14,878 research outputs found
The experiences of patients and carers in the daily management of care at the end of life
Background
Home is the preferred location for most people with an advanced disease and at the end of life. A variety of care professionals work in community settings to provide support to this population. Patients and their spouses, who also care for them (spouse-carers), are rarely accompanied by these sources of support at all times, and have to manage independently between their contact with care professionals.
Aim
To explore how patients and spouse-carers manage their involvement with care professionals in the community setting.
Method
Interpretive phenomenology informs the design of the research, whereby 16 interviews were conducted with the patients and spouse-carers. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using phenomenological techniques including template analysis.
Findings
Patients and spouse-carers were interdependent and both parties played a role in co-ordinating care and managing relationships with professional care providers. The patients and spouse-carers actively made choices about how to manage their situation, and develop and modify managing strategies based on their experiences.
Conclusions
When daily management is effective and care professionals acknowledge the dyadic nature of the patient and spouse-carer relationship, people have confidence in living with advanced disease
Phase Diagram of the Attractive Hubbard Model with Inhomogeneous Interactions
The phase diagram of the attractive Hubbard model with spatially
inhomogeneous interactions is obtained using a single site dynamical mean field
theory like approach. The model is characterized by three parameters: the
interaction strength, the active fraction (fraction of sites with the
attractive interaction), and electron filling. The calculations indicate that
in a parameter regime with intermediate values of interaction strength
(compared to the bare bandwidth of the electrons), and intermediate values of
the active fraction, "non-BCS" superconductivity is obtained. The results of
this work are likely to be relevant to many systems with spatially
inhomogeneous superconductivity such as strongly correlated oxides, systems
with negative U centers, and, in future, cold atom optical lattices.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Physical Review
Nontrivial temporal scaling in a Galilean stick-slip dynamics
We examine the stick-slip fluctuating response of a rough massive
non-rotating cylinder moving on a rough inclined groove which is submitted to
weak external perturbations and which is maintained well below the angle of
repose. The experiments presented here, which are reminiscent of the Galileo's
works with rolling objects on inclines, have brought in the last years
important new insights into the friction between surfaces in relative motion
and are of relevance for earthquakes, differing from classical block-spring
models by the mechanism of energy input in the system. Robust nontrivial
temporal scaling laws appearing in the dynamics of this system are reported,
and it is shown that the time-support where dissipation occurs approaches a
statistical fractal set with a fixed value of dimension. The distribution of
periods of inactivity in the intermittent motion of the cylinder is also
studied and found to be closely related to the lacunarity of a random version
of the classic triadic Cantor set on the line.Comment: 7 pages including 6 figure
Correlations and Omori law in Spamming
The most costly and annoying characteristic of the e-mail communication
system is the large number of unsolicited commercial e-mails, known as spams,
that are continuously received. Via the investigation of the statistical
properties of the spam delivering intertimes, we show that spams delivered to a
given recipient are time correlated: if the intertime between two consecutive
spams is small (large), then the next spam will most probably arrive after a
small (large) intertime. Spam temporal correlations are reproduced by a
numerical model based on the random superposition of spam sequences, each one
described by the Omori law. This and other experimental findings suggest that
statistical approaches may be used to infer how spammers operate.Comment: Europhysics Letters, to appea
Solubility isotope effects in aqueous solutions of methane
The isotope effect on the Henry's law coefficients of methane in
aqueous solution (H/D and C-12/C-13 substitution) are interpreted using
the statistical mechanical theory of condensed phase isotope effects.
The missing spectroscopic data needed for the implementation of the
theory were obtained either experimentally (infrared measurements), by
computer simulation (molecular dynamics technique), or estimated using
the Wilson's GF matrix method. The order of magnitude and sign of both
solute isotope effects can be predicted by the theory. Even a crude
estimation based on data from previous vapor pressure isotope effect
studies of pure methane at low temperature can explain the inverse
effect found for the solubility of deuterated methane in water. (C)
2002 American Institute of Physics
Using the post‐operative quality recovery scale to evaluate recovery with different neuromuscular blocking reversal agentsin the Portuguese population ‐ interim analysis results: 1AP3‐8
Background and Goal of Study: Post-operative Quality Recovery Scale
(PQRS), is the first scale evaluating several domains of postoperative recovery.
