Parents’ experiences of neonatal care in England

With the greater need for specialist neonatal care in England over the last decade, increased attention has been given to developing and implementing quality measures to ensure that babies and their families receive the highest quality care. Patient experience is recognised as a key measure of quality, therefore it is essential to assess parents’ experiences of neonatal services to understand how these can be improved. In this paper we detail findings from the second large scale survey of parents’ experiences of neonatal care carried out in England in 2014, focusing on results that highlight aspects of family-centred care: information sharing; communication; support; and involvement. The results reveal great variations between individual units, as well as highlight key areas in which units could improve to provide family-centred care. This includes parents being able to speak to their doctor more, as well as receiving important information to understand their baby’s condition, and about support services available. Positively, many parents felt they were able to visit their baby as much as they wanted and were involved in their day-to-day care, which are fundamental to parents forming a bond with their baby. The survey is a rich data source that provides neonatal units in England with results that allow them to focus improvement efforts on what matters most to those using their services. It also enables neonatal units to evaluate how they are performing on key standards of care, supporting them in striving for clinical best practice

Restoring Sustainable Forests on Appalachian Mined Lands for Wood Products, Renewable Energy, Carbon Sequestration, and Other Ecosystems Services Quarterly Report

This is the first quarterly Technical Report for the period October-December, 2003. A kick-off meeting was held with NETL administrators and scientists at Morgantown, WV, on December 2, 2002. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the biological and economic feasibility of restoring high-quality forests on mined land, and to measure carbon sequestration and wood production benefits that would be achieved from forest restoration procedures. During this first quarterly reporting period, five Graduate Research Assistants were recruited, an MOA was drafted between Virginia Tech and three industry cooperators, preliminary field locations for controlled studies were located, and a preliminary analysis of a carbon inventory of forest sites on mined land was made

Comparative Study of the Dynamics of Lipid Membrane Phase Decomposition in Experiment and Simulation

Phase decomposition in lipid membranes has been the subject of numerous investigations both experimentally and by theoretical simulation. Yet quantitative comparisons of the simulated data to the experimental results are rare. In this work we present a novel way of comparing the temporal development of liquid ordered domains obtained from numerically solving the Cahn–Hilliard equation and by inducing phase transition in giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs). Quantitative comparison is done by calculating the structure factor of the domain pattern. It turns out that the decomposition takes place in three distinct regimes both in experiment and simulation. These regimes are characterized by different rates of growth of the mean domain diameter and there is a quantitative agreement between experiment and simulation as to the duration of each regime and the absolute rate of growth in each regime

Techniques for visualization of carbohydrate molecules

Standard molecular visualizations, such as the classic ball-and-stick model, are not suitable for large, complex molecules because the overall molecular structure is obscured by the atomic detail. For proteins, the more abstract ribbon and cartoon representations are instead used to reveal large scale molecular conformation and connectivity. However, there is currently no accepted convention for simplifying oligo- and polysaccharide structures. We introduce two novel visualization algorithms for carbohydrates, incorporated into a visualization package, CarboHydra. Both algorithms highlight the sugar rings and backbone conformation of the carbohydrate chain, ignoring ring substituents. The first algorithm, termed PaperChain, emphasizes the type and conformation of the carbohydrate rings. The second, Twister, emphasizes the relative orientation of the rings. We further include two rendering enhancements to augment these visualizations: silhouettes edges and a translucent overlay of the ball-and-stick atomic representation. To demonstrate their utility, the algorithms and visualization enhancements are here applied to a variety of carbohydrate molecules. User evaluations indicate that they present a more useful view of carbohydrate structure than the standard ball-and-stick representation. The algorithms were found to be complementary, with PaperChain particularly effective for smaller carbohydrates and Twister useful at larger scales for highlighting the backbone twist of polysaccharides

CarboHydra: Rendering Carbohydrate Cartoons

Molecular visualisation algorithms present simplified views of molecules, which allow chemists to gain insight into their structure and function. Many such algorithms are currently in use, including the ribbon diagrams by Richardson, which were developed specifically for viewing proteins. None are customised to the visualisation of carbohydrates – in particular, the rings of atoms formed within them. We present two novel algorithms (PaperChain and Twister) for this purpose. Both algorithms identify these ring structures, and attempt to convey a variety of their properties. We have implemented a molecular viewer which displays carbohydrates using the two novel algorithms, as well as the conventional ball-and-stick view. The system permitted comparative tests of the three algorithms by research chemists, as well as evaluation of the effectiveness of a number of rendering options

