The assessment of pain in older people

Pain is under-recognised and under-treated in older people. It is a subjective, personal experience, only known to the person who suffers. The assessment of pain is particularly challenging in the presence of severe cognitive impairment, communication difficulties or language and cultural barriers. These guidelines set out the key components of assessing pain in older people, together with a variety of practical scales that may be used with different groups, including those with varying levels of cognitive or communication impairment. The purpose is to provide professionals with a set of practical skills to assess pain as the first step towards its effective management. The guidance has implications for all healthcare and social care staff and can be applied in all settings, including the older person’s own home, in care homes, and in hospital

Engineering model 8-cm thruster subsystem

An Engineering Model (EM) 8 cm Ion Thruster Propulsion Subsystem was developed for operation at a thrust level 5 mN (1.1 mlb) at a specific impulse 1 sub sp = 2667 sec with a total system input power P sub in = 165 W. The system dry mass is 15 kg with a mercury-propellant-reservoir capacity of 8.75 kg permitting uninterrupted operation for about 12,500 hr. The subsystem can be started from a dormant condition in a time less than or equal to 15 min. The thruster has a design lifetime of 20,000 hr with 10,000 startup cycles. A gimbal unit is included to provide a thrust vector deflection capability of + or - 10 degrees in any direction from the zero position. The EM subsystem development program included thruster optimization, power-supply circuit optimization and flight packaging, subsystem integration, and subsystem acceptance testing including a cyclic test of the total propulsion package

Correcting the z~8 Galaxy Luminosity Function for Gravitational Lensing Magnification Bias

We present a Bayesian framework to account for the magnification bias from both strong and weak gravitational lensing in estimates of high-redshift galaxy luminosity functions. We illustrate our method by estimating the $z\sim8$ UV luminosity function using a sample of 97 Y-band dropouts (Lyman break galaxies) found in the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG) survey and from the literature. We find the luminosity function is well described by a Schechter function with characteristic magnitude of $M^\star = -19.85^{+0.30}_{-0.35}$, faint-end slope of $\alpha = -1.72^{+0.30}_{-0.29}$, and number density of $\log_{10} \Psi^\star [\textrm{Mpc}^{-3}] = -3.00^{+0.23}_{-0.31}$. These parameters are consistent within the uncertainties with those inferred from the same sample without accounting for the magnification bias, demonstrating that the effect is small for current surveys at $z\sim8$, and cannot account for the apparent overdensity of bright galaxies compared to a Schechter function found recently by Bowler et al. (2014a,b) and Finkelstein et al. (2014). We estimate that the probability of finding a strongly lensed $z\sim8$ source in our sample is in the range $\sim 3-15 \%$ depending on limiting magnitude. We identify one strongly-lensed candidate and three cases of intermediate lensing in BoRG (estimated magnification $\mu>1.4$) in addition to the previously known candidate group-scale strong lens. Using a range of theoretical luminosity functions we conclude that magnification bias will dominate wide field surveys -- such as those planned for the Euclid and WFIRST missions -- especially at $z>10$. Magnification bias will need to be accounted for in order to derive accurate estimates of high-redshift luminosity functions in these surveys and to distinguish between galaxy formation models.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 20 pages, 13 figure

Coherent optical control of correlation waves of spins in semiconductors

We calculate the dynamical fluctuation spectrum of electronic spins in a semiconductor under a steady-state illumination by light containing polarization squeezing correlations. Taking into account quasi-particle lifetime and spin relaxation for this non-equilibrium situation we consider up to fourth order optical effects which are sensitive to the squeezing phases. We demonstrate the possibility to control the spin fluctuations by optically modulating these phases as a function of frequency, leading to a non-Lorentzian spectrum which is very different from the thermal equilibrium fluctuations in n-doped semiconductors. Specifically, in the time-domain spin-spin correlation can exhibit time delays and sign flips originating from the phase modulations and correlations of polarizations, respectively. For higher light intensity we expect a regime where the squeezing correlations will dominate the spectrum.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

