Hidden Symmetry of Higher Dimensional Kerr-NUT-AdS Spacetimes

It is well known that 4-dimensional Kerr-NUT-AdS spacetime possesses the hidden symmetry associated with the Killing-Yano tensor. This tensor is "universal" in the sense that there exist coordinates where it does not depend on any of the free parameters of the metric. Recently the general higher dimensional Kerr-NUT-AdS solutions of the Einstein equations were obtained. We demonstrate that all these metrics with arbitrary rotation and NUT parameters admit a universal Killing-Yano tensor. We give an explicit presentation of the Killing-Yano and Killing tensors and briefly discuss their properties.Comment: 4 pages, some discussion and references are adde

Separability of Hamilton-Jacobi and Klein-Gordon Equations in General Kerr-NUT-AdS Spacetimes

We demonstrate the separability of the Hamilton-Jacobi and scalar field equations in general higher dimensional Kerr-NUT-AdS spacetimes. No restriction on the parameters characterizing these metrics is imposed.Comment: 4 pages, no figure

Documenting the NICU design dilemma: parent and staff perceptions of open ward versus single family room units

Objective: With neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) evolving from multipatient wards toward family-friendly, single-family room units, the study objective was to compare satisfaction levels of families and health-care staff across these differing NICU facility designs. Study Design: This prospective study documented, by means of institutional review board-approved questionnaire survey protocols, the perceptions of parents and staff from two contrasting NICU environments. Result: Findings showed that demographic subgroups of parents and staff perceived the advantages and disadvantages of the two facility designs differently. Staff perceptions varied with previous experience, acclimation time and employment position, whereas parental perceptions revealed a naiveté bias through surveys of transitional parents with experience in both NICU facilities. Conclusion: Use of transitional parent surveys showed a subject naiveté bias inherent in perceptions of inexperienced parents. Grouping all survey participants demographically provided more informative interpretations of data, and revealed staff perceptions to vary with position, previous training and hospital experience

Media Representations of Breech Birth: A Prospective Analysis of Web-Based News Reports

© 2017 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives Introduction: Recent research has demonstrated that the media presentation of childbirth is highly medicalized, often portraying birth as risky and dramatic. Media representation of breech presentation and birth is unexplored in this context. This study aimed to explore the content and tone of news media reports relating to breech presentation and breech birth. Methods: Google alerts were created using the terms breech and breech birth in online English-language news sites over a 3-year period from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2015. Alerts were received daily and filed for analysis, and data were analyzed to generate themes. Results: A total of 138 web-based news reports were gathered from 9 countries. Five themes that arose from the data included the problem of breech presentation, the high drama of vaginal breech birth, the safe option of cesarean birth versus dangers of vaginal breech birth, the defiant mother versus the saintly mother, and vaginal breech birth and medical misadventure. Discussion: Media reports in this study predominantly demonstrated negative views toward breech presentation and vaginal breech birth. Cesarean birth was portrayed as the safe option for breech birth, while vaginal breech birth was associated with poor outcomes. Media presentations may impact decision making about mode of birth for pregnant women with a breech fetus. Health care providers can play an important role in balancing the media depiction of planned vaginal breech birth by providing nonjudgmental, evidence-based information to such women to facilitate informed decision making for birth

The facilitating factors and barriers encountered in the adoption of a humanized birth care approach in a highly specialized university affiliated hospital

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Considering the fact that a significant proportion of high-risk pregnancies are currently referred to tertiary level hospitals; and that a large proportion of low obstetric risk women still seek care in these hospitals, it is important to explore the factors that influence the childbirth experience in these hospitals, particularly, the concept of humanized birth care.</p> <p>The aim of this study was to explore the organizational and cultural factors, which act as barriers or facilitators in the provision of humanized obstetrical care in a highly specialized, university-affiliated hospital in Quebec province, in Canada.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A single case study design was chosen. The study sample included 17 professionals and administrators from different disciplines, and 157 women who gave birth in the hospital during the study. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews, field notes, participant observations, a self-administered questionnaire, documents, and archives. Both descriptive and qualitative deductive content analyses were performed and ethical considerations were respected.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Both external and internal dimensions of a highly specialized hospital can facilitate or be a barrier to the humanization of birth care practices in such institutions, whether independently, or altogether. The greatest facilitating factors found were: caring and family- centered model of care, professionals' and administrators' ambient for the provision of humanized birth care besides the medical interventional care which is tailored to improve safety, assurance, and comfort for women and their children, facilities to provide a pain-free birth, companionship and visiting rules, dealing with the patients' spiritual and religious beliefs. The most cited barriers were: the shortage of health care professionals, the lack of sufficient communication among the professionals, the stakeholders' desire for specialization rather than humanization, over estimation of medical performance, finally the training environment of the hospital leading to the presence of too many health care professionals, and consequently, a lack of privacy and continuity of care.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The argument of medical intervention and technology at birth being an opposing factor to the humanization of birth was not seen to be an issue in the studied highly specialized university affiliated hospital.</p

Mutations of the BRAF gene in human cancer

Cancers arise owing to the accumulation of mutations in critical genes that alter normal programmes of cell proliferation, differentiation and death. As the first stage of a systematic genome-wide screen for these genes, we have prioritized for analysis signalling pathways in which at least one gene is mutated in human cancer. The RAS RAF MEK ERK MAP kinase pathway mediates cellular responses to growth signals. RAS is mutated to an oncogenic form in about 15% of human cancer. The three RAF genes code for cytoplasmic serine/threonine kinases that are regulated by binding RAS. Here we report BRAF somatic missense mutations in 66% of malignant melanomas and at lower frequency in a wide range of human cancers. All mutations are within the kinase domain, with a single substitution (V599E) accounting for 80%. Mutated BRAF proteins have elevated kinase activity and are transforming in NIH3T3 cells. Furthermore, RAS function is not required for the growth of cancer cell lines with the V599E mutation. As BRAF is a serine/threonine kinase that is commonly activated by somatic point mutation in human cancer, it may provide new therapeutic opportunities in malignant melanoma

Documenting the NICU design dilemma: comparative patient progress in open-ward and single family room units

Objective:To test the efficacy of single family room (SFR) neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) designs, questions regarding patient medical progress and relative patient safety were explored. Addressing these questions would be of value to hospital staff, administrators and designers alike. Study Design:This prospective study documented, by means of Institution Review Board-approved protocols, the progress of patients in two contrasting NICU designs. Noise levels, illumination and air quality measurements were included to define the two NICU physical environments. Result:Infants in the SFR unit had fewer apneic events, reduced nosocomial sepsis and mortality, as well as earlier transitions to enteral nutrition. More mothers sustained stage III lactation, and more infants were discharged breastfeeding in the SFR. Conclusion:This study showed the SFR to be more conducive to family-centered care, and to enhance infant medical progress and breastfeeding success over that of an open ward

Men's passage to fatherhood: an analysis of the contemporary relevance of transition theory

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of men's experiences of pregnancy, birth and early fatherhood. It does so using a framework of ritual transition theory and argues that despite its earlier structural-functionalist roots, transition theory remains a valuable framework, illuminating contemporary transitions across the life course. The paper discusses the historical development of transition or ritual theory and, drawing upon data generated during longitudinal ethnographic interviews with men undergoing the transition to fatherhood, analyses its relevance in understanding contemporary experiences of fatherhood

The Solar Stormwatch CME catalogue: results from the first space weather citizen science project

Solar Stormwatch was the first space weather citizen science project, the aim of which was to identify and track coronal mass ejections (CMEs) observed by the Heliospheric Imagers aboard the STEREO satellites. The project has now been running for approximately 4 years, with input from >16000 citizen scientists, resulting in a dataset of >38000 time-elongation profiles of CME trajectories, observed over 18 pre-selected position angles. We present our method for reducing this data set into aCME catalogue. The resulting catalogue consists of 144 CMEs over the period January-2007 to February-2010, of which 110 were observed by STEREO-A and 77 were observed by STEREO-B. For each CME, the time-elongation profiles generated by the citizen scientists are averaged into a consensus profile along each position angle that the event was tracked. We consider this catalogue to be unique, being at present the only citizen science generated CME catalogue, tracking CMEs over an elongation range of 4 degrees out to a maximum of approximately 70 degrees. Using single spacecraft fitting techniques, we estimate the speed, direction, solar source region and latitudinal width of each CME. This shows that, at present, the Solar Stormwatch catalogue (which covers only solar minimum years) contains almost exclusively slow CMEs, with a mean speed of approximately 350 kms−1. The full catalogue is available for public access at www.met.reading.ac.uk/spate/stormwatch. This includes, for each event, the unprocessed time-elongation profiles generated by Solar Stormwatch, the consensus time-elongation profiles and a set of summary plots, as well as the estimated CME properties

First Steps towards Underdominant Genetic Transformation of Insect Populations

The idea of introducing genetic modifications into wild populations of insects to stop them from spreading diseases is more than 40 years old. Synthetic disease refractory genes have been successfully generated for mosquito vectors of dengue fever and human malaria. Equally important is the development of population transformation systems to drive and maintain disease refractory genes at high frequency in populations. We demonstrate an underdominant population transformation system in Drosophila melanogaster that has the property of being both spatially self-limiting and reversible to the original genetic state. Both population transformation and its reversal can be largely achieved within as few as 5 generations. The described genetic construct {Ud} is composed of two genes; (1) a UAS-RpL14.dsRNA targeting RNAi to a haploinsufficient gene RpL14 and (2) an RNAi insensitive RpL14 rescue. In this proof-of-principle system the UAS-RpL14.dsRNA knock-down gene is placed under the control of an Actin5c-GAL4 driver located on a different chromosome to the {Ud} insert. This configuration would not be effective in wild populations without incorporating the Actin5c-GAL4 driver as part of the {Ud} construct (or replacing the UAS promoter with an appropriate direct promoter). It is however anticipated that the approach that underlies this underdominant system could potentially be applied to a number of species. Figure