Development of a new CEDAR for kaon identification at the NA62 experiment at CERN

The NA62 experiment at CERN utilises a differential Cherenkov counter with achromatic ring focus (CEDAR) for tagging kaons within an unseparated monochromatic beam of charged hadrons. The CEDAR-H detector was developed to minimise the amount of material in the path of the beam by using hydrogen gas as the radiator medium. The detector was shown to satisfy the kaon tagging requirements in a test-beam before installation and commissioning at the experiment. The CEDAR-H performance was measured using NA62 data collected in 2023

Towards a UK co-operative for the advancement of quantum technology

The meeting was the fourth in DSTL's series of community meetings and had a Systems Engineering theme – recognising the increasing importance of this topic for many in the Quantum Technology (QT) community. There is a growing recognition that, although there are significant research challenges associated with realising the commercial and societal benefits anticipated from quantum technologies, there are also other challenges which concern the physical, commercial, societal and regulatory environments into which these new technologies will be integrated. Similar difficulties have been faced and overcome by the information and communications industry. One of the striking characteristics of this sector over the past 20 years has been the speed at which advances in semiconductor technology have been exploited by industry. Each new generation of semiconductor devices has led to new system designs and to new user capabilities which represented a major advance upon the systems and capabilities that came before them. However, to achieve this required a large number of different components and tools to become available at the right time, and at an affordable price. The routine achievement of this is evidence of how companies and institutions within the sector have been able to communicate effectively and establish a high level of collaboration, whilst still maintaining intense competition at the product level. QT is very different to the semiconductor industry. While a number of target applications exist the discipline is very much in its infancy. At one end of the spectrum, there are some applications in communications and sensors that are relatively close to market, and, at the other end, there are some applications in computing and simulation that are still far from market. Many choices of enabling technologies and materials have yet to be fixed, and there is, as yet, very little first-hand experience of the problems that will arise when companies seek to establish repeatable manufacture of quantum components and systems. What can we learn from the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) that might benefit the Quantum Technology community? Generating an additional quantum roadmap would merely duplicate previous work – but establishing a small number of cross-community working groups might be a way to assist UK industry to gain a competitive edge in the application of quantum technologies, without duplicating the existing activities by other bodies such as InnovateUK, British Standards Institution (BSI), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) etc. This document reports on discussions held at the meeting around this question and, leveraging this input, seeks to provide clear and appropriate recommendations to the UK QT community

Do We Practice What We Preach? A Review of Actual Clinical Practice with Regards to Preconception Care Guidelines

Objectives: To review what past studies have found with regard to existing clinical practices and approaches to providing preconception care. Methods: A literature review between 1966 and September 2005 was performed using Medline. Key words included preconception care, preconception counseling, preconception surveys, practice patterns, pregnancy outcomes, prepregnancy planning, and prepregnancy surveys. Results: There are no current national recommendations that fully address preconception care; as a result, there is wide variability in what is provided clinically under the rubric of preconception care. Conclusions: In 2005, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sponsored a national summit regarding preconception care and efforts are underway to develop a uniform set of national recommendations and guidelines for preconception care. Understanding how preconception care is presently incorporated and manifested in current medical practices should help in the development of these national guidelines. Knowing where, how, and why some specific preconception recommendations have been successfully adopted and translated into clinical practice, as well as barriers to implementation of other recommendations or guidelines, is vitally important in developing an overarching set of national guidelines. Ultimately, the success of these recommendations rests on their ability to influence and shape women's health policy

Is fertility declining in Benin?

This study analyzes reproductive changes in Benin, a West African country with high fertility and low prevalence of use of modern contraceptive methods, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. Findings indicate that an irreversible fertility transition has started as the result of an emerging pattern of birth limitation and continued desire for the traditional long birth intervals. The data suggest that changes in childhood mortality in combination with an increase in women's education, although modest, have created a demand for fertility control among women; that induced abortion may be one of the means through which such demand is being met, particularly in urban areas; and that the economic crisis of the 1980s was the main catalyst that precipitated the onset of transition. Changes in reproductive preferences and practice suggest a diffusion process, from urban and more educated women to rural and less-educated ones