Acceptability of delivery of dietary advice in the dentistry setting to address obesity in pre-school children : a case study of the Common Risk Factor Approach

Objective The Common Risk Factor Approach proposes that public health efforts can be improved by multiple agencies working together on a shared risk factor. The present study aimed to assess the acceptability to parents, dental practice staff and commissioners of the delivery of dietary advice in the dentistry setting in order to address obesity. Design Semi-structured focus groups with dental practice staff and one-to-one interviews with parents of pre-school children and public health commissioners involved in an oral health promotion initiative delivering dietary advice in dental surgeries. Data were analysed using the Framework Approach. Setting General dental practice surgeries and pre-schools in areas of high deprivation in north-east England. Subjects Parents (n 4), dental practice staff (n 23) and one commissioner. Results All participants found acceptable the concept of delivering public health messages in non-conventional settings. Dental practice staff were concerned about the potential for conflicting messages and deprioritisation of oral health advice, and they identified practical barriers to delivery, such as lack of training. Parents were very apprehensive about the potential of such approaches to stigmatise overweight children, including bullying. Uncertainty over the causes of obesity led to confusion about its solutions and the roles of public health and health care. Conclusions Major concerns about the implementation of the Common Risk Factor Approach were raised by parents and dental practice staff. Specific dietary guidance for both oral health and healthy weight, as well as further research into issues of suitability, feasibility and stigmatisation, are needed

Synthesis of nanoamorphous germanium and its transformation to nanocrystalline germanium

A simple reaction between a mild reducing agent such as a trialkoxysilane and Ge IV species such as germanium tetraalkoxides in a room-temperature water/alcohol solution produces silica-coated ultrasmall (2-3 nm) amorphous germanium nanoparticles (na-Ge/SiO 2). The initial reaction involves the straightforward hydrolysis and condensation of the precursors, Ge(OCH 2CH 3) 4 and (CH 3CH 2O) 3SiH, where the reaction rate depends on the water concentration in the reaction medium. These processes can be further accelerated by adding acid to the reaction medium or carrying out the reaction at higher temperatures. At low water contents (up to 50% water/ethanol) and low acid concentrations, the reaction proceeds as a clear solution, and no precipitation is observed. The initially colorless clear solution progressively changes to pale yellow, yellow, orange, red, and finally dark red as the na-Ge particles grow. Evaporation of the solvent yields a reddish-brown powder/monolith consisting of na-Ge, embedded in an encapsulating amorphous silica matrix, na-Ge/SiO 2. The formation of na-Ge proceeds extremely slowly and follows a first-order dependence on both water concentration and diameter of the na-Ge particles under the reaction conditions used. Annealing of the na-Ge/SiO 2 powder under an inert atmosphere at 600°C produces ultrasmall germanium nanocrystals (nc-Ge) embedded in amorphous silica (nc-Ge/SiO 2). Freestanding, colloidally stable nc-Ge is obtained by chemical etching of the encapsulating silica matrix. Two oxide-based precursors in a water/alcohol solution, one acting as a reducing agent ((CH 3CH 2O) 3SiH) and the other as a germanium source (Ge(OCH 2CH 3) 4), react very slowly to form colloidally stable amorphous nanoparticles of germanium encapsulated by a shell of silica (na-Ge/SiO 2). Evaporation of the solvent yields monoliths of na-Ge/SiO 2, which can be annealed to form nanocrystalline germanium (nc-Ge) embedded in a silica matrix (nc-Ge/SiO 2), from which free-standing, colloidally stable nc-Ge can be obtained by chemical etching of the encapsulating silica matrix. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Systematic review of the use of data from national childhood obesity surveillance programmes in primary care: a conceptual synthesis

This study reviewed the use in primary care of national surveillance data for children to determine the data's potential utility to inform policy and practice decisions on how to prevent and treat childhood obesity. We reviewed the 28 countries identified by the World Obesity Federation as having high-quality comparable body mass index data for children. Literature published from any period up to December 2013 was included. Peer review literature was searched using Web of Science (Core Collection, MEDLINE). Grey literature was searched using the Internet by country name, programme name and national health and government websites. We included studies that (i) use national surveillance obesity data in primary care, or (ii) explore practitioner or parent perspectives about the use of such data. The main uses of national surveillance data in primary care were to identify and recruit obese children and their parents to participate in school and general practice-based research and/or interventions, and to inform families of children's measurements. Findings indicate a need for school staff and practitioners to receive additional training and support to sensitively communicate with families. Translation of these findings into policy and practice could help to improve current uses of national child obesity surveillance data in primary care

Theory of asymmetric non-additive binary hard-sphere mixtures

We show that the formal procedure of integrating out the degrees of freedom of the small spheres in a binary hard-sphere mixture works equally well for non-additive as it does for additive mixtures. For highly asymmetric mixtures (small size ratios) the resulting effective Hamiltonian of the one-component fluid of big spheres, which consists of an infinite number of many-body interactions, should be accurately approximated by truncating after the term describing the effective pair interaction. Using a density functional treatment developed originally for additive hard-sphere mixtures we determine the zero, one, and two-body contribution to the effective Hamiltonian. We demonstrate that even small degrees of positive or negative non-additivity have significant effect on the shape of the depletion potential. The second virial coefficient $B_2$, corresponding to the effective pair interaction between two big spheres, is found to be a sensitive measure of the effects of non-additivity. The variation of $B_2$ with the density of the small spheres shows significantly different behavior for additive, slightly positive and slightly negative non-additive mixtures. We discuss the possible repercussions of these results for the phase behavior of binary hard-sphere mixtures and suggest that measurements of $B_2$ might provide a means of determining the degree of non-additivity in real colloidal mixtures

