Determining the relative orientation between the chemical shift anisotropy and heteronuclear dipolar tensors in static solids by SEDOR NMR.

The measurement of the dipolar interaction between two spins provides the distance between nuclei. A better structural picture emerges when the distance is combined with the orientation of the internuclear vector in the principal axis system of the chemical shift anisotropy tensor. The SEDOR experiment is used on a static sample of alanine to show that the orientation of the vector connecting the nitrogen and carboxylate carbon nuclei can be accurately determined in the CSA PAS of the 13C carboxylate spin.

Provision of Recommended Chronic Pain Assessment and Management in Primary Care: Does Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Recognition Make a Difference?

BACKGROUND: Chronic pain (CP) care in the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model has not been well studied. We assessed whether PCMH recognition is associated with increased provision of key practice recommendations for CP assessment and management. METHODS: Chart reviews were completed for 12 primary care practices affiliated with one health system in the Cincinnati Area Research and Improvement Group (CARInG). Recommendations were abstracted and compared based on PCMH status: 3 practices had received prior PCMH level 3 recognition, 5 were in an ongoing process of applying, and 4 had no recognition and were not applying. RESULTS: A total of 485 charts were reviewed from 65 PCPs. Eight of 10 key recommendations were documented more often in the prior and ongoing PCMH cohorts, including assessing pain severity, function, psychosocial distress, and substance abuse, and using structured instruments for these assessments. There were fewer differences between the cohorts in the management of chronic opioids, with only the ongoing PCMH cohort having higher documentation for 5 of the 7 recommendations, including performing urine drug screens and using a structured instrument to assess for misuse. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the usefulness of the PCMH model in managing patients with CP, but patient outcomes need to be addressed in future studies.

Tripeptides on Gold Nanoparticles: Structural Differences between Two Reverse Sequences as Determined by Solid-State NMR and DFT Calculations.

The reverse-sequence peptides CysAlaAla and AlaAlaCys may attach to gold nanoparticles through the thiol group, and they differ primarily by whether the charged amino or the carboxylate group is proximal to the sulfur. Alanine residues in these peptides are not expected to interact significantly with the gold surface and serve to place a large separation between the amino and carboxylate groups. Solid-state NMR experiments and DFT calculations were performed to explore the structural differences between CysAlaAla on gold nanoparticles and AlaAlaCys on gold nanoparticles. It is found that the relative positions between the thiol, amino, and carboxylate groups strongly influences the structures of the peptide-gold systems. CysAlaAla orients parallel to the gold surface in a monolayer fashion, whereas AlaAlaCys forms an interdigitating bilayer-like structure that is oriented upright relative to the gold surface.

The Effects of Kinesiotape Applied to the Lateral Aspect of the Ankle: Relevance to Ankle Sprains--A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVE: To identify, evaluate and synthesise evidence on the effect of kinesiotape applied to the lateral aspect of the ankle, through a systematic review of quantitative studies. DATA SOURCES: A search for quantitative studies was undertaken using key terms of "kinesiotape" and "ankle" in seven electronic databases, using the maximum date ranges. Databases included: the Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Medline, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, Scopus, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science. STUDY SELECTION: Database hits were evaluated against explicit inclusion criteria. From 107 database hits, 8 quantitative studies were included. DATA EXTRACTION: Two independent reviewers appraised the methodological rigour of the studies using the McMaster Critical Review Form for Quantitative Studies. Data were extracted on participant characteristics, kinesiotape parameters, comparison interventions, outcome measures and findings. DATA SYNTHESES: Most studies (n=7) had good to very good methodological rigour. Meta-analysis was not possible due to heterogeneity in participants, interventions and outcome measures. No adverse events were reported. Kinesiotape may produce different effects in healthy and injured ankles. In healthy ankles, kinesiotape may increase postural control, whereas in injured ankles it may improve proprioception, plantarflexor endurance and the performance of activities. These trends were identified from a small body of evidence including 276 participants. CONCLUSIONS: It is recommended that kinesiotape may be used in clinical practice to prevent lateral ankle injuries (through its effects on postural control) and manage lateral ankle injuries due to its positive effects on proprioception, muscle endurance and activity performance. It appears that kinesiotape may not provide sufficient mechanical support to improve postural control in unstable ankles. Adverse events associated with kinseiotape are unlikely.

Beyond the standard model of Ginzburg-Landau theory: multiband superconductors.

The recently discovered multiband superconductors have created a new class of novel superconductors. In these materials multiple superconducting gaps arise due to the formation of Cooper pairs on different sheets of the Fermi surfaces. An important feature of these superconductors is the interband couplings, which not only change the individual gap properties, but also create new collective modes. Here we investigate the effect of the interband couplings in the Ginzburg-Landau theory. We produce a general τ((2n + 1)/2) expansion (τ = 1 - T/Tc) and show that this expansion has unexpected behaviour for n ⩾ 2. This point emphasises the weaker validity of the GL theory for lower temperatures and gives credence to the existence of hidden criticality near the critical temperature of the uncoupled subdominant band. We apply this theory to a range of material parameters fitted to experimental measurements and find that for some cases the theory performs very well at all temperatures, but for other materials the range of applicability can be very limited.

Time-reversal-symmetry-broken state in the BCS formalism for a multi-band superconductor.

In three-band BCS superconductors with repulsive inter-band interactions, frustration between the bands can lead to an inherently complex gap function, arising out of a phase difference between the bands in the range 0 and π. Since the complex conjugate of this state is also a solution, the ground state is degenerate, and there appears a time-reversal-symmetry-broken state. In this paper we investigate the existence of this state as a function of inter-band coupling strength and show how a new phase transition appears between the TRSB and conventional BCS states.