Illness representations and associated coping responses in adults experiencing multimorbidity: A systematic review and narrative synthesis.

LITERATURE REVIEW Abstract Objectives: Research indicates that illness representations are associated with the management of health conditions. They are therefore important to understand when supporting people to best cope with their illnesses. This systematic review aims to summarise and synthesise the literature exploring illness representations and associated coping responses in people experiencing more than one chronic condition. Methods: A systematic review of literature published prior to November 2018 on MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science and PsycINFO databases. Search terms included three broad areas; multimorbidity, health and illness representations. Results are synthesised using a narrative approach. Results: Eight papers are included in the review and comprise qualitative and quantitative research designs. Findings indicate that illness representations in those with multimorbidity vary across conditions and individuals, while people hold representations relating to both individual conditions and multimorbidity. These representations have been associated with medication adherence and self-management behaviours. Conclusions: This narrative synthesis highlights that representations have a role in coping. There is a need to consider illness representations in clinical consultations and in the delivery of care to improve condition management. Further research is needed to establish how this may be best achieved and to consider other variables which may influence representations and coping. Developing a theoretical framework which may account for both single and multimorbid representations will be important for such future research. Keywords: Multimorbidity, chronic condition, common-sense model, illness representation, systematic review, narrative synthesis. EMPIRICAL PAPER Abstract Objectives: Research has highlighted an association between illness representations and coping responses, such as self-management, medication taking and treatment-seeking. However, illness representations for common mental health symptoms when experienced alongside multimorbidity are poorly understood. The current study aims to understand how people experiencing multimorbidity represent and respond to their common mental health symptoms. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirteen participants experiencing mild to moderate symptoms of anxiety and/or depression alongside physical multimorbidity. Thematic analysis combined with deviant case analysis was used to analyse the data. Results: The results provide an understanding of illness representations and coping responses for common mental health symptoms in those experiencing multimorbidity. Four key themes were identified; 1) interconnected conditions, 2) methods of responding to mental health difficulties, 3) relationships: the importance of connection and understanding, and 4) narrow treatment options. Conclusions: Illness representations for common mental health symptoms appear to have a role in guiding coping responses, including treatment-seeking. Having an awareness of people’s illness representations will be useful in clinical practice to guide consultations and interventions. By understanding and working with illness representations and increasing primary care accessibility we may begin to improve coping and treatment-seeking within this population. The implications of this research will be useful in allowing health services to meet the needs of the growing multimorbidity population and close the mental health treatment gap. Keywords: Multimorbidity, chronic conditions, mental health, illness representations, coping responses, treatment-seeking, qualitative research

Heralded Two-Photon Entanglement from Probabilistic Quantum Logic Operations on Multiple Parametric Down-Conversion Sources

An ideal controlled-NOT gate followed by projective measurements can be used to identify specific Bell states of its two input qubits. When the input qubits are each members of independent Bell states, these projective measurements can be used to swap the post-selected entanglement onto the remaining two qubits. Here we apply this strategy to produce heralded two-photon polarization entanglement using Bell states that originate from independent parametric down-conversion sources, and a particular probabilistic controlled-NOT gate that is constructed from linear optical elements. The resulting implementation is closely related to an earlier proposal by Sliwa and Banaszek [quant-ph/0207117], and can be intuitively understood in terms of familiar quantum information protocols. The possibility of producing a ``pseudo-demand'' source of two-photon entanglement by storing and releasing these heralded pairs from independent cyclical quantum memory devices is also discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; submitted to IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, special issue on "Quantum Internet Technologies

Generation of entangled ancilla states for use in linear optics quantum computing

We describe several different methods for generating the entangled ancilla states that are required for linear optics quantum computing. We show that post-selection can be used in combination with linear optical elements to generate the entangled ancilla, but with an exponentially-small efficiency. Alternatively, the ancilla can be efficiently generated using solid-state devices consisting of quantum wells coupled with tunnel junctions. Finally, we consider the possibility of using encoded ancilla in order to reduce the effects of decoherence and measurement errors.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Mobile Message Passing using a Scatternet Framework

The Mobile Message Passing Interface is a library which implements MPI functionality on Bluetooth enabled mobile phones. It provides many of the functions available in MPI, including point-to-point and global communication. The main restriction of the library is that it was designed to work over Bluetooth piconets. Piconet based networks provide for a maximum of eight devices connected together simultaneously. This limits the libraries usefulness for parallel computing. A solution to solve this problem is presented that provides the same functionality as the original Mobile MPI library, but implemented over a Bluetooth scatternet. A scatternet may be defined as a number of piconets interconnected by common node(s). An outline of the scatternet design is explained and its major components discussed