Apparatus for a Search for T-violating Muon Polarization in Stopped-Kaon Decays

The detector built at KEK to search for T-violating transverse muon polarization in K+ --> pi0 mu+ nu (Kmu3) decay of stopped kaons is described. Sensitivity to the transverse polarization component is obtained from reconstruction of the decay plane by tracking the mu+ through a toroidal spectrometer and detecting the pi0 in a segmented CsI(Tl) photon calorimeter. The muon polarization was obtained from the decay positron asymmetry of muons stopped in a polarimeter. The detector included features which minimized systematic errors while maintaining high acceptance.Comment: 56 pages, 30 figures, submitted to NI

Periodic mesoporous hydridosilica-synthesis of an "impossible" material and its thermal transformation into brightly photoluminescent periodic mesoporous nanocrystal silicon-silica composite

There has always been a fascination with "impossible" compounds, ones that do not break any rules of chemical bonding or valence but whose structures are unstable and do not exist. This instability can usually be rationalized in terms of chemical or physical restrictions associated with valence electron shells, multiple bonding, oxidation states, catenation, and the inert pair effect. In the pursuit of these "impossible" materials, appropriate conditions have sometimes been found to overcome these instabilities and synthesize missing compounds, yet for others these tricks have yet to be uncovered and the materials remain elusive. In the scientifically and technologically important field of periodic mesoporous silicas (PMS), one such "impossible" material is periodic mesoporous hydridosilica (meso-HSiO1.5). It is the archetype of a completely interrupted silica open framework material: its pore walls are comprised of a three-connected three-dimensional network that should be so thermodynamically unstable that any mesopores present would immediately collapse upon removal of the mesopore template. In this study we show that meso-HSiO1.5 can be synthesized by template-directed self-assembly of HSi(OEt)3 under aqueous acid-catalyzed conditions and after template extraction remains stable to 300 °C. Above this temperature, bond redistribution reactions initiate a metamorphic transformation which eventually yields periodic mesoporous nanocrystalline silicon-silica, meso-ncSi/SiO2, a nanocomposite material in which brightly photoluminescent silicon nanocrystallites are embedded within a silica matrix throughout the mesostructure. The integration of the properties of silicon nanocrystallinity with silica mesoporosity provides a wealth of new opportunities for emerging nanotechnologies. © 2011 American Chemical Society

Comparing research priority-setting partnerships for older adults across international health care systems: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES: Priority setting partnerships (PSPs) attempt to shape the research agenda to address the needs of local populations of interest. We reviewed the PSPs for older adults, with a focus on exemplar health care systems: United Kingdom (UK; publicly funded), United States (private health insurance-based), South Korea (national health insurance-based), and Africa (out-of-pocket). DESIGN: Systematic review. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: We searched databases and sources (January 2011-October 202l; updated in February 2023) for PSPs of older adults' health care. METHODS: Based on the British geriatric medicine curriculum, we extracted and categorized the PSP topics by areas and the research priorities by themes, and generated evidence maps depicting and comparing the research gaps across the systems. We evaluated PSP quality using the Nine Common Themes of Good Clinical Practice. RESULTS: We included 32 PSPs (United Kingdom: n = 25; United States: n = 7; South Korea and Africa: n = 0) and identified priorities regarding 27 conditions or service arrangements in the United Kingdom and 9 in the United States (predominantly in neurology/psychiatry). The UK priorities focused on treatments and interventions whereas the US on prognostic/predictive factors. There were notable research gaps within the existing PSPs, including common geriatric conditions like continence and frailty. The PSP quality evaluation revealed issues around lacking inclusion of ethnic minorities. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Research priorities for older adult health care vary internationally, but certain health care systems/countries have no available PSPs. Where PSPs are available, fundamental aspects of geriatric medicine have not been included. Future researchers should conduct prioritizations in different countries, focus on core geriatric syndromes, and ensure the inclusion of all relevant stakeholder groups

Marking gender studies:the (Radical) value of creative-critical assessment

Feminist pedagogies have established the need to query power structures in terms of curriculum content and teaching praxis. However, the topic of student assessment poses difficulties: it is a means through which students’ performance is evaluated and quantified according to set institutionalised criteria that values particular forms of hegemonic knowledge. The following article presents a self-reflexive exploration of assessment within a Gender Studies module taught in the Autumn semesters of the 2017/18 and 2018/19 academic years at a UK university. The module was a core component of the institution’s MA in Gender Studies. This was an exciting opportunity to experiment with assessment styles corresponding to feminist pedagogies to help develop students’ and instructors’ disciplinary scope and explore the radical potential for creative-critical approaches to assessment. This article outlines some the challenges of employing alternative modes of learning and teaching from a feminist perspective and suggests some strategies to address these

Assembling photoluminescent silicon nanocrystals into periodic mesoporous organosilica

A contemporary question in the intensely active field of periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) materials is how large a silsesquioxane precursor can be self-assembled under template direction into the pore walls of an ordered mesostructure. An answer to this question is beginning to emerge with the ability to synthesize dendrimer, buckyball, and polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane PMOs. In this paper, we further expand the library of large-scale silsesquioxane precursors by demonstrating that photoluminescent nanocrystalline silicon that has been surface-capped with oligo(triethoxysilylethylene), denoted as ncSi:(CH 2CH 2Si(OEt) 3) nH, can be self-assembled into a photoluminescent nanocrystalline silicon periodic mesoporous organosilica (ncSi-PMO). A comprehensive multianalytical characterization of the structural and optical properties of ncSi-PMO demonstrates that the material gainfully combines the photoluminescent properties of nanocrystalline silicon with the porous structure of the PMO. This integration of two functional components makes ncSi-PMO a promising multifunctional material for optoelectronic and biomedical applications. © 2012 American Chemical Society