Content Analysis of General Practitioner Requested Lumbar Spine X-ray Reports

Aims and Background X-rays of patients with low back pain rarely show serious pathology but frequently reveal incidental age-related changes and always expose people to radiation. Patients who have X-rays are more satisfied but report worse pain and disability. Psychological factors such as illness beliefs,catastrophizing and fear avoidance have been shown to be predictors of chronicity/disability. Authorities suggest that the way X-ray information is transmitted and interpreted by patients may influence outcome, therefore this study was designed to determine the words used by radiologists to describe lumbar spine Xrays. Methods: 120 consecutive X-ray reports for patients referred by primary care physicians were anonymised. A formal summative content analysis was undertaken. The coded words were grouped into categories according to their perceived meaning, and the process was refined until there were only three mutually exclusive categories. Results: Half the sample was aged 60 years or younger. Three categories were identified: anatomical, pathological and descriptive. In the pathological category, 33% of words described normal appearances, 47% described age-related changes and 20% described other features. In only 2% of cases were pathological words used to describe conditions as being "normal for age". Overall, 89 (74%) of the 120 reports contained at least one phrase containing words indicating the presence of degenerative changes. Conclusions: Almost three-quarters of lumbar spine X-ray reports use pathological words such as 'degenerative changes' to describe age-related changes but rarely describe them as being "normal for age"

All Dressed Up And Ready To Go: A Tale Of Two Quarks.

The existence of unexpected states (states not predicted by the conventional quark model) in heavy Quarkonia, specifically Charmonium and Bottomonium like states, is of great interest to modern particle physics. States like X(3872), Yb(10890), Zb(10610), and Zb(10650) have proven difficult to reconcile with the conventional quark model. However, analysis of diquark constituent masses has pointed towards tetraquark configurations being responsible for many of these exotic states. Thus far, the diquark correlations required for a tetraquark configuration of X(3872) have been primarily examined through the use of diquark correlation functions where the Schwinger string is introduced to extract gauge invariant information from said diquark correlator. Here, research is presented on the use of the dressed field formalism in the context of diquark correlation functions. Results for doubly light, light-heavy, and doubly heavy diquark systems have been obtained, and all results have shown this dressed field method to be an effective means of extracting gauge invariant results from diquark correlation functions

Supporting adolescent athletes' dual careers: The role of an athlete's social support network

Objectives The objectives of this study were to, (a) understand the role of the social support network in facilitating adolescent athletes' dual careers in sport and education, and; (b) gain insights into the factors that may optimize the provision of such support. Design A two-stage qualitative study. Method In stage one, four different sport and education settings in the UK were examined: A tennis academy, a football academy, a national field hockey squad, and a high-performance swimming squad. Interviews were conducted with two athletes and associated significant others from each setting. In stage two, nine current or former international athletes from a variety of sports and countries recalled their experiences of managing a dual career. Analysis was conducted following the procedures outlined by Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña (2014). Results Overall, athletes in stage one and two perceived that to maintain their dual careers, they were heavily dependent upon the support of significant others. The role of the support network was to recognize the demands of a dual career, anticipate problems, value education, minimize barriers, and create autonomy-supportive environments. Key factors to optimize such support were focusing on the whole person, providing integrated support, and fostering a culture that promotes continuing education. Conclusions Results indicate that athletes require particular types of support within their home, at school, and in their sport context to be able to manage their dual career. However, a range of individual and group-level factors may influence the extent to which such support is available to athletes

Improved feeding and forages at a crossroads: Farming systems approaches for sustainable livestock development in East Africa

Dairy development provides substantial potential economic opportunities for smallholder farmers in East Africa, but productivity is constrained by the scarcity of quantity and quality feed. Ruminant livestock production is also associated with negative environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, air pollution, high water consumption, land-use change, and loss of biodiversity. Improved livestock feeding and forages have been highlighted as key entry point to sustainable intensification, increasing food security, and decreasing environmental trade-offs including GHG emission intensities. In this perspective article, we argue that farming systems approaches are essential to understand the multiple roles and impacts of forages in smallholder livelihoods. First, we outline the unique position of forages in crop-livestock systems and systemic obstacles to adoption that call for multidisciplinary thinking. Second, we discuss the importance of matching forage technologies with agroecological and socioeconomic contexts and niches, and systems agronomy that is required. Third, we demonstrate the usefulness of farming systems modeling to estimate multidimensional impacts of forages and for reducing agro-environmental trade-offs. We conclude that improved forages in East Africa are at a crossroads: if adopted by farmers at scale, they can be a cornerstone of pathways toward sustainable livestock systems in East Africa.</p

