Problems with Sleep Do Not Predict Self-Reported Driving Factors and Perception in Older Drivers: Evidences from the Candrive II Prospective Cohort

Given that sleep problems and serious motor vehicle collisions are increasingly prevalent in older adults, even minor drowsiness could potentially contribute to driving patterns in older drivers. To date, it is unknown whether less serious problems with sleep influence driving frequency and ability in older adults. We investigated the influence of everyday sleep disturbances on driving practices and driver perceptions in a large cohort of healthy older drivers. Selfreported measures of sleep problems were used to investigate the influence of sleep disturbance on self-reported driving practices and perceived driving abilities. On two measures of self-reported driving outcomes, participants with problems with rated themselves more poorly. However, this relationship disappeared when health and demographic variables were entered prior in hierarchical regression analyses. Our results show that the relationship between sleep problems, driving frequency and perceived abilities is better explained by mediating demographic, health, and cognitive factors

Comparison of year-of-exam- and age-matched estimates of heritability in the Framingham Heart Study data

Several different approaches can be used to examine generational and temporal trends in family studies. The measurement of offspring and parents can be made over a short period of time with parents and offspring having quite different ages, or measurements can be made at the same ages but with decades between parent and offspring measures. A third approach, used in the Framingham Heart Study, has repeated examinations across a broad range of age and time, and provides a unique opportunity to compare these approaches. Parents and offspring were matched both on (year of exam) and on age. Heritability estimates for systolic blood pressure, body mass index, height, weight, cholesterol, and glucose were obtained by regressing offspring on midparent values with and without adjustment for age. Higher estimates of heritability were obtained for age-matched than for year-of-exam-matched data for all traits considered. For most traits, estimates of the heritability of the change over time (slope) of the trait were near zero. These results suggest that the optimal design to identify genetic effects in traits with large age-related effects may be to measure parents and offspring at similar ages and not to rely on age-adjustment or longitudinal measures to account for these temporal effects

A decade of change and stability for fin whale song in the North Atlantic

Fin whale song is a ubiquitous low-frequency pulsing that has been recorded in every ocean basin. In recent years, the complexity of fin whale song has been realized. In the North Atlantic, this song is made up of two low-frequency note types (A and B notes) and one higher-frequency note type (upsweeps). The A and B notes are produced with both singlet and doublet inter-note intervals. These song patterns are interwoven throughout an individual’s song and have been observed to shift over time, both gradually and suddenly. Like many baleen whales, the population size of fin whales is poorly defined. Passive acoustic monitoring has been suggested as a way to estimate abundance if a cue rate or calling rate can be determined. In this study, we used recordings from 119 fin whale tracks from 2013–2023 generated from passive acoustic recorders in the North Atlantic to define fin whale song patterns in this ocean basin, identify changes in these song patterns over time, and calculate cue rates. The fin whales recorded sang in 4 distinct patterns. Inter-note intervals were 25 s for A-A singlets, 13 s for B-B singlets, 12/20 s for B-B doublets, and 10/11 s for A-B doublets. B-B doublet inter-note intervals significantly increased from May 2019–April 2023 and A-B inter-note intervals showed an intra-annual increasing trend that reset each summer. Fin whale song in the North Atlantic also often includes higher frequency upsweep notes immediately prior to B notes. While A and B note peak frequency was steady over these years, upsweep peak frequency significantly decreased, continuing a similar trend that has been observed over 30 years. Despite these changes, the dominant song pattern remained consistent and cue rate for actively singing whales was relatively stable, which is in contrast to patterns observed in the North Pacific. Many of these nuances in fin whale singing behavior are newly described herein, and these findings are vital for monitoring baseline behavior, behavioral trends over time, and ultimately estimating abundance of a poorly understood species

Childbirth experience questionnaire: validating its use in the United Kingdom

BACKGROUND: The Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) was developed in Sweden in 2010 and validated in 920 primiparous women. It has not been validated in the United Kingdom (UK). Measuring the impact of an intervention on a woman's childbirth experience is arguably as important as measuring its impact on outcomes such as caesarean delivery and perinatal morbidity or mortality and yet surprisingly it is rarely done. The lack of a robust validated tool for evaluating labour experience in the UK is a topical issue in the UK at present. Indeed NICE say 'A standardised method to measure and quantify women's psychological and emotional wellbeing and their birth experiences is urgently required to support any study investigating the effectiveness of interventions, techniques or strategies during birth.' METHODS: The Childbirth Experience Questionnaire and part of the Care Quality Commission Maternity Survey (2010) was sent to 350 women at one month postnatal. The CEQ was sent again two weeks later. The CEQ was tested for face validity among 25 postnatal mothers. Demographic data and delivery data was used to establish construct validity of the CEQ using the method of known-groups validation. The results of the scored CEQ sent out twice were used to measure test-retest reliability of the CEQ by calculating the quadratic weighted index of agreement between the two scores. Criterion validity was measured by calculating the Pearson correlation coefficient for the CEQ and Maternity Survey scores. RESULTS: Face validity of the CEQ in a UK population was demonstrated with all respondents stating it was easy to understand and complete. A statistically significantly higher CEQ score for subgroups of women known to report a better birth outcome demonstrated construct validity of the CEQ. A weighted kappa of 0.68 demonstrated test-retest reliability of the CEQ. A Pearson correlation co-efficient of 0.73 demonstrated a strong correlation between the results of the CEQ and the results of the 'gold standard' assessment of childbirth experience in the UK: the Maternity Survey and hence criterion validity of the CEQ. CONCLUSIONS: The Childbirth Experience Questionnaire is a valid and reliable measure of childbirth experience in the UK population

Factors influencing the implementation, adoption, use, sustainability and scalability of eLearning for family medicine specialty training:A systematic review protocol

Background In 2013, there was a shortage of approximately 7.2 million health workers worldwide, which is larger among family physicians than among specialists. eLearning could provide a potential solution to some of these global workforce challenges. However, there is little evidence on factors facilitating or hindering implementation, adoption, use, scalability and sustainability of eLearning. This review aims to synthesise results from qualitative and mixed methods studies to provide insight on factors influencing implementation of eLearning for family medicine specialty education and training. Additionally, this review aims to identify the actions needed to increase effectiveness of eLearning and identify the strategies required to improve eLearning implementation, adoption, use, sustainability and scalability for family medicine speciality education and training. Methods A systematic search will be conducted across a range of databases for qualitative studies focusing on experiences, barriers, facilitators, and other factors related to the implementation, adoption, use, sustainability and scalability of eLearning for family medicine specialty education and training. Studies will be synthesised by using the framework analysis approach. Discussion This study will contribute to the evaluation of eLearning implementation, adoption, use, sustainability and scalability for family medicine specialty training and education and the development of eLearning guidelines for postgraduate medical education

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of χ c1 and χ c2 production with s√ = 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the χ c1 and χ c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The χ c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay χ c → J/ψγ (with J/ψ → μ + μ −) where photons are reconstructed from γ → e + e − conversions. The production rate of the χ c2 state relative to the χ c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt χ c as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum. The prompt χ c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/ψ production to derive the fraction of prompt J/ψ produced in feed-down from χ c decays. The fractions of χ c1 and χ c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured