The immediate effects of atlanto-occipital joint manipulation and suboccipital muscle inhibition technique on active mouth opening and pressure pain sensitivity over latent myofascial trigger points in the masticatory muscles

DESIGN: A randomized controlled trial.OB JECTIVE: To investigate the immediate effects on pressure pain thresholds over latent trigger points (TrPs) in the masseter and temporalis muscles and active mouth opening following atlanto-occipital joint thrust manipulation or a soft tissue manual intervention targeted to the suboccipital muscles. BACKGROUND : Previous studies have described hypoalgesic effects of neck manipulative interventions over TrPs in the cervical musculature. There is a lack of studies analyzing these mechanisms over TrPs of muscles innervated by the trigeminal nerve. METHODS: One hundred twenty-two volunteers, 31 men and 91 women, between the ages of 18 and 30 years, with latent TrPs in the masseter muscle, were randomly divided into 3 groups: a manipulative group who received an atlanto-occipital joint thrust, a soft tissue group who received an inhibition technique over the suboccipital muscles, and a control group who did not receive an intervention. Pressure pain thresholds over latent TrPs in the masseter and temporalis muscles, and active mouth opening were assessed pretreatment and 2 minutes posttreatment by a blinded assessor. Mixed-model analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to examine the effects of interventions on each outcome, with group as the between-subjects variable and time as the within-subjects variable. The primary analysis was the group-by-time interaction. RESULTS: The 2-by-3 mixed-model ANOVA revealed a significant group-by-time interaction for changes in pressure pain thresholds over masseter (P<.01) and temporalis (P =.003) muscle latent TrPs and also for active mouth opening (P<.001) in favor of the manipulative and soft tissue groups. Between-group effect sizes were small. CONCLUSIONS: The application of an atlanto-occipital thrust manipulation or soft tissue technique targeted to the suboccipital muscles led to an immediate increase in pressure pain thresholds over latent TrPs in the masseter and temporalis muscles and an increase in maximum active mouth opening. Nevertheless, the effects of both interventions were small and future studies are required to elucidate the clinical relevance of these changes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE : Therapy, level 1b. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2010;40(5):310-317. doi:10.2519/jospt.2010.3257. KEYWORDSDS: cervical manipulation, muscle trigger points, neck, TMJ, upper cervical.

Smart Grid Market Using Joint Energy and Ancillary Services Bids

The power systems operation in the smart grid context increases significantly the complexity of their management. New approaches for ancillary services procurement are essential to ensure the operation of electric power systems with appropriate levels of stability, safety, quality, equity and competitiveness. These approaches should include market mechanisms which allow the participation of small and medium distributed energy resources players in a competitive market environment. In this paper, an energy and ancillary services joint market model used by an aggregator is proposed, considering bids of several types of distributed energy resources. In order to improve economic efficiency in the market, ancillary services cascading market mechanism is also considered in the model. The proposed model is included in MASCEM – a multi-agent system electricity market simulator. A case study considering a distribution network with high penetration of distributed energy resources is presented.

Flavored waters: influence of ingredients on antioxidant capacity and terpenoid profile by HS-SPME/GC-MS

The antioxidant profiles of 39 water samples (29 flavored waters based on 10 natural waters) and 6 flavors used in their formulation (furnished by producers) were determined. Total phenol and flavonoid contents, reducing power, and DPPH radical scavenging activity were the optical techniques implemented and included in the referred profile. Flavor extracts were analyzed by HS-SPME/GC-MS to obtain the qualitative and quantitative profiles of the volatile fraction of essential oils. Results pointed out a higher reducing power (0.14 11.8 mg of gallic acid/L) and radical scavenging activity (0.29 211.5 mg Trolox/L) of flavored waters compared with the corresponding natural ones, an interesting fact concerning human health. Bioactive compounds, such as polyphenols, were present in all samples (0.5 359 mg of gallic acid/L), whereas flavonoids were not present either in flavored waters or in flavors. The major components of flavor extracts were monoterpenes, such as citral, R-limonene, carveol, and R-terpineol.

