281 research outputs found
Missing children: risks, repeats and responses
Investigating reports of missing children is a major source of demand for the police in the UK. Repeat disappearances are common, can indicate underlying vulnerabilities and have been linked with various forms of exploitation and abuse. Inspired by research on repeat victimisation, this paper examines the prevalence and temporal patterns of repeat missing episodes by children, as well as the characteristics of those involved. Using data on all missing children incidents recorded by one UK police service in 2015 (n = 3352), we find that: (a) 75% of missing incidents involving children were repeats, i.e. attributed to children who had already been reported missing in 2015; (b) a small proportion of repeatedly missing children (n = 59; 4%) accounted for almost a third of all missing children incidents (n = 952, 28%); (c) over half of all first repeat disappearances occurred within four weeks of an initial police recorded missing episode; and (d) children recorded as missing ten times or more over the one year study period were significantly more likely than those recorded missing once to be teenagers, in the care system or to have drug and/or alcohol dependencies. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future research and the prevention of repeat disappearances by childre
Matrix controlled channel diffusion of sodium in amorphous silica
To find the origin of the diffusion channels observed in sodium-silicate
glasses, we have performed classical molecular dynamics simulations of
NaO--4SiO during which the mass of the Si and O atoms has been
multiplied by a tuning coefficient. We observe that the channels disappear and
that the diffusive motion of the sodium atoms vanishes if this coefficient is
larger than a threshold value. Above this threshold the vibrational states of
the matrix are not compatible with those of the sodium ions. We interpret hence
the decrease of the diffusion by the absence of resonance conditions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Anomalous Drude Model
A generalization of the Drude model is studied. On the one hand, the free
motion of the particles is allowed to be sub- or superdiffusive; on the other
hand, the distribution of the time delay between collisions is allowed to have
a long tail and even a non-vanishing first moment. The collision averaged
motion is either regular diffusive or L\'evy-flight like. The anomalous
diffusion coefficients show complex scaling laws. The conductivity can be
calculated in the diffusive regime. The model is of interest for the
phenomenological study of electronic transport in quasicrystals.Comment: 4 pages, latex, 2 figures, to be published in Physical Review Letter
Return home interviews with children who have been missing: an exploratory analysis
Responding to reports of missing children is an everyday occurrence in many police agencies, and a significant source of police demand. In England, there is a statutory requirement that all those under the age of 18 be offered a return home interview (RHI) within 72 hours of returning from a missing episode. The main purpose of an RHI is to better understand the reasons why a young person went missing and, where necessary, put measures in place to safeguard that young person and reduce the likelihood of them going missing again. Although widely practiced in England, there is currently limited research on the conduct of and information elicited from RHIs. In an attempt to help fill this research gap, this article reports the findings of an exploratory analysis of 113 RHIs carried out in one police force area in England. Findings indicate that 42% (n = 48) of the sampled RHIs occurred within the required 72-hour timeframe. Absent or incomplete information was common, particularly in relation to the presence and types of vulnerabilities associated with missing children. In terms of those interviewed, nearly half of the interviewees did not consider themselves to be missing. Moreover, many exhibited a high prevalence of mental health concerns, conflict at home and drug and alcohol use. The implications of the findings for safeguarding children and preventing missing incidents are discussed
Impact of antibiotic timing on mortality from Gram-negative bacteraemia in an English district general hospital: the importance of getting it right every time
Objectives:
There is limited evidence that empirical antimicrobials affect patient-oriented outcomes in Gram-negative bacteraemia. We aimed to establish the impact of effective antibiotics at four consecutive timepoints on 30 day all-cause mortality and length of stay in hospital.
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Methods:
We performed a multivariable survival analysis on 789 patients with Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteraemias. Antibiotic choices at the time of the blood culture (BC), the time of medical clerking and 24 and 48 h post-BC were reviewed.
