Personality and European Union attitudes: Relationships across EU attitude dimensions

We still do not fully understand why attitudes towards the European Union (EU) differ among citizens. In this study, we turn to the Big Five personality traits Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism as antecedents of EU attitudes. In a national survey, we focus on attitudes towards widening and deepening of the EU, trust in EU institutions, identification with the EU, and negative affect experienced towards the EU. We theorize that the Big Five traits are heterogeneously associated with the different EU attitudes. The Big Five traits are indeed associated with some but not all EU attitudes. Accordingly, personality is expected to shape how citizens’ respond to changes in the institutional set-up of the EU

One in six physiotherapy practices in primary care offer musculoskeletal ultrasound - an explorative survey

BACKGROUND: The first aim of this research was to investigate the current prevalence of musculoskeletal ultrasound in Dutch physiotherapy practices. The second aim was to explore experiences of physiotherapists with musculoskeletal ultrasound in a primary care setting with patients presenting with shoulder complaints. METHODS: A random sample of 1000 owners of primary care physiotherapy practices was sent a questionnaire to investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal ultrasound. A second questionnaire was sent to physiotherapists using musculoskeletal ultrasound to explore experiences with it in patients with shoulder complaints. RESULTS: The net response rate of the first questionnaire was 57.7%. In 18% of the physiotherapy practices musculoskeletal ultrasound was offered. Sixty-nine physiotherapists returned the second questionnaire. Physiotherapists indicated they most often used musculoskeletal ultrasound in patients with shoulder complaints, mainly for suspected tissue damage (83.7%), followed by making a diagnosis (63.3%) and for determining the choice of treatment (36.7%). Physiotherapists reported the biggest advantage was that they were better able to diagnose presenting shoulder complaints. The most frequently mentioned disadvantage of the use of musculoskeletal ultrasound was that assessment is difficult and that there is a risk that findings may not be sufficiently linked to history and physical examination. CONCLUSION: One in six physiotherapy practices in the Netherlands offer musculoskeletal ultrasound. It is mainly used for patients with shoulder complaints, with an emphasis on detecting tissue damage and as an aid for diagnosis. Physiotherapists trained to work with musculoskeletal ultrasound seem enthusiastic and are at the same time aware of it

Health related utility measurement in rheumatology: an introduction

Utility measures of health-related quality of life are preference values that patients attach to their overall health status. In clinical trials, utility measures summarize both positive and negative effects of an intervention into one single value between 0 (equal to death) and 1 (equal to perfect health). These measures allow for comparison of patient outcomes of different diseases and allow for comparison between various health care interventions. There are two different approaches to utility measurement. The first is to classify patients into categories based on their responses to a number of questions about their functional status, as for instance the Quality of Well-Being questionnaire. The second approach is to ask patients to assign a single rating to their overall health by means of rating scale, standard gamble, time trade-off, or willingness to pay. The Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) as outcome measure includes both effects in terms of quality and quantity of life. Utilities are used as weights to adjust life years for the quality of life in order to calculate QALYs. Both QALYs and utilities are useful in decision-making regarding appropriate procedures for groups of patients

The usefulness of CA15.3, mucin-like carcinoma-associated antigen and carcinoembryonic antigen in determining the clinical course in patients with metastatic breast cancer

Levels of mucin-like carcinoma-associated antigen (MCA), CA15.3 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were measured in consecutive serum samples of 40 women with metastatic breast cancer. A change in antigen level of more than 25%, either an increase or a decrease, was considered to predict progressive or responsive disease respectively. A change of less than 25% was considered to predict stable disease. MCA, CA15.3 and CEA were elevated in the serum of 68%, 76% and 48% of the patients respectively (P<0.05). The overall prediction of clinical course was similar for all three markers. A more than 25% increase of MCA, CA15.3, and CEA was observed in 61%, 54% and 36% respectively. The predictive value of a more than 25% increase was high for all three markers: 94%, 94%, 83%. Changes in marker levels were correlated with each other. Logistic regression analysis showed that combining MCA and CA15.3 did not improve the prediction further. In conclusion, these tumour markers may help in evaluating the disease course and there is no advantage in combining MCA and CA15.3

Inspiring Womanhood: A re-interpretation of The Dawn

This thesis explores the diversity of content and ideas found in Louisa Lawson’s The Dawn, Australia’s first successful magazine ‘by women and for women’, showing that every element of the journal promoted a womanhood ideal for Australian women. Though remembered for the challenging arguments it made for women’s rights, most of the journal was taken up by beauty tips, household hints, recipes, women’s stories, health ideas, fashion articles and the like. This thesis examines such elements, noting how they served to help readers progress towards its womanhood ideal. It highlights the way that The Dawn’s discourse on women’s right was integrated into this ideal. It also analyses some of the key themes and ideas central to the ideal constructed in The Dawn, such as motherhood, beauty, and success in work and study

On topological charge carried by nexuses and center vortices

In this paper we further explore the question of topological charge in the center vortex-nexus picture of gauge theories. Generally, this charge is locally fractionalized in units of 1/N for gauge group SU(N), but globally quantized in integral units. We show explicitly that in d=4 global topological charge is a linkage number of the closed two-surface of a center vortex with a nexus world line, and relate this linkage to the Hopf fibration, with homotopy $\Pi_3(S^3)\simeq Z$; this homotopy insures integrality of the global topological charge. We show that a standard nexus form used earlier, when linked to a center vortex, gives rise naturally to a homotopy $\Pi_2(S^2)\simeq Z$, a homotopy usually associated with 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles and similar objects which exist by virtue of the presence of an adjoint scalar field which gives rise to spontaneous symmetry breaking. We show that certain integrals related to monopole or topological charge in gauge theories with adjoint scalars also appear in the center vortex-nexus picture, but with a different physical interpretation. We find a new type of nexus which can carry topological charge by linking to vortices or carry d=3 Chern-Simons number without center vortices present; the Chern-Simons number is connected with twisting and writhing of field lines, as the author had suggested earlier. In general, no topological charge in d=4 arises from these specific static configurations, since the charge is the difference of two (equal) Chern-Simons number, but it can arise through dynamic reconnection processes. We complete earlier vortex-nexus work to show explicitly how to express globally-integral topological charge as composed of essentially independent units of charge 1/N.Comment: Revtex4; 3 .eps figures; 18 page