Atomic and nano-scale characterization of a 50-year-old hydrated C3S paste

This paper investigates the atomic and nano-scale structures of a 50-year-old hydrated alite paste. Imaged by TEM, the outer product C-S-H fibers are composed of particles that are 1.5-2 nm thick and several tens of nanometers long. 29Si NMR shows 47.9% Q1 and 52.1% Q2, with a mean SiO4 tetrahedron chain length (MCL) of 4.18, indicating a limited degree of polymerization after 50 years' hydration. A Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopy (STXM) study was conducted on this late-age paste and a 1.5 year old hydrated C3S solution. Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) at Ca L3,2-edge indicates that Ca2 + in C-S-H is in an irregular symmetric coordination, which agrees more with the atomic structure of tobermorite than that of jennite. At Si K-edge, multi-scattering phenomenon is sensitive to the degree of polymerization, which has the potential to unveil the structure of the SiO44 - tetrahedron chain

The UK's Global Health Respiratory Network: Improving respiratory health of the world's poorest through research collaborations.

Respiratory disorders are responsible for considerable morbidity, health care utilisation, societal costs and approximately one in five deaths worldwide [1-4]. Yet, despite this substantial health and societal burden – which particularly affects the world’s poorest populations and as such is a major contributor to global health inequalities – respiratory disorders have historically not received the policy priority they warrant. For example, despite causing an estimated 1000 deaths per day, less than half of the world’s countries collect data on asthma prevalence (http://www.globalasthmareport.org/). This is true for both communicable and non-communicable respiratory disorders, many of which are either amenable to treatment or preventable

Revealing the footprints of squark gluino production through Higgs search experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at 7 TeV and 14 TeV

The invariant mass distribution of the di-photons from the decay of the lighter scalar Higgs boson(h) to be carefully measured by dedicated h search experiments at the LHC may be distorted by the di-photons associated with the squark-gluino events with much larger cross sections in Gauge Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking (GMSB) models. This distortion if observed by the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at 7 TeV or 14 TeV, would disfavour not only the standard model but various two Higgs doublet models with comparable h - masses and couplings but without a sector consisting of new heavy particles decaying into photons. The minimal GMSB (mGMSB) model constrained by the mass bound on h from LEP and that on the lightest neutralino from the Tevatron, produce negligible effects. But in the currently popular general GMSB(GGMSB) models the tail of the above distribution may show statistically significant excess of events even in the early stages of the LHC experiments with integrated luminosity insufficient for the discovery of h. We illustrate the above points by introducing several benchmark points in various GMSB models - minimal as well as non-minimal. The same conclusion follows from a detailed parameter scan in a simplified GGMSB model recently employed by the CMS collaboration to interpret their searches in the di-photon + \etslash channel. Other observables like the effective mass distribution of the di-photon + X events may also reveal the presence of new heavy particles beyond the Higgs sector. The contamination of the h mass peak and simple remedies are also discussed.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, title and organization of the paper is changed, detailed parameter scan in a simplified GGMSB model is added, conclusions and old numerical results remain unchange

Beyond the EPR: Complementary roles of the hospital-wide electronic health record and clinical departmental systems

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many hospital departments have implemented small clinical departmental systems (CDSs) to collect and use patient data for documentation as well as for other department-specific purposes. As hospitals are implementing institution-wide electronic patient records (EPRs), the EPR is thought to be integrated with, and gradually substitute the smaller systems. Many EPR systems however fail to support important clinical workflows. Also, successful integration of systems has proven hard to achieve. As a result, CDSs are still in widespread use. This study was conducted to see which tasks are supported by CDSs and to compare this to the support offered by the EPR.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Semi-structured interviews with users of 16 clinicians using 15 different clinical departmental systems (CDS) at a Medium-sized University hospital in Norway. Inductive analysis of transcriptions from the audio taped interviews.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The roles of CDSs were complementary to those of the hospital-wide EPR system. The use of structured patient data was a characteristic feature. This facilitated quality development and supervision, tasks that were poorly supported by the EPR system. The structuring of the data also improved filtering of information to better support clinical decision-making. Because of the high value of the structured patient data, the users put much effort in maintaining their integrity and representativeness. Employees from the departments were also engaged in the funding, development, implementation and maintenance of the systems.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Clinical departmental systems are vital to the activities of a clinical hospital department. The development, implementation and clinical use of such systems can be seen as bottom-up, user-driven innovations.</p

