1,216 research outputs found
The Parker Magnetostatic Theorem
We demonstrate the Parker Magnetostatic Theorem in terms of a small
neighborhood in solution space containing continuous force-free magnetic fields
in small deviations from the uniform field. These fields are embedded in a
perfectly conducting fluid bounded by a pair of rigid plates where each field
is anchored, taking the plates perpendicular to the uniform field. Those
force-free fields obtainable from the uniform field by continuous magnetic
footpoint displacements at the plates have field topologies that are shown to
be a restricted subset of the field topologies similarly created without
imposing the force-free equilibirum condition. The theorem then follows from
the deduction that a continuous nonequilibrum field with a topology not in that
subset must find a force-free state containing tangential discontinuities.Comment: 13 pages, no figur
Great Expectations of Integrated Care : an Investigation of Assumptions Regarding the Impacts of Integrated Care for Frail Elderly People on Formal and Informal Caregivers
Frail elderly people are increasingly being cared for in their own homes by both formal and informal caregivers. Integrated care models are therefore being developed to better coordinate formal and informal care for frail elderly people in communities. However, much remains unclear regarding the impacts of integrated care delivery on formal and informal caregivers. The aim of this dissertation was therefore to investigate the three main assumptions regarding the benefits of integrated care on formal and informal caregivers, i.e., that integrated care for the frail elderly (1) safeguards informal caregivers against the negative impacts of caregiving; (2) improves the work processes and experiences of formal caregivers; and (3) improves the interaction between formal and informal care over time.
These assumptions were investigated in the real-life setting of an integrated care intervention for community-dwelling frail elderly people in the Walcheren region of the Netherlands. This intervention, the âWalcheren Integrated Care Modelâ (WICM), consisted of the following evidence-based elements: a single entry-point, proactive frailty screening, comprehensive needs assessments, case management, multidisciplinary team meetings, protocols and treatment plans, a shared information and communication system, task specialization and tasks delegation, and the creation of a geriatric care network with a formal steering group.
The results show that integrated care for the frail elderly can be expected to safeguard informal caregivers against some negative impacts of caregiving, but also that improvements for formal caregivers and formal-informal care interaction should not be readily expected. It is concluded that, as yet, most expectations regarding the benefits of integrated care for formal and informal caregivers remain unjustified
A conserved U-rich RNA region implicated in regulation of translation in Plasmodium female gametocytes.
Translational repression (TR) plays an important role
in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression
and embryonic development in metazoans. TR
also regulates the expression of a subset of the
cytoplasmic mRNA population during development
of fertilized female gametes of the unicellular
malaria parasite, Plasmodium spp. which results
in the formation of a polar and motile form, the
ookinete. We report the conserved and sex-specific
regulatory role of either the 3â- or 5â-UTR of a subset
of translationally repressed mRNA species as
shown by almost complete inhibition of expression
of a GFP reporter protein in the female gametocyte.
A U-rich, TR-associated element, identified previously
in the 3â-UTR of TR-associated transcripts,
played an essential role in mediating TR and a
similar region could be found in the 5â-UTR shown in
this study to be active in TR. The silencing effect of
this 5â-UTR was shown to be independent of its
position relative to its ORF, as transposition to a
location 3â of the ORF did not affect TR. These
results demonstrate for the first time in a unicellular
organism that the 5â or the 3â-UTR of TR-associated
transcripts play an important and conserved role in
mediating TR in female gametocytes
Following on from the Life Esidimeni incident â access to care for people living with severe mental disability, according to national policy
Following the release in February 2017 of the health ombudsmanâs report on the deaths of psychiatric patients in Gauteng Province, South Africa (SA) (the Life Esidimeni incident), the South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP) has called for a complete overhaul of the mentalhealthcare system in terms of the principles of existing mental-health policy, in particular the National Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategic Plan 2013 - 2020 (NMHPF and SP). Overhauling the mental-healthcare system according to the NMHPF and SP will include the identification and costing of the required facility and staffing interventions that must be put into place to ensure capacity and integration on the different service levels, namely: residential and day-care community-based facilities and programmes, providing a range of care, treatment and rehabilitation services with a fulltime multidisciplinary team available; primary mental-healthcare services at district level; a specialist community-psychiatry service; acute psychiatric units in secondary, tertiary and central general hospitals; and specialised psychiatric beds
Clinical profile of acutely ill psychiatric patients admitted to a general hospital psychiatric unit
Objectives: Helen Joseph Hospital in southern Gauteng Province is one of five specialist hospitals on the academic circuit of
the University of theWitwatersrand. Against a background of new mental health legislation, implemented in South Africa during
December 2004 with no formal mechanisms in place to monitor mental health services on different levels of care or in regions,
a study with three objectives was undertaken, namely: (I) to provide a baseline on psychiatric morbidity and treatment outcome;
(II) to establish the state of affairs analysis for mental health care and (III) to establish a framework for cost centre management.
