Objectives To identify the extent to which an adapted pain management programme is successful in modifying pain beliefs, psychological distress, locus of control and self-efficacy using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Design Prospective, observational study with questionnaires at baseline and following completion of a pain management programme. Setting Outpatient pain management programme in a district general hospital. Participants Fifteen participants experiencing chronic pain, referred from pain and rheumatology clinics within the hospital. Outcome measures Pain beliefs, self-efficacy, locus of control and psychological distress. Results Wilcoxon signed ranks tests demonstrated significant improvements in pain beliefs, self-efficacy and psychological distress. However, changes in locus of control were not found to be significant. The qualitative data supported these findings. Conclusions The pilot study suggested that the pain management programme successfully modified three out of four of the psychosocial risk factors (Yellow Flags) in a population with established pain and disability. A larger scale project replicating this pilot study including a comparison group, and further research to assess the extent to which modifying Yellow Flags generalises to affect quality of life and disability, are underway. (c) 2005 Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A three-year program to develop and test an internally-cooled cabled superconductor (ICCS) for large scale MHD magnets is directed specifically toward the development of ICCS because this type of conductor has many significant advantages over bath-cooled conductors for the MHD application: relatively higher stability margin, greater electrical integrity (because the conductor can be wrapped with continuous insulation), greater mechanical integrity and durability, and the elimination of a heavy-walled liquid helium containment vessel. The concept offers great promise in resolving the issues of constructability and long-term durability for commercial MHD magnets while minimizing the overall costs and risks of such systems. As a baseline for conductor design, it was assumed that the dimensions and construction of the conductor would be the same as those of the ICCS conductor used in the large D-shape magnet designed and built by Westinghouse for the fusion Large Coil Program (LCP), described in Reference 2. This was done to take advantage of the manufacturing technology that had been developed for that project. The MHD conductor conductor will, however, use niobium titanium (NbTi) superconductor rather than niobium tin (Nb/sub 3/Sn). Tentative conductor design requirements were established and a conductor design was developed based on the Westinghouse LCPmore » conductor dimensions. Preliminary calculations were made of stability margin, quench temperature rise, and quench pressure. After a design review and more detailed analyses, several winding design modifications, aimed at reducing the maximum field, were analyzed. A revised winding design having an increased thickness, an increased bend radius in the end turns, and a lower current density was established as most suitable for the application.« less

A 6 T superconducting magnet system conceptual design has been completed for the U.S. Department of Energy's 200 MWeEngineering Test Facility. The 1000 tonne magnet will be built of two grades of pool-cooled NbTi cable superconductor supported in 26 layers of stacked epoxy-plastic plates which form each 60° rectangular saddle coil half. Each coil half will be enclosed in a stainless steel vessel which contains the liquid helium that cools the coils and provides some structural support against the electromagnetic forces. The main force containment structure, external to the LHe vessels and located in the vacuum chamber, is designed for maximal access to structural and coil containment vessel welds for purposes of routine inspection. An LN2-cooled thermal radiation shield is situated between the force containment structure and the outer vacuum vessel. Fiberglass-epoxy low-heat-leak struts position and hold the cold mass in place in the vacuum vessel and also withstand gravity, seismic and magnetic interaction loading. The magnet system, warm bore liner and roll-aside mechanism provided for channel changeout will be discussed as well as such interfacing considerations as fringe field effects on personnel and control instrumentation.

The national MHD program of the U.S. Department of Energy will require an Engineering Test Facility as the next significant step following operation of the Montana Component Development and Integration Facility. Toward that end the MHD Magnet Technology group at FBNML is evaluating five superconducting magnet design concepts. The facility rated at 200 MWe, will require a magnet with an on-axis fie...

This paper describes a program to determine the operating characteristics of an experimental alternator using super-conducting field coils. The alternator itself consisted of a stationary superconducting 4-pole field winding made of 6800 turns of copper-plated Formvar-insulated Nb-25-percent Zr wire which had a critical current of 28 amperes. The field winding was inserted into a finger at the bottom of a typical laboratory-type helium test dewar.