333 research outputs found
'Moving life stories tell us just why politics matters’: personal narratives in tabloid anti-austerity campaigns
This article examines the use of personal narratives in two tabloid newspaper campaigns against a controversial welfare reform popularly known as the ‘bedroom tax’. It aims firstly to evaluate whether the personal narratives operate as political testimony to challenge government accounts of welfare reform and dominant stereotypes of benefits claimants, and secondly to assess the potential for and limits to progressive advocacy in popular journalism. The study uses content analysis of 473 articles over the course of a year in the Daily Mirror and Sunday People newspapers, and qualitative analysis of a sub-set of 113 articles to analyse the extent to which the campaign articles extrapolated from the personal to the general, and the role of ‘victim-witnesses’ in articulating their own subjectivity and political agency. The analysis indicates that both newspapers allowed affected individuals to express their own subjectivity to challenge stereotypes, but it was civil society organisations and opinion columnists who most explicitly extrapolated from the personal to the political. Collectively organised benefits claimants were rarely quoted, and there was some evidence of ventriloquization of the editorial voice in the political criticisms of victim-witnesses. However, a campaigning columnist in the Mirror more actively empowered some of those affected to speak directly to politicians. This indicates the value of campaigning journalism when it is truly engaged in solidarity with those affected, rather than instrumentalising victim-witnesses to further the newspapers’ campaign goals
Fermion sea along the sphaleron barrier
In this revised version we have improved the treatment of the top and bottom
quark mass. This leads to slight changes of the numerical results, especially
of those presented in Fig.4. The discussion of the numerical procedure and
accuracy has been extended.Comment: 39 pages (LaTex) plus 5 figures (uuencoded postscript files);
RUB-TPII-62/93, to appear in Phys.Rev.
Progressive multifocal leucoencephalopathy in an immunocompetent patient with favourable outcome. A case report
To report the clinical course of PML in an apparently immunocompetent patient treated with cidofovir
Pregnancy in multiple sclerosis: clinical and self-report scales
Relapse rate is decreased during pregnancy in multiple sclerosis (MS). Risk for postpartum relapse is increased in the first 3 months after delivery. We aimed to study clinical course of MS around pregnancy, using clinical as well as self-report scales, including data on quality of life (QoL), and to identify clinical factors predisposing for postpartum relapse. We performed a prospective, longitudinal study among 35 MS patients and 20 controls. In patients we assessed expanded disability status scale (EDSS), the Guy’s neurological disability scale (GNDS) and the multiple sclerosis impact scale 29 (MSIS-29). In patients and controls we assessed the MOS 36 item short form health survey questionnaire (SF36), consisting of eight domains. The previously described surge in relapses after delivery was also obvious in this study (p = 0.005). At group level EDSS and MSIS-29 did not show overt fluctuations over time. The GNDS, however, improved during the third trimester, compared to the first trimester (p = 0.003). A concomitant improvement in the SF36 domains vitality (p < 0.001) and general health (p = 0.001) was found in patients. At the final visit, at least 9 months after delivery, no worsening of EDSS, GNDS, MSIS-29 or SF36 was observed compared with the (for MS, beneficial) third trimester. Duration of disease, relapses in the year preceding pregnancy or relapses during pregnancy were not associated with postpartum relapse. QoL is improved during pregnancy. Although relapse rate was increased directly after delivery, in the mid long term after delivery no adverse effects of pregnancy on MS were found
Low-value care practice in headache: a Spanish mixed methods research study
Background Headache is one of the most prevalent diseases. The Global Burden of Disease Study ranks it as the seventh most common disease overall and the second largest neurological cause of disability in the world. The "Do Not Do" recommendations are a strategy for increasing the quality of care and reducing the cost of care for headache. This study aimed to identify specific low-value practices in headache care, determine their frequency, and estimate the cost overrun that they represent, in order to establish "Do not Do" recommendations specifically for headache by consensus and according to scientific evidence. Methods This was a mixed methods research study that combined qualitative consensus-building techniques, involving a multidisciplinary panel of experts to define the "Do Not Do" recommendations in headache care, and a retrospective observational study with review of a randomized set of patient records from the past 6 months in four hospitals, to quantify the frequency of these "Do Not Do" practices. We calculated the sum of direct costs of medical consultations, medicines, and unnecessary diagnostic tests. Results Seven "Do Not Do" recommendations were established for headache. In total, 3507 medical records were randomly reviewed. Low-value practices had a highly variable occurrence, depending on the hospital and type of headache. Overall, 34.1% of low-value practices were related to treatment, 21% were related to overuse of imaging in consultation, and 19% were related to emergency care. The estimated cost of low-value practices in the four hospitals was 203,520.47 euros per 1000 patients. Conclusions This study identified low-value headache practices that need to be eradicated and provided data on their frequency and cost overruns
