804 research outputs found
An Exploration of Community Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialists Experiences of Working as Independent Prescribers: Part 2
The Department of Health has recently reiterated its commitment to the improvement in the quality of end of life care and emphasized the importance of all patients having rapid access to medication. The aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences of clinical nurse specialists who are able to prescribe independently in their role in providing support for patients with palliative care needs within the community setting. Interpretive phenomenology was employed in order to understand and interpret the experiences of six nurse independent prescribes employed as community palliative care clinical nurse specialists. This purposive sampling was preferred with semi-structured interviews as the most appropriate data collection technique. Participants interviewed reported that being able to prescribe enabled them to provide seamless, holistic care which facilitated faster access to medicines for their patients. This was particularly apparent at weekends when the patient's usual general practitioner (GP) was unavailable. Several benefits of nurse independent prescribing were also highlighted. However, the main barrier identified by most participants was the difficulty in accessing the patient's records. The overwhelming conclusion was that independent prescribing by community nurse specialists is beneficial for patients in the palliative care phase of their life and those deemed important to them as they are being cared for at home. Such benefits can also impact on other aspects of the patient's life including prompt availability of medicines, effective symptom control and consequently, an improved or enhanced quality of life for the patients and job satisfaction for the prescribing specialists nurses
Joint Cosmological Formation of QSOs and Bulge-dominated Galaxies
Older and more recent pieces of observational evidence suggest a strong
connection between QSOs and galaxies; in particular, the recently discovered
correlation between black hole and galactic bulge masses suggests that QSO
activity is directly connected to the formation of galactic bulges. The
cosmological problem of QSO formation is analyzed in the framework of an
analytical model for galaxy formation; for the first time a joint comparison
with galaxy and QSO observables is performed. In this model it is assumed that
the same physical variable which determines galaxy morphology is able to
modulate the mass of the black hole responsible for QSO activity. Both halo
spin and the occurence of a major merger are considered as candidates to this
role. The predictions of the model are compared to available data for the
type-dependent galaxy mass functions, the star-formation history of elliptical
galaxies, the QSO luminosity function and its evolution (including the obscured
objects contributing to the hard-X-ray background), the mass function of
dormant black holes and the distribution of black-hole -- bulge mass ratios. A
good agreement with observations is obtained if the halo spin modulates the
efficiency of black-hole formation, and if the galactic halos at have
shone in an inverted order with respect to the hierarchical one (i.e., stars
and black holes in bigger galactic halos have formed before those in smaller
ones). This inversion of hierarchical order for galaxy formation, which
reconciles galaxy formation with QSO evolution, is consistent with many pieces
of observational evidence.Comment: 20 pages, figures included, mn.sty, in press on MNRAS, fig 6 changed
(new data added at z=4.4
Study of B0 -> rho+-pi-+ Time-dependent CP Violation at Belle
We present a time-dependent analysis of CP violation in B0 -> rho pi decays
based on a 140 1/fb data sample collected at the Y(4S) resonance with the Belle
detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. We fully reconstruct one
neutral B meson in the rho+-pi-+ final state and identify the flavor of the
accompanying B meson from its decay products. We obtain the charge asymmetry
ACP = -0.16+-0.10(stat)+-0.02(syst). An unbinned maximum likelihood fit to the
proper-time distributions yields C = 0.25+-0.17(stat)+0.02-0.06(syst), DC =
0.38+-0.18(stat)+0.02-0.04(syst), S = -0.28+-0.23(stat)+0.10-0.08(syst), and DS
= -0.30+-0.24(stat)+-0.09(syst). The direct CP violation parameters for B ->
rho+pi- and B -> rho-pi+ decays are A+- = -0.02+-0.16(stat)+0.05-0.02(syst) and
A-+ = -0.53+-0.29(stat)+0.09-0.04(syst).Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Study of CP Violating Effects in Time Dependent Decays
We report measurements of time dependent decay rates for decays and extraction of CP violation parameters
containing . Using fully reconstructed events from a data sample collected at the resonance, we obtain
the CP violation parameters for and decays, , where is
the ratio of the magnitudes of the doubly-Cabibbo-suppressed and
Cabibbo-favoured amplitudes, and is the strong phase
difference between them. Under the assumption of being
close to either 0 or , we obtain and .Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to Physical Review Letter
Measurement of the B --> K^* gamma Branching Fractions and Asymmetries
We report measurements of the radiative decay B --> K^*\gamma. The analysis
is based on a data sample containing 85.0*10^6 B meson pairs collected by the
Belle detector at the KEKB storage ring. We measure branching fractions of