Th-17 cell activation in response to high salt following acute kidney injury is associated with progressive fibrosis and attenuated by AT-1R antagonism

Exposure of rats to elevated dietary salt following recovery from acute kidney injury (AKI) accelerates the transition to chronic kidney disease (CKD), and is dependent on lymphocyte activity. Here we tested whether high salt diet triggers lymphocyte activation in postischemic kidneys to worsen renal inflammation and fibrosis. Male Sprague-Dawley rats on a 0.4% salt diet were subjected to left unilateral ischemia-reperfusion and allowed to recover for 5 weeks. This resulted in a mild elevation of CD4(+) T cells relative to sham animals. Contralateral unilateral nephrectomy and elevated dietary salt (4%) for 4 extra weeks hastened CKD and interstitial fibrosis. Activated T cells were increased in the kidney threefold after 4 weeks of elevated dietary salt exposure relative to post-AKI rats before salt feeding. The T cell subset was largely positive for IL-17, indicative of Th-17 cells. Because angiotensin II activity may influence lymphocyte activation, injured rats were given the AT1R antagonist, losartan, along with high salt diet. This significantly reduced the number of renal Th-17 cells to levels of sham rats, and significantly reduced the salt-induced increase in fibrosis to about half. In vitro studies in AKI-primed CD4(+) T cells indicated that angiotensin II and extracellular sodium enhanced, and losartan inhibited, IL-17 expression. Thus, dietary salt modulates immune cell activity in postischemic recovering kidneys because of the activity of local RAS, suggesting the participation of these cells in CKD progression post-AKI

What Brown saw and you can too

A discussion is given of Robert Brown's original observations of particles ejected by pollen of the plant \textit{Clarkia pulchella} undergoing what is now called Brownian motion. We consider the nature of those particles, and how he misinterpreted the Airy disc of the smallest particles to be universal organic building blocks. Relevant qualitative and quantitative investigations with a modern microscope and with a "homemade" single lens microscope similar to Brown's, are presented.Comment: 14.1 pages, 11 figures, to be published in the American Journal of Physics. This differs from the previous version only in the web site referred to in reference 3. Today, this Brownian motion web site was launched, and http://physerver.hamilton.edu/Research/Brownian/index.html, is now correc

Characterization of unwanted noise in realistic cavities

The problem of the description of absorption and scattering losses in high-Q cavities is studied. The considerations are based on quantum noise theories, hence the unwanted noise associated with scattering and absorption is taken into account by introduction of additional damping and noise terms in the quantum Langevin equations and input--output relations. Completeness conditions for the description of the cavity models obtained in this way are studied and corresponding replacement schemes are discussed.Comment: Contribution to XI International Conference on Quantum Optics, Minsk, Belarus, 26-31 May, 200

Ant homing ability is not diminished when traveling backwards

Ants are known to be capable of homing to their nest after displacement to a novel location. This is widely assumed to involve some form of retinotopic matching between their current view and previously experienced views. One simple algorithm proposed to explain this behavior is continuous retinotopic alignment, in which the ant constantly adjusts its heading by rotating to minimize the pixel-wise difference of its current view from all views stored while facing the nest. However, ants with large prey items will often drag them home while facing backwards. We tested whether displaced ants (Myrmecia croslandi) dragging prey could still home despite experiencing an inverted view of their surroundings under these conditions. Ants moving backwards with food took similarly direct paths to the nest as ants moving forward without food, demonstrating that continuous retinotopic alignment is not a critical component of homing. It is possible that ants use initial or intermittent retinotopic alignment, coupled with some other direction stabilizing cue that they can utilize when moving backward. However, though most ants dragging prey would occasionally look toward the nest, we observed that their heading direction was not noticeably improved afterwards. We assume ants must use comparison of current and stored images for corrections of their path, but suggest they are either able to chose the appropriate visual memory for comparison using an additional mechanism; or can make such comparisons without retinotopic alignment