Categorisation of Foot Complaints in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) From a New Zealand Cohort

Background: Foot complaints have been shown to be common in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and heterogeneous in nature. We aimed to categorize self-reported foot complaints in people with SLE and foot symptoms. Methods: A self-administered validated questionnaire was posted to 406 people with SLE attending adult rheumatology clinics across three health boards in Auckland, New Zealand. In addition to foot pain, vascular complaints, dermatological lesions and neurological symptoms were included in the analysis. Pairwise correlations among the variables were undertaken followed by factor analysis to identify and categorise associations between reported foot complaints. Results: From the questionnaires returned, 93 full datasets were analysed. Participants’ were predominantly female (n = 87, 93.7%), with mean (SD) age of 50.4 (14.3) years and a mean (SD) disease duration of 13.1 (11) years. Three categories of foot complaint were determined: ‘foot pain’, ‘skin disorders’ and ‘vascular insufficiency’. These three groups provided the best fit (0.91) to describe the wide range of foot complaints reported by those with SLE. Factor analysis for foot pain demonstrated a high positive loading for the inter-correlation of foot pain in past month (0.83), foot pain today (0.71), intermittent claudication (0.71), numbness (0.62), loss of balance (0.81), swelling (0.59), foot joint pain (0.77), arch pain (0.68) and tendon pain (0.77). Skin disorders demonstrated a very high positive loading for 3 factors skin rash (0.82), blistering skin rash (0.95) and foot ulceration (0.88). In vascular insufficiency a high positive loading for cold feet (0.83), chilblains (0.76) and Raynaud’s phenomenon (0.70). Conclusions: This work suggests people with SLE report three independent categories of foot complaints; foot pain, skin disorders or vascular insufficiency

Reliability of the Tekscan Matscan® System for the Measurement of Postural Stability in Older People With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Postural stability can be measured in clinical and research settings using portable plantar pressure systems. People with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have decreased postural stability compared to non-RA populations and impaired postural stability is associated with falls in people with RA. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate the reliability of the TekScan MatScan® system in assessing postural stability in people with RA

Relative efficiency of fishing gears and investigation of resource availability in tropical demersal scalefish fisheries FRDC REPORT – PROJECT 2006/031

This project identified that there is substantial spatial variation in the demersal fish assemblages in the NDSF with some species more abundant in the north of the fishery and others in the south. At finer scales within sites and depths there is spatial variation associated with different habitats (e.g. sand vs sponge gardens or reef)

Speech Communication

Contains reports on five research projects.U. S. Air Force (Electronic Systems Division) under Contract AF 19(628)-3325National Science Foundation (Grant GP-Z495)National Institutes of Health (Grant MH-04737-04)National Institutes of Health (Grant NB-0433Z-02)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496

Applied Plasma Research

Contains reports on five research projects split into three sections.National Science Foundation (Grant GK-10472)Joint Services Electronics Programs (U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force)under Contract DA 28-043-AMC-02536(E

Loss and revival of coherence in the interaction between a positron beam and a photon field

We study the interaction between a positron beam in the single-particle regime in an interferometric configuration and a microwave electromagnetic field. We discuss the conditions under which quantum interference can be affected by the field and we outline its possible experimental study in the framework of QUantum interferometry and gravitation with Positrons and LASers (QUPLAS) experiment