Does a SLAP lesion affect shoulder muscle recruitment as measured by EMG activity during a rugby tackle?

Background: The study objective was to assess the influence of a SLAP lesion on onset of EMG activity in shoulder muscles during a front on rugby football tackle within professional rugby players. Methods: Mixed cross-sectional study evaluating between and within group differences in EMG onset times. Testing was carried out within the physiotherapy department of a university sports medicine clinic. The test group consisted of 7 players with clinically diagnosed SLAP lesions, later verified on arthroscopy. The reference group consisted of 15 uninjured and full time professional rugby players from within the same playing squad. Controlled tackles were performed against a tackle dummy. Onset of EMG activity was assessed from surface EMG of Pectorialis Major, Biceps Brachii, Latissimus Dorsi, Serratus Anterior and Infraspinatus muscles relative to time of impact. Analysis of differences in activation timing between muscles and limbs (injured versus non-injured side and non injured side versus matched reference group). Results: Serratus Anterior was activated prior to all other muscles in all (P = 0.001-0.03) subjects. In the SLAP injured shoulder Biceps was activated later than in the non-injured side. Onset times of all muscles of the noninjured shoulder in the injured player were consistently earlier compared with the reference group. Whereas, within the injured shoulder, all muscle activation timings were later than in the reference group. Conclusions: This study shows that in shoulders with a SLAP lesion there is a trend towards delay in activation time of Biceps and other muscles with the exception of an associated earlier onset of activation of Serratus anterior, possibly due to a coping strategy to protect glenohumeral stability and thoraco-scapular stability. This trend was not statistically significant in all cases

Revealing histological and morphological features of female reproductive system in tree shrew (Tupaia belangeri)

The tree shrew has been used as a primate animal model in neuroscience studies but it has only rarely been employed in the study of reproductive systems. This is mainly because we know very little about the histological features of reproductive organs of the tree shrew. In this study, we have systematically analyzed the histology of reproductive organs of tree shrew, in comparison with human organs. The uterus of female tree shrew is uterus biomes unicolis, which is connected with an enveloped ovary through a thin fallopian tube. Histologically, the fallopian tube consists of folded mucosa, muscularis and serosa. Like other mammalian animals, the different developmental stages (primordial, primary, secondary and Graafian follicles) of ovarian follicles including inner oocyte and outer granulosa cells are embedded in the cortex. The luminal endometrium, middle muscular myometrium and serosa constitute the wall of uterus of tree shrew. The uterine endometrium contains simple columnar ciliated cells and goblet cells, and there are rich uterine glands in underlying stroma. Furthermore, these glands of tree shrew are round and smaller during anestrus, and become much longer when they are in estrus. The uterine endometrium in younger animals was less developed when compared to a mature tree shrew. Compared to human uterine endometrium, the histological features of tree shrew are very similar, indicating that it could potentially be good primate animal model for studying the diseases in reproductive system

Atomically dispersed Pt-N-4 sites as efficient and selective electrocatalysts for the chlorine evolution reaction

Chlorine evolution reaction (CER) is a critical anode reaction in chlor-alkali electrolysis. Although precious metal-based mixed metal oxides (MMOs) have been widely used as CER catalysts, they suffer from the concomitant generation of oxygen during the CER. Herein, we demonstrate that atomically dispersed Pt-N-4 sites doped on a carbon nanotube (Pt-1/CNT) can catalyse the CER with excellent activity and selectivity. The Pt-1/CNT catalyst shows superior CER activity to a Pt nanoparticle-based catalyst and a commercial Ru/Ir-based MMO catalyst. Notably, Pt-1/CNT exhibits near 100% CER selectivity even in acidic media, with low Cl- concentrations (0.1M), as well as in neutral media, whereas the MMO catalyst shows substantially lower CER selectivity. In situ electrochemical X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals the direct adsorption of Cl- on Pt-N-4 sites during the CER. Density functional theory calculations suggest the PtN4C12 site as the most plausible active site structure for the CER

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Similarities and differences in the dolomitization history of two coeval Middle Triassic carbonate platforms, Balaton Highland, Hungary

Dolomitization of platform carbonates is commonly the result of multiphase processes. Documentation of the complex dolomitization history is difficult if completely dolomitized sections are studied. Two Middle Anisian sections representing two coeval carbonate platforms were investigated and compared in the present study. Both sections are made up of meter-scale peritidal–lagoonal cycles with significant pedogenic overprint. One of the sections contains non-dolomitized, partially dolomitized, and completely dolomitized intervals, whereas the other is completely dolomitized. Based on investigations of the partially dolomitized section, penecontemporaneous dolomite formation and/or very early post-depositional dolomitization were identified in various lithofacies types. In shallow subtidal facies, porphyrotopic dolomite was found preferentially in microbial micritic fabrics. Microbially induced dolomite precipitation and/or progressive replacement of carbonate sediments could be interpreted for stromatolites. Cryptocrystalline to very finely crystalline dolomite, probably of pedogenic origin, was encountered in paleosoil horizons. Fabric-destructive dolomite commonly found below these horizons was likely formed via reflux of evaporated seawater. As a result of the different paleogeographic settings of the two platforms, their shallow-burial conditions were significantly different. One of the studied sections was located at the basinward platform margin where pervasive fabric-retentive dolomitization took place in a shallow-burial setting, probably via thermal convection. In contrast, in the area of the other, smaller platform shallow-water carbonates were covered by basinal deposits, preventing fluid circulation and accordingly pervasive shallow-burial dolomitization. In the intermediate to deep burial zone, recrystallization of partially dolomitized limestone and occlusion of newly opened fractures and pores by coarsely crystalline dolomite took place

