Is Pilates an Effective Treatment for Improving Functional Disability and Pain in Patients with Nonspecific Low Back Pain?

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this selective EBM review is to determine whether or not “Is Pilates an effective treatment for improving functional disability and pain in patients with nonspecific low back pain?” STUDY DESIGN: Review of three English language primary studies, two of which were published in 2006 and the other in 2009. DATA SOURCES: Three single-blind randomized control trials comparing the Pilates method of treatment to a control group that did not receive Pilates intervention were found using PubMed and EBSCOhost databases. OUTCOMES MEASURED: Each of the studies had patients participate in Pilates sessions for six to seven weeks. The outcomes measured include whether or not there was a decrease in low back pain and improvement in functional disability. The subjective measurement of outcomes included NRS-101 pain scale, Roland Morris Questionnaire, Owestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire, symptom report, sport functioning questionnaire, visual analog pain scale, and present pain intensity scale. The tools used to assess significance of outcomes measured were P-values and change in mean from baseline. RESULTS: All of the single-blind randomized control trials showed a significant decrease in low back pain after the Pilates intervention. The Rydeard et al single-blind randomized control trial also showed a significant improvement in functional disability after the Pilates intervention. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the RCT’s reviewed demonstrate Pilates method to be an effective treatment for improving functional disability and decreasing low back pain. Further research is needed to determine length, intensity, and specific Pilates exercises that may yield maximum results and long term relief

Toward improved streamflow forecasts: Value of semidistributed modeling

The focus of this study is to assess the performance improvements of semidistributed applications of the U.S. National Weather Service Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting model on a watershed using radar-based remotely sensed precipitation data. Specifically, performance comparisons are made within an automated multicriteria calibration framework to evaluate the benefit of "spatial distribution" of the model input (precipitation), structural components (soil moisture and streamflow routing computations), and surface characteristics (parameters). A comparison of these results is made with those obtained through manual calibration. Results indicate that for the study watershed, there are performance improvements associated with semidistributed model applications when the watershed is partitioned into three subwatersheds; however, no additional benefit is gained from increasing the number of subwatersheds from three to eight. Improvements in model performance are demonstrably related to the spatial distribution of the model input and streamflow routing. Surprisingly, there is no improvement associated with the distribution of the surface characteristics (model parameters)

Leapover lengths and first passage time statistics for L\'evy flights

Exact results for the first passage time and leapover statistics of symmetric and one-sided Levy flights (LFs) are derived. LFs with stable index alpha are shown to have leapover lengths, that are asymptotically power-law distributed with index alpha for one-sided LFs and, surprisingly, with index alpha/2 for symmetric LFs. The first passage time distribution scales like a power-law with index 1/2 as required by the Sparre Andersen theorem for symmetric LFs, whereas one-sided LFs have a narrow distribution of first passage times. The exact analytic results are confirmed by extensive simulations.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, REVTe

Photoinduced melting of superconductivity in the high-Tc superconductor La2-xSrxCuO4 probed by time-resolved optical and THz techniques

Dynamics of depletion and recovery of superconducting state in La2-xSrxCuO_4 thin films is investigated utilizing optical pump-probe and optical pump - THz probe techniques as a function of temperature and excitation fluence. The absorbed energy density required to suppress superconductivity is found to be about 8 times higher than the thermodynamically determined condensation energy density and nearly temperature independent between 4 and 25 K. These findings indicate that during the time when superconducting state suppression takes place (~0.7 ps), a large part (nearly 90%) of the energy is transferred to the phonons with energy lower than twice the maximum value of of the SC gap and only 10% is spent on Cooper pair breaking.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

A high resolution coupled hydrologic–hydraulic model (HiResFlood-UCI) for flash flood modeling

HiResFlood-UCI was developed by coupling the NWS's hydrologic model (HL-RDHM) with the hydraulic model (BreZo) for flash flood modeling at decameter resolutions. The coupled model uses HL-RDHM as a rainfall-runoff generator and replaces the routing scheme of HL-RDHM with the 2D hydraulic model (BreZo) in order to predict localized flood depths and velocities. A semi-automated technique of unstructured mesh generation was developed to cluster an adequate density of computational cells along river channels such that numerical errors are negligible compared with other sources of error, while ensuring that computational costs of the hydraulic model are kept to a bare minimum. HiResFlood-UCI was implemented for a watershed (ELDO2) in the DMIP2 experiment domain in Oklahoma. Using synthetic precipitation input, the model was tested for various components including HL-RDHM parameters (a priori versus calibrated), channel and floodplain Manning n values, DEM resolution (10 m versus 30 m) and computation mesh resolution (10 m+ versus 30 m+). Simulations with calibrated versus a priori parameters of HL-RDHM show that HiResFlood-UCI produces reasonable results with the a priori parameters from NWS. Sensitivities to hydraulic model resistance parameters, mesh resolution and DEM resolution are also identified, pointing to the importance of model calibration and validation for accurate prediction of localized flood intensities. HiResFlood-UCI performance was examined using 6 measured precipitation events as model input for model calibration and validation of the streamflow at the outlet. The Nash–Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) obtained ranges from 0.588 to 0.905. The model was also validated for the flooded map using USGS observed water level at an interior point. The predicted flood stage error is 0.82 m or less, based on a comparison to measured stage. Validation of stage and discharge predictions builds confidence in model predictions of flood extent and localized velocities, which are fundamental to reliable flash flood warning

