Sense of coherence in pain conditions - a critical literature study

Background: Pain is a major healthcare problem. Both context and psychological factors affect experiences and behaviour regarding pain conditions. Rehabilitation should, in addition to somatic aspects, also include psychological, social, environmental and personality aspects. The perspective on which physiotherapists base their meeting with a patient may contribute to which focus the psychological factors receive. The salutogenic model and the concept of sense of coherence, SOC, were developed by Antonovsky in the 1970s. The model is based on the three components comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness, which can be measured in a questionnaire designed for this purpose. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine whether and how SOC affects pain conditions and what kind of role SOC can be assigned in relation to various pain conditions. Methods: A literature search was conducted, using four databases. Nine articles published 2002-2012 were included. Eight studies were assessed to be of moderate quality and one to be of high quality. Results: The study showed that low SOC may lead to more bodily pain, illness experience and greater difficulty in managing injury. High SOC had a positive impact on several variables of which one was pain. Moreover, it was shown that SOC, in addition to its role as a predictor, can be compared to the process variables mediator and moderator. Conclusion: Knowledge of SOC can be used as an indicator to individualize the content of rehabilitation.Bakgrund: Smärta är ett omfattande hälso- och sjukvårdsproblem. Sammanhanget och psykologiska faktorer påverkar upplevelser och beteenden vid smärttillstånd. Rehabilitering bör förutom somatiska aspekter även inkludera psykologiska, sociala, omgivnings- och personlighetsmässiga aspekter. Det perspektiv som sjukgymnaster utgår från i patientmötet kan eventuellt medverka till vilket fokus de psykologiska faktorerna får. Den salutogena modellen och begreppet känsla av sammanhang, KASAM, utvecklades på 70-talet av Antonovsky. Modellen bygger på de tre komponenterna begriplighet, hanterbarhet och meningsfullhet som går att mäta i ett för ändamålet konstruerat frågeformulär. Syfte: Syftet med studien var att belysa om och hur KASAM inverkar samt vilken roll KASAM kan tilldelas i samband med olika smärttillstånd. Metod: En litteraturstudie genomfördes med sökningar i fyra databaser. Nio artiklar publicerade 2002-2012 inkluderades. Åtta studier bedömdes vid granskning vara av medelgod kvalitet och en studie av hög kvalitet. Resultat: Studien visade att låg KASAM kan leda till mer kroppslig smärta och sjukdomsupplevelse samt större svårigheter att hantera skada. Hög KASAM inverkade positivt på flera variabler varav smärta var en. Dessutom visades att KASAM, förutom rollen som prediktor, även kan liknas vid processvariablerna mediator och moderator. Konklusion: Kännedom om KASAM kan användas som indikator för att individanpassa rehabiliteringsinnehållet

Adaptive Optics Imaging of a Massive Galaxy Associated with a Metal-rich Absorber

The damped and sub-damped Lyman-alpha absorption line systems in quasar spectra are believed to be produced by intervening galaxies. However, the connection of quasar absorbers to galaxies is not well-understood, since attempts to image the absorbing galaxies have often failed. While most DLAs appear to be metal-poor, a population of metal-rich absorbers, mostly sub-DLAs, has been discovered in recent studies. Here we report high-resolution K-band imaging with the Keck Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics (LGSAO) system of the field of quasar SDSSJ1323-0021 in search of the galaxy producing the z = 0.72 sub-DLA absorber. With a metallicity of 2-4 times the solar level, this absorber is of the most metal-rich systems found to date. Our data show a large bright galaxy with an angular separation of only 1.25" from the quasar, well-resolved from the quasar at the high resolution of our data. The galaxy has a magnitude of K = 17.6-17.9, which corresponds to a luminosity of ~ 3-6 L*. Morphologically, the galaxy is fit with a model with an effective radius, enclosing half the total light, of R_e = 4 kpc and a bulge-to-total ratio of 0.4-1.0, indicating a substantial bulge stellar population. Based on the mass-metallicity relation of nearby galaxies, the absorber galaxy appears to have a stellar mass > 10^{11} M_sun. Given the small impact parameter, this massive galaxy appears to be responsible for the metal-rich sub-DLA. The absorber galaxy is consistent with the metallicity-luminosity relation observed for nearby galaxies, but is near the upper end of metallicity. Our study marks the first application of LGSAO for study of structure of galaxies producing distant quasar absorbers. Finally, this study offers the first example of a massive galaxy with a substantial bulge producing a metal-rich absorber.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, 1 table; Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journa

