Recognizing myofascial pelvic pain in the female patient with chronic pelvic pain.

Myofascial pelvic pain (MFPP) is a major component of chronic pelvic pain (CPP) and often is not properly identified by health care providers. The hallmark diagnostic indicator of MFPP is myofascial trigger points in the pelvic floor musculature that refer pain to adjacent sites. Effective treatments are available to reduce MFPP, including myofascial trigger point release, biofeedback, and electrical stimulation. An interdisciplinary team is essential for identifying and successfully treating MFPP

Output and price level effects of monetary uncertainty in a matching model

output;prices;uncertainty;monetary economics

Initial experience and outcome of a new hemodialysis access device for catheter-dependent patients

ObjectiveThe effects of a new long-term subcutaneous vascular access device were studied in access-challenged patients who were poor candidates for fistulas or grafts due to venous obstruction. Bacteremia rates, patency, and function of the Hemodialysis Reliable Outflow (HeRO) Vascular Access Device (Hemosphere Inc, Minneapolis, Minn) were evaluated.MethodsThe HeRO device consists of a 6-mm expanded polytetrafluoroethylene graft attached to a 5-mm nitinol-reinforced silicone outflow component designed to bypass venous stenoses and enter the internal jugular vein directly, providing continuous arterial blood flow into the right atrium. The HeRO device was studied in a multicenter clinical trial to test the hypothesis that access-challenged patients would experience a statistically significant reduction in bacteremia rates compared with a tunneled dialysis catheter (TDC) literature control of 2.3/1000 days. HeRO-related bacteremia rates, adequacy of dialysis, patency, and adverse events were analyzed.ResultsThe HeRO device was implanted in 36 access-challenged patients who were followed for a mean 8.6 months (9931 HeRO days). The HeRO-related bacteremia rate was 0.70/1000 days. All HeRO-related bacteremias occurred during the bridging period when a TDC was still implanted before HeRO graft incorporation. HeRO adequacy of dialysis (mean Kt/V) was 1.7. HeRO primary patency was 38.9%, and secondary patency was 72.2%.ConclusionsIn access-challenged patients, a statistically significant reduction in HeRO-related bacteremia was noted compared with TDC literature. The device had similar function and patency compared with conventional arteriovenous graft literature

Implications For The Origin Of GRB 051103 From LIGO Observations

We present the results of a LIGO search for gravitational waves (GWs) associated with GRB 051103, a short-duration hard-spectrum gamma-ray burst (GRB) whose electromagnetically determined sky position is coincident with the spiral galaxy M81, which is 3.6 Mpc from Earth. Possible progenitors for short-hard GRBs include compact object mergers and soft gamma repeater (SGR) giant flares. A merger progenitor would produce a characteristic GW signal that should be detectable at the distance of M81, while GW emission from an SGR is not expected to be detectable at that distance. We found no evidence of a GW signal associated with GRB 051103. Assuming weakly beamed gamma-ray emission with a jet semi-angle of 30 deg we exclude a binary neutron star merger in M81 as the progenitor with a confidence of 98%. Neutron star-black hole mergers are excluded with > 99% confidence. If the event occurred in M81 our findings support the the hypothesis that GRB 051103 was due to an SGR giant flare, making it the most distant extragalactic magnetar observed to date.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. For a repository of data used in the publication, go to: https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=15166 . Also see the announcement for this paper on ligo.org at: http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-GRB051103/index.ph

First narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves from known pulsars in advanced detector data

Spinning neutron stars asymmetric with respect to their rotation axis are potential sources of continuous gravitational waves for ground-based interferometric detectors. In the case of known pulsars a fully coherent search, based on matched filtering, which uses the position and rotational parameters obtained from electromagnetic observations, can be carried out. Matched filtering maximizes the signalto- noise (SNR) ratio, but a large sensitivity loss is expected in case of even a very small mismatch between the assumed and the true signal parameters. For this reason, narrow-band analysis methods have been developed, allowing a fully coherent search for gravitational waves from known pulsars over a fraction of a hertz and several spin-down values. In this paper we describe a narrow-band search of 11 pulsars using data from Advanced LIGO’s first observing run. Although we have found several initial outliers, further studies show no significant evidence for the presence of a gravitational wave signal. Finally, we have placed upper limits on the signal strain amplitude lower than the spin-down limit for 5 of the 11 targets over the bands searched; in the case of J1813-1749 the spin-down limit has been beaten for the first time. For an additional 3 targets, the median upper limit across the search bands is below the spin-down limit. This is the most sensitive narrow-band search for continuous gravitational waves carried out so far

