20,120 research outputs found
Older people's experiences of changed medication appearance : a survey
This report details a survey of older people's experiences of changed medication appearance. The aims of the study were:
• To develop a questionnaire in partnership with older people to survey older people’s views on fluctuating medication appearance
• To elicit older people’s experiences of medication that changed appearance due to ‘generic prescribing’ and ‘parallel import’ practices and its impact on their medication taking practices.
These common pharmacy practices mean that the same tablet medication can be issued to older people in different colours, sizes and shapes to their previous prescriptions. Older people from a local User/Carer Forum highlighted these problems to the research team and asked that we investigate to explore the extent of the problem.
An eight-item questionnaire was developed and distributed to 2000 older people (50 years+) across participating PCTs in Greater Manchester in 2008. A 29% response rate was achieved. The data was analysed using the SPSS statistical package. Findings include:
•63.3% experienced a change in the appearance of their tablet medications.
•74.1% did not seek advice regarding the change in the appearance of their tablet medications.
•Older people noted changes to the actual tablets, tablet packaging and written information that accompanies tablets. Changes are occurring to the colour, size and shape of tablets more than changes to packaging and written information.
The majority of respondents had experienced changes in the appearance of their prescribed tablet medication in the previous two years which were not due to change in medication or dose etc. Worryingly, for some respondents, these changes prompted negative experiences such as anxiety, confusion and upset. Of particular concern was that a small number omitted the affected tablet medications and did not seek help or advice from GPs, pharmacists or relatives.
Six older people have been study advisors from inception to dissemination of this study and significantly added to its quality. The study demonstrates substantive public engagement / user involvement in research. The findings suggest nurses and others have a role to play in promoting better medicines management and identifying those most at risk from changed appearance of medications
Oceanographic Profiling and Spectroradiometer Observations from the MOCE-1 Cruise: 28 August to 8 October 1992
This report contains the frrst observations made for the Modis Optical Characterization Experiment (MOCE). Data presented here were obtained on the R/V DeSteiguer between 28 August and 8 October along the central California coast and in Monterey Bay. Three types of data are reported here: high spectral resolution radiometry at three depths for seven stations; salinity, temperature, fluorescence and beam attenuation profiles at the same stations; and total suspended matter and suspended organic carbon and nitrogen. [PDF contans 164 pages
Hall effect encoding of brushless dc motors
Encoding mechanism integral to the motor and using the permanent magnets embedded in the rotor eliminates the need for external devices to encode information relating the position and velocity of the rotating member
Comparing Infrared Dirac-Born-Infeld Brane Inflation to Observations
We compare the Infrared Dirac-Born-Infeld (IR DBI) brane inflation model to
observations using a Bayesian analysis. The current data cannot distinguish it
from the \LambdaCDM model, but is able to give interesting constraints on
various microscopic parameters including the mass of the brane moduli
potential, the fundamental string scale, the charge or warp factor of throats,
and the number of the mobile branes. We quantify some distinctive testable
predictions with stringy signatures, such as the large non-Gaussianity, and the
large, but regional, running of the spectral index. These results illustrate
how we may be able to probe aspects of string theory using cosmological
observations.Comment: 54 pages, 13 figures. v2: non-Gaussianity constraint has been applied
to the model; parameter constraints have tightened significantly, conclusions
unchanged. References added; v3, minor revision, PRD versio
A likely role for anoxygenic photosynthetic microbes in the formation of ancient stromatolites
Although cyanobacteria are the dominant primary producers in modern stromatolites and other microbialites, the oldest stromatolites pre-date geochemical evidence for oxygenic photosynthesis and cyanobacteria in the rock record. As a step towards the development of laboratory models of stromatolite growth, we tested the potential of a metabolically ancient anoxygenic photosynthetic bacterium to build stromatolites. This organism, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, stimulates the precipitation of calcite in solutions already highly saturated with respect to calcium carbonate, and greatly facilitates the incorporation of carbonate grains into proto-lamina (i.e. crusts). The appreciable stimulation of the growth of proto-lamina by a nonfilamentous anoxygenic microbe suggests that similar microbes may have played a greater role in the formation of Archean stromatolites than previously assumed
