Hadron mass calculations in quenched QCD

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D73858/87 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Perceptions of Gauteng general practitioners in private practice of complimentary medicine

M.Fam. Med., Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 201

Respiratory admissions linked to air pollution in a medium sized city of the UK:A case-crossover study

This study, from the Tayside Pollution Research Programme (TPRP), aims to investigate the effects of air pollution on respiratory hospital admissions in adults and children &lt; 16 y of age, over a 14-year period, in Dundee, Scotland (population circa 148,270). We conducted a case-crossover study using routinely collected healthcare records from Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, Scotland from 2004 to 2017. Respiratory hospitalisation events were linked to daily nitric oxide gases (NOx, NO2, NO) extracted from publicly available data over this period. We used distributed lag models to allow for delayed effects of air pollutants up to 14 days. A total of 34,192 hospital admissions for a respiratory condition were included in this study (children = 9,501; adults = 24,691). Respiratory admissions in children were significantly associated with cumulative 14-day exposure to NOx (RR for a 10 µg m–3 increase in concentration 1.020; 95% confidence interval 1.010–1.031), NO2 (RR 1.086; 95% CI 1.036–1.139) and NO (RR 1.033; 95% CI 1.016–1.052). Similar estimates were observed for acute respiratory infection categories in children. Effects appeared to be somewhat delayed, with the largest estimates mostly observed around lag 6. No significant association was seen for respiratory admissions in adults. This study shows that both NO and NO2 are associated with increased respiratory hospital admissions in children &lt; 16 y of age, and that much more should be done to improve and enforce the established legal NOx pollution limits in cities for the sake of our children’s health.</p

Plant Strategies in Herbaceous Vegetation in Relation to Soil Disturbance, Fertilization and Sowing on the Northern Tablelands of NSW

This study examined whether the response of herbaceous vegetation to environmental disturbances such as mechanical soil disturbance and fertilization can be predicted from a knowledge of the component species' plant attributes. Some aspects of Grime's (1979) C-S-R model were also tested. The model proposed that the three permutations of low stress and low disturbance, low stress and high disturbance, and high stress and low disturbance are associated with competitive (C), ruderal (R) and stress-tolerant (S) plant strategies, respectively. A completely randomised block experiment with three factors, soil disturbance, fertilization and sowing, was established in an area of moderately grazed temperate grassland on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. The site was dominated by the tall, warm season perennial grasses, 'Aristida ramosa' and 'A. warburgii' and its yellow podzolic soil was deficient in phosphorus, nitrogen and sulphur. The study area experiences an annual average rainfall of 914 mm, an annual average maximum temperature of 20.3°C and an annual average minimum temperature of 7.3°C. There were three levels of soil disturbance (none, hand-hoed and rotary-hoed), two levels of fertilization (none and fertilized NPS) and two levels of sowing (none and sown). The sown treatment consisted of hand-sowing the propagules of seven exotic species into the plots. During the experimental period (August 1992 -February 1994), the sown treatment was applied once in August 1992, disturbance was applied annually in August, fertilizer was applied twice a year and the vegetation was sampled in spring (November) and summer (March/February) each year. ... In conclusion, the response of herbaceous vegetation to mechanical soil disturbance and fertilization could be predicted from a knowledge of the component species' plant attributes. Plant attributes relating to plant persistence, biomass partitioning (leaves vs reproduction vs storage), and use of resources (conservative versus liberal) were strongly related to fertilization and soil disturbance. Plant attributes can discriminate between habitats as well as, or better than, floristic data. On a community scale, the influence of historical factors on vegetation response was not removed by the plant attribute approach, although it was somewhat reduced. Thus, the relationships found using this approach were of intermediate generality and are applicable to sites with a similar fertilizer and disturbance history. The greatest support for the C-S-R model was found using the key (4 predictions upheld, 1 inconsistent and 2 rejected). Support for the model was also found by testing its underlying hypotheses (2 predictions upheld, 2 inconsistent and 2 rejected), while the ordination of vegetation samples by the mean Rmax and MI of its component species was unsuccessful (0 predictions upheld, 2 inconsistent and 3 rejected). The present study shows how vegetation models may be viewed as a starting point for research and refinement rather than something that must be either wholly accepted or rejected

An audit of the management of elderly patients with glioblastoma in the UK: have recent trial results changed treatment?

