PREDICT-PD: Identifying risk of Parkinson's disease in the community: methods and baseline results

To present methods and baseline results for an online screening tool to identify increased risk for Parkinson's disease (PD) in the UK population

Trust and transparency in times of crisis: Results from an online survey during the first wave (April 2020) of the COVID-19 epidemic in the UK

BACKGROUND: The success of a government's COVID-19 control strategy relies on public trust and broad acceptance of response measures. We investigated public perceptions of the UK government's COVID-19 response, focusing on the relationship between trust and perceived transparency, during the first wave (April 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. METHODS: Anonymous survey data were collected (2020-04-06 to 2020-04-22) from 9,322 respondents, aged 20+ using an online questionnaire shared primarily through Facebook. We took an embedded-mixed-methods approach to data analysis. Missing data were imputed via multiple imputation. Binomial & multinomial logistic regression were used to detect associations between demographic characteristics and perceptions or opinions of the UK government's response to COVID-19. Structural topic modelling (STM), qualitative thematic coding of sub-sets of responses were then used to perform a thematic analysis of topics that were of interest to key demographic groups. RESULTS: Most respondents (95.1%) supported government enforcement of behaviour change. While 52.1% of respondents thought the government was making good decisions, differences were apparent across demographic groups, for example respondents from Scotland had lower odds of responding positively than respondents in London. Higher educational levels saw decreasing odds of having a positive opinion of the government response and decreasing household income associated with decreasing positive opinion. Of respondents who thought the government was not making good decisions 60% believed the economy was being prioritised over people and their health. Positive views on government decision-making were associated with positive views on government transparency about the COVID-19 response. Qualitative analysis about perceptions of government transparency highlighted five key themes: (1) the justification of opacity due to the condition of crisis, (2) generalised mistrust of politics, (3) concerns about the role of scientific evidence, (4) quality of government communication and (5) questions about political decision-making processes. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that trust is not homogenous across communities, and that generalised mistrust, concerns about the transparent use and communication of evidence and insights into decision-making processes can affect perceptions of the government's pandemic response. We recommend targeted community engagement, tailored to the experiences of different groups and a new focus on accountability and openness around how decisions are made in the response to the UK COVID-19 pandemic

Lyapunov Exponent Pairing for a Thermostatted Hard-Sphere Gas under Shear in the Thermodynamic Limit

We demonstrate why for a sheared gas of hard spheres, described by the SLLOD equations with an iso-kinetic Gaussian thermostat in between collisions, deviations of the conjugate pairing rule for the Lyapunov spectrum are to be expected, employing a previous result that for a large number of particles $N$, the iso-kinetic Gaussian thermostat is equivalent to a constant friction thermostat, up to $1/\sqrt{N}$ fluctuations. We also show that these deviations are at most of the order of the fourth power in the shear rate.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in Rapid Comm., Phys. Rev.

Evidence for global cooling in the Late Cretaceous.

The Late Cretaceous ‘greenhouse’ world witnessed a transition from one of the warmest climates of the past 140 million years to cooler conditions, yet still without significant continental ice. Low-latitude sea surface temperature (SST) records are a vital piece of evidence required to unravel the cause of Late Cretaceous cooling, but high-quality data remain illusive. Here, using an organic geochemical palaeothermometer (TEX86), we present a record of SSTs for the Campanian–Maastrichtian interval (~83–66¿Ma) from hemipelagic sediments deposited on the western North Atlantic shelf. Our record reveals that the North Atlantic at 35¿°N was relatively warm in the earliest Campanian, with maximum SSTs of ~35¿°C, but experienced significant cooling (~7¿°C) after this to <~28¿°C during the Maastrichtian. The overall stratigraphic trend is remarkably similar to records of high-latitude SSTs and bottom-water temperatures, suggesting that the cooling pattern was global rather than regional and, therefore, driven predominantly by declining atmospheric pCO2 levels

Non-linear electrical response in a charge/orbital ordered Pr⁡0.63\Pr_{0.63}Ca0.37_{0.37}MnO3_3 crystal : the charge density wave analogy

