195,139 research outputs found
UK back pain exercise and manipulation (UK BEAM) trial - national randomised trial of physical treatments for back pain in primary care: objectives, design and interventions
No full textLow back pain has major health and social implications. Although there have been
many randomised controlled trials of manipulation and exercise for the management of low back
pain, the role of these two treatments in its routine management remains unclear. A previous trial
comparing private chiropractic treatment with National Health Service (NHS) outpatient
treatment, which found a benefit from chiropractic treatment, has been criticised because it did not
take treatment location into account. There are data to suggest that general exercise programmes
may have beneficial effects on low back pain. The UK Medical Research Council (MRC) has funded
this major trial of physical treatments for back pain, based in primary care. It aims to establish if,
when added to best care in general practice, a defined package of spinal manipulation and a defined
programme of exercise classes (Back to Fitness) improve participant-assessed outcomes.
Additionally the trial compares outcomes between participants receiving the spinal manipulation in
NHS premises and in private premises
Hydrogen sensors based on Pt-AlGaN/GaN back-to-back Schottky diode
No full textIn this paper, platinum (Pt) with a thickness of 45 nm was sputtered on the surface of AlGaN/GaN heterostructure to form the Schottky contact and the back-to-back Schottky diodes were characterized for H-2 sensing at room temperature. Both the forward and reverse current of the devices increased with exposure to H-2 gas, which was attributed to Schottky barrier height reduction caused by hydrogen absorption in the catalytic metals. A shift of 0.7 V at 297 K was obtained at a fixed forward current of 0.1 mA after switching from N-2 to 40% H-2 in N-2. The sensor's responses under different concentrations from 2500 ppm H-2 to 40% H-2 in N-2 at 297 K were investigated. Time response of the sensor at a fixed bias of 1 V was given. Finally, the decrease of the Schottky barrier height and the sensitivity of the sensor were calculated. (C) 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Back or neck-pain-related disability of nursing staff in hospitals, nursing homes and home care in seven countries- results from the European NEXT-Study
No full textBackground: musculoskeletal disorders are a widespread affliction in the nursing profession. Back or neck-pain-related disability of nursing staff is mainly attributed to physical and psychosocial risk factors.Objectives: to investigate which—and to what extent—physical and psychosocial risk factors are associated with neck/back-pain-related disability in nursing, and to assess the role of the type of health care institution (hospitals, nursing homes and home care institutions) within different countries in this problem.Design: cross-sectional secondary analysis of multinational data of nurses and auxiliary staff in hospitals (n=16,770), nursing homes (n=2140) and home care institutions (n=2606) in seven countries from the European NEXT-Study.Methods: multinomial logistic regression analysis with raw models for each factor and mutually adjusted with all analysed variables.Results: analysis of the pooled data revealed effort-reward imbalance as the predominant risk factor for disability in all settings (odds ratios for high disability by effort-reward ratio: hospital 5.05 [4.30–5.93]; nursing home 6.52 [4.04–10.52] and home care 6.4 [3.83–10.70] [after mutual adjustment of psychosocial and physical risk factors]). In contrast, physical exposure to lifting and bending showed only limited associations with odds ratios below 1.6; the availability and use of lifting aids was—after mutual adjustment—not or only marginally associated with disability. These findings were basically confirmed in separate analyses for all seven countries and types of institutions.Conclusions: the findings show a pronounced association between psychosocial factors and back or neck-pain-related disability. Further research should consider psychosocial factors and should take the setting where nurses work into accoun
CNO and pep neutrino spectroscopy in Borexino: Measurement of the deep-underground production of cosmogenic C11 in an organic liquid scintillator
