4,155 research outputs found
How do people with knee osteoarthritis perceive and manage flares? A qualitative study
Background
Acute flares in people with osteoarthritis (OA) are poorly understood. There is uncertainty around the nature of flares, their impact, and how these are managed.
Aim
To explore understandings and experiences of flares in people with knee OA, and to describe self-management and help-seeking strategies.
Design & setting
Qualitative interview study of people with knee OA in England.
Method
Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 15 people with knee OA. Thematic analysis was applied using constant comparison methods.
Results
The following four main themes were identified: experiencing pain; consequences of acute pain; predicting and avoiding acute pain; and response to acute pain. People with OA described minor episodes that were frequent, fleeting, occurred during everyday activity, had minimal impact, and were generally predictable. This contrasted with severe episodes that were infrequent, had greater impact, and were less likely to be predictable. The latter generally led to feelings of low confidence, vulnerability, and of being a burden. The term ‘flare’ was often used to describe the severe events but this was applied inconsistently and some would describe a flare as any increase in pain. Participants used numerous self-management strategies but tended to seek help when these had been exhausted, their symptoms led to emotional distress, disturbed sleep, or pain experience worse than usual. Previous experiences shaped whether people sought help and who they sought help from.
Conclusion
Severe episodes of pain are likely to be synonymous with flares. Developing a common language about flares will allow a shared understanding of these events, early identification, and appropriate management
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A Galerkin boundary element method for high frequency scattering by convex polygons
In this paper we consider the problem of time-harmonic acoustic scattering in two dimensions by convex polygons. Standard boundary or finite element methods for acoustic scattering problems have a computational cost that grows at least linearly as a function of the frequency of the incident wave. Here we present a novel Galerkin boundary element method, which uses an approximation space consisting of the products of plane waves with piecewise polynomials supported on a graded mesh, with smaller elements closer to the corners of the polygon. We prove that the best approximation from the approximation space requires a number of degrees of freedom to achieve a prescribed level of accuracy that grows only logarithmically as a function of the frequency. Numerical results demonstrate the same logarithmic dependence on the frequency for the Galerkin method solution. Our boundary element method is a discretization of a well-known second kind combined-layer-potential integral equation. We provide a proof that this equation and its adjoint are well-posed and equivalent to the boundary value problem in a Sobolev space setting for general Lipschitz domains
Application of dispersion relations to low-energy meson-nucleon scattering
Relativistic dispersion relations are used to derive equations for low-energy S-, P-, and D-wave meson-nucleon scattering under the assumption that the (3,3) resonance dominates the dispersion integrals. The P-wave equations so obtained differ only slightly from those of the static fixed-source theory. The conclusions of the static theory are re-examined in the light of their new derivation
Self-consistent Pomeranchon coupling ratios in the multiperipheral model
Given the two leading eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the resonance (low-subenergy) component of a multiperipheral kernel and assuming lower eigenvalues to be unimportant, it is shown how the mixture corresponding to the Pomeranchon eigenfunction may be calculated from considerations of self-consistency. The method is illustrated in a multiperipheral model with pseudoscalar-meson links by associating the two leading unperturbed eigenstates with the 2+ particles f(1260) and f′(1514)
Multipole analysis of spin observables in vector meson photoproduction
A multipole analysis of vector meson photoproduction is formulated as a
generalization of the pseudoscalar meson case. Expansion of spin observables in
the multipole basis and behavior of these observables near threshold and
resonances are examined.Comment: 15 pages, latex, 2 figure
\pi N scattering in relativistic baryon chiral perturbation theory revisited
We have analyzed pion-nucleon scattering using the manifestly relativistic
covariant framework of Infrared Regularization up to {\cal O}(q^3) in the
chiral expansion, where q is a generic small momentum. We describe the
low-energy phase shifts with a similar quality as previously achieved with
Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory, \sqrt{s}\lesssim1.14 GeV. New values
are provided for the {\cal O}(q^2) and {\cal O}(q^3) low-energy constants,
which are compared with previous determinations. This is also the case for the
scattering lengths and volumes. Finally, we have unitarized the previous
amplitudes and as a result the energy range where data are reproduced increases
significantly.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures, 5 table
Network Extreme Eigenvalue - from Multimodal to Scale-free Network
The extreme eigenvalues of adjacency matrices are important indicators on the
influences of topological structures to collective dynamical behavior of
complex networks. Recent findings on the ensemble averageability of the extreme
eigenvalue further authenticate its sensibility in the study of network
dynamics. Here we determine the ensemble average of the extreme eigenvalue and
characterize the deviation across the ensemble through the discrete form of
random scale-free network. Remarkably, the analytical approximation derived
from the discrete form shows significant improvement over the previous results.
This has also led us to the same conclusion as [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 248701
(2007)] that deviation in the reduced extreme eigenvalues vanishes as the
network size grows.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
Model order reduction for multiband quantum transport simulations and its application to p-type junctionless transistors
published_or_final_versio
Trapping cold atoms near carbon nanotubes: thermal spin flips and Casimir-Polder potential
We investigate the possibility to trap ultracold atoms near the outside of a
metallic carbon nanotube (CN) which we imagine to use as a miniaturized
current-carrying wire. We calculate atomic spin flip lifetimes and compare the
strength of the Casimir-Polder potential with the magnetic trapping potential.
Our analysis indicates that the Casimir-Polder force is the dominant loss
mechanism and we compute the minimum distance to the carbon nanotube at which
an atom can be trapped.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure
Hyperon-Nucleon Final State Interaction in Kaon Photoproduction of the Deuteron
Final state hyperon-nucleon interaction in strangeness photoproduction of the
deuteron is investigated making use of the covariant reaction formalism and the
P-matrix approach to the YN system. Remarkably simple analytical expression for
the amplitude is obtained. Pronounced effects due to final state interaction
are predicted including the manifestation of the 2.13 GeV resonance.Comment: LaTeX, 13 page
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