The effectiveness of problem solving therapy for stroke patients: Study protocol for a pragmatic randomized controlled trial

Background: Coping style is one of the determinants of health-related quality of life after stroke. Stroke patients make less use of active problem-oriented coping styles than other brain damaged patients. Coping styles can be influenced by means of intervention. The primary aim of this study is to investigate if Problem Solving Therapy is an effective group intervention for improving coping style and health-related quality of life in stroke patients. The secondary aim is to determine the effect of Problem Solving Therapy on depression, social participation, health care consumption, and to determine the cost-effectiveness of the intervention.Methods/design: We strive to include 200 stroke patients in the outpatient phase of rehabilitation treatment, using a multicenter pragmatic randomized controlled trial with one year follow-up. Patients in the intervention group will receive Problem Solving Therapy in addition to the standard rehabilitation program. The intervention will be provided in an open group design, with a continuous flow of patients. Primary outcome measures are coping style and health-related quality of life. Secondary outcome measures are depression, social participation, health care consumption, and the cost-effectiveness of the intervention.Discussion: We designed our study as close to the implementation in practice as possible, using a pragmatic randomized trial and open group design, to represent a realistic estimate of the effectiveness of the intervention. If effective, Problem Solving Therapy is an inexpensive, deliverable and sustainable group intervention for stroke rehabilitation programs.Trial registration: Nederlands Trial Register, NTR2509

Measurements of long-range electronic correlations during femtosecond diffraction experiments performed on nanocrystals of buckminsterfullerene

The precise details of the interaction of intense X-ray pulses with matter are a topic of intense interest to researchers attempting to interpret the results of femtosecond X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) experiments. An increasing number of experimental observations have shown that although nuclear motion can be negligible, given a short enough incident pulse duration, electronic motion cannot be ignored. The current and widely accepted models assume that although electrons undergo dynamics driven by interaction with the pulse, their motion could largely be considered 'random'. This would then allow the supposedly incoherent contribution from the electronic motion to be treated as a continuous background signal and thus ignored. The original aim of our experiment was to precisely measure the change in intensity of individual Bragg peaks, due to X-ray induced electronic damage in a model system, crystalline C60. Contrary to this expectation, we observed that at the highest X-ray intensities, the electron dynamics in C60 were in fact highly correlated, and over sufficiently long distances that the positions of the Bragg reflections are significantly altered. This paper describes in detail the methods and protocols used for these experiments, which were conducted both at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and the Australian Synchrotron (AS) as well as the crystallographic approaches used to analyse the data

Academic Dishonesty, Self-Control, and General Criminality: A Prospective and Retrospective Study of Academic Dishonesty in a New Zealand University

"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Ethics & Behavior on 14 March 2012, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10508422.2011.653291."Publishe

Measurements of long-range electronic correlations during femtosecond diffraction experiments performed on nanocrystals of buckminsterfullerene

The precise details of the interaction of intense X-ray pulses with matter are a topic of intense interest to researchers attempting to interpret the results of femtosecond X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) experiments. An increasing number of experimental observations have shown that although nuclear motion can be negligible, given a short enough incident pulse duration, electronic motion cannot be ignored. The current and widely accepted models assume that although electrons undergo dynamics driven by interaction with the pulse, their motion could largely be considered 'random'. This would then allow the supposedly incoherent contribution from the electronic motion to be treated as a continuous background signal and thus ignored. The original aim of our experiment was to precisely measure the change in intensity of individual Bragg peaks, due to X-ray induced electronic damage in a model system, crystalline C60. Contrary to this expectation, we observed that at the highest X-ray intensities, the electron dynamics in C60 were in fact highly correlated, and over sufficiently long distances that the positions of the Bragg reflections are significantly altered. This paper describes in detail the methods and protocols used for these experiments, which were conducted both at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and the Australian Synchrotron (AS) as well as the crystallographic approaches used to analyse the data

Mental health and life satisfaction of individuals with spinal cord injury and their partners 5 years after discharge from first inpatient rehabilitation

STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. OBJECTIVES: To describe and compare mental health and life satisfaction between individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) and their partners 5 years after discharge from first inpatient rehabilitation; and to examine if injury severity moderates the association between individuals' with SCI and their partners' mental health and life satisfaction. SETTING: Dutch community. METHODS: Sixty-five individuals with SCI and their partners completed a self-report questionnaire. Main outcome measures were the mental health subscale of the Short-Form Health Survey and the Life Satisfaction Questionnaire. RESULTS: Levels of mental health and life satisfaction of individuals with SCI and partners were similar, with median scores of 76 and 4.8 versus 76 and 4.6, respectively. Moderate to strong correlations between individuals with SCI and their partners were found for the mental health (rS = 0.35) and life satisfaction scores (rS = 0.51). These associations were generally stronger in the subgroup of individuals with less severe SCI. Associations between scores on separate life domains ranged from negligible (0.05) to moderate (0.53). Individuals with SCI and their partners were least satisfied with their 'sexual life'. Compared with their partners, individuals with SCI were significantly more satisfied in the domains 'leisure situation', 'partnership relation' and 'family life', and less satisfied in 'self-care ability'. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed similarities but also differences in mental health and life satisfaction between individuals with SCI and their partners. In clinical practice, attention on mental health and life satisfaction should, therefore, focus on different domains for individuals with SCI and partners