not been previously done on the scale and generality proposed in this work.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Based on a set of 162,744 reports of suspected ADEs reported to AERS and published in the year 2008, our method identified 1167 multi-item ADE associations. A taxonomy that characterizes the associations was developed based on a representative sample. A significant number (67% of the total) of potential multi-item ADE associations identified were characterized and clinically validated by a domain expert as previously recognized ADE associations. Several potentially novel ADEs were also identified. A smaller proportion (4%) of associations were characterized and validated as known drug-drug interactions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings demonstrate that multi-item ADEs are present and can be extracted from the FDA’s adverse effect reporting system using our methodology, suggesting that our method is a valid approach for the initial identification of multi-item ADEs. The study also revealed several limitations and challenges that can be attributed to both the method and quality of data.</p

Women’s pelvic floor muscle strength and urinary and anal incontinence after childbirth: a cross-sectional study

Abstract OBJECTIVE To analyse pelvic floor muscle strength (PFMS) and urinary and anal incontinence (UI and AI) in the postpartum period. METHOD Cross-sectional study carried out with women in their first seven months after child birth. Data were collected through interviews, perineometry (Peritron™), and the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ-SF). RESULTS 128 women participated in the study. The PFMS mean was 33.1 (SD=16.0) cmH2O and the prevalence of UI and AI was 7.8% and 5.5%, respectively. In the multiple analyses, the variables associated with PFMS were type of birth and cohabitation with a partner. Newborn’s weight, previous pregnancy, UI during pregnancy, and sexual activity showed an association with UI after child birth. Only AI prior to pregnancy was associated with AI after childbirth. CONCLUSION Vaginal birth predisposes to the reduction of PFMS, and caesarean section had a protective effect to its reduction. The occurrence of UI during pregnancy is a predictor of UI after childbirth, and women with previous pregnancies and newborns with higher weights are more likely to have UI after childbirth.AI prior to pregnancy is the only risk factor for its occurrence after childbirth. Associations between PFMS and cohabitation with a partner, and between UI and sexual activity do not make possible to conclude that these variables are directly associated

Hepatic wound repair

BACKGROUND: Human chronic liver diseases (CLDs) with different aetiologies rely on chronic activation of wound healing that represents the driving force for fibrogenesis progression (throughout defined patterns of fibrosis) to the end stage of cirrhosis and liver failure. ISSUES: Fibrogenesis progression has a major worldwide clinical impact due to the high number of patients affected by CLDs, increasing mortality rate, incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma and shortage of organ donors for liver transplantation. BASIC SCIENCE ADVANCES: Liver fibrogenesis is sustained by a heterogeneous population of profibrogenic hepatic myofibroblasts (MFs), the majority being positive for alpha smooth muscle actin (alphaSMA), that may originate from hepatic stellate cells and portal fibroblasts following a process of activation or from bone marrow-derived cells recruited to damaged liver and, in a method still disputed, by a process of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) involving cholangiocytes and hepatocytes. Recent experimental and clinical data have identified, at tissue, cellular and molecular level major profibrogenic mechanisms: (a) chronic activation of the wound-healing reaction, (b) oxidative stress and related reactive intermediates, and (c) derangement of epithelial-mesenchymal interactions. CLINICAL CARE RELEVANCE: Liver fibrosis may regress following specific therapeutic interventions able to downstage or, at least, stabilise fibrosis. In cirrhotic patients, this would lead to a reduction of portal hypertension and of the consequent clinical complications and to an overall improvement of liver function, thus extending the complication-free patient survival time and reducing the need for liver transplantation. CONCLUSION: Emerging mechanisms and concepts related to liver fibrogenesis may significantly contribute to clinical management of patients affected by CLDs

Maximal Spontaneous Photon Emission and Energy Loss from Free Electrons

Free electron radiation such as Cerenkov, Smith--Purcell, and transition radiation can be greatly affected by structured optical environments, as has been demonstrated in a variety of polaritonic, photonic-crystal, and metamaterial systems. However, the amount of radiation that can ultimately be extracted from free electrons near an arbitrary material structure has remained elusive. Here we derive a fundamental upper limit to the spontaneous photon emission and energy loss of free electrons, regardless of geometry, which illuminates the effects of material properties and electron velocities. We obtain experimental evidence for our theory with quantitative measurements of Smith--Purcell radiation. Our framework allows us to make two predictions. One is a new regime of radiation operation---at subwavelength separations, slower (nonrelativistic) electrons can achieve stronger radiation than fast (relativistic) electrons. The second is a divergence of the emission probability in the limit of lossless materials. We further reveal that such divergences can be approached by coupling free electrons to photonic bound states in the continuum (BICs). Our findings suggest that compact and efficient free-electron radiation sources from microwaves to the soft X-ray regime may be achievable without requiring ultrahigh accelerating voltages.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure