The experience of vasa praevia for Australian midwives: A qualitative study

© 2018 Australian College of Midwives Background: Vasa praevia can cause stillbirth or early neonatal death if it is not diagnosed antenatally and managed appropriately. Experiencing undiagnosed vasa praevia during labour is challenging and traumatic for women and their care providers. Little is known about the experiences of midwives who care for these women. Aim: To investigate the experience of Australian midwives caring for women with undiagnosed vasa praevia during labour and birth. Methods: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted with midwives in Australia who had cared for at least one woman with vasa praevia during 2010–2016. Semi-structured in-depth telephone interviews were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings: Twelve of the 20 midwives interviewed were involved in a neonatal death and/or near-miss due to vasa praevia. There was one over-arching theme, which described the ‘devastating and dreadful experience’ for the midwives. This had two inter-related categories of feeling the personal impacts and addressing the professional processes. Feeling scared, shocked, and guilty described how the experience took its toll on the midwives personally. The professional processes included working in organised chaos; feeling for the parents; finding communication to be hard; and, doing their best to save the baby. Discussion: Caring for women who experienced ruptured vasa praevia had a profound impact on the emotional and professional well-being of midwives even when the baby survived. Conclusion: Ruptured vasa praevia was recognised as a traumatic experience that warrants serious considerations from maternity care providers, managers and policy makers. Midwives should be supported and adequately prepared to cope with traumatic events

The trigger system of the NOMAD experiment

The NOMAD trigger system is described in the present paper. It is made up of a largearea plastic scintillator veto system, two trigger scintillator planes inside a 0.4~Tmagnetic field and their associated trigger electronics. Special features of the systemconsist of the use of proximity mesh photomultipliers which allow the trigger scintillators to operate in the magnetic field, and the use of custom-built VME moduleswhich perform the trigger logic decisions, the signal synchronisation and gate generation,event counting and livetime calculations. This paper also includes a description of each of the NOMAD triggers, with their calculated and measured rates, efficiencies and livetimes

Inclusive production of ρ0(770),f0(980)\rho^{0}(770), f_0(980) and f2(1270)f_2(1270) mesons in νμ\nu_{\mu} charged current interactions

The inclusive production of the meson resonances $\rho^{0}(770)$, $f_0(980)$ and $f_2(1270)$ in neutrino-nucleus charged current interactions has been studied with the NOMAD detector exposed to the wide band neutrino beam generated by 450 GeV protons at the CERN SPS. For the first time the $f_{0}(980)$ meson is observed in neutrino interactions. The statistical significance of its observation is 6 standard deviations. The presence of $f_{2}(1270)$ in neutrino interactions is reliably established. The average multiplicity of these three resonances is measured as a function of several kinematic variables. The experimental results are compared to the multiplicities obtained from a simulation based on the Lund model. In addition, the average multiplicity of $\rho^{0}(770)$ in antineutrino - nucleus interactions is measured.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, 8 tables. To appear in Nucl. Phys.

Search for the exotic Θ+\Theta^+ resonance in the NOMAD experiment

A search for exotic Theta baryon via Theta -> proton +Ks decay mode in the NOMAD muon neutrino DIS data is reported. The special background generation procedure was developed. The proton identification criteria are tuned to maximize the sensitivity to the Theta signal as a function of xF which allows to study the Theta production mechanism. We do not observe any evidence for the Theta state in the NOMAD data. We provide an upper limit on Theta production rate at 90% CL as 2.13 per 1000 of neutrino interactions.Comment: Accepted to European Physics Journal

Search for heavy neutrinos mixing with tau neutrinos

We report on a search for heavy neutrinos (\nus) produced in the decay D_s\to \tau \nus at the SPS proton target followed by the decay \nudecay in the NOMAD detector. Both decays are expected to occur if \nus is a component of $\nu_{\tau}$.\ From the analysis of the data collected during the 1996-1998 runs with $4.1\times10^{19}$ protons on target, a single candidate event consistent with background expectations was found. This allows to derive an upper limit on the mixing strength between the heavy neutrino and the tau neutrino in the \nus mass range from 10 to 190 $\rm MeV$. Windows between the SN1987a and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis lower limits and our result are still open for future experimental searches. The results obtained are used to constrain an interpretation of the time anomaly observed in the KARMEN1 detector.\Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, a few comments adde

Production properties of K*(892) vector mesons and their spin alignment as measured in the NOMAD experiment

First measurements of K*(892) mesons production properties and their spin alignment in nu_mu charged current (CC) and neutral current (NC) interactions are presented. The analysis of the full data sample of the NOMAD experiment is performed in different kinematic regions. For K*+ and K*- mesons produced in nu_mu CC interactions and decaying into K0 pi+/- we have found the following yields per event: (2.6 +/- 0.2 (stat.) +/- 0.2 (syst.))% and (1.6 +/- 0.1 (stat.) +/- 0.1 (syst.))% respectively, while for the K*+ and K*- mesons produced in nu NC interactions the corresponding yields per event are: (2.5 +/- 0.3 (stat.) +/- 0.3 (syst.))% and (1.0 +/- 0.3 (stat.) +/- 0.2 (syst.))%. The results obtained for the rho00 parameter, 0.40 +/- 0.06 (stat) +/- 0.03 (syst) and 0.28 +/- 0.07 (stat) +/- 0.03 (syst) for K*+ and K*- produced in nu_mu CC interactions, are compared to theoretical predictions tuned on LEP measurements in e+e- annihilation at the Z0 pole. For K*+ mesons produced in nu NC interactions the measured rho00 parameter is 0.66 +/- 0.10 (stat) +/- 0.05 (syst).Comment: 20 p

Final NOMAD results on nu_mu->nu_tau and nu_e->nu_tau oscillations including a new search for nu_tau appearance using hadronic tau decays

Results from the nu_tau appearance search in a neutrino beam using the full NOMAD data sample are reported. A new analysis unifies all the hadronic tau decays, significantly improving the overall sensitivity of the experiment to oscillations. The "blind analysis" of all topologies yields no evidence for an oscillation signal. In the two-family oscillation scenario, this sets a 90% C.L. allowed region in the sin^2(2theta)-Delta m^2 plane which includes sin^2(2theta)<3.3 x 10^{-4} at large Delta m^2 and Delta m^2 < 0.7 eV^2/c^4 at sin^2(2theta)=1. The corresponding contour in the nu_e->nu_tau oscillation hypothesis results in sin^2(2theta)<1.5 x 10^{-2} at large Delta m^2 and Delta m^2 < 5.9 eV^2/c^4 at sin^2(2theta)=1. We also derive limits on effective couplings of the tau lepton to nu_mu or nu_e.Comment: 46 pages, 16 figures, Latex, to appear on Nucl. Phys.

Prediction of Neutrino Fluxes in the NOMAD Experiment

The method developed for the calculation of the flux and composition of the West Area Neutrino Beam used by NOMAD in its search for neutrino oscillations is described. The calculation is based on particle production rates computed using a recent version of FLUKA and modified to take into account the cross sections measured by the SPY and NA20 experiments. These particles are propagated through the beam line taking into account the material and magnetic fields they traverse. The neutrinos produced through their decays are tracked to the NOMAD detector. The fluxes of the four neutrino flavours at NOMAD are predicted with an uncertainty of about 8% for nu(mu) and nu(e), 10% for antinu(mu), and 12% for antinu(e). The energy-dependent uncertainty achieved on the R(e, mu) prediction needed for a nu(mu)->nu(e) oscillation search ranges from 4% to 7%, whereas the overall normalization uncertainty on this ratio is 4.2%.Comment: 43 pages, 20 figures. Submitted to Nucl. Phys.

A study of strange particle production in νμ\nu_\mu charged current interactions in the NOMAD experiment

NeutrinosA study of strange particle production in $\nu_\mu$ charged current interactions has been performed using the data from the NOMAD experiment. Yields of neutral strange particles (\ko, \lam, \alam) have been measured. Mean multiplicities are reported as a function of the event kinematic variables $E_\nu$, $W^2$ and $Q^2$ as well as of the variables describing particle behaviour within a hadronic jet: $x_F$, $z$ and $p_T^2$. Decays of resonances and heavy hyperons with identified \ko and \lam in the final state have been analyzed. Clear signals corresponding to $\rm {K^\star}^\pm$ $\rm {\Sigma^\star}^\pm$, $\rm \Xi^-$ and $\rm \Sigma^0$ have been observed

The NOMAD experiment at the CERN SPS

The NOMAD experiment is a short base-line search for $\nu_{\mu}\rightarrow \nu_{\tau}$ oscillations in the CERN neutrino beam. The $\nu_{\tau}$'s are searched for through their charged-current interactions followed by the observation of the resulting $\tau^{-}$ through its electronic, muonic or hadronic decays. These decays are recognized using kinematical criteria necessitating the use of a light target which enables the reconstruction of individual particles produced in the neutrino interactions. This paper describes the various components of the NOMAD detector: the target and muon drift chambers, the electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters, the preshower and transition radiation detectors, and the veto and trigger scintillation counters. The beam and data acquisition system are also described. The quality of the reconstruction of individual particles is demonstrated through the ability of NOMAD to observe K$^0_{\rm s}$'s, $\Lambda^0$'s and $\pi^0$'s. Finally, the observation of $\tau^{-}$ through its electronic decay being one of the most promising channels in the search, the identification of electrons in NOMAD is discussed