The development and validation of a multi-dimensional measure of chronic foot pain: the ROwan Foot Pain Assessment Questionnaire (ROFPAQ).

The development and validation of the ROwan Foot Pain Assessment Questionnaire (ROFPAQ) is described. This is the first attempt to develop a multi-dimensional measure of chronic foot pain, and recognizes pain as having sensory, affective and cognitive dimensions. The ROFPAQ was developed from themes that emerged from running focus groups and semi-structured interviews with people with chronic foot pain.

Models of specialist employment for people with mental health problems.

There is a growing interest in work schemes for people with mental health problems. They appear to offer great promise, both in the delivery of community care and in social re-integration. However, the models operating in Britain are diverse and little is known about their operation, much less their effectiveness.

The role of time pressure on the emotional stroop task.

Although a wide range of methodologies have been employed in examining the emotional Stroop effect, little systematic investigation of these experimental manipulations has taken place. Two experiments were designed to investigate the role of time pressure in the emotional Stroop effect. It is shown that time pressure has an important role to play in determining not only the magnitude of the effect but also in whether it is possible to observe any effect at all.

Staff members' prediction of consequences for their work in residential settings.

Staff members supporting people with mental retardation in residential care were given scenarios describing tasks they might carry out and asked what would happen if they did, or failed to do, them (i.e., who would notice, what would their reaction be).

Polylink: to support two-point linkage analysis in autotetraploids.

Summary: Polylink runs under Microsoft Windows (95 or later). It performs various calculations that are useful for investigating two-point linkage analysis for autopolyploids, based on the random chromosome pairing model. These include calculation of offspring phenotypic probabilities as functions of the recombination fraction, calculation of theoretical standard errors for the maximum likelihood estimator of and numerical computation of maximum likelihood estimates.

Clusters within a general adult population of alcohol abstainers.

Background: Our previous study found that alcohol abstainers use acute services more and preventative services less than safe level drinkers. The observed relationships between four categories of alcohol consumption and service use were J-shaped for acute services and inverted J-shaped for preventive services. The aim of this paper was to further investigate these relationships.

Private or NHS General Dental Service care in the United Kingdom? A study of public perceptions and experiences.

Background: Recent changes in the NHS General Dental Service have led to a reduction in the availability of NHS dental care and increased charges. This study explores public and user views and experiences of NHS and private dental care in the light of these changes.

Methods: The study employed a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.

The regulation of pap and type 1 fimbriation in Escherichia coli.

The ability of bacterial pathogens to bind to the host mucosa is a critical step in the pathogenesis of many bacterial infections and, for Escherichia coli, a large number of different fimbrial adhesins have been implicated as virulence factors. In this chapter, our current understanding of the regulatory mechanisms that control the expression of two of the best characterized fimbrial adhesins, pyelonephritis-associated pilus (encoded by pap) and the type 1 fimbria (encoded by fim), will be described. The expression of both fimbrial adhesins is controlled by phase variation (the reversible and apparently random switching between expressing ('on') and non-expressing ('off') states), and is regulated in response to environmental conditions.

Complexity of staff communication and reported level of understanding skills in adults with intellectual disability.

Staff reports of the communication acts taking place with 22 adults with intellectual disability were compared with video observations of the communication acts used by staff with 12 of these service users. The interactions were coded in terms of the form of communication used, the function of the act and the level of complexity. The results show that staff tend to underestimate their own use of verbal communication and overestimate their use of non-verbal communication.

Comparative context of Plio-Pleistocene hominin brain evolution.

One of the distinguishing features of Homo sapiens is its absolutely and relatively large brain. This feature is also seen in less extreme form in some fossil Homo species. However, are increases in brain size during the Plio-Pleistocene only seen in Homo, and is brain enlargement among Plio-Pleistocene primates confined to hominins? This study examines evidence for changes in brain size for species and lineage samples of three synchronic East African fossil primate groups, the two hominin genera Homo and Paranthropus, and the cercopithecoid genus Theropithecus.

Regulatory properties of tropomyosin effects of length, isoform, and N-terminal sequence.

The regulatory properties of naturally occurring tropomyosins (Tms) of differing lengths have been examined. These Tms span from 4 to 7 actin subunits. Native proteins have been used to study the common 7 actin-spanning skeletal and smooth muscle variants and expressed recombinant proteins to study the shorter fibroblast 5a, 5b, yeast Tm1 and yeast Tm2 Tms (6, 6, 5, and 4 actin-spanning variants, respectively).

The Type 1 growth factor receptors and their ligands considered as a complex system.