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Results:
Patients that received ineffective empirical antibiotics at the time of the BC had higher risk of mortality before 30 days (HR = 1.68, 95% CI = 1.19–2.38, P = 0.004). Mortality was higher if an ineffective antimicrobial was continued by the clerking doctor (HR = 2.73, 95% CI = 1.58–4.73, P < 0.001) or at 24 h from the BC (HR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.05–3.20, P = 0.033) when compared with patients who received effective therapy throughout. Hospital-onset infections, ‘high inoculum’ infections and elevated C-reactive protein, lactate and Charlson comorbidity index were independent predictors of mortality. Effective initial antibiotics did not statistically significantly reduce length of stay in hospital (−2.98 days, 95% CI = −6.08–0.11, P = 0.058). The primary reasons for incorrect treatment were in vitro antimicrobial resistance (48.6%), initial misdiagnosis of infection source (22.7%) and non-adherence to hospital guidelines (15.7%).
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Conclusions:
Consecutive prescribing decisions affect mortality from Gram-negative bacteraemia
Long-term outcome and risk factors for late mortality in Gram-negative bacteraemia: a retrospective cohort study
OBJECTIVES: The long-term outcomes of patients following Gram-negative bacteraemia (GNB) are poorly understood. We describe a cohort of patients with GNB over a two-year period and determine factors associated with late mortality (death between days 31 and 365 after detection of bacteraemia). METHODS: This is a single center retrospective observational cohort study of 789 patients with confirmed Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp and Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteraemias with a follow-up of one year. Multivariable survival analysis was used to determine the risk factors for late mortality in patients who survived the initial 30-day period of infection. RESULTS: Overall, one-year all-cause mortality was 36.2%, with 18.1% of patients dying within 30 days and 18.1% of patients suffering late mortality. An adverse antimicrobial resistance profile (HR 1.095 per any additional antimicrobial category, 95% CI 1.018 - 1.178, p = 0.014) and infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (HR 2.08, 95% CI 1.11 - 3.88, p = 0.022) were independent predictors of late mortality. Other significant factors included the Charlson Comorbidity Index and hospitalization length after the index blood culture. CONCLUSION: Patients with GNB have a poor long-term prognosis. Risk factors for greater mortality at one year include comorbidity, hospitalization length, the infecting organism, and its resistance profile
Metastable Dynamics above the Glass Transition
The element of metastability is incorporated in the fluctuating nonlinear
hydrodynamic description of the mode coupling theory (MCT) of the liquid-glass
transition. This is achieved through the introduction of the defect density
variable into the set of slow variables with the mass density and
the momentum density . As a first approximation, we consider the case
where motions associated with are much slower than those associated with
. Self-consistently, assuming one is near a critical surface in the MCT
sense, we find that the observed slowing down of the dynamics corresponds to a
certain limit of a very shallow metastable well and a weak coupling between
and . The metastability parameters as well as the exponents
describing the observed sequence of time relaxations are given as smooth
functions of the temperature without any evidence for a special temperature. We
then investigate the case where the defect dynamics is included. We find that
the slowing down of the dynamics corresponds to the system arranging itself
such that the kinetic coefficient governing the diffusion of the
defects approaches from above a small temperature-dependent value .Comment: 38 pages, 14 figures (6 figs. are included as a uuencoded tar-
compressed file. The rest is available upon request.), RevTEX3.0+eps
Conformational and Structural Relaxations of Poly(ethylene oxide) and Poly(propylene oxide) Melts: Molecular Dynamics Study of Spatial Heterogeneity, Cooperativity, and Correlated Forward-Backward Motion
Performing molecular dynamics simulations for all-atom models, we
characterize the conformational and structural relaxations of poly(ethylene
oxide) and poly(propylene oxide) melts. The temperature dependence of these
relaxation processes deviates from an Arrhenius law for both polymers. We
demonstrate that mode-coupling theory captures some aspects of the glassy
slowdown, but it does not enable a complete explanation of the dynamical
behavior. When the temperature is decreased, spatially heterogeneous and
cooperative translational dynamics are found to become more important for the
structural relaxation. Moreover, the transitions between the conformational
states cease to obey Poisson statistics. In particular, we show that, at
sufficiently low temperatures, correlated forward-backward motion is an
important aspect of the conformational relaxation, leading to strongly
nonexponential distributions for the waiting times of the dihedrals in the
various conformational statesComment: 13 pages, 13 figure
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