The effectiveness of an acceptance and commitment therapy self-help intervention for chronic pain

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of an Acceptance Commitment Therapy based self-help book for people with chronic pain. Method: This was a randomized 2 group study design. Over a 6-week period, 6 participants read the self-help book and completed exercises from it with weekly telephone support whereas 8 others formed a wait-list control group. Subsequently, 5 of the wait-list participants completed the intervention. Participants completed preintervention and postintervention questionnaires for acceptance, values illness, quality of life, satisfaction with life, depression, anxiety, and pain. Initial outcome data were collected for 8 control participants and 6 intervention participants. Including the wait-list controls, a total of 11 participants completed preintervention and postintervention measures. Whilst completing the self-help intervention, each week participants' rated the content of the book according to reading level and usefulness, and their comprehension of the content was also assessed. Results: Compared with controls, participants who completed the book showed improved quality of life and decreased anxiety. When data from all the treatment participants were pooled, those who completed the intervention showed statistically significant improvements (with large effect sizes) for acceptance, quality of life, satisfaction with life, and values illness. Medium effect sizes were found for improvements in pain ratings. Conclusions: These findings support the hypothesis that using the self-help book, with minimal therapist contact adds value to the lives of people who experience chronic pain

‘I put my “police head” on’: Coping strategies for working with sexual offending material

This paper explores the coping strategies of UK Police staff who are exposed to sexual offence material (SOM). Eleven Police staff completed a questionnaire then took part in semi-structured interviews. Themes were identified using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). This paper explores the theme ‘Coping strategies for working directly with material’, focusing on the most common strategies employed: ‘Detachment’, ‘Avoidance’, and ‘Process-driven’ approaches. Links between coping and different features of SOM are examined, including victim characteristics and audio content. The impact of organisational factors which make coping strategies more or less effective are also explored, along with potential sources of support

Microfluidic integration of photonic crystal fibers for online photochemical reaction analysis

Liquid-filled hollow-core photonic crystal fibers (HC-PCFs) are perfect optofluidic channels, uniquely providing low-loss optical guidance in a liquid medium. As a result, the overlap of the dissolved specimen and the intense light field in the micronsized core is increased manyfold compared to conventional bioanalytical techniques, facilitating highly-efficient photoactivation processes. Here we introduce a novel integrated analytical technology for photochemistry by microfluidic coupling of a HC-PCF nanoflow reactor to supplementary detection devices. Applying a continuous flow through the fiber, we deliver photochemical reaction products to a mass spectrometer in an online and hence rapid fashion, which is highly advantageous over conventional cuvette-based approaches

An Uncommon Presentation of Breast Implant Rupture

Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of The American Society of Plastic Surgeons. All rights reserved. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.Summary: Late periprosthetic seroma has lately been concerning for breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma. The authors present an uncommon presentation of breast implant rupture with a seroma and skin rash forming 2 years after insertion of the implant

Tumoral Calcinosis: An Uncommon Cause for a Mass in a Reconstructed Breast

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.The appearance of a mass in a reconstructed breast is always of concern for local recurrence of breast cancer and can cause worry and anxiety in a patient. We present an uncommon cause for a mass in a reconstructed breast

A Case Report of Candida albicans Costochondritis after a Complicated Esophagectomy

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.We present an unusual case of Candida albicans costochondritis after a complicated Ivor Lewis esophagectomy. This case exhibits that pain, erythema, and swelling over the costal cartilages should alert the possibility of infective costochondritis, especially in a postoperative patient. If a fungal agent is identified, aggressive surgical debridement and early commencement of antifungal therapy are likely determinants for a satisfactory outcome

Art and design learning journey: interactions between learners and materials

This thesis is an empirical explorative and new materialist qualitative research journey representing a secondary school art and design teacher’s awakening to the importance and vitality of art education to young learners with regards to their own intrinsic learning journey and their subsequent wider outlook on life. Secondary education and specifically art education is vulnerable and prone to political whims, lack of interest and shifts of policy since 1768 and the founding of the Royal Academy. The historical and political lineage of art and design education is outlined along with the lasting impact of language used within more recent statutory documentation. Little research currently exists that specifically looks at what is generated within the processes of making and doing that are intrinsic to creative activity and are lived out in every art and design classroom environment. Within this thesis I will explore the rich potential for haptic and tacit knowledge to be generated within the creative process, driven by heuristic experiences. I will also highlight the generation of powerful emotional relationships generated between human and non-human actants which occur as students engage with making and doing within the art classroom. Through working directly with different creative processes and materials, including research, poetry, design, and ceramics, two classes of year 9 students explored both collaboratively and individually the value of making and responding to both their own learning experience and that of working with others. The physicist and academic Karen Barad offers a novel platform of diffractive analysis with which to interpret the research project data in order to challenge the accepted positionality of merely working through a creative process in a procedural way. Diffractive analysis is also central in the analysis of the intra-actions between human and nonhuman actants opening up further discussions challenging established hierarchy and status quo presently found in secondary education. The genesis of the creative process is explored through the material discursive phenomena created through the intra-actions between human and nonhuman matter

Capturing T-cell receptors - a potential new modality for targeting hepatic tumours and post-transplantational lymphoproliferative disease (PLTD)

This project sought to identify paediatric tumour-specific phosphopeptide antigens on Post-transplantation lymphoproliferative disease samples (PTLD) and hepatic tumour samples. Tumour-specific T-cells are difficult to maintain in long-term culture, therefore the secondary aim of this project was exploring modalities for capturing T-cell receptor (TCR), important in recognising tumour-specific antigens. This may result in a tumour-specific product. Potential modalities included T-cell hybridomas and Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (hIPSc) technology to immortalise tumour specific T-cells. As a result, we have developed a technology for expanding these and differentiating them into a T-cell of interest with potential for future clinical application in paediatric tumours, using OP9 DL1 mouse feeder cell system to support differentiation of hIPSc towards haemopoietic lineage, demonstrating functionality of the end stage ‘T-cell product’. In summary we have identified a number of novel phosphopeptide antigens in vitro as well as on patient tissues. This information has been used to identify potential T-cell targets and by formation of hIPSc we have established a method for expanding specific T-cell’s in vitro. Using OP9DL1 cells we have also identified a method for differentiating these cells into lymphocyte-like cells with T-cell functionality therefore representing a possible methodology for expanding tumour-specific T-cells for clinical application

Making Sense of Music: Meanings Children and Adolescents Perceive in Musical Materials

What do young people hear when listening to music? Researchers have often privileged uses and functions of music in daily life, rather than exploring how children and adolescents understand music when they listen. This article reports on the third stage of a mixed-method nationwide UK enquiry concerning young people's subjective experiences of music. The third stage focused on meanings 10-18 year olds perceive in music. Participants with varying levels of musical training (N = 84) listened to 20 short musical extracts (30s or less), heard through headphones, to which they gave free written responses. Prior general level of musical involvement (listening, playing and training) was assessed using the Music USE questionnaire. 10-c.13 year olds were more likely than older participants to experience induced affect, use first-person pronouns, describe self-in-scenario visualisations, demonstrate vicarious experience through music. 16-18 year olds often utilized a more objective, detached mode of reporting characterised by a sense of connoisseurship. The mediating cognitive/evaluative effect of formal music education was apparent, both in technical vocabulary used and in an association between self-in-scenario fantasies and less exposure to musical training. Across the age range reports highlighted perceived meanings indirectly related or detached from original source specifications; participants made sense of music in relation to other media experiences, with mental imagery prevalent