UTILIZATION OF MIND-BODY PRACTICES FOR ADULTS WITH FIBROMYALGIA: 2017 NATIONAL HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a medical condition characterized by chronic pain and tenderness. Individuals with FM may experience burdensome symptoms, which impact their health-related quality of life. Treatment for FM includes pharmacological and non pharmacological practices. Non-pharmacological treatments for FM include dietary management, routine exercise, and physical and mind-body therapies. There is growing evidence that the utilization of mind-body practices is increasing in the United States, but there have been limited investigations done to observe the use of mind-body practices in the FM population. The purpose of this study is to identify predictors of the use of meditation and/or meditative movement in individuals with FM. The secondary aims are to describe the percentage of adults with and without FM that use mind-body practices and compare the demographic traits of people with FM who use meditation versus meditative movement. Using data from the 2017 National Health Interview Survey, descriptive statistics were used to determine the percentage of adults that use mind-body practices between those with FM and those without FM. To compare demographic and medical characteristics of individuals with FM that use meditation, meditative movement, both or neither practices, χ2 tests were performed. Lastly, a multinomial logistic regression model was used to examine predictors of using meditation, meditative movement, neither or both practices. The analyses revealed that people without FM were significantly more likely to use mantra and spiritual meditation, yoga, and tai chi compared to people with FM. Predictors of using mind-body practices include being young, female, and college educated

Adventurous Rainforest Hike

Postcard from Amanda Contreras, during the Linfield College Semester Abroad Program at James Cook University in Cairns, Australi

Groupoids, Frobenius algebras and Poisson sigma models

In this paper we discuss some connections between groupoids and Frobenius algebras specialized in the case of Poisson sigma models with boundary. We prove a correspondence between groupoids in the category Set and relative Frobenius algebras in the category Rel, as well as an adjunction between a special type of semigroupoids and relative H*-algebras. The connection between groupoids and Frobenius algebras is made explicit by introducing what we called weak monoids and relational symplectic groupoids, in the context of Poisson sigma models with boundary and in particular, describing such structures in the ex- tended symplectic category and the category of Hilbert spaces. This is part of a joint work with Alberto Cattaneo and Chris Heunen.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure. To appear in "Mathematical Aspects of Quantum Field Theories". Mathematical Physical Studies, Springer. Proceedings of the Winter School in Mathematical Physics, Les Houges, 201

Design of an FPGA-based smart camera and its application towards object tracking : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Electronics and Computer Engineering at Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand

Smart cameras and hardware image processing are not new concepts, yet despite the fact both have existed several decades, not much literature has been presented on the design and development process of hardware based smart cameras. This thesis will examine and demonstrate the principles needed to develop a smart camera on hardware, based on the experiences from developing an FPGA-based smart camera. The smart camera is applied on a Terasic DE0 FPGA development board, using Terasic’s 5 megapixel GPIO camera. The algorithm operates at 120 frames per second at a resolution of 640x480 by utilising a modular streaming approach. Two case studies will be explored in order to demonstrate the development techniques established in this thesis. The first case study will develop the global vision system for a robot soccer implementation. The algorithm will identify and calculate the positions and orientations of each robot and the ball. Like many robot soccer implementations each robot has colour patches on top to identify each robot and aid finding its orientation. The ball is comprised of a single solid colour that is completely distinct from the colour patches. Due to the presence of uneven light levels a YUV-like colour space labelled YC1C2 is used in order to make the colour values more light invariant. The colours are then classified using a connected components algorithm to segment the colour patches. The shapes of the classified patches are then used to identify the individual robots, and a CORDIC function is used to calculate the orientation. The second case study will investigate an improved colour segmentation design. A new HSY colour space is developed by remapping the Cartesian coordinate system from the YC1C2 to a polar coordinate system. This provides improved colour segmentation results by allowing for variations in colour value caused by uneven light patterns and changing light levels

Hybrid pH-Responsive Au@p4VP Microgels as Platform for Selective SERS Analysis

We present the synthesis a of pH-responsive core@shell hybrid microgel. This colloidal system is formed by a 55 nm Au core individually covered by a polymeric pH-sensitive shell of poly(4-vinylpyridine), that we denote as Au@p4VP. Initially, we control the microgel thickness from 51 to 10 nm, and we confirm the pH- responsive capability of Au@p4VP by DLS measurements, showing a swelling degree, which depends on the pH of the media and the crosslinker density within the polymer network. We also prove the hybrid structure by plotting the UV-vis spectra at different pH values, showing a surface plasmon band displacement in function of pH. Thus, at acidic pH the microgel swells due to the electrostatic repulsion created into the polymer matrix, while at high pH, the microgel structure collapses because of the reduction in the electrostatic repulsion and the increment of the hydrophobic interactions. This capability is exploited to introduce doxorubicin molecules into the microgel network which are detected by surface- enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). After increasing the pH of the solution, the captured molecules are brought in close proximity to the surface of the metallic core, enhancing its detection by SERS.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech