The body as image: image as body

Pain consultations are often contested spaces where patient and clinician compete for the roles of speaker. Often patients are searching for mechanical explanations and clinicians for psychological ones - creating an impasse and causing distress to both parties. Meanwhile, as technology advances and we have increasing means of seeing inside a person’s body we seem to have less and less ability to see inside another’s world – to understand what it means to live with pain, the significance of that pain for that individual in their social context. In this paper we explore the potential for images of pain, co-created with patients, to intervene in this unproductive patient dynamic and bring the full experience of pain - social, emotional, physical - into focus. Narrative analysis is used on a series of transcripts of pain consultations

Collaborative drawings: blue-prints of conversation dynamics

This chapter focuses on the National Portrait Gallery workshops and ways in which collaborative drawing and photographic processes acted as catalysts for improved understanding and communication between patients and clinicians. The face2face project explored how photographic images co-created with pain patients could expand pain dialogue in the consulting room to include aspects of experience frequently omitted using traditional measures such as rate patients' pain on a scale of one to ten. In the National Portrait Gallery workshops being outside the hospital setting neutralized the institutional hierarchy, but there was still a strong need expressed by pain patients for doctors to hear their perspective and to appreciate the impact of pain on their lives. Mirroring in the sense of looking and being looked at, of projecting onto/receiving from another became focal in the discussions and when there were disconnects and misunderstanding within these processes, suffering and isolation were described as the result

Applications of system identification methods to the prediction of helicopter stability, control and handling characteristics

A set of results on rotorcraft system identification is described. Flight measurements collected on an experimental Puma helicopter are reviewed and some notable characteristics highlighted. Following a brief review of previous work in rotorcraft system identification, the results of state estimation and model structure estimation processes applied to the Puma data are presented. The results, which were obtained using NASA developed software, are compared with theoretical predictions of roll, yaw and pitching moment derivatives for a 6 degree of freedom model structure. Anomalies are reported. The theoretical methods used are described. A framework for reduced order modelling is outlined

Wellcome Trust, In Pursuit of Pain, Exhibition, Images from Perceptions of Pain and Face2face within solo pop up exhibition for Friday Night Spectacular

Studio INSTALLATION Visualising Pain 19.00–23.00 | DROP IN It can be surprisingly difficult to explain your pain to a doctor. See photographs co-created by artist Deborah Padfield and people being treated for pain at UCLH. By creating these images, those in pain retain control of how their pain is visualised and can have a more negotiated dialogue in the consulting room

Temperature-dependent changes to host-parasite interactions alter the thermal performance of a bacterial host.

This is the author accepted manuscriptThermal performance curves (TPCs) are used to predict changes in species interactions, and hence, range shifts, disease dynamics and community composition, under forecasted climate change. Species interactions might in turn affect TPCs. Here, we investigate how temperature-dependent changes in a microbial host-parasite interaction (the bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens, and its lytic bacteriophage, SBW[Formula: see text]) changes the host TPC and the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying these changes. The bacteriophage had a narrower thermal tolerance for infection, with their critical thermal maximum ~6 °C lower than those at which the bacteria still had high growth. Consequently, in the presence of phage, the host TPC changed, resulting in a lower maximum growth rate. These changes were not just driven by differences in thermal tolerance, with temperature-dependent costs of evolved resistance also playing a major role: the largest cost of resistance occurred at the temperature at which bacteria grew best in the absence of phage. Our work highlights how ecological and evolutionary mechanisms can alter the effect of a parasite on host thermal performance, even over very short timescales.NER

Do photographic images of pain improve communication during pain consultations?

BACKGROUND: Visual images may facilitate the communication of pain during consultations. OBJECTIVES: To assess whether photographic images of pain enrich the content and⁄or process of pain consultation by comparing patients' and clinicians' ratings of the consultation experience. METHODS: Photographic images of pain previously co-created by patients with a photographer were provided to new patients attending pain clinic consultations. Seventeen patients selected and used images that best expressed their pain and were compared with 21 patients who were not shown images. Ten clinicians conducted assessments in each condition. After consultation, patients and clinicians completed ratings of aspects of communication and, when images were used, how they influenced the consultation. RESULTS: The majority of both patients and clinicians reported that images enhanced the consultation. Ratings of communication were generally high, with no differences between those with and without images (with the exception of confidence in treatment plan, which was rated more highly in the image group). However, patients' and clinicians' ratings of communication were inversely related only in consultations with images. Methodological shortcomings may underlie the present findings of no difference. It is also possible that using images raised patients' and clinicians' expectations and encouraged emotional disclosure, in response to which clinicians were dissatisfied with their performance. CONCLUSIONS: Using images in clinical encounters did not have a negative impact on the consultation, nor did it improve communication or satisfaction. These findings will inform future analysis of behaviour in the video-recorded consultations

In-flight simulation of high agility through active control: Taming complexity by design

The motivation for research into helicopter agility stems from the realization that marked improvements relative to current operational types are possible, yet there is a dearth of useful criteria for flying qualities at high performance levels. Several research laboratories are currently investing resources in developing second generation airborne rotorcraft simulators. The UK's focus has been the exploitation of agility through active control technology (ACT); this paper reviews the results of studies conducted to date. The conflict between safety and performance in flight research is highlighted and the various forms of safety net to protect against system failures are described. The role of the safety pilot, and the use of actuator and flight envelope limiting are discussed. It is argued that the deep complexity of a research ACT system can only be tamed through a requirement specification assembled using design principles and cast in an operational simulation form. Work along these lines conducted at DRA is described, including the use of the Jackson System Development method and associated Ada simulation