No full textBorexino is an experiment for low energy neutrino spectroscopy at the Gran Sasso underground laboratories. It is designed to measure the mono-energetic 7Be solar neutrino flux in real time, via neutrino-electron elastic scattering in ultra-pure organic liquid scintillator. Borexino has the potential to also detect neutrinos from the \emph{pep} fusion process and the CNO cycle. For this measurement to be possible, radioactive contamination in the detector must be kept extremely low. Once sufficiently clean conditions are met, the main background source is 11C, produced in reactions induced by the residual cosmic muon flux on 12C. In the process, a free neutron is almost always produced. 11C can be tagged on an event by event basis by looking at the three-fold coincidence with the parent muon track and the subsequent neutron capture on protons. This coincidence method has been implemented on the Borexino Counting Test Facility data. We report on the first event by event identification of \emph{in situ} muon induced 11C in a large underground scintillator detector. We measure a 11C production rate of 0.130 ± 0.026 (stat) ± 0.014 (syst) day−1 ton−1, in agreement with predictions from both experimental studies performed with a muon beam on a scintillator target and \emph{ab initio} estimations based on the 11C producing nuclear reactions
New experimental limits on violations of the Pauli exclusion principle obtained with the Borexino Counting Test Facility
No full textThe Pauli exclusion principle (PEP) has been tested for nucleons (n,p) in 12C and 16O nuclei, using the results of background measurements with the prototype of the Borexino detector, the Counting Test Facility (CTF). The approach consisted of a search for γ, n, p and/or α's emitted in a non-Paulian transition of 1P- shell nucleons to the filled 1S1/2 shell in nuclei. Similarly, the Pauli-forbidden β± decay processes were searched for. Due to the extremely low background and the large mass (4.2 tons) of the CTF detector, the following most stringent up-to-date experimental bounds on PEP violating transitions of nucleons have been established: τ(12C→12C ̃+γ)>2.1⋅1027 y, τ(12C→11B ̃+p)>5.0⋅1026 y, τ(12C(16O)→11C ̃(15O ̃)+n)>3.7⋅1026 y, τ(12C→8Be ̃+α)>6.1⋅1023 y, τ(12C→12N ̃+e−+νe ̃)>7.6⋅1027 y and τ(12C→12B ̃+e++νe)>7.7⋅1027 y, all at 90% C.L
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Lydia H. Hart Diary
No full textDiary, 1823-1830, 1875 and loose papers 1813, 1831, and undated of Lydia H. Hart of Richmond, Virginia and later Walden, Orange County, New York. The Diary was started by Lydia H. Hart, the wife of Reverend William H. Hart, who was the rector of St. John’s Church in Richmond, VA and later St. Andrews Church in Walden, New York. Diary entries include day-to-day activities and meetings with local neighbors and church patron’s. These neighbors included Elizabeth Van Lew and her parents, which Lydia Hart writes about several times. Most dated entries also include discussion of specific bible verses or Rev. Hart’s sermons. Notable entries include a description of the funeral service for Rev. John Buchanan, former rector of St. John’s Church from 1795 to 1822. Diary entries are chronological and more frequent for 1823 and become less frequent in 1823. In 1828, Lydia Hart moved to New York and eventually to Walden, New York in May 1830.At the end of the diary entries is an entry form another author, possibly by Mary. W. Hart dated 1875. Lydia Hart died in 1831 and could not have made the entry.At the back of the diary and upside down to the diary entries are transcriptions of letters and poems of Lydia Hart’s to various newspapers and and personnel correspondence. Entries include a plea for support to the city of Richmond to take care of its ‘destitute children’, letters to the editor of local newspapers, and poems for the birth of a child or death of a patron.Loose papers include a letter dated Jan 8th 1813, a bequeath request from William H. Hart for the placement of a Tombstone for Lydia Hart, a table of contents for various letters or sermons, a letter from William Hart to a friend from Richmond, and 2 loose undated papers of unknown authorship. The letter from William Hart speaks of the events of Lydia’s death, and inquiries about events taking place in Richmond
Conservative management of back pain: A literature update
No full textMost adults suffer from low back pain (LBP) at some time in their lifetime. The resulting medical costs and workrelated productivity losses make LBP one of the most expensive ailments to our society today.1 In the military, LBP is one of the largest detriments to Soldier health and mission readiness. Back disorders are among the most common causes of hospitalization, ambulatory medical visits, and restricted duty days in the U.S. Armed Forces.2 The high cost, along with the lack of consistency of medical treatment for LBP, has resulted in the creation and implementation of clinical practice guidelines (CPG) for the management and treatment of LBP around the world
Low back pain and risk factors for low back pain in car drivers
No full textThe cause of low back pain in populations of professional drivers is uncertain. A literature review
revealed factors that seem to be associated with low back pain (e.g. physical factors: exposure to
whole body-vibration, prolonged sitting posture, frequent lifting, pushing and pulling, lack of physical
fitness; psychosocial factors: job satisfaction or stress; individual factors: age, gender,
anthropometrics, tobacco, alcohol consumption, etc.).
