Effect of reheating on predictions following multiple-field inflation

We study the sensitivity of cosmological observables to the reheating phase following inflation driven by many scalar fields. We describe a method which allows semi-analytic treatment of the impact of perturbative reheating on cosmological perturbations using the sudden decay approximation. Focusing on $\mathcal{N}$-quadratic inflation, we show how the scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio are affected by the rates at which the scalar fields decay into radiation. We find that for certain choices of decay rates, reheating following multiple-field inflation can have a significant impact on the prediction of cosmological observables.Comment: Published in PRD. 4 figures, 10 page

Dietary Quality is Associated with Better Self-Efficacy and Depression in Patients with Fibromyalgia from a Comparative Effectiveness Trial: A Small Pilot Study

Background: Diet and exercise have been suggested as potentially beneficial for symptom management of fibromyalgia; however, data on the relationship between diet quality and fibromyalgia symptoms are limited. Objective: To investigate diet quality and its relationship with 1) fibromyalgia impact, and 2) psychological health in patients with fibromyalgia who participated in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Tai Chi versus aerobic exercise for fibromyalgia. Methods: A cross-sectional study enrolled participants from a RCT. Diet quality and fibromyalgia symptoms were assessed using the Healthy Eating Index 2010 (HEI-2010) and Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQR), respectively. Retrospective analyses were performed using Spearman’s coefficient (r) to examine the association of diet quality with pre-intervention FIQR, psychological variables, and quality of life. Results: Twenty-six female participants (mean age = 56 y; mean pre-intervention BMI = 29.6) of 223 trial participants (11.7%) were included in the analyses. Higher diet quality was associated with higher pre-intervention Chronic Pain Self-Efficacy scores (r=0.62, p=0.01), and lower Hospital Depression scores (r=-0.47, p=0.02). There were no significant associations between diet quality and pre-intervention severity of depressive symptoms, mental or physical health quality of life, sleep quality, or FIQR scores. Conclusion: Preliminary results suggest a positive association between diet quality and self-efficacy and psychological health in women with fibromyalgia. Future prospective studies are needed

Values driven policy in designing environments for children and young people's education, health and wellbeing

The new millennium coincided with a reappraisal of value in UK construction and calls from a wide range of influential individuals, professional institutions and government bodies for the industry to exceed stakeholders’ expectations and develop integrated teams that can deliver world class products and services. As such value is certainly topical, but the importance of values as a separate but related concept is less well understood. This paper addresses the construction industry’s need to deliver public buildings that can regenerate communities, transform schools, modernise healthcare facilities and inspire children in a way that will make a real difference to their lives. Doing this requires a strong service and estates vision driven not only by the technical building solutions, but also by practitioners aspirations. Stakeholder engagement is seen by the Government as a way to bring about this reform, however the stakeholder consultation tools that are being deployed by providers and clients alike may be limited in how they translate values, attitudes and good teaching, learning and healthcare practices into building design. The purpose of this paper is to present the need to understand with greater meaning the values and cultures of schools and healthcare facilities during construction briefing and delivery and how the spirits of users can be harnessed to ensure the success and transformation of a new facility. It presents a longitudinal case study in which various tools and approaches have been developed and applied to address this need within education capital projects. It also draws on value, values and stakeholder literature in education and healthcare. The importance of this paper is to extend the range of methodological tools used in construction to structure the effects of meaning, culture and values on the construction industry’s processes, products and building operation and to translate learning between the education, health and social care sectors. It also hopes to encourage construction providers to extend their service and explore the opportunity to employ a similar methodology, particularly in the public sector environment where there is a growing need for multi-agency service integration

Strategic asset management and master planning within the healthcare sector: exploring the theoretical need for evidence based change management in strategic planning

The delivery of health and social care in the UK is undergoing profound change and being redesigned to provide high quality, person-centred services and improved capacity and performance. This is taking place in a context of: change in asset ownership; moves towards increased local autonomy in the provision of services; and the introduction of national, evidence-based standards and inspection. There has been considerable activity surrounding the planning, design and operation of healthcare services and facilities, however, Strategic Asset Management as a field of literature has not sufficiently developed in line with this change in emphasis. The recent move towards PFI, LIFT and World Class Commissioning within the NHS (National Health Service), has meant that roles and responsibilities for estates are shifting alongside commissioning competencies; however, the impact of this shift on the built healing environment is not well understood. Strategic Asset Management on a regional scale requires: reliable predictive data; effective tools and processes for developing and modelling future scenarios; and people with the appropriate skills and expertise, although these are not always available. As such, these factors need to be better understood and the stakeholders responsible for them defined

Are community level prescription opioid overdoses associated with child harm? A spatial analysis of California zip codes, 2001–2011

