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Background: Previous systematic reviews have identified the benefits of exercise for chronic neck pain on subjective reports of pain, but not with objective measures such as quantitative sensory testing (QST). A systematic review was conducted to identify the effects of neck specific exercise on QST measures in adults with chronic neck pain to synthesise existing literature and provide clinical recommendations. Methods: The study protocol was registered prospectively with PROSPERO (PROSPERO CRD42021297383). For both randomised and non-randomised trials, the following databases and trial registries were searched: AMED, CINAHL, Embase, Google Scholar, Medline, PEDro, PubMed, Scopus, SPORTDiscus, Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index from Web of Science Core Collection, clinicaltrials.gov, GreyOpen, and ISRCTN registry. These searches were conducted from inception to February 2022 and were updated until September 2023. Reference lists of eligible studies were screened. Study selection was performed independently by two reviewers, with data extraction and quality appraisal completed by one reviewer and independently ratified by a second reviewer. Due to high heterogeneity, narrative synthesis was performed with results grouped by exercise type. Findings: Three trials were included. Risk of bias was rated as moderate and the certainty of evidence as low or moderate for all studies. All exercise groups demonstrated statistically significant improvement at an intermediate-term follow-up, with progressive resistance training combined with graded physical training demonstrating the highest certainty of evidence. Fixed resistance training demonstrated statistically significant improvement in QST measures at a short-term assessment. Interpretation: Fixed resistance training is effective for short-term changes in pain sensitivity based on low-quality evidence, whilst moderate-quality evidence supports progressive resistance training combined with graded physical training for intermediate-term changes in pain sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest in Artificial Intelligence in tech hubs like Silicon Valley and in the world at large that is finally matching the ambition and creativity that movies and media have been producing for a very long time. This paper takes that cultural interest and economic investment to its logical conclusion and assumes that a humanlike Artificial Intelligence, or synthetic person, can and will be created in the near future. Then it considers what the law should do about that creation. Specifically, this paper argues that a test should be developed for whether a synthetic person can be granted personhood under the law before such test is needed. The tenets, if not the specifics, of such a test are outlined here that provide for a synthetic person that is intelligent, social, self-conscious, and individualized. But that is only half the problem. If a synthetic person can be created, one that passes a pre-determined test that allows it to access legal standing, to what sorts of rights and responsibilities does it have access? In light of the kind of synthetic person that could pass the test, four potential outcomes for rights for a synthetic person are addressed ranging from none to a full suite of human civil rights., Contents INTRODUCTION I. The Test A. A Non-Organic Unit B. Intelligence 1. Verbal Intelligence 2. Adaptive Intelligence 3. Moral Intelligence C. Social Interactivity D. Self-Consciousness and Hubbard's 'Plan' E. Substantive [...]

In this article, we revisit a Shape-based Glaucoma Index previously examined in Derado et al. (2004) using Scanning Confocal Laser (Heidelberg Retina) Tomographic (HRT) images. Here, we examine the use of 2D stereographic images for detecting glaucomatous shape change. Similar to Derado et al. (2004), we are interested in detecting such change from the same Rhesus monkeys experimental data. In contrast to Derado et al. (2004), in this study we use 2D stereographic images that were taken on the same sample of Rhesus monkeys before and after receiving an eye injection, inducing glaucoma-like Intra-Ocular Pressure (IOP) in one of their eyes, while keeping the other eye as control. Once we retrieve the 3D Kendall Shape reconstruction for the stereographic images of the Rhesus monkeys eye using Agisoft PhotoScan, we summarize the shape by selecting three matched corresponding biological landmarks on the neural-rim and the fourth matched landmark as the point of maximum depth. Clinicians believes that the ratio depth to diameter of the eye cup provides useful measure of shape change. We calculate the glaucoma index, (G), a normalized depth of the eye cup of Rhesus monkeys before and after receiving an injection. Parametric and nonparametric analyses were performed. Both procedures detected a positive mean glaucoma index increase in the medically induced glaucomatous eye. Our analyses supports a similar conclusion obtained in Derado et al. (2004) using HRT images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]