The current study focuses on objective one. Method: A retrospective clinical audit was undertaken of mental health service
delivery, teaching and research at Helen Joseph Hospital over a one-year period from September 2003 to August 2004. This
article reports on the two service delivery datasets identified: the âInpatient Discharge Summary Reportâ and the
âConsultation/Liaison Reportâ. Results: A total number of 438 service users were admitted and a monthly average of 80
consultation/liaison assessments was conducted during the study period. Persistent unfavourable nursing staff ratios continued,
while the number of service users from other African countries was generally underrated. Non-compliance and substance abuse
contributed significantly to the admission of service users. Schizophrenia was indicated as the most likely diagnosis in almost a
quarter of cases. Conclusion: Morbidity and treatment outcome at Helen Joseph Hospital will only be contextualized after the
implementation of a regular clinical audit process in all the facilities of its referral network. Keywords: Psychiatric morbidity; Treatment outcome; Referral network; Clinical profile; Service delivery; Clinical audit African Journal of Psychiatry Vol. 10 (3) 2007: pp. 159-16
A framework for current public mental health care practice in South Africa
One of the main aims of the new Mental Health Care Act, Act No. 17 of 2002 (MHCA) is to promote the human rights of people with mental disabilities in South Africa. However, the upholding of these rights seems to be subject to the availability of
resources. Chapter 2 of the MHCA clarifies the responsibility of the State to provide infrastructure and systems. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Act define and regulate the different categories of mental health care users, clarify the procedures around these
categories and spell out mental health practitioners' roles and responsibilities in this regard. Also according to the National Health Act No. 61 of 2003, the State remains the key role player in mental health care provision, being responsible for adequate
mental health infrastructure and resource allocation. Due to âlimited resourcesâ practitioners however often work in environments where staff ratios may be fractional of what should be expected and in units of which the physical structure and
security is totally inadequate. The interface between professional responsibility of clinical workers versus the inadequacy of clinical interventions resulting from infrastructure and staffing constraints needs to be defined. This paper considered recent legislation currently relevant to mental health care practice in order to delineate the legal, ethical and labour framework in which public sector mental health practitioners operate as state employees. These included the Mental Health Care Act, No.17 of 2002; the National Health Act, No. 61 of 2003 and the proposed Traditional Health Practitioners Act, No. 35 of 2004. Formal
legal review of and advice on this legislation as it pertains to public sector mental health practitioners as state employees, is necessary and should form the basis of the principles and standards for care endorsed by organized mental health care practitioner groups such as the South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP).African Journal of Psychiatry Vol. 10 (4) 2007: pp. 205-20
Acute psychiatric in-patients tested for HIV status: a clinical profile
No Abstract.South African Psychiatry Review Vol. 10 (2) 2007: pp.83-8
Collapsing lattice animals and lattice trees in two dimensions
We present high statistics simulations of weighted lattice bond animals and
lattice trees on the square lattice, with fugacities for each non-bonded
contact and for each bond between two neighbouring monomers. The simulations
are performed using a newly developed sequential sampling method with
resampling, very similar to the pruned-enriched Rosenbluth method (PERM) used
for linear chain polymers. We determine with high precision the line of second
order transitions from an extended to a collapsed phase in the resulting
2-dimensional phase diagram. This line includes critical bond percolation as a
multicritical point, and we verify that this point divides the line into two
different universality classes. One of them corresponds to the collapse driven
by contacts and includes the collapse of (weakly embeddable) trees, but the
other is {\it not yet} bond driven and does not contain the Derrida-Herrmann
model as special point. Instead it ends at a multicritical point where a
transition line between two collapsed phases (one bond-driven and the other
contact-driven) sparks off. The Derrida-Herrmann model is representative for
the bond driven collapse, which then forms the fourth universality class on the
transition line (collapsing trees, critical percolation, intermediate regime,
and Derrida-Herrmann). We obtain very precise estimates for all critical
exponents for collapsing trees. It is already harder to estimate the critical
exponents for the intermediate regime. Finally, it is very difficult to obtain
with our method good estimates of the critical parameters of the
Derrida-Herrmann universality class. As regards the bond-driven to
contact-driven transition in the collapsed phase, we have some evidence for its
existence and rough location, but no precise estimates of critical exponents.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figures, 1 tabl
Formal and informal care for community-dwelling people over time: A comparison of integrated and usual care in the Netherlands
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