Complete stress fractures returned to bowling training and full training/match availability earlier than incomplete stress fractures (~3.5 vs 5 months, p=0.021; ~4 vs 6 months, p=0.027 respectively). ...Impact/Application to the field This study provides in-depth insight into the nature and management of lumbar bone stress injuries sustained by elite Australian cricket players over 13 seasons. All authors acknowledge that we have no conflict of interest of relevance to the submission of this abstract.
Background The vagus nerve plays an important role in the regulation of food intake. Modulating vagal activity via electrical stimulation (VNS) in patients and animal studies caused changes in food ...intake, energy metabolism, and body weight. However, the moderating impact of cognitive processes on VNS effects on eating behavior, has not been investigated so far. Hypothesis We hypothesized that transcutaneous VNS (tVNS) affects food intake by altering cognitive functions relevant to the processing of food-related information. Methods Using a repeated measurement design, we applied tVNS and a sham stimulation for 2h on two different days in normal-weight subjects. We recorded standard scalp EEG while subjects watched food and object pictures presented in an oddball-task. We analyzed the event-related potentials (ERPs) P1, P2, N2, and LPP, and also examined the amount of consumed food and eating duration in a free-choice test meal. Results Significant differences between stimulations were observed for the P1, P2, and N2 amplitudes. However, we found no tVNS dependent modulation of food intake nor a specific food-related stimulation effect on the ERPs. Further analyses revealed a negative relationship between P2-amplitude and food intake for the sham stimulation. Significant effects are additionally confirmed by Bayesian statistics. Conclusion Our study demonstrates tVNS’ impact on visual processing. Since the effects were similar between food and object stimuli, a general effect on visual perceptual processing can be assumed. More detailed investigations of these effects and their relationship with food intake and metabolism seem reasonable for future studies.
Invasive and transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (t)-VNS have been used to treat epilepsy, depression and migraine and has also shown effects on metabolism and body weight. To what extent this ...treatment shapes neural networks and how such network changes might be related to treatment effects is currently unclear. Using a pre-post mixed study design, we applied either a tVNS or sham stimulation (5 h/week) in 34 overweight male participants in the context of a study designed to assess effects of tVNS on body weight and metabolic and cognitive parameters resting state (rs) fMRI was measured about 12 h after the last stimulation period. Support vector machine (SVM) classification was applied to fractional amplitude low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF) on established rs-networks. All classification results were controlled for random effects and overfitting. Finally, we calculated multiple regressions between the classification results and reported food craving. We found a classification accuracy (CA) of 79 % in a subset of four brainstem regions suggesting that tVNS leads to lasting changes in brain networks. Five of eight salience network regions yielded 76,5 % CA. Our study shows tVNS’ post-stimulation effects on fALFF in the salience rs-network. More detailed investigations of this effect and their relationship with food intake seem reasonable for future studies.
This paper presents an experimental investigation of the mechanical response and the industrial manufacturability of CFRP–titanium hybrid laminates using the example of a spacecraft payload adaptor. ...The local hybridization with metal within a bolted joint region of composite laminates is proven to be an effective method of increasing the mechanical joint efficiency of highly loaded bolted joints. High-strength titanium foils are locally embedded into the composite laminate by means of ply substitution techniques, thus avoiding any local laminate thickening and providing for a local laminate with high bearing and shear capabilities. An extensive sample and component test program has been performed evaluating the impact of different design parameters and load conditions. The verification of the hybrid technique’s processability, inspectability and compatibility with a standard industrial fibre placement process has been successfully demonstrated through the manufacturing of a spacecraft payload adaptor featuring diverse applications of the hybridization technique.
This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation of the mechanical response of bolted joints manufactured using new hybrid composite laminates based on the substitution of CFRP plies ...with titanium plies. The local hybridization of the material is proposed to increase the efficiency of the bolted joints in CFRP structures. Two modeling strategies, based on non-linear finite element methods, are proposed for the analysis of the bolt-bearing and transition regions of the hybrid laminates. The bolt-bearing region is simulated using a three-dimensional finite element model that predicts ply failure mechanisms, whereas the free-edge of the transition region is simulated using plane stress and cohesive elements. The numerical and experimental results indicate that the use of hybrid composites can drastically increase the strength of CFRP bolted joints and therefore increase the efficiency of this type of connection. In addition, the numerical models proposed are able to predict the failure mechanisms and the strength of hybrid composite laminates with a good accuracy.
The assessment of pulmonary single-breath diffusing capacity is a frequently performed diagnostic procedure and considered as an important tool in medical surveillance examinations of pulmonary ...diseases.The aim of this study was to establish reference equations for pulmonary single-breath diffusing capacity parameters in a representative adult-population across a wide age range and to compare the normative values from this sample with previous ones.
Diffusing capacity measurement was carried out in 3566 participants (1811 males) of a cross-sectional, population-based survey ("Study of Health in Pomerania - SHIP").
Individuals with cardiopulmonary disorders and current smoking habits were excluded, resulting in 1786 healthy individuals (923 males), aged 20 - 84 years. Prediction equations for both sexes were established by quantile regression analyses, taking into consideration the influence of age, height, weight and former smoking.
