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Background Pharmacists are in demand now more than ever to provide high-quality expertise about the effectiveness, safety and use of medications. Amidst an increasingly complex and costly healthcare system, policy makers need robust evidence to justify public spending on pharmacy services. Research on the impact of existing and emerging pharmacy practices is required. Objective To explore barriers and opportunities to enhance research among pharmacists in Ireland utilising a World Café methodology. Methods A pharmacy research discussion day was held in November 2018, open to all pharmacists in Ireland. A World Café methodology was utilised as a mechanism to facilitate group discussions about pharmacy practice research. Results Discussions with 63 attendees identified four themes and seventeen subthemes. The four themes were challenges undertaking research, research motivations, leadership and training. Subthemes included robust evidence, clinical, economic and societal outcomes, alignment with national and international health system priorities, need for incentives from professional training bodies, competitive business model and embed within schools of pharmacy. Conclusions The most commonly discussed barriers inhibiting research were workload, technology limitations and financial considerations. Organisational leadership to prioritise and coordinate research efforts, training to build research capacity, building on existing examples of excellence and initiation of bottom-up community-based research projects were identified in our study as opportunities to enhance pharmacist involvement in research and ultimately patient health outcomes.

The sixth update of the Canadian Stroke Best Practice Recommendations: Rehabilitation, Recovery, and Reintegration following Stroke. Part one: Rehabilitation and Recovery Following Stroke is a comprehensive set of evidence-based guidelines addressing issues surrounding impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions following stroke. Rehabilitation is a critical component of recovery, essential for helping patients to regain lost skills, relearn tasks, and regain independence. Following a stroke, many people typically require rehabilitation for persisting deficits related to hemiparesis, upper-limb dysfunction, pain, impaired balance, swallowing, and vision, neglect, and limitations with mobility, activities of daily living, and communication. This module addresses interventions related to these issues as well as the structure in which they are provided, since rehabilitation can be provided on an inpatient, outpatient, or community basis. These guidelines also recognize that rehabilitation needs of people with stroke may change over time and therefore intermittent reassessment is important. Recommendations are appropriate for use by all healthcare providers and system planners who organize and provide care to patients following stroke across a broad range of settings. Unlike the previous set of recommendations, in which pediatric stroke was included, this set of recommendations includes primarily adult rehabilitation, recognizing many of these therapies may be applicable in children. Recommendations related to community reintegration, which were previously included within this rehabilitation module, can now be found in the companion module, Rehabilitation, Recovery, and Community Participation following Stroke. Part Two: Transitions and Community Participation Following Stroke.

Coronavirus pneumonia is accompanied by rapid virus replication, where a large number of inflammatory cell infiltration and cytokine storm may lead to acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and death. The uncontrolled release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6, is associated with ARDS. This constituted the first study to report on the variability in physicochemical properties of β-glucans extracts from the same edible mushroom Lentinus edodes on reduction of these pro-inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress. Specifically, the impact on the immunomodulatory and cytoprotective properties of our novel ‘in house’ (IH-Lentinan, IHL) and a commercial (Carbosynth-Lentinan, CL) Lentinan extract were investigated using in vitro models of lung injury and macrophage phagocytosis. CL comprised higher amounts of α-glucans and correspondingly less β-glucans. The two lentinan extracts demonstrated varying immunomodulatory activities. Both Lentinan extracts reduced cytokine induced NF-κB activation in human alveolar epithelial A549 cells, with the IHL extract proving more effective at lower doses. In contract, in activated THP-1 derived macrophages, the CL extract more effectively attenuated pro-inflammatory cytokine production (TNF-α, IL-8, IL-2, IL-6, IL-22) as well as TGF-β and IL-10. The CL extract attenuated oxidative stress induced early apoptosis, while the IHL extract attenuated late apoptosis. Our findings demonstrate significant physicochemical differences between Lentinan extracts, which produce differential in vitro immunomodulatory and pulmonary cytoprotective effects that may also have positive relevance to candidate COVID-19 therapeutics targeting cytokine storm., Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image, Highlights • β-Glucans from shiitake mushroom reduces IL-1β, IL-6 in in vitro lung injury model. • β-Glucans from same source can differ in immunomodulatory and pulmonary cytoprotective effects. • β-Glucans can reduce oxidative stress and activate macrophages. • β-Glucans may ameliorate cytokine storm that causes ARDS as seen with COVID-19.

