Changes in EMG activity during clenching in chronic pain patients with unilateral temporomandibular disorders

[Abstract] The study assessed the differences in electromyographic (EMG) activity recorded during clenching in women with chronic unilateral temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) as compared to control subjects. Seventy-five full dentate, normo-occlusion, right-handed, similarly aged female subjects were recruited. Twenty five subjects presented with right side TMD, 25 presented with left side TMD and 25 pain-free control subjects participated. Using integrated surface EMG over a 1 s contraction, the anterior temporalis and masseter muscles were evaluated bilaterally while subjects performed maximum voluntary clenching. Lower EMG activation was observed in patients with TMD as compared to control subjects (temporalis: 195.74 ± 18.57 vs. 275.74 ± 22.11, P = 0.011; masseters: 151.09 ± 17.37 vs. 283.29 ± 31.87, P < 0.001). An asymmetry index (SAI) was calculated to determine ratios of right to left sided activation. Patients with right-sided TMD demonstrated preferential use of their left-sided muscles (SAI −5.35 ± 4.02) whereas patients with left-sided TMD demonstrated preferential use of their right-sided muscles (SAI 6.95 ± 2.82), (P = 0.016). This unilateral reduction in temporalis and masseter activity could be considered as a specific protective functional adaptation of the neuromuscular system due to nociceptive input. The asymmetry index (SAI) may be a useful measure in discriminating patients with right vs. left-sided TMD.Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; Grant 9/7/1996/DOG/22/7/199

Le thon : enjeux et stratégies pour l'océan Indien

L'étude de la faune associée aux thonidés s'appuie sur l'embarquement d'observateurs scientifiques à bord des thoniers senneurs français et espagnols. C'est la distance entre une espèce pélagique et le banc de thons (inférieure à 650 m) qui définit si l'espèce est associée ou non au banc de thon. Les associations d'une espèce donnée avec les thonidés sont fortement liées aux types de bancs. L'analyse porte sur 432 calées. Les espèces associées aux bancs libres et aux animaux sont les plus gros albacores et patudos (de poids supérieur à 30 kg), les diodons et les exocets et les voiliers ; les espèces essentiellement associées aux objets naturels flottants sont les petits albacores et patudos (de poids inférieur à 10 kg) les marlins, les petits thonidés, les requins soyeux, les balistes, les coryphènes, les élagatis. Les objets flottants artificiels retiennent d'importantes quantités de kyphosidés et de wahoos, de requins océaniques et d'espadons. Les bancs libres se rencontrent dans le canal de Mozambique et à l'est des Seychelles. L'association avec les animaux est prépondérante au sud des Seychelles, les épaves naturelles dans la zone à l'ouest des Seychelles, les épaves artificielles dans la zone nord équatoriale et à l'est des Seychelles. (Résumé d'auteur

Thermofield Dynamics and Casimir Effect for Fermions

A generalization of the Bogoliubov transformation is developed to describe a space compactified fermionic field. The method is the fermionic counterpart of the formalism introduced earlier for bosons (J. C. da Silva, A. Matos Neto, F. C. Khanna and A. E. Santana, Phys. Rev. A 66 (2002) 052101), and is based on the thermofield dynamics approach. We analyse the energy-momentum tensor for the Casimir effect of a free massless fermion field in a $d$-dimensional box at finite temperature. As a particular case the Casimir energy and pressure for the field confined in a 3-dimensional parallelepiped box are calculated. It is found that the attractive or repulsive nature of the Casimir pressure on opposite faces changes depending on the relative magnitude of the edges. We also determine the temperature at which the Casimir pressure in a cubic boc changes sign and estimate its value when the edge of the cybe is of the order of confining lengths for baryons.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Annals of Physic

Associations between self-reported diabetes mellitus, disordered eating behaviours, weight/shape overvaluation, and health-related quality of life

Background Eating disorders (ED) and disordered eating behaviours (DEB) have been found to be common in people with diabetes mellitus (DM). However, findings have been inconsistent. Objective This study investigated the association between self-reported diabetes (Type 1 or 2) with ED/DEB (binge eating, subjective binge eating or loss of control overeating, severe dieting and purging) weight/shape overvaluation, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a household survey in South Australia. Method In 2017 2977 people aged ≥15 years, who were representative of the general population, were interviewed. Participants reported their gender, age, household income, highest educational attainment, area of residence, presence of DM, ED/DEB, level of overvaluation, current HRQoL and height and weight. For the analyses between ED/DEB, self-reported DM and HRQoL, a grouping variable was created: 1) people without ED/DEB or self-reported DM; 2) people without ED/DEB and with self-reported DM; 3) people with ED/DEB and without self-reported DM; and 4) people with ED/DEB and self-reported DM. Analyses were stratified by sex and age group. Results Subjective binge eating prevalence was higher in people with self-reported DM (6.6% vs 2.8%, p = 0.016), and overvaluation was lower in those with DM (36% vs 43.8%, p = 0.007). In analyses stratified by sex and age group, subjective binge eating was higher in women and in people over 45 years with self-reported DM and overvaluation was lower in men and in people over 45 years with self-reported DM. However, these differences were not significant on tests of gender and age interaction. People in both DM groups scored significantly lower than people without DM groups on physical HRQoL. In contrast, people in both ED/DEB groups scored lower than people without ED/BEB on mental HRQoL. Conclusion People with self-reported DM had a higher prevalence of subjective binge eating, a lower prevalence of overvaluation and there were no significant effects of age or gender. Furthermore, participants with self-reported DM and comorbid ED or DEB had impairments of both mental and physical HRQoL. Assessing an individual’s sense of control over eating along with other DEB is likely important for identification of these mental health problems.Danilo Dias Santana, Deborah Mitchison, David Gonzalez-Chica, Stephen Touyz, Nigel Stocks, Jose Carlos Appolinario, Gloria Valeria da Veiga and Phillipa Ha

Derivation and external validation of the SIMPLICITY score as a simple immune-based risk score to predict infection in kidney transplant recipients

Existing approaches for infection risk stratification in kidney transplant recipients are suboptimal. Here, we aimed to develop and validate a weighted score integrating non-pathogen-specific immune parameters and clinical variables to predict the occurrence of post-transplant infectious complications. To this end, we retrospectively analyzed a single-center derivation cohort of 410 patients undergoing kidney transplantation in 2008-2013 in Madrid. Peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations, serum immunoglobulin and complement levels were measured at one-month post-transplant. The primary and secondary outcomes were overall and bacterial infection through month six. A point score was derived from a logistic regression model and prospectively applied on a validation cohort of 522 patients undergoing kidney transplantation at 16 centers throughout Spain in 2014-2015. The SIMPLICITY score consisted of the following variables measured at month one after transplantation: C3 level, CD4+ T-cell count, CD8+ T-cell count, IgG level, glomerular filtration rate, recipient age, and infection within the first month. The discrimination capacity in the derivation and validation cohorts was good for overall (areas under the receiver operating curve of 0.774 and 0.730) and bacterial infection (0.767 and 0.734, respectively). The cumulative incidence of overall infection significantly increased across risk categories in the derivation (low-risk 13.7%; intermediate-risk, 35.9%; high-risk 77.6%) and validation datasets (10.2%, 28.9% and 50.4%, respectively). Thus, the SIMPLICITY score, based on easily available immune parameters, allows for stratification of kidney transplant recipients at month one according to their expected risk of subsequent infection

Modelling spectral and timing properties of accreting black holes: the hybrid hot flow paradigm

The general picture that emerged by the end of 1990s from a large set of optical and X-ray, spectral and timing data was that the X-rays are produced in the innermost hot part of the accretion flow, while the optical/infrared (OIR) emission is mainly produced by the irradiated outer thin accretion disc. Recent multiwavelength observations of Galactic black hole transients show that the situation is not so simple. Fast variability in the OIR band, OIR excesses above the thermal emission and a complicated interplay between the X-ray and the OIR light curves imply that the OIR emitting region is much more compact. One of the popular hypotheses is that the jet contributes to the OIR emission and even is responsible for the bulk of the X-rays. However, this scenario is largely ad hoc and is in contradiction with many previously established facts. Alternatively, the hot accretion flow, known to be consistent with the X-ray spectral and timing data, is also a viable candidate to produce the OIR radiation. The hot-flow scenario naturally explains the power-law like OIR spectra, fast OIR variability and its complex relation to the X-rays if the hot flow contains non-thermal electrons (even in energetically negligible quantities), which are required by the presence of the MeV tail in Cyg X-1. The presence of non-thermal electrons also lowers the equilibrium electron temperature in the hot flow model to <100 keV, making it more consistent with observations. Here we argue that any viable model should simultaneously explain a large set of spectral and timing data and show that the hybrid (thermal/non-thermal) hot flow model satisfies most of the constraints.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures. To be published in the Space Science Reviews and as hard cover in the Space Sciences Series of ISSI - The Physics of Accretion on to Black Holes (Springer Publisher