From pelvic radiation to social isolation: a qualitative study of survivors’ experiences of chronic bowel symptoms after pelvic radiotherapy

\ua9 2024, The Author(s).Purpose: We explored survivors’ experiences of chronic bowel symptoms following pelvic radiotherapy, strategies employed in living with these symptoms, effects on daily activities, and roles at home and in the workplace. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 individuals (10 gynaecological, 14 prostate, four anal/rectal cancer survivors) who had completed pelvic radiotherapy at least six months prior to data collection and who had experience of bowel symptoms during this post-treatment period. Reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken. Results: We propose four themes describing a process leading from experience of symptoms to withdrawal from activities and roles. These are (1) losing control (the experience of unintended anal leakage or discharge); (2) experiencing embarrassment and fear (the experience of embarrassment or fear of embarrassment as a result of discharge becoming public); (3) managing and reacting (acting to reduce the likelihood of discharge or to prevent this becoming public); and (4) restriction and withdrawal (avoiding specific activities or situations so as to reduce or remove the risk of embarrassment). Returning to the workplace presented additional challenges across these themes. Conclusions: Impacts of chronic bowel symptoms can be severe. Survivors employ a variety of methods and strategies in living with their symptoms. Some of these support continued role fulfilment but some constitute a withdrawal from pre-treatment roles. Current healthcare provision and statutory protections fail to fully meet needs following pelvic radiotherapy. Implications for cancer survivors. There is a need to develop and implement evidence-based services and supported self-management programmes for survivors experiencing chronic bowel problems post-radiotherapy

An exact sequence for contact- and symplectic homology

A symplectic manifold $W$ with contact type boundary $M = \partial W$ induces a linearization of the contact homology of $M$ with corresponding linearized contact homology $HC(M)$. We establish a Gysin-type exact sequence in which the symplectic homology $SH(W)$ of $W$ maps to $HC(M)$, which in turn maps to $HC(M)$, by a map of degree -2, which then maps to $SH(W)$. Furthermore, we give a description of the degree -2 map in terms of rational holomorphic curves with constrained asymptotic markers, in the symplectization of $M$.Comment: Final version. Changes for v2: Proof of main theorem supplemented with detailed discussion of continuation maps. Description of degree -2 map rewritten with emphasis on asymptotic markers. Sec. 5.2 rewritten with emphasis on 0-dim. moduli spaces. Transversality discussion reorganized for clarity (now Remark 9). Various other minor modification

The Geometry of D=11 Killing Spinors

We propose a way to classify all supersymmetric configurations of D=11 supergravity using the G-structures defined by the Killing spinors. We show that the most general bosonic geometries admitting a Killing spinor have at least a local SU(5) or an (Spin(7)\ltimes R^8)x R structure, depending on whether the Killing vector constructed from the Killing spinor is timelike or null, respectively. In the former case we determine what kind of local SU(5) structure is present and show that almost all of the form of the geometry is determined by the structure. We also deduce what further conditions must be imposed in order that the equations of motion are satisfied. We illustrate the formalism with some known solutions and also present some new solutions including a rotating generalisation of the resolved membrane solutions and generalisations of the recently constructed D=11 Godel solution.Comment: 36 pages. Typos corrected and discussion on G-structures improved. Final version to appear in JHE

On BPS preons, generalized holonomies and D=11 supergravities

We develop the BPS preon conjecture to analyze the supersymmetric solutions of D=11 supergravity. By relating the notions of Killing spinors and BPS preons, we develop a moving G-frame method (G=GL(32,R), SL(32,R) or Sp(32,R)) to analyze their associated generalized holonomies. As a first application we derive here the equations determining the generalized holonomies of k/32 supersymmetric solutions and, in particular, those solving the necessary conditions for the existence of BPS preonic (31/32) solutions of the standard D=11 supergravity. We also show that there exist elementary preonic solutions, i.e. solutions preserving 31 out of 32 supersymmetries in a Chern--Simons type supergravity. We present as well a family of worldvolume actions describing the motion of pointlike and extended BPS preons in the background of a D'Auria-Fre type OSp(1|32)-related supergravity model. We discuss the possible implications for M-theory.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX Typos corrected, a short note and references adde

Spectrum of Chiral Operators in Strongly Coupled Gauge Theories

We analyze the large $N$ spectrum of chiral primary operators of three dimensional fixed points of the renormalization group. Using the space-time picture of the fixed points and the correspondence between anti-de Sitter compactifications and conformal field theories we are able to extract the dimensions of operators in short superconformal multiplets. We write down some of these operators in terms of short distance theories flowing to these non-trivial fixed points in the infrared.Comment: harvmac, 16 pages, one acknowledgement adde

A beginner's introduction to Fukaya categories

The goal of these notes is to give a short introduction to Fukaya categories and some of their applications. The first half of the text is devoted to a brief review of Lagrangian Floer (co)homology and product structures. Then we introduce the Fukaya category (informally and without a lot of the necessary technical detail), and briefly discuss algebraic concepts such as exact triangles and generators. Finally, we mention wrapped Fukaya categories and outline a few applications to symplectic topology, mirror symmetry and low-dimensional topology. This text is based on a series of lectures given at a Summer School on Contact and Symplectic Topology at Universit\'e de Nantes in June 2011.Comment: 42 pages, 13 figure

Bulk vs. Boundary Dynamics in Anti-de Sitter Spacetime

We investigate the details of the bulk-boundary correspondence in Lorentzian signature anti-de Sitter space. Operators in the boundary theory couple to sources identified with the boundary values of non-normalizable bulk modes. Such modes do not fluctuate and provide classical backgrounds on which bulk excitations propagate. Normalizable modes in the bulk arise as a set of saddlepoints of the action for a fixed boundary condition. They fluctuate and describe the Hilbert space of physical states. We provide an explicit, complete set of both types of modes for free scalar fields in global and Poincar\'e coordinates. For \ads{3}, the normalizable and non-normalizable modes originate in the possible representations of the isometry group \SL_L\times\SL_R for a field of given mass. We discuss the group properties of mode solutions in both global and Poincar\'e coordinates and their relation to different expansions of operators on the cylinder and on the plane. Finally, we discuss the extent to which the boundary theory is a useful description of the bulk spacetime.Comment: Standard LaTeX, 28 pages, 2 postscript figures. v2: References added. Substantial revision in section 3 of treatment of global modes; non-normalizable modes have arbitrary time dependence. Revised discussion of low-mass modes and puzzle raised re: coupling of the dual boundary operators. v3: unwanted paragraph removed. v4: Sec. 5.2 correcte

Supermembranes and Super Matrix Models

We review recent developments in the theory of supermembranes and their relation to matrix models.Comment: Invited lecture presented at the Corfu Workshop, September 20 - 26, 1998, of the TMR Project "Quantum Aspects of Gauge Theories, Supersymmetry and Unification" (ERBFMRXCT96-0045), to appear in the proceedings. Latex 41 p