2,964 research outputs found
Responsiveness of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Set for rheumatoid arthritis
Background: The comprehensive International
Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
Core Set for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a selection of 96
categories from the ICF, representing relevant aspects in
the functioning of patients with RA.
Objectives: To study the responsiveness of the ICF Core
Set for RA in rheumatological practice.
Methods: A total of 46 patients with RA (72% women,
mean (SD) age 53.6 (12.6) years, disease duration 6.3
(8.0) years) were interviewed at baseline and again after
6 months treatment with a disease-modifying antirheumatic
drug (DMARD), applying the ICF Core Set for RA
with qualifiers for problems on a modified three-point
scale (no problem, mild/moderate, severe/complete).
Patient-reported outcomes included Modified Health
Assessment Questionnaire (MHAQ) and Short-Form 36
(SF-36) health survey, and disease activity was calculated.
Responsiveness was measured as change in
qualifiers in ICF categories, and was also compared with
change in patient-reported outcomes.
Results: After 6 months of DMARD treatment,
improvement by at least one qualifier was seen in 20% of
patients (averaged across all ICF categories), 71%
experienced no change and 9% experienced worsening
symptoms. Findings were similar across the different
aspects of functioning. Mainly moderate effect sizes were
seen for 6-month changes in the ICF Core Set for RA,
especially in patients with improved health status, with
similar effect size for disease activity. The components in
the ICF Core Set for RA were only weakly associated with
patient-reported outcomes and disease activity.
Conclusions: The ICF Core Set for RA demonstrated
moderate responsiveness in this real-life setting of
patients where minor changes occurred during treatment
with DMARDs
EUV Sunspot Plumes Observed with SOHO
Bright EUV sunspot plumes have been observed in five out of nine sunspot
regions with the Coronal Diagnostic Spectrometer -- CDS on SOHO. In the other
four regions the brightest line emissions may appear inside the sunspot but are
mainly concentrated in small regions outside the sunspot areas. These results
are in contrast to those obtained during the Solar Maximum Mission, but are
compatible with the Skylab mission results. The present observations show that
sunspot plumes are formed in the upper part of the transition region, occur
both in magnetic unipolar-- and bipolar regions, and may extend from the umbra
into the penumbra.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, to be published in ApJ Letter
Von Zeipel - Lidov - Kozai cycles in action: <i>Kepler</i> triples with eclipse depth variations:KICs 6964043, 5653126, 5731312, and 8023317
Physical Conditions in Quasar Outflows: VLT Observations of QSO 2359-1241
We analyze the physical conditions of the outflow seen in QSO 2359-1241 (NVSS
J235953-124148), based on high resolution spectroscopic VLT observations. This
object was previously studied using Keck/HIRES data. The main improvement over
the HIRES results is our ability to accurately determine the number density of
the outflow. For the major absorption component, level population from five
different Fe II excited level yields n_H=10^4.4 cm^-3 with less than 20%
scatter. We find that the Fe ii absorption arises from a region with roughly
constant conditions and temperature greater than 9000 K, before the ionization
front where temperature and electron density drop. Further, we model the
observed spectra and investigate the effects of varying gas metalicities and
the spectral energy distribution of the incident ionizing radiation field. The
accurately measured column densities allow us to determine the ionization
parameter log(U) = -2.4 and total column density of the outflow (log(N_H) =
20.6 cm^-2). Combined with the number density finding, these are stepping
stones towards determining the mass flux and kinetic luminosity of the outflow,
and therefore its importance to AGN feedback processes.Comment: 21 pages, 3 figures (accepted for publication in the ApJ
A New Class of Majoron-Emitting Double-Beta Decays
Motivated by the excess events that have recently been found near the
endpoints of the double beta decay spectra of several elements, we re-examine
models in which double beta decay can proceed through the neutrinoless emission
of massless Nambu-Goldstone bosons (majorons). Noting that models proposed to
date for this process must fine-tune either a scalar mass or a VEV to be less
than 10 keV, we introduce a new kind of majoron which avoids this difficulty by
carrying lepton number . We analyze in detail the requirements that
models of both the conventional and our new type must satisfy if they are to
account for the observed excess events. We find: (1) the electron sum-energy
spectrum can be used to distinguish the two classes of models from one another;
(2) the decay rate for the new models depends on different nuclear matrix
elements than for ordinary majorons; and (3) all models require a (pseudo)
Dirac neutrino, having a mass of a several hundred MeV, which mixes with
.Comment: 43 pages, 10 figures (included), [figure captions are now included
Influential factors of aligning Spotify squads in mission-critical and offshore projects – a longitudinal embedded case study
Changing the development process of an organization is one of the toughest and riskiest decisions. This is particularly true if the known experiences and practices of the new considered ways of working are relative and subject to contextual assumptions. Spotify engineering culture is deemed as a new agile software development method which increasingly attracts large-scale organizations. The method relies on several small cross-functional self-organized teams (i.e., squads). The squad autonomy is a key driver in Spotify method, where a squad decides what to do and how to do it. To enable effective squad autonomy, each squad shall be aligned with a mission, strategy, short-term goals and other squads. Since a little known about Spotify method, there is a need to answer the question of: How can organizations work out and maintain the alignment to enable loosely coupled and tightly aligned squads?