The study provides a novel set of prediction equations for pulmonary single-breath diffusing capacity in an adult Caucasian population. The results are comparable to previously reported equations, underline their importance and draw attention to the need for up-to-date reference equations that adequately take into account both the subjects' origin, age, anthropometric characteristics and the equipment used.
Trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are associated with self-reported asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, these conditions have not yet been related to ...objective measures of lung function. 1,772 adults from the general population were assessed regarding their medical histories and spirometric lung function. Additionally, they were administered a PTSD interview, and assigned to three groups: no trauma; trauma, but no PTSD; and trauma with PTSD. Adjusting for sociodemographic, clinical and lifestyle factors, subjects with PTSD had significantly higher odds ratios for most asthma-related symptoms than PTSD-negative participants (OR 3.2-8.8). The mean ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV₁) to forced vital capacity (FVC) was lowest in the PTSD group and highest in those without trauma exposure. Traumatic stress was independently associated with FEV₁ and FEV₁/FVC. Participants with PTSD, compared with those without, had a significantly increased risk for airflow limitation independent of its definition (OR 4.2-7.8). This is the first study relating traumatic stress and PTSD, respectively, to objective parameters of lung function. Our findings suggest an association of trauma exposure and PTSD with airflow limitation, which may be mediated by inflammatory processes.
The communication between brain and peripheral homeostatic systems is a central element of ingestive control. We set out to explore which parts of the brain have strong functional connections to ...peripheral signalling molecules in a physiological context. It was hypothesised that associations can be found between endocrine response to glucose ingestion and preceding brain activity in dependence of the nutritional status of the body.
Young, healthy male participants underwent both a 38 h fasting and a control condition with standardized meals. On the second day of the experiment, participants underwent fMRI scanning followed by ingestion of glucose solution in both conditions. Subsequent endocrine responses relevant to energy metabolism were assessed. Associations between preceding brain activation and endocrine responses were examined.
In both fasting and non-fasting conditions, brain activity was associated with subsequent endocrine responses after glucose administration, but relevant brain areas differed substantially between the conditions. In the fasting condition relations between the caudate nucleus and the orbitofrontal regions with insulin and C-peptide were prevailing, whereas in the non-fasting condition associations between various brain regions and adiponectin and cortisol were the predominant significant outcome.
Connections between endocrine response following a glucose challenge and prior brain activity suggests that the brain is playing an active role in the networks regulating food intake and associated endocrine signals. Further studies are needed to demonstrate causation.
COPD is a heterogeneous disease with a wide range of clinical phenotypes and breath-functional dysfunctions. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) allows describing all component parts of breathing ...and determining exercise capacity and the mechanisms of exercise limitation. From these aspects 64 COPD patient stages II, III and IV according to the conventional GOLD classification were examined by means of CPET to evaluate whether CPET can provide a better functional characterization of COPD than the standard investigation procedures in pulmonary practice.We could show that in pulmonary practice CPET is safely and effectively practicable in stable COPD patients of all GOLD stages. This method allowed a clinical and prognostic disease severity assessment of all patients, proving important differences of peak oxygen uptake in each GOLD stage, so that patients in spite of identical GOLD disease severity were to be assigned to different prognostic groups according CPET criteria. Furthermore, we found relevant differences of individual breath-functional patterns in exercise, which can neither be objectified nor be prognosticated by standard investigation procedures at rest.Therefore CPET allows, aside from an objective clinical and prognostic disease severity assessment, also a breath-functional evaluation in a subtly way in COPD patients reflecting the multidimensional background of the disease with variable dysfunctions in pulmonary ventilation, gas exchange, circulation and muscular function as well as associated cardio vascular comorbidities. The breath-functional phenotyping of the COPD patient seems to be meaningful in particular for an individualised therapy management.
Melting of H
2O ice during planetary impact events is a widespread phenomenon. On planetary surfaces, ice is often mixed with other materials; yet, at present, the partitioning of energy between the ...components of a shocked mixture is still an open question in the shock physics community. Knowledge of how much energy is partitioned into the ice component is necessary to predict and interpret a wide range of processes, including shock-induced melting and chemistry. In this work, we construct a conceptual framework for the thermodynamic pathways of the components in a shocked hydrodynamic mixture by defining three broad regimes based on the characteristic length scale of the mixture compared to the thickness of the shock front: (1) small length scale mixtures where pressure and temperature equilibrate immediately behind the shock front; (2) intermediate length scales where pressure but not thermal equilibration is achieved behind the shock front; and (3) long length scales where pressure equilibration requires multiple shock wave reflections. We conduct shock wave experiments, reaching pressures from 8 to 23
GPa, in an H
2O ice–SiO
2 quartz mixture in the intermediate length scale regime. In each experiment, all the parameters required to address the question of energy partitioning were determined: the shock velocity in the mixture, the shock front thickness, and the shock and post-shock temperatures of the H
2O component. The measured pressure is in agreement with the bulk compressibility of the mixture. The shock and post-shock temperatures of the H
2O component indicate that the ice was shocked close to the principal Hugoniot. Therefore, in the intermediate length scale regime, the partitioning of shock energy is defined initially by the Hugoniots of the components at the equilibrated pressure. We discuss energy partitioning in mixtures over the wide range of length and time scales encountered during planetary impact events and identify the current challenges in calculating the volume of melted ice. In some cases, the criteria for shock-induced melting of ice in a mixture are the same as for pure ice.
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