The Type 1 family of growth factors and their receptors play an important role in normal development, wound healing and in diseases such as cancer. The products of the four receptor genes and the ten genes specifying ligands interact in a complex pattern. Such systems may develop emergent properties which cannot be predicted from a reductionist analysis of the interactions of individual components.

Variability in staff reports of the frequency of challenging behavior.

Information was collected from 88 staff about their observations of the occurrence and frequency of challenging behaviors in 22 individuals with developmental disabilities with whom they worked. Staff reports suggested considerable variability in challenging behavior in the presence of different staff and, from day to day, in the presence of the same staff. Variability was greater for stereotyped than for aggressive/destructive behavior, and for more frequent behavior.

Sleep problems in primary school children: comparison between mainstream and special school children.

This paper reports on a study of the prevalence and social correlates of dyssomnias, features associated with obstructive sleep apnoea, and parasomnias in primary school children aged 4-12. Head teachers of schools selected randomly from lists of local primary and special schools were contacted by telephone and asked to distribute a questionnaire package to the parents of all pupils aged 4-12 years. In all, 890 parents of children from mainstream schools and 300 from special schools were approached.

Emerging paradigms in the mental health care of refugees.

Over the past decade the approaches adopted towards the mental health care of refugees by a range of national and international healthcare organisations have been the subject of a sustained and growing critique. Much of this critique has focused on the way in which Western psychiatric categories have been ascribed to refugee populations in ways which, critics argue, pay scant attention to the social, political and economic factors that play a pivotal role in refugees' experience. Rather than portraying refugees as "passive victims" suffering mental health problems, critics have argued that attention should be given to the resistance of refugees and the ways in which they interpret and respond to experiences, challenging the external forces bearing upon them.

Prevention and treatment of Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.

Wernicke's encephalopathy (WE) is both common and associated with high morbidity and mortality and yet there is evidence that appropriate and effective prophylaxis and treatment are often not given. Effective treatment and prophylaxis may only be achieved by use of parenteral vitamin supplements, since oral supplements are not absorbed in significant amounts. Although there are rare anaphylactoid reactions associated with the use of parenteral thiamine preparations, the risks and consequences of inadequate prophylaxis and treatment, in appropriately targeted groups of patients, are far greater.

Mental health and stress in the workplace: the case of general practice in the UK.

This study adopted a 'workforce' perspective in a study of job strain in primary care (general practice) in the UK. It explored the level of stress amongst workers in general practice and between practices and examined the relationship between level of stress and work characteristics. Postal questionnaires were sent to a random sample of general practices (n = 81) in southern England.

Selective attentional bias to alcohol related stimuli in problem drinkers and non-problem drinkers.

Aims: The issues explored in this study were whether a patient group of problem drinkers selectively attend to alcohol-related stimuli and the time course of any interference from alcohol-related stimuli in comparison with two control groups of non-problem drinkers.

Design: A 3 x 2 x 2 x 5 factorial design was used. Drinking group (low, high and problem) and word order (alcohol-neutral, neutral-alcohol) were between-participant factors, and word type (alcohol, neutral) and presentation block (1-5) were within participant factors.

Workplace bullying in nurses.

The article reports a study of workplace bullying in community nurses in an NHS trust. The aims were to determine the prevalence of bullying, to examine the association between bullying and occupational health outcomes, and to investigate whether support at work could moderate the effects of bullying. Forty-four percent of nurses reported experiencing one or more types of bullying in the previous 12 months, compared to 35 percent of other staff.

Is dosage of physiotherapy a critical factor in deciding patterns of recovery from stroke: a pragmatic randomized controlled trial.

Background And Purpose: The best treatment and management of stroke patients has been shown to be in stroke units by multidisciplinary rehabilitation teams. Since the composition of stroke units differs it is important to know the extent to which the different components contribute to this results. Physiotherapy is one component of most rehabilitation teams and recent systematic reviews have shown that patients with stroke receiving more physiotherapy achieve more recovery from disability.

Alcohol genetics: will the promise be fulfilled?

Genetic research into alcohol-related problems has a long history, but only with the recent advent of molecular biological techniques does it seem poised to fulfill its promise. While such research might be thought to reinforce views of the inevitability and immutability of drinking problems, there have been bold promises of important developments in our understanding of the aetiology of alcohol misuse, as well as promises of innovations in prevention and treatment. A brief consideration of recent research, and of the possibilities that are now before us, reveals that the promise of increased understanding of the aetiology of alcohol misuse is already being fulfilled.

Actomyosin regulatory properties of yeast tropomyosin are dependent upon N-terminal modification.

The yeast tropomyosin 1 gene (TPM1) encodes the major isoform of the two tropomyosins (Tm) found in yeast. The gene has been expressed in E. coli and the protein purified.