In this paper, we identify factors to support the alignment that is actually performed in practice but have never been discussed before in terms of Spotify method. We also present Spotify Tailoring by highlighting the modified and newly introduced processes to the method. Our work is based on a longitudinal embedded case study which was conducted in a real-world large-scale offshore software intensive organization that maintains mission-critical systems. According to the confidentiality agreement by the organization in question, we are not allowed to reveal a detailed description of the features of the explored project
Mathematical retroreflectors
Retroreflectors are optical devices that reverse the direction of incident
beams of light. Here we present a collection of billiard type retroreflectors
consisting of four objects; three of them are asymptotically perfect
retroreflectors, and the fourth one is a retroreflector which is very close to
perfect. Three objects of the collection have recently been discovered and
published or submitted for publication. The fourth object - notched angle - is
a new one; a proof of its retroreflectivity is given.Comment: 32 pages, 19 figure
Elevated arousal at time of decision-making is not the arbiter of risk avoidance in chickens
The somatic marker hypothesis proposes that humans recall previously experienced physiological responses to aid decision-making under uncertainty. However, little is known about the mechanisms used by non-human animals to integrate risk perception with predicted gains and losses. We monitored the behaviour and physiology of chickens when the choice between a high-gain (large food quantity), high-risk (1 in 4 probability of receiving an air-puff) option (HGRAP) or a low-gain (small food quantity), no-risk (of an air-puff) (LGNAP) option. We assessed when arousal increased by considering different stages of the decision-making process (baseline, viewing, anticipation, reward periods) and investigated whether autonomic responses influenced choice outcome both immediately and in the subsequent trial. Chickens were faster to choose and their heart-rate significantly increased between the viewing and anticipation (post-decision, pre-outcome) periods when selecting the HGRAP option. This suggests that they responded physiologically to the impending risk. Additionally, arousal was greater following a HGRAP choice that resulted in an air-puff, but this did not deter chickens from subsequently choosing HGRAP. In contrast to human studies, we did not find evidence that somatic markers were activated during the viewing period, suggesting that arousal is not a good measure of avoidance in non-human animals
Large-Scale Agile Transformation: A Case Study of Transforming Business, Development and Operations
Today, product development organizations are adopting agile methods in units outside the software development unit, such as in sales, market, legal, operations working with the customer. This broader adoption of agile methods has been labeled large-scale agile transformation and is considered a particular type of organizational change, originating in the software development units. So far, there is little research-based advice on conducting such transformations. Aiming to contribute towards providing relevant research advice on large-scale agile transformation, we apply a research-based framework for evaluating organizational agility on a product development program in a maritime service provider organization. We found that doing a large-scale agile transformation involves many significant challenges, such as having a shared understanding of the problem, getting access to users, and getting commitment to change that needs to be done. In order to overcome such challenges, we discuss the need for a holistic and integrated approach to agile transformation involving all the units linked to software development.publishedVersio
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