Realistic Standard Model Fermion Mass Relations in Generalized Minimal Supergravity (GmSUGRA)

Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) usually predict wrong Standard Model (SM) fermion mass relation m_e/m_{\mu} = m_d/m_s toward low energies. To solve this problem, we consider the Generalized Minimal Supergravity (GmSUGRA) models, which are GUTs with gravity mediated supersymmetry breaking and higher dimensional operators. Introducing non-renormalizable terms in the super- and K\"ahler potentials, we can obtain the correct SM fermion mass relations in the SU(5) model with GUT Higgs fields in the {\bf 24} and {\bf 75} representations, and in the SO(10) model. In the latter case the gauge symmetry is broken down to SU(3)_C X SU(2)_L X SU(2)_R X U(1)_{B-L}, to flipped SU(5)X U(1)_X, or to SU(3)_C X SU(2)_L X U(1)_1 X U(1)_2. Especially, for the first time we generate the realistic SM fermion mass relation in GUTs by considering the high-dimensional operators in the K\"ahler potential.Comment: JHEP style, 29 pages, no figure,references adde

Violence witnessing, perpetrating and victimization in medellin, Colombia: a random population survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The burden of injury from violence and the costs attributable to violence are extremely high in Colombia. Despite a dramatic decline in homicides over the last ten years, homicide rate in Medellin, Colombia second largest city continues to rank among the highest of cities in Latin America. This study aims to estimate the prevalence and distribution of witnesses, victims and perpetrators of different forms of interpersonal violence in a representative sample of the general population in Medellin in 2007.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A face-to-face survey was carried out on a random selected, non-institutionalized population aged 12 to 60 years, with a response rate of 91% yielding 2,095 interview responses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present the rates of prevalence for having been a witness, victim, or perpetrator for different forms of violence standardized using the WHO truncated population pyramid to allow for cross-national comparison. We also present data on verbal aggression, fraud and deception, yelling and heavy pranks, unarmed aggression during last year, and armed threat, other severe threats, robbery, armed physical aggression, and sexual aggression during the lifetime, by age, sex, marital and socioeconomic status, and education. Men reported the highest prevalence of being victims, perpetrators and witnesses in all forms of violence, except for robbery and sexual violence. The number of victims per perpetrator was positively correlated with the severity of the type of violence. The highest victimization proportions over the previous twelve months occurred among minors. Perpetrators are typically young unmarried males from lower socio-economic strata.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Due to very low proportion of victimization report to authorities, periodic surveys should be included in systems for epidemiological monitoring of violence, not only of victimization but also for perpetrators. Victimization information allows quantifying the magnitude of different forms of violence, while data on factors associated with aggression and perpetrators are necessary to estimate risk and protective factors that are essential to sound policies for violence prevention formulation.</p

Associations between insulin and glucose concentrations and anthropometric measures of fat mass in Australian adolescents

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One of the most serious, yet common co-morbidities of obesity is insulin resistance, which if untreated may progress to type 2 diabetes. This paper describes the insulin and glucose concentration distributions, the prevalence of elevated insulin, the associations between insulin and body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and fat mass index in a representative sample of Australian adolescents.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cross-sectional population-based study of adolescent boys and girls (N = 496, mean age 15.3 years) attending schools in metropolitan Sydney, Australia. Fasting venous blood collected and analysed for insulin and glucose concentrations. Height, weight, waist circumference measured, BMI and waist-to-height ratio calculated. Pubertal status self-reported.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Glucose concentrations were normally distributed and were not associated with adiposity. Insulin concentrations were distributed logarithmically, were higher among girls than boys overall and within the same ranges of BMI and waist circumference, but were lower among girls than boys within the same ranges of fat mass adjusted for height. The prevalence of elevated insulin concentration (defined as > 100 pmol/L) was 15.9% and 17.1% among boys and girls, respectively. Correlations between insulin concentration and BMI, waist circumference, WHtR and fat mass adjusted for height were 0.53, 0.49, 0.51 and 0.55, among boys, respectively, and 0.35, 0.40, 0.42 and 0.34, among girls, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Elevated insulin is highly correlated with adiposity in adolescents. BMI and WHtR are simple measures that can be used to identify young people who should be screened for insulin resistance and other co-morbidities.</p