Enhancement of the superconducting transition temperature in La2-xSrxCuO4 bilayers: Role of pairing and phase stiffness

The superconducting transition temperature, Tc, of bilayers comprising underdoped La2-xSrxCuO4 films capped by a thin heavily overdoped metallic La1.65Sr0.35CuO4 layer, is found to increase with respect to Tc of the bare underdoped films. The highest Tc is achieved for x = 0.12, close to the 'anomalous' 1/8 doping level, and exceeds that of the optimally-doped bare film. Our data suggest that the enhanced superconductivity is confined to the interface between the layers. We attribute the effect to a combination of the high pairing scale in the underdoped layer with an enhanced phase stiffness induced by the overdoped film.Comment: Published versio

Observation of a New Mechanism of Spontaneous Generation of Magnetic Flux in a Superconductor

We report the discovery of a new mechanism of spontaneous generation of a magnetic flux in a superconductor cooled through $T_c$. The sign of the spontaneous flux changes randomly from one cooldown to the next, and follows a Gaussian distribution. The width of the distribution increases with the size of the temperature gradient in the sample. Our observations appear inconsistent with the well known mechanisms of flux generation. The dependence on the temperature gradient suggests that the flux may be generated through an instability of the thermoelectric superconducting-normal quasiparticle counterflow

Просторово-часовий розподіл пожеж у природних ландшафтах Рівненської області

Integrated fire management during the epoch of climate and land use change need to be organized on landscape level on the basis of strong vertical and horizontal co-operation between forestry and emergency agencies and local communities and requires clear understanding of fire regime and factors that it determined both in temporal and spatial aspects. For this purpose, fire regimes of natural and cultural landscapes of Rivne Oblast, Ukraine, for the period of 2001–2018 were studied based on remote sensing data. For getting better understanding of long-term pathways of wildfire regimes of natural landscapes of Rivne Oblast of Ukraine, we used data about hotspots from MOD14/MYD14 for number of fires, data about contours and areas of fires from MCD64A1and Landsat 8 OLI with classification of all fires on different levels of intensity and landcover type and data from three local meteorological stations on the fire weather danger level. The study showed that in Rivne Oblast for the period 7 fire maximums occurred, in particularly in 2002, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2018. Official statistical data presents essentially underestimated area of fires: 257 ha in 2002 (while this study shows 750 ha based on RS data or 143 ha in 2015 (563 ha based on RS data). On average during the period, 190 wildfires with a total area of 12.6 thousand hectares occurred annually in landscapes of Rivne Oblast. The highest amount of fires occurred in the north part of the region – Rokytnivskii (62 000 ha burned), Dubrovitskii (26 000 ha), Kostopilskii (19 400 ha), Zarichnenskii (14 900 ha), Volodymyretskii (10 300 ha) districts. The main driver of fires is drought periods: 54.3 % of days in fire season determined as highest emergency level fire weather class – V, 15.3 % days – IV class, 18.5 % – III class. High level of fire weather danger in the region and permanent presence of ignition sources of human origin determine seasonal patterns of burning. Seasonal fire peaks occur in March (80 000 ha burned)-April (87 300 ha burned or 29.6 % of the average number of wildfires), August (32.2 %) and September (19.9 %) – totally 127 000 ha burned, when the maximum level of preparedness of fire-fighting brigades should be provided. Long-term dynamic showed increase of the average annual fire area for the period from 7.4 to 17.8 thousand hectares. The increase of annual amount of days with high and emergency fire whether levels from 24 to 62 during last 13 years is detected. Shortcomings of the existing system of statistical data collection on wildfires as an important component of fire management are discussed.Аналіз історичної динаміки пожеж та встановлення їх просторово-часових особливостей є основою для розроблення плану управління пожежами та стратегічного розміщення протипожежних сил і засобів на місцевості, а також здійснення попереджувальних заходів. Використовуючи дані дистанційного зондування Землі, отримано основні показники горючості природних територій Рівненської області за період з 2001 по 2018 рр. та виконано їх аналіз. Щорічно на території області відбувається в середньому 190 випадків пожеж на загальній площі 12,6 тис. га. Усереднені дані свідчать про тенденцію до зростання показників горючості території, зокрема середньорічна площа пожеж за період з 2001 по 2018 рр. зросла від 7,4 до 17,8 тис. га. За результатами дослідження встановлено, що найбільше пожеж стається у березні-квітні (29,6 %), серпні (32,2 %) та вересні (19,9 %), що повинно бути основою для максимальної готовності протипожежних служб у ці періоди. Виконано аналіз погодно-кліматичних показників за багаторічний період та досліджено їх зв'язок з основними показникам горючості. Зроблено висновки щодо проблеми пожеж у природних ландшафтах Рівненської області. Наведено недоліки наявної системи моніторингу пожеж як важливої складової системи охорони природних територій від пожеж