Search

Background: Overactivity in the context of chronic pain (i.e. activity engagement that significantly exacerbates pain) is an important clinical issue that has gained empirical attention in the last decade. Current assessment concepts of overactivity tend to focus on frequency to quantify the severity of the pain behaviour. This study aimed to develop and validate a more comprehensive self-assessment, the Overactivity in Persistent Pain Assessment (OPPA).Methods: A sample of 333 individuals with chronic pain completed the OPPA. A subset of 202 individuals also completed a set of existing measures of pain-related outcomes and activity patterns. The remaining 131 participants were provided with a second copy of the OPPA to fill in one week following their initial assessment.Results: A principal component analysis confirmed that the OPPA items were best represented by a single construct. The OPPA was found to correlate with pain-related measures in an expected way that is supported by both theory and qualitative data. When compared to existing overactivity measures, the OPPA was the only measure to contribute significantly to the regression models predicting higher levels of pain severity, more pain interference and lower levels of activity participation after controlling for age, gender and activity avoidance. In addition, the OPPA scale exhibited acceptable internal consistency and good test-retest reliability.Conclusion: The results of this study reinforce the potentially important role of overactivity in the maintenance of pain-related suffering and supports a corresponding assessment tool with preliminary psychometric evidence for clinical and research applications.Significance: This study deconstructs the overactivity concept and develop a corresponding assessment based on five quantifiable severity features: severity of pain exacerbation, maladaptive coping strategies used, impact on occupational performance, recovery time and frequency. Results of the psychometric evaluation indicate that this comprehensive assessment of overactivity severity features may be necessary to understand the impact of overactivity on pain severity and physical functioning from both a clinical and research perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fall of communism in Eastern Europe was one of the most significant and dramatic events in the second half of the 20th century. While it has brought huge improvements in people's lives, it has also led to serious housing shortages, resulting in a severe lack of affordable housing and rapidly rising homelessness. The author discusses the main implications of this and highlights the current situation in two former communist countries. Here he focuses on the approaches taken at a sub-government level, including how communities are working to take control and design and build homes themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prior work has shown that sleep is critical for memory through a process called sleep‐dependent memory (SDM). However, SDM appears to diminish with age, and may be further compromised in those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. Typically, studies examining SDM have been small, often restricted by the need for administration in the sleep laboratory. Consequently, understanding of SDM decrements in MCI has been limited, hindering targeted developments of treatments for SDM. We aimed to develop an app‐based 'chatbot' for measuring SDM, allowing data to be obtained at scale and in response to treatments without the need for sleep laboratory attendance. Method: An initial prototype of the chatbot was developed for Android and iOS utilising a 32‐item word‐pair task demonstrated to be suitable for people with MCI. The task delivery included pre‐sleep learning and memory and post‐sleep recall. To reduce content‐specific practice effects, an alternative word‐pair list was included for repeat testing. Co‐design focus group methodologies were used to ascertain usability and acceptability for older people with MCI who attended a memory clinic. Participants (N = 11) attended one of two 90‐minute focus groups in which semi‐structured questions probed technology use and gathered feedback for app improvement. Results: Participant feedback validated that core useability and content features of the chatbot were appropriately developed for the specific use of older adults at risk of dementia. Participants were comfortable with the chatbot obtaining demographics and habitual sleep and wake times and providing notifications for completing the task pre‐ and post‐sleep. No negative feedback was received on the layout of the instructions for the test or delivery of the word‐pairs task. Suggested improvements included ability to defer testing and customise notifications, and provision of performance feedback or rewards for compliance. This information was used to further develop the chatbot. Conclusion: The SDM chatbot app will now undergo further clinical and psychometric testing to determine how performance changes in relation to, rest‐activity rhythms, clinical features, and sleep and dementia biomarkers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a mobile health platform for activity pacing referred to as Pain ROADMAP (rediscover occuptaion achieve & develop through a monitoring app for pain). Pain ROADMAP incorporates a mobile phone application and online portal that allows for remote monitoring, integration, and analysis of objective activity data, pain intensity ratings, medication intake and daily activity participation data. In this article this platform is presented and a summary of results obtained from a pilot study (n = 20). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the high penetrating power of high-energy cosmic ray muons, muon imaging techniques can be used to image large bulky objects, especially objects with heavy shielding. Muon imaging systems work just like CT scanners in the medical imaging field—that is, they can reveal information inside of a target. There are two forms of muon imaging techniques: muon absorption imaging and muon multiple scattering imaging. The former is based on the flux attenuation of muons, and the latter is based on the multiple scattering of muons in matter. The muon absorption imaging technique is capable of imaging very large objects such as volcanoes and large buildings, and also smaller objects like spent fuel casks; the muon multiple scattering imaging technique is best suited to inspect smaller objects such as nuclear waste containers. Muon imaging techniques can be applied in a broad variety of fields, i.e. from measuring the magma thickness of volcanoes to searching for secret cavities in pyramids, and from monitoring the borders of countries checking for special nuclear materials to monitoring the spent fuel casks for nuclear safeguards applications. In this paper, the principles of muon imaging are reviewed. Image reconstruction algorithms such as Filtered Back Projection and Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization are discussed. The capability of muon imaging techniques is demonstrated through a Geant4 simulation study for imaging a nuclear spent fuel cask [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade, there has been a surge in the number of academic research groups and commercial companies exploiting naturally occurring cosmic-ray muons for imaging purposes in a range of industrial and geological applications. Since 2009, researchers at the University of Glasgow and the UK National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) have pioneered this technique for the characterization of shielded nuclear waste containers with significant investment from the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Sellafield Ltd. Lynkeos Technology Ltd. was formed in 2016 to commercialize the Muon Imaging System (MIS) technology that resulted from this industry-funded academic research. The design, construction and performance of the Lynkeos MIS is presented along with first experimental and commercial results. The high-resolution images include the identification of small fragments of uranium within a surrogate 500-litre intermediate level waste container and metal inclusions within thermally treated GeoMelt® R&D Product Samples. The latter of these are from Lynkeos' first commercial contract with the UK National Nuclear Laboratory. The Lynkeos MIS will be deployed at the NNL Central Laboratory facility on the Sellafield site in Summer 2018 where it will embark upon a series of industry trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE. This study examined the parallel-forms reliability of a web application (app) of the Activity Card Sort Australia for adults ages 18--64 and assessed its clinical utility. METHOD. Forty-eight participants completed the app and card versions of the tool within a 2- to 3-wk interval and provided feedback via a purpose-designed survey. Intraclass correlation analysis tested parallelforms reliability. RESULTS. The app demonstrated acceptable parallel-forms reliability for overall retained activity level (r5 .75, p < .001), the daily life domain (r 5 .77, p < .001), and the recreation and relaxation domain (r 5 .74, p < .001), but not for the physical activity domain (r 5 .59, p < .001). Clinical utility responses suggested good acceptance of both versions. CONCLUSION. The results suggest that further studies are required before the app version can be used for research or in clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioblitzes are typically 24-hour biological surveys of a defined region carried out by taxonomic specialists, citizen scientists, and the general public. The largest in Canada is the Ontario BioBlitz, an annual event held in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Between 2013 and 2016, we examined the feasibility of including lichens and allied fungi in the Ontario BioBlitz. These taxa are often overlooked, understudied, and taxonomically difficult. We completed a bioblitz in each of the four major watersheds in the GTA and recorded 138 species in 72 genera which, combined with all previous collections, totals 180 species in 88 genera in the area. Thirteen of the species we collected are provincially ranked as S1 (critically imperilled), S2 (imperilled), or S3 (vulnerable). We collected Lecanora carpinea for the first time in Ontario. Our results provide a baseline list of GTA lichens that can be used for monitoring. This is one of the first detailed lichen surveys of a major North American urban area and it demonstrates that rapid bioblitz surveys are proficient in capturing lichen diversity despite their inconspicuous nature and the advanced microscopy and chemical analyses required for their identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a significant amount of anecdotal evidence of the benefits of individuals on the autism spectrum interacting with technology via natural language. Many of these individuals are non-verbal but still able to communicate via augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) aids. This paper presents the design of a AAC software program (app) with embedded artificial conversational agent, called Alex. Alex runs on a Android device and is able to engage with the user on a variety of topics using symbols and images. Alex may be programmed via speech and occupational therapists and other key stakeholders via speech and hence does not require any specialised computer skills. The importance of customisation, interoperability, personalisation and motor skill considerations is herein discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]