Advanced propellant management system for spacecraft propulsion systems. Phase 1 - Survey study and evaluation
Apollo spacecraft propulsion system propellant managemen
The Number of States of Two Dimensional Critical String Theory
We discuss string theory vacua which have the wrong number of spacetime
dimensions, and give a crude argument that vacua with more than four large
dimensions are improbable. We then turn to two dimensional vacua, which naively
appear to violate Bekenstein's entropy principle. A classical analysis shows
that the naive perturbative counting of states is unjustified. All excited
states of the system have strong coupling singularities which prevent us from
concluding that they really exist. A speculative interpretation of the
classical solutions suggests only a finite number of states will be found in
regions bounded by a finite area. We also argue that the vacuum degeneracy of
two dimensional classical string theory is removed in quantum mechanics. The
system appears to be in a Kosterlitz-Thouless phase. This leads to the
conclusion that it is also improbable to have only two large spacetime
dimensions in string theory. However, we note that, unlike our argument for
high dimensions, our conclusions about the ground state have neglected two
dimensional quantum gravitational effects, and are at best incomplete.Comment: 12 pages, harvma
Winds as the origin of radio emission in radio-quiet extremely red quasars
Most active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are radio-quiet, and the origin of their
radio emission is not well-understood. One hypothesis is that this radio
emission is a by-product of quasar-driven winds. In this paper, we present the
radio properties of 108 extremely red quasars (ERQs) at . ERQs are among
the most luminous quasars ( erg/s) in the Universe,
with signatures of extreme ( km/s) outflows in their
[OIII]5007 \AA\ emission, making them the best subjects to seek the
connection between radio and outflow activity. All ERQs but one are unresolved
in the radio on kpc scales, and the median radio luminosity of ERQs
is erg/s, in the radio-quiet regime, but
one to two orders of magnitude higher than that of other quasar samples. The
radio spectra are steep, with a mean spectral index . In addition, ERQs neatly follow the extrapolation of the low-redshift
correlation between radio luminosity and the velocity dispersion of
[OIII]-emitting ionized gas. Uncollimated winds, with a power of one per cent
of the bolometric luminosity, can account for all these observations. Such
winds would interact with and shock the gas around the quasar and in the host
galaxy, resulting in acceleration of relativistic particles and the consequent
synchrotron emission observed in the radio. Our observations support the
picture in which ERQs are signposts of extremely powerful episodes of quasar
feedback, and quasar-driven winds as a contributor of the radio emission in the
intermediate regime of radio luminosity erg/s.Comment: accepted by MNRA
Active Galactic Nuclei with Candidate Intermediate-Mass Black Holes
We present an initial sample of 19 intermediate-mass black hole candidates in
active galactic nuclei culled from the First Data Release of the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey. Using the linewidth-luminosity-mass scaling relation established
for broad-line active nuclei, we estimate black hole masses in the range of 8 x
10^4 - 10^6 solar masses, a regime in which only two objects are currently
known. The absolute magnitudes are faint for active galactic nuclei, ranging
from M_g of -15 to -18 mag, while the bolometric luminosities are all close to
the Eddington limit. The entire sample formally satisfies the linewidth
criterion for so-called narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies; however, they display a
wider range of FeII and [OIII] (5007) line strengths than is typically observed
in this class of objects. Although the available imaging data are of
insufficient quality to ascertain the detailed morphologies of the host
galaxies, it is likely that the majority of the hosts are relatively late-type
systems. The host galaxies have estimated g-band luminosities ~ 1 mag fainter
than M* for the general galaxy population at z of 0.1. Beyond simply extending
the known mass range of central black holes in galactic nuclei, these objects
provide unique observational constraints on the progenitors of supermassive
black holes. They are also expected to contribute significantly to the
integrated signal for future gravitational wave experiments.Comment: ApJ Accepted, 13 pages, 9 figures, uses emulateapj.cl
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