1,915 research outputs found
Prescriptions for Produce: An intervention with nutrition education, cooking instruction and produce vouchers to increase fruit and vegetable consumption.
In this pilot study, we evaluated the feasibility of nutrition education, cooking instruction and produce vouchers for pregnant low income mothers to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. Participants were first trimester pregnant mothers receiving prenatal care at a local Federally Qualified Health Clinic (FQHC) in San Antonio. They attended a grocery shopping tour and cooking class conducted by a registered dietitian, focusing incorporating fruit and vegetables into meals, and a monthly $40 voucher, redeemable for fruit and vegetables. Mothers with high menu planning and grocery shopping skills and more fruit at home reported higher fruit intakes. Mothers with high grocery shopping skills reported higher vegetable intakes. Compared to baseline, the reported home availability of fruit, and fruit and vegetable intakes were significantly improved at post 1; fruit and vegetable home availability, menu planning and grocery shopping skills, and fruit and vegetable intakes were significantly higher at post 2
A closer look at string resonances in dijet events at the LHC
The first string excited state can be observed as a resonance in dijet
invariant mass distributions at the LHC, if the scenario of low-scale string
with large extra dimensions is realized. A distinguished property of the dijet
resonance by string excited states from that the other "new physics" is that
many almost degenerate states with various spin compose a single resonance
structure. It is examined that how we can obtain evidences of low-scale string
models through the analysis of angular distributions of dijet events at the
LHC. Some string resonance states of color singlet can obtain large mass shifts
through the open string one-loop effect, or through the mixing with closed
string states, and the shape of resonance structure can be distorted. Although
the distortion is not very large (10% for the mass squared), it might be able
to observe the effect at the LHC, if gluon jets and quark jets could be
distinguished in a certain level of efficiency.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
Brane world models need low string scale
Models with large extra dimensions offer the possibility of the Planck scale being of order the electroweak scale, thus alleviating the gauge hierarchy problem. We show that these models suffer from a breakdown of unitarity at around three quarters of the low effective Planck scale. An obvious candidate to fix the unitarity problem is string theory. We therefore argue that it is necessary for the string scale to appear below the effective Planck scale and that the first signature of such models would be string resonances. We further translate experimental bounds on the string scale into bounds on the effective Planck scale
FCNC Processes from D-brane Instantons
Low string scale models might be tested at the LHC directly by their Regge
resonances. For such models it is important to investigate the constraints of
Standard Model precision measurements on the string scale. It is shown that
highly suppressed FCNC processes like K0- bar K^0 oscillations or leptonic
decays of the D0-meson provide non-negligible lower bounds on both the
perturbatively and surprisingly also non-perturbatively induced string theory
couplings. We present both the D-brane instanton formalism to compute such
amplitudes and discuss various possible scenarios and their constraints on the
string scale for (softly broken) supersymmetric intersecting D-brane models.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figures, reference added, 1 typo corrected, style file
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Long-term follow-up of beryllium sensitized workers from a single employer
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Up to 12% of beryllium-exposed American workers would test positive on beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test (BeLPT) screening, but the implications of sensitization remain uncertain.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Seventy two current and former employees of a beryllium manufacturer, including 22 with pathologic changes of chronic beryllium disease (CBD), and 50 without, with a confirmed positive test were followed-up for 7.4 +/-3.1 years.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Beyond predicted effects of aging, flow rates and lung volumes changed little from baseline, while D<sub>L</sub>CO dropped 17.4% of predicted on average. Despite this group decline, only 8 subjects (11.1%) demonstrated physiologic or radiologic abnormalities typical of CBD. Other than baseline status, no clinical or laboratory feature distinguished those who clinically manifested CBD at follow-up from those who did not.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The clinical outlook remains favorable for beryllium-sensitized individuals over the first 5-12 years. However, declines in D<sub>L</sub>CO may presage further and more serious clinical manifestations in the future. These conclusions are tempered by the possibility of selection bias and other study limitations.</p
HIV prevalence and undiagnosed infection among a community sample of gay and bisexual men in Scotland, 2005-2011: implications for HIV testing policy and prevention
<b>Objective</b><p></p>
To examine HIV prevalence, HIV testing behaviour, undiagnosed infection and risk factors for HIV positivity among a community sample of gay men in Scotland.<p></p>
<b>Methods</b><p></p>
Cross-sectional survey of gay and bisexual men attending commercial gay venues in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland with voluntary anonymous HIV testing of oral fluid samples in 2011. A response rate of 65.2% was achieved (1515 participants).<p></p>
<b>Results</b><p></p>
HIV prevalence (4.8%, 95% confidence interval, CI 3.8% to 6.2%) remained stable compared to previous survey years (2005 and 2008) and the proportion of undiagnosed infection among HIV-positive men (25.4%) remained similar to that recorded in 2008. Half of the participants who provided an oral fluid sample stated that they had had an HIV test in the previous 12 months; this proportion is significantly higher when compared to previous study years (50.7% versus 33.8% in 2005, p<0.001). Older age (>25 years) was associated with HIV positivity (1.8% in those <25 versus 6.4% in older ages group) as was a sexually transmitted infection (STI) diagnosis within the previous 12 months (adjusted odds ratio 2.13, 95% CI 1.09â4.14). There was no significant association between age and having an STI or age and any of the sexual behaviours recorded.<p></p>
<b>Conclusion</b><p></p>
HIV transmission continues to occur among gay and bisexual men in Scotland. Despite evidence of recent testing within the previous six months, suggesting a willingness to test, the current opt-out policy may have reached its limit with regards to maximising HIV test uptake. Novel strategies are required to improve regular testing opportunities and more frequent testing as there are implications for the use of other biomedical HIV interventions.<p></p>
Top Quarks as a Window to String Resonances
We study the discovery potential of string resonances decaying to
final state at the LHC. We point out that top quark pair production is a
promising and an advantageous channel for studying such resonances, due to
their low Standard Model background and unique kinematics. We study the
invariant mass distribution and angular dependence of the top pair production
cross section via exchanges of string resonances. The mass ratios of these
resonances and the unusual angular distribution may help identify their
fundamental properties and distinguish them from other new physics. We find
that string resonances for a string scale below 4 TeV can be detected via the
channel, either from reconstructing the semi-leptonic
decay or recent techniques in identifying highly boosted tops.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
A wide-angle international review of evidence and developments in mental health policy and practice. Evidence review to inform the parameters for a refresh of A Vision for Change (AVFC).
This report presents the results of an evidence review to inform the parameters of the planned refresh of mental health policy in Ireland ten years after the publication of the existing policy framework set out in A Vision for Change (AVFC). The approach encompassed a stock-take of mental health developments in Ireland and a review of international developments, innovation, evidence and good practice. The review had a broad brief covering the various dimensions of the mental health terrain that might have relevance for informing the parameters of a refresh of mental health policy in Ireland. As the timeframe for the exercise was short (approximately 12 weeks) the review took a structured, but pragmatic, broad sweep or âwide-angleâ perspective and approach
Signatures of low-scale string models at the LHC
Low-scale string models, in which the string scale M_s is of the order of TeV
with large extra dimensions, can solve the problems of scale hierarchy and
non-renormalizable quantum gravity in the standard model. String excited states
of the standard model particles are possibly observed as resonances in the
dijet invariant mass distribution at the LHC. There are two properties to
distinguish whether the resonances are due to low-scale string or some other
"new physics". One is a characteristic angular distribution in dijet events at
the resonance due to spin degeneracy of string excited states, and the other is
an appearance of the second resonance at a characteristic mass of second string
excited states. We investigate a possibility to observe these evidences of
low-scale string models by Monte Carlo simulations with a reference value of
M_s = 4 TeV at sqrt{s} = 14 TeV. It is shown that spin degeneracy at the dijet
resonance can be observed by looking the chi-distribution with integrated
luminosity of 20 fb^-1. It is shown that the second resonance can be observed
at rather close to the first resonance in the dijet invariant mass distribution
with integrated luminosity of 50 fb^-1. These are inevitable signatures of
low-scale string models.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure
Probing Quantum Geometry at LHC
We present an evidence, that the volumes of compactified spaces as well as
the areas of black hole horizons must be quantized in Planck units. This
quantization has phenomenological consequences, most dramatic being for micro
black holes in the theories with TeV scale gravity that can be produced at LHC.
We predict that black holes come in form of a discrete tower with well defined
spacing. Instead of thermal evaporation, they decay through the sequence of
spontaneous particle emissions, with each transition reducing the horizon area
by strictly integer number of Planck units. Quantization of the horizons can be
a crucial missing link by which the notion of the minimal length in gravity
eliminates physical singularities. In case when the remnants of the black holes
with the minimal possible area and mass of order few TeV are stable, they might
be good candidates for the cold dark matter in the Universe.Comment: 14 pages, Late
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