Exploring the Influence of Patient-Professional Partnerships on the Self-Management of Chronic Back Pain: A Qualitative Study

Patients are encouraged to take an active role in self-managing their chronic back pain and functional problems. However, research suggests that patients do not self-manage, and they expect health professionals to fulfill a comprehensive role in managing pain. A partnership between patients and health professionals is called for, and self-management works best when they share knowledge and work together toward optimal goals. To explore how patients' partnerships with health professionals may influence their ability to self-manage pain by exploring patients' experiences. A grounded theory approach with in-depth, semistructured interviews was undertaken. Each interview was analyzed using constant comparative analysis. This study was nested within a larger study on patient-professional partnerships and the self-management of chronic back pain. Twenty-six patients with chronic back pain were recruited in a community-based pain management service in Northern England, United Kingdom. Three themes emerged: building partnerships with health professionals; being supported by health professionals to self-manage the pain; and experiencing a change in self-management. Five approaches that underpinned health professionals' self-management support were identified. Facilitators of and barriers to a good partnership were reported. This study suggests that a good patient-professional partnership has a positive effect on patients’ self-management ability. A theoretical model explaining how such partnership may influence self-management was developed. It is necessary for both patients and health professionals to be aware of their partnerships, which may enhance the effect of pain management services

A Pixel Vertex Tracker for the TESLA Detector

In order to fully exploit the physics potential of a e+e- linear collider, such as TESLA, a Vertex Tracker providing high resolution track reconstruction is required. Hybrid Silicon pixel sensors are an attractive sensor technology option due to their read-out speed and radiation hardness, favoured in the high rate TESLA environment, but have been so far limited by the achievable single point space resolution. A novel layout of pixel detectors with interleaved cells to improve their spatial resolution is introduced and the results of the characterisation of a first set of test structures are discussed. In this note, a conceptual design of the TESLA Vertex Tracker, based on hybrid pixel sensors is presentedComment: 20 pages, 11 figure

Characterisation of Hybrid Pixel Detectors with capacitive charge division

In order to fully exploit the physics potential of the future high energy e+ e- linear collider, a Vertex Tracker providing high resolution track reconstruction is required. Hybrid pixel sensors are an attractive technology due to their fast read-out capabilities and radiation hardness. A novel pixel detector layout with interleaved cells between the readout nodes has been developed to improve the single point resolution. The results of the characterisation of the first processed prototypes are reported.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, presented at LCWS2000, Linear Collider Workshop, October 24-28 2000, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois, U.S.A. Proceedings to be published by the American Institute of Physic

High resolution pixel detectors for e+e- linear colliders

The physics goals at the future e+e- linear collider require high performance vertexing and impact parameter resolution. Two possible technologies for the vertex detector of an experimental apparatus are outlined in the paper: an evolution of the Hybrid Pixel Sensors already used in high energy physics experiments and a new detector concept based on the monolithic CMOS sensors.Comment: 8 pages, to appear on the Proceedings of the International Workshop on Linear Colliders LCWS99, Sitges (Spain), April 28 - May 5, 199

High Resolution Hybrid Pixel Sensors for the e+e- TESLA Linear Collider Vertex Tracker

In order to fully exploit the physics potential of a future high energy e+e- linear collider, a Vertex Tracker, providing high resolution track reconstruction, is required. Hybrid Silicon pixel sensors are an attractive option, for the sensor technology, due to their read-out speed and radiation hardness, favoured in the high rate environment of the TESLA e+e- linear collider design but have been so far limited by the achievable single point space resolution. In this paper, a conceptual design of the TESLA Vertex Tracker, based on a novel layout of hybrid pixel sensors with interleaved cells to improve their spatial resolution, is presented.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the Vertex99 Workshop, Texel (The Netherlands), June 199

Some new directions in infinite-combinatorial topology

We give a light introduction to selection principles in topology, a young subfield of infinite-combinatorial topology. Emphasis is put on the modern approach to the problems it deals with. Recent results are described, and open problems are stated. Some results which do not appear elsewhere are also included, with proofs.Comment: Small update

The novel gene Ny-1 on potato chromosome IX confers hypersensitive resistance to Potato virus Y and is an alternative to Ry genes in potato breeding for PVY resistance

Hypersensitive resistance (HR) is an efficient defense strategy in plants that restricts pathogen growth and can be activated during host as well as non-host interactions. HR involves programmed cell death and manifests itself in tissue collapse at the site of pathogen attack. A novel hypersensitivity gene, Ny-1, for resistance to Potato virus Y (PVY) was revealed in potato cultivar Rywal. This is the first gene that confers HR in potato plants both to common and necrotic strains of PVY. The locus Ny-1 mapped on the short arm of potato chromosome IX, where various resistance genes are clustered in Solanaceous genomes. Expression of HR was temperature-dependent in cv. Rywal. Strains PVYO and PVYN, including subgroups PVYNW and PVYNTN, were effectively localized when plants were grown at 20°C. At 28°C, plants were systemically infected but no symptoms were observed. In field trials, PVY was restricted to the inoculated leaves and PVY-free tubers were produced. Therefore, the gene Ny-1 can be useful for potato breeding as an alternative donor of PVY resistance, because it is efficacious in practice-like resistance conferred by Ry genes

V*-algebras, independence algebras and logic

Independence algebras were introduced in the early 1990s by specialists in semigroup theory, as a tool to explain similarities between the transformation monoid on a set and the endomorphism monoid of a vector space. It turned out that these algebras had already been defined and studied in the 1960s, under the name of v*-algebras, by specialists in universal algebra (and statistics). Our goal is to complete this picture by discussing how, during the middle period, independence algebras began to play a very important role in logic