An Intervention for Pulmonary Rehabilitators to Develop a Social Identity for Patients Attending Exercise Rehabilitation: A Feasibility and Pilot Randomised Control Trial Protocol

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a degenerative condition that can impair health related quality of life (HRQoL). A number of self-management interventions, employing a variety of behavioural change techniques (BCTs), have been adopted to improve HRQoL for COPD patients. However, a lack of attention has been given to group management interventions with an emphasis on incorporating BCTs into rehabilitators practice. This study aims to pilot and feasibly explore a social identity group- management intervention, delivered by COPD rehabilitation staff to patients attending exercise pulmonary rehabilitation. Doing so will help inform the plausibility of the intervention before conducting a full trial to evaluate its effectiveness to improve HRQoL. Methods: This is a two center, randomized cross-over controlled trial. Two pulmonary rehabilitation centres based in the UK will be randomly allocated to two treatment arms (standard care and intervention). Outcome measurements relating to HRQoL and social identity will be completed pre and post exercise rehabilitation. Focus group interviews will be conducted at the end of exercise rehabilitation to capture participants’ contextualised experiences of the intervention. COPD rehabilitators will undertake semi-structured interviews at the end of the trial to garner their holistic perspectives of intervention fidelity and implementation. Discussion: This is the first study to adopt a social identity approach to develop a rehabilitator-led, group management intervention for COPD patients attending exercise pulmonary rehabilitation. The results of this study will provide evidence for the feasibility and sample size requirements to inform a larger study, which can ascertain the intervention’s effectiveness for improving HRQoL for COPD patients. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02288039. Date 31st October 2014

Interference of a first-order transition with the formation of a spin-Peierls state in alpha'-NaV2O5?

We present results of high-resolution thermal-expansion and specific-heat measurements on single crystalline alpha'-NaV2O5. We find clear evidence for two almost degenerate phase transitions associated with the formation of the dimerized state around 33K: A sharp first-order transition at T1=(33+-0.1)K slightly below the onset of a second-order transition at T2onset around (34+-0.1)K. The latter is accompanied by pronounced spontaneous strains. Our results are consistent with a structural transformation at T1 induced by the incipient spin-Peierls (SP) order parameter above T2=TSP.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figure

Solos calcimorficos da sub-regiao do Abobral, Pantanal Mato-Grossense.

As "cordilheiras" da sub-regiao do Abobral, Pantanal Mato-Grossense, tem como material de origem, conchas de moluscos transportadas da planicie de inundacao do rio Miranda, de aguas e sedimentos alcalinos. Os solos, desenvolvidos sobre material essencialmente carbonatico (calcimorficos), constituem-se em ilhas com vegetacao de mata semicaducifolia, isolada nas planicies inundaveis de solos acidos do rio Abobral. Os solos em condicoes de hidromorfismo temporario formam um epipedon molico sobre um horizonte petrocalcico. Pela classificacao do Departamento de Agricultura do E.U.A. de 1949 sao denominados de Calcissolos e de Aeric Petrocalcic Calciaquoll pela Soil Taxonomy. A vegetacao original e a secundaria (ruderal) sao descritas. O desmatamento e o cultivo condicionam a formacao de crostas de sais na superficie e clorose nas plantas introduzidas de solos acidos. Em braquiarias a clorose foi seguida de morte. De todas as hipoteses sobre as causas (deficiencias de micronutrientes, acentuadas pela presenca de H2S, -HCO3, -NO2 ou metais pesados), os testes provaram a deficiencia de ferro e indicaram provavel toxidez por acumulacao de nitritos.bitstream/item/37580/1/CT19.pd

High Spectral Resolution Observations of the Massive Stars in the Galactic Center

We present high-resolution near-infrared spectra, obtained with the NIRSPEC spectrograph on the W. M. Keck II Telescope, of a collection of hot, massive stars within the central 25 arcseconds of the Galactic center. We have identified a total of twenty-one emission-line stars, seven of which are new radial velocity detections with five of those being classified as He I emission-line stars for the first time. These stars fall into two categories based on their spectral properties: 1) those with narrow 2.112, 2.113 micron He I doublet absorption lines, and 2) those with broad 2.058 micron He I emission lines. These data have the highest spectral resolution ever obtained for these sources and, as a result, both components of the absorption doublet are separately resolved for the first time. We use these spectral features to measure radial velocities. The majority of the measured radial velocities have relative errors of 20 kms, smaller than those previously obtained with proper-motion or radial velocity measurements for similar stellar samples in the Galactic center. The radial velocities estimated from the He I absorption doublet are more robust than those previously estimated from the 2.058 micron emission line, since they do not suffer from confusion due to emission from the surrounding ISM. Using this velocity information, we agree that the stars are orbiting in a somewhat coherent manner but are not as defined into a disk or disks as previously thought. Finally, multi-epoch radial velocity measurements for IRS 16NE show a change in its velocity presumably due to an unseen stellar companion.Comment: ApJ accepted, 42 pages, 16 figure

