British pain clinic practitioners' recognition and use of the bio-psychosocial pain management model for patients when physical interventions are ineffective or inappropriate : results of a qualitative study

Background To explore how chronic musculoskeletal pain is managed in multidisciplinary pain clinics for patients for whom physical interventions are inappropriate or ineffective. Methods A qualitative study was undertaken using semi-structured interviews with twenty five members of the pain management team drawn from seven pain clinics and one pain management unit located across the UK. Results All clinics reported using a multidisciplinary bio-psychosocial model. However the chronic pain management strategy actually focussed on psychological approaches in preference to physical approaches. These approaches were utilised by all practitioners irrespective of their discipline. Consideration of social elements such as access to social support networks to support patients in managing their chronic pain was conspicuously absent from the approaches used. Conclusion Pain clinic practitioners readily embraced cognitive/behavioural based management strategies but relatively little consideration to the impact social factors played in managing chronic pain was reported. Consequently multidisciplinary pain clinics espousing a bio-psychosocial model of pain management may not be achieving their maximum potential

Forward Rates and Future Policy: Interpreting the Term Structure of Interest Rates

macroeconomics, interest rates, term structure

On the Use of Valuation Mechanisms to Measure Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Novel Products: A Comparison of Hypothetical and Non-Hypothetical Values

Willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for novel products are needed to assess consumers' valuation of these products as well as for product adoption and optimal pricing strategies. Using experiments in a retail setting, we compare hypothetical and non-hypothetical WTP values between a Becker-DeGroot-Marshak (BDM) auction mechanism and conjoint analysis. Our results suggest that the auction WTP values are higher than conjoint analysis WTP values. Moreover, the hypothetical WTP values are higher than the non-hypothetical WTP values in both elicitation mechanisms.Conjoint analysis, willingness-to-pay, auction, hypothetical, non-hypothetical, Consumer/Household Economics, Institutional and Behavioral Economics,

From Farm to School: An Alternative Market for Texas Citrus

Crop Production/Industries, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Fruit and Vegetables Go Back to School

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, I38, Q18,

Xwnt-5A: a maternal Wnt that affects morphogenetic movements after overexpression in embryos of Xenopus laevis

To contribute to an understanding of the roles and mechanisms of action of Wnts in early vertebrate development, we have characterized the normal expression of Xenopus laevis Wnt-5A, and investigated the consequences of misexpression of this putative signalling factor. Xwnt-5A transcripts are expressed throughout development, and are enriched in both the anterior and posterior regions of embryos at late stages of development, where they are found primarily in ectoderm, with lower levels of expression in mesoderm. Overexpression of Xwnt-5A in Xenopus embryos leads to complex malformations distinct from those achieved by ectopic expression of Xwnts −1, −3A, or −8. This phenotype is unlikely to result from Xwnt-5A acting as an inducing agent, as overexpression of Xwnt-5A does not rescue dorsal structures in UV-irradiated embryos, does not induce mesoderm in blastula caps, and Xwnt-5A does not alter the endogenous patterns of expression of goosecoid, Xbra, or Xwnt-8. To pursue whether Xwnt-5A has the capacity to affect morphogenetic movements, we investigated whether overexpression of Xwnt-5A alters the normal elongation of blastula cap explants induced by activin. Intriguingly, Xwnt-5A blocks the elongation of blastula caps in response to activin, without blocking the differentiation of either dorsal or ventral mesoderm within these explants. The data are consistent with Xwnt-5A having the potential activity of modifying the morphogenetic movements of tissues

Constraints on Mars Aphelion Cloud Belt Phase Function and Ice Crystal Geometries

This study constrains the lower bound of the scattering phase function of Martian water ice clouds (WICs) through the implementation of a new observation aboard the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). The Phase Function Sky Survey (PFSS) was a multiple pointing all-sky observation taken with the navigation cameras (Navcam) aboard MSL. The PFSS was executed 35 times during the Aphelion Cloud Belt (ACB) season of Mars Year 34 over a solar longitude range of L_s=61.4{\deg}-156.5{\deg}. Twenty observations occurred in the morning hours between 06:00 and 09:30 LTST, and 15 runs occurred in the evening hours between 14:30 and 18:00 LTST, with an operationally required 2.5 hour gap on either side of local noon due the sun being located near zenith. The resultant WIC phase function was derived over an observed scattering angle range of 18.3{\deg} to 152.61{\deg}, normalized, and compared with 9 modeled phase functions: seven ice crystal habits and two Martian WIC phase functions currently being implemented in models. Through statistical chi-squared probability tests, the five most probable ice crystal geometries observed in the ACB WICs were aggregates, hexagonal solid columns, hollow columns, plates, and bullet rosettes with p-values greater than or equal to 0.60, 0.57,0.56,0.56, and 0.55, respectively. Droxtals and spheres had p-values of 0.35, and 0.2, making them less probable components of Martian WICs, but still statistically possible ones. Having a better understanding of the ice crystal habit and phase function of Martian water ice clouds directly benefits Martian climate models which currently assume spherical and cylindrical particles.Comment: Accepted Manuscript by Planetary and Space Scienc