Br(B^0 --> K^{*0}\gamma) = (4.01 \pm 0.21 \pm 0.17)*10^{-5} and Br(B^+ -->
K^{*+}\gamma) = (4.25 \pm 0.31 \pm 0.24)*10^{-5}, where the first and second
errors are statistical and systematic, respectively. The isospin asymmetry
between B^0 and B^+ decay widths is measured to be \Delta_{0+} = +0.012 \pm
0.044 \pm 0.026. We search for a partial rate asymmetry between CP conjugate
modes, and find A_{cp}(B --> K^*\gamma) = =0.015 \pm 0.044 \pm 0.012.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Search for lepton-flavor violation at HERA
A search for lepton-flavor-violating interactions and has been performed with the ZEUS detector using the entire HERA I
data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 130 pb^{-1}. The data
were taken at center-of-mass energies, , of 300 and 318 GeV. No
evidence of lepton-flavor violation was found, and constraints were derived on
leptoquarks (LQs) that could mediate such interactions. For LQ masses below
, limits were set on , where
is the coupling of the LQ to an electron and a
first-generation quark , and is the branching ratio of
the LQ to the final-state lepton ( or ) and a quark . For
LQ masses much larger than , limits were set on the four-fermion
interaction term for LQs that couple to an electron and a quark
and to a lepton and a quark , where and are
quark generation indices. Some of the limits are also applicable to
lepton-flavor-violating processes mediated by squarks in -Parity-violating
supersymmetric models. In some cases, especially when a higher-generation quark
is involved and for the process , the ZEUS limits are the most
stringent to date.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by EPJC. References and 1 figure (Fig.
6) adde
Inclusive jet cross sections and dijet correlations in photoproduction at HERA
Inclusive jet cross sections in photoproduction for events containing a
meson have been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated
luminosity of . The events were required to have a
virtuality of the incoming photon, , of less than 1 GeV, and a
photon-proton centre-of-mass energy in the range . The measurements are compared with next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD
calculations. Good agreement is found with the NLO calculations over most of
the measured kinematic region. Requiring a second jet in the event allowed a
more detailed comparison with QCD calculations. The measured dijet cross
sections are also compared to Monte Carlo (MC) models which incorporate
leading-order matrix elements followed by parton showers and hadronisation. The
NLO QCD predictions are in general agreement with the data although differences
have been isolated to regions where contributions from higher orders are
expected to be significant. The MC models give a better description than the
NLO predictions of the shape of the measured cross sections.Comment: 43 pages, 12 figures, charm jets ZEU
Measurement of event shapes in deep inelastic scattering at HERA
Inclusive event-shape variables have been measured in the current region of
the Breit frame for neutral current deep inelastic ep scattering using an
integrated luminosity of 45.0 pb^-1 collected with the ZEUS detector at HERA.
The variables studied included thrust, jet broadening and invariant jet mass.
The kinematic range covered was 10 < Q^2 < 20,480 GeV^2 and 6.10^-4 < x < 0.6,
where Q^2 is the virtuality of the exchanged boson and x is the Bjorken
variable. The Q dependence of the shape variables has been used in conjunction
with NLO perturbative calculations and the Dokshitzer-Webber non-perturbative
corrections (`power corrections') to investigate the validity of this approach.Comment: 7+25 pages, 6 figure
Observation of Large CP Violation and Evidence for Direct CP Violation in B0-->pi+pi- Decays
We report the first observation of CP-violating asymmetries in B0 --> pi+pi-
decays based on a 140 fb-1 data sample collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance
with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+e- collider. We
reconstruct one neutral B meson as a B0 --> pi+pi- CP eigenstate and identify
the flavor of the accompanying B meson from its decay products. We apply an
unbinned maximum likelihood fit to the distribution of the time intervals
between the two B meson decay points. The fit yields the CP-violating asymmetry
amplitudes Apipi = +0.58+/-0.15(stat)+/-0.07(syst) and Spipi =
-1.00+/-0.21(stat)+/-0.07(syst). We rule out the CP-conserving case,
Apipi=Spipi=0, at a level of 5.2 standard deviations. We also find evidence for
direct CP violation with a significance at or greater than 3.2 standard
deviations for any Spipi value.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
Beauty photoproduction measured using decays into muons in dijet events in ep collisions at =318 GeV
The photoproduction of beauty quarks in events with two jets and a muon has
been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of
110 pb. The fraction of jets containing b quarks was extracted from the
transverse momentum distribution of the muon relative to the closest jet.
Differential cross sections for beauty production as a function of the
transverse momentum and pseudorapidity of the muon, of the associated jet and
of , the fraction of the photon's momentum participating in
the hard process, are compared with MC models and QCD predictions made at
next-to-leading order. The latter give a good description of the data.Comment: 32 pages, 6 tables, 7 figures Table 6 and Figure 7 revised September
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