Pre-operative self-efficacy education vs. usual care for patients undergoing joint replacement surgery: a pilot randomised controlled trial

Background Hip and knee replacement is a major surgical procedure performed worldwide. Despite 20 or so years of clinical research and care guidelines, the management of acute postoperative pain continues to be a concern. A growing number of self-efficacy strategies are being included in education programs for patients to enable then to have a central role in managing their illness and symptoms. Aims and Objectives The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the feasibility of testing an education intervention to improve self-efficacy in patients undergoing hip or knee replacement. Methods A single-blinded, parallel, pilot randomised control trial design was used. Ninety-one patients undergoing hip or knee replacement surgery were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. Intervention group participants were given a DVD demonstrating self-efficacy activities to undertake four times before admission. Feasibility criteria related to recruitment, protocol adherence and missing data were assessed. Participants were assessed for pain, anxiety, self-efficacy and healthcare utilisation. Results In relation to recruitment, 55% of screened patients were eligible and of these 81% enrolled (n = 91). Exclusion following randomisation was 10% with missing data ranging from 0 to 20.7%. Nineteen per cent of participants were lost to follow up in the control group and 20% lost to follow up in DVD group. Protocol adherence to components of the intervention varied. Both groups were generally satisfied with pain management during hospitalisation, and there were no differences in groups on clinical outcome measures. Conclusions Preliminary evidence for the benefits of self-efficacy-based education for patients undergoing hip or knee replacement was identified. Additional findings included a need to strengthen the intervention and reducing the number of data collection points to improve the protocol, missing data and numbers lost to follow up before a larger trial is undertaken

Variational approach to multi-scale dynamical system : an application to collisionless magnetic reconnection

Ⅰ.INTRODUCTION Ⅱ.MODEL OF COLLISIONLESS MAGNETIC RECONNECTION Ⅲ.VARIATIONAL PRINCIPLE : LAGRANGIAN FORMULATION 4.LINEAR STABILITY ANALYSIS 5.NONLINEAR STABILITY ANALYSISCollaborate Research Meeting of Institute of Mathematics for Industry & MEXT collaborative workshop of mathematics and mathematical sciences with various sciences and industrial technologies 2012Multiscale Mathematics : Hierarchy of collective phenomena and interrelations between hierarchical structure

Variational approach to multi-scale dynamical system : an application to collisionless magnetic reconnection

Ⅰ.INTRODUCTION Ⅱ.MODEL OF COLLISIONLESS MAGNETIC RECONNECTION Ⅲ.VARIATIONAL PRINCIPLE : LAGRANGIAN FORMULATION 4.LINEAR STABILITY ANALYSIS 5.NONLINEAR STABILITY ANALYSISCollaborate Research Meeting of Institute of Mathematics for Industry & MEXT collaborative workshop of mathematics and mathematical sciences with various sciences and industrial technologies 2012Multiscale Mathematics : Hierarchy of collective phenomena and interrelations between hierarchical structure

Second Order Optical Non-Linearity and Phase Matching in 4-Nitro-4′- Methyl benzylidene Aniline (NMBA)

Large single crystals (5 × 4 × 1 cm3) of the noncentrosymmetric, monoclinic form of the organic crystal (NMBA) have been prepared by seeded growth from supersaturated solutions. Optically clear volumes permitted the preparation of polished specimens with faces parallel to the (100) and (010) directions. These were examined by the Maker fringe technique. The sections showed no dispersion of the dielectric axes with wavelength in the range 440–630 nm. The χ2 elements d11 and d23 were found to be 4 and 143 respectively relative to quartz d11. Type II phase matching was observed using 1064 nm light at and near to normal incidence to the (100) plane with an efficiency of ≈10% of that for a 2-(N,N-dimethylamino)-5-nitroacetanilide (DAN) crystal of the same thickness tested under identical conditions. Since the half angle between the molecular dipoles in the monoclinic NMBA crystal is 12°; a far from optimal angle for efficient phase matching, this lower efficiency was expected