Objective To assess the eBcacy of physical therapies for intensity regimen of PFM exercises. Despite significant eCects of biofeedback after testing as an adjunct to first-line use in the treatment and prevention of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in women, using a system-PFM exercises, there is no evidence that PFM exercises with biofeedback are more eCective than PFM exercises atic review of randomized clinical trials (RCTs). Materials and methods A computer-aided and manualalone. There is little consistency (of stimulation types and parameters) in the studies of electrical stimulation, search for published RCTs investigating treatment and prevention of SUI using physical therapies, e.g. pelvic but when the results are combined there is strong evidence to suggest that electrostimulation is superior floor muscle (PFM) exercises, with or without other treatment modalities, was carried out. The method-to sham electrostimulation, and limited evidence that there is no diCerence between electrostimulation and ological quality of the included trials was assessed using criteria based on generally accepted principles other physical therapies. In the prevention of SUI the eBcacy of PFM exercises, with or without other of interventional research. Results Twenty-four RCTs (22 treatment and two pre-adjuncts, is uncertain. Conclusions More research of high methodological qual-vention) were identified; the methodological quality of the studies included was moderate and 11 RCTs were ity is required to further evaluate the eCects of physical therapies used to treat and prevent SUI. of suBcient quality to be included in further analysis. Based on levels-of-evidence criteria, there is strong Keywords Systematic review, stress urinary incontinence, conservative treatment, prevention, physical evidence to suggest that PFM exercises are eCective in reducing the symptoms of SUI. There is limited evi-therapy, (pelvic floor muscle) exercises, biofeedback, electrical stimulation, vaginal cones dence for the eBcacy of high-intensity vs a lowwomen; the overall estimated prevalence of UI in women

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We demonstrate that commercially available poly(D,L-lactic acid) (PDLLA) is a suitable material for the fabrication of biodegradable optical fibers with a standard heat drawing process. To do so we report on the chemical and optical characterization of the material. We address the influence of the polymer processing on the molecular weight and thermal properties of the polymer following the preparation of the polymer preforms and the fiber optic drawing process. We show that cutback measurements of the first optical fibers drawn from PDLLA return an attenuation coefficient as low as 0.11 dB/cm at 772 nm, which is the lowest loss reported this far for optical fibers drawn from bio-resorbable material. We also report on the dispersion characteristics of PDLLA, and we find that the thermo-optic coefficient is in the range of −10 −4°C−1. Finally, we studied the degradation of PDLLA fibers in vitro, revealing that fibers with the largest diameter of 600 µm degrade faster than those with smaller diameters of 300 and 200 µm and feature more than 84% molecular weight loss over a period of 3 months. The evolution of the optical loss of the fibers as a function of time during immersion in phosphate-buffered saline indicates that these devices are potential candidates for use in photodynamic therapy-like application scenarios.

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Fiber Bragg gratings written in highly birefringent microstructured optical fiber with a dedicated design are embedded in a composite fiber-reinforced polymer. The Bragg peak wavelength shifts are measured under controlled axial and transversal strain and during thermal cycling of the composite sample. We obtain a sensitivity to transversal strain that exceeds values reported earlier in literature by one order of magnitude. Our results evidence the relevance of using microstructured optical fibers for structural integrity monitoring of composite material structures.