1,913 research outputs found
(N,p,q) Harmonic Superspace
A family of harmonic superspaces associated with four-dimensional spacetime
is described. Some applications to supersymmetric field theories, including
supergravity, are given.Comment: 25 pages, latex file, improved. Minor text errors correcte
The attendance of e-cigarette users at stop smoking services: a mixed methods study
Background: Stop smoking services (SSSs), combined with pharmacotherapy, are more effective for quitting smoking than other aids used alone, including e-cigarettes. SSS uptake has nonetheless declined for six years. Amidst pressure on council budgets, this declining footfall has led to many areas reducing or discontinuing services. When making cuts, councils often cite widespread vaping and suggest this indicates smokers nowadays need SSSs less. This PhD aimed to investigate whether vaping amongst smokers can influence SSS use and, if so, how this occurs. Methods: A systematic review synthesised evidence on sociodemographic differences in e-cigarette use from 58 studies identified across seven databases. Repeat crosssectional survey data was collected from 2,139 current smokers through questions added into the âSmoking Toolkitâ survey. Multivariable logistic regression assessed associations between SSS uptake and: a) e-cigarette use; b) knowledge/belief statements about e-cigarettes or SSSs. Finally, 46 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with smokers and SSS professionals at three sites. Principles of framework analysis were applied to examine factors influencing smokersâ decisions to use ecigarettes or SSSs, including potential impacts of differences in perspectives between smokers and SSS professionals. Findings: Systematic review results suggested higher e-cigarette use among younger adults, males and people of white ethnicity. Survey data showed smokers who vaped were more likely than others to report both past and planned SSS uptake. Further analyses showed beliefs about e-cigarettesâ effectiveness and familiarity with vaping were associated with decisions to use SSSs. Semi-structured interviews indicated a range of views on potential risks from vaping. These appeared to be key factors influencing â for smokers â their e-cigarette use, and â for services â the support provided in relation to e-cigarettes. Conclusion: Smokers using e-cigarettes remain keen to use SSSs. Given social gradients in smoking rates, removing opportunities to access such services may have retrograde health impacts for societyâs most vulnerable people
Disaster Nursing: Looking to the Future in Norway
Health resilience is an integral part of disaster management and lies at the nexus between this and public health considerations. As the largest group of professionals worldwide, nurses face continual challenges in further developing their competences in disaster response and recovery. This paper investigates the trajectory, role and future expectations of the Norwegian nursing profession in health emergency and disaster planning, and offers a future research agenda for those interested in investigating the complex inter-relationship between disaster management and nursing. The paper seeks to respond to observations made in a recent Norwegian report (2013) on behalf of the Norwegian nursing association that highlights the need to investigate nursesâ knowledge in relation to emergency/disaster plans especially in the community health care system. The paper will explore the conceptual nuances between emergencies and disasters and then comments upon supplementary observations of the need for identifying disaster nursing practices and training programs to prepare nurses. By taking this approach, the paper also seeks to provide insights into how future demands of improving nursesÂŽ capacities or implementation as leaders in disaster management â as highlighted by several International studies. In addition, by offering a future research agenda, the intention is that this may contribute to exploration of the role of nursing in handling long-term implications of disaster management
The Diet of Prisoners in England
Purpose â The purpose of this research is to establish whether the meals provided by the prison service enable prisoners to follow government guidelines on nutrition and healthy eating, and the extent to which they do so.
Design/methodology/approach â A total of eight prisons, four male (category A, B and C), two female and two young offendersâ institutes were randomly identified and visited. Data collection involved taking three days of cyclical menus, the institutionâs recipes and methods and standard or average portion sizes to calculate the mean nutrient composition of standard, healthy, vegetarian/vegan and Halal menus. Menus were also analysed to establish how well they conformed to the âBalance of Good Healthâ.
Findings â Results show that, with the exception of some nutrients, prisoners have access to and are able to choose a nutritionally balanced diet and in the main do so. All prisons have attempted to make available menus that conform to the Balance of Good Health model; however, in some cases, choice is hampered, primarily because menus have not been annotated accurately; some dishes are not always as healthy as they might or could be; and prisoners in most cases do not actually understand what
constitutes a healthy balanced diet.
Originality/value â There is a paucity of data on prison food service and as such this original work
adds to the body of knowledge in the field
Menu labelling and healthy food choices: a randomised controlled trial
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of different menu labelling formats on healthy food choices in a real restaurant setting. This cross-sectional, randomised and controlled parallel-group trial was conducted in Brazil in 2013. 313 university students were randomly assigned to one of three parallel groups with different menu labelling formats. Of these, data from 233 students were analysed. The others did not attend and were excluded. Intervention group 1 (n=88) received information in the form of a traffic light system plus guideline daily amounts, while intervention group 2 (n=74) was presented with an ingredients list plus highlighted symbols. The control group (n=71) received a menu with no menu labelling. Data were collected on one weekday in a restaurant setting. Trial outcomes were assessed by healthy food choices. Healthy food choices were significantly higher among students who received the menu showing an ingredients list plus highlighted symbols. The same menu labelling format positively affected healthy food choices in women, not overweight participants and who often ate out more than twice a week. A menu labelling format that presented an ingredients list and highlighted symbols was positively associated with healthy food choices among university students in Brazil. This type of labelling could be adopted in future legislation on menu labelling in Brazil and around the world
Prolactin prevents hepatocellular carcinoma by restricting innate immune activation of c-Myc in mice
Women are more resistant to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) than men despite equal exposure to major risk factors, such as hepatitis B or C virus infection. Female resistance is hormone-dependent, as evidenced by the sharp increase in HCC incidence in postmenopausal women who do not take hormone replacement therapy. In rodent models sex-dimorphic HCC phenotypes are pituitary-dependent, suggesting that sex hormones act via the gonadal-hypophyseal axis. We found that the estrogen-responsive pituitary hormone prolactin (PRL), signaling through hepatocyte-predominant short-form prolactin receptors (PRLR-S), constrained TNF receptor-associated factor (TRAF)-dependent innate immune responses invoked by IL-1ÎČ, TNF-α, and LPS/Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), but not TRIF-dependent poly(I:C)/TLR3. PRL ubiquitinated and accelerated poststimulatory decay of a âtrafasomeâ comprised of IRAK1, TRAF6, and MAP3K proteins, abrogating downstream activation of c-Mycâinteracting pathways, including PI3K/AKT, mTORC1, p38 MAPK, and NF-ÎșB. Consistent with this finding, we documented exaggerated male liver responses to immune stimuli in mice and humans. Tumor promotion through, but regulation above, the level of c-Myc was demonstrated by sex-independent HCC eruption in Alb-Myc transgenic mice. PRL deficiency accelerated liver carcinogenesis in Prl[superscript â/â] mice of both sexes. Conversely, pharmacologic PRL mobilization using the dopamine D2 receptor antagonist domperidone prevented HCC in tumor-prone C3H/HeN males. Viewed together, our results demonstrate that PRL constrains tumor-promoting liver inflammation by inhibiting MAP3K-dependent activation of c-Myc at the level of the trafasome. PRL-targeted therapy may hold promise for reducing the burden of liver cancer in high-risk men and women.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant CA067529
AdS/SCFT in Superspace
A discussion of the AdS/CFT correspondence in IIB is given in a superspace
context. The main emphasis is on the properties of SCFT correlators on the
boundary which are studied using harmonic superspace techniques. These
techniques provide the easiest way of implementing the superconformal Ward
identities. The Ward identities, together with analyticity, can be used to give
a compelling argument in support of the non-renormalisation theorems for two-
and three-point functions, and to establish the triviality of extremal and
next-to-extremal correlation functions. The OPE in is also briefly discussed.Comment: 10 pages; talk given by PSH at 2nd Gursey Memorial Conference, June
200
If Youâre Going Through Hell, Keep Going: Nonlinear Effects of Financial Liberalization in Transition Economies
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Did increasing the level and pace of financial liberalization during transition expose countries to crises? And if a crisis did strike, did liberalization do more harm or good? Using a database of 28 transition economies over 22 years, this article examines these questions across a host of economic outcomes, including savings and the size of the private sector. The results provide evidence that, while liberalization may initially increase the probability of a crisis, the prospect of a crisis drops dramatically at higher levels of financial openness. Moreover, the benefits of liberalization across several metrics outweigh the risks of these intermediate stages
Exploration of Non-Resonant Divertor Features on the Compact Toroidal Hybrid
Non-resonant divertors (NRDs) separate the confined plasma from the
surrounding plasma facing components (PFCs). The resulting striking field line
intersection pattern on these PFCs is insensitive to plasma equilibrium
effects. However, a complex scrape-off layer (SOL), created by chaotic magnetic
topology in the plasma edge, connects the core plasma to the PFCs through
varying magnetic flux tubes. The Compact Toroidal Hybrid (CTH) serves as a
test-bed to study this by scanning across its inductive current. Simulations
observe a significant change of the chaotic edge structure and an effective
distance between the confined plasma and the instrumented wall targets. The
intersection pattern is observed to be a narrow helical band, which we claim is
a resilient strike line pattern. However, signatures of finger-like structures,
defined as heteroclinic tangles in chaotic domains, within the plasma edge
connect the island chains to this resilient pattern. The dominant connection
length field lines intersecting the targets are observed via heat flux
modelling with EMC3-EIRENE. At low inductive current levels, the excursion of
the field lines resembles a limited plasma wall scenario. At high currents, a
private flux region is created in the area where the helical strike line
pattern splits into two bands. These bands are divertor legs with distinct SOL
parallel particle flow channels. The results demonstrate the NRD strike line
pattern resiliency within CTH, but also show the underlying chaotic edge
structure determining if the configuration is diverted or limited. This work
supports future design efforts for a mechanical structure for the NRD.Comment: 26 pages, 16 figure
Universal properties of superconformal OPEs for 1/2 BPS operators in
We give a general analysis of OPEs of 1/2 BPS superfield operators for the
superconformal algebras OSp(8/4,R), PSU(2,2), F and
OSp() which underlie maximal AdS supergravity in . \\
The corresponding three-point functions can be formally factorized in a way
similar to the decomposition of a generic superconformal UIR into a product of
supersingletons. This allows for a simple derivation of branching rules for
primary superfields. The operators of protected conformal dimension which may
appear in the OPE are classified and are shown to be either 1/2 or 1/4 BPS, or
semishort. As an application, we discuss the "non-renormalization" of extremal
-point correlators.Comment: To be published in NJP Focus Issue: Supersymmetry in condensed matter
and high energy physic
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