Techniques for visualization of carbohydrate molecules

Standard molecular visualizations, such as the classic ball-and-stick model, are not suitable for large, complex molecules because the overall molecular structure is obscured by the atomic detail. For proteins, the more abstract ribbon and cartoon representations are instead used to reveal large scale molecular conformation and connectivity. However, there is currently no accepted convention for simplifying oligo- and polysaccharide structures. We introduce two novel visualization algorithms for carbohydrates, incorporated into a visualization package, CarboHydra. Both algorithms highlight the sugar rings and backbone conformation of the carbohydrate chain, ignoring ring substituents. The first algorithm, termed PaperChain, emphasizes the type and conformation of the carbohydrate rings. The second, Twister, emphasizes the relative orientation of the rings. We further include two rendering enhancements to augment these visualizations: silhouettes edges and a translucent overlay of the ball-and-stick atomic representation. To demonstrate their utility, the algorithms and visualization enhancements are here applied to a variety of carbohydrate molecules. User evaluations indicate that they present a more useful view of carbohydrate structure than the standard ball-and-stick representation. The algorithms were found to be complementary, with PaperChain particularly effective for smaller carbohydrates and Twister useful at larger scales for highlighting the backbone twist of polysaccharides

Effect of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi on growth and development of onion and wild relatives

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi play an important role in the uptake of nutrients and water from soil. Onions, Allium cepa L., are plants with a shallow root system. As a result, onion plants need a lot of fertiziler for their growth. Furthermore, onion plants are sensitive to drought. The aim of the current research project is to study the beneficial effect of mycorrhizal fungi on the growth and development of Allium species and to determine whether it is possible to improve onions for mycorrhizal responsiveness by means of breeding

Foot Bone in Vivo: Its Center of Mass and Centroid of Shape

This paper studies foot bone geometrical shape and its mass distribution and establishes an assessment method of bone strength. Using spiral CT scanning, with an accuracy of sub-millimeter, we analyze the data of 384 pieces of foot bones in vivo and investigate the relationship between the bone's external shape and internal structure. This analysis is explored on the bases of the bone's center of mass and its centroid of shape. We observe the phenomenon of superposition of center of mass and centroid of shape fairly precisely, indicating a possible appearance of biomechanical organism. We investigate two aspects of the geometrical shape, (i) distance between compact bone's centroid of shape and that of the bone and (ii) the mean radius of the same density bone issue relative to the bone's centroid of shape. These quantities are used to interpret the influence of different physical exercises imposed on bone strength, thereby contributing to an alternate assessment technique to bone strength.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

An instability criterion for nonlinear standing waves on nonzero backgrounds

A nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation with repulsive (defocusing) nonlinearity is considered. As an example, a system with a spatially varying coefficient of the nonlinear term is studied. The nonlinearity is chosen to be repelling except on a finite interval. Localized standing wave solutions on a non-zero background, e.g., dark solitons trapped by the inhomogeneity, are identified and studied. A novel instability criterion for such states is established through a topological argument. This allows instability to be determined quickly in many cases by considering simple geometric properties of the standing waves as viewed in the composite phase plane. Numerical calculations accompany the analytical results.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figure

Annual variation in the levels of transcripts of sex-specific genes in the mantle of the common mussel, Mytilus edulis

Mytilus species are used as sentinels for the assessment of environmental health but sex or stage in the reproduction cycle is rarely considered even though both parameters are likely to influence responses to pollution. We have validated the use of a qPCR assay for sex identification and related the levels of transcripts to the reproductive cycle. A temporal study of mantle of Mytilus edulis found transcripts of male-specific vitelline coat lysin (VCL) and female-specific vitelline envelope receptor for lysin (VERL) could identify sex over a complete year. The levels of VCL/VERL were proportional to the numbers of sperm/ova and are indicative of the stage of the reproductive cycle. Maximal levels of VCL and VERL were found in February 2009 declining to minima between July - August before increasing and re-attaining a peak in February 2010. Water temperature may influence these transitions since they coincide with minimal water temperature in February and maximal temperature in August. An identical pattern of variation was found for a cryptic female-specific transcript (H5) but a very different pattern was observed for oestrogen receptor 2 (ER2). ER2 varied in a sex-specific way with male > female for most of the cycle, with a female maxima in July and a male maxima in December. Using artificially spawned animals, the transcripts for VCL, VERL and H5 were shown to be present in gametes and thus their disappearance from mantle is indicative of spawning. VCL and VERL are present at equivalent levels in February and July-August but during gametogenesis (August to January) and spawning (March to June) VCL is present at lower relative amounts than VERL. This may indicate sex-specific control mechanisms for these processes and highlight a potential pressure point leading to reduced reproductive output if environmental factors cause asynchrony to gamete maturation or release