Low back pain (LBP) is a common symptom in the populations of western countries, and adolescent athletes seem to be prone to LBP. The main objective of this study was to analyze the point (LBP within ...the last 48 h), 1-year (LBP within the last 12 months) and lifetime (LBP within the entire life) prevalence rates of LBP in adolescent athletes participating in various sports. We also assessed the characteristics of LBP and its association with potential risk factors. To this end, 272 competitive adolescent athletes involved in 31 different sports (158 males, 113 females, 15.4 ± 2.0 years, body mass index BMI 20.3 ± 2.4 kg/m(2)) were enrolled in a 10-month prospective clinical trial that included a questionnaire and physical examination. We found a point prevalence of 14%, a 1-year prevalence of 57%, and a lifetime prevalence of 66% for LBP. The mean age of first appearance of LBP was 13.1 ± 2.0 years. The lifetime prevalence was significantly higher in volleyball than in biathletes (74.3 vs. 45.7%, p = 0.015). Our findings confirm that LBP is a common symptom in adolescent athletes; LBP prevalence correlates with sports participation and individual competitive level. Adolescent athletes with LBP should receive a thorough diagnostic work-up and adapt training and technique correspondingly when indicated.
Universal screening for postpartum depression is recommended in many countries. Knowledge of whether the disclosure of depressive symptoms in the postpartum period differs across cultures could ...improve detection and provide new insights into the pathogenesis. Moreover, it is a necessary step to evaluate the universal use of screening instruments in research and clinical practice. In the current study we sought to assess whether the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the most widely used screening tool for postpartum depression, measures the same underlying construct across cultural groups in a large international dataset.
Ordinal regression and measurement invariance were used to explore the association between culture, operationalized as education, ethnicity/race and continent, and endorsement of depressive symptoms using the EPDS on 8209 new mothers from Europe and the USA.
Education, but not ethnicity/race, influenced the reporting of postpartum depression difference between robust comparative fit indexes (∆*CFI) 0.01), but not between European countries (∆*CFI < 0.01).
Investigators and clinicians should be aware of the potential differences in expression of phenotype of postpartum depression that women of different educational backgrounds may manifest. The increasing cultural heterogeneity of societies together with the tendency towards globalization requires a culturally sensitive approach to patients, research and policies, that takes into account, beyond rhetoric, the context of a person's experiences and the context in which the research is conducted.
We report the first experimental evidence of spontaneous electron emission from a homonuclear dimer anion through direct measurements of Ag_{2}^{-}→Ag_{2}+e^{-} decays on milliseconds and seconds ...timescales. This observation is very surprising as there is no avoided crossing between adiabatic energy curves to mediate such a process. The process is weak, yet dominates the decay signal after 100 ms when ensembles of internally hot Ag_{2}^{-} ions are stored in the cryogenic ion-beam storage ring, DESIREE, for 10 s. The electron emission process is associated with an instantaneous, very large reduction of the vibrational energy of the dimer system. This represents a dramatic deviation from a Born-Oppenheimer description of dimer dynamics.
We investigate the impact of quenched disorder on the zero-temperature dynamic structure factor of two-leg quantum spin ladders. Using linked-cluster expansions and bond-operator mean-field theory, ...huge effects on individual quasiparticles but also on composite bound states and two-quasiparticle continua are observed. This leads to intriguing quantum structures in dynamical correlation functions well observable in spectroscopic experiments.
Active Cryovolcanism on Europa? Sparks, W. B.; Schmidt, B. E.; McGrath, M. A. ...
Astrophysical journal. Letters,
04/2017, Volume:
839, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Evidence for plumes of water on Europa has previously been found using the Hubble Space Telescope using two different observing techniques. Roth et al. found line emission from the dissociation ...products of water. Sparks et al. found evidence for off-limb continuum absorption as Europa transited Jupiter. Here, we present a new transit observation of Europa that shows a second event at the same location as a previous plume candidate from Sparks et al., raising the possibility of a consistently active source of erupting material on Europa. This conclusion is bolstered by comparison with a nighttime thermal image from the Galileo Photopolarimeter-Radiometer that shows a thermal anomaly at the same location, within the uncertainties. The anomaly has the highest observed brightness temperature on the Europa nightside. If heat flow from a subsurface liquid water reservoir causes the thermal anomaly, its depth is 1.8-2 km, under simple modeling assumptions, consistent with scenarios in which a liquid water reservoir has formed within a thick ice shell. Models that favor thin regions within the ice shell that connect directly to the ocean, however, cannot be excluded, nor modifications to surface thermal inertia by subsurface activity. Alternatively, vapor deposition surrounding an active vent could increase the thermal inertia of the surface and cause the thermal anomaly. This candidate plume region may offer a promising location for an initial characterization of Europa's internal water and ice and for seeking evidence of Europa's habitability.
Patisiran, an investigational RNA interference therapeutic agent, specifically inhibits hepatic synthesis of transthyretin.
