The Painful Long Head of the Biceps Brachii: Nonoperative Treatment Approaches

Pain associated with the long head of the biceps (LHB) brachii seems to be increasingly recognized in the past 4 to 5 years. The LHB has long been considered a troublesome pain generator in the shoulder. Abnormality involving the LHB brachii has long been an area of debate, with Codman in 1934 even questioning the specificity of the diagnosis of biceps tendinitis. Biceps tendon abnormality is often associated with rotator cuff impingement. Shoulder pain originating from the biceps tendon can be debilitating, causing a severe decrease in shoulder function. As a result of the frequent clinical presentation of biceps pain, there is currently a great deal of interest regarding the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of biceps abnormality. This article describes a classification system of LHB pain and discusses nonoperative treatment concepts and techniques for the painful LHB

On the possibility of q-scaling in high energy production processes

It has been noticed recently that transverse momenta (p_T) distributions observed in high energy production processes exhibit remarkably universal scaling behaviour. This is the case when a suitable variable replaces the usual p_T. On the other hand, it is also widely known that transverse momentum distributions in general follow a power-like Tsallis distribution, rather than an exponential Boltzmann-Gibbs, with a (generally energy dependent) nonextensivity parameter q. Here we show that it is possible to choose a suitable variable such that all the data can be fitted by the same Tsallis distribution (with the same, energy independent value of the q-parameter). Thus they exhibit q-scaling.Comment: Final version, accepted by J.Phys.

Duality and spatial inhomogeneity

Within the framework on non-extensive thermostatistics we revisit the recently advanced q-duality concept. We focus our attention here on a modified q-entropic measure of the spatial inhomogeneity for binary patterns. At a fixed length-scale this measure exhibits a generalised duality that links appropriate pairs of q and q' values. The simplest q q' invariant function, without any free parameters, is deduced here. Within an adequate interval q < qo < q', in which the function reaches its maximum value at qo, this invariant function accurately approximates the investigated q-measure, nitidly evidencing the duality phenomenon. In the close vicinity of qo, the approximate meaningful relation q + q' = 2qo holds.Comment: Contribution to International School and Conference on "Non Extensive Thermodynamics and physical applications", Villasimius-Capo Boi (Cagliari), Italy, 23-30 May 2001, 6 pages, 2 figures, replaced with published versio

Systematic analysis of pT -distributions in p + p collisions

A systematic analysis of transverse momentum distribution of hadrons produced in ultra-relativistic p + p collisions is presented. We investigate the effective temperature and the entropic parameter from the non-extensive thermodynamic theory of strong interaction. We conclude that the existence of a limiting effective temperature and of a limiting entropic parameter is in accordance with experimental data.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Consequences of temperature fluctuations in observables measured in high energy collisions

We review the consequences of intrinsic, nonstatistical temperature fluctuations as seen in observables measured in high energy collisions. We do this from the point of view of nonextensive statistics and Tsallis distributions. Particular attention is paid to multiplicity fluctuations as a first consequence of temperature fluctuations, to the equivalence of temperature and volume fluctuations, to the generalized thermodynamic fluctuations relations allowing us to compare fluctuations observed in different parts of phase space, and to the problem of the relation between Tsallis entropy and Tsallis distributions. We also discuss the possible influence of conservation laws on these distributions and provide some examples of how one can get them without considering temperature fluctuations.Comment: Revised version of the invited contribution to The European Physical Journal A (Hadrons and Nuclei) topical issue about 'Relativistic Hydro- and Thermodynamics in Nuclear Physics' guest eds. Tamas S. Biro, Gergely G. Barnafoldi and Peter Va

The hypocretin/orexin antagonist almorexant promotes sleep without impairment of performance in rats.

The hypocretin receptor (HcrtR) antagonist almorexant (ALM) has potent hypnotic actions but little is known about neurocognitive performance in the presence of ALM. HcrtR antagonists are hypothesized to induce sleep by disfacilitation of wake-promoting systems whereas GABAA receptor modulators such as zolpidem (ZOL) induce sleep through general inhibition of neural activity. To test the hypothesis that less functional impairment results from HcrtR antagonist-induced sleep, we evaluated the performance of rats in the Morris Water Maze in the presence of ALM vs. ZOL. Performance in spatial reference memory (SRM) and spatial working memory (SWM) tasks were assessed during the dark period after equipotent sleep-promoting doses (100 mg/kg, po) following undisturbed and sleep deprivation (SD) conditions. ALM-treated rats were indistinguishable from vehicle (VEH)-treated rats for all SRM performance measures (distance traveled, latency to enter, time within, and number of entries into, the target quadrant) after both the undisturbed and 6 h SD conditions. In contrast, rats administered ZOL showed impairments in all parameters measured compared to VEH or ALM in the undisturbed conditions. Following SD, ZOL-treated rats also showed impairments in all measures. ALM-treated rats were similar to VEH-treated rats for all SWM measures (velocity, time to locate the platform and success rate at finding the platform within 60 s) after both the undisturbed and SD conditions. In contrast, ZOL-treated rats showed impairments in velocity and in the time to locate the platform. Importantly, ZOL rats only completed the task 23-50% of the time while ALM and VEH rats completed the task 79-100% of the time. Thus, following equipotent sleep-promoting doses, ZOL impaired rats in both memory tasks while ALM rats performed at levels comparable to VEH rats. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that less impairment results from HcrtR antagonism than from GABAA-induced inhibition

On the influence of statistics on the determination of the mean value of the depth of shower maximum for ultra high energy cosmic ray showers

The chemical composition of ultra high energy cosmic rays is still uncertain. The latest results obtained by the Pierre Auger Observatory and the HiRes Collaboration, concerning the measurement of the mean value and the fluctuations of the atmospheric depth at which the showers reach the maximum development, Xmax, are inconsistent. From comparison with air shower simulations it can be seen that, while the Auger data may be interpreted as a gradual transition to heavy nuclei for energies larger than ~ 2-3x10^18 eV, the HiRes data are consistent with a composition dominated by protons. In Ref. [1] it is suggested that a possible explanation of the observed deviation of the mean value of Xmax from the proton expectation, observed by Auger, could originate in a statistical bias arising from the approximated exponential shape of the Xmax distribution, combined with the decrease of the number of events as a function of primary energy. In this paper we consider a better description of the Xmax distribution and show that the possible bias in the Auger data is at least one order of magnitude smaller than the one obtained when assuming an exponential distribution. Therefore, we conclude that the deviation of the Auger data from the proton expectation is unlikely explained by such statistical effect.Comment: To be published in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physic

On the chemical composition of cosmic rays of highest energy

We present arguments aiming at reconciling apparently contradictory results concerning the chemical composition of cosmic rays of highest energy, coming recently from the Auger and HiRes collaborations. In particular, we argue that the energy dependence of the mean value and root mean square fluctuation of shower maxima distributions observed by the Auger experiment are not necessarily caused by the change of nuclear composition of primary cosmic rays. They could also be caused by the change of distribution of the first interaction point in the cascade. A new observable, in which this influence is strongly suppressed, is proposed and tested.Comment: Version accepted by J.Phys. G (2011

Propagation of strangelets in the Earth's atmosphere

A new model for the description of the behaviour of strangelets in the Earth's atmosphere is presented. Strangelet fission induced by collision with air nuclei is included. It is shown that strangelets with certain parameters of initial mass and energy may reach depths near sea level, which can be examined by ground-based experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure