Perceptions and Experiences of Healthcare Professionals Regarding Type 2 Diabetes Patient Education in Benin City, Nigeria

Background: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is on the increase globally, characterised by severe complications which pose a burden on individuals, healthcare professionals and society. The study aimed at exploring the perceptions and experiences of healthcare professionals towards type 2 diabetes patient education. Method: The approach utilised was an explorative descriptive qualitative research approach. A multi-disciplinary group of healthcare professionals comprising of nurses, dieticians and social workers, in two health institutions participated in the focus group discussions. The discussions were recorded, transcribed and analysed manually using Tesch (1990) descriptive approach. Results: The identified themes included the composition of patient education on type 2 diabetes, challenges encountered during the practice of patient education and recommendations by the healthcare professionals. Conclusion: The healthcare professionals’ perceived that all healthcare professionals should be involved in patient education. Keywords: Experiences, Healthcare Professionals, Patients, Patient Education, Perception, Type 2 diabetes

24^{24}Mg(pp, α\alpha)21^{21}Na reaction study for spectroscopy of 21^{21}Na

The $^{24}$Mg($p$, $\alpha$)$^{21}$Na reaction was measured at the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in order to better constrain spins and parities of energy levels in $^{21}$Na for the astrophysically important $^{17}$F($\alpha, p$)$^{20}$Ne reaction rate calculation. 31 MeV proton beams from the 25-MV tandem accelerator and enriched $^{24}$Mg solid targets were used. Recoiling $^{4}$He particles from the $^{24}$Mg($p$, $\alpha$)$^{21}$Na reaction were detected by a highly segmented silicon detector array which measured the yields of $^{4}$He particles over a range of angles simultaneously. A new level at 6661 $\pm$ 5 keV was observed in the present work. The extracted angular distributions for the first four levels of $^{21}$Na and Distorted Wave Born Approximation (DWBA) calculations were compared to verify and extract angular momentum transfer.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Accelerators and Beam Utilization (ICABU2014

Development of the (d,n) proton-transfer reaction in inverse kinematics for structure studies

Transfer reactions have provided exciting opportunities to study the structure of exotic nuclei and are often used to inform studies relating to nucleosynthesis and applications. In order to benefit from these reactions and their application to rare ion beams (RIBs) it is necessary to develop the tools and techniques to perform and analyze the data from reactions performed in inverse kinematics, that is with targets of light nuclei and heavier beams. We are continuing to expand the transfer reaction toolbox in preparation for the next generation of facilities, such as the Facility for Rare Ion Beams (FRIB), which is scheduled for completion in 2022. An important step in this process is to perform the (d,n) reaction in inverse kinematics, with analyses that include Q-value spectra and differential cross sections. In this way, proton-transfer reactions can be placed on the same level as the more commonly used neutron-transfer reactions, such as (d,p), (9Be,8Be), and (13C,12C). Here we present an overview of the techniques used in (d,p) and (d,n), and some recent data from (d,n) reactions in inverse kinematics using stable beams of 12C and 16O.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, presented at the XXXV Mazurian Lakes Conference on Physics, Piaski, Polan

Reactions of a Be-10 beam on proton and deuteron targets

The extraction of detailed nuclear structure information from transfer reactions requires reliable, well-normalized data as well as optical potentials and a theoretical framework demonstrated to work well in the relevant mass and beam energy ranges. It is rare that the theoretical ingredients can be tested well for exotic nuclei owing to the paucity of data. The halo nucleus Be-11 has been examined through the 10Be(d,p) reaction in inverse kinematics at equivalent deuteron energies of 12,15,18, and 21.4 MeV. Elastic scattering of Be-10 on protons was used to select optical potentials for the analysis of the transfer data. Additionally, data from the elastic and inelastic scattering of Be-10 on deuterons was used to fit optical potentials at the four measured energies. Transfers to the two bound states and the first resonance in Be-11 were analyzed using the Finite Range ADiabatic Wave Approximation (FR-ADWA). Consistent values of the spectroscopic factor of both the ground and first excited states were extracted from the four measurements, with average values of 0.71(5) and 0.62(4) respectively. The calculations for transfer to the first resonance were found to be sensitive to the size of the energy bin used and therefore could not be used to extract a spectroscopic factor.Comment: 16 Pages, 10 figure