Less Stress : Oxidative stress and glutathione kinetics in preterm infants

Due to immature antioxidant defenses, preterm infants are at susceptible to oxidative stress, which is associated with bronchopulmonary dysplasia, retinopathy of prematurity and periventricular leukomalacia. The general aim of this thesis was to study oxidative stress in preterm infants and to explore possible options to reduce the impact of oxidative stress in neonatal care. The studies presented in this thesis concern the optimal oxygen concentration for the resuscitation at birth, the effect of early parenteral nutriotion on oxidative stress and other modulators of oxidatove stress in preterm infants

Shared Care, Elder and Family Member Skills Used to Manage Burden

Aim. The aim of this paper is to further develop the construct of Shared Care by comparing and contrasting it to related research, and to show how the construct can be used to guide research and practice. Background. While researchers have identified negative outcomes for family caregivers caused by providing care, less is known about positive aspects of family care for both members of a family dyad. Understanding family care relationships is important to nurses because family participation in the care of chronically ill elders is necessary to achieve optimal outcomes from nursing interventions. A previous naturalistic inquiry identified a new construct, Shared Care, which was used to describe a family care interaction that contributed to positive care outcomes. Methods. A literature review was carried out using the databases Medline, CINAHL, and Psych-info and the keywords home care, care receiver, disability, family, communication, decision-making and reciprocity. The results of the review were integrated to suggest how Shared Care could be used to study care difficulties and guide interventions. Results. The literature confirmed the importance of dyad relationships in family care. Shared Care extended previous conceptualizations of family care by capturing three critical components: communication, decision-making, and reciprocity. Shared Care provides a structure to expand the conceptualization of family care to include both members of a care dyad and account for positive and negative aspects of care. Conclusions. The extended view provided by the construct of Shared Care offers practitioners and scholars tools to use in the context of our ageing population to improve the effectiveness of family care relationships

The perception of touch and the ventral somatosensory pathway

Preusser et al. use MRI-based lesion-symptom mapping to confirm the causal role of a ventral pathway in the perception of touch. This pathway originates downstream of the postcentral gyrus in the parietal operculum, passes the insula and the putamen, before terminating in white matter projections extending to inferior lateral prefrontal corte

Native Birdlife in Hawke’s Bay: application of the river values assessment system (RiVAS and RiVAS+)

This report presents an application of the River Values Assessment System for existing value (RiVAS) and for potential value (RiVAS+) to native birdlife in the Hawkes Bay Region. A workshop was held in Napier on 3rd October 2011 to apply the method. This Hawkes Bay Region bird report needs to be read in conjunction with the method and with the first native bird application reports (see Hughey et al. 2010 and Gaze et al. 2010).Ministry of Science and Information, and Hawkes Bay Regional Counci

Plasma Magnetohydrodynamics and Energy Conversion

Contains reports on four research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant G-24073)United States Air Force, Aeronautical Systems Division (Contract AF33(615)-1083

Spontaneous cytokine production in children according to biological characteristics and environmental exposures.

BACKGROUND: Environmental factors are likely to have profound effects on the development of host immune responses, with serious implications for infectious diseases and inflammatory disorders such as asthma. OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to investigate the effects of environmental exposures on the cytokine profile of children. METHODS: The study involved measurement of T helper (Th) 1 (interferon-gamma), 2 [interleukin (IL)-5 and IL-13], and the regulatory cytokine IL-10 in unstimulated peripheral blood leukocytes from 1,376 children 4-11 years of age living in a poor urban area of the tropics. We also assessed the impact of environmental exposures in addition to biological characteristics recorded at the time of blood collection and earlier in childhood (0-3 years before blood collection). RESULTS: The proportion of children producing IL-10 was greater among those without access to drinking water [p < 0.05, chi-square test, odds ratio (OR) = 1.67]. The proportion of children producing IL-5 and IL-10 (OR = 10.76) was significantly greater in households that had never had a sewage system (p < 0.05, trend test). CONCLUSIONS: These data provide evidence for the profound effects of environmental exposures in early life as well as immune homeostasis in later childhood. Decreased hygiene (lack of access to clean drinking water and sanitation) in the first 3 years of life is associated with higher spontaneous IL-10 production up to 8 years later in life

DART-RAY: a 3D ray-tracing radiative transfer code for calculating the propagation of light in dusty galaxies

We present DART-Ray, a new ray-tracing 3D dust radiative transfer (RT) code designed specifically to calculate radiation field energy density (RFED) distributions within dusty galaxy models with arbitrary geometries. In this paper, we introduce the basic algorithm implemented in . DART-Ray which is based on a pre-calculation of a lower limit for the RFED distribution. This pre-calculation allows us to estimate the extent of regions around the radiation sources within which these sources contribute significantly to the RFED. In this way, ray-tracing calculations can be restricted to take place only within these regions, thus substantially reducing the computational time compared to a complete ray-tracing RT calculation. Anisotropic scattering is included in the code and handled in a similar fashion. Furthermore, the code utilizes a Cartesian adaptive spatial grid and an iterative method has been implemented to optimize the angular densities of the rays originated from each emitting cell. In order to verify the accuracy of the RT calculations performed by DART-Ray, we present results of comparisons with solutions obtained using the dusty 1D RT code for a dust shell illuminated by a central point source and existing 2D RT calculations of disc galaxies with diffusely distributed stellar emission and dust opacity. Finally, we show the application of the code on a spiral galaxy model with logarithmic spiral arms in order to measure the effect of the spiral pattern on the attenuation and RFED. © 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society

Convalescence

This composition is intended to unfold more or less linearly, as a progression of temperament or attitude. Its most prominent compositional characteristic is recurring motive for cohesion and unification, both within and across movements, as opposed to much direct repetition. Each movement is tonally based and establishes at least one principle key area, but each also employs the common use of mode mixture, sometimes frequent modulation, and some extent of chromatic passages

Evaluating CAPEX risk: New metrics to assess extractive industry project portfolios

This paper sets out new metrics to assess whether natural resource company capex is responsibly diversified. There is growing criticism of existing metrics for assessing the prospects of oil majors, such as Reserve-Replacement Ratios, and we have sought to address this directly by introducing two novel, and straightforward, metrics – capex density and capex evenness

Summary of proceedings: Investment consultants and green investment, 3rd stranded assets forum, Waddesdon Manor, 6th March 2015

The University of Oxford's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment and The Rothschild Foundation held the third Stranded Assets Forum at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, on the 6th March 2015. The Forum explored whether the investment consultant industry is up to the job on environmental, climate, and sustainability topics and examined ways to address potential barriers. This report provides a summary of the proceedings and deliberations from the Forum. It outlines the key discussion points and issues that emerged during the sessions held