Vitamin K policies and midwifery practice: questionnaire survey

Objectives: To investigate policies on neonatal vitamin K and their implementation. Design: Two phase postal survey. Setting: United Kingdom. Participants: A 10% random sample of midwives registered with the United Kingdom Central Council for nursing, midwifery, and health visiting. Of 3191 midwives in the sample, 2515 (79%) responded to phase one and 2294 (72%) completed questionnaires on their current jobs (November 1998 to May 1999). In phase two, 853 (62%) of 1383 eligible midwives gave details on 2179 of their earliest jobs (start dates before 1990). Results: All the midwives in clinical practice at the time of the survey (2271, 99%) reported that they were working in areas with official policies on neonatal vitamin K. Seven distinct policies were described: intramuscular vitamin K for all babies (1159, 51.0%); intramuscular vitamin K for babies at "high risk," oral for others (470, 20.7%); oral vitamin K for all babies (323, 14.2%); parental choice for all (124, 5.5%); parental choice for all except babies at high risk, (119, 5.2%); intramuscular vitamin K for babies at high risk only (33, 1.5%); oral vitamin K for babies at high risk only (17, 0.7%); and a disparate group of policies including intravenous vitamin K for some babies (26, 1.1%). Previous policies were (and some may still be) open to individual interpretation and were not always followed. Conclusions: Hospital policy is not necessarily a good guide to individual practice. The primary purpose of clinical records is to document patient care, and recording practices reflect this. There is considerable variation in vitamin K policies and midwifery practice in the United Kingdom, and there is no clear consensus on which babies should receive vitamin K intramuscularly

Cell wall microstructure, pore size distribution and absolute density of hemp shiv

This paper, for the first time, fully characterizes the intrinsic physical parameters of hemp shiv including cell wall microstructure, pore size distribution and absolute density. Scanning electron microscopy revealed microstructural features similar to hardwoods. Confocal microscopy revealed three major layers in the cell wall: middle lamella, primary cell wall and secondary cell wall. Computed tomography improved the visualization of pore shape and pore connectivity in three dimensions. Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) showed that the average accessible porosity was 76.67 ± 2.03% and pore size classes could be distinguished into micropores (3–10 nm) and macropores (0.1–1 µm and 20–80 µm). The absolute density was evaluated by helium pycnometry, MIP and Archimedes’ methods. The results show that these methods can lead to misinterpretation of absolute density. The MIP method showed a realistic absolute density (1.45 g cm−3) consistent with the density of the known constituents, including lignin, cellulose and hemi-cellulose. However, helium pycnometry and Archimedes’ methods gave falsely low values owing to 10% of the volume being inaccessible pores, which require sample pretreatment in order to be filled by liquid or gas. This indicates that the determination of the cell wall density is strongly dependent on sample geometry and preparation

In-Beam Background Suppression Shield

The long (3ms) proton pulse of the European Spallation Source (ESS) gives rise to unique and potentially high backgrounds for the instrument suite. In such a source an instrument capabilities will be limited by it's Signal to Noise (S/N) ratio. The instruments with a direct view of the moderator, which do not use a bender to help mitigate the fast neutron background, are the most challenging. For these beam lines we propose the innovative shielding of placing blocks of material directly into the guide system, which allow a minimum attenuation of the cold and thermal fluxes relative to the background suppression. This shielding configuration has been worked into a beam line model using Geant4. We study particularly the advantages of single crystal sapphire and silicon blocks .Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, proceeding of NDS 2015, 4th International Workshop on Neutron Delivery Systems, 28 -30 September 2015, ILL Grenoble, Franc

Facility for fast neutron irradiation tests of electronics at the ISIS spallation neutron source

The VESUVIO beam line at the ISIS spallation neutron source was set up for neutron irradiation tests in the neutron energy range above 10 MeV. The neutron flux and energy spectrum were shown, in benchmark activation measurements, to provide a neutron spectrum similar to the ambient one at sea level, but with an enhancement in intensity of a factor of 107. Such conditions are suitable for accelerated testing of electronic components, as was demonstrated here by measurements of soft error rates in recent technology field programable gate arrays

Geographers out of place: institutions, (inter)disciplinarity and identity

Ten years ago, the decision was taken to close Brunel University’s Department of Geography and Earth Sciences and its undergraduate programmes. Since this time, most of the human geographers have remained at Brunel, but now work from beyond the boundaries of conventional academic Geography. In this paper we argue that this situation, which is not uncommon for geographers in the UK and elsewhere, has significant implications for both individuals and the discipline more broadly. Through our everyday experiences of interdisciplinary working, this paper reflects on what it means to be a geographer working outside of ‘Geography’. The paper examines the implications of this at three different yet related scales: the immediately personal scale in terms of identity and individual academic performance, the institutional scale and its organisation that can lead to the presence/ absence of academic subject areas, and then finally the disciplinary scale with its attendant spaces of knowledge generation, dissemination and protectionism. Our arguments are framed by neoliberal-led higher education changes and conceptualisations of institutions, (inter)disciplinarity and identity, and point to broader significances for the shape of the discipline

Additions to the catalogue of Tasmanian Mollusca

Includes an identification of shells, examined by C.J Gabriel, Esq, to be included into the catalogue of Tasmanian Mollusca. In the illustrated Index of Tasmanian shells issued in 1923 by the late W.L May, the habitat of a large number of shells was assigned to the East or South coasts (or to both). In the course of annual visits, to Circular Head, upwards of seventy species have been gathered and the list of species has been included