A calibration of the production rate ratio P-21/P-26 by low energy secondry neutrons: Identification of Ne spallation components at the 10(exp 6) atoms/g level in terrestrial samples

The spallation ratio (Ne-22/Ne-21)(sub c) from Si was determined as 1.243 plus or minus 0.022 in a terrestrial quartz sample. We carried out a calibration of the in-situ production rate ratio P-21/P-26 in quartz samples for which Be-10 and Al-26 production rates were previously measured. A ratio P-21/P-26 of 0.67 plus or minus 0.12 is obtained

Psychometric testing of a german version of the evaluation of daily activity questionnaire in rheumatoid arthritis

Background: The Evaluation of Daily Activity Questionnaire (EDAQ) is a patient reported outcome (PRO) of activity limitations. The English EDAQ is reliable, valid and a comprehensive measure of the commonest problems experienced by people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and musculoskeletal conditions [1,2]. It includes 138 items in 14 ‘domains’ (Eating/ Drinking; Personal Care; Dressing; Bathing; Cooking; Moving Indoors; House Cleaning; Laundry; Moving and Transfers; Moving Outdoors; Gardening/Household Maintenance; Caring; Leisure/ Social Activities). All items are scored on a 0-3 scale (no difficulty to unable to do). There is no similar measure available in German. PROs must be tested in target languages and conditions, prior to use, to ensure validity and reliability. Objectives: To linguistically validate a German EDAQ and test it’s reliability and validity in German-speaking people with RA. Methods: The English EDAQ was forward-backward translated to German. Cognitive debriefing interviews were conducted and the German EDAQ developed. Participants from a Rheumatology clinic (Switzerland) and arthritis patient organizations (Switzerland, Germany, Austria) then completed postal questionnaires including: demographic questions, German EDAQ, Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), SF36v2, RA Quality of Life scale (RAQOL), and a hand pain numeric rating scale (NRS). Three weeks later, the EDAQ was mailed again. Test-retest reliability of domain scores, and validity of the 14 German EDAQ domains against the other measures, were evaluated using nonparametric correlations. Internal consistency was tested using Cronbach’s alpha. Results: Six German-speaking people with RA were interviewed, recommended changes reviewed by the expert panel and the German EDAQ agreed. 163 people then completed questionnaires: 145 women and 18 men; mean age = 52.84 (SD14.94) years; mean RA duration = 15.73 years (SD12.12). 85(45%) were employed; 21 had children &lt;18y at home. Median pain score = 4 (IQR 2-6) and fatigue = 5 (IQR 3-7). 107 (65%) completed a second questionnaire. Test-retest reliability of total domain scores was excellent for all domains (rs= 0.80 - 0.93). Internal consistency was high in all domains: Cronbach’s alpha= 0.84 – 0.96. All EDAQ domains (except Caring) correlated significantly (p&lt;0.001) with: HAQ rs= 0.73- 0.87; SF36v2 (Physical Function) rs= -0.61 to -0.84; SF36v2 Bodily Pain rs=-0.53 to -0.65; SF36v2 (Vitality) rs= -0.27 to-0.31; RAQOL rs= 0.55-0.68; and hand pain rs=0.43-0.52. Correlations were lower in the ‘Caring’ domain due to the smaller sample size (n=77), although mostly still significant (p&lt;0.01; rs=0.25 to 0.42; except Sf36v2 Vitality = -0.10 non- significant). Conclusions: The German EDAQ is a valid and reliable measure of daily activity in people with RA. Either the whole EDAQ or individual domains can be used in clinical practice to identify clients’ daily activity problems and help find solutions, or as an outcome measure in research and audit. A User Manual is available [3]. References: [1] Hammond et al (2015) Rheumatology 54:1605-1615; [2] Hammond et al (2017) Disabil Rehabil DOI: 10.1080/09638288.2017.1323027 [3] Hammond A et al. The EDAQ User Manual v2. 2016: https://usir.salford.ac.uk/30752/</a

Joint Protection Behaviour Assessment - Deutsche Version 2005 v1

This manual describes how to conduct and score the German version of the Short- Joint Protection Behaviour Assessment

Preliminary report on the Yamato-86032 lunar meteorite: III. Ages, noble gas isotopes, oxygen isotopes and chemical abundances

The isotope abundances of He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe, including ^Kr, the oxygen isotopic composition, and the concentrations of Na, K, Sc, Ti, Cr, Fe, Co, Y, Zr, La, Sm, Eu, Hf, Ta, and W were determined for the lunar meteorite Yamato-86032. Based on the radionuclide ^Kr we obtain a terrestrial age of 72000±30000 years, whereas the cosmic-ray exposure age is 10.6±0.6 Ma assuming exposure of the meteorite as a small object in space. Exposure to cosmic rays occurred at shallow shielding of about 40g/cm^2. The K-Ar gas retention ages of two separate splits are 3680±300 Ma and 3810±400 Ma, respectively. All ages agree with those for the lunar meteorites Y-82192 and Y-82193 recovered in the same area on the antarctic ice. The small amounts of trapped solar wind noble gases indicate that the Y-86032 material was exposed only briefly, some grains perhaps not at all, to the solar wind. The concentrations are similar to those of the Yamato-82 lunar meteorites. The oxygen isotopic composition is within the range of that for lunar rocks. The chemical composition of the samples from Y-86032,Y-82192,and Y-82193 is uniform for most major elements but not for all minor and trace elements, probably due to inhomogeneity of the source material. From the fact that the history of Y-86032 is the same as that of Y-82192/3 we conclude that these three rocks are pieces of the same meteorite fall

Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric testing of the Dutch and German versions of the Evaluation of Daily Activity Questionnaire in people with rheumatoid arthritis

The Evaluation of Daily Activity Questionnaire (EDAQ) is a detailed patient-reported outcome measure of activity ability. The objective of this research was to assess the linguistic and cross-cultural validity and psychometric properties of the EDAQ in rheumatoid arthritis for Dutch and German speakers. The EDAQ was translated into Dutch and German using standard methods. A total of 415 participants (Dutch n = 252; German n = 163) completed two questionnaires about four weeks apart. The first included the EDAQ, Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) and 36-item Short-Form v2 (SF-36v2) and the second, the EDAQ only. We examined construct validity using Rasch analysis for the two components (Self-Care and Mobility) of the Dutch and German EDAQ. Language invariance was also tested from the English version. We examined internal consistency, concurrent and discriminant validity and test–retest reliability in the 14 EDAQ domains. The Self-Care and Mobility components satisfied Rasch model requirements for fit, unidimensionality and invariance by language. Internal consistency for all 14 domains was mostly good to excellent (Cronbach’s alpha ≥ 0.80). Concurrent validity was mostly strong: HAQ rs = 0.65–0.87; SF36v2 rs = − 0.61 to − 0.87. Test–retest reliability was excellent [ICC (2,1) = 0.77–0.97]. The EDAQ has good reliability and validity in both languages. The Dutch and German versions of the EDAQ can be used as a measure of daily activity in practice and research in the Netherlands and German- speaking countries

EDAQ:CH-D. Fragebogen zur Bewertung von täglichen Aktivitäten. (Swiss-German version of the Evaluation of Daily Activity Questionnaire)

The Swiss-German language version of the Evaluation of Daily Activity Questionnaire (EDAQ) is a self-report outcome measure, which people complete at home in their own time and then return to the clinician/ researcher. It has been validated for use with people with arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions in the UK, and with people with rheumatoid arthritis in Switzerland. It can be used for clinical, audit and research purposes. It includes three parts. Part 1 consists of 10 numeric rating scales evaluating aspects of body functions (e.g. pain, fatigue, movement limitations). Part 2 consists of 14 domains assessing activity and participation abilities/ restrictions with and without the use of ergonomic approaches. Part 3 (optional) is about assistive device use. It is available in two forms: parts 1 to 3 and parts 1 and 2 only. Usually, the EDAQ parts 1 and 2 is used for most clinical and research purposes. The updated EDAQ Manual v3 (2018) explains how to use and score the EDAQ, with scoring examples (http://usir.salford.ac.uk/30752/). Rasch Transformation Tables are available in the EDAQ Manual v2 Supplement 1 (http://usir.salford.ac.uk/39445)/ and Supplement 2. An explanatory leaflet for clients is also available in USIR here under Monographs

Psychometric and cross-cultural validity of the measure of activity performance of the hand (map-hand) across three European countries (Switzerland, Turkey and the UK)

Background: The MAP-Hand scale comprises 18 patient-generated items which assess hand activity among people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). All items are scored on a 0–3 scale and are summed into a total score (0 to 54).Objectives: The MAP-Hand is already fully validated within a UK population [1], and this study aims to assess the validity, stability and comparability across German-speaking Swiss and Turkish RA samples.Methods: The MAP-Hand was assessed using Rasch model psychometric assessment methodology. Within the original UK validation, all items were assessed individually, then combined into four testlets (super-items) in order to account for observed local dependency among the items. This analytic strategywas replicated, where the psychometric properties of the scale items were assessed separately within each country-specific samples, and then across a merged sample of all three countries. A differential item function (DIF) analysis was used to assess scale stability across countries.Results: When the countries are considered separately, although slight differences are apparent, the operation of the instrument appears to be very similar across Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK. Although there is a degree of scale misfit in all countries, the scale-sample targeting and the scale reliability are both excellent(Person Separation Index = 0.93-0.95; Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.96-0.97), and the response categories function well across all items. However, there is a large degree of inter-item dependency present, and the MAP-Hand displays apparent multidimensionality within all three countries. Additionally, some individual items display Rasch model misfit to some extent, although these items are variableacross the three countries. When the items were re-configured into four testlets, this accounted for the inter-item dependency, also improving the model fit and unidimensionality of the scale within all three countries separately, as well as when the data is merged into a single dataset. Some significant country-DIF was observedon the ‘Dressing’ testlet (comprised of items 1-3), but this was found to have no significant effect on total person score estimates. Despite the testlet re-structuring creating a narrower scale range, the scale-sample targeting and scale reliability remain high (Person Separation Index = 0.86-0.91; Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.93).Conclusion: It is recommended that the four-testlet structure is implemented across all three countries, as this offers a pragmatic approach to the utility and comparative scoring of the MAPHAND across the UK, Switzerland and Turkey. Although the re-structuring creates a narrower scale range and apparent reduction in the reliability, this is indicative of the initial dependency that is present, and suggests that the original reliability values are over-inflated.REFERENCE:[1] Prior, Y., Tennant, A., Tyson, S. et al. Measure of activity performance of the hand (MAP-Hand) questionnaire: linguistic validation, cultural adaptation and psychometric testing in people with rheumatoid arthritis in the UK. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 19, 275 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-018-2177-