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990-2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015

SummaryBackground The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2015 provides an up-to-date synthesis of the evidence for risk factor exposure and the attributable burden of disease. By providing national and subnational assessments spanning the past 25 years, this study can inform debates on the importance of addressing risks in context. Methods We used the comparative risk assessment framework developed for previous iterations of the Global Burden of Disease Study to estimate attributable deaths, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and trends in exposure by age group, sex, year, and geography for 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks from 1990 to 2015. This study included 388 risk-outcome pairs that met World Cancer Research Fund-defined criteria for convincing or probable evidence. We extracted relative risk and exposure estimates from randomised controlled trials, cohorts, pooled cohorts, household surveys, census data, satellite data, and other sources. We used statistical models to pool data, adjust for bias, and incorporate covariates. We developed a metric that allows comparisons of exposure across risk factors—the summary exposure value. Using the counterfactual scenario of theoretical minimum risk level, we estimated the portion of deaths and DALYs that could be attributed to a given risk. We decomposed trends in attributable burden into contributions from population growth, population age structure, risk exposure, and risk-deleted cause-specific DALY rates. We characterised risk exposure in relation to a Socio-demographic Index (SDI). Findings Between 1990 and 2015, global exposure to unsafe sanitation, household air pollution, childhood underweight, childhood stunting, and smoking each decreased by more than 25%. Global exposure for several occupational risks, high body-mass index (BMI), and drug use increased by more than 25% over the same period. All risks jointly evaluated in 2015 accounted for 57·8% (95% CI 56·6–58·8) of global deaths and 41·2% (39·8–42·8) of DALYs. In 2015, the ten largest contributors to global DALYs among Level 3 risks were high systolic blood pressure (211·8 million [192·7 million to 231·1 million] global DALYs), smoking (148·6 million [134·2 million to 163·1 million]), high fasting plasma glucose (143·1 million [125·1 million to 163·5 million]), high BMI (120·1 million [83·8 million to 158·4 million]), childhood undernutrition (113·3 million [103·9 million to 123·4 million]), ambient particulate matter (103·1 million [90·8 million to 115·1 million]), high total cholesterol (88·7 million [74·6 million to 105·7 million]), household air pollution (85·6 million [66·7 million to 106·1 million]), alcohol use (85·0 million [77·2 million to 93·0 million]), and diets high in sodium (83·0 million [49·3 million to 127·5 million]). From 1990 to 2015, attributable DALYs declined for micronutrient deficiencies, childhood undernutrition, unsafe sanitation and water, and household air pollution; reductions in risk-deleted DALY rates rather than reductions in exposure drove these declines. Rising exposure contributed to notable increases in attributable DALYs from high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, occupational carcinogens, and drug use. Environmental risks and childhood undernutrition declined steadily with SDI; low physical activity, high BMI, and high fasting plasma glucose increased with SDI. In 119 countries, metabolic risks, such as high BMI and fasting plasma glucose, contributed the most attributable DALYs in 2015. Regionally, smoking still ranked among the leading five risk factors for attributable DALYs in 109 countries; childhood underweight and unsafe sex remained primary drivers of early death and disability in much of sub-Saharan Africa. Interpretation Declines in some key environmental risks have contributed to declines in critical infectious diseases. Some risks appear to be invariant to SDI. Increasing risks, including high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose, drug use, and some occupational exposures, contribute to rising burden from some conditions, but also provide opportunities for intervention. Some highly preventable risks, such as smoking, remain major causes of attributable DALYs, even as exposure is declining. Public policy makers need to pay attention to the risks that are increasingly major contributors to global burden. Funding Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation