Knot Graphs

We consider the equivalence classes of graphs induced by the unsigned versions of the Reidemeister moves on knot diagrams. Any graph which is reducible by some finite sequence of these moves, to a graph with no edges is called a knot graph. We show that the class of knot graphs strictly contains the set of delta-wye graphs. We prove that the dimension of the intersection of the cycle and cocycle spaces is an effective numerical invariant of these classes

Representing the child: the evolution of the guardian ad litem in care proceedings

The aim of the study is to illuminate the legal, social and administrative context of the "safeguarding" and representational role of the guardian ad litem in care proceedings, a senior social worker appointed by the court to represent the child and to act independently of the other parties. The study sets out to compare this role with representational roles in other kinds of proceedings where the "best interests" of a child are a consideration, and to evaluate its effectiveness. The areas of enquiry that are addressed are: the historical background, the legal context, representation in other child-related proceedings, the administrative structure, and the role and professional practice of the guardian ad litem. The study reveals that, owing to the separate evolution of the various pieces of legislation concerning the care and upbringing of children, there is only a tenuous connection between these representational arrangements. It also reveals that, while the role of the guardian ad litem in care proceedings was originally conceived as an extra safeguard to protect children from parental abuse and neglect at a time when social workers were considered not interventionalist enough, the role under the Children Act 1989 reflects a new perception of children’s interests, and an awareness that public care holds its own dangers. Although the guardian, in partnership with the child's solicitor, is the advocate of the child's case, case law has defined the role as essentially investigative and advisory; having no legal powers, the guardian must seek to bring about change through persuasion. It may be, however, that through his or her very presence as an outside observer, important influences on the dynamics of the situation may result. Whilst the role is hindered by certain legal and administrative constraints, which are examined in detail in the study, it also has important strengths relating to child advocacy, to the courts and to the local authorities

Pharmacists’ prescribing in Saudi Arabia : cross-sectional study describing current practices and future perspectives

Pharmacist prescribing is being increasingly undertaken to better use their skills and reduce the workload of existing prescribers such as doctors, often using formal processes to legitimate these activities. In developing countries like Saudi Arabia, however, pharmacists’ prescribing remains informal with no legislation or formal training and there is a lack of research and understanding into such practices. Therefore, we aimed to describe current pharmacist prescribing practices in Saudi Arabia and explore pharmacists’ views about pharmacists’ prescribing. This is a cross-sectional survey study using an online questionnaire of hospital pharmacists in Saudi Arabia about pharmacists’ prescribing, and associated views about prescribing legislation and barriers to implementing pharmacist prescribing. Over a quarter (28.5%) of pharmacists reported themselves as prescribers, 49% were following a collaborative prescribing model, 18% independent prescribing, and 33% were doing both. Ninety percent of prescribers reported confidence in prescribing the appropriate treatment and 92.3% perceived they will benefit from more prescribing training. Healthcare practice culture and pharmacist’s competency were identified as barriers. There is an overall support for pharmacists’ prescribing in Saudi Arabia among this sample of hospital pharmacists, with limitations in resources and the absence of standardized prescribing training being perceived as key barriers to pharmacists’ prescribing

Environment Agency: Durham Permian Sections

This report describes six sections constructed through the Permian and Carboniferous sequence in north-east England. The main north-south section (split into two parts) extends from near Sunderland in the north to near Darlington in the south. Four east-west sections are situated in the north, centre and southern parts of the area. In addition, a short north-south section is located just to the west of Hartlepool. The sections have been constructed to a depth of 300m and created from borehole and map information compiled using the GSI3D modelling software

Characterization of Ascaris from Ecuador and Zanzibar

To shed light on the epidemiology of ascariasis in Ecuador and Zanzibar, 177 adult worms retrieved by chemo-expulsion from either people or pigs were collected, measured and subjected to polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Upon double digestion with RsaI and HaeIII, PCR-RFLP analysis revealed the presence of A. lumbricoides in people and A. suum in pigs in Ecuador. In contrast, while there are no pigs on Zanzibar, of the 56 worms obtained from people, one was genotyped as A. suum. No additional genetic variation was detected upon further PCR-RFLP analysis with several other restriction enzymes. Upon measurement, worm mass and length differed by location and by species, A. suum being lighter and longer. While there is no evidence to suggest zoonotic transmission in Ecuador, an enduring historical signature of previous zoonotic transmission remains on Zanzibar

Lupus nephritis . Part ll. A clinicopathological correlation and study of outcome

A 5-year retrospective study of lupus nephritis at Tygerberg Hospital was performed in an attempt to document the clinical and histological spectrum of the disease and to study the outcome of the Illness. Activity and chronicity scores were used in addition to the World Health Organisation classification system. Of 55 biopsies from 51 patients reviewed, 6 were class 11,13 class Ill, 32 class IV and 4 class V. There were 19 deaths and in 15 of these the histological classification was IV. Renal failure and infections, often with uncommon pathogens, were the most important causes of death. Serum creatinine values and creatinine clearance at the time of biopsy or follow-up, and hypertension at follow-up showed a significant relationship with outcome. WHO class IV was associated with a poor outcome (P = 0,048) when compared with the other WHO classes combined. Activity scores showed a significant relationship to the outcome (P = 0,018). The anticardiolipin antibodies IgG and IgM were not associated with WHO class or outcome. The study revealed a spectrum of histological results similar to that of other studies, with a high mortality rate, particularly in class IV disease. Poor renal function, persistent hypertension, histological classification IV, and high activity scores were found to be important prognostic indicators

Proximity effect in ultrathin Pb/Ag multilayers within the Cooper limit

We report on transport and tunneling measurements performed on ultra-thin Pb/Ag (strong coupled superconductor/normal metal) multilayers evaporated by quench condensation. The critical temperature and energy gap of the heterostructures oscillate with addition of each layer, demonstrating the validity of the Cooper limit model in the case of multilayers. We observe excellent agreement with a simple theory for samples with layer thickness larger than 30\AA . Samples with single layers thinner than 30\AA deviate from the Cooper limit theory. We suggest that this is due to the "inverse proximity effect" where the normal metal electrons improve screening in the superconducting ultrathin layer and thus enhance the critical temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Gazeau-Klauder type coherent states for hypergeometric type operators

The hypergeometric type operators are shape invariant, and a factorization into a product of first order differential operators can be explicitly described in the general case. Some additional shape invariant operators depending on several parameters are defined in a natural way by starting from this general factorization. The mathematical properties of the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of the operators thus obtained depend on the values of the involved parameters. We study the parameter dependence of orthogonality, square integrability and of the monotony of eigenvalue sequence. The obtained results allow us to define certain systems of Gazeau-Klauder coherent states and to describe some of their properties. Our systematic study recovers a number of well-known results in a natural unified way and also leads to new findings.Comment: An error occurring in Theorem 12 and Theorem 13 has been correcte

Predictions for high energy neutrino cross-sections from the ZEUS global PDF fits

We have updated predictions for high energy neutrino and antineutrino charged current cross-sections within the conventional DGLAP formalism of NLO QCD using a modern PDF fit to HERA data, which also accounts in a systematic way for PDF uncertainties deriving from both model uncertainties and from the experimental uncertainties of the input data sets. Furthermore the PDFs are determined using an improved treatment of heavy quark thresholds. A measurement of the neutrino cross-section much below these predictions would signal the need for extension of the conventional formalism as in BFKL resummation, or even gluon recombination effects as in the colour glass condensate model.Comment: 10 pages (RevTeX4), 6 figures; expanded discussion of additional theoretical uncertainties at low x; accepted for publication in JHE