Emission Line Spectroscopy of a Damped Lyman-alpha Absorbing Galaxy at z = 0.437

We present Keck/LRIS spectra of a candidate damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) galaxy toward the QSO 3C196 (z_em = 0.871). The DLA absorption system has a redshift of z_DLA = 0.437, and a galaxy at 1.5" from the QSO has been identified in high resolution imaging with WFPC2/HST. We have detected emission lines of [O II] 3727A, Hbeta, [O III] 5007A, Halpha and [N II] 6584A at the absorption redshift. Based on the emission lines, we have found the redshift of the galaxy to be z_em = 0.4376 +/- 0.0006. The emission lines also enabled us to calculate the extinction-corrected luminosities and metallicity indicators using established indices based on line strengths of different emission lines. These indicators suggest that the ISM of the DLA galaxy has a high metallicity comparable to or perhaps twice as much as solar (e.g. 12+log (O/H) = 8.98 +/- 0.07). Based on the strengths of Halpha and on the reddening derived from the relative strengths of Halpha and Hbeta, the star formation rate is 4.7 +/- 0.8 M_solar/yr. This places the galaxy in the range of gas-rich spiral galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in A

Adaptive Optics Imaging of Low-redshift Damped Lyman-alpha Quasar Absorbers

We have carried out a high angular resolution near-infrared imaging study of the fields of 6 quasars with 7 strong absorption line systems at z < 0.5, using the Hokupa'a adaptive optics system and the QUIRC near-infrared camera on the Gemini-North telescope. These absorption systems include 4 classical damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs), 2 sub-DLAs, and one Lyman-limit system. Images were obtained in the H or K' filters with FWHM between 0.2"-0.5" with the goal of detecting the absorbing galaxies and identifying their morphologies. Features are seen at projected separations of 0.5"-16.0" from the quasars and all of the fields show features at less than 2" separation. We find candidate absorbers in all of the seven systems. With the assumption that some of these are associated with the absorbers, the absorbers are low luminosity < 0.1 L*_H or L*_K; we do not find any large bright candidate absorbers in any of our fields. Some fields show compact features that are too faint for quantitative morphology, but could arise in dwarf galaxies.Comment: 37 pages, 24 figures, 5 tables, Accepted on Oct. 26 2005 for publication in Astronomical Journal. The figures have been lowered in resolution to make them fit the size requirements for astroph submission. A PDF file with original high-resolution figures can be found at http://boson.physics.sc.edu/~kulkarni/dlahq.htm

The correlation of RNase A enzymatic activity with the changes in the distance between Nepsilon2-His12 and N delta1-His119 upon addition of stabilizing and destabilizing salts.

The effect of stabilizing and destabilizing salts on the catalytic behavior of ribonuclease A (RNase A) was investigated at pH 7.5 and 25 degrees C, using spectrophotometric, viscometric and molecular dynamic methods. The changes in the distance between N(epsilon2) of His(12) and N(delta1) of His(119) at the catalytic center of RNase A upon the addition of sodium sulfate, sodium hydrogen sulfate and sodium thiocyanate were evaluated by molecular dynamic methods. The compactness and expansion in terms of Stokes radius of RNase A upon the addition of sulfate ions as kosmotropic salts, and thiocyanate ion as a chaotropic salt, were estimated by viscometric measurements. Enzyme activity was measured using cytidine 2', 3'-cyclic monophosphate as a substrate. The results from the measurements of distances between N(epsilon2) of His(12) and N(delta1) of His(119) and Stokes radius suggest (i) that the presence of sulfate ions decreases the distance between the catalytic His residues and increases the globular compactness, and (ii) that there is an expansion of the enzyme surface as well as elongation of the catalytic center in the presence of thiocyanate ion. These findings are in agreement with activity measurements