Background: Non-medical prescription opioid use is increasing globally within high-income countries, particularly the United States. However, little is known about whether it is associated with negative outcomes for children. In this study, we use prescription opioid overdose as a proxy measure for non-medical prescription opioid use and ask the following: Do California communities with greater rates of non-medical prescription opioid use also have higher rates of child maltreatment and unintentional child injury? Methods: We used longitudinal population data to examine ecological associations between hospital discharges involving overdose of prescription opioids and those for child maltreatment or child injury in California zip codes between 2001 and 2011 (n = 18,517 zip-code year units) using Bayesian space-time misalignment models. Results: The percentage of hospital discharges involving prescription opioid overdose was positively associated with the number of hospital discharges for child maltreatment (relative rate = 1.089, 95% credible interval (1.004, 1.165)) and child injury (relative rate = 1.055, 95% credible interval (1.012, 1.096)) over the ten-year period, controlling for other substance use and environmental factors. Conclusions: Increases in community level prescription opioid overdoses between 2001 and 2011 are associated with a 2.06% increase in child maltreatment discharges and a 1.27% increase in discharges for child injury. Communities with higher rates of non-medical prescription opioid use may experience greater levels of child harms

Slum rehabilitation in the context of urban sustainability: a case study of Mumbai, India

In the last two decades, migration from villages and small towns to metropolitan areas has increased tremendously in India. This leads to the degradation of urban environmental quality and sustainable development especially in the metropolitan cities. The problems faced by the people living in the urban areas of India have become major concerns for the government over the last two decades. Slums are considered to be the major issue within many urban areas; particularly problems related to transportation, population, health and safety. India is one of the fastest developing countries with many metropolitan cities (e.g. Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi and Chennai). To explore the effect of rehabilitation of slums on urban sustainability, part of Mumbai was selected as a case study. Compared to the other metropolitan cities in India, Mumbai is one of the biggest metropolitan regions and capital of the state of Maharashtra with many slums varying in sizes. In addition, every year millions of rupees are being spent to resettle and rehabilitate slums to make Mumbai sustainable. It is reported that around 6 percent of the total land holds nearly 60 percent of the total Mumbai population (CBC, 2006). From 1980 onwards, the rate of migration and the sprawling nature of slums into the city has become an major issue, although many organisations are working towards development of Mumbai, the conditions are not conducive to achieving urban sustainable environment as most of the organisations are not working on a united front. Also, various researchers have reported that to maintain the pace of sustainable urbanisation, a holistic approach to sustainable development needs to be considered. Considering today’s poor urban environmental quality in Mumbai, there are many projects under development and execution to improve the poor conditions. Also, the World Bank has funded many projects with the primary aim of improving the city’s land transport, health and education which affect thousands of families. The majority of families affected by urban development projects are located in slum areas which are under consideration for resettlement and/ or rehabilitation. The aim of this research is to examine slum areas and their effects on sustainable urban development. To accomplish the above aim, a case study based approach, engaging a series of face‐to‐face interviews, was used. As a part of this research, an urban development project funded by the World Bank to achieve urban sustainability in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) was explored. Also, several visits to other slums and rehabilitated areas were conducted to identify the quality of life in slums and rehabilitated areas. The data collected during the face‐to‐face interviews, was used for descriptive analysis considering various aspects (i.e. social, educational) of urban sustainability. Through this research, the reasons for slums and problems related to slums were explored. During the research, it is revealed that some people still think that urbanisation is responsible for unsustainable development and they are not in favour of resettlement and rehabilitation. This suggests that to achieve successful urban sustainability, other issues such as employment, education and general awareness are also required along with low‐cost mass housing

Black hole collisions from Brill-Lindquist initial data: predictions of perturbation theory

The Misner initial value solution for two momentarily stationary black holes has been the focus of much numerical study. We report here analytic results for an astrophysically similar initial solution, that of Brill and Lindquist (BL). Results are given from perturbation theory for initially close holes and are compared with available numerical results. A comparison is made of the radiation generated from the BL and the Misner initial values, and the physical meaning is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, revtex3.0, 5 figure

Developing construction management research: a balance of perspectives

Research development for construction management has recently received considerable attention by academia and major industry sponsors. A major motivation for these efforts include ensuring that research does not just achieve any outcomes, but also produces relevant outputs that can benefit all the interested parties associated with the research community. In particular, concerns expressed about the traditional quantitative orientation of construction management research has provoked a debate on the methodological issues within the field. As a result, the discipline is gradually witnessing a polarisation of research orientation into rational and interpretive schools of thought. This paper is an attempt to reconcile this current division in research orientation. It utilises an anecdotal approach to argue that the entrenched positions on research perspectives is not adequate for enhancing the development of the field of construction management. It presents an option where both perspectives complement each other to produce a more balanced outcome for academic research. It concludes by posing the question, Is it time to define the boundaries of construction management so that its research development can be appropriately addressed

Does evidence based design for healthcare built environments limit creativity?

Research into therapeutic built environments and Evidence Based Design (EBD) has increased during the past three decades and the concept more readily adopted in practice. However, some practitioners believe that, as with any approach that builds on previous experiences to develop standards and guidelines, EBD could limit creativity. Given that creativity is often regarded as a major source of competitive advantage for a design, if EBD is seen as a barrier to creativity this may hinder its acceptance and application. The extent to which EBD could limit creativity during the design process is explored through a literature review. The findings suggest that only a smaller segment of evidence-based information, which relates to concept development, would affect creativity. Such information could foster information-driven design strategy and result in a lower level of creativity. However, properly implemented EBD strategies should not limit creativity since expert designers in EBD would use their knowledge (of therapeutic evidence) and expertness in the design process and need not follow and information driven strategy