1,315 research outputs found
A qualitative study of the experiences and perceptions of adults with chronic musculoskeletal conditions following a 12-week Pilates exercise programme
Introduction
The aim of the present study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of adult patients with chronic musculoskeletal conditions following a Pilates exercise programme. A qualitative approach was taken to both data collection and analysis, with alignment to the philosophy of interpretive phenomenology. Participants included 15 women and seven men with a range of chronic musculoskeletal conditions, including nonspecific low back pain, peripheral joint osteoarthritis and a range of postsurgical conditions. The age range was from 36 years to 83 years, and the mean age was 57 years (standard deviation 14.1 years).
Methods
Data were collected via digital recordings of four focus groups in three NorthâWest of England physiotherapy clinics. The data were transcribed verbatim and then analysed using a thematic framework. Data were verified by a researcher and randomly selected participants, and agreement was achieved between all parties.
Results
The results were organized into five main themes: physical improvements; Pilates promotes an active lifestyle: improved performance at work and hobbies; psychosocial benefits and improved confidence; increased autonomy in managing their own condition; and motivation to continue with exercise.
Conclusion
The study was the first to investigate individual perceptions of the impact of Pilates on the daily lives of people with chronic conditions. The Pilatesâbased exercise programme enabled the participants to function better and manage their condition more effectively and independently. Further to previous work, the study revealed psychological and social benefits which increase motivation to adhere to the programme and promote a healthier lifestyle
Basic Hypergeometric Functions and Covariant Spaces for Even Dimensional Representations of U_q[osp(1/2)]
Representations of the quantum superalgebra U_q[osp(1/2)] and their relations
to the basic hypergeometric functions are investigated. We first establish
Clebsch-Gordan decomposition for the superalgebra U_q[osp(1/2)] in which the
representations having no classical counterparts are incorporated. Formulae for
these Clebsch-Gordan coefficients are derived, and it is observed that they may
be expressed in terms of the -Hahn polynomials. We next investigate
representations of the quantum supergroup OSp_q(1/2) which are not well-defined
in the classical limit. Employing the universal T-matrix, the representation
matrices are obtained explicitly, and found to be related to the little
Q-Jacobi polynomials. Characteristically, the relation Q = -q is satisfied in
all cases. Using the Clebsch-Gordan coefficients derived here, we construct new
noncommutative spaces that are covariant under the coaction of the even
dimensional representations of the quantum supergroup OSp_q(1/2).Comment: 16 pages, no figure
Strangeness, charm and bottom in a chiral quark-meson model
In this paper we investigate an SU(3) extension of the chiral quark-meson
model. The spectra of baryons with strangeness, charm and bottom are considered
within a "rigid oscillator" version of this model. The similarity between the
quark part of the Lagrangian in the model and the Wess-Zumino term in the
Skyrme model is noted. The binding energies of baryonic systems with baryon
number B=2 and 3 possessing strangeness or heavy flavor are estimated. The
results obtained are in good qualitative agreement with those obtained
previously in the topological soliton (Skyrme) model.Comment: 12 pages, no figures. Journal ref: submitted to Nucl.Phys.
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Conserved community structure and simultaneous divergence events in the fig wasps associated with Ficus benjamina in Australia and China
Localised patterns of species diversity can be influenced by many factors, including regional species pools, biogeographic features and interspecific interactions. Despite recognition of these issues, we still know surprisingly little about how invertebrate biodiversity is structured across geographic scales. In particular, there have been few studies of how insect communities vary geographically while using the same plant host. We compared the composition (species, genera) and functional structure (guilds) of the chalcid wasp communities associated with the widespread fig tree, Ficus benjamina, towards the northern (Hainan province, China) and southern (Queensland, Australia) edges of its natural range. Sequence data were generated for nuclear and mtDNA markers and used to delimit species, and Bayesian divergence analyses were used to test patterns of community cohesion through evolutionary time. Both communities host at least 14 fig wasp species, but no species are shared across continents. Community composition is similar at the genus level, with six genera shared although some differ in species diversity between China and Australia; a further three genera occur in only China or Australia. Community functional structure remains very similar in terms of numbers of species in each ecological guild despite community composition differing a little (genera) or a lot (species), depending on taxonomic level. Bayesian clustering analyses favour a single community divergence event across continents over multiple events for different ecological guilds. Molecular dating estimates of lineage splits between nearest inter-continental species pairs are broadly consistent with a scenario of synchronous community divergence from a shared "ancestral community". Fig wasp community structure and genus-level composition are largely conserved in a wide geographic comparison between China and Australia. Moreover, dating analyses suggest that the functional community structure has remained stable for long periods during historic range expansions. This suggests that ecological interactions between species may play a persistent role in shaping these communities, in contrast to findings in some comparable temperate systems
Insect herbivory and herbivores of Ficus species along a rain forest elevational gradient in Papua New Guinea