Non-linear conduction in a charge-ordered manganese oxide Pr$_{0.63}$Ca$_{0.37}$MnO$_3$ is reported. To interpret such a feature, it is usually proposed that a breakdown of the charge or orbitally ordered state is induced by the current. The system behaves in such a way that the bias current may generate metallic paths giving rise to resistivity drop. One can describe this feature by considering the coexistence of localized and delocalized electron states with independent paths of conduction. This situation is reminiscent of what occurs in charge density wave systems where a similar non-linear conduction is also observed. In the light of recent experimental results suggesting the development of charge density waves in charge and orbitally ordered manganese oxides, a phenomenological model for charge density waves motion is used to describe the non-linear conduction in Pr$_{0.63}$Ca$_{0.37}$MnO$_3$. In such a framework, the non-linear conduction arises from the motion of the charge density waves condensate which carries a net electrical current.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Non-linear electrical response in a non-charge-ordered manganite: Pr0.8Ca0.2MnO3

Up to now, electric field induced non-linear conduction in the Pr(1-x)CaxMnO3 system has been ascribed to a current-induced destabilization of the charge ordered phase. However, for x<0.25, a ferromagnetic insulator state is observed and charge-ordering is absent whatever the temperature. A systematic investigation of the non-linear transport in the ferromagnetic insulator Pr0.8Ca0.2MnO3 shows rather similar results to those obtained in charge ordered systems. However, the experimental features observed in Pr0.8Ca0.2MnO3 are distinct in that the collapse of the CO energy gap can not be invoked as usually done in the other members of the PCMO system. We propose interpretations in which the effectiveness of the DE is restored upon application of electric field.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Meta-Analysis of Early Nonmotor Features and Risk Factors for Parkinson Disease

"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Noyce, A. J., Bestwick, J. P., Silveira‐Moriyama, L. , Hawkes, C. H., Giovannoni, G. , Lees, A. J. and Schrag, A. (2012), Meta‐analysis of early nonmotor features and risk factors for Parkinson disease. Ann Neurol., 72: 893-901. doi:10.1002/ana.23687, which has been published in final form at [https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.23687 . This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.

PREDICT-PD: Identifying risk of Parkinson's disease in the community: methods and baseline results

This work was supported by Parkinson’s UK (Innovation Grant reference number K-1006: £35 000)

The Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model: Group Summary Report

CONTENTS: 1. Synopsis, 2. The MSSM Spectrum, 3. The Physical Parameters, 4. Higgs Boson Production and Decays, 5. SUSY Particle Production and Decays, 6. Experimental Bounds on SUSY Particle Masses, 7. References.Comment: 121 pages, latex + epsfig, graphicx, axodraw, Report of the MSSM working group for the Workshop "GDR-Supersym\'etrie",France. Rep. PM/98-4

Resonant x-ray diffraction study of the magnetoresistant perovskite Pr0.6Ca0.4MnO3

We report a x-ray resonant diffraction study of the perovskite Pr0.6Ca0.4MnO3. At the Mn K-edge, this technique is sensitive to details of the electronic structure of the Mn atoms. We discuss the resonant x-ray spectra measured above and below the charge and orbital ordering phase transition temperature (TCOO = 232 K), and present a detailed analysis of the energy and polarization dependence of the resonant scattering. The analysis confirms that the structural transition is a transition to an orbitally ordered phase in which inequivalent Mn atoms are ordered in a CE-type pattern. The Mn atoms differ mostly by their 3d orbital occupation. We find that the charge disproportionation is incomplete, 3d^{3.5-\delta} and 3d^{3.5+\delta} with \delta\ll0.5 . A revised CE-type model is considered in which there are two Mn sublattices, each with partial e_{g} occupancy. One sublattice consists of Mn atoms with the 3x^{2}-r^{2} or 3y^{2}-r^{2} orbitals partially occupied, the other sublattice with the x^{2}-y^{2} orbital partially occupied.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figure