Challenging the status quo: women's experiences of opting for a home birth in Andalucia, Spain

Objective To explore the perceptions, beliefs and attitudes of women who opted for a home birth in Andalusia (Spain). Background Home birth is currently an unusual choice among Spanish women. It is not an option covered by the Spanish National Health Service and women who opt for a home birth have to pay for an independent midwife. Design A qualitative study with a phenomenological approach was adopted. All participants who took part in this study had chosen to have a home birth and given written consent to take part in the study. Methods Data collection was conducted in 2015–16. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with women who chose a home birth in the last 5 years. Findings The sample consisted of thirteen women. Seven themes were created through analysis: 1. Getting informed about home birth; 2. Home birth as a choice, despite feeling unsupported; 3. The best way to have a personalized and a physiological birth; 4. Seeking a healing and empowering experience 5. The need for emotional safety, establishing a relationship and trusting the midwife; 6. Preparing for birth and working on fears; 7. Inequality of access (because of financial implications). Conclusions Women opted to plan birth at home because they wanted a personalised birth and control over their decision-making in labour, which they felt would not have been afforded to them in hospital settings. Andalusian maternity care leaders should strive to ensure that all pregnant women receive respectful and high-quality personalised care, by appropriately trained staff, both in the hospital and in the community

Top effective operators at the ILC

We investigate the effect of top trilinear operators in t tbar production at the ILC. We find that the sensitivity to these operators largely surpasses the one achievable by the LHC either in neutral or charged current processes, allowing to probe new physics scales up to 4.5 TeV for a centre of mass energy of 500 GeV. We show how the use of beam polarisation and an eventual energy upgrade to 1 TeV allow to disentangle all effective operator contributions to the Ztt and gamma tt vertices.Comment: LaTeX 13 pages. Typos corrected. Final version in JHE

Top effective operators at the ILC

We investigate the effect of top trilinear operators in t tbar production at the ILC. We find that the sensitivity to these operators largely surpasses the one achievable by the LHC either in neutral or charged current processes, allowing to probe new physics scales up to 4.5 TeV for a centre of mass energy of 500 GeV. We show how the use of beam polarisation and an eventual energy upgrade to 1 TeV allow to disentangle all effective operator contributions to the Ztt and gamma tt vertices.Comment: LaTeX 13 pages. Typos corrected. Final version in JHE

Charging Interacting Rotating Black Holes in Heterotic String Theory

We present a formulation of the stationary bosonic string sector of the whole toroidally compactified effective field theory of the heterotic string as a double Ernst system which, in the framework of General Relativity describes, in particular, a pair of interacting spinning black holes; however, in the framework of low--energy string theory the double Ernst system can be particularly interpreted as the rotating field configuration of two interacting sources of black hole type coupled to dilaton and Kalb--Ramond fields. We clarify the rotating character of the $B_{t\phi}$--component of the antisymmetric tensor field of Kalb--Ramond and discuss on its possible torsion nature. We also recall the fact that the double Ernst system possesses a discrete symmetry which is used to relate physically different string vacua. Therefore we apply the normalized Harrison transformation (a charging symmetry which acts on the target space of the low--energy heterotic string theory preserving the asymptotics of the transformed fields and endowing them with multiple electromagnetic charges) on a generic solution of the double Ernst system and compute the generated field configurations for the 4D effective field theory of the heterotic string. This transformation generates the $U(1)^n$ vector field content of the whole low--energy heterotic string spectrum and gives rise to a pair of interacting rotating black holes endowed with dilaton, Kalb--Ramond and multiple electromagnetic fields where the charge vectors are orthogonal to each other.Comment: 15 pages in latex, revised versio

Measure of the size of CP violation in extended models

In this letter we introduce a possible measure of the size of CP violation in the Standard Model and its extensions, based on quantities invariant under the change of weak quark basis. We also introduce a measure of the ``average size'' of CP violation in a model, which can be used to compare the size of CP violation in models involving extra sequential or vector-like quarks, or left-right symmetry.Comment: LaTeX, 7 pages, no figure

Time-resolved photometry of the young dipper RX~J1604.3-2130A:Unveiling the structure and mass transport through the innermost disk

