The process of establishing implementing and maintaining a social support infant feeding programme

Objective To describe the process of establishing and implementing a social support infant feeding intervention. Design This paper outlines the initial stages of a randomised controlled trial which assessed the effectiveness of a social support intervention on a range of infant feeding outcomes. Details are presented of the processes involved in recruiting, training and supporting a group of volunteers who provided support to the study sample. Setting Camden and Islington, London, UK. Results Initial networking with local agencies and organisations provided invaluable information and contacts. Employing a dedicated volunteer co-ordinator is vitally important in the recruitment, training and support of volunteers. Providing child care and travel expenses is an essential incentive for volunteers with young children. Advertisements placed in local newspapers were the most successful means of recruiting volunteers. Appropriate training is needed to equip volunteers with the necessary knowledge and skills to provide effective support. Particular emphasis in the training focused upon developing the necessary interpersonal skills and self-confidence. The evaluation of the training programme demonstrated that it improved volunteers’ knowledge and reported confidence. The provision of ongoing support is also essential to maintain volunteers’ interest and enthusiasm. The retention of volunteers is, however, a key challenge. Conclusions The processes outlined in this paper have demonstrated the feasibility of successfully establishing, implementing and maintaining a community-based social support infant feeding programme. The experiences described provide useful insights into the practical issues that need to be addressed in setting up a social support intervention

STM Spectroscopy of ultra-flat graphene on hexagonal boron nitride

Graphene has demonstrated great promise for future electronics technology as well as fundamental physics applications because of its linear energy-momentum dispersion relations which cross at the Dirac point. However, accessing the physics of the low density region at the Dirac point has been difficult because of the presence of disorder which leaves the graphene with local microscopic electron and hole puddles, resulting in a finite density of carriers even at the charge neutrality point. Efforts have been made to reduce the disorder by suspending graphene, leading to fabrication challenges and delicate devices which make local spectroscopic measurements difficult. Recently, it has been shown that placing graphene on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) yields improved device performance. In this letter, we use scanning tunneling microscopy to show that graphene conforms to hBN, as evidenced by the presence of Moire patterns in the topographic images. However, contrary to recent predictions, this conformation does not lead to a sizable band gap due to the misalignment of the lattices. Moreover, local spectroscopy measurements demonstrate that the electron-hole charge fluctuations are reduced by two orders of magnitude as compared to those on silicon oxide. This leads to charge fluctuations which are as small as in suspended graphene, opening up Dirac point physics to more diverse experiments than are possible on freestanding devices.Comment: Nature Materials advance online publication 13/02/201

Multicomponent fractional quantum Hall effect in graphene

We report observation of the fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) in high mobility multi-terminal graphene devices, fabricated on a single crystal boron nitride substrate. We observe an unexpected hierarchy in the emergent FQHE states that may be explained by strongly interacting composite Fermions with full SU(4) symmetric underlying degrees of freedom. The FQHE gaps are measured from temperature dependent transport to be up 10 times larger than in any other semiconductor system. The remarkable strength and unusual hierarcy of the FQHE described here provides a unique opportunity to probe correlated behavior in the presence of expanded quantum degrees of freedom.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Spin and valley quantum Hall ferromagnetism in graphene

In a graphene Landau level (LL), strong Coulomb interactions and the fourfold spin/valley degeneracy lead to an approximate SU(4) isospin symmetry. At partial filling, exchange interactions can spontaneously break this symmetry, manifesting as additional integer quantum Hall plateaus outside the normal sequence. Here we report the observation of a large number of these quantum Hall isospin ferromagnetic (QHIFM) states, which we classify according to their real spin structure using temperature-dependent tilted field magnetotransport. The large measured activation gaps confirm the Coulomb origin of the broken symmetry states, but the order is strongly dependent on LL index. In the high energy LLs, the Zeeman effect is the dominant aligning field, leading to real spin ferromagnets with Skyrmionic excitations at half filling, whereas in the `relativistic' zero energy LL, lattice scale anisotropies drive the system to a spin unpolarized state, likely a charge- or spin-density wave.Comment: Supplementary information available at http://pico.phys.columbia.ed

Quantum Hall effect and Landau level crossing of Dirac fermions in trilayer graphene

We investigate electronic transport in high mobility (\textgreater 100,000 cm$^2$/V$\cdot$s) trilayer graphene devices on hexagonal boron nitride, which enables the observation of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and an unconventional quantum Hall effect. The massless and massive characters of the TLG subbands lead to a set of Landau level crossings, whose magnetic field and filling factor coordinates enable the direct determination of the Slonczewski-Weiss-McClure (SWMcC) parameters used to describe the peculiar electronic structure of trilayer graphene. Moreover, at high magnetic fields, the degenerate crossing points split into manifolds indicating the existence of broken-symmetry quantum Hall states.Comment: Supplementary Information at http://jarilloherrero.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Supplementary_Taychatanapat.pd

Adenovirus adenine nucleotide translocator-2 shRNA effectively induces apoptosis and enhances chemosensitivity by the down-regulation of ABCG2 in breast cancer stem-like cells

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are resistant to chemo- and radio-therapy, and can survive to regenerate new tumors. This is an important reason why various anti-cancer therapies often fail to completely control tumors, although they kill and eliminate the bulk of cancer cells. In this study, we determined whether or not adenine nucleotide translocator-2 (ANT2) suppression could also be effective in inducing cell death of breast cancer stem-like cells. A sub-population (SP; CD44+/CD24-) of breast cancer cells has been reported to have stem/progenitor cell properties. We utilized the adeno-ANT2 shRNA virus to inhibit ANT2 expression and then observed the treatment effect in a SP of breast cancer cell line. In this study, MCF7, MDA-MB-231 cells, and breast epithelial cells (MCF10A) mesenchymally-transdifferentiated through E-cadherin knockdown were used. ANT2 expression was high in both stem-like cells and non-stem-like cells of MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells, and was induced and up-regulated by mesenchymal transdifferentiation in MCF10A cells (MCF10AEMT). Knockdown of ANT2 by adeno-shRNA virus efficiently induced apoptotic cell death in the stem-like cells of MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells, and MCF10AEMT. Stem-like cells of MCF7 and MDA-MB-231, and MCF10AEMT cells exhibited increased drug (doxorubicin) resistance, and expressed a multi-drug resistant related molecule, ABCG2, at a high level. Adeno-ANT2 shRNA virus markedly sensitized the stem-like cells of MCF7 and MDA-MB-231, and the MCF10AEMT cells to doxorubicin, which was accompanied by down-regulation of ABCG2. Our results suggest that ANT2 suppression by adeno-shRNA virus is an effective strategy to induce cell death and increase the chemosensitivity of stem-like cells in breast cancer

Laparoscopic Treatment of Adult Sigmoidorectal Intussusception Caused by a Mucinous Adenocarcinoma of the Sigmoid Colon: A Case Report

Intussusception is a rare cause of intestinal obstruction in adult patients, but is common in children. In fact, it accounts for an estimated 1% of all cases of bowel obstruction in adults, although adult intussusception of the large intestine is rare. Sigmoidorectal intussusception, however, is a rare variety with few cases reported in the literature. A mucinous adenocarcinoma, a subtype of adenocarcinoma, is characterized by extracellular mucin production and accounts for between 5% and 15% of the neoplasms of the colon and rectum. Despite the general consensus supporting surgical resections for adult intussuceptions, controversy remains over whether intussuceptions should be reduced before resection. Most cases of colon intussusception should not be reduced before resection because they most likely represent a primary adenocarcinoma. However, prior reduction followed by a resection can be considered for the sigmoidorectal intussusception to avoid inadvertent low rectal cancer sugery. We experienced one case of sigmoidorectal intussusception caused by a mucinous adenocarcinoma of the sigmoid colon in a 79-year-old woman. Abdominal computed tomography demonstrated a sigmoidorectal intussusception. After the end-to-end anastomosis-dilator-assisted reduction, the patient underwent a laparoscopic oncological anterior resection under the impression that a sigmoidorectal intussusception existed. We report a successful laparoscopic anterior resection in a patient with an intussusception caused by a sigmoid malignant tumor