Immunohistochemical molecular phenotypes of gastric cancer based on SOX2 and CDX2 predict patient outcome

Background Gastric cancer remains a serious health concern worldwide. Patients would greatly benefit from the discovery of new biomarkers that predict outcome more accurately and allow better treatment and follow-up decisions. Here, we used a retrospective, observational study to assess the expression and prognostic value of the transcription factors SOX2 and CDX2 in gastric cancer. Methods SOX2, CDX2, MUC5AC and MUC2 expression were assessed in 201 gastric tumors by immunohistochemistry. SOX2 and CDX2 expression were crossed with clinicopathological and follow-up data to determine their impact on tumor behavior and outcome. Moreover, SOX2 locus copy number status was assessed by FISH (N = 21) and Copy Number Variation Assay (N = 62). Results SOX2 was expressed in 52% of the gastric tumors and was significantly associated with male gender, T stage and N stage. Moreover, SOX2 expression predicted poorer patient survival, and the combination with CDX2 defined two molecular phenotypes, SOX2+CDX2- versus SOX2-CDX2+, that predict the worst and the best long-term patients’ outcome. These profiles combined with clinicopathological parameters stratify the prognosis of patients with intestinal and expanding tumors and in those without signs of venous invasion. Finally, SOX2 locus copy number gains were found in 93% of the samples reaching the amplification threshold in 14% and significantly associating with protein expression. Conclusions We showed, for the first time, that SOX2 combined with CDX2 expression profile in gastric cancer segregate patients into different prognostic groups, complementing the clinicopathological information. We further demonstrate a molecular mechanism for SOX2 expression in a subset of gastric cancer cases.

Serpentine bacteria influence metal translocation and bioconcentration of Brassica juncea and Ricinus communis grown in multi-metal polluted soils

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of inoculation of rhizosphere or endophytic bacteria (Psychrobacter sp. SRS8 and Pseudomonas sp. A3R3, respectively) isolated from a serpentine environment on the plant growth and the translocation and accumulation of Ni, Zn, and Fe by Brassica juncea and Ricinus communis on a multi-metal polluted serpentine soil (SS). Field collected SS was diluted to 0, 25, 50, and 75% with pristine soil in order to obtain a range of heavy metal concentrations and used in microcosm experiments. Regardless of inoculation with bacteria, the biomass of both plant species decreased with increase of the proportion of SS. Inoculation of plants with bacteria significantly increased the plant biomass and the heavy metal accumulation compared with non-inoculated control in the presence of different proportion of SS, which was attributed to the production of plant growth promoting and/or metal mobilizing metabolites by bacteria. However, SRS8 showed a maximum increase in the biomass of the test plants grown even in the treatment of 75% SS. In turn, A3R3 showed maximum effects on the accumulation of heavy metals in both plants. Regardless of inoculation of bacteria and proportion of SS, both plant species exhibited low values of bioconcentration factor (<1) for Ni and Fe. The inoculation of both bacterial strains significantly increased the translocation factor (TF) of Ni while decreasing the TF of Zn in both plant species. Besides this contrasting effect, the TFs of all metals were <1, indicating that all studied bacteria–plant combinations are suitable for phytostabilization. This study demonstrates that the bacterial isolates A3R3 and SRS8 improved the growth of B. juncea and R. communis in SS soils and have a great potential to be used as inoculants in phytostabilization scenarios of multi-metal contaminated soils.

A multi-objective optimization of the active and reactive resource scheduling at a distribution level in a smart grid context

In the traditional paradigm, the large power plants supply the reactive power required at a transmission level and the capacitors and transformer tap changer were also used at a distribution level. However, in a near future will be necessary to schedule both active and reactive power at a distribution level, due to the high number of resources connected in distribution levels. This paper proposes a new multi-objective methodology to deal with the optimal resource scheduling considering the distributed generation, electric vehicles and capacitor banks for the joint active and reactive power scheduling. The proposed methodology considers the minimization of the cost (economic perspective) of all distributed resources, and the minimization of the voltage magnitude difference (technical perspective) in all buses. The Pareto front is determined and a fuzzy-based mechanism is applied to present the best compromise solution. The proposed methodology has been tested in the 33-bus distribution network. The case study shows the results of three different scenarios for the economic, technical, and multi-objective perspectives, and the results demonstrated the importance of incorporating the reactive scheduling in the distribution network using the multi-objective perspective to obtain the best compromise solution for the economic and technical perspectives.

