880 research outputs found
The Marlboro Formation in its type area and associated rocks just west of the Bloody Bluff Fault Zone, Marlborough area, Massachusetts
Geology of the coastal lowlands, Boston to Kennebunk, Maine: The 76th annual meeting New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference, Danvers, Massachusetts, October 12-14, 1984: Trip C-
A novel dynamic exercise initiative for older people to improve health and well-being: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Background: Exercise is an important and effective approach to preventing falls in older people, but adherence to exercise participation remains a persistent problem. A unique purpose-built exercise park was designed to provide a fun but physically challenging environment to support exercise in a community setting. This project is a randomised controlled trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of an exercise intervention using an exercise park specifically designed for older people in reducing the risk of falls.
Methods/Design: This study will be a parallel randomised control trial with pre and post intervention design.
One hundred and twenty people aged between 60 and 90 years old will be recruited from Melbourne suburbs and will be randomly allocated to either an exercise park intervention group (EPIG) or a control group (CG). The CG will receive social activities and an educational booklet on falls prevention. The BOOMER balance test will be used as the primary outcome measure. Secondary outcome measures will include hand grip strength, two
minute walk test, lower limb strength test, spatio-temporal walking parameters, health related quality of life, feasibility, adherence, safety, and a number of other psychosocial measures. Outcome assessment will be conducted at baseline and at 18 and 26 weeks after intervention commencement. Participants will inform their falls and physical activity history for a 12-month period via monthly calendars. Mixed linear modelling incorporating intervention and control groups at the baseline and two follow up time points (18 weeks and 26 weeks after intervention commencement) will be used to assess outcomes.
Discussion: This planned trial will be the first to provide evidence if the exercise park can improve functional and physiological health, psychological and well-being. In addition, this study will provide empirical evidence for
effectiveness and explore the barriers to participation and the acceptability of the senior exercise park in the
Australian older community
RESPOND – A patient-centred programme to prevent secondary falls in older people presenting to the emergency department with a fall: Protocol for a mixed methods programme evaluation.
Background Programme evaluations conducted alongside randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have potential to enhance understanding of trial outcomes. This paper describes a multi-level programme evaluation to be conducted alongside an RCT of a falls prevention programme (RESPOND). Objectives 1) To conduct a process evaluation in order to identify the degree of implementation fidelity and associated barriers and facilitators. 2) To evaluate the primary intended impact of the programme: participation in fall prevention strategies, and the factors influencing participation. 3) To identify the factors influencing RESPOND RCT outcomes: falls, fall injuries and ED re-presentations. Methods/ Design Five hundred and twenty eight community-dwelling adults aged 60–90 years presenting to two EDs with a fall will be recruited and randomly assigned to the intervention or standard care group. All RESPOND participants and RESPOND clinicians will be included in the evaluation. A mixed methods design will be used and a programme logic model will frame the evaluation. Data will be sourced from interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, clinician case notes, recruitment records, participant-completed calendars, hospital administrative datasets, and audio-recordings of intervention contacts. Quantitative data will be analysed via descriptive and inferential statistics and qualitative data will be interpreted using thematic analysis. Discussion The RESPOND programme evaluation will provide information about contextual and influencing factors related to the RCT outcomes. The results will assist researchers, clinicians, and policy makers to make decisions about future falls prevention interventions. Insights gained are likely to be transferable to preventive health programmes for a range of chronic conditions
A radical approach to promote multiferroic coupling in double perovskites
Double perovskites provide a unique opportunity to induce and control
multiferroic behaviors in oxide systems. The appealing possibility to design
materials with a strong coupling between the magnetization and the polarization
fields may be achieved in this family since these magnetic insulators can
present structural self-ordering in the appropriate growth conditions. We have
studied the functional properties of La2CoMnO6 and Bi2CoMnO6 epitaxial thin
films grown by pulsed laser deposition. Cation-ordered La2CoMnO6 films display
a magnetic Curie temperature of 250 K while cation-disordered Bi2CoMnO6 films
present ferromagnetism up to ~ 800 K. Such high transition temperature for
magnetic ordering can be further tuned by varying the strain in the films
indicating an important contribution from the structural characteristics of the