Classic research on elevational gradients in plantâherbivore interactions holds that insect herbivore pressure is stronger under warmer climates of low elevations. However, recent work has questioned this paradigm, arguing that it oversimplifies the ecological complexity in which plantâinsect herbivore interactions are embedded. Knowledge of antagonistic networks of plants and herbivores is however crucial for understanding the mechanisms that govern ecosystem functioning. We examined herbivore damage and insect herbivores of eight species of genus Ficus (105 saplings) and plant constitutive defensive traits of two of these species, along a rain forest elevational gradient of Mt. Wilhelm (200â2,700 m a.s.l.), in tropical Papua New Guinea. We report overall herbivore damage 2.4% of leaf area, ranging from 0.03% in Ficus endochaete at 1,700 m a.s.l. to 6.1% in F. hombroniana at 700 m a.s.l. Herbivore damage and herbivore abundances varied significantly with elevation, as well as among the tree species, and between the wet and dry season. Communityâwide herbivore damage followed a humpâshaped pattern with the peak between 700 and 1,200 m a.s.l. and this pattern corresponded with abundance of herbivores. For two tree species surveyed in detail, we observed decreasing and humpâshaped patterns in herbivory, in general matching the trends found in the set of plant defenses measured here. Our results imply that vegetation growing at midâelevations of the elevational gradient, that is at the climatically most favorable elevations where water is abundant, and temperatures still relatively warm, suffers the maximum amount of herbivorous damage which changes seasonally, reflecting the water availability
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The insect-focused classification of fruit syndromes in tropical rainforests: an inter-continental comparison
We propose a new classification of rainforest plants into eight fruit syndromes, based on fruit morphology and other traits relevant to fruit-feeding insects. This classification is compared with other systems based on plant morphology or traits relevant to vertebrate fruit dispersers. Our syndromes are based on fruits sampled from 1,192 plant species at three Forest Global Earth Observatory plots: Barro Colorado Island (Panama), Khao Chong (Thailand) and Wanang (Papua New Guinea). The three plots differed widely in fruit syndrome composition. Plant species with fleshy, indehiscent fruits containing multiple seeds were important at all three sites. However, in Panama a high proportion of species had dry fruits, while in New Guinea and Thailand, species with fleshy drupes and thin mesocarps were dominant. Species with dry, winged seeds that do not develop as capsules were important in Thailand, reflecting the local importance of Dipterocarpaceae. These differences can also determine differences among frugivorous insect communities. Fruit syndromes and colours were phylogenetically flexible traits at the scale studied, as only three of the eight seed syndromes, and one of the 10 colours, showed significant phylogenetic clustering at either genus or family levels. Plant phylogeny was, however, the most important factor explaining differences in overall fruit syndrome composition among individual plant families or genera across the three study sites
Brief encounters: what do primary care professionals contribute to peoples' self-care support network for long-term conditions? A mixed methods study.
BACKGROUND: Primary care professionals are presumed to play a central role in delivering long-term condition management. However the value of their contribution relative to other sources of support in the life worlds of patients has been less acknowledged. Here we explore the value of primary care professionals in people's personal communities of support for long-term condition management. METHODS: A mixed methods survey with nested qualitative study designed to identify relationships and social network member's (SNM) contributions to the support work of managing a long-term condition conducted in 2010 in the North West of England. Through engagement with a concentric circles diagram three hundred participants identified 2544 network members who contributed to illness management. RESULTS: The results demonstrated how primary care professionals are involved relative to others in ongoing self-care management. Primary care professionals constituted 15.5 % of overall network members involved in chronic illness work. Their contribution was identified as being related to illness specific work providing less in terms of emotional work than close family members or pets and little to everyday work. The qualitative accounts suggested that primary care professionals are valued mainly for access to medication and nurses for informational and monitoring activities. Overall primary care is perceived as providing less input in terms of extended self-management support than the current literature on policy and practice suggests. Thus primary care professionals can be described as providing 'minimally provided support'. This sense of a 'minimally' provided input reinforces limited expectations and value about what primary care professionals can provide in terms of support for long-term condition management. CONCLUSIONS: Primary care was perceived as having an essential but limited role in making a contribution to support work for long-term conditions. This coalesces with evidence of a restricted capacity of primary care to take on the work load of self-management support work. There is a need to prioritise exploring the means by which extended self-care support could be enhanced out-with primary care. Central to this is building a system capable of engaging network capacity to mobilise resources for self-management support from open settings and the broader community
Determination of the b quark mass at the M_Z scale with the DELPHI detector at LEP
An experimental study of the normalized three-jet rate of b quark events with
respect to light quarks events (light= \ell \equiv u,d,s) has been performed
using the CAMBRIDGE and DURHAM jet algorithms. The data used were collected by
the DELPHI experiment at LEP on the Z peak from 1994 to 2000. The results are
found to agree with theoretical predictions treating mass corrections at
next-to-leading order. Measurements of the b quark mass have also been
performed for both the b pole mass: M_b and the b running mass: m_b(M_Z). Data
are found to be better described when using the running mass. The measurement
yields: m_b(M_Z) = 2.85 +/- 0.18 (stat) +/- 0.13 (exp) +/- 0.19 (had) +/- 0.12
(theo) GeV/c^2 for the CAMBRIDGE algorithm. This result is the most precise
measurement of the b mass derived from a high energy process. When compared to
other b mass determinations by experiments at lower energy scales, this value
agrees with the prediction of Quantum Chromodynamics for the energy evolution
of the running mass. The mass measurement is equivalent to a test of the
flavour independence of the strong coupling constant with an accuracy of 7
permil.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
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