Long-term functional outcomes and the patient perspective following altered fractionation with concomitant boost for oropharyngeal cancer

With no long-term data available in published research to date, this study presents details of the swallowing outcomes as well as barriers to and facilitators of oral intake and weight maintenance at 2 years after altered fractionation radiotherapy with concomitant boost (AFRT-CB). Twelve patients with T1-T3 oropharyngeal cancer who received AFRT-CB were assessed at baseline, 6 months, and 2 years post-treatment for levels of dysphagia and salivary toxicity, food and fluid tolerance, functional swallowing outcomes, patient-reported function, and weight. At 2 years, participants were also interviewed to explore barriers and facilitators of oral intake. Outcomes were significantly worse at 2 years when compared to baseline for late toxicity, functional swallowing, and patient-rated physical aspects of swallowing. Most patients (83%) tolerated a full diet pretreatment, but the rate fell to 42% (remainder tolerated soft diets) at 2 years. Multiple barriers to oral intake that impacted on activity and participation levels were identified. Participants lost 11 kg from baseline to 2 years, which was not regained between 6 months and 2 years. Global, social, and emotional domains of patient-reported function returned to pretreatment levels. At 2 years post AFRT-CB, worsening salivary and dysphagia toxicity, declining functional swallowing, and multiple reported ongoing barriers to oral intake had a negative impact on participants' activity and participation levels relating to eating. These ongoing deficits contributed to significant deterioration in physical swallowing functioning determined by the MDADI. In contrast, patients perceived their broader functioning had improved at 2 years, suggesting long-term adjustment to ongoing swallowing deficits

Changes in the Circadian Rhythm in Patients with Primary Glaucoma

Purpose The current study was undertaken to investigate whether glaucoma affects the sleep quality and whether there is any difference between patients with primary glaucoma (primary open angle glaucoma, POAG and primary angle-closure glaucoma, PACG) and healthy subjects, using a validated self-rated questionnaire, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Methods The sleep quality of patients with POAG and PACG was tested against normal controls. Subjects were divided into three sub-groups according to age. Differences in the frequency of sleep disturbances (PSQI score >7) were assessed. The differences of sleep quality within the three groups and within the POAG group depending on the patients’ intraocular pressure (IOP) and impairment of visual field (VF) were also studied. Results 92 POAG patients, 48 PACG patients and 199 controls were included. Sleep quality declined with age in control and POAG group (tendency chi-square, P0.05). No significant differences were found in POAG group between patients with a highest IOP in daytime and at nighttime (χ2-test, P>0.05). Conclusions The prevalence of sleep disorders was higher in patients with POAG and PACG than in controls. PACG patients seemed to have a more serious problem of sleep disorders than POAG patients between 61 to 80 years old. No correlation was found between the prevalence of sleep disorders and impairment of VF or the time when POAG patients showed a highest IOP

Rapid assembly of customized TALENs into multiple

Transcriptional activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) have become a powerful tool for genome editing. Here we present an efficient TALEN assembly approach in which TALENs are assembled by direct Golden Gate ligation into Gateway® Entry vectors from a repeat variable di-residue (RVD) plasmid array. We constructed TALEN pairs targeted to mouse Ddx3 subfamily genes, and demonstrated that our modified TALEN assembly approach efficiently generates accurate TALEN moieties that effectively introduce mutations into target genes. We generated "user friendly" TALEN Entry vectors containing TALEN expression cassettes with fluorescent reporter genes that can be efficiently transferred via Gateway (LR) recombination into different delivery systems. We demonstrated that the TALEN Entry vectors can be easily transferred to an adenoviral delivery system to expand application to cells that are difficult to transfect. Since TALENs work in pairs, we also generated a TALEN Entry vector set that combines a TALEN pair into one PiggyBac transposon-based destination vector. The approach described here can also be modified for construction of TALE transcriptional activators, repressors or other functional domains. © 2013 Zhang et al

Swallowing, nutrition and patient-rated functional outcomes at 6 months following two non-surgical treatments for T1-T3 oropharyngeal cancer

Altered fractionation radiotherapy with concomitant boost (AFRT-CB) may be considered an alternative treatment for patients not appropriate for chemoradiation (CRT). As functional outcomes following AFRT-CB have been minimally reported, this exploratory paper describes the outcomes of patients managed with AFRT-CB or CRT at 6 months post-treatment