In this phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned patients with hereditary ...transthyretin amyloidosis with polyneuropathy, in a 2:1 ratio, to receive intravenous patisiran (0.3 mg per kilogram of body weight) or placebo once every 3 weeks. The primary end point was the change from baseline in the modified Neuropathy Impairment Score+7 (mNIS+7; range, 0 to 304, with higher scores indicating more impairment) at 18 months. Other assessments included the Norfolk Quality of Life-Diabetic Neuropathy (Norfolk QOL-DN) questionnaire (range, -4 to 136, with higher scores indicating worse quality of life), 10-m walk test (with gait speed measured in meters per second), and modified body-mass index (modified BMI, defined as weight in kilograms divided by square of height in meters×albumin level in grams per liter; lower values indicated worse nutritional status).
A total of 225 patients underwent randomization (148 to the patisiran group and 77 to the placebo group). The mean (±SD) mNIS+7 at baseline was 80.9±41.5 in the patisiran group and 74.6±37.0 in the placebo group; the least-squares mean (±SE) change from baseline was -6.0±1.7 versus 28.0±2.6 (difference, -34.0 points; P<0.001) at 18 months. The mean (±SD) baseline Norfolk QOL-DN score was 59.6±28.2 in the patisiran group and 55.5±24.3 in the placebo group; the least-squares mean (±SE) change from baseline was -6.7±1.8 versus 14.4±2.7 (difference, -21.1 points; P<0.001) at 18 months. Patisiran also showed an effect on gait speed and modified BMI. At 18 months, the least-squares mean change from baseline in gait speed was 0.08±0.02 m per second with patisiran versus -0.24±0.04 m per second with placebo (difference, 0.31 m per second; P<0.001), and the least-squares mean change from baseline in the modified BMI was -3.7±9.6 versus -119.4±14.5 (difference, 115.7; P<0.001). Approximately 20% of the patients who received patisiran and 10% of those who received placebo had mild or moderate infusion-related reactions; the overall incidence and types of adverse events were similar in the two groups.
In this trial, patisiran improved multiple clinical manifestations of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis. (Funded by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals; APOLLO ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01960348 .).
Summary
Background
The contribution of hereditary factors to the development of diverticular disease (DD) of the colon is unknown. Prevalence and location of diverticula differ in Western world ...compared to in Asia and several case reports describing families with DD have been published.
Aim
To assess the heritability of DD in a large population‐based sample of twins.
Methods
The Swedish Twin Registry was cross‐linked to the Swedish Inpatient Registry. All twins, born between 1886 and 1980 and not dead before 1969, with a discharge diagnosis of DD were identified. Twins with diagnoses of colon cancer, coeliac disease or non‐infectious colitis were excluded to decrease bias. Co‐twin odds ratio (OR), concordance rates and tetrachoric correlations were calculated for monozygotic (MZ) and same gender‐dizygotic (SS‐DZ) twins. Mx‐analyses were used to estimate the relative contributions of genetic effects and environmental factors to susceptibility for DD. Calculations were based on both primary and secondary discharge diagnoses to provide estimates reflecting impact of severity of the disease.
Results
A total of 104 452 twins met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 2296 had a diagnosis of DD. The OR of developing the disease given one's co‐twin was affected was 7.15 (95% CI: 4.82–10.61) for MZ and 3.20 (95% CI: 2.21–4.63) for SS‐DZ twins. Similarly, concordance rates and tetrachoric correlations were higher in MZ than those in SS‐DZ twins. The heritability was estimated to 40% and the non shared environmental effects to 60%.
Conclusion
Genetic susceptibility is an important component, along with individual specific environmental factors, for the development of diverticular disease of the colon.
A promising new treatment approach for major depressive disorder (MDD) targets the microbiota-gut-brain (MGB) axis, which is linked to physiological and behavioral functions affected in MDD. This is ...the first randomized controlled trial to determine whether short-term, high-dose probiotic supplementation reduces depressive symptoms along with gut microbial and neural changes in depressed patients. Patients with current depressive episodes took either a multi-strain probiotic supplement or placebo over 31 days additionally to treatment-as-usual. Assessments took place before, immediately after and again four weeks after the intervention. The Hamilton Depression Rating Sale (HAM-D) was assessed as primary outcome. Quantitative microbiome profiling and neuroimaging was used to detect changes along the MGB axis. In the sample that completed the intervention (probiotics N = 21, placebo N = 26), HAM-D scores decreased over time and interactions between time and group indicated a stronger decrease in the probiotics relative to the placebo group. Probiotics maintained microbial diversity and increased the abundance of the genus Lactobacillus, indicating the effectivity of the probiotics to increase specific taxa. The increase of the Lactobacillus was associated with decreased depressive symptoms in the probiotics group. Finally, putamen activation in response to neutral faces was significantly decreased after the probiotic intervention. Our data imply that an add-on probiotic treatment ameliorates depressive symptoms (HAM-D) along with changes in the gut microbiota and brain, which highlights the role of the MGB axis in MDD and emphasizes the potential of microbiota-related treatment approaches as accessible, pragmatic, and non-stigmatizing therapies in MDD. Trial Registration: www.clinicaltrials.gov , identifier: NCT02957591.
PDF