Narrow Linewidth 780 nm Distributed Feedback Lasers for Cold Atom Quantum Technology

Cold atom quantum technology systems have a wide range of potential applications which includes atomic clocks, rotational sensors, inertial sensors, quantum navigators, magnetometers and gravimeters. The UK Quantum Technology Hub in Sensors and Metrology has the aim of developing miniature cold atom systems using an approach similar to that pioneered by the chip scale atomic clock where microfabricated vacuum chambers have atomic transitions excited and probed by lasers. Whilst narrow linewidth Ti:Sa and external cavity diode lasers have been required for cooling and control, such lasers are too large, power hungry and expensive for future miniature cold atom systems. Here we demonstrate 1 mm long 780.24 nm GaAs/AlGaAs distributed feedback (DFB) lasers aimed at 87Rb cold atom systems operating at 20 ˚C with over 50 mW of power and side-mode suppression ratios of 46 dB using sidewall gratings and no regrowth. Rb spectroscopy is used to demonstrate linewidths below the required 6.07 MHz natural linewidth of the 87Rb D2 optical transition used for cooling. Initial packaged fibre-coupled devices demonstrate lifetimes greater than 200 hours. We also investigate the use of integrated semiconductor amplifiers (SOAs) and longer devices to further reduce the linewidths well below 1 MHz. A range of options to control the populations of electrons in the hyperfine split energy levels spaced by 3.417 GHz are examined. Two integrated lasers, integrated electro-absorption modulators (EAMs) and the direct modulation of a single DFB laser approaches are investigated and we will discuss which is best suited to integrated cold atom systems

String and M-theory Deformations of Manifolds with Special Holonomy

The R^4-type corrections to ten and eleven dimensional supergravity required by string and M-theory imply corrections to supersymmetric supergravity compactifications on manifolds of special holonomy, which deform the metric away from the original holonomy. Nevertheless, in many such cases, including Calabi-Yau compactifications of string theory and G_2-compactifications of M-theory, it has been shown that the deformation preserves supersymmetry because of associated corrections to the supersymmetry transformation rules, Here, we consider Spin(7) compactifications in string theory and M-theory, and a class of non-compact SU(5) backgrounds in M-theory. Supersymmetry survives in all these cases too, despite the fact that the original special holonomy is perturbed into general holonomy in each case.Comment: Improved discussion of SU(5) holonomy backgrounds. Other minor typos corrected. Latex with JHEP3.cls, 42 page

Compact Tunable Filters for Broadband Applications

AbstractMicrowave filters are essential components of modern communication systems. Miniaturization of microwave filters is of much demand in today's rapidly changing communication world with ever more growing wireless applications. The paper presents compact tunable band pass filters to provide multiple bands of operation. The filter employs tunable/chip inductors along with an inter-digital coupled line for introducing transmission zeros on both band edges. Tunability is achieved by varying the inductor values. The stop band attenuation is improved by etching Complementary Split Ring Resonators (CSRR's) and Defected Ground Structures (DGS) in the ground plane

Shift in lateralization during illusory self‐motion: EEG responses to visual flicker at 10 Hz and frequency‐specific modulation by tACS

Self‐motion perception is a key aspect of higher vestibular processing, suggested to rely upon hemispheric lateralization and alpha‐band oscillations. The first aim of this study was to test for any lateralization in the EEG alpha band during the illusory sense of self‐movement (vection) induced by large optic flow stimuli. Visual stimuli flickered at alpha frequency (approx. 10 Hz) in order to produce steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP s), a robust EEG measure which allows probing the frequency‐specific response of the cortex. The first main result was that differential lateralization of the alpha SSVEP response was found during vection compared with a matched random motion control condition, supporting the idea of lateralization of visual–vestibular function. Additionally, this effect was frequency‐specific, not evident with lower frequency SSVEP s. The second aim of this study was to test for a causal role of the right hemisphere in producing this lateralization effect and to explore the possibility of selectively modulating the SSVEP response. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS ) was applied over the right hemisphere simultaneously with SSVEP recording, using a novel artefact removal strategy for combined tACS ‐EEG . The second main result was that tACS enhanced SSVEP amplitudes, and the effect of tACS was not confined to the right hemisphere. Subsequent control experiments showed the effect of tACS requires the flicker frequency and tACS frequency to be closely matched and tACS to be of sufficient intensity. Combined tACS ‐SSVEP s are a promising method for future investigation into the role of neural oscillations and for optimizing tACS