We have used the University of Tasmania Mt Pleasant 26m radio telescope to investigate the polarisation characteristics of a sample of strong 6.7 GHz methanol masers, the first spectral line polarisation observations to be undertaken with this instrument. As part of this process we have developed a new technique for calibrating linear polarisation spectral line observations. This calibration method gives results consistent with more traditional techniques, but requires much less observing time on the telescope. We have made the first polarisation measurements of a number of 6.7 GHz methanol masers and find linear polarisation at levels of a few - 10% in most of the sources we observed, consistent with previous results. We also investigated the circular polarisation produced by Zeeman splitting in the 6.7 GHz methanol maser G9.62+0.20 to get an estimate of the line of sight magnetic field strength of 35+/-7 mG., Comment: 18 pages, 48 figures, accepted for publication in PASA

The photosynthetic apparatus of purple bacteria is contained within organelles called chromatophores, which form as extensions of the cytoplasmic membrane. The shape of these chromatophores can be spherical (as in Rhodobacter sphaeroides), lamellar (as in Rhodopseudomonas acidophila and Phaeospirillum molischianum), or tubular (as in certain Rb. sphaeroides mutants). Chromatophore shape is thought to be influenced by the integral membrane proteins Light Harvesting Complexes I and II (LH1 and LH2), which pack tightly together in the chromatophore. It has been suggested that the shape of LH2, together with its close packing in the membrane, induces membrane curvature. The mechanism of LH2-induced curvature is explored via molecular dynamics simulations of multiple LH2 complexes in a membrane patch. LH2s from three species—Rb. sphaeroides, Rps. acidophila, and Phsp. molischianum—were simulated in different packing arrangements. In each case, the LH2s pack together and tilt with respect to neighboring LH2s in a way that produces an overall curvature. This curvature appears to be driven by a combination of LH2's shape and electrostatic forces that are modulated by the presence of well-conserved cytoplasmic charged residues, the removal of which inhibits LH2 curvature. The interaction of LH2s and an LH1 monomer is also explored, and it suggests that curvature is diminished by the presence of LH1 monomers. The implications of our results for chromatophore shape are discussed.

We determine the coefficients of the terms multiplying the gauge fields, gravitational field and cosmological term in a scheme whereby properties are characterized by $N$ anticommuting scalar Grassmann variables. We do this for general $N$, using analytical methods; this obviates the need for our algebraic computing package which can become quite unwieldy as $N$ is increased., Comment: 7 pages

We develop the general relativity of extended spacetime-property for describing events including their properties. The anticommuting nature of property coordinates, augmenting space-time $({\bf x},t)$, allows for the natural emergence of generations and for the simple incorporation of gauge fields in the spacetime-property sector. With one electric property this results in a geometrical unification of gravity and electromagnetism, leading to a Maxwell-Einstein Lagrangian plus a cosmological term. Addition of one neutrinic and three chromic properties should lead to unification of gravity with electroweak and strong interactions., Comment: To appear in IJMPA

We investigate the masses of 0+ and 2+ glueballs in SU(2) lattice gauge theory using abelian projection to the maximum abelian gauge. We calculate glueball masses using both abelian links and monopole operators. Both methods reproduce the known full SU(2) results quantitatively. Positivity problems present in the abelian projection are discussed. We study the dependence of the glueball masses on magnetic current loop size, and find that the 0+ state requires a much greater range of sizes than does the 2+ state., 18 pages, latex, 4 postscript figures

We present results from magnetic monopoles in $SU(2)$ lattice gauge theory at finite temperature. The lattices are $16^{3}\times N_{t}$, for $N_{t}=4,6,8,12$, at $\beta=2.5115$. Quantities discussed are: the spacial string tension, Polyakov loops, and the screening of timelike and spacelike magnetic currents., Comment: 5 pages, four Postscript figures, Latex

We introduce a generalized Maximum Abelian Gauge (MAG). We work with this new gauge on 12^4 lattices for beta=5.7,5.8 and 16^4 lattices for beta=5.9,6.0. We also introduce a form of abelian projection related to the generalized MAG. We measure U(1)xU(1) wilson loops and single color magnetic current densities., 3 Pages, Lattice2002(topology)

