Risk Owners & Risk Managers: Dealing with the complexity of feeding children with neurodevelopmental disability

This paper illustrates negotiations around risk between lay people and clinicians in relation to gastrostomy interventions for disabled children. These negotiations centre on differing interpretations of what constitutes risk in relation to the safety of oral feeding and a child's need for a feeding tube between parents, carers and clinical specialties. Drawing on Heyman's distinction between risk managers and risk owners, we show that not only do clinicians act as risk managers and parents and carers as risk owners, but that these distinctions often become blurred either because of the shifting dynamics of relations of care or because of the specificity of clinical practice. Parents become risk managers in relation to carers' roles, while clinicians become risk owners in relation to particular procedures which define their practice. This has implications for lay and expert interactions as well as professional accountability for those caring for children with complex medical conditions. Although not an empirical article, we draw on empirical work in the UK. We analyse both parental and professional constructions of risk based on observations of co-ordinating a clinical trial designed to evaluate the effectiveness of gastrostomy surgery. We also examine the diverse value systems used by different groups of professionals and lay carers which inform judgements about risk and feeding. We conclude by arguing that issues of risk in contemporary health care are not just examples of ‘manufactured uncertainty’ or of ‘negotiated power’ but constitute a dialectical relationship which breaks down the essentialist dualism of lay and professional constructions of risk

Biomarkers of Multiple Sclerosis

The search for an ideal multiple sclerosis biomarker with good diagnostic value, prognostic reference and an impact on clinical outcome has yet to be realized and is still ongoing. The aim of this review is to establish an overview of the frequent biomarkers for multiple sclerosis that exist to date. The review summarizes the results obtained from electronic databases, as well as thorough manual searches. In this review the sources and methods of biomarkers extraction are described; in addition to the description of each biomarker, determination of the prognostic, diagnostic, disease monitoring and treatment response values besides clinical impact they might possess. We divided the biomarkers into three categories according to the achievement method: laboratory markers, genetic-immunogenetic markers and imaging markers. We have found two biomarkers at the time being considered the gold standard for MS diagnostics. Unfortunately, there does not exist a single solitary marker being able to present reliable diagnostic value, prognostic value, high sensitivity and specificity as well as clinical impact. We need more studies to find the best biomarker for MS.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Search for jet extinction in the inclusive jet-pT spectrum from proton-proton collisions at s=8 TeV

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.The first search at the LHC for the extinction of QCD jet production is presented, using data collected with the CMS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 10.7  fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The extinction model studied in this analysis is motivated by the search for signatures of strong gravity at the TeV scale (terascale gravity) and assumes the existence of string couplings in the strong-coupling limit. In this limit, the string model predicts the suppression of all high-transverse-momentum standard model processes, including jet production, beyond a certain energy scale. To test this prediction, the measured transverse-momentum spectrum is compared to the theoretical prediction of the standard model. No significant deficit of events is found at high transverse momentum. A 95% confidence level lower limit of 3.3 TeV is set on the extinction mass scale

Searches for electroweak neutralino and chargino production in channels with Higgs, Z, and W bosons in pp collisions at 8 TeV

Searches for supersymmetry (SUSY) are presented based on the electroweak pair production of neutralinos and charginos, leading to decay channels with Higgs, Z, and W bosons and undetected lightest SUSY particles (LSPs). The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of about 19.5 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV collected in 2012 with the CMS detector at the LHC. The main emphasis is neutralino pair production in which each neutralino decays either to a Higgs boson (h) and an LSP or to a Z boson and an LSP, leading to hh, hZ, and ZZ states with missing transverse energy (E-T(miss)). A second aspect is chargino-neutralino pair production, leading to hW states with E-T(miss). The decays of a Higgs boson to a bottom-quark pair, to a photon pair, and to final states with leptons are considered in conjunction with hadronic and leptonic decay modes of the Z and W bosons. No evidence is found for supersymmetric particles, and 95% confidence level upper limits are evaluated for the respective pair production cross sections and for neutralino and chargino mass values

Iron-cyclodextrin complexes for targeted Fenton oxidation

Matthew A. Tarr, Curt W. Jarand, Duc-Truc Pham, and Stephen F. Lincol

Molecular tweezers with freely rotating porphyrin moieties

The synthesis of molecular tweezers for the complexation of guests continues to be a highly active area of research in supramolecular chemistry. In recent times, molecular tweezers have been utilised for a variety of applications from drug release to enantiodiscrimination. In particular, the use of bis-metalloporphyrins as receptors to facilitate guest binding has allowed high association constants to be observed for various diamine ligands. Our research group has previously described the use of tetrazaanthracene linkages and a rigid polynorbornyl moiety to position two metalloporphyrins in a concave geometry to efficiently complex DABCO. Herein, we report a bis-metalloporphyrin based molecular tweezer with a bridged polycyclic linker, 3, which can freely rotate at several positions. We will present the synthesis of 3, which has been achieved by a modular approach with coupling via a microwave-accelerated 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. In addition, the NMR and UV-Visible spectroscopic characterisation of the host-guest complex between 3 and several diamine guests, including DABCO, pyrazine, and 4,4'-bipyridine, will be presented.http://www.icos-19.com/docs/POSTER%20PRESENTATION%20SCHEDULE_260612.pd

Bis-porphyrin molecular tweezers with varying degrees of rotational freedom

Rhys B. Murphy, Duc-Truc Pham, Stephen F. Lincoln, Martin R. Johnsto

Polyacrylate hydrogels: construction, characterization and applications

Plenary oral presentation at 33rd International Conference on Solution Chemistry (7-12 July, 2013 : Kyoto, Japan) The 33rd international conference on solution chemistry is held by the Japan Association of Solution Chemistry (JASC) under the cosponsorship of the Japan Society of Analytical Chemistry (JSAC) and International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).D.-T. Pham, X. Guo, R. K. Prud'homme, J. Wang, and S. F. Lincolnhttp://www.irisa-lab.bio.kyutech.ac.jp/33ICSC/scientific-programs.html#men

Synthesis of beta-cyclodextrin trimers for novel polymer networks

Polymer hydrogels are formed by networks of polymer chains that are water-soluble. Polymer hydrogels have been extensively studied because of their potential applications in a broad range of fields.1 Our recent studies have generated a range of hydrogels which exhibit predictable character and constitute new materials. They are from a range of adamantane (guest) and cyclodextrin (host) substituted polyacrylates (PAA) which interact in a controlled manner.2 Another model of polymer network forms between adamantane (guest) substituted polyacrylates and cyclodextrin dimers (host).3 In this new study, we synthesised -CD trimers to act as hosts and investigated the construction of novel polymer hydrogels through host-guest complexation between either 1,3,5-N,N,N-tris-(6A-deoxy- 6A--cyclodextrin)-benzene (CD3bz) or 1,3,5-N,N,N-tris(6A-(2-aminoethyl)amino-6A-deoxy-6A-- cyclodextrin)-benzene (CDen3bz) and 3% adamantyl substituted PAA with different tether lengths. The tether attaching the adamantyl group (AD) to the poly(acrylate) backbone incorporates two (en), six (hn) and twelve methylene (ddn) groups (PAAADen, PAAADhn and PAAADddn, respectively). Competition between the aggregation of the polymer hydrogels have been studied at the macroscopic level in aqueous solution. 2D NOESY 1H NMR spectroscopy provides evidence for adamantyl group and tether linker complexation by CD trimers and an insight into the polymer networks is gained at the macroscopic level from rheology studies.http://rsc.anu.edu.au/~eastongrp/acc2011/info.ht