Aim: We investigated uptake of short-course chemo-radiotherapy and compared outcomes with other treatment schedules in elderly patients with glioblastoma (GBM). Methods: Patients aged 65 or over with a diagnosis of GBM were identified from an 18-month period from three centers in the UK. The primary end point of this study was overall survival from the date of diagnosis. Results: The analysis included 210 patients. Overall median survival was 5.0 months. Approximately 31.9% of patients received combined chemoradiation; multivariate analysis showed that patients who received standard chemoradiation were at a reduced risk of death than those receiving hypofractionated chemoradiation. Discussion: In this retrospective study, patients treated with standard chemoradiation experienced better outcomes than patients receiving hypofractionated chemoradiation. Patient selection likely contributed to these findings

Evaluation of encapsulated liver cell spheroids in a fluidised-bed bioartificial liver for treatment of ischaemic acute liver failure in pigs in a translational setting

Liver failure is an increasing problem. Donor-organ shortage results in patients dying before receiving a transplant. Since the liver can regenerate, alternative therapies providing temporary liver-support are sought. A bioartificial-liver would temporarily substitute function in liver failure buying time for liver regeneration/organ-procurement. Our aim: to develop a prototype bioartificial-liver-machine (BAL) comprising a human liver-derived cell-line, cultured to phenotypic competence and deliverable in a clinical setting to sites distant from its preparation. The objective of this study was to determine whether its use would improve functional parameters of liver failure in pigs with acute liver failure, to provide proof-of-principle. HepG2cells encapsulated in alginate-beads, proliferated in a fluidised-bed-bioreactor providing a biomass of 4-6×10 10 cells, were transported from preparation-laboratory to point-of-use operating theatre (6000miles) under perfluorodecalin at ambient temperature. Irreversible ischaemic liver failure was induced in anaesthetised pigs, after portal-systemic-shunt, by hepatic-artery-ligation. Biochemical parameters, intracranial pressure, and functional-clotting were measured in animals connected in an extracorporeal bioartificial-liver circuit. Efficacy was demonstrated comparing outcomes between animals connected to a circuit containing alginate-encapsulated cells (Cell-bead BAL), and those connected to circuit containing alginate capsules without cells (Empty-bead BAL). Cells of the biomass met regulatory standards for sterility and provenance. All animals developed progressive liver-failure after ischaemia induction. Efficacy of BAL was demonstrated since animals connected to a functional biomass (+ cells) had significantly smaller rises in intracranial pressure, lower ammonia levels, more bilirubin conjugation, improved acidosis and clotting restoration compared to animals connected to the circuit without cells. In the +cell group, human proteins accumulated in pigs' plasma. Delivery of biomass using a short-term cold-chain enabled transport and use without loss of function over 3days. Thus, a fluidised-bed bioreactor containing alginate-encapsulated HepG2cell-spheroids improved important parameters of acute liver failure in pigs. The system can readily be up-scaled and transported to point-of-use justifying development at clinical scale

Examining elementary teachers’ puzzles: a cross-disciplinary analysis

We present a cross-disciplinary analysis of the puzzles and tensions elementary teachers experience as they conduct classroom discussion. We describe two teachers’ framings and sense-making about the puzzle of how (much) to steer discussion in light of instructional goals, considering similarities and differences across teachers and disciplines. This work is part of a project to understand how elementary teachers learn to conduct classroom discussions in ways that support deep disciplinary learning and seek to disrupt settled expectations of disciplines, children, and teaching (Bang, Warren, Rosebery, & Medin, 2012). We assume that systems of oppression permeate teaching and learning, for example, through curriculum structures, how subject matter is constituted, and privileged ways of speaking and acting (Bang et al, 2012; Esmonde & Booker, 2016). This poster shares how we have sought to understand the puzzles and tensions that elementary teachers experience as they conduct classroom discussion. We focus on puzzles because they provide windows into teacher sense-making and they may reveal opportunities to work with teachers around their own concerns at the intersection of disciplines, classroom discourse, and power. When teachers frame and try to make sense of puzzles and tensions, they draw upon practices, curriculum materials, and categories for labeling students (Hall & Horn, 2012) that inevitably reflect the dominant ideologies of society, school disciplines, and disciplinary knowing (Louie, 2020). We are interested in understanding how teachers' puzzles and tensions might be similar and different across school disciplines. While elementary teachers typically work with one group of children across content areas, researchers have tended to approach studying and supporting teachers’ practice from the perspective of a particular discipline (e.g., mathematics). We seek to understand how the puzzles and tensions that emerge for teachers might be shaped by school disciplines, and how they can serve to make visible the contradictions and dominant ideologies of larger systems.Accepted manuscrip