Protocol for a longitudinal qualitative interview study: maintaining psychological well-being in advanced cancer - what can we learn from patients' and carers' own coping strategies?

IntroductionPeople with advanced cancer and their carers experience stress and uncertainty which affects the quality of life and physical and mental health. This study aims to understand how patients and carers recover or maintain psychological well-being by exploring the strategies employed to self-manage stress and uncertainty.Methods and analysisA longitudinal qualitative interview approach with 30 patients with advanced cancer and 30 associated family or informal carers allows the exploration of contexts, mechanisms and outcomes at an individual level. Two interviews, 4–12?weeks apart, will not only enable the exploration of individuals’ evolving coping strategies in response to changing contexts but also how patients’ and carers’ strategies inter-relate. Patient and Carer focus groups will then consider how the findings may be used in developing an intervention. Recruiting through two major tertiary cancer centres in the North West and using deliberately broad and inclusive criteria will enable the sample to capture demographic and experiential breadth.Ethics and disseminationThe research team will draw on their considerable experience to ensure that the study is sensitive to a patient and carer group, which may be considered vulnerable but still values being able to contribute its views. Public and patient involvement (PPI) is integral to the design and is evidenced by: a research advisory group incorporating patient and carers, prestudy consultations with the PPI group at one of the study sites and a user as the named applicant. The study team will use multiple methods to disseminate the findings to clinical, policy and academic audiences. A key element will be engaging health professionals in patient and carer ideas for promoting self-management of psychological well-being. The study has ethical approval from the North West Research Ethics Committee and the appropriate NHS governance clearance.RegistrationNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Studies Portfolio, UK Clinical Research Network (UKCRN) Study number 11725

SUMSS: A Wide-Field Radio Imaging Survey of the Southern Sky. I. Science goals, survey design and instrumentation

The Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope, operating at 843 MHz with a 5 square degree field of view, is carrying out a radio imaging survey of the sky south of declination -30 deg. This survey (the Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey, or SUMSS) produces images with a resolution of 43" x 43" cosec(Dec.) and an rms noise level of about 1 mJy/beam. SUMSS is therefore similar in sensitivity and resolution to the northern NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS; Condon et al. 1998). The survey is progressing at a rate of about 1000 square degrees per year, yielding individual and statistical data for many thousands of weak radio sources. This paper describes the main characteristics of the survey, and presents sample images from the first year of observation.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures (figures 2, 8, 10 in jpg format); AJ, in pres

Constriction size distributions of granular filters: a numerical study

The retention capability of granular filters is controlled by the narrow constrictions connecting the voids within the filter. The theoretical justification for empirical filter rules used in practice includes consideration of an idealised soil fabric in which constrictions form between co-planar combinations of spherical filter particles. This idealised fabric has not been confirmed by experimental or numerical observations of real constrictions. This paper reports the results of direct, particle-scale measurement of the constriction size distribution (CSD) within virtual samples of granular filters created using the discrete-element method (DEM). A previously proposed analytical method that predicts the full CSD using inscribed circles to estimate constriction sizes is found to poorly predict the CSD for widely graded filters due to an over-idealisation of the soil fabric. The DEM data generated are used to explore quantitatively the influence of the coefficient of uniformity, particle size distribution and relative density of the filter on the CSD. For a given relative density CSDs form a narrow band of similarly shaped curves when normalised by characteristic filter diameters. This lends support to the practical use of characteristic diameters to assess filter retention capability

Effects of D-amino acid oxidase inhibition on memory performance and long-term potentiation in vivo

N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) activation can initiate changes in synaptic strength, evident as long-term potentiation (LTP), and is a key molecular correlate of memory formation. Inhibition of d-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) may increase NMDAR activity by regulating d-serine concentrations, but which neuronal and behavioral effects are influenced by DAAO inhibition remain elusive. In anesthetized rats, extracellular field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) were recorded before and after a theta frequency burst stimulation (TBS) of the Schaffer collateral pathway of the CA1 region in the hippocampus. Memory performance was assessed after training with tests of contextual fear conditioning (FC, mice) and novel object recognition (NOR, rats). Oral administration of 3, 10, and 30 mg/kg 4H-furo[3,2-b]pyrrole-5-carboxylic acid (SUN) produced dose-related and steady increases of cerebellum d-serine in rats and mice, indicative of lasting inhibition of central DAAO. SUN administered 2 h prior to training improved contextual fear conditioning in mice and novel object recognition memory in rats when tested 24 h after training. In anesthetized rats, LTP was established proportional to the number of TBS trains. d-cycloserine (DCS) was used to identify a submaximal level of LTP (5× TBS) that responded to NMDA receptor activation; SUN administered at 10 mg/kg 3–4 h prior to testing similarly increased in vivo LTP levels compared to vehicle control animals. Interestingly, in vivo administration of DCS also increased brain d-serine concentrations. These results indicate that DAAO inhibition increased NMDAR-related synaptic plasticity during phases of post training memory consolidation to improve memory performance in hippocampal-dependent behavioral tests

