856 research outputs found
An investigation of commonly prescribed stretches of the ankle plantarflexors in people with Multiple Sclerosis
Engaging Multiple Stakeholder Groups in the Development of Standards for Multiple Sclerosis Care: A Modified Delphi Process
International consensus on quality standards for multiple sclerosis care: results from a modified Delphi process
Background and aims: The importance of prompt intervention in multiple sclerosis (MS)
was described in the widely endorsed report, Brain health: time matters in multiple
sclerosis.1 The present study aimed to define standards for the timing of key steps in the
care pathway.
Methods: An international group of 29 MS neurologists was recruited to participate in a
Delphi process. Across five rounds, they defined ‘core’, ‘achievable’ and ‘aspirational’
standards (to reflect a minimum, good and high standard of MS care, respectively). A
Reviewing Group of 31 MS nurses, experts with MS and allied healthcare professionals
reviewed the results and provided feedback.
Results: Consensus was reached (≥75% agreement; n=21) on core, achievable and
aspirational standards for 21 steps in the MS care pathway, covering symptom onset,
referral, diagnosis, treatment decisions, lifestyle, monitoring, and managing new symptoms.
For example, the panel agreed that MS teams should complete a diagnostic workup for MS
within 2 months of referral to a neurologist as a core standard, and that completion within 4
weeks of referral should be achievable for most MS teams, with completion within 7 days as
an aspirational standard. Here, we will present core, achievable and aspirational standards
for key steps in the MS care pathway.
Conclusion: These standards will inform tools for clinics and people with MS and act as a
future benchmark for established and developing MS clinics across the globe aiming to
deliver the highest quality care. Reference 1. Giovannoni G et al. Mult Scler Relat Disord
2016;9 Suppl 1:S5–S48
Nonlinear stability of oscillatory wave fronts in chains of coupled oscillators
We present a stability theory for kink propagation in chains of coupled
oscillators and a new algorithm for the numerical study of kink dynamics. The
numerical solutions are computed using an equivalent integral equation instead
of a system of differential equations. This avoids uncertainty about the impact
of artificial boundary conditions and discretization in time. Stability results
also follow from the integral version. Stable kinks have a monotone leading
edge and move with a velocity larger than a critical value which depends on the
damping strength.Comment: 11 figure
Oscillatory wave fronts in chains of coupled nonlinear oscillators
Wave front pinning and propagation in damped chains of coupled oscillators
are studied. There are two important thresholds for an applied constant stress
: for (dynamic Peierls stress), wave fronts fail to propagate,
for stable static and moving wave fronts coexist, and
for (static Peierls stress) there are only stable moving wave
fronts. For piecewise linear models, extending an exact method of Atkinson and
Cabrera's to chains with damped dynamics corroborates this description. For
smooth nonlinearities, an approximate analytical description is found by means
of the active point theory. Generically for small or zero damping, stable wave
front profiles are non-monotone and become wavy (oscillatory) in one of their
tails.Comment: 18 pages, 21 figures, 2 column revtex. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Temporary Bonding with Polydimethylglutarimide Based Lift Off Resist as a Layer Transfer Platform
Bonding of lift off resist (LOR) was performed to realize temporary wafer bonding without residue. Bonding process conditions such as spin speed, pre-bake temperature, and bonding temperature were optimized to obtain a large bonded area with high bond strength. Under optimized process conditions, a bonded area covering over 98% of the wafer surface, with a room temperature bond strength of nearly 5 J/m2 is achieved. During razor blade testing, fracture often occurs at the Si wafer. Moreover, debonding using an N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP)-based solvent left the wafer surface extremely small amount of residue. Thus, the optimized bonding processed developed in this research is suitable for a clean temporary bonding process
Static solitons with non-zero Hopf number
We investigate a generalized non-linear O(3) -model in three space
dimensions where the fields are maps . Such maps are
classified by a homotopy invariant called the Hopf number which takes integer
values. The model exhibits soliton solutions of closed vortex type which have a
lower topological bound on their energies. We explicitly compute the fields for
topological charge 1 and 2 and discuss their shapes and binding energies. The
effect of an additional potential term is considered and an approximation is
given for the spectrum of slowly rotating solitons.Comment: 13 pages, RevTeX, 7 Postscript figures, minor changes have been made,
a reference has been corrected and a figure replace
The Ontology of Intentional Agency in Light of Neurobiological Determinism: Philosophy Meets Folk Psychology
The moot point of the Western philosophical rhetoric about free will
consists in examining whether the claim of authorship to intentional, deliberative
actions fits into or is undermined by a one-way causal framework of determinism.
Philosophers who think that reconciliation between the two is possible are known as
metaphysical compatibilists. However, there are philosophers populating the other
end of the spectrum, known as the metaphysical libertarians, who maintain that claim
to intentional agency cannot be sustained unless it is assumed that indeterministic
causal processes pervade the action-implementation apparatus employed by the agent.
The metaphysical libertarians differ among themselves on the question of whether the
indeterministic causal relation exists between the series of intentional states and
processes, both conscious and unconscious, and the action, making claim for what has
come to be known as the event-causal view, or between the agent and the action,
arguing that a sort of agent causation is at work. In this paper, I have tried to propose
that certain features of both event-causal and agent-causal libertarian views need to be
combined in order to provide a more defendable compatibilist account accommodating
deliberative actions with deterministic causation. The ‘‘agent-executed-eventcausal
libertarianism’’, the account of agency I have tried to develop here, integrates
certain plausible features of the two competing accounts of libertarianism turning
them into a consistent whole. I hope to show in the process that the integration of these
two variants of libertarianism does not challenge what some accounts of metaphysical
compatibilism propose—that there exists a broader deterministic relation between the
web of mental and extra-mental components constituting the agent’s dispositional
system—the agent’s beliefs, desires, short-term and long-term goals based on them,
the acquired social, cultural and religious beliefs, the general and immediate and
situational environment in which the agent is placed, etc. on the one hand and the
decisions she makes over her lifetime on the basis of these factors. While in the
‘‘Introduction’’ the philosophically assumed anomaly between deterministic causation
and the intentional act of deciding has been briefly surveyed, the second section is
devoted to the task of bridging the gap between compatibilism and libertarianism. The
next section of the paper turns to an analysis of folk-psychological concepts and
intuitions about the effects of neurochemical processes and prior mental events on the
freedom of making choices. How philosophical insights can be beneficially informed
by taking into consideration folk-psychological intuitions has also been discussed,
thus setting up the background for such analysis. It has been suggested in the end that
support for the proposed theory of intentional agency can be found in the folk-psychological intuitions, when they are taken in the right perspective
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