We gauge fix 600 SU(3) beta=6.0 configurations on a 16^4 lattice to a simple form of the maximal abelian gauge. We project the SU(3) valued links to the U(1)xU(1) subgroup, and extract U(1)xU(1) and monopole string tensions. After gauge fixing to the indirect center gauge, the U(1)xU(1) links are projected to Z(3) and a vortex string tension is measured. The vortex and magnetic current densities are measured., Comment: Lattice2001(confinement), 3 pages, 1 figure

In genome packaging by tailed bacteriophages and herpesviruses, a concatemeric DNA is cut and inserted into an empty procapsid. A series of cuts follow the encapsidation of each unit-length 'headful' genome, but the mechanisms by which cutting is coupled to packaging are not understood. Here we report the first biochemical characterization of a headful nuclease from bacteriophage T4. Our results show that the T4 nuclease, which resides in the C-terminal domain of large 'terminase' gp17, is a weak endonuclease and regulated by a variety of factors; Mg, NaCl, ATP, small terminase gp16 and N-terminal ATPase domain. The small terminase, which stimulates gp17-ATPase, also stimulates nuclease in the presence of ATP but inhibits in the absence of ATP suggesting interdomain crosstalk. Comparison of the 'relaxed' and 'tensed' states of the motor show that a number of basic residues lining the nuclease groove are positioned to interact with DNA in the tensed state but change their positions in the relaxed state. These results suggest that conformational changes in the ATPase center remodel the nuclease center via an interdomain 'communication track'. This might be a common regulatory mechanism for coupling DNA cutting to DNA packaging among the headful packaging nucleases from dsDNA viruses.

We present numerical calculations using the magnetic monopoles of four-dimensional U(1) lattice gauge theory to obtain the heavy quark potential. Using the cosine action we perform a conventional gauge field simulation on a 164 lattice. We then use the DeGrand-Toussaint scheme for locating magnetic current in the lattice gauge field configurations to obtain our monopole configurations. In addition to the heavy quark potential we also calculate the potential between heavy external monopoles. In the confined phase of quarks, we observe total screening between external monopoles. In the Coulomb phase of the quarks we find a partially screened Coulomb potential between external monopoles. Under the assumptions used to obtain the potential between external monopoles, we verify that the Dirac quantization condition holds for the product of renormalized electric and magnetic charges.

We study the heavy quark potential in the SU(2) positive plaquette model using monopoles in the maximum abelian gauge, and vortices. Monopoles give a quantitative description of the string tension. Vortices approximately reproduce the entire heavy quark potential., Comment: 3 pages, latex, 2 postscript figures

The standard model ascribes distinct properties to different chiralities of fermions. We show how to incorporate this aspect in an extended spacetime-property framework involving two different attributes using a generalized metric which includes gauge fields as well as gravitation. Because the gauge fields are accompanied by coupling constants, all such schemes, including ours, necessitate coupling unification at high energy to ensure universality of gravitational interactions with matter., 10 pages, no figures. To appear in IJMPA

Intrathecal (IT) morphine provides excellent postoperative analgesia but may result in many side effects, including postoperative nausea and vomiting, pruritus, and respiratory depression, particularly at larger doses. Older patients may be at particular risk. The optimal dose of spinal morphine in older patients undergoing hip arthroplasty is not known. We designed this prospective, randomized, controlled, double-blinded study to evaluate the analgesic efficacy and side effect profile of 50-200 microg of IT morphine in older patients undergoing elective hip arthroplasty. Sixty patients older than 65 years undergoing elective hip arthroplasty were enrolled. Patients were randomized to receive spinal anesthesia with 15 mg of bupivacaine and IT morphine in four groups: 1). 0 microg, 2). 50 microg, 3). 100 microg, and 4). 200 microg. IT morphine 100 and 200 microg produced effective pain relief and decreased the postoperative requirement for morphine compared with control. IT morphine 50 microg did not provide effective pain relief. Both 100 and 200 microg of IT morphine provided comparable levels of postoperative analgesia. There were no between-group differences in postoperative nausea and vomiting, sedation, respiratory depression, or urinary retention. Pruritus was significantly more frequent with 200 microg of IT morphine. In conclusion, 100 microg of IT morphine provided the best balance between analgesic efficacy and side effect profile in older patients undergoing hip arthroplasty.The dosage of intrathecal morphine that provides the best balance between analgesic efficacy and side effect profile in the older patient undergoing hip arthroplasty is not known. This prospective, randomized, controlled, double-blinded clinical trial demonstrates that a dose of 100 microg of intrathecal morphine provides the best balance between efficacy and side effects, compared with doses of 0, 50, and 200 microg of morphine, in this patient population.

Almost all lattice work on confinement has been carried out for an SU (2) gauge group. This is a good starting point. Confinement is caused by glue and every physicist believes that there is no essential physical difference in the confining properties of glue for SU (N), for arbitrary N. Despite this, in confinement by topological objects, questions arise for SU (3) which have no SU (2) analog. We discuss two of these. The first involves the fact that the formulation of the maximal abelian gauge (MAG) is more subtle for SU (3) than it is for SU (2). Calculations with the simplest form give poor results for the string tension (Sec. (3)). A generalized form which appears more natural is suggested (Sec. (4)). The second question has to do with the subgroup structure of monopoles, and their relation to P-vortices. There are strong arguments that monopoles should be associated with SU (2) subgroups of SU (3). There is also good evidence from our SU (3) lattice calculations that P-vortices pass through monopoles. This appears to be paradoxical at first, since P-vortices carry only center flux. We show how these two properties can coexist (Sec. (5)). We begin with a general discussion of gauge-fixing and projection (Sec. (2)).

We present results for the fundamental string tension in SU(2) lattice gauge theory after projection to maximal abelian and direct maximal center gauges. We generate 20 Gribov copies/configuration. Abelian and center projected string tensions slowly decrease as higher values of the gauge functionals are reached., 3 pages, latex, 1 postscript figure, presented at Lattice 2000(Topology and Vacuum)

We present results for the heavy quark potential computed in SU(3) from magnetic monopoles and from center vortices. The monopoles are identified after fixing SU(3) lattice configurations to the maximal abelian gauge. The center vortices are identified after using an indirect center gauge fixing scheme which we describe for SU(3). Z(3) center vortices are extracted and used to compute the potential. The values of the string tensions from monopoles and vortices are compared to the full SU(3) string tension., Lattice 2000 (Topology and Vacuum), 4 pages, latex, 2 postscript figures

We apply smoothing to SU(2) lattice field configurations in 3+1 dimensions before fixing to the maximally Abelian gauge. The Abelian projected string tension is shown to be stable under this, whilst the monopole string tension declines by O(30%). Blocking of the SU(2) fields reduces this effect, but the use of extended monopole definitions does not. We discuss these results in the context of additional confining excitations in the U(1) vacuum., Comment: LATTICE98(confine)

We present results suggesting that magnetic monopoles can account for chiral symmetry breaking in abelian gauge theory. Full U(1) configurations from a lattice simulation are factorized into magnetic monopole and photon contributions. The expectation is computed using the monopole configurations and compared to results for the full U(1) configurations. It is shown that excellent agreement between the two values of is obtained if the effect of photons, which "dress" the composite operator psibarpsi, is included. This can be estimated independently by measurements of the physical fermion mass in the photon background., Comment: 14 pages REVTeX, including 5 figures

The phase diagram is investigated for SU(2) lattice gauge theory in d=3, coupled to adjoint scalars. For small values of the quartic scalar coupling, lambda, the transition separating Higgs and confinement phases is found to be first-order, in agreement with earlier work by Nadkarni. The surface of second-order transitions conjectured by Nadkarni, however, is shown instead to correspond to crossover behaviour. This conclusion is based on a finite size analysis of the scalar mass and susceptibility. The nature of the phase transition at the termination of first-order behaviour is investigated and we find evidence for a critical point at which the scalar mass vanishes. The photon mass and confining string tension are measured and are found to be negligibly small in the Higgs phase. This is correlated with the very small density of magnetic monopoles in the Higgs phase. The string tension and photon mass rise rapidly as the crossover is traversed towards the symmetric phase., LaTeX. Replaced with version to be published in Physics Letters B. Minor changes only