This thesis investigates the occurrence of back pain in professional car drivers – a group found to
be not focussed upon in previous epidemiological studies. The thesis seeks to advance
understanding of response relationships between risk factors and low back pain in populations of
car drivers (209 taxi drivers and 365 police drivers) and 485 non-drivers. A longitudinal study with
cross-sectional baseline combined with field measurement of driving in selected vehicles was
performed to investigate the occurrence of musculoskeletal problems (mainly low back pain) and
the relationship between risk factors and low back pain experienced for at least one day during the
past 12 months in the two populations of professional drivers (taxi drivers and police drivers) and
professional non-drivers.
The cross-sectional baseline of the longitudinal study revealed that 45% (38.3-51.7%) of taxi
drivers, 53% (48-58.6%)of police drivers and 46% (41-50.1%) of police non-drivers reported low
back pain for at least one day during the past 12-months (p = 0.09). The prevalence of low back
pain in the non-driving population of police employees fell within prevalence range reported by
professional car drivers in this study and in previous epidemiological studies. The cross-sectional
study revealed risk factors associated with the prevalence of low back pain (i.e., stature, previous
physical demands, increased psychosomatic distress, daily and cumulative driving in taxi drivers;
age, lifting, bending, increase psychosomatic distress in police drivers; stature, bending, increased
psychosomatic distress in police non-drivers).
Measurements of whole-body vibration in selected taxi and police vehicles revealed frequencyweighted
accelerations in the dominant vibration direction (i.e., z-axis) to be 0.47 ms-2 r.m.s. in taxi
vehicles and 0.58 ms-2 r.m.s. in police vehicles.
A study of cumulative exposure to whole-body vibration in a group of taxi drivers pointed to a
possible overestimation of their self-estimated duration of vibration exposure by 31% on average.
The longitudinal study revealed a lower incidence of low back pain in taxi drivers than in both
police drivers and police non-drivers (p = 0.02). The difference might be attributed to a different
approach to low back pain in taxi drivers who lose income if unable to work. An alternative
explanation for increased low back pain among police employees could be that taxi drivers with low
back pain leave their profession and were excluded from the follow-up study – a healthy worker
effect.
The longitudinal study revealed that increased psychosomatic distress was a risk factor
associated with the development of new episodes of low back pain in all three of the studied
populations (i.e. taxi drivers and police drivers and non-drivers).
In police drivers, increased daily duration of driving was a risk factor for the development of low
back pain. Although the results point to increased incidence of low back pain with increasing
duration of daily driving, non-drivers were at a similar risk of developing of low back pain. Plausible
explanations for this finding include ergonomic factors that were present for both the drivers and the
non-drivers (e.g., the duration of sitting or duration in a constrained posture) and the presence of
other risk factors not investigated in the study but associated with increased incidence of low back
pain in non-drivers
Conservative management of low back pain
No full textBack pain is prevalent worldwide, but back pain disability has reached epidemic proportions in many industrialised societies. Few patients have serious medical pathology or direct neurological involvement requiring surgery. Although the causes remain unclear, physical stress and its consequences on discs, facet joints and supporting soft tissues at work or leisure are important, sometimes aggravated by adverse psychosocial factors. Modern management emphasises the role of self-care, beginning in primary care with the first episode. Without root compression, bed rest should not exceed 48 hours. Emphasis is on encouraging a rapid return to physical fitness and other activities, including employment, acknowledging that returning to a normal life may require working through pain. Medication facilitates this. No one should remain in pain beyond six weeks without being referred to a specialist service for a physical and psychosocial assessment by appropriately trained professionals and with consultant support for investigation, pain management and rehabilitation when needed
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