American Academy of Osteopathy

MAVIS is the world’s first facility-grade visible MCAO instrument, currently under development for the VLT. The AO system will feed an imager and an integral field spectrograph, with 50% sky coverage at the Galactic pole. MAVIS has unique angular resolution and sensitivity at visible wavelengths, and is highly complementary to both JWST and ELTs. We describe both instruments in detail and the broad range of science cases enabled by them. The imager will be diffraction-limited in V, with 7.36 mas per pixel covering a 30” FOV. A set of at least 7 broad-band and 15 narrow-band filters will provide imaging from u to z. The spectrograph uses an advanced image slicer with a selectable spatial sampling of 25 or 50 mas to provide integral field spectroscopy over a FOV of 2.5”x3.6”, or 5”x7.2”. The spectrograph has two identical arms each covering half the FOV. Four interchangeable grisms allow spectroscopy with R=5,000 to R=15,000, from 380-950 nm.

Introduction: In Germany in recent years, a growing number of parents are seeking help from osteopaths for the perceived health complaints of their infants and children. However, reliable evidence for the effectiveness of osteopathic interventions for this group of patients is largely lacking. Objective: To observe and document changes in the symptoms of certain health disturbances, as perceived by parents, during the course of an osteopathic treatment of their baby, and associated side effects. Methods: A single-arm, prospective, multicenter, observational study was chosen as the study design. Parents who contacted an osteopathic practice with any of the following 5 health disturbances were invited to include their baby into the study: idiopathic infant asymmetry (IA), deformational plagiocephaly (DP), feeding disorders (FD), excessive crying (EC), and sleep disorders (SD). Osteopaths performed osteopathic treatment as usual for these conditions, and the parents were asked to rate the perceived severity of symptoms on standardized forms including numerical rating scales (NRS 0–10). In DP, the head circumference of the child’s skull was measured with a craniometer, and the cranial vault index (CVAI) was calculated. Results: 230 osteopaths agreed to participate, 151 osteopaths returned parental ratings. 1,136 infants were treated 2.8 ± 1.1 times (mean ± SD). IA was the most prevalent disturbance (48%), followed by EC (18%), FD (15%), DP (14%), and SD (4%). In IA, perceived asymmetry as rated on the NRS improved from 6.1 to 1.1, a mean improvement of 82%. In DP, the CVAI improved from 8.0 to 4.0%, a mean improvement of 51%. FD improved by 77%, EC by 70% (from 7.7 to 2.3 on the NRS) and SD by 56%. Adverse reactions with a timely association with osteopathic treatments were reported in 3.5% of all treatments, probably reflecting typical day-to-day variations in symptoms. In a total of 3,212 treatments, there was not a single serious adverse reaction affecting infant health. Conclusions: This is one of the largest studies worldwide to date on the osteopathic treatment of infants. Osteopathic treatment was associated with major positive changes in the severity of perceived health complaints as assessed by parents, which in most cases were resolved as a matter of concern, and was proved to be a safe treatment modality among a large number of therapists. Based on these results, confirmatory intervention studies can and should be planned and conducted.

Background: Shoulder complaints are common in the general population. Typically, the diagnosis of a specific pathology is lacking. The objective of this trial was to evaluate the effectiveness of an osteopathic treatment in patients suffering from shoulder pain. Methods: A pragmatic randomized controlled trial was conducted in patients with a history of shoulder pain of 6 weeks to 12 months, and a pain intensity level of at least 40% on the visual analogue scale (VAS). Participants were identified from the general population in Germany and allocated by means of external randomization to an intervention group or a control group. Patients in the intervention group received five osteopathic treatments at intervals of two weeks. Treatment was custom tailored and based on osteopathic principles. Controls received their osteopathic treatment after an 8-week untreated waiting period. Primary outcome parameters were pain intensity and frequency, measured by VAS and Likert Scales. Secondary outcome parameters were shoulder specific pain and disability (Shoulder Pain and Disability Index, SPADI), and quality of life (SF-36). Results: A total of 70 patients aged 25e70 years (average age 45.6 +/- 13.4 years) were included, 36 in the intervention group and 34 in the control group. The inter-group comparison of changes revealed clinically relevant improvements in favor of the intervention group for the main outcome parameters maximal pain intensity (VAS: between group difference of means 41.5; 95% CI: 34.6 to 48.3; p < 0.005) and average pain intensity (VAS: between group difference of means 40.4; 95% CI: 33.2 to 47.5; p < 0.005). The proportion of participants with a low frequency of pain increased in the osteopathic group only (from 7 to 34 vs. 9 to 6 in the control group, p = 0.006), and the number of patients with a high frequency decreased in the osteopathic group only (from 29 to 2 vs. 25 to 28, p < 0.0005). Shoulder specific pain and disability also improved. The follow-up assessment in the intervention group showed further improvements. Conclusions: Five osteopathic treatments over a period of eight weeks led to statistically significant and clinically relevant positive changes of pain and disability in patients suffering from shoulder pain. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In order to determine the causes of kinematic asymmetry in the H alpha gas in the SAMI (Sydney-AAO Multi-object IFS) Galaxy Survey sample, we investigate the comparative influences of environment and intrinsic properties of galaxies on perturbation. We use spatially resolved H alpha velocity fields from the SAMI Galaxy Survey to quantify kinematic asymmetry ((upsilon(asym)) over bar) in nearby galaxies and environmental and stellar mass data from the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey. We find that local environment, measured as distance to nearest neighbour, is inversely correlated with kinematic asymmetry for galaxies with log (M-*/M-circle dot) > 10.0, but there is no significant correlation for galaxies with log (M-*/M-circle dot) < 10.0. Moreover, low-mass galaxies [ log (M-*/M-circle dot) < 9.0] have greater kinematic asymmetry at all separations, suggesting a different physical source of asymmetry is important in low-mass galaxies. We propose that secular effects derived from gas fraction and gas mass may be the primary causes of asymmetry in low-mass galaxies. High gas fraction is linked to high sigma(m)/V (where sigma(m) is H alpha velocity dispersion and V the rotation velocity), which is strongly correlated with (upsilon(asym)) over bar, and galaxies with log (M-*/M-circle dot) < 9.0 have offset <(sigma(m))over bar>/V from the rest of the sample. Further, asymmetry as a fraction of dispersion decreases for galaxies with log (M-*/M-circle dot) < 9.0. Gas mass and asymmetry are also inversely correlated in our sample. We propose that low gas masses in dwarf galaxies may lead to asymmetric distribution of gas clouds, leading to increased relative turbulence.

The TOLIMAN space telescope is a low-cost, agile mission concept dedicated to astrometric detection of exoplanets in the near-solar environment, and particularly targeting the Alpha Cen system. Although successful discovery technologies are now populating exoplanetary catalogs into the thousands, contemporary astronomy is still poorly equipped to answer the basic question of whether there are any rocky planets orbiting any particular star system. Toliman will make a first study of stars within 10 PC of the sun by deploying an innovative optical and signal encoding architecture that leverages the most promising technology to deliver data on this critical stellar sample: high precision astrometric monitoring. Here we present results from the Foundational Mission Study, jointly funded by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and the University of Sydney which has translated innovative underlying design principles into error budgets and potential spacecraft systems designs.