Context. RX J1604.3-2130A is a young, dipper-type, variable star in the Upper Scorpius association, suspected to have an inclined inner disk, with respect to its face-on outer disk. Aims. We aim to study the eclipses to constrain the inner disk properties. Methods. We used time-resolved photometry from the Rapid Eye Mount telescope and Kepler 2 data to study the multi-wavelength variability, and archival optical and infrared data to track accretion, rotation, and changes in disk structure. Results. The observations reveal details of the structure and matter transport through the inner disk. The eclipses show 5 d quasi-periodicity, with the phase drifting in time and some periods showing increased/decreased eclipse depth and frequency. Dips are consistent with extinction by slightly processed dust grains in an inclined, irregularly-shaped inner disk locked to the star through two relatively stable accretion structures. The grains are located near the dust sublimation radius (similar to 0.06 au) at the corotation radius, and can explain the shadows observed in the outer disk. The total mass (gas and dust) required to produce the eclipses and shadows is a few % of a Ceres mass. Such an amount of mass is accreted/replenished by accretion in days to weeks, which explains the variability from period to period. Spitzer and WISE infrared variability reveal variations in the dust content in the innermost disk on a timescale of a few years, which is consistent with small imbalances (compared to the stellar accretion rate) in the matter transport from the outer to the inner disk. A decrease in the accretion rate is observed at the times of less eclipsing variability and low mid-IR fluxes, confirming this picture. The v sin i = 16 km s(-1) confirms that the star cannot be aligned with the outer disk, but is likely close to equator-on and to be aligned with the inner disk. This anomalous orientation is a challenge for standard theories of protoplanetary disk formation.Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC): ST/S000399/1. ESO fellowship. European Union (EU): 823 823. German Research Foundation (DFG): FOR 2634/1 TE 1024/1-1. French National Research Agency (ANR): ANR-16-CE31-0013. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. European Research Council (ERC): 678 194. European Research Council (ERC): 742 095. National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA). National Science Foundation (NSF). National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA): NNG05GF22G. National Science Foundation (NSF): AST-0909182, AST-1 313 422

Contrasting human perceptions of and attitudes towards two threatened small carnivores, Lycalopex fulvipes and Leopardus guigna, in rural communities adjacent to protected areas in Chile

Indexación: Scopus.The interaction between humans and small carnivores is a phenomenon especially frequent in rural fringes, as is the case of communities surrounding natural areas. In Chile, two species of threatened carnivores, the Darwin's Fox and the Guigna, have increased their contact with humans due to human-induced changes in their habitat. The objective of this study was to characterize the interactions of these species with humans by assessing human perceptions and attitudes toward them, and to assess livestock and poultry ownership and management practices in local communities to evaluate their possible roles in the phenomenon. We conducted semi-structured interviews in rural communities adjacent to natural protected areas of two different regions in southern Chile. We found that people have a more positive perception of Darwin's Foxes than Guignas, but both species are considered damaging due to poultry attacks. Livestock and poultry management was generally deficient. Improvements in animal management and education programs could lead to a significant decrease in negative interactions. © Sacristan et al. 2018.https://www.threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/4030/442

What the Infrared Behaviour of QCD Vertex Functions in Landau gauge can tell us about Confinement

The infrared behaviour of Landau gauge QCD vertex functions is investigated employing a skeleton expansion of the Dyson-Schwinger and Renormalization Group equations. Results for the ghost-gluon, three-gluon, four-gluon and quark-gluon vertex functions are presented. Positivity violation of the gluon propagator, and thus gluon confinement, is demonstrated. Results of the Dyson-Schwinger equations for a finite volume are compared to corresponding lattice data. It is analytically demonstrated that a linear rising potential between heavy quarks can be generated by infrared singularities in the dressed quark-gluon vertex. The selfconsistent mechanism that generates these singularities necessarily entails the scalar Dirac amplitudes of the full vertex and the quark propagator. These can only be present when chiral symmetry is broken, either explicitly or dynamically.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures; to appear in the Proceedings of ``X Hadron Physics 2007'', Florianopolis, Brazil, March 26 - 31, 200

Comparative Genomics Analysis of a New Exiguobacterium Strain from Salar de Huasco Reveals a Repertoire of Stress-Related Genes and Arsenic Resistance

Indexación: Web of Science; Scopus.The Atacama Desert hosts diverse ecosystems including salt flats and shallow Andean lakes. Several heavy metals are found in the Atacama Desert, and microorganisms growing in this environment show varying levels of resistance/tolerance to copper, tellurium, and arsenic, among others. Herein, we report the genome sequence and comparative genomic analysis of a new Exiguobacterium strain, sp. SH31, isolated from an altiplanic shallow athalassohaline lake. Exiguobacterium sp. SH31 belongs to the phylogenetic Group II and its closest relative is Exiguobacterium sp. S17, isolated from the Argentinian Altiplano (95% average nucleotide identity). Strain SH31 encodes a wide repertoire of proteins required for cadmium, copper, mercury, tellurium, chromium, and arsenic resistance. Of the 34 Exiguobacterium genomes that were inspected, only isolates SH31 and S17 encode the arsenic efflux pump Acr3. Strain SH31 was able to grow in up to 10 mM arsenite and 100 mM arsenate, indicating that it is arsenic resistant. Further, expression of the ars operon and acr3 was strongly induced in response to both toxics, suggesting that the arsenic efflux pump Acr3 mediates arsenic resistance in Exiguobacterium sp. SH31.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00456/ful