Effects of a 12-Week Global Corrective Exercise Intervention on Sway Back Posture in Young Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Sway back posture (SBP) is a common postural deviation of sagittal alignment and is the most common postural deviation in 18 to 28-year-old individuals, but there is no standard exercise protocol for treating SBP. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of the global corrective exercise intervention (GCEI) on spinal posture of healthy individuals 18-25 years of age with SBP. Methods: This study was a randomized controlled design with a parallel group, two-arm trial with 1:1 allocation ratio. Seventy participants (mean age 20.9±2.1 years) with SBP (⩾ 10°) were enrolled in the study for 12 weeks. The participants were randomly assigned to an exercise (n=35) or control group (n=35). The targeted global spine strengthening and stretching exercise intervention included core and postural training, delivered by a corrective exercise specialist in 2 groups of 20 and 15 participants 3 times a week for 12 weeks. Forward head angle and sway angle were measured using a digitized side-view photograph. Kyphosis index and llordosis index were measured using a flex curve ruler. Results: The 12-week intervention program resulted in significant within group differences in forward head, kyphosis, lordosis and postural sway angle (p<0.001). There was also a significant between group difference in the changes of all postural variables (p<0.001). Conclusions: The GCEI resulted in improved sway back posture in our sample of 18-25-year-old participants. This study supports the theoretical basis for clinical rehabilitation of postural deviations. Further studies are required to generalize these findings to other age and population groups. Key words: posture, sway back, corrective exercise, spinal alignmen

Search for gravitational waves associated with the InterPlanetary Network short gamma ray bursts

We outline the scientific motivation behind a search for gravitational waves associated with short gamma ray bursts detected by the InterPlanetary Network (IPN) during LIGO's fifth science run and Virgo's first science run. The IPN localisation of short gamma ray bursts is limited to extended error boxes of different shapes and sizes and a search on these error boxes poses a series of challenges for data analysis. We will discuss these challenges and outline the methods to optimise the search over these error boxes.Comment: Methods paper; Proceedings for Eduardo Amaldi 9 Conference on Gravitational Waves, July 2011, Cardiff, U

Effects of a 12-Week Global Corrective Exercise Intervention on Sway Back Posture in Young Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Sway back posture (SBP) is a common postural deviation of sagittal alignment and is the most common postural deviation in 18 to 28-year-old individuals, but there is no standard exercise protocol for treating SBP. Our objective was to assess the effectiveness of the global corrective exercise intervention (GCEI) on spinal posture of healthy individuals 18-25 years of age with SBP. Methods: This study was a randomized controlled design with a parallel group, two-arm trial with 1:1 allocation ratio. Seventy participants (mean age 20.9±2.1 years) with SBP (⩾ 10°) were enrolled in the study for 12 weeks. The participants were randomly assigned to an exercise (n=35) or control group (n=35). The targeted global spine strengthening and stretching exercise intervention included core and postural training, delivered by a corrective exercise specialist in 2 groups of 20 and 15 participants 3 times a week for 12 weeks. Forward head angle and sway angle were measured using a digitized side-view photograph. Kyphosis index and llordosis index were measured using a flex curve ruler. Results: The 12-week intervention program resulted in significant within group differences in forward head, kyphosis, lordosis and postural sway angle (p<0.001). There was also a significant between group difference in the changes of all postural variables (p<0.001). Conclusions: The GCEI resulted in improved sway back posture in our sample of 18-25-year-old participants. This study supports the theoretical basis for clinical rehabilitation of postural deviations. Further studies are required to generalize these findings to other age and population groups. Key words: posture, sway back, corrective exercise, spinal alignmen

Implementation and testing of the first prompt search for gravitational wave transients with electromagnetic counterparts

Aims. A transient astrophysical event observed in both gravitational wave (GW) and electromagnetic (EM) channels would yield rich scientific rewards. A first program initiating EM follow-ups to possible transient GW events has been developed and exercised by the LIGO and Virgo community in association with several partners. In this paper, we describe and evaluate the methods used to promptly identify and localize GW event candidates and to request images of targeted sky locations. Methods. During two observing periods (Dec 17 2009 to Jan 8 2010 and Sep 2 to Oct 20 2010), a low-latency analysis pipeline was used to identify GW event candidates and to reconstruct maps of possible sky locations. A catalog of nearby galaxies and Milky Way globular clusters was used to select the most promising sky positions to be imaged, and this directional information was delivered to EM observatories with time lags of about thirty minutes. A Monte Carlo simulation has been used to evaluate the low-latency GW pipeline's ability to reconstruct source positions correctly. Results. For signals near the detection threshold, our low-latency algorithms often localized simulated GW burst signals to tens of square degrees, while neutron star/neutron star inspirals and neutron star/black hole inspirals were localized to a few hundred square degrees. Localization precision improves for moderately stronger signals. The correct sky location of signals well above threshold and originating from nearby galaxies may be observed with ~50% or better probability with a few pointings of wide-field telescopes.Comment: 17 pages. This version (v2) includes two tables and 1 section not included in v1. Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic