Relationships of Clinical, Psychologic, and Individual Factors with the Functional Status of Neck Pain Patients

AbstractObjectiveThe objective of this study was to use both generic and disease-specific functional measures examining relationships of clinical, psychologic, and individual factors with the functional status of neck pain patients.MethodsPatients who visited a university-based spine clinic and reported neck pain were included in this study. A comprehensive computerized survey questionnaire was used to collect the information related to this study. The questionnaire also contained a generic measure, short form 12-item survey (SF-12), and a disease-specific measure, neck disability index (NDI). Correlation and multiple regression analysis were conducted to examine the relationships.ResultsA range of clinical, psychologic, and individual factors emerged to be significant predictors of the NDI or physical component of the SF-12 (PCS). The predictors of higher NDI included higher levels of neck pain, higher levels of back pain, higher levels of pain in arm or shoulder areas, not working, lower education, higher stress, the presence of depression or anxiety, and smoking. The predictors of lower PCS included not working, higher levels of back pain, higher levels of neck pain, lower education, female sex, the presence of cardiovascular disorders, the absence of cervical disk disorders, and older age.Conclusions The  predictors  of  the  NDI  or  PCS  appear to be multidimensional. Interventions designed to maximally improve the functional status of neck pain patients should be multifaceted and involve multidisciplinary teams. Selection of the most appropriate functional measures for an intervention study should consider differences between the generic and disease-specific measures in terms of their respective relationships with targeted factors. Prospective studies are needed to confirm the relationships observed in this study

Low Cost Interconnected Architecture for the Hardware Spiking Neural Networks

A novel low cost interconnected architecture (LCIA) is proposed in this paper, which is an efficient solution for the neuron interconnections for the hardware spiking neural networks (SNNs). It is based on an all-to-all connection that takes each paired input and output nodes of multi-layer SNNs as the source and destination of connections. The aim is to maintain an efficient routing performance under low hardware overhead. A Networks-on-Chip (NoC) router is proposed as the fundamental component of the LCIA, where an effective scheduler is designed to address the traffic challenge due to irregular spikes. The router can find requests rapidly, make the arbitration decision promptly, and provide equal services to different network traffic requests. Experimental results show that the LCIA can manage the intercommunication of the multi-layer neural networks efficiently and have a low hardware overhead which can maintain the scalability of hardware SNNs

Empirical Research on Debt Restructuring Gains in China’s Listed Companies

China’s Ministry of Finance issued New Accounting Standards of debt restructurings in 2006. According to the new standards, fair value was introduced again and debt restructuring gains were recognized as non-operating income. This paper uses empirical study to discuss the correlation between debt restructuring gains and financial indicators. This paper selects 2009 A-Share listed companies on Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges as research sample, using descriptive statistics, linear regression analysis and paired samples T test analysis to identify the influencing factors of debt restructuring gains. Based on the research conclusions, the paper proposes corresponding suggestions to improve debt restructurings standards and perfect accounting supervisory system.Key words: Debt restructurings; Accounting standards; China’s listed companies; Gains; Empirical researc

(S)-Benzyl 3-(4-hy­droxy­phen­yl)-2-(trityl­amino)­propano­ate

The title compound, C35H31NO3, was obtained by the reaction of (S)-benzyl 2-amino-3-(4-hy­droxy­phen­yl)propano­ate and (chloro­methane­tri­yl)tribenzene. The enanti­omer has been assigned by reference to an unchanging chiral centre in the synthetic procedure. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked into chains running along the a axis by inter­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

The influence of street layouts and viaduct settings on daily carbon monoxide exposure and intake fraction in idealized urban canyons

Environmental concerns have been raised on the adverse health effects of vehicle emissions in micro-scale traffic-crowded street canyons, especially for pedestrians and residents living in near-road buildings. Viaduct design is sometimes used to improve transportation efficiency but possibly affects urban airflow and the resultant exposure risk, which have been rarely investigated so far. The personal intake fraction (P_IF) is defined as the average fraction of total emissions that is inhaled by each person of a population (1ppm=1×10-6), and the daily carbon monoxide (CO ) pollutant exposure (Et) is estimated by multiplying the average concentration of a specific micro-environment within one day. As a novelty, by considering time activity patterns and breathing rates in various micro-environments for three age groups, this paper introduces IF and Et into computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation to quantify the impacts of street layouts (street width/ building height W/H=1, 1.5, 2), source location, viaduct settings and noise barriers on the source-exposure correlation when realistic CO sources are defined. Narrower streets experience larger P_IF (1.51-5.21 ppm) and CO exposure, and leeward-side buildings always attain higher vehicular pollutant exposure than windward-side. Cases with a viaduct experience smaller P_IF (3.25-1.46 ppm) than cases without a viaduct (P_IF=5.21-2.23 ppm) if the single ground-level CO source is elevated onto the viaduct. With two CO sources (both ground-level and viaduct-level), daily CO exposure rises 2.80-3.33 times but P_IF only change slightly. Noise barriers above a viaduct raise concentration between barriers, but slightly reduce vehicular exposure in near-road buildings. Because people spend most of their time indoors, vehicular pollutant exposure within near-road buildings can be 6-9 times that at pedestrian level. Although further studies are still required to provide practical guidelines, this paper provides effective methodologies to quantify the impacts of street/viaduct configurations on human exposure for urban design purpose

Health Utilities Associated with Hemoglobin Levels and Blood Loss in Postmenopausal Women: The Women's Health Initiative

AbstractObjectivesThe purpose of our study was to use health-related quality of life data from the Women's Health Initiative to calculate health-related utility weights and examine differences in these health utility weights across different hemoglobin (Hgb) levels. These utility weights could then be used in future cost-effectiveness studies.MethodsHealth utility weights were measured by the Short Form-6D (SF-6D), a health utility index derived from the Short Form Medical Outcomes questionnaire. Adjusted least square means were calculated for each level of Hgb at baseline and in longitudinal regression analysis the relationship between change in Hgb and change in the SF-6D was examined. Both baseline and longitudinal analyses were performed for all postmenopausal women and separately for those with self-reported heart failure, cancer, and osteoarthritis.ResultsWomen with Hgb in the anemic range had lower health utility weights than those with higher Hgb levels. Longitudinally, a loss of of 2 g/dl Hgb or more was associated with a statistically significant and clinically meaningfully decline in SF-6D in all participants and also in the group of participants with cancer and osteoarthritis, but not in those with heart failure.ConclusionsLower levels of Hgb and a loss of Hgb are associated with a statistically significant and clinically meaningful decrement in health utility in all postmenopausal women we studied and also in those with chronic conditions