Factors associated with physical activity participation in adults with chronic cervical spine pain: a systematic review

Objective: To determine the factors associated with physical activity participation in adults with chronic cervical spine pain. Methods: A systematic review was conducted including searches of PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE and CINAHL from inception to June 12th, 2016. Grey literature and reference checking was also undertaken. Quantitative studies including factors related to physical activity participation in adults with chronic cervical spine pain were included. Two independent authors conducted the searches, extracted data and completed methodological quality assessment. Results: A total of seven studies met the selection criteria, however, four papers were finally included in the final review. A modified Downs and Black criteria was used to assess methodological quality, each study included was classed as moderate quality. A total of six factors were assessed against physical activity participation for people with chronic neck pain. These included: pain, fear of movement, smoking habits, socioeconomic status, gender, leisure and work time habits. A significant relationship was demonstrated between pain, leisure and work time habits and physical activity. Subjects were less likely to participate in physical activity if they were in pain. Subjects with neck pain were less likely to participate in physical activity in their leisure and work time. Conclusion: This review, based on a small number of heterogeneous studies demonstrated key factors that are likely to affect physical activity in people with chronic neck pain, most notably, pain levels, leisure and work habits. This review suggests that more in-depth, high quality studies are required to fully understand the impact of chronic pain on physical activity

Survey Simulations of a New Near-Earth Asteroid Detection System

We have carried out simulations to predict the performance of a new space-based telescopic survey operating at thermal infrared wavelengths that seeks to discover and characterize a large fraction of the potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid (NEA) population. Two potential architectures for the survey were considered: one located at the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point, and one in a Venus-trailing orbit. A sample cadence was formulated and tested, allowing for the self-follow-up necessary for objects discovered in the daytime sky on Earth. Synthetic populations of NEAs with sizes >=140 m in effective spherical diameter were simulated using recent determinations of their physical and orbital properties. Estimates of the instrumental sensitivity, integration times, and slew speeds were included for both architectures assuming the properties of new large-format 10 um detector arrays capable of operating at ~35 K. Our simulation included the creation of a preliminary version of a moving object processing pipeline suitable for operating on the trial cadence. We tested this pipeline on a simulated sky populated with astrophysical sources such as stars and galaxies extrapolated from Spitzer and WISE data, the catalog of known minor planets (including Main Belt asteroids, comets, Jovian Trojans, etc.), and the synthetic NEA model. Trial orbits were computed for simulated position-time pairs extracted from the synthetic surveys to verify that the tested cadence would result in orbits suitable for recovering objects at a later time. Our results indicate that the Earth-Sun L1 and Venus-trailing surveys achieve similar levels of integral completeness for potentially hazardous asteroids larger than 140 m; placing the telescope in an interior orbit does not yield an improvement in discovery rates. This work serves as a necessary first step for the detailed planning of a next-generation NEA survey.Comment: AJ accepted; corrected typ

Bronchoscopic radioisotope injection for sentinel lymph-node mapping in potentially resectable non-small-cell lung cancer

Objective: Prospective study to evaluate the feasibility of a preoperative bronchoscopic radioisotope application, followed by conventional sentinel lymph-node (SLN) identification and to investigate the occurrence and distribution of micrometastases in relation to SLN activity. Methods: Twenty patients with a mean age of 63 years and proven clinical stage T1-3 N0-1 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were included. A dosage of 80 MBq radiolabeled technetium-99m nanocolloid was endoscopically administrated on intubated patients in the operation theatre. At thoracotomy, scintigraphic readings of both the primary tumor and hilar and mediastinal lymph-node stations were obtained with a hand-held gamma-counter. Patients underwent lung resection and mediastinal lymphadenectomy. Radiolabeled nodes were also examined separately on back-table. SLNs were defined as the hottest nodes or nodes with at least one-tenth of the radioactivity of the hottest nodes. SLNs pathologic assessment included standard examination using hematoxylin and eosin staining on step sections and immunohistochemistry (ICH) for cytokeratins. Results: Identification of SLNs was possible in 19/20 (95%) patients after bronchoscopic radioisotope application. In 7/19 (37%) patients, a unique SLN was identified, whereas in 12/19 (63%) patients, nodes from two different stations could be classified as SLNs. Metastatic nodal disease was found in 9/19 (47%) patients. ICH revealed micrometastases in 2/12 (17%) patients, initially classified nodal negative. Pathologic negative SLNs were a predictor for absence of metastatic nodal disease after mediastinal lymphadenectomy. No complication related to the procedure was observed. Conclusion: Our preliminary results suggest that preoperative bronchoscopic radioisotope injection for SLN identification is a safe and simple method, improving accuracy of SLN detection in comparison to intraoperative technique. The absence of metastases in the SLNs seems to predict a negative nodal status accuratel

