305 research outputs found

    A survey of people with foot problems related to rheumatoid arthritis and their educational needs

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    Background Up to 50% of people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have foot symptoms at diagnosis, hence early foot health intervention is recommended and this should include patient education. This study identifies, for the first time, the foot health education (FHE) needs of people with RA. Methods An online survey of people with RA (n = 543) captured quantitative data in relation to the aims, methods of delivery, content, timing and accessibility of FHE. Results The majority concurred about the aims of FHE. Verbal delivery and websites were the most common methods. Written and verbal FHE were perceived to be the most effective methods. The point of diagnosis was the preferred time to receive it. Lack of access to FHE included minimal focus on foot health during consultations by both health practitioners and patients with RA. Participant gender, age, disease duration and living situation had a statistically significant influence on the results. Conclusion Foot health education is rarely considered within the medical consultation. There is a lack of patient and/or health professional awareness of this need with a detrimental impact on foot health. Patients require health professionals to identify their foot education health needs. Tailored foot health education should begin at initial diagnosis

    A Comparison of Flare Forecasting Methods. III. Systematic Behaviors of Operational Solar Flare Forecasting Systems

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    A workshop was recently held at Nagoya University (31 October – 02 November 2017), sponsored by the Center for International Collaborative Research, at the Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University, Japan, to quantitatively compare the performance of today’s operational solar flare forecasting facilities. Building upon Paper I of this series (Barnes et al. 2016), in Paper II (Leka et al. 2019) we described the participating methods for this latest comparison effort, the evaluation methodology, and presented quantitative comparisons. In this paper we focus on the behavior and performance of the methods when evaluated in the context of broad implementation differences. Acknowledging the short testing interval available and the small number of methods available, we do find that forecast performance: 1) appears to improve by including persistence or prior flare activity, region evolution, and a human “forecaster in the loop”; 2) is hurt by restricting data to disk-center observations; 3) may benefit from long-term statistics, but mostly when then combined with modern data sources and statistical approaches. These trends are arguably weak and must be viewed with numerous caveats, as discussed both here and in Paper II. Following this present work, we present in Paper IV a novel analysis method to evaluate temporal patterns of forecasting errors of both types (i.e., misses and false alarms; Park et al. 2019). Hence, most importantly, with this series of papers we demonstrate the techniques for facilitating comparisons in the interest of establishing performance-positive methodologies

    Stripping back the mask: Working conditions on digital labour platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic

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    Digital labour platforms have been widely promoted as a solution to the unemployment crisis sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic has also highlighted the vulnerability of gig workers when cast as essential workers. This article examines the COVID-19 policies of 191 platforms in 43 countries to understand how the crisis has shifted the conventions of the gig economy. Using a typology of “fair platform work”, the authors identify areas of progress in worker protection but also significant shortfalls, including the entrenchment of precarious work as platforms leverage the opportunities arising from the crisis

    Collybistin and gephyrin are novel components of the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 complex

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Collybistin (CB), a neuron-specific guanine nucleotide exchange factor, has been implicated in targeting gephyrin-GABA<sub>A </sub>receptors clusters to inhibitory postsynaptic sites. However, little is known about additional CB partners and functions.</p> <p>Findings</p> <p>Here, we identified the p40 subunit of the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 (eIF3H) as a novel binding partner of CB, documenting the interaction in yeast, non-neuronal cell lines, and the brain. In addition, we demonstrated that gephyrin also interacts with eIF3H in non-neuronal cells and forms a complex with eIF3 in the brain.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Together, our results suggest, for the first time, that CB and gephyrin associate with the translation initiation machinery, and lend further support to the previous evidence that gephyrin may act as a regulator of synaptic protein synthesis.</p

    Derrière le masque: les conditions de travail des travailleurs des plateformes numériques pendant la pandémie de COVID‐19

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    Les plateformes de travail numériques ont souvent été présentées comme une solution au chômage engendré par la pandémie. Cependant, la crise a mis en lumière la vulnérabilité des collaborateurs des plateformes, notamment des travailleurs essentiels parmi eux. Les auteurs examinent le comportement de 191 plate-formes de 43 pays pendant la pandémie pour savoir si celle-ci a fait évoluer la branche. Sur la base de critères relatifs à l'équité au travail, ils repèrent certains progrès mais aussi des lacunes importantes en matière de protection et concluent à une précarisation du travail, alors même que les plateformes ont plutôt tiré profit de la crise

    Sin máscara: las condiciones laborales en las plataformas digitales de trabajo durante la pandemia de COVID‐19

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    Europeo de Investigación en el marco del programa de financiación de la investigación y la inno-vación Horizonte 2020 de la Unión Europea (acuerdo de subvención núm. 838081). La responsabilidad de las opiniones expresadas en los artículos solo incumbe a sus autores, y su publicación en la Revista Internacional del Trabajo no significa que la OIT las suscriba. Resumen: Las plataformas digitales de trabajo se promueven a gran escala como solución a la crisis de desempleo provocada por la pandemia de COVID-19. Sin embargo , la pandemia también ha puesto de manifiesto la vulnerabilidad de quienes trabajan en ellas en tareas consideradas esenciales. Se examinan aquí las políti-cas de COVID-19 de 191 plataformas en 43 países para entender cómo la crisis ha cambiado las convenciones de la economía de plataformas. Utilizando una tipolo-gía de «trabajo de plataforma justo», se identifican avances en la protección de las y los trabajadores, pero también problemas significativos, como el afianzamiento del trabajo precario a medida que las plataformas aprovechan las oportunidades derivadas de la crisis. Palabras clave: economía de plataformas, COVID-19, futuro del trabajo, pla-taformas laborales digitales, derechos en el trabajo, empleo precario, condicio-nes de trabajo

    Effects of oral gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) administration on stress and sleep in humans: a systematic review

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    Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a non-proteinogenic amino acid and is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain. GABA's stress-reducing, and sleep enhancing effects have been established. However, although several human clinical trials have been conducted, results regarding the role of natural and/or biosynthetic oral GABA intake on stress and sleep are mixed. We performed a systematic review to examine whether natural and/or biosynthetic oral GABA intake has an effect on stress and sleep. We systematically searched on PubMed database for studies published up to February 2020 following PRISMA guidelines. Only placebo-controlled human trials that assessed stress, sleep, and related psychophysiological outcomes as a response to natural GABA (i.e., GABA that is present naturally in foods) or biosynthetic GABA (i.e., GABA that is produced via fermentation) intake were included. Fourteen studies met the criteria and were included in the systematic review. Although more studies are needed before any inferences can be made about the efficacy of oral GABA consumption on stress and sleep, results show that there is limited evidence for stress and very limited evidence for sleep benefits of oral GABA intake
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