The objectives of this study were to compare overal and physiologic, cognitive,
and functional domains of post-operative recovery af ter elective surgical
procedures using neostigmine or sugammadex as neuromuscular blocking
(NMB) reversal agents, to validate the use of PQRS in the Portuguese
population and to objectively assess muscular strength recovery.
Materials and Methods: Prospective multicenter observational study
comparing postoperative recovery between 2 cohorts of 50 adult patients
submitted to elective surgical procedures with general anesthesia using
Nondepolarizing Muscle Relaxants and NMB reversal with neostigmine or
sugammadex. Measurements obtained using Portuguese version of PQRS
at dif ferent timepoint: baseline,15 minutes (T15), 40 minutes (T40), one and
three days af ter surgery. Full recovery defined as return to values identical or
higher than those measured at baseline, prior to surgery. Muscular strength
measured with KERN- MAP® Dynamometer. Ethics Committees approval was
obtained. Statistics used linear T-Test, Qui Square and Fisher exact test, data
presented as mean±SD for continuous variables. Interim analysis results presented
Results and Discussion: Thirty patients received neostigmine and 21 sugammadex.
Age and BMI 50.4±11.8 and 28.6±5.6 in the neostigmine group
and 38.2±12.7 and 24.7± 4.5 in the sugammadex group (p< 0,001). Overall
response rate at T15 was 86% for neostigmine and 95% for sugammadex (p=
0.22). Dif ferences in favor of sugammadex group noted in nociceptive and
emotional domains, 80 vs 100% respectively (p=0.04). Overall response rate
at T40 was 80% for neostigmine and 65% for sugammadex (p=0.33), primarily
reflecting constraints on activities of daily life. Muscular strength did not
dif fer. Improvements in recovery scores from T15 to T40 were observed in
both groups, without significant dif ferences . Postoperative assessments were
feasible using PQRS at T15 and T40 and seem appropriate for comparisons
between postoperative recovery domains and overall recovery . These preliminary
results suggest nociceptive and emotional domains recovery at T15
may be faster with sugammadex.
Conclusion: The results support the adopted PQRS validation process and
the potential of this scale as a tool for the evaluation of post operative recovery
evaluation in the Portuguese populatio
Parameter limits for neutrino oscillation with decoherence in KamLAND
FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQIn the framework of open quantum systems, we analyze data from KamLAND by using a model that considers neutrino oscillation in a three-family approximation with the inclusion of the decoherence effect. Using chi(2) test, we find new limits for the decoherence parameter, which we call gamma, considering the most recent data by KamLAND. Assuming an energy dependence of the type gamma=gamma(0) (E/E-0)(n), at a 95% C.L., the limits found are 3.7 x 10(-24) GeV for n=-1, 6.8 x 10(-22) GeV for n=0, and 1.5 x 10(-19) GeV for n=1 on the energy dependence.951117FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQFUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO - FAPESPCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DE PESSOAL DE NÍVEL SUPERIOR - CAPESCONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO - CNPQSem informaçãoSem informaçãoSem informaçã
Einstein gravity as a 3D conformally invariant theory
We give an alternative description of the physical content of general
relativity that does not require a Lorentz invariant spacetime. Instead, we
find that gravity admits a dual description in terms of a theory where local
size is irrelevant. The dual theory is invariant under foliation preserving
3-diffeomorphisms and 3D conformal transformations that preserve the 3-volume
(for the spatially compact case). Locally, this symmetry is identical to that
of Horava-Lifshitz gravity in the high energy limit but our theory is
equivalent to Einstein gravity. Specifically, we find that the solutions of
general relativity, in a gauge where the spatial hypersurfaces have constant
mean extrinsic curvature, can be mapped to solutions of a particular gauge
fixing of the dual theory. Moreover, this duality is not accidental. We provide
a general geometric picture for our procedure that allows us to trade foliation
invariance for conformal invariance. The dual theory provides a new proposal
for the theory space of quantum gravity.Comment: 27 pages. Published version (minor changes and corrections
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