We resolve a discrepancy between the SU(2) spacial string tension at finite temperature, and the value obtained by monopoles in the maximum Abelian gauge. Previous work had incorrectly omitted a term due to Dirac sheets. When this term is included, the monopole and full SU(2) determinations of the spacial string tension agree to within the statistical errors of the monopole calculation., Comment: 8 pages, Latex files: msum.tex,msum.aux packaged with uufiles

Confinement via 't Hooft-Mandelstam monopoles is studied for the positive plaquette model in SU(2) lattice gauge theory. Positive plaquette model configurations are projected into the maximum abelian gauge and the magnetic current extracted. The resulting magnetic current is used to compute monopole contributions to Wilson loops and extract a monopole contribution to the string tension. As was previously found for the Wilson action, the monopole contribution to the string tension agrees with the string tension calculated directly from the SU(2) links. The fact that the positive plaquette model suppresses Z2 monopoles and vortices is discussed., Comment: 8 pages, one Postscript figure, Latex, uses psfig files: posplaq.tex,posplaq.aux,pp_1_3.ps packaged with uufiles

The axis for Figure 2 was wrong. It has been fixed and the postscript file replaced (The file was called comp.ps)., Comment: (22 pages latex (revtex); 2 figures appended as postscript files - search for mono.ps and comp.ps. Figures mailed on request--send a note to rwensley@stmarys-ca.edu) Preprint ILL-(TH)-94-#14

We calculate the heavy quark potential from the magnetic current due to monopoles in four dimensional $U(1)$ lattice gauge theory. The magnetic current is found from link angle configurations using the DeGrand-Toussaint identification method. The link angle configurations are generated in a cosine action simulation on a $24^4$ lattice. The magnetic current is resolved into large loops which wrap around the lattice and simple loops which do not. Wrapping loops are found only in the confined phase. It is shown that the long range part of the heavy quark potential, in particular the string tension, can be calculated solely from the large, wrapping loops of magnetic current., Comment: 15 pages (Latex file plus 3 postscript files appended), Univeristy of Illinois Preprint ILL-(TH)-93-\#15

Mesons with heavy quarks are modeled by putting fermions on the ends of a string. The spin dependence of the fermion potential over large distances is found by solving for the classical motion of a rotating string. Some general remarks about such theories of “heavy” strings are also made.

We examine the calculation of O ( α S ) corrections to Drell-Yan pair production and find that off-shell and on-shell methods for regulating infrared divergences, when properly applied, lead to the same cross section. We show further that the on-shell quark-antiquark cross section is the relevant quantity for the calculation of corrections to the Drell-Yan process, in spite of the fact that hadrons contain off-shell constituents.

We provide a simple derivation of the universal 1 R term in the interquark potential at large distances. We discuss a physical analogy which makes the existence of such a universal term easier to understand. We go on to briefly treat the behavior of the Wilson loop in other regimes, to further illustrate this analogy.

We show that the Coulomb gas description of quantum fluctuations in CP(1) is precisely equivalent to the dilute gas formula.

The bremsstrahlung emitted by an electron scattered in a Coulomb field was first calculated by Bethe and Heitler. The total cross section for production of photons with wave number between k and k + dk by a nonrelativistic electron of kinetic energy {epsilon} is d{sigma}/dk dk = 16/3 Z{sup 2}r{sub 0}{sup 2} (e{sup 2}/hc) (mc{sup 2}/{epsilon})log ({radical} {epsilon}/hck + {radical} {epsilon}/hck -1) dk/k, where Ze is the charge of the (heavy) ion, and r{sub 0} is the classical electron radius. Bremsstrahlung in a plasma has been computed by a number of authors in the approximation of replacing the Coulomb field by a cut-off Coulomb or static Debye potential. It is the purpose of this communication to call attention to another important effect of the medium upon the rate of emission of bremsstrahlung. This may be described as a modification of the relation of the photon's energy to its wave number, due to the index of refraction of the medium. Equivalently, we note that one must include in the calculation of bremsstrahlung in a medium the photon-medium interactions which result in the 'clothing' of a 'bare' photon. The replacement of a particle by a quasiparticle has long been known to bemore » important in the description of strongly interacting systems of massive particles such as liquid helium; the effect can be particularly dramatic for a photon because the medium gives a nonzero effective mass to the quasi-photon.« less