Dual-gated bilayer graphene hot electron bolometer

Detection of infrared light is central to diverse applications in security, medicine, astronomy, materials science, and biology. Often different materials and detection mechanisms are employed to optimize performance in different spectral ranges. Graphene is a unique material with strong, nearly frequency-independent light-matter interaction from far infrared to ultraviolet, with potential for broadband photonics applications. Moreover, graphene's small electron-phonon coupling suggests that hot-electron effects may be exploited at relatively high temperatures for fast and highly sensitive detectors in which light energy heats only the small-specific-heat electronic system. Here we demonstrate such a hot-electron bolometer using bilayer graphene that is dual-gated to create a tunable bandgap and electron-temperature-dependent conductivity. The measured large electron-phonon heat resistance is in good agreement with theoretical estimates in magnitude and temperature dependence, and enables our graphene bolometer operating at a temperature of 5 K to have a low noise equivalent power (33 fW/Hz1/2). We employ a pump-probe technique to directly measure the intrinsic speed of our device, >1 GHz at 10 K.Comment: 5 figure

Observation of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering

The coherent elastic scattering of neutrinos off nuclei has eluded detection for four decades, even though its predicted cross-section is the largest by far of all low-energy neutrino couplings. This mode of interaction provides new opportunities to study neutrino properties, and leads to a miniaturization of detector size, with potential technological applications. We observe this process at a 6.7-sigma confidence level, using a low-background, 14.6-kg CsI[Na] scintillator exposed to the neutrino emissions from the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Characteristic signatures in energy and time, predicted by the Standard Model for this process, are observed in high signal-to-background conditions. Improved constraints on non-standard neutrino interactions with quarks are derived from this initial dataset

A fixed carbohydrate: protein ratio <= 1.8 on an energy basis consumed in the context of an energy-restricted diet and reduction of body weight: evaluation of a health claim pursuant to Article 13(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006.

Following an application from Marks and Spencer PLC, submitted for authorisation of a health claim pursuant to Article 13(5) of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 via the Competent Authority of the United Kingdom, the EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) was asked to deliver an opinion on the scientific substantiation of a health claim related to a CHO:P ratio &lt;= 1.8 on an energy basis in the context of an energy-restricted diet and body weight. The Panel considers that the food/constituent that is the subject of the health claim is sufficiently characterised. The Panel also considers that reduction of body weight in the context of an energy-restricted diet is a beneficial physiological effect. The target population proposed by the applicant is 'adults between the ages of 18 and 70 years with excess body weight'. No conclusions could be drawn from two unpublished studies investigating the effect of ready-to-eat meals with a CHO: P ratio &lt;= 1.8 on body weight. The remaining 14 human intervention studies investigated the effect of diets targeting a CHO: P ratio &lt;= 1.8 as compared to diets targeting a CHO: P ratio &gt;= 3.0 on overweight and obese adults in the context of energy restriction. Four out of seven studies lasting &lt; 12 weeks reported an effect of a CHO: P ratio &lt;= 1.8 on body weight in overweight/obese subjects, whereas no significant effect was observed in six out of the seven studies lasting 12 weeks or more. The Panel considers that these studies do not provide evidence for a sustained effect of the food/constituent on body weight. The Panel concludes that a cause and effect relationship has not been established between the consumption of a fixed CHO: P ratio &lt;= 1.8 on an energy basis consumed in the context of an energy-restricted diet and reduction of body weight. (C) 2017 European Food Safety Authority