1/m_b^2 correction to the left-right lepton polarization asymmetry in the decay B -> X_s mu^+ mu^-

Using a known result by Falk et al. for the 1/m_b^2 correction to the dilepton invariant mass spectrum in the decay B \rightarrow X_s \mu^+ \mu^-, we calculate the 1/m_b^2 correction to the left-right muon polarization asymmetry in this decay. Employing an up-to-date range of values for the non-perturbative parameter \lambda_1, we find that the correction is much smaller than it should have been expected from the previous work by Falk et al.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures included. Uses epsf.sty and rotate.sty. To appear in Physical Review D. The complete postscript file is also available from URL ftp://feynman.t30.physik.tu-muenchen.de/pub/preprints/ tum_t31_98_96.ps.g

Direct CP-asymmetry in Inclusive Rare B-decays in 2HDM

The direct CP-asymmetry in the inclusive $B \to X_d \gamma$ and $B \to X_d e^+ e^ -$ decays is investigated in the two-Higgs doublet extension of the Standard Model (2HDM). The investigation is performed in the lowest non-vanishing order of the perturbation theory using the existing restrictions on the 2HDM parameters space. It is shown that the direct CP-asymmetry in the $B \to X_d \gamma$ decay can deviate significantly from the Standard Model predictions. In the presence of only one source of CP-violation (the CKM matrix weak phase) $a_{CP}(B \to X_d \gamma)$ can have the sign opposite to that in the SM. The new source of CP-violation can make $|a_{CP}(B \to X_d \gamma)|$ arbitrary small (unlike the SM case) and hence unmeasurable. Quantitatively, the obtained results suffer from the uncertainty of the choice of renormalization scale. As for the $B \to X_d e^+ e^ -$ rate asymmetry, its renormalization scale dependence in the lowest non-vanishing order does not allow to conclude if this quantity is efficient for testing New Physics beyond the Standard Model.Comment: 16 pages including 2 figure

THE DYNAMICS OF ORTHOHANTAVIRUS HANTAAN STRAINS REPLICATION ON THE MODEL OF MOUSE PERITONEAL MACROPHAGES

Orthohantaviruses (Orthohantavirus genus, Hantaviridae family) are the causative agents of a widespread natural focal infection in the  Russian Federation, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS).  An important role in the persistence of orthohantavirus in reservoir  hosts among other immunological responses, as well as in the  spread of the virus in the infected organism, is played by infected  macrophages, which, along with the vascular endothelium, are the main targets for orthohantaviruses.The aim of our study was to investigate the characteristics of replication of orthohantavirus Hantaan strains isolated from  Apodemus mice and detect the influence of different values of  multiplicity of infection (MOI) on replication dynamics of orthohantaviruses on cell culture.Materials and methods. We used 4 strains of Hantaan virus, isolated from A. agrarius (n = 2) and A. peninsulae (n = 2), captured in the different areas of Primorsky Krai of Russia. The  modeling of infection was performed on the primary cell culture of  mouse peritoneal macrophages with different MOI (from 10 to 0.1).  The assessing of infection was conducted via indirect fluorescent  antibody assay, and results were expressed as rate of antigen- positive cells per all cells in the field of vision. Results. Common dynamics of orthohantavirus infection on this in vitro model was characterized by periodically increased rates of  infected cells after 2, 4, 6 и 8 hours post infection (p.i.). Replication  of A. agrarius-borne strains was more intensive compare with  viruses, isolated from A. peninsulae, in the time point 4 hour p.i. on  the background the same MOI the statistically significant difference  of rate of antigen-positive cell 24.9 ± 2.38 % vs 15.2 ± 1.87 % (t =  3.20; p = 0.001414) was observed. Additionally, the decrease of MOI was followed by determined decrease of replication effectivity.Conclusion. The results of our study showed the significant phenotyping heterogeneity of orthohantavirus Hantaan strains,  isolated from Apodemus mice, resulting in different rates of  replication in the culture of mouse peritoneal macrophages