Cervical spine radiculopathy epidemiology: systematic review

Background and objective: Cervical spine radiculopathy (CSR) is a disabling condition that has significant negative impacts on a person's mental health, physical functioning and social participation. Research has reported variable CSR incidence and prevalence among different populations. To date, no systematic review has been completed investigating the prevalence or incidence of CSR; therefore, our objective was to determine the incidence and/or prevalence of CSR in adults. Design and method: A systematic review was conducted including searches of PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE and CINAHL from inception to February 25, 2020. Studies including data on incidence and/or prevalence of CSR were included. Methodological quality was assessed using a modified Hayden, Cote and Bombardier appraisal checklist. Data were analysed narratively. Results: Nine low- to high-quality studies were included in the final review. Incidence ranged between 0.832 and 1.79 per 1,000 person-years from two high-quality and one low-quality study. Prevalence values ranged from 1.21 to 5.8 per 1,000 from four medium- to high-quality studies. Prevalence values of 1.14% [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.45–1.82] and 1.31% (95% CI: 0.66–1.96) for males and females, respectively, were reported from one medium-quality study. One medium-quality study reported an unadjusted prevalence value of 6.3% for males and females. Conclusions: This is the first systematic review investigating the epidemiology of CSR in an adult population. This review reports a variable incidence rate and prevalence of CSR among specific populations; however, this was based on nine studies. There is a priority to investigate CSR epidemiology across other populations globally and standardising CSR diagnostic criteria

ExploreNEOs I: Description and first results from the Warm Spitzer NEO Survey

We have begun the ExploreNEOs project in which we observe some 700 Near Earth Objects (NEOs) at 3.6 and 4.5 microns with the Spitzer Space Telescope in its Warm Spitzer mode. From these measurements and catalog optical photometry we derive albedos and diameters of the observed targets. The overall goal of our ExploreNEOs program is to study the history of near-Earth space by deriving the physical properties of a large number of NEOs. In this paper we describe both the scientific and technical construction of our ExploreNEOs program. We present our observational, photometric, and thermal modeling techniques. We present results from the first 101 targets observed in this program. We find that the distribution of albedos in this first sample is quite broad, probably indicating a wide range of compositions within the NEO population. Many objects smaller than one kilometer have high albedos (>0.35), but few objects larger than one kilometer have high albedos. This result is consistent with the idea that these larger objects are collisionally older, and therefore possess surfaces that are more space weathered and therefore darker, or are not subject to other surface rejuvenating events as frequently as smaller NEOs.Comment: AJ in pres

Deep Photometry of GRB 041006 Afterglow: Hypernova Bump at Redshift z=0.716

We present deep optical photometry of the afterglow of gamma-ray burst (GRB) 041006 and its associated hypernova obtained over 65 days after detection (55 R-band epochs on 10 different nights). Our early data (t<4 days) joined with published GCN data indicates a steepening decay, approaching F_nu ~t^{-0.6} at early times (<<1 day) and F_nu ~t^{-1.3} at late times. The break at t_b=0.16+-0.04 days is the earliest reported jet break among all GRB afterglows. During our first night, we obtained 39 exposures spanning 2.15 hours from 0.62 to 0.71 days after the burst that reveal a smooth afterglow, with an rms deviation of 0.024 mag from the local power-law fit, consistent with photometric errors. After t~4 days, the decay slows considerably, and the light curve remains approximately flat at R~24 mag for a month before decaying by another magnitude to reach R~25 mag two months after the burst. This ``bump'' is well-fitted by a k-corrected light curve of SN1998bw, but only if stretched by a factor of 1.38 in time. In comparison with the other GRB-related SNe bumps, GRB 041006 stakes out new parameter space for GRB/SNe, with a very bright and significantly stretched late-time SN light curve. Within a small sample of fairly well observed GRB/SN bumps, we see a hint of a possible correlation between their peak luminosity and their ``stretch factor'', broadly similar to the well-studied Phillips relation for the type Ia supernovae.Comment: ApJ Letters, accepted. Additional material available at ftp://cfa-ftp.harvard.edu/pub/kstanek/GRB041006

ExploreNEOs. II. The Accuracy of the Warm Spitzer Near-Earth Object Survey

We report on results of observations of near-Earth objects (NEOs) performed with the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope as part of our ongoing (2009-2011) Warm Spitzer NEO survey ("ExploreNEOs"), the primary aim of which is to provide sizes and albedos of some 700 NEOs. The emphasis of the work described here is an assessment of the overall accuracy of our survey results, which are based on a semi-empirical generalized model of asteroid thermal emission. The NASA Spitzer Space Telescope has been operated in the so-called Warm Spitzer mission phase since the cryogen was depleted in 2009 May, with the two shortest-wavelength channels, centered at 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm, of the Infrared Array Camera continuing to provide valuable data. The set of some 170 NEOs in our current Warm Spitzer results catalog contains 28 for which published taxonomic classifications are available, and 14 for which relatively reliable published diameters and albedos are available. A comparison of the Warm Spitzer results with previously published results ("ground truth"), complemented by a Monte Carlo error analysis, indicates that the rms Warm Spitzer diameter and albedo errors are ±20% and ±50%, respectively. Cases in which agreement with results from the literature is worse than expected are highlighted and discussed; these include the potential spacecraft target 138911 2001 AE_2. We confirm that 1.4 appears to be an appropriate overall default value for the relative reflectance between the V band and the Warm Spitzer wavelengths, for use in correction of the Warm Spitzer fluxes for reflected solar radiation