A Kennicutt-Schmidt Law for Intervening Absorption Line Systems

We argue that most strong intervening metal absorption line systems, where the rest equivalent width of the MgII 2796A line is >0.5A, are interstellar material in, and outflowing from, star-forming disks. We show that a version of the Kennicutt-Schmidt law is readily obtained if the MgII equivalent widths are interpreted as kinematic broadening from absorbing gas in outflowing winds originating from star-forming galaxies. Taking a phenomenological approach and using a set of observational constraints available for star-forming galaxies, we are able to account for the density distribution of strong MgII absorbers over cosmic time. The association of intervening material with star-forming disks naturally explains the metallicity and dust content of strong MgII systems as well as their high HI column densities, and does not require the advection of metals from compact star-forming regions into the galaxy halos to account for the observations. We find that galaxies with a broad range of luminosities can give rise to absorption of a given rest-equivalent width, and discuss possible observational strategies to better quantify true galaxy-absorber associations and further test our model. We show that the redshift evolution in the density of absorbers closely tracks the star formation history of the universe and that strong intervening systems can be used to directly probe the physics of both bright and faint galaxies over a broad redshift range. By identifying strong intervening systems with galaxy disks and quantifying a version of the Kennicutt-Schmidt law that applies to them, a new probe of the interstellar medium is found which provides complementary information to that obtained through emission studies of galaxies. Implications of our results for galaxy feedback and enrichment of the intergalactic medium are discussed. [abridged]Comment: 23 pages, 15 figure

New abundance determinations in z < 1.5 QSO absorbers: seven sub-DLAs and one DLA

We present chemical abundance measurements from high resolution observations of 7 sub-damped Lyman-alpha absorbers and 1 damped Lyman-alpha system at z<1.5. Three of these objects have high metallicity, with near or super-solar Zn abundance. Grids of Cloudy models for each system were constructed to look for possible ionization effects in these systems. For the systems in which we could constrain the ionization parameter, we find that the ionization corrections as predicted by the Cloudy models are generally small and within the typical error bars (~0.15 dex), in general agreement with previous studies. The Al III to Al II ratio for these and other absorbers from the literature are compared, and we find that while the sub-DLAs have a larger scatter in the Al III to Al II ratios than the DLAs, there appears to be little correlation between the ratio and N(H I). The relationship between the metallicity and the velocity width of the profile for these systems is investigated. We show that the sub-DLAs that have been observed to date follow a similar trend as DLA absorbers, with the more metal rich systems exhibiting large velocity widths. We also find that the systems at the upper edge of this relationship with high metallicities and large velocity widths are more likely to be sub-DLAs than DLA absorbers, perhaps implying that the sub-DLA absorbers are more representative of massive galaxies.Comment: 15 pages, 15 Figures, Accepted by MNRAS, updated references and author

Galaxies at a redshift of similar to 0.5 around three closely spaced quasar sightlines

We examine the relationship between galaxies and the intergalactic medium at z < 1 using a group of three closely spaced background quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) with zem ≈ 1 observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. Using a new grouping algorithm, we identify groups of galaxies and absorbers across the three QSO sightlines that may be physically linked. There is an excess number of such groups compared to the number we expect from a random distribution of absorbers at a confidence level of 99.9 per cent. The same search is performed with mock spectra generated using a hydrodynamical simulation, and we find that the vast majority of such groups arise in dense regions of the simulation.We find that atz<0.5, groups in the simulation generally trace the large-scale filamentary structure as seen in the projected 2D distribution of the HI column density in an ∼30 h −1 Mpc region. We discover a probable sub-damped Lyman α system at z = 0.557 showing strong, low-ionization metal absorption lines. Previous analyses of absorption across the three sightlines attributed these metal lines to HI. We show that even when the new line identifications are taken into account, evidence remains for planar structures with scales of ∼1 Mpc absorbing across the three sightlines. We identify a galaxy at z = 0.2272 with associated metal absorption in two sightlines, each 200 kpc away. By constraining the star formation history of the galaxy, we show that the gas causing this metal absorption may have been enriched and ejected by the galaxy during a burst of star formation 2 Gyr ago