1,065 research outputs found
Content validation of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Core Set for stroke from gender perspective using a qualitative approach
BACKGROUND: The extended ICF Core Set for stroke is an application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) with the purpose to represent the typical spectrum of functioning of persons with stroke.AIM: The objective of the study is to add evidence to the content validity of the extended ICF Core Set for stroke from persons after stroke taking into account gender perspective.DESIGN AND SETTING: A qualitative study design was conducted by using individual interviews with women and men after stroke in an in- and outpatient rehabilitation setting.METHODS: The sampling followed the maximum variation strategy. Sample size was determined by saturation. Concepts from qualitative data analysis were linked to ICF categories and compared to the extended ICF Core Set for stroke.RESULTS: Twelve women and 12 men participated in 24 individual interviews. In total, 143 out of 166 ICF categories included in the extended ICF Core Set for stroke were confirmed (women: N.=13; men: N.=17; both genders: N.=113). Thirty-eight additional categories that are not yet included in the extended ICF Core Set for stroke were raised by women and men.CONCLUSION: This study confirms that the experience of functioning and disability after stroke shows communalities and differences for women and men. The validity of the extended ICF Core Set for stroke could be mostly confirmed, since it does not only include those areas of functioning and disability relevant to both genders but also those exclusively relevant to either women or men.<br/
Towards comprehensive and transparent reporting: context-specific additions to the ICF taxonomy for medical evaluations of work capacity involving claimants with chronic widespread pain and low back pain
BACKGROUND: Medical evaluations of work capacity provide key information for decisions on a claimant's eligibility for disability benefits. In recent years, the evaluations have been increasingly criticized for low transparency and poor standardization. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a comprehensive spectrum of categories for reporting functioning and its determinants in terms of impairments and contextual factors and could facilitate transparent and standardized documentation of medical evaluations of work capacity. However, the comprehensiveness of the ICF taxonomy in this particular context has not been empirically examined. In this study, we wanted to identify potential context-specific additions to the ICF for its application in medical evaluations of work capacity involving chronic widespread pain (CWP) and low back pain (LBP).METHODS: A retrospective content analysis of Swiss medical reports was conducted by using the ICF for data coding. Concepts not appropriately classifiable with ICF categories were labeled as specification categories (i.e. context-specific additions) and were assigned to predefined specification areas (i.e. precision, coverage, personal factors, and broad concepts). Relevant specification categories for medical evaluations of work capacity involving CWP and LBP were determined by calculating their relative frequency across reports and setting a relevance threshold.RESULTS: Forty-three specification categories for CWP and fifty-two for LBP reports passed the threshold. In both groups of reports, precision was the most frequent specification area, followed by personal factors.CONCLUSIONS: The ICF taxonomy represents a universally applicable standard for reporting health and functioning information. However, when applying the ICF for comprehensive and transparent reporting in medical evaluations of work capacity involving CWP and LBP context-specific additions are needed. This is particularly true for the documentation of specific pain-related issues, work activities and personal factors. To ensure the practicability of the multidisciplinary evaluation process, the large number of ICF categories and context-specific additions necessary for comprehensive documentation could be specifically allocated to the disciplines in charge of their assessment.<br/
Semi-Hard Scattering Unraveled from Collective Dynamics by Two-Pion Azimuthal Correlations in 158 A GeV/c Pb + Au Collisions
Elliptic flow and two-particle azimuthal correlations of charged hadrons and
high- pions ( 1 GeV/) have been measured close to mid-rapidity in
158A GeV/ Pb+Au collisions by the CERES experiment. Elliptic flow ()
rises linearly with to a value of about 10% at 2 GeV/. Beyond
1.5 GeV/, the slope decreases considerably, possibly indicating
a saturation of at high . Two-pion azimuthal anisotropies for
1.2 GeV/ exceed the elliptic flow values by about 60% in mid-central
collisions. These non-flow contributions are attributed to near-side and
back-to-back jet-like correlations, the latter exhibiting centrality dependent
broadening.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letters, 4 pages, 5 figure
New Results on Pb-Au Collisions at 40 AGeV from the CERES/NA45 Experiment
In 1999 the CERES/NA45 ran at the CERN SPS with a beam energy of 40
GeV/nucleon. The data set comprises about 8.7 millions Pb-Au events with a
trigger selection corresponding to approximately the most central 30% of the
geometrical cross section. Results on low-mass electron pair analysis are
presented.
The upgrade of the experimental setup with the radial drift TPC has allowed
to enhance hadron physics capabilities of the experiment. New results on hadron
spectra (including Lambda) and flow are presented.Comment: Talk at the International Nuclear Physics Conference INPC2001,
Berkeley, CA, July 29th - August 3rd 200
Flow and non-flow event anisotropies at the SPS
A study of differential elliptic event anisotropies (v_2) of charged
particles and high-pt pions in 158 AGeV/c Pb+Au collisions is presented.
Results from correlations with respect to the event plane and from two-particle
azimuthal correlations are compared. The latter give systematically higher v_2
values at pt>1.2GeV/c providing possibly an evidence of a non-flow semihard
component.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, to appear in Nucl.
Phys.
Lambda production in 40 A GeV/c Pb-Au collisions
During the 1999 lead run, CERES has measured hadron and electron-pair
production at 40 A GeV/c beam momentum with the spectrometer upgraded by the
addition of a radial TPC. Here the analysis of lambda and antilambda will be
presented.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures. 6th International Conference on Strange Quarks in
Matter, Frankfurt 200
Recent results from Pb-Au collisions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon obtained with the CERES spectrometer
During the 1996 lead run time, CERES has accumulated 42 million events,
corresponding to a factor of 5 more statistics than in 1995 and 2.5 million
events of a special photon-run. We report on the results of the low-mass
ee-pair analysis. Since the most critical item is the poor
signal-to-background ratio we also discuss the understanding of this
background, in absolute terms, with the help of a detailed Monte Carlo
simulation. We show preliminary results of the photon analysis and summarize
the results of the hadron analysis preliminarily reported on already at QM'97Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, Proceedings of the XIV Int. Conf. on
Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions,Quark Matter 99, Torino, Italy, May 10 - 15, 199
Elliptic flow of charged pions, protons and strange particles emitted in Pb+Au collisions at top SPS energy
Differential elliptic flow spectra v2(pT) of \pi-, K0short, p, \Lambda have
been measured at \sqrt(s NN)= 17.3 GeV around midrapidity by the
CERN-CERES/NA45 experiment in mid-central Pb+Au collisions (10% of
\sigma(geo)). The pT range extends from about 0.1 GeV/c (0.55 GeV/c for
\Lambda) to more than 2 GeV/c. Protons below 0.4 GeV/c are directly identified
by dE/dx. At higher pT, proton elliptic flow v2(pT) is derived as a
constituent, besides \pi+ and K+, of the elliptic flow of positive pion
candidates. The retrieval requires additional inputs: (i) of the particle
composition, and (ii) of v2(pT) of positive pions. For (i), particle ratios
obtained by NA49 were adapted to CERES conditions; for (ii), the measured
v2(pT) of negative pions is substituted, assuming \pi+ and \pi- elliptic flow
magnitudes to be sufficiently close. The v2(pT) spectra are compared to
ideal-hydrodynamics calculations. In synopsis of the series \pi- - K0short - p
- \Lambda, flow magnitudes are seen to fall with decreasing pT progressively
even below hydro calculations with early kinetic freeze-out (Tf= 160 MeV)
leaving not much time for hadronic evolution. The proton v2(pT) data show a
downward swing towards low pT with excursions into negative v2 values. The
pion-flow isospin asymmetry observed recently by STAR at RHIC, invalidating in
principle our working assumption, is found in its impact on proton flow
bracketed from above by the direct proton flow data, and not to alter any of
our conclusions. Results are discussed in perspective of recent viscous
dynamics studies which focus on late hadronic stages.Comment: 38 pages, 27 figures, 2 tables. Abstract and parts of introduction
made more comprehensible; corrected typos; acknowledgement added. To appear
in Nucl.Phys.
Low-mass e+e- pair production in 158 A GeV Pb-Au collisions at the CERN SPS, its dependence on multiplicity and transverse momentum
We report a measurement of low-mass electron pairs observed in 158
GeV/nucleon Pb-Au collisions. The pair yield integrated over the range of
invariant masses 0.2 < m < 2.0 GeV is enhanced by a factor of 3.5 +/- 0.4
(stat) +/- 0.9 (syst) over the expectation from neutral meson decays. As
observed previously in S-Au collisions, the enhancement is most pronounced in
the invariant-mass region 300-700 MeV. For Pb-Au we find evidence for a strong
increase of the enhancement with centrality. In addition, we show that the
enhancement covers a wide range in transverse momentum, but is largest at the
lowest observed pt.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys.Lett.
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