materials. Our approach might be generalized for other oxide systems. At this
end, our results are compared with other multiferroic systems. The roles of
various cations, their arrangements and structural effects are further
discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 5 fig
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TRIPLET: a two-dimensional, multigroup, triangular mesh, planar geometry, explicit transport code
TRIPLET solves the two-dimensional multigroup transport equation in planar geometries by using a regular triangular mesh. Regular and adjoint, inhomogeneous and homogeneous (K/sub eff/ and eigenvalue searches) problems subject to vacuum, reflective, or source boundary conditions are solved. General anisotropic scattering ia allowed, and anisotropic distributed sources are permitted. The discrete ordinates approximation is used for the angular variables. A finite element method in which the angular flux is assumed to be given by a low-order polynomial in each triangle is used to solve the discrete ordinates equations. Angular fluxes are allowed to be discontinuous across triangle boundaries. A six-group, S/sub 2/, 1700-triangle, k/sub eff/ calculation of an EBR-II core requires about 4.4 minutes of CDC-7600 time; running times vary almost linearly with the total number of unknowns. Sources, fluxes, S/sub n/ constants, and cross sections may be read from standard interface files; flexible edit options are provided. Six scratch units and two system I/O units are required. A large bulk memory is necessary if core storage is inadequate. This program is operational on the CDC-7600, CDC-6600, and IBM- 360/195 computers. (13 figures, 13 tables) (RWR
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering in single-crystal superconducting PrFeAsO0.7
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) spectra at the Fe K-edge were
measured for a single crystal of the iron oxypnictide superconductor PrFeAsO0.7
(Tc=42 K). They disclose a weak, broad feature centered around 4.5 eV energy
loss, which is slightly resonantly enhanced when the incident energy is tuned
in the vicinity of the 4p white line. We tentatively ascribe it to the
charge-transfer excitation between As 4p and Fe 3d.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figure
The Nucleon-Nucleon Interaction in the Chromo-Dielectric Soliton Model: Dynamics
The present work is an extension of a previous study of the nucleon-nucleon
interaction based on the chromo-dielectric soliton model. The former approach
was static, leading to an adiabatic potential. Here we perform a dynamical
study in the framework of the Generator Coordinate Method. In practice, we
derive an approximate Hill-Wheeler differential equation and obtain a local
nucleon-nucleon potential as a function of a mean generator coordinate. This
coordinate is related to an effective separation distance between the two
nucleons by a Fujiwara transformation. This latter relationship is especially
useful in studying the quark substructure of light nuclei. We investigate the
explicit contribution of the one-gluon exchange part of the six-quark
Hamiltonian to the nucleon-nucleon potential, and we find that the dynamics are
responsible for a significant part of the short-range N-N repulsion.Comment: 16 pages (REVTEX), 6 figures (uuencoded Postscript) optionally
included using epsfig.st
Lepton flavor violation decays in the topcolor-assisted technicolor model and the littlest Higgs model with parity
The new particles predicted by the topcolor-assisted technicolor ()
model and the littlest Higgs model with T-parity (called model) can
induce the lepton flavor violation () couplings at tree level or one loop
level, which might generate large contributions to some processes. Taking
into account the constraints of the experimental data on the relevant free
parameters, we calculate the branching ratios of the decay processes
with = , and
in the context of these two kinds of new physics models. We find
that the model and the model can indeed produce significant
contributions to some of these decay processes.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figure
Trisomy 21 activates the kynurenine pathway via increased dosage of interferon receptors
Altres ajuts: This work has also been supported by a "Marató TV3" grant (20141210 to J.F. and 044412 to R.B.).Trisomy 21 (T21) causes Down syndrome (DS), affecting immune and neurological function by ill-defined mechanisms. Here we report a large metabolomics study of plasma and cerebrospinal fluid, showing in independent cohorts that people with DS produce elevated levels of kynurenine and quinolinic acid, two tryptophan catabolites with potent immunosuppressive and neurotoxic properties, respectively. Immune cells of people with DS overexpress IDO1, the rate-limiting enzyme in the kynurenine pathway (KP) and a known interferon (IFN)-stimulated gene. Furthermore, the levels of IFN-inducible cytokines positively correlate with KP dysregulation. Using metabolic tracing assays, we show that overexpression of IFN receptors encoded on chromosome 21 contribute to enhanced IFN stimulation, thereby causing IDO1 overexpression and kynurenine overproduction in cells with T21. Finally, a mouse model of DS carrying triplication of IFN receptors exhibits KP dysregulation. Together, our results reveal a mechanism by which T21 could drive immunosuppression and neurotoxicity in DS
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