Sibling eating behaviours and differential child feeding practices reported by parents

The purpose of this study was to investigate the intra-familial relationships between parental reports of feeding practices used with siblings in the same family, and to evaluate whether differences in feeding practices are related to differences in siblings' eating behaviours. Eighty parents of two sibling children completed measures assessing their feeding practices and child eating behaviours. Parents reported using greater restrictive feeding practices with children who were fussier and desired to drink more than their sibling. Parents reported using more pressure to eat with siblings who were slower to eat, were fussier, emotionally under-ate, enjoyed food less, were less responsive to food, and were more responsive to internal satiety cues. Restriction and pressure to eat appear to be part of the non-shared environment which sibling children experience differently. These feeding practices may be used differently for children in the same family in response to child eating behaviours or other specific characteristics

Purification and characterization of Taq polymerase: A 9-week biochemistry laboratory project for undergraduate students

We have developed a 9-week undergraduate laboratory series focused on the purification and characterization of Thermus aquaticus DNA polymerase (Taq). Our aim was to provide undergraduate biochemistry students with a full-semester continuing project simulating a research-like experience, while having each week\u27s procedure focus on a single learning goal. The laboratory series has been taught for the past 7 years, and survey-based assessment of the effectiveness of the laboratory series was completed during the 2006 and 2007 fall semesters. Statistical analysis of the survey results demonstrate that the laboratory series is very effective in teaching students the theory and practice of protein purification and analysis while also demonstrating positive results in more broad areas of scientific skill and knowledge. Amongst the findings, the largest reported increases in knowledge were related to students\u27 understanding of how patent law relates to laboratory science, a topic of great importance to modern researchers that is readily discussed in relation to Taq polymerase. Overall, this laboratory series proves to be a very effective component in the curricula of undergraduate biology and chemistry majors and may be an appropriate laboratory experience for undergraduates. © 2010 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Environmental attitudes in the aftermath of the Gulf Oil Spill

In the 1960s and 1970\u27s, prominent environmental disasters seemed to mobilize the U.S. public, and many key environmental laws were subsequently enacted. Theories surrounding public opinion formation, however, generally regard single events as unlikely to impact attitudes in a major way. Given the conflicting evidence provided by anecdotal accounts and public opinion theory, we explore whether the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (Gulf Oil Spill) impacted public concern for the environment in the United States. In this study we use data from a national-level survey implemented before and after the Gulf Oil Spill to examine pre- and post-spill environmental attitudes as measured by a subset of the New Ecological Paradigm scale. We find that there is insufficient evidence to suggest that the recent Gulf Oil Spill had a significant impact on environmental attitudes, a result consistent with theories concerning the influence of individual events on public opinion. Additional findings imply that some types of messages are likely to be more effective than others in public communications about the environment

The Impact of Hospital Transfers on Surgical Delay and Associated Postoperative Outcomes for Hip Fracture Patients in Scotland : A Cohort Study

Acknowledgments: We are grateful to the Lorraine Donaldson and Kirsty Ward at the Scottish Hip Fracture Audit for assistance in obtaining the relevant data and necessary approvals. We are also grateful to the Local Audit Coordinators who collect SHFA data on behalf of Public Health Scotland, and to the patients whose data was utilized in the study.Peer reviewe

Bayes linear kinematics in the analysis of failure rates and failure time distributions

Collections of related Poisson or binomial counts arise, for example, from a number of different failures in similar machines or neighbouring time periods. A conventional Bayesian analysis requires a rather indirect prior specification and intensive numerical methods for posterior evaluations. An alternative approach using Bayes linear kinematics in which simple conjugate specifications for individual counts are linked through a Bayes linear belief structure is presented. Intensive numerical methods are not required. The use of transformations of the binomial and Poisson parameters is proposed. The approach is illustrated in two examples, one involving a Poisson count of failures, the other involving a binomial count in an analysis of failure times

The dependence of intrinsic alignment of galaxies on wavelength using KiDS and GAMA

The outer regions of galaxies are more susceptible to the tidal interactions that lead to intrinsic alignments of galaxies. The resulting alignment signal may therefore depend on the passband if the colours of galaxies vary spatially. To quantify this, we measured the shapes of galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts from the GAMA survey using deep gri imaging data from the KiloDegree Survey. The performance of the moment-based shape measurement algorithm DEIMOS was assessed using dedicated image simulations, which showed that the ellipticities could be determined with an accuracy better than 1% in all bands. Additional tests for potential systematic errors did not reveal any issues. We measure a significant difference of the alignment signal between the g,r and i-band observations. This difference exceeds the amplitude of the linear alignment model on scales below 2 Mpc/h. Separating the sample into central/satellite and red/blue galaxies, we find that that the difference is dominated by red satellite galaxies.Comment: 16 pages, 13 figures, accepted, to appear in A&

The effect of metastereotyping on judgements of higher-status outgroups when reciprocity and social image improvement motives collide

Two experiments examined the effect of metastereotype valence on high and low identifiers' judgments of an outgroup. As high identifiers are strongly emotionally invested in the ingroup, we expected that such group members would feel angry when they activate negative metastereotypes which would correspondingly lead to less favourable evaluation of the outgroup. We further expected this pattern to be particularly visible when high identifiers could communicate their dissatisfaction to an outgroup (but not an ingroup) audience presumably to persuade the outgroup to reevaluate their attitudes toward the ingroup. We did not expect low identifiers to reflect the valence of metastereotypes in their outgroup attitudes and judgments, given their weak emotional ties with the ingroup and because such members are likely to feel that metastereotypes do not apply to them personally. Results from two experiments (Study 1, N = 78; Study 2, N = 80) supported these predictions and are discussed in light of the implications of metastereotyping for intergroup relations

Does quality of care in hip fracture vary by day of admission?

Open Access via Springer CompactPeer reviewedPublisher PD

A systematic review of tranexamic acid in hip fracture surgery

Aim: To systematically examine and quantify the efficacy and safety of Tranexamic acid in hip fracture surgery.  Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted using Medline, EMBASE, AMED, CiNAHL, and the Cochrane Central Registry of Controlled Trials. Two assessors independently screened search outputs for potentially relevant articles which met the eligibility criteria. The primary outcome measure was requirement of post-operative blood transfusion. Risk of bias assessment was performed using the Cochrane Collaboration’s risk of bias tool for RCT’s and the ROBINS-I tool for observational studies. Meta-analysis was performed to estimate risk ratio (RR), risk difference (RD) and mean difference (MD) values for dichotomous and continuous data outcomes respectively. The interpretation of each outcome was made using the GRADE approach.  Results: Of 102 studies identified, seven met the inclusion criteria including a total of 770 participants (TXA: 341; Control: 429). On meta-analysis, intra-venous TXA resulted in a 46% risk reduction in blood transfusion requirement compared to a placebo/control group (RR:0.54; 95% CI: 0.35 to 0.85; I2: 78%; Inconsistency (Chi2) p=<0.0001; N=750). There was also a significantly higher post-operative haemoglobin for TXA versus placebo/control (MD:0.81; 95% CI: 0.45 to 1.18; I2: 46%; Inconsistency (Chi2) p=0.10; N=638). There was no increased risk of thromboembolic events (RD:0.01; 95% CI: -0.03, 0.05; I2: 68%; Inconsistency (Chi2) p=0.007, N=683).  Conclusion: There is moderate quality evidence that TXA reduces blood transfusion in hip fracture surgery, with low quality evidence suggesting no increased risk of thrombotic events. These findings are consistent with TXA use in other orthopaedic procedures