The repeatability of self-reported exposure after miscarriage

BACKGROUND: The Avon Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood is a prospective study of women who were resident in Avon and who were expected to deliver a baby between April 1991 and December 1992. METHODS: The study provided an opportunity to test the repeatability of responses from 220 women who experienced a miscarriage and who reported exposure to occupational substances and common household products and appliances in two questionnaires. The first questionnaire was completed in the early part of the pregnancy and the second after the miscarriage. Women were asked to score their frequency of exposure on a five-point scale from 'daily' to 'never'. Their responses were analysed to assess the degree of agreement between replies to identical questions in the two questionnaires using the kappa statistic. A new frequency variable was created which compared the replies for the two questionnaires; this was analysed for all exposures by cross-tabulation with possible explanatory variables (age of mother, social class, history of miscarriage and the time lag between questionnaires). RESULTS: In general there was good agreement in the reported exposures to 48 substances and products. The results showed a small and consistent pattern of reporting exposures less frequently in the second questionnaire, i.e. after miscarriage. This was not explained by the analysis of possible confounding variables. Given the literature, the authors had expected to find a shift in the opposite direction. CONCLUSION: The study reinforces the need to be cautious when using the results from single surveys of retrospective self-reported exposure

Investigation of practices and procedures in the use of therapeutic diathermy: A study from the physiotherapists' health and safety perspective

Background and Purpose. The safe use of therapeutic diathermy requires practices and procedures that ensure compliance to professional guidelines and clinical evidence. Inappropriate use may expose physiotherapists and other people in the vicinity of operating diathermy devices to stray radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, which can be a source of risk and may lead to adverse health effects. The aim of the present study was to investigate practices and procedures for therapeutic diathermy from a health and safety perspective. Method. A cross-sectional research design was used, this included a postal survey using a self-administered questionnaire and semi-structured observational visits to 46 physiotherapy departments in National Health Service (NHS) hospitals located in the south-east and south-west of England, including Greater London. Results. Microwave diathermy was not available in the departments surveyed. Pulsed shortwave diathermy was available and was used more commonly than continuous shortwave diathermy. There were metallic objects in treatment cubicles used for pulsed shortwave diathermy and continuous shortwave diathermy. Shortwave diathermy devices created electromagnetic interference with a variety of electrical and medical devices. Physiotherapists reported that they did not stay in the treatment cubicle during the entire period of electrotherapy with pulsed shortwave diathermy or continous shortwave diathermy; pregnant physiotherapists reported that they did not use these devices. Electrotherapy with pulsed shortwave diathermy and continuous shortwave diathermy was not always administered on a wooden couch or chair. Electrotherapy was highest in those departments with the fewest physiotherapists. Conclusions. Departments report good practices and procedures regarding the use of therapeutic diathermy devices. However, field observations of practices and procedures, and the working environment, have identified issues with a potential to create health and safety problems, and these should be addressed. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Systematic literature review of adverse reproductive outcomes associated with physiotherapists' occupational exposures to non-ionising radiation

This article is available through open access and can be accessed at the link below.Objectives: To review empirical research on adverse health and pregnancy outcomes associated with physiotherapists' occupational exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF EMFs) from shortwave (SWD) and microwave (MWD) diathermy devices. Methods: A systematic review of peer reviewed literature published from 1990 to 2010 in the English language searched in eight online bibliographic databases: CINAHL, EBSCOhost, ISI Web of Knowledge, Medline, OSH UPDATE, PubMed Central, ScienceDirect, and Scopus. Results: Findings suggest that physiotherapists' occupational exposure to SWD was statistically significantly associated with delayed time to pregnancy (>6 months), still birth, altered gender ratio (low ratio of boys to girls), congenital malformations and low birth weight (<2,500 g) among physiotherapists' offspring. Physiotherapists' exposure to MWD was also found to be statistically significantly associated with spontaneous abortion. However, causal mechanisms for these statistical associations are unknown. The present systematic review has found these adverse reproductive outcomes and health effects associations with RF EMFs from therapeutic diathermy devices to be inconsistent. Conclusions: A number of studies did not find statistically significant results to replicate associations with such adverse outcomes, and therefore further research, preferably prospective studies of cohorts of physiotherapists, is warranted.This is extended version of a study funded by the Health and Safety Executive (Project No: R47.022

Availability and use of electrotherapy devices: a survey

This item is published and the copyright holder of this article is the International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation © 2010 MA Healthcare Limited, http://www.ijtr.co.uk/. The article is available here with the permission of the copyright holder. Any use of the article from this site for personal use is permitted; however, if it is to be used for any other purpose, or reproduced in part or in full, the copyright holder must be contacted.Electrophysical agents such as radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (shortwave and microwave), ultrasound, laser and electrical stimulation are used for therapeutic purpose in physiotherapy departments. They are primarily used for treating a wide range of musculoskeletal injuries. This study investigated the availability and use of therapeutic diathermy, ultrasound, laser, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) and interferential equipment in 46 physiotherapy departments in NHS hospitals in the south of England, using a self-administered questionnaire. Results indicated that therapeutic ultrasound was the most commonly available and most often used modality by surveyed departments. Pulsed shortwave diathermy, interferential, and laser were available to a lesser degree and also used less often. Continuous shortwave diathermy was used rarely and only in larger departments. Microwave diathermy was not available in any of the surveyed departments. The level of non-use of equipment despite availability was highest for continuous shortwave diathermy followed by pulsed shortwave diathermy and then laser. The rare use and total non-use of some of the modalities, despite availability of equipment, may have implications for purchasers of this expensive equipment. While the findings of this study show a regional trend in NHS physiotherapy departments, this may not be generalizable to a national level.This study was funded by the Health and Safety Executive, UK, (Grant No. 4371/R47.022

'Otherwise it would be nothing but cruises': Exploring the subjective benefits of working beyond 65

The age at which statutory and private pensions are being paid is increasing in many countries so more people will need to work into their late 60s and beyond. Currently, relatively little is known about the meanings of work for people who actively choose to work into their later life. This qualitative study examined the subjective benefits of continuing in a paid job or self-employment beyond the age of 65 in the UK. Thirty one participants were interviewed, aged 65-91 years (median age 71), with 11 females and 20 males. Fourteen were working full-time; seventeen part-time. Interview transcripts were subject to thematic analysis. Although financial reward was acknowledged (more so by the female participants and the males who had young second families), there was more elaboration of the role of work in maintaining health, and enabling continuing personal development. Work was framed as increasing personal control over later life, lifestyle choices and active participation in wider society, an antithesis to ‘cruising’.The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (UK)

A Monte Carlo approach to the 4D scattering equations

The scattering equation formalism is a general framework for calculation of amplitudes in theories of massless particles. We provide a detailed introduction to the 4D scattering equation framework accessible to non-experts, outline current difficulties solving the equations numerically, and explain how to overcome them with a Monte Carlo algorithm. With this submission we include treeamps4dJAF, the first publicly available Mathematica package for calculating amplitudes by solving the scattering equations, supporting MHV analytical and Nk − 2MHV numerical computations. The package provides a powerful and flexible computational tool for calculating tree-level amplitudes in super Yang Mills theories, Einstein supergravity and conformal supergravity. We tabulate sets of numerical solutions up to 9 points in all MHV sectors and 12 points in the NHMV sector which can be used for fast evaluation of amplitudes

Modelación de la Accesibilidad en ArcView 3: Una extensión para calcular el tiempo de viaje y obtener información sobre captación de mercados

CIAT programmed this simple and flexible GIS tool to automate the creation of accessibility surfaces. Previously, these surfaces were laboriously created, step-by-step, using ArcINFO software from the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). You can install the Accessibility Analyst if you have the ESRI ArcView 3 software and its ArcView Spatial Analyst. From this page, you can download the extension and documentation, see case studies of the extension at work, and follow up links with other people working in the same field. CIAT donors generously funded the development of Accessibility Analyst, in particular, the Ecoregional Fund to Support Methodological Initiatives (managed by the International Service for National Agricultural Research); Environmental Economics and Indicators Unit of the World Bank; and the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Environment Programme

OER Evidence Report 2013-2014

The Open Educational Resources Research Hub (OER Research Hub) provides a focus for research, designed to give answers to the overall question ‘What is the impact of OER on learning and teaching practices?’ and identify the particular influence of openness. We do this by working in collaboration with projects across four education sectors (K12, college, higher education and informal) extending a network of research with shared methods and shared results. The project combines: – Targeted research collaboration with high profile OER projects – A programme of international fellowship – Global networking and expertise in OER implementation and evaluation – A hub for research data and excellence in practice This report is an interim review of evidence recorded against the key hypotheses that focus the research of the OER Research Hub project

Magnetic Properties of Epitaxial and Polycrystalline Fe/Si Multilayers

Fe/Si multilayers with antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling have been grown via ion-beam sputtering on both glass and single-crystal substrates. High-angle x-ray diffraction measurements show that both sets of films have narrow Fe peaks, implying a large crystallite size and crystalline iron silicide spacer layers. Low-angle x-ray diffraction measurements show that films grown on glass have rougher interfaces than those grown on single-crystal substrates. The multilayers grown on glass have a larger remanent magnetization than the multilayers grown on single-crystal substrates. The observation of magnetocrystalline anisotropy in hysteresis loops and $(hkl)$ peaks in x-ray diffraction demonstrates that the films grown on MgO and Ge are epitaxial. The smaller remanent magnetization in Fe/Si multilayers with better layering suggests that the remanence is not an intrinsic property.Comment: 9 pages, RevTex, 4 figures available by fax. Send email to [email protected] for more info. Submitted to '95 MMM proceeding