Sphaleron transitions in the Minimal Standard Model and the upper bound for the Higgs Mass
We calculate the dissipation of the baryon number after the electroweak phase
transition due to thermal fluctuations above the sphaleron barrier. We consider
not only the classical Boltzmann factor but also fermionic and bosonic one-loop
contributions. We find that both bosonic and especially fermionic fluctuations
can considerably suppress the transition rate. Assuming the Langer--Affleck
formalism for this rate, the condition that an initial baryon asymmetry must
not be washed out by sphaleron transitions leads, in the Minimal Standard Model
(), to an upper bound for the Higgs mass in the range 60 to 75
GeV.Comment: 49 pages, 5 figures (uuencoded PostScript); fixing of the
renormalization scale has been improved, numerics has been extende
Switching Multiple Sclerosis Patients with Breakthrough Disease to Second-Line Therapy
BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with breakthrough disease on immunomodulatory drugs are frequently offered to switch to natalizumab or immunosuppressants. The effect of natalizumab monotherapy in patients with breakthrough disease is unknown. METHODS: This is an open-label retrospective cohort study of 993 patients seen at least four times at the University of California San Francisco MS Center, 95 had breakthrough disease on first-line therapy (60 patients switched to natalizumab, 22 to immunosuppressants and 13 declined the switch [non-switchers]). We used Poisson regression adjusted for potential confounders to compare the relapse rate within and across groups before and after the switch. RESULTS: In the within-group analyses, the relapse rate decreased by 70% (95% CI 50,82%; p<0.001) in switchers to natalizumab and by 77% (95% CI 59,87%; p<0.001) in switchers to immunosuppressants; relapse rate in non-switchers did not decrease (6%, p = 0.87). Relative to the reduction among non-switchers, the relapse rate was reduced by 68% among natalizumab switchers (95% CI 19,87%; p = 0.017) and by 76% among the immunosuppressant switchers (95% CI 36,91%; p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: Switching to natalizumab or immunosuppressants in patients with breakthrough disease is effective in reducing clinical activity of relapsing MS. The magnitude of the effect and the risk-benefit ratio should be evaluated in randomized clinical trials and prospective cohort studies
A New Approach to Determine the Initial Mass Function in the Solar Neighborhood
Oxygen to iron abundance ratios of metal-poor stars provide information on
nucleosynthesis yields from massive stars which end in Type II supernova
explosions. Using a standard model of chemical evolution of the Galaxy we have
reproduced the solar neighborhood abundance data and estimated the oxygen and
iron yields of genuine SN II origin. The estimated yields are compared with the
theoretical yields to derive the relation between the lower and upper mass
limits in each generation of stars and the IMF slope. Independently of this
relation, we furthermore derive the relation between the lower mass limit and
the IMF slope from the stellar mass to light ratio in the solar neighborhood.
These independent relations unambiguously determine the upper mass limit of
and the IMF slope index of 1.3 - 1.6 above 1 M_sun. This
upper mass limit corresponds to the mass beyond which stars end as black holes
without ejecting processed matter into the interstellar medium. We also find
that the IMF slope index below 0.5 M_sun cannot be much shallower than 0.8.Comment: 13 pages LaTex, 4 PostScript figures, to appear in ApJ (July 1,
Vol.483
Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy
We review HB stars in a broad astrophysical context, including both variable
and non-variable stars. A reassessment of the Oosterhoff dichotomy is
presented, which provides unprecedented detail regarding its origin and
systematics. We show that the Oosterhoff dichotomy and the distribution of
globular clusters (GCs) in the HB morphology-metallicity plane both exclude,
with high statistical significance, the possibility that the Galactic halo may
have formed from the accretion of dwarf galaxies resembling present-day Milky
Way satellites such as Fornax, Sagittarius, and the LMC. A rediscussion of the
second-parameter problem is presented. A technique is proposed to estimate the
HB types of extragalactic GCs on the basis of integrated far-UV photometry. The
relationship between the absolute V magnitude of the HB at the RR Lyrae level
and metallicity, as obtained on the basis of trigonometric parallax
measurements for the star RR Lyrae, is also revisited, giving a distance
modulus to the LMC of (m-M)_0 = 18.44+/-0.11. RR Lyrae period change rates are
studied. Finally, the conductive opacities used in evolutionary calculations of
low-mass stars are investigated. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 56 pages, 22 figures. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and
Space Scienc
Molecular interplay between T-Antigen and splicing factor, arginine/serine-rich 1 (SRSF1) controls JC virus gene expression in glial cells
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