PKS 1018-42: A Powerful Kinetically Dominated Quasar

We have identified PKS 1018-42 as a radio galaxy with extraordinarily powerful jets, over twice as powerful as any 3CR source of equal or lesser redshift except for one (3C196). It is perhaps the most intrinsically powerful extragalactic radio source in the, still poorly explored, Southern Hemisphere. PKS 1018-42 belongs to the class of FR II objects that are kinetically dominated, the jet kinetic luminosity, $Q \sim 6.5 \times 10^{46}\mathrm{ergs/s}$ (calculated at 151 MHz), is 3.4 times larger than the total thermal luminosity (IR to X-ray) of the accretion flow, $L_{bol} \sim 1.9 \times 10^{46}\mathrm{ergs/s}$. It is the fourth most kinetically dominated quasar that we could verify from existing radio data. From a review of the literature, we find that kinetically dominated sources such as PKS 1018-42 are rare, and list the 5 most kinetically dominated sources found from our review. Our results for PKS 1018-42 are based on new observations from the Australia Telescope Compact Array.Comment: To appear in ApJ Letter

A high-resolution radio survey of the Vela supernova remnant

This paper presents a high-resolution radio continuum (843 MHz) survey of the Vela supernova remnant. The contrast between the structures in the central pulsar-powered nebula of the remnant and the synchrotron radiation shell allows the remnant to be identified morphologically as a member of the composite class. The data are the first of a composite remnant at spatial scales comparable with those available for the Cygnus Loop and the Crab Nebula, and make possible a comparison of radio, optical and soft X-ray emission from the resolved shell filaments. The survey, made with the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope, covers an area of 50 square degrees at a resolution of 43'' x 60'', while imaging structures on scales up to 30'.Comment: 18 pages, 7 jpg figures (version with ps figures at http://astro.berkeley.edu/~dbock/papers/); AJ, in pres

Does pyrite act as an important host for molybdenum in modern and ancient euxinic sediments?

Molybdenum (Mo) is a popular paleoproxy for tracking the spatiotemporal pattern of euxinic (anoxic and sulfidic) conditions in the ancient ocean, yet surprisingly little is known about the processes leading to its fixation under sulfidic conditions. Pyrite has been proposed to be the main host phase for Mo sequestration. To clarify the role played by pyrite, and thus to refine the utility of this paleoproxy, modern and ancient samples from six different study sites were analyzed, all representing euxinic conditions, using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Although pyrite often shows substantial enrichments relative to average crust and even matrix samples of similar size, our results show that most of the Mo in euxinic muds and shales is found in the non-pyrite matrix (80–100%) and not in the pyrite grains (0–20%)—simply because the volume of matrix dominates the bulk sediments/rocks. A relationship between the percent of Mo hosted by pyrite and the sulfur isotope composition of that pyrite is observed and can be linked to post-depositional alteration. Specifically, the oldest, typically most altered samples, show the highest δ^(34)S values because of limited sulfate availability at the time of their formation in the early ocean. In these old samples, the relatively small amount of Mo sequestered initially within pyrite is more likely to have been released to the matrix during the strong recrystallization overprints that these rocks have disproportionately suffered. Despite the universal importance of appreciable H_2S availability during Mo uptake, we conclude that pyrite should be viewed as a nontrivial sink for Mo but clearly not the primary host in most euxinic shales and rather suggest that other burial pathways should be emphasized in future studies of the mechanisms of Mo sequestration in such settings

Stringent neutron-star limits on large extra dimensions

Supernovae (SNe) are copious sources for Kaluza-Klein gravitons which are generic for theories with large extra dimensions. These massive particles are produced with average velocities ~0.5 c so that many of them are gravitationally retained by the SN core. Every neutron star thus has a halo of KK gravitons which decay into nu bar-nu, e^+e^- and gamma gamma on time scales \~10^9 years. The EGRET gamma-flux limits (E_gamma ~ 100 MeV) for nearby neutron stars constrain the fundamental scale for n=2 extra dimensions to M >500 TeV, and M>30 TeV for n=3. The upcoming GLAST satellite is a factor ~30 more sensitive and thus may detect KK decays, for example at the nearby neutron star RX J185635--3754. The requirement that neutron stars are not excessively heated by KK decays implies M>1700 TeV for n=2, and M>60 TeV for n=3.Comment: Minor changes, matches version to appear in PR