Ankle anticipatory postural adjustments during gait initiation in healthy and post-stroke subjects

Background: Anticipatory postural adjustments during gait initiation have an important role in postural stability but also in gait performance. However, these first phase mechanisms of gait initiation have received little attention, particularly in subcortical post-stroke subjects, where bilateral postural control pathways can be impaired. This study aims to evaluate ankle anticipatory postural adjustments during gait initiation in chronic post-stroke subjects with lesion in the territory of middle cerebral artery. Methods: Eleven subjects with post-stroke hemiparesis with the ability to walk independently and twelve healthy controls participated in this study. Bilateral electromyographic activity of tibialis anterior, soleus and medial gastrocnemius was collected during gait initiation to assess the muscle onset timing, period of activation/deactivation and magnitude of muscle activity during postural phase of gait initiation. This phase was identified through centre of pressure signal. Findings: Post-stroke group presented only half of the tibialis anterior relative magnitude observed in healthy subjects in contralesional limb (t=2.38, p=0.027) and decreased soleus deactivation period (contralesional limb, t=2.25, p=0.04; ipsilesional limb, t=3.67, p=0.003) as well its onset timing (contralesional limb, t=3.2. p=0.005; ipsilesional limb, t=2.88, p=0.033) in both limbs. A decreased centre of pressure displacement backward (t=3.45, p=0.002) and toward the first swing limb (t=3.29, p=0.004) was observed in post-stroke subjects. Interpretation: These findings indicate that chronic post-stroke subjects with lesion at middle cerebral artery territory present dysfunction in ankle anticipatory postural adjustments in both limbs during gait initiation.

Reliability of Two Methods for Identifying the Postural Phase of Gait Initiation in Healthy and Post-stroke Subjects

This study aims to compare two methods of assessing the postural phase of gait initiation as to intrasession reliability, in healthy and post-stroke subjects. As a secondary aim, this study aims to analyse anticipatory postural adjustments during gait initiation based on the centre of pressure (CoP) displacements in post-stroke participants. The CoP signal was acquired during gait initiation in fifteen post-stroke subjects and twenty-three healthy controls. Postural phase was identified through a baseline-based method and a maximal displacement based method. In both healthy and post-stroke participants higher intra-class correlation coefficient and lower coefficient of variation values were obtained with the baseline-based method when compared to the maximal displacement based method. Post-stroke participants presented decreased CoP displacement backward and toward the first swing limb compared to controls when the baseline-based method was used. With the maximal displacement based method, there were differences between groups only regarding backward CoP displacement. Postural phase duration in medial-lateral direction was also increased in post-stroke participants when using the maximal displacement based method. The findings obtained indicate that the baseline-based method is more reliable detecting the onset of gait initiation in both groups, while the maximal displacement based method presents greater sensitivity for post-stroke participants.

Strength and damage analysis of composite-aluminium adhesively-bonded single-lap joints

With the need to find an alternative way to mechanical and welding joints, and at the same time to overcome some limitations linked to these traditional techniques, adhesive bonds can be used. Adhesive bonding is a permanent joining process that uses an adhesive to bond the components of a structure. Composite materials reinforced with fibres are becoming increasingly popular in many applications as a result of a number of competitive advantages. In the manufacture of composite structures, although the fabrication techniques reduce to the minimum by means of advanced manufacturing techniques, the use of connections is still required due to the typical size limitations and design, technological and logistical aspects. Moreover, it is known that in many high performance structures, unions between composite materials with other light metals such as aluminium are required, for purposes of structural optimization. This work deals with the experimental and numerical study of single lap joints (SLJ), bonded with a brittle (Nagase Chemtex Denatite XNRH6823) and a ductile adhesive (Nagase Chemtex Denatite XNR6852). These are applied to hybrid joints between aluminium (AL6082-T651) and carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP; Texipreg HS 160 RM) adherends in joints with different overlap lengths (LO) under a tensile loading. The Finite Element (FE) Method is used to perform detailed stress and damage analyses allowing to explain the joints’ behaviour and the use of cohesive zone models (CZM) enables predicting the joint strength and creating a simple and rapid design methodology. The use of numerical methods to simulate the behaviour of the joints can lead to savings of time and resources by optimizing the geometry and material parameters of the joints. The joints’ strength and failure modes were highly dependent on the adhesive, and this behaviour was successfully modelled numerically. Using a brittle adhesive resulted in a negligible maximum load (Pm) improvement with LO. The joints bonded with the ductile adhesive showed a nearly linear improvement of Pm with LO.