Inclusion in political and public life: the experiences of people with intellectual disability on government disability advisory bodies in Australia

BACKGROUND: Civil and political participation lies at the core of citizenship. Increasingly, people with intellectual disability are members of disability advisory bodies. This study investigated the political orientations of advisory body members with intellectual disability, their participatory experiences, and the types of support they received. METHOD: The 9 people with intellectual disability who in 2005 were members of disability advisory bodies at a state, national, and Victorian local government level were interviewed, together with 12 other members or secretariat staff of these bodies. Observations were also conducted of advisory body meetings. RESULTS: The political perspective of members with intellectual disability varied, but all had a background in self-advocacy. They found the work hard but rewarding and encountered both practical and intangible obstacles to participation. Members received varying types of practical support, but a supportive collegial milieu was characteristic among members who felt most confident about their participation. CONCLUSIONS: The milieu, structures, and processes of advisory bodies must all be adjusted to accommodate people with intellectual disability if they are to participate meaningfully

The Characteristics of Women Aged 59-64 Years Who Consult Health Care Practitioners for Back Pain from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH)

Background: Back pain affects a substantial proportion of the adult population, and back pain sufferers tend to explore a wide range of health care options. This study investigates the use of medical and physiotherapy services by Australian women with back pain. Method: This is a sub-study of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH), designed to investigate multiple factors affecting the health and well-being of women over a 20-year period. The study focuses on 1,851 women aged 59-64 years, who had indicated that they had previously sought help from a health care practitioner for back pain.Results: Half of the women (56.5%) with back pain had consulted a general practitioner (GP), 16.2% had consulted a medical specialist, and 37.3% had consulted a physiotherapist for their back pain. Women with regular or continuous back pain were more likely to consult a GP (OR=3.98), medical specialist (OR=5.66) and a physiotherapist (OR=1.63).Conclusion:  Australian women with back pain were more likely to consult a GP, medical specialist or physiotherapist if they had more regular/continuous back pain. Future research needs to investigate further the consultation and referral patterns identified in this study.</jats:p

Electromagnetic Emission and Energy Loss in the QGP

I discuss why photon production from the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) presents an interesting problem, both experimentally and theoretically. I show how the photon emission rate can be computed under the simplifying assumption that the QGP fully thermalizes. The theoretical issues are very similar to those for jet energy loss; so it should be possible to treat them in a common formalism and relate the predictions of one phenomenon to those of the other.Comment: 8 pages, invited talk at Quark Matter 200

Individualised pelvic floor muscle training in women with pelvic organ prolapse: a multicentre randomised controlled trial

&lt;br&gt;Background: Pelvic organ prolapse is common and is strongly associated with childbirth and increasing age. Women with prolapsed are often advised to do pelvic floor muscle exercises, but supporting evidence is limited. Our aim was to establish if one-to-one individualised pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is effective in reducing prolapse symptoms.&lt;/br&gt; &lt;br&gt;Methods: A parallel‐group multicentre randomised controlled trial (ISRCTN35911035) in female outpatients with newly-diagnosed, symptomatic stage I, II or III prolapse, comparing five PFMT appointments over 16 weeks (n=225) versus a lifestyle advice leaflet (n=222). Treatment allocation was by remote computer allocation using minimisation. Our primary endpoint was participants’ self-report of prolapsed symptoms at 12 months. Group assignment was masked from outcome assessors. We compared outcomes between trial groups in an intention-to-treat analysis. The cost of PFMT and savings on subsequent treatments were calculated to estimate cost-effectiveness.&lt;/br&gt; &lt;br&gt;Findings: Compared to the control group, the intervention group reported fewer prolapse symptoms at 12 months (mean difference between groups in change score 1.52, 95% CI [0.46, 2.59], p=0.0053); reported their prolapse to be “better” more often (57.2% versus 44.7%, difference 12.6%, 95% CI [1.1%, 24.1%], p=0.0336); and had an increased but non-significant odds of having less severe stage of prolapse at their 6-month clinical examination, (OR 1.47, 95% CI [0.97, 2.27], p=0.07). The control group had a greater uptake of other prolapse treatment (49.6% versus 24.1%, difference 25.5%, 95% CI [14.5%, 36.0%], p &#60;0.0001). Findings were robust to missing data. The net cost of the 25 intervention was £131.61 per woman and the cost per one-point reduction in the symptom score was £86.59, 95% CI [£50.81, £286.11]. &lt;/br&gt

Anomalous mass dependence of radiative quark energy loss in a finite-size quark-gluon plasma

We demonstrate that for a finite-size quark-gluon plasma the induced gluon radiation from heavy quarks is stronger than that for light quarks when the gluon formation length becomes comparable with (or exceeds) the size of the plasma. The effect is due to oscillations of the light-cone wave function for the in-medium $q\to gq$ transition. The dead cone model by Dokshitzer and Kharzeev neglecting quantum finite-size effects is not valid in this regime. The finite-size effects also enhance the photon emission from heavy quarks.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure